Buying Guide: Top tablets for note-taking

Surface Pro 3, Galaxy Note Pro, Pro Slate

Even though the keyboard serves as a useful text input tool, students and business professionals know there are instances in which a handwritten note or a simple drawing best captures an idea or conveys a thought. From the lecture hall to the boardroom, tablets offer a versatile medium to record information organically.

The challenge with writing on a tablet is that many slates are designed for larger finger input rather than the precision of a pen nib. The iPad, while an excellent tablet, wouldn't be a good note-taking companion for those who prefer to write or draw, as stylus designs for capacitive touchscreens come with a blunt tip that is not accurate; it's the equivalent of having a kindergartener practice writing on college-ruled paper.

However, there are a number of tablets with specially designed pens that give you an edge in capturing handwritten notes, annotating a PDF, signing and marking documents, and drawing charts and diagrams. We've compiled a list of the top tablets for capturing handwritten notes:

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with Surface Pen

The third generation professional tablet from Microsoft breaks the mold with a large 12-inch 2160X1440 resolution display, giving the screen a 3:2 aspect ratio. The new ratio, compared to the Surface Pro 2's 16:9 dimensions, makes the Surface Pro 3 more natural to hold in portrait orientation for flipping through digital magazines and reading textbooks and PDF files. Additionally, the added surface area is great for taking notes and feels more like writing on a full sheet of paper.

Microsoft's switch to the new Surface Pen technology makes note-taking a breeze. By clicking a button on the pen, you can instantly launch OneNote, which lets you capture drawings, sketches and notes. Supporting 1,024 levels of pressure, the Surface Pro 3 comes with palm rejection technology, which allows you to rest your hand on the screen while you're jotting without crushing the glass.

The downside to writing with a digital pen on a tablet is that it doesn't feel like the real thing: writing on glass is far more slippery and lacks the friction of writing on paper. This is true of all tablets, including the Surface Pro 3.

The bundled OneNote software comes with great handwriting-to-text transcription so you don't need to re-type your notes later. Snapping on the optional keyboard makes the tablet even more versatile by converting it into a powerful Ultrabook for moments when typing may be quicker or easier.

The best part about the Surface Pro 3 is that it can replace your old desktop, laptop or tablet. As an all-in-one multi-form-factor device, you don't have to worry about synchronizing your notes or transferring your files across multiple devices.

• Read our Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 with S Pen

If you prefer Android to Windows, the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is an excellent productivity tablet. Supporting Wacom's digitizer, the S Pen stylus on the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 accurately captures handwriting as well as varying brush stroke thicknesses for digital artists. Like the Surface Pro 3, intelligent palm rejection on the Note Pro 12.2 means you can rest your hand on the tablet while you're writing, simulating the experience of writing on paper.

Samsung's S Note software is a good alternative to OneNote, in that it offers a place for you to add images, store web clippings, enter in mathematical formulas and even draw diagrams.

You can record audio as you take handwritten notes and S Note can even convert your handwriting to text. OneNote users will find comparable features within S Note even though Samsung's software is relatively basic.

If you'd rather type your notes than write them by hand, you can also add a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to your Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and type away.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 review

HP Pro Slate 12 with ultrasonic pen and physical paper

While the competitors will ask you to write on glass, HP is taking a business padfolio approach to handwriting. The HP Pro Slate 12 pairs with an analog notepad on which you'll write with an ultrasonic pen that simultaneously transcribes your doodles into digital notes on the slate.

It's a different approach that gives you the best of both digital and analog worlds. Writing on paper is certainly more comfortable and natural than having a stylus tip skid across glass, and instant transfer to the digital medium means you won't need to scan your notes later.

The Android slate is rather heavy at 1.87 pounds (850 g), and unless you're sitting at a spacious table, the padfolio form factor of having a digital tablet sit beside an old school notepad might make the Pro Slate 12 experience too expansive for some.

• Read our hands on review of the HP Pro Slate 12

Yoga Tablet 2, Galaxy Note 4

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen tech

Introduced earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, the Yoga Tablet 2 is the most compact tablet on the list, measuring in with an 8-inch display and running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The unique feature of the Yoga Tablet 2 is Lenovo's AnyPen technology.

Instead of walking around with a pocket protector to safeguard a specialized digital stylus, AnyPen allows you to write on the display with almost any item you have laying around, including a pen, pencil, key, or even a knife.

The benefit is that you can almost always find an ad-hoc stylus with nearby office supplies, like a paperclip, to do your writing. The downside is that if you glide across the screen with the wrong apparatus, your Yoga Tablet 2 could incur some scratches.

For those who prefer a larger slate for writing, Lenovo offers the AnyPen as an option on select configurations of the ThinkPad Yoga 12, 14, or 15 models.

• Read our hands on review of the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

For those working out in the field, or professionals who value portability over having a large canvas on which to jot down ideas, the Galaxy Note 4 is an excellent option. Although it isn't advertised as a tablet, this large format smartphone (or phablet) is perfect for small-format data input.

The 5.7-inch device comes with all the features that make the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 a great note-taking tablet. For example: the included Wacom-powered S Pen makes the Galaxy Note 4 a versatile device that is perfect for capturing your thoughts on the go. Essentially, the Galaxy Note 4 can be used as a digital Moleskine notebook for users in the field who don't need to capture copious amounts of handwritten notes or annotations on the more compact display.

Although you the S Pen is an accurate writing tool, the small screen of the Galaxy Note 4 will feel more like writing on a digital Post-it or an index card than on a mini notepad. Heavy writers will quickly run out of paper room on the 5.7-inch display and will long for a larger canvas to write on.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review

Benefits to handwriting

Though handwriting may seem like a lost art form, proponents of the pen argue that there are benefits of writing over typing on a keyboard. Studies reported by the New York Times show a correlation between improved learning, better memory retention, and even in idea generation.

University of Washington researcher Virginia Berninger's study shows students produced more ideas more quickly when they compose text by hand rather than on a keyboard. Memory retention and better subject matter understanding during meetings and lectures were demonstrated by Pam Mueller's and Daniel Oppenheimer's study published in Psychological Science. Those findings were similarly confirmed by researchers at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

from TechRadar: All latest feeds http://ift.tt/1z9aBve

via IFTTT