Toshiba Portege Z835 Review: The Best Ultrabook Discussion

[ZaZ]

The Z835 has some redeeming qualities. It's inexpensive and has lots of ports. I can live the plastic case and average keyboard, but this machine has two fatal flaws in my opinion - the screen is sub par, at least the one I have is. The blue hue on it throws things out of whack. The viewing angles are like 1° too. Even the side angles are not very good.

I think I could live with that too, but the fan is on all the time. It's got a grind/hum to it that's really annoying. Personally, I would rather pay for something I like as opposed to settling for something because it's cheap.

I never understand the fascination with thin either. I think there's a stronger correlation between weight and portability than thinness.

[sargent75]

The Z835 has some redeeming qualities. It's inexpensive and has lots of ports. I can live the plastic case and average keyboard, but this machine has two fatal flaws in my opinion - the screen is sub par, at least the one I have is. The blue hue on it throws things out of whack. The viewing angles are like 1° too. Even the side angles are not very good.

I think I could live with that too, but the fan is on all the time. It's got a grind/hum to it that's really annoying. Personally, I would rather pay for something I like as opposed to settling for something because it's cheap.

I never understand the fascination with thin either. I think there's a stronger correlation between weight and portability than thinness.

They haven't learned from Apple yet. Being a Japanese origin product. Their designs and models can be very off tangent all of a sudden.

Just like Sony. Designed one of the best chicklet keyboards back in 2005 (way before Apple Macbook Air), then they dumped it and start fresh with a model that is completely inferior. This is why Sony is reporting losses for the past 8 years ! and Toshiba is no different.

We have this problem with the local distributors that dictates and controls the market where their marketing team is way below standards and not bothered about the consumer as they think they control the product shares of a brand-name. Stupid decisions to allow only non-backlight keyboards editions by the local distributor in Malaysia, and they don't control / educate the local retailers on their products. e.g. retailers locally (malaysia) all thinks there is keyboard backlight. None that I have checked know about this.

[sargent75]

Yes. I just got the Toshiba z830 returned back to Toshiba with a 2 page complain letter on the product and full refund.

Walking far away from Toshiba if they leave it to a distributor or reseller to handle the product for support & product features planning (no keyboard backlight for Asia and way over priced compared to a much better built Asus Zenbook, HP Folio....)

[Mitlov]

This is a typical Japanese idiosyncrasy. Best to avoid an inconsistent brand.

They haven't learned from Apple yet. Being a Japanese origin product. Their designs and models can be very off tangent all of a sudden.

Just like Sony.

If you've got such a bias against products where the company happens to be headquartered in Japan, why'd you buy a Toshiba in the first place?

[sargent75]

If you've got such a bias against products where the company happens to be headquartered in Japan, why'd you buy a Toshiba in the first place?

I have always had good thoughts about it since 8 years ago (my last Toshiba), the recent one was an Ultrabook.

In between that it's always been IBM (pre-Lenovo).

The Z830 has been return happily to the Dealers and a complain letter to Toshiba's sole/master distributor in Malaysia.

There are just other better choices out there than what was advertised falsely by Toshiba or it's appointed online agents made an over blown marketing mis-representation of it.

Am just disapponted and hoping Toshiba will sincerely improve as there's not much of a good quality product like they used to have in those days 10 years ago.

Just didn't want un-suspecting people to make the wrong decision. They need to be properly informed. Not with marketing hype.

[jinnijinn]

My z835-370 arrived today, and so far I'm in love with it. I held off on buying it because of the complaints about the fan, and then read that that'd been fixed...in six hours of use so far (yay for good battery life!), the fan on mine has come on once, for about ten seconds.

It's peppy, quiet, light, has all my wished-for ports, and I've no quarrel with the screen after making a couple adjustments. I like the keyboard and trackpad a lot, as well. And I like the styling better than the MBA 13".

I'm very satisfied.

[przemke]

I held off on buying it because of the complaints about the fan, and then read that that'd been fixed...in six hours of use so far (yay for good battery life!), the fan on mine has come on once, for about ten seconds.

I got interested in this model. Can you describe where you read that? was it a bios fix ?

Has anyone thought of replacing the battery ? getting to it as most other components is actually easy as seen on youtube (with T6 or T7 torx screwdriver for the center screw, not sure) but what about supply for such ? haven't seen it on ebay

without being able to replace the battery the ultrabook after say 1,5-3 years - depending on use - becomes worth crap! I am suprised no one has raised concern about this here!

[Charles P. Jefferies]

without being able to replace the battery the ultrabook after say 1,5-3 years - depending on use - becomes worth crap! I am suprised no one has raised concern about this here!

A non-replaceable battery is not uncommon these days; Apple has been doing it for years but the Apple fanbois drown out any dissidence.

Truth is, after ~3 years a personal computer isn't worth much anyway.

I made a poll to see how many people swap batteries in their notebook: Computer Hardware Forum
Just representative of NBR of course. This forum tends to collect power users so you'll probably get a higher percentage here than in the general populace.

[BigNerd]

Yeah... my z835 is just over a year old... and it will probably get replaced by end of year (if not sooner... I like all these Win8 Tablet convertibles).

I've never swapped a battery... but then again... I buy new notebooks instead.

[przemke]

Thanks for the poll

Truth is, after ~3 years a personal computer isn't worth much anyway.

Well true but depends also on your location and earnings - how much that "not much" can get you - in other words your $$ buying power Here in poorer countries of Europe I think it's a bit different, electronics tend to get squeezed more of their life by being repaired and resold. 100bucks here gets you much more food or services than in say US although prices for hardware are similar (or noticeably cheaper in US to be honest)

so the more expensive stuff like laptops still do pose some real value after 3 or even 5 years (for the higher-end stuff) and the working hour costs much less so it's usually more worth to repair something