5punk

I'm in the market for one of these. You see, I almost never use my laptop any more because it lacks the convenience of my iPad. I just can't be arsed lugging the huge bag about and getting it set up. On the other hand I want to be able to run Steam and be able to type things, and tablets are conducive to neither. So I'm looking at a hybrid option that can run low intensity games. Problem is they're bloody expensive and not that great, power wise. I think I've pretty much narrowed it down to a Surface Pro (I'm hoping I can pick up a cheap Pro 3 when the Pro 4 is inevitably announced with Win 10 on Monday), or a Lenovo Yoga 2 (there's a 3, but it's apparently not as quick). That comes down to a tablet that doubles as an expensive and underpowered laptop, or a laptop that doubles as a bulky tablet. With Chinese spyware on it, since it's Lenovo.

Anyone got an opinion on these things? Or care to point out how stupid I'm being to have overlooked a much cheaper and more practical option?

blootoothy keyboardy case for existing tablet?

I've considered that, but I want full fat Windows 10 and a good amount of hard drive space so I can run Steam + games on it. There's a few with Win 8 (which is fine, I can upgrade to 10), but they only carry small SSDs. I could hook a passport drive up to it though, have a scalable option, but I don't know well the OS would take to having half of its programs disappear when I don't connect it. Otherwise though it's a good option. A little bluetooth keyboard and mouse is a good way of doing it.

Dog Pants wrote: I don't know well the OS would take to having half of its programs disappear when I don't connect it. Otherwise though it's a good option. A little bluetooth keyboard and mouse is a good way of doing it.

Steam absolutely doesn't care if you remove the storage where its games are installed (unless you try to run them of course). USB 3 external drives are pretty decent speed and I almost went for an all-external storage solution for my new rig and only decided against it from a resiliency perspective, not a performance one - I get the same performance from the drives in my external array as I'd see if they were inside the box.

I have a few little bluetooth/wireless keymouse/remotecontrol options that I use for the Pi and the PS3 which are useful in various situations at home and in hotels - a regular-sized keyboard with trackpad for surfing, mini keyboard/gamepad/remotes for watching films.

That's an interesting idea then. I don't need much storage locally on the device because I'll only really have the OS and maybe a few things like Office. I can Dropbox documents, and tell Steam to download to an external drive. Course then there are power and portability issues too, but they can be options at least rather than having to hump it all round all the time. In fact, maybe one of those jobbies where you can remove the screen, like an Asus Transformer, might be good.

I went for the 128GB Surface 3 in the end. A decent enough deal on Amazon, plus £150 in vouchers, meant I picked it up for just under £500. Considering I'd be paying that for any of the foldy laptop jobbies I don't think that's too bad, and when I have it set up with the keyboard cover I can always bang a passport drive on it for bigger games, like FJ suggested. I shall report back with performance when it arrives.

Well I've had my Surface for an hour of so, set it up, had a bit of a play, and can report the following:

* It's solid. My iPad is solid, the Android tablet I bought (and returned) at Christmas was plasticky and felt hollow and made me want my iPad. The surface feels like a big iPad in construction.
* Most of the personal data gathering crapware options on setup were defaulted to no.
* Windows 8.1 on a tablet doesn't feel as unintuitive as 8 did on a laptop.
* USB port means I can plug in my external DVD drive and watch DVDs on it.
* Proprietary charger. Apple does it too, but Android phones have spoilt me with charging them from any USB cable anywhere.
* It's got fucking Steam on it! With games and everything.

Cool Can it play any of the steam games?

I've not tried yet, but the only limitations are going to be the hardware (i5, 4GB RAM) and touchscreen interface (until I get a keyboard cover & mouse). It's the full-fat Desktop Windows 8.1 (the non-pro Surfaces come with RT). I'm expecting to work through my library of indie and turn based games on it.

Update on the gaming capabilities of the Surface. I played about an hour and a half of XCOM today. It handled the game with no problems at all, although it got pretty hot and the battery didn't last long (I'd guess it was on about 60% when I started and 10% at the end). XCOM has a touch screen mode but even with that I had a few small problems with the gui. Nothing game breaking, just the odd guy out of position or struggling with the camera a bit.