That also shows in the extremely wobbly screen hinge, a part that was very sturdy on both the Zenbook and the U300s. Toshiba says its "enhanced honeycomb rib design" and beefed-up internal structure give it great shock absorption - and that may very well be the case - but there’s just something about the entire package that makes it feel more flimsy than the others. Unlike the aluminum MacBook Air or Lenovo U300s, the Z835 is made of a magnesium alloy casing which doesn’t feel as tough as those more solid machines. The flipside to the light weight is the fact that the machine doesn’t feel all that well-made. The laptop is lighter than most 10-inch netbooks, and it truly doesn’t feel like a 13-inch laptop when you're porting it around in one hand. As you can see in the chart below, at 2.47 pounds this is the lightest ultrabook to date (yep, even lighter than the 13-inch Air), and the savings are absolutely noticeable in a bag or in hand. It's not all bad, though: the Z835's trim dimensions and light weight disguise its uninspired design quite a bit. I got the "does it come in black?" question from more than one person - and no, it doesn’t. Not everyone I showed the laptop to thought it was as unattractive as I did, but we all agreed that Toshiba should have spent more time on the look and chosen something other than lifeless graphite grey. It’s actually reminiscent of this Toshiba from the late 80s in terms of the coloring. Toshiba’s done quite a nice job slimming the machine down and keeping it very light, and I will get to that in a second, but the aesthetic is simply outdated. Yes, that’s my way of saying the laptop just isn’t that attractive. Switching from the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s to the Portege Z835 is like changing out of a beautiful dress into an old pair of sweats that you’d rather no one ever saw you in.
Toshiba r830 review full#
Could the Z835 be the no-compromise ultrabook that finally beats the Air on pricing and features? Is the fourth time the charm? Read on for my full review. The Toshiba Portege Z835 is the fourth ultrabook to hit the market this fall, and it offers the most intriguing price / performance mix yet: it's just $900, but includes a number of attributes the others don’t, including a backlit keyboard, more ports (full size Ethernet, VGA, and HDMI jacks), and a lighter chassis. To recap: the Acer Aspire S3 had a slower hard drive / SSD combo and atrocious keyboard, the Asus Zenbook UX31 had unforgivable trackpad issues, and the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s’ price didn’t undercut the Air enough to excuse its missing SD card slot and lower resolution display. But none of them have been successful each has had its own set of compromises which just haven’t been worth the savings. In the last couple of weeks, ultrabooks - Intel’s new category of ultrathin and ultralight laptops - have been arriving one by one, each aiming to derail the MacBook Air’s lead with a mix of competitive pricing and new features.