Is Toshiba's U100-S213 The Ultra Lightweight Laptop Champ?

9. Build, Fit And Finish

The Toshiba Libretto U100 reminds me of a well built car. Everything on the laptop fits perfectly. There are no gaps. Nothing is warped. Nothing shakes, rattles or rolls.

The case is impressively strong and impossible to twist using even more than normal torsion pressure. The same is true for the upper part of the case containing the display. The display housing is thicker than normal for an ultra lightweight laptop. In part all of this may be a function of the laptop's small size. Smaller mobile computers tend to be more difficult to flex due specifically to their smaller size. I know that sounds like a tautology, but it really isn't.

Testing The Toshiba Libretto U100-S213

Four test suites are used to benchmark mobile computer battery life and performance, BAPCo's MobileMark 2005 and SYSmark 2004 SE, FutureMark's PCMark05 and, when the computer has the appropriate graphics hardware, FutureMark's 3DMark05. When a computer achieves very low 3DMark05 scores this is noted in conclusions, but the scores are not reported in charts and tables.

For details on the tests see How We Test Laptop and Notebook Computers for Home and Office.

For the record, the graphics controller in the Libretto U100 cannot perform all of the graphics functions required to perform the 3DMark05 benchmarks. Hence, no 3DMark05 results are reported for the U100.