As per expert’s ratings on the scale of 10, the Toshiba Portege R705-P35 has a design rating of 9, features of 8, performance of 8 and a battery life of 8 with customer’s service being at the rate of 7. With these ratings, the Toshiba Portege is a great laptop meant for regular use.
Review
Considering the influx of tablets and touch-screen laptops, Toshiba’s Portege has managed to stand out from the crowd. It comes packed with a perfect balance between price, performance, design and features. It has a 13-inch screen size and is slim with the body being made of magnesium alloy chassis. The price of this beauty comes at USD $749, which seems to be quite affordable as compared to other costly laptops. The Portege offers great performance at this low price and is therefore positively recommended by experts.
Features
The Toshiba Portege comes with a 2.26GHz Intel Core i3 processor, a 4GB, 1,066MHz DDR3 memory and a hard drive of 500GB with 5, 400 rpm. It has an Intel HM55 chipset and an Intel integrated GMA HD graphics card. It runs on the much beloved Windows 7 Home premium and weighs around 3.9 pounds with 12.5 x 8.9 inches in dimension. It does seem much like the Apple MacBook Pro, but at a very economical price. You also have a VGA, HDMI option, stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks and three USB 2.0 ports along with a SD card reader. You have Ethernet 802.11, along with Wi-Fi and even the much wanted 4G broadband option. Optical drives, Bluetooth etc. are all enabled. In short a very economical powerhouse laptop.
The Bad
There were a few flaws that experts found with the system. Hopefully it wouldn’t have to affect the average user much. According to tests, the Intel graphics don’t work so fast and the keyboard doesn’t have a backlit. The battery life doesn’t last the whole day and therefore would be a problem for anyone who has travel computing needs. The Bluetooth option isn’t also what the experts cherished. If you think these flaws don’t matter, then you can easily take up this device.
The Good
The 2.26GHz Intel Core i3 processor enables fast computing for mainstream use and people who have heavy web based or graphics based tasks can easily rely on this machine. The Portege has a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels and has a good audio system, but it isn’t really that great if you are a high end audio fan. What’s best is that the laptop has a USB/eSATA port along with HDMI and SD card slot which gives it an edge over Apple’s MacBook. You also have a Toshiba Bulletin Board app that helps you to edit photos and notes and other working needs. There are some good built in software that you could use for multiple purposes.
Conclusion
You may be inspired by the MacBook Pro, but if you really don’t want to spend that much and yet want to have a machine that could be its equivalent, then the Toshiba Portege R705 would be the best option.