Replacement for HP Spectre Folio 13 / Good 2-in-1 with long battery life for media playback on the go

[zakya]

Hello there,

 

I travel a lot for work, and I carry my work-provided laptop with me.

I need a 2nd, thin, light, convertible 2-in-1 laptop/tablet combo for my personal use (mostly media consumption and a bit of web browsing).

I purchased a HP Spectre Folio 13, the leather wrapped 2-in-1 laptop, when it was released, for this usage before COVID.

I loved the look, but more importantly the crazy long (18h advertised) battery life it has, as well as the convenient modes of folding it either flat or as a stand to watch movies (*very* helpful on planes).

I also love the fact that is doesn't have any moving parts, so it's dead silent all the time.

However it's been a few years now, and the leather is starting to tear at the seams, and the machine could use a replacement (battery life isn't what it used to, and I can barely get 6-7h out of it now

 

As you might have understand by now, I don't need a powerful machine, I need:

- 2-in-1 convertible (laptop mode + tablet mode, ideally with a similar "stand" position as the Spectre Folio 13 has)

- 13" screen

- 1080p screen is enough (more would probably drain the battery way too much)

- 12-14h on battery (Cover most flights I take. more is always better)

- USB-C charging (no proprietary stuff!)

- Silent (no fan ideally)

- At least 512GB of storage. More is welcome, user extensible is a plus, but not a requirement 

- 8GB of RAM minimum (16GB or more welcome, as long as it's not a drain on the battery, user replacement is a plus, but soldered on is okay)

- No opinion on CPU, APU, etc. as long as it's able to play/transcode media content for VLC, Netflix, Youtube, etc.

- No discreet GPU needed, I don't game on this machine

- Windows based (Netflix app on Windows allows for download/local cache). I have a mac for work, and I don't want to tinker with Linux for this usage.

 

Bottom line, I pretty much only use this thing as a web browsing and video playback machine (legally acquired DRM free local files, Netflix cached or Youtube).

 

Any idea? I wasn't able to find something that fits the bill

(No budget on this, price isn't that important, I need the functionalities first and foremost).

 

Thank you for reading this and hopefully pointing me in the right direction!

 

Best regards,

Zak

[Bombastinator]

Need a budget.  You can get nearly anything you want for $3500 but that may not be where things are.  What do you think about an iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard as part of a case?  

[zakya]

Budget is open, $3500+ is not a problem.
 

An iPad is not an option, Windows is mandatory for my use.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, zakya said:

Budget is open, $3500+ is not a problem.
 

An iPad is not an option, Windows is mandatory for my use.

Had to be checked.  If budget isn’t an issue you should be able to get something as good.  Looking through LTT reviews for nice thin-and-lights and 2-in-ones might be a good move then.  They review some really nice stuff that is sometimes spendy.  If you’re willing to drop 3.5k on a laptop though there are no issues with that.

 

considering that pretty much everything you want it for is potato just having the leather redone and the battery replaced sounds like the move since you like the thing.  Since you’re redoing the leather you can even have it done exactly how you want.  Bonus if you’re into western or hunting stuff but it is in no way a requirement.   Leather tooling is a pretty flexible art form, and a replacement battery shouldn’t be tough to find.  I suggest getting it from the manufacturer as counterfeit batteries can be very bad news.  Just drop it off at your local computer repair shop and tell ‘em what you want.  You pick it up again when they tell you it’s ready.  Should even be relatively cheap.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Bombastinator

[zakya]

That’s an option although I’m not sure how comfortable a IT shop would be with working with leather

That being said I’m more attached to the practical aspect than to the leather itself, so if there are any newer models around with similar specs, I’m open to it…

I’m an avid watcher of both SortCircuit and LTT, but I have yet to see a similar package

Any pointers?

Another reason (beside battery life) to go for a newer model is the lackluster performance when transcoding 4k/8k content « down » to the 1080p resolution.

VLC struggles some times, and I hope that a more recent Intel iGPU or AMD APU wouldn’t struggle that hard (but maybe it’s wishful thinking).