Thinkpad X390 VS Surface book

[MaxU_V]

Hi there, looking to get some help deciding on a 2 in 1 laptop for school. I have a budget of roughly $2000 and have narrowed it down to the Thinkpad X390 Yoga, or the Surface Book. The specs on the Thinkpad are:

• i7-8565U quad-core processor
• 16GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
• 512GB Solid State Drive M.2 PCIe-NVMe
• Integrated Intel® UHD Graphics 620
• 50 Whr battery
• a full-size HDMI port (Surface doesn't have)

and the specs on the Surface are

• 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-8350U quad-core processor
• 8GB 1866Mhz LPDDR3
• 256GB SSD
• up to 17 hr battery (couldn't find Whr but it's comparable)

both are roughly equal in price as the Thinkpad is on sale, ($1800 CDN) but my main concern isn't with the storage or ram as I have a desktop at home, but with the ability to take effective notes. The Surface has a very good interface to handle writing and drawing with the pen, and is easy to switch to typing when needed. I haven't been able to find any source other than some sketchy reviews about the Thinkpad, and I've heard other manufacturers have had problems with your hand touching the screen and messing with your writing. Any guidance on which one I should go for would be appreciated, or if you want to tell me I'm an idiot for spending this much and there are cheaper options for what I need out there then that's great too. Just to reiterate, I'm looking for a 2 in 1 with a decent amount of performance, that is able to smoothly handle lots of notetaking and typing on a daily basis.  Thanks!

[RoseLuck462]

I’d go with the ThinkPad because of the superior specs, especially the RAM.

 

From my experience as well, taking notes via touchscreen tablet kinda sucks.

 

Buy a bunch of cheap spirals or nice moleskines for notes.

[DrMacintosh]

Stear clear of the Surface line. 

[SenKa]

17 minutes ago, RoseLuck462 said:

From my experience as well, taking notes via touchscreen tablet kinda sucks.

Of course this is all opinion, but I am going to disagree. I actually quite enjoy it, but you need a good touchscreen tablet, which the surface book is.

 

With all that said, I would only consider a surface book with the performance base (dGPU). Why not a surface pro? Do you need a 'real' laptop? As in, are you ever going to actually use it on your lap?

[MaxU_V]

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, SenKa said:

 Why not a surface pro? Do you need a 'real' laptop? As in, are you ever going to actually use it on your lap?

I was initially looking at the pro over the book, but I heard the flimsy keyboard has a large effect on how well you can type over time. Don't know if this is entirely true but it seemed to make sense. Thanks for the help!

[genexis_x]

X390 no doubt

business grade > consumer grade (tbh Surface is at bottom for consumer grade)

[SenKa]

12 hours ago, MaxU_V said:

I was initially looking at the pro over the book, but I heard the flimsy keyboard has a large effect on how well you can type over time. Don't know if this is entirely true but it seemed to make sense. Thanks for the help!

Ive not used one for an overly long period of time, but I used a Surface 3 (non-pro) for a little while and never had issue with the type cover, though I can certainly understand where people are coming from.

[Lord Vile]

$2000 budget

laptop for school 

no gaming 

 

Get a MacBook. There’s a reason 90% of the laptops I saw open in Lecture theatres were MacBooks, once you get used to them you can type in short bursts rapid af and they have the trackpad of the gods.