Mini Screen Notebooks
Nowadays anyone needs laptops with some serious business features. It’s not just a separate brand anymore; it’s something that must be found on most of the laptops. By doing so, the actual business orientated laptops must provide the full business experience. It’s hard to say what manufacturer produces the best business laptop line. Every manufacturer tries to offer its best. Therefore, an actual “pointing out the best” is not the best solution I can give you.
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Overall, you must choose what manufacturer you enjoy the most. Keep in mind that most laptops are very similar providing just a different logo. However, this is not the case for Toshiba. This manufacturer provides, beside the Portege laptop lines, an accurate business laptop line: Tecra line. If you are familiar with the Portege line, then you should feel somewhat familiar with the Tecra.
Between this two laptop lines the biggest difference is the display size and a few other features that were removed from Portege, because Portege had to be an ultraportable solution. Therefore, the 12.1 inches display found on Portege, is now 14.1 inches display for the Tecra. So, Tecra brings along great performances for multitasking, built in manageability features, and high end features. All these features sound pretty good for a business laptop line. The Easy Guard technology created by Toshiba is also included in Tecra line. Toshiba Tecra M10 is the entry model in the Tecra line. However, don’t be fooled, none of the entry models in any Toshiba line is by far a low feature laptop. Tecra M10 brings all the performance and connectivity in a thin and light package. Tecra M10 has a normal business design.
The M10 sports a metallic silver lid, which keeps away the fingerprints and the minor scratches. When you open the laptop, you will find the same metallic finish that surrounds the black keyboard. The M10 sports on the sides a black matte plastic. You don’t really get an extraordinary design, but M10 looks good, conservative. The overall business quality is exceptional. Everything is in place; you don’t get any flex or weird noises at all. This Toshiba laptop has 1.43 inches to 1.51 inches height, wide of 13.3 inches, deep of 9.6 inches; the M10 weights about 5.38 lbs depending on the configuration. Two nice silver Toshiba logos improve the exterior and interior design. On the front side, M10 includes the microphone input port and headphone output port. You also get on the front side the LED displays which provide status over some important features.
On the left side you get the On and Off switch for the Bluetooth, the RGB monitor out port, one eSATA / USB combo with sleep and charge, the memory card slot (for xD card, SDHC, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Multi Media Card, and Memory Stick Pro). Also on the left side you can find the cooling vent. On the other side, the M10 includes a DVD Super Multi (+ / – R double layer) drive supporting 11 formats, such as DVD – RAM, DVD + RW, DVD – RW, DVD + R, DVD – R, DVD – ROM, CD – ROM, and others. Above the optical drive you will find the PCMCIA – Type II Card slot. Also, on this side M10 sports three USB 2.0 ports, and the 10 / 100 / 1000 Ethernet port. On the back side you can find the input power slot, and a serial port. Once you open the laptop, the black keyboard will make a statement thanks to the contrast between black and titanium.
Although there is enough room for a full keyboard, Toshiba only added a Portege keyboard on the Tecra M10. The keys are well dimensioned, and it’s easy to type even bigger texts. You get no flex when pressing the keys and the feedback is average. Above the keyboard you can find three silver buttons for power on and other functions. Also here, you can find the two built in stereo speakers, which provide average quality audio playback (it can’t be considered a great choice to listening to music).
Also, the viewing angles are a nice surprise; you will not be forced to keep the M10 right in front of you to see documents, movies or other applications. The connectivity is ensured by i.LINK IEEE 1394, modem RJ 11, Intel 82567 LM Gigabit Network Connection 10 / 100 / 1000 Ethernet, three USB 2.0, one eSATA / USB combo port with sleep and charge, serial port, docking connector, RGB monitor port, Bluetooth version 2.1 with enhanced data rate, Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 AGN with 802.11 a/g/h profile. Toshiba offers three configuration models for the Tecra M10.
All these configurations have the same chipset (Mobile Intel GM 45 Express Chipset), the same RAM memory (1 x 2GB PC 2 6400 DDR2 SDRAM), and the same hard disk drive of 160 GB 7200 rotation per minute. However, take in notice that the maximum RAM accepted by Tecra M10 is 8 GB with a 64 bit OS. All the M10 configuration provide the user with the highest safety available for laptops, HDD shock absorber, HDD some shock protector, Toshiba PC Diagnostic Tool, Spill Resistant Keyboard, Toshiba PC Health Monitor.
Also, every Tecra M10 comes with Toshiba Config Free software, Toshiba DVD Player software, Sun Java Runtime Environment, Google Toolbar, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Office Professional 2007 with a 60 day trial, and others. The first model, M10 S3411, offered at $1.199 comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600, Windows Vista Business with Service Pack 1 (both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are available), and a Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD (which delivers not so great performances).
The middle configuration (M10 S3412 offered at $1.249) comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8700, Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 with 32 bit version, and the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 150M. The last configuration M10 S3401 offered at $1.299 provides a slower processor than the S3411, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400, but brings the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 150M graphic chipset, and comes with a preinstalled version of Windows Vista Business Service Pack 1 (both 32 bit and 64 bit are available). Overall, Toshiba M10 is a good line of business laptops. You have enough configurations from you to choose from, and also every Tecra M10 not only comes with excellent safety for any business laptop, but also brings a nice design with the latest features onboard.
