Portege with Docking Station - Pros and Cons
Written: Jan 04 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Great size and form factor
Cons: Docking station has some annoying quirks
|
|
|
| brianblum's Full Review: Toshiba Portege 7020 |
I have been using the Portege 7020CT now for about 9 months. It's a real mixed bag. I love the form factor and small size/weight - I still get ooh's and ah's when I pull it out on a plane. I did an enormous amount of searching to find the most powerful and lightest computer (I used to lug an old 9 and a half pound Compaq Armada around trade shows which was NO fun!) The screen is big and bright, and unlike one of the other reviewers here at Epinions, I found the keyboard to be quite usable.
I have, however, had a few problems - all connected with the DVD/network dock (I've searched for answers to these questions in forums and at the Toshiba site, but no avail - so if anyone can help, please be in touch!)
Most important, when using the dock, the speed of the whole system seems to come crashing down. Windows open more slowly, there are more frequent crashes. Without the dock, it seems to live up to its Pentium II 366 speed. This is a real tough one to deal with, because of problem #2: audio.
I listen to Internet radio most of the day and the speakers in the dock are great. Can't live with the crummy speaker on the Portege itself. But the system has to be plugged in all the time. If not, at least on my machine, there is this ugly tinny, scratchy sound which is unbearable. This becomes more of a problem if I want to run the system on batteries and, say, watch a DVD movie while sitting on the couch.
There are other annoyances too - the dock's latch (that keeps the Portege 'glued down' to the dock) got loose after about 4 months of daily use, necessitating an external keyboard.
But now it seems that I've gone too negative. Again, I love the size, it's fast enough (on the road), screen is big and bright, keyboard good and the docking station in theory gives me everything I could want.
If anyone has any solutions to my docking station problems, I'll post a follow up review giving it my undying praise and affection!
Brian
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 13"
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
brianblum
|
|
Member: Brian Blum
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.