Toshiba unveils ultra thin laptop Portege R700

HANGZHOU, CHINA: Toshiba’s latest laptop series Portege R700 is the company’s vehicle to make more business users switch to light weight but full-function laptops that do not burn a hole in the pocket and help globe trotters to reduce the strain on their shoulders.

With its 13.3 inch screen it is slightly smaller than the standard 14 inch screen laptop, but bigger than the 7 or 9 inch netbooks. Toshiba has launched this product to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the world’s first commercial laptop by the company way back in 1985.

“Our long-standing engineering expertise has enabled us to design a laptop with an unparalleled blend of high performance, mobility and features - yet at a decent price,” said Sivakumar N, Toshiba’s general manager for the PC division in India.

“To achieve a device like Portege R700, we have made major advances in three areas - heat management, chassis construction and memory chip deployment,” added Sivakumar.

Also read: World's 1st dual screen e-book laptop from Toshiba

Running with two processors - Intel Core i3 and Core i5, 8 GB RAM and backlit display to enhance usage outdoors under bright sunlight, Portege R700 is a major advance over its R600 version.

The new laptop uses the Airflow Cooling Technology, developed jointly by Intel and Toshiba to accommodate the high performance dual processors in a slim casing. It circulates external air to draw heat away from the processor units. The laptop uses a honeycomb structure in the palm rest area to make it highly durable against flexing. This feature is expected to protect its electronic and mechanical components from damage and prolong product life.

Another innovation that has helped shrink the size is an innovative stacking of memory slots vertically to pack in 8 GB RAM processors. Estimated to cost Rs 65,000-75,000, the light laptop computer is equipped with an optical disk drive that runs high-end multimedia applications. The laptop will have eight hours of battery life. Toshiba’s current models offering similar functionalities cost more than double that of R 700.

“We have managed to reduce the costs by resorting to the use of standard components available in the market and use our engineering skills to pack them all in,” pointed out Toshiba’s PC Division global marketing chief, MR Hidehito Murato.

Introduction of this product is part of Toshiba’s aggressive strategy to more than double its market share in the Indian market.