Ask HN: Best tablet for white boarding during a video conference?

13 points by logical42 5 years ago | 17 comments

What’s the best tablet for collaborative remote whiteboarding?

calciphus 5 years ago |

Surface Book 2 - the pen is comfortable to hold, it runs a full OS, and it happily runs multiple external monitors when used with the dock. I'd recommend the 3 these days since video conference software seems to eternally consume more ram.

m0xte 5 years ago |

iPad Pro. An absolute mile beyond anything. Best computer I have ever owned on the side as well.

hkchad 5 years ago | |

Second this. I usually connect to zoom on the computer with voice/video then again with the ipad and just use it for screen sharing.

karmakaze 5 years ago |

I connect again with a Surface Go. The pen/pencil is better than the non pro iPad and cheaper than an iPad Pro. It also runs a full OS + WSL.

FabianBeiner 5 years ago |

While I get that lots of people love their Apple stuff, I'd like to see recommendations outside of the Appleversum. It might just not make sense to get an iPad (however good they are with their pencil) if you don't own any other Apple device and are more part of the Android/Windows world.

hueking 5 years ago |

I'm also looking for one now, got Wacom Bamboo Slate, but I didn't notice it only supports Android and iOS devices, couldn't get it to work with Windows and MacOs laptops. I would like to find something which works with MsTeams Whiteboard as my client is very tied to using it.

client4 5 years ago |

I really enjoy screen-sharing my iPad Pro using the Google Jamboard app. It works well.

ersiees 5 years ago | |

I use an iPad (Not pro), which also supports Apple Pencil by now and costs only a few hundred euros. That works very well, too.

sebiol 5 years ago |

Have you looked into "simple" drawing tablets. For example, from Wacoom?

If you are looking for a tablet in addition to your computer I would also recommend the iPad.

BrandoElFollito 5 years ago | |

The problem I have with these tablets is that I do not see what I am drawing

leonroy 5 years ago |

I see the vote so far is unanimous on iPad - any folks have opinions of the Surface lineup as well vs the iPad?

Havoc 5 years ago | |

We've got surface pro 7s at work. Pretty solid. I like the fact that it has both USB-C and USB-A. That means you can hook it up to a 4K screen easily enough and still attach whatever old school USB-A dongles required.

It is a full windows OS though so the temptation is to use it like one...and it does grind to a halt if you open enough big spreadsheets etc and run out of RAM.

Also bought the surface pen that goes with it. Pretty decent - but I'm no artist so hard to evaluate

karmakaze 5 years ago | |

The pencil on the non pro iPad is not as good as the Surface or iPad Pros. There are latency benchmarks.

sebiol 5 years ago | |

For some time I used a Samsung Galaxy Book 12 (similar computer to a surface tablet computer).

For my use cases it was definitely the wrong choice. The tablet is quite heavy, so use as a tablet was very limited for me and due to the keyboard design it is also bad as a notebook.

I think the integrated stand of the Surface would at least allow you better use as a drawing tablet when you detach the keybord.

My sweet spot is a decent Notebook plus an iPad Mini for Notetaking (Goodnotes) and drawing.

wayneftw 5 years ago | |

The iPad that you can get for $299 has great battery life, performance and it always works.

There is no Surface that can come close to this. Firstly because Windows is a nightmare compared to iOS. Imagine giving a Windows machine to your age-old mother-in-law? It wouldn’t last a month. As a professional user I want the same stability and ease for myself.

jedisct1 5 years ago |

iPad Pro.

elkynator 5 years ago |

iPad Pro.