Toshiba Portege R700 - Portability Unleashed

Portability Unleashed

When we last saw the the business-minded Toshiba Portege R600, it had become a tiny machine, just 12.1-inches of goodness packed into a frame that’s less than 1kg. To do so, it had to cut some performance compromises by using an Intel Ultra-Low Voltage processor. Its successor, the 13.3-inch Toshiba Portege R700 however, upsized the screen but comes with a more beefy mobile processor while still retaining a light form factor at just 1.39kg.

There are three models with three different processors to choose from, and our review unit sports the top-of-the-line specs with an Intel Core i7-620M. As for the notebook's overall appearance, you’ll probably love its magnesium alloy’s brush metal feel and build. It looks like Toshiba has done a pretty nifty job with the unit and we'll reveal more in the following pages if the better specs and build hold will in our scrutiny. One thing though, at full performance, it seems that the unit’s fan can get quite noisy.

Designed Interior

As the notebook's exterior hinted, the interior too is easy on the eyes and shares much of the same design language. The screen being one of the major highlights under the lid, you’ll be happy to note that it's a matte version that doesn’t annoy your eyes with surrounding reflections. Unlike the Toshiba Portege R600 though, the R700 lacks the trans-reflective screen, so in bright sunlight, you may have to squint a little. That said, we’re glad that business notebooks haven’t yet made the transition to a glossy reflective screen, and our eyes can rest happy.

The next major spotlight under the lid is the unit's isolated keyboard, which while nice to look, was a little stiff on our fingers. You may get tired after typing on the keyboard after awhile, but it’s still a pretty decent effort. When you note how thin the notebook is, you’ll realize that the minimum flex that we encountered is really quite impressive for the R700. As for the trackpad, we had no problems using it, and is pretty much better than what we’ve encountered on previous Toshiba notebooks.

Performance Benchmarking

We decided to pit a recent 14-inch Acer notebook, the Timeline X 4820TG and the older Toshiba Portege R600 against the Toshiba Portege R700. The Acer unit shares very similar specs and should be able to give us a good feel of where the R700 stands on our usual benchmark tests of PCMark Vantage and 3DMark06. Sadly, we don’t really think 3D performance matters as the R700 is using an integrated graphics solution, but the Acer Timeline X 4820TG should give a good idea on the big gulf between discrete and integrated.

PCMark Vantage

In the PCMark Vantage benchmark, we see that the stronger processor of the Toshiba Portege R700 does pay off with much higher scores than its predecessor, but hopefully not at the cost of a lousier battery life. Against the Acer Timeline X 4820TG with a similar processor, the R700 does well, probably due to better system optimizations as it's a more integrated machine than the Acer with its discrete graphics chip.

3DMark06

Here's where the Acer Timeline X with its discrete graphics option does better than the Toshiba Portege R700. The scores speak for themselves, but bear in mind that the R700 is made for the corporate boardroom, so don’t expect to be gaming on this machine.

Battery Life and Performance Index

While the Toshiba Portege R700 may boast of a newer and faster processor compared to the R600, the new processor is also pretty power efficient, based on our findings of similarly equipped machines. And as the chart shows, with a battery length of 193 minutes and a power consumption of just 19.45 watts in our DVD benchmark test, the notebook seems pretty well equipped to function without a power point, though it could be better.

Portability Index

Our Portability Index is a simple measure based on a formula where we obtain a ratio derived from the notebook's battery uptime divided by the product of a notebook’s weight and volume. The higher the ratio, the better the notebook. Scoring a 1.433 in our benchmark, the R700 is easily one of the more portable notebooks that we’ve seen so far in its size and class. If you're wondering why it beats the Acer Timeline X, it's actually quite simple; while the R700 may not have the same amount of battery uptime, it's still much lighter with a slimmer build, and all of this affects the score positively for the R700.

Business Deal

The Toshiba Portege R700 is one notebook that will command attention in the office, and if you're carrying one around, you'll probably be the target of envious stares around the room. It's a lightweight, sleek machine that hides a powerful processing punch under the hood. As our benchmarks revealed, this machine is no slouch despite its thin form factor and light weight. It's still a wonder how Toshiba managed to squeeze such performance into the notebook, despite its lack of discrete graphics.

Battery life performance is also pretty good as the unit lasted over 3 hours on our battery test. You're likely to get even more juice out of the machine if you don't use the optical drive, so keep that in mind. Lastly, with a retail price of S$2399, the Toshiba Portege R700 is actually very reasonably priced and rest assured you’re getting a solid notebook that’s worth every single penny. Don't get this notebook if you want to game though, but if you're a businessman looking for a good machine, look no further.

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