Combi Tablet and Laptops

[MacB]

Pretty sure that's not what they are called but the ones I mean are where they can be a touchscreen tablet and a full laptop. Jane has been really happy with the Lenova Thinkpad refurb we got her for working on. It's particularly good for typing(which is important) and she uses it on one of those laptop padded lap trays with a wireless mouse. But it's a big old package when just lounging back and doing some idle surfing.

So I was looking at options and Lenovo do the X series tablet where the laptop screen/lid, when open, rotates through 180 degrees. Then you close it again with the screen facing upwards. This seems ok and would retain the keyboard she likes but it's still quite a chunky thing.

Are there better options out there or should we think existing laptop for work and then something else for casual surfing etc?

 

[MossCommuter]

Have a look at the HP Envy X2.

It's a proper tablet that is also a proper laptop - you simply pull the screen off for tablet mode and re-dock it for PC mode. The docking mechanism is really easy too.

I also runs "full" Windows 8 (rather than Windows RT which is on the MS Surface).

I had a play with one at work and I was very impressed.

 

[MacB]

Interesting but I do have concerns about how robust these things are as I know it won't be treated well, no matter what promises I extract in advance.

I'm now thinking it might be easier to go plain tablet or ultrabook or something and then she can use the full rig when working and the lighter stuff when not.

 

[MacB]

[QUOTE 2358822, member: 259"]My daughter uses a tablet all the time. She just uses a bluetooth keyboard which sites permanently on a desk when she wants to type documents. Why not just do that? Or have I misunderstood what you meant by a tray?[/quote]

Darn, I'm too old and slow, why hadn't I even thought of a wireless keyboard

 

[srw]

I had a Lenovo thing for work for a while. It was horrible - very very big and heavy. I'm typing this on a Asus eee-pad - an Android tablet with a removable keyboard. It's fine for ordinary browsing, pretty good for music, but not for anything more exotic involving being productive. If it had a better OS it might be better.

 

[MacB]

I had a Lenovo thing for work for a while. It was horrible - very very big and heavy. I'm typing this on a Asus eee-pad - an Android tablet with a removable keyboard. It's fine for ordinary browsing, pretty good for music, but not for anything more exotic involving being productive. If it had a better OS it might be better.

that's the feeling I'm getting so it's going to be either a new full laptop that's maybe a bit more svelte than the existing. Or we go with the two prong approach of a second device. I'm favouring the latter but we'll discuss then pop out to try some keyboards again.