Toshiba Portege Z835 Review

Toshiba Portege Z835 Review

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This $899 Best Buy exclusive features a 13.3-inch display, 128GB solid state drive, backlit keyboard and six hours of battery life. Read our take to find out what makes this Ultrabook really impressive.

The Portege Z835 (also called the Z830) is an Ultrabook, a new class of notebook computers characterized by their thinness, light weight, and use of Intel Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processors. These are essentially the Windows alternatives to the Apple MacBook Air.

The Z835 has a professional-looking design with normal straight lines and squared-off edges; Toshiba’s Portege line of notebooks has typically been business oriented so this makes sense. The Z835 will most certainly draw wandering eyes despite its utilitarian appearance due to the sheer thinness – it really is that thin at only 0.63 inches high. The chassis is constructed entirely of magnesium alloy, a lightweight yet strong material. As a result the Z835 feels like almost nothing at 2.4 pounds.

The Z835 has a 13.3-inch display with a glossy surface and 720p (1366×768) resolution. It has plenty of brightness but overall isn’t remarkable in terms of color reproduction or contrast. The glossy surface helps with contrast, specifically the black levels, but hinders usability since nearby light sources can create annoying reflections on the screen. An anti-glare screen coating is preferred; they’re easier to clean too. The 1366×768 resolution is acceptable for this screen size but the more-expensive ASUS UX31 offers a much better 1600×900 resolution (about 30% more working space).

I measured an even six hours of battery life during our standard rundown test (Windows 7 Balanced power profile, 70% screen brightness, wireless active and refreshing a web page every 60 seconds). This is a respectable time and in the range of what we expect from Ultrabooks.

The Toshiba Portege Z835 is an all-around winner and was a pleasure to review. It has solid build quality, a decent backlit keyboard, a good touchpad, six hours of battery life, and the characteristic light weight (2.4 lbs) and thinness we’ve come to expect from Ultrabooks. Where the Z835 stumbles is performance; the included 128GB SSD is exceptionally slow. The Intel Core i3 processor is bottom of the barrel but should have plenty of oomph for general usage.

At $899 the Z835 undercuts existing Ultrabooks by $100 or more and makes for a very attractive choice. It is an ideal on-the-go companion and a tempting alternative to the Apple MacBook Air.

Pros:
•Decent backlit keyboard
•6 hours battery life
•Great value
•Plenty of ports including USB 3.0