2 in 1 laptop for drawing

[jaslion]

Hello,

 

FEEL FREE TO SKIP TO THE LINE AS THIS IS JUST BACKSTORY AND SMALL ISSUES I'VE RAN INTO.

I've recently gotten really into drawing again and have been really enjoying myself. About a month ago I've started drawing digitally and I love every aspect of it. I currently use a laptop + artisul d13 drawing tablet and love this setup. When I'm on the go I use my sketchbook if I have an idea and then later if I like it enough work it out on my tablet at home.

 

This is all fine and so but my new school schedule is going to have me have multiple hours between classes and this is going to mean I have some downtime this wouldn't be too bad if I had a normal schedule but because I already got credit for most courses due to a previous education I will have barely anything to do in that time. Since I've sold my wacom intuos pro to get the artisul I no longer really have a portable tablet and my current laptop isn't the best in terms of battery life. I tried using my parents vaio tap 11 with the wacom bamboo pen but the 4gb of ram in that thing makes it barely useable with photoshop and just useable with paint tool sai.

 

------------

I've since been looking at a mobile studio pro from wacom but can't really find any deals so I started looking at a surface pro, lenovo yoga 530 / 720 2 in 1, hp envy x360,...

 

Now the problem is that I need something decent enough that has active pen support (I have a wacom bamboo pen here but if it has a decent pen included or as an option that's good too) and it has to be powerfull enough to run some vms and run overwatch at 720p lowest settings (and guild wars 2 but that runs on basically anything with a semi decent cpu so not an issue) as these are my 2 relax games for when I don't feel like doing anything really. I'm also going to be selling my laptop I currently have (after swapping the drive in it) since I no longer need the power it has since I no longer have to do vfx work on the go. This laptop will also go with me on my internship to the usa in about 7 months so that is also a big reason as to why I want to keep things simple.

 

My current system:

Clevo p650

i7 6700hq

gtx 970m

8gb ddr4

1tb sata ssd (want to use this in the new one but have someone that will buy it from me if I have to swap to a m.2 or msata drive)

1920*1080 15.6" IPS screen that has been calibrated (can go and calibrate the new screen no problem)

 

Drawing: artisul d13 tablet

 

If the new system is even half as good as the current setup I'm good. For intensive tasks I have my pc at home so that is not an issue.

 

My budget is 1100€ and I would like to last about 5 years with the laptop. Preferably keep it under 17 inch.

If you find a good one in usd add another 150 usd to it and that should be the price in belgium here.

 

Thanks for the help and sorry for the mediocre english.

[Peskanova]

Surface laptop?  https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Surface-Laptop-Intel-512GB/dp/B0727VQLGM?th=1

Or better a 2 in 1 eve V (thats a surface book clone that I was looking since linus showcased and its seems so good)

https://eve-tech.com/pages/eve-v/

I think surface is 100% compatible with wacom pens and eve-v has same experience as a surface book 

[jaslion]

The surface laptop doesn't fold into tablet mode (since I need to draw on the screen) and the eve V seems good but has pen pressure, palm rejections and jitter issues so that one is probably not something I would get.

[Fullmental]

Not exactly the direction you were looking in, but have you considered a standalone tablet? An iPad pro paired with an apple pencil is a great tool that's cheaper than a similar 2 in 1, though you will need to learn some new software to use it. I actually replaced my cintiq with one of these, because I wanted something portable.

 

If not, your best bet on a 2 in 1 is probably the 15" dell xps 2 in 1, but I have my doubts it'll be powerful enough for 5 years without going top spec on it for the 16gb of RAM. Also, the entry level one is already maxing out your budget and may even be over.  That said, the cpu on it will give your current one a run for your money, and it has an integrated Vega gpu with 4gb of its own VRAM.

 

I know Dell has a lot of employee and student discounts when you buy direct, so it's possible you can get that price down a bit too.

 

Edit: avoid the 13" model, it's much, much lower power and isn't worth your time.

[genexis_x]

Any links of online stores?

[jaslion]

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/

This site was made to look at almost all vendors in belgium and the netherlands. Zoek een product is the searchbar for products.

 

Also

Amazon.co.uk

amazon.de

amazon.fr

 

Are also a good resource since they all deliver to Belgium.

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, Fullmental said:

Not exactly the direction you were looking in, but have you considered a standalone tablet? An iPad pro paired with an apple pencil is a great tool that's cheaper than a similar 2 in 1, though you will need to learn some new software to use it. I actually replaced my cintiq with one of these, because I wanted something portable.

 

If not, your best bet on a 2 in 1 is probably the 15" dell xps 2 in 1, but I have my doubts it'll be powerful enough for 5 years without going top spec on it for the 16gb of RAM. Also, the entry level one is already maxing out your budget and may even be over.  That said, the cpu on it will give your current one a run for your money, and it has an integrated Vega gpu with 4gb of its own VRAM.

 

I know Dell has a lot of employee and student discounts when you buy direct, so it's possible you can get that price down a bit too.

 

Edit: avoid the 13" model, it's much, much lower power and isn't worth your time.

The cheapest one I can find here is the i5 model and with student discount and even an extra discount on it It's still almost 1300€.

[Fullmental]

9 minutes ago, jaslion said:

The cheapest one I can find here is the i5 model and with student discount and even an extra discount on it It's still almost 1300€.

OK wow, was not expecting that. In the US it's $1299 without a student discount, so I expected it to be cheaper than 1300€

 

I know it's over budget, but that's probably your best option in terms of specs. It's got an i5-8305G and Vega M GL graphics. The i5 is good though, it's a quad core with hyper-threading and it's not a ultra low power processor like the Y series. If you could find another 2 in 1 with that cpu and at least 8gb ram, it would be able to run light vms and do drawing for 3 years easy. I still think 5 is a stretch with 8gb, but your budget doesn't really allow for more in these really thin models. I think the other common one is an HP Spectre x360-15?

 

You could also try the x360-13, just keep in mind it's a low voltage cpu so it won't be as strong, and it only has Intel HD graphics. In other words, Overwatch is probably out of the question on that one.

[jaslion]

I might just have to give up on playing overwatch I guess. Dell has a really rough markup over here so they are usually not a great option. I did manage to find a hp envy x360 with a i5 8250u, 8gb and an mx150 for 1049€ (no student discount on it) but I'm not sure about the thermals and if the cpu runs at full speed or not since I can't really find much info about it.

[Fullmental]

That cpu might work, but I have no idea on the gpu. That cpu has a tdp of just 15w and isn't terrible (also a quad core w/ HT) , so it may even perform better under load than the 8305g (65w tdp).

[genexis_x]

17 hours ago, jaslion said:

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/

This site was made to look at almost all vendors in belgium and the netherlands. Zoek een product is the searchbar for products.

 

Also

Amazon.co.uk

amazon.de

amazon.fr

 

Are also a good resource since they all deliver to Belgium.

Sorry but I don't have time to look through these links, could you list out ALL 8250U/8550U convertibles that are within your budget?

[Tarun10]

20 hours ago, jaslion said:

I might just have to give up on playing overwatch I guess. Dell has a really rough markup over here so they are usually not a great option. I did manage to find a hp envy x360 with a i5 8250u, 8gb and an mx150 for 1049€ (no student discount on it) but I'm not sure about the thermals and if the cpu runs at full speed or not since I can't really find much info about it.

Is it the HP Envy 13/ 15??? I have an HP Envy x360 15 and I would not recommend it. The MX 150 will handle your Overwatch but for me even with no dGPU the chassis gets hot. And make sure the model you buy has a bright screen at least 300 nits. Mine is dimmer. Also battery life is not that great, after tweaks maybe 5 and a half hours. The 13 inch ones are a bit better but the metal chassis gets scratched quite easily and the glossy screen collects fingerprints like hell and I don't even draw that much.
Look at other 2 in 1s within your budget maybe the Lenovo Yoga series, a list of all 2 in 1s within your budget will be good.

[jaslion]

I'm busy getting a list ready. The envy series of 2 in 1's also seems to have a large difference in screen quality even on the same laptop. So I'm going to be avoiding those.