Taking notes during classes: the cheap way

[melampo_]

Need something very portable and lightweight for taking notes during classes: it has to be cheap (not willing to pay more than 250€/330$) and has to have a good battery life (5 hours are just fine).

In the past two weeks, I've been considering a few options:
- A Netbook.
Which is cheap but sometimes painfully slow and noisy. I've been dealing with a pretty standard netbook (Atom 450, 1gig of RAM) recently: needless to say, it was not the best experience of my live, even if at this price point I guess I really can't expect much more.
- A Chromebook
I'm not really into the Google ecosystem, but the Samsung Chromebook WiFi (which is priced at 250€/330$ here in Europe) or the Acer C7 (199€/265$) both look like a decent alternative to a full fledged notebook.
- A Cheap Notebook (sub-notebook?)
Like an Asus X201E. I would get low end specs and so-so battery life, but at least I would have a fairly decent machine for casual use.
- A Tablet + additional keyboard.
Thanks to Microsoft for education, I'm able to purchase a Surface RT for as little as 199€/265$. Despite Windows RT limitations, the Surface still look like a premium device compared to the ones listed before.

Are there any other possibilities I'm not considering? Which one is better for my needs?

 

[geofelt]

It has been a long time since I attended classes.
But, my advice is to forget notes, and the distraction in taking them.
Pay close attention to what is said and try to understand up front.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

Pencil and paper haha. I know when I had my laptop in class I didnt do much "notetaking" with it haha. I would just get a normal laptop/notebook with like an amd APU and an extended battery since they seem to have great battery life and are not painfully slow

 

[06yfz450ridr]

Pencil and paper haha. I know when I had my laptop in class I didnt do much "notetaking" with it haha. I would just get a normal laptop/notebook with like an amd APU and an extended battery since they seem to have great battery life and are not painfully slow

 

[melampo_]

Being an Oriental Studies student, I heavily rely on my computer for things like recording the teacher speaking during language classes or using specific software for learning chinese. I found out that a laptop is simply the best option for this kind of tasks. Plus I love having all of my notes synched in the cloud, so that I'm able to edit them on my smartphone, tablet or desktop PC.
So no, "forgetting notes" or "using pancil and paper" is not an option: i need to take notes and I need them to be everywhere I go, without worrying about bringing tons of papers with me

Btw, thanks guys for the replies

 

[g-unit1111]

I have an iPad but I haven't found it the most effective for note taking. I am heavily looking at getting a Microsoft Surface when the price becomes more competitive with Android-based tablets.

 

[jaxst]

I have been contemplating the same thing, I have been going back and forth on whether i should just get a really nice laptop only such as the new macbook air/pro, or a tablet/netbook for notes in class and a nice rig at home for the big stuff.

What i have found out is that there really is no perfect tablet for taking notes other than the microsoft pro tablet because it can run full suite programs, and onenote is nice because as mentioned above, you need to listen to the professor at the same time, onenote and a few other android programs allow you to record and place the recording on that slide/page of the notes to pair up with the notes, which is nice. However, with the pro tablet, you are going to pay around 800, 200 more and you can get a macbook air with just as good battery life and a lot more capabilities for a student. Personally the price comparison between the two has forced me to stay away from the pro tablet, if the tablet was around 600, maybe i would consider it. but as of right now it is just simply overpriced.

you have the options to buy the asus transformer which offers excellent battery life and is rather cheap, android does have a few good office suite programs and note taking applications but nothing as good as microsoft office full suite or onenote. now this isn't the a huge deal breaker for just notes, but if you plan to write papers and depending on major work with things like excel, you are going to want a full suite program. writing notes on the transformers is above average but not comparable to something with a digitizer such as the higher end lenovo tablets/pro surface. it will lag occasionally but i tried it out at best buy and it is a good compromise because you get a keyboard dock which makes it nice, not the best keyboard but it is better than bluetooth because it offers usb ports and battery life. there is also the samsung galaxy note tablet which offers a stylus which can compare to a digitizer but does not offer a keyboard, you would have to get bluetooth, these are exceptionally well for writing notes but are at a higher price, $340 USD i believe.

Now the netbooks which are arguably very slow but have the capabilities of running full suite office, they offer decent battery life 6-7 hours at a nice price on sites such as ebay from 220-300. however, the intel atom isn't the best for video 1080p playback which personally for me is a deal breaker, there are AMD netbooks that have better gpus for more multimedia stuff like youtube/movies which would suite you better if this is a concern. they are also nice because they can run windows 7, replacement batteries are cheap, you don't have to worry about it getting stolen, some are easy to upgrade and can become good student machines with an SSD. however, most netbooks are no longer in production so you might have to buy used if that is a problem, asus/acer offer nice notebooks, however make sure to look up the models because some are not upgradeable as the RAM is soldered to the motherboard.

finally there is the chromebook, good battery life, the samsung chromebook can be bought on newegg right now for 220 new, offers good battery life 6-7 hours, excellent keyboard for the price, good multimedia capabilities as far as video playback goes. The only compromise is the chrome OS, lack of applications and google docs is good but can not replace full microsoft office which may be a problem for assignments, but like i said depending on your major whether you need a full version of excel, it all depends, but for taking notes, typing on the google docs will be sufficient if not exceed your needs. what i do recommend if you do buy the chromebook is install linux on it with libre office as well, you can install some of your favorite programs like skype on it after which is nice and be more open to other programs.

 

[melampo_]

Thanks jaxst
According to what you said, I really think that the best solution for me would be getting a rather decent netbook, preferably an AMD-powered one: are there particolar brands which are known to be good when it comes to netbook? Is there a specific model that fits my needs without costing more than 250€?
I was thinking about the Asus 1015bx (which is 300$ in Europe)...

Speaking about the chromebooks: the cheapest one here is the Samsung Chromebook, which is priced at 330$. I'm sure it would be way faster then a netbook, maybe even lighter and it would surely have abetter battery life, but I'm not really sure about the OS, which is very limited compared to a full Windows or Linux installation..

 

[jaxst]

Thanks jaxst
According to what you said, I really think that the best solution for me would be getting a rather decent netbook, preferably an AMD-powered one: are there particolar brands which are known to be good when it comes to netbook? Is there a specific model that fits my needs without costing more than 250€?
I was thinking about the Asus 1015bx (which is 300$ in Europe)...

Speaking about the chromebooks: the cheapest one here is the Samsung Chromebook, which is priced at 330$. I'm sure it would be way faster then a netbook, maybe even lighter and it would surely have abetter battery life, but I'm not really sure about the OS, which is very limited compared to a full Windows or Linux installation..

sorry for the late respose, but an ACER ASPIRE ONE AO722 is a good notebook, you're right about the samsung cb being faster, you can install Linux on the chromebook, lots of videos on youtube that can help you

here is one for example

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpDtD4eKBB4

the acer model i just listed has comparable battery life (6-7 hours), it's going to be sluggish compared to a laptop, but it is sufficient for note taking and you can install full programs because they come in win 7 started (can be upgraded)/windows 8 or linux if you want, also the processor included has a better gpu chipset for watching movies/youtube videos