Toshiba Portege Z835 - my impressions

[General Crespin]

Haven't seen any posts on impressions of this ultrabook, so thought I'd post mine. The wife fell in love with it at Best Buy, since we were looking for one anyway (previous laptop died a few weeks ago), picked it up.

-Only an i3. We don't plan on doing any heavy lifiting on this laptop, as long as it plays Netflix fine, we'll be okay.
-Incredibly light. Almost too light for the size. But solid feeling.
-Keyboard backlight isn't too bright or too dim. Was a big factor for me personally, I want a backlight in my keyboard.
-Keyboard is just about perfect for both of us. It's about as wide as can be. Not too shallow.

Reviews I've seen have mentioned flimsy hinges (not a factor given the way we open and close by default), poor color quality (haven't noticed anything odd, again, main use is just internet browsing/movie watching), slow SSD (as far as I'm concerned it's better than a HDD).

Any questions, I'll do my best to answer.

EDIT: The keyboard on this ultrabook is slightly recessed, you can see it in sideshots. When the lid is closed, it does flex some due to that gap. I don't think it's a big deal but it's definitely something to be aware of.

EDIT 2: At night when there's no other noise, the low-pitched hum of the fan *really* gets to me. When I have the fan by my ear, the fan sounds normal, but when it's on my lap, it's just... the pitch or the volume or something is just right to where it annoys me.

To its credit, I haven't yet felt the wristrest/keyboard area get warm.

EDIT 3: I picked up Incipio's 13" MBA sleeve, the fit isn't quite right. The Z835 is a little too square for my taste. Returning it. Friend is making me one instead.

 

[General Crespin]

Guess my edits don't bump it.

 

[heatlesssun]

Thanks for your impressions. I think Engadget reviewed it and wasn't all that impressed but from your description it seems pretty nice. How much was it?

 

[General Crespin]

I do believe Engadget's concerns should be noted and every buyer should decide if they're issues for them, because if I was in a different place in life, I wouldn't want a flimsy feeling laptop, or an i3 (for future proofing)... however, where I am now, it's turned them into nonissues.

I think we paid $800. I'll update when I find my receipt tomorrow (just noticed it's on sale on their site for $700, time to see what their price match guarantee covers )

 

[heatlesssun]

If you just bought it 2 weeks ago you should be ok with getting the price match. I'll have to take a look at one of these, I didn't know Best Buy had them in the store.

 

[General Crespin]

Turns out we bought it exactly a month ago. But that was a few days after their holiday return policy period started. Talked the rep into pricematching even though I didn't have a gift receipt. Booyah!

 

[heatlesssun]

Congrats!

 

[General Crespin]

The Z835-P330 (the model Best Buy carries) comes stock with an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000. No Bluetooth, no 5GHz. I came across a few people on the Notebook Review thread mentioning replacing it with the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 adapter ($25 on Amazon). Bluetooth 3, 5GHz dual-band, etc.

I ordered it, it came in today. Installing it was a very painless process. 13 Philips screws, and one Torx security screw size 7 (underneath the rubber foot at the center of the laptop), bottom comes off, everything is right there. Wireless card is underneath an orange ribbon, you just need to flip up (they kind of snap) the black clips on either end, then unscrew the one screw holding the wireless card in. Just kind of gently work the antenna wires off, and that's pretty much it.

Also ordered a stick of 4GB RAM for $20 from Newegg, gonna put that in too for a total of 6GB. I would like to upgrade the mSATA drive (it's so tiny!), but right now there's nothing large enough for cheap enough (that's also fast enough).

Hope someone finds this useful.

 

[General Crespin]

Keyboard seems to require my presses to be more spoton, eg left side of the space bar doesn't always register, or the shift key. Guess it's a thing that could go bad over time?