The
good: This latest version of the Toshiba Portege R835 is still a great value, packing a big hard
drive, optical drive, and full-power processor into a chassis not much bigger
than an ultrabook.
The
bad: This 13-inch laptop once felt thin and light, but similarly priced
newer laptops beat it on style and portability.
The bottom line: This one-time favorite is still an excellent go-to 13-inch laptop,
if you don't need something quite as slim as an ultrabook, and you can get it
for the right price.
Reviewing the Toshiba Portege
R835-P88 is like revisiting an old friend. Previous versions of this laptop have won our coveted Editors' Choice Award, by offering
excellent all-around performance in a slim, lightweight 13-inch body, for a lot
less than you'd expect.
But since we reviewed the last
version of the R835, a seismic shift in 13-inch laptops has occurred, thanks to
the growing popularity of the ultrabook. The R835 now feels big and a little
bulky compared to the 20mm-or-less 13-inch ultrabooks from Dell, HP, and even Toshiba's own Z835, which are all available for around $899-$999 for a
similar Intel Core i5 configuration, but with a 128GB SSD instead of the R835's
standard platter hard drive.
But despite not being the newest or sexiest 13-inch
laptop around, the Portege R835 still comes off as an excellent full-featured
13-inch laptop. This specific configuration, the R835-P88, has 6GB of RAM, a
big 640GB HDD, and includes features missing from most ultrabooks, such as an
optical drive and Intel's Wireless Display technology. While most retailers
have this system listed at between $850 and $950, it's currently available on
NewEgg for $699, which is an excellent deal.
If you're looking for the thinnest and lightest 13-inch
around, take the same money and put it toward an under-$1,000 ultrabook. But if
you're willing to trade some portability for features and a great price, the
scrappy little Toshiba Portege R835 remains one of our go-to laptop picks.
Price as reviewed
|
$849
|
Processor
|
1.5GHz Intel Core i5-2450M
|
Memory
|
6GB, 1333MHz DDR3
|
Hard drive
|
640GB 5,400rpm
|
Chipset
|
Intel HM65
|
Graphics
|
Intel HD3000
|
Operating System
|
Windows
7 Home Premium (64-bit)
|
Dimensions (WD)
|
12.4 x 8.9 inches
|
Height
|
0.7-1.1 inches
|
Screen size (diagonal)
|
13.3 inches
|
System weight / Weight with AC adapter
|
3.2/4.0 pounds
|
Category
|
Physically, this version of the Toshiba Portege R835 is
identical to previous models we've reviewed. Many of those earlier observations
stand, but the recent ultrabook trend changes the expectations of what a slim
midpriced 13-inch laptop should look and feel like, leaving the R835 looking
chunky (but still feeling very light in the hand).
The R835 has a subtle dark blue tint to its brushed-metal
magnesium alloy chassis. The bottom half of the body feels sturdy despite its
light weight, but there's a bit of flex in the lid. This is still a smart-looking
consumer/business crossover laptop, but it also keeps the one visual element we
disliked last time: the chromed screen hinges, which just look cheap.
Previously, you'd have to spend a lot more on something
like a MacBook Air or a Samsung Series 9 in order to get a thinner 13-inch
laptop. Today, ultrabooks such as Toshiba's own Z835 offer slimmer bodies for
around the same price or just a bit more.
The keyboard, like most current consumer laptop
keyboards, uses flat, widely spaced island-style keys. Toshiba's keyboards
typically have a vertical row of dedicated Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End
keys along the right side. This makes them easy to find, but at the same time
pushes the Enter and Right Shift keys in from where you'd instinctively expect
them to be.
Media control buttons, volume, mute, and so on can also
be hard to find, relegated to alternate F-key assignments and indicated in dark
gray icons on black keys. The R835 still lacks a backlit keyboard, which many
thinner ultrabooks have managed to work in. It would be a major plus to have in
this case.
The decent-size touch pad is acceptable, and it has
separate left and right mouse buttons, rather than being the all-in-one click
pad style we're seeing more of these days. The mouse buttons are on the small
and clacky side, but work well enough.
The 13.3-inch display has a native resolution of
1,366x768 pixels -- the same as most of the ultrabooks we've seen (by way of
comparison, the MacBook Air's screen has a 1,440x900-pixel resolution). Though
bright, the off-axis viewing angles on the R835 weren't great. Likewise, we've
never been impressed with the onboard audio in the Portege laptops; the R835
speakers are audible but pretty lackluster.
Toshiba Portege R835-P88
|
Average for category
[13-inch]
|
|
Video
|
VGA plus HDMI
|
VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
|
Audio
|
Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
|
Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
|
Data
|
1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 1 eSATA/USB 2.0, Sd card reader
|
2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0, SD card reader
|
Networking
|
Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi
|
Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile
broadband
|
Optical drive
|
DVD burner
|
DVD burner
|
Compared to a standard ultrabook or the MacBook Air, the
Portege R835 has a generous selection of ports and connections. Bluetooth is
the most obvious missing element, but the inclusion of an eSATA port is rare on
a 13-inch laptop, and it's still a pretty handy way to hook up a large external
hard drive.
This particular configuration of the Portege R835, called
the R835-P88, is ever so slightly different from the pair of earlier versions
we reviewed. Those 2011 models both had Intel Core i5-2410 CPUs and 4GB of RAM.
This one has a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2450 CPU and 6GB of RAM, along with the
same 640GB hard drive as before. That won't make a huge difference in everyday
use, but the extra RAM is nice. At the list price of $849, it's acceptable but
not a bargain. But, we've seen it for as little as $699, which is a pretty fantastic
overall value, considering the big hard drive and extra RAM.
In our CNET Labs benchmark tests, the Portege R835-P88
performed as one would expect from a laptop with this very common mainstream
CPU. It was closely tied with systems such as the HP Pavilion dm4 and just
slightly faster than the R835-P56X configuration we tested previously. None of
these slight differences in performance, however, were significant enough that
you'd notice them while Web surfing, playing back media, or working on office
documents.
The R835 did, however, far outperform
Toshiba's popular low-cost ultrabook, the Portege Z835-P330, which gets its
price down to $799 or so by dropping the CPU to a slower Intel Core i3. A
$1,000-plus version of that Toshiba ultrabook, the Z835-P370, traded up to a
low-voltage Core i5 CPU and cut the speed difference in half, but it was still
slower.
The Portege R835 line has always had impressive battery
life, and this latest version ran for 6 hours and 42 minutes on our video
playback battery drain test. That's better than just about anyone in the space,
and just about the same as you'd get from a 13-inch MacBook Pro or Air. Other
Windows laptop makers should look to this as an example.
Toshiba includes an industry-standard one-year parts and
labor warranty with the system. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free
phone line, and a customized support search page can direct you to online
documents and driver downloads for this specific model.
After being hit with a flood of thinner, lighter
ultrabooks, it would be easy to dismiss the Toshiba Portege R835 as yesterday's
news. And while it's not as impressive as it was when we first saw it, it's
still a great go-to laptop that packs in a big hard drive and optical drive,
while weighing less than some laptop labeled as actual ultrabooks (such as the
Samsung Series 5 Ultra).
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