New Portege Z830

I'm also curious about this. I want a laptop with a nice matte display.

I saw the z835 in Best Buy, and the display was ok. I don't want another gloss display laptop and prefer matte.

So could anyone with a z830 chime in? Thanks.

 

z830 is matte. No reflection to speak of. It's an acceptable screen.

 

But the Z830 is available as a TruBrite HD or regular (non-TruBright) HD. Which one do you have?

 

I forgot... I have a low limit on my CC... I'll get it sometime next week. My best buy has 3 more in stock; hopefully they'll have more or wont run out for me.

Please do so.

 

The TruBrite is glossy (which is what is on the Z835).

From my experience with the MBA... glossy screens are better at showing "brighter" colors because the matte finish doesn't dull the image. And yes, while it does show reflections, that's mainly in the case where the room lighting is brighter than the display. That's why in offices or even Best Buy, with bright lights overhead, you get massive glare.

But at home, with a light source in front of me or beside me... the screen looks really nice.

So who's ready for more Bieber? (that's a joke for those not familiar with my Sony VAIO SE unboxing video)

 

Hello guys. Do you have some similar issues with rezonating of buttons, or wifi connectivity, as ASUS UX31 users please?
And what about the display? It is very easy to bend it, and looks not so stable. When you tap on the keyboard and have the laptop on knees, does the display vibrate?

 

The display is not unstable whatsoever. It is flexible because of its size which some might not be used to but it is still a tight screen on the unit and does not vibrate. No rezonating button problems or wifi problems and, having just done a complete install I discovered something I truly like....

There are two buttons beside the power switch. I noticed initially that they led to Windows Mobility which was excellent but, having not done a clean install complete with Wun Ult and all software, I see that these buttons can be set up WITH ANY command, program or function simply by choosing from the 'Toshiba Button Support' drop down menu of each. The same also applies to the touchpad on/off button just above the touchpad.

I am also intentionally discovering some of the bloatware I wouldn't normally check out... Service Station automatically checks for and installs updates such as a new bios release just discovered...Nice.. Toshiba Sleep Utility allows you to charge through the USB even when the system is in stand-bye or off, regardless of whether it is plugged in or not.

 

I have a plan to replace my x200 but confuse to choose between X1 (i5) and Ultrabook. After long journey reading this thread (51 pages) , I decide to buy z830 with i7.

Thank you to Series 9 Guy and z830guy for sharing experience and answering questions about z830.

 

Cool find, Series 9 Guy.
And I'm with you on the answers about the display. It's great. I love handing the whole laptop to somebody by the corner of the unit. People's *eyes* bug out when they feel how light it is.

so Series 9 Guy -- what's a better use for that trackpad turn-off switch, rather than as a trackpad turn-off switch?

 

I noticed there isn't a visual representation of the volume when you use the Fn-Volume keys... but there seems to be one for almost everything else... is that the case on the 830s?

(I like how pressing the Fn key brings up a display of what the different keys do)

 

The only reason why I'm so concerned with the display is that I'm a graphic designer and like to have accurate colors.

I rarely see laptops with the display accuracy of the Macbook Pro.

Currently, I have a Samsung QX410. I love it but I wanted something with a smaller footprint and matte display. The Toshiba Z830 was looking like a winner, but I haven't heard the best things about the display (washed out, poor viewing angles, etc.).

I saw the Z835 at a local Best Buy, loved the form factor, but did not care for the glossy screen. It also didn't seem very bright. It has been coming down to the Z830 and Samsung Series 7 (14") coming out. But I've also heard the Series 7 displays have been pretty dull as well and wasn't completely impressed by the 15" model in Best Buy. On the other hand, it has a much higher resolution and still is matte. I thought I was being hard on them since I was in such a bright store, but the Macbook displays seemed to still impress in there.

In the end, it doesn't seem like there are any notebooks that meet all my needs to the point I should upgrade. Even the Macbooks aren't ideal since I prefer a Windows device. I like the Sony Vaio Z, but it is MUCH more than I want to pay.

 

Suggest have a look at a 13" Asus UX31 (900P), 12.5" Lenovo X220 with 720P IPS LCD, 13" Sony SA (900P), 14" Toshiba R840 (900P) and Samsung Series-7 (900P) and one-gen older 13" Sony Z1 with 1080P/900P LCD. Can see the SB thin-and-light link in my sig for a weight/thickness comparison.

 

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I saw the Asus in person and liked its design. However, the screen being glossy is what pushed me away.

The Lenovo looks like it would get the job done but is a bit thick and clunky in appearance. The aesthetics are important to me too.

I considered the Sony SA and SB before, but don't remember what the difference between the two were. With the matte 1600 x 900 display, it could be a winner for me. I think I remember users saying the screen looked average though. How's the screen quality? I will also look at older Z1s, although I don't really want a pre-owned unit.

The Toshiba Tecra could be something I'll consider. It doesn't have the appearance of the Z830 though.

Also, yes, I am still considering the Samsung Series 7 14". It seems to come down to the Samsung / Sonys now with their matte 1600 x 900 displays. It's another drawback the Z830 has to me, although it shouldn't be as bad with a 13" screen.

Sorry if I got off topic.

 

The Tecra is the 14" version of the Portege R-series; which the portege Z-series is built off of. Although not identical, the appearance between the Tecra and Portege R and Z are very similar.
Toshiba Direct | Tecra Laptops & Notebook Computers

 

This is the perfect laptop for me, and will be a return to my Portege' roots of more than 3 laptops ago. I always loved that notebook, and I'm ready to pull a switch back from ASUS.

There is only one thing preventing me from purchasing this laptop right now: 128GB SSD hard drive.

When will a 256GB SSD hard drive be available for this notebook?

Are there any resellers that can customize this notebook with a 256GB SSD drive (at an extra cost, of course)?

I simply cannot understand why Toshiba would release this with inadequate storage. As a developer and Dropbox user, 256GB is the bare minimum that will work for me, and I just cannot compromise on storage. All of the other ultrabooks have options for 256GB SSD except Toshiba

Just checked my current notebook HDD, and it is about 200GB full!

 

After looking at comparison shots again, I see what you're saying. I didn't know that the Tegra even offers a 1600 x 900 display. So why are people getting the Z830/835 instead?

 

Z830 weighs significantly less than a R840. Consider:

Z830 (720P) weight=2.45lbs
Asus UX31 (900P) weight=2.9lbs
Lenovo X220 (720P) weight=3.2lbs
R840 (900P) weight=4.2lbs

Still the R840/X220 has the expresscard slot so offers expandability. Will need to wait for 2012-release ultrabooks with Thunderbolt ports to give such options.

 

Ok so the Portege Z and Rs share the same gloss/matte display variants as one another I'm guessing? How does the Tecra R840 screen compare? I know it's slightly larger but is the picture better? (viewing angles, contrast, etc.)

 

Guys, I'm still confused about which screen is better on the Z830/Z835: is it the TruBrite version or the regular (NON TruBright) version? Which one is recommended??

 

I forgot to add, the R840 has a 66Whr 6-cell battery so will give up to 40% longer battery life than the Z830's 47Whr.

If you can step up to 4.84lbs, then consider a 14" Lenovo T420. It has a 900P LCD, NVS4200M, expresscard slot for eGPU and can be user upgraded to a i7-quad. A 4.24lbs 12.5" HP 2560P can also be upgraded to a i7-quad but only has a 1366x768 LCD as explained.

The R/Z Toshibas are SATA-II capped so maybe look elsewhere if need fastest SSD performance.

 

Only thing we know is the Truebrite = Glossy. Some on here say their z8 30 has matte, so we are assuming the non-trubrite is a matte screen.

Remember, the z8 35 is the lower tier model; that ONLY HAS the trubrite glossy screen. z8 30 is higher tier and has truebite and non-truebrite

Actually a member on here "Series 9 Guy" has reported he attained SATA-III speeds on his z830 [with a different brand SSD]. However, he is the only one as of yet that has reported this.
His review: http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/sata-3/toshiba-z830-13-3-ultrabook-laptop-review-toshiba-creates-one-amazing-ultrabook/5/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/610559-new-portege-z830-16.html#post8118260

 

Interesting. "Series 9 Guy" does test a SATA-III capable Runcore T50 in his Z830 and he did get 370MB/s sequential reads which would imply SATA-III interface speeds. In which case I'm sure the SATA-II capped R83*/R84* folks would like to have a look at the Z83* bios and backlit keyboards to retrofit to their systems.

 

So when can we expect 256GB+ SSDs in these?

 

This has been brought up before, but I'll go ahead and reiterate.
z830 uses mSATA drives. I think the max capacity right now is 128 GB. Maybe in upcoming months we'll see higher.

typical SSD drives are 2.5", mSATA is much smaller. Physically, there's no way of getting a 2.5" SSD to fit.


Here's a photo comparing a mSATA, 1.8" flash, 2.5" SSD, and 3.5" HDD
For reference: the 1st drive on the left is a mSATA, the 3rd drive from the left [white] is a 2.5" SSD

 

Next year. 256 gigabyte mSATA SSD's are coming really soon.

 

Sorry I haven't been able to get a more full review of the my Z835- I've been travelling a lot recently and haven't been able to sit down and collect my thoughts. But in short, I love this machine- with normal use (web browsing, office applications, occasional youtube/netflix movies, I get a good 4-5 hrs. When I'm sitting on an airplane sifting through outlook emails with the brightness all the way down, and the wifi off, I ended up going through a little over 10% in 1.5 hrs!! Everything seems very snappy and instant, even with the i3. Of course, I didn't really have a big issue with my four year old laptop... so maybe I'm not one to judge.

My next step is to replace the RAM and the wifi card. But I need that special screw driver first... I've ordered it from amazon. FYI, the wifi card in the best buy unit is an intel Wifi Link 1000 BGN, which does not do 5 GHz and does not do bluetooth. Someone else will have to comment on what is in the toshibadirect z830 model. I'll be replacing it with an Intel 6230 chip, which should to both of those... that is, if I can figure out where that 1000 chip is installed... I imagine its under the keyboard, as is often the case with these units.

The last comment is that after spending some time with Toshiba support, I can confirm that despite toshiba promotional material to the contrary, there is no HDMI-CEC (aka Regza-link) in this laptop. I'm kind of disappointed, but I suppose I'll live. I kept on trying to explain to my Indian friend that plugging in hdmi and having it appear on a screen is not hdmi-cec, its just a regular function of anything that uses an external monitor, but he finally got in touch with the level three engineers, and got everything clarified.

 

So can we assume Toshiba is the only mfg using mSATA? Ultrabooks by ASUS, Lenovo, Samsung, etc all offer 256gb SSDs.

The complete Portege package is just so much more appealing, feature-wise it really is more appealing to me. But 256gb is a requirement

 

No, other brands are normally using mSATA drives but only up to 128GB. The SSDs that are larger than that are not mSATA.

For example, Samsung uses a small mSATA for 128GB models but, if you look at the picture posted about 4 posts in front of this by alexmuw, the 256GB model uses the 3rd one. Note that the Samsung Series 9 was designed to take the larger SSD. Some other brands (e.g. Toshiba Z830/835) only have space for a mSATA.

 

It sure seems odd that Toshiba would have a special name (TruBrite) for their inferior screen. It would make more sense if they gave a special name to the better screen. Right?

 

That is correct... Actually, if you look at the Anvil testing, you will see it recognizes both the system and SSD configuration for proof and then spits out the SATA 3 speeds.

Also.... the 240GB mSATA in the Zenbook is a AData mSATA SandForce drive and Acer just announced same drive for the S3, however, since they are trading out the hard drive, the S3 may be a 2.5" slim form factor. IN addition, Samsung just announced release of their mSATA PM800 in 256GB capacity....

However....new Zenbook specs state 128/256GB which means they may have switched from the AData to the Samsung

I have yet to get anything above 128GB and I have the original 7...

 

Having spent a great deal of time reading the Zenbook thread before coming over here to look at the Toshiba, I can tell you that the 256GB model uses a Samsung drive. People in that thread also seem to hate it, complaining about speed issues compared to the Adata 128GB.

 

Any special care to the SSD? I've heard that you can't just defrag and delete data and such. I've read something about TRIM, does the z830 come with something like it? Does it come with a program that will securely delete data?

 

Looking the Anvil test results now. Can you tell how you can see that "it recognizes both the system and SSD configuration for proof and then spits out the SATA 3 speeds"?

I have a SATA 3 SSD that I'm testing; not seeing SATA 3 scores and was trying to figure out if the PC is limited to SATA 2 (which I'm pretty sure it is).

 

Attached....

 

How can this be accurate when ultrabooks with nearly identical form factors by ASUS (Zenbook) and Lenovo (U300s) offer 256GB SSDs? Clearly they're not switching sata interfaces for the same model line.

In any event, I think the Portege looks like the perfect ultrabook on paper. Once they can meet storage demands of a typical end user, I'm all in.

But I can't wait too long! That Lenovo U300s is calling my name, if only it was designed as well as the Portege (no backlit kb, no SD, 4GB RAM max, etc)

 

So I finally uploaded my unboxing video:

BigNerdBlog: Unboxing the Toshiba Portege Z830/Z835 Ultrabook

Sorry... no Bieber this time around... maybe on the next one.

 

Hi all,

It's been great finding this thread, thanks for all the useful info. Have been wondering what to get for weeks and now have plumped for the Z830 based on the good experiences here.

I'm in the UK and have bought the Satellite Z830-10U model, which is the i5 with 6GB of RAM. All seems great, apart from the fan, well at least I think it's the fan. As soon as a I switched it on I heard a low buzzing which is always constant, and ramps up when performance is needed. Is this what everyone else is experiencing?

 

Either they use normal SSD's for their entire line (most likely), or they do indeed have space for both an mSATA and a normal SSD (like my X220, not likely since ultrabooks have significantly less space to work with)

 

Thank you BigNerd, the MBA 13 and Z830 is almost identical in size. So it looks like its time for me to start looking for a case for the MBA 13.

Any good recommendations? I carry my laptop almost everywhere I go in my bag.

 

I'd imagine they are using normal SSDs..

Toshiba is probably getting hit hard by the manufacturing slowdown in Thailand-harddrives have been scarce for weeks, with 40million+ unit backlogs...

 

I got this one: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Neoprene-Air-Sleeve-Macbook/dp/B00143YL7U

Can't report back yet whether it works... it's locked away in my apartment's mailroom... I've been using a t-shirt to shield it from the outside world for now. (Working great!)

 

From the looks of it, it seems to be just a sleeve, no protection what so ever. I've seen a couple for the MBP 13 which is neoprene with a hard shell inside and foam that comes in contact with the laptop. At 39.99 I'd rather pass, but it seemed so perfect.

 

My thoughts....

 

So can anyone shed any light on the constant buzz / whine I'm hearing? Is this normal? It's like there's a CD waiting to spin up or something. Strange, and annoying.

 

Could be the fan. Turn your system over and put your ear to the fan. Its different than other laptops, in that, the Z830 fan sucks air in rather than pushing it out.

 

Yeah it is the fan. Is it normal it runs like this all the time?

I looked on the support site and there are no driver updates or downloads available. Bios is 1.30, though I see 1.40 on the US site.

Edit - just installed 1.40 bios from Toshiba USA, no difference to fan noise.

 

Series9Guy, can you zip that thing up with the Z inside?

Also, got a link to it (or something similar)?

 

Not only does it zip up but there is no bulge whatsoever...

 

Perfect Series 9 Guy!

I never thought of maybe using a notepad portfolio as a potential case for this. This way, you get both paper and technology!

 

Ya...cost me 18 bicks at Staples and it is like its made for it. Dont get it ringed though...