This review is from: Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) (Personal Computers)
The Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 is Toshiba’s latest entry in a very competitive ultrabook market. Toshiba’s aim here was to produce the lightest ultraportable laptop while maintaining some functionality and they’ve done a very nice job. The laptop weighs in at a hair over 2.5 pounds (which is about 3 slim magazines). This is a welcomed replacement to my eight pound 10 year old Apple Powerbook.
Structurally, the laptop is sound. You can pick up the laptop by one corner and the chassis will not flex nor bend. This is surprising considering how thin the laptop is. Conversely, the screen is very flexible and bends easily. I’ve read reports that the screen wobbles when you are typing with the laptop on your lap but I haven’t experienced that at all. While the hinges are stiff enough, you wouldn’t want to open the laptop screen with the corner of the screen. You would hold the screen from the center to open it.
The SSD is zippy and loading takes only 4-5 seconds from cold start and almost instantaneous from sleep mode. The i5 processor is very capable of handling the demands of most business users and casual gamers. The laptop never hiccuped when running Microsoft Office products with multiple documents or spread sheets open. While the laptop is not intended for gaming, I was able to play Star Craft 2 on the lowest settings without any lag at all. However, turning up the graphics settings slowed the game down quite a bit.
The only complaints I have so far:
- spacing of the keyboard keys. The keys are spaced out in such a way that I tend to miss keys sometimes. It may be a good idea to go to a retail store and play with the keyboard for a bit to see if you like it.
- built in webcam picture quality is slightly grainy – not what I expected out of a laptop this expensive
- fan noise – in a quiet room, there is an audible hum coming from underneath the laptop, do anything processor/graphics intensive and the fan kicks into overdrive and can be annoying
Despite some shortcomings, my initial impressions have been very good thus far. This was my first laptop purchase online and I was a little hesitant that I wouldn’t be happy but I have been nothing but pleased so far in the week that I’ve owned it. I’ll be back in a few weeks to update my review after I’ve had a chance top play with it some more, but so far, I’d have to give it two thumbs up.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) (Personal Computers)
I’m giving this a Fiver. What a great little machine. At 2.5 pounds it’s like the Jenny Craig of laptops. I did my due diligence research before I purchased and the Toshiba Ultras were rated highly on many different sites. Also I happen to work in the same lab as the Emerging Technologies group for my company and they had ordered 5 evaluation units from 5 different mfgs so I was able to compare them all straight up before purchasing. The Toshiba was definitely the winner and the Samsung Series 9 was very good also. The ACER, ASUS and HP were definitely trailing with the HP coming in last (sorry HP guys). The processor and ram specs were all very similar so I based a lot of my opinion on asthectics, keyboard layout, design and weight. I’m not going to go into so called “cons” like the size of the hard drive or lack of CD-ROM since the buyer knows these things up front anyway and if that won’t work for you then look at another machine. A con to me is more like claimed performance not living up to expectations or a hardware component that is flakey. As far as the “heavy lifting” goes, you can do all the heavy lifting you want with the I5 processor as long as it’s within the contraints of the capacity of the hard drive. I love the instant on feature and it truly does work as advertised. Along with Amazons usual kick butt fast shipping I’m very pleased with this purchase.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
A Very Good Competitor in the Ultrabook Lineup,
The Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 is Toshiba’s latest entry in a very competitive ultrabook market. Toshiba’s aim here was to produce the lightest ultraportable laptop while maintaining some functionality and they’ve done a very nice job. The laptop weighs in at a hair over 2.5 pounds (which is about 3 slim magazines). This is a welcomed replacement to my eight pound 10 year old Apple Powerbook.
Structurally, the laptop is sound. You can pick up the laptop by one corner and the chassis will not flex nor bend. This is surprising considering how thin the laptop is. Conversely, the screen is very flexible and bends easily. I’ve read reports that the screen wobbles when you are typing with the laptop on your lap but I haven’t experienced that at all. While the hinges are stiff enough, you wouldn’t want to open the laptop screen with the corner of the screen. You would hold the screen from the center to open it.
The SSD is zippy and loading takes only 4-5 seconds from cold start and almost instantaneous from sleep mode. The i5 processor is very capable of handling the demands of most business users and casual gamers. The laptop never hiccuped when running Microsoft Office products with multiple documents or spread sheets open. While the laptop is not intended for gaming, I was able to play Star Craft 2 on the lowest settings without any lag at all. However, turning up the graphics settings slowed the game down quite a bit.
The only complaints I have so far:
- spacing of the keyboard keys. The keys are spaced out in such a way that I tend to miss keys sometimes. It may be a good idea to go to a retail store and play with the keyboard for a bit to see if you like it.
- built in webcam picture quality is slightly grainy – not what I expected out of a laptop this expensive
- fan noise – in a quiet room, there is an audible hum coming from underneath the laptop, do anything processor/graphics intensive and the fan kicks into overdrive and can be annoying
Despite some shortcomings, my initial impressions have been very good thus far. This was my first laptop purchase online and I was a little hesitant that I wouldn’t be happy but I have been nothing but pleased so far in the week that I’ve owned it. I’ll be back in a few weeks to update my review after I’ve had a chance top play with it some more, but so far, I’d have to give it two thumbs up.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Extremely pleased,
I’m giving this a Fiver. What a great little machine. At 2.5 pounds it’s like the Jenny Craig of laptops. I did my due diligence research before I purchased and the Toshiba Ultras were rated highly on many different sites. Also I happen to work in the same lab as the Emerging Technologies group for my company and they had ordered 5 evaluation units from 5 different mfgs so I was able to compare them all straight up before purchasing. The Toshiba was definitely the winner and the Samsung Series 9 was very good also. The ACER, ASUS and HP were definitely trailing with the HP coming in last (sorry HP guys). The processor and ram specs were all very similar so I based a lot of my opinion on asthectics, keyboard layout, design and weight. I’m not going to go into so called “cons” like the size of the hard drive or lack of CD-ROM since the buyer knows these things up front anyway and if that won’t work for you then look at another machine. A con to me is more like claimed performance not living up to expectations or a hardware component that is flakey. As far as the “heavy lifting” goes, you can do all the heavy lifting you want with the I5 processor as long as it’s within the contraints of the capacity of the hard drive. I love the instant on feature and it truly does work as advertised. Along with Amazons usual kick butt fast shipping I’m very pleased with this purchase.
Was this review helpful to you?
|