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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Almost perfect
By Patrick Soo Hoo II
REPLACING... 15" Macbook Pro, Fujitsu T730, HP TC4200PRIMARY USAGE GOAL: Software development / coding * I wanted a highly portable, stylus-enabled device that could replace my existing combination of my trusty -- but bulky -- 15" Macbook Pro for development and HP/Fujitsu for drawing. For the type of software development I do, I wanted an i5 chip and 6GB RAM minimum (with strong preference for 8+GB). This ruled out many other contenders, like the Ativ 700T and perhaps even the yet-unreleased Surface Pro. So far, the performance of the i7 Duo has been wonderful and just what I wanted. * I also wanted a high screen-resolution to maximize real estate for my IDE and the Duo delivers with a beautiful 1920x1080 display. It also delivers a smooth and accurate touchscreen experience. * On the down side, the optical trackpad on the Duo just doesn't compare with the excellent Mac trackpad. Today's development environments and text editing applications are still heavily mouse-oriented (read: small widgets) so an accurate pointing mechanisms are pretty important. The stylus can help offset this, but without a pen dock in the device, it's not always there when I need it. I've taken to adding a bluetooth mouse to the kit. * The keyboard on the Duo is really solid. It looks small at first, but it's quite comfortable to use and has a satisfying touch.SECONDARY USAGE GOALS: digital sketching, light gaming, and portable photo/music collection * For sketching, I really, really wanted a Wacom pen. But unfortunately, none of the Wacom-enabled devices met the CPU/memory requirements I was looking for so I had to settle. On the flip side, I've been very pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of the Duo pen once I left Photoshop behind and started using ArtRage / Sketchbook Pro instead. Just to drive this point home for artists looking at this device -- this stylus does NOT support pressure sensitivity in Painter/Photoshop, but it does so wonderfully in ArtRage/SBP. PS support in PS is technically possible, but given the long history of this issue I would not hold your breath waiting for those driver updates. One area where I've noticed it outperforms the Wacom is edge accuracy -- I don't know if this is a properly representative sample, but my Wacom-enabled Fujitsu T730 was sometimes frustrating as an art platform because while the pen was accurate in the center of the screen, as you went outwards toward the edges a noticeable gap between the pen tip and screen pointer would develop. This meant I had to stay within the central area of an already smallish screen if I wanted to noodle in details. The n-trig on the Duo seems to be more accurate from edge-to-edge so I feel I can use the whole screen with confidence. (for the record, my much-beloved TC4200 did NOT seem to have the same edge-accuracy issue the Fujitsu did) * It's been a solid gaming device so far. I'm not an FPS guy, but I've been playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Starcraft 2 with my daughter and both games have run smoothly using the default settings. I'm the type of guy who normally would rather play on a desktop just to get the extra graphical oomph and the Duo has been a satisfactory replacement. * I wanted the biggest available SSD, 256gb, with the idea of taking my photos and music with me when I travel. However, only around 170gb was actually available for use. WTF is using up so much space? Now, after installing apps, frameworks, games and source code, I'm down to 60gb free without even loading any photos or music. Bummer. I'm probably going to have to pick up an SD card for the photos and music. Thumbs-up for the full-size SD slot though. I hope it can take a 128GB card.WHERE I USE IT: on desk at work and home, on lap while sitting in bed at night watching TV, on lap on trains and airplane * I was skeptical when I first saw photos of the Duo's slider form-factor at work, but it has really turned out to be a versatile design and works comfortably both on a desk and in cramped train seating. This is one area where the technical specs couldn't help my decision, so I set out to play with my finalists, the Surface RT (while guesstimating about the Surface Pro experience), the Ativ Pro, and the Duo in stores before finally deciding on the Duo. 95% of the time I want a keyboard available, so the tablet-only modes of the both the Surface and Ativ, while nice, were of limited appeal to me. I focused on judging the devices based on form factor with keyboard attached. The Ativ Pro has been my great hope for a laptop replacement ever since I first started looking at the Windows 8 devices a few months ago. But after finally seeing it in person, I found that the weight distribution of the Ativ Pro, while docked, was just too top/back-heavy for my liking. It reminded me a lot of my wife's HP TM2, and that is NOT a comfortable laptop to use without a steady surface for it to rest on. This unfortunate fact led me to cancel my pre-order for it and crushed my dreams of a Wacom-enabled ultraportable. I absolutely loved the build quality of the Surface RT, but questioned whether the kickstand design would be steady enough on my lap in the train or while sitting in bed at night watching TV with my wife. I will be re-evaluating this when the Pro comes out though, since the wife also needs an upgrade. In contrast to the two other devices, I found the Duo's slider design to be wonderfully stable. Since the screen is closer to the center of gravity of the base, it's not back-heavy like the Ativ. The flat, stable base also requires less depth to support than the Surface design w/keyboard does. I haven't tried this yet myself, but I think this is really going to turn out to be a blessing in that most uncomfortable of workspaces... the dreaded economy-class airplane seat! I am actually looking forward to it now. * I also really, really wanted a backlit keyboard since I use my computers so much at night. I was prepared to give this feature up, though, if there was a device that hit on all the other priorities. Thankfully, it's included on the Duo and works very well! Could it have been too much to ask to light up the trackpad buttons too though?IN SUMMARY... The need for a stylus-enabled device with a powerful CPU, lots of RAM and a large SSD dramatically limited the field for me. Then after judging form-factor and other intangibles, there really was only one choice: the Duo. And so far... I love it! OTHER NOTES/NITPICKS.... * The build quality, as others have noted, feels very high quality. Even though the Duo was more expensive, I still just couldn't justify the Ativ Pro purchase after playing with both machines in person. * Screen does feel small given the chassis. If they made a 13" display version of this in a few months... I would absolutely consider upgrading for it. * Machine runs very cool and quiet even while being stressed. My macbook, on the other hand, will torch you when it gets a workout. * Battery life is a bit of a letdown. I'm getting 4+ hours including lots of cpu-heavy compilation tasks, but was hoping for more.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Heads and tails better than the Toshiba
By Brian Sheehan
Specs wise the machine is so much more than the Toshiba U925 but that doesn't tell the whole story. It just works better. Little things like the auto backlight and the Windows button that was iffy at best on the Toshiba just work here. Its also just much better built. There is no flex in this one because its made from metal. The screen has much better color and the resolution is twice the Toshiba, though on the desktop I would definitely play with the screen settings to make things look bigger. The one complaint I have that's not Windows 8 related is the battery. I'm getting about 5 hours. I would have liked to see better on a machine this pricey. There is and extended battery available though. All in all a winner though if you want this kind of functionality.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Pretty Good
By Rahul Majumder
I bought this item some time ago and I can surely say that it is a very good product after playing around with it. Bear in mind that I like the new windows 8 and this operational system makes perfect sense for a hybrid tablet/ pc. The screen resolution is mind blowing and the touch screen capability is very sharp. I have been using the device as a tablet and as a PC. The sound, video and mic are great too. Overall a great piece of hardware indeed. As a tablet, I find it very convenient to read books, newspapers and check on social media. The keyboard slide feature makes it easy to convert to a tablet or full laptop mode. I think the Duo 11 very light, but as a tablet it is a bit heavy. On the other hand it would be impossible to make as light as the IPAD I realize that. In fact, I find the design simple and sharp and Sony got a nice compromise between laptop/ Tablet in my opinion. As a laptop, I cannot complain either. The duo 11 is packed with ports and the specs are great (something other models are missing). I went for the 256 SSD hard drive with 8 gig of Ram. The performance is stunning and boots pretty fast and I have been working with it just fine writing reports,emails and running simulations. It took me sometime, however, to get used with the keyboard. The back light feature of the keyboard make it easy to use it at night and after a while I find the keyboard comfortable. The only downside is the trackball which is very sensitive. I use a wireless mouse instead. The other downside is the battery which does not hold for long. I may have some guilt on this because I use the hybrid as a tablet therefore using more the device. All in all I am satisfied and the device has successfully replaced both the tablet and laptop I used to have,
See all 10 customer reviews...
Good if you only want it for Facebook games
