Toshiba Portege R100

...actually like to use the Toshiba Portege R100, rather than going into the technical detail and repeating the manual. Hopefully I'll include everything a potential buyer will need to know.

Initially, my boyfriend bought me an old Mac for a birthday a few years ago, but it was really old and had hardly any memory. It was really slow and just wasn't very practical for what I needed it for; he even got more frustrated than me sometimes ...
...this was the best way Toshiba should have gone about doing this.



***TECHNICAL BLURB
Here is some of the technical info that might be useful too:


Physical dimensions - W x D x H: 286 x 229 x 14.9/19.8 mm. Weight: 1/09Kg
Operating System - Windows XP Professional
Hard disk - 40GB
RAM - 256MB
Display - Size 12.1", Resolution 1,024 x 768
Battery - up ... more

This review will be focusing in particular on what it is actually like to use the Toshiba Portege R100, rather than going into the technical detail and repeating the manual. Hopefully I'll include everything a potential buyer will need to know.

Initially, my boyfriend bought me an old Mac for a birthday a few years ago, but it was really old and had hardly any memory. It was really slow and just wasn't very practical for what I needed it for; he even got more frustrated than me sometimes and he didn't even use the thing very often!! After a while of putting up with it - he surprised me with a new laptop! He managed to get it second hand from someone that he knows and it was pretty much as good as new - it hadn't really been used very much before.

***FIRST IMPRESSIONS
First impressions were great - I was really struck with how slim and light the laptop was, which clearly is the best feature and selling point of the machine. I find that it is definitely an advantage, as you can just store it away neatly and if you are carrying it around with you; you don't really notice either the size or the weight of it. It also looks really nice, being silver on the top and black underneath; it's a bit unusual and stylish.

It really does look like it could be the perfect businessman's laptop, as it is so portable that you can take it to meetings and presentations to plug into a projector etc; however the more I used it, the more I could see that it would pretty much suit anyone. I took it into university with me, and I have carried it onto the train to watch films to pass the time and so on. It's great to transport and it's also great to use in the home too.

The screen is quite small and I was considering using an external screen as an extra, but I move the laptop around a lot and it doesn't really bother me that much. When I was at university and I was trying to do any programming, I found that I couldn't really fit as much as I wanted onto the screen but if it's being used for things like surfing the internet, typing up documents or watching films etc then it's fine and it's so portable that you can just position it to a more comfortable place anyway.

There is a wireless card in the computer, which makes things easier as you can get online with the flick of a switch located on the side of the computer; this means that you don't have to clutter up the house with wires all over the place too. There is also an SD card reader in the side of the computer, which means that you can easily transfer images from your memory card in your camera straight into the computer; again, without having to link it up with wires etc.

The laptop can store 40GB on it, which really beat my bulky 10GB computer that I first had. This meant that I was able to put on my music, pictures, use the internet wirelessly and all the important things like that!! There are only 2 USB ports on it; which is pretty common on laptops, however again external hubs only cost a couple of pounds so it's not much of an effort to stick everything into one of these if you need to use more than 2 things at a time.

Without plugging the laptop into a power supply, it says on the display that it should last for about 1h 15m, this is when it is a couple of years old too, however there is also an external battery which can be added to the back of the laptop. It slots in really easily and makes the computer last for about another hour or so. I managed to get quite a lot of battery life out of it; however I always have music or videos running, which consumes a bit more than normal. Without doing things like that, I can keep going for much longer, and according to the manual, it should last a maximum time of around 2 hours with the standard battery and around 6 with the external one added on. Although the external battery makes it a little chunkier, it is still much smaller than the average computer and it also props up the back of the laptop - making it at a slight angle which is great ergonomically, for typing.

Although it's really small; I have no trouble typing on the keyboard as it is reasonably spacious. It also has a touchpad with two buttons which are easy to use; although for any fiddly stuff, I would rather plug in my external mouse; this would apply to any computer with a touchpad.

Yes it's great that it's so thin, however it doesn't come with a CD drive; which can cause a bit of chaos if you need to install things, or like to play DVDs or CDs. I bought myself an external CD/DVD drive, which cost around £60 or so and it runs through the USB ports which is handy enough. I only really need this when I am installing new software or burning CDs so it doesn't bother me too much.

The main problem that I am finding is that without having a CD drive built into the computer; it is very difficult to be able to set an external one to be the main point of call when formatting the laptop and putting Windows back on. This does go over my head a bit but after getting my boyfriend (a handy male to do technical things) he seems to think that you need to buy a new lead for the external CD drive in order to make it recognise this first. It all seems a it bizarre to me, and the lead is pretty expensive but there are quit a few forums about it apparently. Anyway, if you don't need to format it, that's cool; however when you want to free up some space and start again formatting is the best way to go about it. This had been a big disadvantage for me, and I didn't think that this was the best way Toshiba should have gone about doing this.

***TECHNICAL BLURB
Here is some of the technical info that might be useful too:

Physical dimensions - W x D x H: 286 x 229 x 14.9/19.8 mm. Weight: 1/09Kg
Operating System - Windows XP Professional
Hard disk - 40GB
RAM - 256MB
Display - Size 12.1", Resolution 1,024 x 768
Battery - up to 2 hours, with 2nd battery attached - up to 6.4 hours
Interfaces - 1x headphone, 1 x DC-in, 1x external monitor, 1x expansion bus connector, 1x RJ-11, 1x RJ-45, 1x SD Card slot, 1x external microphone, 2x USB 2.0
Pointing device - touch pad

***ADVANTAGES:
*Slim and light - I impressed all my friends when I took it into university and they saw the size of it; it's a great talking point and a conversation starter. It's great to transport and store neatly too.
*External battery - with the battery only lasting about 2 hours, I began to wonder whether I would need to carry the lead around with me all the time; however with the external battery, I was sorted as it lasted much longer than I ever needed to use it for without having a power point near to me.

***DISADVANTAGES:
*No CD drive - I thought it was a bit of a disadvantage that I wouldn't be able to play CDs on this laptop. I bought an external DVD re-writer, so that I would be able to play CDs and DVDs and burn them too.
*I added more RAM to the laptop so that it would run faster, as it began to run a bit too slow for the amount that I use it. There is a slot in the back which means that you can power it up from 256MB to 516MB which makes it run much faster and smoother. If it's just being used for things like surfing the internet etc then it probably wouldn't need this, but I thought it would be nice just to make it run a little faster.
*TheToshiba software that's added into the computer does seem to take up a fair bit of memory; which isn't ideal, but it's all hidden away, so you don't really notice it being there.
*Not being able to format it without buying specialist cords.

***OVERALL
I would recommend this laptop, as it really is a good wee thing to have around. It's a great laptop for business; the battery lasting long enough to do a presentation and definitely a talking point. The slim and light casing is really great to pop into a bag and carry around with you - you don't really notice it like you would a larger laptop. It can perform the same functions as bigger, fatter and heavier laptops and it runs really well; after comparing prices online it is definitely reasonably priced for what you get.

It is a really good laptop for business; however most of the work I have done is for university and the rest is just for fun; it works as an all rounder and I've come across no problems with it at all.

Enjoy!
Lx 

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