Toshiba Portege R700: A Truly Ultraportable 13.3"
by Vivek Gowri on September 7, 2010 6:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- SSDs
- Toshiba
- Portege R700
Toshiba Portege R700—Conclusion
The Portege R700 is a great notebook, make no mistake about it. It’s extremely thin and light, one of the lightest 13.3” notebooks on the market, especially for notebooks that include an optical drive. Yes, there are myriad flaws, like the occasionally flimsy construction, the terrible disk image it’s loaded with, and the pretty woeful screen. Evaluated as a mainstream ultraportable, it’s pretty great. You get quite a bit for your dollar if you stick to the $799 R705 model available through Best Buy, with a Core i3, 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive, and WiDi. For a notebook that has an aluminum chassis, magnesium casing, a 3.2lb carrying weight, and 8 hours battery life, that’s an awesome deal. That combination of features, performance, and portability alone are good enough to make it my pick for road warriors on a budget.
But that assessment comes based on the lower price of the R705. It even holds mostly true for the lower-end R700 models. But for our $1599 test unit? It’s not that good of a deal, and the flaws which are excusable at lower price points become that much more prominent in a higher end market. Also, it comes down to the R700-S1330 simply not being worth twice as much as the R705—yes, you get bumped from a Core i3 to a far faster 2.66GHz Core i7, and also get a 128GB SSD in place of the standard 500GB mechanical hard drive, but it’s not that big of a difference considering every other thing about it is the same.
For a little bit more than the R700-S1330, you can get yourself a very nice—and more powerful—Sony VAIO Z series ($1749 on Newegg currently, even less than that if you’re willing to search). That gets you a Core i5-520M, an Optimus-enabled Nvidia GT 330M, two 64GB SSDs in RAID 0, a 3.04lb chassis, and a stunning 13.1” high-res screen. I don’t have numbers for the display, but having seen it in person, it’s absolutely amazing. It’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder how Toshiba could justify charging $1599 for this.
But again, as I said before, the problem is not with the R700 series itself. It’s a well designed, fantastically portable notebook, and in R705-trim, quite a good value to boot. However, this particular configuration is simply not worth the money Toshiba is charging for it. You’d be better off spending a bit more for a better computer or just getting a lower-end R700 model and dropping an SSD into it on your own (along with wiping the factory Win7 install).
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
bertomatic - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
While i agree I hate bloat/crap ware, and always do a "clean install".I'd like to see before and after results of all tests of this system, one "out-of-the-box" and one with a "clean install"
Thank you...
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
I agree. Even if you don't run the full test suite, I'd love to see benchmarks from both out of the box and after a clean install. If all the big review sites would do this, maybe the manufacturers would get the hint when they see public benchmarks showing their system runs like crap with all the bloat-ware.yyrkoon - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
I too agree that Toshiba has a talent for loading their laptops with bloatware. Just in case you're looking Toshiba. This is not a compliment.With the above said. I myself own a Toshiba. An inexpensive $399 model from newegg. This laptop as usual came with loads of crapware. However, I knew this going in, and what I could do about it. Since Toshiba is very good about providing drivers for most, if not all of their laptops. It was nearly a joy to wipe the HDD clean ( I actually bought a bigger HDD ), and retrograde from Vista HP, to WinXP Pro. Not one driver was missing. Although, some of the utilities such as the auto sense application that detects when an external mouse is plugged would not work. Big deal . . . manual touchpad disable is easy enough.
Now I am currently running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and guess what. Not a single missing driver. Three distinct versions of Windows, and Toshiba has them all covered. For someone who knows how to use a system, truly. This is a serious major factor when dealing with a name brand. Here, I think they deserve a lot of credit.
So, perhaps it is not the speediest laptop, with all the latest gadgets a computer geek may/may not ever use. But at least Toshiba gave those of us who know how to deal with a bloated install an option. As it stands. For the money, it is every bit worth the cost, and more.
Longevity . . . well that remains to be seen. So far though, I am working on 2 years, and the only real issue I have is: Once in a while the fan port gets a bit of dust in it, and the laptop will lockup from heat. That is, about once every 3-4 months. A simple shutdown, followed by flipping it over, and blowing the fan port out with compressed air fixes the problem. Of course, before blowing it out, you will want to use something to keep the fan from spinning, so it doesn't burn out.This is less than ideal, but you get what you pay for, and this is something I am personally willing to deal with.
Of course, I treat my laptop with respect, and do not toss it around. In return, I expect that it will last every bit of 4-5 years.
Aloonatic - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
No one likes the "bloatware"but doesn't it play a part in making the hardware (and software that you actually want, the OS at least) more affordable?It's a hassle to get rid of, but if it means that the machine is cheaper, then can we really complain too much? It's not like Toshiba are the only people who do it. Every machine that I have bought has had a fair bit on.
mfenn - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Vivek, it seems like you've really found your voice with this article. Keep it up!seanleeforever - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
any possibility to get a Lenovo X201 and do a review?seanleeforever - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
by the way. there is no mention of the venting hole on the bottom? i know this is subjective, but i know a handful of people, including myself, would not consider any portable computer with vent on the bottom, you can easily cover the vent with your leg or some soft surface and overheat the system. this is, IMHO, a huge design flaw.Jarp Habib - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Sony's VAIO Z has manually switchable graphics only. Better than ALWAYS ON ALL THE TIME but it's not Optimus. There's been some work hacking together Optimus drivers for the VAIO laptops, but it's certainly not official.saqqy - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Those are comparable laptops with Core i3/i5 also starting around 3.2 lbs for an 11.6"Roland00 - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
The 11.6 Timeline X models use ULV processors (18w TDP) while the 13 inch models use standard 35w processors. The fastest 11.6 inch Timeline X uses the i5 430um which runs at 1.2 ghz and 1.73 with turbo boost. The 13 inch Timeline X use the standard 35w parts, the 35w i5 430m runs at 2.26 ghz and 2.53 with turbo boost (a difference of 46% to 88% in clock speed).Now you don't always need the clock speed difference, I love my predecessor I have an 1810 (the predecessor of the current 11.6 inch timelines) which is based off an 1.2 ghz core 2 duo based processor. The form factor, battery life, price ($350 at time of purchase) were everything I wanted; and it is fast enough for school work, internet, travel, and amazingly WoW when you turn down the settings.