A convertible-hybrid laptop like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) ($449 as tested) bridges the gap between a traditional clamshell laptop and a slate tablet. The screen flips around to give you the functionality of both types of devices, but it doesn’t detach from the keyboard. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1($399.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) takes the concept and refines it while still delivering a sub-$500 price tag. With its long battery life, sturdy hinge, and a chassis that’s comfortable to use, it earns our first Editors’ Choice award for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.

Design and Features
The compact Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 is built around an 11.6-inch, 1,366-by-768 resolution, 10-point touch screen. The laptop chassis measures about 0.83 by 12 by 8 inches (HWD), and weighs a relatively light 2.99 pounds. That’s smaller and about a quarter-pound lighter than the HP Pavilion 11t-n000 x360, but a smidge heavier and larger than the Lenovo Yoga 2 11($359.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). It feels fine in the hand, and is balanced for one-handed use in slate-tablet mode. The system will fit fine in most commuter bags, including messenger bags and backpacks made to hold full-size tablets and compact laptops.

The In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen is bright and clear, but you’ll have to disable the somewhat aggressive screen dimming. Thankfully, the dimming isn’t as dark as it is on the business-oriented Dell Venue 11 Pro (7139)($295.22 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) tablet, since you can still see what’s on the screen in a typically lit room. The 1,366-by-768 resolution is common for sub-$500 laptops and is capable of displaying 720p HD videos at full resolution, but 1080p HD videos will have to be scaled down. Screen taps and swipes register quickly, and there is a multipoint touchpad below the full-size keyboard. Key feel is average for a compact laptop, but there’s a hint of keyboard flex.

You can flip the screen around into four modes: Laptop, Stand, Tablet, and Tent. Laptop and Tablet modes are exactly what you think they are. Stand mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard upside down on the table, while Tent mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard facing up and away from you. With both Stand and Tent mode, you use the touch screen without access to the physical keyboard, but Tent mode may work better when you have limited desk space, like when you’re working on an airplane tray table.

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Though the chassis is slim, it has a good selection of I/O ports, including an HDMI port, an SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.0 port. Note that the USB ports are all the same black color, so you’ll have to figure out which one is the USB 3.0 port by searching for the tiny USB SS icon (hint, it’s on the left, next to the HDMI port). The full-size HDMI port is more convenient than the micro-HDMI port you get with the Lenovo Yoga 2 11.

The system comes with 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. The hard drive is slower than the flash memory or solid-state-drives (SSDs) found in slate tablets, but there’s a lot more space for your files. While very few users will do so, Dell offers instructions on how to replace the hard drive and memory with a speedier SSD or higher-capacity memory, respectively. The hard drive has lots of free space on it, and the Start screen has relatively few pre-loaded apps: Adobe Revel (for photo sharing), Amazon, Dell Shop, Dropbox, eBay, Kindle, Office Trial, OneNote, and Pocket Cloud. The system comes with a one-year warranty.

Performance

The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1’s components include a 2.16GHz Intel Pentium N3530 quad-core processor with Intel HD Graphics, built on the Bay Trail-M platform. The system managed a passable 1,712 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which measures performance while working on office documents, video conferencing, and Web browsing. We don’t have a lot of comparison PCMark 8 scores yet, but the Dell system’s score is higher than the 1,576 points earned by the Atom-equipped Acer Aspire Switch 10($282.37 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

It also did comparatively well on the multimedia tests: 5 minutes 54 seconds on the Handbrake video encoding test and 12:35 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. While these scores can’t hold a candle to those of ultrabooks with Core i5 processors, they are better than the scores we’ve seen on other systems with Atom, Celeron, and Pentium CPUs.

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The 3D scores were par for the category: single-digit frame rates that show the system is better suited for casual games. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 has good speed for an entry-level system, and will be sufficient for day-to-day general use.

The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours 24 minutes on our battery rundown test. For comparison, the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB)($463.69 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), our Editors’ Choice for entry-level, detachable-hybrid tablets, lasted 11:20, but the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 only managed 6:53. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 will get you through a typical work day, and its battery life is exceptional for a convertible-hybrid laptop.

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don’t have to endure a stripped-down laptop when you only have $450 to spend. It combines a well-designed flipping hinge with all-day battery life and a relatively full feature set. All this earns the Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 our first Editors’ Choice for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.