Robo & Kala 2

REVIEW – For many years, my primary personal computer has been a MacBook. My day job computer was always a Windows computer, but I’ve been retired from my day job for over a year now and haven’t had any access to Windows. If you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you will know that I have recently switched from iOS to Android because I’ve been out of touch with Android and wanted to get reacquainted. When I was asked if I was interested in reviewing the Robo & Kala laptop, I thought it was a good opportunity to dip my toes into Windows again. Let’s take a look at this 2-in-1 laptop and see if I’m ready to ditch my MacBook.

The Robo & Kala is a 2-in-1 Windows 11 laptop that can be used as a touchscreen tablet and with the attachable keyboard, it becomes a laptop. Hey, should we start calling these types of computers Lablets? Laptop + Tablet = Lablet? 😉

Optional accessories include:

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3CPU: 8-core CPU with 4 perform­ance cores and 4 efficiency coresGPU: Qualcomm Adreno GPUMemory: 16GB LPDDR4XStorage: 512GB NVMe SSDOperating System: Windows 11 Home 64bitDimensions: 284.7mm x 187.5mm x 7.3mmWeight: 690gDisplay: 12.6inch AMOLED 2560 x 1600Aspect Ratio: 16:10Maximum Brightness: 600NitsTouch Panel: 10 Finger pointsBattery: 41.4Wh (Typical) Polymer batteryBattery life: Up to 20 hrsNetwork and connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2Ports: USB-C x 2 (support charging, data transferring and Display port)Camera:1.0 MP Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing)5.0 MP front-facing camera with 1080p full HD video13.0 MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 4K videoAudio: Speaker x 2, Microphone x 2Fanless/Heat pipe x 2

It’s been a while since I tried a Microsoft Surface tablet/laptop, but that’s what I thought of when I took the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop out of the box. It’s a very sleek-looking device with a smooth aluminum housing in a deep blue-green color. The housing does tend to show some fingerprints and smudges if you handle it with greasy fingers. But it’s easy to clean with a cloth if it bugs you.

The case has rounded corners and curved sides that make it comfortable to hold and use as a tablet.

The back of the unit has the Robo & Kala logo centered on the kickstand at the bottom.

Along the top edge is the back-facing camera. I can’t imagine walking around and using the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop as a camera, but the option is there if you choose to use it.

On the left edge of the device, you’ll find a speaker and 2 USB-C ports. You can use either port for charging the device or connecting it to a monitor.

On the bottom edge is a Pogo pin port that is designed to be used with the included detachable keyboard.

The right edge of the laptop only has the other speaker and no ports.

The kickstand is held closed with magnets but it easily flips out when you want to stand up the tablet to watch a video, draw, or use it as a laptop.

The kickstand’s angle can be adjusted from 0 – 162º.

You can even angle it as far down as you see in the image above. That said, I do wish that the kickstand would allow for more of a steeper angle. When using it as a laptop, it always feels like the screen is angled just a little too far back for my liking. Not a deal breaker, but just my own preference.

There’s also a surprise under the kickstand. There’s a small access panel that lifts out to give you access to the SSD so that you can upgrade it if you need to. It doesn’t require any special tools other than a piece of tape to lift off the access panel.

Included with the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop is a detachable keyboard. This keyboard has slim profile keys and a touchpad.

The keyboard attaches to the tablet’s Pogo pin port. The connection is secure, but at the same time, it’s easy to detach it when you want to go back to using the Robo & Kala as a tablet instead of a laptop.

You can also flip the Robo & Kala over and connect it to the keyboard backward so that you can use it in tablet mode without activating the keys by mistake.

Like other kickstand-style 2-in-1 laptops, the Robo & Kala is not exactly lap-friendly when it comes to using it as a laptop with the keyboard on your lap. It’s really best suited for use on a desk or other solid surface. If you’re planning to use it on the couch, you’ll want a lap desk (I’m still using a large version of the Lapinator that I reviewed 19 years ago!)

The color and vibrancy of the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop kind of reminds me of Samsung smartphones. If you’ve ever used a Samsung phone, you’ll know what I mean. The colors kind of punch you in the face with how bright and vivid they are. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so, but some people might not like it with some apps like editing photos and videos since the colors don’t always look true to life to me.

When it comes to clarity, I have zero complaints with reading text in Word documents, PDF files, and web pages with this 2-in-1 laptop.

While I don’t have any complaints with the display, when it comes to the audio quality of the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop, I do. Let’s just say that the audio quality is not going to blow your hair back. The volume is loud enough, I’m not complaining about that, it’s just that the audio sounds weak and thin like it’s coming from inside a can. I’m mostly comparing it to my MacBook which has excellent sound quality.

The optional Smart Pen for the Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop allows for 4096 levels of pressure. If you think that the Smart Pen looks a lot like an Apple Pencil, I agree. But the Smart Pen has a rocker switch that functions as an erase button and a right mouse button. The Apple Pencil doesn’t have any buttons.

The Smart Pen can be used with drawing apps or as a handheld “mouse” to navigate apps.

The Smart Pen does have a built-in battery, so it has to be charged. It magnetically connects to the right side of the tablet for charging. Luckily, charging is fast with 1 minute of charging providing 2 hours of use.

Since I’ve become a fan of mechanical keyboards, I may have become a bit of a keyboard snob because the Robo & Kala keyboard feels like a toy compared to my current favorite, the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro. I also enjoy the keyboard on my MacBook Pro and again, compared to the MacBook, the Robo & Kala keyboard is a little meh.

The touchpad is not going to win any awards either. But even with these complaints, if you’re using the keyboard when mobile, it gets the job done. But when I’m back at my desk, I connect the Robo & Kala to the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro, a Logitech MX Master 3S, and my Dell 49-inch curved ultrasharp monitor because I’m extra that way.

When I first started testing this 2-in-1 laptop, I charged it up and put it on the end table next to the couch. I used it every night for several nights without plugging it back in. I was amazed that the battery lasted so long. Granted, I was mainly surfing the web, working on reviews like this one, editing photos, and watching YouTube videos, but even with this light work, after 3 nights, the battery was still over 50% full. Then I checked the specs and learned that the battery should last up to 20 hours per charge. Wow!

Instead of pasting in a bunch of benchmark screenshots, I prefer to just do real-world work to see how well a laptop works for me. Most of my day is spent in the Chrome browser as I use Gmail for email, Google Sheets to keep track of all the reviews for the Gadgeteer team, writing reviews in WordPress, and watching YouTube videos for fun and for learning. I also use Todoist for my tasks, Telegram for talking to friends, Photoshop for editing photos, and Capcut for editing videos. I didn’t have any problems using any of the apps that I mentioned. I did notice that some apps take a little longer to launch than what I’m used to with my MacBook, but once loaded, they all worked fine.

For a real-world test, I rendered a 31 minute 2K video in Capcut with the Robo & Kala and then compared the same video render with the same app on my M1 MacBook Pro. Here are the results.

Robo & Kala – 31 minute 2K video render with the free Capcut video editor startedStarted at 9:14 am and finished at 9:32 am for a total of 18 minutes.

M1 MacBook Pro – 31 minute 2K video render with the free Capcut video editor startedStarted at 9:10 am and finished at 9:19 am for a total of 9 minutes.

What does this video rendering time tell you? Basically, I put the test in this review just to give you an idea of what to expect if by some chance you wanted to use this 2-in-1 laptop for the sole purpose of rendering video. I would not recommend it for that purpose.

The Robo & Kala isn’t an Intel or ARM device. It uses a Snapdragon processor which you usually think of as being in a smartphone, but it can run all the Windows programs that you throw at it. And, with the Windows subsystem, you can also run Android and Linux on this same device. <- I didn’t test this but want to!

When it comes down to it. I have been really impressed with how well this little laptop performs with my daily tasks.

The Robo & Kala 2-in-1 laptop doesn’t make me want to switch to it from my MacBook and Mac OS because I do a lot of video editing/rendering. But I still like this affordable Lablet quite a bit. It’s made incredibly well, lightweight, has excellent battery life, is upgradable (SSD), has 2-in-1 functionality, and is just plain cool. Robo & Kala has a winner on their hands with this device and yes, I think it’s a worthy competitor to the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (at least on paper since I don’t have a Surface 9 Pro to physically compare).

Price: $799.99Where to buy: AmazonSource: The sample for this review was provided by Robo & Kala.