Laptop / hybrid with a digitizer

[scorde]

Hi there community. Looking for some advice please. I currently have a decent home computer which i do a lot of 3d work on and sculpting via zbrush and the occasional bit of gaming (Lol, WoW) etc. I travel a lot around the UK and my current laptop which I've had for about 6 years now is getting to the stage where I can't do anything with it apart from the very basics. I also have wacom tablet that goes where I go.

Now as my skills improve I'm thinking of getting a separate digitizer to draw directly onto the screen but also looking at the amount of kit to take with me so started looking at hybrids with build in digitizers. The surface pro 3 looks great, but doesn't really have the power that I'm looking for. The sony viaos with built in digitizers look good but don't have very good dedicated graphics, and can't afford the cintiq companion.

Anyone got any hidden gems?

Thanks

 

[Solandri]

Keep an eye out for the Lenovo Thinkpad Yogas. They showed a 12.5", 14", and 15.6" model at CES. An "active digitizer" (no idea if it'll be Wacom) is supposed to be an option. They can be used as a laptop, or flipped and folded into tablet mode. The 12.5" and 15.6" models are supposed to show up for sale in February, the 14" in May. The smaller models are limited to 8GB of RAM, but the 15 will go up to 16GB.

And the nVidia 840m is an option. I actually played with the 14" model for a bit and it got 30+ fps in Dragon Age Inquisition at 1366x768 resolution and medium settings.

Edit: Here's a review of a pre-release version of the 14. Haswell CPU (2015 version are Broadwell), and no active digitizer.
http/www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Yoga-14.htm
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqRYtI9u24I

 

[scorde]

no this doesn't have a digitizer but thanks anyway, and also the specs are nowhere near what I need. The processor seems kinda pony

 

[Solandri]

no this doesn't have a digitizer but thanks anyway, and also the specs are nowhere near what I need. The processor seems kinda pony

It is exactly what you need. The review I linked was a pre-release version Lenovo sold in late 2014. The 2015 versions are going to have the 840m, an "active digitizer", and i7 all as options.

http/news.lenovo.com/images/20034/Lenovo%20ThinkPad%20YOGA%2012%2014%2015%20Spec%20Sheet.pdf

 

[Direttafis]

So I waited and waited and waited for this yoga 15 to be released. does not have an active digitizer : (

 

[Solandri]

I'm sorry Lenovo didn't add the active digitizer option to the TP Yoga 15. They said they would at all the trade shows, and their pre-release internal spec sheets said it would be available as an option. Seems like they scaled back the release and killed most of the options for some reason.

The only laptop/tablet hybrid with active digitizer I know of that's actually out right now is the HP Spectre X360.

http/www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/HP-Spectre-x360.htm

The just-announced new Thinkpad Yoga is also supposed to work with a pen, but once bitten, twice shy.

http/www.tomsitpro.com/articles/lenovo-thinkpad-yoga-skylake-announcement,1-2873.html