Preview of Toshiba Portégé R500 (SSD)

Can you imagine a laptop with 12-inch screen and a full-size keyboard, but still weighing only 1.7 pounds? If not, then Toshiba Portégé R500 goes beyond your imagination. It has been possibly mostly because the laptop comes pre-loaded with 64-GB of SSD drive. You know that SSD stands for Solid State Drive, which is much lighter than its counterpart Hard Disc Drive (HDD). SSD is more durable and takes less disk transfer times. However, the laptop does not include any optical drive, which also contributes to make it lighter, but the users can add an optical drive by their own. The laptop comes with the price tag of over $2,500 thanks to the presence of SSD storage.

Pcmag reported:

The 12-inch LED widescreen is not as big as the 13-inch ones on the Air and X300, but the R500's dimensions (11.2 by 8.5 by 0.8 inches) are better suited to slipping into small bags and to using on flights with pull-down trays, while still allowing room for a drink. Side by side against the X300 and the Air, the R500's screen isn't as bright and at times looked washed out, regardless of lighting conditions. Its full-size keyboard is a pleasure to type on and is larger than the 91 percent keyboards of the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 and the Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N. Still, the celebrated ThinkPad keyboard on the X300 offers arguably the best typing experience and has dual pointing devices—a pointing stick and touchpad. The R500 (SSD) comes only with a touchpad.

The main goal of Toshiba Protégé R500 was to make it below 2 pounds, even sacrificing some features if needed. Yes, it needed. Considering the price tag, it is almost certain that Protégé R500 deserved a DVD burner. The laptop also lacks some more features that you may think it should have been added considering this price tag. The United States users can not get 3G wireless. So, the U.S. users can not get 3G support from the laptop. So, users have to rely on Intel's 802.11n Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port. Though it includes three USB ports, SD slot and a FireWire port, Toshiba Portégé R500 is powered by 1.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600. Processor speed and 1 GB of RAM are considered as its weak points.

SSD storage is mainly responsible for its high price and excellent weight. If you are not quite happy with this laptop yet, then count the durability of SSD which is very important. I think, Toshiba protégé R500 is more appropriate for the business travelers who would like to have a lighter device on their lap when they are on the go and the durability of SSD would provide durability to their important information stored in the laptop.