1. The list in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best budget
4. Best for graphic design
5. Best foldable
6. Best for travel
7. Best OLED
8. Benchmarks
9. Recently reviewed
10. How to find the best
11. FAQs
12. How we test at Laptop Mag
13. Why trust Laptop Mag
The best 2-in-1 laptops offer a versatile tech experience. Being able to flip between a traditional laptop layout, a tablet, and anything in between a 360-degree hinge is great for those who consistently change their environments. After four years of reviewing laptops professionally, I've tested many 2-in-1 laptops, and the Laptop Mag team tests over a dozen 2-in-1 laptops yearly to identify our top picks.
If you want the best 2-in-1 laptop, you need to consider your needs. What combination of price, design, display, power, and longevity suits you best? Most people using a 2-in-1 often work in creative or technical fields, so a bright and colorful panel may be a vital component. Battery life is usually a must-have across all categories. Then there's durability; you need to know the 2-in-1 you get won't collapse on the first flip.
Some of the best 2-in-1 laptops include the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (Gen 9); the former for its overall experience and the latter for its epic display. There's also our budget pick, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus, which, at under $500, is a 2-in-1 laptop affordable for most people.
But those aren't the only best 2-in-1 laptops. Naturally, you'll see some of these laptops on the best laptops page as well.
Let's jump into the list.
The Quick List
Best overall
Need a powerful 2-in-1 laptop with a thin, sleek design, beautiful OLED panel, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, powerful speakers, excellent performance metrics thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and 11 hours of battery life all packed into a 2.8K display for less than $2,000? The HP Spectre x360 14 the best 2-in-1 of 2024.
Best budget
Looking for a 2-in-1 that doesn’t break the bank? The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus may be what you’re looking for. It's a Chromebook with decent performance and a battery life that'll last a whole work or school day. Add its great keyboard and it's a great choice for the price.
Best for graphic design
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is equipped with two vivid OLED displays, a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, and a great rotating soundbar. While the price point is a tad steep, its phenomenal performance, sturdy design, and compelling speaker system make for a great sell. Don't miss out on this gorgeous dual-screen laptop.
Best foldable
Looking for a foldable laptop? You've found the perfect choice with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16. With its sturdy chassis, 16.3-inch folding HDR OLED display at 2560 x 2024-pixel resolution, and solid performance, it's probably the best foldable laptop you can buy today.
Best for travel
The LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 is the lightest 16-inch 2-in-1 in the world. It's not only incredibly portable but it also features a gorgeous display, almost 11 hours of battery life, and strong performance.
Best OLED
The new Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is maintains some of its best qualities, including that stunning 14-inch, OLED display. The stunning 2,800 x 1800 panel has “mouthwatering vibrancy” and a magnificent color depth you can darn-near go swimming in. It also has a clicky keyboard and loud, impactful speakers.
Claire Tabari graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism & Media Studies at Brooklyn College and has been covering tech for four years. She has written around fifty reviews and has plenty of experience testing and critiquing laptops. She fell in love with 2-in-1 laptops after getting ahold of the Lenovo Yoga 9i, and ever since, she has been keen on finding the best designed, highest performing, and most beautiful laptops in the category.
The best 2-in-1 laptops in 2024
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Through extensive hands-on testing and a series of thorough benchmarks, we decided that the products below are indeed the best 2-in-1 laptops of 2024.
Best 2-in-1 overall
HP Spectre x360 14 is an exceptional 2-in-1 laptop that we'd buy ourselves. Not only is it wonderfully compact, but it offers a excellent display, comfortable keyboard, strong performance and a long-lasting battery. This is the best of the best.
✔️ You want great performance paired with great battery life: With the new Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, you'll tear through most of your problems without issue. And you can do all of that for 11 hours straight.
✔️ You want a keyboard that's satisfying to use for long hours: The keys are bouncy. To top it off, the spacing between the keys and the square shapes make it easy to navigate. Its touchpad is also smooth and offers little-to-no resistance.
✖️ You want more ports: There's not a lot here. Seriously, you get only two USB Type-C ports, one USB Type-A port, and a headphone jack. Typically, we'd like an additional Type-A port and an HDMI port.
✖️ You want the best out of your display: The OLED display is gorgeous, but it's not the best. The primary issue being the brightness. With a glossy display, you need all of the brightness you can get.
Our review called the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) a "near-perfect" laptop, with our very own Rami Tabari going as far as to say he'd buy it himself. With a powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and 11 hours of battery life packed into a 14-inch, 2.8K OLED touchscreen.
Rami Tabari said, "With impressive battery life and a gorgeous OLED display, you'll forget about its minor flaws real quick," in our review of the HP Spectre x360 14.
To top it all off, this absolute beast is somehow only $1,858, and while that isn't necessarily cheap, it's a pretty impressive degree of power for a configuration this beefy. Otherwise, we were impressed by its sleek design, stunning OLED panel, bouncy keyboard, powerful speakers, and 4K webcam.
The Spectre covered 85.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and while it is below the average premium laptop (98.5%), it was enough to destroy the ThinkPad (70.9%), Swift (79.1%), and MacBook (81.3%). And coming in with 366 nits of brightness, the Spectre could be brighter and doesn't meet the category average (431 nits). The ThinkPad (452 nits), Swift (374 nits), and MacBook (558 nits) outshined it.
We put the Spectre through the Geekbench 6.1 overall performance test, and its multi-core score of 12,358 flew far over the average premium laptop (8,443). It wasn't far from its competitors, with the ThinkPad (Core i7-1360P, 11,133), Swift (Ultra 7 155H, 12,434), and MacBook (M3, 11,968) resting in a relatively close range.
It also has a decent SSD speed, with a transfer rate of 1,362 megabytes per second, which is close to the average (1,378 MBps). It was faster than the ThinkPad (1,249MBps), but not the Swift (1,458MBps) or MacBook (2,956MBps).
See our full HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) review.
Best budget
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus fits everything it can for the price it offers. You likely won't find a better 2-in-1 laptop under $500. The performance and design take it make it more than "cheap."
✔️ You want to spend as little as you need for the most you can get: With an Intel Core i3-1315U, the Chromebook forgoes the rather poor performing processors that you'd get stuck with at this price point for something with a bit more kick.
✔️ You want an elegant design: Affordable doesn't mean cheap. The IdeaPad Flex 5i looks pretty slick with its blue aluminum hood. And it's rather compact, at 0.8 inches thin and 3.6 pounds.
✖️ You want a bright, colorful display: This is one of the biggest sacrifices you'll need to make for a budget laptop. I wouldn't watch your favorite content on this thing. Your phone likely has a better display.
✖️ You powerful performance: Yes, the IdeaPad Flex 5i offers decent performance, but that's relative to the price. You won't be video-editing or photo-editing on this thing without a little slowdown.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is a 2-in-1 Chromebook that'll save you a little more than a shiny penny and still provide a solid overall experience. It's packed with an Intel Core i3-1315U processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of eMMC storage, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 touchscreen display.
Mark Anthony Ramirez said, "The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i takes full advantage of Google's AI-infused Chrome OS and delivers potent performance that will impress you," in our review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus.
For its performance, we tested it against the Geekbench 6 overall performance test where the IdeaPad Flex 5i scored 5,384, sliding past the 5,259 Chromebook average at the time. That's decent enough to get you through most less-taxing tasks. And thanks to the Chromebook's relatively light operating system, it won't suffer the same slowdowns as a Windows laptop.
The IdeaPad Flex 5i is also quite portable, measuring 12.4 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches and weighing 3.57 pounds. It lands somewhere between the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (3.02 pounds) and the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (3.7 pounds). It also looks nice, featuring an aluminum storm grey colored lid — that's not common for a cheap laptop.
Adding to that portability is its battery life. It lasted 9 hours and 43 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. It's a bit shorter than the Chromebook average at the time (9:50). However, you'll get more than a workday or school day's worth of life out of this laptop. Close to 10 hours is still solid, especially for a laptop this affothat is rdable.
Unfortunately, you'll need to sacrifice the display. The Flex 5i's 14-inch, 1080p display covered a dismal 46.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and produced only 306 nits of brightness. This isn't too far from what we expect from a laptop at this price point. Still, both scores landed well below the Chromebook average at the time.
Despite that, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is an excellent 2-in-1 laptop if you are on a budget.
See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i ChromeBook Plus review.
Best for graphic design
Lenovo Yoga Book 9i features a unique design that maximizes productivity with two displays. They're both OLED panels that offer enough vibrancy to accurately capture graphic design work.
✔️ You want to enhance your productivity: You won't believe how life-changing two displays can be. It's easy to get a two-monitor setup, but you won't find a quality portable solution like this elsewhere.
✔️ You want the audio to match the quality of the display: It's rare to find a laptop with great speakers. Even rarer to find one with a great display on top of that. The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i offers the perfect entertainment and creative experience.
✖️ You want a portable laptop: Where do you think you're going to fit two displays? This monster is great, but it's still a monster. You'll also need to lug around a discrete keyboard.
✖️ You want a classic keyboard and touchpad experience: The keyboard and touchpad are accessible via the display. While you do get a discrete keyboard, it does not come with a discrete touchpad, so you'll need to interact with the display in some capacity.
Editor's Note: This listing represents the previous model. We published a hands-on of the newer model available at Lenovo, but we couldn't score it because we didn't have benchmarks. It performed well in our hands-on testing, but the battery life may not be consistent with its predecessor. You can find the older model at Amazon.
Not to be confused with its sibling, the Yoga 9i Gen 8, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i boasts a unique design even among 2-in-1s. It features two 13.3-inch 2800 x 1800 OLED touch displays with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and even includes a folio cover and the Lenovo Digital Pen. You can use each display independently or together and orient them vertically like a book or horizontally Nintendo DS-style.
Mark Anthony Ramirez said, "The 9i is a near-perfect productivity laptop, giving users many options to remain productive, push documents, and even get creative," in our review of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i.
While it's a bit expensive for a 2-in-1 at $1,999, you get a lot of power and performance for the price, not to mention that unique dual-display setup. The Yoga Book 9i includes a 13th Gen Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. It would have been nice to see a dedicated GPU here, but the integrated graphics are enough for most tasks. The only area where they might fall short is animation and motion graphics.
The Yoga Book 9i was just shy of our 7,767 premium laptop average on Geekbench, scoring 7,765. The dual OLED displays passed our colorimeter test with flying colors, covering 136.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut on the top display and 136.7% on the bottom display. This easily pulls ahead of competitors like the MacBook Air M2 (75.5%) and Asus Zenbook 17 (108.5%), but the Lenovo Yoga 9i (142.1%), which is our number one pick for a 2-in-1, cannot be defeated.
The brightness could be better, though, coming in at 335 nits on the top display and 344 nits on the bottom display, lower than the 392 nits average for this category. The MacBook Air M2 (489 nits) and Yoga 9i (353 nits) were brighter, but the Zenbook (323 nits) was just a tad dimmer.
The battery life averaged 9 hours and 18 minutes at 150 nits brightness, which is a bit lower than the category average of 10 hours and 32 minutes, but still impressive considering the battery is powering two OLED displays.
See our full Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review.
Best foldable
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 offers a massive foldable display that you can make as compact as a tablet with a simple flip. Top that with a gorgeous OLED screen and a sturdy design.
✔️ You want to enjoy a large display without a bulky keyboard in the way: Yes, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 does come with a keyboard, but it's detachable, which means you get a 16.3-inch OLED display without the baggage.
✔️ You want to emulate the desktop experience: With a large display and a detachable keyboard, it's easy to work at your desk without feeling like you need to be attached to the laptop itself. Its ThinkPad keyboard is quite nice, too.
✖️ You want modern specs: Unfortunately, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold's specs are quite old despite being a newer laptop. Don't expect top of the line performance from this machine.
✖️ You want long battery life: You do get around 7 to 9 hours of battery life, depending on the mode you use. However, that doesn't quite meet our current standards, where laptops average around 11-12 hours.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold model we reviewed is built with an Intel Core i7-1260U, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 16.3-inch OLED display at 2560 x 2024-pixel resolution. Of course, the main selling point of this device is that it's foldable. If you're unsure what that means, it essentially has the ability to act as a laptop with a keyboard magnetically attached to the deck, and if you remove the keyboard, you can extend it out into a single, full-sized tablet.
Madeline Ricchiuto said, "As a business machine, the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 is perhaps positioned better than its competitors because its flexibility matches the current hybrid work environment better than a standard laptop might," in our review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold.
This means most people aren't going to need this laptop, but for those that do, our reviewer claimed that it's arguably the best foldable laptop available right now. It's shockingly thin and light, coming in at just 2.9 pounds in tablet mode and 4.3-pounds with the keyboard and stand attached.
Its design allows for a compelling all-in-one use case. You can turn the laptop into a makeshift monitor and then detach the keyboard to emulate a quick desktop setup in no time at all. Considering it's only 4.3 pounds, it can easily fit most bags and is perfect for on-the-go workers who prefer larger space for their projects.
It's important to keep in mind, however, that its Intel Core i7-1260U is a couple of generations old now, so don't expect the latest and greatest processing speeds. On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, its multi-core score of 7,953 is decent but notably slower than other laptops on this list, like the Yoga 9i's 9,954.
Its battery life also leaves a bit to be desired, coming in at 8 hours and 44 minutes in laptop mode and 7 hours and 22 minutes in tablet mode. Regardless, it has more than enough success in its execution to make for a great foldable.
See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 Gen 1 review.
Best for travel
LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (16T90SP) launched as the lightest 16-inch 2-in-1 laptop in the world. That offers you quite a lot of real estate while minimizing the burden it takes to move.
✔️ You are constantly on the go but don't want a small laptop: At just 3.1 pounds and 0.5 inches thin, you can't get much lighter and slimmer for a laptop that offers up a 16-inch OLED display.
✔️ You want high performance and battery life on the go: With the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and a near 11-hour battery life, you'll get the most out of the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 no matter where you are.
✖️ You want something more affordable: While the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 offers strong performance, it doesn't seem that way when you consider the price tag. You can get more for less elsewhere.
✖️ You want a pleasant touchpad experience: The keyboard is decent, but it does feature low key travel. The worst part is that the touchpad will be quite mushy when you click on it.
What makes a laptop great for travel is its physical portability. The LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (16T90SP) is the lightest 2-in-1 16-inch laptop ever. The Gram Pro 16 comes in at 14.1 x 10 x 0.51 inches and 3.08 pounds, which is tiny compared with the HP Spectre x360 16 (2024) (4.3 pounds, 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches) and the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 (4.7 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.7 inches).
Sean Riley said, "It can rattle around in your laptop bag on a trip or commute and come out unscathed," in our review of the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1.
Adding to its portability is its battery life. The Gram Pro lasted 10 hours and 41 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. That puts it in a tightly competitive spot with the HP Spectre (10:45), and it crushes the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i (9:51). So not only is the Gram slim and light, but it'll also survive longer than your average workday.
The Gram Pro is built with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. On the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test, the LG Gram Pro soared over the category average, which was a couple of thousand points lower at the time. It also hovered around the HP Spectre (12,370) and Yoga Pro 9i (12,141).
Its 16-inch, 2880 x 1800 Touch OLED display is absolutely stunning to behold, managing an 133.5% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut and a brightness of 392 nits. Its combination of brightness, color, and high resolution should be fantastic for artists who need to go in-depth with accuracy.
The keyboard is pleasantly bouncy despite its low key travel. The touchpad is also quite responsive. Unfortunately, the touchpad is quite mushy, so if you choose the Gram Pro 16, you might want to check out the best wireless mouse page.
Ports are also very important on a laptop for travel. The last thing you want is to be carrying a dongle or worse yet, forgetting to pack it, so make sure these ports suit your needs. The LG Gram Pro comes with two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB Type-A ports, and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, if you need an SD or microSD card slot, you'll need a USB Type-C hub.
See our LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (16T90SP) review.
Best OLED
Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9 features the widest color range on the sharpest display with the highest refresh rate. This OLED is the OLED.
✔️ You want the best OLED display in a 2-in-1 laptop: The Yoga 9i offers up a 14-inch, 4K OLED display covering 136% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and clocked at a 120Hz refresh rate.
✔️ You want powerful speakers: Not only can you enhance your entertainment experience with a gorgeous display but you can also get to bask in an awesome audio solution.
✖️ You want longer battery life: Unfortunately, you won't be enjoying your favorite media for too long, as the Yoga 9i lasts under 8 hours on a single charge.
✖️ You work in bright spaces: Yes, the display is amazing, but it's not as bright as we'd like it to be. Since it features a glossy display, you might see some significant glare if you work in bright spaces.
The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is one of the few laptops that earned our prestigious Editor's Choice badge in 2024. I fell in love with the Yoga 9i as soon as I pulled it out of the box. Not only is this sleek, elegant convertible a stunner, but it hits a harmonious note in other aspects, too.
Claire Tabari said, "I adore the design of Yoga laptops, but the Lenovo Yoga 9i, in particular, is the cream of the crop," in our review of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1.
The Yoga 9i boasts an electrifying 14-inch, 3,840 x 2,400-pixel OLED multi-touch glossy display with a 120Hz refresh rate. A panel this good makes it an excellent choice for relaxing in bed and watching TV (which is what I've been doing lately through Brooklyn 99 binges).
That's not to mention that its speakers are loud and impactful, and its performance is top-notch for anyone seeking seamless productivity. The Yoga 9i scored 12,455 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, which crushed the category average at the time by a couple of thousand points.
Its display performed exceptionally in our color tests, reproducing 136% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is an incredible score that absolutely crushed similar laptops like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (80%), Lenovo Yoga 7i (40%), and HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (128%).
The Yoga 9i didn’t do amazingly on our brightness tests, but it managed an average of 357 nits, which is fine. While better than the Yoga 7i (314 nits) and Zenbook 14 (339 nits), the Envy x360 (378 nits) was brighter.
However, one of the biggest flaws compared with its Gen 8 sibling is its battery life. Where its predecessor featured an impressive 10-hour battery life on a single charge, this model came in at 7:34. That falls far behind the Yoga 7i (12:57), the Zenbook 14 (15:52), and the Envy x360 (9:17).
Despite that, you won't regret your purchase of the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9. With its incredible display, performance, speakers, and sturdy chassis, the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9 is still a beast of a laptop.
See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9) review.
Benchmark comparisons
Click to view chart data in table format
| Header Cell - Column 0 | HP Spectre x360 14 | Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus | Lenovo Yoga Book 9i | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 | LG Gram Pro 16 | Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 (Higher is better) | 12,358 | 5,384 | 7,765 | 7,953 | 11,897 | 12,455 |
| Handbrake time ((MM.SS), lower is better) | 7.3 | Row 1 - Cell 2 | 9.19 | 11.45 | 8.52 | 5.1 |
| Battery life - Web surfing (HH.MM) | 11.01 | 9.5 | 9.18 | 8.44 | 10.41 | 7.24 |
| SSD transfer speeds (MBps, higher is better) | 1,362 | Row 3 - Cell 2 | 1,209 | 1,332 | 1,810 | 1,016 |
| DCI-P3 Color Gamut (Higher is better) | 85.8 | 46.5 | 136.5 | 93.1 | 133.5 | 136 |
| Display Brightness (Nits, higher is better) | 366 | 306 | 335 | 466 | 392 | 357 |
| Hottest temperature (95 degree comfort threshold) | 102 | 89.5 | 94.5 | 101.7 | 115.7 | 95 |
Recently reviewed 2-in-1 laptops
How to find the best 2-in-1 laptops
Finding the perfect 2-in-1 for you differs from a traditional laptop. After all, these are meant to be portable and must fulfill its name appropriately.
Display: You need something bright and sharp
While 2-in-1s aren't exclusively reserved for artists and designers, it's often used by them to make a quick and easy transformation from traditional laptop to a tablet for illustrating. As a result, you absolutely need a display that can accommodate your creative endeavors, and if it's too dim to be taken on-the-go or too lackluster to accurately present color, you will absolutely be disappointed.
OLED is a great start if you're in need of a quality 2-in-1, but IPS displays can also feature excellent color in some cases. 80% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut should be your minimum if you're an artist, but the closer you can get to 100%, the better off you'll be.
We also recommend higher resolutions to let you get into the nitty gritty when illustrating, as it will present crisper detail for artists and designers. 2K should be your floor, but the higher the better.
Design: Sturdy portability is a necessity
2-in-1 laptops are inherently all about flexibility, as its hinges support up to 360-degree angles. You don't want hinges that creak and a lid that feels like it'll snap off every time you lift it. Sturdiness is a necessity, and we've found that the best 2-in-1 laptops can support themselves in any position and require conscious force to move about. An aluminum chassis is a great start, but you'll want to read our reviews and see which ones feel the best in practice.
And since 2-in-1 laptops are frequently moved around quite a bit, we recommend something light. Anything around 4 pounds and under is recommended, but depending on the size, some can be a little heavier.
Battery life: Long-lasting is vital for being on-the-go
Battery life is another key component of any good 2-in-1 laptop. If you plan to take the notebook to class, work, or spend a whole day illustrating in a park, don't count on there being an outlet! Consider a laptop that gets at least 9 to 10 hours of battery life, which should be enough to get you through most of a day without worry. In any case, the longer the better.
FAQs
What does "2-in-1 laptop" mean?
It can mean different things for different laptops, but the core design philosophy implies that the product can transform from a laptop into a tablet. They're also all touchscreen laptops (because it would defeat the purpose otherwise).
Now, that can take many forms. The most common one is a traditional laptop with a 360-degree hinge. But there are also detachable laptops, which feature a removable keyboard. There are dual-display laptops, which feature a discrete Bluetooth keyboard. Then there are foldable laptops, which feature a display that can fold in two and also may feature a discrete keyboard.
Do all 2-in-1 laptops fold the same?
No, and this is actually super important to research. Some 2-in-1 laptops are well-crafted with sturdy hinges and magnetic folds that snap in place when put in tablet mode. However, I've also reviewed laptops with sloppy hinges and no magnetic backing. It's important to take a look at the Design sections in Laptop Mag's reviews.
Additionally, there are foldable and detachable laptops. The former features a screen that folds in half, and the latter features a traditional tablet design with a detachable keyboard. Again, read that Design section to ensure you're getting what you need.
How we test the best 2-in-1 laptops
We put 2-in-1 laptops through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.
In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.4 and 6.3 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.
To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark with high settings at 1080p resolution. Gaming laptops go through an entire library of games at high settings to see how their discrete GPUs keep up.
We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.
These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad. For 2-in-1 laptops in particular, it needs a strong hinge and practical design to support its own weight. It's important that every part of the design feels sturdy so that no matter what position a user bends the hinge, it won't collapse.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.
We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.
Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.
Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.
