New TOSHIBA R830 R480 and R850 packing Sandy Bridge

Hi all.
Have you seen the engadget article about the new TOSHIBA series with Sandy Bridge CPUs just announced at MWC in Barcelona ?

Toshiba Satellite R830, R840, and R850 laptops unveiled at MWC -- Engadget

They look pretty good (especially the 13.3 inch R700 sequel - R830). USB3.0, powerful CPUs, e-sata, nice pattern on the lid
Also they have a quite interesting cooling system... all cooper.

EDIT:
Just found full specs:
Portégé R830-113 - Product Specifications - Toshiba
Portégé R830-10V - Product Specifications - Toshiba

 

It look very interesting and with sandybridge allowing for some gaming takes away problems of no dedicated gpu, wonder what the price will be like with 256ssd, looks like same fails through low res screen and no backlit keyboard.

 

Video

 

I really like the video. I wonder if they really improved the cooling- espceally the fan noise. That is my biggest issue with my r700 right now. I can understand high fan noise when watching a 1080p vid but not when writing a doc on Word.

 

1.64kg, i wonder where the extra 0.3kg is from?

 

I think that particular R830 model above has 9 cell battery. Thats why it is heavier.

 

I more interested to know if they improved the screen. Not sure about the R700 with the matter display, but I have seen the R705 Best Buy model and that was pretty bad. If this comes with an acceptable matte/anti-glare screen, I may forgo getting a convertible pc and get this.

 

Am comparing all the brands and will see how the ratings come out when finished.

Sony claims a higher res screen available on its new models and looks nice while Toshiba looks like it improved its model on the cooling and case components.

Unclear if Toshiba will have a premium screen available to match the Sony models.

I won't buy anything till Ivy Bridge. Allegedly Toshiba claims USB 3.0 so they must have included a seperate controller chip since Ivy Bridge is not ready at the moment which will have USB 3 built in.

 

I was thinking about waiting for Ivy, but then you almost get stuck playing the waiting game as Ivy may not come out until 2012.

 

This may be my next laptop. Currently looking at 12"-13" models from Lenovo and Sony too.

Looking at the specs (thanks avoid), seems like a good all-rounder with excellent connectivity. Won't be available until April though. Hopefully won't be too expensive.

Never owned a Toshiba laptop before so does anyone know if the optical drives are usually removable or easy to get at? It would be great to get a small ssd and a large hdd configuration.

 

This is just about the ONLY thing keeping me from buying the Portege. If the screen is vastly improved, it'll make my list.

 

The issues from looking at the R700 owners thread and reveiws are screen quality and noise. It seem unlikly they will include a higher res screen and the noise seems to be an issue of the fan constantly running even when the laptop is cool.

And i guess also how the price compares with the new sony SA but that might have dedicated gpu as well.

 

Noise looks like it could be fixed with the new cooling solution which was modified for Sandy Bridge.

As far as the screen goes, unclear if they changed LCD panel vendor and improved it. The resolution is not the premium 1600x900 like the Sony VAIO has available. Would need to wait for comparison reviews.

I don't think any laptop will be perfect and its a fact of which one you want, there won't be any notebooks that are perfect for everyone.

 

I doubt that their new cooling solution will fix the noise issue. From the pictures posted on Engadget it looks like they are using the same fan mounted at the same location. If the fan was mounted closer to the battery, the noise could have been absorbed more efficiently. The current location is too close to the user and as it is closer to the outside so more noise leaks out. The worst part is that Toshiba is marketing their cooling system as it is something groundbreaking in theory. In practice, it doesn't cool that good and it is extremely noisy. My R700 could have been the best laptop out there with more customization and a proper cooling method.

 

Extremely excited about this laptop. Come summertime, im gonna be deciding between the R830, Lenovo edge e220, macbook pro 13', and the Sony Vaio SB

 

Wonder how it will do in the battery life realm?

 

Does anyone have an idea of what the pricing will be like for the two versions of the R830 we have specs for?

Are we looking at around $1000, $1500, or $2000?

The R830 is currently the top contender as my new notebook (I have until July to buy it), but I'll have to consider other options if the price is prohibitive. Not sure I'm willing to shell out $2000 for it, but a little over $1000 would be okay.

Thanks!

 

I think given the specs and on the basis of the current R700 pricing, I would think they would be similar in pricing. So the HDD model would be around a $1000 and the SSD model around $1500

 

Perfect, thanks! Hopefully they make it easy to swap out the HDD on my own (without having to take apart the whole case like with the Asus U36JC) so I can buy the HDD version for $1000 and then pop in a 60gb SSD myself for an extra $100 or so.

 

Getting the hdd model and swapping for an ssd would be a good option to keep the cost down. It's a shame out the screen as how hard would it be to have an upgrade option. I would say defiantly be between this and the SA.

 

$1421 (i5 w/320 HDD)

 

Some more news:

Toshiba Portege R830 priced, Core i3 model ready for pre-order at $899 -- Engadget

 

interesting seeing the basic model appearing, do toshiba normally have customizable options, as i would probably be interested in the i7, 8g version if the sony sa is delayed to long but cant see the toshiba 256g ssd being cost effective.

 

First Toshiba R835 review is up:

Toshiba Portege R835-P56X Review - A Review of the Toshiba Portege R835-P56X

 

Hi, I was wondering if there's any latest news on R480 or the R850? any release date on these two 14 n 15inch laptop. I am really eager to know when it will be released in US.

 

will they have something other than intel graphic?

 

acer or toshiba, which ever one running the coolest under load is going to be mine. I am not sure about sony sa or sb. Screen suck?

 

If anything the SA will have the best screen of all the listed here, plus its a 1600x900 res screen, which I am pretty sure neither the 13in from Acer or Toshiba offer. Not sure about the SB screen quality.

 

seems to be pretty temtping choice, but why so low wifi output? x220 wifi transfers twice as much

 

just an fyi- the R840 and R850 are both listed for sale on the Toshiba Canada Website now, but I still dont see a cto option for either model

Toshiba Canada - mobile computing - notebooks - tecra notebooks - Tecra R840
Toshiba Canada - mobile computing - notebooks - tecra notebooks - Tecra R850

 

Oops. Seems to be a higher end than the $899 at newegg. I guess the R830 is the higher end line of the R835.

Between Sony, Lenovo and Toshiba the main ones I am looking at right now, looks like supply is just starting to make rounds and new configurations look like they will be in the works for future weeks/months.

 

It could be the business model, like the R700 vs R705, where the R700 came with a matte display, docking port, and Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate vs Home Premium for the consumer R705.

 

I want the matte display. Does the docking port allow external video?

Yes the CPU's on the business line feature Windows 7 Pro, and the faster cpus with hardware virtualization.

 

The R830 looks interesting but the keyboard looks very similar to the previous models and that was very soft and its still not backlit.

Its those small touches that are ofputting I supose if well priced might be okay.

 

Does R835 have Matte or glossy display? It is advertised as anti glare but it doesn't say if it is Matte or Glossy.

 

Another R835 review. They claim improved battery life, three more hours of battery life over last year's model, how can that be? I find it hard to believe. May be fan is silent this time?

Toshiba Portege R835-P56X Review - Laptops - CNET Reviews

I'm still deciding between this Toshiba, Sony SB and Asus U36.

 

Sony SB has serious quality control issues right now. Asus will have Sandy Bridge in the future and its unclear how specs will be.

I will check out MacBook Pro 13", Toshiba R835/R830, Lenovo T420/T420S. Asus is a long wait and specs didn't seem too competive.

 

The R840 and R850 have finally popped up on the toshiba website- yay

Toshiba Direct | tecra R840 Laptops & Notebooks

Toshiba Direct | tecra R850 Laptops & Notebooks

and I came across a short article on PC mag about all three models

Toshiba Unveils New Business Laptops | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

 

What kind of problems do SONY SB laptops have?

 

Kept look but i gave up.
yah, too. This is what i am waiting for. Discrete graphic card too.

Intel® Core™ i7-2620M Processor 2.70GHz (3.40GHz with Turbo Boost Technology), 4MB Cache
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 32-bit
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
2GB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM (2048MBx1)
320GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA)
AMD Radeon™ HD 6450M w/1GB DDR3 dedicated graphics memory
Integrated Webcam and Microphone
Standard Lithium-Ion Battery (6-cell, 66Wh)
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (802.11a/g/n) + Bluetooth v.3.0 + EDR
FingerPrint Reader + SmartCard Reader
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
1 Year Standard Limited Warranty

$1,354.00

I will upgrade the memory and hd myself. Am I missing something? Also, if I buy the 15.6 model the laptop will be larger, but this creates more room for a better air circulation? resolution kind of bad?

In the review it says the R850 has 1600x900 resolution, but toshiba site says 1366x768 native screen resolution

 

Was comparing Lenovo e420s, t420s, and now Toshiba R840.

The E420s with AMD GPU was high on my radar but the Toshiba R840 has USB 3.0 which was missing, TPM Chip and expressport. It weighs 1lb more on the Toshiba but has more battery life to boot. But the video card is a 6450M vs the 6630M on the Lenovo.

I am not buying now but the Toshiba R840 is quite competitive. Samsung Series 6 is also due out which will compete.

Lenovo T420s is considerably more expensive with similar features but I don't know how the units compare.

Turns out the GPU is 6450M which is much weaker than the AMD 6630M on the other and there isn't any upgrade path to it.

 

for me the toshiba looks better than the Levono. IMO

 

Lenovo MAY have the AMD 6630M which is a totally more powerful Class 2 GPU vs the Class 3 on the Toshiba which is on par with the integrated video roughly in speed.

Would be nice if Lenovo came out with an AMD 6630M GPU model.

Ive gone down the gamut of models and I'll see if another competitor coming out picks up what I want.

 

the unboxing by toshiba

YouTube - Toshiba Unboxed - Tecra R840 Series Laptop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2LYRkcXh60

 

Lack of Thunderbolt kills everything for me right now.

 

Do any laptops have ThunderBolt?
I know Apples Mac Books will be getting it in a few months. But, I don't know of anything that currently has it.

 

I'm pretty sure the SB Macbooks that are out now have thunderbolt. I want to say there was a business pc manufacture that announced this port, but I could be wrong. And as of right now there isn't much things utilizing it so having it on the R series would not be worth it really. Maybe in the next revision we might see it.

 

You would expect people on NotebookReview to know what models have rather than post such a comment.

But yes, Apple MacBook Pro has thunderbolt right now in the 2011 models. It has an exclusivity agreement apparently while Intel will be making it standard in the Ivy Bridge chipset on all models across the board, including Toshiba Tecra models for those who wait for next years stock.

Next years models will have usb 3.0, ivy bridge and thunderbolt across the board without use of controller chips needed. As for addons by manufacturers, no clue if anyone will pop a controller chip for any other features like usb 4.0 or whatnot. I think USB 3.0 and thunderbolt is all one really needs.

Apple MacBook Pros with thunderbolt have been shipping for awhile now actually. It isn't a new product. It shipped out in early 2011. Not sure the exact date the new revised Mac Book Pro's have come in.

However, Intel is coming out with the development kit this quarter and if I recall, only one product is either out or is in final stages, which is a Lacie Storage product for thunderbolt. Should be lots more Thunderbolt devices added this year and definitely next year as it is standardized by Intel.

The moral here for me is I think I'll get a notebook next year.

 

Didn't know the current Mac Books already had ThunderBolt, thanks for the info.

That really sucks that Intel has an exclusive agreement with Apple for Thunderbolt until next year. And I'm sure there will be no way to "upgrade" to Thunderbolt, as that would deter consumers from buying a new laptop.

Only port I seem to be using is eSATA. Works great for external harddrives. I don't know if you can get adapters to allow a MP3 player or etc.. to use the eSATA port.

Oh well. Looks like 2012 is the year to purchase.

 

Hey guys, has anyone had a chance to see the R840/850 in person? The only thing holding me back from buying one is the screen quality. I've seen the R835 in person and the screen is great (for me anyways).

It's listed as a "Trubrite" screen for the R835, but the R840/850 are listed as matte displays; as having never seen one in person (I don't even know where to look), I can't jump on one just yet.

Though in my google search to figure out what Trubrite screens really were, I came across this company: Toshiba TruBrite LCD Screens - What is it?

They offer to add a coating to 'trubrite' your screen, and if that'd make the R840 screen comparable to the R835's, I'd do it.

At the same time, the only thing that keeps me to the R840 is the dedicated GPU. The only things I really want to do on my laptop is medium/light photoshop, some Zbrush/3d modeling (light autocad etc included) and play Starcraft 2. Im not sure if I can do all that on the sandy bridge GPU, the internet proves to have too many discrepancies in this manner.