Thursday, February 21, 2013

Want to but a tablet cum laptop, please suggest.

I am considering a tablet-cum-laptop along the lines of the Lenovo Ideapad Yogaand the Dell XPS 12 Convertible. Are these devices good? Or should I be considering a separate laptop and tablet instead?


- Bashir Patel, A Sivakumaran, Karen Almeida
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga is quite innovative with its ability to flip back its screen by a full 360 degrees, letting you use it as a tablet. In this mode, its keyboard becomes the back plate of the tablet - and although disabled, it can be a bit distracting because you can still feel the play of the keys when you hold it like a slate. Also, the Yoga is quite heavy to be used as a truly portable tablet. Besides, it is extremely hard to read its reflective display in direct sunlight.

That said, in terms of hardware, there are hardly any complaints, the Yoga can handle almost any computing task you might throw at it, whether office productivity, web browsing, or even multimedia tasks.

Similarly, the Dell XPS 12 is a well-specced machine, and won't leave you wanting in any aspect when used as a touchscreen laptop. The flip mechanism of the screen, however, doesn't lockdown too well in notebook mode. A light tap from anyone on the other side and it'll flip.

Also the build quality of its bezel - that is, the frame for its screen - does not seem too solid or durable enough for daily use. And much like the Yoga, it is too big and heavy to be used as a tablet for some on-the-go reading or gaming.

So what should you buy?
Granted, carrying a single device instead of two seems quite convenient - and if your primary use is going to be as a laptop, then the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga and the Dell XPS 12 are good machines to buy.
It should be noted, however, that their bulkiness - in terms of dimension and weight - make them far too unwieldy as tablets.

In the end, you would be paying for a laptop that can turn into a tablet, but you'd never use it as the latter. Also, the Windows 8 app market is still at a nascent stage, and you won't find as many apps for your 'tablet' as you would if you were using an Android or iOS device.

So for the money you would spend on the IdeaPad Yoga (86,000 approx) or the XPS 12 (93,000 approx), we would instead recommend you buy a good ultrabook for around 50,000 (such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U310, Dell Inspiron 14z or Samsung NP530U4C) and a highend tablet (Apple iPad, iPad Mini or Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1); these will give you more bang for your buck - at least for the moment.

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