Not Bad...
Written: Aug 08 '00
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Pros: thin, lightweight, nice dock
Cons: flimsy and slow
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| Thomcat_V's Full Review: Toshiba Portege 7020 |
As a preface to this review, I have owned and used a number of other ultralites: IBM Thinkpad 560X, HP Omnibook 900 and a HP Sojourn. I will make comparisons where helpful.
I found the Toshiba 7020CT to be unimpressive. My criteria for any laptop is its weight, usability and durability. In all these factors, compared to my previous machines, the 7020CT did not shine through.
The case, while attractive at first, is actually very bland except for the nice magnesium cover. The plastic feels flimsy and the flexibility of the overall chassis did not invite confidence as to its durability. The two HP models I have used are extremely tough and scratch and stain resistant. The hinged port covers to the side are not an improvement over the rubber covers found in the high-end IBM Thinkpads. They tended to lose their closing power after a few months of use.
The machine is nice and light though. At around 4 pounds, this is the lightest you can get with a 13.3" screen. It seems even lighter given its thickness: about 1" all around, with it being thicker towards the back and slimmer towards the front. Note that because of it's thinness, there is no internal floppy or cd/dvd-rom (same goes for the IBM and HP models I mentioned). Unlike its competitors from IBM and HP, the only built-in ports are the VGA monitor out and one USB port. There are no serial, ps2 keyboard/mouse or parallel ports on the main unit. For that you need the included external port replicator or a full dock. It does have two stacked PCMCIA slots allowing it to take up to a Type III card unlike the Sony VAIOs and its little brother the 3020CT. If only it were less flimsy, I would forsake a laptop bag and just throw it into a backpack or my attache for easier carrying.
I am a big fan of pointing sticks from having used Thinkpads and HPs for significant amounts of time, but I found the one on the 7020CT to be awkward and inaccurate. Even after fine-tuning it with the installed mouse applet and an additional applet of my own (PS2 Rate), the pointing stick remained clumsy and my finger tired easily.
I have no complaints on the modem or its physical interface. Yes, it is a winmodem, but I found it to be fast and reliable for my internet connection.
The keyboard is decent. The HP 900 and Thinkpad 560x have significantly better keyboards with a nicer feel, increased key travel and better tactile response. The 7020CT keyboard felt like the midpoint between the chiclet keyboard of the Sony VAIOs/HP Sojourn and the superb keyboards of the HP 900 and Thinkpads.
In regards to overall system performance, for some reason this P2 366 machine is significantly slower than the P2 366 HP Omnibook 900. I had set both notebooks to max performance, yet in real-world usage the Omnibook 900 was around 20% to 30% faster. This was observed very unscientifically by the way. I couldn't play MP3s and surf the web, reply to e-mails or jot down notes without the machine pausing every so often. Both laptops had 64mb of RAM. Very unimpressive for a machine touted as a high-end ultraportable. This was very surprising since on paper, the HP Omnibook 900 and Toshiba Portege 7020CT have almost identical specifications and component subsystems.
Battery life is a little lower than the competition also at just under two hours with the regular battery. The extended battery does last around 4 hours. The good thing about the extended battery is that it's not a monster and has a reasonable size given the battery life.
I had purchased the DVD/network dock for it at the same time. The dock is very nice and works fine. DVD movies only play back at 16-bit color. One nice thing about the dock is that it is the only one that I know of that has a SPDIF output for Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. Very nice.
Unfortunately, the marvelous dock and thin size of the Toshiba Portege 7020CT is not enough to rescue it from mediocrity. In summary, given the competition in the high-end ultralite corporate user space, I find the Toshiba Portege 7020CT to be subpar.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 4K+ including all accessories
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 13"
RAM: 64
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
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Epinions.com ID:
Thomcat_V
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Location: Berkeley, CA
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 3 members
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