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—Performance
In all seriousness, the first step with this computer should be to do a clean install of Windows. With most other computers, it’s fairly easy to just remove the few pieces of pre-installed crapware--the Nortons and McAfees of the world. But with Toshiba, there’s about 25 mostly useless utilities that don’t need to be there. Online backup, a bunch of media apps, updater services, etc.
One of the few utilities that was quite useful was the function key mapping app. Once you press the Fn key, it brings up a listing of what the function key triggers are, so it’s easy to find. For someone who switches from notebook to notebook on a day to day basis, that was a godsend—you don’t need to hunt for each different F-key to change the brightness or volume.
Now, with that out of the way, we can get to the important stuff—benchmarks! With the SSD and the Core i7, we expected the R700 to fly, and that it most certainly did. The CPU benchmarks were on par with the HP 8440w workstation that we had in for review last month (which uses the same Core i7-620M processor). For a thin and light, especially one under 3.5lbs, our R700 test unit is powerful, easily one of the fastest of the breed. The lesser models with the Core i3 processor will probably perform similarly to the ASUS U33Jc except without quite as much gaming prowess. For the $799 R705, that’s pretty respectable given the aluminum construction and super-light form factor.
As a sidenote here, I must add that Peacekeeper results couldn’t be taken, due to a bug with the Toshiba fingerprint reader authentication utility that causes Firefox to crash. Did I mention that you should clean install before doing anything else? I’m personally not a huge fan of fingerprint readers in general, so I’d gladly sacrifice the scanner to use Firefox. Though if you’re a Chrome or Opera fan (or an IE fan, if such a creature exists) I suppose this doesn’t really matter.
For the guys that like looking at Futuremark results, here you go. The Intel HD graphics chip actually holds its own fairly well against most of the other IGPs out there, at least in 3DMark. The PCMark results are dramatically increased with the SSD, and in some sense are artificially boosted by the number of hard drive access tests in the benchmark. Oddly enough, the SSD doesn’t seem too much faster in daily use other than in application launching. Maybe because the Toshiba SSD in the R700 isn’t as quick as the Intel X18M I had in the Adamo, but it just doesn’t feel as zippy as other SSD-based systems do. Or maybe that’s just Toshiba’s battalion of utilities making themselves felt in full force. Really, it needs a clean install to bring out the best performance, I can’t emphasize that enough.
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FH123 - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
Not so simple. I have a T410s. Yes, it's better in most regards, however the screen is actually worse. Yes, hard to believe though it is, notebookcheck.net have measured it at only 95:1 contrast and the vertical viewing angles are virtually non-existent. Does the T410 have a decent screen?seanleeforever - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
yeap. the s is for slim, but you sacrifice the screen quality (not that they have good screen to begin with).bring back the IPS/AFFS flexview....while i appreciate my 400 nit outdoor IPS tablet, i can use a 15 inch with 1920*1200 resultion for my CAD work.
Belard - Friday, September 10, 2010 - link
To me, the normal notebook (business) viewing angle is fairly straight on. Having others in a meeting having easier screen access is not my desire. We can't have everything... perhaps in 10 years, we can have screens that switch to narrow and wide view angles :)Here is my ThinkPad screen experience:
I'm typing this on my R61 (R500 replaced it - then the Ls replaced Rs).
I'm fine with its low-res screen (1280x800), its brighter and more colorful than the T61.
The SL-500 looks better than the T61.
The T410s looked okay to me.
The T410 looked better than the SL510.
In general, Glossy screens - by their nature, have higher contrast over most matter screens for notebooks and even many desktop screens.
Theres a give and take going on here. Like many years ago, Anandtech would give a NEG to a mobo review for having the DIMM slots next to the PCIe slot... but if that problem wasn't there, it meant one less PCIe slot. I posted/email... you can't have it both ways ;) Then they started pointing this out ;)
So can Lenovo go with a much better LCD screen? Yes... if they are even being made. but at what costs?
We live in a time in which Notebooks costs $300 and up with a 15" screen. Unlike 10+ years ago when a ThinkPad went for $3000~6000!
ThinkPads would be DEAD without some sacrifice.
A: Glossy notebook for $600 vs:
B: ThinkPad for $2000, both with same CPU/hardware stats.
Almost nobody will buy the ThinkPAD! Sell it for $600~1000, its marketable.
I paid $500 for my R61, new. Next to it in a store, an IDEA-PAD for $600.
Mine came with the PDC @1.6Ghz / 1GB / 40GB HD / WinXP-Pro.
The IdeaPAD had a C2D @ 2.2Ghz / 3GB / 100GB HD / Vista-Home / Camera.
I was going to spend $100 for XP Pro for the IdeaPAD... the matte screen and stronger body sold me on the ThinkPad. Even thou the IdeaPAD was a "better" deal in many ways.
My 3 year old ThinkPad has been upgraded to 2GB and runs Windows7 like a champ... it runs better than it ever did with XP.
Using a friends T410, I love it.
But I wouldn't recommend ANY 15" Thinkpad to anyone anymore... they are EXTRA-Widescreen. So the 14" is just as tall, screen wise and about 1.5 lbs lighter. Yep, the T410(s) screens are just as tall as my 3-year old's 15" screen. Hate these wide-wide screens.
I4U - Saturday, October 9, 2010 - link
Dell proposed, some years ago, a display option to narrow the view angle.QChronoD - Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - link
Would it be possible for you guys to have a separate page on the site that gives a condensed breakdown of the major specs for the different laptops/cpus/ssd/etc that you are always comparing against. (tech-report had one a few years ago that I was always going back to for cpu reviews) It's been years since I've been able to figure out WTF Intel and AMD model numbers really mean since they change them so frequently.Also it would help when looking at the benchmark numbers for systems so we can focus on those with the specs/price we are most interested in.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 9, 2010 - link
I use the following two web pages ALL the time:http://products.amd.com/en-ca/NotebookCPUResult.as...
http://ark.intel.com/Default.aspx
Wikipedia also has a good list of CPUs and chipsets (and a ton of other stuff as well). I've considered trying to get some sort of setup where users can click on a result to get the full laptop specs; maybe we'll try to do that when we do Mobile Bench.
BushLin - Thursday, September 9, 2010 - link
"The result is a notebook that is reportedly both lighter and stiffer than the previous Portege R500 and R600 notebooks"Sorry to urinate in your soup but the R700 is considerably heavier (in ultra-portable terms) than both the R500 and R600 models. This isn't surprising since the R700 has a larger screen and less compromise on rigidity in order to save weight. I look after my laptops and sad to see the R600 is now unavailable and doesn't have a direct replacement. There are no sub 1KG (2.2lbs) models from Toshiba currently.
Osamede - Thursday, September 9, 2010 - link
When this Toshiba was announced a lot of people claimed it would be a Sony Z killer and I knew it wouldnt. Toshiba actually has the ultraportable heritage and pedigree but TODAY toshiba is no longer about making top notch products.Which is why they initiall fudged on the specs of the screen. I knew it would be a bottom-of-the-barrel 768p screen with low contrast - and so it is in the end.
Why Toshiba would bother shouting about this laptop I dont know. Its actually heavier than the Sony Z and not as good all round, depsite having a lower res screen. Worse yet there are a million Acer and Acer models that provide better value and durability.
A pointless product release. Toshiba should just quit this market and go home.
gescom - Friday, September 10, 2010 - link
Sony Z12 = unbeatable machine!Period.
BrianTho2010 - Friday, September 10, 2010 - link
Vivek,I can not stay for sure of the R700, but the R500 and R600 which have VERY similar designs have an all magnesium chassis. I would double check with Toshiba if in fact the R700 is using aluminum and not magnesium.
-Brian