IOTA 360 Windows Laptop/ Tablet - Functional, portable laptop which doubles as a tablet. Brilliant device.
Verdict:
Really cool laptop which is lightweight and portable. It surpassed all expectations and the speed were not an issue.Pros:
Great valueWindows-run
Touchscreen
Cons:
Occasionally slow2GB RAM
Ratings:
Key features:
Review price: £200
Brand: IOTA
Battery: 8,000mAh
Windows 10
Atom x5 chip
Speeds:
This will probably be on the top of most people’s minds. I was quite skeptical at first also about the speed of this device. Yet it pleasantly surprised me to find that the computer runs at a reasonably good speed. For anyone not willing to spend more than £150 on a laptop, they can’t be disappointed with the speeds of this device. I have had little to no trouble of it crashing or taking a long time to load. It does only contain 2GB of Ram but it actually seems like enough. All that being said, you can’t expect super-high speeds from a budget laptop.
By using an Atom x5 processor, this laptop can clock speeds similar to that of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor. As it runs Windows, you can expect a good performance for tasks such as using the internet or Office but it will not be suitable for complex software or 3D games. That being said, most people would want this laptop for tasks such as that so this should not be a problem.
Build quality:
I have really enjoyed the build quality of this device being very enjoyable to use. The material on the outside is soft but it can be scratched easily and I got a noticeable scratch within a few days. For that reason, I would recommend a case to keep the device scratch-free.
The keyboard was in perfect condition and I had no problems with keys sticking or anything like that. As the device is small, the keys on the keyboard will probably be smaller than what most would be used to but it is easy to get used to quickly and it is definitely a worthwhile trade-off for a smaller device.
The hinges keeping the screen and keyboard together is also very sturdy and is built to be able to rotate the keyboard behind the screen. All of the materials used are high quality and better than would be expected of a device like this.
Screen:
The screen resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels and it uses a HD graphics 400 card which makes for a great display. As is the case with most laptops, the screen can be slightly difficult to see from certain angles. It can become quite bright allowing for viewing in bright conditions. Apart from that, it is pleasant to look at and it would be very easy to watch a movie on it for hours. Overall it is very nice to look at considering that it doubles as touchscreen. There is little room for improvement here.
Tablet mode:
As this device is also touch-screen, it can obviously switch to tablet mode. By flicking the switch on the side of the keyboard, you can turn the keyboard off removing the problem of accidentally pressing keys on the keyboard. This feature is vital to making tablet mode useful. To use the touchscreen you are not required to turn tablet mode on and in fact, I rarely use table mode. I usually use the keyboard and occasionally supplement the actions with the touchscreen to work faster.
By switching the device into tablet mode, it basically turns the device into a windows tablet by showing all of the apps on the homepage. This feature could be useful if you want to twist the keyboard to behind the device and use it solely as a laptop.
Battery:
The battery with this device is yet another great bonus. With 8,000mAh, it is enough to stay running for hours. IOTA claims 7 hours and I found that pretty exact. With a low brightness, you can easily stretch it to 10 hours. One problem was the charging speeds. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem but as this is pretty much a portable laptop, it can be slightly annoying when it takes hours to charge. It generally takes me 6 hours but this shouldn’t be a problem if you charge it overnight. There is nothing fancy here such as quick charging and the charger is very thin but these weren’t big drawbacks.
Ports:
While this is a convertible tablet, no important ports for wires are left out on this device. It includes USB 30, USB 20, micro SD and headphone jack ports. This is no less than expected on any high end laptop. It also has a power button on the side and beside that, there is a keyboard on/off button. That is vital for when you want to flip the screen around as you don’t want to accidentally press the buttons on the keyboard. It works really well as it is easy to switch on and off.
