Toshiba is updating its line of portable notebooks with a new 3.2 pound model with a 13.3 inch display that’s aimed at the business market. The Toshiba Portégé R30 is now available for $900 and up.

toshiba portege r30

Unlike most compact laptops on the market today, this little guy has a DVD drive. The disc drive adds a little width to the laptop: it’s too thick to call an “ultrabook,” but the notebook still measures less than an inch thick.

Toshiba says the laptop supports up to 16GB of RAM and has a room for a 2.5 inch hard drives as well as an mSATA solid state drive for hybrid storage.

Other features include Intel vPro, TM security, and a fingerprint reader. the laptop has a magnesium alloy case ad feature HDMI, and Ethernet jacks, and three USB 3.0 ports and support USB sleep and charge, allowing you to recharge your phone by plugging it into the laptop even when the notebook is off.

Entry-level models feature 13.3 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel displays but you can also configure the laptop with a 1920 x 1080 pixel screen (or a brighter version of the low-res display).

Interestingly Toshiba is shipping the laptops with 4th-gen Intel Core “Haswell” processors instead of newer 5th-gen “Broadwell” chips.

via Blogging Windows

 

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13 replies on “Toshiba Portégé R30 is a 3.2 pound business laptop”

  1. I am confused. Is this thing really “new”? I know I was looking at them on Toshiba’s website several months ago, but was turned off by the weight and lack of an FHD screen in all but the $1200+ models. I think they were fourth generation CPUs, but maybe not.

    In any case, it seems like these computers haven’t changed much, if at all from the R835 models from like 2010/2011.

    1. Could be a combination of things like pricing and timing… Broadwell shipped later than originally planned and with Intel fast tracking Skylake it means Broadwell will get phased out all that much faster… and some companies probably just figure they should skip it…

      While most of the benefits are towards the lower end, as Intel was still focused on improving power efficiency above performance and the GPU improvements aren’t as noticeable as Skylake’s…

      Add that the Haswell chips are probably pretty well discounted by now, are easier to come by, and gives a better reason to upgrade next year when they offer the Skylake updated version…

      The model may also have been in the works long enough that it was originally configured with Haswell when they initially designed it and just saw no reason to change it at this time…

  2. I’m going to make a similar comment to one I made in another thread. What type of business use requires such a powerful computer? Is this “business market” just code for product sold in situations where the consumer is not paying the price of the product (e.g. an executive selecting a computer paid for by the corporation)?

    1. I wouldn’t consider this a very powerful computer, it’s no slouch of course but there are a lot more powerful laptops you could get…

      Business class laptops just usually start off where budget systems leave off and tend to offer at least semi-premium configurations… but a lot of them are targeted directly towards companies and not just individuals…

      So standard configurations can tend to cover a wide range of productivity needs… as well as customizable models for the really big sellers…

      1. It may not be the most powerful computer you can buy, but ANY computer made today is powerful enough for typical business use. Even current Atom processor computers can run Office and Outlook in a satisfactory manner. This is well above that.

        1. There are laptops that essentially shove a desktop into a laptop form factor… So this is definitely not the most powerful computer you can buy… It’s just about mid-range actually…

          Current ATOM processors are only good enough for basic usages, anything that requires anything approaching significant productivity requires more…

          You’re mainly thinking of basic business uses like running Office, doing spreadsheets, accounting, and dealing with presentations… but there’s plenty of other business work that goes beyond basic usages…

          Even software developers that don’t go into high end programs could still make use of the extra RAM because things like VM’s require more RAM than just the OS requires to run as you need to set aside RAM for each VM you run… Some businesses also require running multiple OS or testing software that you don’t want to crash the whole system and lose time recovering when a VM allows it to be tested and quickly recover…

          Graphic artist, video editors, 3D modelers, CAD, architects, engineers, etc all require more performance than the basic user… Especially, if they need to use multiple productivity programs at the same time or quickly switch between… Some even go into the range that requires a lot more performance than any single PC could offer…

          While the SSD is a obvious time saver, which for many business time=money! Otherwise they would just offer a higher capacity HDD…

          There’s also those who create a RAM drive out of part of the RAM just to have a super fast drive to use that exceeds even the SSD speeds… So certain apps could be run at turbo speeds…

          Besides, if you look at the product order page you’ll see the specs start out lower at the starting price and the defaults don’t go to the max configuration…

          1. I’m not trying to deny that there are some how need more powerful computers. I think the best example given here is the salesperson trying to make their software look as snappy as possible.

            I just have trouble with the term “business class,” because probably at least 95% of computers used in most businesses only need to be base level computers. So perhaps a different term is needed now. That also raises the question are businesses acting like consumers at Costco, and buying more than what they really need?

          2. Well, we can disagree what “most” require, but keep in mind businesses also like to avoid needing to upgrade their equipment all the time…

            So it’s also a matter of future proofing to ensure they can wait a good long period before needing to replace anything…

          3. That’s just more old-school out of date thinking. The demands of the OS on computers haven’t increased much (if at all) since Vista, but computers keep getting twice as powerful every 18 months. Quality of construction is a concern, particularly with notebooks, but this isn’t like the 1990s where even high end computers became functionally obsolete every 2-3 years because of more and more demanding software.

          4. Incorrect, future proofing these days isn’t about expecting more demanding programs, etc. But about ensuring the system can support a range of usages for the company…

            A system that covers a wide range of usages can more easily be repurposed as the company needs…

            Abundance of resources means less work for IT to maintain the system…

            Company software can grow over time and more resources means less worry about a performance hit over time… Instead of needing to wipe and reinstall over time, reducing IT work load…

            Really, there are multiple factors you’re apparently not considering…

            Like some companies use laptops like desktops, which adds additional factors like multiple users, etc…

            So I’d have to disagree with you…

    2. For your generic “run Microsoft Office apps” you’re right — most any laptop will do. However, at least some business laptops are used by salespeople to demo the software product they’re selling, and in this case the more powerful the laptop the better. The app will seem faster and smoother, and the customer will presumably come away with a better impression.

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