While I was researching for the last article, a warning about battery life figures, I came across some very useful information on the Toshiba Z830. They’ve officially submitted BAPCO MobileMark 2007 scores to BAPCO, for Core i3 and Core i7 versions of the Ultrabook, along with some other useful information.
First, lets take a look at the SSD they’re using. It’s a critical part of an Ultrabook. Toshiba have obviously dropped their own part in and it’s a TOSHIBA THNSNB128GMCJ , 128GB, SSD, SATA on the Core i7 model tested and a TOSHIBA THNSNB064GMCJ , 64GB, SSD, SATA on the Core i3 model tested.
The bad news is that it’s not a high performance model. If this is the SSD they are using on the final product, [now confirmed for at least one model in the US] it willvastly underperform the SSDs seen on the ASUS UX range. The good news is that the mSATA drive has been spotted on the Z830 breakdown pics and looks like it’s accessible for a swap-out. I’m a little worried at this stage although while fast sequential write speeds are good, it’s the small block random writes that are more important. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
The Core i7 model tested for BAPCO is the Intel® Core™ i7-2677M Processor, a 1.8Ghz nominal clockrate CPU. The Core i3 version tested was the Intel® Core™ i3-2367M Processor at 1.4Ghz which matches with UK specifications.
Now on to some great news. Battery life looks exceptional in the BAPCO test with a result that’s beating many other devices on ‘getting things done’ efficiency.
The Core i3 model with its 45.79Wh battery scores 520 minutes in the Productivity 2007 benchmark – 8.6hrs. That’s an amazing average (almost unbelievable actually – screen and Wifi must have been off I guess) of about 5.5W. The Core i7 device scores 497 minutes too. No wonder Toshiba are calling it an 8hr device! The scenario is rather unreal but it’s a great result.
Bear in mind that real-world figures will be different. Based on these figures you’ll probably see Wi-Fi-on drain of about 8W when surfing the net – over 5hrs of usage. Full-on gaming use will give you just over 2hrs! Don’t forget, the Z830 weighs 1.1KG /2.3lb though. Per Kilo, the Z830 looks like a top-end challenger.
Image via Ascii.jp
I have a Toshiba Portege R500 (in same list: battery 530 min), with new battery is does 300 minutes max with webbrowsing, Wifi and screen half lit. After 2 years this is down to 200 min, so I have to buy a new battery. So forget the 8 hours in pratice.
Can we replace the battery on the Z830? I dont see it at Toshiba. If it is not replacable, I have to keep my R500.
Thats exactly what i expected (and predicted in the article.) Battery fade is important to note though. We wont be able to predict the fade rate and these batteries are not replaceable by the user.
You are better off keeping your R500. Mind you, the R500 was ahead of its time and it is truly an “ultrabook”. That is why I say, ultrabooks were there long ago.
You machine weighs about 900grams, far lighter than the ultrabooks of today. And its Made in Japan. I think most ultrabooks now Made in China. So, you can decide which of the both has the higher quality.
Acer and Toshiba DOMINATE the top of the BAPCO chart; it’s all the more interesting that Acer’s Ultrabook is at the bottom of the battery life competition and the Toshiba looks to dominate. (Although there is something to be said about Lenovo’s super quick charging battery at lower capacity, too.)
I can’t believe the perf that the i7 manages to get for the battery life; I really thought the extra perf from the i7 would impact battery life more than that.
Toshiba has all but reached into my wallet and taken $1000; they need to pull that SSD out and replace it with the high perf part, though.
These are “ultrabooks” after all and we all know the early adopters are going to get nailed on both cost AND perf in 6 months time, so give us a little less buyers remorse by putting a decent performing SSD in there.
Adam
Well said on the SSD!
This site has quickly become Ultrabook crack for me! You’ve got all the content I CRAVE!
Good job, but I don’t think my boss is going to like you too much because of the productivity drop. ; )
Have you thought about the future direction of the blog? -Are you planning on staying Ultrabook-specific or maybe branching out into “almost ultrabooks” and ultrabook competitor machines?
Adam
Almost-ultrabooks will be covered along with lightweight laptops built on new AMD platforms in 2012. I’m considering adding the alternatives to the database but its a big workload. Anyone fancy helping with that?
I’d be willing to help. I’m so INCREDIBLY frustrated that there’s no go-to place to search for laptops BY WEIGHT. (It SEEMS LIKE Newegg allows you to do this and then you realize that about 25% of all their PC listings don’t have the weight or battery statistics included so those machines automatically get excluded when you search by weight.)
I’d love to help compile a list of “almost ultrabooks” as I think a comparison is a great way to drive the value discussion home in a hurry.
Adam
I’m a bit concerned about the Toshiba Z830/Z835’s support for SATA III.
There’s an army of angry Toshiba R830 / R835 consumers who have tried to replace their HDDs with SATA III SSDs and have found that Toshiba has actually disabled SATA III support in their BIOSes for mysterious reasons. Even though the chipset supports SATA Toshiba has refused to release a BIOS that supports SATA III. I’m scared that they haven’t responded to similar inquiries on whether the Z830/Z835 supports SATA III if someone were to replace the mSATA SSD with a higher performing one in the future.
I’d love to see a Toshiba Z830/Z835 mSATA SSD replaced with a high performing part to see if they’ve again put in place a SATA II speed limitation in their BIOS…
Adam