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    r500 montevina refresh

    Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by 2bits, Aug 8, 2008.

  1. 2bits

    2bits Notebook Enthusiast

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    It seems that interest in the Portege R500 is tepid at best. I attribute this to its poor performance. Form factor is spectacular, but there is a certain minimum performance threshold that people will really consider.

    I'm hoping the Montevina refresh will excise the 945GMS/GMA950 speed demons, and bring the SU9400 and x4500 to up the R500's game. That would be a sweet laptop. Especially since it uses a full size 2.5" harddrive, a later upgrade to SSD storage when cost effective could really make the R500 competetive again.

    Anyone hear any news about the Montevina version of the Toshiba R? It's a little cared about laptop currently, so news isn't exactly flooding the web. As opposed to the new Sony laptops, which were news many months ago.

    It'll be a new platform rather than an incremental speed bump, so I expect it'll be called the R600 or similar, but the name isn't too important.
     
    2bits, Aug 8, 2008
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  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Given that one of the R500's problems is to quietly get rid of the CPU heat (did you read my review of the R500?), I think Toshiba will be waiting until Intel's new ultra-mobile chipset arrives. I think this is a few months away. Increase power efficiency should be an objective.

    I'm sure that the interest would increase if the pricing was more competitive. At present Toshiba seem to be focusing on premium end of the market. I suspect the vast majority of the R500 users find the GMA950's performance to be fine.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Aug 8, 2008
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  3. 2bits

    2bits Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes, I did read your review but had forgotten about the heat issue you noticed. I work with some who use an R500 daily, but speed, not heat, has been their #1 complaint. A close #2 is the near non-existent screen viewing angles. Perhaps they simply aren't aware of core temps approaching 100C, but I'm pretty sure that's not what they worry about most. You are probably correct about price, however. That is an issue with Lenovo cranking out X61's and X200's at a little over $1000.

    As for the new ulta-mobile chipset, I wasn't aware that was incoming. I knew about the SU9400, but assumed it would be paired with the X4500.
     
    2bits, Aug 8, 2008
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