Toshiba Portege R835-P81 Laptop Review
The Toshiba Portege entered the market as a cheaper alternative to the sleek ultraportable laptops: one that doesn't get rid of the internal DVD drive and that also comes with a bigger hard drive. However, with a reduction in price comes the inevitable reduction in certain features. Is this the right laptop for you?
Key Specs For The Toshiba Portege R835-P81
- RRP: $899.99
- Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
- Size: 12.44” x 8.94” x 1.05”
- Weight: 3.2 lbs.
- Display size: 13.3”
- Storage: 640GB HDD
- Processor: Intel Core i5 2.4GHz
- RAM: 6GB DDR3
- Battery life: 9 hours
Toshiba Portege R835-P81: The Pros
Portability: The Toshiba Portege comes in at just over 3 lbs., putting it into the category of ultralight Windows laptops such as the Acer Aspire S3 and Asus Zenbook. Although the latter two do weigh slightly more, this laptop can still fit very easily into your backpack for travel on trains, planes and while simply walking around. The charger is also smaller than a standard laptop charger, making it easier to transport.
Price: Most portable laptops come with a large price tag to match, unless you're willing to forego power in favor of a low-priced Netbook. Thankfully, the Toshiba Portege gives you processing power at a lower price tag of around $900. There aren't many portable laptops that can match this model in terms of features and price.
RAM: Many other laptops in this price range come with 4 GB RAM included, but with the Toshiba Portege you'll get 6 GB as standard. This makes it a lot easier to run a number of applications at the same time: useful for those who use more intensive programs, or who like to browse the web, watch a movie and chat on Skype at the same time!
Storage Space: For its weight range, the 640 GB is a very welcome addition to this laptop, and much higher than you'll find on the average machine. True, many users will find that they never need to fill the full 640 GB. However, if you download lots of games, music and movies, this space will be very welcome indeed.
Processor: The 2.4 GHz i5 processor is one of the latest on the market, and is the same processor you'll find in laptops that cost a few hundred dollars more than this one. Turbo boost means that you can boost it up to 3.0 GHz if you need to run particularly intensive programs.
Battery Life: In general, you can expect the battery life of an ultraportable laptop to last between 6-8 hours. The Toshiba Portege is one of the best models in this respect, as it's battery will last up to a whopping 9 hours. Perfect if you regularly travel across distances where you are unable to charge the laptop, or if you simply don't want to worry about having to bring the charger around with you ever day.
Eco Saver Mode: If you want to get the very most out of the battery life then take advantage of Eco Mode. This dims the screen, though it still remains very readable, and lowers the wattage by a considerable degree.
Internal DVD Drive: If you're shopping for a laptop based mainly on weight and portability, then you may find that some are slightly lighter and smaller than the Toshiba Portege. What you may not realize, however, is that most others don't include an optical drive. The fact that this Toshiba Laptop features a DVD drive is a huge bonus for many users.
Toshiba Portege R835-P81: The Cons
Hard Drive: Unlike true ultraportable laptops, the Toshiba Portege doesn't come with an SSD hard drive, as you would expect at this price point. This means that it's slower to access your data, and doesn't have the “instant resume” feature that many ultraportables offer when switched back on from standby. If you've never used an SSD disc before then you won't be disappointed, but you're likely to notice the reduction in speed if you're used to using the newer technology.
Loading Time: It's not just the hard drive technology that affects the loading time. Unfortunately, Toshiba include a large amount of software that'll lead to slower loading speeds. It can take some time to manually go through what's there to get rid of the unnecessary programs.
Controls: There are a few minor niggles with the controls. For example, you may need to turn the sensitivity up on the trackpad controls, and there is no backlight on the keyboard for typing in lower light conditions. However, these shouldn’t really put you off.
Is The Toshiba Portege R835-P81 Worth Buying?
In short, the Toshiba Portege is an excellent option for those who want a little more style and portability than your standard entry-level laptop, but who don't want to pay for the likes of a Macbook Air. The Toshiba Portege goes above and beyond the basics with a massive hard drive, 6 GB RAM, great battery life and more.