Win10 2n1 recommendation

T

Ticker305

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
1,077
My brothers in the market for a Win10 2n1 and since I don't keep up with mobiles, I told him would ask the [H]ardest tech community on the web for a recommendation.

Budgets $800 but it's flexible. He doesn't really need it for anything specific, most likely just facebook machine but he wants something that will last with a nice screen.
 
I'm partial to the ASUS Transformer Book T300 Chi. Good screen, Core M, SSD and no fan. I think the base model starts at $599.99, but there are more expensive versions too. It's the type of convertible where the keyboard detaches, pretty nice device for a normal person.

But obviously, that's just my opinion. There are a lot of devices in this category.
 
The Surface 3, non Pro, fits in that budget. I know some will balk at the Atom CPU and slow eMMC storage but for the usage scenario you're implying its more than enough. There are plenty of Surface 3s in stores to play around with. Really like mine for the three months I've had it and Windows 10 has been solid on it. It's got a great screen and is well built as anything out there.
 
I'd hit up the lenovo outlet and grab a 13" Yoga 2 Pro or a Thinkpad Yoga 12.5 (better built than the yoga 2 pro).

I don't doubt that the Surface 3 is nice, but I feel like you give up way too much for the price when you can get one of the Yogas for $700 or less with better specs. Granted you give up some of the "slenderness" you get with the Surface 3, but you also get the keyboard (and pen depending on whether or not you go for the Thinkpad Yoga) for less. You also gain more ram and proc speed.
 
heatlesssun said:
The Surface 3, non Pro, fits in that budget. I know some will balk at the Atom CPU and slow eMMC storage but for the usage scenario you're implying its more than enough. There are plenty of Surface 3s in stores to play around with. Really like mine for the three months I've had it and Windows 10 has been solid on it. It's got a great screen and is well built as anything out there.
Click to expand...

This. or save a little longer and get a Pro 3 with lowest specs. It's a whole other beast.
 
Henri108 said:
This. or save a little longer and get a Pro 3 with lowest specs. It's a whole other beast.
Click to expand...

I have both a Surface Pro 3 i7/8 GB/512 GB and a Surface 3 4 GB/128 GB and I think there's reasons to like one over the other. The Surface Pro 3 is going to wipe the floor performance wise over the Surface 3. The Surface 3 gets a bit better battery life in my experience for basic tasks, has no fan and is significantly lighter. If I were looking for more of laptop that a tablet I'd go for the SP3, for more a tablet than laptop then the Surface 3 would be my pick. Just comparing these two devices. There are a good deal of 2 in 1's to choose from so it's not at all a cut and dried choice.
 
heatlesssun said:
I have both a Surface Pro 3 i7/8 GB/512 GB and a Surface 3 4 GB/128 GB and I think there's reasons to like one over the other. The Surface Pro 3 is going to wipe the floor performance wise over the Surface 3. The Surface 3 gets a bit better battery life in my experience for basic tasks, has no fan and is significantly lighter. If I were looking for more of laptop that a tablet I'd go for the SP3, for more a tablet than laptop then the Surface 3 would be my pick. Just comparing these two devices. There are a good deal of 2 in 1's to choose from so it's not at all a cut and dried choice.
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic, but germane if OP is considering a SP3 i7 ;-), are you having any overheating issues with your i7? Been reading a lot about heat dissipation problems and throttling with that model.

-------

Back on topic, I feel like we need a little more information. Is this an extra machine where the user is going to have it sitting around the house and literally just using it for "tablet-y" stuff where he doesn't need a lot of power, wants battery life, and a slim profile? Or is this a "main" machine, but the user really just does very little computing outside of facebook, email, some light browsing?

I'd be loathe to recommend a 4gb device as a main machine these days with the amt of memory taken up by even something as innocuous as Chrome (if one uses a lot of extensions, keeps tabs open, etc... chrome is unwieldy due to the spawning of a lot of processes for sandboxing purposes, etc.).
 
Deinos said:
Slightly off topic, but germane if OP is considering a SP3 i7 ;-), are you having any overheating issues with your i7? Been reading a lot about heat dissipation problems and throttling with that model.

-------
Click to expand...

The i7 version can't run at top speed sustained without throttling. However there's been a trick that people have discovered where the use of a small USB fan pointed of the top right corner where the USB port is provides enough additional cooling seems to eliminate the issue for sustained maximum loads. I bought the i7 model really more for the storage than the CPU. Not sure if that is the case now but when I bought mine it was the only way to get 512 GB of storage.

Sorry to go off topic, but it could be useful info for the OP.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions guys, he ended up going with a Surface Pro 3 :) he said it seemed like the safe bet and he's had nothing but positive customer service experiences from Microsoft in the past regarding his Xbox purchases. Looking forward to getting some hands on with it, even considering one when the Skylake tabs come out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top