Tell me about your R600 experiences.

I've had a certain amount of build-quality grief with Sony TT's recently, and although I have other notebooks on the way, the more I've been looking at the R600 the more logical the choice seems to be.

My only real problem - and call me shallow, I don't care - is the general look of the machine, not to mention the completely style-free TOSHIBA plastered on the back of the screen. I have however determined that such things shouldn't necessarily put me off, especially in light of the technical merits of the machine. I'd be looking at the UK R600-102 specification.

I did have an R500, and I found it a bit too cheap & flimsy feeling - but I've read reviews to the effect that the R600 feels more solid. Is this true? Any other deal-breakers you had? Any notable other points of improvement over the R500? Thanks.

 

There are a few comments by FenderP here.

I've got the R500 (link in sig to review) and have seen the R600 on display. There seems to be a lot of similarity in build, but I wouldn't call the R500 flimsy. It is possible that the early R500s were less solid. mine is heavier than the advertised weight, but the 19 screws holding it together do a good job. The light weight is deceptive, but it is lightweight metal and not plastic.

If you are buying in the UK then you may want to watch the stock at Morgan.

John

 

I've been reading his comments since I posted. (search back anytime soon???)

Flimsy is maybe not exactly the right word - Toshiba are, I know, prepared to stand behind their machines in a big way. Chintzy is probably a better description of my ambivalence - felt insubstantial and cheap. I am aware the casing is mag, but that doesn't change the tactile feel - and dare I say it, apart from the screen even the anorexic G might have felt slightly more solid, although it's been a long time sicne I've gotten rid of that machine. I was also alternating with an X300 at the time, but I don't think that affected my absolutes opinion too much.

I'd be interested to read direct transition experiences regarding the structure, plus any improvements on the display front.

 

The R600 other than the screen IMO is built better than the G. The palmrest/upper part of the main body is I believe magnesium or titanium, whereas on the G it's plastic (both on the G1 and G2). If it is plastic on the R600, it's a heckuva lot sturdier than what was used on the G. My G1 developed cracks in the plastic casing at the corner of the mousepad.

The screen is definitely thinner than that on the G, but I don't anticipate any problems with it. It's a design choice. Like the G, the R600 has very good hinges for the screen (much better than the Z IMO).

It's going on the road with me over the next 2 - 3 weeks, so I'll have a better idea about its durability then, but I don't think it's going to be an issue.

I do hate the mouse buttons though. Why they are a touch recessed/just flush, I'll never know. The G has the R600 beat hands down here.

 

I agree that the touchpad buttons are one of the weak links. Today I finally got round to calling Toshiba UK because I have to press the left button exactly in the middle for it to work. The right button is OK. The computer will be collected tomorrow.

My R500 was a refurb from Morgan (see my previous post) who advertised it as having a 1 year warranty. However, the Toshiba support person reported that it is in the system as 3 years.

One advantage of the Tosh is that, in spite of its thin and light chassis, it can hold a 2.5" disk drive.

John

 

Calling Toshiba for warranty?
Does that mean... you get your money back? !?!?!?!

@FenderP: Cracks in the G? interesting. It is plastic - but short-fiber reinforced plastic, which should offer comparable strengths to mag (the material on the Tosh) in terms of the relative thickness of the materials involved.

It was fun for about six years - quite a long run actually - but I'm rapidly tiring of changing my laptops at an ever-accelerating pace just to get what I think I should have. I'll mull over the R600 posts here over the next week or so and decide what to do - any other further input by anyone will be appreciated. I am going to have to also settle on a skin to cover that godawful logo though.

 

I should clarify: it's the G1 that had that problem, not my G2. It's small enough that it's annoying, but didn't affect any operation. The G2 remains one of my favorite laptops ever despite its lack of power.

Well, I'm the wrong person to be getting advice from. I seem to change laptops at least once a year, if not twice. I'm hoping the R600 makes it a year, and based on what I've experienced so far, it should. It does everything I want it to with really no fuss, and meets my size/weight requirements. I'm glad I got the 512GB SSD one.

That logo is no worse than the Vaio logo on all of my Sony laptops. It doesn't bother me.

 

I also wrote about my experience here. (Too many R600 threads.)

Vogelbung, I've read your posts about the TT over on that forum. While I love my R600, I suspect that you might find some of the things that bother you with the TT also will be issues for you with the R600. The screen is bendable. The palm rest flexes if you squeeze it. After only a few weeks, I'm seeing little scratches on the black border around the screen. To me, these are all within reasonable expectation for a machine that's been designed to be ultra light. But given your posts about the TT, I suspect you may feel differently.

I've had no issue with the mouse buttons, though - work perfectly on my model.

 

My buttons are now working fine after a trip to the Toshiba UK service agent. They also changed the cooling module and the fan is now a bit quieter.

The service was quite impressive for RTB: Problem reported to Toshiba support at about 12pm Thursday. I had a phone call about an hour later from the service people to arrange pickup on Friday. The DHL guy came with a box and a label. The computer must have been fixed and sent out on Monday since the DHL guy tried to drop it on Tuesday (but I wasn't in).

John

 

Bending has never been an issue with the Sony's. All of my recent machines have been bendy to an extent - and I don't have unrealistic expectations for an ultralight - I work in an industrial design engineering capacity among other things and I know limitations of materials. It's a build quality / panel fit issue - panels peeling apart where they shouldn't, etc. It's the first flagship-level Sony I've had that fails on a tactile and assembly quality level, which doesn't bode well.

In terms of what I use daily, everything is still up in the air at the moment and I haven't done much. I haven't gotten around to adding to my Z's, the TT's that I haven't been able to return are still sitting in storage, the SZ's are still working fine for me and I'm reconsidering perhaps I should stick with these for another year instead of upping sticks completely to the Z's.

But I really would like an everyday ultraportable back in my use. I'm not a wimp but currently I'm carrying 2.3Kgs (OS X - Crapbook + battery for 8-hour total ekeing runtime) and 1.8/2Kgs (SZ - 6/9 hours) and it would be good to go to the 1.3Kg level again for a 6-hour ekeing runtime.

I'll be buying some Rev.C Airs in a couple of months to have another crack at the OS X ultraportable situation, but I'm under no illusions that even with an external battery pack they'd anywhere near measure up to a TT or an R600 in terms of everyday utility.

The R600 is still my front-runner I think... but I probably won't be doing anything until the fate of the Sony's are clearer.

 

To recap:

I've been reminded that the Reliability Refund Guarantee expires at the end of this month - so I've placed an order for two of the R600-102's to hopefully swing in under it (awaiting stock... so, well, we'll see).

The Sony situation is still unresolved but we'll see what happens with that.

Thanks for the comments, and for writing the other posts.

 

Boo. Supplier unable to deliver in time for the 30th. In which case I'm not desperate for them right now, so have cancelled the order. Time to get on Sony's case and get some of my money back...

EDIT: Have sorted out the Sony situation - and also not buying another Sony until probably the Z/TT are replaced - so re-ordered the Toshibas.