The 2-in-1 laptop category remains dominated by Microsoft's Surface brand, yes. There's no getting around that.
And yet, in 2024, there is more competition in the 2-in-1 space than there have been in a while.
We've reviewed every great 2-in-1 you can buy, including Chromebooks, convertibles, and powerful 16-inch versions. The overall best 2-in-1 at the moment is the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, with its fantastic keyboard that's as easy to remove as it is to type on, a 120Hz display, and a haptic-enabled pen. There's a reason it makes our list of the overall best laptops you can buy, despite being a tablet with a detachable keyboard.
A detachable 2-in-1 that's fully functional
Microsoft Surface Pro 11
- Gorgeous OLED screen
- Keyboard now works disconnected
- Upgradable storage
- Excellent trackpad and keyboard
- Spectacular webcam
- Great performance and battery life
- Not a great tablet without the keyboard
- Lacks a headphone jack
Historically, Microsoft slowly evolved the Surface Pro line over the years with subtle, but important tweaks. The Surface Pro 11 upends that model, switching completely over to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipset and Windows on Arm. It's a member of the new Microsoft Copilot+ PC initiative aimed at expanding the Windows platform's AI functionality while improving performance and battery life.
The Surface Pro 11 maintains the same iconic Surface Pro kickstand and Type Cover design, and so without setting it next to its predecessor, you might not notice the differences right away. But like the previous Surface Pro 9, it's made of aluminum rather than magnesium, it has smaller display bezels surrounding a larger 13-inch display (up from 12.3 inches), and its edges are more rounded. It's a more elegant and modern design that we like a lot. Differences include a new OLED display running at 120Hz and a wireless Type Cover that completely separates from the tablet.
The downside is that Microsoft dropped the 3.5mm audio jack, a decision that will bother some. Inside, it's powered by either the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus or X Elite chipset, which offers either 10 or 12 cores and the efficiency of the Arm architecture. In our review, the Surface Pro 11 was very fast and lasted longer than previous Surface Pro 2-in-1s as well as most Intel laptops. In addition, the new OLED display option that provides bright, dynamic, and accurate colors and inky blacks.
Questions remain about the compatibility of Windows 11 on Arm. However, even then the new detachable tablet is the best all-around 2-in-1 you can buy today.
The best convertible 2-in-1
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14
- Solid build quality
- Attractive aesthetic
- Very good battery life
- Gorgeous OLED display
- Excellent keyboard
- Great haptic touchpad
- Performance is just OK
- Expensive list prices
We always loved the HP Spectre x360 14, and this year, HP rebranded and redesigned its entire laptop lineup, including its most important 14-inch 2-in-1 device. Now, the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 isn't a detachable 2-in-1 like the Surface Pro -- it's a convertible, meaning it's a laptop with a touch screen and a 360-degree hinge. You can use it as a tablet, as a laptop, in tent mode, or even flipped around backward.
It has a gorgeous 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and the device still weighs just under three pounds. Build quality is excellent, the keyboard and trackpad are top-notch, and battery life is strong thanks to the new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips onboard.
It's a bit thick and heavy for a tablet. There' no doubt about that. But 2-in-1 convertibles aren't meant to be held in one hand like an iPad. What they make up for in portability though, they make up for in being proper laptops -- only with a bit more adaptability.
A Chromebook 2-in-1 that's incredibly affordable
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3
- Good enough productivity performance
- Excellent battery life
- Surprisingly good display
- Folio kickstand and keyboard included
- Strong value
- Keyboard is too cramped
- Limited to Wi-Fi 5
The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet is a Chromebook for people who like tablet designs and really like Chromebook prices but are still looking for the right 2-in-1 PC.
The slim Duet offers a 10.9-inch 2K (2000 x 1200) screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 CPU processor, and 4GB of RAM. Since it's a Chromebook, storage space really isn't a focus, but it's nice to see 64GB for those who need it for Android apps and Linux desktop software. Ports are limited to two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connections, one of which is used to charge the tablet.
While it's nice that the keypad includes a small touchpad for those who want it, it's still a little cramped for our taste. However, we rarely see similar specs made available at such a low price (and you can always choose a different keypad if you want to). Battery life is excellent at 11.5 hours for web browsing and 16 hours for video.
If you're looking for more like this, we've also gathered a list of the best Chromebooks.
A pure tablet that works great as a laptop
Apple iPad Pro
- Sublime OLED screen
- Lovely design and build
- Top-notch speakers
- Surprisingly good battery life
- Blistering performance
- Excellent keyboard and stylus
- iPadOS is achingly lacking
- It's extremely expensive
- Pricey accessories
Apple might not like calling the iPad Pro a "2-in-1 laptop," but that's what it is. That is, so long as you pair it with the excellent Magic Keyboard attachment.
The iPad Pro 13 is a significant upgrade to Apple's high-end tablet. It includes a new tandem OLED display that's only factionally larger, and it uses the new Apple Silicon M4 processor that's faster, more efficient, and includes an upgraded Neural Engine. The new M4 chipset makes the iPad Pro even more evenly matched with modern laptops at many tasks, meaning that you're no longer giving up performance to enjoy a legitimate tablet format.
The new iPad Pro's tandem OLED display is sublime, stacking two OLED panels together to dramatically increase brightness. It has the same 120Hz refresh rate as before but adds OLED's super-fast response times, in addition to wider and more accurate colors and OLED's inky blacks. It goes up to 1,000 nits in standard dynamic range (SDR) content and up to 1,600 in high dynamic range (HDR), with a sharp 2752-by-2064 resolution in slightly larger 13.0-inch display. The new Apple Pencil Pro active pen makes for an excellent drawing tool, and the updated Magic Keyboard gives the tablet laptop-like functionality, including haptic touchpad support in the last versions of iPad OS.
Of course, as an iPad, it remains the best tablets go. Today, the iPad Pro is the thinnest, lightest, and purest tablet experience you can buy, thanks in large part to a massive library of apps that are optimized for tablet usage.
A tiny Windows 11 2-in-1 that shines
Microsoft Surface Go 3
- Excellent build quality
- Superior display for a budget machine
- Great Active Pen support
- Small and light
- Surprisingly good real-world performance
- Can get expensive
- Mediocre battery life
- Keyboard and touchpad are cramped
Why you should buy this: It's the best small 2-in-1.
Who it's for: Anyone who wants a tablet that can plug in a keyboard in a pinch — and doesn't want to spend a ton of cash.
Why we picked the Microsoft Surface Go 3:
Affordable and slim, the Surface Go 3 gives you a classic tablet experience with Windows 11. It's also a notable upgrade to the first Surface Go, which was a very portable tablet but not that great on heavy workloads.
The newer model picks up the Surface Go 2's design and slims down the bezels while increasing the screen size to 10.5 inches. It also significantly improves performance using new processor options. Our pick uses an Intel Pentium 6500Y or Core i3 chip complemented by 8GB of RAM. The fast 128GB SSD makes it easier to handle work tasks.
The Surface Go 3 has ports for USB-C, a hidden microSD card slot to expand storage, and a headphone jack. The battery is rated for 10 hours, an improvement on the first Go's battery life, but still doesn't impress compared to other picks on our list.
A powerful 2-in-1 with an innovative design
Surface Laptop Studio 2
- Beautiful PixelSense Flow display
- Robust hinge design
- Comfortable keyboard and trackpad
- Sharp webcam
- Expensive
- Mediocre battery life
- Middling performance in Recommended mode
Why you should buy this: It’s the most powerful 2-in-1.
Who it's for: Business and creative professionals with money to spend on the best.
Why we picked the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2:
The Surface Laptop Studio is an innovative pull-forward 2-in-1 design in an all-metal chassis with powerful components inside. It's not a direct replacement for the Surface Book 3, but it's taken its place at the top of Microsoft's Surface lineup. It's recently been updated to its second generation, with even more power inside.
It features 45-watt Intel H-series Core CPUs, along with an optional Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, making it the most powerful 2-in-1 in our lineup. It can handle demanding productivity workflows while managing less demanding creative tasks as well. It can also do some gaming in a pinch.
You'll appreciate the 14.4-inch 3:2 display at a high 2,400 x 1,600 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, and the panel supports the Microsoft Surface Slim 2 Pen's haptic feedback. With up to 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a portable workstation in a 2-in-1 form factor.
An ultra-expensive foldable 2-in-1
HP Spectre Foldable PC
- Exquisite design
- Solid build quality
- Excellent foldable OLED display
- Great keyboard
- Plenty of usable formats
- Above-average battery life
- Extremely expensive
- Tablet mode is overly large
- Clamshell display resolution is relatively low
Why you should buy this: It's the best 2-in-1 for business.
Who it's for: Businesspeople who need a portable 2-in-1 that your IT department will approve of.
Why we picked the HP Spectre Foldable PC:
There's a newer class of laptop that aims to go beyond the 2-in-1 to offer an additional mode. Dubbed 3-in-1s, laptops like the Spectre Foldable PC offer "desktop" mode to go with tent, media, and tablet modes.
As its name implies, the Spectre Foldable PC has a foldable display, specifically a 17.0-inch 3:4 OLED screen running at 2.5K (2560 x 1920) that folds down the middle. Place the detachable keyboard on top of the bottom fold and it's a clamshell laptop. And when unfolded the display can be used as a very large tablet or in the desktop mode mentioned above.
HP's design is impeccable, and the tablet feels naturally balanced thanks to batteries that are split into each fold. The keyboard and touchpad are excellent, and the Spectre Foldable PC offers good enough productivity performance, with surprisingly good battery life. Its only real negative is its high price of $5,000, which limits its market considerably.
Frequently Asked Questions
A convertible 2-in-1 laptop can convert from a traditional clamshell laptop to a tablet. In some cases, it's a bit of a misnomer — 360-degree convertible laptops like the HP Spectre x360 14 can also be used in tent and media modes. The keyboard is not removable.
A detachable 2-in-1 laptop is a tablet-based device with a detachable keyboard accessory. In most cases, the keyboard is an additional cost, as seen with the Surface Pro family. You can keep the keyboard attached and flip it around so you can use the screen as a tablet.
The main advantage of a detachable 2-in-1 is portability — tablets are extremely thin, light, and easy to carry around. They also work the best for drawing and taking notes on the pen-enabled display. On the flip side, they tend to have less powerful hardware than convertibles.
The 360-degree convertible 2-in-1, on the other hand, isn't quite as handy as a detachable, but it tends to work better in clamshell laptop mode — especially when using it on the lap, where it's more stable than most detachable 2-in-1s. The hardware tends to be better due to the lack of space constraints seen with thin tablets.
Recent 360-degree convertibles like our favorite HP Spectre x360 14 make for great clamshells — in fact, it's a great competitor to the Dell XPS 13 even if you never end up flipping the display around. Modern 2-in-1s are fast, have long battery life, and often enjoy even better displays than the typical clamshell laptop.
If you need the fastest gaming laptop or professional workstation that uses the most powerful CPUs and GPUs, then a 2-in-1 PC isn't for you. That's because 2-in-1s tend to be thinner and lighter because they can be used as slates. That creates some limitations in just how fast a 2-in-1 can perform compared to traditional laptops.
Technically, no, Apple doesn't offer the traditional 2-in-1 laptop. Its MacBooks are clamshell-only.
However, Apple advertises its iPad Pro as a detachable 2-in-1, although it uses the mobile iPadOS instead of MacOS for desktops and laptops. Like Microsoft's Surface Pro, the keyboard is an accessory, which adds to the base price. And because the iPad Pro uses a mobile operating system, you can't install traditional desktop software — which is where Microsoft trumps Apple with the Surface Pro 11, for example.
Still, Apple is improving how well the iPad works as a laptop by enabling mouse support and improved file system support in the new iPadOS.
A big disappointment for dedicated gamers is that many 2-in-1s lack the capacity for supitemer-advanced CPUs and GPUs. You can use a 2-in-1 for gaming, but you won’t get the same high-quality graphics or frame rate that you’re used to on a real clamshell laptop.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU that makes it more than fast enough for modern games at 1080p and moderately-high graphics settings.
If you're interested in a new notebook computer, use our laptop buying guide to help you choose the best device for your budget.
