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Celtia · 01-28-2012, 10:10 PM

Textbooks are an interesting case. You say you don't care about zooming, but I guarantee you WILL care when you can't see what you need to on a picture or diagram!

I have (in order of size), a 3.5" iPhone 4, a 6" Kindle Keyboard, and and 10" Asus EeePad Transformer tablet. My husband has a Kindle Fire, and my daughter has a Kindle Touch. My sister-in-law has an e-ink Nook.

For reading books, I recommend eink, hands-down. But textbooks are not "books". Textbooks have fine details that need to be seen. Textbooks need the ability to easily highlight, annotate, bookmark, and index all of these markups. Readers actually are pretty good at these tasks, but tablets are PHENOMENAL at all of these things and more. Tablets also have color, which you think you don't need, but you may soon find you want.

I am using my tablet for a textbook for the first time ever, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I highlight in different colors, I draw boxes around important tables, I use a freehand drawing tool to scribble in the margins, and I can bookmark all over the place. The app I use can keep track of everything I highlight, and export or print that "review" page.

Tablets like the Transformer aren't cheap, but they will be useful productivity tools for some time. I have a keyboard dock that "transforms" my tablet into a netbook-like device. The Samsung Galaxy tablet has a dock too, and iPad and other tablets can use bluetooth keyboards. The combination of textbook reader, slide presenter, Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint apps), plus email and web browsing all in one device is totally worth every penny I paid ($380 for the tablet + $109 for the keyboard dock). Not to mention that the tablet is light enough to toss in a school bag and carry all day. And other than serious photo editing and Calibre, I no longer use my laptop.

I highly suggest you really review all your options before you buy anything. The perfect device for you and your intended use may be very different from the people who offer you advice. If you see a classmate using a tablet or ereader, ask them their opinion. Ask if they would choose something different now, or what they'd change.

I tried to attach a copy of a textbook page I marked up. Sorry if it doesn't load! Good luck with your choice!

01-28-2012, 10:10 PM	#6
Celtia Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: Kindle 3	Textbooks are an interesting case. You say you don't care about zooming, but I guarantee you WILL care when you can't see what you need to on a picture or diagram! I have (in order of size), a 3.5" iPhone 4, a 6" Kindle Keyboard, and and 10" Asus EeePad Transformer tablet. My husband has a Kindle Fire, and my daughter has a Kindle Touch. My sister-in-law has an e-ink Nook. For reading books, I recommend eink, hands-down. But textbooks are not "books". Textbooks have fine details that need to be seen. Textbooks need the ability to easily highlight, annotate, bookmark, and index all of these markups. Readers actually are pretty good at these tasks, but tablets are PHENOMENAL at all of these things and more. Tablets also have color, which you think you don't need, but you may soon find you want. I am using my tablet for a textbook for the first time ever, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I highlight in different colors, I draw boxes around important tables, I use a freehand drawing tool to scribble in the margins, and I can bookmark all over the place. The app I use can keep track of everything I highlight, and export or print that "review" page. Tablets like the Transformer aren't cheap, but they will be useful productivity tools for some time. I have a keyboard dock that "transforms" my tablet into a netbook-like device. The Samsung Galaxy tablet has a dock too, and iPad and other tablets can use bluetooth keyboards. The combination of textbook reader, slide presenter, Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint apps), plus email and web browsing all in one device is totally worth every penny I paid ($380 for the tablet + $109 for the keyboard dock). Not to mention that the tablet is light enough to toss in a school bag and carry all day. And other than serious photo editing and Calibre, I no longer use my laptop. I highly suggest you really review all your options before you buy anything. The perfect device for you and your intended use may be very different from the people who offer you advice. If you see a classmate using a tablet or ereader, ask them their opinion. Ask if they would choose something different now, or what they'd change. I tried to attach a copy of a textbook page I marked up. Sorry if it doesn't load! Good luck with your choice! Attached Thumbnails