Advice - Looking for an ultrabook or tablet or something

Shrimply

Hi Guys,

Wondering if anyone can help but I don't really know what I want which makes things difficult. I bought a netbook, maybe 8 years ago, and honestly it was the most hopeless piece of equipment ever, and probably the biggest thing I've felt that I've wasted money on, so I'm a bit shy about trying to find anything in the sort of category again.

At the minute I have a 4 year old Dell laptop, it's got 6GB of ram and an i3 380M processor. And really it copes with everything I throw at it.

I travel quite a bit though, and the laptop is heavy and the battery life poor.
So really I'm just looking for something that is reasonably light and at the bare minimum can run Microsoft Office and browse the internet and has a decent battery life.

So I've been looking at tablets but I've never been a huge fan, and feel I'd probably want an attachable keyboard anyway so I'm not really sure whether this is a sensible suggestion.

I've been considering this HP elite book from ebuyer.

http://www.ebuyer.com/708085-hp-elitebook-745-g2-laptop-m3n17es-abu

I think compared to a tablet it is probably a lot more useful and would allow me to have any programs I might need to use on it but it is more costly a bit less portable I guess.

Can anyone offer any sort of advice? I know I've not been very helpful is asking for it.

TrickyDicky101

Your available budget would help.

If money is not an object, what about a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (with the keyboard cover) - you're talking c.£1200 for the decent-spec i5 one though.

Shrimply

Sorry, yeah I'm not really looking to spend a whole load, the £250 for the laptop I linked to would be as high as I'd want to go.

Fightsback

An interesting device here for £248:

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Teclast-X16-Power-8GB-64GB-Windows10---Android5-1-Dual-OS-11-6--Intel-Cherry-Trail-X7-Z8700-Quad-Core-2-4GHz-Tablet-PC-IPS-1920-1080-HDMI-WiDi---Black-357488.html

I'm not recommending the store or the product but only referencing it for illustrative purposes.

[Deleted User]

Android Tablets have an MS Office compatible App, called Office Suite. I have it on my Hudl 2, and it works well.

Failing that, Medion do a 10.1" netbook, called the E1317T, which comes with MS Office 2013.

From personal experience, I'd recommend upgrading the RAM (2GB ex works) to the maximum 4GB, for ~ £25.

Knarf44

How about something like the Linx 1010b?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/275-4805813-6466912?k=linx+1010b

10.1" screen, 32Gb of storage expandable by adding a microsd card, full version of windows 10 including the mobile versions of Word, Powerpoint, Excel and One note.
Quad core intel processor, 2GB RAM etc etc etc

Majority of reviewers seem to agree it's a very well spec'd laptop/tablet.

Shrimply

Thanks for the replies.

So to fill you in a bit more, which I should probably have done from the start as it will probably explain my dilemma a bit more.

I'm a (poor) student, I commute about 40 minutes a day and not need to carry a machine with me. The internet on the route is pretty naff, so I struggle to find anything productive to do in the time. If I'm honest often I'm half a sleep and not capable of doing very much. So here a tablet would seem like the more sensible option.

At weekends though I very often travel home which is about 3 hours on the train. I need to take my current, very heavy machine, with me to do work while I'm at home. So if I was to buy a tablet, I'd probably have to carry both. Whereas if something like the elite book I linked to would be OK for my uses I could actually use that the whole weekend for the work I need to do.

Really though I think the conclusion is that what would be ideal for me would cost far more than I can afford to pay.

I do appreciate the input, and any other thoughts are very welcome.

Shrimply

Fightsback wrote: »

An interesting device here for £248:

http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Teclast-X16-Power-8GB-64GB-Windows10---Android5-1-Dual-OS-11-6--Intel-Cherry-Trail-X7-Z8700-Quad-Core-2-4GHz-Tablet-PC-IPS-1920-1080-HDMI-WiDi---Black-357488.html

I'm not recommending the store or the product but only referencing it for illustrative purposes.

I have to say that does look pretty much perfect. You can get them shipped for the UK on ebay for £225. I'd be really nervous that it's not all it's cracked up to be though.

Fightsback

Shrimply wrote: »

I have to say that does look pretty much perfect. You can get them shipped for the UK on ebay for £225. I'd be really nervous that it's not all it's cracked up to be though.

I agree, it looks good on paper but I'd like to see a quality review and tear down on the Z8700 cpu version (they also did a Z8500 model) beforehand, keep an eye on the XDA developers forum for opinions and to see if somebody has one.

HotDealsStuff

The laptop sounds fine. I bought an Asus laptop on Christmas and my battery lasts for like 5 hours.

cookie365

Fightsback wrote: »

I agree, it looks good on paper but I'd like to see a quality review and tear down on the Z8700 cpu version (they also did a Z8500 model) beforehand, keep an eye on the XDA developers forum for opinions and to see if somebody has one.

Here's a look at the Pro version

http://techtablets.com/2015/11/teclast-x16-pro-unboxing-and-first-impressions/

Might be worth looking at the Asus Transformer Book too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Transformer-TF100TAF-10-1-Inch-Integrated/dp/B00QQNGT8C/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1452539663&sr=1-1&keywords=asus+transformer