Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: notebook, laptop, business | Themes: Business Notebooks
- 1. Consider the Ultraportable
- 2. Asus U2E-A1B: Style and Usability
- 3. Asus U2E-AIB: Price, Battery, Performance
- 4. Lenovo Ideapad U110: Style and Usability
- 5. Lenovo Ideapad U110: Price, Battery, Performance
- 6. Toshiba R500-S5006V: Style and Usability
- 7. Toshiba R500-S5006V: Price, Battery, Performance
- 8. Fujitsu P8010: Style and Usability
- 9. Fujitsu P8010: Price, Battery, Performance
- 10. Sony Vaio TZ298: Style and Usability
- 11. Sony Vaio TZ298: Price, Battery, Performance
- 12. Ultraportable Specifications
- 13. Testing: Pre-Test Setup, Battery Life - BatteryEater Pro
- 14. Testing: Performance - Windows Experience Index
- 15. Testing: Performance - PCMark Vantage
- 16. Conclusion
- 17. More on this topic
6. Toshiba R500-S5006V: Style and Usability
Style
In the R500, Toshiba offers an engineering tour de force: a 2.4 pound notebook with an internal optical drive that’s less than one inch thick. Other R500 models, without the optical drive and with a solid state drive instead of a hard drive, are definitively the thinnest and lightest ultraportables on the planet. Suffice it to say, this R500 is the thinnest and lightest in our roundup (though not the smallest). A 12.1” screen inches the Toshiba closer to feeling like a real laptop rather than an undersized machine, but pick it up and it feels like nothing in your hand.
The R500 is a buttoned-down computer; coated in a very plain, smooth silver plastic, it has only the barest hint of metallic gleam. The same shell is also found on the bottom, giving the machine a uniform texture and color, except for the word "Toshiba" spelled out in big mirrored letters on the lid of the machine (which seems unnecessary; the understated look works better here). When closed, the lid creates a bit of an "under-bite" that is common among Toshiba notebooks—the chassis sticks out about a quarter-inch past the lid. It opens and closes by hinge tension.
Durability
Whatever this silver metallic plastic is made from is very flexible, and thinner than a hearty linguine noodle. The lid torques and twists when handled, and the lid, underside and chassis give easily to pressure. Overall, it just feels delicate; the screen, especially, is the thinnest I’ve ever seen. The black plastic bezel around the screen barely hugs it and pulls away easily. If it weren’t for the standard Toshiba active hard-drive protection built around the hard drive to stop movement of the heads during a shock, I would call this machine downright flimsy. We can never predict when, as laptop users, an accident might strike. I tried to use this machine like a business user would—taking it to and from the office in a bag—but no accidents occurred during my time with it. I have a hunch, though, that after a few months of use something could happen that would hurt this super-thin machine. Its shell is flexible, but its insides are necessarily brittle.
Ports
The R500’s port selection is ample. On the left side is the power jack, VGA port, one USB port, and a Firewire port. Then come four square spaces for the fan to blow air through (and the air is almost always blowing). After that is one more USB port, the headphone and microphone jacks, and a scroll wheel for volume. External volume controls are rare these days, but I prefer to have one. The front of the machine is bare.
On the right side is an SD card reader (though oddly, it doesn’t read the slew of extra card formats that most SD readers do.) Right below the SD card reader is the extremely thin optical drive, which stretches from the front of the machine to about three-quarters of the way towards the back. Yet, three-quarters of the way through the optical drive itself, a PC card slot begins below it! Note that this is not the ExpressCard so common in ultraportables.
You can’t actually access the optical drive when there’s a card in the PC card slot, which is a strange design choice. That spot where the optical drive and PC card slot overlap is the thickest point on the R500. Past this point is a Wi-Fi on/off switch, another USB port (for a total of three), and a gigabit Ethernet port. The rear of the R500 is free of ports, and the battery barely protrudes at all. The hinge of the screen is just barely offset from the chassis.
Style score: 3
Usability
Display
As noted above, the screen is not even a quarter of an inch thick, and its bezel feels cheap. Off-center viewing angles also darken the screen considerably. But this frighteningly cheap-feeling screen has two qualities in its favor. First, though the screen is LED back lit—a nice touch—it is not glossy, which is an even better touch. If viewers of this screen had to put up with ultra-gloss in addition to bad viewing angles, this screen would be tough to endure. The second perk of this screen is its extra inch: 12.1” is just so much more "normal" to look at than 11.1”.
Keyboard
The 12-inch size of this ultraportable means that the keyboard can spread out an extra inch or so as well. That means the keyboard is essentially full-sized, which feels natural. The keys are also of a standard size and shape, are spaced evenly, and have sloping sides. They are smooth, but with a bit of a brushed-metal texture.
The only problem with the keyboard is its extra "give"—type fast on it, and the entire chassis will dip slightly, especially over the optical drive. When one key is pressed, several other keys seem to move sympathetically (though they do not fully depress). This "depression" does not slow down typing, nor does it decrease accuracy, it’s just a little disconcerting.
Above the keyboard is one tiny speaker on the left hand side. By all means, do not bother listening to music or watching a DVD with sound on this computer. Headphones, headphones, headphones...
Trackpad and Buttons
The trackpad’s texture is slightly more brushed and rough than the wristpad, so you can easily tell when your finger has slipped away from the trackpad’s surface. The Wristpad itself is very smooth, though you may want to peel off the Energy Star, Intel Centrino, and Windows Vista stickers on the right hand side. The mouse buttons beneath the trackpad are placed within a shiny metal piece, within which is a blue power indicator LED. The buttons themselves are very slick.
I wish the buttons were actually closer to the trackpad—as in, directly below the trackpad, rather than a quarter of an inch away. The buttons themselves are very responsive if you click them head-on in the middle of the key, but if you click on the side or corners of the button, it doesn’t really click in a satisfying way. Between the left and right buttons is a corporate-style fingerprint scanner.
There are no multimedia controls on the Toshiba’s chassis, but above the keyboard is a power button on the left, and a brighten-up button and help-launcher button on the right.
Noise and Heat
When doing "nothing"—simply powered on and idle—this machine emits a low whine, and a constant whoosh of air comes out of the fan vents. It’s not exactly loud, but it never stops. When a couple of applications are open, the machine gets a bit louder. The air coming out of the vents is cool, and the machine stays cool, too, except when the processor or hard drive is strained. Neither is as underpowered as the components inside some of the other machines in this roundup, and we didn’t notice any sluggishness or struggle from the computer when attempting ordinary tasks like email and Web surfing. See the Performance section below for more information about this computer’s processing power.
Usability score: 3.5
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I like to read about these notebooks. They still exist and useful while other more exciting categories are around. (MID, UMPC, Netbook, and ultra gaming notebooks)
No it's not. The MBA is at no point thicker than 0.79", and Apple makes a point of it on the product design page.
Otherwise, good article. But I think I'm not the target consumer for these products, so I'm going to be getting the new MacBook Pro. I need that extra performance for graphics-intensive applications. Then again, that would be a primary computer. If I had the extra cash, I would go for a MBA as a secondary, because I can't stand the smaller keyboards and screens but a laptop more portable than the MBP would be nice to have sometimes.
Then again, I'm a Mac lover, so my views are undoubtedly skewed towards almost anything that runs OSX and has a giant Apple logo plastered on it.
This article is full of logical mishaps where the author contradicts herself, e.g.
"I never felt this machine get warmer than room temperature, nor make any noise at all. That’s surprising given the U110 has a weak hard drive (only running at 4,200 RPM)"
[a weak hard disk should make it NOT suprising]
or
"...the bottom can get hot. Some of the heat and noise can be attributed to the U2E’s underpowered CPU (...) With such a low-power processor, this machine is bound to stay pretty cool to the touch most of the time."
[the second sentence is correct but (rightfully) contradicts the first one]
Those two aren't the only ones. The article should be reworked.
Pity not to see the very lovely Samsung Q210 in this list. I've gone for the Q310, simply out of preference for something a little more tangible, but the spec and build quality on both of these are super, not to mention the reasonable prices!
Finally, I was wondering when Tom's would review an Asus based laptop considering they've been around for years. I actually like Asus's designs and own an ancient Z33ae ultralight from years ago although recently I've begun to wonder if the leather in the new laptops isn't overkill.
Still considering the heavy use / abuse I've put my Asus laptop through while only suffering from a burnt out power button light, I have to admire it's durability. Sure they do cost a little more but the build quality is what makes up for it. My experience with Toshibas so far is that they're cheap and they work extremely well. Just don't expect anything special, they seem mass produced. Sony's I've had breakdown on me unfortunately. They have admirable design but it's something I'm reluctant to touch.
The Thinkpad X200s and X200 should have been part of this review. They use the newer Centrino 2 Montevina platform with the faster X4500HD GPU that can run Blu-Ray and with the Intel 5300 WiFi.
The X200s goes for about $2K but there will be sales. The X200 has already been on sale with a $1300 pricetag for a full config.
X200s Review (with link to X200):
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/la [...] x200s.aspx
X200s: 11 hours battery with WiFi LED backlit 1440x900 display 3.2 lbs 12" with full sized keyboard, same as in larger "T" series. Full sized 2.5" hard drive or SSD 64 GB or 128 GB. 1.86 GHz SL CPU
X200: 8 hours battery with WiFi CCFL backlit 1280x800 display 3.6 lbs and same options as X200s. CPU 2.26 GHz or 2.4 GHz. Fast!
Both laptops have two smaller battery options for less weight.
This article is full of logical mishaps where the author contradicts herself, e.g."I never felt this machine get warmer than room temperature, nor make any noise at all. That’s surprising given the U110 has a weak hard drive (only running at 4,200 RPM)"[a weak hard disk should make it NOT suprising]or"...the bottom can get hot. Some of the heat and noise can be attributed to the U2E’s underpowered CPU (...) With such a low-power processor, this machine is bound to stay pretty cool to the touch most of the time."[the second sentence is correct but (rightfully) contradicts the first one]Those two aren't the only ones. The article should be reworked.
Thanks for your comment, Tim851.
Here's what I meant about the U110's weak hard drive. I've found that when a machine has a weak hard drive, the drive tends to spin almost constantly even during basic computing tasks. When this constant spinning occurs, the machine typically gets hot. But on the U110, even though the hard drive was only 4200rpm, the hard drive at least didn't cause the machine to get warm--it didn't seem to strain or spin constantly as one would expect. Does that make more sense? Yes, a lower powered processor would help to keep things cool, but a severely underpowered hard drive could make things hotter, too. Happy to discuss further.
All the best,
Rachel Rosmarin, Editor of Tom's Guide
The TZ series is still available for purchase. Possibly not that particular model but overall the recall did not kill the entire product line.
The TZ series is still available for purchase. Possibly not that particular model but overall the recall did not kill the entire product line.
Hi Anon,
Can you provide a link to Sony's site showing a TZ available for purchase? If so, I'll amend the article. Thanks.
Rachel Rosmarin, Editor of Tom's Guide
hell no, the first time I saw lenovo in the pics I thought ( when does Dell Studio becomes an Ultra portable notebook ? )
Lenovo just copied Dell's design and made some changes !!
Here we go again... who would ever buy a notebook of any shape or size at any price with only 2-3 hours of battery life? That's basically UNUSEABLE. They talk like it's acceptable. A dead computer has NO performance, NO style, NO value! Cross country trips? what country -- Leichtenstein? WORTHLESS! I am still waiting -- please make a USEABLE portable device with at the very least 4-6 hours battery time, preferably 8-10 hours or more. I would like to be able to surf, show the kids a movie, do some work, play a game etc. on a trip and then watch another movie myself after that and show people pictures of my family. IF YOU MAKE IT, I WILL BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. I don't want to have to constantly watch and worry about the battery, and people use their computers for EVERYTHING these days -- THATS WHY WE WANT PORTABLE ONES NOW! Is my life supposed to stop in 2-3 hours? COME ON! I am getting upset about this, I KNOW I'm not the only one who feels this way. What's wrong with these people? Make a useable laptop that I can use all day (8-12 hours) and can plug in overnight. End of story.
Here we go again... who would ever buy a notebook of any shape or size at any price with only 2-3 hours of battery life? That's basically UNUSEABLE. They talk like it's acceptable. A dead computer has NO performance, NO style, NO value! Cross country trips? what country -- Leichtenstein? WORTHLESS! I am still waiting -- please make a USEABLE portable device with at the very least 4-6 hours battery time, preferably 8-10 hours or more. I would like to be able to surf, show the kids a movie, do some work, play a game etc. on a trip and then watch another movie myself after that and show people pictures of my family. IF YOU MAKE IT, I WILL BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. I don't want to have to constantly watch and worry about the battery, and people use their computers for EVERYTHING these days -- THATS WHY WE WANT PORTABLE ONES NOW! Is my life supposed to stop in 2-3 hours? COME ON! I am getting upset about this, I KNOW I'm not the only one who feels this way. What's wrong with these people? Make a useable laptop that I can use all day (8-12 hours) and can plug in overnight. End of story.
Thanks for your comment, SpiralSun. Okay, you're right--there's no tiny computer that lasts 8-12 hours. We just aren't there yet, technologically speaking. But, most of the computers in our round up can easily last 4 hours, and the Sony will definitely last more than 6 hours. Keep in mind that our BatteryEater test maxes out a machine's power consumption. In normal use, all of these machines would last more than 2 hours.
Thanks,
Rachel Rosmairn
Editor, Tom's Guide
Instead of considering these laptops, I'd rather go at BenQ X31. Extra inch on the display but monsterous graphics(8600GT) for a 13 inchers, and this means hell more performance and more plausible productivity. Have a look
http://benq.com/products/joybook/? [...] ifications
I love the idea of an ultraportable, but Tom's Guide and I have different requirements. I'm old enough that a larger screen means more to me than a DVD drive. I'm more likely to work on the plane than I am to watch a DVD. I almost never use the optical drive on my laptop other than to load software. Most people would consider me a road warrior, but my computing needs are very simple: internet, Word Processing, simple spreadsheets, email and presentations. Light weight, long battery life and a screen big enough that I don't have to spend more time scrolling than reading. I've loved my Fujitsu Lifebook S-6231, but it's now a little long in the tooth. the only problems have been short battery life and it's 4 lb. weight.
Couple things confused me. First, there's a button on the Sony that can launch multimedia without booting? Does this mean the machine can act like a DVD/MP3/MP4 player without booting into Windows? To me that would be an incredible Plus, watching videos on a plane without Windows running/eating up more power.
Second, what does Windows Vista Business w/ XP Pro Recovery media mean? Makes it sound like the manufacturer put the wrong DVD in the packaging. Is this supposed to mean you can revert to WindowsXP with the media they included (in addition to restoring Vista if necessary)?