Toshiba Portege R830 Picture was one of the first ultraportable laptops on the market to still offer a full feature-set despite its small dimensions and light weight. With the Portege R830 (PT321A-01L002), that tradition of fitting lots of stuff into a small frame continues, and not only that, it also features a full-voltage, Second Generation Intel Core i5 CPU. Indeed, there are many positives about this 13.3in, 1.4kg laptop, chief among them being exceptional performance, but there are also some negatives, such as the screen, which isn't the most vibrant we've seen.
Toshiba's older mobile business notebooks under their Tecra line weren't bad, but stylistically were well behind the times. Made chiefly of ABS plastic, these notebooks unfortunately didn't look like much of an improvement over, say, an HP G-series notebook, and they inherited some of the same problems that plagued Toshiba's consumer notebooks. The older Tecras are big and bulky, but since the success of the R700, Toshiba has taken the hint and completely rearchitected their 14" and 15.6" Tecra notebooks while updating the Portege. The result is the R800 series, split between the 14" Tecra R840, 15.6" Tecra R850, and 13.3" Portege R830.
Technology made to differentiate In order to pack such a powerful punch into such slim and light devices, Toshiba made use of various innovative technologies focusing on two areas: smart and efficient cooling solutions and chassis construction. An 'Airflow Cooling' system, co-developed by Intel® and Toshiba, in the R830 allowing Toshiba to integrate the latest Intel® Core™ family processors even in the device's slim casing while keeping the fan noise to a minimum. An ingeniously designed ventilation duct in combination with a cleverly arranged circuit board layout optimizes heat removal.
The R830 for business users with Windows 7 Professional ranges from $1,049 (Core i3-2310M, 4GB and a 500GB hard drive) to $1,649 (Core i7-2620M, 4GB and a 128GB SSD). The consumer version, the R835 series with Windows 7 Home Premium, ranges from $888.99 (Core i3-2310M, 4GB and 640GB hard drive) to $929.99 with a faster processor, the Core i5-2410M. Those are list or direct prices, but Best Buy is selling the Portege R835-P50x for $749.99. The OS (and a blue metallic lid) aren’t the only differences in the consumer versions. They also do not have an ExpressCard slot (which most users won’t miss), do not work with Toshiba’s docking stations and come with a one-year warranty rather than the standard three years of coverage on the R830–sacrifices most consumers will be living to live with to shave a few hundred bucks off the price.
