Tablet PC: A College Student's Best Friend

Technology aids and makes our lives much more comfortable and easy. For me, my Fujitsu T5010 Lifebook series tablet PC makes my life much simpler. I am able to rotate my screen 180 degrees and lay the screen down on the keyboard and use a stylus to take real handwritten notes. For my chemistry and math classes, typing super scripts and subscripts were incredibly annoying.

My Lifebook has an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor which is running at 2.4GHz. It is installed with 4GB DDR3 1066MHz (2x2GB) of ram. The screen is 13.3" WXGA LED Backlit Active Digitizer Display with a native 1280x800 resolution. It uses onboard Intel GMA 4500 MHD. A 160GB hard drive at 5400rpm. It also has an optical drive that can write/read DVD +/- RW Double Layer. It uses Atheros 802.11 a/g/n wireless card and also has Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. A built in 1.3 megapixel webcam is built into the top of the monitor as well as a fingerprint reader on the bottom left part of the screen. It has three USB, a VGA out, LAN, Modem, Microphone In, and Headphone Out ports. It uses a 6 Cell Lithium Ion battery. It weighs about 4.4lbs and its dimensions are (WxDxH) 12.5"x9.6"x1.4". Windows XP Professional Tablet Edition is installed on it as well.

Everything I throw at this computer turns out well. I am currently a freshman at college and use this for writing papers, instant messaging, listening to music, etc. The processor works well for everything I use it for. The ram is nice and fast; however, four gigs of ram is a little bit of a waste because I'm using a 32-bit operating system. The webcam is what is expected for being a built-in. I definitely love the fingerprint reader. I use for logging into Windows as well as various websites. If there is a password box, the software for the reader and be used to remember your password and will type it in once you scan your finger. The hard drive could be faster but for what I use this tablet for; it does not bother me too much. The screen is a decent size - about the size of a piece of paper. The battery lasts roughly five hours with the wireless on so I'm really happy about that. That's enough about the hardware, now about the actual usefulness of a tablet PC versus a standard laptop. In calculus, integral signs were impossible. Exponents took too much time to keep up with my professor and fractions turned into a nightmare. With a tablet PC, I can just write like normal on a never ending piece of paper using Microsoft OneNote. Now I don't have to worry about running out of paper in the middle of class and do not have to worry about moochers asking for pieces of paper from me. Before, I have been hesitant to copy down examples because I did not want to use so much paper. Now, I have unlimited amount!

Taking notes in chemistry by typing was horrendous. Chemical formulas with subscripts and their charges with superscripts took too much time to type. The arrow indicating yields was a bother to insert on a laptop that does not have a number pad. By taking handwritten notes on my computer I am able to copy notes down quickly and have the benefits of digital technology. I can easily copy and send them to friends without the need of scanning them or letting a friend borrow them. Another added benefit is Microsoft OneNote. It organizes notes into a notebook. In a notebook are sections, and inside each section has pages, and pages can have subpages. It is even possible to create a section group to organize weekly homework assignments. This makes it easy to stay organized in each class without the hassle of having to physically putting in section dividers and pieces of paper. A simple right-click and drag-and-drop is all that is needed. Physical notebooks are much thicker than my tablet PC. Now I do not have to carry such bulky items with me to my classes and I can carry as many digital notebooks as I may have need for. This itself makes life much simpler. I no longer need to make sure I have my biology notebook with me if I have an impromptu discussion with my chemistry professor after class. I have all the necessary supplies for class so long as I have my computer with me.