Toshiba shows off world's thinnest laptop

[riz78612]

http://stuff.tv/news/Toshiba-shows-off-worlds-thinnest-laptop/11005/


Toshiba's Portege R500 has been doing battle with the MacBook Air since the start of 2008. But now they've got a new slimline machine to square up to Apple's razor sharp beast and Voodoo's slinky Envy. It's called the Portege R600 and they're saying it's "the world's thinnest and lightest laptop."

Despite getting official approval over in Canada, Tosh hasn't given up much regarding specs, just saying that it'll weigh in at 2.1 pounds, have a battery life up to nine hours and pack a Core 2 Duo processor under the hood.

Sadly, there's nothing else to add, expect to say that US pricing will apparently start at $1,500. Toshiba's chaps in the UK are remaining quiet about anything to do with the release.

So there we have it, another thin lappie to give Apple something to think about. We'll be chasing more news on the Portege R600, so stay tuned for more details.

Beat that Macbook AIR.

9 hours battery life, not a measily 2-5hrs.
Core duo 2 processor.
And cheaper and better.

 

[aleni]

nothing beats the air because it's running Mac OSX.

 

[gooddeal]

1. 12" screen
2. Starting price of $1500
3. No OS X

 

[cantthinkofone]

1. 12" screen
2. Starting price of $1500
3. No OS X

1. the 12" powerbook was the number one selling apple laptop.
2. the air starts at 1800
3. i won't argue there.

 

[iShater]

IMHO, the ONLY thing going for the MBA is OSX.

 

[aleni]

12 inch mba is all i need, but the smaller footprint means smaller space to put things on, i think apple is currently unable to fit the current components into smaller case than in this 13.3 inch.

 

[Tifosi Red]

With due respect to Toshiba's laptop its hardly a beauty queen... thin yes, an integrated blend of style and full size versatility a'la MBA - no.

 

[plumbingandtech]

But it runs Toshiba X OS.

(Windows. No thanks. Hope those buys have fun with that.)

 

[antibact1]

With due respect to Toshiba's laptop its hardly a beauty queen... thin yes, an integrated blend of style and full size versatility a'la MBA - no.

Definitely not as stylish as the MBA, but far more versatile. Load Linux up on this and you're off to the races (and you won't even need an external ROM drive to do this).

 

[avigalante]

9-hours of battery life?!

We'll see how that holds-up to worldly standards, but that does sound extremely impressive...

 

[Sesshi]

IMHO, the ONLY thing going for the MBA is OSX.

Actually that's the least thing going in my case as far as the Air is concerned - it would be good if it could be expected to run Vista (let alone OSX) as rock-solidly as some other ultraportables.

I obviously like the feel and styling of the Air and despite the bend-prone body even think Apple has turned over a new leaf in terms of case engineering - although given that the previous benchmark is the frankly crap Macbook Pro this is not exactly a stellar improvement - but can't rate anything else about it, including running a practically inferior Application Platform, not an OS to use for it's own sake.

The Sony TT is likely more useful than the Tosh and better styled - and that's what I'm waiting to replace my TZ's with. The R500 just didn't do it for me, and I doubt despite its improvements the R600 will be any different.

If they claim nine hours, expect the same sort of percentage as the Macbook Air's figures in real-life use: 3.5~3.75 vs 5 claimed = about 6.5~7 hours for the Tosh.

 

[elppa]

1. the 12" powerbook was the number one selling apple laptop.

Please show me the statistics. I am extremely sceptical about this given the volume Apple is selling now versus the volume Apple was selling in 2003.


I imagine the number one selling Apple Laptop of all time is probably the white MacBook.

 

[iToaster]

Please show me the statistics. I am extremely sceptical about this given the volume Apple is selling now versus the volume Apple was selling in 2003.


I imagine the number one selling Apple Laptop of all time is probably the white MacBook.

The use of the past tense denotes that it was the best selling laptop from Apple at the time. As for Toshiba's anorexic computer, that 12" screen is no good, seeing as it's probably widescreen, the 12" PBG4 being much better in that regard because it has a 12.1" 4:3 screen so we get more space with its small size. To have that 9 hour battery life their laptop must have a pitiful C2D (I wouldn't know, only my assumption based on thermodynamics) to avoid a very hot laptop. Of course, I really don't care about it, I like my computers running OSX.

 

[synth3tik]

That could be scary. Toshiba laptops run hot enough as it is.

 

[Schtumple]

nothing beats the air because it's running Mac OSX.

Christ thats one hell of an elitist statement, Mac OSX can easily be replicated onto other machines, and considering the airs flaws, I'd say this machine will wipe the floor with the air...

 

[Roller]

Christ thats one hell of an elitist statement, Mac OSX can easily be replicated onto other machines, and considering the airs flaws, I'd say this machine will wipe the floor with the air...

Don't know about wiping the floor, but I agree that the Air's two remaining advantages are that it looks better than its competitors (if you consider that an advantage) and that it runs OS X.

It's embarrassing for Apple to be selling a computer that has less storage, shorter battery life, and far fewer ports than other lightweight laptops. I sure hope that this event on the 14th has some good news about the Air, since an aluminum Macbook is going to make them even harder to sell.

 

[sushi]

How is it being billed as the thinnest computer.

Thickness measurements:

Portege 600 --> 19.5 - 25.5 mm

MacBook Air --> 4.0 - 19.4 mm

What am I missing?

 

[mobilehaathi]

meh, no OSX...small screen....not too impressed yet.

 

[SFStateStudent]

It's the thinnest if you snap the screen off, and don't count the other half. Yaaawwwnnn Not impressed whatsoever. The thing isn't even on the market yet. If it was any fatter, I'd mistake it for my 5300cs...

 

[sushi]

It's the thinnest if you snap the screen off, and don't count the other half.

You just might be correct.

 

[Les Kern]

I'd say this machine will wipe the floor with the air...

Have you ever run Vista on a 1.2 duo laptop? BRUTAL is not a strong enough word. "Unusable" is more apt.

 

[Les Kern]

It's the thinnest if you snap the screen off, and don't count the other half. Yaaawwwnnn Not impressed whatsoever. The thing isn't even on the market yet. If it was any fatter, I'd mistake it for my 5300cs...

The 600 pics have not been released. That's the 500.

 

[alexlovesmacs]

Not impressive, in my perspectice it looks thick.

 

[andreab35]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

Not impressive, in my perspectice it looks thick.

I was just thinking the same thing. It looks a bit thick to be beat the thinness of the Air.

Specs for this laptop would be nice if anyone can find them lurking around on the Internet.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I doubt those battery specs are correct. Is that possible? I don't think Lithium Ion battery technology has advanced to 9 HOURS. It must have an integrated graphics and a extremely low-powered C2D or else that thing will set on fire. I also doubt this will run Vista. Vista requires a lot of cpu power and graphics power. Not to mention BATTERY power.

It probably will have less than 2GB of ram. It looks thicker than the air though... at least to me.