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Written by Sasa Pantelic
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Wednesday, 11 March 2009 |
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Page 1 of 3  Do you like the idea of notebook that is light and small so you can easily carry it all around? And you don’t like that it has relatively slow CPU and no optical device? What do you say about a notebook that has 12.1 inch display, Core 2 Duo CPU, DVD writer and weighs only 1.1 kg? Well, notebook with these specs actually exists and its name is: Toshiba Portege R600. This little “masterpiece” will impress you the moment you take it into your hands. Toshiba claims that this is the lightest, fully functional notebook on the world and beside that, R600 has few more surprises up its sleeves that could make envy many notebooks out there.
By its looks, Toshiba Portege R600 resembles on small version of Tecra R10 that we tested recently. Silver surfaces dominate and only frame around display is black. One feature that we noticed on Tecra R10 is even more noticeable on Portege R600: very flexible cover. Cover of Portege R600 is one the softest notebook covers that we saw till now and it flexes a lot even under light pressure. Luckily deformations had no effect on displayed picture and panel itself follows deformations of cover. Thanks to its flexibility panel maintained perfect picture quality and Portege R600 proved itself to be a tough little notebook. Chassis is made of magnesium alloy that provides rigidity without gains in weight department.
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Keyboard is visually identical to one that we saw on Tecra R10 model but thanks to different construction underneath, flexibility of keyboard is mostly eliminated so it receives higher grade than one on Tecra R10. We should also mention that this keyboard can withstand smaller fluid splashes (up to 1dl) thanks to its water resistant splash-proof design. Although this is small notebook, touch pad is relatively large and in combination with good sensitivity, it allows precise cursor movement and control. Two touch pad buttons are relatively small, partially because of finger print reader that is placed between them.
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Display is anti-glare but the picture cannot be described as pristine. Backlight breach is noticeable along upper and lower edge. Colours are not too realistic and viewing angles are not too wide. Answer to the question why is displayed picture that “bad”, can be found in upper right corner above keyboard where is placed button that disables backlight. Toshiba Portege R600 has unusual transflective display which means that it can be used even in conditions of bright natural light if you turn off backlight. Transflective display actually has additional layer that acts as thin mirror that lets backlight to pass through and reflects natural light. In case you disable backlight, brightness of display will be proportional to light intensity of surroundings. Because of this best results can be obtained on a bright and sunny day, in scenario when most other displays are virtually useless. Thanks to option of disabling backlight, autonomy can be prolonged even more when this notebook is powered by battery.
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