Toshiba Portege R835: Less Ultra, More Notebook
by Dustin Sklavos on March 30, 2012 11:35 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- Sandy Bridge
- Notebooks
System Performance
Essentially what we're dealing with when we look at the Toshiba Portege R835's full voltage mobile processor is just how much performance an ultrabook sacrifices to hit that 17W TDP on the CPU. There's more to it than that, but there are also potentially some interesting wrinkles going on with the Intel Core i5-2450M in the R835 that may manifest themselves.
The PCMarks are always going to skew wildly towards any system that enjoys an SSD, so the bottom shelf 5400RPM hard drive in the Portege R835 isn't doing it any favors here. Let's see what happens when we shift performance squarely to the CPU.
The i5-2450M pulls off an impressive run, demonstrating that there's still a notable difference between a low voltage and a standard voltage chip. The R700's last-generation processor is soundly beaten by this generation's low voltage chips, the turbo-less i3-2367M excluded.
Without DirectX 11 support, Sandy Bridge graphics can't run 3DMark11, but 3DMarks Vantage and 06 demonstrate the importance of both having a faster processor and a faster IGP core. You're not going to be running wild in Battlefield 3 on the Portege R835, but nerds like me can still enjoy games like Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 on the IGP.
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MooseMuffin - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
I actually have this laptop and I replaced the HDD with a SSD within two weeks of owning it.TrackSmart - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
Ditto. I have the R700 (basically the same laptop). I installed a small SSD and put the original hard disk in the optical drive bay. A nice compromise that wouldn't be possible in an ultrabook.Now if they would only start making decent screens on these things...
agent2099 - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
That is really the way to go. Manufactures charge a huge premium for adding ssds.steven75 - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
Anandtech isn't a site for "most people", it's a site for tech enthusiasts. They are right to recommend SSDs over HDDs at this point in time. The cost-to-benefit ratio is very much in favor of SSDs.pdjblum - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
This is a crapple-centric site that used to be an enthusiast site. Now Anand and all his sheep primarily use crapple and measure everything against it.TrackSmart - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
I have no love for apple, but I don't see the problem here. If you are not willing to buy a laptop with a crappy screen and and less than stellar build quality, that doesn't leave you with many other options outside of Apple, a few very expensive models from Sony, and the HP Envy series (which doesn't always have the display upgrade available). Like it or not, Apple sells a lot of laptops and also sets a pretty high bar for overall build quality, which is why they are so often used as a benchmark for comparison.Snotling - Saturday, March 31, 2012 - link
Dell XPS also have a few decent offers...frostyfiredude - Friday, March 30, 2012 - link
Are you saying Anand's standards have gone up because they use Apple machines now?If so, I don't see how that is an issue.
You have to admit that Apple makes excellent machines, hence why they are the reference; they use some of the best displays, two of the best chassis designs, consistently excellent battery life, and they do all the little things like keyboards and trackpads right every time.
ImSpartacus - Saturday, March 31, 2012 - link
Yup. I wish I could buy a PC, but Macbooks are way too damn good (the TRACKPAD). And bootcamp works well enough, so it's little inconvenience.MrSpadge - Saturday, March 31, 2012 - link
Sure, the average buyer just goes for "cheap enough", maybe with a little extra. But that doesn't mean this is good or the right way for them. Instead of upgrading this Toshiba with 2 GB more RAM for 50$ it should have gotten a 128 GB SSD for maybe 100$+. That would have turned it into a much more usable machine (for most purposes.. external storage is still your friend).