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Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook stands the test of time #toshibaultrabook

April 26, 2012 /

I remember few of you asked me about the specs of my Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook. I know that specs are pivotal in finding the best laptop that works best for you, especially if you work on something heavy like doing graphic works or video editing. Below is a list of basic specs and the rest you can find out here: Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook

  • Model : Toshiba Portege Z830-2004U
  • Processor: Intel® CoreTM i7-2677M Processor (with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.9GHz, 1.8Hz, 4M Cache)
  • Selling price: RM4,899.00
  • Memory: 4GB + 2GB DDR3
  • Hard disk drive: 128GB SSD
  • Resolution: 1366 x 768
  • Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 32-bit

It is almost a month now that I am using Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook. I brought it everywhere; during meetings as well as when travelling. It has travelled some 3750km to Shanghai on an Airbus 330-200 (Air Mauritius) and about the same distance back to KL on a Boeing 777-200. It has recently travelled some 45km across the South China Sea from Merang, Terengganu to Redang Island in a speedboat. Not to mention the road trip from KL to Perlis to East West Highway to Terengganu and back to KL.  If you have had the experience taking a ride on speedboat, you must’ve already known how hard it bumps on big waves. And same goes to airplane when it flies through cumulus clouds. I am happy to say that after travelling through bumps on accumulated journeys of about 10,000km, Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook is tough and durably stands the test of time.

This reminds me of a friend, Hadi Hussien who sets the record of travelling alone from KL to UK on his small bike. He had problems with his laptop during the ride in India as the roads there are not tarred. Although he wrapped it in three layers of thick shirts, the laptop was not durable and he had to ship it back to Malaysia and had no laptop to update. He had to hop from one cybercafé to another to update his stories.

Anyway, back to Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook. With the weight of 1.12kg and thickness of 15.9mm, I have no problem at all carrying it. It fits well in my shoulder messenger bag (it has both shoulder sling strap and handles) and nobody knows that I carry something precious inside my bag. Every time I need to work on something when I am on the move, I just took it out and do my work right away as it loads within 2 seconds.

During the trip to Shanghai, I carried it in my laptop bag and Siti, the journalist form Harian Metro asked me, “are you carrying a laptop?” Isn’t it heavy?” I took it out from my bag and handed it to her and proudly explained that it is not a typical laptop, it is Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook; currently the lightest laptop in the world. Siti rolled her eyes and had that ‘wow’ look on her face. I swear that I heard her saying that she must get one Ultrabook.

My Z830 having a nice rest on a table in Andaz Shanghai Hotel after travelling some 3750km. With the built-in camera, I did get to Skype with my son and show him the room and Shanghai city line. – 28 February 2012.

Connecting to the internet is also really easy with this Ultrabook. Having an android phone, I just need to connect the USB cable and turn on the USB tethering. Or if I don’t have the cable I just turn on the Mobile AP and voila, I get a connection instantly. And whenever there are wireless connections available, it will let me know instantly.  Being a blogger and an illustrator who actually works and communicate online, getting a connection is very important, no matter where I am.

And if I ever need a bigger screen to view my video or illustrations at home or in hotel, I can always connect my Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook to the television using the HDMI cable and port. Look:

Other than HDMI port, Toshiba Portege Z830 also comes with USB super speed 3.0 port (works great with my USB 3.0 external hard drive), and two USB 2.0 ports at the back which I use to charge my mobile phone and stick my wireless mouse USB receiver dongle. If I need to connect to my drawing tablet, I will use the USB3.0 port; that means I have to plug out the external hard drive and plug in the drawing tablet. Why don’t I use USB splitter or hub? I am trying to save power and not to overheat the motherboard. But maybe I can consider buying a splitter/hub with power supply so that it won’t consume power from the Ultrabook’s port but for the time being it is not that important.

One more great feature that I like to highlight is the fact that Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook is equipped with TOSHIBA Eco Utility mode. This mode helps reduce electric power consumption and also helps me monitor my power savings by showing approximate real time power consumption.

My power consumption is 13 Watts.

When eco Mode is turned on (by pressing the eco button), it changes the power plan to “eco”, which includes: lowering the display brightness, lowering the dimmed display brightness, turning off the LED illumination, reducing the time before the monitor dims, shortening the time before the monitor turns off, reducing the time before the hard disk drive turns off, and reducing the time before the system goes to sleep.

Below is my eco score:

A score above 71 is considered a high score and I am glad that I managed to contribute to CO2 reduction. Yay! (50 below – low score, 70 below – medium score, above 71 – high score)

Also one more thing I like to highlight is that I now bring this Ultrabook whenever I see my publishers. This is because I am trying to be as environmental as I can be and trying to avoid printing manuscripts and artworks on papers. If a manuscript is about 100 pages (both sides), imagine if I have to submit few sets of amended manuscripts. This is my own personal effort to save money on buying papers and inks as well as help reduce the energy consumption to make papers.

If you read my 1st post, you should already know that this Ultrabook does not come with a CD drive. At first, I thought, how hard it is not to have CD drive and how am I supposed to install all my software. I currently do not have an external CD drive and had to turn to my old laptop to transfer the CD content to my external hard drive. But in the long term run, come to think of it, not having a CD drive will help me save on buying CDs or maybe put a stop to buying at all. I can always e-mail my works to my publishers and if the files are too big, I can always upload to my hosting server and gave them the link to download and save the file. It helps reduce the consumption of natural resources, waste, and energy.

I know you might think that one person alone cannot make a difference but I believe that there are hundreds (or thousands, or tens of thousands) of people who have the same thinking. Imagine how much energy consumption has been reduced.

Anyway, I hope with the real experience that I have gone through and the specs listed above can really help you choose what’s best for you. I remember when I told a friend that Z830 is the lightest laptop in the world; he simply told me that it’s not the ‘cover’ that fancy him; it’s the ‘book’. When I told him about the specs of Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook, he was quite impressed. I know some of you are loyal to one brand only but I do hope you do a comparison research in terms of specs before making that big decision to buy a laptop. In Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook, you can judge a book by its cover. It can also help you be as green as possible.

To summarise it all, Toshiba Portege Z830 Ultrabook inspired by Intel is a companion to boot. Being always on the move, I am thankful that it is very light and thin as well as durable. I love the 2 seconds waking-up fact, really saves a lot of my time. And working my illustrations on this pretty sleek machine is the best experience so far.  It’s fast, stunning and visibly smart; top-of-the-line performance .

This post is brought to you by Toshiba and Intel. Join the conversation on the Toshiba Portégé Z830 Ultrabook, Inspired by Intel at www.facebook.com/ToshibaNotebookPC.

 

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