ZWYING Mini Laptop 10.5" Touchscreen 2-in-1 Convertible Review

If you're hunting for a super portable Windows 2-in-1 under $500, the Mini Laptop 10.5" is a name you'll probably see. It's a tiny, 1.8kg convertible with a 10.5-inch touchscreen that flips all the way around, so you can use it as a laptop, tablet, or in tent mode for watching videos. The specs on paper look solid for the price: you get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which is way more storage than you'd expect in this bracket. But the heart of this machine is the Intel N150 processor, which is a budget chip designed for basic tasks. So, is this little laptop good for students or casual use? Let's dig in.

Performance is where the reality of that Intel N150 CPU hits. It's in the 6th percentile for processing power, which means it's one of the slowest chips you'll find in a modern Windows device. Benchmark scores confirm it's built for light duty: web browsing, document editing, and streaming video are fine, but don't expect to multitask heavily or run demanding software. The GPU performance is even weaker, sitting in the 8th percentile, so light gaming is a stretch and anything 3D is out of the question. The 16GB of RAM and fast NVMe SSD are the heroes here, preventing the system from feeling completely sluggish when you have a few browser tabs open. For basic tasks, it gets the job done, but just barely.

At around $470, the value proposition is a mixed bag. You're paying for the form factor and the generous helping of RAM and storage, not for speed. If your needs are strictly web, email, documents, and video, and you absolutely need a tiny Windows machine, it's an option. But you have to accept the performance limits. For the same money, you could find used or refurbished laptops with much more powerful processors, though they'd likely be bigger and lack the 2-in-1 touchscreen.

This device lives in a weird space between tablets and laptops. Compared to an Apple iPad Pro or Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, it runs full Windows, which is a big plus for some software, but its performance and app experience for things like drawing or media consumption are far worse. The Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is the direct Windows competitor, but it's in a different league performance-wise (and price-wise) with its Snapdragon X chips. A closer match might be older Surface Go models, which also use slower Intel chips but are often lighter. If portable gaming is a thought, something like the Lenovo Legion Go handheld console would run circles around this in performance, but it's not a laptop. For students, the weak CPU and middling battery life make it less ideal than a used ultrabook unless the tiny size is the top priority.

Should you buy this? Only in a very specific scenario. If you need the absolute smallest Windows 11 Pro convertible you can find, and your workload is incredibly light—think writing, web research, and streaming—and you value the 512GB storage, it could work. For everyone else, the answer is probably no. The processor is simply too slow for a good general-purpose experience in 2024. Students might find it frustrating for research with many tabs, and it's a poor choice for any design or creative work. Look for a used business laptop or save up for a more capable device.