Recommend a Win 8 tablet/laptop hybrid for business/web design?

[ship69]

> Samsung ATIV Smart Pro Tablet PC with Clamshell Keyboard / Intel Core i5-3317UM / 11.6" LED / 4GB / 64GB / Windows 8 Professional / Free 5 Year Warranty / Free 5 Year Warranty - www.misco.co.uk

Looks like a bit of a bargain but no use to me because
a) screen too small - esp running at full 1080p the text will be way too small.
b) only 4GB

Also slightly heavy at 1.6Kg.

 

[jimbo45]

sucks to live in the UK...

Hi there
I don't live there
but remember the USA is also not as cheap as the prices shown on their websites invariably DO NOT INCLUDE state and federal tax. This often makes direct comparsons unreliable since European prices are invariably shown INCLUDING applicable taxes (unless you live somewhere like Texas).

@ship69 --How can a device costing over 1200 USD which has LESS functionality than a 430 USD laptop be considered a "Bargain" in any shape or form.

Perhaps I need to go back to the dictionary to discover what defines "A Bargain". !!


cheers
jimbo

 

[dirtyvu]

Surface Pro details released. not a big enough screen for some of you, but looking mighty sexy:

x86 Surface Pro: $899 for 64GB, $999 for 128GB, no keyboard included | Ars Technica

Available some time in January, the Surface with Windows 8 Pro, as it will be known, will cost $899 for the version with 64GB storage. Doubling the storage tacks $100 on to the purchase price.
The Surface Pro will be very similar to the Surface RT, with the same VaporMg finish, kickstand, and aesthetic. There are a few differences, however. Unlike the ARM version, the x86 device includes an active digitizer with pen support and an included pen, a USB 3 port, a screen resolution of 1920×1080 (as opposed to Surface RT's 1366×768), 10-point multitouch (instead of 5), and mini-DisplayPort for external screens (rather than mini-HDMI, as on Surface RT). Powering the device will be an as-yet unspecified Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor and 4GB RAM. The system will weigh 2lbs, and is about 14mm thick.
Neither the $899 nor the $999 price includes a Touch Cover or Type Cover keyboard. These will be sold separately.

@jimbo, show me a decent $430 laptop.

 

[ship69]

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Touch looks potentially interesting...

BUT I cant see why 8GB of RAM, 256 of SSD, Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge a nice big 14" screen... I might even be able to get some real work done on that. And it's TOUCH so if it I could learn my way around Win8, and if the screen folds back on itself maybe use it as a slightly over-sized tablet... BUT the damned thing is only 1600 x 900. So any HD video will not look HD.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch Ultrabook confirmed, available in December | Digital Trends
DAMN it.

So for now the best looking appears to be the Sony Z Series. Even though it is horribly, horribly expensive - c. GBP 2000 by the time you have all the things you want... AND it's not touch sensitive. :[ Maybe I'll just have to wait until after Xmas and see if the Sony prices come down any...

[Deep sigh]

 

[dirtyvu]

nomenclature-wise, 720P and above is HD.

 

[ship69]

Sorry - yes I stand corrected - I believe i should have said "Full HD" rather than "HD".

Either way, I take it that you get my meaning - I mean 1920 x 1080 pixels.

J

 

[jimh1943]

Guess you want to spend $1500 --- or more! But if you have a spare hour stop by Staples and take a close look a the Lenovo Twist for $799 until Dec 24. Got one Friday and it is great - fast, super bright screen, and with this page at full zoom no ragged edges to the print. I got the 500gb hd and am getting about 5 to 6 hours with heavy use. But it charges fast.

 

[MrShowdown]

What the heck??
Surface Pro has a bigger screen resolution than my laptop!

 

[gazz9496]

What the heck??
Surface Pro has a bigger screen resolution than my laptop!

yeah it's basicly a retina display, apple aren't the only ones that can put high res on a small screen, trouble with high res like that on such a small screen is the interwebs basicly doesn't give a crap about you, so icons/gifs and small pics around 1-300 pixel range look utterly nasty.

if you can put up with that then you'll enjoy it.

 

[dirtyvu]

you can get the bigger icons, etc. back by going to Display in the Control Panel and choosing Medium or Larger instead of the default Smaller.

1920x1080 on a 10" screen can be maddening.

 

[Coke Robot]

What the heck??
Surface Pro has a bigger screen resolution than my laptop!

Same here, it has a higher resolution than my desktop's monitor...

 

[ship69]

you can get the bigger icons, etc. back by going to Display in the Control Panel and choosing Medium or Larger instead of the default Smaller.

1920x1080 on a 10" screen can be maddening.

Yes but you can only go so far with that approach... I think that depends on how things are coded. e.g. SOMETIMES you get text disappearing out of the bottom of a box because the box's height has been defined in pixels and the text no longer fits inside. And this can be disasterous as sometime you simply cant see things - important things like Submit buttons!

Personally I'm planning to go no smaller than a 13" screen - which is a good minumum size in any case ergonomically - and to go 1080p (1920x1080) with slightly enlarged text AND use a good pair of reading glasses. I think 1080p is a good compromise because at least one can watch Full HD (1080p) video at native resolution.

However I'm still waiting for the technology to catch up as I want a decent spec work horse, but I want touch/tablet mode and dont want to go over 1.5Kg.

Right now there is literally nothing on the market that does the job for love nor money.

My research is currently as follows:
- The new Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Touch comes close... but it's only 1,600x900 and the screen isnt 360Deg.
- Lenovo Yoga is 360Deg screen but only 1,600x900
- Sony Vaio Z Series is 1080p and is v tempting (if you can swall the high price) but doesnt have Touch
- Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A has the same problem
- Asus Taichi with its 2 1080p screens is SO CLOSE.... but the inner screen in loptop mode is NOT touch - a totally bonkers design.
- MS Surface Pro is 1080p but - only 10" which is too small and also is only 4GB of RAM.
- Dell XPS12 looks there on paper - although a slightly small 12.5" screen - but it is horribly lacking in ports (e.g. No ethernet/HDMI/VGA)... also the screen is "very reflective", battery life "moderate" and I think there was some moanning about the touch interface not being brilliant.

J

 

[R0bR]

- Dell XPS12 looks there on paper - although a slightly small 12.5" screen - but it is horribly lacking in ports (e.g. No ethernet/HDMI/VGA)... also the screen is "very reflective", battery life "moderate" and I think there was some moanning about the touch interface not being brilliant.

J

It has a display port which means you can get a display port to HDMI or display port to VGA adapter if you need those connections. As for ethernet you have the option of USB to Ethernet, that's what I use on my current Dell XPS. I have this laptop on order to replace my current work ultrabook.

 

[MrShowdown]

you can get the bigger icons, etc. back by going to Display in the Control Panel and choosing Medium or Larger instead of the default Smaller.

1920x1080 on a 10" screen can be maddening.

Yes but you can only go so far with that approach... I think that depends on how things are coded. e.g. SOMETIMES you get text disappearing out of the bottom of a box because the box's height has been defined in pixels and the text no longer fits inside. And this can be disasterous as sometime you simply cant see things - important things like Submit buttons!

Personally I'm planning to go no smaller than a 13" screen - which is a good minumum size in any case ergonomically - and to go 1080p (1920x1080) with slightly enlarged text AND use a good pair of reading glasses. I think 1080p is a good compromise because at least one can watch Full HD (1080p) video at native resolution.

However I'm still waiting for the technology to catch up as I want a decent spec work horse, but I want touch/tablet mode and dont want to go over 1.5Kg.

Right now there is literally nothing on the market that does the job for love nor money.

My research is currently as follows:
- The new Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Touch comes close... but it's only 1,600x900 and the screen isnt 360Deg.
- Lenovo Yoga is 360Deg screen but only 1,600x900
- Sony Vaio Z Series is 1080p and is v tempting (if you can swall the high price) but doesnt have Touch
- Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A has the same problem
- Asus Taichi with its 2 1080p screens is SO CLOSE.... but the inner screen in loptop mode is NOT touch - a totally bonkers design.
- MS Surface Pro is 1080p but - only 10" which is too small and also is only 4GB of RAM.
- Dell XPS12 looks there on paper - although a slightly small 12.5" screen - but it is horribly lacking in ports (e.g. No ethernet/HDMI/VGA)... also the screen is "very reflective", battery life "moderate" and I think there was some moanning about the touch interface not being brilliant.

J

My laptop has only 2GB's of RAM!

 

[ship69]

How much RAM do you need?

My laptop has only 2GB's of RAM!

I could never cope with so little RAM.

On reflection, I think my main problem is that I have to using msExchange for work and I as webmaster have quite a lot of emails. I have 9 GB in Outlook .PST files plus about 1.8GB is Outlook (2010) .OST files. Fwiw, I also have about 1.5GB of my own docs.

Moreover the searching facilities built into Windows 7 (x64) and Outlook2012 are so useless that I like to use my own desktop search utility. After trailing everything in sight about 4 years ago I ended up buying something called
"X1 Desktop Search". It takes a while to index all my files (probably about half a day/overnight) and it's extremely powerful once it has done it. BUT it is extremely hungry on resources. I have been trialing something called UltraFinder which looked promising but my trial has timed out before I could get around to testing it properly.

All in all I need 8GB of RAM as a minimum.

What do you guys use for desktop searching?
And how much RAM do you think you need?

J

 

[gazz9496]

i use the default windows search function, works fine...but then i have heard of others having issues with it and i have no idea why it stops working properly.

i use 12gb ram, for vm's and such.

 

[dirtyvu]

My laptop has only 2GB's of RAM!

I could never cope with so little RAM.

On reflection, I think my main problem is that I have to using msExchange for work and I as webmaster have quite a lot of emails. I have 9 GB in Outlook .PST files plus about 1.8GB is Outlook (2010) .OST files. Fwiw, I also have about 1.5GB of my own docs.

Moreover the searching facilities built into Windows 7 (x64) and Outlook2012 are so useless that I like to use my own desktop search utility. After trailing everything in sight about 4 years ago I ended up buying something called
"X1 Desktop Search". It takes a while to index all my files (probably about half a day/overnight) and it's extremely powerful once it has done it. BUT it is extremely hungry on resources. I have been trialing something called UltraFinder which looked promising but my trial has timed out before I could get around to testing it properly.

All in all I need 8GB of RAM as a minimum.

What do you guys use for desktop searching?
And how much RAM do you think you need?

J

I think you're confusing storage and RAM.

 

[corax]

I might have missed it, but has anybody mentioned the Sony Viao Duo 11 yet? Reviewed here Sony Vaio Duo 11 Review - Windows Tablet and Ultrabook Reviews by MobileTechReview

 

[dirtyvu]

I tried it out at the Sony store. really slick machine. I didn't know how to open it at first! luckily I didn't break it. once you realize how it works, it's really neat. feels like high quality but felt heavy to me. i read the specs and the weight but in person, it felt heavier than the specs say. maybe that's because of the quality of the material which feels expensive. the keyboard was good. the screen was gorgeous.

another thing to keep in mind versus other convertibles. the screen is always exposed. so if you're a fastidious person who likes a really clean screen, having an exposed screen is something to keep in mind. the screen is protected with gorilla glass though unlike a traditional laptop screen that has little protection. a rotating screen convertible has the awkward rotation of the screen but when you close it, the screen is hidden away like a laptop.

i think if you're more into the hardware power and are more leaning toward a laptop, this would make a great machine. but if you're more on the lighter/smaller side of things and more toward the tablet side of the computing experience, it's kind of bulky. in that case, go for one of the tablet/docking setups like the Acer or Samsung.

 

[R0bR]

The new Acer S7 with touch screen, i7, 256GB SSD and 1080HD looks well spec'd, too bad it only has 4 GB Ram though.