Toshiba Portege R700 is Smokin'!

I’m writing this blog on Toshiba’s brand new Portege R700 notebook pc and it is one sweet machine.

My rules about a notebook:
– small (13.3 inch max)
– light (this is just over 1 x kilogram)
– strong (the build quality is really solid)
– long battery (currently running on full battery and registering just over 4 hours charge left)

Today Toshiba had their big annual bash at Sydney’s Wharf 8. Already postponed once, Toshiba had promised the 25th anniversary dig was to be huge! It was held on the a boat called ‘Starship’. Luckily the boat had not left the wharf by the time I arrived, as I was late due to a previous engagement. When I did get there, I was quickly ushered close to a cat walk where a model carrying a laptop pranced toward me showing a crowd of about 70 tech journos what was in store in laptops if they could take their eyes off the ‘other’ eye candy.

The main thing about this notebook is some how Toshiba have fitted in both a writeable DVD drive and an E-sata port. Um, where did they find the room for this? I am using a lower speced version of this model – it’s running 4GB of RAM, 300GB hard drive and intel i5 and the retail price is just over $1,200. Toshiba will spice up the specs for you. You can add more RAM, solid-state drive for even lower power consumption and better drive realiability.

I have only started using this notebook. In fact Windows 7 is still doing the transfer of files over from last notebook as I write this.

What is interesting is that the R700 has a short throw keyboard. The keys feel like something last experienced on a Sony Vaio and as I try and type really fast, I get the impression the transfer from my last notebook to this one may take some time to master the key strokes. That, so far is the only downside. All else is looking good, but I will update in the next couple of days on how the loan an review is going.