Toshiba Satellite W30t Review

What We Think

The Toshiba Satellite W30t is a laptop and tablet hybrid. Some of you may be confused but it was inevitable that the laptop and the tablet would be brought together by someone. In fact the laptop and tablet hybrid is something that manufacturers are ever increasingly trying to tempt us to purchase over a typical laptop or a standard tablet.

If you’re after a hybrid, well, this is the latest edition to the market and for the price this is certainly a rather reasonable specification. However, the size and weight certainly breaks the deal.

Introduction

The Toshiba Satellite W30t is a laptop and tablet hybrid. Some of you may be confused but it was inevitable that the laptop and the tablet would be brought together by someone and in actual fact the laptop and tablet hybrid is something that manufactueres are ever increasingly trying to tempt us to purchase over a typical laptop or a standard tablet. If you’re after a hybrid, well, this is the latest edition to the market and for the price this is certainly a rather reasonable specification. However, the size and weight certainly breaks the deal.

Design

The hybrid has a nice silver finish and curved corners. However, it weighs almost 2.5kg and the tablet alone weighs 1.3kg. This seems to scream out loud that this hybrid is perhaps not the most portable hybrid avaliable. Nevertheless, putting that aside, the hybrid includes a 13.3inch screen. Another let down is the fact that the resolution is the typical 1366×768, which quite honestly is not even worth smiling about let alone getting excited.

In terms of connectivity you are met with the bare requirements, a micro HDMI port, 1 USB 2.0 port, a microUSB port and microSD slot. The keyboard section includes a USB 3.0 port. Toshiba brag that the two batteries in the W30t, one situated in the keyboard and the other in the screen, provide up to 10hours of battery life. However, our test unit only managed 8hours, evidently not the end of the world but not necessarily the best battery life for a hybrid.

The inclusion of a full-size keyboard and a large trackpad has certainly earned this hybrid a few bragging rights. The keyboard and trackpad are comfortable to use and rather responsive. Yet, as previously mentioned, the weight and size certainly ensure this hybrid falls straight off the shelf into the bin.

Performance

The Toshiba Satellite W30t features an AMD A4-APU processor, 400GB hard drive or an SSF of up to 256GB with 4GB of RAM. As you can imagine with these specs the laptop is reasonably powerful and will be able to handle most tasks. However, Windows 8 is tricky at best and if you’re trying to run multiple programmes at the same time you may find the laptop starts to slow down.

Our Verdict

So far our test unit has simply illustrated why you would not want to purchase this hybrid. However, if you are adament on purchasing a laptop which offers you the ability to detach the screen and use it as a tablet then this should be very low on your list unless your budget is £550. In that case you may want to give this hybrid a brief consideration before crossing it off the list.

However, this is just a first look at the Toshiba Satelitte W30t hybrid so be sure to stay in touch to get the latest information. More importantly if you’re after a hybrid then you may want to check out the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro.

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