7. Conclusion

Toshiba’s Tecra A9: Not sexy, but gets the job done.

Toshiba’s Tecra A9 is a solid—if lackluster—office device with only a few weaknesses, but no special strengths. It does the job it’s meant to do and offers adequate performance in all scenarios. It offers nothing to make it a must-buy. The only extras are the additional track point, the serial connection, the nice Assist application, and Toshiba’s double warranty, as long as it remains available.. We saw mixed results with the Tecra A9’s battery life: In the worst case the battery didn’t even last one hour, but it did run three hours in the reader test. When playing DVDs it lasted almost two hours.

The notebook’s build-quality, keyboard and display are good, but that’s what you would expect for the price ($1,159).

The Tecra A9 offers some nice specs under the hood, but when it comes to connection ports for networking, it disappoints. It has only three USB ports, and at times only two are useable. The lack of FireWire is a definite downer.

And it’s not a matter of size—there’s plenty of space for additional ports.

It’s also unclear why a device that might be used for presentations with a projector or TV screen offers neither S-Video nor DVI. You get the impression Toshiba wants you to buy its port replicator.

The Tecra A9’s design is functional, businesslike and—dare we say it—boring. At 6.4 pounds, the device is no lightweight. In fact, this big notebook is more portable desktop than mobile computer. It’ll get the job done—it’s just not very exciting.