Judging a Convertible on More Than Its Spec Sheet

The case for a convertible is easy to make and easy to oversell. Folding the screen back does genuinely replace a second device for reading, marking up documents and sketching. What the marketing rarely mentions is that the same processor placed in a thinner, hinge-constrained body behaves differently from the clamshell version, and that the pen is usually a separate purchase running one of three incompatible digitiser standards.

This page is about those trade-offs rather than a feature list. Weight distribution, port count, hinge stiffness, panel gloss and whether the memory is soldered are the things that decide whether a convertible stays useful in year three. Read them before the processor name, because the processor is the part you can most easily compensate for.