Thinking about buying a 2-in-1...or whatever they're called

[pincushionman]

So I'm thinking about buying a 2-in-1 laptop. One of those ones that flips over from being a laptop into a tablet. Do any of you have any experience with these?

I found one at BestBuy.com that seems pretty sporty, at least in my price range...but it's refurbished. But even the new ones they have are $500. On the HP site they're in the mid-$500 on sale. I'm really trying to stay under half a grand, though, if I can.

That particular model caught my eye because it has an i3 in it, as opposed to most of the others which run on Celerons or Pentiums. But I've been so out of the loop on processors I'm not really sure whether it makes a huge difference between the 3 types. If something like this has any hope of running KSP, even on minimum settings, it would be pretty kickin'. But I assume that would be a huge stretch for any of this type of computer, especially in the sub-$500 range.

But it has to play Minecraft. Smoothly. One of the reasons I'm considering it is because when I play with my son, I'm on my desktop and he's on his laptop on a little table on the other side of the room, which is pretty awkward. I'd really like to set up right next to him so I can help him out more.

So if an i3 or better is needed for either or both of those things, this seems like a good deal to me. If I can get away with a Celeron or Pentium, however (or if KSP is right out and I shouldn't even try), I can probably get away with something cheaper or save that money for more RAM or HD space. When I'm flying rockets on my desktop, a second screen with spreadsheets, wiki, and forum access (or maybe that instruments plugin, whatever it's called) would be kinda nice.

Just for reference, my desktop is a homebuilt with a 3.2 GHz AMD Phenom II x4 955, 8 GiB RAM, and an NVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+. It's five years old last month. Plays KSP just fine, in my opinion. I'd like to think this will continue to far outclass any of the laptop options I'm looking at, but again, it's been some time since I've been shopping for computers.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Newt]

My main question would be: why a 2-in-1?

I have not used many such computers, but, I would caution you on getting one unless you have a clear need for the tablet interface on a more powerful, yet mobile, computer. At four pounds, it may verge on being somewhat awkward to carry around as a tablet style computer anyway. I would generally lean to a more traditional laptop.

As for the processors, that is not something that I know too much about myself. I might suggest looking for reviews of the computers by different people like on forums for gamers generally (wait, that is why you are here, partly...), to see if the performance seems acceptable to people with similar needs.

[T-Bouw]

Can't you move some stuff on the desk to make room for the laptop?

Perhaps install some fold out table?

It needn't be an expensive solution.

Minecraft has pretty high requirements since it uses a Java-engine.

I've an i7 laptop with 4GB RAM and it runs Minecraft OK. Just ok though, not good or bad. Graphics are tuned lower than normal for a smooth experience.

I don't know how an i3 will perform.

Don't get me wrong. I loved it when my dad and I played together! There's nothing like it and I'll always fondly remember those times!

Edited February 4, 2015 by T-Bouw

[jmiki8]

I have been thinking of a "very mobile" (~13 inch) notebook or a 2in1 too lately since I'm a student riding the bike to the university on daily basis (therefore can't afford a 15+ inch device). Too bad I couldn't find a good one, and I can tell you why: mobility + hardware costs a lot together. Basically this simple rule applies:

-Mobility

-Performance

-Low price

You can pick only two.

Btw the i3 isn't a bad proccessor, better ones can outrival some i5 models (of the same generation). I used an i3 laptop for light AutoCAD work, and it was decent. It's not that bad for gaming either. Again, better models are capable of running MC on medium to high settings (provided that there are enough RAM and GPU performance). They are a huge leap from the pentium family. Apart of much better energy efficiency (=added mobility), the i3 sports features like hyper threading which the pentium lacks. It's pretty useful when it comes to multitasking. Also, the i3 series usually have better integrated GPUs.

Edited February 5, 2015 by jmiki8

[cantab]

We have a 10 inch Acer Iconia hybrid. First up I don't recommend it because we are on our fourth charger for the thing, costing an extortionate £30 each.

It runs Windows 8, and it's probably the only sort of system that the Win8 interface makes sense on. Even then, it's still a bit schizophrenic. My mum mainly uses it as a tablet and has got on reasonably well with it, when she's never been much good with using keyboard and mouse in the past. I more often use it as a laptop, and it's not great - the relatively heavy tablet and light keyboard make it liable to tip backwards, and the keyboard is inevitably cramped. Still, it does the job for basic tasks.

No idea how well that thing would game. It's an Atom processor, so not much performance there. I tried the KSP demo on it and it ran like a dog.

[pincushionman]

My main question would be: why a 2-in-1?

This is a fair question. I do a lot of Web browsing and video watching on my iPhone, and the touch interface works quite well for that; even for non-mobile-optimized websites the main drawback is the small screen size. Either a tablet or a laptop obviously remedies that. But I find a laptop somewhat awkward unless you're using it on a table, despite the name. Lounging on the bed or on the couch? Keyboard kinda gets in the way. Go tablet.

But there's one important thing a touch interface does poorly: data entry. Reading posts on this forum? Really great. Writing posts on this forum? Really yuck. Gimme a laptop.

Laptops can also run "real" programs, not being limited to "apps."

I'm going to renege on the "must play minecraft smoothly" comment. After thinking about it a little more, it's more of a "can I also do X without breaking the bank?" question.

It just seems like a 2-in-1 would offer a lot of flexibility.

[cantab]

Something to keep in mind is that almost all "pure" tablets can have a separate keyboard and mouse attached if you like. I'm typing this right now on a bog-standard PC keyboard attached via a USB OTG adapter to my Android phone. I just plugged it in and it works.

[pincushionman]

Well...I went ahead and bought it. I'll let you know what I think after I've had a chance to drive it for a few days.

[Newt]

Okay. I hope it works out well.

In regard to the needs that you cited, the one that you found looked reasonably good, as though there are many, most of them are pretty expensive or heavy or not so powerful.

[pincushionman]

Well, I promised a review of sorts. It appears to do everything I need reasonably well:

Hooray for IMAP, now I can e-mail from my phone and either computer!

Work, work!

Yay, math!

Does this count as the Droste Effect?

The screen-flip and tablet modes are actually excellent for this.

Like a boss! Actually, I needed to futz around with the settings quite a bit to make this work acceptably.

...KSP.

No, really, that's running locally. I was so about to stream it from my good computer to troll you all with that shot, but I tried installing it and it legitimately works. It's not optimal and runs a little stuttery, but for a rocket fix when I'm on the go, it'll do.

You guys are right, it's a little on the heavy side compared to a tablet, but not so much that I'm going to mind that much. An 11-inch unit (this one is 13.3) would be better if that matters to any of you, but you're pretty much limited to Celerons or Pentiums rather than the i3. Battery life seems pretty good, if you're not doing the high-power things like the games or lots of the YouTube. I'm satisfied to far.