5 ms·

Am I the only person who doesn't want a "convertible" with a touchscreen? If I want a tablet, I have a tablet. For laptop work, I have a laptop. I had the 20

by mrbill 10y ago

Am I the only person who doesn't want a "convertible" with a touchscreen? If I want a tablet, I have a tablet. For laptop work, I have a laptop. I had the 2015 Chromebook Pixel and loved it, but never used the touchscreen (and ended up selling it).

ChristianGeek 10y ago
Surprisingly, different people have different needs.
ghaff 10y ago
No. I really like the Chrome Flip but would like it equally without the flip component. The convertible arrangement just always feels a bit awkward and ends up with me hitting keys I don't mean to. I'm not opposed to it--and tend to believe that tablet and laptop form factors will reconverge--but at the moment I tend to use tablets and laptops differently.
rl3 10y ago
No, you're not. Having the ability to draw on on the screen for content creation purposes is nice, though. Microsoft's Surface products come to mind.
YZF 10y ago
I got a convertible Yoga ThinkPad and I'm quite happy with it. If you're just reading stuff (e.g. I do this on the bus but same applies for flights etc) folding it over into a fat tablet works great. I also tent it up when I use an external keyboard which is another bonus... I don't touch the screen at all when I use in its laptop form or in "tent" mode but I do when I use it as a tablet...
- nunb 10y ago
  I use a T100HA for exactly these reasons, but it's got a detachable screen. Older models had extra batteries and HDDs in the keyboard section, which is a great addition imho.
  - analog31 10y ago
    I'm quite happy with a similar Asus model. I have a rather odd combination of needs: Touch screen, occasional keyboard use, and ability to run Jupyter/Python. So far this can only be done with a Windows tablet. Websites describing the installation of Linux on Bay Trail tablets all end in despair. I'd be interested in a Chrome tablet if it would install Linux with touch screen support and let me run Jupyter/Python on it.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> Am I the only person who doesn't want a "convertible" with a touchscreen? If I want a tablet, I have a tablet. For laptop work, I have a laptop. No, certainly lots of people share that preference. OTOH, lots of people prefer one multirole good-enough device to a variety of specialized devices.
wstrange 10y ago
I have an Acer R11. I didn't think I would use the touchscreen / tablet mode - but I am finding it is really handy for browsing / reading, netflix, and android games.
Eridrus 10y ago
I have a Vaio "convertible" and I've been pretty disappointing about the convertible functionality for two main reasons: a) It weighs too much too use as a tablet b) It didn't come with a stylus for drawing diagrams So, I've certainly been disappointed by this trend, but I think it can work and the Surface line is a good example of this; many people are quite happy with theirs. I don't think this particular chromebook makes a compelling case for the "as a tablet" use case, which seems odd given the Android app focus.
- NotSammyHagar 10y ago
  This one comes with a style, weight 2.x pounds, so maybe it works for you? What is the weight limit?
  - Eridrus 10y ago
    My Vaio weighs 2.9 pounds, this weighs 2.4. My wife's iPad Pro weighs 1.6, and I think that's probably close to the upper limit of what I would want a tablet to weigh. I don't know if weight distribution is also an important factor since I can tell my vaio is definitely not evenly weighted. I don't think this chromebook is for me, I just wanted to say that I don't think convertibles as a category are doomed, they are just harder to get right than other categories.
NotSammyHagar 10y ago
The whole point of the new generation of touchscreens that wrap around to tablet format if wanted is that they let you use android apps with a touchscreen. If you don't want a touchscreen, buy one of the many existing chromebooks that don't have touchscreens. I have the 2015 pixel and it's awesome, and almost every day i use the touchscreen with a few android apps.

by mrbill 10y ago

ChristianGeek 10y ago

Surprisingly, different people have different needs.

ghaff 10y ago

No. I really like the Chrome Flip but would like it equally without the flip component. The convertible arrangement just always feels a bit awkward and ends up with me hitting keys I don't mean to. I'm not opposed to it--and tend to believe that tablet and laptop form factors will reconverge--but at the moment I tend to use tablets and laptops differently.

rl3 10y ago

No, you're not. Having the ability to draw on on the screen for content creation purposes is nice, though. Microsoft's Surface products come to mind.

YZF 10y ago

I got a convertible Yoga ThinkPad and I'm quite happy with it. If you're just reading stuff (e.g. I do this on the bus but same applies for flights etc) folding it over into a fat tablet works great. I also tent it up when I use an external keyboard which is another bonus... I don't touch the screen at all when I use in its laptop form or in "tent" mode but I do when I use it as a tablet...

nunb 10y ago
I use a T100HA for exactly these reasons, but it's got a detachable screen. Older models had extra batteries and HDDs in the keyboard section, which is a great addition imho.
- analog31 10y ago
  I'm quite happy with a similar Asus model. I have a rather odd combination of needs: Touch screen, occasional keyboard use, and ability to run Jupyter/Python. So far this can only be done with a Windows tablet. Websites describing the installation of Linux on Bay Trail tablets all end in despair. I'd be interested in a Chrome tablet if it would install Linux with touch screen support and let me run Jupyter/Python on it.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> Am I the only person who doesn't want a "convertible" with a touchscreen? If I want a tablet, I have a tablet. For laptop work, I have a laptop. No, certainly lots of people share that preference. OTOH, lots of people prefer one multirole good-enough device to a variety of specialized devices.

wstrange 10y ago

I have an Acer R11. I didn't think I would use the touchscreen / tablet mode - but I am finding it is really handy for browsing / reading, netflix, and android games.

Eridrus 10y ago

I have a Vaio "convertible" and I've been pretty disappointing about the convertible functionality for two main reasons: a) It weighs too much too use as a tablet b) It didn't come with a stylus for drawing diagrams So, I've certainly been disappointed by this trend, but I think it can work and the Surface line is a good example of this; many people are quite happy with theirs. I don't think this particular chromebook makes a compelling case for the "as a tablet" use case, which seems odd given the Android app focus.

NotSammyHagar 10y ago
This one comes with a style, weight 2.x pounds, so maybe it works for you? What is the weight limit?
- Eridrus 10y ago
  My Vaio weighs 2.9 pounds, this weighs 2.4. My wife's iPad Pro weighs 1.6, and I think that's probably close to the upper limit of what I would want a tablet to weigh. I don't know if weight distribution is also an important factor since I can tell my vaio is definitely not evenly weighted. I don't think this chromebook is for me, I just wanted to say that I don't think convertibles as a category are doomed, they are just harder to get right than other categories.

NotSammyHagar 10y ago

The whole point of the new generation of touchscreens that wrap around to tablet format if wanted is that they let you use android apps with a touchscreen. If you don't want a touchscreen, buy one of the many existing chromebooks that don't have touchscreens. I have the 2015 pixel and it's awesome, and almost every day i use the touchscreen with a few android apps.