Notebookcheck's Top 10 Stylus Convertibles

We really liked the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G5 in our review:

If you are looking for the ultimate Windows convertible for frequent travelers, this EliteBook is very close.

Thunderbolt 3, LTE support and a very bright screen: The convertible offers many advantages. However, it is also equipped with a Kaby Lake CPU and like we said in the introduction, Intel's modern CPUs often suffer from weak Turbo Boost utilization. This is also the case here, even though we can only speak for the tested Intel Core i7-8650U, where the fan was also audible at a high frequency. You will also have to live with a grainy screen if you select the matte screen.

However, this shows another advantage of the HP EliteBook x360 1040 G5: There are numerous hardware combinations you can choose from, so almost every user and every budget should find the right model.

This convertible uses HP's Rechargeable Active Pen, which can also be purchased separately. HP charges about 130 Euros. It can be charged via USB, and the power adapter of the convertible works as well. There are the buttons at the side, an LED indicator for the battery charge, and a magnet, so you can attach the pen to the convertible. Bluetooth is included as well, so compatible apps can be controlled via stylus to a certain extent. The Active Pen supports 4096 pressure levels.

The ThinkPad Pen is often included when you buy the X1 Yoga, but it can also be purchased separately for about 40 Euros. Lenovo lists a weight of 5-10 grams with a diameter of 6.5 millimeters and a length of 127 mm. The Pen Pro does not use a replaceable battery cell, but an integrated battery. The pen is charged by the notebook/convertible once inserted into the case. Lenovo claims one charge will suffice for up to 130 minutes of active use.

The ThinkPad Pen Pro 2 supports 2048 pressure levels according to the manufacturer. However, there is no support for an adjusted input when you tilt the pen. The pen has two buttons in the area of the thumb (left and right click).

The Active Pen is an alternative to the integrated ThinkPad Pen. It retails for 80 Euros (RRP), but it is already available for 50-60 Euros in shops. It weighs about 20 grams, has a diameter of 0.95 cm and a length of 15.3 cm. The power supply is handled by a single and replaceable AAAA-battery and it communicates with the device via Bluetooth.
Similar to the Surface Pen, it supports 4096 pressure levels and the pen recognizes when you tilt it. It also supports palm recognition and features a total of three buttons; two at the side in the area of the thumb and one at the top of the pen. The scope of delivery includes three replacement tips and a clip that can be attached to a USB-A port (no additional features).

This convertible uses HP's Rechargeable Active Pen, which can also be purchased separately. HP charges about 130 Euros. It can be charged via USB, and the power adapter of the convertible works as well. There are the buttons at the side, an LED indicator for the battery charge, and a magnet, so you can attach the pen to the convertible. Bluetooth is included as well, so compatible apps can be controlled via stylus to a certain extent. The Active Pen supports 4096 pressure levels.

Our test sample was shipped with the HP Active Pen, but it is usually sold as an optional accessory. HP charges about 70 Euros (RRP), but the street price is currently around 50 Euros. The stylus tips the scale at 17.5 grams (according to HP) and a diameter of 9.5 mm with a length of 14.7 cm. It integrates a AAAA-battery (HP advertises a battery runtime of up to several weeks) and the data connection is established via Bluetooth.
The HP Active Pen supports 2048 pressure levels, but tilt is not supported. The Active Pen has three buttons, one at the tip and two at the side of the pen. The pen is also shipped with a set of replacement tips, a clip, and a wrist strap. The function "App Launch" can be programmed by the user and allows the launch of applications directly via pen. Active pens from other manufacturers are not supported according to HP.

Samsung retreated from the classic notebook segment in Europe years ago, so the convertibles from the manufacturer are the only PC option here. The Galaxy Book 12 retails for more or less than 1000 Euros based on the specs. All models in Germany are based on the Intel i5-7200U CPU in combination with 8 GB RAM and 64 up to 256 GB storage. Integrated LTE is an optional extra as well. Some countries also get the Galaxy Book 12 with 4 GB RAM. This is a tablet convertible, which means a tablet PC with an attachable keyboard unit.

All the models including our test sample of the Samsung Galaxy Book 12 are equipped with the Intel i5-7200U CPU. The Kaby Lake chip offers two physical cores with a TDP of 15 Watts. The performance suffers a bit under sustained workloads, but the overall results are still decent. We once again have to say that the i5-7200U is well-suited for office tasks, but it can obviously not keep up with the newer quad-core chips in CPU heavy tasks.
Samsung utilizes its know-how from the smartphone segment for the display and implements a 12-inch AMOLED panel with 2160x1440 pixels (3:2 aspect ratio). The advantages of this technology are easily visible: The average luminance is close to 400 nits, the maximum contrast ratio easily surpasses 10000:1 thanks to the low black value (0 in theory). sRGB is covered by 93% and AdobeRGB still by 74%. The color accuracy on the other hand is just average: We measure a maximum DeltaE deviation of 6 (average 4.1), so there is still room for improvements. Our calibration with the XRite i1 Pro 2, however, did not really improve the results. 
The system noise of the Galaxy Book 12 is very well managed. The system is often silent during office tasks and stays quiet under load, which means you can only hear it in very quiet environments.

Samsung ships all models of the Galaxy Book 12 with an S-Pen for pen inputs. The Book Cover Keyboard is also included. the pen can also be purchased separately for a street price of about 30 Euros, while Samsung lists an expensive RRP of 89,90 Euros. It only weighs 9 grams at a diameter of 9.4 millimeters and a length of 13.9 cm. The power supply is interesting: The S-Pen waives an integrated battery or a replaceable battery cell, respectively. The required power is gained via induction from the display. The pen supports 4096 pressure levels as well as tilt, which means it recognizes the way you hold the pen (hatchings, …) according to Samsung, but so far only in combination with Adobe Photoshop. The S-Pen has one mechanical button at the side, the tip can be replaced and corresponding replacement tips are also included.
Nice: Samsung says that other S-Pens like the one from the Tab S3 or the Note 8 can be used with the Galaxy Book 12.

The Lenovo Yoga C930 is the successor to the Lenovo Yoga 920. The case was completely revised and the location of the speakers is special: They are located inside the hinge of the convertible. Thanks to Dolby Atmos and four speakers, it is really nice to watch movies on the Yoga C930. Lenovo does not offer any dGPUs for the Yoga C930, which limits the 3D performance significantly. All graphics calculations are therefore handled by the integrated Intel GPU.

The Yoga C930 is an excellent device for your daily office tasks, and you will enjoy the great multimedia features when you use it for your private purposes as well. The convertible can utilize its strengths during the playback of videos and music.

The display of the C930 is not great and we would have liked to see an brighter panel. Still, the overall quality of the screen is good with wide color gamut and no PWM utilization.

Lenovo ships the convertible with the Active Pen 2. It can also be purchased separately for 80 Euros (RRP), but it is already available for 50-60 Euros in shops. It weighs about 20 grams, has a diameter of 0.95 cm and a length of 15.3 cm. The power supply is handled by a single and replaceable AAAA-battery and it communicates with the device via Bluetooth.
Similar to the Surface Pen, it supports 4096 pressure levels and the pen recognizes when you tilt it. It also supports palm recognition and features a total of three buttons; two at the side in the area of the thumb and one at the top of the pen. The pen can be stored inside the convertible and will be charged.

This convertible uses HP's Rechargeable Active Pen, which can also be purchased separately. HP charges about 130 Euros. It can be charged via USB, and the power adapter of the convertible works as well. There are the buttons at the side, an LED indicator for the battery charge, and a magnet, so you can attach the pen to the convertible. Bluetooth is included as well, so compatible apps can be controlled via stylus to a certain extent. The Active Pen supports 4096 pressure levels.

If you prefer a convertible with a detachable keyboard, you should go for the X1 Tablet instead of the ThinkPad X1 Yoga. It is lower positioned compared to the folding convertible here in our ranking due to the louder fan and higher temperatures under load in addition to mediocre battery runtimes and other little things.

However, you also get a lot in return you come to expect from a real ThinkPad: High-quality case, great input devices, and a very good screen. It is also shipped with LTE and a 3.year warranty. The stylus is already integrated as well, which is not a matter of course.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Pen Pro only supports 2048 pressure levels, but is included in the box of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet. It uses a AAAA-battery cell and features two buttons. You have to purchase the mounting clip for the stylus separately, which is a bit strange, and there is no other way to secure the pen at the tablet.

The HP Spectre x360 13 is one of the few consumer convertibles in this ranking. The Spectre x360 is another notebook convertible with special hinges, so you can fold the display back by 360 degrees and transform the notebook into a tablet. The price range of the Spectre x360 13 is very wide with an entry-level model for around 1200 Euros and high-end SKUs for about 2000 Euros. Besides different colors (black, silver, rose gold) you can also select different core components: CPUs start with the i5-8250U (the model range 13-ac... with the i5-7200U) all the way up to the i7-8550U, 8 or 16 GB RAM, and up to 1 TB SSD storage.

We can only talk about the performance of the high-end SKU with the i7-8550U we reviewed. The results were below our expectations for this CPU in the benchmark tests as well as sustained workloads, though. All in all, the Spectre x360 is more than powerful enough for office applications, but the potential of the powerful CPU cannot be fully utilized.

HP offers two panels: 1080p FHD and a higher-res 4K-UHD screen. We reviewed the latter and determined a decent average luminance of 320 nits with a maximum contrast ratio of 1300:1. The display covers 98% of the sRGB gamut and still 67% AdobeRGB. We really liked the color accuracy ex-works with a maximum DeltaE deviation of 5 and an average deviation below 3, so the human eye cannot notice any deviations from the reference color space.
The Spectre x360 13 is also excellent in terms of system noise. The convertible laptop usually stays silent in less demanding office scenarios, and the fan is still pretty quiet when it starts spinning under load.

Our test sample of the Spectre x360 13 was shipped with the HP Pen. There are also certain bundles shipping without the stylus, but it can also be purchased separately for a street price of around 50 Euros. The pen has a diameter of 9.5 mm with a length of about 14 centimeters and a weight of 16 grams. Power is delivered by a single AAAA battery.
The stylus supports 2048 pressure levels, but no pen tilt, so it does not recognize how you hold it. The pen also features two buttons at the side, which can be operated with your thumb.
HP alternatively recommends the HP Tilt Pen (about 70 Euros) for the Spectre x360 13, which supports the tilt functionality.

The design of the Surface Pro 6 (2018) is pretty much identical to the previous model and USB-C is still not included. Microsoft's tablet is once again a very sophisticated device and feels good in the hand. The manufacturer implements an upgraded CPU and the quad-core processor now offers the performance of a laptop. The performance is reduced by ~11% under sustained workloads, despite the active cooling, but this is still a very good result compared to much bigger laptops. Even larger devices often struggle to manage better results.

The Surface is pretty much on par with its predecessor in terms of battery life with around 8.5 hours. This should be sufficient for a regular business day. The high-end SKU with i7 CPU and 512 GB SSD retails for more than 2000 Euros, which is a steep price. The Surface Pro 6 (2018) combines many positive aspects and left a very good impression during our review. Both the Signature Type Cover and the Surface Pen are unfortunately only sold separately, which will add to the already high price.

Microsoft offers the compatible Surface Pen for 109 Euros (RRP), but it is already available for about 75 Euros. You can choose between 5 different colors. The pen tips the scale at 20 grams with a diameter of 9.7 mm and a length of 146 mm. The power supply is handled by a replaceable AAAA battery (runtime up to 18 months according to Microsoft) and the data connection is established via Bluetooth 4.0.
The Surface Pen supports 4096 pressure levels as well as tilt. The configuration is done via Windows Settings (Windows Ink), where you can also adjust the palm recognition. More options are available in the Surface app, like the pressure sensitivity. The tip can be replaced and you get two mechanical buttons (one at the side - right click or app specific function, and one at the top of the pen - 3 different actions).