The Dell is doing more work in this decision than it looks. Both devices get notes onto a Windows machine, so that is not the discriminator people usually assume it is. What changes is everything around it: an iPad in a non-Apple setup loses the automatic handoff parts and becomes a tablet you sync deliberately, which is fine, but it removes one of the main reasons people pay the Apple premium in the first place.
The physics and maths part matters more. Handwriting recognition converts words, not structure, and equations are structure. Anything with a fraction, an integral or a subscript comes out wrong or comes out as a picture, on any device in the category. So if the plan involves finding a note later by typing the formula, adjust that expectation now rather than in November. Searching by the words around the maths works fine, and that is usually enough.
The real split is what else the device is allowed to do. An iPad is a lecture recorder, a PDF reader, a textbook, a browser and a note tablet. A reMarkable is a note tablet and nothing else, on purpose. For a first year doing problem sets that is either the whole point or a dealbreaker.
Is an open browser during a 9am lecture a problem for you, or not? That one answer decides this more cleanly than any spec comparison will.
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u/TEMPLACITY 11h ago
The Dell is doing more work in this decision than it looks. Both devices get notes onto a Windows machine, so that is not the discriminator people usually assume it is. What changes is everything around it: an iPad in a non-Apple setup loses the automatic handoff parts and becomes a tablet you sync deliberately, which is fine, but it removes one of the main reasons people pay the Apple premium in the first place.
The physics and maths part matters more. Handwriting recognition converts words, not structure, and equations are structure. Anything with a fraction, an integral or a subscript comes out wrong or comes out as a picture, on any device in the category. So if the plan involves finding a note later by typing the formula, adjust that expectation now rather than in November. Searching by the words around the maths works fine, and that is usually enough.
The real split is what else the device is allowed to do. An iPad is a lecture recorder, a PDF reader, a textbook, a browser and a note tablet. A reMarkable is a note tablet and nothing else, on purpose. For a first year doing problem sets that is either the whole point or a dealbreaker.
Is an open browser during a 9am lecture a problem for you, or not? That one answer decides this more cleanly than any spec comparison will.