I’m somewhat surprised to see this news today. Toshiba Australia are officially offering the Toshiba Satellite U840 Ultrabook for sale on their website. Why am I surprised? Because Toshiba USA showed us the device at CES in January and said it was due in Q3. Clearly Toshiba already have the device ready and Toshiba USA really only spoke for their region.
Update: U840 is now in our database where we’re tracking new information as we find it.
Here’s what the U840 looked like at CES last month…
Step into a German newsagents, look at the magazine rack and you’ll find more testing notes than in a NASA launch sequence. That’s why I pay attention to the German tech press – they know how to analyse a product. Chip.de is one of the more well-know computer magazines in Germany and as you’d expect, they’ve got early hands-on with the HP Envy 14 Spectre that will be available in Germany in March for about €1400. It’s a sample unit rather than a final retail build but it’s unlikely to be very different to the final retail version. The article is obviously in German and you can read it via Google Translate but let me highlight a few things for you.
The Dell XPS 13 is a beautiful Ultrabook with what appears to be a class-leading keyboard. A few of us here at CES said the same thing – it’s well designed.
With Gorilla Glass scree facia and a stylish design it looks great but there’s a possible issue with the port – there aren’t many!
At a Toshiba Press event this evening we got a glimpse of the 14” laptop that will be the next Toshiba (USA) Satellite Ultrabook (not high-end Portege brand as the Z835 is in the USA.) At ‘under 4lb’ it’s not the ultra-light that the Z830/Z835 is but you’re looking at a device that will be cheaper than the Z830 and will be targeted at a more mainstream customer. We even caught a brief glimpse of Windows 8 running on it.
If you’ve been looking at getting the best specifications into your Ultrabook choice you are likely to have the Toshiba Z830 at the top of your list. With a backlit keyboard, SSD, Intel WiFi module with Wi-Di and My-Wifi support, full size set of ports including VGA, HDMI and SDXC, all in the lightest weight possible, the Toshiba Z830 with Core i5 promises a lot. But that’s just specifications and real-world is sometimes very different. Fortunately the Z830 delivers, although it has one possible showstopper hidden away beyond the specs and a few little niggles that might put you off. You can read about them in the full Toshiba Z830 review below. Thanks to Toshiba Europe for sending the Z830-10J over for review.
Keyboards. What a nightmare to review! Everyone has different fingers and a different typing style but is generally unable to test multiple keyboards before they make a purchase. When you’re investing $1000 in a laptop, you want to know you’re getting a good one!
I’ve just spent about 4 hours finishing up the full review of the Acer Aspire S3 (an honest and good-value Ultrabook, full review going up as the next post) and I took the unique chance to write different sections of the review with three different Ultrabooks.
One of the first reviews of the HP Folio, the 13-1008TU (aka the HP DM3) with Core i5, is in and it’s looking good. Fast disk, good keyboard, long battery life and a good suite of ports.
At 1.5KG the HP Folio is a little on the portly side but it looks like that weight includes some good battery capacity. The review at PCWorld Australia gives it 4 out of 5 stars and although it’s not an in-depth review, it’s one of the first indicators that the HP Folio could have some success in the market.
The 11.6” Samsung 900X1B, the 1KG sibling to the 13” 900X3A that we tested a while back, arrived today and I’ve had a solid afternoon of testing, and enjoying, this pre-Ultrabook. I won’t call it an Ultrabook alternative because just like the Apple MacBook Air it pre-dates the Ultrabook launch but uses the same design principles…and it’s just as good. With an 11.6” screen it obviously goes up against the Asus UX21 and Apple MacBook Air. Here are some first impressions, relatively detailed, that might help you raise or lower the 900X1B on your list.
Announcement: I’ll be sitting down in the studio to do some detailed review work on the Samsung 900X1B on Saturday 3rd Dec. You can tune in, ask questions and steer the testing on Saturday 3rd Dec at 2100 MEZ/CET (Your timezone details here.) I’ll be live for about 2 hours so please, drop in and join-in on Ultrabooknews.com/live . Follow @ultrabooknews on Twitter for reminders.
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