I pretty much only want the stylus input if I need to copy a picture or a formula - my A&P of Farm Animals professor is always drawing things. She’s cool though and she posts her drawings on the class website. Not all professors do that.
Is it possible to have two apps open at the same time to easily swap between the two? I’d be fine with typing in a word processing app and drawing in a drawing app.
I really appreciate all the input.
Definitely wait for Windows 8 convertible tablets. There will be a whole bunch which will be released some of which look excellent. Basically they are light-weight laptops where you can undock the screen at which point it becomes a standalone tablet. The Windows 8 UI is ideal for this kind of dual use.
Since stylus use is important get a tablet which has Wacom pen support. These pens are vastly superior to the capacitve styluses which you can buy for the iPad and other tablets. AFAIK the Galaxy Note 10.1 is the only Android tablet with Wacom support but there should be a bunch of Windows 8 convertible tablets which support them as well.
Since Word is important to you, it makes all the more sense to wait for Windows 8. You can make Word-compatible documents on various apps on Android and iOS but as of now you don’t get MS Office which will of course run on Windows 8.
So bascially wait for Windows 8. Check out MS Surface but also a whole bunch of convertible tablets from Samsung, Lenovo and others. You are bound to find something you like with a great keyboard and Wacom pen support.
I’m writing this on a nexus7. Perfect for my needs. I’m working away from home with long train journeys and I don’t want to use my work laptop for personal entertainment and I don’t want to carry another laptop or big tablet and book reader. So this does It all, light, fast, cheap, it’ll play any file I drag and drop onto it and I can tether it to my phone if need be. (As I am doing right now)
So it work really well as an entertainment delivery device, though I do have my real laptop for real work and it is no replacement for that.
Yes, but it’s not quite as direct as two windows showing on a task bar on a PC. Not sure which version of Android your phone runs, and am not familiar with pre-Honeycomb versions myself, but since Honeycomb you’ve got a Recent button that pops up a scrollable list of recent app windows, and you can switch back to previously open apps by selecting them from the list. So, two taps to switch back to the last app you had open.
I’ve seen some stuff about running two apps side by side simultaneously recently, but that was on the xda forums and I don’t know that any tablets are doing that without flashing custom ROMs. Anyways, the screens aren’t really big enough to have a word processor and a sketch app open side by side. Switching between them is quick and easy though.
I have a Samsung galaxy tab 2 (7 In version). You can buy a stylus for it for about $8.00 on Amazon and you can get a Bluetooth keyboard and case for it from $35 to$80. I have both Polaris office and Quick Office and they both let you create and save MS Word docs. Total for everything would be around $300 or so.
On Gingerbread, you just long-press the Home button and it brings up the last 8 apps. Android automatically manages memory in such a way that, as long as you aren’t pushing the limits of your memory capacity, you can switch quickly between two apps and not have any reloading time.
I believe you can have split screens on the Galaxy Note 10.1 out of the box. You even have it on the Galaxy Note 2 which is a 5.5 inch phone. The Note 10.1, which comes with a Wacom pen, wouldn’t be a bad option for the OP if he finds a good keyboard accessory but like I said he really should wait for the Win 8 tablets.