New Portege Z830

50$ for faux leather? meh...sounds like a rip off..for that price they should have used genuine leather...I live in an area with high humidity(which is bad for leather in general) so far all my faux leather and bonded got completely destroyed in like 1 month..only stuff with genuine leather is holding up...

I see 80 pages :/

Speed should have nothing to do with it dieing, for SSDs its always suggested to keep around 30% free space for best results. You can do a check for bad sectors, that will tell you if its dieing, otherwise TRIM is only thing that can speed things up.

On my z830 model what I did is enable hard drive encryption but thats only possible with the i5 models. In your case I would delete all the data and do wipe free space..you can choose how many passes to do(2 should be plenty). Then I would expand a text file to fill out the full space and then do a factory reset. Then another wipe free space and then another factory reset. That should do it.

Most of the time, all a factory reset does is a quick format. Which doesn't even delete any data..all it does is trick the os to say there is no data there.

 

the downgrade from an SSD to a slow as hell 5400rpm spinner would be crushing as well, you will seriously feel like the sony was a snail! so an SSD upgrade would be needed, adding a few dollars onto the cost

just my tuppence

 

Notebook Check finally cranks out a review...

Review Toshiba Satellite Z830-10J Ultrabook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

I just realized, mine displays like 50 posts per page or something. Oh well. The text file thing sounds like a good plan. Thanks again for your help.

For those who can't open or just too lazy to read... Here's the verdict:
Verdict

The Toshiba Satellite Z830 10J changes hands for a grand. The user benefits from the lightest 13.3 inch ultrabook (1110 grams) of all times. Even the MacBook Air 13 is heavier with 1330 grams. The magnesium aluminum lightweight construction is very similar to the Satellite or Portégé R series (see R830). However the weak points, such as the wobbly screen, have been eliminated.

Compared to other ultrabooks, the Z830 has many interfaces, and the majority is even handily located at the rear. The backlit keyboard unfortunately doesn't grant a business-style typing comfort due to its short key drop. However, the layout is very good. The battery life of 4:27 hours in practical use (WLAN test) regrettably fails Intel's 6 hour demand. Since 9:30 hours are possible in idle, users very well have optimization options when reading or typing emails. The matt and fairly bright screen displays pallid colors, but we can still recognize the content acceptably (doesn't dim on battery power).

We quite liked the performance with Toshiba's 128 GB SSD and Intel's Core i5 2467M (1.6 GHz), especially because the performance is never throttled (thermal throttling) and is even available on battery power (not GPU performance).

Unfortunately, the biggest drawback comes from the base plate: The fan permanently rotates audibly even though the measured level of 31.4 dB (A) is low. The buzzing quality will be annoying for the silent-PC fan. Toshiba should make improvements via fan management or constructive modifications. Until then, the fan will remain to be the only real fault of the otherwise overall well-designed Toshiba ultrabook.

 

hello guys, for some days i will have together the toshiba z830 and samsung series 9, so if you have any specific questions just ask me

some differences i saw in my first look:

- screen quality: definitely better the samsung screen, more clear, brilliant and specially viewing angles are amazing compared to toshiba's screen

- noise: toshiba's fan is always running, making and annoying noise (is there any way to turn off that fan?)

- for the rest i liked more from toshiba: the normal sized ports, 3 usb and sd reader instead of samsung's microsd reader, also i liked from z830 that its lid has no fingerprints as samsung has

- samsung has more powerfull speakers
- keyboard is better in samsung also

 

85%..not bad...I thought they were gonna be harsher...And that is a weaker i5 version they are reviewing as those in US got the i5 2557M version.

My favorite part of the review is:

"The magnesium aluminum lightweight construction is very similar to the Satellite or Portégé R series (see R830). However the weak points, such as the wobbly screen, have been eliminated. "

see..the screen is not wobbly as I said before...it onyl gives off that impression because the laptop is so light, rquires firmer key presses and its not balanced toward the back so when you press a key the entire laptop wobbles lol

As a fellow previous Series 9 owner that's exactly what I felt...I miss the screen

 

I thought I had already mentioned this, ... but just spent 15 minutes searching for my past posting on this topic -- so I could answer it there. However, I can't find it. Anyway, I had noticed a reeeeeeeeally strange behavior on y z830. You see, I probably work a bit too many long-nighters. They're not really *all-nighters* ... just *long-nighters*. Like, last night, I went to bed at 4am and had to rise at 7:15am. That's not too uncommon. So, it's to be expected, sometimes my eyelids are .. well... "droopy." So I had noticed this strange behavior: Every time I would get *reeeeally* droopy, Internet Explorer would pop up. Now at first, I thought my z830 had an automatic heads-up device -- like Audi might install on a 2013 sedan, you know? To wake up a sleepy driver? But finally, I ruled that out. (This computer is smart, but surely not *that* smart.) So I kept trying to solve the riddle -- how does the computer know when I'm getting sleepy... and why in the *world* would it throw Internet Explorer at me when I do? Is it trying to give me nightmares or something? (I'm a Firefox-kinda-guy.) So finally, tonight, I thought, what if there's some kind of thing that I do with the mousepad, everytime I start to doze off, you know? So next time I started to doze off (and IE popped up), I tried to immediately think what I was doing -- and sure enough, it's *possible* that my fingers slid on the trackpad. So I make my way to the control panel, click on "Mouse"|"Device settings" (last tab to the right), then I clicked on the Synaptics driver, then clicked Settings. The very last choice, "Application gesture" had a checkbox enabled under "three-finger flick" and, sure enough, there was the "haunted" culprit: A three-finger flick automatically starts IE. Mystery solved. I cleared the checkbox and -- yawn -- now I can doze off in peace, nightmare-free.

 

lol z830guy ! Great read , for a second I was thinking: Wow that's one smart laptop!

 

Sure thing, Alexmuw. I was thinking the same thing. How in the *world* does it know that. A friend asked me, "If it's that smart when your 3 fingers slide across the mousepad, what does it do when your forehead hits the screen???"

I deserve every bit of that razzing.

 

the screen breaks??? ;-)

i love the application gestures, got a couple setup on my R700

 

Do you guys know if Toshiba is going to be releasing a prebuilt Z835 with a core i5 in the US, similar to the r830-10J mentioned above???

I would really like an i5 z830 as it will be more future-proof, but custom building anything on Toshibadirect costs an arm and a leg.

PS. I really hate Toshiba's sales strategy. They get in bed with Best Buy and release crippled models just so Best Buy can sell them for cheaper. They did the same with the R705 with the i3 CPU and now the Z835. Sure the bestbuy z835 is at a great price point at $699 especially for an ultrabook, but I would gladly pay $150 more (if not more) for one with an i5. An Amazon exclusive perhaps??

 

I can't stand gestures...most of the stuff gestures do I can probably accomplish faster manually or just setup custom shortcuts...its just annoying when the gestures start going haywire...

How does 1055 sound for the following extras:

1) i5
2) 3 year warranty
3) Matte screen
4) Better wifi + bluetooth
5) Fingerprint reader
6) Windows Professional

 

Although I think those items may be worth the $300 difference... some people can only (or may only want to) spend $700-$800.

If you threw in 1600x900 (or 1920x1080)... I would do it... heck... for 1080p... I would pay $1200.

 

I'd pay 1200$ for the screen the Series 9 has...and yes I know its same resolution, but its very very pretty...

 

Question about the noise that notebookcheck referred to - it is a bit like a slightly stressed Air all the time.

I haven't really done a huge about of investigation into it but I figured there must be an easy power management fix - the 'eco mode' however does nothing.

Anyone?

 

The noise is similar to a fridge/freezer type noise (not as loud but same type of hum)

And yes fan is always on and eco mode does not fix it. This is probably why in the review they found the laptop being so low temp in general. Maybe in a future BIOS update *shrug*

 

I never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never,
notice it.

 

If you can pay 1200 USD, why do not you purchase the BEST Ultrabook: MacBook Air ?

Almost at every review agrees that Air has better screen, build quality, stability, resolution, etc if you compare it with other Ultrabooks. So I believe its much better to get an Air for 1234 USD.

I do not plan to pay more than 700 USD, so Z835 is the best (and only) Ultrabook for that price.

 

Light, fast, a little unstable: hands-on with a Toshiba ultrabook

Generally quite good piece of equipment, but definitely Toshiba cut the cost using weak mechanical parts (chassis and hinges) and poor quality LCD panel. It is much more safe to buy Lenovo or HP if you are going to use an equipment during 3 years or more.

 

Check my sig... I already paid $1400 for the late 2010 13" MBA.

But Windows is horrible on it... wonky touchpad drivers, poor battery life... I haven't bootcamped into Win7 for months. I would pay $1200 for 1920x1080... the MBA is only 1440x900... and the keyboard doesn't have the dedicated pg/home/end keys.

 

Guess it depends on whether or not you want *ports*. The MacBook Air is missing several key ports that I needed. In addition, it doesn't run our corporate applications well at *all* (Windows Apps).

 

Same reason why I gave back the Series 9 which has a better screen then even the macbook air.

To me there are 2 things that are extremely important that both AIR and series 9 lack:

1) A real touchpad, I tried the no button touchpads. They don't work..all of them are horrible. I don't need no fancy multitouch or etc, all I want is a decent touchpad which the air does not offer. The buttonless/1 button design looks nice but isn't practical.

2) Onsite warranty, I don't have time to send my laptop in or go to a store on other side of the planet, I prefer when they come to me to fix the laptop. Plain and simple.

Oh and obviously I need to use windows..

Also as far as build quality is concerned I don't see how the AIR is better then the other guys, their fail rates are worse then both ASUS and Toshiba for example.

As far as stability, I never had stability problems with my series 9 or this toshiba so can't say that I follow...

 

I guess it's not a bad thing in terms of stability (a Macbook Air more stable? Don't make me laugh) but the fan profile could do with a lot more intelligence if it *can* be as silent as e.g. the Sony Z2 - or maybe it's just not engineered for silence. Either way it is noisier than I'd like.

 

I'm curious - where did this assumption about the Toshiba being less stable (i.e. in terms of lid I presume) come from? The Toshiba has a purposely bendier screen (as with the Z2) but it does 'close with shake' in much the same way as a 11-inch Air, which is more it's equivalent (certainly in terms of weight - the machine weights 1100g vs 1080g of the Air) than the 13-inch.

Overall though - despite the fairly impressive achievements in terms of building an actually business-class machine for this little (I got the i5 model with the unbelievable 'give you your money back' 3-year warranty for ~10% more than a 128Gb 11-inch Air), not a fan of the screen, the SSD or the noise. I'll probably toss this one into the pool of notebooks for my staff to use but yeah - overall I get the feeling it's not good enough to be a second-string Z2 for me.

 

I don't see how the MBA is the best anymore. The Z830 is significantly lighter and has more ports. Its a tradeoff for the Air.

If build quality and ergonomics are really that important, just get an X220, T420s, or other business ultraportables.

 

I think they meant the rumored mac is more stable then windows rather then the lid. But from what notebookcheck wrote I think previous Toshiba models had shaky screens. This one does not. If anything, the shaking is more of a balance issue. This laptop is extremely light and most of its wight is distributed evenly, when you press to 1 side pressure the laptop obviously tilts a little which makes it look like is shaking.

And on a flat surface the fan sticking out on the back doesn't help either.

 

I want but do not have a MBA so I am sure you are right. I read almost all ultrabook reviews and most of them says MB-Air is better (stable, faster, etc.) then Windows based Ultrabooks. Its not my personal opinion.

If you want a 1920 x 1080 on 13.3 or 13.1 then as I know the only solution is Vaio-Z series. But as you know they costs almost 2000 USD.

 

@hakkan:

Most of the review sites are Apple users. OSX is great in MBA... but I prefer Windows... which isn't as great on the MBA.

And with the comparable MBA at $1400... $700 for a ubook is pretty good. And compared to the Z, $1200 for Win7 ultrabook with hi-rez display is an auto-buy (that's why I considered the UX31 with 1600x900 but disliked the keyboard and the other problems it has).

 

I'm starting to get tired of people saying "just get a macbook air; it's really the only choice." If my OS of choice is Windows, why the hell would I ever want Mac hardware? I spent 12 years using both a Mac and a PC on a daily basis, and there are enough differences in the keyboard that I would NOT want to have to use an Apple keyboard for Windows. Add to that the driver issues, and the Macbook is NOT "the only choice."

Regarding the Vaio Z compared to the Z835, yes the Vaio is a level above. I own both (see sig). It's an amazing piece of equipment... but it's not the same type of device. The Vaio Z is quite a bit heavier, double the thickness, and a well-equipped unit will set you back double to triple the cost of a Toshiba Z835. I don't consider the two comparable.

 

Most review sites give their reviews based on what is popular to draw attention, not to mention most of it is aimed at casual users. That said the macbook air is a fine product that has its strength and weaknesses.

Since the AIR is the first biggest consumer adopted ultrabook, a lot of reviews seem to compare current ultrabook weaknesses in comparison to the AIR. I don't see to many reviews comparing the AIR's weaknesses in comparison to say other ultrabooks.

I had my series 9 for 90 days and this laptop for a few days and had no speed or stability issues.

At end of the day, as always get whatever works for you. In my case the AIR just doesn't work out. For others its different, there is no single "best ultrabook". Its a matter of finding the best one for your use.

 

Just SAY IT!!!

Mac Air =

OVERPRICED ALWAYS
UNDERPOWERED IN COMPARISON ALWAYS
LESS COMPATIBLE THEN THE PC ALWAYS

I have heard this argument time and time again and the simple fact is that Mac users are a very tiny segment of the overall PC seen who are comparable to.... Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. They don't care about the system or OS itself so long as it has an apple picture on it.

Honestly, look at this website and several others around the web. Do we find similar Mac websites where the owners are as in depth and concerned about getting the absolute best for their money as you see here? Of course you don't.

Dawning protective armor

 

Fiuh, my Z830 i7 version arrive today.
A lot of work to do, create recovery, clean install W7, Install AV, Office 2010, copy and backup data from X200. I have to finish this before Mondays. Oh man, hopefully fast enough for 6GB PST file.

 

Well that's complete BS.

And regarding the MBA comparisons, in terms of weight the 11" is a more comparable machine to the Tosh - that also has a 1366 x 768 screen, so functionally it's more on a par too.

Also, build quality - I think a lot of people aren't thinking about what build quality is, primarily because they're not qualified to speak of it. Apple's approach is intended to appeal to the layman and design types as much as possible, but it's not necessarily the best way to build an actually roadable machine. I think despite the featherweight build, Tosh has done maybe a slightly better job than the previous R-series that I've used - which means it is definitely roadable.

But definitely in terms of a Windows laptop, the Tosh is a much more usable machine if you're actually using an ultrabook-class machine as it should be than either of the Crapbook Air's. It's not just the simple Windows device driver differences on the Crapbooks either. To give a very specific example, on the 11-inch *i7-2677M* Crapbook Air with the 8.15.10.1559 Intel HD drivers running exactly the same version of Cinebench using exactly the same version of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit using exactly the same power profile, Cinebench will give you 3.78fps on the Air vs the 8.75fps of the *i5-2557M* Toshiba. i.e. the disparity is not down to the display drivers. The story doesn't end there.

The Mac is, deliberately or not, crippled to give a poor Windows experience and negative-reinforce the mantra that OS X is better. But it's still a completely usable experience - it's just that it's nowhere near as capable as any comparable machine. The problem is of course that a lot of the most visible people who write laptop reviews these days - they didn't come from tech, they came from journalism and entertainment - use OS X as their daily OS and often aren't actually familiar in the same way with Windows, so this false impression is compounded. Even pubs like Anandtech appear to pick and choose which figures to reveal - for those figures which Windows on a Mac really fails at, they'll tell you OS X figures only - I don't know whether this is deliberate, but that impression is absolutely correlated by what I'm seeing with the stuff I've *bought*. And unlike these bozos, and I cannot reiterate enough how buying a Crapbook to run Windows even half of the time is shooting yourself in both feet.

However, at the same time the Tosh has a few too many compromises for my liking among Windows ultraportables. The noise is a major problem, the SSD is inexplicably very slow in writes - I mean, we're talking almost spindle speeds - and the screen is pretty mediocre, even though it's matte and bright.

I do. The current Z is absolutely comparable. Sure it's more expensive but it is exactly the same type of laptop. And it does I think justify the price tag difference in this stack. It is the winner by far in terms of usefulness IMO.

 

12gig pst file here with another 4 gig in the archive file. And the searches are *instant*. Maybe I didn't make myself clear: *instant*.

 

Guy sitting next to me on the airplane as I pull my laptop out of the my sleeve, from inside the seat pocket in-front of me: "Whoa, what is that? That's awesome."

 

Been there a few weeks back on route to Silicon Valley.... There were a few eyebrows raised. Its the 'thin' that draws attention to the Z...

 

Whooaaa! That very good....
I think max PST file was 8GB but you already have 12GB. Hahahaha, I don't need archive my PST file, Thank you.

 

Found a nice 13" case from my friend's closet. He wouldn't let me have it even though his smallest laptop is a 17" gaming rig Thule 13" sleeve. This thing is rock hard and probably the best protection you could possibly get for the portability; damn thing costs around $40-60.

Love that feeling.

Was at the public library earlier. My laptop gathered a crowd Mainly computer geeks, but a few cute girls commenting how they like it more than their Air. Then there's always that one person who starts rambling on about why the apple is better than the orange; who in the end, kills the crowd and the popularity of my z830.

 

I have nothing against Apple whatsoever or their products and believe they are a company of brilliant marketing, however, there are always those clicky people that always seem to bring up their Mac. You need to enjoy these brief moments by interjecting their 'initiated negative comments' by asking questions such as:

1. How much did your system cost?
2. Why would you pay so much in comparison?
3. How does your hardware stand up in comparison?
4. How do you deal with compatibility issues from a business standpoint?

We cherish these types of moments...

The comparison to the Z series is a particularly easy one, especially if you have the Z830 maxed out as mine is. Its the thinnest lightest Ultra chassis by a stretch at a price lower than most competitors, has more port options than any other Ultrabook and comes configurable with options that most would expect only from full size notebooks and desktops.

I would like to see a link to that case.

 

The biggest problem with Macs is the people that own them... there's a snobbish "look down their nose" attitude that is just plain old annoying.

 

Samsung NP900X3A VS Toshiba Z830 , amazing differences





I was thinking in moving to toshiba, but I changed my mind when I saw things like this
for me screen quality, noise of the system and speaker quality are very important, without forgetting weight of course

 

What about a head-on view? That's usually how i use my laptop screen.

 

What about WiFi? the Samsung Series 9 has legendarily poor WiFi reception.

 

The z830 in the picture, does it have the matte display or glossy display? [z830 has both available].

 

for now in spain we only have the matte screen version

it's a pity, because I love almost everything from the Z830, but some of the most important things in this ultrabook are disappointing

here's the front view comparison:

 

As a previous series 9 owner, the series 9 screen is the best screen I have ever seen on a 13" laptop. Its not high resolution but the quality is unmatched and its matte. Its the thing that I miss most

The wifi is ok if your accessing from same room and have the Intel cetrino wifi chip, if your using other wifi sources from a distance for optimum performance you may want a wifi usb adapter.

 

You know -- I'm a practitioner... and I'm mainly an implementer -- not an artist or photo-finisher. But the truth is, both images, in the straight-on view, are fine for me.

 

Truth be told, those pictures don't do the series 9 justice. You have to see it yourself to understand it.

Either way the z830 is a great laptop, it may not be "the best" in any sense but at same time its not "the worst" in any sense. It gives a balanced experience at a reasonable price point.

 

I'd agree with that. If it's all you can afford then it's a decent machine at a great weight point.

 

Sad.... My Z830 have no backlight keyboard feature
Already read user guide how to activate using Fn+Z but nothing happen and Z button have no other icon.