Any experience of laptop/tablet hybrids?

[StewartR]

My Windows XP laptop has died. It's 6 years old, it's served me well, and it's almost certainly not worth trying to get repaired. So I'm in the market for a replacement.

The thing is, I have a decent desktop machine in the study which does the heavy lifting - photo editing, database and spreadsheet stuff, and so on. So I'm not sure I really need a full-blown laptop.

Most of the stuff we do - did - with the laptop could be done just as easily with a tablet. Web browsing, shopping, email, forums, etc. But I do prefer the ergonomics of a laptop, especially having a keyboard for input. So I'm seriously considering one of these laptop/tablet hybrid thingies, like the HP Slatebook. (Or there are others of course.)

Does anybody have any experience of using one of these devices? Any non-obvious drawbacks?

One thing that particularly interests me is this. How easy it is to use an Android device with a keyboard? If I have the keyboard attached, so the screen is on my lap down towards my knees, the keyboard is going to be a lot more ergonomic than the touchscreen. (I have short arms.) So it seems to me I'd want to use the keyboard as the primary input medium. Presumably I'd need to ensure that I buy a device which supports multi-touch gestures - pinch zoom, swipe, scroll, etc - on its touch pad?

Any insights and advice would be very welcome. Thanks.

 

[mid_gen]

I had a Lenovo Yoga for a while, but it was a little too heavy for practical tablet handheld use, although the form factor was great for viewing videos and prodding at in touch mode where space was limited.

I've got a Surface Pro now, which is the best tablet/laptop hybrid around in my opinion. 1920x1080 screen and a proper keyboard, I can happily sit and crunch code on there for a few hours, and plug in keyboard/monitor for extended work.

The new Asus T100 is pretty phenomenal for the money, full windows 8.1 using the new Bay Trail chipset so the battery lasts forever (11+ hours), and is plenty powerful for office/video and some light image manipulation.

I wouldn't buy HP personally, just don't rate their hardware after being issued with some awful HP kit over the years. Asus is just as good, and cheaper.

 

[Nod]

My wife has a Lenovo Yoga netbook - the one that folds in half to use as a tablet or folded back to use as a supported tablet or just opened to use like a normal netbook. As Chris says, a little heavy to use as a tablet but it does have a proper keyboard too.

I have a Surface RT which is about A4 size, much thinner and lighter than the Yoga and has a cover that has a keyboard in/on it (cover is easily removed). Great for using as a tablet and the thing has a built in stand to allow it to be used like a normal netbook on a flat surface. The keyboard it came with isn't particularly nice to use but it does have a proper USB slot so an external one can be added. It also has an SDMicro card slot to boost its storage capability (and to allow the transfer of files without the use of a separate reader, using adaptors in the cameras!)

I also have an ASUS S200E netbook which is a standard netbook. It lives in the conservatory and gets used a lot, mainly for browsing but also some minor PP. Not sure if it has the driver built in for my old Canon Selphy printer - if so, it'll be the holiday 'puter, relegating the old Medion netbook to other duties (it's dog slow compared to all the other 'putting toys...)

 

[The23rdman]

I had a Lenovo Yoga for a while, but it was a little too heavy for practical tablet handheld use, although the form factor was great for viewing videos and prodding at in touch mode where space was limited.

I've got a Surface Pro now, which is the best tablet/laptop hybrid around in my opinion. 1920x1080 screen and a proper keyboard, I can happily sit and crunch code on there for a few hours, and plug in keyboard/monitor for extended work.

The new Asus T100 is pretty phenomenal for the money, full windows 8.1 using the new Bay Trail chipset so the battery lasts forever (11+ hours), and is plenty powerful for office/video and some light image manipulation.

I wouldn't buy HP personally, just don't rate their hardware after being issued with some awful HP kit over the years. Asus is just as good, and cheaper.

We're looking at the T100 for my wife too. Perfect for taking into meetings when lugging a lappy around is a pain.

 

[mid_gen]

I have a Surface RT which is about A4 size, much thinner and lighter than the Yoga and has a cover that has a keyboard in/on it (cover is easily removed). Great for using as a tablet and the thing has a built in stand to allow it to be used like a normal netbook on a flat surface. The keyboard it came with isn't particularly nice to use but it does have a proper USB slot so an external one can be added.

It's worth getting the Type Cover over the Touch Keyboard, much better and only a little thicker. I'm only fractionally slower on the Type keyboard than on my nice clicky full size keyboard, even when coding.

 

[wave01]

I have an iPad and i would say it does 95% of what i need on a daily basis. i use my iMac for my photo editing job done for me

 

[arad85]

We played with a T100 today. Looking at buying it as an xmas present for my partners mother. It has most of the positives of a tablet (size, battery life, portability), with all the positives of a full laptop system (keyboard/connectivity/desktop OS), whilst still remaining remarkably portable. One was ordered as soon as we got home (the place demonstrating only had a demo unit...). I was looking at picking up a 10" Nexus, this has probably changed my mind. IMHO, it's really, really good for the money.

 

[arad85]

After 12 or so hours with the T100 - I want one (the one I have here is for the MiL)! It's fast enough to be perfectly usable, comes with Office Home & Student included (not demoware) keyboard/trackpad make using it for anything other than point/click web browsing a pleasure, it runs xbmc flawlessly (1080p HD rips played in hardware). Screen is fine - even at 155dpi - as it is IPS. Base install gives around 16G free. Instant on seems to work too. Yet to buy a 64G microSD card or try the HDMI out, but this is Windows so is designed to run multiple monitors and see SD cards without having to root (yes, I'm looking at you Google!). I wouldn't like to run Photoshop, but I think my next tablet may well be one of these.

 

[Nod]

It's worth getting the Type Cover over the Touch Keyboard, much better and only a little thicker. I'm only fractionally slower on the Type keyboard than on my nice clicky full size keyboard, even when coding.

Thanks for the tip, however, I bought the Surface as a small, light travel browser/toy and picked it up at a relatively low price so am a little reluctant to spend money on tarting it up! If it was a main tool rather than a handy toy, I would consider upgrading the keyboard (and I suppose I could always plug in a full sized one if I felt the need anyway since it's not an iPad so has a USB socket.) I'm not a fast typist on any keyboard anyway...