Consider the Boox e-readers. You won't be able to mindmap with Concepts on it but you can get one that you can write and read on. It will become e-waste at some point. Tablets, especially budget tablets tend to stop being updated pretty soon in my experience. If you don't want e-waste get a Lenovo 2-in-1 or a Framework 12.
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Ereaders can become photo frames https://wiki.mobileread.com/ look up some of the custom launchers you can throw on them
Used Thinkpad Yoga 2-in-1 meets every bullet point except small.
I still don't really believe in the non-laptop tablet form factor, myself.
Me neither, which is why I want to get something cheap that I won't feel bad about when it collects dust lol
Used thinkpads tend to be pretty cheap because companies upgrade and get rid of them by the hundred well before they're used up.
I got a Lenovo Xiaoxin pad a bit ago and it does everything I need it to. It goes on sale often on aliexpress and seems to be one of the top budget options. It usually ships with a Chinese ROM which can cause problems
Hm, still a little bit big for my purposes I guess, but thanks for the opinion
See if you can find that fancy ass convertible tablet/laptop that was making the rounds on Twitter a few weeks ago. I think it was a new Huawei model being displayed in what looked like an Apple Store.
Edit - found it! This thing looks amazing. The price, not so much.
The aldocube stuff w the helio g99 are not bad. I think they have a mini at 8 inches and another one that's 10. All unlockable with the mtkclient stuff.
They advertise as 12gb but actually have 6+6 swap, that's still in your range.
I’ve never been able to get a tablet to perform the writing and research tasks as well as a laptop. What situations is your laptop too bulky for?
Speaking as an electronics repairer, the least ewaste tablet is an ipad. This is unpopular. They hold value longer and have the widest variety of peripheral, software, and repair support.
If you’re married to windows or android though, either get a convertible business class dell or lenovo for windows and just whatever Chinese thing for android. You’re not gonna be happy with either because even the x series Lenovos are bulkier than an ipad and the Chinese tablets tend to have esoteric details.
I'd look into a small touchscreen laptop that folds (like some Lenovos) or uses a detachable keyboard (like some Surfaces), given the intended use case. Then you'll be able to use Windows or Linux. Android and iOS are pretty bad at laptop tasks. If you plan on using Linux make sure to look up installation guides for specific models first because some may be either impossible or severely hampered by kernel support.
Sorry I can't give you a specific recommendation because I haven't thought about buying a laptop in like a decade (ThinkPads are sturdy, yo).
The Surface is infamously unfriendly to Linux