Toshiba Portege Z835: A New Ultrabook Appears
by Dustin Sklavos on November 16, 2011 2:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- Sandy Bridge
- Ultrabook
Battery Life, Heat, and Noise
Despite the incessant griping about the pokey Intel Core i3-2367M beating at the heart of the Toshiba Portege Z830, there's one place where a low-powered processor can pay dividends: battery life. The Z830 may have a weaker processor than the competing ASUS Zenbook UX21, but it also has a bigger battery. Check out this running time.
For sheer running time, the Portege Z830 lives up to the promise of ultrabooks, being an incredibly mobile notebook that lasts for a long time off the mains. When you look at the relative battery life, things get even better, with even the Optimus-enabled ASUS Eee PC and HP's E-350-based dm1z putting in weaker showings. Intel's CULV chips have historically been big winners, and suddenly the i3-2367M doesn't look so bad anymore: it's faster in every way than Atom or Zacate, and more frugal with power to boot. That said, the Z830 also benefits from having an mSATA SSD which is also going to sip power.
All that battery life wouldn't amount to much if the Z830 was noisy or hot in the process, but surprisingly it's neither of those things. The fan has a very low whine when the system is idling that isn't particularly intrusive, and while that whine does increase in volume under load, it's still nowhere near as irritating as the fan noise is on most notebooks. Better still, despite the thin, flimsy chassis, the Z830 remains fairly cool to the touch as well. During our stress testing loop, no hot spots really surfaced: this is a very cool, very quiet notebook that's definitely fine for using as an honest to goodness laptop.
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iWatchHogwash2 - Thursday, July 23, 2015 - link
Maybe some idiot will buy them
Henk Poley - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
Shouldn't that read silver, instead of sliver? The typo is made several times.dszc - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
For me, the ultrabook concept is a bulls-eye!EXACTLY what I need.
I need to get real work done when I travel. And I must travel more than I want to.
The Zenbook looks almost perfect. But it has that stupid Asus "keyboard" and an inadequate glossy panel TN display. Give me a real display and keyboard and I'll glady pay an extra $100-200.
This new Toshiba Z835 completely misses the mark and the concept. It is just a glorified netbook. Nothing "ULTRA" about it. Same problem with the Macbook Air. At least Asus with their Zenbook is on the right track.
I'm a photographer and am always processing RAW files in Lightroom and Photoshop. That takes horsepower. The i7 and SSD in the Zenbook have it. The laptop needs to be small enough to easily add to carry-on when flying, and it needs to fit on a airline fold-down tray. Probably 13". It needs enough battery life to last cross-country. And maybe a spare battery for trans-Atlantic.
With the Zenbook, whenver I have 5-10 minutes I could just pop it out and finish another picture (project/spreadsheet/fill-in-the-blank). With my current Asus G51 beast, with its ~10lb+ travel weight, by the time I find an electrical outlet, get it plugged in and booted up, my 10 minutes is gone and I have done no work.
For storage, a small 2.5" external USB3 makes the most sense. All my data and files stay on there and I can just plug that into my desktop or anyone else's computer when not traveling.
This ultrabook concept is perfect for me. Until it came along, I had no hope. Now, all of a sudden, The Zenbook and Lenovo's high-powered entry are very close!
Sunburn74 - Sunday, November 20, 2011 - link
Anand is a real screen junkie. It makes his articles incredibly hard to interprete. Whilst he writes off laptops that haveTN panels with 1366x788 resolutions and are glossy, I personally have used said laptops and don't care or eve notice the screen. I dont work outdoors. I don't spend all my time looking at my windows icons. I don't game on my laptop. I watch the occasional movie on it and do so in crowded environments where I am always distracted by the time, the people, when the bus/train will come, etc. I am a completely normal person with completely normal usage patterns and to me the ultrabooks are highly appealing.I have never cared about the screen as long as its reasonably functional. I very feel people who buy macs also really don't care either (the imac is IPS, the mac air is TN and no one cares).
Sternreisender - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - link
I picked the Z835 up at BB at the end of November. My last laptop died a few weeks before and I had just come into the required monies so I was chomping at the bit. My requirements were SSD, backlit keyboard, ultrabook.I could have waited for the Folio13 but honestly, I've been happy. Main usage is web browsing/movie watching. I wanted portability. It feels fragile, sure, but I'm willing to accept that. Been very happy with battery life.
I understand there are many sacrifices others don't want to make, but just wanted to throw that out there. :)
shorty lickens - Friday, June 22, 2012 - link
Its 699 at Best Buy this week, which makes it an easier pill to swallow. Of course I bet a lot of folks are waiting for the next generation which has better stats and a more reasonable price.