The good: Good keyboard; lightweight chassis; optional integrated 3G/HSDPA modem.

The bad: Screen quality is sub-par; pricey.

The bottom line: The Toshiba Portege R600 isn't as sexy as some of its rivals, but business users will love its superlight chassis, comfortable keyboard and optional integrated 3G modem which allows Internet access almost anywhere.

Read full review of the Toshiba Portege R600 »

By Rory Reid, CNET.co.uk
May 18, 2009

The Toshiba Portege R600 is the followup to the Portege R500, famously claimed by Toshiba to be the lightest laptop in the world. The R600 is tremendously light, has a good keyboard, and offers a screen you can use in most lighting conditions. The battery life isn't as impressive as we'd hoped but, alongside the Sony Vaio TT series, it's among the best ultraportables currently available. The R600 boasts a number of improvements, including superior build quality, better battery life and better wireless capabilities. But be prepared to spend a bundle, as this laptop goes for a cool S$4,999 (US$3,620.10).

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.co.uk. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

The R600 looks identical to the R500, which is not a bad thing. It's pretty attractive for a business-oriented laptop, although if it's all-out sexiness you want, you should probably consider the Sony Vaio TT series.

The R600 is just as light as the R500, which is no mean feat. The R600-108 variant--which uses a solid-state drive and has no optical drive--tips the scales at 773g, while those with mechanical hard drives and optical drives weigh just 1.1kg.

Despite such a light heft, the R600 is better built than its predecessor. The wrist rest doesn't buckle under the weight of your hands, and there's much less flex in the keyboard. The screen still bends a little, but not to the same disconcerting degree as the R500's.



The keyboard seems unchanged from the previous model. It remains fairly comfortable to use, it's still spill-resistant to 100ml of liquid, and the left shift key is still slightly too small for our tastes.

The mouse trackpad caused us slight consternation because the dedicated vertical scroll strip, which lets you move vertically through documents with a swipe of a finger, is a touch too sensitive. We often found our documents zooming up or down randomly while we were undertaking the simplest of cursor tasks, meaning we had to adjust the sensitivity manually via software.

Secure logins seem to be high on the R600's list of priorities, and that's no surprise considering the audience it's aimed at. Not only does it have a fingerprint reader nestling between the mouse selector buttons, it also packs face recognition software that uses the integrated Webcam to distinguish between authorized users and potential data thieves. Both login methods are pretty effective, but we were drawn to the facial recognition feature for the sheer novelty factor.

Features

The R600 is available in four separate configurations. The entry-level machine uses a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 CPU, while the three remaining models all employ the slightly quicker SU9400 running at 1.4GHz. All use 3MB of DDR2 800MHz RAM but can be upgraded to 5GB of RAM, should 3GB start to feel sluggish.



Storage on the entry-level system is a paltry 160GB. The next model up gets a 320GB disk, while the two top-rung systems make do with a 128GB SSD. SSDs provide less storage admittedly, but their lack of moving parts means they're not as prone to damage, draw less power and weigh less than mechanical drives. All versions except the R600-108 configuration ship with a DVD rewriter drive.

The R600's wireless capabilities are very good. Some versions include an integrated mobile broadband modem so users can access the Internet in any location covered by a 3G mobile-phone signal. All flavors of the R600 come with high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi support as well as Bluetooth.

Those who do attempt to go online outdoors should find the R600's 12.1-inch transflexive screen easy on the eye. The image quality isn't very good--there's considerable backlight bleeding from the bottom and top edges of the panel, and the viewing angle is very limited--but its matte finish is well-suited for outdoor use.

In addition, because the screen is of the transflexive variety, it can use ambient light instead of the built-in backlight to prolong battery life. A button on the top left of the keyboard enables or disables this feature. It's not a perfect solution, though--there's often insufficient ambient light to see the screen properly, so you end up using the internal backlight anyway.



Like the R500 before it, the R600 comes with a three-year international warranty. Software includes Windows Vista Business, InterVideo WinDVD, Norton Internet Security 2009 (with 90 days of free updates), Ulead DVD MovieWriter and a variety of Toshiba's own software.

Performance And Battery Life

Our R600 review sample incorporates an SU9400 CPU running at 1.4GHz and 3GB of RAM. That this is a pretty solid foundation for an ultraportable, business-orientated laptop is borne out by the PCMark05 benchmark score of 3,843. It's noticeably quicker than the R500.

Toshiba says the R600's battery will last just short of 8.5 hours. That's an advance on the 7.5 hours claimed for the R500, but, in our tests, it failed to get anywhere near either mark. It lasted 2 hours 14 minutes in the intensive Battery Eater Classic test--an improvement on the 1 hour 37 minutes achieved by the R500 tested by our CNET UK counterpart. Bearing in mind that Netbooks like the Asus Eee PC 1000HE lasted nearly 6 hours in the same test, the R600's score is hardly that impressive.

Service And Support

Toshiba offers a three-year international carry-in warranty for this machine. For greater convenience, you can register the warranty online instead of mailing it in. Prompt assistance is available through a toll-free number for over-the-phone support and troubleshooting. An online support database called IRIS (Instant Response Information Service) features a search engine for solutions to commonly encountered problems. If the issue still cannot be resolved, the unit will have to be brought down to a Toshiba service center for repair. A list of service centers can be obtained from Toshiba's Web site, which also hosts updated drivers and utilities.

Tags: Toshiba Portege, Intel Core 2 Duo, Keyboard, optical drive, R600

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