Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking The combination of flexible form-factor and performance represented by 2-in-1 PCs has become especially appealing as more consumers and business have shifted to hybrid workplaces during the pandemic. According to IDC, “Notebooks and Detachables recorded an unprecedented growth in the pandemic situation as digitisation, mobility and flexibility are key drivers in the market, and consequently, the already declining desktop category saw a further decline.” For a long time, laptops and desktops PC were the only two options available to everyday consumers. Then, following the arrival of tablets like the Apple iPad, 2-in-1s arrived to shake things up. Nowadays, most major OEMs include some 2-in-1 PCs in their product mix. If you’re finding it difficult to determine whether a 2-in-1 PC will be a better fit for your needs than a pure laptop or tablet, here are five things you should keep in mind. Tablets like the Apple iPad are much lighter than other kinds of portable computers, but they do come with some serious limitations. For example, iPads can only run iOS and iOS apps, don’t have many ports and lack a physical keyboard. In contrast, Convertible 2-in-1 PCs like the Dell Inspirion 14 2-in-1 run on Windows 10 and boast a laptop-like keyboard that can be folded away when not in use, allowing the device to transform between being a tablet and being a laptop. The form-factor is a little closer to the latter than the former, but that often comes accompanied by gains in performance. Meanwhile, Detachable 2-in-1 PCs such as the Microsoft Surface try to find a middle ground between tablets and convertibles by using a detachable design where the keyboard can be removed at a moment’s notice. There’s a little more portable than convertibles, but they’re also often a little less powerful. If you’re only ever really using your PC at home or the office, maybe cellular data isn’t that a big deal. Tend to work from cafés or need to present to a client? Then having reliable and consistent connectivity can be a decent value-add that gives 2-in-1 PCs a slight edge over other more conventional laptops. Just like a smartphone, 2-in-1 laptops with cellular connectivity have a SIM-card slot that accepts either a Micro or Nano SIM card. Check out some of the most popular data-only SIM plans in our guide to the best. ARM-based PCs can sometimes load faster and last longer than their x86 counterparts. However, they’re limited in a practical sense because most legacy Windows software isn’t optimised or compatible with ARM processors. Processor type is crucial if you plan to attempt any gaming on your 2-in-1 laptop or tablet for many similar reasons. It’s possible that some less demanding or older titles might play nice with an integrated GPU. However, going into buying a 2-in-1 laptop, it’s probably going to be worth considering whether the ability to game on the go is something you care about or are willing to live without. While some high-end convertible can provide some surprisingly decent performance, the reality is that most 2-in-1s can’t match the capabilities of a dedicated gaming laptop or desktop PC since they aren’t large enough to accommodate a dedicated GPU or cooling system. Tablets like the Apple iPad Pro now go up to around 12-inches in screen size. Meanwhile, 2-in-1 laptop PCs tend to cap out around 15-inches. Since traditional laptops can go all the way up to around 17-inches, that’s going to make them the best option for those who want a big-screen experience. 2-in-1 laptops will also always feature a touchscreen since they have to be able to double up as a tablet from time to time. Most tablets only feature 1-2 ports and some laptops tout up to a dozen, 2-in-1 laptops tend to fall somewhere in the middle. Unless you’re willing to invest in expanding your setup with dongles or docking solutions, this can limit your options when it comes to how much you can and can’t do with a 2-in-1 laptop at any given moment.
