Toshiba Tecra R850: Business Class on a Budget
by Dustin Sklavos on June 6, 2011 12:01 AM ESTBattery, Noise, and Heat
I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating: if you want great battery life and you want to really see just how efficient modern hardware can be, you have to buy business-class. The R850's running time was a very pleasant surprise, especially for a 15.6" notebook.
I might not have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself, but even with the Radeon HD 6450M and no hybrid graphics solution, the Tecra R850's 66Wh battery allows it to place at or near the top of all of our charts. Toshiba rates the R850 for roughly seven-and-a-half hours of running time, and using their "eco" mode while still leaving the screen at 100 nits, we're actually able to beat that record...even under regular use.
As notebooks are prone to doing, the Toshiba Tecra R850 does run its processor on the warm side. What will impress you (or at least it impressed me) is that it's doing so in a slender chassis and without ramping the fan up to obscenely high speeds. The fan does produce a high-pitched whine under load, but it's still easy to drown out. Also notable is the remarkably cool-running hard drive; I'm used to seeing these hit around 40C in laptops, but that low temperature is on par with my desktop. The HD 6450M, meanwhile, runs incredibly frosty...probably because nobody's asking a whole lot of it. Do these relatively cool temperatures translate well to the user experience?
Why yes, yes they do. The Tecra R850 runs surprisingly cool and could be comfortably used on your lap without roasting your swimmers and taking you out of the gene pool. The typical hot spots are accounted for—the top left near the exhaust vent and the bottom center at the memory hatch—but these aren't that bad. You can definitely stress the R850 without your hands getting sweaty from the heat.
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Roland00 - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I meant TG not THrel - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I'd like a notebook designed like this except with the GT555 GPU. 1080p high contrast screen is a must.FlyBri - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
Totally agree. I don't get why it's so difficult to offer a 1080p option. It's not just for watching Blu-Ray movies -- I got my current laptop with a 1080p screen specifically to have more screen real estate for work. And please, for the love of god, give us choices for a high quality screen! It just seems like laptop manufacturers just don't get it...jackpro - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
It would be nice to know if the screen is aAS-IPS, cPVA, H-IPS, IPS, MVA, P-IPS, P-MVA, PVA, S-IPS, S-PVA, TN
as it would really help with understanding the colour accuracy possible.
like this excellent site does
http://pricespy.co.nz/category.php?k=393
Dustin Sklavos - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
For notebooks, it's going to be TN 99% of the time. We'll only specify when it's something else.Pratheek - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
If there were a good 1080p display along much more battery capacity, I would have certainly booked it...nitrousoxide - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
For a 1000-dollar-laptop with a crappy screen.JarredWalton - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
Editor's Choice for a high quality build with great general performance; put on a real screen and this would have been Silver at least.Gigantopithecus - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I almost purchased an R700 but did not because of three issues: its poor screen quality, the terrible keyboard (the keys had so little travel that typing wasn't unpleasant, it was downright painful), and the fact that it got ball-burning hot. I'm glad Toshiba fixed the heat issue, but it looks like the other two remain.I strongly suggest anyone interested in this laptop try it out in the store if possible (Best Buy should be carrying it). That keyboard is imho *terrible.*
TrackSmart - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I have the Toshiba R705. It's a great form factor, but yes, the screen is very poor in all metrics (viewing angles, contrast, color reproduction) except for brightness. The other issues are minor by comparison (e.g. the heat is not that bad and the keyboard isn't terrible once you get acclimated). But that screen...