7. Conclusions

Toshiba's Portege M400 sports a decent set of hardware components. It's also ergonomically a pretty good mobile computer in standard clamshell open mode. It has a typically small keyboard and touchpad, both of which I'd like to see drastically redesigned, not just on Toshiba's line of mobile computers, but on portables from all manufacturers.

In Tablet PC mode, the Portege is handicapped by its size and weight. The M400 has reached and maybe exceeded the limits of the Tablet PC concept on the hardware side. Additionally, as with Tablet PCs from all manufacturers, performance is hampered by the Tablet PC operating system.

If you like the M400 and there's certainly lots to like you might consider buying it mainly for use as a compact and fairly light notebook computer. On those occasions when the urge strikes and you've been working out or eating your spinach for a few days, you can flip the display and go into Tablet PC mode.

If you're looking for a better implementation of the Tablet PC concept, take a look at Fujitsu's 2.1 pound Lifebook P1510D. It doesn't have the computing power of the M400, but it works pretty well in Tablet PC mode both from a conceptual and operating system point of view. Check out my review of the Fujitsu here.

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