[Lawtan]

Well, I go to class today, and what do I find as I go to take notes? My left corner of my laptop has a nive long black spot, with white bits all fuzzy around it. I believe that means a broken screen. (Sort of a "strike two" after my mouse was messed up.

...I've been hoping to move to a tablet and desktop mix, to be honest. I wouldn't have to worry about it getting damaged as much, could access it while away, and if I were to create my own setup, I'd be able to make a backup drive and setup my Wacom drawing tablet so that I can use it better.

...I guess I am asking if I should work towards this (and if so, advice on how to go about it)...in addition to confirming that my screen somehow cracked.

[Coda]

Yeah, that's a cracked screen, all right. :(

Whether switching to a tablet is a good idea or not strongly depends on what you're doing with it. Tablets aren't laptop replacements yet. What do you need it for? Also, how much money are you willing to spend on it?

[Lawtan]

I mainly need it for typing, internet (Trisphee and images) and accessing pdf's and powerpoints when not at home. (class - as in reports, notes, etc)

I was under the impression that tablets could access a desktop via certain programs.

(For the other stuff I was working on, music, programming, and digital art are my at-home hobbies alongside looking up interesting stuff)

I am not sure about what I'll have available monetarily yet - that will be up to debate in a few hours.

[Coda]

Tablets suck for typing. End of story there.

Yes, they can access desktops, but it's not really a great way of doing it because you don't have either a keyboard or a mouse. It also requires a fairly fast Internet connection on both sides, so it's not something you want to rely on all the time.

Accessing Powerpoint on a tablet is an iffy proposition.

It sounds to me like you might be better off with a Chromebook than a tablet. They're a LOT cheaper ($150-$250) and have proper input devices.

[Gallagher]

I dunno if this is just one of my weird quirks or anything, but when it comes to just typing in a regular document for notes or stories or anything like that, I actually work a lot better on my tablet than with a proper keyboard. Once you get used to it and all, I find that any time that might be lost from fingerspeed is made up for by the auto-correction. The only problems I ever have with the auto-correction or next word guessing on mine are when I purposefully need improper grammar/spelling, which is rare.

Not arguing with Coda on any other point, but if you're not sure about the Chromebook thing, a tablet really might not be so bad for you. It just depends. Mine is a pretty cheap $40 one that we also got on sale, so it's not like super amazing or anything, but it really works well for reading and writing and checking Tris.

[Coda]

I can work fine on a tablet once I've had time to get used to the keyboard, but autocorrect introduces more errors than it resolves for me. I keep my eyes on the cursor while I'm typing, so I don't even SEE the autocorrect suggestions. So when autocorrect decides that my correctly-spelled (or intentionally-incorrectly-spelled) word ought to be a different word and then automatically replaces it when I hit the space bar, I won't even know until it's too late and then I have to backspace and retype the word because there's no quick "undo" command.

Even taking autocorrect out of the picture (by turning it off), the lack of tactile feedback makes me drop from 90-100wpm to 45-60wpm.

Having the keyboard on the screen also eats up screen real estate that COULD be getting used for showing more text.

That said, I definitely agree with your conclusion -- a tablet is great for basic web browsing and casual writing, so if that's what you need in a portable device, then it can be a good fit.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Think about what you do and how far ahead you want to think. I'm looking into cheaper "portable" electronics as well. I love my laptop, but looking at my finances, I think I game way too much to be able to afford to keep upgrading, and I would want to, so my next actual computer will be a desktop again and I'll keep this laptop for when I travel. (My last laptop I used for 9 year before I got this one.)

I personally dislike bringing a laptop to school, mainly because it's heavy and I'm always worried about people swiping it. That would be game-over for me since this is my main computer. I'd rather have a cheap tote-about thing, and then my main set-up at home base. Last term, I actually did all my class work taking files on flash drives between home and computer labs. It's a titch awkward but I'm paranoid enough that it makes me feel better. ;)

[Lawtan]

Well, I am in a wire mix right now. I found a cheap monitor (it works...I'm glad my relatives are hoarders for once) that I can hook up to my old laptop to get the screen, and that will serve as home base until I can afford to outfit a desktop and get a tablet. That + phone should work for now.

Thank you for the advice, guys.

[Coda]

Matches what I'd have tried to do!

I mean, seriously, one time I used an old laptop as a dial-up gateway + wifi router when I had to live in the middle of nowhere for a few months. @.@

[Poggio]

Let me just tell you. Trisphee and Tablets/phones are no bueno. Something about the interface makes it harder to navigate on mobile screens. At least thats been my experience. That being said I love my tablet, especially the way it integrates between apps if you live in the cloud. I have an out dated Samsung and a cheap mobile phone I bought for 2o bucks. Both have chrome on them and google services. If your school has a strong wifi, and you live off your drive like I do, you can easily buy a keyboard accessory or record your notes, put them in your drive and have it when you need to be at a desktop. If your phone happens to be an android too, you can access your stuff there.

Example I needed to get art to a client, and I took a good picture with my phone and was able to upload it to my drive via my tablet, edit it on my desktop using pixlar and dl it to my phone to text them the image.

if you live in the cloud and you feel you need something computer ish that is within your budget I would look at getting a chrome book or a laptop that basically runs off the Internet or something refurbished. I think most major companies make them now except apple and they can run as cheap as 150. The same goes for refurbished tech. The mom and pop techies where I live usually sell their refurbished stuff for about 120-150.

[Coda]

That's surprising to hear. Most of our phone/tablet users have praised how usable Trisphee can be even though we don't have the pages optimized for it. Yeah, you have to zoom in and out a lot, but nothing's actually broken.

[hyjin]

Well one tablet you can possibly go for would be a surface pro, but it has a hefty price tag and the keyboard accessory is separate from the price. My brother got one after the screen on his mac book died, apple refused to fix it, he got it mostly so he can finish school and is now using it as a roaming pc/laptop. Like coda says tablets are far from replacing laptops atm and his suggestion for a chrome book isn't a bad idea either.

[Coda]

The Surface Pro is a laptop that happens to have a touchscreen instead of a keyboard. It runs laptop software, uses a laptop CPU, and has a laptop's battery life and a laptop's price tag.

[Ireland]

i do not have a lot of knowledge on these things, but i do wish you luck on finding a suitable replacement!

:/