<p>I am a potential engineering major entering college this September. Before entering college, I am planning to buy a new notebook PC, and currently I am looking at tablet PCs because of the very useful additional features for organization and notetaking. </p>
<p>But, are tablet PCs really useful for engineering majors, who will probably be often required to draw diagrams and perform calculations in class? How suitable are tablet PCs for programming and using enigneering-related programs like Mathematica? Do I need at least 80-100GB for HDD? </p>
<p>I would appreciate advice from current engineering majors or entering freshmen planning to buy new notebook PCs.</p>
<p>no; imo tablet pc's are a waste of money. you can get a technically better machine for less. they're cool and everything but a good tablet pc is usually really small and will not suffice as a stand-alone computer. just get a regular notebook, and you'll be fine. just make sure its somewhat portable. i dont even really bring my notebook to class, but i use it on the go a lot.</p>
<p>I can't imagine using a tablet as my only pc. Don't know how it would stand up in an engineering class, but in general it seems like it would be a pain.</p>
<p>Are you considering a slate style tablet, or a convertible tablet? (looks like a regular laptop but flips around and down to go into tablet mode) Because convertible tablets are not only cheaper, but also offer performance and screen sizes (14.1 inch) comparable to that of regular notebooks (this of course comes at the cost of weight; the heaviest tablet being 6.2 pounds which is actually not that bad). My suggestion is that you check out some of the reviews over at <a href="http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.tabletpcreviewspot.com/</a> and make a decision based on that. As far as the best tablets for your needs, I would look at either the Toshiba Tecra M4, or the Acer 310 series, I've read many reviews from engineering students that have these tablets, and state that they could not live without them! Also these two tablets are one of the few that offer a dicreete graphics card, with the intel 915 chipset, which means it can handle 64 bit graphics, making them fully capable of running the up and coming Windows Vista. </p>
<p>I for one am planning on buying a convertible tablet in the near future (EE major).</p>
<p>really? i know one girl that used a tablet in my math class 1st sem. although i thought it was cool, i didn't really see that it would all that useful. if you really need something electronic to take to class to take notes with and you dont want to bring your laptop (for whatever reason), just buy a palm with extendable keyboard. personally my laptop is good enough for me, as i dont take a whole lot of notes in class to begin with.</p>
<p>i definitely that a tablet (a decent functional one being at least 1600 bucks and a really good one around 1800-2000 bucks) is not worth the money. you can buy a much better laptop for significantly less. hell i got a pretty small and portable laptop just last week for 1200 bucks. what boggles me even more is that you would want to handwrite your notes. i mean most people type much faster than they can write. if you want a good note taking program, try out evernote. i started to use it on my laptop and its pretty nice, and FREE. in addition if you want something to really grind notes out for you fast, i started using my dad's dragonspeak program that he uses for medical citation. its a voice-recognition software that's pretty neat and i use it that to take notes, since i can talking requries less effort than typing, and is somewhat faster. in addition, it can 'read' my notes back to me. sometimes i find it good to have some of the more mundane topics like memorizing to be read to me. i just stick em in my ipod and listen to them when i'm not really doing anything.</p>