Touchscreen or 2-in-1 laptop: how to choose the most advanced in Windows mobility to perform at your best (with and without quarantine)

The personal computer, in these times when it is necessary to continue with our activity remotely and digitally, has regained prominence almost overnightthat you share with the unquestionable mobile phone. Why?

The smartphone, so useful for consuming content, is ineffective when it comes to productivity at home, whether it is to connect to the corporate VPN or to manage an Internet browser while we are working with Office or any other application that we need to complete our professional or school tasks.

Tablets, meanwhile, are not much more effective than smartphones We can buy a keyboard and mouse, but not Android nor iOS offer the versatility of a personal computer to run all kinds of software, from office suites to multimedia or photo editing programs, including video conferencing and collaboration solutions.

The confinement does not differentiate by occupations. Accountants, clerks, architects, photographers, videographers, decorators, journalists, writers, teachers, consultants, lawyers, students... all should continue their work if possible. And each profile requires different programs, in many cases very demanding on the hardware

The laptop, at the height of the PC

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The differences between laptops and desktops have narrowed with the advent of next-generation laptop processors, such as the Intel Core 10th Gen Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 13.5 or the new AMD Ryzen specially tuned for the Surface Laptop 3 15."

Thus, today, there are laptop models that already offer the best of the PC, such as performance, and of tablets and smartphones, that is, the possibility of using the devices anywhere . Indeed, the ease of taking the office everywhere is one of the great advantages of laptops, being the 2-in-1 equipment the maximum representatives of ultra-mobility

Now, at a time when home space needs to be distributed in the best possible way, convertibles and ultraportables offer significant advantages also against desktop computers and even on heavy and bulky laptops.

The option of moving from the living room to the bedroom, kitchen or any other room where we enjoy silence and privacy to concentrate on our teleworking tasks, meetings or classes becomes in a convenient, desirable and even necessary virtue

New times, new demands

Teleworking or virtual classes increase the demand on hardware resources You must inevitably have several applications open at the same time. Whether it is Zoom for group video conferencing, Microsoft Teams for teamwork, Slack as an instant communication system or any other collaboration application, it is necessary to have them active at the same time that the programs directly associated with our activity are running.

This new supervening multitasking makes it almost essential to have a screen with enough resolution to fit several windows without eating up all the display spaceavailable. Many laptops stay at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but there are others, such as the 15'' Surface Laptop, that reach no less than 2,496 x 1,664 pixels. Even in smaller screens, we have equipment like the 12.3" Surface Pro 7">

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For its part, a team of 12, 3">for those who prioritize portability over screen size At home we may not care that the size or weight are somewhat older, but if we want to maximize portability when we travel (when this quarantine is lifted), we will appreciate this reduction in diagonal and weight.

With a convertible like the Surface Pro 7, we will have a high resolution and, when we need it, we can increase the size of the fonts to handle certain programs without problems. The portability of a 2-in-1 makes it possible to work practically anywhere, with the added value of optionally having a high-precision digital pen that will help us with tasks such as educational ones or to provide added value in presentations or meetings.

This type of convertible computer combines the best of tablets, such as a touch screen, a weight of 790 grams and a thickness of less than 1 cm (8.5 mm) With laptop performance powered by Intel processors with options up to 10th Gen Core i7, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

A computer like this, sold exclusively in the Microsoft Store, allows to tackle all kinds of tasks with a sufficient degree of productivityto even get by in tasks of creating multimedia content. And it allows you to do it anywhere, outside or inside the home.

The performance, the better the more concentrated

Of course, not everyone needs to edit videos or photos in their professional tasks. There are also those who limit themselves to carrying out office tasks or accessing online services in the cloud through a browser.Suites like Office 365 provide the opportunity to work almost interchangeably on-premises and in the cloud simply by using an Internet connection and a browser. And student platforms fit well in a convertible, too.

Of course, for this type of activity, an Intel Core i3 processor together with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of SSD storage will be enoughIt is a proposal that is available in the Microsoft Store with a price that allows obtaining a return on investment proportional to the type of use that will be given in these office or work scenarios in the cloud.

For professionals who prefer a traditional ultraportable format instead of the 2-in-1, more oriented towards extreme mobility and mixed use as a laptop and tablet, the Surface Laptop 3 with screens of 13 and 15 inches are interesting options. They present a processor configuration with extra performance in the graphics part, as is the case with the AMD Ryzen with Zen+ architecture that we find in the 15' Surface Laptop 3 '.They are proposals of four cores and eight threads with Radeon RX Vega 11 graphics, specially tuned for Surface computers.

A team like this, 15">is optimal for video and photo editing professionals, as well as for those who work with design, architecture or 3D modeling programs .

Music professionals also have in it an excellent tool for producing or conducting live sessions, as is the case of the DJs who work with external controllers. It is also aimed at professionals who work with scientific programs, such as Matlab, in simulation scenarios, engineering, consulting or managing large data sets and their visualization.

All in all, we are dealing with equipment that weighs just 1.6 kg and is just over 1.5 cm thick, so it is also possible to work with them anywhere inside and outside the home.At the cost of slightly increasing weight and size compared to 2-in-1 solutions, yes, but always keeping in mind that performance goes one step further.

The 13.5" screen: balance

The most balanced proposal, however, is in the 13.5" Surface Laptop, equipped with a 10th generation Core i7 processor, 512 GB SSD and 16 GB of RAM.This is a laptop with a classic ultrabook design, performance suitable for off-road use and a weight of less than 1.3 Kg that is exclusively available at the Microsoft Store.

The traditional design is less versatile than the 2-in-1 design. But, if we are not going to use it as a computer tablet , has the advantage that it is not necessary to treat the keyboard as an accessory, at the same time that the performance of the processor is speeded up a bit more.

And speaking of accessories, there are quite a few of them available in the Microsoft Store.The Surface Pen is compatible with Surface Laptops, and others such as the Surface Dial are perfect for optimizing the use of design, 3D modeling, or graphic editing applications. But that's another story…