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2 in 1 Laptop Recommendations

Colin Maez
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I am looking for a 2 in 1 laptop for college and I am looking for some options. My current budget is around $1000, but I pay a little extra if I feel its needed. I plan to take handwritten notes using a stylist, so I will need that feature.

 

Other things I am looking for are:

Minimum storage of 516 gb

16 gb of ram 

Around a 13in display 

1080p or 4k resolution (I don't really care which)

Preferably an i7 processor (but I don't think i5 will suffice)

and hopefully be under 4 lbs

 

What I DON'T need the laptop to do is:

Video/photo editing

Gaming

Heavy computation work

Basically if my laptop cannot do it, my custom pc can. 

 

Another note is that I don't mind refurbished items, last years or even 2017 models are fine.

Thanks 

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Get a Microsoft Surface. They can take notes pretty well with OneNote (which also syncs across devices) and you could run MS Office for writing essays and such.

 

I hear that the iPad Pro is better for handwriting than practically everything else (except maybe the Surface), so it's probably your better option for purely handwriting. If you got a keyboard case/cover combo, you could use the MS Office apps to write essays as well; but the typing experience might be lackluster. 

Primary PC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8G3tXv (Windows 10 Home)

HTPC: - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KdBb4n (Windows 10 Home)
Server: Dell Precision T7500 - Dual Xeon X5660's, 44GB ECC DDR3, Dell Nvidia GTX 645 (Windows Server 2019 Standard)      

*SLI Rig* - i7-920, MSI-X58 Platinum SLI, 12GB DDR3, Dual EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 in SLI - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/GHw6vW (Windows 7 Pro)

HP DC7900 - Core 2 Duo E8400, 4GB DDR2, Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT (Windows Vista)

Compaq Presario 5000 - Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 1.7GB SDR, PowerColor Radeon 9600 Pro (Windows XP x86 Pro)
Compaq Presario 8772 - Pentium MMX 200Mhz, 48MB PC66, 6GB Quantum HDD, "8GB" HP SATA SSD adapted to IDE (Windows 98 SE)

Asus M32AD - Intel i3-4170, 8GB DDR3, 250GB Seagate 2.5" HDD (converting to SSD soon), EVGA GeForce GTS 250, OEM 350W PSU (Windows 10 Core)

*Haswell Tower* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3vw6vW (Windows 10 Home)

*ITX Box* - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r36s6R (Windows 10 Education)

Dell Dimension XPS B800 - Pentium 3 800Mhz, RDRAM

In progress projects:

*Skylake Tower* - Pentium G4400, Asus H110

*Trash Can* - AMD A4-6300

*GPU Test Bench*

*Pfsense router* - Pentium G3220, Asrock H97m Pro A4, 4GB DDR3

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Regarding the Microsoft Surface, are you referring tot he Surface Pro, or the Surface Book? However both models that have 512 gb of storage are way out of my price range. And the models that I found that are on the higher end of my price range.

 

Also, I am looking for a laptop, not a tablet. I am trying replacing my current laptop.

 

Regarding the HP Spectre Folio, I looks good, but it doesn't have the storage I need. I am looking at the Spectre x360 instead since it fits my needs better.

 

However, I will go to a store and actually feel the writing experience. If you say the Microsoft Surface has a pretty damn good writing experience; I want to try it.   

 

But thank you guys for the suggestions.  

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Any preference on battery life? Do you mind low sRGB display?

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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For battery life, I am not too picky. Anything recent should have enough battery life for me. I just need it to last 4 hours doing note taking, so I think anything would be suffice. 

 

For sRGB display, I don't really care. I am not doing any photo editing and my major has nothing to do with color accuracy. 

 

Thinkpad X1 Yoga isn't that bad, its a shame that the ram is soldered on. But I don't want to have to void a warranty to just get the storage I need. 

 

But thanks guys!   

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Lenovo Yoga 730 13 81CT001SUS - noon-upgradable RAM, good sRGB IPS, 8+hrs battery life

Lenovo Thinkpad L380 Yoga - manual SSD and RAM (optional) upgrade, good sRGB IPS, 8+hrs battery life

 

FYI i5 and i7 don't have much performance difference in KBL-R / WHL-U ULVs mainly due to thermals

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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On 1/18/2019 at 11:25 PM, Colin Maez said:

My current budget is around $1000

On 1/18/2019 at 11:25 PM, Colin Maez said:

What I DON'T need the laptop to do is:

Video/photo editing

Gaming

Heavy computation work

Then you don't need an i7. It will be out of your pricepoint likely and last/current gen i5s perform perfectly fine for (basic) productivity.

Crystal: CPU: i7 7700K | Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z270F | RAM: GSkill 16 GB@3200MHz | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti FE | Case: Corsair Crystal 570X (black) | PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 1000W | Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24"

Laptop: Dell XPS 13 9370 | CPU: i5 10510U | RAM: 16 GB

Server: CPU: i5 4690k | RAM: 16 GB | Case: Corsair Graphite 760T White | Storage: 19 TB

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Yea I figured that I don't need an i7 for what I need the laptop to do. 

 

The Lenovo laptops are that bad, but I honestly do not like the design of the Thinkpad. It looks too identical to my father's old work laptop. However, the Yoga 730 isn't a bad recommendation. It will defiantly be on my list on laptops to try in person. But it is a shame that the ram cannot be upgraded. 

 

Any more recommendations you guys have? 

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10 hours ago, Colin Maez said:

But it is a shame that the ram cannot be upgraded. 

The one I've listed above already have 16GB RAM

Desktop specs:

Spoiler

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Gigabyte B550M DS3H mATX

Asrock Challenger Pro OC Radeon RX 6700 XT Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (8Gx2) 3600MHz CL18 Kingston NV2 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Montech Century 850W Gold Tecware Nexus Air (Black) ATX Mid Tower

Laptop: Lenovo Ideapad 5 Pro 16ACH6

Phone: Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro 8+128

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9 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

The one I've listed above already have 16GB RAM

Ooooh, I was looking at the wrong one. This one actually looks great. I definitely have to see this laptop how this laptop feels in person. 

 

Thanks, for the great suggestion. 

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