ZBrushCentral

Touchscreen Laptop for ZBrush 2018

Hi, everyone!
I need your advice.
I want to buy a laptop for work in ZBrush, with a TouchScreen display, for drawing right on the screen.
Budget - up to 2 thousand dollars. (of course, if there are good options cheaper, then it’s even better)
I used to work on a Wacom Intuous tablet earlier. But I need mobility and carry two devices (a laptop and a tablet) with myself, it is not quite convenien …and also need more spaces for work.
I liked a few models, maybe you would say your opinion:

  • Dell XPS 15 Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 4K Ultra HD - 4GB NVIDIA Graphics
  • Lenovo IdeaPad 720s Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti - 4K Ultra HD
  • Lenovo Flex 5 Series 2-in-1 Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - GeForce MX130 - 4K Ultra HD
  • Lenovo - Yoga 730 2-in-1 15.6" 4K Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - GeForce GTX 1050
  • and HP - Spectre x360 2-in-1 15.6" 4K Ultra HD Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - GeForce MX150
    At first I wanted to take the 2-in-1 laptop. But then I decided that it would be a little havy to hold a laptop with one hand and draw the other one. Therefore I stopped at the fact that it was enough just Touchscreen.
    I want to know your opinion, can this option replace the Wacom tablet? And maybe some more important tips. Thank you!

Really no one uses touchscreen laptops? …there is not a single answer in a few days

I don’t personally use such a system, which somewhat inhibits my ability to answer, beyond that I have seen posts and received support calls from people that have them and I have yet to hear any negative comments. But I can help in a few ways:

First, make sure that the system meets or exceeds the system requirements for ZBrush. The fact that you mention the graphics cards in each of the systems that you’re considering leads me to believe that you haven’t read this page in full. (There are also helpful tips at the bottom of the page.)

Second, you’ll be best off if the system you settle on uses WinTab drivers rather than N-Trig. The two systems are mutually exclusive and ZBrush uses WinTab. To get it working right with an N-Trig pen/tablet you need middleware. There’s a Knowledgebase article on this topic. If you go with a WinTab device, you won’t have issues with the pen. If you go with N-Trig you will most likely be able to get it working properly but we can’t make any guarantees.

Third, I don’t know what other software you’ll be using but as far as ZBrush is concerned you can ignore anything that talks about multi-touch. ZBrush doesn’t support that. It needs to be a pen device.

I noticed that you didn’t include any Wacom products in the list of what you’re considering. I know that Wacom uses WinTab and many of their pen computers do fall within your budget. https://us-store.wacom.com/catalog/pen-computers I’m mentioning them as something that you may wish to consider; not as something that I’m specifically endorsing. As I said, I don’t have personal experience with any such laptops.

I hope that helps!

Do laptops have pressure sensitivity? If not I wouldn’t suggest it. Also having a graphics card isn’t a bad idea since most other 3d programs could make use of it.

Thank you very much for your reply and clarification!
I really need a universal laptop, on which I can also work in other programs, for example Modo or Maya, as well as for rendering projects. Therefore, I considered the options with a good graphics card and a multitasking processor.
But working in ZBrush, without an additional tablet Wacom, is the primary task of choice.

Didn’t you consider Mobilestudio by Wacom?

Yes, it would be a good option. But, unfortunately, they are too expensive!

Have been looking into the lenovo yoga 730 you listed. cannot find what technology it uses for the pen yet but bang for buck it seems the best option so far in terms of performance.

Chuwi 2in1 laptop is very cheap compare to other and there is also Samsung galaxy book and very old one Motion computing.