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Despite its inherent downsides -- a cramped keyboard chief among them -- there's plenty of appeal to a slider device. It's a tablet and a laptop in one, after all. But, like Smucker's Goober two-in-one PB & J, the VAIO Duo 11 slider is appealing in theory but disappointing in practice.

As a tablet running Windows 8, the Sony Vaio Duo 11 is good if you're OK with its weight and size. But saying it's both a tablet and a full laptop is a stretch. It's certainly powerful enough to do both, but in the end its design is too limiting for those who want the best of both worlds.

It's a highly mobile laptop that behaves more like a tablet, but with laptop underpinnings.

The Sony VAIO Duo 11 (D11213CX) merges ultrabook and tablet in hopes of making the perfect Windows 8 machine, but it's an awkward combination.

The Sony VAIO Duo 11's sliding touch screen and keyboard attempts to deliver the best Windows 8 has to offer, but it doesn't quite succeed.

Sorry Sony, but this Duo’s a dud no matter which way you try to use it.

...when spending so much on a machine it ought to be a more comfortable user experience. There are definitely some positives to pick up - namely the screen - but it's not quite enough for this model to shine as a whole.

Although inherently a laptop, the VAIO Duo 11 can't help but feel a bit like an oversized, and ultimately expensive - yet powerful - tablet. Which is rather confusing.

Sony’s convertible tablet gets Windows 8 off to an exhilarating start, but ergonomic niggles tarnish the experience.

While it's not a perfect laptop-tablet hybrid, and certainly won't have mass appeal, Sony has furthered the Windows 8 cause with an exceptionally powerful device that challenges the perceptions of what tablets can achieve.

This laptop-tablet hybrid is certainly powerful, but its transformation between the two feels a little awkward.

Sony's first hybrid Windows 8 tablet/ultrabook wows us with its 1080p IPS screen and impressive components. Note the compromises, though: Battery life is short, and the keyboard, while backlit, is cramped.