Toshiba intros 12.1-inch Portege R500-S5007V with 128GB SSD

Ah yes, we've been expecting you. That Portégé R500-12Q that popped up on a few foreign sites earlier this year seems to be making the trip Stateside, albeit with a slightly different model name. The R500-S5007V claims to be the "world's first laptop with a 128GB SSD" packed within, which is patently untrue, but we digress. The 2.4-pound machine also includes an integrated DVD SuperMulti drive, 12.1-inch transreflective LED-backlit WXGA display, a battery good for 8-hours of use, 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo U7700 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, GMA950 graphics set, WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a three-year warranty. You better believe that 0.77-inch frame is appealing, but the $2,999 starting price is still mighty tough to swallow.

[Mario @ Jun 17th 2008 8:11AM]

GMA 950? GMA 950??

The 8 hour battery life is sweet though.

[Akshat @ Jun 17th 2008 8:15AM]

I think its $2999 with the 128GB SSD included right? In that case the price point is not THAT bad i think. Hope to see laptops with reasonable sized SSDs drop below the $2000 mark soon ...

[Mam00th @ Jun 17th 2008 8:23AM]

That's exaclty what I though, $3000 for a 128GB SSD and an 8 hours battery life, it's kind of a solid deal (comparing to the X300, and the MBA)

[Flashpoint @ Jun 17th 2008 8:25AM]

Its got every single connection I can think a mobile pro. would need.

Battery life similar to my Lenovo X60.

And a 128GB SSD?


Even at $3000 this thing blows the Macbook Air away.

I probably woulda dropped the DVD drive to cut down the weight and make it thinner but, its still pretty damn impressive.

[darkstar @ Jun 17th 2008 11:10AM]

i think anything blows the MBA away.
that macbook was designed for people who likes to bend over for some Jobs.

[rober e @ Jun 17th 2008 8:31AM]

i know there's a market for it, but i still feels so silly to spend $3,000 on a laptop. i wonder how much that SSD adds to the total.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 17th 2008 10:46AM]

Price is relative and subjective.

Alot of mobile professionals - especially lawyers or graphics designers,etc will pay $3000 or more, so long as they get exactly what they need out of a laptop.

[TDG @ Jun 17th 2008 8:50AM]

OK, I have the 120 Gb (spinning) HD version of this. HDD failure after about 6 mos. Then a DVD drive failure. Technician reassembly wasn't as good as robot assembly - the base wobbles every time you put your right hand on the keyboard. Frustrating. Guess what - the 2nd HDD died after about two months. Maybe the SSD will fix the HDD problem. Me? After three Toshiba laptops, all with great service, I gave up on Toshiba. Lenovo X300!

[Yuri @ Jun 17th 2008 12:09PM]

I think it's sad when someone will drop a company entirely because they got a lemon.

I recently got a lemon phone from Nokia. An entry-level phone, but a lemon nonetheless. It kept dying, and freezing, the battery didn't last, no signal, etc.

But we've always had amazing experiences with Nokia. They're the only brand of phone (Mind you, we only get the low-end phones from Nokia) that get service in my area. So why drop Nokia because of a lemon?

Lemons happen, not everything a company makes is perfect, and when mass producing, I don't care what company it is, they definitely will produce a few crappy quality products by accident.

[Bad Toshiba @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:09PM]

I had an experience very similar to yours, TDG. I had a Toshiba R100 - which I loved - for nearly 5 years, so naturally I chose to replace it with the R500. The 120 GB HD died after less than 3 months of relatively light use, but taking a huge amount of valuable data with it. Tech support was not very helpful so far.

Unbelievable. I'm completely soured on the brand.

[Alex @ Jun 17th 2008 10:03AM]

Very nice.

But I'd rather get insane performance in a Mac Book Pro for the price and deal with the extra size and weight.

(but seriously, what's an extra 8lbs?) :P

[Alex @ Jun 17th 2008 10:07AM]

And the lack of battery life, my bad...

That's just my opinion on laptops...I can deal with those factors so long as I get all the speed I need to run Adobe like a charm...

And a few games here and there.

[YpoCaramel @ Jun 17th 2008 10:20AM]

If I was a rich bastard, I'd have an MBP and this. But then, I'm not, so I'm only getting an MBP and a Wind.

[Itchy Pajamas @ Jun 17th 2008 10:05AM]

Seems like since the early days of laptops $3000 was the price for machines with the latest tech and the sexiest specs. So this one is completely in line.

I've been very happy with my $3k MacBook Air, and didn't mind paying the high price for it. If I were looking for a Windows-centric equivalent, this Toshiba would be a pretty good deal.

[Alex @ Jun 17th 2008 10:08AM]

Well the Air is very well built.

But it has many set backs compared to the X300 and this Toshiba...but then you think to yourself...oh yeah, it's get Leopard.

So, then it's worth it.

[Ethan @ Jun 17th 2008 2:16PM]

Alex, not everyone wants a Mac. Or OS X. Please shut the hell up.

[falsion @ Jun 17th 2008 7:45PM]

So a non-Apple PC automatically = "Windows centric?"

What about Linux? What about the fact that if you really wanted to, you could install OS X on it. OS X is just an operating system installed on a computer. The computer itself is not any different from a PC.

[Andrew @ Jun 17th 2008 11:08AM]

"claims to be the "world's first laptop with a 128GB SSD" packed within, which is patently untrue,"

You guys know that's the same notebook, right?

[Ethan @ Jun 17th 2008 2:17PM]

If they made a 13.3" version of this, what kind of battery life could it get? Six hours?

[RK @ Jun 17th 2008 6:33PM]

The most important question is - how good is it at cutting cake?

[Artr @ Jun 17th 2008 7:10PM]

Not bad, though I'd like to see some real-world battery tests

[Loonyx @ Jun 19th 2008 10:17PM]

just sent this in lol. guess i'm noobtoobin today.