Advice on tablets/ PCs/ 2-in-1
Thread poster: Jean-Christophe Duc
Jean-Christophe Duc
Jean-Christophe Duc  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:25
English to French
+ ...
Mar 3, 2017

Hi,
I need some advice, I would like to use a Tablet PC/2-in-1 for work, probably using an external monitor and keyboard when at home, and running W10, Studio 20xx, Office 20xx, etc. I.e. nothing revolutionary. Basically with over 4GB Ram and a large disk drive.
The MS Surface is quite nice/powerful, but incredibly expensive.
Is any of you working with a similar setup, or is a desktop PC somehow indispensable?


 
Merab Dekano
Merab Dekano  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
15" laptop + 25" screen Mar 3, 2017

About two years ago, I had a 17" laptop and a large screen at home. However, when I travelled, the 17” laptop was too chunky and clumsy.

Now I have a 15" laptop with a large screen at home. For me this is the ideal setup. Anything smaller than 15" laptop screen is very uncomfortable for the eyes. Anything bigger than 15" laptop screen is utterly impractical when on the move.

I would also recommend to go for a gaming laptop. I haver game, but the machine is incredibly
... See more
About two years ago, I had a 17" laptop and a large screen at home. However, when I travelled, the 17” laptop was too chunky and clumsy.

Now I have a 15" laptop with a large screen at home. For me this is the ideal setup. Anything smaller than 15" laptop screen is very uncomfortable for the eyes. Anything bigger than 15" laptop screen is utterly impractical when on the move.

I would also recommend to go for a gaming laptop. I haver game, but the machine is incredibly fast. These laptops are made with abuse in mind. If you don’t abuse them, they will last for like 5 or 10 years, or more. And you are getting an incredible performance. Mine is Asus ROG501 series, 16GB RAM, 256GB SDD, i7 processor. Please never use HDD for programs. It’s too slow no matter how fast your PC is.
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Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 09:25
English to German
Remote Desktop Mar 3, 2017

In my home office I have an ordinary PC with the power I need. Additionally I have a cheap & light netbook that I can connect to my office pc via Internet from everywhere (e. g. using a WiFi or cell phone access). WiFi is built-in, for cell phone nets I have a "USB surf stick".

The netbook does'nt need much computing & electric power because I use MS' Remote Desktop option, i. e. I use monitor, keyboard, and mouse of my office pc via screen, keyboard, and touchpad of my netbook. So,
... See more
In my home office I have an ordinary PC with the power I need. Additionally I have a cheap & light netbook that I can connect to my office pc via Internet from everywhere (e. g. using a WiFi or cell phone access). WiFi is built-in, for cell phone nets I have a "USB surf stick".

The netbook does'nt need much computing & electric power because I use MS' Remote Desktop option, i. e. I use monitor, keyboard, and mouse of my office pc via screen, keyboard, and touchpad of my netbook. So, I have all my familiar programs, settings, configurations, files even on a camping ground at my fingertips, while the main pc is protected against damage, theft etc. On the netbook there are no abusable data at all, and of course the connection is encrypted via VPN.

And: I have got no smartphone and no tablet, the netbook is suffient.

Of course, this is not a solution that fits for any scenario. But for holiday and short journeys it may suffice. The main advantage is, that one works with the office pc instead of 2 different configurated pcs.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:25
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Agreed Mar 3, 2017

Merab Dekano wrote:

......

Now I have a 15" laptop with a large screen at home. For me this is the ideal setup....



I agree, and I have a similar setup- a MacBook Pro 13", which is a good size for using on trains and tiny aeroplane tables. When I'm not on the road, I plug in one of these http://amzn.to/2m2B4sc keeping the lid of the MBP closed and one of these http://apple.co/2m2Qyg5

And hey presto, I have an enormous screen to work on, and a full size keyboard. Plus: unlike the MBP, the BenQ screen is matte, not glossy. Much better on the eyes.

The whole point of a laptop is that it should be small !

[Edited at 2017-03-03 10:05 GMT]


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:25
Danish to English
+ ...
Which brand? Mar 3, 2017

I'll need to renew my Samsung laptop from 2011 with Windows 7 very soon. It's getting too slow, and it 'freezes' too often, most probably because of an inadequate cooling design. It reduced the 'freeze' frequency when I eliminated a tiny protuberance on the CPU cooling plate, which would have hampered the transfer of heat from CPU to cooling system. When I fitted a new fan in my daughter's Lenovo, I noticed it had separate copper cooling paths from the CPU and the graphics processor. My old batt... See more
I'll need to renew my Samsung laptop from 2011 with Windows 7 very soon. It's getting too slow, and it 'freezes' too often, most probably because of an inadequate cooling design. It reduced the 'freeze' frequency when I eliminated a tiny protuberance on the CPU cooling plate, which would have hampered the transfer of heat from CPU to cooling system. When I fitted a new fan in my daughter's Lenovo, I noticed it had separate copper cooling paths from the CPU and the graphics processor. My old battered Samsung does not; the Samsung engineers had thought it a good idea to pass the graphics processor's heat through the CPU cooling path, thereby making the CPU cooling less efficient. When a CPU reaches its operational temperature limit, it will stop instantly to protect itself against destruction. I'm not surprised Samsung's smartphones are burning. The quality inside of my laptop is what I'd call mediocre. I've replaced a few parts on the Lenovo. Disassembly is well documented, and the device has clearly been manufactured with repair in mind. It is easy to buy spare parts. My Samsung is a mess; a repair technician's nightmare. No proper disassembly instructions, awkward assembly design, difficult to get spare parts. A lot more thought clearly goes into Lenovo's internal design.

I'm saying this to point out that it does matter which brand you buy in the Windows world. If I were to buy a new Windows laptop, I'd buy Lenovo and be happy to pay a little more for good quality that will be easier to maintain.

As for Microsoft laptops, I have heard nothing about their quality. They seem expensive, and I wonder if you wouldn't get more processing power in a similar Lenovo for the same price. Maybe not.

But after (again) having wasted several hours to repair my Outlook email file after yet another Windows 'freeze', I'm more and more inclined to splash out on a MacBook and install Parallels for MemoQ. Apple uses a more modern file system that is more robust in case of crashes. Windows is still on NTFS, and that's why it can damage files when a sudden crash or 'freeze' occurs. And I'm not interested in Windows' touch functions. The user interface has been awful since they started messing it up to make it look like a smartphone, starting with Windows 8. Windows 10 is better, but it's also a 'spyware' system if you aren't very careful unchecking page after page with options set to on by default to allow Microsoft access to all your personal data.
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Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:25
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Try professional webmail and a ThinkPad Mar 3, 2017

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
But after (again) having wasted several hours to repair my Outlook email file after yet another Windows 'freeze'

Thomas, I built my email entirely around Outlook for nearly 20 years, including various pieces of third-party software that worked with Outlook itself. I kept it that way because I could be sure that Outlook would continue to exist and because I had taken a strong dislike to so-called webmail such as Yahoo and Gmail. One problem I experienced is that once the Outlook PST files get to a certain size, they can cause instability. (I tried to keep mine below a gigabyte or so.) The other issue I had was trying to keep my mail synchronised across different machines.

Then in 2016 I moved to an independent webmail provider, namely Fastmail. At $5 a month the prices are very reasonable, the functionality is great (with no ads), I can use my own domain, and I can access my email at any time, from any device I like, anywhere around the world. It's liberating. I'm very happy with it and I don't miss Outlook at all. Of course, I have kept all my old PST files so that I can refer to them if need be.

Windows 10 can be made to look like Windows 7 quite easily. I like it and find it stable, although I don't carry out any particular maintenance. It just runs. I don't use the touch interface. I have several times considered moving to one of the Linux distributions and running Windows software using Wine, but in the end I decided that it would just add another layer of complexity that would cause its own problems and absorb more time. So I rejected that approach.

As for your choice of PC, I'm experimenting with a Microsoft Surface Pro 4, but for people who rely on their PC for a living, I would recommend a decent Lenovo, probably the T460p or maybe an X1 Carbon. As you note, the ThinkPads are upgradable and repairable. They are also tough and (on average - there is some variation) have the best keyboards of any portable machine. I still own two ThinkPads that have served me well. Both still work perfectly, although one is now nearly a decade old. They don't have the sparkle or the sylph-like form factor of some of the recent Windows laptops (Dell XPS, HP Spectre) but they most definitely get the job done. Disadvantage? Price.

Dan


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:25
Danish to English
+ ...
Email Mar 3, 2017

Dan Lucas wrote:

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
But after (again) having wasted several hours to repair my Outlook email file after yet another Windows 'freeze'

Thomas, I built my email entirely around Outlook for nearly 20 years, including various pieces of third-party software that worked with Outlook itself. I kept it that way because I could be sure that Outlook would continue to exist and because I had taken a strong dislike to so-called webmail such as Yahoo and Gmail. One problem I experienced is that once the Outlook PST files get to a certain size, they can cause instability. (I tried to keep mine below a gigabyte or so.) The other issue I had was trying to keep my mail synchronised across different machines.

Then in 2016 I moved to an independent webmail provider, namely Fastmail. At $5 a month the prices are very reasonable, the functionality is great (with no ads), I can use my own domain, and I can access my email at any time, from any device I like, anywhere around the world. It's liberating. I'm very happy with it and I don't miss Outlook at all. Of course, I have kept all my old PST files so that I can refer to them if need be.



Interesting advice, Dan. I'm in much the same situation. Having all the emails loaded onto a local machine was great 10-20 years ago, but it's not particularly practical when one needs access from a smartphone. In Gmail you cannot store your emails in a folder structure (which in my case in Outlook exactly mirrors my file folder structure). Gmail's spam filter is also a major disadvantage, as it generates far too many false positives, and you can't completely disable it. Then there is the question of backup. What if your cloud provider suddenly tells you one day: "Oops, we lost all your emails because of some rare and unlikely error condition, but don't worry, we'll happily reformat your space for you". You can sue them all you want, but your data is still lost. How independent are their backups? How do they prevent a bug accidentally deleting data in one data centre from propagating to the other centres and also deleting everything there? "Trust us" isn't good enough. I've worked in data centres for 20 years and know that internal procedures and documentation are often absent, messy, incorrect or not up to date, even in companies you thought should know better.

But before we're tarred, feathered and booted out for hijacking this thread with our email tales, maybe we should start a separate email thread


 
Enrico C - ECLC
Enrico C - ECLC  Identity Verified
Taiwan
Local time: 16:25
English to Italian
+ ...
If it can help. Mar 3, 2017

I use an X1 Yoga and it works really well. You can also look for newer models below X1 Yoga level. They are cheaper and still offer good performances. The Yoga 510 is a good alternative. Also HP x360 is a good machine. The Lenovo ones also have a TPM processor for security purpose.

 
Jean-Christophe Duc
Jean-Christophe Duc  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:25
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Interesting solution... Mar 3, 2017

Rolf Keller wrote:
The netbook does'nt need much computing & electric power because I use MS' Remote Desktop option, i. e. I use monitor, keyboard, and mouse of my office pc via screen, keyboard, and touchpad of my netbook. So, I have all my familiar programs, settings, configurations, files even on a camping ground at my fingertips, while the main pc is protected against damage, theft etc. On the netbook there are no abusable data at all, and of course the connection is encrypted via VPN.


But that implies someone switches the PC on for you when away from home ?
Is the Remote Desktop sufficient to do this? Do you not need some other features to access you PC the way you do?


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:25
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Crashes? What are those? Mar 3, 2017

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

Apple uses a more modern file system that is more robust in case of crashes.


It doesn't crash.


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 08:25
Danish to English
+ ...
What if someone pulls the plug on a desktop? Mar 3, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

Apple uses a more modern file system that is more robust in case of crashes.


It doesn't crash.


At least if you suddenly lose power on a desktop, an Apple file system is less likely to be damaged.

Using Windows can be a bit like it's shown in this old Apple ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY60vzAWqxw


 
Guofei_LIN
Guofei_LIN  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 18:25
Chinese
13" vs 15" Mar 3, 2017

Tom in London wrote:

Merab Dekano wrote:

......

Now I have a 15" laptop with a large screen at home. For me this is the ideal setup....


I agree, and I have a similar setup- a MacBook Pro 13", which is a good size for using on trains and tiny aeroplane tables.

So Merab Dekano says anything smaller than 15" is uncomfortable. How is your experience with your 13"?

I have a desktop with a 27" and a 24" monitor at home. I'm looking for a laptop for use when I go to the library or a coffee house.


 
Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 09:25
English to German
Not simple, but not too difficult Mar 9, 2017

Jean-Christophe Duc wrote:

But that implies someone switches the PC on for you when away from home ?


My PC consumes 0,5 watts in Standby mode. And 10 watts in Idle mode (CPU is throttling, Hard disk is off, fans run slowly, monitors are off, ...), so it can be running 24/7 during holidays.

Standby mode implies Wake-on-LAN; this works here, but Windows 10 doesn't like it (don't know, why).

Is the Remote Desktop sufficient to do this? Do you not need some other features to access you PC the way you do?


In order to reach the PC from anywhwere, the PC needs an address, i. e. a domain name resp an IP number. This is no problem at all. There are DynDNS providers who manage this for free.

Additionally the PC should have a permanent connection to the Internet via an Ethernet socket, dial-up connections might fail.

All the rest is software, free or built-in in Windows or even in a router.

On the travelling netbook:
Step 1 - Start any Internet connection (WLAN or what have you on site)

Step 2 - Start a VPN client. This client builds up a "tunnel" through the internet, using the connection of step 1, i. e. the tunnel extends directly from the netbook to the office PC.

Step 3 - Start the Remote Desktop client. This client uses the connection of Step 2. Now enter user name & password of the office PC. Some seconds later the netbook displays the desktop image of the office pc.


 
Jean-Christophe Duc
Jean-Christophe Duc  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 09:25
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Rolf Mar 9, 2017

I'll definitely try this later, as I only work occasionaly away from home.

Which software do you use for the VPN?

Also, when in "deep sleep" Windows tends to cut the Internet connection and necessitate a hard reboot. Do you have this problem?


 
Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 09:25
English to German
Windows speaks VPN Mar 11, 2017

Jean-Christophe Duc wrote:

Which software do you use for the VPN?


So far I've used the VPN-SSTP functionality that Windows 10 provides out of the box. At the server side, i. e. on the office PC, Windows Home versions don't provide VPN-SSTP and no Remote Desktop, but I never use Home versions anyway.

Also, when in "deep sleep" Windows tends to cut the Internet connection and necessitate a hard reboot. Do you have this problem?


No. Upon wake-up my system seems to work as usual (incl Internet), but actually it tends to work a bit unsteady. So I don't use deep sleep. In April a new version of Windows 10 will arrive, I'll give it a new try, then.


 


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Advice on tablets/ PCs/ 2-in-1






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