All's quiet on the U160 front

Can anyone that purchased a U160 give us their impressions? I started looking for a new notebook a couple months ago. Since I travel daily, the U160 was at the top of my list with its size (11.6") and performance (i7 ULV). The major drawback with the U160 was the size of the screen - 13" is the sweet spot for me. But if lighter meant smaller, I was ready to take the plunge.

Then Toshiba came out with the R700/R705 series. With comparable weight to a netbook, a 13" screen, an optical drive, and a fully powered Core i3, the U160 was quickly in second place. After spending about 15 minutes with the R705, I bought it at Best Buy. I love it and have no regrets.

But I still want to know more about the U160. What did I miss out on both good and bad? The only review I have read to date that was informative was from Engadget and it was luke-warm at best. Were they wrong?

 

A more in-dept review by notebookcheck

 

Thanks for the link. When Intel came out with the UM variants of the Core i series, I was looking forward to a good mix of performance and battery endurance. All of the reviews for these chips have been disappointing to me. It seems the Turbo boost never pushes the processor near its maximum capabilities. Even worse, the battery life is substandard when you compare it to the competition.

When you consider how expensive the UM versions are, nothing adds up. Lower performance and sub-par battery life is not what I want to sign up for. It is early in the game for these new chips. Maybe Intel can tweak them to provide the advantages they were designed for.

At any rate, I am glad I didn't order the U160. Both the Engadget and Notebookcheck reviews painted the picture that I could do better. The Toshiba R705 is an awesome notebook and is what I was looking for: Great performance in a light-weight form-factor.

 

How's the keyboard on the R705, when I saw it in reviews, they keys look tiny.

 

It is slightly smaller than most other chicklet or island style keyboards. While it isn't a Thinkpad keyboard, I got used to it after about two hours of use. The major benefit is the additional real estate for the trackpad. The size of the trackpad on the U160 concerned me a little but I was willing to give it a try.