Convertible performance tablet

[THE_EGG]

Hi all!

My time with my Lenovo X201T is coming to an end soon. Starting to get symptoms of old age now and with lockups, backlight flickering, touchpad going to crap and charging only working sometimes, it is beginning to be a pain in the ass.

Anyway, in a few months I'm looking at upgrading to something new. I've been out of the loop for the last year or so and don't follow things as much as I used to so I'd like some options that you can recommend for me.

I'm currently looking at Asus TAICHI 21 (the i7 one with a stylus) or the 13" version (more battery apparently in 13" version) when it is available in store although I'd prefer the 11" for smallness. I've had a go with the Sony VAIO Duo 11 and the TAICHI 21 and although I'm a Sony fanboy I do prefer the Asus. I have considered Fujitsu's options as well as I've had good experiences with them before however they seem to be pretty fat compared to the competition now that ultrabooks are pretty common.

What I'm after that is critical in a convertible tablet for me is;
- Battery life of at least 3 hrs (I'm fine running no wifi and most dim brightness)
- Stylus input
- Available/Comes with a PSU UNDER 65W for airlines
- Can play games like CoD, SimCity on low adequately (I know Battlefield is pretty much out of the question)
- Small/Light

And
-Under $2000AUD


Cheers

 

[Crap Daddy]

Microsoft Surface pro might be an option.

 

[yogurt_21]

^ surface pro has windows RT, I'd more recommend something with a full version of windows 8. Like the yoga 13 or one of the other convertible ultra books. (yoga 11 btw also has windows RT so while cheaper it's still crippled).

 

[Sasqui]

Subscribed as I've been on the lookout for just about the same thing

 

[Crap Daddy]

^ surface pro has windows RT, I'd more recommend something with a full version of windows 8. Like the yoga 13 or one of the other convertible ultra books. (yoga 11 btw also has windows RT so while cheaper it's still crippled).

Nope. Surface Pro is full Windows 8 with running on a mobile i5 and 1080 screen.

 

[THE_EGG]

I should add that 180GB for storage would be minimum for me. Although if it is upgradeable storage, then I don't mind how small it is.

The Surface Pro looks to be alright, but I'll see if I can have a go at one first before making and decisions.

 

[yogurt_21]

the surface pro 128gb is 1000$ and only has ~90GB usable out of box. More can be reclaimed though. It also lacks a keyboard, that has to be purchased separately (what Microsoft commercials didn't tell you that?) for 120$. So you're looking at over 1100$ for a 10 inch screen. Pixels per inch are high, but still for me small for the price. Also I personally don't like the keyboard at all, the touchpad isn't sensitive enough and typing doesn't feel right.

I personally prefer the full convertible ultrabooks. The yoga 13 does lose out in screen resolution (1600x900) and thus pixels per inch as well, but the screen is nice to me and I like the extra viewing real estate 116.5 square inches viewable vs 73.6 on the surface pro 37% larger. Some of course may find that as a con, seeing as portability is also the name of the game.

The Yoga 13 with the core i7, 256gb ssd, and 8gb of memory seems to fit well with the budget.

The SONY VAIO SVD11225CXB might be better though if you want 1080p but don't mind losing screen size (11.6 at 1080p so better pixels per inch than the yoga, slightly worse than the surface pro) It has the same specs except in addition to wireless it has a gigabit NIC and is only a bit more than the yoga. The Asus Taichi21 is a bit more than the sony and drops back to 4Gb memory and only a 10/100 NIC still with an 11.6 inch 1080p screen.

overall I'd say the SONY VAIO SVD11225CXB fits best with your requirements. The i7 on all of these should be faster than the surface pro while most will match or beat the battery life simply due to them having larger ones than the surface pro.

 

[LagunaX]

You need to wait a couple of months for a Haswell convertible.
It will give you the computing performance, battery life, and possibly gameplay that you desire.

I just picked up an Acer w510 convertible (9 hr battery, alomost double with dock, windows 8) - it will do my Office docs (with Office installed), MicroSD my 1080p movies on the airplane, and microHDMI them out for the hotel flatscreen. Unfortunately not powerful enuf for any gaming but again, once Haswell his tablets/convertibles very soon you will be able to play some games.

 

[Fourstaff]

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/yoga/yoga-13/

 

[yogurt_21]

You need to wait a couple of months for a Haswell convertible.
It will give you the computing performance, battery life, and possibly gameplay that you desire.

I just picked up an Acer w510 convertible (9 hr battery, alomost double with dock, windows 8) - it will do my Office docs (with Office installed), MicroSD my 1080p movies on the airplane, and microHDMI them out for the hotel flatscreen. Unfortunately not powerful enuf for any gaming but again, once Haswell his tablets/convertibles very soon you will be able to play some games.

yours seems to be intel atom based...an i7 with onboard graphics will fare much better in gaming, not great mind you, but it'll be miles ahead of yours.

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/yoga/yoga-13/

he said he wants 180gb + so you need the higher model of yoga

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...orkflow:item.detail?GroupID=457&Code=59366347

Which is more than found at etailers...odd


The sony is this:
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...&XID=O:svd11225cxb:dg_gglsrch:pla&cagpspn=pla

and the asus
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_TAICHI_21/

the 13" one is more expensive but the op did mention it had better battery life. One thing I left out is the taichi's ability to run both front and back displays at once. Not something I'd use often but cool nonetheless.

 

[drdeathx]

Asus makes kick ass high end laptops for the $2000 price point

 

[THE_EGG]

Ah I hadn't considered the yoga13 before. I must say it looks very cool being available in orange. I do like weird things so if you guys find any odd coloured conv. tablets let me know

My only gripe is that the keys might get pulled out of the keyboard if it isn't used on a smooth surface. But otherwise it is looking good.

Also just to let you guys know what prices are like here, an Asus TAICHI 21 with i7 and optional stylus is $1849, which I could probably get down to $1700 or $1750. And unfortunately a Sony Duo 11 i7 is above budget at around the $2300 mark.

 

[Fourstaff]

Dell XPS 12?

 

[THE_EGG]

TBH I'm not a fan of Dell's and AFAIK, it doesnt have an active digitizer or n-trig pen.
I should note that I will not be buying Dell or HP because of poor experience with customer service.

 

[Bo$$]

how about an asus EP121?

 

[yogurt_21]

well between the asus and the lenovo, you've got a variance of memory, screen resolution, screen size, multi-screen vs single, wireless only vs wireless + lan (albeit 10/100), battery life and weight.

Memory favors Yoga13 8GB vs 4GB on the Asus Taichi21

Screen resolution favors Asus Taichi21 for movies, applications/ yoga13 for gaming (able to play more games at native since the lower res is less work for the onboard intel graphics)

Screen Size favors yoga 13 for viewing area, Asus Taichi21 for portability and pixels per inch

Multi-Screen favors Asus Taichi21 (2 vs 1)

Network connection favors Asus Taichi21 (10/100 LAN + wireless vs just wireless on the yoga13)

Battery life favors Yoga13 (1 less screen to power + larger battery 3860mAh on the Yoga13 vs 3200mAh on the Asus Taichi21)

weight favors the Asus Taichi21 2.75lbs vs 3.3lbs on the yoga13

so pick your poison each has its own advantages

 

[de.das.dude]

if you can wait, i'd wait till AMD jaguar based tablets came out.