So I went to Best Buy and was able to test out a number of 2-in-1s, including some with the latest with Intel's 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. They had HP, Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, Apple, and Microsoft. Like a kid in a candy store here. Some initial impressions.
-If you want a 2-in-1, 14" screens are about the limit of practicality, because the 15" laptops get to be too big and unwieldy.
-The Microsoft Surface Book is one of a kind. The sheer quality combined with the ability to complete detach the screen part and still utilize different positions was unique when compared to everything that I tried. Microsoft may have successfully emulated Apple's Reality Distortion Field.
-The newest HP Spectre x360 probably is up there with Apple for pure curb appeal. Seriously, this thing looked very slick and felt more like an 11" laptop than its 13" size, and was not too bulky too hold in tablet mode. My only complaint is the lack of at least a MicroSD card slot.
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-HP laptops in general seemed to have the best keyboards of all the models that I tried.
-Dell Inspirons are a great budget model, and the latest ones with Kaby Lake have an updated design aesthetic that competes with anything else out there.
-Across the board, Dell is making some great laptops.
-HP Envy also is a decent budget model, but has more bulk compared to the Dell Inspirons.
-Lenovo Yogas are very visually attractive machines, but there are a couple major flaws: the watchband hinge looks like a potentially faulty nightmare with too many points of failure (but what do I know, I'm not an engineer) and Lenovo has tried to reinvent the keyboard AGAIN by putting the shift key to the right of the arrow cluster. It was AWFUL for typing.
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-I would have liked to try the Thinkpad Yogas to compare their build and keyboard to Lenovo's consumer line, but they didn't have those on the floor.
-Acer and Asus just feel slightly cheaper when placed next to all the other brands, as expected. How much that actually matters over the life of owning the laptop, I don't know.
-Other companies are catching up with Dell in the minimal display bezel game, namely HP and Lenovo.
-The Apple Macbook Air 11" might be the only 11" laptop ever to have a comfortably sized keyboard. Shame that it's not available anymore.
-I didn't mind using Windows 10 in both desktop and tablet mode. My only complaint is when compared to MacOS, ChromeOS, and many Linux distros, Windows 10 is less organized, too busy, and has too much going on. As many have noted.
If I had to pick a couple winners, the Microsoft Surface Book and newest HP Spectre x360 left the biggest impression. The market in laptops right now is truly impressive, I haven't seriously looked at a laptop in a few years now and these things are quite amazing.