For travelling & writing, should I get an iPad or a notebook?

I’m going to be studying overseas this summer and I need a computer on which I can type papers as well as read. I’m trying to figure out what I should get: an iPad (and then presumably use a Bluetooth keyboard?), whatever the cheapest and lightest Mac notebook is (11" MacBook Air?), or a presumably much cheaper Windows notebook/ netbook.

I’m very much in the Apple world: a desktop iMac is my main computer; I have an iPhone. I use a combination of OpenOffice and Scrivener for writing, and keep files coordinated across computers with SugarSync. I have lots of PDFs used mainly in Apple’s Preview, but also increasingly with PDFPen. Oh, and also plenty of reading on a Kindle/ in the Kindle programs on both my computer and iPhone.

Is an iPad good enough for writing an essay on? I doubt it, but I’m persuadable. How much would I be losing out on by going for a cheap netbook, and basically assuming I’ll just use OpenOffice? (That probably would wreak havoc on the way I highlight and annotate PDFs for research.) At the moment I suspect a MacBook Air is the way to go, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something.

Bonus question: shopping options? I know prices for Apple products are pretty close to fixed, but if there are department store sales coming up, for example, it’d be nice to know.

Thanks in advance!

It’s entirely up to you. mabagal will no doubt wax on about the glories of the iPad, but I’m a professional writer and I hate the things. I’ve tried working on a iPad and found it unpleasant. If you mostly need a notebook for typing and printing out essays then a netbook is going to be more than sufficient. That’s all I use.

Others feel differently so really the only option is to try both and make your own decision.

Definitely need an external keyboard if going with the iPad.

Since your already a Mac user, I’d get both an Air and an iPad. I say this as I am planning to do the same thing later this year. Travel and write mostly for my own interest and not formally. I’m going to dump my Macbook Pro and get a 13" Air to go with my iPad. iPad is very convenient for 1) reading, highlighting, etc. .pdf (I use Goodreader) and 2) having something always availble for unexpected bursts of inspiration when sitting on the beach/top of mountain/at a pub. On iPad I use docs to go for writing with an external bluetooth keyboard, but am researching other tools like Scrivener to determine which ones are available and best for me on iPad.

If (when) Apple comes out with a 7" tablet, I’ll probably dump iPad and go with Air and the 7" tablet.

With the new features and programs, the next iPad would be ideal… but get a bluetooth keyboard.

Thanks for the tips so far - so which word processors work on the iPad? How well does it work if I’m working on an OpenOffice document across a couple of different computers? Does Docs to Go play well with other systems or with SugarSync?

Also of concern: this is for academic writing. I’m going to want a few windows opened, or at least one with the word processor, and one with PDFs/ Kindle books, and probably a web browser and Evernote as well. Does the iPad do that well? Not that an 11" screen does that particularly well either, but at least switching windows is fast.

Unfortunately it’s a little hard to “test drive” an iPad with the tasks I have in mind, since it would require the iPad to already have a bunch of different apps installed, and I’m not even sure yet what those apps are.

The budget most definitely does not allow both an Air and an iPad, alas!

Sounds familiar: I’m an academic editor.
But, I don’t use OpenOffice: I use Word on the iMac and Pages or Docs to Go on the iPad.
and I don’t use SugarSync: I use Dropbox and iCloud. Easy enough.

There’s an issue, currently, with formatting between Pages and Word. BUT… MS has submitted a Word app for the iPad. It hasn’t been released yet, but should be shortly. I’m hoping that’ll resolve the remaining issues.

Switching between windows is easy enough: just swipe four fingers across the screen. But that’s certainly not as convenient as viewing two apps side-by-side. Copying and pasting between a PDF and word processor, I’m not sure. I seldom have to bother with PDFs. But there are a lot of PDF editors available; I’ve got a few of them, I just don’t use them much.

I’ve probably got all the apps you’d want/need installed. If you’re around Academia Sinica, or downtown Taipei, PM me and you can give 'er a whirl.

I love my netbook… its my powerhouse for doing work at home and on the road.

[quote=“lostinasia”]I’m going to be studying overseas this summer and I need a computer on which I can type papers as well as read. I’m trying to figure out what I should get: an iPad (and then presumably use a Bluetooth keyboard?), whatever the cheapest and lightest Mac notebook is (11" MacBook Air?), or a presumably much cheaper Windows notebook/ netbook.
[/quote]
I do a ton of writing and editing on my 11" macbook air, in fact I’m writing on it right now, and I LOVE it. The trackpad has all these little tricks that make it super convenient, I like the keyboard— and it’s so light I hardly notice it’s in my backpack. I’d highly recommend it.
Happy writing and traveling.

The 11" Air blurs the line here. An Air 11" speced with 4GB and the i7 is basically as performant as a MacBook and iMac for nearly everything you’re going to do. And it is essentially as portable as an iPad. But it doesn’t have 10hr battery life, a “retina” display (yet), and the form factor is suboptimal for reading and use on a plane.

The ideal is get both. They are each really good at tasks the other one is suboptimal for. However, if you must get one and one only, I would say iPad 3. Here’s the deciding factor. If you are going to be READING a lot with it, consider that the “Retina” display on the new iPad is higher DPI and thus sharper than many REAL books. It is higher resolution than the current Macbooks by a factor of a lot.

The other thing it will give you is a giant surface for doing all sorts of things that only a giant touch surface can do. Diagramming, white boarding, and illustrating are going to be faster and more convenient than on a MacBook. Pages, Numbers and Keynote is a full “Office Suite” that works well on an iPad, especially if you have Lion on your Mac and are using iCloud to keep the documents synched everywhere.

I had a iPad 2 as an exclusive machine for about 2 months last year. It worked great for me, and I didn’t have a keyboard. I could still maintain 80ish WPM on it eventually, using the on-screen keyboard. At some point later in the year I needed to fire up X-Code again from time to time, so I got an Air and speced it to the hilt. Depending on the the task at hand, I’ll carry one or the other, or both. I always carry an iPhone and use it for tethering.

If you need a full machine, then get the Air 11". It’s only slightly bigger than an iPad. Reading on it is nowhere near as good as on an iPad. For one, it doesn’t let you just sit down with it in your hand like a book, and will be downright terrible compared to what will be available on an iPad 3. Battery life is also a consideration. If you are going to using this thing on flights, the iPad hands down. I’ve done flights from Taipei to New York working non-stop on an iPad 2 with battery to spare at the end. That’s not going to happen with a MacBook. Secondly, the iPad can stay in your bag at security, whereas the MacBook has to come out.

Another factor (and this seems minor, but it’s not) is if you are working together or studying together, having an iPad flat on the desk is a more collaborative experience. Simply because “everyone has a mouse” and nobody is ever left on the other side of the screen. It’s a better face-to-face collaborative device for this reason, and although the iPad didn’t exist yet when I last went to school, I really wish I had one then.

Since this is also for school, I would check to see what your textbooks will be. Apple announced a while back that the major textbook publishers would be shipping interactive iBooks for the iPad: apple.com/education/ibooks-textbooks/

[quote=“Mucha Man”]It’s entirely up to you. mabagal will no doubt wax on about the glories of the iPad, but I’m a professional writer and I hate the things. I’ve tried working on a iPad and found it unpleasant. If you mostly need a notebook for typing and printing out essays then a netbook is going to be more than sufficient. That’s all I use.

Others feel differently so really the only option is to try both and make your own decision.[/quote]

This is the problem with you. When you can’t figure out how to use something, you automatically write it off as useless and then go and belittle everyone who has figured it out and tries to explain it to you.

Just like you couldn’t figure out social media so you deemed it useless. Just like you called apps a waste of time. Then later on you find Pinterest and call it fascinating and later on realize that oh shit maybe apps are the primary publishing channel in the very near future.

At one point you called it unconscionable to not help people figure out the new distribution mechanisms. The thing is people want to help those people, they just don’t want to help you.

You could always just pick up an 11" Windows machine for half the price of a MacBook Air that’ll do the exact same job just as easily. And with the money left over, you’ll have enough for an Android pad that’ll outperform the iPad. Same basic gear , same results, half the money.

This is so absolutely untrue on both levels. CF, I am surrounded by no fewer than a dozen different Android tablets all day long, every day. None of them can hold a stick to even the 2 year old iPad 1 let alone an iPad 2, let alone the soon-to-come iPad 3. Secondly an 11" Windows machine is a going to be a terrible NETBOOK, whereas a Macbook Air 11" is a full powered Macintosh, more powerful than Macbook Pros of only a year ago, with as many desktop pixels as a regular 13" notebook.

This is not even starting to into the software, which is not even on the same planet.

For Android pads, something like the Asus Transformer Prime is generally recognized as outperforming the iPad2 and spec wise is not much different from the iPad 3 - better in some areas, not in others.

Stick 4GB RAM in a sub-NT$15K Windows machine and it’ll be more than enough for writing papers, reading and most other tasks the OP might need.

Software is basically the same. Word is Word, regardless of which platform it’s on. Same for Chrome, Firefox, Kindle, Skype etc.

The OP doesn’t need an iPad but needs a computer with a keyboard to write stuff. Netbook, MacBook air or windows ultrabook is the recommendation, depends on budget.

[quote=“cfimages”]For Android pads, something like the Asus Transformer Prime is generally recognized as outperforming the iPad2 and spec wise is not much different from the iPad 3 - better in some areas, not in others.

Stick 4GB RAM in a sub-NT$15K Windows machine and it’ll be more than enough for writing papers, reading and most other tasks the OP might need.

Software is basically the same. Word is Word, regardless of which platform it’s on. Same for Chrome, Firefox, Kindle, Skype etc.[/quote]

You’re wrong. We have both Transformer in our office and the things are marginal at best. The OS is generally not bad, but you just can’t get the quality of apps that you’ll find on the iPad. The software and thus productivity stack doesn’t even come close. On your Windows box… use OSX Lion or Mountain Lion for a day with the gestures enabled and someone showing how to use Expose and the virtual desktop (Spaces) and you too will see why it’s a total waste of your time to use anything else.

He’s going back to school and the iPad is an ideal form factor for an academic setting. Particularly given the fact that textbooks are getting appified by the textbook manufacturers for the iBooks format. I need to ask, does anyone who is saying all these things against the iPad and/or OSX platform actually have them and use them? It’s not that much of an expense to give it a try, and it if doesn’t work out a Mac runs Windows and iPads generally resell for pretty good prices when they are current.

[quote=“mabagal”][quote=“cfimages”]For Android pads, something like the Asus Transformer Prime is generally recognized as outperforming the iPad2 and spec wise is not much different from the iPad 3 - better in some areas, not in others.

Stick 4GB RAM in a sub-NT$15K Windows machine and it’ll be more than enough for writing papers, reading and most other tasks the OP might need.

Software is basically the same. Word is Word, regardless of which platform it’s on. Same for Chrome, Firefox, Kindle, Skype etc.[/quote]

You’re wrong. We have both Transformer in our office and the things are marginal at best. The OS is generally not bad, but you just can’t get the quality of apps that you’ll find on the iPad. The software and thus productivity stack doesn’t even come close. On your Windows box… use OSX Lion or Mountain Lion for a day with the gestures enabled and someone showing how to use Expose and the virtual desktop (Spaces) and you too will see why it’s a total waste of your time to use anything else.[/quote]

Plenty of people would say the opposite. I have one colleague in the US who basically stopped using his Air in favor of the Asus. As with all electronics, it’s largely subjective depending on one’s needs, and the vast majority of tasks can be accomplished equally no matter the platform. For some things Apple is better, for some Android is better, for some Windows is better.

Agree to disagree on this I’d say.

EDIT - FWIW, we have Windows computers, Macbook’s, Android phone, iPhone’s and iPad’s here so I have experience on all.

That’s very rude of you to put it like that. Fine, in reply I’ll say this. You waste my time, and others, because you think everyone has the same needs as you. You did it in my thread on iPods (and you are doing it here). Well guess what, I bought exactly what I felt was best after researching and talking to people who didn’t have an agenda. And I am completely happy with my purchase.

Your suggestion for an iPhone was retarded. Simply retarded. I’m not even going to bother explaining why as anyone reading what I needed would not have suggested that.

So that’s why I wrote the warning. You will recommend what you like and what suits you. Even if it means wasting money for the OP and them buying a product that doesn’t do what they want.

I consider this post a public service.

Don’t forget the Asus slider

Its a really niche machine, but if you literally want all in one (a tablet to kick it and read your tons of pirated pdfs’s as well as a keyboard to do writing) its really the only thing out there (unless you want to mess with having to lug around an external keyboard, then go for the transformer or something with bluetooth).

In terms of multitasking, its great. Got a little thing at the bottom of the screen which shows you everything that is open. I often have pleco, fb, the internet, polaris office (word processor) and a few other things open at the same time that I must go to back and forth for copying and pasting.

It also has a full usb, so if you may need to grab files from a portable hard drive (if you’re like me, also an academic and researcher, my hard drive currently has close to 20, 000 books/journals/articles on it) you can plug it in, and with “ghost something” (something=i forget the rest of the name) file manager free app you can easily copy and paste them from your hard drive to the tablet so you don’t have to keep it plugged in. I got the 30 something gig sd card which is awesome (there is also a smaller option).

Ipad and everything else like it was a no go for me without the usb. the whole itunes sync, cloud blah blah blah (though this comes with a year free unlimited cloud usage anyhoo) made the whole thing worthless with my vast digital library.

You of course can also plug in a mouse ifya want…

In terms of apple having tons more apps, yeah, it does, but most of those are merely for killing time and playing around with the ipad (which is just an expensive toy imho, not something really for maximum productivity). More apps are coming out everyday and what is there is awesome.

That’s very rude of you to put it like that. Fine, in reply I’ll say this. You waste my time, and others, because you think everyone has the same needs as you. You did it in my thread on iPods (and you are doing it here). Well guess what, I bought exactly what I felt was best after researching and talking to people who didn’t have an agenda. And I am completely happy with my purchase.

Your suggestion for an iPhone was retarded. Simply retarded. I’m not even going to bother explaining why as anyone reading what I needed would not have suggested that.

So that’s why I wrote the warning. You will recommend what you like and what suits you. Even if it means wasting money for the OP and them buying a product that doesn’t do what they want.

I consider this post a public service.[/quote]

I don’t know what you think my agenda is. Frankly, I don’t care what platform wins. As long as there’s overall growth of computing in people’s lives, I’m happy. My agenda is this: I don’t want people to have bad experiences with technology. I want them to have the best experience they possibly can. Therefore, I cannot and will not recommend products that I would not want to use myself. I am fortunate in that I get to use a lot of different devices all of the time, to use in the office, to take them home to try in earnest, to really use them so we can understand their strengths and weaknesses, so that we can know how best to write software for them. So I am relaying those experiences here. I don’t care what platform wins, only that people have the best experience they possible can, because it grows computing.

The OP said he’s going to be a student. The iPad is ideal for this because the major textbook publishers have committed to publish their textbooks onto iBooks, because many classrooms don’t allow open clamshell computers but are OK with iPads that have the textbook or reading materials on them because the lecturer then doesn’t have to look at a bunch of laptop backs and can instead see their student’s faces. You ignore the fact that other posters have had a lot of success using it in an academic setting, what the OP will be in, rings exactly true to my statement. You also ignore the utter fact that it can do things that a laptop cannot, like for example maintain power through an entire school day wherein a student is always moving, with little time to charge their gear, that you can draw and whiteboard on the thing to collaborate with people and share it to your classmates without any extra work. Or that a student has access to endless computer labs full of traditional computers if they should need one.

Despite all these things, because you couldn’t figure out how to type on it, ignoring or oblivious to the fact that there are plenty of keyboards available for this thing, you wrote it off. You couldn’t figure out how to use it, so you wrote it off. Like so many other things before that you eventually realized you were wrong about (ie: “useless” social media & your sudden fascination in Pinterest, “waste of time” apps & your sudden new found appreciation new publication mediums such as books-as-apps), you wrote it off.

Then a few weeks ago there were a few posts you made when it was clear you might have realized something you didn’t before. It’s like, wow, Muzha Man must have actually gotten that iPod Touch and now all of a sudden he can see and use these things and can’t dismiss them like he did before. It was a clear as day what happened there. Yet, time and again any time anyone patiently tries to show you what you might not be seeing yet, you attack. And you insert underhanded comments about how silly people must be for even suggesting that there are ways to do stuff you simply haven’t discovered or are too thickheaded to want to learn. This has been your entire M.O. on here.