Reader Survey Results: Back To School Gear for College

Status
Not open for further replies.

Gamer-girl

Distinguished
May 29, 2010
39
0
18,590
A 17 inch laptop is too bulky and heavy to take to classes. I've used the live-scribe pen, only function that was useful was having a digital backup of my notes. I've recorded lectures but never played it back.

I now just use a convertible tablet for notes.
 

razor512

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2007
501
0
18,940
the survey sucked as it railroaded you into picking certain answers, I got about half way through and quit because of that problem.

The server is the equivalent of a question like this

"Given the chance, I would gladly take a 90% pay cut: (select 1 for agree and 5 for strongly agree)"

Then posting a month later "based on a survey of our readers, 100% of them would accept a 90% pay cut given the option)
 

Tomsguiderachel

Distinguished
May 16, 2008
665
0
18,930
[citation][nom]razor512[/nom]the survey sucked as it railroaded you into picking certain answers, I got about half way through and quit because of that problem.The server is the equivalent of a question like this"Given the chance, I would gladly take a 90% pay cut: (select 1 for agree and 5 for strongly agree)"Then posting a month later "based on a survey of our readers, 100% of them would accept a 90% pay cut given the option)[/citation]
Please post an example of a question we asked that you felt didn't allow you to honest about how you really feel. I see that there are plenty of "fill in the blank" answers, as well as answers that allow for a full range of feedback. We appreciate your comment but would appreciate it even more if you could be specific. Here is the link to the survey.
Thanks for reading,
Rachel Rosmarin
Managing Editor, Tom's Guide
 

razor512

Distinguished
Jun 16, 2007
501
0
18,940
My reasons for supporting my conclusion of the questions being railroading is as follows: (these are all based on my opinion)

Question 1: nothing wrong with it

Question 2: For a survey targeted at a community where the majority of the users build their own systems, it strongly focuses on prebuilt systems (and the results seem to show this)

Question 3: Nothing wrong with this question

Question 4: Also nothing wrong
Question 5: Nothing wrong
Question 6: Nothing wrong
Question 7: Nothing wrong

Question 8: If you ask which tablets someone wants and you list a few specifics and offer the other option where a user can type an answer, all things being equal, humans will choose an answer that requires less work on their part. (list 4 Chinese knockoffs with slow CPU's and resistive touch screens and I bet you will end up with a significant number of people really wanting those tablets at least based on a survey)

The rest of the questions seem good

When creating surveys (part of some work required in a research psychology class), if an extremely specific question was asked, if it was a multiple choice with an optional other; students rarely ever filled out the "other" even when the multiple choice items intentionally unpopular choices.
(and when making the my contribution to the survey I put questions along the lines of " Which types of shows do you enjoy watching with your family: Yaoi, Hentai, boring, and other (with a option to write down that the other was). I don't remember the question exactly but many students chose yaoi (most people don't even know what that is); it is easier to bubble in a small circle to a provided answer than it is to type one out).
 

CaedenV

Distinguished
Jun 14, 2011
532
0
18,960
really? Who in this audience would buy a Kodak printer? Or for that matter an HP Desktop? I understand they are popular in the general market, but most of us are educated enough that you don't get what you pay for in a Kodak compared to HP and Epson at the same price point, and that HP desktops (while better than their laptops) are generally terrible. I'm not a fan of Dell either, but at least they are easy to work on to customize and upgrade.

Another thing I am constantly surprised at is the lack of college students who buy laser printers. There are some great black and white laser printers out there for under $100, which will last longer and be much cheaper over the years at college compared to their inkjet counterparts. On the rare occasion that you NEED color there are plenty of students who have cheap color printers. Sure, if you are an art student then you need high quality color pics, but then again, most programs worth their salt have free printing rooms for those students.
 

Tomsguiderachel

Distinguished
May 16, 2008
665
0
18,930
[citation][nom]razor512[/nom]My reasons for supporting my conclusion of the questions being railroading is as follows: (these are all based on my opinion)Question 1: nothing wrong with itQuestion 2: For a survey targeted at a community where the majority of the users build their own systems, it strongly focuses on prebuilt systems (and the results seem to show this)Question 3: Nothing wrong with this questionQuestion 4: Also nothing wrongQuestion 5: Nothing wrongQuestion 6: Nothing wrongQuestion 7: Nothing wrongQuestion 8: If you ask which tablets someone wants and you list a few specifics and offer the other option where a user can type an answer, all things being equal, humans will choose an answer that requires less work on their part. (list 4 Chinese knockoffs with slow CPU's and resistive touch screens and I bet you will end up with a significant number of people really wanting those tablets at least based on a survey)The rest of the questions seem goodWhen creating surveys (part of some work required in a research psychology class), if an extremely specific question was asked, if it was a multiple choice with an optional other; students rarely ever filled out the "other" even when the multiple choice items intentionally unpopular choices. (and when making the my contribution to the survey I put questions along the lines of " Which types of shows do you enjoy watching with your family: Yaoi, Hentai, boring, and other (with a option to write down that the other was). I don't remember the question exactly but many students chose yaoi (most people don't even know what that is); it is easier to bubble in a small circle to a provided answer than it is to type one out).[/citation]

Thanks for this feedback. Your most constructive criticism was on question #2, but I just want to point out to you that this article was published on Tom's Guide, which emphatically *does not* have an audience that builds its own systems--you're thinking of Tom's Hardware, our "brother site." As for the fill-in-the-blank question about tablets, I personally don't have a problem with the way the question was asked, but more importantly, we did not deduce any stats from that question, we simply wanted to see which write-in answers were most popular. The tablets we suggested in the question were not necessarily the most frequent write-ins.

Rachel Rosmarin
Managing Editor, Tom's Guide
 

bobbyp86

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2011
14
0
18,560
[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]really? Who in this audience would buy a Kodak printer? [/citation]

I did. Because the last HP printer I had cost around £55 (90USD) to restock with ink. My kodak costs £15 (25USD) to restock and lasts just as long. Yes the print quality was around 10x better on the HP but consider I was paying upward of 270$ an academic year just in ink something had to give!
 

f-14

Distinguished
Apr 2, 2010
774
0
18,940
[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]really? Who in this audience would buy a Kodak printer? Or for that matter an HP Desktop? I understand they are popular in the general market, but most of us are educated enough that you don't get what you pay for in a Kodak compared to HP and Epson at the same price point, and that HP desktops (while better than their laptops) are generally terrible. I'm not a fan of Dell either, but at least they are easy to work on to customize and upgrade.Another thing I am constantly surprised at is the lack of college students who buy laser printers. There are some great black and white laser printers out there for under $100, which will last longer and be much cheaper over the years at college compared to their inkjet counterparts. On the rare occasion that you NEED color there are plenty of students who have cheap color printers. Sure, if you are an art student then you need high quality color pics, but then again, most programs worth their salt have free printing rooms for those students.[/citation]
i for one used to be a long time HP fan until they made bloat/lagware a requirement to use any part of their devices i'd take my hp 693c printer and 6200cse scanner hands down almost every time even for as slow as they are (unless my life/career/grade depended on handing it the report in 30 seconds or less)
as compared to this hp 5280cse all in one for the simple fact it's entire software suite REQUIRED to make any useful feature operational and functional more then bogs down a dual core by 30 pct.
this is just one accessory nearly crippling my computer, and i haven't even connected anything else.
the equivelent of buying a lamborghini and putting two cycle fuel in it just so you can run an aftermarket GPS navigation stero system hands free blue tooth phone in it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.