What to Look For in a 2-in-1 Laptop in 2023

2-in-1 laptops are often thin, light devices with a touchscreen and a hinge mechanism that lets them work in both a “laptop” and “tablet” mode. They may also come with a stylus or a detachable keyboard, but these are not always guaranteed. It’s also important to note that due to the unique build of 2-in-1 laptops, they have a bit of a premium attached compared to normal laptops with similar specs.

But like any other laptop, you’ll want to keep an eye on important hardware to make sure your 2-in-1 works the way you need it to. While processors and graphics cards are important, the laptop’s touch screen is the most critical aspect, as you’ll be using the screen more often than the keyboard or trackpad. You’ll need to ensure you have at least a Full HD resolution screen with decent color saturation and brightness—anything below this will make it difficult to use the 2-in-1 in tablet mode.

Pros

• ✓ Great 16:10 OLED screen
• ✓ Stylus included
• ✓ Stellar performance and battery life

Lenovo is well-known as a high-quality laptop brand, and the Lenovo Yoga 9i is the best 2-in-1 laptop you can buy. The 2022 Lenovo Yoga 9i has a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, and options between either 512GB or 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.

The Yoga 9i has two 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio OLED touchscreen options. You can pick between a 2.8K resolution screen running at a 90Hz refresh rate or a 4K resolution screen with a 60Hz refresh rate. Both options are fantastic in terms of color accuracy, with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. The screens also get bright, reaching up to 400 nits.

The Lenovo Yoga 9i is more of a productivity machine than a gaming laptop, and as such, you don’t get a dedicated GPU—just Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics card. While it won’t be able to run the latest AAA titles, you can play some older and less graphically intensive titles.

Battery life on this Lenovo laptop is also very good and should get most folks a day’s use out of it. It also gets quick charging technology called Rapid Charge Boost, which gives two hours of battery life with 15 minutes of charge.

As our sister site Review Geek’s Lenovo Yoga 9i review notes, this 2-in-1 laptop, while pricey, is worth it. It offers stellar performance and has an aluminum chassis that controls the thermals, which means it is very comfortable to use in tablet mode.

With budget laptops, there are always compromises, but the ASUS Vivobook Flip 14 has the perfect balance of compromises and affordability. The ASUS Vivobook Flip 14 has several versions, differentiated mainly by CPU options. We recommend the model powered by the 11th Gen Intel Core i3 CPU.

The i3 CPU version is available for under $500, with sales bringing the laptop below $400, making it a stellar value. You’ll only get 4GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage at that price but some compromises need to be made at this price point. You get a lightweight chassis and a reliable hinge, as expected from ASUS. The weight distribution is stellar, and you get a solid feel in laptop or tablet mode.

There are a few design issues, like sharp corners and deck flex, but these won’t hinder your user experience. When I tested the ASUS Vivobook Flip 14, I tried the more expensive Ryzen 5000 version, which didn’t impress at the $600 price point. However, the i3 version is a better value than its direct competitors, including the Surface Go 3.

The ASUS Vivobook Flip 14 has stellar battery life, too. ASUS promise a battery that lasts all day, and unless you’re doing CPU-heavy tasks, it should hold up to that figure. The screen isn’t the brightest or most color-accurate, but it will get the job done.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i costs a bit more than our budget pick, but it comes with better hardware, sufficient to handle most student workloads. Lenovo’s Flex laptops are incredible 2-in-1s, and this one is fantastic for a typical student’s workload, especially with the options you can choose from.

For CPUs, you can choose between the i3, i5, and i7 12th Gen Intel Core models. The base i3 version is under $600 and is enough to get the job done, but the i5 version is the sweet spot regarding the price-to-performance ratio. You also get 8GB RAM, although it’s DDR4 and not from the newer DDR5 family, and 512GB NVMe SSD storage, although that is the faster Gen 4 model.

The screen on this laptop isn’t the best you can get, but it suffices. It’s great at touch response, and the brightness is decent, but the color coverage is average. While the screen will be good enough for most use cases, if you are doing photo or video editing, you may want to look at our best overall recommendation, which comes with a more color-accurate screen.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i has a great design, and the build quality is top-notch. The 2022 model was redesigned and fixed a few issues, including new hinges that make this easy to use in both laptop and tablet modes. You also get stellar battery life, and Lenovo’s Rapid Charge helps do a quick top-up when needed.

The 2-in-1 form factor is tricky since these are essentially thin-and-light laptops, so most don’t have the space to put in gaming hardware. As such, there are very few 2-in-1 gaming laptops, but the ASUS ROG Flow X16 is the best one available.

The ASUS ROG Flow X16 comes packed with some great hardware. You will get a powerful Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, and for a graphics card, you can pick between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 3060, or 3070 Ti. This is backed by up to 64GB DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. You can also add an external RTX 3080 GPU using ASUS’ proprietary XG Mobile external GPU box.

Given the specifications and ASUS’s history, there is no doubt that this is an impressive gaming laptop. That being said, it’s a great 2-in-1 laptop as well, and the display is primarily responsible for that.

The ASUS ROG Flow X16 has a brilliant Mini-LED display, running at QHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 165Hz. You get 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and 1,100 nits of brightness. That means a fantastic gaming viewing experience when folded into a tablet.

Despite this laptop’s hardware, it still weighs in at 4.59 pounds, which is light for a gaming laptop, especially considering the 16-inch size. The build quality is top-notch, but the battery life is not the best, though adequate for a gaming laptop.

Acer makes some of the best value-for-money laptops, and the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is one of their best. This 2-in-1 has consistently been one of the best Chromebooks you can buy ever since it first launched.

With Chromebooks, you don’t get the latest and greatest hardware, but the Spin 713 checks all the right boxes. You get an 11th Gen Intel Core CPU, with options between i3, i5, and i7 chips. You get either 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB SSD storage. It may not seem like much, but it will handle ChromeOS like a champ. You also have Thunderbolt 4 to make up for the limited internal storage.

The star of the show is the 3:2 aspect ratio display, which runs at a resolution of 2,256×1,504 pixels. It’s not just one of the best displays you can get on a Chromebook—it’s also fantastic for Windows laptops at a similar price point. It has excellent colors and ample brightness, and the 3:2 ratio is a solid choice for this device, making for a superb experience, especially in tablet mode.

You get solid build quality, making this one feel like a premium machine The battery life is pretty decent as well and can last you a day. This is impressive because it drives a high-resolution screen and an x86 Intel chip, which would eat up some of the Chromebook’s battery life.

Rounding out the list is Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8, one of Microsoft’s best computers. It’s the best 2-in-1 laptop for drawing you can get, mostly because this is a tablet first, with a kickstand and keyboard sold separately.

On the hardware side, you get 11th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, RAM options from 8GB to 32GB LPDDR4x, and SSD storage options of 128GB to 1TB. There’s no dedicated GPU on offer, but there is no need for one with this device.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 has a great 13-inch 3:2 PixelSense Flow display with a 2,880×1,920 pixels resolution. You get a 120Hz refresh rate and 10-point multi-touch support.

But the screen is only half the equation, and what makes this our top pick for drawing is the Slim Pen 2. The Pen has haptic feedback, which aims to mimic the feel of writing on paper and is a nice addition to the overall drawing experience.

Battery life is not quite close to the promised 16 hours, but you can get a full workday of juice out of the Surface Pro 8. Build quality and design are both great, as is the Windows experience on this first-party device.