Toshiba Launches New Business Class Notebooks

Toshiba Launches New Business Class Notebooks

Toshiba today announced new additions to its Satellite Pro and Portégé business notebook lineups. All of the new notebooks support Windows 7; most come pre-installed with Windows XP.

The Satellite Pro line features new models with 13.3-, 15.6-, and 17.3-inch screen sizes and start at $529. The new Satellite Pro U500 features a 13.3-inch multi-touch screen and starts at $999. The new 15.6-inch L450 starts at $529 and the 17.3-inch L550 $999. All Satellite Pro notebooks are available with Intel Core 2 Duo processors and Windows 7.

The Toshiba Protégé M750 tablet PC has been updated with a more powerful Core 2 Duo processor. It features a 12.1-inch LED-backlit display with both pen and touch input. It comes with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition with a Windows 7 Professional upgrade and starts at $1,279.

 

is it me, or are there no trackpoints on these Protege notebooks?

 

I dont see one...

I remember toshiba just update their line with win7

 

Oh dear! More "business" notebooks which aren't convenient for use with portrait documents. When will some enterprising manufacturer provide a screen that can be rotated into the portrait position.

Any notebook manufacturer who opts to buck the trend towards the wider lower screens stands to pick up more market share.

John

 

The pro doesnt look bad, the portege, not so much.

The base price is good though.

 

I think the overarching problem is that people simply are ignorant about screen resolution. They don't know its usefulness. Go into a while collar business and ask people using computers if they want a higher resolution screen - odds are they won't understand what you are talking about.

 

However, companies that are bulk buying might well have someone who appreciates this aspect. With Windows 7 looking promising and the worst of recession receding, they may well start thinking about replacing some of the older notebooks which still have 4:3 aspect ratio displays.

John

 

Werd.
Someone was asking me for advice on which laptop to buy (he had a 15" MBP).
I said I went with the M6400 because of the hi-res LCD screen. He was saying his MBP 1440x900 screen is fine; then I whipped out the 1920x1200 RGBLED dell precision and he was like "dam, its so clear"

 

Why are they coming with XP? Seeing how support will be ending summer 2012. this seems like a dumb idea. Security updates tend to be important.

 

In the hopes that they will upgrade then? Dunno ...

 

What ??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Less than 3 years left on the beloved XP ???
What will I do with all my older laptops ?

 

I read it was 2014.

 

Businesses are still actively buying Windows XP systems however . . . many skipped Vista entirely and are waiting for Windows 7 to mature before moving on.
HP is still sending many of their business notebooks with XP; the ProBook 5310m I bought last week came with it installed via the Windows 7 downgrade rights. Needless to say, I promptly wiped it and loaded 7.

 

No surprise businesses still using XP.

 

Toshiba should realise that installing Windows XP on a consumer notebook does not make it qualify for "Business Class". Since 2006, Toshiba has not produced a single compelling business notebook with the exception of the Portege R series. There is no innovation at all (USB sleep charging is NOT such a big innovation), Toshiba's built-in utilities are poor and sluggish and the notebooks feel utterly cheap from my experience with recent Tecras and Satellite Pros.

 

That's right!

I am a sys admin for a smaller business and while I personally tried out various versions of Vista I just could not see a valid reason why I should upgrade any of the machines thereto. It was okay as a stand alone arrangement, I think, and, who knows, perhaps building up a network based with all Vista machines would be easier - it could be quite tricky before SP3.

Windows 7 is another matter ... I am impressed with everything thus far, but have not run the networking aspects of things "through the hoops" yet. For me it is impractical to somehow re-invent the wheel with regards to the network setup I have, so I am looking for the OS to be able to slide in and function therein with as little difficulty as possible (ideally).

Windows XP SP3 is a good option for companies with machines that don't need a lot of "oomph" to them - like ours (mostly desktop publishing stuff) - and all the members of the company are familiar with the OS and it works very well.

Anyway - sorry for the tangent, but I wanted to give a little bit of an illustration of what Charles was saying in this regard....