TWO THINGS THAT rarely go hand in hand when it comes to notebooks is battery life and performance – well, weight also plays in somewhere here – but it seems like Toshiba has gotten one step closer to solving this with its latest 13.3-inch dynabook RX3W that was announced in Japan today. Toshiba has combined a standard 35W Core i processor with a light weight chassis and up to 16h of unplugged usage, that’s what we’d call a good compromise.
There were rumours about this notebook almost two months ago that we picked up on via a Vietnamese website, but Toshiba has finally launched what is indeed a very impressive new notebook.The dynabook RX3W is available in a few different configurations and you can get it with either a Core i5 520M or a Core i3 350M processor, all depending on your budget. The top of the range model also comes with a 128GB SSD, while the more affordable models have to make do with a traditional hard drive with a capacity of 320GB. You also get an option of 4 or 8GB of DDR3 memory and an internal Intel WiMAX card.
All models have a 13.3-inch screen with 1366×768 resolution which is sadly powered by Intel’s HD graphics rather than a discrete or switchable graphics option. A DVD combo drive is also fitted standard and, of course, you’ll get features like 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR standard. In terms of connectivity, you’ll find Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, three USB 2.0 ports of which one is an eSATA combo port, a D-sub connector, a pair of audio jacks, an SD card reader and even a Type II PC Card slot. There’s also a finger print scanner located between the track pad keys.
The standard battery offers no less than 11h battery life – with the optional 9-cell battery pack coming in at a massive 16h – yet you’re only going to be lugging around a netbook light 1.25kg or 1.4kg with the 9-cell battery. That’s pretty impressive considering that Toshiba didn’t go for an ultra low power processor, but a standard 35W mobile part. There’s no word on the special SCiB battery technology which was one of the rumoured features.
The downside is the cost, as Toshiba is asking for no less than $2846 for the fully kitted out version, with the cheapest model coming in at a still very pricey $1547. Then again, you won’t find many other 13.3-inch notebooks at this weight, with this kind of battery life or this kind of specification. The Taiwanese might be the masters of making notebooks affordable, but the Japanese are still way ahead when it comes to cramming things into an ultra lightweight package without compromising too much on features or battery life. Sadly, there’s no word with regards to Toshiba offering this model outside of Japan.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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