Toshiba Portege Z835: A New Ultrabook Appears
by Dustin Sklavos on November 16, 2011 2:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- Sandy Bridge
- Ultrabook
Unfortunately the Display is Dire
To look at it, you wouldn't think the Toshiba Portege Z830's 13.3" display is of particularly poor quality. Even though the panel is glossy and the 1366x768 resolution remains a thorn in the side of consumers everywhere, the gloss isn't particularly obtrusive, and the resolution doesn't look too bad on a screen this size. Yet when we subject it to actual testing, things take a major turn for the worse.
The ASUS Zenbook may have a hard time with black levels, but at least the color gamut and accuracy are worlds better than the Z830. None of these notebooks we've tested are particularly big winners here, but it's stunning just how poor the Z830 turns out to be.
Thankfully viewing angles aren't completely awful. Using the Z830, I found that its panel didn't have the major "sweet spot" issues that can occur with low quality TN panels (particularly smaller ones) in notebooks, where there's just no good angle to really look at the screen without substantially washing part of the image out. It's still a pretty lousy screen, but it'll get the job done at least.
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SoundsGood - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
>> why can't more of these ultrabooks have the same screen as the mackbook air, which has a 1440 x 900 resolution?I totally agree. That would be a great option.
peterfares - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
People who say the resolution is too large don't realize that Windows has the ability to scale. Just adjust the DPI to make everything bigger. When you increase the resolution and the DPI, things remain the same physical size but are made up of more pixels making them very clear. I used Sony's 1080p 13" Vaio Z at the Microsoft store with 150% scaling, and it looked amazing!solipsism - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
"I could be completely blind and out of my depth here, but I just don't see the market an ultrabook serves"A recent report put the MBAs, only in 11" and 13" sizes, at 28% of all Mac notebook shipments. This is a category the average consumer cares about. Unfortunately for the non-Apple OEMS there customers expect a sweet spot about $300 less than the least expensive MBA. That's the problem when you spend years racing to the bottom, not one trusts when your products even if they are quality.
It was years ago that Apple had more than 90% of the $1000 and up market so these companies need to make less expensive machines or rebrand themselves to show they are a premium company. They can start by removing crap like Intel Inside, MS Windows, Dell and HP stickers off their machines.
Torrijos - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
While this review is dandy, it would be nice to run the benchmarks on the MacBook Air running Windows, to have a baseline.Also, while more ports are always cool I kind of disagree with the disinterest towards Thunderbolt technology. Living with a laptop as a main computer, connecting the multitude of cables at home to dock it to external displays and storage unit gets old pretty quickly so the vision of a single cable connecting a TB display (with keyboard and mouse on the USBs) and a fast mass storage unit chained seems like a dream (but I'll be still waiting for USB3 on the display before I make a jump).
It's a usage model that no other brand offers right now.
peterfares - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Have you heard of docks? They aren't yet available on Ultrabook models I don't believe, but they're even better than Thunderbolt. You just place your computer on the dock, you don't even have to line up and insert the thunderbolt and power cords.Jamezrp - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
4th paragraph from the bottom, end of the second sentence. Not a big deal...I laughed because it sounds like a cheesy, corny cute name to give Intel's Turbo Boost.JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Just a typo from the editor; actually, Dustin called it "turbo core" so I tried to fix it and apparently hit the wrong key for the "t". Not sure which is worse, though. :pfpink3 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
D Sklavos says: "I don't think the keyboard is a lost cause, but it definitely needs to be revised. Layout is fine, just fix the overall size and quality. The chassis has room for both.""Just fix the ..quality"? Who is D Sklavos talking to? Let me know how the keyboard will perform if I bought the product.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - link
Great review as always, but I was wondering if you could make comparison photos of products where size is a big feature. Stick a coke cola can or a DVD case next to it and then photograph. It would make it easier to judge the size. :-)EthanW - Thursday, November 17, 2011 - link
Is it just me, or does this look scarily similar to the Portege R200?As seen here:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wroyUqnJyD0/SieO92SMA6I/...
Good to see they had the sense to stick with proper trackpad buttons. :D