We're in the market for a Windows laptop or tablet to replace Father's ancient (nine years old!) desktop but we have some very stringent requirements:
- If the device is a laptop, the (touch) display must be detachable from the keyboard. A 2-in-1 laptop with a display that merely folds back does not meet this requirement.
- If the device is a tablet, it must have a kickstand and support a keyboard accessory that attaches directly to the tablet.
- The system should be lightweight and reasonably compact, preferably with a display between 11" and 12.5" in size and a tablet-only (keyboard detached) weight of no more than about 1.0-1.2 lbs.
- The system should have good sustained performance. A Core i3/i5/i7 processor (type U) is preferable; systems equipped with an Atom processor do not meet this requirement, and Core m processors (type Y, e.g. m5-6Y54) are less than ideal.
- I may be willing to settle for Core m, but only if the processor maintains reasonable clock speeds under continuous load (e.g. throttling down to something like 1.2 GHz after a few minutes of load is not acceptable).
- The tablet-only battery life should be at least six hours under a typical light load such as Web browsing or video playback.
- 250 GB+ storage capacity, active pen input, and discrete GPU are pluses, but are by no means necessary.
- Price should be no more than US$2000 new.
The Surface Pro 4 with Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD ($1600) seems to fit these requirements best, but I'm concerned that it may be a bit too heavy.
Any ideas? The first two requirements and the sustained performance requirement are the only ones that are truly mandatory; some compromises elsewhere may be acceptable.
