TOSHIBA LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST LAPTOP WITH 128GB SOLID STATE DRIVE

Portégé R500-S5007V Measures 0.77-inches Thin and Weighs 2.4 Pounds Making it One of the Thinnest and Lightest Laptops

IRVINE, Calif. (June 17, 2008) – Toshiba’s Digital Products Division, today announced the addition of a 128GB solid state drive (SSD)1 into the innovative Portégé laptop series. Toshiba’s 2.4 pound2 Portégé R500-S5007V is the world’s lightest laptop with a 128GB SSD and DVD SuperMulti drive and one of the world’s thinnest with a SSD and DVD SuperMulti drive.
“With seven world’s first technologies the Portégé R500 series has served as a technology launching pad and redefined the ultraportable marketplace with its world’s first technologies and ‘green’ attributes, such as a transreflective LED backlit indoor/outdoor viewing display, the industry’s highest rated EPEAT Gold laptop and Energy Star 4.0 compliance,” said Jeff Barney, general manager and vice president, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “First to incorporate a 128GB solid state drive is another major accomplishment for Toshiba and illustrates how the company is committed to delivering solutions that meet the needs of our customers.”
Utilizing the industry’s largest solid state drive capacity of 128GB, Toshiba’s
Portégé R500-S5007V provides ample storage space for carrying critical company data
and sensitive personal data while traveling. With no moving parts, SSD technology
provides customers with an enhanced level of reliability, durability and system
responsiveness.
To provide added convenience and on-the-go productivity, the Portégé R500 series was the world’s first laptop to ship with a 7mm DVD SuperMulti drive. The built-in optical drive reduces the Portégé R500-S5007V’s travel weight by providing users with an all-in-one solution, eliminating the bulk and inconvenience of carrying additional drives and cables.
For enhanced outdoor viewing, the Portégé R500 series incorporates the world’s first widescreen 12.1-inch transreflective LED backlit display, a feature that embraces the variety of lighting scenarios in which laptop computers are used including direct sunlight. Indoors, the LED backlit display produces an image rich in color saturation and superb quality. Outdoors, the transreflective screen lets the sun’s light pass through and reflects it out to bring the images on the display to life so users can switch off the LED backlighting off while outdoors and decrease overall battery consumption. This feature also makes the Toshiba Portégé R500 series an ideal choice for environmentally conscious users. This innovative display technology also enables users to expand their mobile computing boundaries beyond the traditional four walls of their office, home or local coffee shop to include locations with direct sunlight.
Measuring as thin as 0.77-inches, the Portégé R500 series uses Toshiba’s proprietary High Density Mounting Technology process to enable dual-sided motherboard component mounting. This innovative technology produces a motherboard that is one-third the size of a mainstream 15.4-inch notebook’s motherboard, while still providing users the same functionality.
The more than eight hours of battery life3 of the Portégé R500-S5007V gives users a full work day of normal computing on a single charge. To achieve this extended computing life, Toshiba subjected key system components to meticulous energy efficiency evaluation. Key Portégé R500-S5007V components use low power consumption technology including both the 128GB SSD and an ultra low voltage processor.
For executive durability and security, the Portégé R500-S5007V incorporates Toshiba’s EasyGuard™ Technology4 including advanced encryption, multiple level passwords and a fingerprint reader. These innovative features help prevent theft, and protect against unauthorized access to the users system, helping keep confidential information secure. In terms of data protection, the elimination of all mechanical moving parts from the hard drive Toshiba has designed a machine that further enhances the level of reliability and durability.
Additional information about Toshiba’s EasyGuard Technology is available at
www.easyguard.toshiba.com
The Portégé R500-S5007V Recommended Configuration (MSRP $2,999)5
• Genuine Windows Vista™ Business (32-bit version)
o Downgrade media for Genuine Windows XP Professional
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor U77006
o 1.33GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB with 64 bit
• 2048 PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM8
• 128GB Serial ATA solid state drive1
• 12.1-inch diagonal widescreen high brightness display
o 1280 x 800 (WXGA) – Transreflective backlit LED
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 9509
• 7mm, 8xDVD-SuperMulti (+/-R Single Layer) drive supporting 9 formats
• Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN10
• Intel® PRO/1000 - 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
• 3-Year Standard Limited Warranty11

Complete product specifications for all models within the Portégé R500 Series are available at www.explore.toshiba.com/laptops/portege/R500. The Portégé R500 Series is available with a three-year standard, limited warranty11, which includes carry-in support at Authorized Service Providers throughout the country; or customers may utilize any of the 4,460 UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc. locations nationwide for packaging and delivery of the product to a centralized depot for prompt turnaround service. Customers can also choose to upgrade the notebooks’ service plans, including up to four years of extended warranty coverage.
All new Toshiba notebooks are RoHS-compatible12, effectively reducing the environmental impact by restricting the use of lead, mercury and certain other hazardous substances. Beginning in the third Quarter of 2008, Toshiba will offer a computer trade-in and recycling program for all manufacturer’s PCs to reduce environmental impact and promote efficient utilization of resources. To learn more about this free PC recycling program or to find out how to recycle other consumer electronic products, please visit: www.toshiba.eztradein.com/toshiba.

[Toshiba ]

It's great to see Toshiba jacking up the specs on it to make it a total badass in the thin, light and fast category—with, ahem, 3 USB ports, and in addition to that, a FireWire port and a PC card slot. But Toshiba is still only offering Vista Business on these guys, and when I tested an R500 early on, it was Vista that totally stunk up the machine.

Toshiba's US site still shows the model capped at 64GB (for $3,000), but we assume it will be updated soon. When you do, Toshiba, please offer XP as an option. Then again, you never know how many of the issues were resolved by SP1. [Register]

Soon joined by the 12-inch X200, the 14.1-inch X400 and the 15.4-inch X500 (all armed with 45nm Penryn processors), customers will be able to pick the precise display size of their choice on one of the most lust-worthy laptops on the market. The X-Series will also feature HSDPA and EVDO, 25% improved battery life, beefy 6MB L2 cache and lots of fanboy drool.

Here's the rest on Lenovo's new ThinkPad line-up:

R-Series (refreshed)
This line will continue representing the entry level. We're light on specs, but we know it will include the R400 (5.1lbs) and R500 (6.4lbs). Expect these to be refreshed in July 2008.

T-Series (refreshed)
This line will continue to represent the mid-range, featuring 256 or 512MB ATI HD3650 discreet graphics that can be turned off to conserve battery life. We don't have sizes, but the T400 will weight 4.3lbs and the T500 will clock in at 5.8lbs. Shipping starts June 3rd, 2008.

W-Series (brand new)
The W-Series is a completely new line. Where the "W" used to stand for "Widescreen," now it stands for "workstation replacement." Described to us as less bulky than similar machines from Dell, the 15-inch W900 will feature the same discreet graphics as the T-Series. A 17-inch version is in the works for the future.

And here's the good stuff:

Many or All Models Will Have:
• 6MB of L2 cache
• Turbo Memory option (think Ready Boost, up to 2GB)
• Blu-ray drive option
• Two PCI Express Slots
• 1.6GHz DDR3 RAM
• LED Backlighting (excludes R Series)
• HSDPA and EVDO (Lenovo claims to have no deals with Sprint)
• 9 cell batteries (same form factor as former 6-cell, 25% more life)
• GPS, WiMAX, and wireless USB are scattered through models
• The x300's solid state hard drive option (excludes W)

Lenovo is starting new ThinkPad manufacturing in May so that there are plenty of units to fuel demand. And from the sound of it, some of the X300's most appealing features are making their way to the entire ThinkPad line. We're just wondering what the pricing will look like between the X200 and X300. Will we be paying a premium for size or for screen space?

Thanks Odd Job!

It turns out that, surprise surprise, you pay a premium for a tiny form factor. The MacBook Air is seriously expensive for the guts you get inside, but Apple isn't the only company guilty of charging insane amounts for smaller computers. Just look at the Sony Vaio TZ150N, for example. $2,100 for a 1.06 GHz processor? Are you kidding me? I don't care how small, it's still a rip-off.

The best deal—if you don't mind an extra pound of weight and half-inch of thickness—is the Dell XPS M1330. It bests the MacBook Air in nearly every single category, delivering about 30% more processing power, 50% more memory, over 300% more hard drive space, plus a dedicated graphics card. All of this, for $300 less. But also, two hours less of battery life, thanks to the new smaller and more efficient Core 2 Duo processor in the MacBook Air.

But it's really no surprise that a form factor as striking as the MacBook Air's warrants a premium price. Super-slim and light laptops as a category have yet to come down from the stratosphere, dollar-wise. It's a form factor that SSD just makes loads of sense for, lightening them up and cutting down on battery life, but that drives the price up even further for the time being. Chips are still getting smaller and screen technology keeps improving. In a couple of years, these form factors will be reasonably priced with great specs, but until then, prepare to pay a huge chunk more for a bit less power, just so you can brag about having the thinnest computer on the block.

[Gizmodo's Macworld 2008 Full Coverage]

* Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 1.20 GHz CPU * 1024 - 2048 MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM * 12.1″ WXGA 1280×800px Display * Intel GMA950 * 120 GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD or * 32GB or 64 GB SSD drives * DVD Super multi (+/-R) drive * Intel Wi-Fi a/g/n * Bluetooth 2.0 EDR * Wireless 3.5G GSM, GPRS, EGPRS, WCDMA, WCDMA+HSDPA module

[PC Joint]

The unit features a 12.1-inch transreflective LED-backlit display, a Core 2 Duo CPU, and unlike most absurdly small ultraportables, it comes with a built-in optical drive (the only laptop to include a 7mm-thin optical drive). Compared with the competition, the R500 is packing way more power for your money. We spent some time with it last month and it's ridiculously light, but the good thing is that it doesn't feel flimsy. The keyboard is solid (and not overly small) and the screen is one of the best I've seen on an ultraportable. The unit is available for $1,999 (starting price). – Louis Ramirez

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