The best 2-in-1 laptops let you enjoy the strengths of two devices in one: the power of a laptop, with the portability and accessibility of a tablet. Built with the latest mobile PC components, the best 2-in-1s are thin and light, with gorgeous displays and efficient batteries that let you carry them through your day without worrying about finding a charger.
Thanks to the rapid advancement of mobile components and display tech, 2-in-1 laptops and tablets are thinner, lighter, and more powerful than ever. What was once a tiny niche market is growing crowded with lots of different devices (Windows 10 PCs, iPads, Chromebooks), affording you lots of options, from laptops which fold over into giant tablets to tablets with attachable keyboards that transform them into decent typewriters. Of course, choosing the right one for your needs has gotten a lot tricker too: read on for our recommendations on the best 2-in-1s to buy right now.
What are the best 2-in-1 laptops right now?
The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 is currently our pick for the best 2-in-1 overall, as it delivers speedy performance and great battery life in a thin, light package with a beautiful AMOLED touchscreen.
If you’re on a budget, we recommend the Microsoft Surface Go 2. It’s a lightweight Windows 10 tablet that’s got enough power to handle most daily tasks, plus it has a decent webcam. With a price tag starting at $399 and a detachable keyboard included — a rarity in the tablet world — it’s our pick for most affordable 2-in-1.
If battery life is your top priority, the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex is a great choice. It has a great touchscreen and a powerful Intel i7 CPU, yet still somehow managed to last an incredible 15 hours and 44 minutes in our battery test.
With its beautiful AMOLED touchscreen, excellent battery life, and comfortable S Pen stylus, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 is the best 2-in-1 laptop for creatives, students, and professionals who like to take notes or doodle.
While the webcam is disappointing, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 unites some of the latest and greatest Windows ultraportable components with the Super AMOLED display tech and Galaxy device ecosystem Samsung is known for — though that last part may be more hassle than help if you’re not already a Galaxy device owner. If you’re in the market for a new 2-in-1 laptop, this is currently our top recommendation.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 review.
The Lenovo Yoga 9i is an excellent 2-in-1 with good battery life, a colorful display, an amazing rotating speaker, and speedy performance. It’s a great choice for those seeking a 2-in-1 for work, as Lenovo (true to form) packs minimal bloatware into the Yoga 9i.
However, it does have a limited port selection and while the webcam delivers decent image quality, it doesn’t have an IR sensor and thus can’t support logging in via Windows Hello biometric authentication. It’s also a bit pricey if you kit it out with all the bells and whistles; but hey, if it’s for work, why not? You can probably write it off. If you can afford it, splurge for the Shadow Black version — it has a slicker design with some leather trim.
Read our full Lenovo Yoga 9i review.
The Microsoft Surface Go 2 finally realizes the promise of the original Surface Go. Its bigger screen, smaller bezels and longer battery life (with an optional performance boost from the Core m3 CPU) add up to a sub-$800 hybrid that can handle a lot, making it one of the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy when you’re on a budget.
Power users may think twice when looking at how it stacks up against similar 2-in-1 tablets like the Surface Pro 7 and the iPad Air, but with the Go 2 Microsoft’s made a solid Surface 2-in-1 for those who don’t want to pay Pro prices. And, importantly for those who make a lot of video calls, it’s got a sharp webcam that won’t disappoint.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Go 2 review.
From its bright 15-inch screen to its strong performance and even more-striking color, the Galaxy Book Flex is a great 2-in-1 laptop, and its nifty Qi-charging touchpad offers the kind of unique functionality we’d like to see other laptop makers toy with.
We also love the Galaxy Book Flex’s fantastic endurance and solid performance, but there are some asterisks getting in the way. Specifically, its keyboard takes some getting used to, thanks to a questionably-placed fingerprint reader and shallow keys. Still, if you need the best 2-in-1 with the longest battery life on the market (the Flex lasted an amazing 15 hours and 44 minutes in our battery test) this is the laptop for you.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Book Flex review.
If you’re amenable to ChromeOS, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a great $249 tablet with a detachable keyboard that comes included by default, so you’re not paying extra for the laptop experience.
We’re pretty impressed by its fantastic battery life and sharp screen, as well as some neat new tablet optimizations for Chrome. If only its keyboard weren’t so cramped and its hinge felt a bit more solid; still, for students who need a cheap 2-in-1 Chromebook or families looking for a device that everyone can use for browsing the web, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a compelling option.
Read our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet review.
If you like working in iPadOS, Apple’s 12.9-inch 2021 iPad Pro is the best 2-in-1 you can buy. Apple’s latest iPad Pro is faster than any tablet ever, armed with the super-fast M1 processor from the latest Macs, making it ready to crunch video for pros around the world.
This iPad Pro’s Liquid Retina XDR screen has features none of its rivals can match, getting up to 200% brighter than the competition. Plus, its Center Stage video conferencing trick is quite impressive. Still, it’s an expensive device that gets even more so when you factor in the cost of a new Magic Keyboard, which is critical to making it usable as a laptop. If you have an old Magic Keyboard lying around, be aware that the 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro should be compatible but will fit a little wrong, due to it being slightly thicker than earlier models.
Read our full iPad Pro 2021 (12.9-inch) review.
How to choose the best 2-in-1 laptop for you
Performance: If you only need something basic for surfing the web and checking email, consider a 2-in-1 Chromebook like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. If you need more power to multi-task, run demanding applications, or edit photos/videos, look for a 2-in-1 packing the latest Intel CPUs, like the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 or Lenovo Yoga 9i.
Graphics and gaming: To function as both tablets and laptops, 2-in-1s are typically designed to be as thin and power-efficient as possible, so they don’t pack discrete GPUs and thus aren’t great at running the latest games. However, they can usually run older games pretty well, so if game performance is important to you, your best bet is to look for a 2-in-1 with the latest Intel CPUs to take advantage of their integrated graphics (currently Intel Iris Xe) hardware, then splurge for extra RAM and storage. A great display will also help your games look their best.
Size: Consider how portable you need your new 2-in-1 to be: is this a laptop you occasionally want to use as a tablet, or vice versa? If you prefer the lighter weight and smaller size (typically) of a tablet, and can live with having a flimsy/detachable keyboard, then something like the Apple iPad Pro 2021 (12.9-inch) or Microsoft Surface Go 2 is a good choice. If you’d rather have the larger screen and extra power/versatility of a laptop that doubles as a tablet, and don’t mind the extra size and weight, consider something like the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 or Lenovo Yoga 9i.
Operating system: 2-in1s mostly come with three varieties of operating system: Windows 10 (most 2-in-1s), iPadOS (for iPads), and Chrome OS (2-in-1 Chromebooks). Windows 10 is the most common, while iPadOS is more useful to folks already tied into Apple’s ecosystem. Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system built to allow for cheap, fast systems, though it has gotten a bit more robust over the years with support for full Android apps.
How we test the best 2-in-1 laptops
To find the best 2-in-1 laptops we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use.
We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop’s display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 (CPU performance), as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine’s hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.
Since these aren’t dedicated gaming laptops we don’t run benchmarks for popular games (like Far Cry: New Dawn); 2-in-1 laptops don’t have discrete GPUs, as a rule, and thus will rarely deliver satisfactory performance in modern 3D games. However, they are capable of running older or less demanding PC games, so we do run a benchmark test to measure their performance in Sid Meier’s Civilization 6: Gathering Storm.
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