Toshiba Portege Z10t is a New Take on Convertibles
by Dustin Sklavos on May 29, 2013 9:00 AM ESTConvertibles that can jump between being tablets and full-on notebooks are becoming an increasingly popular option due to both the design of Windows 8 and, to a greater extent, the gradual convergence between those product types. We're not quite at the point where anyone has nailed it without making some kind of serious sacrifice, but we're definitely getting there and the experimentation by different vendors is nothing if not interesting.
Enter Toshiba's Portege Z10t. Unlike most full x86 tablets currently available, which use either Intel's current-generation Atom (thus sacrificing performance) or 17W Ivy Bridge (thus sacrificing weight and heat), the Z10t is coming out of the gate with 13W Ivy Bridge. It also includes 4GB of DDR3, a minimum 128GB SSD, and per its business-class design, supports vPro.
The Portege Z10t also features an 11.6" 1080p IPS display, but unique to it is a special fingerprint-resistant coating that I found vastly preferable to the traditional glass used on tablets. My fingertip was able to move comfortably and virtually friction free across the surface, and Toshiba also includes both a pressure-sensitive primary stylus and a secondary one mounted inside the chassis. Toshiba is also using a Wacom digitizer for the Z10t.
Where the Portege's convertible design differs is in the design of the keyboard dock; it's weighted in the back with additional ports and designed to easily close like an ultrabook, but there's no additional battery inside the dock itself. Toshiba will also be offering a separate port-replicator dock to use with the Z10t.
The tablet half is 0.53" thick and weighs a hair under two pounds; with the ultrabook keyboard dock, that weight goes up to a still svelte 3.1 pounds. It's expected to be available soon starting at $1,499.
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merikafyeah - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Two words: Thinkpad Helix:http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/thinkpad/...
It's out now, but at a really bad time; Haswell is just around the corner and is the single biggest improvement for battery life and efficiency Intel has ever achieved to date.
If the Helix had Haswell and was about $1000 cheaper it would literally be my perfect device.
(It's more than $2000 for the Core i7 model. Yikes.)
MrSpadge - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Agreed: a helix with Haswell seems to nail it. I even wouldn't min if the keyboard unit was a bit thicker and heavier.. and contained an HGST 5k1500 1.5 TB HDD :)And use a 17W CPU with cTDP. This way you should be able to change between "very quiet", "normal" and "number crunching" with a single click (or so).
Penti - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
No Wacom / Active digitizer in the Helix and it (this) competes against machines such as Lenovo X230T, Dell XPS12, XT3, Fujistu Stylistic Q702, HP EliteBook 2760p, Resolve 810 etc. Corp productivity machine, vPro, pen support is a totally different market than the helix.thesavvymage - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
damn, I'd love a tablet for business school in the fall, and seeing the digitizer support almost had me. But $1500? Hard to swallow when the surface pro costs $1000 for the same size ssd and still has the active digitizer. Not sure what would make this Toshiba model worth 50% more other than the keyboardGotThumbs - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
I just ordered two Surface Pros for my office. $1,000? Only if you choose NOT to order the 120.00 soft-touch keyboard. If you want the higher end keyboard, then its 139.00.While 1,500 is nothing to sneeze at....I think almost ALL of the posters are overlooking what this product provides for that price. No accessories to add onto the price to be up and running with the use of a keyboard. Even Apples tablet prices jump when you start tacking on all the extra accessories you need to use the device.
Be realistic and if you think you can produce a better product for less, please do. I look forward to reading the reviews for your low price, high spec device in the future and will seriously consider buying one.
Best Wishes,
GotThumbs - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Clarification. My last comment was not directed at thesavvymage, but to all those commenters bashing the product.faiakes - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
11.6" , 1920*1080 - again!?!These things have a 1.777 ratio, which is makes practically useless in portrait mode.
What if I want to read a magazine or a comic book?
I may not go near Apple stuff but if there is one thing the iPad has done right, is exactly that: understand that reading requires more width (or height depending on the perspective). The iPad 4 has a 1.333 ratio. If it was larger than 11" I would have bought one by now, iOS be damned.
althaz - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
I couldn't disagree more strongly. The 4:3 format is utterly retarded for a 9"+ tablet (it's awesome for the iPad mini though). 16:9 is WAY better (although 16:10 would be perfect).One handed, the iPad is a little unwieldy in either mode, whilst the portrait-mode Surface is much nicer to hold (it just balances much better in one hand).
In movie-watching the iPad wastes a lot of space, defeating some of the purpose of going for a larger (than 7-8") device.
If you are reading a book you want more height, if you are working you want more width (admitedly you can't do much in the way of work on the iPad, but it's getting there in this regard). 16:9 is a HUGE advantage over the ridiculously archaic format of the iPad. It's not perfect (in my view 16:10 is perfect), but it's certainly a lot better than 4x3. In my mind that's one of the key problems with the iPad (the other being a reasonably awful operating system).
faiakes - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
If we're talking about large tablets then the waste in video viewing space is negligible as far as I'm concerned,. Also, at 9"+ (or 11"+ which I'm looking for) size you'd have trouble holding anything one handed.Yet load a pdf on one of these 11.6" 16:9 (or worse) resolutions and seen how height you waste in portrait mode while everything has to look tiny to squeeze in the width of the publication. 16:9 limits the tablet to video consumption and constant scrolling of web pages.
Visual - Thursday, May 30, 2013 - link
I was pretty much set on getting a Helix, Haswell "around the corner" is a good reason to wait but experience tells me it will be more than a year till that actually makes its way into similar tablets. Then again, Murphy's law says if I do actually buy the IVB version, the updated one will come on the next day...The Helix price is high, much like on this model. But if it is with 3G, GPS, 256GB SSD, 3 year warranty, better build quality, dock included etc, then it almost makes up for it. Only thing that seemed missing was keyboard backlight...
Lets hope Toshiba also load up their model with similar goodies to make up for the price. If they launch soon enough I may even buy their product instead of Lenovo's, though I'm already a bit tired of waiting.