Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 (L15W-B1302)

Looking for a cheap laptop that doubles as a tablet? There are many systems to choose from. The Satellite Radius 11 (L15W-B1302) ($ 349.99, exclusively at Best Buy) Toshiba's entry into the growing category of small, inexpensive do-hybrid laptop similar in design to the Lenovo Yoga line. While this is a decent sing and affordable option for multimode laptop, there are many other laptop and tablet hybrids to choose from that offer a better overall package, such as Choice ASUS Transformer Book T100TA (64GB) the editor.

design
Like other 2-in-1 design, the Radius 11 offers both laptop and tablet functionality. Instead of a detachable docking tablet, laptop hinge allows the screen to be folded back to the other positions. The modes include a laptop, tablet, Tabletop (folded flat), Presentation (propped up like a tent), and Audience (touch screen display keyboard folded back as a base). Lenovo had first dual-hinge design, as seen in Lenovo Yoga 2 11, but we also saw the HP Pavilion 11t-n000 x360 Dell XPS 11 and doing their best interpretations, making it a crowded category.

When closed, the Radius 11 measures 0.86 by 11.4 by 7.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.9 lbs. The 11-inch form factor works well as both a highly portable laptop and a tablet that's easy to carry and use on the go. The small size and sleek design owes much to the Intel Celeron processor inside, which does not require the same type of cooling and battery power as an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 laptop CPU. Intel has recently introduced the much-more-capable Intel Core M (seen recently in Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro), which offers better performance with the same kind of energy efficiency and fanless cooling, but it is not something that you are likely to see in this price range.

Trying the 11.6-inch screen for both laptop and tablet use. The 1366-by-768 resolution is not anything special, but reasonably bright and clear display, with 10-finger touch support and edge-to-edge glass. The laptop keyboard has chiclet-style basic design, with a black square key but no backlight, so using the keyboard in a dimly lit environment can be a pain. When you fold back the display, the keyboard is automatically disengaged, and rotation of the screen is automatically turned on. The accompanying touchpad is squarely centered on the palm rest, and while it offers multitouch gesture support'll want for Windows 8, it also has a separate right and left clickable buttons.

Features
Past multimode design, the Radius 11 has fairly standard set of features, with ports along the both sides of the laptop chassis. On the right is a USB 2.0 port and a headset jack, plus a Kensington lock slot and physical buttons for volume control. On the left is a full-size HDMI-out port, a USB 3.0 port, and an SD card slot, along with a power connector and a / Off button on. Within the system, which is equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, and Widi wireless video streaming.

For storage of Radius 11 boasts a 500GB hard drive, much like the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 and the HP Pavilion 11t-n000 x360, but much larger than 64GB solid-state drive (SSD) offered on tablets such as the Acer Aspire Switch 10 and the ASUS Transformer Book T100TA. With so much storage space, Toshiba does not hold back on the pre-installed software. 30-day trial of McAfee Secure Live 2014 and Microsoft Office 365. There are free services as well, such as Adobe Reader, Google Drive, Amazon Kindle reader and so on. Then there are retail apps (Amazon, eBay), (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Spotify, iHeart Radio) entertainment apps, and samples of about a dozen games from WildTangent. Toshiba also throws some branded apps like App Place, BookPlace, Media Player by sMedio Truelink +, and more utilities for system recovery, password management, and power. Toshiba covers the Radius 11 with a 1-year warranty.