iPad vs HP x360 for AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator is a common dilemma for the “budget” consumers. Possibly we can help you (or confuse you) more with the real-life experience of more than a year. If you at a budget with not many powerful laptops, then we would suggest you to go with some powerful HP x360 model like we have reviewed one.
HP x360 is a Compromise for Drawing But Ownership is Low Cost
Repairing minor things on HP laptops do not cost a bomb. Indeed, you can upgrade some of the components yourself or by some professional outside HP’s official service centres. If you are on a budget who needs full laptop function and also want some touch support screen with the stylus, then HP x360 is difficult to beat.
Most of the HP x360 models with laptop processors will get hot on high CPU load, the surface is glass and feels like glass, the folded “tablet form” has over one-inch thickness. Needless to say, the palm rejection is poor. All of these physical factors make any HP x360 a poor candidate for designing works regularly. If you are a professional blogger, HP x360 will give you the most since you’ll not need outdoor works.
---
I must warn you, HP x360 are not that reliable. Packaging tiny parts closely made it vulnerable to smaller problems. Suddenly your keyboard may not work or the touchpad starts disturbing – these are often reported by Reddit users. Solving these issues will not cost you a huge at HP’s service centres (and HP has marvellous online and service centre support). These issues do force me to use another reliable laptop which is designed for everyday heavy work on a keyboard. HP x360 is a delicate laptop with state of art features and it wins because of HP’s support. x360, although has a stylus enabled display, comes with the same problems as any windows laptop, which includes performance reduction over time, lengthy updates and lots of unnecessary features you won’t need or use.
iPad is Really Designed for Designing
Go for an iPad if your work is more focused on drawing. It will offer you better performance for designing, better screen and colours, and iOS store has a lot of apps specially made for designers (concepts, procreate are among the best ones). Remember that, iPad Pro or any iPad with its pencil isn’t built for drawing in mind only note-taking. So, if you need a computing device for drawing, then you will need drawing tablets. iPad definitely will require a lot of investment. Nothing from Apple is ever cheap (and not always the build quality is for lasting longer). iPad is the best for its slim form factor. It is great for some of the engineers including the architects (who can carry the iPad). Of course, Apple always offers a great and smooth UI that can not be compared with any OS on this earth.
Other Options
Microsoft Surface and Samsung Tablets are among the other options. Samsung S7+ and iPad Pro are almost the same in terms of display quality. I feel Samsung’s OLED a slightly better (maybe because I am used to Samsung’s smart TV and smartphones). Samsung bundles the S-Pen for free with the Tab S7 Plus. Galaxy Tab S7 Plus gets offers DeX mode too. At this moment, Samsung tablets still can not beat the iPads for a better tablet experience. Microsoft Surface vs HP x360 is a similar comparison.
Huion Kamvas Pro 13 is a cheap drawing tablet (not for AutoCAD), which is Android-based:
1 | https://www.huion.com/pen_display/KamvasPro/Kamvas_Pro_13.html |
Or Wacom One (not for AutoCAD).
Conclusion
I would tend to say that iPad is the winner for designing work. It is good as an extra computing device – something in-between a laptop and a smartphone. But, most people can not spend more money on purchasing an extra computing device. But an HP x360 will not become a laptop to heavily use the keyboard. HP x360 or Lenovo Yoga are cheaper options that are designed to cover more features.
