I see LCD price fixing is still alive & kicking.
Toshiba prices up Portégé Ultrabook
Toshiba's first Ultrabook - the Portégé Z830; see our eyes-on, launched during September's IFA consumer electronics show - will finally go on sale this month. Toshiba Portege / Satellite Z830 ultrabook laptop The skinny machine will come with a choice of low-voltage Intel Core i3 and i5 processors, up to 6GB of DDR 3 memory …
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Thursday 3rd November 2011 12:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Close but still worse than it's main competitor
Yes, it's lovely, lovely, lovely.. yet it's screen still doesn't match up to the MacBook Air's 1440x900... who did they think the competition was with, Packard Bell? This machine costs a grand for goodness sake.
With a forced widescreen aspect then the important bit is the vertical resolution and 768 looks pretty poor compared to the 900 of the Air.
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Thursday 3rd November 2011 23:37 GMT P. Lee
re: Close but still worse than it's main competitor
Not to mention the Mac's huge trackpad.
It doesn't even come close to the screen on my ancient *Compaq* NC8000 which runs a 1.5 Mhz Pentium M.
Why do manufacturers think "widescreen films good, A4 documents not required" when it comes to screens? I presume it's to extend the battery life, but really, why is Apple the only one putting some R&D effort into this instead of taking the easy way out of cutting specs?
User interface - it isn't just the gui.
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Thursday 3rd November 2011 23:37 GMT Sean Baggaley 1
So much for the "Apple kit is overpriced" meme, then.
... some commentards will still find a way to believe the "Apple kit is overpriced" bullshit, despite the increasing evidence to the contrary.
The "up to" 6GB of RAM is nice, as is the base 128GB SSD—assuming there's no "up to" qualifier for that in the official specs too. But neither of these make up for the flaws...
What's that Tosh? No Thunderbolt port, despite it being an standard co-developed by Intel, who supply your CPUs? USB 3 is the best connectivity you offer? And a such a poor display too? And why the i3 and i5, but no i7 option?
Close, but no cigar.
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Friday 4th November 2011 13:15 GMT N13L5
compare this with Sony Vaio VPC SA***** models and it looks really old
sure, its slightly "thinner" but not really less weight...
With the VAIO, you get a real computer, not some stinky glorified netbook with crummy resolution and intel graphics...
On Sony's 'SA' models, you get a bright, non-reflective 1600x900 screen with extended color space,
an internal optical drive of your choice,
an i5 or i7 processor with integrated HD3000
and a switchable AMD HD 6630M GPU, which is within a few FPS of an Nvidia GT540M.
lastly, your choice of 750GB drive or dual solid state drives up to 1GB total.
Excellent backlit keyboard as well.
Now thats a real computer without having to carry more...
So far, Ultrabooks look like sorry excuses for a real computer, made for people who buy computers based on fashion and the hope to impress people by being on the latest Apple fad...
Of course, if you only browse and skype and nothing else, I guess an overpriced low resolution, skimpy but skinny portable typewriter is all you need. Seems like you could just buy a little bluetooth keyboard for your mobile phone and save yourself the whole hassle of yet another device.
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Friday 4th November 2011 23:28 GMT AdamWill
er, yes, it is less weight
"sure, its slightly "thinner" but not really less weight..."
Er, yes, it's less weight. The SA weighs 1.61kg, or nearly half as much again as this.
To get a Vaio in the same weight class you need to go to the 2011 Z, which weighs 1.17kg, nearly exactly the same. It's a lot more powerful than Ultrabooks, but costs just about exactly twice as much.
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