Text Entry: Is it good enough yet?

[bennyscuba]

Hello All,

I have yet to buy a tablet b/c I'm not convinced that for the main way I'd use it, they are good enough yet - but would love to be told I'm wrong. My main interest is using the tablet for work as a digital notebook(s). I work on lots of different collaborative projects (i'm a statistician) and have too many yellow legal pads. I want to have one repository where I can take notes and store them in project specific spaces. Then I want those notes to sync up with my desktop so that I can access them as I want.

I know the apps are there for it (things like evernote and others) but I primarily would want to enter text by hand. Partially b/c i may write mathy stuff, partially to draw sample plots, and partially b/c I think writing is a bit faster than typing...Ideally the text I write would be converted to a searchable format but that is less than essential.

I've been waiting on the Galaxy Note 10.1 but that seems like it will never get released and the truth is I don't need a quad core processor for what i'm doing. I won't play games on this tab and will only watch the occasional movie on a flight. This is really a business laptop.

$200 and 7" sound perfect to me - so the question is, will the nexus 7 meet this specific goal. If the technology just isn't there yet I don't mind waiting, but if it is - woohoo!

Thanks for the insight,

bg

 

[ShaggyKids]

If you're going to be doing mostly finger work I think if you added the appropriate tablet keyboard you might find yourself very happy.,,, if you haven't tried a tab yet then I would suggest you give it a shot before you make the determination that they're not good enough. You may find that your selling them and yourself short. You can always return it if it doesn't suit your needs.

Sent from my AWESOME Nexus 7 via Tapatalk 2

 

[bennyscuba]

it's more that i've seen some of the tabs not do handwriting very well - meaning that you have to be very particular with how you write...i was curious if n7 is better for that or waiting for the wacom screen in the note is a better idea...

 

[ShaggyKids]

Sorry I honestly don't know.

Sent from my AWESOME Nexus 7 via Tapatalk 2

 

[Gaoes]

it's more that i've seen some of the tabs not do handwriting very well - meaning that you have to be very particular with how you write...i was curious if n7 is better for that or waiting for the wacom screen in the note is a better idea...

if you want to try dabbling in the tablet market without too much investment, check out an idolpad or a TurboTab from Idolian. duno if it will do handwriting though.

 

[bennyscuba]

It really has nothing to do with the price - I just want to get something that does what I want it to do. My impression is that tabs are great for media consumption (movies, books, etc) but that is really not how I intend to use it. 95% of the time it will be for note taking.

If I have to drop $500 for the galaxy note (whenever it gets released) so be it, but considering you are really paying for the quad core cpu i'd prefer not to...besides i think 7" is the ideal size for a note taking tablet steve jobs be damned

but it seems like this isn't how people are using the n7 so perhaps it is not there yet. i know windows tabs tend to be better for this but (a) those are really laptops with touch screens and I don't want that weight or price (b) i'm a linux person so would prefer to avoid going back to windows if possible...

anyway if anyone has used the n7 for handwriting i'd love to hear it - good or bad...

bg

 

[CarlGalgano]

I dont think any tablet is a real replacement for a laptop for real work. I have an N7 and previously had a Galay Tab 7 Plus. My preferred device is always my laptop if I have work to do (Im basically a programmer). I find my bluetooth keyboard a little laggy and no substitute for a real laptop with a keyboard. Even my underpowered netbook is better at doing light work than my tablet. I mainly use my tablet for light web browsing, checking in on my email (but not responding more than a few lines), and listening to radio/audio streams and its my alarm clock. I also read kindle books on airplanes (I travel a lot). Im not a game player and dont really watch or care about movies or video.

With all that said, I like my N7 for what I use it for, but dont think it particularly better than my Tab 7 is. I would suggest your buy one and try it out. While it may not be the device you need for your work needs, you will find a use case for it.

 

[zedorda]

No the Nexus 7 will not do what your looking for. There maybe apps to cover some stuff but the handwriting is no where near what your looking for. None of the tablets out atm have true "handwriting" technology in the sub $1000 range. There are a few tablet type PCs running Windows that can do close to what your looking for. The patents spinning around the "handwriting" technology are being highly protected so their development have been slowed in the passed years. The Galaxy Note is limited in what it understands about handwriting and is alot slower than typing.

I think you would be better off with voice dictation. And the Nexus 7 can do that well.

 

[bennyscuba]

Zedorda - thanks - that is what I sadly expected...I do have high hopes for the Samsung Note 10.1 and it looks like it will be released 8/15...

A lot of what I'm thinking is meeting notes or annotating journal articles or graphs so dictation probably wouldn't work well for me...

I have heard Windows 8 is going to be great for handwriting but it is just a road I'd prefer to not go back down...

Thanks for all the replies,

bg