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—LCD Analysis
Let’s start with the good news: hooray for matte LCDs! Unfortunately, that’s about all the good news there is.
I’m guessing that Toshiba is using the same panels for the entire R700/705 lineup, and it’s pretty mediocre. Contrast ratio is not good at 176:1, worse than most of the other consumer notebooks (225:1 is about average.) White levels are average, black levels are subpar, and neither the colour accuracy or the colour gamut are anything to boast about.
So yes, it’s another consumer-level notebook with a poor LCD. What’s new, right? And I’d agree with that and not be as harsh if this were the $799 R705 or the $999 R700-S1310. Our $1599 R700 test unit? I don’t think so. In a notebook this expensive, a screen this poor is unacceptable. There's simply nothing else to say.
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OCedHrt - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Would like to see a proper review of the Sony Z. Even though I already have one, I feel this one deserves a proper review.Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
I'm sure we'd love to (Vivek would probably love a change of pace since he handles our ultraportables, etc.), but we can't review what we don't have and aren't offered, and Sony's very cagey about review hardware. :(cheinonen - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
My wife just got that Vaio Z model and I really must say that the screen is drop dead gorgeous. There might be a better screen out there, but I've not seen it if there is one. It's also just a ridiculously fast machine and what I would get if I could afford it (work paid for her's). It's also worth noting that is has a resolution of 1600x900 or 1920x1080, not the 1366x768 of the Toshiba.Osamede - Thursday, September 9, 2010 - link
I have the Sony Z12 myself and I like it a lot. It's the best screen I've seen on a PC laptop so far.That said the screen on the 13" and 15" MacBook Pro are better than the one on the Z. A bit more glossy but actually also sharper and clearer. You put a powerpoint presentation up on those and the clarity is great, the color "pops" - its phenonmenal. Even on plain old text slides.
On the Z my powerpoints look good, but not that extra good like those Macbooks.
IvanAndreevich - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
I really appreciate it! You are giving us power users who own a desktop IPS screen a voice. With the demise of the AFFS screens from Lenovo we have almost nothing left :( I can't stand TN trash.MrSpadge - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
Agreed!Taurus229 - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Nice! Make it a giveaway! Would love to have one!jrocks84 - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Having had first hand experience with many Toshiba R500 and R600's, I can say that those were the flimsiest computers I have ever seen. The screen, the chasis, the... well everything had massive amounts of flex. There were always imprints of the keyboard on the screen too that were near impossible to remove. And they keyboard also sucked.Due to the lack of build quality in the R500 and R600 series, the company I work for lost all confidence in Toshiba and has since started using HP 8440p's and 2540p's. When I heard they had switched to HP, I was quite surprised because of their crappy consumer laptops, but those things were solid and surprisingly had good keyboards too.
On the software side, I have a friend who owns a Toshiba laptop and it too came loaded with all that crapware. Most of the stuff is even Toshiba branded crapware, so it's not like they get money for most of it...
SteelCity1981 - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
That's the first thing i do when i get a laptop is reformat it with a Windows 7 CD, because every namebrand pc now od days just love to add lots of bloatware onto their systemsMETALMORPHASIS - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Daughter has one from 4 or 5 years ago,runs great. Let your pocketbook be your guide as always!