Ultra Light Delight

Toshiba’s chic falls flat for me

by Juned on May 12th, 2008

I was reading an article about Toshiba’s new range of computers and it made me cringe. These seem to be computers that are the equivalents of puffs - mostly air and not much else. Specially if one promotes the notebook on flair predominantly. And this is where the tragedy occurs because it seems to be a good ultraportable if it were not for the over emphasis on the chic aspect of it.

Lets take a look at its features and its “style”:

I. Toshiba Portégé M800

- Weigh less than 2 kg

- Fusion Finish - something cosmetic and of no value whatsoever

- Feathertouch multimedia buttons

- Flushed touchpad with chrome mouse buttons

- White LED lighted Portégé logo

- Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz 3Mb L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)

- Web camera

- FM tuner

- business card reader (Optional for the business models)

- 13.3-inch Clear SuperView screen

II. M300 and A300

- 14.1 LCD screen (M300) and 15.4 WXGA Clear SuperView screen A300

- Toshiba Fusion Finish

- Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 CPU (2.5GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB

- A dedicated ATI Mobility GPU.

- REGZA-Link (HDMI-CEC) for instant connectivity to any HDMI-CEC enabled TVs.

III. Satellite L310 and L300

- No glossy Fusion Finish

- High resolution Clear SuperView TFT display

- DVD SuperMulti Doupble Layer Drive (DVD +/- RW/RAM)

- 5-in-1 card reader

- built-in Webcam

- Bluetooth v2.1

- wireless LAN (802.11g)

- 10/100 Ethernet LAN

Wait there is more!

All models use SmartFace technology - which lets users log on to their system conveniently. This technology uses a digital snapshot of the user’s face to make a unique password. And this is achieved via digital mapping the key features of the face. It can recognize multiple users and logs on to the Windows operating system without requiring users to remember and type a single password.

Except for the overemphasis on the Fusion Finish. This seems to be a decent set of notebooks and ultraportables. Chic and style is something that is need not be said aloud. And not very very very loud.

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POSTED IN: New Products, Ultraportable