Laptop Review-Toshiba Tecra R950-11F

[xiang2011]

Tecra notebooks are business-grade systems with Compatible Parts , and so Toshiba doesn’t feel the need to make everything consumer-shiny — which suits us just fine. Built around a magnesium alloy chassis, the case is a sober graphite colour with a textured finish that will not require constant wiping to remove unsightly fingerprints.

The 2.49kg Tecra R950 has a 15.6in. screen, but the resolution is a moderate 1,366 by 768 pixels.

If you’re planning to travel with the Tecra R950 (and the presence of integrated mobile broadband suggests that this is expected), be prepared to lug a hefty 2.49kg system measuring 37.9cm wide by 25.2cm deep by 2.54cm-2.08cm thick. More realistically, it’s likely to spend most of its time deskbound — perhaps plugged into one of Toshiba’s port replicator options. If you do take the R950 on the road, you’ll need a sizeable laptop bag, but the system feels robust enough, with relatively little flex in the screen or elsewhere.

The 15.6in. screen is a non-reflective LED-backlit unit with a (moderate) native resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels. With brightness set to maximum, it’s crisp and clear, and even with Toshiba’s power-saving Eco mode enabled, which drops the brightness to 50 percent, it’s perfectly readable in normal office lighting. As usual, viewing angles are better in the horizontal plane than the vertical, but the screen hinges are solid enough to position the display optimally at angles up to 180 degrees (i.e. flat, level with the Toshiba Tecra Keyboard ). There’s a basic 1-megapixel webcam and a microphone in the middle of the screen bezel, at the top.

The 102-key isolation-style keyboard includes a separate number pad on the right-hand side.

The first thing to note about the Laptop Keyboard is that, thanks to the screen size, there’s room for a separate number pad, which is always useful. It’s a spill-resistant, isolation-style unit that, despite its width, feels pleasingly solid to type on. We have no major complaints about the layout, although some may find the spacebar a little short for comfort. When you press the Fn key, a useful map of the available functions — and multiple functions on a single key if present — pops up at the top of the screen. For example, pressing Fn-F8 lets you cycle through options to toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband on or off, either singly or en masse.

There are dual navigation options, in the shape of a two-button multitouch touchpad with vertical and horizontal scroll zones and a small blue pointing stick between the G, B and H keys. The stick has its own pair of buttons, and there’s a button just below the spacebar that toggles the touchpad (but not the stick) on and off, to guard against accidental pointer movement when you’re typing. An icon pops up temporarily on-screen when you press this button, but an LED indicating that the touchpad is disabled would be useful as you can easily forget that you’ve activated the button. (Incidentally, Fn-F9 also performs the same touchpad-toggling function.)

There’s a fingerprint scanner nestling between the touchpad buttons, and beneath these is a row of status LEDs. Between the Toshiba Keyboard and the screen you’ll find the stereo speaker grilles along with the power button, a button that invokes the power-saving Eco mode and a Presentation button that fires up Intel’s WiDi (Wireless Display) utility.

The Tecra R950 measures between 2.54cm and 2.08cm thick.

There’s a full complement of wireless connectivity available: dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 and mobile broadband (HSPA up to 21Mbps down, 5.76Mbps up, network permitting). Gigabit Ethernet is also available for wired networking.

Ports and slots are restricted to the two sides. On the left, from the back, is a VGA port, a DisplayPort connector, a USB 3.0 port and a multiformat flash card reader (SD, Memory Stick, xD Picture Card), with a smartcard reader above the latter two Compatible Parts . The right-hand side, again from the back, has an RJ-45 (Ethernet) port, an eSATA/USB 2.0 port (with sleep-and-charge support), a USB 2.0 port and a second USB 3.0 port.

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