Portege R700 - the thin and light 13.3"

Ok, that sounds all quite good. Thanks!

I can't wait until this device is finally available in Germany. BestBuy doesn't ship here... Guess I'll have to wait a few months...

 

try ebay, you may be able to find a seller that will work with you

 

what do you say comparing the R700 to an old Vaio Z with 2.5ghz c2d? I can see some points:

Vaio:
Probably more well built, sony is great at that
slower CPU (versus the i5 520m)
not sure about battery life since it has a 9300GS dedicated, but that is also a + for vaio since R700 video sucks according to reviews
same weight
little smaller screen (13.1)
cheaper

 

my r705 from bestbuy arrived today. Here's some first impressions:

+ nice build quality, feels solid, small and VERY light
+ keyboard does take some getting used to, but I like it, the spacing makes it harder to mistype.
+ large, responsive trackpad with built in 2 fingers scrolling
+ cool and silent if you're just browsing web, watching movies.

- does get a bit warm on the left side bottom (air vent) under heavy use, but the top always stays very cool.
- fan noise is clearly audible under heavy use.
- headphone jack on the right side (whats that all about?).
- not impressed with the screen. It's not bad or anything, but not the best either; it's kind of "boring". The colors aren't as nice as the Sony CW22 (14", $900) I have with me right now, although contrast is slightly better on the r705.

I'm gonna return it.

 

WOW

IMO you are someone who:

1) deserves to have a restocking fee charged to [which you will unless you're a reward zone silver member or cry a river, which you may...considering #6]
2) should spend time in the store looking at something before you buy it
3) lives in lala land about fan noise vs usage
4) clearly does not know how to look at the photos on the toshiba website since it shows the location of the headphone jack quite well
5) clearly does not NEED a thin and light if you are comparing to a sony C
6) may have a vajayjay based on your comments of heat. Based on what you said, my response to any man would be... "does that really matter?", to which they would reply "no, because I don't have a vajayjay like dple".

To contradict every single point you made I say the following:

For starters, in a post a few weeks ago you said you wanted a 15" laptop with dedicated graphics...and you bought this?? and those are your complaints?? WOW

Your most veracious point for returning it is the screen. I have to wonder though, if the resolution is not an issue [which it shouldn't be since you knew exactly what it was before purchasing] how can the less than perfect colors be enough to return a laptop? Could you not adjust the colors? Do you not know how? Also, if it is just an inherent problem with the screen not looking as good as nicer more expensive displays I have to wonder, does it matter? Are you doing photo editing? Are you a video producer? Frankly I don't think you're doing anything where good color reproduction really matters, or that you're doing anything that just messing with the saturation or gamma couldn't fix. IF you do do those things, you should have an external monitor for them...no one is going to do those things on that tiny monitor.

As far as fan noise, heat, and the location of the headphone jack. Well, to that I ask...what are you doing that the fan noise becomes problematic? Are you running 10 programs while you're sitting in class and the people around you can hear your fan going off? Yeah, that's a problem...cause you should be paying attention in class instead. Or is it that you're sitting in bed with your laptop and your wife doesn't like the sound of the fan? To which, I can understand. But I also wonder what world you live in that you think a laptop wont produce fan noise when adequately worked. I also wonder if you're aware of programs that can limit the fan speeds, obviously making the laptop warmer...which you seem to complain about as well. For that, I also wonder... what are you doing that the bottom corner of the laptop heat bothers you? Do you have it on your lap while you're sitting down watching tv? Do you put it on top of your covers while you're in bed? And I also wonder why you don't use the lap desk you purchased according to a previous post...or why you don't purchase one?

About the headphone placement, well, on that note...I'd have to just call you a moron. You have a post where you listed the dimensions of this laptop, yet you couldn't manage to take the time to look at the headphone placement? Come on man.

All in all, I have a big smile on my face knowing you're going to pay $120 to best buy and not get to enjoy this laptop because you are a tard. If you end up weaseling out of the restocking fee, well, hope you feel good about screwing best buy out of hundreds of dollars since they now have to waste time dealing with you returning it, wasted time shipping it to you, and will waste money since they can't sell it for full price anymore ( see this).

On the bright side...to any moderator: don't worry, I wont ever post anything like this again. This woman just deserved it.

 

hello, is the same the R705 from bestbuy than the R700 in toshibadirect webpage?? does the bestbuy one, comes with an 64bit sys and fingerprint reader?? Why R705 that seems to be newer than R700 is cheaper?? I like this laptop!!! and want to oreder...

 

No they have some differences. The main differences are that the R705 lacks

bluetooth
docking station port
express card
Fingerprint reader (I THINK..don't hold me to that)

however the R705 has

intel wireless display

This link points specifically to the rest of the differences not mentioned above. Also, the R705 has a blue-ish color to it whereas the R700 is black.

Compare Laptops | Toshiba Laptops, Netbooks and Notebook Computers

Feel free to rep

 

Thank you, I really like the R700-s1310 that has bluetooth and is also black. But theres too much time to order it from toshibadirect.com but, let me start trying find it on the web.. maybe other stre has it in stock.!!
still thinking on the vaio y (i5/ati, but no dvd built in)... hahaha I think these laptops makers are friends and make configurations that make me be thinking a lot on wich one to buy... theres Real processor, dvd built in on the r700 vs screen and a video card on the vaio y...
Still reading reviews, asking here, there.. thank you all.
excuse my bad english..

 

I edited my original post...I don't think the R705 has a fingerprint reader so be careful on that one. And you're very welcome.

Just remember, sony is a bit thicker and heavier too. Unless you need dedicated gfx, i would go with the toshiba. Also, be careful with the sony because dedicated gfx might not be enough to suit your needs without the real processor. Good luck!

 

You make some good points...and you sound like you know your stuff. I forget if you are using the i3 or the i7 version of this laptop but can you tell me which one you have and also, how low it's able to clock itself? My current T8300 can go down to 700 mhz at times...I'm interested in what the core i series can do compared to it's base freq.

 

excuse me the question, but watching photos on websites, i have to make this qesution:
Is this a Wiescreen Laptop? or is it like the old square laptops ??

 

why do I see everywhere a 1.45kg for the R700 and in some reviews they talk about 1.1kg?

 

The r705 has the i3-350M. I haven't spent much time looking at clock speeds other than using Toshiba's ECO mode which throttles down several processes to reduce power consumption. I use ECO mode 99% of the time and the r705 has no problem viewing 1080p video and other processor intensive tasks. CPU-Z shows substantially lower Core speeds when ECO is enabled (665 mhz is generally the lowest).

 

The best buy near where I live did not have this model then so I just went for it and ordered online.

Of course I knew where the headphone jack was, not the first laptop I've seen with this headphone jack location either. It's inconvenient, and is a (-) to me but it's small detail.

Yes, I considered 15" because I do a lot of photo editing (photography, hobby) and I've been fine with my old 15". I reconsidered and want smaller than 15" now because I want better mobility, and also because I've decided to get an external monitor to use at home.

Sony CW is 14", difference between 13.3" and 14" is not as big as you think, and I only compared their screen quality. I consider CW a thin and light. And btw, nobody NEEDS a 13.3" thin and light that can't settle for a 14", unless they're disabled somehow and can't handle an extra pound. But we all WANT the thinnest and lightest because it makes our lives more convenient.

ok mr. internet tough guy. Why are you overacting just because I said it gets warm in the bottom? I pointed that out because people have mentioned it in this thread previously as their concerns, and it does matter when you use it on your lap for a long time, for many reasons. but it's not a big deal. I noticed this because the CW I've been using produces less noise, and doesn't get as warm, then again it's bigger.

I just find your attempt at insult amusing. It's vag1na btw (can't say the whole word here?), not "vajayjay". You're just overcompensating for something in real life. Imo you're either 1. insecure 2. denying yourself and haven't come out of the closet or 3. have a hatred for vag1nas somehow

Now my reason for wanting to return it really is the screen, I'm not very happy with it. I find the color reproduction and saturation unnatural. Which I might have been fine with if I hadn't seen the vaio screen at the same price range. Viewing photos and watching movies on it is not very satisfying tbh. If I do return it, I'll have to eat the 15%, which really really sucks but... oh well

And I'm NOT going to reply to YOUR private message about your $75 paypal request for info on a way to get out of the 15%. haha.

 

Hmm. So heat and screen - these appear to be biggest concerns now.

To other owners, how lackluster is the screen? Are pictures and videos vivid-looking? Is the screen generally vibrant and inspiring?

On heat, can you work on this laptop for an hour on lap - if you open 20-25 browser tabs and 3-4 business/office apps?

 

Just as a heads up, having a ton of tabs and apps open is not going to get the PC riled up. I can have 20 tabs open on my PC without it generating any more heat than if firefox weren't open.

What gets things heated are use. Whether it's 20 tabs or 1 tab, it's how much processing power your tabs need and how much memory and disk access is being performed.

So if i have 20 tabs that are not doing anything in the background but one that is, it's the same as if just one tab were open. Same goes for office apps.

Hope that helps.

 

looks like the S1320 drought has ended. cost central has 274 in stock for 1221. not a bad deal. too bad they have pretty bad service.

 

??? ????????

 

hello, i have a little more questions:

1) in the sheet paper of toshiba it says it has W7-32bits; W7-64bits and a xp downgrade.. what does come from factory installed??

2) how is the system resotore on toshiba? how does it work? can i make a clean install from the sys resotore aplication? or is a simple "like factory" restore on it?

 

I'm interested in the answer to # 2 as well each lappy is a little different and I'm not that familiar with the Toshiba.

 

Anybody have similar issues with battery life?

EDIT:

CNET has starting reviewing the unit, yet to post battery life/benchmarks.

 

hey just wondering, to any r705 owners out there: what processes/crapware did you guys remove from your machines to that the ram doesn't get eaten up?

 

Windows 7 ....

 

haha, well i actually like windows 7, any r705 owners with windows 7 out there have an answer?

 

I went to my local Best Buy and they had an R700 on display. I spent about ten minutes with the laptop and came away impressed.

The magnesium alloy chassis is very sturdy, as in, business class-like. There was basically zero flex when I tried twisting it by the corners.
The lid is reasonably strong but I got ripples to appear on the screen when I pressed in on the back. Under normal use there should be no problems with this though.
The R700 is extraordinarily light; it felt like nothing in my hands. It is also quite thin and easy to handle.

The keyboard is very good; the layout was fine and it has no flex under normal pressure. The tactile feedback is good and it has a nice sound too.

I didn't have my test images with me to test the screen but on first sight it the brightness and contrast were fine.

The pricetag is very attractive; $800 gets a 2.26GHz i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB 5400RPM drive, and it had Intel Wireless Display technology.

Had the R700 been out a few months ago when I was in the market for a 12" - 13.3" notebook, there is a good chance I would be typing on it right now.

The only thing I haven't seen yet from this notebook is the actual battery life. Anyone have numbers?

 

3-6 hours. i tend to get like 3-4 cus i do a ton of crap on it. but ya theres like no way u can get the advertised 8 lol

 

Thanks. Yes I figured Toshiba's numbers were way off, they state something like 8.66 hours. Sounds like they measured the power consumption at idle with the screen off and did the math on paper.
~4 hours is OK, not great but also acceptable (IMO). My HP 5310m gets 5 hours off a 4-cell but it's a different animal (and I paid more for it).

Like I said I think the R700 is a great notebook for the money . . . very, very tempting. There are a lot of nice notebooks on the market right now, it's a great time to buy.

 

Yep, i agree... thats what i was saying before, they must have measured the 8 hours from a complete idle computer haha

 

What's interesting is that Toshiba claim 8 hours for the i3 version and 8.66 hours for the i5 version (if I remember correctly).

Charles, what are some of the other notebooks that look good to you right now. Just curious -- although the little Toshiba is pretty tempting. Especially the i5 version, which is ~$1250 or less.

 

The R700 is probably the best-looking 13.3" notebook right now (for a reasonable price, otherwise there is the Sony Vaio Z).

For 11.6" the Alienware M11x; 13.3" the Toshiba R700; 14" HP dm4t, EliteBook 8410p, Dell Latitude E6410, ThinkPad T410s; 14.5" the HP Envy 14; 15.6" the new HP Pavilions (dv6t/se) and EliteBook 8510p/8540w, ThinkPad T510; 17.3" the HP ENVY 17, EliteBook 8740w, Alienware M17x. In budget notebooks I like the HP G42t/G62t/CQ62Z and Dell Inspiron R.

Yeah, lots of HPs in my list but I find their lineup the most impressive. Dell is a step behind HP right now, they have been for some time.

Feel free to PM me for advice.

 

Nice list. Thanks, Charles.

I know what you mean about Dell. I've always been a big Dell supporter in the past... I've owned more than a few myself and I've helped others buy lots of 'em. But lately I don't feel quite the same.

For some reason I've never been a huge fan of HP, but for the life of me I can't really say why. Maybe I should take another look. Actually, I wish the Envy 14 were lighter -- it's just a bit on the heavy side for its size (in my opinion).

The R700 looks pretty darn good. But I won't lie, if the Vaio Z were less expensive I'd own one right now.

 

Yes, It´s also my opinion!

 

is there too much difference in performance/battery life between the i3 and the i5?

 

when you consider the increase in performance vs the slight increase in battery life it could be that you can get more time out of it since it can finish tasks more quickly, thus if you give the same task to an i3 vs an i5 the i5 will get it done sufficiently quickly enough that it requires less power than the i3 since the i3 takes longer

Lots of "if"'s there though.

 

I agree, I also don't think anyone gets what laptop manu's advertise. Even macbook's which are supposedly praised for their battery life. If you look over at the forums there, no one in their right minds gets anything close to what apple advertises.

On the contrary though, I think apple does a good job giving out realistic numbers for devices like the ipad, ipod, and iphone. Their laptop battery numbers are as unreasonable as those given out by PC manufacturers though.

 

There hasn't been an answer to question of a hard drive caddy for the optical bay. Anyone?

 

I would say you're looking at about a 0.00001% chance of that working. This thing is made so thin that there is almost no chance that that bay is modular.

 

But the question is not about a modular bay, where the optical drive can be swapped out by pushing a button or latch and replaced with a secondary hard drive, battery, or weight saver. I know the R700/R705 doesn't have a modular bay. The optical drive can be replaced however, just like on all laptops that have them - it just involves screws (most likely) and is not something that's designed to be swapped in and out on a daily basis. There are lots of 2nd HDD caddies available for laptops like this where the optical drive was not designed to be swapped out (i.e. no "modular" bay as such).

Also, the thinness of the laptop has nothing to do with it. Toshiba made the laptop thin, but they still had to use a standard 9.5mm optical drive.

 

Oh, I was only familiar with the ones i've seen on thinkpads which were modular. Would be interesting to see if this works. After some googling, it seems like it should definitely work and just depends on someone building a caddy for this particular model. They even have one for an m1330 which is a slot loading drive so this drive should even be easier...but will obviously require time and demand.

Question: Can you disable power to the extra hard drive in the caddy if you're not using it? If so, how? Simply disabling the device in device manager?

Thanks

 

I think it would be cool to use the bay for a secondary battery (a la thinkpad). Do those retrofits exist?

 

Yes, exactly. I'm aware that the bay isn't modular but fixed caddy for a hard drive would be outstanding. I love the laptop, but the optical drive is useless. Being able to put a 750 or larger in the optical bay would make this the perfect laptop.

 

Anyone spotted any other reviews of the laptop?

 

@Gamermatt:
How do powersaving features work on Linux? Setting the brightnest, FN-Keys, CPU-speed and the like... Does it all work? Sorry for bothering you, but I need to know if I'm falling in love with the right notebook model LOL

 

how much lead is in the power cord? bothers me.

 

Do you mean lead as in Pb as in lead free? or do you mean the length of the power cord that plugs into the power supply? (or perhaps you mean the lenth of the entire supply both DC and AC components?)

 

Laptopmag.com review: Toshiba Portege R700 - A Review of the Toshiba Portege R700

This is the configurable model, and not the Best Buy configuration. The reviewer loved its performance (when using a Core i5 processor) and six-hour battery, but the keyboard height is not standard and the heat is slightly unbearable.

My tablet is kaput, and I'm considering the R705 as a hi-octane replacement. Who can corroborate the reviewer's claims of 115-degree exhaust vents? Does the R705 seem to run much cooler?

 

The only part of my r705 that gets warm during hard calls on the processor is the back left corner where the vent is located-The keypad and keyboard stay cool. The corner does get warm but I have used it on my lap extensively and it isn't that hot where I felt uncomfortable, even when I am wearing shorts.

As far as fan noise is concerned, the fan will turn on when you are watching videos but it isn't like a hair dryer. It's pretty subdued compared to my HP dv3z. If you have seen any of my previous comments, I have compared the dv3z to a hair dryer. There is an extreme difference between the two systems and I am very happy with the noise reduction. I have no complaints especially when I consider that I have a full i3 under the hood.

Is the i3 vs i5 the reason for my difference on heat and fan noise that Laptopmag experienced? Maybe. But since I have never used the i5, I can't say. I doubt that there is a significant difference between the two but someone idea's of heat and fan noise is Nirvana to another coming from a hot and noisy system.

 

Toshiba Portege R705 review -- Engadget engadget review

 

Thanks for posting the review.

Did anyone test the R705's display outside, in the sun etc.? I'm going to choose the R700 based on the matt display, but maybe this "glossy" display isn't all that "glossy".

 

It's interesting how all of the battery life claims I have seen for the R705 are around 4 hrs but the review of the R700 gave 6 hrs. Toshiba's website says they are both using the same 66Wh 6-cell battery.


Hhhhmmmm