Laptop suggestions under 11"

[Raginryuu]

Hi! I know this is gonna be really silly but I have this small travel bag that is small, minimal, and can hold anything I need for a day trip. Basically, I love it. However I've gotten into blogging, discord, web surfing, and other less demanding tasks. I grown tired of sitting at my desk all day. So I have been looking into laptops and tablets. The bag can hold a switch or my friend's 11" Ipad for reference.

 

I have taken a look at the Surface Go 3 and the Samsung tablet and wanted to hear other's ideas. I know the Ipad is great but I personally would rather stick with the android or windows systems. Price at the moment is not a concern.

Thank you!

[jaslion]

The surface go kinda sucks as a computer due to the low end hardware in it. Android tablets are just not good overall so skip those at all cost. Mainly due to the os not having gotten any tablet based size optimizations in years. It's like using a very big phone so a lot of UI elements are just not easy to use at all.

 

Basically just get an ipad here.

[Raginryuu]

10 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Basically just get an ipad here.

I understand that the ipad is great but as I stated, I still prefer a windows or android system.. Call me stubborn

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, Raginryuu said:

I understand that the ipad is great but as I stated, I still prefer a windows or android system.. Call me stubborn

I mean android tablets just suck right now so that is crossed off. The surface go is a slow device so yeah not something I recommend and the normal surface pro 8 is too big for your liking.

 

The go III does have an option for a i3 unit but that is by far the most expensive one. The pentium ones should be avoided at all cost. The i3 10100y is well slow but does decent in burst tasks. So that could indeed possibly be the best option for you since you don't want an ipad. Keep in mind this is about 700$ for the 128gb ssd 8gb ram i3 surface go. This is the lowest end one you want to get really.

 

I will still recommend an ipad over all of these. I also primarily want to stay in the windows android environment but I did still end up getting an ipad because it's simply actually good. Not something I could say about my android tablets or my vaio tab 11 or the surface 5 I've used all for a long time but always ended up getting rid of them because they were a disappointment.

[Dedayog]

31 minutes ago, jaslion said:

I mean android tablets just suck right now so that is crossed off. The surface go is a slow device so yeah not something I recommend and the normal surface pro 8 is too big for your liking.

 

The go III does have an option for a i3 unit but that is by far the most expensive one. The pentium ones should be avoided at all cost. The i3 10100y is well slow but does decent in burst tasks. So that could indeed possibly be the best option for you since you don't want an ipad. Keep in mind this is about 700$ for the 128gb ssd 8gb ram i3 surface go. This is the lowest end one you want to get really.

 

I will still recommend an ipad over all of these. I also primarily want to stay in the windows android environment but I did still end up getting an ipad because it's simply actually good. Not something I could say about my android tablets or my vaio tab 11 or the surface 5 I've used all for a long time but always ended up getting rid of them because they were a disappointment.

You're not wrong but for his tasks the Surface Go will be perfectly fine.  It's not like he has a lot of options if he won't go Apple.

 

 

[Raginryuu]

Thank you for both your inputs. Does my options get better if I can tightly fit up to 12" instead of 11"?
@Dedayog @jaslion

 

[jaslion]

Just now, Raginryuu said:

Thank you for both your inputs. Does my options get better if I can tightly fit up to 12" instead of 11"?
@Dedayog @jaslion

 

Nothing changes. A normal surface will still be too big. Keep in mind you need to look at the actual device size because the surface go doesn't use a 16:9 screen. Screen size doesn't mean much when looking for a specific fit.

[Qyygle]

Surface Go's are a pretty rough experience.

Have you considered a Steamdeck or similar small form factor handheld, like a GDP Win or Pocket? They will be even smaller screens, but definitely fit, and outperform the surface by a lot.

They're more intended for handheld gaming though, if you intend to do productivity your mileage may vary. It's also hard to find them in some places.

 

The samsung galaxy tab series is ok, make sure to skip anything from the A line, just go for the S, otherwise you're stuck with low range phone processors running even bigger screens. They also have keyboard covers and pens, if that's a concern to you, I personally consider the S pens better than apple pencils, but most people don't care. Ipads will be faster, especially with the new chips, but for general tablet use, you won't notice the speed difference between a Tab S7 and an iPad