When it comes to computers, historically I’ve been a “full layout” kind of person. I like my keyboards full-size, my screens moderate to large, with all the other benefits of desktop computing. One device that can handle a myriad of use cases.
The downside: It’s not feasible for most away-from-home situations. That’s what laptops and tablets are for.
My First Laptop
I bought my first laptop in 2011. It was an HP Pavilion g7-1255dx, which cost $450 USD instead of $500 because it was a display model. I made great use of it: entertainment, productivity, browsing, and so on. Ironically, I had to use it at home most of the time. About a year later the battery lost its ability to charge, and shortly after that the power socket got finicky – if the cord wasn’t angled a certain way, the power would cut. It was a sad end for this one. Eventually I donated it for parts on Nextdoor.
Laptop 2: Electric Boogaloo?
After many years without a working laptop, I bought a “modern” one in July 2024. It’s an Acer Aspire 3, priced near $400. I bought it for $200 on their Acer Recertified website. Funnily enough that website would close down 1-2 weeks later – here’s the last snapshot of the front page. Anywho, this was a bottom-of-the-barrel laptop but I made it work. I could do almost anything I wanted on the go. Writing, browsing, watching videos, and so on. It even ran a few lightweight games I enjoyed, like Endless Sky and Severed Chains. In 2025, I bought an extra SSD so I could swap it in and try Linux risk-free.
Inner Turmoil & Realization
Still, something was missing. By this point I was feeling increasingly stuck / frustrated with regards to creativity. I couldn’t quite figure out why, in part because bad things were happening in the US at the same time. I can only parse out and compartmentalize so many things before I reach a limit. Eventually I realized that part of my frustration related to how effectively I can use a laptop. This tied in with other issues – I had a cheap drawing tablet (no screen), but A. it didn’t fit my desk well, and B. I lost the drawing pen late last year. I’ve checked many boxes to no avail. I had a hunger to draw, and more than that, I had new hungers such as storyboarding.
Given that even a high-end drawing tablet with a built-in screen can still have issues, I thought about something I never seriously considered before: a 2-in-1 laptop. Basically it’s a laptop that allows its screen to fold back, turning it into a large tablet. This would solve all my issues at once… if the price is right.
The Hunt
I started doing research. Lots of research. Too much research! Over five hours on some days, just trying to lock down device names and specs. Finding reviews, and then discovering half of the reviews were for a different model (bundled reviews on Amazon are not okay). Searching used listings almost exclusively, because, like regular desktops and laptops, literally every 2-in-1 is massively overpriced for the specs; and this was true even before the RAM shortage. In this economy, who the fuck has $1,000 for a barely-midrange laptop or 2-in-1??
Quick tangent: Incredibly, these price hikes have expanded to gaming handhelds which are somehow so valuable just for their portability, that they outprice a flagship console. I guess modern people aren’t buying expensive diamond rings and other jewelry like past generations, so tech is the new diamonds. It’s fucking gross. Definitely writing a piece on the state of non-phone handhelds this year.
My Third Laptop
After much documentation of the landscape, I had two choices near the $400 price point. One had a screamer of a CPU but a bad screen. This would be amazing performance but I would not enjoy the view. The other had a near-ideal screen (bright enough to use in moderate sunlight), with a CPU that was less powerful but still an upgrade from my previous laptop.
I went with the latter, a Lenovo Flex 7 14IRU8, and ordered it. It’s a tad smaller but it’s still large enough and it helps in terms of weight / ease of holding. The device came with Windows 11, so I swapped out for a slightly larger SSD I had spare and installed Linux. I’ll take a moment to appreciate how far Linux has come, because all the touch functionality just works. I ordered a used drawing pen that works very well with the device (Lenovo Precision Pen 2).
Now, let me share all the ways I’m having fun:
- Regular mode works fine. This laptop is a bit smaller than my last one but there’s still room enough to type. General use is great. The CPU, while not the screamer I was trying to clinch, is plenty fast enough for all my use cases.
- Tent mode: I love this so much. Great for watching videos all-around. Also good for games that use a controller.
- Tablet mode: Love, love, and more love. Kubuntu / KDE Plasma handles screen rotation very well and supports a virtual keyboard pop-up. Drawing is plenty accurate enough, proving that I don’t need a separate expensive drawing tablet that can’t do anything else. Portrait view is great for reading articles online (or the recent, very long patch notes for Path of Exile 2 0.5.0). I’ve drawn some sketches and am starting storyboarding for the first time in my life.
Very few downsides. I prefer a 16:9 aspect ratio for screens, to minimize how many black bars I have to deal with for watching videos. Some films are only available in 21:9 but I deal with it. This laptop is 16:10, which means small black bars on all the 16:9 content I’m watching. Thankfully it’s barely noticeable because, as I said before, the screen is great. I pretend it’s a little extra bezel, haha. Besides, 16:10 is kinda better for non-video purposes. Oh, and there are some actions I can’t bind to the drawing pen’s buttons, but that’s really minor. I have plenty to work with.
All in all, I paid the same amount of money for a modern 2-in-1, that I paid for a then-modern basic laptop in 2011. Not bad, given the RAM shortage and general inflation. If you’re seeking a 2-in-1, or any tech device, do a fair amount of research. Every product says it’s good for XYZ. In reality, many are mediocre depending on their CPU / RAM total / etc. I’ll provide some tips and tools I used to score a non-shitty price for a solid 2-in-1:
Tools
- Notebook Check – painstaking levels of information on thousands of laptops. Specs, screen quality, battery life, and so on.
- CPU Benchmark – compare CPU performance. This link shows my final comparison: the CPU in the Acer Aspire 3, the CPU in the 2-in-1 I bought, and the CPU in a similarly-priced IdeaPad that I passed up.
- eBay – checking competing listings at a given price point. Note that many sellers may offer a discount of ~$10-50 a few days or weeks after you add it to your watchlist (account required).
Advice
- Determine your budget and use case. If you just need basic computing, $200 USD is plenty. If you need versatility or light gaming, $400. Only go higher than $500 if you want heavy productivity or gaming, and lack a desktop for such things.
- Buy used. The go-to market, at least in the US, is eBay. Ensure the seller has 99.5% review score or higher. Ensure the listing has clear pictures of any wear/damage. Read description text for potential caveats, like “charger not included”.
- RAM: 8GB RAM for light browsing/video, else 16GB is the sweet spot. 32GB is overkill except high productivity / gaming.
- CPU: For basic computing, don’t go lower than something equivalent to a Ryzen 3 7320U. For versatility and light drawing/gaming, your floor is gonna be close to a Ryzen 7 5700U or an i7-1355U. If you need raw performance, shoot for something near the Ryzen 7 8845HS (one of the best pre-AI consumer CPUs. Found this packed into a cheap IdeaPad for some reason).
- Screen: Check the color range!! If you’re only writing and casually browsing this doesn’t matter, but if you main videos and/or drawing please pick a device whose screen has 100% sRGB coverage or close to it. Make sure the device has a touchscreen if that’s what you want, and therefore try to determine which detection protocol the device supports.
- Operating System: While Windows and Mac still have some value, Mac is a closed ecosystem and Windows is full of serious bugs / security issues / AI slop. Both are capitalist predators responsible for the general public having so little money for essentials, let alone a laptop. The only practical path forward: buy a used Windows laptop and overwrite it with Linux. If you’re a newbie, go with Linux Mint and ask a tech friend or online community for assistance. Personally I use Kubuntu, but I may switch if that distro goes along with Ubuntu’s recent decisions.
- Compare with similar devices, as sometimes they may have better specs for lower price. I saw laptops with 8GB RAM and terrible CPU selling higher than ones with 16GB RAM, a better CPU, and a better screen.
- Check reviews anywhere you can find them (Amazon, Youtube, etc.). Make sure reviews match the actual product – Amazon is infamous for bundling reviews of different products into one pool.
I hope this information helps somebody out there. It did wonders for me.
Onward and upward!
P.S. aka Blog-in-Blog: On Chromebooks & Framework Devices
No Chromebooks. Google is in the same group as Microsoft and Apple, and it’s generally tougher to replace ChromeOS with Linux.
No Framework devices. I was strongly considering their 2-in-1, but there are two minor issues and one major issue. First, their 2-in-1 is too small for my use (12″ screen). Second, Framework devices are overpriced. More ethical can be worth a little more money (FW charges far more) but in this economy we need price drops, not price increases. It reminds me of buying food from local businesses.
Third, and most critically, these days Framework is pro-AI & LLMs. This strikes me as odd, given their earnings were plenty high. They got where they are today in large part because they didn’t pander to AI hype. Being pro-AI renders point #2 entirely moot, so there’s no just reason to buy a Framework device anymore.
For awhile they didn’t promote it in any way, believing in good products. Now their website features headers like “An AI PC, for real.” The new spin is that AI is great – so long as you run it privately on your own PC rather than in the cloud. This is patently false.
It’s super disheartening that a company with so much integrity threw it away for this shit. I need to write about all the “good” companies that have caved and pandered to AI in the last few years. Fuck.
A stern reminder that AI slop is AI slop, whether it’s running on the hardware of a remote PC or your own. A value is not a value if you act differently in private. If you wash your hands in public but rarely do so at home, you are not hygienic – you are merely concerned with how you are perceived.
Values drive people, and thusly society. If we don’t actually want dystopia, we should try to have a few.
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