1. The list in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best for artists
4. Best under $1,000
5. Best for travel
6. Best Chromebook
7. Best business
8. Best budget
9. Best display
10. Best portable
11. How we test
12. Why trust Laptop Mag
The best 2-in-1 laptops bring ultimate versatility — flipping and flexing into several positions for work and life. Microsoft was the first to bring these transfiguring laptops into our lives, and they have stood the test of time as the likes of Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and HP have joined the party.
From working in a traditional laptop mode to propping it up into tent mode for your inner artist (complete with a stylus), or even folding it flat for a tablet experience, a 2-in-1 laptop is a one-size-fits-all answer to the question "should I buy a laptop or a tablet?"
We've listed the best 2-in-1 laptops below, including laptops with 360-degree flipping abilities and detachable devices with built-in stands.
The Quick List
Best overall
Our reviewer sung the praises of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 as the best laptop she’s ever reviewed. Why? That 14-inch, OLED display is spec-freakin’-tacular. The stunning 2,800 x 1800 panel has “mouthwatering vibrancy” and a magnificent color depth that you can darn-near go swimming in. It also has a blisteringly fast SSD, loud, impactful speakers, decent battery life.
Best for artists
The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is excellent for digital artists. After all, it comes with the beloved S Pen that captivates the hearts of Samsung Galaxy S-series phone users. And now, you can use that S Pen on a Samsung laptop. As a cherry on top, the S Pen ships with the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, so you don’t have to worry about purchasing it separately.
Best under $1,000
Looking for a 2-in-1 that doesn’t break the bank? The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 may be what you’re looking for. It has a massive, 16-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel display, a bright panel, impressive performance, and most impressive of all, incredible battery life. This convertible shocked us by lasting 13 hours on a charge.
Best for travel
If you’re looking for a travel buddy, but don’t necessarily need a beastly companion, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9315) is the way to go. No, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 isn’t the most powerful laptop you can secure, but it is lightweight, portable and compact, making it perfect for on-the-go busy bees. Plus, it has solid graphics performance, an excellent webcam, and a versatile design.
Best Chromebook
If you prefer a Chrome OS device because you are sucked into the Google ecosystem, the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook is an ideal choice. Its 2-in-1 design includes a detachable keyboard and cover. Plus, its bright, vivid OLED display impressed us, too. But what really blew us away is its incredible battery life of more than 13 hours.
The best business
The Dell Latitude 9430 offers a flexible 2-in-1 design at just 0.54 inches thick, while still delivering over 12 hours and 30 minutes of battery life and strong productivity performance. Typically you sacrifice power for a 2-in-1 design, but that's not the case with Latitude 9430, which makes it an ideal choice for road warriors who want a convertible form factor.
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Best budget
Packed with a sleek, flexible design and a decent-performing AMD chipset, the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip OLED is the best budget 2-in-1 laptop on the market. Aside from its ultraportable design, it has a stunning, eye-catching, 14-inch OLED display that will make you salivate over its vividity and color vigor.
Best display
Our reviewer called the HP Spectre x360 16 a “flipping delight” because the display on this sleek convertible stunned him. The 16-inch OLED panel boasts a 3,840 x 2400-pixel touchscreen display — it’s large and in charge. The speakers on this laptop are impressive, too, if you love to jam out to tunes while you’re working. And if you love a good keyboard, look no further than the HP Spectre x360 16.
Best tiny form factor
If you’re looking for a 2-in-1 Chromebook that can practically fit inside your pocket, consider the Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3. It’s got a built-in stylus, a durable, detachable 2-in-1 design, and as we hinted earlier, it’s compact and portable. It weighs only 1.1 pounds on its own, but with the keyboard and case, it’s still quite lightweight, weighing just 2 pounds. It’s quite thin, too, with a height of just 0.68 inches.
Best 2-in-1 overall
The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is one of the few laptops that has earned our prestigious Editor's Choice badge this year. Not only is this sleek, elegant convertible a stunner with its eye-catching, mind-blowing 14-inch vibrant OLED display, but it hit such a harmonious note in other aspects, too. It has an impressive 10-hour battery life on a single charge, its speakers are loud and impactful, its SSD is blisteringly fast, and its performance is top-notch for anyone seeking seamless productivity across the board. Get the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8, and you won't regret your purchase.
See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i review.
Best for artists
Looking for a 2-in-1 that is perfect for your content creation and digital artistic needs? Stop looking right now. The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 fits the bill. First of all, it ships with the beloved S Pen, the stylus that is one of the biggest selling points for the Samsung Galaxy S-series flagship phone line. Now, you can use that stylus to take notes and draw with precision on the Galaxy Book 3 Pro's 360 display.
It also has a sweet, vivid, 15.6-inch AMOLED, 1080p display. It also outputted outstanding performance in our benchmarks, outpacing its rivals. Our only serious complaint is that the battery life has fallen off since last year, but overall the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 remains an outstanding option for artists or anyone looking for a solid big-screen 2-in-1 with stylus support.
See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review.
Best under $1,000
The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 has a large display and a bright panel (for the price) — two features that often work against battery life. But still, against all odds, the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 managed to last a whopping 13 hours and 38 minutes on a charge. That's almost 14 hours!
Although it's under $1,000, this 16-inch Dell laptop has a premium design (the Laptop Mag editor who reviewed it says that the dark green configuration is the most attractive) and it delivered strong performance scores. It has a decent 12th Gen Intel Core i7 chip that can juggle all of your productivity needs in a cinch.
See our full Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (7620) review.
Best for travel
Dell's XPS 13 series has always been a fan favorite in the laptop world, so why not consider its convertible, 2-in-1 version? The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9315) features a lightweight design with a detachable keyboard. This means it can be a tablet one minute and a clamshell laptop the next. This convertible also delivers impressive graphics performance, a sharp, bright display, and a crisp webcam. Some sacrifices you'll have to make, though, are power efficiency and port variety.
See our Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9315) review.
Best Chromebook
Our review called the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook a "near-perfect" laptop. It has a mouth-watering OLED display, a brilliant detachable 2-in-1 design, and comes with a keyboard and cover. To top it all off, lasts over 13 hours on a charge. This is a 2-in-1 laptop that you can bring to work or school, sans the charger, and you should still have some juice left at the end of the day. Can we get a "hallelujah" for power efficiency? The one downside you should consider, however, is that although it is compatible with a stylus, it does not ship with one. It is sold separately.
See our full Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook review.
Best business
The Dell Latitude 9430 is the best 2-in-1 business laptop thanks to incredible battery life and performance. It lasted for 12 hours and 39 minutes in our Laptop Mag Battery test. And while that's a great start, it's not all to recommend it. You also get a
bright InfinityEdge display that allows it to fit a 14-inch display into an improbably thin 0.54-inch chassis.
That battery life isn't due to a power-sipping CPU either, you still get enough performance to juggle every productivity app and browser tab in your arsenal. Add in excellent enterprise-grade security from its vPro processor, secure and convenient login via its FHD IR camera or fingerprint reader and while it doesn't come cheap, the Dell Latitude 9430 is worth every penny.
See our full Dell Latitude 9430 2-in-1 review.
Best budget
Looking for something what won't break the bank? The Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip OLED should be your number one pick on this list! It won't set your wallet on fire, and it's actually good. It has a lightweight, ultraportable design, it can transform into a number of different postures, it has a gorgeous, 14-inch OLED display that will make you drool, and its sleek, dark blue chassis is a showstopper. It also has an LED NumberPad, great for consumers who are number crunchers.
See our full Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip OLED review
Best display
Our reviewer was stunned by the HP Spectre x360 16's OLED touch display, which is packed with a 3840 x 2400-pixel screen. It comes with a stylish, compact design and great Bang & Olufsen-tuned speakers.
Like any other 2-in-1, it can transform into a number of different modes, including tent mode, tablet mode, and clamshell mode. However, our review noted that the Spectre x360 is a 16-inch laptop, so using it as a tablet is a bit unwieldy. Other than that, the Spectre x360 16 is a 2-in-1 with one of the best displays on the market, so if you're ready to feast your eyes with a visual treat, don't overlook this excellent HP convertible.
See our full HP Spectre x360 16 review.
Best portable
The Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3 is a 10-inch 2-in-1 that blew our mind. Big things really do come in small packages. It only weighs 1.1 pounds, but when you add that keyboard and case to the mix, it's still quite featherweight (2 pounds). On top of that, it comes with a garaged stylus for your drawing and note taking needs.
The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 featured on this list is the "best for travel" due to its perfect melange of power and compactness for frequent travelers. The Chromebook Detachable CM3, on the other hand, isn't necessarily a powerhouse, but it's ideal for anyone seeking something super pocketable that won't weigh them down. Plus, it has nearly 12 hours of battery life. Sweet!
See our full review of the Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3.
How we test the best 2-in-1 laptops
You first need to decide what type of 2-in-1 laptop is right for you. If you want a primary computing device for home and work, you should probably go with a laptop that can convert into a tablet, or what we call a bendback 2-in-1. These include the HP Spectre x360 13, Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo Yoga C940.
If you want something more portable or just need a nice display for content viewing, consider buying a tablet that converts into a tablet via a detachable keyboard. In this category are the Microsoft Surface devices and Apple's iPad Pro. Tablets are also great for artists or designers because they typically support a stylus input and aren't as unwieldy as convertible laptops.
Once you've made a choice between tablet or laptop, decide how much power you need. When it comes to specs, we recommend buying a laptop with an 11th Gen Intel U-series or H-series Core i5 CPU, at least 8GB of RAM (16GB is great) and a minimum of 256GB of storage. AMD is coming in hot with its Ryzen 5000 chips, so keep an eye out for those.
Battery life is another key component of any good 2-in-1 laptop. If you plan to take the notebook to class or the library, don't count on there being an outlet! Consider a laptop that gets at least 9 hours of battery life, which should be enough to get you through a couple of classes with enough juice for studies.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
We put 2-in-1 laptops through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.
In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.
To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution. Gaming laptops go through an entire library of games at high settings to see how their discrete GPUs keep up.
We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 (and soon Windows 11) laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.
These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.
