My Samsung TabA is becoming glitchy and I'm considering replacing it with a 16" screen laptop for no better reason that I use the route finding resource Wikiloc a lot and the os style mapping doesn't lend itself to being read on a small tablet sized screen. I'm on a tight budget of around €550 (buying in Spain) and am thinking I'll miss a touchscreen for web browsing. Am I going ott as my use only extends to the aforementioned wikiloc, google earth, YouTube, emails and weather apps. Portability is required, are any laptops chargeable by run of the mill chargers? Possibly daft question showing my lack of knowledge, are there any large screen tablets on the market in this price range? Thanks in advance
How much portability is required? 16” is a pretty big laptop to cart around.
You can’t beat a big screen and proper keyboard for some things though. I do loads on a phone or iPad but at times things just get frustrating and sitting at a desk with a screen makes things simple.
If 14" is big enough then you'll get a nice Chromebook for £350 or so.
You could get a refurbed office laptop for within budget. I picked up a i7 16GB Lenovo Yoga (touchscreen and can flip into a tablet), for just over £350 18 months ago - it was 2-3 years old, 11th gen i7
Ive got a 14" laptop with a squarer 3:2 ratio screen rather than the typical 16:9. It's superb and I would be happy to go to a 13" even for mapping as the screen is taller and seems more usable. As a unit it's very slim and portable
Came from a 16" 16:9 laptop and was a bit nervous of changing but I wouldn't go back now.
By portable I mean battery power for several hours not mains, size isn't an issue. Refurb is tricky as I'm in spain and don't know the market very well. The one I've seen is a Lenovo Thinkpad 16 G7 with Ryzen 5 processor 16GB/512MB SSD Windows11 which available locally for €549, is this worth buying?
I have a Surface Go 4. It's the same size as a tablet might be (10 and a bit inches) but it's a proper Microsoft computer that can also be used as a tablet. Charges via USB C with suitable charger. It was bought second-hand from eBay. Came with keypad and magic pen. Very happy with it.
I’m no computer expert. But I use both a work laptop and a personal iPad. IMO, they’re different experiences. For browsing, footering, YouTubing, etc, I find a tablet much better than a laptop. Instant switch on, screen touch etc.
But for working on excel files, creating presentations etc, I find the laptop much better. But it’s heavier and takes longer to boot up. And even with touch screen, its just less tactile and easy to use imo.
In my pinion, a larger screen tablet seems to be a better option for you (if such a thing is available and within budget).
Why not just get a USB to HDMI cable and a Bluetooth mouse + keyboard? You can then use any size screen you like when needed and just use the tablet on its own the rest of the time
This might sound odd but wikiloc is configured in portrait on mobiles and tablets and landscape on laptops and desktops and there's no way I've found to alter this. They admit this on various user groups so to create routes can be frustrating and time consuming. . One of these foldable devices may be the answer. Lenovo Yoga do a 14" which seems ok and I can get a refurb locally for about €460.
There's very blurry lines now. You can screencast or hardwire a tablet (or phone) into a proper monitor, use a mouse and keyboard and pretend its a PC. Similarly, you can get laptops that fold into tablets (Microsoft Surface is a great machine by all accounts).
The only real difference is the operating system, and how much power you need. Can you get away with using the android version of excel, or word (if you even need it at all?) or any other programs or services you need? Even then, the web versions are pretty good.
wikiloc is configured in portrait on mobiles and tablets and landscape on laptops
can you not just use the "force desktop version" option in Chrome on your tablet?
[edit], i see its an app also. so pressumabyl its there that its an issue.
By portable I mean battery power for several hours not mains, size isn't an issue.
You'll get much more battery life out of a tablet then you will out of an uplugged laptop
We have 3 in the house (my gaming laptop, work laptop and kids school laptop - all good models) and they have to be plugged in for any serious/prolonged use.
Refurbished office type laptops from Amazon/eBay are by far the best VFM available.