Review: Toshiba Protégé R600 – leanest, greenest ultra notebook?
By John Pospisil
Billed as the world’s greenest notebook we looked forward to reviewing the Toshiba Protégé R600 “ultra-portable”. But as is usually the case with such claims, things weren’t quite as they seemed.
First up, it’s true that the Toshiba Protégé R600 received the highest score in the recent Greenpeace Green Electronics survey, but what Toshiba didn’t mention in its press release was that Protege R600 achieved this honor with a score of just 5.57 out of 10. The next “greenest” machine was the HP Elitebook 2530p, which scored 5.48. Greenpeace’s best practice score, which was calculated by taking the best components from each of the evaluated machines, was 7.5.
Still, technically the Protégé R600 was the greenest machine, as Greenpeace explained: “There are two products in the notebook category that vie for the top spot, with the Toshiba Portege R600 winning narrowly over the Hewlett Packard Elitebook 2530p. While the Toshiba notebook earns the highest scores when it comes to avoiding hazardous chemicals, the Elitebook is more energy efficient.”
While Toshiba should be applauded for its work in reducing the use of hazardous chemicals in manufacturing, I’m not really sure that the R600 is really “testament to Toshiba’s long-standing commitment to sustainable environmental practices in the design and manufacture of its products and solutions,” as claimed by Mark Whittard, general manager, Toshiba ISD ANZ.
That aside, in an imperfect world, the R600 is probably the closest thing we have to a green notebook. It is also interesting to note that some companies, namely Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm and Philips, chose not to participate in the survey.
So how does the Protégé R600 stack up as an ultra-portable notebook?
The two critical issues for me when looking at a notebook are how portable is it, and how good is the battery. On these two counts the R600 did very well.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Protégé R600 is just how light it is – around a 1 kg depending on the configuration. While you can buy any number of netbooks that are about the same size (or smaller) and around the same weight, you need to remember that with the Protégé R600 what you’re actually getting is a fully featured notebook. It measures approximately 30mm x 215 mm x 280 mm. It’s a really easy computer to carry around with you.
On the battery front, the R500 is great – getting about 5 hours of use from its battery during normal use. Using the built in DVD player and setting the screen to maximum brightness cut this time in half (but that’s to be expected).
As far as computing power goes, the Protégé R600 has no problem handling business applications, but it would probably struggle if you wanted to play the latest cutting edge games.
The 12.1 inch screen is crisp, bright and easy-to-read at 1280 x 800 resolution.
They keyboard is easy to use. While it isn’t quite full size (for obvious reasons), most people won’t have a problem with it. It’s much easier to use, for example, than the keyboard of the original Eee PC.
Our test unit came with a 128 GB solid state drive, while cheaper models are available with a standard 200 GB hard disk drive.
On a more negative note, the computer casing feels quite cheap, which is probably a function of Toshiba trying to keep the weight down rather than poor quality.
Also, the sound is surprisingly poor quality, with a single speaker don’t expect a great audio experience when watching DVDs without headphones.
Protégé R600 or netbook?
Not so long ago if you wanted a ultra-portable computer, you really only had a choice of computers like the Protégé R600, that it, relatively expensive full-strength subnotebook computers. Now with the abundance of netbooks, the key question you need to ask yourself when considering the Protégé R600 is can you get away with using a netbook?
Basically, it comes down to whether you’re after a full-featured notebook with a built-in DVD player, or whether a lower performance netbook can do the trick.
With an estimated retail price of $4,120 Australian Dollars, ($2,900 in U.S. dollars), I suspect that the Protégé R600 really is only for those that really do need a fully-featured computer they can easily carry with them and don’t mind paying a premium.
Good points
- Light weight
- Good battery life
- Crisp, bright screen
Bad points
- Casing feels cheap
- Poor speaker
- Expensive
Specifications
Processor: Intel Core™ 2 Duo ULV SU9400 (1.4GHz, FSB 800MHz, 3MB L2 Cache)
Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista® Business 32bit SP1
Display: 12.1″ WXGA 200 LD-LW Transreflective Display (1280×800)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 (800MHz) Onboard + 2GB DDR2 (800MHz)
Hard disk: 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD), model also available with 200GB HDD (7200rpm) SATA
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer
1Gbit LAN + AMT 4.0. WLAN (802.11a/g/n)
Other Software: Windows® XP Professional Media downgrade
Pricing
Australian RRP (inc GST) – $4125 (Model with 160GB HDD (5400rpm) – $3300 (inc GST)
United States RRP – $US2,090 – (Model with 160GB HDD (5400rpm) – $3300 (inc GST)
Review unit loaned to BLORGE.com by Toshiba Australia
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Stumble It!
March 31st, 2009
WHAT ON EARTH MAKES IT SO EXPENSIVE!!! With those specs I see no justification for that price. Netbooks are supposed to cost 100s of dollars, not 4000
April 1st, 2009
This is definitely not meant to be a netbook – it’s a full featured notebook, that happens to be smallist and VERY light. I do understand though, that it’s hard not to make the comparison.