Toshiba Portege R500 Ultraportable First Thoughts Review (Video)

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by Jerry Jackson

Toshiba recently announced the Portege R500 12.1&quot; widescreen notebook that includes the new Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 (Merom) platform, and is the first ultraportable laptop to incorporate an optical drive into a system that is less than one inch thick and weighs less than 2.5 pounds. The R500 provides a new ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processor, optical drive, fingerprint reader, and a generous selection of ports in a stylish form factor that is so light and thin it’s shocking. The following is a quick first take on the Toshiba R500.

Toshiba Portege R500 12.1&quot; screen ulraportable notebook (view large image)

 

Build and Design

The Toshiba Portege R500 features a radical design measuring as thin as 0.77-inches and weighing 2.4 pounds. This makes the R500 lighter and thinner than most ultraportables. The silver R500 combines rounded edges and angular lines producing a shape that's both space-saving and stylish. It’s very clear upon first glance that there is absolutely no wasted space in the design of the R500.

The full sized keyboard of the R500 (view large image)

 

The build is mostly plastic with some flex most noticeably beneath the right palm rest and the LCD lid. While the widescreen 12.1” LCD is almost paper thin and flexible, there are no noticeable ripples even when pressing firmly or flexing the screen. There is minimal light leakage and both horizontal and vertical viewing angles are more than acceptable.

The keyboard is full sized and very nice to use with some flex, especially near the edges. One surprise on the keyboard was a set of dedicated page up and page down buttons, along with dedicated home and end keys, a nice feature not found on most ultraportable notebooks. The spacious touchpad provides excellent responsiveness, but feels a little “cheap” compared to the fit and finish of the rest of this notebook. The glossy “metal-like” plastic touchpad buttons feel nice, but are a magnet for fingerprints and at times didn't provide enough feedback.

The touchpad, mouse buttons, fingerprint reader, and LED indicators (view large image)

 

The R500 doesn't use any type of latch to close the lid, just a firm hinge closing mechanism that works well.

Below is a video with comparison of the Toshiba Portege R500 to the Lenovo X61 12.1&quot; tablet (hosted by our Brian Beeler) so you get an idea of how it stacks up:

 

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Ports and Features

While about half of all ultraportable notebooks come equipped with an optical drive, those that do tend to be thick and heavy. Anyone looking for a super slim notebook was forced to sacrifice an optical drive in favor of making the system as light and thin as possible. The R500 successfully offers the “best of both worlds” by combining a light and thin notebook with a 7mm 8x DVD Superdrive.

The right side with Ethernet, USB, wireless on/off, optical drive, SD card reader and ExpressCard 54 slot (view large image)

The left side with power jack, VGA port, two USB ports, Firewire, volume control, headphone and microphone ports (view large image)

 

The port selection of the R500 is remarkably good for a notebook of this size. Above you can view a video that tours the ports on the notebook, and if you prefer to read here's a quick rundown of what you get:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports (two on the left and one on the right)
• IEEE 1394 / FireWire port
• Monitor out port
• Headphone / line-out port
• Microphone in port
• ExpressCard 54 slot
• Ethernet LAN port
• SD card slot reader

You also get some nice dedicated hardware buttons such as wireless on/off on the right side, volume up/down control wheel on the left, a “Toshiba Assist” help quick launch button, and an LCD backlight on/off button.

To top these features off you get integrated biometric security via a finger print reader located between the touchpad buttons.

The bottom of the R500 with docking station port, memory access, and battery (view large image)

 

Performance

Upon launch the Portege R500 will come in two virtually identical configurations: The R500-S5002 (Windows Vista Business) priced at $2,149 and the R500-S5001X (Windows XP Professional) priced at $1,999.

Our pre-production Toshiba Portege R500 had the following specs:

• Genuine Windows Vista Business (32-bit version)
• Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.20GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB with 64-bit
• 1024MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
• One memory slot available
• 120GB (5400 RPM); Serial-ATA hard disk drive
• 7mm, 8xDVD-SuperMulti (+/-R Single Layer) drive supporting 9 formats
• 12.1-inch diagonal widescreen highbrightness display
• 1280 x 800 (WXGA) - Transreflective backlit LED
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 64MB
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

In the third quarter of 2007, Toshiba plans to further reduce the weight of the Portege R500 Series to 1.72 pounds (without optical drive) by replacing the Serial-ATA HDD with a 64GB solid state drive. This will make the R500 the world’s lightest widescreen 12.1-inch notebook (as of this writing).

Since our sample R500 was a pre-production unit we could not perform our standard benchmarking. That said, with a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 chipset it should be reasonable to expect the R500 to provide solid business performance but lack the power for serious 3D gaming.

Overall our first impressions of the Toshiba Portege R500 are very positive, but thorough benchmarking is needed to confirm how this ultraportable stacks up to the competition. While there are some minor concerns with build quality, the R500 is remarkably well built for such a small ultraportable.

 

Nice semi review, really looks like a nice ultra portable notebook, the number of ports and features are good now only if it had a mainstream Core 2 Duo and the GMA X3100 at least.

 

This thing is totally amazing in its lightness, when I first held it and saw that it had an optical drive I thought it had to be painted on, how could a notebook so thin fit an optical drive? Toshiba knocked it out of the ballpark with the design on this notebook.

 

patriot, I think you're missing the point of this machine. Core 2 Duo kills the deisgn, battery life and so on. One thing I didn't mention in the video is how quiet the fan is...another plus. Remember it's an ultra port, not a thin and light.

 

I will have another model here next week - and I am curious to see if Tosh solved the trackpad-button issue. No word on European configurations and release dates yet.

 

can you comment on the LCD? how are the viewing angles? brightness? reflectiviness? etc..

How does it compare to the Sony SZ lcd?

 

The viewing angles are good (not great). The brightness levels are good for an ultraportable but not as bright as most desktop replacement notebooks. There is some light leakage in the preproduction unit but it's not bad.

The R500 has a matte screen rather than a glossy screen (which is good for a business ultraportable but isn't great for watching DVDs or image editing).

That said, overall, the screen is pretty impressive. As you can see from the video it is designed to handle a HUGE amount of flex and suffers from absolutely no ripples. Bottom line, it's an amazing screen for an ultraportable.

 

thanks jerry.

I'm deciding between the r500 and sony tz as my current sony t140 just kicked the bucket and its out of warranty.

I'm leaning toward the r500 but sony always makes the best lcd screens so I'm torn.

 

It would still be pretty nice if this had Santa Rosa. I guess though, for an ultra portable it really wouldn't make too much of a difference.

The design is absolutely stunning (is this a Toshiba that I'm talking about ) and they have fixed that keyboard layout problem, so it should be pretty nice. High price though

 

Did this come with the 3 cell or 6 cell battery? I assume your 2-3 hours battery life was the DVD drain test? Seems far away from their claimed 12.5 hours battery life.

 

Again, this is a preproduction unit, so battery life and benchmarking isn't completely applicable to the final production units. That said, between Toshiba's proprietary power saving software and Vista I think it's certainly possible to get more than 2-3 hours of battery life from the R500 ... just don't expect to be running multiple processor-hungry applications, watching a DVD, and using USB powered devices at the same time.

 

Great video Brian, nicely done. I'm really intrigued by this machine. Less than 1" thick, 2.5 lbs, and an integrated optical drive? Amazing.

 

that thing is very nice looking.....

 

May I assume that by the lack of the term not being mentioned that it does NOT have an LED display?

I am amazed at the professionalism in your video review, Brian. You belong on a News Station

 

Awesome review!

Two quick questions:

1. Is the laptop using the 3 or 6 cell battery?
2. How is the transreflective aspect of the screen? Does it work nicely with the LED lighting turned off?

Thanks!

 

I neglected to mention this in the video, but it is an LED backlight with a pretty cool button that turns off the light for outdoor use. It works well, not quite as the promotion on Toshiba's site would have you think of course, but it's the best solution we've seen for indoor/outdoor use.

 

Oh ok. Cool feature! That definately makes it one of the best ultraportables I've seen - very thin very light... it kinda scared me when I saw you flex the LCD so much I was like 'Oh my god!' haha

 

We have the 6 cell and are seeing 2-3 hours per charge under normal use. We're told though that this should improve substantially with the final hardware and software.

 

This machine is so tempting. I have been looking for an ultraportable for law school and had resolved myself to going without an optical drive in favor of weight under 4lbs. This machine resolves that dilema completely, but I must say it sounds too good to be true.

Mainly, I am worried about the build quality. I have heard bad things about Toshiba over the last few years. For thoses who have handled it, does it seem like it would withstand three years of transportation to and from school and relatively heavy daily use? At that weight, it just seems like it would have to be pretty fragile compared to an X60.

 

Pretty slick machine...it makes the x61 look like a brick!

but at $2500 (CAD), with the tax, that makes it $2850! Kinda pricey, imo. The design, although impressive, seems to lack in quality ---there was tons of screen/button flex. I guess they did that to keep the weight down.

Oh yeah, and nice to meet you Brian!

 

Maybe an effective way at preventing damage. When you go some something that thin, I guess having it flexible may be just as effective (possibly more in certain cases) than making it rigid. It's just that most people aren't accustomed to bending electronics.

I think of it this way (at one extreme) - would you rather a piece of paper be very flexible or very rigid? I think I know which would 'break' first.

Very svelte looking laptop. Fitting in the OD was a nice design challenge.

 

so the weight of this lappy is 2.4 lbs with 6 cell?? If I can get at least 5~6 hours with 6 cell, I am sold!

 

Yes, I agree with you. Besides, even if it feels a little on the cheap side to some, the weight/features are second to none for this class. I'm starting to prefer this to the x61..but what draws me to the x61 is that it can have tablet functionality.

 

Lol its an ulraportable laptop.
Just wanted to clarify that error.
BTW, nice review.

 

Question: is the fan off - completely - when idle?

 

Hi:

Great review. In you review, you stated that the R500 has a ExpressCard 54 slot.

I wish that is the case. But on Toshiba's web site, it states that Express Card slot is not available.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?seg=HHO&poid=380434&coid=-33781

 

About the screen flex, it seemed pretty similar to the flex on the LED backlit Sony TX/TXN and SZ laptops. Is that just a coincidence?

 

For the most part the preproduction R500 kept its fan off when idle, but it did kick on the fan once (low setting, not loud) while it was idle on a desk for several hours. The fan also kicked on (high setting, louder ... but not too loud) after a little more than an hour of serious use.

 

I'm sensitive to fan noise, as my current Fujitsu has no fan. I don't have any issues with the R500 fan.

As to the build...I could argue both ways. I think it's flexible by design. I'm not concerned about it falling apart, though I do reserve judgement for the final production hardware.

One person commented on price...this is not expensive. If it said Sony on it, the price would be $4000.

 

Its pretty comparable in price to the Fujitsu P7230 and Asus U1f, and a bit cheaper than the Sony TZ. Then again, this is lighter than all three, and still offers an optical drive.

Is the optical drive modular? That would be a really nice touch.

 

The optical drive is built into the design of the R500 (at least in this pre-production unit) so you won't be able to remove it if you want to make it even lighter.

That said, Toshiba has said they plan to release a version of the R500 that will be even lighter thanks to a SSD and the removal of the optical drive.

 

Great Job Toshiba! I have to say I am somewhat happy to see Toshiba has accomplished this. I have a bit of nostagia for my first notebook which was a Toshiba Satellite A35-S159. Not a great notebook, but I still loved it. So, I do have a certain soft spot for Toshiba.

This looks great! .77in and weight 2.4 pounds is insane. I have to say I love the styling on the keyboards Toshiba has started using with the bold black font. It is really different and stylish. Is the keyboard silverish or more grayish?

 

I worried about the price. Because using PriceJapan, I can get a TZ with 2gb ram and SSD for roughly $3000CDN and if the R500 is $2850CDN, is it really worth it?

 

Nice having a first thoughts review, thanks!
Has anybody spotted a non-preproduction unit yet?

Are there any alternatives concerning weight ans size at the moment?

 

Yes, the Sony TZ, which has a slightly smaller (but higher res) screen, similar features, and weight of 2.4lbs. Also, if you can give up the optical drive, the Asus U1f, which has same size/res screen as the TZ and a weight of just under 2lbs.

 

My biggest concern with this model since the touchpad buttons seem to be a problem, stims from my experience with my old Satellite on which the touchpad buttons would Jam. I wonder if the touchpad buttons would be in danger of jamming over time.

 

There are not a lot of great comparisons for the R500. You can compare with the TZ, but that's not really the same class in my view. Something like the Panny W5 is probably a closer comparison.

Imp - that's a tough call, again because they're a little dissimilar. I don't think either is a bad choice though.

 

Somehow I think that 12" is the best screen size - not to small, not too big. I like sonys TX and TZ series. But the even smaller layout influences the keyboard and the screen size.

Samsungs Q40-pro is comparable 12,1" sub with 9hours battery life, but offers "just" a Core Solo and an external optical drive.

The R500 is pretty close the the perfect sub concerning:

• weight
• dimensions
• screen in size and technology

My biggest questions are:

• keyboard quality
• case quality
• battery life (hope the 2-3 hours are preproduction units only)
• fan noise

Did I miss anything important? :>

 

Fan noise is no concern. Case quality doesn't worry me, but keyboard quality does, along with battery life.

 

Brian,

Why do you consider it in a differenct class from the tx/tz models?

My TR3's screen just broke (due to a fall but it has taken a beating over the four years I owned it) and I'm looking for a new laptop. The tz90 interests me but I don't like the prospect of ordering one with a japanese os and reinstalling and the r500 interests me, particularly if the 64gb ssd is reasonably prices.

 

The TZ should be announced in the U.S very soon, the drivers and documentation for it are already up on the North America Sonystyle site.

 

Were they just added recently to the NA Site?

 

Great review. I like the keyboard layout of the R500 as it utilizes every available space on the laptop.

One thing though, the 64GB SSD would be available soon, but I thought I read on the Toshiba's web site that its the 2.5" variant instead of the 1.8", thus the optical drive would be removed in place of the SSD drive, can you confirm this?

I do believe the optical drive is of important use for many people, at least it is for me.

 

Same here.

 

What's the estimated retail price on this ?

 

This is a very cool Ultra! I hope that the finished unit fixes the few problems that seem evident!

 

is it PCMCIA slot in the right side or it is express card?

 

From Toshiba's website, its PCMCIA only, there is no express slot available.

 

I so love this, I started a chipin for it, just Google for Toshiba R500, my blog entry with the chipin is the first result Anyways, I have a few questions: a) Why an aged PCMCIA slot? One can buy an ExpressCard -> PCMCIA slot adapter for a hundred bucks, but the reverse is not even possible The EC54 slot is thinner, anyways. And there are so many nice tricks possible with PCI Express available... Ah well. Can't have the perfect machine.

b) VGA connector? UGH! No DVI or anything digital? Why, oh why? Hint: Apple has mini DVi since ages if size is the only problem. BTW. does the VGA support 1920x1200 resolution? (In theory, i945GM supports this) Edit: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?poid=373066 port replicator has DVI. And a VGA connector. Dual monitors maybe? Triple head with the laptop LCD, hm ?

c) Yes, user upgradeable HDD is a big, big question. Newegg sells the Samsung 1.8" 16G SSD for like 250 and the 32G SSD for 500 bucks. ..

 

I think fan noise will be key for this thing. The Fujitsu P7230 uses a small enough fan that it generates a very annoying high pitched whine instead of just the usual fan white noise.