Key Features: 13.3-inch 1,366 x 768 display; Runs on Chrome
OS; 16GB internal memory; 2GB RAM; HD webcam; Up to 9 hour battery life
Manufacturer: Toshiba
Toshiba Chromebook review: first impressions from CES 2014
What is the Toshiba Chromebook?
The Toshiba Chromebook is the company’s first Google-powered
laptop following the likes of Samsung, Acer and HP with a cloud-based laptop
that won’t break the bank.
The £250 Chromebook is the first to pack a 13.3-inch
display, with Intel Bay Trail innards promising all-day battery life and quick
boot up times all packaged in a lightweight and portable design.
Toshiba Chromebook: Design
Drawing clear inspiration from Samsung’s Chromebook
offerings, the clamshell-style laptop with its metallic silver finish or ‘light
gold’ as Toshiba refers to it, is not as exciting to look at as the Chromebook
Pixel. The hinge is discreetly hidden unlike Samsung’s Series 3 Chromebook with
just the Chrome logo and Toshiba name breaking up the otherwise plain exterior.
Considering the sub-£250 price it doesn’t come as much of a
surprise to find that it’s constructed from plastic. Everything feels
reasonably solid though and the body is reasonably slim at just 20.2mm thick.
It’s also extremely light to hold weighing in at just 1.5kg, so it’s primed for
carrying around all day.
In terms of physical connectivity, there’s a single HDMI
port, two USB 3.0 ports and an audio jack alongside the charging port situated
on other side of the body. Additionally, it supports Wi-Fi a/g/n and Bluetooth
4.0, so it ultimately matches most Chromebooks in the connectivity department.
There’s a HD webcam in tow above the screen to take care of video chats and
speakers situated on the bottom lid.
The chiclet-style keyboard with matte black keys creates a
very familiar typing experience if you have previously used Samsung and Acer
Chromebooks offering decent travel and a satisfying click. One of our biggest
frustrations about Chromebook keyboards is the omission of a Caps Lock key for
a Search key. Acer has since reinstated it on its latest Chromebooks, so it’s
disappointing not to see Toshiba follow suit.
The keyboard is joined by a nicely sized multi-touch
trackpad, again not too dissimilar from the ones that have popped up on rival
Chromebooks offering a nice, flat surface to support two-finger scrolling when
you are scrawling the web.
Chromebook Pixel aside, previous Google-powered laptops have
not really been about looks and
Toshiba’s offering doesn’t exactly break the
mould. It’s not ugly, but it’s understated and portable design will satisfy
most willing to stump up the £250 for it.
Toshiba Chromebook: Screen
With the 13-inch MacBook Air and a whole host of 13-inch
ultrabooks, it’s surprising to think that it’s taken this long to see a
Chromebook equivalent. While it’s good to see Toshiba take the lead and offer a
13.3-inch display, the 1366 x 768 screen resolution suffers like most other
Chromebooks for supreme clarity and sharpness.
That’s the same screen resolution as the Samsung Series 3
Chromebook and similarly it offers good but not great results. Colours are
definitely on the dull side and icons don’t look the sharpest. It’s the kind of
screen we’d expect from this price point so if you are planning to spend a lot
of time watching video, don’t expect to be blown away.
Toshiba Chromebook: Features
The Toshiba Chromebook is powered by Intel’s Bay Trail
processors with integrated graphics, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on board storage.
This should be sufficient to keep things running reasonably quick, delivering
fast boot-up times and preserving the 9-hour claimed battery life.
Chrome OS is of course at the heart of the Chromebook giving
users quick access to Google apps such as Gmail, Google Plus, Maps and Google
Drive where you can edit and create documents. Apps can of course be downloaded
as always from the Chrome Web store. The latest changes and OS re-designs
including the new Shelf and status bar customization are all in place and it
looks and feel exactly as you’d expect from any other Chromebook.
First impressions
Toshiba’s Chromebook doesn’t really pull off any shocks for
its first and probably not the last affordable cloud-based laptop. It's solidly
built and simple look won’t win any design awards but it ticks the crucial
boxes that make Chromebooks so appealing including the portable, lightweight
design, decent keyboard, enough power to take care of everyday tasks and a decent
battery life. If you are thinking of swapping Mac and PC for Chrome, Toshiba's
Chromebook is shaping up to be one the better alternatives.
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