New Portege Z830

I just went through the last 15pgs of posts and can't find it, but what are the specs of the laptop memory for popping in another 4GB stick? I tried Toshiba's website and Crucial's memory finder, both find no results.

I swear I remember seeing it posted somewhere...and the search function isn't working for me.

 

I added this to my machine, and it works great: Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

you are also going to need a size 7 security torx and a small philips head screwdrivers to open the case.

I've noticed that the search thread function never works at nbr... i feel like thats a pretty big thing that needs to be fixed.

 

Another 4GB stick...not possible. The system holds one stick max 4GB for a total of 6GB to be clear.

 

This is from Engadget's new review of the HP Folio 13 Ultrabook:

"All told, the Folio 13 meets its stiffest competition in the Toshiba Portege Z835, which also starts at $900 and has a backlit keyboard, 128GB SSD, long-lasting battery and Kensington lock slot (if that matters to you). And despite having a robust selection of ports, it weighs just 2.47 pounds, which gives the Folio 13 less of an excuse for being as hefty as it is. All told, both offer excellent value and performance for the money, along with long battery life. It's up to you which is more important: the Portege's extraordinarily light design, or the Folio's business-friendly software, spacious keyboard and elegant aesthetics."

 

I've just finished up testing the Lenovo U300s ..... I would take the Z835 over it. While the U300s has a better keyboard, the Z835 is better almost everywhere else - build quality, speakers, touchpad, has keyboard backlighting, is lighter and much much less expensive.
I can't think of a better Ultrabook at the moment other than the i3 Best Buy Z835.

Gonna see if I can get my hands on a Folio, that looks like a very promising machine.

 

Nice. That one is lookin' good...

 

speaking of which...

HP Folio 13 review -- Engadget

 

thanks!!!!!!

 

BestBuy raised the price on this laptop to $849.99

 

Well I think that considering we are all still in the return period, the only fair thing to do would be to call customer service and ask them to add an extra $150 to our purchase prices...

 

That would be hilarious were it not for the fact that some of us are still waiting for our "price match guarantee" refund from Best Buy of $100 + state sales tax. 3 weeks after requesting the refund, I was informed last week by a BB customer service representative that my request had been "lost" in the system, despite providing her with a case control number (CCN). So she assigned me a new CCN and I'm waiting again.

 

I was worried too... called them on the Tuesday during the week it went on sale, did not receive word by the following Monday and was about to call them the next day but got an email saying the allowance credit was applied.

 

Here's a question: Those of us down here in the USA have still been waiting on the right "pad-folio" to act as a case. I saw a Tumi factory as I was traveling last night. Nothing they had would fit. Has anyone come across *any* other case that works for the z830, other than the "wetsuit" model that Toshiba sells? I was looking for something that looked more like a Daytimer.... like our friends in Canada found in Staples.

 

I hadn't heard of the Z835 before seeing it in store but I tried it after my wife said she liked it when we were wandering around Best Buy. Looked up some reviews online, and walked out the store with it. The only thing that *really* bothers me is how the screen *feels* so flimsy, but honestly, for $700 I'm willing to accept that tradeoff. (Bought the laptop a day or two after the holiday return policy went into effect, found out about the price drop a few days after that happened, went back and talked them into it. 8))

I thought I might feel limited by the i3, but with all of my simultaneous Chrome tabs and Netflix watching, I haven't had any problems.

Any recommendations on a zipperless sleeve/envelope? Tried an Incipio model intended for the MBA but it was off just enough to bother me.

 

I'm using the Belkin macbook air neoprene sleeve... it fits well, although the zipper can scratch the notebook if you're not careful.

 

fair point, i think the R700 has an older wifi chipset, i would have to check. perhaps the Z series wifi reacts badly to the tosh eco settings more so than the older one!

 

I'm looking for a ziperless sleeve that fits too, haven't found anything yet

 

Interesting article on Gizmodo. They ranked the z830 as last complaining that it is slow plus some other complaints. Considering they tested the i3 z830 and all the rest had i5 or i7s it is not a really fair test. Gizmodo is known for their Apple love so it isn't very surprising they put the Air in the top spot. Interesting that they made a "mistake" in the specs of the Macbook air accidentally putting the weight of the 11" in there making it look a lot lighter then it is.

The Best Ultraportable Laptop

 

Another example of how reviews are subjective and can be meaningless.
I guess Gizmodo was trying to be a rebel by ranking the z830 last.

A lot of reviews have mentioned the "cheap" flimsy screen, but didn't Toshiba release a statement in one of the early reviews stating this was purposely designed to minimize impacts and such? [give and take approach to durability]

 

Its a bit odd....

They would place the MacAir first and then place the top performing Mac Air against the least performing Z. They then overlook weight, thickness, number of available ports and YES, Toshiba did state that the flexibility of the monitor was intentional. It is not by any means flimsy.

They skip over the price comparison (Mac is TWICE as much) and then base their findings on the stickers found on the palm rest of the system. Hmm, I peeled mine off without difficulty right off which means that Toshiba believes that some people might actually want those stickers on the Ultra.

They also mention their 256GB SSD but forget to discuss how technology has advanced and some of these systems may actually contain smaller lightweight SSDs that are mSATA.

It is truly unfortunate because, if you are truly going to provide an honest comparison...explore the same characteristics for each system... That puts the Mac in second to last I believe..if not last.

Oh and lets not forget...10000 plus points on PCMark Vantage which ties it with the SATA 3 Zenbook? Really? I have yet to see that performance out of the MacAir in any other tests yet... Maybe I am looking in the wrong places. Can anyone assist here?

 

I thought the battery tests were strange too. What i normally get and what engadget got in their review were roughly the same. Gizmodo's tests were way off. That said at least they changed the content of the review based on my comment and changed the weight of the MBA to the correct number.

 

I just looked at that review and what the hell...

They tested an i3 version of the z830 and the lowest tier i5 version of the Series 9 vs the others which were all running i7

Though its also interesting that the Samsung Series 9 got 2nd place with its lowest build vs Apple's highest build. My guess is if they would have used an i7 version of the series 9 it would have gotten 1st place which they didn't want to do.

That said I can't believe the z830 lost to the Acer..are they trying to make an insult here >.>..that person seems to have a HUGE hate for laptops with dedicated buttons by the sound of the review :/

 

the engadget HP folio review shows the MBA getting less then 10000 on PCMark. My guess is they buffed the results to give the MBA the best. Just like they accidentaly put the 11" weight in there and did not post the windows battery results that would put it more inline with other laptops.

Gizmodo is known for their apple love. What is a surprise is that they would be so blatant about it. I mean at least compare similary speced systems.

 

Lol, what a meaningless review. A) Evaluating based on stickers is stupid. B) most other reviews list Z835 battery life as best. C) Many ports is fine for "err, some people"? Who wouldn't want a VGA HDMI ethernet and extra usb port? All EXTREMELY useful ports I've already used multiple times. These guys are obviously zombie mac users who have come to believe whatever apple gives them is what they need. D) They don't even factor in price into the equation, and even if they did, the z835 list price was $200 more than many people played for that model. And E) The comparison to the Zenbook irks me particularly, as someone who bought it previously. How can you rate something with a faulty keyboard and trackpad as better than something with a great-working, but subjectively cheap-looking trackpad?

 

My guess is that when they did the test, the macbook air is their pc so they have it optimized. Whereas the others are tested with full bloatware and etc since they don't use them. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing performance tests in eco setting and battery tests in high performance lol

But again unless all of them are using same/similar CPUs or around same price point the point of those vantage scores are silly

 

any1 else going to keep their Z835 i3 bestbuy model? I haven't had any major issues thus far besides: fan noise when flash video running, very poor lcd vertical viewing angle, touchpad sometimes left clicking when I'm trying to move cursor, and occasionally stuttering flash streaming (not sure if wifi, cpu, or the website's problem). But at $699 i can overlook these issues.

 

Mine's a keeper.

Just sold my Transformer+Keyboard dock so it's going to officially become "Smalls".

 

Keeping mine, I personally have had ZERO mentionable issues.

This was a screaming deal at $699! Many others who have seen my laptop were once contemplating Macbook Airs, but are now looking at moving back to the PC camp. I think many don't even know about "ultrabooks" since they have many of the features people are looking for nowadays.

 

Mines the Z830 Portege model but hell yes am keeping it. the only complaint i have is the fan noise, everything else is perfect for what i want it to do

i loaded it up last night on multitasking, had literally 50 windows open containing various programs etc, lots of flash heavy ie9 tabs and god knows what else and it soaked the lot up no problem

 

Anyone know if the cpu is socketed, or soldered in, on the Z830?

I have the BB model w/the i3, which I paid $699.99 for. I love the laptop except for it being a little underpowered. I'd perfer at least an i5, or better yet, an i7.

Thanks


.

 

never actually noticed when i dismantled it but i would hazard a guess and say soldered

 

I'm planning to return the laptop next week. Not sure if I should return to best buy or sell it to someone for less than the price+tax bestbuy is asking for.

PS: Yes, I got my 100 dollar refund. So I paid 699usd + tax for it.

 

Why not just disable the tap click in mouse settings then? As far as occasional stuttering, check your power setting to make sure wifi is set to medium or above.

Pretty sure all ultrabooks are soldered, there isn't enough room to fit a socket...They barely fit the heatsink in.

 

Phenomenal thread guys, this has all been very helpful.

Quick question, any way to enable different touchpad gestures (ie. two-finger tap for right click, etc.)? I checked on the mouse properties but no such functionality.

Also, planning to purchase another one of these for my brother, any current deals on either the i3 ($799 at BB) or i5 ($1199 at T-Direct)?

Much appreciated.

 

I couldn't find any setting for this either.

You may want to check Synaptics site to see if they support such an action and if so, it may either just be a registry entry you need to modify (I had to do that on my Sony SE to get two-finger scrolling to work) or something they may have a new driver for.

 

on the last tab of the synaptic settings you can changes the settings for the profile. That is where mine are to change gestures. If it is not there try updating to latest version from synaptics website.

 

I guess there are a few of us here who are passionate about the product Toshiba has given us to play with... I mean *use* in our jobs. (But it's true -- it's such a joy, I almost forget I'm working. ) I just checked and... do you realize, we have way over 1000 messages in this thread so far. That's like... 1/4 the number in some of the most popular threads that began like in 2008!

My latest observation -- it really doesn't matter how many tabs I open in Firefox. This thing just *flies.* And my Outlook .PST file is 13 gig, with a 4 gig legacy archive. That's 17 gig of data -- and it can access any portion of it in an instant.

I can't think of *any* reason I'd part with it. And I'm *still* finding things that I like. This weekend, I was just realizing how quickly it resumes. I honestly can't remember the last time I rebooted! Incredible.

 

Less than 48 and off to Vegas... just me and my Z vs. CES!

 

Toshiba is teasing us :/

Toshiba promises world's thinnest and lightest 10.1-inch tablet and 13.3-inch Ultrabook, 55-inch QFHD TV, other wonderment for CES -- Engadget

if that is a new ultrabook lol (not the picture but I mean reference)

 

So the HDMI port on my laptop started acting weird... the colors ended up being off, with streaks of red overlaying the normal image. Last time I used the HDMI was probably back in mid-december, and I have been carrying it around a lot, but I'm not sure what caused the change.

The bright side- I took it back to best buy, and they exchanged it without question. Didn't even need the box, which I didn't have on hand. Compare that to Toshiba's support, which asked me to send it in so they could repair it in 7-9 business days, or they said I could pay extra for in-house repair. No thank you. I suppose thats the benefit of the continued existence of bricks-and-mortar stores!

Now I'm up and running again, with my brand-new Z835

 

with HDMI all working?! ;-)

 

That quote is bound to be referring to a z830. They wouldn't obsolete this engineering so quickly.

 

On a z835with 1 year warranty it isn't worth it but if you have a 3 year warranty I payed 80 bucks to turn that into 3 year in home warranty...

Maybe..but with ivy bridge it might be possible to shrink it more using same design :/

 

Good news! The "price match guarantee" refund from BB for my Z835-P330 finally appeared today on my credit card account online. It took 27 days after I had initiated the request and multiple calls back to BB but I guess better late than never.

 

Just wondering if it's possible to decrease the fan noise on Z830 by putting some sorta tape on it and completely covering it? The reasons I chose Acer S3 over Z830 is the price and the fan noise, also I checked several stores that had Z830 on display,the ssd capacity showed 65-70gb available out of 97gb, 31gb taken by OS!!

Now I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of both machines as I can still return my laptop. S3 has fan that's always on at constant speed. S3's 20gb ssd is a joke, it's hidden and has no use because the machine does not have hibernation feature. I can't even install windows on ssd.

I really love the sleekness and weight of Z830, but I returned my previous R830 last year with in 2 hours due to fan noise and now the successor model has worse noise

 

Hi guys..Im thinking on getting a z830 this month. I have 2 questions regarding the battery.

1. Is the battery is built-in or replaceable?

2. If its notuser replaceable then Im wondering what is the best way to charge it when I take it out of the box to get maximum performance out of it now and in the future?

Thanks!!

 

Like all ultra portables the battery is built in. From what I saw when I had the bottom off it looks to be pretty easy to replace on your own though.

As for charging I would not really worry about it too much. Charge it fully as they recommend out of the box. Use it like you normally would. Occasionaly do a full deplete on the battery until you get the low power warning to calibrate the battery. Avoid deep discharges where you use all the battery though. Battery life is going to decrease over time no matter what you do. Personally, I use the laptop the way I need to and will replace the battery when needed.

 

1. Built in but not user friendly replaceable.
2. You mean long life battery usage ? Every battery have max charge circle. If you want to have long period then don't ever charge it Just kidding. You must unplug every time the battery indicator 100% and sometimes you must use until left 10%.

 

Well, I will say that i just got the Z835 new from best buy, and it had 80GB free out of the box, out of a total of 104 GB. Don't know why there is a discrepency. Maybe the in store model has its own set up, with some stuff they load on?

For the fan noise, I did try unplugging the fan from the inside, and i kept getting messages that the laptop needed to be repaired, whether it was heating up or not. Putting tape I don't think will help that much, because the actual buzzing sound resonates through the keyboard more than from underneath. In a completely quiet room, If I have my head positioned in normal position a bit away from the touchpad, with keyboard on my desk, the sound is a very quiet barely perceptible hum. If I put my head right over the keyboard, it becomes a slightly louder, noticeable buzz, like an electric razor, but still quiet. If the keyboard is on my lap, I can hardly hear anything from the laptop. Add in even the slightest background noise, and you can't hear the fan at all. The hum and buzz I mentioned initially will get filtered out of my brain unless I'm paying attention to it, or I'm writing a NBR post about it .

 

Most notebooks these days has a setting that will charge the notebook to only 80%... both my Sony SE and z835 have it... the z835's is in the ECO setting.