 In this video, we're going to be covering the top tablets that you should have in medical school as a medical student. Let's get into it. Alright guys, welcome to another episode in the MD journey in the TMJ show. My name is Laksham, an internal medicine resident, helping people just like you on your journey succeed with last dress. Today, we are talking about tech and specifically tablets and which ones you need on a medical journey. Do you even need them and which ones I recommend if you choose to buy one? We'll get into all of that in this video. But before we start, make sure you support this channel and support this video by smashing that like button down below. If you're new to this channel and you haven't subscribed, go ahead and hit that subscribe button as well as that notification bell. We're putting out videos just like this one twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. So make sure you show your love by hitting both of those buttons. Today, I want to talk about tablets in medical school, specifically, you know, are they effective? Are they useful? Should you have one? And if so, which ones are the best ones? What do you do if you're on a budget? Things of all those sorts. So let's get into it. So the first question is, do you need a tablet in medical school? And the short and simple answer is it really depends on how your institution uses technology. If they're not integrating using tablets already, then it's not necessary by any means. And instead, I would recommend maybe consider getting one during your third or fourth year of medical school. So this was a gift given my, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law that I use during my rotations. And this is the iPad mini and we'll talk about that in this video. But it was great because I could put it in my white coat pocket to easily refer to things, have books on them and to read during some downtime. But I didn't really use a tablet during my first two years. So for me, it personally didn't make sense to have a tablet in medical school earlier on. But obviously, if your institution does quizzes or, you know, gives a lot of their notes electronically, then maybe you can use a tablet like this one or some of the other ones we'll talk about to take notes. And in that case, I do think it would be an effective resource to buy early on and something you consider to be an investment. And in addition, I do see more and more institutions adopting more digital forms of education and learning environments, where they either will give you a tablet as part of your tuition, part of your tuition, or they'll require you to have one that is compatible with the different programs that they use. And I know it may seem like initially you're forking over more money when medical school is already expensive to begin with. But research just show that if you tend to use a tablet and your institution adopts the digital forms of learning, those students end up doing better. I think it's a little bit of just being more efficient as well as having so many cool tools and apps and videos at your disposal, instead of all of the notebooks that you probably will have when you go through four years of medical school. So do I recommend a tablet? Absolutely. I think it's obviously effective for your third and fourth year of medical schools where you can't be carrying around a lot of books or a pack pack or a rotation. But if your institution also allows it and kind of conforms with it, then I recommend just getting it at the start of medical school. That way you can just kind of keep it all the way through to the end. Now in terms of what the best tablets for medical school are, we're going to talk specifically about three in this video. But if you want a full list, I'll go ahead and link down the blog post where I give you even more breakdowns of all of the different tablets that I'll mention here, different features as well as cost and price, and links that you guys can check them out on. So that will be linked down below. But my number one recommendation for med school in terms of tablets, and this is just because this is what I used and I found it to be super effective. So this is the iPad mini and I believe this is a generation four, but it's been a while since I've gotten it. And this is really what I found, all I really need it. I can take notes on this, I can write with a digital pen. I have all of my apps on here, including famous things like Anki, as well as things like Up to Date, New England Journal of Medicine, different podcasts that I listen to, as well as different apps that I've just kind of been playing around with to help me learn things like x-rays or EKGs. And the best thing that I mentioned about this is that it's just so compact. It's very nice. It can fit into majority of white coat pockets. It can actually even fit into some of those soft shell jackets into my pocket. And so on days when I was a medical student, where I would just wear my nice soft shell with my name on it, it looks super cool, it actually fit this inside my pocket. So the portability of this really made it huge. Another thing that I really love about my iPad mini is that the battery just tends to last forever. Right now, I think it's about 10% and I haven't charged it in about 10 days. So it just gives you an idea of how long you can make your battery last, even with a automatic use. And when I love using it just as a tablet and the keyboard functions that come built in the iPad are really easy to use. If you want to buy an external keyboard and essentially make it a mini computer, I've seen a lot of my classmates do it and it works really well when you're taking notes in class. Before I forget, I'm going to go ahead and link down below all of the different products that I'll mention in this video. They are a link, so I do get a little bit of a commission if you choose to go through my links. Now, getting into tablet number two, and this is one that I really did consider getting initially on before I was gifted the iPad mini. And that is the Microsoft Surface. Now, there's always going to be a new generation. So we're just going to say the Microsoft Surface. But this is probably the best combination in my opinion between a tablet and a laptop. So if you're somebody who really just don't want something that's easily portable, has a pen functionality to be able to write your notes in, as well as a nice functional keyboard that you can go ahead and type notes in in class. I think the Microsoft Surface is one of the best products out there. It is a little bit of a price here, especially comparatively to the iPad mini. But I'll put a link down below because, again, like I mentioned, you're kind of getting the best of two. But it is one of the best recommended products from medical school because it is really a two for one. You know, if you look across a medical school, campus, or lecture hall, the first thing you're going to see everyone has is a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro. And that's just because Apple is rules of the universe when it comes to products. But when you look at probably the next most prominent thing, you'll start to see people who have tablets and the Microsoft Surface is one of the more popular ones that students will use. The Surface Pro has a few things going for it. One, reviews for students is just very user friendly to its Windows. So if you're not somebody who is familiar with the Apple iOS software kind of operating system, then going back to Windows and having a tablet that uses it very well built by Microsoft themselves, it's highly recommended. And similar to my iPad mini, the battery life on these service pros are also amazing. Going anywhere up to about 10 hours with video playing, they're only going to get better and better with new additions. And personally, if I didn't have my iPad mini and I didn't have my current laptop, which I'll mention in a different video, this was probably the tablet that I would end up buying. The one thing to understand as well as amazing as the two for one, it's still not compact enough to fit in a white coat pocket, which is why I still prefer my iPad mini for your upperclassmen that will be using this kind of on your rotations. And lastly, number three, we have to talk about the behemoth in the room, which is the Apple iPad Pro, which completely changed the game and actually came out a little bit towards the end of my med school experience. So personally, I didn't get enough exposure to it, but it is the closest competition that I can see the surface pro of something kind of having the dual features of both the tablet as well as a laptop and Apple making the products just so effortlessly used in the iOS system. And it's definitely one of the most attractive products, especially if you are somebody who wants to use that Apple pencil and specifically take your notes on some of those apps like Notability and have those beautiful notes that you all see all over Instagram. In addition to the Apple pencil, you have a beautiful 11 inch screen, which I'm not surprised if Apple goes ahead and makes it even larger with beautiful retina display. So everything you're going to do, it looks perfectly crystal clear. And despite the amount of technology and specs that you get with the iPad pro, you know, the battery life is still comparable, if not even better than my iPad mini, which again, have a charge this in like 10 days. So if you're an Apple lover who really wants a tablet, that's a little bit closer to the laptop system. And obviously you don't want to go to the service pro and switch to windows. And I think that iPad pro will be a good option for you. Now I don't want to make this video too long. So if you guys are interested in wanting me to make a review on the best tablets or medical students on a budget, you can let me know in the comment section down below. But I've already made a section of that in the blog post that I mentioned again, will be linked down below. So the best tablets and medical school. So you guys can check that out. And if you're interested in me making a video, again, go ahead and comment down below. That's pretty much it for this video guys. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Hopefully you can understand if a tablet is for you. I personally loved using mine, especially towards my latter years in medical school. I recommend it if you're somebody who kind of wants to have their tech close to you and not want to have a heavy backpack with a laptop and a charger and all that. That's basically it for this video. Before you leave, make sure if you did enjoy it, you go ahead and hit that like button, that subscribe button as well as that notification bell to go ahead and be notified when videos on Wednesday and Sunday are coming at you each and every single week. But thank you guys so much for joining me on my journey. Hopefully they've been a little help to you on yours. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.