Toshiba's 12.1-inch Portege R500 is world's thinnest with disc drive

It's easy to jump to conclusions when you hear a spec like "2.4 pounds" -- things like no disc drive, minuscule screen and a complete lack of horsepower quickly spring to mind -- but Toshiba is really taking things next-gen with its new Portege R500. The new bestest buddy to Tosh's flagship R400 tablet, the R500 packs a first ever 7mm optical drive, 12.1-inch transflective (outdoor readable) LED-backlit screen, and does it all with a mere 0.77-inches of thickness, which Toshiba claims is the thinnest ever to include a disc drive, and that aforementioned 2.4 pound weight. The R500 isn't spec shy either, with a Core 2 duo U7600 1.2GHz processor, Intel GMA 950 graphics, up to 2GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD and a 1280 x 800 screen res. There's even a PCMCIA slot, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and VGA out, just to make the other ultraportables look bad. To top it all off, Toshiba is boasting of the "world's longest" battery life for a 12.1-inch widescreen notebook, but doesn't have any hard numbers other than that. The laptop starts at $2,000 with XP Pro, or $2,150 with Vista Business, but the real fun starts later this year when Toshiba starts shipping 64GB SSD configurations, which once specced to a 3 cell battery and no optical drive will weigh a paltry 1.72 pounds.

[Via Laptoping]

[Michael @ Jun 5th 2007 10:06AM]

$150 extra for vista business? Both OSs cost the same. There must be something I'm missing here.

[telepheedian @ Jun 5th 2007 10:16AM]

You wouldn't want to run Vista on a machine that supports 2GB memory MAX. 2GB is about what you would want now, but a year from now, it might be 4gb or so.

[bob's your uncle @ Jun 5th 2007 10:35AM]

If you're running 4gb of memory you'd definitely want to be sure you're running an x64 version of windows. Core2Duos are 64 bit, but are laptop makes enabling 64-bit support on the motherboard?

[ScOObyDoo @ Jun 5th 2007 10:33AM]

BS. I'm running Vista Business with Office 2007 and Aero on a Dell Inspiron here with 1Gb and it is running perfectly. Even on my desktop with 2Gb I'm only using around 750Mb with all my apps open.

[nate @ Jun 5th 2007 10:37AM]

I'm very impressed with the specs. I would opt for the XP pro as I am giving Vista at least a year, maybe year and a half before considering investing into the software.

[boe @ Jun 5th 2007 10:48AM]

Isn't that pretty close to the same specs as the Sony ultralight but I think the sony comes with a slightly faster processor. Still, anything less than 2 GHz is not an option particularly with Vista.

[Steven @ Jun 5th 2007 11:04AM]

I am going to have to get me one of these.. looks very nice

www.crenk.com

[mattnyc99 @ Jun 5th 2007 11:30AM]

Popular Mechanics calls this "the perfect laptop, for now": http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4217651.html

[Grizz @ Jun 5th 2007 11:32AM]

WOW! That is a business traveler's dream! Complete with the .95lbs powerbrick and you are rocking!

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/ebtext.to?page=r500micro_home&src=MAXZ&cm_mmc=wsj-_-all-_-r500-_-na

[Brandson @ Jun 5th 2007 11:33AM]

It doesn't matter how thin and light a laptop is, Intel integrated graphics = no sale for me.

[sturmnacht @ Jun 5th 2007 12:00PM]

It's not the world's thinnest.

Anyone remember the Samsung Sense X1?

[harveyhanson @ Jun 5th 2007 12:04PM]

Is it worth bringing out laptops with a 1.2GHz processor, i know its dual core but still?

[Tim @ Jun 5th 2007 12:09PM]

I've owned the R100/R200 and the Sony T1/TX1/TX3/UX1 and now I am unbelievably tied whether to go for a TZ11 or R500 for the next one.

I will never not have an ultraportable; I have my desktop for games/video edits/media server, my laptop wants to have a long battery, run quietly, and turn heads with it's stunning dimensions.

I am quite a Sony fanboy I'll admit (not that I won't buy something not sony - I have a 360 and a Wii as well as PS3!!) but this Toshiba looks really pretty impressive...

T

[Shmee150 @ Jun 5th 2007 12:10PM]

And for the question by sturmnacht; the Samsung/Dell X1 did not have a built in disk drive; this laptop at just 1.9cm thick is even thinner than the 2000/2010/R100/R200 models at 2.0cm, and they didn't have the disk drive.

T

[sturmnacht @ Jun 5th 2007 12:23PM]

I am pretty sure it's built in:

http://www.samsung.com/au/products/notebookpcs/archivednotebookpcs/np_x1_.asp

[Shmee150 @ Jun 5th 2007 12:51PM]

Oh yes; sorry my mistake.

The Samsung Q30 is the one I was thinking of; also known as the Dell Latitude X1; hence the confusion!

I suppose Mr Toshiba would say that their's is a 12" computer not a 14", stupid technicalities really. I didn't think that much of the Samsung X1, lacked a lot and lower spec than the tiny Sony TXs.

T

[Chinthaka @ Jun 5th 2007 2:42PM]

I remember when Jobs was announcing the powerbook G4, he hacked a toshiba laptop for being so thick... wonder what he's thinking now...

[Osiris @ Jun 5th 2007 3:26PM]

Core2duo T7300 2GHz and they would have had a sale from me, alas.

[russ @ Jun 6th 2007 3:19AM]

I have a tough time believing that the battery life of this is longer than my Panasonic CF-T5 (12" screen), at 15 hours (I've personally realized 11-12 hours on a trip from Hong Kong to Berlin)...

[engadget @ Nov 16th 2007 2:42PM]

What does the power brick weigh? 8lbs?

[Grizz @ Jun 5th 2007 11:33AM]

.95lbs

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?seg=HHO&poid=322638