Review: Toshiba R850 Laptop
Posted Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 10:49 pm by Jason Cartwright
The Toshiba R850 laptop is marketed as a thin, light desktop replacement, so how does it stack up in reality. The R850 weighs in at 2.40kg, impressive for a 15” laptop, while the chassis feels strong and high build quality. Performance wise, the 2.5 Ghz Core i5 feels snappy, but one can’t help but think an SSD would have tipped it over the edge.
While most review units go back after 2 weeks, I asked Toshiba to keep it longer, to seriously test battery life in the real world. They say you can get up to 10 hours battery life, impressive.. if only it was true. I took the R850 on the road to CeBit and Remix conferences, emulating what a business laptop may be used for. In my experience, the R850 averaged 5-6 hours between charges.
Toshiba provide a customised Windows 7 power mode called ‘Eco’ which turns off area glass effects and no doubt restricts hard drive and processor performance to save power. Don’t get me wrong, 5-6 hours is actually pretty decent for a laptop this size and powerful, much better than the 1-2 hours most of us are used to, but just understand you won’t get 10 hours with real use.
Being part of the Toshiba R800 range means the R850 comes with Intel’s AMT 7.0 technology which enable your IT departments to manage, diagnose, isolate and repair a notebook remotely, regardless of the power state. It also comes with a dock underneath so you can work during the day, then take it home at night and keep working. With Display Port and USB3.0 connectivity, you can connect multiple external displays, so yes, this could replace some desktop systems.
Security is catered for with a fingerprint reader positioned between the left and right trackpad buttons, as well as facial recognition using the in-built webcam. Using the fingerprint reader to logon to Windows works well and in crowded environments rather not type out my passwords in front of peering eyes. The facial recognition wasn’t anywhere near successful and I ended up turning it off.
Specs / Features
Processor: Intel® Core i5 Processor 2520M (2.5 GHz boost up to 3.2 GHz)
RAM: 4GB DDR3 (1333MHz)
Display: 15.6” widescreen, LED backlit (1366×768 res)
HDD: 320GB (5400rpm)
Ports: 1 x USB 2.0, + 1 x USB 3.0, eSATA, VGA, Display Port
Slots: 1x PCI Express Card, SD card reader
Networking: Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 a/g/n, 1GB Ethernet.
Weight: 2.40kg
Gallery
Price
RRP $1,485-$3,300 inc GST
Overall
There’s no doubt the Toshiba R850 is a solid laptop that I’d have no trouble recommending. With great built quality, impressive lightness, good performance and reasonable pricing, it’s certainly worth considering for you next work/play/combination laptop. Personally travelling in planes semi-regular means that 15” is just too big and the relatively low resolution is certainly an issue. If your Dell or HP person, take a second to think before buying next time and consider the Toshiba R850.
More information @ Toshiba
Dell release pics of its new ultra-thin XPS
Posted Friday, May 6, 2011 at 6:11 pm by James MurphyRemember my post from like, two whole days ago? Seems there’s now some pics released of the new skinny laptop, dubbed the XPS 15z…
It’s nice, but a little underwhelming, after the Adamo lifted our standards a great deal. Check out the link below for more pics – what’s up with the keyboard/speaker combo?
As previously mentioned, there are more models to come (pictured above is the 15.6-inch model), with 14- and 17-inch models on the way. As noted in the previous article, Dell’s PR have confirmed that the thin and light laptop is headed for Australia, on the same day as the American release!
Let us know what you think!
Pics and more @ mobile-review.com
Dell’s Z brand extends to consumers 14z laptop, no induction
Posted Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 6:33 pm by Jason Cartwright
If you’ve always thought 13” is not quite big enough,but 15” is just to big, then Dell’s latest consumer laptop may be just what your after.
The Dell Inspiron 14z Laptop is thin and light like it’s 16” big brother Latitude Z. Right about now you probably wondering if the Z brand also means it features the same wireless inductive charging, sadly the answer is no.
Dell 14z specs:
- Core 2 Duo Processor SU7300 (1.3Ghz) – ultra-low power
- 4GB 1066Mhz DDR3 RAM
- 320GB 7200 RPM HDD
- 14” LED display (1366×768)
- 802.11n
- 6-cell battery (claimed 8hrs, 25mins), optional 9-cell (claimed 11 hrs)
- Price – $1,299
So what’s the take away from this ? I guess the Z branding simply means thin and light. Does that mean the new Adamo model next year will be an Adamo Z ?
More @ Dell Australia
Dell Latitude Z Laptop now available in Aus
Posted Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 6:22 pm by Jason Cartwright
The sexy new Latitude Z Laptop from Dell is now available in Australia. The default configuration is available for $2,799 which includes the wireless charging. All things considered, this is pricing is actually quite reasonable. It does have a long list of specs.
- Worlds thinnest 16” laptop (1600×900 resolution), WLED display
- Worlds first laptop with inductive charging
- Core 2 Duo 1.4Ghz SU9400 ultra-low power processor
- Multi-touch gesture-enabled trackpad
- 64GB SSD (room for an optional 2nd SSD)
- 2GB 1067Mhz DDR3 RAM
- 802.11n
- Small power brick
More @ Dell Australia
Review: Dell Adamo
Posted Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 5:26 am by Jason Cartwright
Overview
During my time at Tech.Ed, I got to spend some time with Dell’s premium, top of the line laptop – the Adamo. It’s a slick, lightweight, piece of engineering, however there are a few draw backs.
Specs
Whilst the Adamo in a couple of different configurations, and colours – Pearl (White) and Onyx (Black), the version I got to review is as follows.
Pearl
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (1.4GHz)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64 bit Edition (Free upgrade to Win7)
- 4GB 800MHz DDR3 dual-channel memory
- 13.4" 720p WLED (1366×768 resolution)
- 128GB Solid State Hard Drive
- 6-Cell (40WHr) Li-Ion Primary Battery
- Backlit keyboard
- 802.11n Wireless
- No optical drive
Gallery
Video
The Good
- Solid State Drive – The speed of this drive is amazing, it meant that Windows 7 (64-bit) booted in around 20 seconds. That’s 20 second. 128GB in size also meant there’s none of the typical data selection we experience when using laptops with small drives.
- Design – Right from the beginning, when you see the packaging, you realise the appearance and presentation is important. It’s a very, very different experience to opening up a regular Inspiron. The design looks fantastic, during my time with the Adamo, I showed it off to friends, which was usually met with ‘ooohs and aahhs’. The only place I could fault the design was a little bit of flex in the bottom panel, which by the way covers a non-user replaceable / upgradable battery.
- Keyboard – Oversized backlit keys make typing on the Adamo a breeze. Slightly concave, for touch typists, it’s easy to find where one key ends and the next one starts. For those times when you do need to look at the keys, you can happily do so in the dark. The keyboard backlight brightness is also adjustable, so it won’t be super-bright in a dark environment. You can also turn off the backlight completely to conserve battery life.
- Weight – The Adamo is definitely light, especially compared with other 13” laptops. Undoubtedly the aluminium body assists here. Personally the weight of a laptop is becoming more important to me. If I’m going to use a laptop for it’s desired – portability, then it needs to be comfortable to carry. The Adamo weighs 1.81 kg.
The Bad
- Price – Of course that SSD speed and size doesn’t come cheap, so surely a decent slab of the price can be contributed to that.
- Battery Life – Dell claim 5+ hr battery life, but in my experience it was more like 2-2.5hrs.
- Speakers – The arrangement of the speakers mean they’re actually pointing away from you. This results in a reflected sound reaching you which sounds quite tinny. Your best bet for audio on the Adamo is a USB headset.
- USB ports – the Adamo has 2 USB ports on the rear. The problem here lies in the closeness in which they’re placed. If your using a larger USB device (e.g. wireless USB modem), then you can forget about plugging in anything else like a mouse. Essentially this means you need to carry around a USB hub.
Overall
The Adamo is without a doubt Dell’s sexiest laptop. Fitting that amount of performance in such a small bundle is an amazing engineering feat. Clearly Dell are not the pioneers in ultra-thin laptops, but their edition is certainly a great device. The number one problem is the price. Despite having a great list of specs, the price of $3,299 is just too steep for even those in love with the Adamo.
Even the entry level Adamo with a 1.2Ghz processor and 2GB RAM costs $2,199. You could find many higher powered laptops for that price point, so you are paying quite a premium for the design.
If your cashed up and price isn’t an issue, I’d absolutely recommend the Dell Adamo. But Dell, if you want to move units, please drop the price.
More @ AdamoByDell
