The good: Stylish iBook look; superb audio quality; three-year warranty; good range of ports.

The bad: Integrated graphics chip; cannot add RAM by yourself; thick frame.

The bottom line: In this case, substance backs the style. If you're a student or business person searching for a sturdy notebook with a good selection of ports, look no further.

Read full review of the Toshiba Portege A200 »

By Stephen Tong
Jan 13, 2005

Toshiba's new Portege, the A200, follows up on the ever popular iBook-ish A100, with pumped-up specs and the same white design that caught the attention of many. The new model has a thicker build and a design with sharper edges. Though there's only integrated graphics and the need to take a trip to your Toshiba dealer to add more RAM, the A200 makes up in other areas. Superb audio reproduction, a generous range of ports and a three-year warranty make this notebook one of the better deals out there.

An elegant though angular design embodies the A200.

Design
Similar to its predecessor, the Portege A200 sports a minimalist pearl-white design though it appears to be more scratch-proof than the A100. The curves seem to be replaced with a more angular design that some may love or loathe. With its white appeal, the notebook simply oozes elegance because of its color. Once the latchless lid is opened, a silver chassis surrounding the white keyboard is revealed along with a captivating blue glow around the power button. Two not-too-responsive mouse buttons lie under the touchpad, so be warned. There's an inbuilt microphone hidden just below the left mouse button. The white keys delivered good response, too.

The A200's frame measures 279 x 238 x 34.8mm and weighs 2kg, which isn't too light considering that Fujitsu's convertible tablet PC, the LifeBook T4010, weighs a mere 1.95kg. The Portege may appeal to students searching for a lightweight thin-and-light which can awe fellow lecture mates. The 12.1-inch screen incorporates Toshiba's Clear SuperView technology which produces sharp images though the viewing angle is quite limited and can't compare with the Toshiba Qosmio E10's multi-angled range. As for audio, the speakers lie in the corners above the keyboard and it is a delight to hear the superb sound reproduction. The volume was loud enough to be heard two rooms away and, amazingly, there was little distortion when blasting Ayumi Hamasaki's Kanariya (Power Mix).

Notice the cover on the rear that protects several ports.

Features
The Portege comes fitted with the Pentium M processor 725 (1.6GHz), 512MB RAM and a 60GB hard drive with shock absorber. This is one of the rare notebooks that inconveniently does not allow a RAM upgrade at the bottom of the chassis, though Toshiba mentioned that its authorized dealers can perform the upgrade. 3D rendering is limited by the Intel Extreme Graphics engine so gamers can try elsewhere. A slim non-removable DVD/CD-RW optical drive comes fitted on the right edge.

As expected, you get a generous range of expansion options in the form of three USB 2.0 ports, SD card expansion and PCMCIA slot. The VGA-out, S-video out, modem, Ethernet ports on the rear are well protected by a cover. Note that you can surf on 802.11b/g wireless networks though Toshiba specs state that only 802.11g is supported.

Performance And Battery Life
MobileMark 2002 with Patch 2 was installed to run performance and battery life tests. As the first two results gave staggered numbers, we took the third which produced a performance rating of 195 which is the same as the Compaq Presario V2004AP with similar specs.

Battery life hit a respectable 237 minutes (almost 4 hours) which puts it well within the average of 200 to 250 minutes that other notebooks can deliver.

Service And Support
Toshiba provides a three-year carry-in international warranty inclusive of parts and labor which covers the battery, too. Customers can call in toll-free to the new Toshiba Global Support Center which provides 24/7 round-the-globe services and support. The contacts are clearly stated on its Web site. Overall, you get a fairly comprehensive warranty.

The unit runs on Windows XP Professional Edition and includes software such as Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, Toshiba ConfigFree and Toshiba Console which is a user-friendly interface to manage functions such as power management, button controls and hotkey assignment. For DVD/CDs, you get a range of applications such as WinDVD, WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum and Sonic RecordNow! along with support for DVD-RAM.

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Toshiba Portege A200 (Pentium M Processor 725 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM)

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