The Microsoft Surface Book Hybrid

What is happening in the world of computing. It seems as if many of the high-end brands that pave the way with new technology are building something that has already existed for decades. Do you know what it is? A Laptop. Can a Laptop ever be replaced by a Tablet? With how much money is being thrown into new forms of glorified Laptop / Tablet hybrids it seems not. Too much beating around the bush.

It reminds me of when computers first came out, and we saw all types of strange contraptions and hideous designs. This also happened with mobile phones! That's not to say that the new Surface Book is ugly, it looks great, but it seems like we're going through a similar transitional stage where all types of things are being tried. Well, not just tried and tested behind closed doors, but actually sold to the public.

So, what do the newer Surface Books have. Well, there are many to choose from. The latest is the PRO 7 if I'm not mistaken (reviews are not too good). The PRO 4 fares better with end-users. They are all super thin and have touch screens. Yeah, like a Tablet.

The screen on the model I'm looking at is 13.5 inches (ca. 34 cm) in diameter and is a massive 6 million pixels! It has a "Clipboard" feature which is basically the screen detached from the keyboard, complete with stylus pen to make writing and graphic related tasks more personal and creative.

The new Surface Book splits totally in half. The newer Surface Books can also fold up on itself (Fulcrum Hinge), so it's basically a Tablet and Laptop combined. It comes complete with Windows 10 Pro, Core i7 Processor, USB 3.0, Glass Trackpad (glorified mouse), 12 hours battery life, and has the capacity of being able to have 16GB RAM and 1TB of data storage space. See the video above to be swept off your feet (removed).

So now we have both a Tablet and a Laptop (hybrid) in one unit. It's not really anything new. Fair enough it looks great and is super powerful, but when are we going to see something really revolutionary.

Can Tablets take the place of Laptops? As the owner of a Tablet blog you would probably expect me to say yes, but the answer is no. Laptops will be made better, or with more power and a few quirks, like you are basically seeing here with the new Surface Book, but never eradicated. Not for the next few decades anyway.

Huion 420 + H420 - Cheap Signature Pads

The Huion 420 and H420 - The Cheapest Mini Drawing Signature Pads. A more accurate mouse? The Huion 420 and H420 are tiny in size. Perfect for digital hand writing! It measures just four inches by 2¼ Inches. This "Signature Pad" Tablet can be used for drawing, as well as writing, but most people will want something bigger. But don't let that put you off. If you want something that's as cheap as possible to get you started so you can have a little blast on one of these cool signature pads, it is still able to produce good drawings / designs in the right hands.

 

Check Availability

These smaller models can feel a bit strange to use to begin with, but hang in there and you will get the hang of it after while. If you need to sign documents online and would prefer a real signature on the document, then this is the perfect solution. It's one of the cheapest yes, and is fairly basic, but its still a good quality item for the price. As most Huion products are. Check out the informative review video above.

Comes with everything needed to get moving. Battery powered Pen, Drivers, USB cable and extra Nibs (pen tips). For the price it's a good little deal. Works with Apple Mac's and Windows based computers, but for some reason is not compatible with most Android based systems. Apparently, the Huion 420 is a great match for osu!

It also works really well with lots of different software including Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Available in black or white. Not sold on this one? A really good alternative to the 420, which is slightly bigger (not by much though), is the XP-PEN OSU G430.