The Portégé subnotebooks with a 13.3 inch form factor (previously 12.1 inch, e.g. R500) make up the premium segment for handy business notebooks from Toshiba. Light weight, a thin case, and good battery life are combined with business features such as a docking port, a UMTS module, and a fingerprint reader.
Since Toshiba has recognized that not every demanding private user or business person wants to spend 2000 Euros for a subnotebook, the Portégé R830 is currently available in three price classes and feature variants. The R830-10V is the fastest of the three with a Core i7-2620M (2x 2.70GHz), and a 256 GB SSD (from 1980 Euros). The R830-112 with a Core i5-2520M 2x 2.50GHz, and a HDD, is the intermediate model (from 1600 Euros). And last but not least the tested R830-110 has a Core i3-2310M (2x 2.30GHz), and a HDD (from 1130 Euros). In comparison to the two others our tested device is the most affordable Portégé R830.
How well does the affordable R830 fair for mobile use? Can Toshiba's claims for an "HD display with ideal picture quality" be proved accurate? All the answers can be found in the following review.
Performance
Toshiba's 13.3 inch R830 is equipped with an Intel Core i3-2310M (2 x 2.1 GHz). The dual-core CPU doesn't have Turbo Boost, but does support Hyper-Threading (processes 4 threads). The CPU's power consumption lies at 35 Watts according to TDP. Of this the two cores require 25 Watts. 10 Watts are used by the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics solution, and the internal DDR3 memory controller.
As usual there are 4096 MB of DDR3 RAM on board, whereby only one of the two sockets is in use (1 x 4096 MB RAM). The hard drive is a Hitachi (HTS723232A7A364) with a rotational speed of 7200 rpm and a capacity of 320 GB.
The Sandy Bridge i3 processor manages to score almost as many points in the single-core Cinebench R10 Single 32-bit benchmark (2704) as significantly faster clocked predecessors such as the i3-380M (2x2.5GHz, ~2.800 points) with a 2.1 GHz clock speed. The bigger brother i5-2520M (2.3GHz) CPU manages a faster 3800 points (64-bit) thanks to Turbo Boost.
When it comes to daily use, multi-threading is more relevant than single-core processing though (Cinebench R10 Multi 64-bit). The i3-2310M manages 7237 points in this discipline, which is almost as much as a i3-380M (~7800). In this case the option of a Core i5 version of the R830 can be a definite advantage with respect to speed: The i5-2520M manages about 10500 points thanks to Turbo Boost 2.0.
Specifications Toshiba Portege R830-110 :
- Processor : Intel Core i3 2310M 2.1 GHz
- Mainboard : Intel HM65
- Memory : 4096 MB, 1x4096MB, 1 socket free
- Graphics adapter : Intel HD Graphics 3000
- Display : 13.3 inch 19:9, 1366x768 pixel, glossy: no
- Harddisk : Hitachi HTS723232A7A364, 320GB 7200rpm
- Soundcard : Realtek ALC269 @ Intel Cougar Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller
- Connections : 2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, 1 eSata, 1 Docking Station Port, Audio Connections: Line out, microphone, Card Reader: SD, miniSD, microSD (adapter), SDHC 32GB, SDXC 64GB, MMC, 1 Fingerprint Reader, USB Sleep-and-Charge
- Networking : Intel 82579V Gigabit Network Connection (10/1000MBit), Atheros AR9002WB-1NG Wireless Network Adapter (bgn), 3.0+HS Bluetooth, High-Speed UMTS / 3G (HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s / HSUPA 2 Mbit/s)
- Optical drive : MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ8A2AS
- Size : height x width x depth (in mm): 18.3 x 316 x 227
- Weight : 1.468 kg Power Supply: 0.247 kg
- Battery : 66 Wh Lithium-Ion, 10.8V 5800mAh PABAS249
- Price : 1199 Euro
- Operating System : Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
- Additional features : Webcam: VGA, Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Essential, Nero BackItUp & Burn Autobackup Essentials, many Toshiba Tools, 24 Months Warranty, Intel Wireless Display support for two monitors.
- notebookcheck.net