? A Notebook to beat Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with KBD ??

here's an interesting topic - and I do have in mind to make this my main Windows 10 daily driver if and when I find such.
I have a new iPad Air 2 top of the line, and a Galaxy S Tab 10.5 on the way. Both are fast tablets with long battery life, don't overheat, don't have fans so you don't choke them to death with heat exhaustion, a "just right" size and carryability. The Android tablet has the huge advantage of accomodating a pointing device so it will get a case with Keyboard/touchpad.

I know of no notebook pc that can match the speed, portability, battery life and the display capability of these, but I could have missed one or two. There are many that have good specs but when you look at what real people are finding in them, they are buggy, unreliable, hot, slow, incapable of fast graphics, etc. I do not want ANYthing bigger than 12.5 display... I had a 13 HP elitebook and it was ok but way big. I currently have an older thinkpad x120e because I cannot replace it without taking a downgrade some way or other but I'm even willing to do so if it beats the above core requirements.

what have you found that beats? I paid under $400 for each of the tablets: one brand new, one "as new".

???

Well, you can't really compare them based on price. I can't see how you could have bought a top of the line iPad Air 2 for less than $400. The cheapest one they make is $499, and top of the line is $829.

For that price, you could easily get a Surface 3 with keyboard cover. Or, if you really want the keyboard clamshell, then you could go for a Transformer, the TX-300 is 13.3 inches, which I know you said is larger than you want, but they also have a 10inch model, the TX100HA

Another option is a MacBook Air, which you can install Windows on if you want.

As Mystere says you can't compare Apple products with non Apple products based on price. It's a well known fact that Apple over price their products by at least a factor of two. Saying that an Apple tablet is better than a non Apple product in the same family range and basing the argument on their price is silly. You have to look at the specifications and what the OS/software can do.

I paid $370 for the ipad air 2. just like PC's, the market will determine what things are worth. i've been in the pc patch a long time, and some things are priced appropriately, some not.
neither of the comments mention the price of the Samsung Galaxy S 10.5.... why?

at any rate, make it simple: where can I get that display quality in a notebook with same/better battery life and passive cooling and portability? the samsung is clearly superior in display quality, not in other ways - something even apple fanbois admit.
The MSRP of the targeted notebook could be $600 or so... nothing sells for its target price, especially in PC land. I routinely by for my customers PC laptops at around 60% of list - especially these days as the market is crowded with mediocre models and constipated overstuffing channels

I paid $370 for the ipad air 2.

New? That's outrageous.. where the heck did you find a legitimate (ie not stolen) Top of the line ipad air 2 for $370? I'll buy 1000 of them tomorrow if I can find that.

neither of the comments mention the price of the Samsung Galaxy S 10.5.... why?

Look, you can't compare freak of nature deals to standard street price for most people.

at any rate, make it simple: where can I get that display quality in a notebook with same/better battery life and passive cooling and portability? the samsung is clearly superior in display quality, not in other ways - something even apple fanbois admit.

You aren't going to be able to compare an x86 processor to an ARM processor for battery life or power consumption/heat dissipation. In Intel land, if you get something that sips power, it's not very fast, and if it's fast it's going to heat up and draw juice.

Say "display quality" is meaningless, since we don't know what your judging it on... One may have better color, than another, another might be sharper than another, another may be brighter or have better contrast or use less power.. there are so many things that can define "better".

i could not disagree more about display subjectivity: some commonly-accepted benchmarks are applicable. whether YOU like industry leading AMOLED display technology or not is unknowable, but the industry does have some lines drawn. I've yet to see any responsible reviewer rate the tab s displays as 'less than' the Air 2, and going back to my original post, i know of no pc device that can rival it in the vicinity of its price range [market]. aside from that one big factor, a lot of technicals are 'up for grabs', but I see no rivals until around $800 & up.
i hope that if the pc industry can find a way to work through the stale inventory, maybe in a year or two the playing field will level some but I dunno if a profit can be made at that level playing field - having been there, i doubt it. witness hp's failed efforts to find a buyer for their pc unit

as to outrageous pricing, see Apple iPad Air 2 16GB Wi Fi 9 7in Space Gray New in Box | eBay
i do a lot of business on ebay, every which way. its pretty close to an old fashioned b-school 'free market', especially on the buy side.