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Toshiba Introduces A 17"-Screen Laptop
George Wright writes "Toshiba have announced a monster of a laptop with their Satellite P25. Seems they've decided to copy Apple's idea of fitting a 17" LCD on a laptop, but have ended making a true aircraft carrier in doing so. Notable "features" are the 2.8GHz P4, the 802.11a/b and the 10lb weight (!!!). Still a relatively low resolution though :("
yeah well, do you really think you get your money's worth having to carry around the EXTRA 5 lb of the Toshiba (Apple weight: 5.4 pounds, Toshiba weight: 10 pounds)
Without the damned session in the URL:
Here
They are improving. Right now I'm using a Compaq Evo 510 desktop. It's a P4 2.4 and is almost totally silent. I hear no fans or HD. They did a great job. It's also reasonably priced at $999 (when we bought them).
My Thinkpad T30 is light, fast, quiet, and very reliable. The options are out there. Notebooks like the one in the article are for those that want a portable desktop. It's popular to see notebooks as gaming rigs now. Definately not for me.... but would be handy for taking to a LAN party.
Sager has a 17" notebook that has been on powernotebooks.com for a little while now:
http://www.powernotebooks.com/products.php3?displa y_size=17
The 17" powerbook was also criticized for not having a number pad also. The resolution for the 17" powerbook is a nice 1440x900 (which of course is not a standard size, like many Apple products)
See the forbiden post Here
I was able to get to it from their main page...
Portables->Satellite->P25
Doubt that server will last. Here are the specs from the XP-Pro outfitted model:
$2,179.00
P25-S508
In addition to 10/100 Ethernet and V.92/56K modem, this system offers integrated Wi-Fi(TM) (802.11a/b) and Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
In Stock
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.80GHz
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (256MB x 2)
17" diagonal Wide-Screen XGA Display (1440 x 900)
NVIDIA® GeForce(TM) FX Go5200 GPU w/32MB DDR memory
60GB HDD (4200 rpm)
DVD-R/RW
Integrated Wi-Fi(TM) (IEEE 802.11a/b)
Panasonic MotionDV Studio(TM), Microsoft® Works
4-USB (2.0) ports
iLINK (IEEE 1394) port
1-FIR port
SD media slot
TV-Out port
10/100 Ethernet
V.92/56K modem
Parallel port
If you don't need a DVD burner, it might be better to get this one for $1555:
powernotebooks
(I don't work for them, and I would never buy one. I'm just suggesting an alternative).
--------
It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
Apple's laptop sales are increasing while desktops decrease.
In the spring of 2003 Apple's laptop sales made it to 40% of all the Macs sold. In 2001 it was 30%.
OK, so you could lug around a TEN pound Toshiba or a 6.8 pound Apple. When I am travelling on business and need a portable workstation, I know which one I want. Three lbs is a huge difference when it comes to cross country flights.
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From the description:
Whether you take it from room-to-room or set it up for the whole family to enjoy, the Satellite P25 Series will delight your senses with its 17" threatre like display, rich harman/kardon® sound and smooth NVIDIA® GeForce(TM) FX Go5200 graphics.
Så it's not really a laptop per say...but if your family is to damn lazy to go to the entertainment center, then the entertainment center will come to your family.
For those of you, like me, had problems with that link, use this instead:p rodChassis.jsp?BV_EngineID=ccccadcikdgjefgcgfkcegh dgngdglk.0&comm=ST&pfam=Satellite&pmod=P25
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_cf_
Sure it's as big as an Apple, but it's not comparable in some aspects. First, it's heavier by almost twice (10 lbs vs 5.4 lbs) and it has less than half the battery life (2.0 hrs vs 4.5 hrs) It's a nice first try.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I sort of want one. A screen like that should get me through a year or two of college...
But I will wait till they ship with the Athlon64. There's really no sense buying 32-bit hardware right now, unless you just get some cheap desktop solution like a 2500 Barton to keep you going untill 64bit is affordable.
btw, if you haven't seen them yet, THG had posted the first pics of the Athlon64
Just serves to make me more curious what Intel has up their sleave.. I wish they'd be more open about it.
The unofficial
Makes one too, Hyundai 2.4 Ghz Desktop replacement.
Features: 2.4 GHz P4 (supports up to 3.06 Ghz),
512 MB 333Mhz DDR SODIMM (Rare, the rest are usually 266Mhz), 40 GB HDD, 1.44 floppy, ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 w/ 64MB non-shared DDR RAM,
17" Wide screen TFT display, Combo drive, integrated WEBCAM & Microphone, Integrated 5.1 channell output sound with builtin FOUR point speakers, Keyboard with NUMPAD.
USB2.0, Firewire (Passive, sadly), PCMCIA, 56k, LAN, LTP, Serial, VGA, RGB, IrDA and Wifi. Selling for the Equiv of US$1841.
The thing here is that while all these Desktop replacements pack a punch, they are poor laptops, at 4.5Kg and with a battery life of 2 hours, you're not going to get any work done on the go.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
--
lds
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
CPU performance in your computer product may vary from specifications under the following conditions:
use of certain external peripheral products
use of battery power instead of AC power
use of certain multimedia games or videos with special effects
use of standard telephone lines or low speed network connections
use of complex modeling software, such as high end computer aided design applications
use of computer in areas with low air pressure (high altitude >1,000 meters or >3,280 feet above sea level)
use of computer at temperatures outside the range of 5C to 35C (41F to 95 F) or >25C (77F) at high altitude (all temperature references are approximate).
CPU performance may also vary from specifications due to design configuration.
Under some conditions, your computer product may automatically shut- down. This is a normal protective feature designed to reduce the risk of lost data or damage to the product when used outside recommended conditions. To avoid risk of lost data, always make back-up copies of data by periodically storing it on an external storage medium. For optimum performance, use your computer product only under recommended conditions. Read additional restrictions under "Environmental Conditions" in your product Resource Guide. Contact Toshiba Technical Service and Support for more information.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Am I the only one who noticed the 60 gig hard drive is 4500 rpm?? WTF?
AOL IM? ICQ? Yahoo Chat??? Bah! I use Bitwise baby! http://www.bitwisechat.com/ My BW ID: virginia
Probably because modern software takes into account things like DPI and aspect ratio when rendering text.
Ever heard of using the 'Print Layout' view? Or even 'Print Preview'?
I have a 21" monitor running at 2048x768 with the DPI set to 130. It's physically large enough to view an entire A4 sheet, and almost perfectly calibrated too. Whenever I type up a document I do it in Print Layout view and I get on paper exactly what I see on screen.
You can still do that on the 'weird' laptop screen, the only thing is that you won't have the 'resolution' or clarity that I do.
So it is still indeed WSYIWYG.
I recently got a 17" powerbook.
:)
:)
I'm actually very happy with it. It is not the most portable machine but it does fit on the plane (although not super comfortable). Not such a big deal for me since I spend a lot of time online and have yet to get internet on a plane. it is good for watching DVDs though.
For actual work work (I'm a unix admin) it simply rocks. I can do everything I need to do, plus the stuff that others want me to do (like Office). My only real gripe is that there is no Outlook calendaring for it, but we have webmail on Exhcnage 2k, and Terminal services (which is up to date on the mac, supports RDP5).
It's really become my primary machine. My desktop at home is used mostly for playing a single game, and occasioanlly setting up downloads. I have a dual g4, w/ a 22" cinema display, but it's in the wrong office
It's speed is good (although I occasionally notice a stutter when i'm running sans AC power, I have the cpu clock down turned on). I normally carry around a backpack, and it fits right into it. It has adequate, if not stellar, battery life. Fairly rare when I spend an extended time away from power, so it's 4.5-hour-only-when-you-don't-hit-disk-at-all battery is fine (it managed to go 4 hours playing mp3s with no complex Fluid screensaver and monitor-off turned on after 1 minute)
I think at 6.8 pounds (that's the weight _with_ the battery) it's a good deal. at 10 pounds, I would have gotten a 12" instead.
not to mention that a 17" silver laptop does get a lot of oos and ahhs, even from the ladies
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
The linked page reads:
" use of computer in areas with low air pressure (high altitude >1,000 meters or >3,280 feet above sea level)"
Please refrain from being an ass unless you're correct.
Since I was curious, and to foster an educated comparison:
Toshiba: 2.8 GHz Pentium 4, 512 KB L2, 800 MHz Bus, 512 MB PC2100 RAM, 60GB HD, 1440x900 display, GeForceFX Go 5200 32 MB, 2 PC Card slots, Ethernet 100, IEEE 1394, 802.11a/b, 4 USB 2.0, 2 Infrared, 1 SD Card, 16.4x11.5x1.8", 9.9 lbs, 2 hr battery.
Powerbook: 1 GHz G4, 256K L2, 1MB L3, 167 MHz bus, 512 MB PC2700 RAM, 60GB HD, 1440x900 GeForce 440 Go 64MB, 1 PC Card, Ethernet 1000, 802.11g, 2 USB 1.1, IEEE 1394a, IEEE 1394b, Bluetooth, 15.4x10.2x1.0", 6.8 lbs, 4.5 hr battery.
I tried to put the specs in column format, but the filter kept rejecting it for too many "junk" characters.
It looks like they caught and surpassed apple in this case.
The Toshiba would be clearly better except for the fact that the it is 3lbs heavier, has no support for 802.11g or bluetooth, is bigger in every dimension, has a tray loading drive, has no L3 cache (vs 1MB DDR on the PB), no built-in mic, 10/100 enet (vs 10/100/1000), one FireWire 400 port (vs 1 FW 800 and 1 FW 400) and less than half the battery life.
Where the Toshiba actually is better:
Price. It is expandable to 2GB Ram while the PB maxes out at 1GB. It has a bigger L2 cache (512k vs 256k). It also burns CD-Rs twice as fast (but not CD-RWs)
Unfortunately, unlike the PB, you can't buy it with any empty ram slots. You are stuck with those useless 256MB sticks if you want to upgrade. Heck, you can't even change the ram at all before purchase.
IIRC, the Pentiums used in laptops have to scale way down to meet even their meager battery life estimates, so the Mac will even be faster for non-altivec tasks. I may be wrong on this point, but the rest stands.
Oh, and the Mac has that oh-so-cool glowing keyboard with ambient light sensor.
t'nera semordnilap
A few reasons:
1) It's cheaper. If you don't have to make parts smaller, and you don't have to worry about the problems associated with high power in small areas, it makes things cheaper since you can put a larger heat sink in instead of designing a better air flow system.
2) Swapable bays. Now I haven't seen this laptop (the link is down) but if they use the swable bays, they have to change how things are controled, drives become heavier and it changes things.
3) Duability. While the powerbook and ibook durability is certainly not horrible, the thicker the laptop, generaly speaking the more durable it is (for example, the old clamshell iBooks could be dropped from fairly decent hights with no damage except maybe a busted CD rom cover.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
i've worked that friendly neighborhood computer store
and i would rather pay for a dell than overpay 4x for an already outdated used machine
trust friendly they are not, they're 2x as vicious as any oem because they have to be to survive.. they regularly lie thier asses off, grossly underpay for anything they buy and regularly fuck everyoen who comes in the door over
i've worked for 2 different small computer stores and both worked the same way
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/pc_cf_p rodChassis.jsp?comm=ST&pfam=Satellite&pmod=P25
One day after getting my 1G Ti powerbook, a ford F250 turned left and totaled my quite spiffy 1987 BMW M6.
The powerbook, which was still in the box along with my iPod, was quickly grabbed as I exited the vehicle.
It booted right up on the hood of the CHP's cruiser.
I was quite thankful.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
In my experience, IBM Thinkpads are the one's which are built like tanks.
There's nothing to really distinguish Macs from other Mac clones. Oh that's right, that's because there are no Mac clones. That's why Macs are $3000 and PCs are $500.
Not really... clones were gutting the market anyway but they are a separate issue. x86 machines are $3000 too... and for a few less features overall as well (gigE standard, Airport built-in, PCI-X (coming), Serial ATA (coming) etc.). $500 x86 machines are made from the absolute cheapest and worst parts someone can slap together. I can't in any good consicence call them computers. Macs are actually only $3000 if you buy the most expensive G5. Most Apple hardware is in the $1500-2500 range.
Actually, the worst part is that most LCDs tend to distort colours when you're even a little off of centre. New LCD panels are better, but they still distort to a certain extent. However, full-sized QWERTY and F-keys could've fit quite nicely on that laptop, along with arrow and navigation keys, but instead they attached a keyboard from any other small laptop onto it. A laptop keyboard that I don't have to mistype on the first time I use it would be much nicer, IMO.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
Until one of the laptop makers get's a clue and puts in there a Geforce 4 or even a Geforce 3 it isnt gonna happen.
You mean Toshiba?
Hell, my super slow P-III 866 with a geforce2 is faster playing quake 3 and Ut2003 than the new 2ghz dell laptops here at work.
One of my laptops (Which, ironically, is a P3-800mhz) has a GeForce 2. Now Toshiba uses GeForce 4's, and the P25 uses the GeForce FX 5200.
I think the reason why your laptops at work don't have high-end mobile video cards is because they're work systems.
At the time I got my laptop with the GeForce card in it, it could play any game on the market without any issues. It still plays War3 ok. So, in short, you just missed the boat.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
End-of-lifeing the computer doesn't mean that it's broken.
The $500 x86 box will probably function after say 4 years. The Mac you bought will function after 4 years also. What difference does it make? Only when it comes down to what you can do with two 4 year old boxes. The Mac will most likely run most of the same software and be useable. The x86 box, unless you run linux, will probably cost you money to have somebody haul it off when you realize that all the Windows software updates wants the latest version of Windows.
And of course, the guy you're answering to is wrong too. My Athlon cost me $300, has a fair amount of quality parts, and assuming it doesn't overheat, it'll probably survive 3 years. (Most of my computers are deprecated in 3 years)
In 3 years, my Athlon will be worth less than $50, case and all. In 3 years, the Powerbook G4 400 I got 2 years before the Athlon will be worth roughly $500.