Why You Can Trust CNET Working from home? Save $300 on 2-in-1 laptops at Best Buy
Versatile machines from Lenovo and Samsung for work and play when stuck at home.
Have you been forced to turn your old laptop that was previously used primarily for checking email and watching Netflix into an honest-to-goodness work computer? Is it straining to keep up with its new and expanded role as you work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus? If your laptop sounds like a jet engine when you hop on yet another Zoom meeting, you've got two options: switch to using your phone (maybe with a tripod) or upgrade your laptop.
If you choose to go the latter route, a two-in-one laptop that acts as both a traditional laptop and tablet can deliver some much needed versatility while quarantined. It can serve as a laptop during the workday with the muscle needed to handle Zoom meetings without forcing you to talk over loud cooling fans, while also letting you multitask without freezing up or crashing. And when the workday is done, you can rotate the display 360 degrees and pop it into tablet mode to draw or play games. There's also tent mode for watching Netflix or your streaming service of choice.
Read more: Best laptops of 2020
Best Buy has a number of two-in-one laptops currently marked down. Here are four that caught my eye. And Best Buy is doing its part with social distancing -- it's offering free shipping on orders of $35 or more as well as curbside pickup.
This two-in-one from Samsung laptop runs Windows 10 and uses the previous-generation Core i5-8250 CPU, but it should offer enough oomph to handle basic office tasks, including Zoom. The webcam records only a 480p image, so you'll likely be a bit fuzzy to your video-conference mates. The best part of this discounted model is its 512GB SSD; most laptops at this price offer only 256GB of storage. The 13.3-inch display features a crisp 1,920x1,080 resolution, and there's also a fingerprint reader for easy, secure logins.
The 13.3-inch Notebook 9 Pro boasts a sleek, all-metal chassis but is likely due for a component upgrade soon. It features an eighth-gen Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. It's a current model on Samsung's site (with the same $300 discount), but I wouldn't be surprised to see it get updated in the near future with a tenth-gen Core i7 chip. Still, a $300 discount is pretty sweet, and the eighth-gen Core i7 part is still a capable chip for mainstream tasks. And the webcam supplies a 720p image. We liked it when it reviewed it last April for its slim, lightweight design, extra-long battery life and strong performance for its size.
The highlights of this Yoga C940 two-in-one is its modern CPU and ample storage. It features a tenth-gen Intel Core i7 Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 12GB of RAM, integrated Intel Iris graphics, a 512GB SSD and a 720p webcam. The 1,920x1,080 resolution of its 14-inch touch display can't match the 4K clarity of the Yoga C940 model below, but what you sacrifice in pixel count you gain in running time. (Powering a 4K display requires greater battery resources than illuminating a 1080p display.) Its all-metal chassis is rugged and supplies a fingerprint reader for easy, secure logins.
This Yoga C940 is high powered with a high resolution. It features the 10th-gen Core i7-1065G7 CPU with Intel Iris graphics, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD with 32GB of Optane memory. The 14-inch touch display has a 4K resolution, and the HD webcam delivers a 720p picture.
