2-in-1 Laptop/Tablet Suggestions?

Melee

Gawd
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Jun 10, 2013
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I'm selling my gaming pc to help with moving expenses and such as I had to move for work.

I'm looking for a 2-in-1 Laptop/Tablet, preferably with detachable keyboard for simplicity and convenience, but I might consider the folding 2-in-1s if its worth it and not too awkward.

I'm hoping for something relatively cheap as I need to keep costs low but it does me no good if it's junk or can't even handle work/school related stuff. I don't really game at all anymore aside from an occasional game of Hearthstone or LoL here and there. What would you guys recommend?

For a noob like me to this type of computer, I've always heard about the Microsoft Surface of course. Would something like this be the best option or are there other, cheaper options that are still great or better options around the same price? As I said, trying to keep costs low so hopefully I can find a great deal on something decent since it's around Christmas time.

Thanks!
 
i just got a surface pro 6 this past weekend. I got the i5 8gb 256gb bundled with they keyboard. I mainly use this for productivity office work stuff. This thing is really good for that. The peformance is really good i was surprised how well it ran and the 8gb of ram is fine. the keyboard is really good to type on as well. I would recommend just going to a microsoft store to try it out. That's basically what i did and I'm pretty happy with the device.
 
I've hated the Surface computers ever since work started using the SP4. If I HAD to have that form factor, Dell's Latitude 5290 2-in-1 would be my choice. On site warranty/repair instead of mailing off the Surface, better port selection, better keyboard/touchpad. It's a step down in screen resolution, but I find it to be a better system from a sysadmin's perspective.

Personally, I'd stick with a Thinkpad Yoga. I always found myself using it as a laptop more than a tablet, so its superiority in that form factor made me prefer to use it instead of the Surface or Surface Book when I was given the choice. That, and the docking station for the Surfaces SUUUUUUCKED to the point that we stopped buying them and switched over to a USB 3 based docking station.

But you said "relatively cheap", and neither of my suggestions meet that. So, I will say that the Surface Go! has been what we've moved to for many users, as they were wanting a companion device rather than their sole systems.
 
I wish they still made swivel-hinge convertibles, but it seems like only Fujitsu does that nowadays with the T904/T935/T936/T937, which are seriously gimped in the RAM department (only one SO-DIMM slot, single-channel and thus 8 GB max if it's one of the older DDR3-era models).

I definitely recommend considering used, off-lease models if you want to keep costs down. T904s should be stupid cheap now, under $200 on eBay, maybe a little over if you want to be sure the one you get has the battery, AC adapter and pen included. Surface Pro 2s are also around that range, though I emphasize getting a 256 GB or 512 GB SSD model so you have 8 GB of RAM instead of just 4 GB. (Trust me, having a first-gen Surface Pro that only has 4 GB feels rather limiting. I feel it every time I switch between the SP1 and the T902 with a maxed 16 GB.)

Aside from those, I haven't really followed the Tablet PC market like I used to. On one hand, most models have regressed in pen performance (Wacom EMR for life, N-trig/Microsoft Pen Protocol is a letdown!); on the other hand, there are noticeably improved options in the Cintiq Companion/MobileStudio Pro and HP Zbook X2 lines now, if money is no object.
 
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I don't know i guess i would have to see how long my surface pro 6 lasts. So far i love the device and it has been a pleasure to use. I needed something light and portable for travel but could still run the windows apps i need for productivity. It's got he same guts as the dell xps 13 minus usb-c Thunderbolt point. Which i probably wouldn't use anyway. I'm not a e-gpu user either so for use case this is the perfect device for me. Like i said before best thing is to try one out at the microsoft store. That's what i did and it sold me on the product.
 
Also i got my surface pro 6 for i5 8gb 256gb storage with Signature type cover for $999 . So the price factored into this as well.
 
I really don't know what to do anymore, I want to buy the Asus Transformer T101, because it's 1920x1080, as the newer models have much LOWER resolution, 1,280 x 800. But it's these bad customer review that makes me wonder what I should do. I found a source that has a dozen of the model I want that has open box, but it's precisely because it's open box that makes me wonder if they were open and return due to defect
 
For that kind of price you might be much better off with a Surface Go these days. Even the lower spec Surface Go with the eMMC storage (which was benchmarked as being pretty damned fast actually) would probably run circles around that Lenovo Tablet 10 but I know the Lenovo one is supposed to come with the pen (which is stored inside the tablet, finally) and also the keyboard so a better "package" for the price.

There's someone in my area with the higher spec Surface Go with the stylus and a keyboard for $500 these days, that's a big chunk off the full price of all the hardware new and I've been looking at it but I plan to get something with a lot more power aka a workstation laptop again soon.
 
okay , I don't want a tablet w/ that "flap" at the back attached. I want the way lenovo has it, 2 piece w/o that flap at the back, as I use this mostly for reading.

Can anyone help me out w/ lenovo, I don't understand those people:

I can get a ideaPad D330 for $320, but it c/w a 128GB eMMC w/ win 10 Pro. I just want 1 w/ 32 GB w/ Win 10 Home to cut cost, and yet I can't find a new one. But most of all, I can't find the page that gives me a break down of the size of eMMC. Their website is a mess

And I can't figure out which series from Lenovo is the mid end vs. low end.

for e.g. is Lenovo Tablet 10 a mid end, low end or high end? or is it cheap just because of the screen size is 10"?
 
Considering the processor is where you would define what kind of class that might be and since that Lenovo Tablet 10 has a Celeron it's basically mid to low end. The eMMC storage is also usually considered to be mid to low end, an actual SSD or in some very very rare cases a hard drive of some kind it's considered to be high-end - yes even a hard drive.

I think there are better options for you than the Lenovo Tablet 10 if you'd look around but you seem fairly intent on that specific model so I hope you're able to track one down.

32GB of storage for a Windows OS-based device is not going to be acceptable in the long run even if you don't do much of anything with the device and you add a microSD card for additional storage. Seriously, spend a few extra dollars and get the model with the 128GB of eMMC or don't bother.
 
I am not necessay a fan of Lenovo, and I know nothing about this model. I first have my eyes on Asus Transformer, but the customer review at amazon is very, very poor. Many defects. So I do a search and come up w/ this link

https://tabletmonkeys.com/tablet-comparison/

and it narrows down to:

Acer, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface and Samsung for 10" tablet

I know from experience that Acer is junk brand. I have a lot of defective items from Samsung, so I won't buy from them again. So it only narrows to Microsoft and Lenovo. I already mention the "flop" at the back of Surface Go is not something I like, so the only brand name left is Lenovo.

As you see from that link, there is only Tablet 10, or Thinkpad 10.

I don't like Yoga as it's too heavy when you cannot separate the keyboard from the screen

Do you have any suggestion on 10" using windows 10?
 
I don't understand the massive amount of dislike for the kickstand on the Surface Go. It's a pretty solid thing and they've put an incredible amount of engineering and design principles into ensuring that that kickstand is a pretty solid and reliable thing but whatever - it's there to use but you aren't actually required to ever flip it out if you don't want to use it.

I wouldn't consider it the deal-killer but that's just me.

It looks like in your research that you've come up with the choices that you have and since you seem to be favoring the Lenovo model I'd say track one down and get it. I don't like the specifications vs the price you're paying for it but if it's something that works for you that's what counts.

There are dozens of different kinds of 10in tablets that can run Windows 10, so I can't point you to any specific one. Dell has some, HP has one or two, obviously Microsoft and Lenovo have products in that class, Acer, Asus, and a whole bunch of other Chinese brand names that you've probably never heard of.

You're just going to have to pick something.
 
I thought HP doesn't have any in 10"? I already went to their website. I also can't find Dell in 10", but Dell is notorious to have bad service, so I rule out Dell regardless.
I did see generic brand at amzaon. don't trust anything w/o history

as to your friend microsoft, the higher end model, Surface, at amazon, it has quite a large no. of bad review, essentially, they fail after 6 mth.
 
Moved in my company from Lenovo Helix to HP elite x2.

Eventually the helix display was leaking glue and got bubbles in the screen; I guess they run at times too hot. But worked well for 2.5 years so it reached EOL. Right now I’m happy with the HP except that it’s not easy to have on the knees. The build-in stand is a bit to sharp and can scratch surfaces in addition.
 
I don't know who else I can turn to, as I just spent 23 min. taking to Lenovo technical support, I heard his fairy tale that doesn't make any sense:

this is the situation, the unit I want is Lenovo MIIX 320-10icr, model no. 80XF00EKUS

now, some website said the resolutoin is 1280 x800, some other website says 1920x1080

this technical support guy actually said:

it c/w 1280x800, but if I go to the website and download the driver, I'll get 1920x1080

that doesn't make any sense? If that's the case, why would lenovo release a tablet w/ a lower resolution driver to begin with? and shouldn't win 10 auto detect the higher resolution?

and I'm not the only one:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-based-Tablets/Miix-320-10ICR-Screen-Resolution/td-p/4171522
 
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According to the PSREF (which is like Lenovo's product BIBLE so if it's not in that then it pretty much doesn't exist) there is no 80XF00EKUS model - the US/Canada model of the MIIX 320 is the 80XF00DRUS:

http://psref.lenovo.com/Detail/Lenovo Tablets & Convertibles/Miix_320?M=80XF00DRUS

and that lists the Display panel as 10.1" FHD (1920x1200) IPS so there you go. I see that a lot of Lenovo resellers list the EKUS model but Lenovo itself has product spec literature that says no such product exists while the DRUS model does.

I still say just get a Surface Go and be done with it. :D The Atom CPU in those Lenovo tablets, nope, not worth the money, spend a little more, get something much better and call it a day.
 
As they said in Star trek: "My mind's turned to clay"

See, this is unbelievable. When I look at the lenovo website, thier MIIX series is starting at $730, so I skip looking at it. And this is the case of a lof of all those series. But when I search under Lenovo 1920x1200 tablet, I found MIIX at only $300 or so. And this is unheard of. They have the current series, such as the MIIX, more than twice the price of their own previous series.

To answer your question, the 80XF00EKUS is at ebay for $199, demo condition, but at 1280x800.

And this is another problem with Lenovo, what kind of idiot co. would make the same series all called 80XF, with no way of differentiate the spec. and make it so hard for people to dig out the spec. For a higher resolution model, they can easily called say 90YZ

Not to mention other model name called "TAB 4 10", it's like they run out of names

Anyhoo, w/ great relief, I bought the above MIIX at 1920x1200. It's just so hard to get a good tablet
 
I'm still using my Gen 1 Surface Pro every day. Bought it on release day and its been fairly solid. Got a free warranty swap out due to a cooling issue the first few batches had.
 
I want to understand this: now using a tablet for 2 mth., is it a bug for these tablet that they switch from landscape to portraint by accident? or is it really a key that I accidentally touch that causes that?
 
I have several 2-1 devices

Dell Venue 11 Pro (2014)
Dell Latitude 5175 (2017)
and as of yesterday
Dell Latitude 7285 (2019)

All have detachable keyboards with external batteries and the Venue 11 Pro has been kickin' for 5 years and the 5175 for nearly 2 with no problems. Good solid machines.


I want to understand this: now using a tablet for 2 mth., is it a bug for these tablet that they switch from landscape to portraint by accident? or is it really a key that I accidentally touch that causes that?

is it doing it while it is stationary? if so, bad accelerator as that is what it uses to determine the tablet's position. you can (at least in windows 10 lock the tablet into landscape or portrait mode.
 
I didn't you can lock it. Let me give it a try.

The other problem I have while we're on this subject is, when I read a novel, and I slide the background w/ my finger, it zoom out. The whole word pad software zoom out (not all the time, but somewhat often)

EDIT:

what's the difference btwn. Portrait vs. Portrait Flipped?
 
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portrait is oriented long ways up and down
landscape is oriented longways left and right

800x518_smartphone_portrait_vs_landscape_orientation[1].png


in windows 10, you can slide out the bar on the right with a swipe and then down at the bottom you will see a series of tiles and then if there is only 1 row, tap expand and then you can press the tile that will say either portrait or landscape. it will change to a color other than black and the tablet display will be locked into that mode.

android is similar with the option being there when you slide down from the top. in the newer versions it is labeled auto rotate and you tap it on or off.
 
portrait is oriented long ways up and down
landscape is oriented longways left and right

View attachment 147841

in windows 10, you can slide out the bar on the right with a swipe and then down at the bottom you will see a series of tiles and then if there is only 1 row, tap expand and then you can press the tile that will say either portrait or landscape. it will change to a color other than black and the tablet display will be locked into that mode.

android is similar with the option being there when you slide down from the top. in the newer versions it is labeled auto rotate and you tap it on or off.

but going back to the question , what is the difference between:

Portrait

vs.

Portrait Flipped?

In fact, they also have:

Landscape

vs.

Landscape Flipped

so there are 4 options to set.

On related matter, this morning, I set it to Portrait & win 10 locked at that mode. Then this afternoon, while the tablet was at sleep mode, it won't wake up. I don't know if it's because of locking it at Portrait mode, in the end, a hard shut down and re-boot fixes it, I just find it a coincidence that I so happen to put it at Portrait lock, and next thing you know, a few hr. later, it won't boot up
 
I would like anyone who owns a tablet for more than 1 yr to tell me why there is so many failure:

this is an expensive $1K Microsoft Surface, there is 19% 1 star report as they fail or 35 people

https://www.amazon.com/product-revi...ll_reviews&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1

and this a Asus Transformer w/ 25% or 97 x 1 star review

https://www.amazon.com/Transformer-...e=all_reviews&pageNumber=1#reviews-filter-bar

it seems the failure is quite high on all these brand names tablet PC

I have had nothing but Dell Tablets since 2015.....

4x Venue 8 pros
2x Dell Venue 11 Pros
2x Dell Latitude 5175
1x Dell Latitude 7285

1 Venue 11pro went in for main board replacement during warranty back in 2016 , no issues since
Dell Latitude 7285 went in for main battery replacement last week, has been n service for 11 months

so 9 tablets and 2 failed for various reasons. The rest are still trucking some of them are nearing 5 years old
 
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