Toshiba Tecra R850: Business Class on a Budget

Conclusion: Money Talks

Before I start talking about the very compelling price of Toshiba's Tecra R850, I want to tip my hat to Toshiba for the design of the notebook itself. While the screen may be abysmal and the keyboard leaves at least a little something to be desired, the rest of it is incredibly thoughtful and smart. When my best friend called saying her boss needed a 15.6" notebook for work, but one that was still portable, the R850 was the first one I thought of. Connectivity is excellent across the board, and it's just damned sleek and light. After testing the Tecra R850 and the HP EliteBook 8460p, I really am forced to conclude that notebook shoppers who want something of quality (both aesthetically and practically) would do well to spend up on a business-class machine.

And how about that price? To get one of HP's new beauties you're looking at spending an extra $150 to get comparable specifications in this form factor, and that's for a notebook that's both bulkier and heavier. While I'm a huge fan of HP's new styling, if someone wants something that's simultaneously easy to use and portable, the Tecra R850 is going to be an excellent choice.

What about Dell? Well, Dell is more competitive. The Latitude E5520 starts at $979 for the same processor, which is a great deal. But start adding upgrades to get performance competitive with the R850, and you wind up spending an extra $50 for a system that's still heavier and bigger, and that's with a smaller battery to boot. I hesitate to also ding the Latitude E5520 for not having dedicated graphics since the AMD Radeon 6450M in the Tecra isn't exactly a big winner, but I do think that's at least a minor point in Toshiba's favor. Admittedly Dell has one excellent competitor here, the Latitude E6520, which features a 1080p screen, quad-core processor, and NVIDIA's entry-level 512MB Quadro NVS 4200M. At $1,299 that's a great deal, and if you're willing to sacrifice running time and bulk for it, we wouldn't fault you.

Ultimately the Tecra R850's combination of performance, price, and build quality makes it an easy recommendation, though, and if you're willing to take a small hit to processor performance and don't mind forfeiting the Radeon, you can get it down to $1,129 from Toshiba. That's an excellent deal for a laptop that runs cool, runs quiet, and won't break your back. If they could fix the screen and change the finish of the keyboard they'd be in Silver or Gold Editor's Choice territory, but we do like the overall design and feature set, and coming up with a Bronze isn't half bad.