Should I get a tablet?

In My Humble Opinion
1

As far as computers go, I’ve always been a desktop guy. I’ve always been pretty computer savvy, but I’m no expert. I used to build my computers from scratch, but I haven’t done so in about 20 years. I’ve never had any use for laptops. I did own one once, about 15 years ago, but I hardly ever used it. I’ve never owned, or even played with, a tablet.

I teach math at a community college. When Covid hit and we moved to teaching online, I bought a cheap drawing pad and presented my lessons using Xournal, similar to Khan Academy’s videos (randomly chosen example). I still teach some classes this way.

When I’m in the classroom, I still do my teaching the old school way: dry erase markers on the white board. The classrooms are equipped with document cams and “smart boards,” but I dislike those things.

For the past year or so I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a laptop. What I’m envisioning is, I plug my drawing pad into the laptop, and basically do my lessons like when I’m online. I’d start a Zoom meeting so I can record the lecture, and students could even join from home if they don’t feel like coming to the classroom. Another bonus to using a laptop is that I can put Linux on it, with my preferred software, and not have to use the shitty Windows 11 computers in the classrooms (and not be watched by the administration).

Then it occurred to me that maybe a tablet would be easier, instead of lugging around a laptop and drawing pad. I guess I could live with Android. It’d basically be a giant-sized version of my phone, right?

So there’s my long-winded background, and what I want to do. Yesterday I went with my wife to the T-Mobile store to upgrade her phone, and the salesperson talked a bit about adding a tablet to our plan. He recommended the Samsung Galaxy A11+. I told him I need it to be able to run a Zoom meeting and a drawing program at the same time, along with having browser windows open. He assured me it could do it, but I’m not about to take a sales guy’s word for it. And looking around online, I’m not so sure the A11+ would be powerful enough. Maybe the 11 Ultra? What say you?

2

What a few people used to do, if they did not want to write using chalk on a blackboard, is set up a transparency projector and write with a marker on acetates. These days, I think a decent tablet might be better than wasting all those transparencies? I mean, why not?

3

I judge a book contest, where most of the books are in pdf format. The first year I did it I downloaded the pdfs into my Kindle, but the fonts were so small that most of the books were hard to read. I could make them bigger, but then they didn’t fit on a page. I got a tablet for the next year, and it works much better. But I don’t use the tablet except for the contest. I much prefer the large monitor hooked up to my laptop and my wireless real keyboard.
I run a bunch of Zoom meetings, and quite a few people join from their tablets, and it seems to work fine.
No advice on which one to get. I have a cheap and slow Samsung, which is fine for my limited use.

4

I have been using Samsung tablets for years and love them. I haven’t owned any of their A units, only the Tab S models, the flagship line, which have much better processors, more RAM, and higher-res screens and cameras. (Comparison.) My current model is a Tab S8.

I can’t speak to their use for the drawing you want to do, but they’ve worked great for me for web browsing, YouTube and movie viewing, and light word processing and spreadsheet work. (When I need to do anything serious in Word or Excel, I want a real keyboard, so I move to my Dell XPS laptop.)

Looking at the specs, I think an A series would struggle with this. A Tab S would definitely do better, but you’d probably want as large a screen as possible. Personally, I don’t want a screen bigger than 10-11 inches, but the latest model, Tab S11 Ultra, is 14.6 inches.

ETA: The Tab S10 FE+ is 13 inches and half the price of the S11 Ultra.

5

I think the real question is can you project it, which is unquestionably easy with a laptop. That is going to depend on what equipment you use for projecting your screen. Is it a television? Then probably yes, you can cast it to a Google TV or Chromecast device. Is it an LCD projector or large computer monitor? That gets trickier. My understanding is that Google recently added external display capability in an update, but you will want to know which version of Android the tablet is running - often they are limited in the ability to update Android - and if it includes the external display capability. You can use an external display with an iPad, but it’s probably going to require either AirPlay (televisions and some LCD projectors) capability or Studio Display (which ain’t cheap). I would consult with the school’s IT department about your expected use case before making a purchase.

(full disclosure: I am a technician in a major university’s IT department)

6

I think you might be better off with a stylus-enabled laptop like the Microsoft Surface or a Samsung Galaxy Book. These are laptops that have built-in stylus support so you can directly draw on the screen, but otherwise are just normal Windows laptops. You can check Linux compatibility for them but I’m not sure how well the stylus drivers are supported.

Seconding @Thumper668 here: I like Android well enough, but I would never want to fiddle with its multi-tasking model for projections (not to mention having to disable notifications etc.). It’s a lot easier to do that on a laptop.

TLDR instead of getting a tablet and redoing your whole workflow, just get a laptop that also supports stylus pen inputs.

7

On this specific note… sort of, but not always? For the most part it works as you’d expect it to, but there are some small differences in the ways app upscale — or not. Some apps (like Chrome) have tablet-specific modes that they switch into to mimic a laptop experience with good mouse & keyboard support. Others don’t, and basically just supersize the phone app so you’re left with giant buttons and poor keyboard support.

The operating system itself might also change a little bit. Samsung has Dex, for example, but Pixel Tablets (generic Android) don’t. But even base Android has some allowances for tablet mode, like keyboard support across most of the OS (home screen, app drawer, etc.).

But all in all it’s still not a great experience, IMHO, and much less polished than on iPad. It’s not terrible, just not great. I still use an Android phone, but sold all my Android tablets in favor of iPads because the experience was just so much better.

If you’re used to desktop computing on Windows or Linux, I’d say stick with that because the Android tablet experience is quite inferior, especially when it comes to multi-tasking and being able to place windows wherever you want. It’s a pain on Android (relative to a proper laptop, I mean). Android’s just not very good at letting you easily juggle multiple apps and windows at the same time and choosing which one to project at any given time. The switching gestures and layout is all different; notably, the lack of a taskbar makes it hard to point Zoom at “this window instead of that one”.

8

Now that I’m rereading your OP, I think just about any lightweight laptop with a touchscreen should meet your needs. It doesn’t even need to be a newer one if you’re comfortable (and you expressed a preference) with Linux. You can probably find someone with an unneeded laptop that was recently replaced because it didn’t meet the requirements for Windows 11. As an example, I just gave away a 9 year old Acer Aspire R571 and installed Kubuntu on it. It’s worth nearly nothing, but it meets the needs of a friend with a college student who needed a laptop. It would have also been perfect for the project you’re describing.

9

I second this.

10

If drawing is a big deal, I think all stylus-enabled laptops (that I’ve seen at least) are also touchscreens, but the inverse is not true. Not all touchscreen laptops support pen input.

If the OP’s goal is to be able to draw on a virtual whiteboard easily, I think they would specifically need one with pen support, not just a touchscreen. (There are still many used ones, though! They’ve been around for decades, as a small niche for creative professionals.)

11

I am also looking to buy a Samsung tablet because my Kindle has become almost worthless with a lot of necessary functionality on the internet.

My desktop is reaching its end and I eventually need a laptop to replace it but a decent tablet could fill the gap.

I appreciate all of the input here.

12

It depends on the type of stylus (capacitive vs noncapacitive). Inking support is built into Windows 11, but I’ve never used it in Linux (although I’m sure there is probably an app for it). Either way, OP has a drawing pad which very likely works with Linux.

13

Not trying to be pedantic, but it’s a pretty different experience, especially for anyone who’s already used to a proper drawing pad. The capacitive ones are really just “fake fingers” and have terrible precision, can’t hover or tilt, etc. It’s about as nice as drawing with your pinky finger (which is not very nice compared to a proper “real” stylus).

Either way, OP has a drawing pad which very likely works with Linux.

I think they’re trying to combine them, though:

The Surface Pros (not the Surface Laptops, which don’t support stylus) are small, lightweight, proper computers with excellent stylus inputs. They also have fast ARM processors with all-day battery life. I think that’s going to be quite a dramatically nicer experience than a used x86 Windows laptop with a fake stylus…

Technically you can detach the Surface Pro from its keyboard and use it “like” a tablet too, but IMO that experience is even worse than Android tablets. The Windows app ecosystem is just totally dead and there are almost no tablet-specific apps for it.

The Galaxy Book (looks like only the 5Pro 360 includes a pen?) is more laptop-like and properly hinged. But they still use the older x86 processors, so battery life and heat & noise will be crap compared to an Android tablet or the Surface Pro.

14

Thanks everyone.

The instructor desk in each classroom has a console with an HDMI input for the screen projector. I know it works with laptops, but I didn’t even think about if a tablet would be compatible (or capable).

But based on everyone’s input in this thread, I’m thinking now the original plan would be best - a laptop with my drawing pad. The drawing pad does work with Linux, I’ve used it on a Kubuntu system for the past six years. And I’m used to the setup, so I should just stick with it.

15

Good choice. Those drawing pads (if Wacom) have amazing latency and precision, even compared to many of the tablets or stylus laptops, and a dramatically better “pen on paper” feel. They’re hard to beat for whiteboarding.

16

I agree with this. Getting a tablet saves you the trouble of carrying around a few more pounds of gear, in exchange for a greatly compromised experience actually using it for what you want.

Most Intel/AMD based laptops will run Linux fine, so find one with the right size and price for what you want. Once you choose, do a quick bit of research to check if it does have any Linux trouble spots before you buy it.

17

Before I retired I used a Samsung tablet for work. I like taking hand written notes. It was great because I could organize different projects and meetings into different folders.

We moved too, so lots to keep track of. Works great for that too.