Toshiba Portege R700 Review
Toshiba Portege R700 Review
Toshiba Portege R700 Review
The Portege R600 has long been one of our favourite ultraportables and it has now been upgraded with the Portege R700 the lightest Intel Core-powered laptop we've seen at 1.1kg.
Toshiba claims up to nine hours of battery power will be on offer, but since our review sample was a pre-production unit, we were unable to confirm this.
Despite its tiny form factor, the review sample we saw featured a high-powered Intel Core i7 620M processor and 4096MB of DDR3 memory. Core i3 and i5 models are also planned for release and even at this pre-production stage this is one of the most powerful ultraportables we've seen.
During preliminary testing, we found the laptop extremely fast to use, running standard office applications and more demanding programs with ease.
The use of an integrated Intelsony np-ft1 battery GMA HD graphics card means even basic multimedia tasks such as photo or video editing are also possible.
Toshiba and Intel have developed what they call Airflow Cooling Technology. This places the core components near the chassis' edge so that a fan can continually draw cool air into the chassis to be blown over the components to keep them cool.
The system works well in allowing such powerful components to be used inside such a small laptop, but we did notice the left side of the chassis gets quite hot during intensive use.
Toshiba R700: Specifications and connections
Whereas the Portege R600 packed an ultra-low-voltage CPU within its thin confines, the Portege R700 runs regular Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs. In fact, ultra-low-voltage CPUs won't be offered at all for the R700. It uses a new thermal management system called Airflow Cooling Technology, which has been co-developed by Intel and Toshiba to allow it to run the high-end CPUs without becoming a hand heater. We don't have the full details of this cooling solution yet, but Toshiba says it has to do with the spacing of all of the components in the chassis.
Initially there will be five models offered in the Portege R700 range and their specifications will vary, but some things to look forward to are the afore-mentioned Core i7 CPU, the ability to run up to 8GB of DDR3 SDRAM (via two stacked memory modules and using the 64-bit version of Windows 7) and the ability to run a third-generation solid-state drive (SSD) with a storage capacity of up to 256GB.
Toshiba claims the third-gen SSD offerings for the Portege R700 offer between five and 10 per cent better performance over second-generation drives. Toshiba also says that from July all of its SSD offerings in all product ranges will shift to third-generation drives, so the Portege R700 won't be the only platform to benefit from the new SSDs. Only the two high-end models of the Portege R700 will include an Dell inspiron e1505 battery SSD; the other three models in the range will have conventional hard drives.
Graphics performance will be handled by the integrated Intel QM57 chipset, which will be powerful enough to drive the 1366x768-resolution screen, as well as Full HD resolution via the HDMI port in the side of the chassis. You also get two USB 2.0 Sleep-and-Charge ports, VGA, a combination eSATA/USB 2.0 port, headphone and microphone ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, an SD card slot and, depending on the model you choose, you'll get an ExpressCard slot and a built-in 7mm thick DVD burner.
More ports are available in the R700's optional docking station. It's a new dock that's not compatible with the Portege R600. It has HDMI and two USB 3.0 ports in addition to VGA, USB 2.0, audio, serial, and Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Toshiba Portege R700: Build quality and design
Traditionally, the Portege has been a beacon for corporate users, but with the breadth of full performance CPU offerings, it should also appeal to small business users who want to retain high performance and plenty of features in a light and easy to carry notebook. The Portege R700 is actually bigger than the R600 it uses a 13in screen rather than a 12in, yet it doesn't feel much heavier. The Portege R700 (PT311A-01L00Q), for example, is only 1.1kg, which is only about 150g more than the R600. The R700 is wider due to its larger screen, but the depth and height are almost identical the R600 is thinner by virtue of a sloped design.
Check out our Toshiba Portege R600 strip show in which we look at the internal design of the lightweight marvel in detail.
Gone is the silver styling of the Portege R600, too. The Portege R700 has a brushed black finish that looks elegant and definitely gives it a 'boardroom' feel. The engineering behind the R700's exterior panels is much more interesting however. Toshiba has used magnesium alloy with a honeycomb reinforcement that gives it better torsional rigidity. It means that the panels can withstand more force when they are bent.
The port design of the R700 is also said to be improved over the R600 in that all of the major ports use harnesses now. The power and USB ports, which are the most used ports on a notebook, all use leads to connect to the motherboard, which means that there's less chance of damaging the board if you plug a peripheral in too forcefully. The power port even has three dabs of glue holding it in place, which let it withstand more force without getting unstuck.
The optical drive, hard drive and dock connections, which were traditionally connected and held to the motherboard via solder alone, now overlap the circuit board and are screwed together so that the solder doesn't have to survive any tugs from these connections. All these little behind the scenes tricks should come together to hopefully make the Portege R700 immune to breakage. Even the wireless antennas have undergone a transformation and are now 'chip-mounted'. Their wires still snake around the screen though.
Toshiba Portege R700: Battery Life and Wireless
Given that one 13-inch Core i5 notebook we tested recently ran out of juice after just 3 hours (to be fair, that system, the Fujitsu LifeBook S760, had discrete graphics), it's quite a feat that the R700's six-cell battery (TOSHIBA laptop batteries)lasted 6 hours and 1 minute. That's nearly a half hour above the ultraportable average, a group that includes many notebooks with less powerful ULV processors. Still, some business ultraportables offer even longer battery life, including the HP EliteBook 2540p (6:54) and the ThinkPad X201 equipped with a nine-cell battery (7:30). Toshiba sells an optional nine-cell battery for the R700 as well, but it costs a hefty $127.
The R700's Intel Advanced-N 6200 wireless card delivered strong wireless throughput in our tests. We saw speeds of 48.2 Mbps at 15 feet from our router, and 28 Mbps from 50 feet. The averages from those distances for ultraportables are 26.1 and 19.1 Mbps, respectively. Toshiba also includes a Bluetooth 2.1 radio.
Conclusion
There's a lot of people who won't be able to justify the cost of the R700 but then, they're not the target market. Toshiba is looking after those who need power, portability and bragging rights. On these three points, the Toshiba Portege R700 will absolutely deliver.
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