Design
Note: The R600 has been out for several months, we just tested their updated system with the mega SSD. So if you've read about the build before, you can skip down to our section on performance.

For $3,500 (as tested with 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400, 3GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel 4500MHD graphics, DVD burner, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi n), the Portege may be a bit of a disappointment right out of the box. Yes, it's ridiculously light, starting at 2.46lbs, but that weight comes at a cost of feel. It's plastic, and no amount of metal paint can get around that. But luckily the plastic is fairly smudge-proof and part of a "shock absorbing design" complete with "spill resistant" keyboard. In other words, the system may be more durable than a Macbook, especially with so few moving parts.

The 12.1-inch screen is technically WXGA (widescreen) resolution, though something about the system's shape makes it look more vertical, like a 4:3 screen of yore. This is a minor point, of course, and its non-glossy screen gets just bright enough to use indoors by a window. In full-out sunlight, you can one-button switch the system into "transreflective" mode, essentially using the sun to brighten the screen. High brightness (in standard mode) is still the brightest setting, even under direct sunlight, but the transreflective setting probably uses a lot less power.
Extras, from the effective fingerprint scanner to the eSATA and SD ports, do a lot to sweeten the deal on the small, utilitarian system. And in this era, it's straight up shocking to see an optical bay pop out of a system that's just .77 inches thick.

Performance
The R600 runs Vista very fluidly, especially given its stature. Firefox, Windows Media Player, HD content streamed from the web—none of it will leave you waiting. But given the system's Intel 4500MHD GPU, don't get any fantasies of gaming.

Many will expect the computer to boot nearly instantly given the SSD—I've heard this expectation a number of times—but the still takes about a minute to fully load. The bottleneck here is simply not the hard drive.
How does the R600 compare to other light systems like the Macbook Air or Lenovo X301? Just as you'd expect from the specs on paper, it's slower than the Macbook Air. But even with the same processor, it outperforms the X301.

Then you have to check out the speeds on the SSD.
Fast! This isn't some bargain basement drive that Toshiba shoved in a laptop for bragging rights. I mean, a 512GB SSD is clearly for bragging rights, but it's Toshiba's biggest and fastest drive made in-house—way nicer than we see competition from Lenovo and Apple (which we believe to both use earlier gen, Samsung drives).

But what does this speed chart mean in real life? Copying a 700MB file on my Macbook Pro (with a 320GB, 7200 RPM hard drive) took 35 seconds. On the R600, that same copy may have legitimately cracked the 8 second barrier. I'd like to say that I never took the speed for granted, but I totally started taking the speed for granted. Superman doesn't bow down and thank the sun every time he avoids traffic by flying over Metropolis, so why should I be any different?
Toshiba's 6-cell battery is rated internally at 7 hours, 32 minutes. I found that it offers 3 hours and 35 minutes of MPEG4 playback (screen maxed bright, Wi-Fi on, Bluetooth off, performance settings normal). Our test is rigorous, and it's pretty common for laptops to only get about 50% of their rated battery life in our real world use simulation. Of course, the computer could probably eek out another 30 minutes to an hour with less taxing processes and a dimmer screen.

I Might Buy One...In 2011
The key to remember, of course, is that the 128GB R500 ran $3,000 just a year ago. Now, their 512GB R600 is $3,500. Even with the price bump on their top tier system, Toshiba has the right idea here: Push the envelope and force the market to adapt. Keep topping the sundae with cherries and someone will be hungry enough to buy it (meanwhile those of us who aren't will have plenty of dropped cherries to munch on).
Still, I don't know that I'd recommend this fully stuffed R600 with full gusto. It's simply not as beautiful as premium, small-form laptops like the Dell Adamo or Apple's Macbook Air (side by side above), and the prices of flash storage will certainly come down (and quickly at that). But I'm glad Toshiba made the thing because, frankly, somebody needed to load a laptop with a legitimately beastly SSD first.

The huge SSD Is fast

Under 3lbs, less than an inch thick

Substantial ports and extras

For $3,500, it feels a bit like a Pontiac

[Additional benchmarks from AppleInsider and ThinkPad Forums]

If you're looking to spend less, Toshiba also has a few other new business laptops, most notably the other Tecra R10 and and Portege A600. The latter is a bit thick to be called an ultraportable, but it's only 3.2 pounds and starts at $1399. The Tecra R10 is a cousin to the A10 and M10 launched back in July, so not a whole lot different there.

Toshiba Launches Newest Ultraportable Innovation with Portégé R600 Laptop

At 2.4 Pounds and 0.77-Inch Thin, Portégé R600 Laptop PC Combines Executive Mobility with Innovative Features

IRVINE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Toshiba’s Digital Products Division, a leading provider of mobile computing solutions, today announced the Portégé® R600 laptop PC. At 2.4-pounds(1), 0.77-inch thin(2), this engineering marvel incorporates an integrated 7mm DVD-SuperMulti drive making the Portégé R600 Toshiba’s ultimate ultraportable laptop.

As the successor to the award-winning Portégé R500 platform, the Portégé R600 offers its own unique collection of new features, such as Toshiba’s fourth-generation EasyGuard® Technology(3) with PC Health Monitor, an extended life battery, an enhanced LED backlit transreflective display and a durable chassis. Prices for the ultraportable Toshiba Portégé R600 start at $2,099 (MSRP)(4).

“As Toshiba’s signature laptop PC, the Portégé R600 embodies the company’s rich tradition of mobile computing innovation,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “The Portégé R600 builds upon Toshiba’s legacy of innovation and delivers a superior mobile experience by providing performance, functionality and flexibility in an extremely lightweight form factor weighing 2.4 pounds.”

Designed, engineered and manufactured by Toshiba the Portégé R600 provides users with high-quality and enhanced reliability in a laptop PC. Toshiba’s Portégé R600 includes the following leading-edge technologies:

* Design Enhancements: The Portégé R600 features an enhanced LED backlit transreflective display for a better viewing angle and contrast and a durable chassis with out increasing the size or weight of the laptop. The laptop PC's touchpad has been moved to the center and the buttons feature a tighter, firmer and more solid design. While the keyboard has been enhanced to provide a better tactile feel for touch typists.
* EasyGuard® Technology: Toshiba’s Portégé R600 laptop features Toshiba’s fourth-generation EasyGuard Technology with PC Health Monitor. This new feature is a preventative maintenance utility that continuously checks the performance and functionality of a laptop’s critical hardware components and will alert users when the system is in need of a tune up. PC Health Monitor tracks the status of critical components, such as hard drive status, battery life and CPU temperature and system cooling warnings. In addition to PC Health Monitor, Toshiba’s EasyGuard Technology is a proprietary, value-added series of hardware and software enhancements designed to better protect and secure one’s laptop during everyday computing. Components include HDD Protection, a spill-resistant keyboard(5), fingerprint reader and Trusted Platform Module (TPM).
* LED Backlit Transreflective Display: The notebook features a special button to allow users to toggle between indoor/outdoor modes depending on the lighting environments. Indoors, the LED backlit transreflective display produces an image rich in saturated color and of superb quality. Outdoors, the transreflective screen lets the sun’s light pass through and reflects it out, bringing images on the display to life.
* Solid State Drive (SSD): Select Portégé R600 configurations feature a 128GB SSD(6), making it one of the world’s lightest and thinnest laptops with an SSD. With no moving parts, SSD technology provides customers with an enhanced level of protection, reliability and fast data access.
* USB Sleep-and-Charge/eSATA Combo Port(7): This unique port provides convenience and speed by allowing data transfers to and from an eSATA external hard drive at rates up to five times faster than USB 2.0, and the ability to charge select USB mobile devices whether the laptop is on, off, or in sleep or hibernation mode.
* Green Attributes: The Portégé R600 is ENERGY STAR® 4.0 compliant and has achieved a Gold status through the Green Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT).

Complete product specifications for the Portégé R600 models are available at http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/portege.

The Portégé R600 is available with a three-year standard limited warranty(8), which includes carry-in support at Authorized Service Providers throughout the country such as UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc. locations.

As a responsible global corporate citizen, Toshiba designs all of its new laptop PCs to be RoHS compatible(9), effectively reducing the environmental impact by restricting the use of lead, mercury and certain other hazardous substances.

Toshiba is offering a new, free electronic trade-in and recycling program which includes all laptop PCs and other select electronics, regardless of manufacturer, that have no trade-in value. For more details, please visit http://explore.toshiba.com/green. No purchase is necessary to participate in the recycling program.

About Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS)

Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TAIS is comprised of four business units: Digital Products Division, Imaging Systems Division, Storage Device Division, and Telecommunication Systems Division. Together, these divisions provide mobile products and solutions, including industry leading portable computers; projectors; imaging products for the security, medical and manufacturing markets; storage products for automotive, computer and consumer electronics applications; and telephony equipment and associated applications.

TAIS provides sales, marketing and services for its wide range of information products in the United States and Latin America. TAIS is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, which is a global leader in high technology and integrated manufacturing of electrical and electronic components, products and systems, as well as major infrastructure systems. Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more than 740 companies, with 198,000 employees worldwide and annual sales surpassing $76 billion. For more information on Toshiba's leading innovations, visit the company's Web site at www.toshiba.com.

[Businesswire, Businesswire, Businesswire]

At the top of the line is the Radeon HD 2900 XT with 320 stream processors (each one reducing dependence on the CPU), native CrossFire support (making it easier to pair two of these babies up), and integrated HDMI out with support for 5.1 surround sound. They will also support

128-bit HRD rendering and 16x anti-aliasing. The RV630-based cards will fall under the Radeon HD 2600 umbrella with Pro and XT versions and finally the budget RV610-based models will carry the Radeon HD 2400 name. There's no word on what kind of power consumption to expect from these cards, but hopefully we'll hear the official word from ATI soon. The cards are expected to roll out starting this month (which is around the same time we expect Nvidia's new 8800 Ultra card and their mid-tier cards as well). Let the war begin. – Louis Ramirez

Ed: There's no HDMI in either of these pics.

ATI Releases More R600 Details [DailyTech]