The good: LED display; strong security and physical protection suite; spill-resistant keyboard; integrated optical drive.

The bad: Expensive; thick despite its LED screen.

The bottom line: If you can afford its expensive price tag, the Portege M700 should serve you in good stead with its strong feature set and full-power processor.

Read full review of the Toshiba Portege M700 »

By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
Jan 25, 2008

Despite being in the market for ages, tablet PCs have never really taken off for the consumer market. Due to its high premium, most of these devices end up in education or corporate settings for those who require screen-based input and don't mind paying for it. The latest laptop from Toshiba, the Portege M700, is one such device.

Despite its rather high price tag, the M700 is built to last. Based on Toshiba's EasyGuard technology, this is one hardy portable for the urban jungle, and the full-powered processor based on Intel latest chipset ensures that it will remain relevant for years. But despite using an LED screen, being a full-featured tablet PC means that compromises have to be made for portability. If you need a tablet that can be used on the move, the lighter but less tricked-out Fujitsu LifeBook T2010--which even has HSDPA-equipped version--may be a better choice.

Design
One of the key improvements to the Portege tablet PC series is the inclusion of LED technology in the display. More power-efficient yet brighter than conventional LCD panels, it allows for a thinner display that has better readability in bright environments. Despite this, the screen of the M700 LCD is intentionally made thicker to ensure that it will not crack at the slightest pressure. In fact, even when we pushed hard on the LCD from the back there were no signs of ripples on the LCD. It also helps that the magnesium-alloy chassis is able to withstand more punishment than plastic-based bodies.

So despite using an LED-backlit screen, the M700 can hardly be considered sleek with a thickness of 39.4mm and a 305 x 239mm footprint. The 2.1kg heft also makes it unsuitable for on the go usage unless you pump iron as a hobby. In exchange for reduced mobility, this Portege is built to last. The harddisk is mounted on a shock-resistant casing and the thicker body does not flex excessively, thereby preventing damage to internal components should the unit be twisted in a bag. Unlike most convertible tablet PCs which rely on a single rotating hinge to keep the tablet in slate or clamshell modes, the M700 includes an additional two latches at the side which really keep the screen in its proper place even when dropped.

The placement of the USB ports (one on the back right and two on the left) as well as the cooling vent on the left are considerate to right-hand mouse users, though left-handed consumers may cry foul (and get sweaty hands as well). In tablet mode, the heating vent ends up at the top and away from the body.

As expected of a tablet PC, the M700 has the standard shortcut buttons for commonly used functions, like screen rotation, just under the display. A dedicated wireless switch turns the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios off to save power and a volume wheel takes care of the audio levels for the M700.

Features
The Portege M700 belongs to the corporate lineup and, as such, is geared toward the needs of the business user. As is standard for any serious business laptop, a fingerprint sensor and TPM security chip take care of protecting your data from prying eyes. They work in conjunction with Toshiba EasyGuard application to ensure that even should the harddisk be removed and placed into another computer, the encrypted information cannot be read.

One minor irritation we encountered was with the built-in accelerometer which parks the harddisk reader arm when any vibration or shock is experienced. Though this protects the magnetic platters from being scratched in the event of a drop, it is so sensitive that merely hitting the table hard will result in a pop-up message telling you the reader arm has been parked. This is especially annoying if you are trying to use the machine in tablet mode as merely lifting up the device too fast will activate the accelerometer. Though you can choose to turn the pop-up messages or even the accelerometer off, we would have preferred if there was a way to control the sensitivity instead.

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Toshiba Portege M700 (Core 2 Duo T7500 Processor 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM)

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