Toshiba intros Portege R500: first 12.1” widescreen for indoors and out
The press release just hit the wire today and so does the new Toshiba R500 Portege notebook. Toshiba indicates the R500 is the world’s first 12.1-inch widescreen notebook available with an indoor/outdoor display, which sounds right to me. There’s a few few more superlatives in case that’s not enough: it’s the world’s first notebook with a 7mm optical drive and offers the world’s longest battery life in the 12.1-inch widescreen class. The last point is debatable due to the footnote at the bottom of the page which has a laundry list of specifics to this class; still, it’s nice to see the emphasis on battery life.
The order it now price of $1,999 includes all of the above world’s firsts plus:
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional
- Intel U7600 Core 2 Duo: 1.2 GHz, 533 FSB; Intel 950 GMA
- 1 GB of RAM
- 120 GB hard drive, 5,400 RPM
- WXGA resolution with an LED backlit panel
- 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
An additional $150 upgrades your R500 to Vista Business. Between the LED backlight and power-efficient processor, the battery life should be quite good for this form factor which only weighs 2.4 pounds. Toshiba will be offering a 64 GB SSD option later in the year which will increase battery life further and reduce weight to 1.7 pounds. I’d love to see Toshiba then offer this as a Tablet PC with those specs.
I’ve been waiting for the replacement of the R200 since CES… I just ordered one… can’t wait! (I had an R100 as well… love sub 2lb laptops…)
BUT if you notice they NOWHERE provide ANY specific battery life expectancy numbers (even in the “detailded specs” doc on their web site). It’s pretty easy to claim that you have best in class battery life when you are touting your laptop as the ONLY laptop in its class.
I’d be shocked if this ends up with anywhere near the battery life times that the Sony TX and new TZ series units provide (8 hours plus in real life…).
Hoping I’m wrong though as it would be nice to have another alternative to the new TZ when it comes out in the US later this month…
I am now wary of Toshiba’s announcements. I have an R400 and was promised Active notifications (edge display magic), Ultra Wide Band docking option and cutting edge battery performance through cutting edge low power components…
I was an early adopter and I ended up with a great Tablet nonetheless but without active notifications (It just does not work folks no matter how hard we try), no ultra wide band, yeah, we werent supposed to buy the first generation of the R400 and battery performance is not cutting edge.
Don’t expect too much out of the R500 on what Toshiba promises. The screen might be its great feature though.