Toshiba Announces Focus on Keeping Technology in Laptops Proprietary and Launches Tecra M3

Toshiba thinks it may be the once and future king of notebooks. A decade ago Toshiba was at the forefront of laptop innovation and a leader in sales. But when they commoditized and sold to other notebook manufacturers components they made, such as faster and smaller hard drives, the edge Toshiba had was lost and companies such as HP and Dell took over the sales position Toshiba had. But now Toshiba says it will wait 6 - 9 months before selling it's new technology to others. New laptops such as the Pentium M Sonoma based Tecra M3 will start this trend.

According to Oscar Koenders, General Manager for Computer Systems in Europe, "We're going after selfish innovation. We keep the best technology for our own products for six to nine months. After that we commoditize it, while at the same time we will introduce new premium features for new products."

Koenders indicated that Toshiba innovations in such things as LCDs, DVD drives, and hard drives will be included in Toshiba Premium laptops 6 - 9 months before the same technology is made available to companies such as Dell.

One of the first proprietary technologies to be included in Toshiba laptops is dubbed EasyGuard.EasyGuardis a combination of technologies that includes advanced movement sensors, rubber bands and air cells around fragile components to prevent data loss in the case of notebook drops or liquid spills onto the keyboard.

Another new Toshiba technology itemis a "summit" function which makes it easy to wirelessly share information between laptops in a meeting.

Latest Toshiba Notebook Releases

Toshiba Tecra M3

The latest release of a business laptop from Toshiba comes in the form of the Tecra M3 (pictured below), which replaces the very popular Tecra M2 notebook. The Tecra M3 has new security features from Toshiba, the latest Intel Pentium M Sonoma processor, Express Card slot, fast DDR2 memory and dual navigation devices in the form of a pointing stick and touchpad.

Toshiba Tecra A4

The Tecra A4 is a 15.4 inch screen laptop with the latest Intel Pentium M processor, it is intended for business users and has the following features:

• Latest Intel Pentium M Sonoma processor choices
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Choice of 15.4" Wide-screen displays: WXGA (1280x800, normal); WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050, normal); and WXGA w/TruBrite (1280x800, CSV High Brightness)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 w/128MB shared memory
• Choice of CD burner or DVD burner (8X single or 8X double layer)
• Up to 3.25hrs. battery life (6-cell battery). High capacity 12-cell battery available.
• Choice of high speed Wireless LAN (802.11g or 802.11a/b/g)

Toshiba Tecra A3

The Tecra A3 is also a business users notebook and has a 15 inch screen. It is marketed as being a budget style notebook as it starts at $1,099 (low for business notebook). The A3 carries the latest Intel Pentium M processor. Features of the A3 include:

• 15" XGA (1024x768) display (1024 x 768)
• Latest Intel Pentium M Sonoma processor choices
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 w/ up to 128MB shared memory
• CD burner
• 3.hrs. 46 min. battery life w/6-cell battery.
• High speed Wireless (802.11b/g)built-in
• Integrated 10/100 Ethernet, and V.92/56K modem

Toshibahas alsoreleased a couple of new Satellite notebooks. The Toshiba Satellite R15 Tablet PC / Notebook convertible and the Toshiba Satellite M45 15.4 inch widescreen laptop.

Toshiba Satellite M45

This notebook features a 15.4" XGA widescreen TruBrite display and houses the latest Centrino platform from Intel, Sonoma, meaningit has a 533MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), 2MB L2 Cache and the Intel 915GM chipset for better processor and graphics performance.

See our Toshiba Satellite M45 First Thoughts Review for more info on this laptop.

Toshiba Satellite R15

The Satellite R15 is anotebook computer that can convert into a Tablet PC. Following are some features for the Satellite R15:

• Offers a new level of functionality, this Notebook Computer can easily convert into a tablet PC. Just fold the 14.1" LCD on top of the keyboard, and you now have an 8.5" x 11" area to handwrite an e-mail, jot down notes, draw pictures and more! It also features Intel Centrino Technology for reduced power consumption and built-in wireless networking. Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz Processor
• 512MB of DDR333 SDRAM (expandable to 2GB)
• 14.1" XGA LCD
• DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive
• 60GB HDD
• Built-in 802.11g wireless networking adapter
• Intel Extreme Graphics 2

 

I think Toshiba's latest releases are pretty strong. I wouldn't mind seeing them get their ducks in a row and climb back on top.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

WHY WHY WHY do they only offer 4200 RPM HD and old pc2700 memory. I want 7200 RPM and DDR2 533. HELLO

 

Toshiba are a bunch of idiots , who gone from making top notebooks into a big fat corporation resting on old times glory .

They won't sell their HD anymore ?
guess we'll just have to buy Hitachi ( IBM ) or Fujitsu drives , which reviews seem to show as better then the noisy toshibas which seems to come mostly at 4200 and are by the way overpriced .

You know the phrase "when there are many remedies to an illness its a sign none of them works" ?
Did you have a look at their lineup lately ? they just pop them out like crazy when basicly there are the same notebook under different names like m30x and m35x configure a m30x without the ati card and you'll get m35x .

Could be I'm wrong in the above but how many A series do they need ? and they got like 4 maybe 5 Tecras now .

Even in the description they don't know how to tell them apart so they write "100 gb storage" , "comfortable" , "flexiable" etc. like the next model isn't exactly the same mobo , cpu , gpu and casing .

Technology you want ? maybe they should finally "research" the hi-tech patent of making the power plug in a right angle to reduce stress of the power cord and socket .

Their new designs are just getting worst , take the new R15 tablet , how great is that - we took the lowest parts avaiable - add a tablet screen and will sell it for a premium .
Once you'll buy it you'll find out they forgot the most important thing in a tablet and that is to add configurable buttons on top !

And that I think sums up whats wrong in Toshiba , their mind is busy on how to cut corners , how to take off 1 more buck of manfucator price , how to lower the spec without the unwarry customer notice , how to save on the case and build quality since those are hard to compare .

I wish Toshiba would've start making good notebooks like it used too
( I'm writing this one on a Satellite 1410 ) .

 

Just read the M3 specs sheets on Toshiba's site and I am more confused than ever. Is there such a thing as PC2700 DDR2 400 MHz RAM? I thought the proper name is PC2-3200 for DDR2 400 MHz RAM[B)]. Then the main page says the graphics card is either nVidia Go 6200 or 6600, but there is no configurable option for you to choose which. In the specs, the quick summary says it's 6600, but the details in below say its 6200.[B)]

Maybe they should focus on getting the specs right so the consumers know what they are buying first.

 

Not one 14" screen model outside of a Tablet PC. Highly questionable!

 

I agree with you Skyshade, I bought the Satellite M45 to review and on their site it specifically said it did not have TruBrite display. Guess what? It does. It's both unacceptable and stupid they wouldn't makes specs clear...or better yet, right.

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I can forgive any of the mis-information if Toshiba is selling this [ ]

http://dynabook.com/pc/catalog/ss/050119ml/index_j.htm

Unfortunately, I see that not only Toshiba is keeping the technology to themselves, they are actually keeping that to Toshiba Japan only. While the Toshiba Sonoma laptops in Japan enjoy the new technology in data protection and the new make-over, the Toshiba in US only receive marginal improvement by going to Sonoma internally.

With this kind of practice and the general lack of attention-to-details, I will only recommend people buying Toshiba if they are in Japan.

 

I haven't been too happy with Toshiba's hard drives lately. 2 out of 2 Toshiba drives have died. That isn't saying much on a large scale, but I'm finished with doing business with Toshiba. I bought a Samsung 80GB 5400 rpm notebook drive for $150 and it's 10 times quieter and oddly enough, perceptibly a TON faster than the Toshiba drive (also 5400 rpm) when it was new.

I don't know if I can trust Samsung but anybody is better than Toshiba at this point.

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Hard Drive finally blew on my Compaq 2800T - Looking to get a new laptop.

 

Toshiba's latest offering sucks. What technology are they talking off that makes them unique? The slow hard drive ? [V]

Specswise M3 is quite inferior compared to other manufacturers. It is not even configurable - not yet anyway.

Toshiba regretfully has gone downhill - in the notebook department.