14" FHD touchscreen laptop, preferably 2-in-1, mid-range

justtoreply on 02/02/2022 - 12:07
Last edited 02/02/2022 - 12:39 by 1 other user

My partner needs a laptop.

Her requirements:
- 14"
- FHD
- Touchscreen
- Not entirely shit gamut/brightness panel (eg: common on Asus to have 250 nits and 45% gamut - not good)
Higher than FHD, panel types such as Oled, or 100% gamut would be wasted on her

2 in 1 would be ideal, I'm sure she'd like that, but it's not a requirement either
Other than that, her requirement is 'not slow'. She does some web page creation using online tools. That's about it. No gaming. No video creation etc.

HDD: No real hdd size requirement either. 256gb would be enough. More is great but not a requirement
Ram: is 8b enough these days? Given she's not editing videos.. her current machine is 4gb and sure it's got a slow cpu but even with an SSD it literally crawls along at every task.. I'm thinking the ram is the limiting factor.

I'm sure we can find Edu access etc if needed.

• 

  Hybroid on 02/02/2022 - 12:14

  Microsoft Surface.

  • 

    justtoreply on 02/02/2022 - 13:54

    Not sure, she'd be used to a fairly solid form factor. I'm not sure what the type cover is like but would guess the hinge makes the overall unit too floppy

    • 

      Hybroid on 02/02/2022 - 23:01

      Surface Laptop exists. It's 13.5 or 15".

      https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/d/surface-laptop-4/946627fb1…

      • 

        justtoreply on 03/02/2022 - 02:03

        Thanks. $1500-1800 is pushing the M$ friendship

  • 

    justtoreply on 02/02/2022 - 14:42

    Also nowhere near 14"

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  JownehFixIT on 02/02/2022 - 12:27

  I've been eyeing off Lenovo Yogas the last couple of days. Any interest in a mid spec one of those? I was looking at the Yoga Slim 7 Pro: Ryzen 7 5800H for $1619 Delivered using BACK2SCHOOL eCoupon, or $1547.10 with education store login. But it's way more power than you're probably chasing. No touch screen either I think.

  • 

    justtoreply on 02/02/2022 - 12:46

    +1

    Yeah, I've been eyeing Yogas. The touchscreen-less lenovo deals are killing me.

    • 

      SingleMalty on 02/02/2022 - 16:50

      Recently purchased the Yoga 7i EVO (the cheaper i5 8Gb version) for $13xx during end-of-year sales. The main difference between this and the Slim is the metal body (Slim is plastic), so it's slightly heavier but feels a bit more solid. I'm sure there are other differences, but I didn't give it much thought as the 7i EVO was cheaper due to the sale discount.

      Oh, and it comes with a nifty pen, which is handy in tablet mode.

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  freefall101 on 02/02/2022 - 14:54

  Given she's not editing videos.. her current machine is 4gb and sure it's got a slow cpu but even with an SSD it literally crawls along at every task.. I'm thinking the ram is the limiting factor.

  Take a look at how much memory she's using and whether she's using virtual memory at all.

  I'd definitely think 4GB is a limiting factor if using web based video editing tools (browsers are memory hogs these days) but it might not be the cause of just feeling sluggish all the time. A slow CPU really does make a difference.

  I was going to suggest a secondhand Latitude or something (I grabbed one last year, couple of hundred bucks, threw in some extra ram and a bigger SSD and as it is a 7th gen i7 it's more than fast enough for me) but it might be worth going something newer.

  • 

    JownehFixIT on 03/02/2022 - 17:32

    OP said not editing videos though. But still I'd want minimum 8gb for day to day stuff. 16gb dual channel ideally, but harder to find especially in smaller form factors at the $1k mark or below.

    • 

      freefall101 on 03/02/2022 - 18:21

      I'm a quick one, I even quoted where it said no video editing…

      Basically any web based stuff does too though, including web editing. It's why I like my older latitude, not the thinnest but light enough, has all the ports and I can throw in more ram/storage to my hearts content.

      • 

        JownehFixIT on 04/02/2022 - 08:00

        That does sound like a decent machine. My current lappy is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 with silly Anime matrix pixel art lid that I never use and have to constantly disable because the setting to turn it off never holds 😂

        Other than that it's pretty awesome though. Spent a long time weighing up which to get, as all the 1080p 120hz models had worse GTX 1650 videocards. Found a Ryzen 7 4800HS + GTX 1660 ti one with that screen though, at pbtech in NZ. Still goes well after almost two years.