Gone are the days when students wrote down notes on a paper pad and drew graphs with crayons, today most of them work digitally. If you are also a college or high school student, does it make sense for you to get a tablet or a laptop? We have clearly compared both options.
Tablet vs. laptop: a dilemma that almost every student faces. You'll have it solved after reading the following lines.
When is a student tablet enough?
When students are faced with the decision of whether to choose a tablet or a laptop for school, they are more likely than before to choose the first option.
Benefits of a tablet
The tablet is ideal for taking short notes , reading articles and other study materials, or working with digital assignments from teachers. It also makes it easy to create graphs and other simple visualizations, and of course, it's easy to run artificial intelligence tools .
Other undeniable advantages include a lower price than laptops, as well as low weight and small dimensions (you can easily hide the tablet in a smaller backpack).
Disadvantages of a student tablet
However, there are a few downsides to consider. For example, a tablet is not ideal for writing long notes (especially if you don't use a keyboard) or for multitasking, i.e. solving multiple tasks at once and frequently switching between windows. Tablets also tend to have lower performance than laptops.
A stylus or keyboard case will take your tablet to the next level
Fortunately, some of the tablet's disadvantages can be easily eliminated by getting the right equipment for the device.
For example, we recommend the FIXED Typee iPad case , which combines a wireless keyboard, flawless trackpad and tablet protection . When you know you're going to write longer notes, instead of tapping them on the screen, use a keyboard case. You can easily attach your tablet to the inside of the case using magnets.
And if you want to draw or write notes by hand? Reach for the FIXED Graphite Pro stylus for iPads . We developed it to resemble the movement of a pen on paper as closely as possible. Thanks to the Palm rejection function, it also ignores the touch of a hand resting on the display.
Did you know that the FIXED PaperGlass Screen Protector will give you the same feeling as when writing or drawing on paper? In addition, it perfectly protects your iPad's display from scratches and other damage and does not reduce brightness or color.
Does a laptop make sense for a student?
Yes, in many situations, certainly, and many students would not be able to imagine working on exercises or preparing seminars and other assignments without it.
Benefits of a student laptop
A laptop is great for writing extensive texts (thesis, term papers, long class notes), but also for working with spreadsheets , programming , or for full-fledged multitasking .
A laptop may also make sense for you as a student if you use more demanding software (e.g. graphics) that requires higher device performance .
Disadvantages of a student laptop
A student laptop comes with a few limitations, mainly related to size and weight . Laptops are generally larger and heavier than tablets, so they take up more space in your backpack or bag and are a bit more cumbersome to carry around. This can be at least partially solved by purchasing a lightweight laptop.
TIP: Want to get a bigger, heavier laptop and still carry it to school? Buy a student laptop backpack to go with it. Carrying a heavier device on your back is more comfortable than constantly lugging it around in a carry-on bag.
How to choose a student laptop?
If you don't need top performance, stick to the middle ground, especially when it comes to price. But beware of models that are too cheap, which may struggle to handle even basic study tasks.
Using a laptop will be easier with an HDMI adapter or USB-C HUB.
If you decide to get a laptop, it's a good idea to have accessories that will make your daily student work easier.
You might like the 5-port aluminum USB-C FIXED HUB Quadri , which combines power, video, and data transfer into a compact five-port solution. You can use it to connect a monitor, external drive, keyboard, or charging adapter to your laptop without the need for adapters. At home, at school, or on the train.
If you need to stream images from your laptop to a TV, monitor or projector without the need for additional cables or installing applications and drivers, the FIXED Airlink wireless HDMI adapter will help you . It has two display modes and you can pair it with one press.
To make your student laptop stylish and 100% protected, don't forget to buy a quality case. We recommend the luxurious FIXED Oxford leather case for Macbook , handmade from the highest quality Italian Torcello cowhide. It will protect your laptop from damage and has an elegant design.
Laptop or tablet? A combination is best
Both tablets and laptops have their pros and cons for students, so it's best to combine the two devices (if that's even remotely possible for you).
While you can take a tablet to class for quick notes or drawing, you can use a laptop at home or in the library, where you need to do more demanding and focused work.
Thanks to cloud services, you can easily switch between both devices: for example, if you write notes on a tablet at school and save them to the cloud, they will automatically appear in your notes on your laptop.
School days tend to be long, keep your laptop and tablet handy
Whether you decide on a laptop or a notebook, it's a good idea to think about "juice" for your electronics, because some school days stretch from early morning until evening and your battery might not last the whole day.
For charging at home or in a dorm, we recommend the FIXED GaN mains charger with 120W output and four ports. It can charge up to 4 devices simultaneously, is compact, and resists overheating better than traditional chargers.
To replenish your energy at school, where most students do not have access to sockets, you will need the premium FIXED Zen 20 Pro power bank with LCD display and 20,000 mAH capacity. We designed it specifically for charging laptops and tablets, and it has such power (up to 130W) that it can normally handle what you expect from a classic charger .
So what should you consider when deciding between a student tablet and a laptop?
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A student tablet is great for quick notes and creative work, but it's ideal to buy accessories (e.g. a stylus, a keyboard case) to make it functionally closer to a laptop.
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A school notebook is great for more demanding work, such as writing term papers.
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The combination works best: a tablet for taking short notes in class and a laptop for working at home or in the library.
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Accessories from the Czech brand FIXED will make it easier to use your laptop and tablet, while also reliably protecting your devices from scratches and other pitfalls.
If you have any questions about FIXED accessories for tablets or laptops, write to us in the chat here on the website .
