Question Help with new 2 in 1 Notebook for the Mrs

cutes6

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I'm so out or touch with these things apparently they are called 2 in 1's now.

My Mrs has an old acer notebook which she loves but it is sooooo slow now so looking to get her a new one for xmas. She uses it mainly for web browsing and keeping her web blog thingy up to date and typing occasional letters etc. Occasionaly she alters photos in photoshop etc. She seems to get lots of photos from god knows where so I am worried about these small hard drive capacities especially after you have installed Windows 10 and any possability of expanding the storeage capacity.

I have a budget of up to £300 max really and I am concerned that the one's I have looked at have a very small hard drive and I really don't understand the processors anymore so looking for some advice from anyone who has experience with them.

It must have a small screen which can flip or be detached and be comfortable with Windows 10 as I think this has finally crippled her current one and a maximum screen size of around 11"

On looking yesterday In PC World just got a bit confused and not sure I believed everything i was being told.

HP Pavilion x2 10-n155na 10.1” 2 in 1 - White

HP Pavilion x360 11-k064na 11.6" 2 in 1 - Green

These were the 2 that I looked at (apologies if you cant put links in your post)

Any advice would be appreciated
 
Hi

The x2 has an Atom processor (designed for smaller devices, not very powerful, not feature heavy, and with 2GB RAM will not do much for long - ideal for web browsing and word processing).

The x360 has the more powerful CPU of both of them and more RAM, and dedicated storage - even though it is a normal hard drive and 5400 it should still outperform the x2 quite a bit. This is a little heavier duty and will pack a punch for the price point (£200 cheaper than the surface 4)

Acer have some nice ones, I got my gf one and its an i3 processor 4gb RAM.

Honestly though, dont worry too much about storage, many people are going down the route of not storing things on their PC anymore (as permanent storage) and opting for a cheap NAS or cloud solution. Personally, I would opt for a cheap NAS to plug in to your router and set a job up on the 2-in-1 and your own PC/Laptop to backup its data folders to the NAS. Depending on the NAS it will allow you cloud functionality and/or render local storage a moot point (meaning the decision hopefully will be easier)
 
Hi thanks for your reply.

I have found making the best decision for the money quite difficult, added to this is trying to work out if the mrs will get used to using a device that can be normal computer, key board etc and also being able to detach the screen to use as a large iphone as it were with a touch screen. i am concerned that it will just sit in a cupboard somewhere.

I have noticed she is using the Iphone more and more for browsing etc and not her little notebook so with windows 10 out I am hoping that she will get used to using the touch screen bit on its own.

What I have decided to do is buy a secong hand one off these forums which I have done, it is only a year old so I am sure it will be much quicker than she is used to and also to see if she likes the idea of using it like an ipad mainly but with the option of also using a keyboard. If all goes well I would be prepared to spend quite a bit more on a better one. Thats the plan anyway LOL

Thanks for your help once again.
 
The x2 has an Atom processor (designed for smaller devices, not very powerful, not feature heavy, and with 2GB RAM will not do much for long - ideal for web browsing and word processing).

The x360 has the more powerful CPU of both of them and more RAM, and dedicated storage - even though it is a normal hard drive and 5400 it should still outperform the x2 quite a bit.

Kinda, sorta, maybe.

The x5-Z8300 and N3050 use the same CPU design (Goldmont), the difference being which other features are available on the chip and how they're configured.

The Atom range tends to be focused on low power consumption and support for small devices, so they have maximum core count, minimum clockspeed and support technologies like eMMC for storage.

The Celeron/Pentium branded versions of those chips are more about being a budget option for larger devices so they bring in support for SATA (hard drives) and similar and ramp up the clockspeed but drop the core count.

In terms of outright performance the x5-Z8300 is the faster of the two but the higher clockspeed of the N3050 is valuable in some tasks that are difficult to split up onto separate cores, such as a lot of web browsing, so it's not a straight fight. Here are some benchmarks.

I have found making the best decision for the money quite difficult, added to this is trying to work out if the mrs will get used to using a device that can be normal computer, key board etc and also being able to detach the screen to use as a large iphone as it were with a touch screen. i am concerned that it will just sit in a cupboard somewhere.

Yeah, with these usability is key. The tablet section should have minimum weight and maximum grip-ability while the keyboard should be full sized and nice to use as it's only going to get used for serious typing when the on screen keyboard doesn't suffice.

Forget the specs, they're very much secondary on a device like this.
 
Thanks for the info we will see how we get on, cheers
 
Kinda, sorta, maybe.
Forget the specs, they're very much secondary on a device like this.

I know, I know, I was trying to be a tad more basic on the description. Id always prefer Celeron over Atom for usability and that "just in case" scenario. Whilst I may dedicate a laptop to encoding so I can use my PC for gaming means I occasionally need more multi-core capability on it (i5 on my laptop). It was more personal preference for me going for the celeron - especially with the greater amount of storage. As you said - all comes down to usability and practicality :) with the specs secondary consideration.

Cutes6 said:
Thanks for the info we will see how we get on, cheers
No problem and good luck :)
 

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