If you love your notebooks “impossibly thin and light”, then Toshiba’s re-working of its 755 gram laptop the Portégé R500 (imaginatively monikered the Portégé R600) should intrigue you – as it has the folk at trustedreviews.com.
Initially somewhat disappointed with its predecessor, they were “were delighted to discover a much improved machine when we got our hands-on on the Portégé R600 at Toshiba’s Mobility Conference in Zurich” – reassuring us that “problems we had seen with its predecessor were largely remedied.”
Whatsmore, according to Andy Vandervell, “nowhere are the improvements more apparent than in the keyboard” – and “the build quality issues of the R500 have been remedied quite comprehensively”. Also, with new batteries on their way (see here for details) – things are only looking up for the world’s trimmest laptop.
So pop over to read the full low-down at trustedrevies.com, and with it the interesting shots of the laptop from all angles – not to mention stripped of its tasty shell!
Doesn’t YouTube throw up some cracking stuff – yesterday the Queen was openly ‘lol’ing at a laughing baby, and today… Well, today brings footage of the exclusive NB100 netbook, live from CeBit Euro Asia, set to an emotive dance-based soundtrack.
I wasn’t there myself, much to my sadness – but this video makes me feel like I was… Well, not quite, but it’s an interesting insight into the netbook that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the run up to Christmas.
If you’re currently in Zurich, not only could you be tucking into a pretzel, pork knuckles and endless amounts of beer at the Oktoberfest - you could also pop by Toshiba’s first ‘mobility conference’, which the guys over at Trusted Reviews are frequenting.
The event, which is highlighting a range of the company’s notebook offerings was also profiling an engineering sample of the new Toshiba Satellite NB100 Netbook. After a failed grab and run of this hotly anticipated laptop the Trusted Reviews crew were forced to have a supervised ‘hands on’ experience. The first thing they noticed is there are three USB sockets – a much needed requirement to bring it up to par with similarly available netbooks. Inside it also features much the same components as standard netbooks, though Toshiba have focused on an 8.9” form factor, as opposed to the 10” MSI Wind, making the NB100 ‘very portable’.
Darren Murph at Engagdet has also picked up on the review, in which he states that early impressions were the keyboard was ‘lacking’ and the screen was filled with glare.
Never ones to have too much of a good thing, we’ve taken yesterdays popular topic of Toshiba-related conversation, the Portégé R600 – and are expanding on it. This time by focussing on a really rather cracking review of the lightweight notebook by pcpro.co.uk – who ensure us that with this stylish notebook “the devil is in the detail”.
Focussing on those all-important little extras like the better protected, and more flexible, screen “certainly we gave it a good old flex and it stayed in shape”, and embedded 3G mobile broadband which “with an extended battery - and an astonishing weight of 779g, makes this a highly attractive laptop for mobile professionals”.
There are some more basic elements of the device that have been turning pcpro heads too, not least the keyboard, which “is a pleasure to use too. All the keys are large and easy to hit, with a responsive feel” – nice, and what of using this feather-light (almost) laptop outside? “There’s a transflective LED display, and by pressing a single button you can make it feasible to use outside on a sunny day.”
To read the whole account of this laptop, pop over to the source on pcpro – or just feast your eyes on this pretty image below.
Isn’t it annoying when you persevere with an old laptop, only to find it in a perennial ‘state of dying’ – ensuring that one can never afford to be more that 5 minutes away from an available powerpoint.
Well good news comes from jgadget.com, who pass on the exciting news that Toshiba have said that “their latest Portégé R600 is able to last for a phenomenal nine hours before requiring a trip to the nearest power outlet”. Unsurprisingly, the reviewer finds that “great news”, as do we – not to mention the rest of the specifications that he has listed on his site.
Of course, he is a touch concerned about this 9 hour battery life, as “most people who do work on their notebooks might be running many more applications simultaneously compared to test conditions”. But, as her points out – “even if one lops off a couple of hours from the nine hour stated figure, it is still pretty impressive.” What’s more, SourFizz say it’s “uber-light” and list “the optical drive and the number of available ports” as big advantages over the Macbook Air.
What can you get for the “princely price of £399” these days? Well, according to itproportal.com, how does “one of the best all-round” laptops with “a host of specifications that eliminates its rivals from the race to the top”.
Not bad eh?
Boasting an Intel Dual Core 1.86GHz processor for fast, effective performance and a huge 250GB, “plenty of room for all your music, photos and movies”, it comes with built in WiFi wireless technology, modem and the Ethernet port offer a wide range of connection options to the internet or home network.
Make sure to head over to itproportal.com to read the full review, to find out exactly why the “Satellite L300-13R from Toshiba emerges as one of the best all-round laptops available on today’s ultra competitive market”. Oh, and tell ‘em we sent you!
3OK – so he may not like how ‘clicky’ the keyboard is, but it seems that ‘thereviewking’ (self confessed we should point out) is rather a fan of his Toshiba Equium notebook he has recently picked up from PC World for a shade under £400.
Selecting the silver version which he describes as “a very nice design”, and taking pains to asses the specifications, battery life, screen and more - do take a look at the video below for more info – and thereviewkings thoughts on the Equium.
Over at Laptop PC the guys have taken a look at the A200 Satellite notebook, and reckon it is ‘designed for looks and handiness’.
Features-wise, the laptop boasts six DVD control buttons for ‘instantaneous’ access to media and the USB ports have been well-spaced to make room for larger peripherals that might be attached. The popularity of the model comes from both the design (the Onyx Blue case is a bonus in this regard) and the ‘easy access’ to the internet, leading the guys from Laptop PC to go as far as to say that the A200 ‘is like a dream come true’.
Do you agree with them in their opinion of this laptop? Does the A200 tick all your boxes? Head over and let them know what you think.
He reckons it’s ‘basically the same as its fancier brothers’, only with certain of the frills scaled back in order to lower the price tag and enable smaller businesses to get on board. He concentrates on the removal on this range of the glossy finish of the Satellites, but still reckons the A210 has a ‘nice sleek’ design.Once you get past the changes, he says, the Pro A210 is ‘practically identical’ to the Satellite range.
Have you used a Pro model? What do you reckon to the performance? Jump over and let Jhon know your thoughts.
Tarinder Sandhu from Hexus has taken the Toshiba Satellite A300D and has an extensive look at every aspect of the notebook in a review that covers eight pages.
Calling the Satellite the ‘workhorse’ of the under £500 range of notebooks currently available, Tarinder goes on to say that the ‘reasonably big’ 4GB hard drive will keep the machine ‘chugging along nicely’. The screen is of ‘above average’ brightness and the speaker volume ‘surprisingly good’. There are lots more details and opinions to be had in Tarinder’s review, and he concludes with some interesting insights.
What are your thoughts on the A300D, or the Satellite range in general? Is there any more information that Tarinder can provide? Jump over and leave him your thoughts.
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