Mini Laptop Reviews Blog

Great value — especially when you install an SSD!, April 30, 2011

I’ve had this laptop for nearly three weeks, and think it’s great!

Summary:

Pros:

- Lightweight

- Clean and understated design

- Sturdy: most surfaces are made of metal (only the bezel, hinges, and a few bottom panels are plastic). You can easily lift it up by the corner with one hand.

- Battery life is good (7.5+ hours with mixed usage). Also, no “battery bulge” in the back!

- Battery is removable

- Trackpad has a nicely configurable driver (Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Mouse > Device Settings > Settings…)

- Value; saves enough money for an SSD compared to a competing system like a Macbook Pro (see below)

Cons:

- Screen isn’t great. (It isn’t bad, though — just narrow in vertical viewing angle).

- Black color means you might be tempted to clean the keyboard/trackpad a little obsessively.

- Industrial smell coming from the vent in the first few days of ownership (now gone)

- When closed, the lid depresses a little when you apply pressure to the middle. I suggest keeping the included fabric insert thing to protect the lid from keyboard scratches. (Note that keyboard scratches also occur on other notebooks, including the sturdy Apple Macbooks, so I’m not taking off any points).

Overall:

I’m giving this laptop five stars because it represents a great value. I paid 5 for the system, and replaced the hard drive with an Intel X25-M 120GB SSD (5). The total cost of my system therefore was 10, which puts it in entry-level Macbook territory.

(Note that the SSD is very easy to install — you unscrew two panels in the back, swap the drives, and clean-install your operating system).

Why the SSD? With the SSD plus Sandy Bridge processor, performance is superb — startup is fast (15 seconds from button to login screen, plus 8 seconds from login to loaded desktop). Programs launch quickly, and shutdown is quick as well. I’d say the stock system with the hard drive is a bit imbalanced (processor is too fast for the 5400 RPM hard drive) but at least it comes with plenty of room and doesn’t cost much. With this configuration, program launching and startup are slower, and you are stuck with bloatware, but the computer still operates reasonably fast.

–

Comparisons with other systems:

Compared with the Air, the R835 (with SSD installed) gives you:

- more storage space (120GB SSD on my R835 vs. 64GB for the 9 11″ MBA model)

— with SSD, similar bootup times (23 seconds for R835 vs. 15 seconds *see 6/2/2011 edit* for MBA) and wakeup times (both about 2 seconds)

- a better processor (core i5-2410M vs. a core 2 duo) and more memory

- longer battery life + removable battery

- a DVD drive, USB 3.0 port, eSATA, VGA (no need to carry a dongle around)

- 0.9 or 0.3 pounds more weight (vs. the 11″ and 13″ MBA models, respectively).

- about 0.25″ more thickness

Compared with the Macbook Pro (13″ entry-level model), you get:

- 0 in savings (with SSD in the R835) or 5 savings (with stock HDD)

– With SSD swap, you get performance gains compared to the MB. With the default hard drive, you get twice as much storage (640GB vs. 320GB, both 5400 RPM).

- Removable battery

- Similar metal build quality (Macbook pro feels a little sturdier, but weighs 40% more)

- 1.3 pounds in weight savings (!)

Compared with the plastic Macbook (13″ 9 model), you get:

- Metal build quality

- an SSD (for about the same total cost), or 5 in savings + 390GB more hard drive space

- Better processor (two generations ahead) and RAM (4GB vs. 2GB).

- 1.5 pound weight savings (!)

So, I saw no reason to go with the Macbooks when I could get superior performance and save money, weight, and battery flexibility with the R835.

Compared to other PC systems — It’s thinner and slightly less expensive than the Lenovo x220 (but isn’t as rugged and has slightly shorter battery life), and is very much cheaper and has a better processor (but has an inferior screen) than the Sony Z series.

In short, the R835 makes its Apple competitors look seriously overpriced (or under-featured, depending on how you look at it) and costs less than its PC competitors.

–

My evaluation of the unit:

I liked the design — it’s quite sturdy (with its metal construction) and light (3.2 pounds). It doesn’t feel as “dense” as the Macbook Air, but it’s sufficiently sturdy and light enough, such that you can lift it by a corner with one hand. Also, it certainly breaks a threshold in thinness, so it certainly *looks* thin. The CD/DVD drive makes a great “but wait, there’s more” parlor trick!

(The design also appeals to me because it’s pleasantly different from the Macbooks’…

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For the weight and price, I don’t see how you can beat it, April 14, 2011

By 

T. Boehnlein (Dayton, Ohio, USA) – See all my reviews

  

I love this notebook. My last one was a 6.5 pound beast of a Dell that I carried around for four years and got 2 hour battery life if you were lucky. This is such a huge improvement.

PROS:

The battery life is excellent. Only if I am doing really demanding computational tasks do even think about plugging it in to the AC adapter.

The weight is fantastic. A lot of people I’ve showed it to can’t believe how light this notebook is. My bookbag is so much lighter now. Even the AC adapter is way lighter than my Dell’s.

The CPU power is more than sufficient as is the RAM at 4GB.

The trackpad is a good size. I don’t think you could ever make a trackpad too big. It also has multi-touch and gesture support.

I was able to play L4D2 with this machine at medium settings. Much more than I was expecting given the graphics on here.

For the price, this is such a great notebook if you need something that is really light and still has a full blown mobile CPU.

The build quality is really good. Just a little bit of flex under the DVD drive. Everything else feels solid.

It has USB 3.0 and you can charge through USB even it the notebook isn’t on. That’s great for a gadget geek like me.

It also has HDMI, VGA and eSATA. So many ports!

CONS:

They just released the R830 series which offers faster CPU’s and a docking port. If you have the money to spend, look at those instead. The i7 CPU R830 is actually rated at over 11 hours. They also have an SSD options too.

I am going from a 1920×1200 15.4″ on my Dell to this 13.3″ 1366×786. It’s been kind of a shock for some of my programming related apps that require lots of screen real estate but haven’t really noticed the difference for everyday home and office tasks. I am also going from matte to glare so that has lead to a couple new problem with reflections but nothing too bad.

Two finger scroll is not as smooth as I wish it could be but it’s still very usable.

No bluetooth. Again, look at the R830 series.

Maybe this isn’t the perfect notebook for you for whatever reason, but you really need to consider it if you are in the market for a new one.

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Cool laptop with a few minor issues, April 8, 2011

By 

B. Le (San Jose, CA USA) – See all my reviews

  

what initially got me into the portege series was the aesthetic. it has a very simple and clean look. I’m not exactly tech savvy as I don’t keep up with all the latest processors and whatnot, but for all the praise and hype about the new Sandy Bridge processors, this laptop seems decently quick. doesn’t blow me away compared to my several years-old core duo desktop or even my 1-2 year-old, 0 toshiba satellite. overall, I like it a lot because it’s big enough that hopefully it won’t give me carpel tunnel syndrome, but small enough for easy mobility, which is good for a student.

since I’m not doing any hardcore computing and just using it for a few basic functions like browsing, streaming movies, programming, etc, it satisfies me (but then again I think any computer in this day an age could pull those tasks off). unfortunately, even for those basic functions there are a few issues that Toshiba can improve on:

1) the keyboard keys CLACK… really loudly. typing in the library or in class will probably stir up a ruckus. clackity clackity clack. not that big of a deal though, I guess.

2) I don’t know where everyone is getting all these claims about a 9 hour battery life (even cnet said they were able to get something like 7 hours in their tests) when I’m running the laptop in ‘eco’ mode with 77% battery life left and only 4 hours and 11 minutes of claimed life left. a second later, I have 76% batter life left but only 3 hours and 41 minutes left??? I’m only on my battery’s second charge but I’ve been noticing these really sporadic projections and it’s really annoying.

3) the track pad straight up sucks. I’m not a fan of mac at all, but when my girlfriend had her 13.3″ macbook, one of the things I found coolest was how easy it was to surf the net. the 2 finger scroll feature they had was super cool and some other functions included: three finger swipe up to open a new tab, three finger swipe down to close a page, three finger swipe left to go ‘back’ and right for forward, two finger tap to function as a right click [extremely useful]. comparatively, you can’t really set any three finger functions to your own liking, the two finger scroll is really jittery – if it manages to detect your fingers there is no sensitivity and can go insane and jump entire pages at any given moment. overall it’s pretty frustrating to use the multi-finger features.

4) could be a part of gripe #3, but the two clicker buttons for the track pack are stiff. I like to use the tap function because my thumb would probably get sore if I used the clicker too much. yes, it is that stiff.

other than that, it’s really light and powerful enough that I can use it without getting frustrated and just looks awesome which is good enough for me. I would give this laptop 5 stars otherwise and while a 2-star deduction might seem harsh, I feel these basic attributes could have easily been included and are prerequisites to just being a decent laptop. I mean, how expensive could it be to develop and include a good track pad?? overall, laptop seems sturdy and reliable and I’m looking forward to using it

update: an issue with the r705 series was that the fans would get really loud or that the laptop would get hot, but for either case, toshiba has remedied the problem on this model. the laptop stays extremely quiet even after I have been using it for 6 hours with just one break. it does warm up when in my lap on top of a blanket, but on a desk it doesn’t heat up at ALL.

4/25 I’ve had the laptop for two or three weeks now but since it’s my backup/extra I’m really taking care of it and haven’t used it that much yet. Mostly for school and not for browsing/videos pretty much. But one thing I noticed today was a little clacking noise that’s from the chrome hinge, which is loose. I have no idea how it could have gotten loose as I’ve used the laptop probably less than a total of 7 times and it’s only been handled with the utmost care. REALLY annoying because for a 0 laptop, this really shouldn’t be an issue.

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