Toshiba Portege Z835
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We have collected 9 reviews of the Toshiba Portege Z835. Experts rate Toshiba Portege Z835 7.1/10. Reviewsor.com helps you find reviews, best prices, user reviews of the Toshiba Portege Z835 and Toshiba Ultrabook.
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Toshiba Portege Z835 Reviews
Toshiba Portege Z835-P370
If you're shopping for an ultrabook, you've got to at least consider Toshiba. Four months after its introduction, the company's Portege Z830/835 remains the lightest in its class at 2.5 pounds (versus 2.9 to 3.3 pounds for most rivals), with the best collection of ports - including Ethernet, HDMI, VGA, and a memory-card reader - that some ultrabooks leave out or delegate to dongles, as does the Dell XPS 13 ($999.99 direct, 4 stars). We've tested two versions of the Toshiba already, the thrifty but sluggish Intel Core i3-powered Portege Z835-P330 ($799.99 list, 3.5 stars) and the fast but pricey Core i7-based model Z830-S8302 ($1,429 list, 3.5 stars). Now we're looking at the middle or Core i5 model, the Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 ($1,049.99 list) - and at the risk of sounding Goldilocksian, it's our favorite of the three. The super-skinny (0.6 by 12.4 by 8.9 inches, HWD) Z835-P370 gets its light weight from a magnesium alloy chassis that makes its base surprisingly sturdy - unlike its vanishingly thin screen, which flirts with the F word (flimsy) if you grasp its corners and wiggle them. In its favor, however, our test unit's screen hinge didn't get the shakes during typing as our Toshiba Z830-S8302's did.
Toshiba Portege Z835-P370
Although it's less than 6 months old, it already feels as if we've been living in the ultrabook era forever. When a new laptop arrives, I automatically assume it'll be thin, lightweight, with a solid-state drive for storage; in other words, like a Windows version of a MacBook Air. It's at the point now that the occasional thick, bulky 13- or 14-inch laptop that shows up feels oddly out of place. In fact, we're already seeing revisions and updates to the very first ultrabooks. The Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 was an early favorite, because it cost so much less than other early models from Lenovo and Asus. For only $799 (marked down by retailers from $899), you could get a 128GB SSD, which in other ultrabooks or other slim laptops could cost hundreds. The trade-off was a slower Intel Core i3 CPU, as well as a flimsy-feeling chassis with a tricky keyboard and touch pad. The same body can also house higher-end components. In this case, it's an Intel Core i5-2467M processor and 6GB of RAM (over 4GB in the original). The 128GB SSD is the same, but Bluetooth is a welcome addition. This specific configuration is called the Portege Z835-P370, and it costs $1,149 from Toshiba, although other retailers offer it for as little as $949.
Toshiba Portege Z835 Review
The Toshiba Portege Z835 is thinner and lighter than many of its Ultrabook peers, but feels a bit flimsy as a result. One of the goals of the Ultrabook specification was affordability, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at the list of options currently available, nor the list of laptops soon to be released. Many models will set you back one Grover Cleveland — and that’s if you don’t pick any options. There are a couple Ultrabooks that offer a price more than a dollar below a grand, however. One of them is the Acer Aspire S3, which we’ve already reviewed. The other is the Toshiba Portege Z835, which can be had for as little as $799. This price allows the Z835 to undercut almost every other Ultrabook besides the S3, which can also be had for $799 (or even less, if you wait for the right deal). However, the base model only has a Core i3-2367M processor. That means no Turbo Boost. We have no doubt that would impact performance, but we aren’t able to confirm it. Our review unit is better equipped, packing not only an upgrade to a Core i7-2677M processor clocked at 1.8GHz but also two additional gigabytes of RAM, bringing the total to 6GB. As if that weren’t enough, our laptop is the “built for business” model.
Toshiba Portégé Z835-P330 Ultrabook Review
We're going to let you in on a little secret, and while you're free to pass it on, understand that nobody will ever believe you. In fact, if you do share this secret, you might suffer a barrage of insults, and depending on your stature, could even end up with a wedgie. You've been warned. Are you ready? Here goes: Many Windows users, even die hard ones, have a secret lust for Apple's MacBook Air. Yup, we said it, and now we'll give you a moment to clean the coffee off your monitor and keyboard. Few Windows users will ever admit it, but the MacBook Air is a finely crafted laptop from a physical design standpoint. It's exceptionally thin, extremely lightweight, and terrifically styled. We can say this because it's our job to check any biases at the door before showing up to work, and if we're being totally honest, then there it is. So what is there for Windows users these days? Up until recently, there really were not many equivalent solutions, but with the introduction of Intel's Ultrabook form factor, suddenly it's a whole new ball game. Toshiba's Portégé R835-P330 is one of just a handful Ultrabooks currently available and is part of a new breed of laptops intended to blend ultra-portability with performance.
Toshiba Portege Z835-P330
The Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 is the newest member of the Portege line, and Toshiba's first ultrabook. Available exclusively through Best Buy, with other configurations coming soon through Toshiba, the Portege Z835-P330 is currently the cheapest of the new slim laptop category of ultrabooks, selling for $799.99 (list). Aside from price the Z835-P330 has three other things going for it: A featherweight chassis, an unusually full feature set, and a long-lasting battery that will take you through an entire workday. Whether or not those highlights are enough to make you overlook its middling performance and mediocre graphics capability is up to you. The Z835-P330 sports a dark grey magnesium alloy chassis, providing a light but sturdy base. The lid is also covered in magnesium, but is layered on top of a flexible - some might say flimsy - plastic bezel. Inside the magnesium chassis, Toshiba has also reinforced the structure with a honeycomb-patterned plastic ribbing. As a result the Z835-P330 manages to feel far more stable than the Acer Aspire S3 ($899.99 direct, 3.5 stars), which also went with a magnesium and plastic approach.
Toshiba Portege Z835
At just 2.4 pounds, the Toshiba Portege Z835 is the lightest of the first wave of Ultrabooks. Most, like the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s and Asus Zenbook UX31E, weigh around 3 pounds. You can immediately feel the difference when you pick up this light-as-a-feather laptop. Unfortunately, this Best Buy exclusive configuration makes a few obvious concessions to reach its attractive $799 price. To start with, there’s the anemic CPU. The Portege Z835 configuration we tested features a Core i3 2367M, running at a paltry 1.4GHz with no Turbo Mode. The system has 4GB of RAM and a 128GB solid state drive, though it’s not a particularly fast one. The result is a disappointing WorldBench score of 79; lower than we’ve seen from any other Ultrabook so far. Forget about modern gaming, as this laptop doesn’t break 30 frames per second even at low resolutions with low quality settings. Toshiba offers other configurations, up to a Core i7 2677M with 6GB of RAM, but that escalates the price to almost $1500, and you still get just a 128GB SSD. Lackluster hardware specs don’t necessarily mean the system is a pain to use.
Toshiba Portege Z835 Review: The Best Ultrabook
This $899 Best Buy exclusive features a 13.3-inch display, 128GB solid state drive, backlit keyboard and six hours of battery life. Read our take to find out what makes this Ultrabook really impressive.Build and DesignThe Portege Z835 (also called the Z830) is an Ultrabook, a new class of notebook computers characterized by their thinness, light weight, and use of Intel Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processors. These are essentially the Windows alternatives to the Apple MacBook Air. The Z835 has a professional-looking design with normal straight lines and squared-off edges; Toshiba's Portege line of notebooks has typically been business oriented so this makes sense. The Z835 will most certainly draw wandering eyes despite its utilitarian appearance due to the sheer thinness – it really is that thin at only 0.63 inches high. The chassis is constructed entirely of magnesium alloy, a lightweight yet strong material. As a result the Z835 feels like almost nothing at 2.4 pounds. The chassis is remarkably stiff and hardly flexes; it is almost a necessity for Ultrabooks to be built as such since they are designed for constant travel. If the chassis allowed flex, the internal circuit boards could bend and increase the likeliness of failure due to stress cracks over time.
Toshiba Portege Z835-P330
Another Ultrabook contender enters the fray with the arrival of the Toshiba Portege Z835. Following in the footsteps of the Acer S3, Lenovo U300s, and Asus Zenbook, this system aims to provide Windows users with a clear alternative to Apple's popular MacBook Air. Unlike some of the other Ultrabooks we've seen, the Z830 wisely comes in under $1,000. Our configuration runs $899, and includes a full 128GB SSD (the similarly priced Acer S3 had a 20GB SSD coupled with a traditional platter drive), but cuts a pretty serious corner by dropping the CPU to an Intel Core i3. Most of the other Ultrabook-style laptops we've seen have Core i5 or even Core i7 CPUs. For everyday use it won't make too much of a difference, but our benchmark tests show a definite advantage to having a Core i5. While it's not as artfully rendered as the MacBook Air, the Z830 is incredibly light, and offers extras, such as USB 3.0 and HDMI, missing from Apple's laptop. Even the battery life was excellent, beating Lenovo's U300s for the best Windows-based Ultrabook battery score to date. However, the keyboard is surprisingly small and hard to use, with an especially finicky space bar--it might not be a deal breaker, but you'll want to get a little hands-on time to test it out before you commit.
Toshiba Portege Z835 Notebook Review
So far the Ultrabook revolution hasn't gone as planned. The new class of uberthin, fast-booting, long-lasting note-books was intended to excite notebook buyers and compete with Apple's groundbreaking MacBook Air. Unfortunately, the first Ultrabooks got some important things wrong, from a jumpy touchpad on the ASUS Zenbook UX31 to short battery life on Acer Aspire S3.Toshiba's Portege Z835 is the lightest 13-inch notebook on the market and avoids some of its competitor's pitfalls by providing an accurate touchpad, long battery life, a backlit keyboard, and plenty of full-size ports. At $899, the Z835 is a good value when compared to the $1,299 MacBook Air or the $1,199 ASUS Zenbook UX31, but it makes a few compromises. Read on to find out what you get--and what you don't--for your money.One of the sleekest Ultrabooks yet, the Toshiba Portege Z835 eschews bling in favor of an understated elegance. The gunmetal gray brushed metal lid and deck combine with matching sides and a smooth, gray bottom to provide a unity of color and a feng-shui like simplicity of design. The two silver touchpad buttons, hinge caps, and Toshiba logo, along with subtle green and orange status lights below the touchpad, provide subtle but attractive accents.
Prices
| Retailer | Information | Prices | |
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Toshiba Portege Z835-P360 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) | $749.99 | See it |
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Toshiba Portege Z835-P360 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) | $749.99 | See it |
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Toshiba Portege Z835-P360 13.3 Ultrabook, Intel Core i3-2367M, 4GB DDR3 Memory, 128GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit) | $789.99 | See it |
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Toshiba Portege Z835-P372, 13 inch ultrabook pc, ultrathin notebook, lightweight, excellent portability | $1748.88 | See it |
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Toshiba Portege Z835 : (7.1/10)
9 expert reviews
0 user reviews
