Touchscreen 2in1 Laptop Advice?

[coskigirl]

Surface Pro 4 works very well. https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Su...&qid=1521121980&sr=8-1&keywords=surface+pro+4

At home add a nice 30" monitor and keyboard and you are set.

Those things aren't cheap! In order to get one with specs at least as good as a the Lenovo Yoga 920, accident protection and warranty for 2 years (not onsite which the Lenovo is), pen and keyboard for it to use in class I have to spend almost $2500! The Lenovo decked out with i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, three year onsite warranty with accident protection, and pen is only about $1850. I'm not even sure I'd like taking notes on that kind of keyboard.

 

[coskigirl]

I use an iPad Pro with the Apple Smart Keyboard. I use it for everything. I’m handwriting notes in therapy sessions, the Apple Pencil stylus is amazing to write with, then typing up notes in my EMR portal, writing reports; etc. I haven’t felt the need to use anything else.

I understand the love of the iPad and Apple, I have been an Apple girl for quite some time (multiple iPads and iPhones, a Macbook, and now an Apple Watch). However, given that work is PC based and some of my school work will cross over (I can do paid externships at my company and get credit through school) I need those two machines to be friendly with each other. Heck, even having Sbrown edit my personal statement which was written on a PC but she edited on a Mac was a challenge. Full time work and part time law school, I don't need any extra headaches that are reasonably easy to avoid.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Throw a microsd card in for everyday use (storage of files) as SSD does degrade over time on read/write. Use the SSD as your OS/app storage for fastest access.

The MicroSD card uses similar technology to the SSD and degrades like the built in SSD. Most drives will provide software for analyzing the status of the SSD. The development of SSDs has progressed at rates seemingly faster than Moore's law. Firmware is designed to use all of the drive's sectors as equally as possible thus reducing the failure rates. https://www.maketecheasier.com/sd-card-vs-ssd/ As with any computer, you want to perform regular backups.

The PC that my client got was an XPS 13 7000 series. I recommend getting any PC with Windows 10 Pro (not Home) and as much memory as you can afford up to 16 GB.

 

[DonC]

I bought my wife a 2-in-1 a few months ago and regular touchscreen XPS 13 laptop for myself last week. I'm a big fan of the Dell outlet. Basically these are new systems that are returned, wiped clean, and repackaged in a very non-fancy box, and have the full warranty. And if you don't like it, shipping both ways is free so nothing to lose.

I think the best value right now is the latitude 5289 (12", my wife loves it) and 7389 (13") series which I narrowed down here (you can play with the search function if you want more RAM or HD capacity) since they have a "pi day' sale going on right now They are both
31.4 % off with code 314159Lati

So that's as low as around $530 for the 12" and $620 for the 13". The smaller screen gets better battery life and is obviously more compact

The XPS 2-in-1 is a generation and a half behind in terms of processor (it uses an ultra low voltage version) and will soon be replaced so the outlet base prices are pretty good. It is however a nicer build and much less utilitarian looking It is worth getting the version with a faster NVme drive. Honestly, I would order one of each and see which you like better. You will likely need to do two separate orders since the Latitudes are from the business outlet and the XPS from the home outlet. You can see the selection of XPS here. The best coupon they have listed right this moment for that is a measly 7% (though the dell outlet twitter account claims they have 17%) so the XPS is more in the $800 range.

In general if you order through chat you can get a few extra % off.

Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you have questions. I order several outlet laptops annually and have a pretty good idea of where the good deals are.

Just to add bit: none of these models has the newest 8th generation processors. The advantage of which is in part that the 8th gen i5 is now a 4 core processor and a really good balance of speed and energy use. I'm typing this on an XPS 13 9360 so equipped. If processing speed is really an issue for you (and it is not for most tasks) then you might consider going for the i7 versions of those models. The latitudes use a standard laptop processor. The XPS 2-in-one uses a lower power processor line due to heat and space limitations inherent in the fancier design, so from the processor side its a bit hampered.

 

[raytseng]

my advice:

• you should try to check the model out in person for physical form factor. Specifically also try out the keyboard. The thinner and lighter it gets, the keyboard may get skinnier and less pleasant.
• There is often a tradeoff for size/weight and battery life. There maybe diminishing returns to cut off those last few ounces or to be thinnest and lightest, and you don't really need to care about it. E.g the XPS13 versus the insprion 7000 series, or x1 versus t470.

• if you are moving your laptop every day like a student from class to class, then do get the accidental damage which usually is additional to the regular warranty.

 

[DonC]

my advice:

• you should try to check the model out in person for physical form factor. Specifically also try out the keyboard. The thinner and lighter it gets, the keyboard may get skinnier and less pleasant.
• There is often a tradeoff for size/weight and price/battery life. There maybe diminishing returns to cut off those last few ounces or to be thinnest and lightest, and you don't really need to care about it. E.g the XPS13 versus the insprion 7000 series. Or the Lenovo X1 versus T470

• if you are moving your laptop every day like a student from class to class, then do get the accidental damage which usually is additional to the regular warranty.

This is true but generally the latitude and xps lines have good keyboards because they have business users buying them. Stay away from the inspiron laptops. That's the consumer line where they really cut corners on quality to bring to the price down. Everything from keyboard quality to battery life suffers.

 

[raytseng]

FYI: costco and bestbuy have a lot of these models or at least in the same family as floor models for you to play around with. You will know pretty quickly what's acceptable versus way too small, or way too big/bulky once you start handling them and picking them up.

 

[coskigirl]

Costco and Best Buy are exactly where I am planning to head to actually touch the machines.

I knew I could count on you friends to help me through this process.

 

[tball]

The DU library should have pretty good student discounts. Having watched some close to me go through what you are about to, I'd suggest focusing on battery life (and reconsidering ).

Seems like the 17 hours from some of the Surface devices would be hard to beat. From the fine print at the bottom of the Surface compare page:

Surface Battery life

Surface Pro battery lifeUp to 13.5 hours of video playback. Testing conducted by Microsoft in April 2017 using preproduction Intel Core i5, 256GB, 8 GB RAM device. Testing consisted of full battery discharge during video playback. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network and Auto-Brightness disabled. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage, and other factors.

Surface Laptop battery lifeUp to 14.5 hours of video playback. Testing conducted by Microsoft in April 2017 using Intel® Core™ i5, 256GB, 8 GB RAM devices. Testing consisted of full battery discharge during video playback. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors.

Surface Book 2 battery lifeSurface Book 2 13.5": Up to 17 hours of video playback. Testing conducted by Microsoft in October 2017 using preproduction Intel® Core™ i5, 256GB, 8 GB RAM device. Testing consisted of full battery discharge during video playback. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network and Auto-Brightness disabled. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors.

Surface Book 2 15": Up to 17 hours of video playback. Testing conducted by Microsoft in October 2017 using preproduction Intel® Core™ i7, 512GB, 16 GB RAM dGPU device. Testing consisted of full battery discharge during video playback. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network and Auto-Brightness disabled. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors.
​

 

[Dwight]

Those things aren't cheap! In order to get one with specs at least as good as a the Lenovo Yoga 920, accident protection and warranty for 2 years (not onsite which the Lenovo is), pen and keyboard for it to use in class I have to spend almost $2500! The Lenovo decked out with i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, three year onsite warranty with accident protection, and pen is only about $1850. I'm not even sure I'd like taking notes on that kind of keyboard.

No they are not, but I wouldn't get 16GB adn 512GM Surface either.

Me personally, I like laptops. I would get the best ASUS brand I could afford, with a touch screen.

 

[coskigirl]

The DU library should have pretty good student discounts. Having watched some close to me go through what you are about to, I'd suggest focusing on battery life (and reconsidering ).

Oh, yes, battery life is something that I will compare. Fortunately all the classrooms in the DU law building have outlets for every seat.

I am not looking forward to learning to type all of my notes. I'm still old school, even in work meetings. I'm contemplating asking the youngin' classmates who have only ever attended college with notes being taken on laptops to give me tips and tricks to making it efficient. With the 2 in 1 I'll probably test how I do handwriting on the screen vs. typing.

I'm trying not to focus too much on how insane this is as a mechanism of self-defense. I figure I'll have 4 years (or more accurately 3 years and 9 months) to question my sanity every day.

 

[tball]

It's been a while, but I spent quite a bit of time working from the law library and it was sometimes hard to find an outlet there. They may have updated the old tables since. You might take a walk through and check.

Size and weight of the power adapter should also be of some consideration as you'll have plenty of heavy books to carry. I'm guessing that hasn't changed.

 

[coskigirl]

It's been a while, but I spent quite a bit of time working from the law library and it was sometimes hard to find an outlet there. They may have updated the old tables since. You might take a walk through and check.

Size and weight of the power adapter should also be of some consideration as you'll have plenty of heavy books to carry. I'm guessing that hasn't changed.

I'll be on campus next week so I'll check the library. I know CU has plenty (did my LSAT practice exams there) and I'll use their library when I don't need to be on the DU campus since CU is so much closer to me.

Yep to heavy books and good point about the power supply. Plans to deal with the weight include getting a good backpack, paying for the premium parking lot that is close, getting a locker to stash books between classes, and probably massages/chiropractic work on a regular basis.

 

[Uncle-A]

Costco and Best Buy are exactly where I am planning to head to actually touch the machines.

I knew I could count on you friends to help me through this process.

I forgot to say that I got mine at Costco and that is my go to place and I would stay away from Worst Buy. The different price points I found are based on battery life 4 hour, 8 hour etc. and RAM 12 gig, 16 gig etc.

 

[albertanskigirl]

I got this one:

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360CA/

and i LOVE it. I'm a professor, so I use it for largely what (I think) you will be using it for - writing, presentations etc. And it's amazing. I switched from an Macbook (I've only used Apple computers since I was 15) and I am so glad that I did. The SSD is amazing, the keyboard is great (and I prefer it to the new Apple laptop keyboards). The comfort of the keyboard for me is really important. I thought I would use it as a tablet, but I don't. It's actually too bulky. When I need a tablet, I use my ipad. But I can't speak highly enough about having a touch screen. I am so impressed with Asus computers. And this one is also superlight. I sometimes forget it is in my backpack. My SO just got the same one too.

 

[albertanskigirl]

And I bought it on sale at Best Buy for $1000 CAD!

 

[oldschoolskier]

That’s my point. By not doing re-writes on the SSD it has a longer time before failure. SSD is expensive and cause more issues as the OS is located on this drive. With the micro-SD card you have cheaper easily replaceable storage for your documents/file drive.

BTW I agree Pro over home and get it with the package.

I use an ASUS mobile laptop with 4gig and 64gig SSD a 128 microSD detachable keyboard/cover as my travel laptop, cheap/light/10hr+ battery and small does everything I need.

For everything else i7 17” high performance laptop.

The MicroSD card uses similar technology to the SSD and degrades like the built in SSD. Most drives will provide software for analyzing the status of the SSD. The development of SSDs has progressed at rates seemingly faster than Moore's law. Firmware is designed to use all of the drive's sectors as equally as possible thus reducing the failure rates. https://www.maketecheasier.com/sd-card-vs-ssd/ As with any computer, you want to perform regular backups.

The PC that my client got was an XPS 13 7000 series. I recommend getting any PC with Windows 10 Pro (not Home) and as much memory as you can afford up to 16 GB.

 

[Dwight]

People still believe there are major problems with SSDs?

 

[DonC]

That’s my point. By not doing re-writes on the SSD it has a longer time before failure. SSD is expensive and cause more issues as the OS is located on this drive. With the micro-SD card you have cheaper easily replaceable storage for your documents/file drive.

I don't see the logic here at all. The SSD controller is constantly wear-leveling, monitoring for bad blocks and in good drives provisioning reserved ones to replace them. In typical personal computing scenarios you are not getting close to the rewrite limit for the drive. The extra "strain" of writing your Word files to the SSD is minuscule. If you are worried about overall drive failure, which you should be whenever you are talking about important data, as well as the risk of accidentally overwriting or deleting a file, then you should be using cloud mirroring (Google Drive, One Drive) and a daily backup.

 

[Doug Briggs]

@DonC , @Dwight , I agree.

SSDs are cheap. 2 or 3 years ago they were a $1 per GB. Now they are around $0.25 per GB if you shop well. 'Wear' on the SSD is insignificant in terms of overall computer reliability and backups take away any reason to worry about a possible data loss due to drive failure. Another upside of SSDs, particularly in notebooks, is their resilience in the face of G-forces. Drop a running notebook with a traditional hard drive and you run a fair risk of failure. Drop a running notebook with a SSD and there is virtually no chance of failure of the drive.

I've been running a server on a 500GB Intel SSD for 3 years now. Nary a problem from a system that is supporting 3 - 5 virtual machines that are constantly running. Frankly, I've had much more trouble with my RAID 1 array using WD 3TB drives.

The computer manufacturers must be hating SSDs on one hand because all you have to do to revive an old slow PC is clone the hard drive to and SSD and you've given it a new lease on life. My travel notebook is running Windows 10 on an Pentium processor. A Pentium 2.13 GHz, P6200. Granted I don't need a lot of power to surf, email and remote control, but it runs smoothly and starts up in a flash.