Toshiba shrinks its flip-back hybrid with the Satellite Radius 11
Similar in design to its 15.6-inch Radius, the budget-friendly Radius 11 joins the Yoga-like pack of ultraportable laptop/tablet hybrids.
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With its first flip-and-fold hybrid, the Satellite Radius , Toshiba skipped right over the 11- and 13-inch screen sizes made by other PC manufacturers and went with a big 15.6-inch touchscreen. Now, it's decided to scale things back a bit.
The Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 features a 1,366x768-pixel 11.6-inch touchscreen on 360-degree hinges. Like the larger Radius, this allows you to use it as a laptop, a tablet, and anything in between. But with its smaller size -- it measures 289mm wide by 199mm deep by 19.9mm thick -- and light 1.3kg weight, it's much easier to travel with and use as a tablet.
That said, flipping the screen all the way round to lie flat against the back of the keyboard and form a tablet shape is a bit weird. The Radius knows when it's been flipped into tablet form and shuts off the keyboard, but it feels strange to hold as your natural urge is to try and grip it without pressing any of the buttons on the back. It's also a lot thicker than an actual tablet.
The Radius 11 is made just for the basics though -- Web surfing and some light office work -- so don't expect high-octane performance from this little machine. It will be available with either an Intel Celeron or Pentium processor, 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and integrated graphics.
Ports include a full-size HDMI output, one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 port, and an SD card reader. There's 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 too.
The Radius 11 will be available globally in October, for around £330 in the UK or €450 in Europe. US prices and exact release dates haven't been revealed yet.