New Portege Z830

[ckthepilot]

ckthepilot (my old friend):

When you turn the laptop on initially, keep hitting F12 (or is it F8?) ... It will then get you to the available options.

DO NOT put it into a USB 3 slot. It has to be a reg USB slot.

That worked! Thanks! Where have you been? I've been through quite a few laptops since we last talked.

[Apparition]

Yes...we all go back to the Dell XPS days now dont we? I actually just bought one for nostalgia that is like brand new.

[Purba]

grip but its definitely metal.

Something some will notice of the Toshiba is that it annodizes and dulls out because it is an untreated metal and, as well, it will scratch fairly easily...although it does survive desk drops VERY well.

Sound scary, any skin for Z830 or DIY cutting ?

[PinoyBoy]

I kept the plastic on it... It adheres well and seems to be fairly thick.

My battery stops charging at 80%, anyone else like that?

[pjc123]

I went to Best Buy today and they had the Asus UX31 and Toshiba Z835 side by side on display. Since there has been a lot of talk about issues with the keyboards on these units, I opened up notepad on each machine and typed a few sentences on both laptops, and I must say the UX31 was very difficult to type on, especially with the large wobbly keys. However, on the Z835 I found the typing to be very easy.

I had previously decided against the UX31 before even trying it, but I am sorry to say that I also have to nix the Z835 as well, but only because of one thing, the shaky screen. The screen is so thin and flexible, that you barely touch the laptop and it starts shaking. That is a big time deal breaker for me as it would drive we nuts looking at a constantly shaking screen while typing. I am acutally interested in the i7 Z830, but I assume it is built on the same frame as the Z835.

Although I was determined to get a light laptop in the next month or so, it is not looking good. Even with all the problems with the Lenovo X220, maybe it is the lesser of all evils. On the bright side, there is going to be some 50+ ultrabooks being introduced early next year if I can hold off.

[Purba]

I kept the plastic on it... It adheres well and seems to be fairly thick.

Good idea but for how long ?
Just send request to skinit.com, hopefully they listen

[PinoyBoy]

@PJC123
I agree about the screen flex and wobble. But once you start typing on it for long periods of time on a stable surface, the screen does not wobble at all. But yes, it does get annoying if you simply touch the screen, once you let go, it wobbles.

@Purba
I've had the laptop for about 5 days now, and it's still stuck on there I want to remove it in fear of having a discolored imprint when I take it out, but for the mean time, it looks... unique since it's seated perfectly aligned.

FOUND IT!! Check out these really good DIY mods. IMO, this beats my plastic method.
custom home-made leather skin
Faux Leather Contact Paper skin
Faux Leather Laptop Mod

[Pseudorandom]

I kept the plastic on it... It adheres well and seems to be fairly thick.

My battery stops charging at 80%, anyone else like that?

Not fully charging the battery can help extend battery lifespan, which is pretty important considering the Z830 battery isn't going to be easy to replace.

I went to Best Buy today and they had the Asus UX31 and Toshiba Z835 side by side on display. Since there has been a lot of talk about issues with the keyboards on these units, I opened up notepad on each machine and typed a few sentences on both laptops, and I must say the UX31 was very difficult to type on, especially with the large wobbly keys. However, on the Z835 I found the typing to be very easy.

I had previously decided against the UX31 before even trying it, but I am sorry to say that I also have to nix the Z835 as well, but only because of one thing, the shaky screen. The screen is so thin and flexible, that you barely touch the laptop and it starts shaking. That is a big time deal breaker for me as it would drive we nuts looking at a constantly shaking screen while typing. I am acutally interested in the i7 Z830, but I assume it is built on the same frame as the Z835.

Although I was determined to get a light laptop in the next month or so, it is not looking good. Even with all the problems with the Lenovo X220, maybe it is the lesser of all evils. On the bright side, there is going to be some 50+ ultrabooks being introduced early next year if I can hold off.

I personally have no issues with my X220. Every laptop has a chance that you will have problems, but problems sound much more widespread since they really are since not that many people will post about how everything went right as much as they would to complain about something not going right.

Though. Ivy Bridge is coming out soon along with ultrabooks that will use it so they will probably have better performance+battery than the current Sandy Bridge ultrabooks and its not like design is going to get any worse. And if you don't like any of those ultrabooks as well, the X220 is also getting an Ivy Bridge refresh. If you don't really want it now/find an awesome deal, I would wait.

[ProfessorShred]

And the answer for the SATA 2/3 is I don't know. It just started... I am going to have to put it back in again to see.... I have been screwing with the different mSATAs as a habit both the X220 and this z830. Gimme some time.

I downloaded Sisoft Sandra 2012 to verify that the ssd I purchased was indeed sata 3 6gb/s I also looked at the specifications,Sisoft mainboard tab, for the toshiba mainboard and Maximum sata mode is listed at 3gb/s,you've got some explainin to do my man

[uniten]

Nope. That's what I'm trying to do... to perform a clean install but can't because my laptop won't pick up the external...

I guess I can always use a usb drive to do it... but still, there's something fishy going on with my system...

oh, if you were trying to make a recovery cd, yeah you had to leave it plugged in and restart. Same issue happened to me, though usb 3.0 worked fine.

Not fully charging the battery can help extend battery lifespan, which is pretty important considering the Z830 battery isn't going to be easy to replace.

umm..when you charge a laptop even if it says 100% its not fully charged and same for 0% its not fully discharged. That protection is built into the battery.

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[strike] Also, is it just me or is the wifi performance pretty darn low, even my series 9 had better wifi performance (and thats saying a lot) :/ [/strike]

nvm..didnt notice the power setting..