The Windows tablet/laptop hybrid to beat
You can appreciate the irony: right when tablet sales are flagging, along comes what's possibly the best Windows tablet we've ever seen. As good as Microsoft's flagship Surface 3 tablet is, it's still a bit of a compromise — it's a bit too thick and heavy for a tablet and not as happy to sit on your lap as a genuine laptop. The Portdge Z20t, on the other hand, works a little better as a tablet and is a little more sturdy as a laptop — though the trade off is that it's not quite as portable as a whole.
Like the Surface, the Z20t defies a lot of conventions — and it's really all about options. Like many other tablet/laptop hybrids, it splits into two discrete parts, with the screen section coming away from the keyboard base to act as a standalone tablet. And as a tablet, it's one of the best Windows devices we've used - that 12.5-inch matte-finish IPS touchscreen is gorgeous, with deep and rich colours, and its 700g weight means you can comfortably (just) hold it in one hand.
The keyboard base houses a second battery combined with a nice big touchpad and a frankly great keyboard — it's the perfect balance of key throw height, resistance and quietness. There's also a good compliment of ports - VGA, HDMI, two USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. And lastly, Toshiba's included a generous, pen-sized stylus that's thick enough to be comfortable in the hand — although that size does mean there’s nowhere to stow it in the body of the device.
The internals of the Z20t also bear a mention. This is the first device we've seen that's based on Intel's new Core M platform, which the chip giant is hoping will help it build both low-power laptops and powerful tablets at cheaper prices. Core M's big advantage is that its extremely adaptable - it can run in a very low-power mode when doing light work, or ramp right up for more demanding tasks.
In the Z20t's case, there's a Core M-5Y71 CPU under the hood, which can operate between 1.2GHz-2.9GHz. With the keyboard base's extra battery, that flexible CPU lead the whole kit to last almost 10 hours (9:47hr to be exact) in our tough PCMark 8 Home test, which mixes together media playback, gaming, web surfing and productivity tasks. That's an outstanding result. On its own, the tablet didn't quite fare as well, lasting 5:06hr. But the benefit is that, in use, the Z20t never feels sluggish. And when needed, it can offer quite a bit of speed — there's even just enough grunt in the Intel HD Graphics GPU to do modern gaming at playable frame rates... provided you're willing to play at 720p and turn the details down a bit.
This isn’t quite the perfect mating of laptop and tablet. The keyboard base is a bit too thick for our liking and it doubles the carry weight to 1.47kg (though that's arguably a fair price to pay for having an extra battery inside). And the design of the hinge area where the tablet gets plugged in is, while functionally sound, a little bit awkward in use.
It's hard to deny the charms offered by the Z20t's extreme flexibility, though. This is a device that works respectably well as both a tablet and a laptop, with a solid, well-considered design. If you're thinking of buying a 2-in-l, this should definitely be on your list. Dan Gardiner
A 2-in-1 that's actually comfortably usable in both its forms. Great battery life too.