New Portege Z830

Gotta admit....the 15" just might be a must have....

 

S9 13.3" 400nit 313,8 x 218,5 x 12,9mm, 1,19kg, 39w/h, 3.9h movie.
S9 15" 340nit 356,9 x 237 x 14,9mm, 1,55kg, 62w/h, 6.3h movie.

SSD up to 256GB

 

I have been waiting on light laptops for a long long long time. Its about time that they reached decent performance/weight ratio.

Overall though I think ideal would be a 14" laptop with no bezel which effectively is same as a 13.3" body but 14" screen. It should also be able to give a good compromise on size/weight.

Overall though I gotta say what is taking Samsung so long on adding in-home warranties to their product line in the US :/

 

yes you did, its other way round, sammy 15 is 3.3, R700 is 3.1 with optical drive and same dedicated keys etc. only diff is the sammy is newer hardware and hell of a lot prettier. well and has a bigger screen!lol!

all am pointing out is that its all swings and roundabouts, theres compromise no matter what and getting upto 3.3lb and 15" is almost missing the ultrabook point imo, the Z830 is nearly a full lb lighter than the 15 sammy, so to me its not a comparison.

but ideally i'd like to see and play with all 3 side by side, the 13 and 15" sammys and the Z830.

 

Where is this from?

 

Ehm, guys can we back to topic about Portege Z830/Z835 ?

 

theres nothing left to say on the Z830, its epic and works perfectly, no complaints! lol!!!

 

And yet for some reason... perfect is still not good enough...

I don't want to be one of those people who keeps waiting for the "perfect" laptop, only to discover all the disappointing aspects of it when its actually released, so i wait for the next upcoming perfect laptop, and so on. I waited many months for the UX31 to come out- it looked awesome. Now, from the looks of their forum, it seems like that laptop is a disaster. Glad the Toshiba came out soon after

 

well, there is no such thing as perfect, and its human nature to covet what other have no matter what. so i re-phrase, its adequate for what i currently need lol!!

 

There will never be a perfect laptop. The same thing happens in each and every thread where a great system gets over-examined and then is being looked through very critical eyes. This was very evident in the M1330 a few years back as well. With respect to the Z830, I have listened to 5 now and cannot for the life of me understand how the fan whirl can affect anyone. I think to myself that maybe all were simply looking for no fan whatsoever and that's the grading point.

I should be one of the first to notice such as I usually spend an hour before getting up in the quiet and silence of my bedroom checking the early morning web activity... I can here the fan when the unit sits on the comforter...nothing more.

 

To me, Apparition, that sums it up. It's just like when you choose a spouse. There are always going to be pros and cons. At the end of the day, you finally make a decision. I listened to the fan at high speed and thought, "OK, that's way worth it," because I wanted the balancing factors. To me, the balancing factors of a z830 with an i7 are...

* the ports - true ethernet, true HDMI, true VGA, 3 USB's (one being 3.0, which opens up these new "doc' solutions)
* the dedicated home and end keys (What a relief!!!)
* the easy keyboarding (whenever someone new hears my typing speed, they inevitably say, "How fast do you type?" )
* the speed - all I can tell you is -- with an i7, it's like lightning
* the battery life - I don't think I've completely run it down yet - ever
* the thin form factor - My son compares it to *paper*
* the light weight - Sometimes people say, "Why didn't you just go on and get an 'Air'," and then I respond, "Because this is lighter," and then I watch the look of shock on their faces.

I carry it *everywhere*. (You don't want to know where I'm typing this. )

 

So basically, you're saying, just because your wife snores a very tiny bit, and wobbles ever so slightly, doesn't mean you should trade her in- after all, she still is extremely thin, young, and beautiful, lasts for hours on a single charge, and has all the right ports!

 

Now the cons to be consider before buying :
1. Buzzing fan sound
2. Wobble screen
3. Max screen resolution 1366x768


Personally I have no issue for all above

 

amen!

 

I would if she snored as loudly as / at the same frequencies as the Z830

 

Gives a whole new meaning to this poll.

 

that poll is meaningless, we all love ports in the back..............ahem

i've had a crisis too, ended up tonight with the Z830 on the side playing music as i needed to charge it so its forfilling mixmaster dj duty, as such i'm on the R700, and its sooooo much quicker :-( the OCZ at SATA 2 speeds is very noticeably quicker going back to it over the crap mSATA 2 tosh drive in the Z830. dont get me wrong the Z830 is fast, but the R700 is so much quicker, i literally cant click fast enough to keep up loading apps etc! lol!

i need a better mSATA in my life! 5.9 to 7.6 on the WEI does actually seem to mean something!!!

 

And the Tosh has the both... ports in the rear and side which works out quite well for me.

My Sony SE only has most of the ports on the right side and it's a pain.

 

See here regarding SATA III speeds, hopefully it's also coming to the z830
R835-P56X?i can use SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) Now - Toshiba Forums

 

Reading that thread it appears to be the same sit as we have here where I tested with and others state that they cant get it working.

As for the rear ports, perhaps someone should ask if they prefered the Z830 with or without the rear ports knowing that they would lose several ports as a result.

 

Yikes -- I hadn't thought of it in those terms before, exactly.

 

I keep reading that z830 has slower SSD in all the reviews, but UX31 thread is swimming in slow Sandisk SSD complaints. Apparently, Asus swapped faster Adata SSDs with slow Sandisks. How is the Toshiba SSD inside z830? Can anyone post Crystal disk or WEI score ? Also, has anyone tried to cover the keyboard with a silicon protector or film to see if it muffles the fan noise? Thanks a lot!

 

The Toshiba is the slowest n performace by a long shot, however, in typical consumer use, one will not see the difference because your initial visible improvement comes from disk access times. For a SSD, they are all similar at .1-.2ms regardless of what you get.

Where you will see the diffference is downloading large amounts of incompressible data on a frequent basis.

Tests:

Toshiba Portege Z830 13.3" Ultrabook Laptop Review - Toshiba Creates One Amazing SSD Ultrabook! - The SSD Review

If we look at performance at the PCMark Vantage level as both a stand alone performing drive and through caching, the Toshiba is almost 50% slower than every other SSD on the market as seen in the chart here.

http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews...-seven-msata-ssds-prove-an-amazing-concept/5/

Having said that, I have used the system with every one of those SSDs installed and cannot tell the difference visibly between any in typical use. IMHO Any SSD is a great SSD; some of us just like top marks though for the ego I guess eheh

 

^Thanks Apparition. Nice Read!

 

i disagree, used side by side as stated previously, i can tell the toshiba is slower, and that in day to day use, opening office programs, navigating windows options and facilities etc etc

theres isnt much in it, but compared to my R700 equipped with a Vertex 2 (running SATA 2 as well) but achieving 250mbps transfers and 7.6 in the WEI the tosh drive in the Z830 is visibly slower in opening apps etc, and the Z830 is on a fresher install then the OCZ R700 as well.

its really nit picking tho, and i should imagine the step from sata 2 to sata 3 is not really noticeable at all for average use.

its just a shame the tosh SATA 2 drive is so sub par, it could easily keep up with the OCZ as theoretical max is around the 250-280mbps read/write on that interface, its just tosh's mSATA seems to be pants!lol!

i stress again tho, compared to any spinner you mention, its fast as hell!

 

I wasn't going to return but the thread could use a boost. It is not fair to compare systems side by side. I have also done this with countless people dozens of times and, to this day, not one has been able to give consistent response in three separate tests and ALL have said they would never have believed.

The test is whether you can visibly observe a difference between different drives in the same system with the same OS.

The exact same system has to be used with the exact same OS migrated and simply a switch of the SSD.

 

new SSD Memoright MS701 240gb (mSATA / SATA III) Read/Write (max) 550/500 MB/s

 

i agree its perhaps not a fully fair test, but i believe even at SATA 2 speeds the Runcore drive you swapped in was faster than the tosh. was that visibly noticeable? i feel if it benchmarked similar results to my OCZ in the R700 then it would be visibly noticeable over the tosh drive.

or did the runcore get to SATA 3 before you had chance to bench at sata 2 in the z830??

 

It was not 'noticeably' or 'visibly' different in any way during 'typical' computer use. Thats not to say that I couldn't easily switch into 'enthusiast' mode and pull of some benchmarks and even activities where there would be a significant difference.

The key in this case and, something I have always found important for most users to understand, any SSD will suffice for typical use in itself.

 

i agree, an SSD in any form is significantly faster to the typical user over any spinner.

however the point i'm making is that even in typical user use you can see the difference in my slightly unfair test. for example if i boot to windows, no other programs open and same number of processes running from task manager on both machines ( both are running near identical process lists as well). if i then click the start orb, then control panel, i can visibly see the delay in it opening on the Z compared to the R. and although its subjective test as i havent actually timed it, the difference is there even though i'm not looking for it, or i wasnt initially.

 

So tomorrow is 1/24... anyone going to return their z835 to Best Buy?

I thought about it... but it's a decent notebook (not just ultrabook) for $699.

 

So -- 1806 -- are you saying this drive will swap into the z830 system drive-for-drive?

 

Of course it will but I can get one to find out if you like...actually....240GB may not be available yet as they are awaiting final validation of new sized NAND... Sent in a req anyway.

 

Can get a more powerful and durable 3.5lbs/0.97" thick i5-2520M 12.5" Dell E6220 the Outlet for ~$560. Has an expresscard slot, 9-cell battery option, other accessories like docking stations. Might even come with NBD business warranty. See here for coupon: Dell Outlet Laptop & Desktop (Refurbished) 20-25% off Coupons: Latitude E5520 Laptop w/ Core i3-2330M (2.2GHz), 2GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, DVDRW, Win 7 Pro $366, Optiflex 390 Desktop w/ - Slickdeals.net

 

I was going to return mine, and then I decided to exchange it for another z830. I don't know if this is right, but the lady at the costumer service told me that I GET ANOTHER 14 DAYS!

There's an acer timelineX 4830T for only 599usd. Not sure if I should get.

 

What did you return it for?

But no SSD drive.

Same for the Dell Lat 6220... if you configure it with an SSD (or buy aftermarket), it puts in the same price range and it's a pound heavier and thicker.

 

Sorry, last post wasn't very clear.

I decided to exchange the z830 for another z830 because the keys on the first z830 started becoming unresponsive and the fan noise got REALLY loud. As in I could hear it almost 10ft away when the surrounding area is completely silent.

I can live without the ssd. The only thing faster that I notice is the bootup. 23seconds FTW! Compared to my last laptop which was 47sec.

 

Too bad it happen to you. Are you too often using Z830 on your lap ? And block the fan airflow ?
Just test 48 hours nonstop without shutdown or sleep. The fan still no problem.

My personal experience, SSD not only speed up W7 boot time but also for the applications start and process. Helping me a lot every time I attending meeting. Sometimes the meeting attendees give good comment for the light weight and thin but don't like about wobble screen

 

EDIT : Nevermind, problem solved

 

Edge of my seat!

 

It actually should be on its way but got hungg up because of the Chinese New Year

 

Those Dynadocks arrived -- one for home, one for office. Recall that they have a single cable to connect to the USB 3.0 port on the right side. I'm hoping this saves wear on the HDMI port. (I was plugging in and out of my HDMI monitor on my office desk about 10 times/day, basically whenever I left my desk to go to any kind of meeting or discussion. Then when I'd come home, I was plugging in and out of the monitor on my home desk about 5 more times/day, carrying my z830 to the dining room table or upstairs. I take it everywhere. ) So with these Dynadocks, when I plug in the USB 3.0 cable, it connects and automatically senses the external monitor (and auto-adjusts the resolution perfectly -- that must be a Windows thing). Plus printers, cables to webcams, external hard drives, ethernet, and more -- it all connects through the USB 3.0 cable. Love it. extremely convenient and not so hard on the HDMI. Well wort it to me.

 

what about power or is that still seperate? it wont powr over the usb?

 

I bought a Z835-P330 and I'm going to Clean Intall W7HPrSP1 32-bit.
I plan full format SSD and erase recovery partition too.
Which minimum Toshiba Software and Utilities I need to install?

 

Simply go to Toshiba and download those that seem to make sense. Its really hit and miss but if you monitor your Device Manager closely, you will be able to tell when all unidentified devices have been identified.

 

Power still needs to come through the normal AC adaptor. No provision for that. Think of the Dynadock as a USB hub on steroids (because it can handle the monitor too).

 

So would you say the dynadock was worth the money?

 

Asked:

Answered:

 

Wasn't there some spec that rumored the Dynadock would also be able to charge the notebook via the USB 3.0 port?

 

Not for this laptop specifically- just the general USB 3.0 specification where you can theoretically charge a laptop through it.