Toshiba Satellite U845W Ultrabook Review: Going Wide at 21:9
by Dustin Sklavos on October 16, 2012 12:01 AM ESTDisplay Quality
While the display of the Toshiba Satellite U845W is arguably it's selling point, I regret to inform you that it is unfortunately still a TN panel. The 1792x768 resolution makes it much improved for productivity purposes (making it easy to edit two documents side by side, something Toshiba goes out of their way to make even easier by including software that resizes windows to suit the wider display) and even the movie we use to test battery life looked a bit better since no letterboxing was occurring, but contrast and color are still middling.
You can see it's not quite as bad as TN panels typically are, and dpi is actually bit improved from a typical 14" 1360x768 display (remember that this one is actually shorter than 14" panels usually are), but it's still not a huge winner. It's very bright, but the high black level takes its cut from the contrast ratio. Viewing angles are average for a TN display, and I feel like this resolution would be better served by an IPS display (then again, every resolution would be better served by an IPS display.)
Battery Life
What I'm particularly curious about is, given that everything else is equal between the Toshiba Satellite U845W and the more traditional Satellite U845, how much running time is sacrificed in the switch to a slightly larger, higher resolution display?
Happily, while the U845W takes a bit of a bath in idle usage, the differences in actual productive use are smaller to the point of mostly being negligible. That's good news since the substantially wider display is much better for productivity than the usual 1366x768 14" panel tends to be.
Heat and Noise
I'm particularly pleased with how Toshiba designed the cooling system of the Satellite U845W. Ultrabooks and even just more portable notebooks seem destined to be used on your lap, yet vendors keep putting fan intakes on the bottom, waiting to get suffocated. The U845W doesn't make that mistake; the entire back of the notebook is ventilated while the bottom is one solid piece of plastic with no ventilation to worry about stuffing up. And because the ultrabook is so wide, that means a substantial amount of surface area is being opened up for airflow.
Load temperatures around 80C are basically unheard of in an ultrabook, where thermals are routinely sacrificed for the form factor. This is really quite good, as the surfaces of the U845W barely get warm, and even the fan speed remains relatively low. The U845W runs cooler and quieter than most any other ultrabook I've tested, and Toshiba should be proud of themselves.
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Mugur - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
It happend with several HP ProBook 6560b or EliteBook of the same generation (Sandy Bridge). When the USB needs a driver that's not in Windows, it boots from it but you cannot install afterwards...processinfo - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
sigh...robmuld - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
16:9 is bad enough, how dumb is it to release something even worse? How about somebody pay 5% more and use a 4:3 panel? Now THAT would be listening to your customerskmmatney - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
They used to make 4:3 laptop monitors. My co-worker had a 1400 x 1050 laptop on a 15" display on an older Dell laptop. It was very nice, even back when displays for laptops weren't as advanced as they are now. You had a lot of vertical space, without the pixels being too small.TegiriNenashi - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I assume half of customers would return this thing. Who needs a device capable only displaying embrasure view of the world, and fortified warfare is hopelessly obsolescent. With amazon generous return policy who wold carry the cost of returns, them or manufacturer?twtech - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I like the idea of this form factor for notebooks because it should allow for bigger keyboard on a smaller device. Unfortunately, it seems that's not what they did with it here.dcuccia - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
Would see HUGE benefits for this on the plane. I can't even open a 13" 16:9 laptop in a standard economy seat these days.kmmatney - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
I fly a lot, so get free economy plus seating on United, where I can open up my 17" 1080p laptop without any problems. I had a 17" 1920 x 1200 laptop before that. I tend to do more work at the gate or in a hotel room, versus when I;m on plane.jihe - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
One of the more stupid 'innovation' I've seen in PC history.VTArbyP - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - link
I haven't read all the above comments, apologies if I'm repeating someone.I would SO prefer a 7x4 screen!! That is: 1792 x 1024. Better yet, I'd like a pivoting 7x4 screen.
Yes, with 2 eyes our field of vision is wider than it is tall, so wide is good for scenic photos and film / video. I can also appreciate having a very wide screen for work that is naturally wide, spreadsheets being the major example of that.
However, with so many of our documents formatted at 17 x 22 (8.5x11 letter size ) or 17 x 28 (8.5x14 legal size) doesn't anyone else want to see a full page at once?! Substitute A4 and B4 sizes for letter and legal sizes if you use them instead. I refused to buy a personal computer until the screen width was 80 columns of characters - the number of characters that fit easily on letter or legal width paper. I am still waiting for displays that show a full size page in both width and height - not even my 1920 x 1200 lcd does that quite properly. Hmm, anyone for an 8x7 (2048x1792) display with me? That would allow for two legal pages side by side with menus and special "bars" above and below. Sheesh! I gotta stop drooling for a screen that will never be. Maybe a strong projector wouldl allow that... One can hope so anyway. 8-)