Toshiba Portégé R100
Most people who have been around IT equipment for a while have been shown some form or other of the famous Toshiba Portégé notebook range. When Toshiba's engineers first sat down to design these units, they must have misread the marketing guys' instructions and gone for ultrathin instead of ultralight. Mind you, this unit also takes the gong for the lightest notebook we tested; even with its second battery installed it comes in at 1.4kg (1.1kg without it). Seriously thin, with the second battery removed, this unit is half the height/thickness of any other notebook in this review.
Despite its anorexic looks, it still has a good range of connectors and even a PC Card slot, but of course no optical drive. At least with this unit, you can see the benefit of removing the optical drive in the final size of the unit.
The screen is 12.1in and the notebook has both wireless LAN and a Secure Digital (SD) card slot. The absence of a bluetooth adaptor is a bit of a shame, but I guess you can't have everything.
All up, the Toshiba is a very well-refined and ultralight performer. The bonus in this package besides the thin size and low weight of the unit is the second battery. No other notebook in this review shipped with a two-battery solution.
Some of you may be questioning the robustness of a design such as this, and surprisingly the quality and strength of the construction is very good, particularly in the traditional weak spots such as the screen hinges and keyboard bezel.
| Product: | Toshiba Portégé R100 |
| Price: | AU$4290 |
| Vendor: | Toshiba |
| Phone: | 133 070 |
| Web: | www.isd.toshiba.com.au |
| Interoperability: |
½
Wireless LAN, no Bluetooth. |
| Futureproofing: |
A true lightweight with excellent performance; includes extra battery. |
| ROI: |
A fair price for such a well-designed notebook. |
| Service: |
½3-year warranty is excellent. |
| Rating: |
½ |
Disagree with comments on the Sony. While it is loaded with a lot of stuff, the unit is, like just about every other Sony notebook ever manufactured, cheap junk. Tiny worthless little screen, "chicklet" keyboard, horrible, short warranty serviced by third party companies whose success is based on their ability to evaded their warranty responsibilities. The IBM X31 got short shrift in the review, but it is easily the best unit of all. Maybe the best ultralight ever produced. Solid (titanium case), three year warranty, great customer support, superior high quality hardware.