Posts filed under 'Toshiba'
Toshiba recently sent us the 17-inch screen Satellite P105-S6217 for review. This unit is aimed squarely at the fattest portion of the notebook computer market bell curve — the home PC market. Given the size of the The P105 it falls into the desktop replacement category. Weighing in at about 7.5lbs and with a 17-inch screen you won’t want to be hauling this big boy around too much, but it’s certainly portable enough when the need arises.
In the U.S. the P105 series comes in two flavors; the customizable P100 available at ToshibaDirect.com (starting at $1,000) and as various pre-configured SKUs sold under the P105 family. The specific SKU under review is the Vista Premium loaded S6217. Toshiba recently pulled all of the P105 models that had Windows XP installed and are now exclusively offering Vista on the P105 series.
Specs of Toshiba P105-S6217 as reviewed:
* Processor:Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500
* Memory: 2GB PC-4200 DDR2 Memory
* Hard Drive: 200GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
* Screen: 17.0-inch Widescreen TruBrite LCD 1440 x 900 resolution
* OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
* TV Tuner: Toshiba USB HDTV Tuner -
* Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7300 with 128MB SDRAM
* Communications: Toshiba V.92 Software Modem Intel PRO Network Connection 10/100/1000 Base-TX Ethernet Integrated Wireless LAN Network Connection 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g
* Ports:
o 4 USB 2.0 ports
o 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link)
o 1 VGA monitor port
o 1 S-Video out
o 1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type II, PCMCIA R2.01, PC Card16, CardBus)
o 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
o 5-in-1 memory card reader (Secure Digital, MultiMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD Picture Card)
o 1 headphone jack, 1 microphone jack
o 1 S/PDIF digital audio output (for connecting to a home theater receiver)
* Dimensions: Width 15.5 x Depth 10.8 x Height 1.41 inch Weight - 7.1 pounds
For detailed specs from Toshiba for the P105-S6217 view this PDF.
The P105 possesses a matte silver interior finish with piano black speakers that looks refined and understated. The silver media buttons at the top of the keyboard blend in well yet are easy to read and push.
The screen hinges are very tight, ensuring you won’t get a wobbly screen when typing on this notebook. A latch also ensures that the lid stays firmly closed.
There’s no flex at all to the case of the P105. The chassis is very sturdy and firm feeling. The lid seems to be made of a magnesium composite material and offers good protection, while the rest of the casing is plastic and thick enough to feel rugged. Unfortunately the keyboard does have flex issues in the middle areas. Another bummer is that Toshiba gives you cheap plastic inserts to protect the PCMCIA / ExpressCard slot instead of the far superior option of using a flap.
With a travel weight of just under 8 lbs, the P105 is far from light, but it does not seem too heavy when you carry it around. This opinion might change if I took it on the road with me, but for lugging around the house the P100 would be fine.
Screen
Glossy screens are still all the rage on home notebooks, and as such the P105 uses Toshiba’s TruBrite screen coating. The result is a great looking high contrast 17″ display that would be ideal for movie watching. Native resolution for the screen is 1440 x 900 pixels. The viewing angle on this screen is very good, certainly above par. There is no ghosting whatsoever.
The only downsides I can find to this screen is that I’d actually like to see it go one notch of brightness higher and when the screen is displaying darker colors you can see a bit of light leakage at the bottom of the screen where the backlight is located.
The speakers are from harmon/kardon and located at the front of the laptop. The speaker clarity is fantastic, definitely some of the best notebooks speakers I’ve heard. Unfortunately Toshiba decided to omit a built in “subwoofer” in the P100 series making it sub par when compared to offerings for their Qosmio series that does offer a sub-woofer and thus more bass action.
Keyboard, Touchpad and Fingerprint Reader
The integrated fingerprint reader includes software to remember passwords and to lock any sensitive documents. It’s a nice to have feature I suppose, but I find myself being able to type a password faster than the action it takes to lift a hand and swipe a finger and wait for the finger stroke to register.
Heat and Noise
The fan on the P105-S6217 has behaved a little strangely in my usage. It remains mostly off but every few minutes will quickly rev up to puff out some air, and then as quickly as it cut-in will cut-out once again. This can be annoying in an office environment that is fairly quiet such as where I work. My co-workers gave me some strange looks. If you’re in a room with ambient noise then the fan noise is not so noticeable.
The notebook remained mostly cool, certainly no heat issues on the top side so usage was comfortable, and just the expected mild heat buildup on the bottom side, nothing to write home about.
Input and Output Ports
Toshiba includes just about every connector you could want including both the ExpressCard slot and classic PCMCIA Type II slot. The standard data jacks include 4 USB 2.0, 4 pin Firewire IEEE1394, Gigabit Ethernet and an RJ-45 Modem. Audio / Video connections include headphone, microphone, S/PDIF, VGA, S-Video, and Hi-Def DVI-I port. Rounding it out with a multi-card reader with support for SD, Sony Memory Stick/Pro, and xD though no support for CompactFlash or Micro/MiniSD.
March 9th, 2007
Toshiba’s first Windows Vista laptop, the Portege R400, is a beautifully crafted convertible tablet that unfortunately is every bit as expensive as it looks. It won’t be available for purchase until January 30, 2007, with a base price of $2,599. Our review unit came packed with high-end features such as built-in EV-DO, an OLED display on the front edge, and a screen that uses the new LED backlight technology. Add in Windows Vista Ultimate, and you’ve got a system that will strain even the thickest wallets at $3,499. We’ll have to wait until closer to the release date to see what money-saving configuration options are offered. Despite its excellent design and build quality, it’s hard to recommend a system this expensive, especially one that provides only a Core Duo processor, a rather skimpy 80GB hard drive, and integrated graphics. Ignoring its high price, the Toshiba Portege R400 is an impressive achievement, firmly in the same industrial design league as Apple and Sony.
The Toshiba Portege R400 measures 12 inches wide, 9.4 inches deep, and 1.25 inches high, slightly smaller than the Apple MacBook. Like the Vista-based HP Pavilion tx1000us, the Portege R400 has a comfortable full-size keyboard and a 12.1-inch screen that is a little on the small side for long-term use. The Portege R400 weighs 3.8 pounds (4.6 pounds with the AC adapter), which is just about right for a thin-and-light notebook you’d carry around on a frequent basis.
The system’s base, screen bezel, and spine are black, but the lid and the keyboard tray are white, giving it an almost Mac-like look, especially when closed. The center hinge is solid and literally snaps into place, letting you know it’s correctly situated. Unlike the HP Pavilion tx1000us, the Portege R400’s tablet screen is of the traditional, active-stylus-type, and you’ll need to use the included stylus to control it.
Turning the screen 180 degrees and folding it down over the keyboard automatically switches the display into tablet mode, although we had trouble further rotating the display orientation with the screen rotation button after that. By fishing around the various Toshiba and Windows tablet settings menus, we were able to figure out that the rotation button was assigned to another task by default, a situation easily remedied. The other controls sitting below the LCD–buttons for e-mail and locking the system, and a small thumb stick for scrolling–all worked correctly, as did the fingerprint reader.
Sitting on the front edge of the system is a small OLED readout, called the Toshiba Edge Display. This, by default, shows you the time, the battery level, and the wireless signal strength, but it can also be used with a new Windows Vista feature called Active Notification. If you set up a POP3 e-mail account with Outlook 2007, Active Notifications allows the system’s wireless connection to stay active (or cycle on and off periodically) even when the laptop is closed and in sleep mode. If a new e-mail message comes in, the Edge Display can display an appropriate icon. Naturally, keeping the wireless connection on will have an impact on battery life. We haven’t had time to set up Outlook yet, so we’ll examine this feature’s usefulness in a later update to this review.
Connections are somewhat skimpier than we’re used to having with a modern laptop, and include two USB 2.0 jacks, headphone and mic jacks, a PC Card slot, and a VGA output. On such a pricey and otherwise cutting-edge laptop, we expected more ports and slots, including FireWire, a media card reader, and an ExpressCard slot. Networking equipment includes a Gigabit Ethernet jack, integrated 802.11b/g wireless, and built-in EV-DO from Verizon Wireless (which requires a separate subscription). Toshiba’s proprietary connection utility makes setting up the EV-DO signal almost completely painless.
Given its $3,500 price, we were somewhat disappointed with the components on our review unit. While definitely small, the Portege R400 is not an ultraportable system, so we could reasonably expect an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, not a slower Core Duo (in this case the ultralow-voltage 1.2GHz U2500). The 2GB of DDR2 RAM is a good choice for Windows Vista, but the 80GB hard drive, at a slower 4,200rpm speed, was disappointing. The DVD burner is also shunted off to an external add-on box, something we’ve seen in ultraportable systems, but rarely, if at all, in a laptop this size.
Compared to HP’s new Vista tablet, the Pavilion tx1000us, which costs roughly half the price, the Portege R400 did not perform as well on CNET Labs’ Photoshop CS2 and iTunes encoding tests, falling behind the more powerful AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 processor found on the Vista-based Pavilion. The R400’s performance was comparable to a Windows XP laptop with a Core Duo processor, such as the Sony VAIO N170.
Despite our misgivings about some of the component choices in both Vista systems, each one is perfectly adequate for mainstream productivity and multimedia use–despite the resource-hogging reputation of Windows Vista. As with the Pavilion tx1000us, the Portege R400 felt robust and speedy during our hands-on testing. We’re continuing to test this system and will update this review as more results become available.
With an ultralow-voltage CPU and a lack of power-hungry components, we expected more battery life from the Portege R400 than the paltry 1 hour and 54 minutes we got in CNET Labs’ DVD battery drain test. Windows Vista can be power hungry, and the secondary edge display probably doesn’t help, but at least three hours is what we’d expect from tablet PCs, which are intended to be mobile by their very nature. Our review unit included a second, extended battery pack (which we have not tested yet) which clips onto the bottom of the system. That would add considerable work time but also add weight and bulk to the system.
Toshiba covers the R400 with a one-year warranty with return-to-depot service. The company’s toll-free tech support line is available 24/7, but there is no online chat option. You can extend coverage to three years for $149, and upgrades to on-site service are also available.
February 22nd, 2007
There’s nothing offensive about the Toshiba Satellite A105-S4284. There’s nothing thrilling about it, either. It’s a well-equipped, solid budget entry that delivers good features at a decent price.
The charcoal-and-silver design is a bit dull compared with what Dell, HP, and Sony have trotted out, but at just six pounds, the Satellite is relatively easy to travel with. Open the lid and you’ll find a 15.4-inch widescreen with a 1280 x 800-pixel resolution that’s easy on the eyes. The panel did well with DVD action scenes, though we found DVD playback a bit dark, even with the screen’s brightness cranked. Like other budget laptops, viewing angles were good side to side but poor from above.
The built-in stereo speakers delivered good sound quality and enough volume for personal listening. The included Media Center Edition (or Windows Vista Home Premium) OS lets the machine function as an entertainment system. You can bypass the OS altogether and use Toshiba’s Express Media Player for CD and DVD playback, but unlike other laptops, Toshiba’s instant-on functionality won’t let you access music, photos, or videos stored on the hard drive. Dedicated media-control buttons are on the keyboard deck, and a volume knob is located on the front edge. Putting these controls together would have made more sense.
The keyboard on the Satellite doesn’t have as crisp a feel as others we’ve tested, and the squarish touchpad doesn’t match the screen’s wide aspect. But those are minor nits in a generally solid hardware package that includes a multiformat DVD burner, a 5-in-1 media card reader, and a generous 100GB hard drive. Toshiba’s software bundle is also decent and includes Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 for organizing notes and research, Microsoft Works 8.5, InterVideo DVD creation and playback software, and Sonic Solution’s RecordNow Basic for CD creation and backup.
Powered by a 1.6-GHz Intel Core Duo T2050 processor, the Satellite scored 213 on MobileMark 2005, right in the middle of the field. Its three-hour battery life and wireless performance (between 7 and 7.5 Mbps) were both low, however. It’s no gaming unit, but dial down the resolution and you can manage a playable frame rate, as our 45 fps on F.E.A.R. showed.
All told, this Satellite is a good budget-friendly multimedia portable. It doesn’t have much sizzle, but it’s a solid choice.
February 22nd, 2007
