Which laptop? iPad mini? Or both? For new med student

[Confusedmumofmedstudent]

Can anyone offer any advice on which laptop or iPad to get for dc starting
med school this year. I am not tech savvy and don’t really know much about
laptops. I use an iPad mostly. My dc is also registered with the disability services at the uni, and they mentioned software that my dc could potentially have to help them with studying. I don’t know if that impacts on the choice of laptop we get. Also dc said mini iPad is also useful. So not sure if we need both? We have a fairly generous budget, but are clueless in actually what to buy any advice welcome.

@Confusedmumofmedstudent doesn't really matter. They'll all have different things. My DD rocked up day 1 with a notebook thing (v cheap). Worked fine until it died. And then she got an iMac (make sure you get the education discount). She's never used an iPad.

Have they applied for DSA? You should be able to get a laptop, software and mentoring through them

Ds is gp doing engineering and has a full size iPad Pro with Apple pen and a laptop (he also has a full sized monitor to connect to laptop). Each used for different things.

The laptop is a decent spec as it is used for engineering software. Also used for going over lecture slides published on the uni website and doing assignments.

The iPad he uses for taking notes in lectures and tutorials and it has been brilliant, he can use for drawing diagrams or doing maths with weird symbols. He starts 3rd year this month and he has no paper notes at all everything is on the iPad/in the cloud.

He uses OneNote and stores everything in the cloud so he can access notes on both iPad and laptop.

If you have to choose one I'd say laptop is probably necessary for assignments, but the iPad is a very nice to have and better than lots of notepads/folders etc.

What does the course say - would tend to avoid Apple MacBooks unless doing a degree that needs it .

My daughters mostly used ipads in lectures for notes with a pen (and can't remember the software) one had MacBook but ended up having to use the uni computers for some assignments as programs wouldn't run on Mac or only in emulation

Apple hardware is the same as all the rest, it just costs twice as much.

Not any more it's not. They're all using very efficient Apple-made processors now with the RAM integrated into the processor package and the storage soldered to the motherboard. Which means they can't be upgraded. At all.

Not an iPad mini.

What does the course say

That's a very useful point. The course that DS is on has a section on their website about exactly what they'll need.

They're all using very efficient Apple-made processors

Apple make none of their processors, they have switched to ARM designed processors made in the far east.

Fair enough, they don't have their own fab. But the while the processor cores are based on ARM there's a lot of Apple-originated technology in them too.

I would recommend a laptop over a tablet any day. Much easier for writing essays. And more robust.