Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 review

Products with 4K screens were everywhere at IFA 2015 this year, mostly on TVs but also on the Xperia Z5 Premium phone. We also managed to find a laptop boasting Ultra HD so here’s our Toshiba Satellite Radius 12 hands-on review.

This isn’t the first laptop we’ve seen with a 4K screen but it is the first to come with a convertible design. Toshiba claims it’s the ‘world’s first 12.5in Ultra HD 4K convertible’ which may not be too difficult considering the how specific that is. See also:  Lenovo Ideapad Miix 700 review.

Nevertheless, the Radius 12 will launch in the fourth quarter of the year so may arrive in time for Christmas. We don’t have a UK price yet but the Toshiba stand at IFA displayed a price tag in Euros starting at €1,449 so we imaging that the UK price will be not too far behind – this is one pricey laptop then.

We like the slim and lightweight – 15.4mm and 1.3kg design of the Radius 12 making it a very portable device. It also looks stylish in its brushed aluminium casing which is called ‘Satin Gold’ but simply looks silver to our eyes,

Toshiba says “we’re meeting the needs of technology enthusiasts who don’t want to compromise on computing requirements or convenience for either work or play.” and this is reflected in the convertible design which centers around a 360 degree hinge like rival devices from the Lenovo, HP and others.

You might also like: Best laptops for students

The hinge isn’t as dramatic or stylish as Lenovo’s watchstrap implemetation but it still does the same job. It allows the screen to fold all the way around so you can use it in various different modes. Toshiba touts five – laptop, tablet, tabletop, presentation and audience – although we can only work out what four of them are.

It’s 4K screen is a highlight of the specsheet as the 3840×2160 resolution spread across the 12.5in IPS panel results in a nice and crisp 362ppi – a higher pixel density than the iPhone 6. However, you can, according to the info we’ve been sent, get it in a Full HD version if all those pixels does perk your interest.

Either way, the screen is fronted by Gorilla Glass, is 10-point touch enabled and offer 400 nits in terms of brightness. You might want to opt for the Full HD model if battery life is important as it will last for up to eight hours rather than up to six on the 4K option.

Like with many other devices at IFA 2015, the Satellite Radius 12 comes with a 6th-generation Skylake Intel processor. In this case Toshiba simply says you’ll be able to get up to Core i5 and there’ll be 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB SSD.

AS with previous Toshiba devices, the Radius 12 has Harman Kardon speakers built in and a range of ports including HDMI, two USB 3.0 and an SD card reader. The most interesting, though, is the USB Type-C port which we’re seeing on phones such as the OnePlus 2. It offers a reversible connection and speeds of up to 10Gbps.

As you might expect, the Radius 12 comes with Windows 10 including features such as Continuum and Windows Hello – the biometric authentication which can use face detection via the webcam to login. There’s even a dedicated Cortana button.