I ended up purchasing a 2 in 1. I went for a larger unit. HP no longer had larger units on the site while I was looking right before Christmas. Ended up buying off Amazon at a significantly discounted rate, although probably got what I paid for. HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 16t. I7 Ultra 155H 3800MHz 16 cores. 32 GIG ram, 2tb drive space. I am not sure what my HD speed is nor am I sure about the graphics card, but the tech at my appraisal software provider stated it was a little light.
First the positives. I am coming off a 5 year run with an HP x360 14inch. Prior to that were lenovo X1 3:2 14" screen with kickstand, then lenovo p?31,51 something 2-in-1 had a widescreen 14', was setup to do a lot of 3d rendering. Windows surface Book prior to that, and Lenovo X61s prior to that.
First, the positives. I have really liked the added screen real estate both while traveling and in the field. I can place the URAR at the top of screen in portrait mode and sketch window below and have good visibility for editing. The screen is viewable in full sunlight but would crank up brightness to 100% for extended periods. I keep at around 60% for typical day. Unit still fits in my older backpack used with old spectre and is a little large for my truck mount, but with some modification I think will work fine. The pen is magnetic and does fall off site frequently, but in portrait mode while in field fits on back in a metal area with top sticking up just above top of screen and is more secure. Keyboard is average with backlighting when needed and has large touchpad. The additional drive space has been nice as I have not had to utilize external storage for files. Everything fits on this device. The device itself seems more robust than my older one which was a worry, as I had to replace the screen on the old device 3 times due to cracks. The older unit was pretty fragile. The newer unit has much more secure screen and less flimsy.
Now the negatives. The screen is bulkier and heavy for inspections. Have to be more careful getting in and out of tighter spaces. I knew the weight would be heavier and was willing to trade off the extra screen real estate for the weight. The added size and weight does however allow a better grip on the unit when doing field inspections.
I had hoped that the new unit would alleviate some issues I was having with the older 5 year old unit, but really has not. In fact, had created a new issue with printer spooling that I have never had prior. The old unit had two major issues and the new one does as well. 1, When moving a window in the appraisal software somewhere else on the screen, everything freezes until the window is moved and it takes up to 20 seconds for this to happen, even when done by accident. 2. This is a new issue on this unit, Randomly in the appraisal software, when clicking buttons to save file, sign report, etc. It will take up to 25 seconds for the action to be performed. You can literally click the button 15-20 times while nothing seems to be happening before the action happens and the screen clears. 3 and this is probably the most frustrating, While typing a reconciliation or any kind of paragraph, something gets hit, not sure if I am accidentally hitting the touch pad or arrow or what, but while I am still typing, large portions of the paragraph will highlight in blue and will be erased while I am still typing. It happened 4 times while writing this post. Had this same issue with older unit as well.
In short, while I still have some issue to figure out, I am overall happy, particularly based on the price of this unit as compared to my prior unit and screen size is a real plus for me even with the trade-offs.
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