I’ve never used touch screen on normal laptop, having it for last ~5 years. Now I wonder about convertible. Would I really use its features if I already have tablet? On the other hand they seem to be at the same weight, the same build quality, almost the same price…
I have one but I would not buy another again, for several reasons.
It’s effectively a tablet. from experience laptop/tablet batteries require replacement about every 3 years. I buy my units with enough CPU, memory and storage to last me 5-7 years.
With laptops, i can replace the batter on my own. With the current tablet, I have to send it off to some place and wait for several weeks because everything is sealed, glued and require special tools. I use the browser and the laptop much more than I use the apps on my phone. I am dreading the time I will have to send it off to get the battery replaced. I keep my data locally (no cloud storage at all) and have my own backups.
Second reason (already experienced) is that i have to be much more careful with the tablet, specially when I am setting it down on a table etc. In a normal laptop, the weight is on the base(which has the kbd), and this keeps the laptop stable on a flat surface. With a tablet, the weight is at an incline (the screen). Once I was not so careful to properly set the back rest. It flipped over and fell on the floor. Luckily, it fell on an edge which has the metal frame around it and also the gorilla glass. Result has been hairline fracture across part of the screen. It works well, still. But now I have to pay attention and be more careful every tie I set it on a flat surface, when I clean the screen (because of the fracture).
Unless I have to replace the battery, i will be replacing it with a laptop, rather than another tablet.
I never really use the touch screen features until when windows 11 occassionally stops taking input from the kbd (like when logging in). Once I am logged in, windows then decides to ack the kbd.
I have a Dell 2-in-1 unit . The quality of this model has been poor, to the extent that Dell I think has discontinued them. The keyboard quality and also the cover quality is bad. The original keyboard died after a few months and I had to buy another keyboard from Dell. The replacement keyboard cover was glued badly with air pockets, so some areas have bubbles and some areas have worn out and degradee much faster than others. I would not recommend these units to anyone.
Just my experience.
Thanks, but that’s a bit different category. You’re talking about a PC tablet.
I’m thinking between “Lenovo Yoga 7 gen 10” and “Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 gen 10”. Literally they are the same… except 2-in-1 have slower CPU at the max spec, and only one USB port on each side instead of of 2 ports.
EDIT:
More seems always better… but my current home laptop has the touch screen which I never used, which eventually due to wear an tear started doing random touches… so, well, I wonder if that’s the penalty of having early tech, or it has never been really solved. I’m not sure if the new laptops are more usable as a tablet, also if the touch thing is more solid.
My last few 2-in-1 were very similar to lenovo, but were dell. my experiences from that are:
- i hardly ever folded it completely.
- the 1-2 times i did, to share the screen with someone sitting across from me:
- the touch screen kbd popped up and took up 1/3 of the screen
- once folded, the weight was on the physical kdb, which caused random kbd input that was annoying.
- i’m not sure if these such thin units have a fan internally, or they use conduction/convection for cooling. The battery will heat up. so, the bottom getting hot may be something to look at. Are there vents? if so, where - as in the bottom or on the side? better they are on the side, cause if they are on the bottom then airflow can be limited/obstructed causing the battery to heat up and get warped → over heating and then wear out much faster and cause heating issues with cpu, memory, etc. if no vent then the bottom frame acts as heat conductor → on top of a blanket, for example, is not a good place …
Looking at the marketing images for lenovo, i’m not sure when i would actually fold the unit and balance it on it’s long edges and use / show off ). for me, stability would be the concern.
while the pens are nice, i would lose them quite easily. that’s just me.
nowadays, the touch screen input has improved significantly. i dont think your experience with earlier generation applies any more. i guess smartphones helped resolve those issues mostly.
me, i’d go for the more capable / expandable one, with preference for usb-c connections on both sides - it’s a small thing, but being able to connect to either side was a huge convenience for me with my previous dell 2-in-1 laptops.
Personally, i’m now jaded with dell quality. lenovo has crossed my mind more than once. let me know how your experience is.
Cheers …
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100%, for the charging cable
I’ve got the Yoga 7 2-in-1. Its a nice little 14 incher. Great and vibrant screen for watching movies and videos. Sound is not so good (But sound on most laptop sucks) but use headphones anyway. Touch screen is also nice. But mostly use the mouse. Can recommend. Its quick too.
I’ve got a four year old HP Envy. I like the combination of touchpad and touchscreen. It has had to go back twice under guarantee for a broken hinge and dud touchscreen (to Media-Markt - slow and painful) and I have replaced the battery once. When it needs replacing, I will look at the reviews for which make/model and choose a supplier who has a better guarantee service - Galaxus for instance.
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We have just rolled them out all over Bavaria.
And rolled them back… they are a new category of machine we call: “jokebook”
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I have a Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 16", nearly two years old now. Would definitely recommend. Looking at the Dell pictured in Tom’s post it would seem to have taken the opposite approach, in that it’s made like a normal laptop with most of the hardware in the base, whereas the Dell looks more like a tablet with a keyboard attached.
I don’t often use it folded all the way over as a tablet, but quite often most of the way, leaving a 30deg angle so it will sit up itself, the touch screen is also active in laptop mode, so is sometimes useful for easier pinch-type scrolling, although I can do that with the touchpad anyway.
Just to address a couple of the issues mentioned by Tom
Battery life is optionally protected by a “Conservation mode” that allows you to set upper and lower charge levels, beyond which it will not charge the battery, avoiding the charge cycles which are what effectively kills the battery in the long run. After two years mine is still as good as it was when new.
This is a near-perfect solution if you’re using it plugged in most of the time, as I do, so I’m very happy with it. Previous ones used in that way were real battery killers, as every time you unplugged it for a few minutes it would recharge, i.e. cycle the battery.
Weight-wise it’s not the lightest, but then it’s a 16" screen, ,so not surprising. Pretty sure it’s actually lighter than my previous HP one anyway. The screen part is heavier, of course, but the base is still the more weighty portion so I don’t have any balance problems. Build quality seems to be excellent, it’s even survived a couple of minor falls while open, although I wouldn’t recommend that, of course.
Edit: Just saw this comment
Mine is perfectly stable when used like that.
Ok, I’ll go for non-convertible, either yoga slim or yoga pro The yoga 2-in-1 has less useful ports and is more expensive
I’ve touched the yoga pro at Interdiscount, very solid screen and base, zero flex, yet still very light. The slim chops off ~300 g and has smaller power brick, only 60W (actually I wonder why the pro has 100W, it seems too much for such a small laptop, perhaps they calculated it for the version with the most beefy processor) but I’d like to find it somewhere to check the build quality. I also wonder if Intel processors can be trusted again, after a the sh* series of 13,14th generations