Toshiba Tecra M2 (Intel)
Toshiba always seems to turn out great notebooks, and the Tecra M2 is another example of this. One concern we noted almost immediately was a warning on the base of the unit that read "WARNING, hot base may cause burn, avoid prolonged contact with bare skin". If you are planning on using this unit sitting on the beach, be forewarned.
The Toshiba has an Intel pentium M processor running at 1500MHz. It also has nVidia graphics, an integrated CD-RW/DVD combo optical drive, a 40GB HDD, and 512MB of RAM.
The keyboard seems very robust and the font and labelling of the keys is very clear. Cursor control is provided via either the trackpad or the "nipple" control integrated in the middle of the keyboard.
Overall this is a very nice notebook with the excellent addition of a SD/MMC reader/writer for flash memory cards. The dual cursor control devices are also a great inclusion and the fact that infrared is still there is very good too. More USB ports would be nice with only two included being a bit light on. For a well-featured, refined, and compact solution, the Toshiba M2 is certainly worthy of consideration.
| Product | Toshiba Tecra M2 |
| Price | AU$2915 |
| Vendor | Toshiba |
| Phone | 13 30 70 |
| Web | www.isd.toshiba.com.au |
| Interoperability |  ½ |
| Very good feature set. | |
| Futureproofing |  ½ |
| Better than average expansion capabilities, with its cross-model device compatibility feature. | |
| ROI |  ½ |
| Well priced for features and good performance. | |
| Service |  |
| One-year warranty is average but includes pickup and delivery. | |
| Rating |  ½ |
I'm surprised that in a 'high-end desktop replacement notebook' category Dell didn't think to submit their new Inspiron 9100.
To quote from Reuben Lee, ZDNet, 04 March 2004
'The Inspiron 9100 is probably one of the best notebooks around that can truly replace the desktop PC, offering speed and excellent 3D graphics performance.'
Having just purchased one I would have to agree.
I would have truly liked to have seen this cat set amongst these pigeons.
What was Dell thinking?