Toshiba has done it. Similar with the Apple MacBook 13-inch they have launched a piano-white finish with a rotating screen and tablet capabilities powered by the new Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate operating system. What makes it that nice? Two things. First is the big resemblance with the Apple MacBook 13-inch which was treated by Toshiba using big bold letters to spell their logo so that they make it unique, and the other one is the fact that the new Portégé R400 is a very light tablet PC with about 3.7 pounds and long dimensions (12″ by 9.5″ by 1.25″), a 12-inch widescreen.

Toshiba’s Portégé R400 specifications are as follows

- Intel Core Duo U2500 processor, 1.2GHz
- 80 GB HDD, 2Gb Ram
- 12.1 inches screen size , 3.7lbs weight
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, graphics card
- Bluetooth v2.0+EDR
- Integrated Ev-Do
- 2nd battery
- Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG - 802.11a/g
- and USB DVD-SuperMulti

Advantages of the Portégé R400, are the elegant design, light and forearm-friendly, superb widescreen, and SideShow LCD display among the Vista Ultimate edition software and the EV DO antenna. As disadvantages there are not much. Low powered, and too many proprietary applications loaded.

About our review you should know that both tablet PCs and the Vista operating system are at their early stages. For example the integrated EV-DO antenna has low connectivity even when signal is strong. Another example is that the tablet PC is slow because of the many preloaded applications even with the 2GB ram inside. I personally don’t like a shared graphics card, and that’s a case here also. Another PRO is the fact that it has improved hand-writing skills. Actually this new tablet PC R400-S4931 from Toshiba is smart enough to learn from previous mistakes.

The price for this device is one of the highest in the market, around $2,599 but I guess this is what you pay for when you make the Apple guys envy you for that sexy design.

Filed under Displays/LCD, Laptops