Toshiba's Satellite U200 ultra-portable

With Apple and Sony generating all the portable hubbub bub, let's take a moment to check-in on some of those other laptop manufactures. Toshiba, for instance, just dropped their new U200 series of ultra-portables into their Satellite range where quality and affordability are meant to merge. Starting at just 4.1-pounds and measuring-in at 1.4-inches thick, this 12.1-inch laptop maxes-out with a 2.16GHz Core Duo T2600 CPU, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 100GB of 7200 RPM SATA disk and still manages to slap in a pair of stereo speakers, 6-in-1 media adapter, fingerprint reader, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, and DVD dual-layer writer. All that goodness and yet they only offer measly Intel 950 graphics acceleration. Of course, if you can only muster the $929 starting price, your config will drop considerably to a Celeron M, 256MB RAM, 40GB disk, and CD-RW/DVD-ROM sans Bluetooth or WiFi. Yeah we were thinking the same, that entry-level $1,099 MacBook or $699 Dell D520 are both looking pretty sweet right about now. 

[Via CoreDuoInfo]

[Intrepid @ May 17th 2006 8:59AM]

Good old Toshiba with their ugly, Apple-y priced units. Lucky they are so durable... the one and only selling point.

[daaper @ May 17th 2006 9:59AM]

Gotta say I'm loving what Toshiba is doing lately. Love the design -simple and clean- and they are rock solid performers. Also, they are always on sale so MSRP doesn't really mean much. Keep up the good work...

[Intrepid @ May 17th 2006 10:11AM]

OK, I was harsh - it looks ok and likely performs well... much prefer it to a MacPooh

[daaper @ May 17th 2006 10:27AM]

Definitely agreed on that one...when the competition is Sony and Apple, i'll take Toshiba every time. Not a Mac fan because of software issues and Sony is -in my opinion- overpriced.

[anon @ May 17th 2006 11:40AM]

Base Price Comparison of Toshiba's U200 and Apple's MacBook:

- Toshiba is $150 less but you get Celeron instead of Intel Core Duo
- MacBook comes with 512M RAM, not a measly 256M RAM
- MacBook comes with Bluetooth and 802.11 a/b/g, Toshiba does not.
- MacBook comes with 60G HDD, Toshiba has a 40GB HDD.
- MacBook also comes with remote, video camera, useful software, more secure OS, better construction, better looking design, Gigabit Ethernet, (I'm just gonna stop there, it's obvious what a rip this is).

[umijin @ May 17th 2006 12:49PM]

At a full pound lighter than the MacBook, there's no comparison. Now if I could only run OSX on it.

[starwxrwx @ May 17th 2006 10:15PM]

Its also 50% thicker than the MacBook, and god ugly - how can anyone say it has a clean design? it's so chunky, the ports, random holes in it and side cut-out profiles scream out at you. Not to mention the black/silver clunkiness.

[how small is small @ May 18th 2006 6:10AM]

Can anyone tell me why this is called an ultra portable?

[yusuf @ May 28th 2006 9:12PM]

is my message posted, about why has it got satellite word in its name?