Educational laptop maker CTL is updating its Chromebook family with a new model sporting an Intel Bay trail processor and a 180 degree hinge which lets you fold the screen so the computer lies flat.
The new CTL NL6 Education Chromebook looks a lot like last year’s model, but it has a more powerful Intel Celeron N2940 processor and a more flexible hinge.
Note that the new Chromebook is not exactly a 2-in-1 convertible. It doesn’t have a touchscreen and you can’t twist the screen back 360 degrees to use the system as a tablet. But the 180 degree hinge could come in handy if you want to hold the portable computer in your hands to read eBooks or position it flat on a tablet so you can use the computer from above.
Since this laptop is designed for use in the classroom, it has a semi-rugged case, with a water resistant-keyboard, reinforced ports, and support for surviving drops of up to 5.5 feet. It also has a retractable handle, and support for add-ons including a snap-on lens that you can attach to the rotatable camera for up to 30x magnification.
The CTL NL6 Chromebook features a fanless design, an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 4GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, an SD card slot, and up to 9.5 hours of battery life. It features 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, and CTl says the laptop weighs just over 3 pounds.
Prices start at $259 for education partners (or for anyone else, while the system is on sale at the CTL website).