Toshiba Dynapad to take on Surface Pro 4 next year

Toshiba has just announced the Dynapad, a brand-new Windows 10 convertible that hopes to take on Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 when it launches in Q1 next year. In tablet mode, the device measures just 6.9mm thick and weighs 569g, making it the world’s thinnest and lightest 12in Windows 10 tablet. However, much like the Surface Pro 4 and Lenovo’s IdeaPad Miix 700, the Dynapad can transform into a fully-functioning laptop with the aid of a full-size keyboard which snaps magnetically on to the bottom of the screen. 

What’s more, Toshiba is hoping the Dynapad will “reinvent pen and paper”, as it’s been specifically designed to replicate the size of a common B5 notebook. To help achieve this, it comes with a pressure-sensitive Wacom Active Electro-Static stylus, allowing users to draw directly on the tablet. The stylus also comes with built-in palm rejection, so you can rest your hand on the screen without worrying about making accidental marks on your hand-written notes or digital annotations, and supports both left and right handed writing styles. Sadly, it’s not magnetic like the Surface Pro 4’s Surface Pen, but you can clip it to the side of the tablet when it’s not in use, so hopefully it shouldn’t get lost in your bag when you’re on the move. 

As well as Microsoft Office, the Dynapad will come with a full suite of Toshiba applications to help collect, organise and share your notes with friends and colleagues. These include TruNote, TruCapture, TruRecorder, TruClip and TruNote Share, so you can take voice recordings or capture images of text, for example, and share them effortlessly via email and PowerPoint across multiple devices. 

The display itself will measure 12in across the diagonal and have a 1,920×1,280 resolution. It will also have an anti-reflective coating to make it easier to see, as well as what Toshiba calls a double layer coating to help reduce the number of fingerprints it picks up. All this will be housed inside a Satin Gold carbon body, which Toshiba says is four times as stiff as a conventional chassis. Likewise, the keyboard can be used to protect the screen when you’re carrying it around. 

Toshiba has yet to announce a price and exact processor specs for the Dynapad, but hopefully it offer a slightly more affordable alternative to Microsoft’s expensive Surface Pro 4. We’ll bring you all the details as they become available.