In the past, notetakers were desirable because you could store documents on the device. This is no longer the case because hybrids like the Focus 40 Blue and the QBraille XL have this functionality. I would ask why you think you need a notetaker. The BrailleNote Touch could be nice because it works nicely with Android, has an inbuilt screen and is said to support Nemeth quite well, however the BrailleSense Polaris doesn't work with Android well and is extremely unreliable with braille math.

I would also suggest a device that is durable. The Focus 40 Blue 5th Generation was designed to be very solid.

WHAT will you be using the device with? If you get a BrailleNote Touch and the user is in the first few years of school, another device might not be necessary. iPads can be hard because text entry with a braille display can be unreliable (see my other comment), and using a Bluetooth keyboard for text entry is even worse. I would always suggest a PC with JAWS if enough money was available. If you get an ElBraille 40, you have the advantage of a braille display and a Windows PC in one device. However, I would also suggest purchasing a Bluetooth keyboard with this option so the student learns to type on a standard keyboard and can type more quickly.

Finally, it's important to ensure that whatever you purchase has enough braille cells. Devices with less than 32 cells are not appropriate for a school environment, contrary to what manufacturers might tell you. This is because shorter lines of braille rdquire the hands to spend more time returning to the beginning of the display, thereby decreasing reading speed and impacting fluency for younger students; this has been proven with both children and adults in studies.

And finally, just because he has a braille display or notetaker doesn't mean that he should stop receiving hardcopy braille.

I use a 5th generation Vispero Focus 40 Blue. For me, it was a compromise between the Humanware Brailliant and the HIMS Qbraille. The former had a control set that felt a bit too basic, and the latter proved to be overwhelming by fusing a qwerty keyboard and Perkins keyboard together. Any current-generation Braille display will have basic untethered functionality like a clock, calendar, basic text editor, and possibly a BRF reader. Braille notetakers generally have less problems with Braille translation, since they're purpose built for it. Screen readers like JAWS and NVDA are good with Braille, but not perfect. Voiceover for iOS is also pretty good with Braille, but it does have its share of bugs. None of them will give you real-time nemeth translation, as far as I know. If they use Nemeth code, or any dedicated Braille maths code, then a full notetaker is the way to go. I suggest a Humanware Braillenote in that case, especially if it will be used for high-level math. That said, the Braillenote Touch Plus is about $6000USD and pretty much every 40-cell display costs around $3000USD. HIMS does offer some smaller, and cheaper note takers, but most users tend to prefer Humanware's offering.

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The way I use my display is usually tethered to my Windows desktop with NVDA (and the custom drivers because the auto-install ones don't support NVDA for some asinine reason). If I'm working with literary content, then I'll use UEB. For everything else, I switch over to CBC. Computer Braille is handy for any type of coding or technical content that doesn't lend well to contracted Braille. Since I don't know a dedicated Braille math code, I use a simplified Python syntax. Braille on Mac is broken and the mainstream implementation of Braille on Android is an unstable mess, so you should have some sort of iOS device handy for Brailling on the go. Good news is that all the modern displays have Bluetooth built in. Also, Notetakers can function as a Braille display.

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TL;DR Braille displays are basically just terminals that must be tied to an external machine. Braille notetakers are portable computers with Braille input and output. And yes, notetakers do have speech output. The current Braillenote runs Android with custom software uptimized for Braille.

Kind of late to the party here, but I recently had the opportunity to try out an Orbit Reader display. It worked pretty well with NVDA and it was generally a good experience. The display has a remote and standby mode, remote being when connected to another device such as a phone or a computer and standby the display being it's own little computer. Give it a look. $1

Edit: To clarify, I was using the Orbit Reader 20, which might not be sufficient for a school environment.

Hey, I think you have the right idea. Have the student learn how to use main stream technology. IOS devices and a laptop with JAWS are stable devices, and they are even better when pared with a Braille Display.

I love my Brailliant 32, I use it with my PC and Android devices. It's even been pretty friendly with my Linux installs.

Speaking for myself, doing any sort of serious text entry in iOS is an incredible pain. From that standpoint having a note taker would be an advantage over using a display connected to an iOS device. Probably one could get used to either after a while, though.

Regarding a note taker, it would also have speech output in general during use, not just regarding setup. This may not be the most useful factor if the aim is to learn braille, but it could be very useful for someone who isn't confident with braille yet and help them avoid wasting time.

In the end it depends a little on use cases, budget, and so on.