I am looking for a mobile device, possibly a 2 in 1, that provides me with fast access to Dragon and has a good built in Mic.

Previous experience: Surface Pro 7 i5 and SUrface Go 2 M3. Both were acceptable for Dragon (the Go 2 obviously less so while multitasking) and have acceptable Mics. However, once you close and open it frequently, Dragon's Mic falls "asleep", takes endlessly to re-trigger etc. Besides unlocking both devices with Windows Hello is a serious pain in the neck.

Desired experienec: MacBook Pro M1 is excellent (finger print scanner world class); I use Dragon through Parallels and can even leave the Mic on in the virtual machine. Downside: only thing that works is DragonPad. It is acceptable for my dictation since accessing it is so fast, but I would like a similar experience with a Windows Ultrabook. 

I am using Dragon Professional 15.61 I think; mostly German dictation.

I would like: a 2 in 1 (touchscreen appreciated bc Windows touchpads are lacking), with LTE (the Macbooks weakness), a good built-in mic (I hold it and walk across the room while I speak) and a fingerprint wake up (Windows Hello or face recognition IMO not equally suitable - that even goes for FaceID on the iPad Pro which I feel is inferior to TouchID, at least for laptops).

A good keyboard is also helpful, perhaps more so than a touchscreen.

Other considerations: good battery, not too heavy, good screen. 

Now I found the following: 

HP Elite Dragonfly G2 (seems to meet everything, underwhelming screen, very expensive);

Dell XPS 13 2 in 1 (no LTE, I could make do without that)

ThinkPad X1 Nano (disappointing keyboard).

HP Something else (seems to rate good).

Razer something (Gaming might help for dictation also).

Thanks for any advice regarding my very specific requirements. If it has to be expensive, then so be it.

We are not computer experts so take our advice with a grain of salt. We leave computer advice to the experts at M-Tech (231) 547-5562 and we are not paid to recommend them.

Forget about a good built-in soundcard and microphone. It doesn't exist so don't base your computer on these 2 variables. If speech recognition is going to play a major role in your computer experiance than consider the SpeechWare TravelMike which was specifically developed for nothing except speech recognition use in tablet and notebook computers. Dragon and KnowBrainer are only as strong as the weakest link

NEVER leave your Dragon microphone on or in the Asleep state when hibernating. This is a great way to corrupt your user profile. ALWAYS turn the Dragon microphone completely off before hibernating/closing your notebook

Forget about the MacBook Pro M1 and the hype that goes with it. As you know, you can't use Dragon without Parallels and Parallels is not quite ready for prime time. Considering that you have to cut your RAM in half, when Parallels works, we simply do not recommend Macs; unless you have 64 GB of RAM.


A dedicated gaming computer won't make any difference for Dragon. When it comes to speed, RAM is more important but you really don't need anything more than an i5. Gaming computers tend to be more expensive, include i7/i9 chip with a large video card. None of these things are necessary for speech recognition. On a personal note, we lean towards i7s, SSDs and minimally 16 Gb of RAM.

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Thank you for your reply. I am using the Macbook Pro M1, and Dragon on Parallels is quite usable for dictation (limited to speech to text in DragonPad of course). But I think I will need a good Windows Notebook as a Dragon machine.
The question I have about your Mic is the following: Has it reliable bluetooth, or does it take forever, once I hibernate my Windows Laptop (you spoke of the weakest link, which might be the windows bluetooth connector). On a different note regarding „good" mics: I am using Philips SpeechMikes and am very disappointed by its software, while the hardware does not really yield better results than my Logitech M800. What on earth are they thinking, using USB-Technology from like 2005?
I have heard of the i5 - those unfortunately do not seem to come with 32 GB. The Mic you are proposing sounds interesting, I will gather more information.

If you click on the previous TravelMike link you will see it's not a Bluetooth microphone. It is a USB microphone with both USB 2 and USB C options. There is no advantage between the 2.

Should you decide to go with a Bluetooth microphone, choose one that includes a dedicated Bluetooth USB dongle. We recommend avoiding computer built-in Bluetooth.

Philips SpeechMikes are excellent but the free PDCC utility isn't bulletproof. We assume you are talking to the PDCC and not the Philips speech recognition utility.

We are not certain what you mean about 2005 USB technology but it shouldn't be an issue. If you are referring to USB 2, there is no advantage in USB 3 or thunderbolt (USB C). USB 2 is approximately 100 times faster than Dragon requires.

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Change "No" to "Know" w/KnowBrainer 2022
Trial Downloads
Dragon/Sales@KnowBrainer.com 
(615) 884-4558 ex 1