Looking for a recommendation! Inking on a budget...

[CrippsCorner]

Hi I am planning to get my partner a new computer for her birthday (along with her parents helping out) we have a strict maximum budget of £450

She sold her old iPad a couple of years ago and has mentioned wanting another... which is certainly an option, but the iPad Pro, where you can use the Pencil, is out of our price range.

She has an old Dell laptop (about 6 years old) which is way past its sell by date! So it'd be great to update this at the same time and get her a computer, possibly with proper keyboard (I hate the iPad keyboard and it's way too expensive anyway)

So... what I'm asking for here is a Windows hybrid/laptop/tablet that comes with a digital pen (or has one that can be bought)

I myself have a new Surface Pro, but haven't bought the pen. I'd love to get her a Surface too, but again of course too expensive in this case. Because I knew I was getting a Surface I didn't really bother keeping track of other devices over the past couple of years so that's why I need a bit of help here :excited:

Cheers for any pointers.

 

[RumoredNow]

You'd have to make sure to get the pen separately, but the Chuwi Hi13 should fit your budget.

Actually, it looks like it is on sale right now on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/CHUWI-Tabl...ag=hawk-future-21&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3692619

Here is the official product page: Chuwi Hi13 Tablet 13.5 inch 3K Screen with Intel Apollo Lake N3450 Quad Core Windows10

And the WC review on the blog: https://www.windowscentral.com/chuwi-hi13

Personally, I'm waiting on Chuwi's newest product over on IndieGoGo, but I don't know that it would ship before your partner's b-day.... https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chuwi-surbook-affordable-2-in-1-intel-pc-tablet--3#/ I got in at $399 for the 128GB model with keyboard and pen. 12.3" might be a better fit than 13.5" when it comes to portability. I just don't know when Surbook will ship and Hi13 is available right this moment.

If you have enough left over in the budget:

• Hi13
• Pen
• Portable SSD for storage

I think that would be a pretty good budget package.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Thanks for that, not bad! Especially for the price. One thing she mentioned that drives her mad is bad palm rejection... I notice the review says, "Palm rejection on the Hi13 is OK" which doesn't give me too much confidence, but as an overall package it looks good.

Her birthday isn't actually for 4 months yet! So I'm looking a little way ahead; just trying to get ideas at this point :smile: maybe the other version you mentioned will be available in the UK at that point.

 

[RumoredNow]

The SurBook should start shipping to backers by the end of August and might be a better overall value with the more convenient size, ports, more storage, 6GB RAM, etc. I would look for Chuwi to apply lessons learned from the Hi13. The shift from Atom to Apollo Lake was done on the Hi13 for them so they have design and performance experience with the chip. They are about done testing and fine tuning after a small test run on their line. They have already improved cooling with a better heatsink and are tackling some camera issues.

One thing that drew me to the SurBook was the generous battery and the Type C port for faster data and charging support.

Retail on the SurBook with pen and keyboard is expected to be about $489 USD for the 128GB model. About $459 for the 64GB w/ pen and keyboard and $365 without.

If you don't want to preorder through IndieGoGo, they seem to just sell online so I wouldn't wait for it to come to your local shops. I would watch Amazon and other Etailers starting in September for the SurBook.

 

[HaroldOfTheRocks]

At under $400 on Amazon, a Surface 3 might work for you. You'll need to buy a pen but cheap n-trig pens are out there. Just get a 4GB model - I have the 2GB model with LTE and it's great for remoting in to work but it can't handle complex web pages fast.

 

[tflash]

I'm looking for the same thing. I found the ACER Switch 3 for about $450. It comes with a keyboard cover and a pen.
https://www.pcmag.com/review/355219/acer-switch-3

 

[Wevenhuis]

Hi I am planning to get my partner a new computer for her birthday (along with her parents helping out) we have a strict maximum budget of £450

She sold her old iPad a couple of years ago and has mentioned wanting another... which is certainly an option, but the iPad Pro, where you can use the Pencil, is out of our price range.

She has an old Dell laptop (about 6 years old) which is way past its sell by date! So it'd be great to update this at the same time and get her a computer, possibly with proper keyboard (I hate the iPad keyboard and it's way too expensive anyway)

So... what I'm asking for here is a Windows hybrid/laptop/tablet that comes with a digital pen (or has one that can be bought)

I myself have a new Surface Pro, but haven't bought the pen. I'd love to get her a Surface too, but again of course too expensive in this case. Because I knew I was getting a Surface I didn't really bother keeping track of other devices over the past couple of years so that's why I need a bit of help here :excited:

Cheers for any pointers.

Look for second or third hand surface pro 3 or 4. Might have older processors but all of them are otherwise solid devices. Still using two first gen surface pro devices, one bought original and second one a third of the original price. They are both the exact same model and perform equally well.

 

[bluefoam]

Put your £450 on the McGregor v's Mayweather fight... Use your incredible winnings to buy another Surface Book and pen... Simples

 

[MatP]

I've been researching for something similar. Here are a few suggestions I've run across:

- HP Spectre X2. There are two models, one is the 2017 that has a Core i7 and is WAY out of your price range. The other is, I think, from 2015. There are a few models available that include 6th gen Core M processors, 4GB RAM, and 128 GB SSDs. Refurbs are under $400 US.

- HP Elite X2. Mostly the same as the Spectre, but the Elite is the business model whereas the Spectre is for consumers. A difference that's kind of appealing to me is that the Elite has a standard USB port in addition to a USB-C port. The Spectre has two USB-C ports. The Elite also comes with the pen, where you must buy the pen separately with the Spectre. The Elites I've found cost more, closer to $600 US, but that's for an upgraded M7, 8GB, 256GB. I think there are models with the M5 or M3 that are less expensive. Both the Spectre and Elite come with keyboards and are detachable like the Surface Pro.

- Dell Latitude 12. Also with 6th gen Core M5, 4GB, 128GB. I'm looking at one on Newegg right now that's $350, also a refurb. This is tablet only and would require purchase of the keyboard and stylus, which would probably add another $100. The thing I don't like about this one is it's 16:9 screen aspect ratio. The HPs have 3:2, which I think are much better for use in portrait mode for tablets. I have and continue to use an old Venue Pro 8 that is just about bulletproof, but it's not much good in portrait with its 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

[Daniel Dawley]

asus transformer mini t102ha

10 inch tablet comes with keyboard and pen may be worth looking into. low end specs but is currently $250 us on Microsoft store, can't beat the price.

 

[hafttheworld]

I own a brand new Cube Mix Plus and I am very satisfied with it.
Core M3 7th gen. 128G SSD. 4G DDR4. Wacom EMR pen with eraser. 10.6"
Around 350$

 

[RumoredNow]

I'm looking for the same thing. I found the ACER Switch 3 for about $450. It comes with a keyboard cover and a pen. It has the N4200 CPU. The Chuwi has a N3450 CPU.

Yes there is a slight performance advantage with the N4200: 2.5GHZ turbo vs N3450 at 2.2GHz turbo and 750MHz burst on the GPU w/ 18 execution units vs N3450 at 700MHz burst and 12 execution units. All else looks exactly equal

But vs the Chuwi, with the Acer you give up 2k screen for FHD, 64GB less storage, one less USB 3.0 port, 2GB less RAM, less than 1/2 the battery and it looks like the Acer stylus is only 256 levels of pressure vs 1024 with the Chuwi stylus...

Not sure I like the trade-offs.

 

[MatP]

asus transformer mini t102ha

10 inch tablet comes with keyboard and pen may be worth looking into. low end specs but is currently $250 us on Microsoft store, can't beat the price.

I agree this looks great if you're interested in a 10 inch tablet. I would just add that the deal on the Microsoft Store is for a 64GB drive. They do sell this model with 128GB if someone thinks they need more, however, that extra storage does come in about $100 more. It has an Atom processor. While the Atom in my Dell Venue is not fast by any means, I'm impressed with how well it does do. That said, I would like to take a shot at an m5 or m7 on my next tablet. That's personal preference, of course. The Atom will handle light browsing, email, Office, etc. just fine.

 

[tflash]

Yes there is a slight performance advantage with the N4200: 2.5GHZ turbo vs N3450 at 2.2GHz turbo and 750MHz burst on the GPU w/ 18 execution units vs N3450 at 700MHz burst and 12 execution units. All else looks exactly equal

But vs the Chuwi, with the Acer you give up 2k screen for FHD, 64GB less storage, one less USB 3.0 port, 2GB less RAM, less than 1/2 the battery and it looks like the Acer stylus is only 256 levels of pressure vs 1024 with the Chuwi stylus...

Not sure I like the trade-offs.

The stylus looks different than the one for the Switch Alpha 12 from last year. Where did you find your info? The storage is still emmc and not SSD, so not much different than an added SD card for speed. You only run into real trouble for updates and 64bit Windows when you try to use 32GB storage and 2GB RAM. The screen uses more battery to run a higher resolution. Support seems like it would be difficult to get from Chuwi. Also, Acer has US employees and an office in CA, and is based in the 'cool' (Taiwan) part of China.

 

[RumoredNow]

The stylus looks different than the one for the Switch Alpha 12 from last year. Where did you find your info? The storage is still emmc and not SSD, so not much different than an added SD card for speed. You only run into real trouble for updates and 64bit Windows when you try to use 32GB storage and 2GB RAM. The screen uses more battery to run a higher resolution. Support seems like it would be difficult to get from Chuwi. Also, Acer has US employees and an office in CA, and is based in the 'cool' (Taiwan) part of China.

I'd like to see spec on the pen... Acer didn't seem to have the info so I searched Amazon for the exact name of the stylus and found the 256 levels of pressure.

My main thing since this is "inking on a budget" was that the 2k display gives more pixels per inch and that is definitely a bonus. At more than double the battery I doubt the increased screen is doubling the drain so still a win in my mind. If the Acer Pen for the Switch 3 is 1024 levels of pressure or more that does level the field somewhat. I still like the 6GB RAM on the Chuwi though.

 

[Joe Blo2]

Pen and paper.

 

[CrippsCorner]

This situation changed a bit! Had to let her know about out plans in the end... she's happy to put money into this now. So our budget is up to about £750. She's liking the Lenovo Yoga's at the moment, 510 or 720. Any hands on experience?

 

[CrippsCorner]

So... she went with the Yoga 720. Nice little machine I must say! Actually kind of prefer the looks to my Surface Pro. It is strange hearing fans firing up now though after having a fanless computer, got to say I don't miss that at all.

 

[tflash]

That's one way to solve the problem - throw money at it.
Keyboards on laptops that fold back are cool, but I guess they thought that 'inking on a budget' wasn't for them after-all. This forum failed to make a meaningful suggestion for the OP in that respect.

 

[CrippsCorner]

She nearly went for the 510 series, but apparently the touchscreen features are better on the 720. Also because I told her about the plans, she was happy to add some money to it to get something she really wanted... makes sense I guess.

After looking myself though, I would have probably bought her the Yoga Book; looks like a very interesting device! But probably a bit too small for her.