The best 2-in-1 laptops for creatives (2024)

The best 2-in-1 laptops provide the best of both worlds. To work in tablet mode, either detach or rotate the screen to the laptop's back. Then return it to laptop mode when you prefer to use a physical keyboard. This makes 2-in-1s a great choice for digital creatives who usually use multiple devices.

When curating our list of the best 2-in-1 laptops, we've draws on personal experience reviewing both laptops and tablets. We've taken into account each device's suitability for creative work, as well as its specs and performance, the effectiveness of its transition mechanism, the quality of the display and, of course, its value for money.

As you'd expect, you'll also find a few of these machines in our roundup of the best laptops for drawing. However, if you don't want this kind of hybrid functionality, and are just happy with a traditional laptop, check out our guide to the best laptops for graphic design.

Quick list

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The best 2-in-1 laptops for creatives

The best 2-in-1 laptop overall

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is simply the best laptop Microsoft has made. It has a premium look, a gorgeous screen and the kind of sleek finish and feel that even Mac devotees might be impressed by.

The way it converts from a laptop to a tablet and back again is one of the smoothest and most flexible we've experienced. The screen doesn't fold back on itself as many do but instead slips forward over the keyboard. This gives you an additional position – easel mode, with the screen at a nice angle for watching films or working on digital art.

The 14.4-inch screen's 3:2 ratio is noticeably taller than the usual widescreen format, allowing extra vertical space that can improve productively whether you're drawing, editing photos or even just writing and reading documents. And with a refresh rate of 120Hz, it could even serve as a reasonable gaming laptop.

And there's plenty of power, too, takes to the latest 13th Gen CPUs from Intel and a choice of Intel Xe graphics or an Nvidia RTX 4060 and RTX 2000 Ada professional GPUs – though it does mean the build is a little bulky, and our reviewer found the battery life isn't great in practice.

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Best 2-in-1 on a budget

Chromebooks are serious propositions for creatives on a budget now, and the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 offers premium features in a well-priced 2-in-1 package. The display is fantastic, so you'll enjoy watching and working on it in equal measure, and it sports Acer's by-now well-known sturdy build quality.

You can get the Intel Core i5-powered model for around $700 at the time of writing, which for what you get is a deal indeed. The touchscreen is spacious and responds well to pen input, which makes it a good proposition for artists and graphic designers who prefer to work directly on the screen.

Read our full Acer Chromebook Spin 714 review for more details.

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The best premium 2-in-1 laptop

This one's a bit different to all the other 2-in-1s on this list. The ASUS Zenbook Duo doesn't have a screen you can flip or turn into tablet mode.Instead, it has two full-size 14-inch screens which you can lay out in just about any way you can imagine, with a magnetically attached keyboard that can either lay over one screen or sit separate from the screens with its wireless connection.

Yes, it costs almost £/$2,000, but our reviewer was so impressed by it that we say it's definitely worth the outlay. With the latest AI-boosted 14th-gen Intel Core Ultra CPU and NPU onboard, it launches and runs creative software like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, digital artworking and content-creation software faster than before. Also, the Intel Arc Graphics card is much, much better than the previous Iris Xe Graphics, although it can't quite match NVIDIA or AMD's top cards' grunt.

See our full ASUS Zenbook Duo OLED review.

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The most powerful 2-in-1 laptop

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The best compact 2-in-1 laptop

The newly updated Dell XPS 13 9315 remains a 2-in-1 laptop with a great balance of performance, portability, and design. It features a sleek and stylish chassis, a powerful processor and a stunning 13-inch touchscreen display. Sitting at 11.50 inches x 7.90 inches x 0.29 inches in size, it’s ideal whether you’re working at home or on the go. In terms of performance, the XPS 13 9315 is powered by an Intel Core i7-1250U processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. This configuration is powerful enough for most creative tasks.

However, with below-average battery life, a fiddly folio design and a super flat keyboard that not everyone will get along with, it isn't the easiest machine to work with. But overall, if you’re looking for something that will let you bridge the gap between work and play and offers a stunning screen in a compact package, the Dell XPS 13 9315 is certainly one to seriously consider.

See our complete Dell XPS 13 review for the full results of our testing.

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The best 2-in-1 laptop screen

The HP Spectre x360 earns its place on this list on the strength of its sensational OLED screen, which is not only big for a 2-in-1, at 16 inches, but incredibly sharp and impressively bright too. The stated brightness is 400 nits, which it hits, but on an OLED display, those 400 nits feel sharper and brighter than they would on an IPS or VA panel.

It's an excellent machine for creatives too – there's enough power for some relatively power-hungry activities, such as moderate video editing. It won't manage the heaviest workflow, so if you're planning on pro-level 3D creation or heavy video editing you'll need a more powerful option. But for anything below heavy-duty rendering, this is a great choice.

The sound quality isn't great (but then again, that's true of almost every laptop) and HP is still guilty of questionable software configurations, but the good handily outweighs our few little niggles in what is a truly appealing value proposition.

Check out the HP Spectre x360 review here.

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The best 2-in-1 laptop for portability

The Surface Pro 9 is sold as a tablet rather than a laptop. But it can become the latter if you buy the optional Type Cover. And it runs Windows 11, allowing you to use fully fledged desktop software. In other words, you get the possibilities of a PC, but as a very thin, light device, which we found just perfect for slipping in a bag, or simply using on the sofa and in bed.

Excellent Surface Pen stylus support (the pen is sold separately) and the super convenient size and portability make it a good option for drawing, illustration and photo editing. Windows 11 runs smoothly, the screen has a snappy 120Hz refresh rate, and you can configure the device up to some pretty powerful specs. If you're going to be using programs that can easily get bogged down, like Lightroom for example, you'll want to go for at least 16GB RAM.

Read more in our full Surface Pro 9 review.

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Also tested

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FAQs

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How to choose the best 2-in-1 laptop

What type of 2-in-1 laptop is best for you? There are 2-in-1 laptops that turn from a laptop into a tablet by physically removing the keyboard. These are usually much thinner and lighter devices when used in tablet mode, but it does mean you need to store the keyboard carefully when it's not being used.

Some 2-in-1 laptops with detachable keyboards have two batteries – one behind the screen and another in the keyboard. This offers longer battery life when in laptop mode. (If battery life is a particular worry of yours, you may want to check our list of the best power banks.)

Other 2-in-1 laptops feature a hinge that can flip the keyboard 360 degrees so that it is behind the screen. As the keyboard remains attached, these 2-in-1 laptops are usually a bit thicker and heavier than models with removable keyboards. However, you don't have to worry about stashing an unused keyboard anywhere, and the hinge allows you to use the laptop in a variety of different ways. For example, you can flip the keyboard 90 degrees and use it as a stand, which makes it useful for watching media or presentations.

Many of the best 2-in-1 laptops also come with styluses that can be used with the touchscreen. This turns them into excellent digital drawing pads – again, making them ideal devices for digital creatives. (Should your desired convertible laptop not include a drawing apparatus, you can save some money by learning how to make a stylus using household items; seriously!).

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How we test the best 2-in-1 laptops

But perhaps more importantly than benchmarking, we evaluate machines in real-world scenarios, pushing them to the limit with multiple applications running to see how they perform in project-like conditions. Power, speed, flexibility, and what a laptop looks and feels like to use are all criteria in our reviewing process. We do much more than simply unpack a test unit, run some benchmarks and then pack it up again; we have lived and worked with all of the above laptops, running them in real-life scenarios and done projects relevant to this guide, otherwise, we wouldn't recommend these models to you.

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