Best 2-in-1 laptop for Affinity Designer - ASUS VivoBook VS HP Envy VS Lenovo Yoga VS HP ProBook

[izzylr]

Hi AD/AP users and Serif team!

 

I am in need of a powerful, fast but reasonably priced laptop for my Affinity graphic design and ilklustration needs.

I have been researching and reading reviews, but am a bit confused so would love to hear what your experiences have been with these laptops and whether Affinity is compatible with them:

• ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 TP412UA-EC312T
• HP Envy x360 13-ag0015AU
• Lenovo Yoga 730 Premium Flip 2in1 Ultrabook with Pen 13.3"
• HP ProBook x360 440 G1 Flip 2in1 Business Laptop 14"

 

My preference at this stage is the ASUS one I think,. Has anyone used any of the above and what do you think?

 

Also, as they are touchscreen 2-in-1 that convert from laptop to tablet by flipping them over, can I use the tablet and stylus for drawing if I have Affinity desktop? Or is the only way to draw directly onto the screen by getting an iPad and Affinity for iPad?

 

Thank you so much!

[stokerg]

Hi izzylr and Welcome to the Forums,

I can't be any help here as i've not used a 2 in 1 device before.  Hopefully someone who has, will post shortly.

On 7/6/2019 at 10:33 PM, izzylr said:

Also, as they are touchscreen 2-in-1 that convert from laptop to tablet by flipping them over, can I use the tablet and stylus for drawing if I have Affinity desktop

I believe the stylus will just take over from the mouse, so you should be able to draw on the screen using the stylus  

[SrPx]

On 7/6/2019 at 11:33 PM, izzylr said:

Also, as they are touchscreen 2-in-1 that convert from laptop to tablet by flipping them over, can I use the tablet and stylus for drawing if I have Affinity desktop? Or is the only way to draw directly onto the screen by getting an iPad and Affinity for iPad?

Haven't used any  of those, but...

IMO, you should be able to draw on screen with those, too.

For these prices (i believe around 800 - 1600 $ ) , and leaving clear that for serious work I'd get a much better performance solution for the same money or quite less, with a desktop PC, I don't know if you'd be doing a good deal here. I mean. If you are going to put this kind of cash in a something with a 13  or 14 inches screen (with which imo no serious work can be done with ease) just get an iPad Pro (even tinier screen, 12.9 inches, my reason to not ever get one....), unless your usage of software goes beyond the Affinity apps and some browsing. Because then you'd be better yes with any laptop with decent performance.

I don't know exactly why, but I had a fast glance at some reviews and the machines specs. It does look to me that the two in the middle in your list are WAY better than the 1st and 4th.  Of course, surely price will vary drastically, too. For example, the displays . Is what you'll be using to check your photo work, for anything graphic, the display is of vital importance, while people overlook it. Once again, a desktop (where not only you get more variety and better bang for the book, you can also go changing displays as your needs evolve) will smash to pieces any of these solutions, for lower cost. The two in the middle , if I remember well, have like a 84 - 89 % of the sRGB coverage. That's.... crap for photo editing or image editing in general, but still quite better than the 45 - 62 % of sRGB of the 1st and 4th. I can't deal anymore with screens that at least don't cover a 100 or 98% of sRGB. As you can imagine, a screen covering a 45 or 62% of sRGB is really covering a very small chunk of the Adobe RGB one. Maybe with the 89% one and good color calibration devices you could more or less go on....But IMO, not for anything serious. For contrast, iPad Pro 1st gen (the first they created) did already covered around a 100% sRGB. Current gen is covering also the P3 color space. (a wide color space in the "tier" of Adobe RGB and the like, tho I don't know how it really compares, honestly. But yeah, so much better as a display than any of these laptops). It's a wide color space.

Now... I wouldn't get an iPad Pro either for the price, software limitations, and recently... for the pricing increase ! Last news I have is the 12.9 (obviously I don't really consider a 11 inches version) saw an upgrade in price leaving it at 1400 bucks or so.... But if you are willing to spend the same money in a laptop, then I'd maybe go for the iPad pro instead.

The main point tho, is that these 4 are imo not the best laptops you can get performance-wise and with also the idea of getting a good display (it typically will be worse than a desktop monitor if getting a semi pro one). You could probably get more decent deals at just 700 -800.

If the lack of software compatibility or other reasons (like 2x the price, lol over this ~700$ HP, LOL) makes you discard the iPad Pro,  the HP Envy x360 13 is quite convincing. For 700 dollars or so, you get a nice thing. 89% sRGB is too cr4ppy for me, but still much better than the other 3.

If you totally must go for a 2 in 1 instead of a desktop solution, IMO, do yourself a favor, and get this 15.6 (imo much better than 13 inches) , much, much more powerful than any of the 4 you listed, and with a coverage of 100% sRGB , 97 Adobe RGB, which even for a desktop monitor would be VERY good. 

As you can check in this page ( yep, calibration by default is a bit off, but indeed for serious work you need anyway even a cheap hardware color calibrator, anyway. It's things like colormunki or another good brand (I have i1 Display pro, costed me like nothing, but now is at 239!), in Amazon for 100 bucks, worth every penny. You'd calibrate it with it and that's it. The importance of that device for anything graphic is HUGE. ) :

https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/laptop/121640-dell-xps-15-2-in-1-9575/?page=8

It has a very good price in Newegg, (unlike in Amazon, it seems...) Not sure if you must reside in the US to get it.

https://www.newegg.com/p/1XV-000A-00CP5

It's great for the memory, the card, the cpu, kind of everything. It does not include a pen, but is totally a 2 in 1, and I believe the wacom universal pen for these things would work with it quite well.

EDIT : sorry, hadn't seen the stokerg's reply.

[SrPx]

Fast note to clarify : This Dell XPS 15 2 in 1 9575 DOES support Wacom pen technology. I had seen in the main review I checked that the pen is "optional" (meaning, is more bucks if you include it, I guess) . But totally support it, so, it indeed is the specific confirmation on if it'd work for drawing. Well, your list of 4, I dunno (I suppose so, but not sure if the specific quality of Wacom, or is just n-trig like the Surfaces,or etc). In this one I just got it confirmed, though :

The tablet does include pen support with up to 4,096 pressure levels using an optional Dell-branded, Wacom-technology pen.

Inside you get:

Core i5-8305G (with the Core i7-8705G as an option)
8GB of DDR4/2400 RAM in dual-channel mode (optional 16GB)
256GB Toshiba M.2 NVMe SSD (optional 512GB, 1TB and 2TB drives)
1920x1080 IPS touchscreen with Wacom pen support (4K optional) anti-reflective touch.

 

To be very clear: I don't have any relation with Dell, neither any brand (wish I had it, lol). 

Now, probably it'd be better if you'd just get the pen they pack with it, even if is an additional charge, as that one is supposedly thoroughly tested to work better than others.

But if there's no human way to get it so for whatever the reason (ie, a particular vendor in Amazon, Newegg, or etc) , Wacom has an universal pen for tablets and such, I guess it'd work great -EDIT- it HAS to work great, it is in the list of compatible devices for the two universal wacom pens, Bamboo Ink and Bamboo Ink plus. Specifically indeed the Dell XPS 2 in 1 9575 (another clue that the device is quite good, as their list is relatively short) :

https://www.wacom.com/en-es/products/stylus/bamboo-ink

https://www.wacom.com/en-es/products/stylus/bamboo-ink-plus

Wacom's compatibility list (Bamoboo Ink and Ink plus are listed) :

https://www.wacom.com/en-es/comp

Both depend on Windows INK to work !! I'm not sure if Affinity was finally compatible with this or not, in 1.7..... May someone else confirm this end.

For some web design error or sth, they forgot to speak about pressure levels in the more expensive, Ink Plus, and as I was guessing, is just a mistake in making the page. In the shop you can check in specs that BOTH support 4096 levels of pressure, which is waaay more than enough.

Among the two, one costs (in my coin) 60 euros, and the Plus, 100 euros. If having the cash, I'd totally go for the plus, as it does not need a battery, so, less weight I suppose, and less worries. It has to be charged too, tho, but through an USB cable, but not in a weird way like happened to the 1st gen of the ipad Pro.

If you are going to draw intensively with it, 100 bucks is not really bad. If Dell includes a pen specific for this screen, just get it (tho unsure if it'd be better than the universal one). Get the special Dell-branded Wacom one if you can, just for safety.

This all is just a suggestion, what I'd get for myself, by all means (actually, no... 'cause I hate laptops, I have one, it's a 18.3 inches screen and still is too small for my work, lol). But nothing else than that.