Toshiba Portege Z935-P390 13.3" Notebook Computer (Silver)

Comments about Toshiba Portege Z935-P390 13.3" Notebook Computer (Silver):

Very portable and fast machine. Good screen resolution and sensitive touchpad. It would be nice if battery life were a bit longer. All features considered, a good value.

Comments about Toshiba Portege Z935-P390 13.3" Notebook Computer (Silver):

I use this laptop for school, video/music editing, stock trading, etc. I will try to express properly how much I love it.

Here's why I think this beats every competitor that I tried before buying my z935:

1) Jaw-droppingly thin and light. 2.5lbs! This makes a big difference compared to the more common 3lbs+ weight of other ultrabooks.

2) Despite how thin, it has 3 USB ports, and full-sized HDMI and VGA ports (many competitors have mini-ports that require adapters which you might not always have on hand, and many simply do not have VGA). This was a major selling point for me, and it also means it supports 2 external monitors right out of the box.

3) Great keyboard. It has the FULL del/home/pgup/pgdown/end keys running down the side, unlike so many thin & light competitors that have placed those on the arrow keys and require the use of a "function" key to access them! The backlighting is also great. Also, I noticed that most Ultrabooks have VERY flat and unresponsive keys, and while they are also quite thin on this Toshiba, they are surprisingly responsive. In my side-by-side comparisons with other Ultrabooks, there was no competition.

4) Totally silent. I often can't tell if it is on or not because I just can't hear it running. I scoff at the noise of Macbook Pros' humming fans now. Only in rare circumstances does the fan go into hyper-drive, and even then it is impressively quiet.

5) I suppose this would be the case with any similarly spec'd system, but it is quite fast. I can edit HD video, and have everything imaginable open and it does not slow down, and I'm impressed with the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics that come with 3rd generation i5 CPUs. Maybe I'm still living in the mid 2000s, but the fact that I can do so much on such a thin system continues to impress me.

6) It comes with just about the least bloatware of any notebook I've seen out of the box. I only spent about 10 minutes maybe 1 'free' virus scan trials, and some Toshiba diagnostic stuff I didn't need. Many systems come so bogged down with stuff that they are barely usable out of the box.

Cons:

1) The SSD drive is lightening fast, but at 128gb it falls short of what I need. I never though I would have a computer in the 21st centruy that can't store my 70gb of MP3s, but with Win 7 using 20gb, programs I've installed using 15gb, the restore drive using 20gb (you can re-install Windows from this hidden partition at any time), I am left with about 65gb of free space. For many users this would be enough but it's not for me. Still though, when I think that somewhere in this razor thin body is a 128gb SSD it is impressive, and carrying around the external hd when I need it is tolerable (and the USB 3.0 port is quite fast).

2) Battery life, at 4 to 5 hours, is a common complaint. I don't mind since this is about the same as my previous laptop, and that old battery weighed almost as much as this whole system. But yeah, if other systems last 8+ hours then I guess I'm missing out.

3) A 2gb stick of RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so the system only has 1 replaceable slot which supports only up to 4gb, and thus 6gb is the system MAX. This shouldn't be a problem but it is worth noting.

3) I have noticed that almost all new notebooks have touchpads that no longer support pressing-both-buttons-at-once = middle-mouse-click. This laptop is no exception. This was solved by putting a middle-click-simulator program into my startup folder. Just an FYI to all you middle-click enthusiasts out there.

4) It would be nice to have a hard switch to turn wifi on/off. But no ultrabook I have seen has this. At least this Toshiba has many useful functions on the F-keys (mute, volume, screen rightness, wifi on/off, external monitor, etc).

5) Every single store that sells this in Canada sells the bilingual version, which means half the keys have both French and English, and those keys are NOT backlit! Thus I had to get it from an American retailer in order to salvage the backlit keyboard functionality. So Canadian buyers beware (but as long as you order from B&H you'll be safe!).

My hat goes off to whoever designed this notebook. My prospects of finding a satisfactory machine were looking pretty grim until I found it!

Comments about Toshiba Portege Z935-P390 13.3" Notebook Computer (Silver):

The product arrived just as specified online. It came with only the power cord and ultrabook. Fast first boot up time and only a few unwanted programs were included initially.
The only complaint I have is that it only has 5 hours battery life while I read other reviews and they had 7-8 hours battery life. Other than that I am satisfied with my lightweight product and can't wait to bring it to school.