Thin and light are the watchwords for laptops these days, doing their darnedest to stay relevant in the face of opposition from increasingly sophisticated tablets. The Portege Z830 is Toshiba's latest entry into this arena.
Design
Toshiba's top-end contribution to the ultrabook genre is certainly very thin, at a waffer-like 8.3mm (at the front, when it's open -- it bloats out to a still extremely svelte 15.9mm at the rear). Finished in brushed grey magnesium alloy it screams efficiency and a business-like can-do attitude.
It's lightweight too -- at 112g it's lighter than the comparatively portly 135g of the Macbook Air, and weighs less than quite a few smartphones. Lift the lid and you'll find a keyboard with nicely spaced backlit keys made out of tactile rubberised plastic. The lid itself is a vanishingly thin at just 3mm and feels just a wee bit too flexible for comfort, though some light bending didn't seem to do it any harm.
The LED backlit screen measures 13.3 inches and offers an impressively sharp resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. Its matte coating cuts down on glare and text and pics are all clear and nicely defined. The mouse pad too is sensitive and responsive -- a pleasure to use. Beneath it sits a fingerprint reader to protect your files against intruders and setting it up was easy and straightforward.
Features and performance
Thin it may be, but that doesn't mean the Z830 has surrendered connectivity options. There's an Ethernet port so you don't have to rely on the 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connection. There's also not one, not two, but three USB ports (one of which is the super-fast USB 3.0 type) scattered around the back and sides, as well as 3.5mm analogue connections for microphone and headphones.
Performance-wise the second generation Intel Core i5-2557M processor comes with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 backed by 6GB of RAM, not to mention a 128GB solid-state drive too. It's fast, and will juggle lots of applications without showing any noticeable slow-down.
It delivered a PCMark benchmark rating of 2915, which is pretty good, and took three minutes and 25 seconds to encode our test 11 minute movie for iTunes -- a good 50 seconds ahead of Samsung's Series 5 ultrabook. Gaming-wise it put on a smooth show too, delivering typical frame rates around 110-120fps using the recommended settings in Portal.
Beware though, the ventilation ports on the bottom and at the back don't appear to be as efficient as they might be, and it can soon feel uncomfortably hot if you're resting it on your lap.
Conclusion
The Toshiba Portege Z830 is a beautifully thin and lightweight package that fits Intel's ultrabook description (thin, fast, light, affordable) in all aspects but the price, which is very much in the premium category. But if your pockets are deep enough, it both looks and feels great and performs brilliantly.
Design
Toshiba's top-end contribution to the ultrabook genre is certainly very thin, at a waffer-like 8.3mm (at the front, when it's open -- it bloats out to a still extremely svelte 15.9mm at the rear). Finished in brushed grey magnesium alloy it screams efficiency and a business-like can-do attitude.
It's lightweight too -- at 112g it's lighter than the comparatively portly 135g of the Macbook Air, and weighs less than quite a few smartphones. Lift the lid and you'll find a keyboard with nicely spaced backlit keys made out of tactile rubberised plastic. The lid itself is a vanishingly thin at just 3mm and feels just a wee bit too flexible for comfort, though some light bending didn't seem to do it any harm.
The LED backlit screen measures 13.3 inches and offers an impressively sharp resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. Its matte coating cuts down on glare and text and pics are all clear and nicely defined. The mouse pad too is sensitive and responsive -- a pleasure to use. Beneath it sits a fingerprint reader to protect your files against intruders and setting it up was easy and straightforward.
Features and performance
Thin it may be, but that doesn't mean the Z830 has surrendered connectivity options. There's an Ethernet port so you don't have to rely on the 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connection. There's also not one, not two, but three USB ports (one of which is the super-fast USB 3.0 type) scattered around the back and sides, as well as 3.5mm analogue connections for microphone and headphones.
Performance-wise the second generation Intel Core i5-2557M processor comes with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 backed by 6GB of RAM, not to mention a 128GB solid-state drive too. It's fast, and will juggle lots of applications without showing any noticeable slow-down.
It delivered a PCMark benchmark rating of 2915, which is pretty good, and took three minutes and 25 seconds to encode our test 11 minute movie for iTunes -- a good 50 seconds ahead of Samsung's Series 5 ultrabook. Gaming-wise it put on a smooth show too, delivering typical frame rates around 110-120fps using the recommended settings in Portal.
Beware though, the ventilation ports on the bottom and at the back don't appear to be as efficient as they might be, and it can soon feel uncomfortably hot if you're resting it on your lap.
Conclusion
The Toshiba Portege Z830 is a beautifully thin and lightweight package that fits Intel's ultrabook description (thin, fast, light, affordable) in all aspects but the price, which is very much in the premium category. But if your pockets are deep enough, it both looks and feels great and performs brilliantly.
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