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Close to the Metal Ep. 44: New 2-in-1s breach the surface, but are any winners?

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There’s been a bit of a dry spell for new 2-in-1 systems, particularly after going so long without a Surface Pro update. This morning, that all changed, as three new Windows-powered convertibles came to light, the Samsung Galaxy Book, the Huawei Matebook X, and of course, the Microsoft Surface Pro.

As we’ve learned all too well, building a 2-in-1 is really tricky business, and even one wrong move can render a system near-unusable, and far from earning a recommendation for us. Microsoft has managed to refine the pattern over several generations and different products, and at this point, we’re confident in its ability to put together a minor update to the Surface Pro line.

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Huawei and Samsung, on the other hand, have more to prove. Samsung’s last effort at the 2-in-1 game left us unimpressed, with an overly ambitious OLED display that brought some tinting issues with it, and an overall chintzy design. Huawei made a decent effort with the previous Matebook, but it was marred by a flimsy design and expensive peripherals.

So which one is the right 2-in-1 for you, if any of them? Join us on today’s episode of Close to the Metal as we break down each device, and try to decide on a winner for the category.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that takes a deep dive into computing and PC gaming topics. Each show, we’ll focus in on one topic, and leave no stone unturned as we show off the latest in hardware and software. Whether it’s the latest GPU, supercomputers, or which 2-in-1 you should buy,  we break down the complicated jargon and talk about how user experience is affected in the real world. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Tuesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.

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Brad Bourque
Brad Bourque
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad Bourque is a native Portlander, devout nerd, and craft beer enthusiast. He studied creative writing at Willamette…
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