Toshiba Portege R500-12Q surfaces with 128GB SSD

Well, would you cast a keen eye on this? Over on Toshiba's European website (among other regions), an atypical Portégé R500 (the R500-12Q, to be precise) has made an appearance, and while most everything looks to be the standard fare, the included hard drive certainly isn't. Looking past the 12.1-inch LED-backlit display, Core 2 Duo ULV U7700 processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and dual-layer DVD writer lies a drool-worthy 128GB SSD, sure to send the flash faithful into a tizzy. There's no pricing information to be immediately found, but those scouting an ultraportable with a solid state disc have likely already come to grips with the lofty premium sure to be attached.

[Thanks, Philippe]

[TheChris @ Apr 14th 2008 2:52AM]

Definitely drool worthy....can't wait for a 500 GB SSD to swap into my Thinkpad T61p

Now that will be exciting indeed.

[TheChris @ Apr 14th 2008 2:57AM]

Actually, a reasonably priced 500GB SSD would not only be exciting, but ORGASMIC! O_o

[happy_penguin @ Apr 14th 2008 3:06AM]

SSD in this size at any "reasonable" price is just too far off at this point. I do look forward to it, but I am not holding my breath. It's still all about spinning discs at this point and I expect to see advances in density with spinning discs long before I expect to see advances in density with SSD. It's coming I'm sure, but we still have a long wait.

But that is one damn sexy looking lappy.

[Chebwa @ Apr 14th 2008 3:41AM]

I just wish they would offer 32GB or so SSDs in laptops in addition to the hideously expensive larger models. I just want to install Vista and have a little bit of room left for some applications when it comes to a laptop.

[Andrew @ Apr 14th 2008 12:42PM]

You "just want to install Vista" on the 32G drive? Sorry, not going to happen. My 34G partition is often full even though I moved all user directories off it. With just a 32G drive, I can't imagine the machine would be useful for anything.

Granted, I use 64-bit version (which is more space hungry) but it's 2008.

[Chebwa @ Apr 14th 2008 1:58PM]

@Andrew

You are insane. I am using 64bit and it is like, MAYBE 15GB at the end of the day. Google "Vista x64 Requirements" and you will find the same.

[zephead @ Apr 14th 2008 3:02AM]

Ouch... Based on how much 64GB SSDs are, a 128GB SSD will literally tear your wallet to shreds.

[shawnmos @ Apr 14th 2008 3:04AM]

Yeah, but prices will go down eventually. At least we are making progress with SSD. Hopefully one day they will replace regular hard drives.

[The Cadet @ Apr 14th 2008 3:24AM]

@ Shawnmos

I wouldn't think they would be replacing traditional HDD's for at least another 10 years because of price issues. Still quite expensive to produce

[ethana2 @ Apr 14th 2008 3:25AM]

Indeed. Right now I just want a fast, efficent 16 GB SSD..
With LogFS to take full advantage of the differences between the structure of SSD's and mechanical drives of course...

[Za @ Apr 14th 2008 3:09AM]

Hehe...Toshiba +1 on Apple

[Esat Dedezade @ Apr 14th 2008 3:48AM]

I'm a faithful follower of flash.

I can confirm that I am in a state of tizzyness at this moment in time.

That is all.

[Mark @ Apr 14th 2008 5:16AM]

Seriously, this is so much better than the Macbook Air, it isn't even funny. Thinnest laptop in the world my ass.

[Homeboy @ Apr 14th 2008 6:28AM]

Does it come with a "Get Out Of Jail"-card? Because once you've robbed your local bank of 5 000-7 000 in order to afford this baby, you'll be in a lot of trouble.

[Alienfreak @ Apr 14th 2008 10:55AM]

2199$
Even much cheaper than the Macbook Air.

http://www.toshiba.ca/web/product.grp?section=1&group=1&product=7170

[Epimetheus @ Apr 14th 2008 4:52PM]

No, it's $3099 for the 64GB SSD and slower CPU and less ram.

[Mercator @ Apr 14th 2008 11:33PM]

CDN$2299 with a 20" monitor. That is a hot price for an SSD. They could compete well with the MacBookAir for that kind of money.

I wonder if any other contenders will step up? Competition will be what gets SSD into the mainstream.