back to article First look at Toshiba's Portégé Z830 Ultrabook

Toshiba was keeping its Portégé Z830 under glass at IFA, so while we couldn't pick it up and click away, we could at least get some snaps and make some initial observations. Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook Toshiba's Z830: the conservative user's Ultrabook choice? Where Acer has accepted that Apple's MacBook Air was the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    eltiT

    "And, as with the S3, we'll have to wait to see how the Z830 performs and how well whatever capacity of lithium-polymer battery Toshiba has put into it will last."

    As we do with every Apple product under the sun, since they're the geniuses that decided batteries shouldn't be removed without a tool kit... I don't see the same snide remarks in your MacbookAir pieces though?

    The Tosh looks like a cool computer for those of us that actually want to use a laptop instead of just wanting an accessory to pose with. This is a good thing, unless you're a poser with an Apple fetish ;)

    1. Ilgaz

      In addition to that

      They don't have an unhealthy cult following forcing people to post anonymously whenever they dare to critize their precious status symbol.

      They won't be able to make working hardware obsolete via operating system and developer tools trickery too.

      So, Toshiba has a long term healthy future.

  2. oopsie

    Ports

    Is that a VGA port i see on the back?

    The main reason i'd take a display port over HDMI is that it seems a lot of places still don't have great support for digital video built in to their projection systems, so a method of getting analogue out is still pretty welcome. As said, executive oriented, perhaps?

    1. Patrick R
      Holmes

      Is it ?

      If it looks like a VGA port and the picture comment says it is a VGA port, then yes, it probably is a VGA port you see on the back.

    2. Ilgaz

      Projectors and also some home tvs

      I just plugged my quad G5 to my home lcd tv via hdmi port to see the screen isn't right. It is either overscanned or underscanned.

      From past experience, I am absolutely sure when I find my old school VGA cable and plug it in, Mac will display perfectly fine in some strange resolution.

      I also worked in high end projector, presentation tools industry. Companies and governments, Hollywood paid tens of thousands of dollars to such setups because they want reliability, ultra low em standards (.mil guys, hospitals) and they definately don't want to replace it every couple of years. More like like reasons why people buy mainframes.

      So, they have (a $50K Barco) component, vga inputs and they were higher than 1080p way before the consumer stuff.

      I am sure you know the stuff above but repeating for "trendy" guys who can't get why a VGA port has to exist. It is more like why cars do have and will have cigarette lighter slots.

  3. Steve Medway
    WTF?

    Ultrabook.....

    Why will ultrabooks succeed when the expensive Dell Adimo (surely it was a an ultrabook in all but name) failed even though it was beautiful?

    1. Ilgaz

      I am sure Toshiba guys wonder that too

      Toshiba did some absolutely amazing things back in 1990s where CPU technology (x86) really didn't have a place in anything less than a laptop.

      I remember a Nokia 9000 series sized micro laptop did run Windows 9x all fine, actually it run NT better if you could give up old school software and dos.

      They could never sell them and now, they re-invent these and media/public gets impressed. I am sure there are couple of Japanese managers wondering about it.

      I am not a portable pc type guy but if I wanted such an ultra light computer, it would be Toshiba because of their expertise producing only portables. Not Dell. Sony could make sense if they didn't insist on their crap traditions like weird cameras, add on software terror and os policies.

  4. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

    Less Resilient? I don't think so.

    If you drop a laptop with a plastic case, the plastic mostly rebounds, or cracks for excessive force. If you drop a laptop with an aluminium case, the case dents permanently.

    I've had a few of the Apple models over the years, and to be honest, I found the white polycarbonate MacBook to be the most resilient of all; the Aluminium models retain the evidence of every time they've slid of a chair (brushed aluminium has much lower friction than gloss polycarbonate), or been dropped, or had something fall onto them, and look like crap once they've been through a year of actual outdoor use.

    My Macbook Air was the wost: it had a nasty dent in the corner of the lower half after an encounter with the floor of Heathrow T5 security; the only way to get the unit to close afterwards was to take a heavy pliers to the revolutionary unibody enclosure and bend it back flat. (The casework is so expensive on a MBA it wasn't worth replacing)

    Apple didn't adopt metal enclosures for toughness, it was purely to make the units thinner. The metal-skinned units were a lot more fragile than the plastic ones they replaced.

  5. jason 7
    Thumb Up

    Not only a VGA Port at the back.......

    but other ports at the back too! Amazing. I cant understand why this factor has been ignored for so long by manufacturers and we have to have all manner of cables jutting out the sides of our laptops. Never looks very nice or tidy when sat on your stylish desk.

    1. Goat Jam

      hrrrmph

      If you use it like a laptop, that is to say, a *mobile* computer, then side access ports are much more convenient for quick connect/disconnect operations.

      If, OTOH, you are one of those morons who buy an expensive laptop only to plonk it down immobile on a desk for the duration of its work life, then I can totally see how rear access ports might be more attractive.

      On another subject entirely, what is the problem with the reghardware forums versus the normal reg forums? How come I can't be logged into both at the same time?

      Even when using lastpass it is clunky and annoying. I suspect you are using the same cookie for both sites but have fsked it up somehow.

      It's been like this for years, is there any plan to fix it?

  6. Alan Edwards
    Happy

    Fancy hinges

    > but other ports at the back too! Amazing. I cant understand why this factor has been ignored

    > for so long by manufacturers

    It's because somebody somewhere (Apple, probably) decided it looked cooler if the screen hinge dropped the bottom of the screen behind the main body of the machine.

    Also, a lot of laptops have the battery along the back edge, so that you can have an extended battery that sticks out.

    TBH, I like having the USBs on the side, you don't have to turn the machine round (ripping half the cables out) to find the port to plug your thumb drive into.

  7. Mikko

    nice, but one thing (apparently) missing

    Integrated 3G, integrated 3G... where are you? At least there is no some hope of getting that in one of the ultrabooks, it seems Apple just isn't interested in providing that option.

    Toshiba might be the one to provide it as an option, at least - this is the least-MBA like ultrabook so far.

  8. Andy Barker

    USB 3.0?

    Looks like the port on the side is USB 3.0, which is nice in a laptop.

  9. Gordon 10
    WTF?

    I don't get it

    How do these Ultrabooks differ from ultraportables that have been around for years?

    My 10? Year old dell x1 had the same form factor and price point. Apart from newer innards what's changed?

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