Very Good but Not Perfect
Written: Oct 30 '99
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Pros: Very small and light. Lots of power for the size.
Cons: Cheap keyboard, no PC card hotswap.
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| Bluecoat93's Full Review: Toshiba Portege 7020 |
I go through a lot of laptops. As an IT manager, it falls to me to evaluate hardware before we pass it on to our users. In the recent past, I've used the IBM Thinkpad 600e, the HP Omnibook 4150, and currently the Toshiba Portege 7020. So far, the Toshiba definitely wins in terms of size and weight. At 4.7 pounds and about an inch thick I can definitely tell the difference when I throw it into my backpack (especially as compared to the HP). With a Mobile Pentium II 366 and 128MB of RAM, the Portege feels nice and speedy, with no real problems handling the load I typically put on it (Visual Studio, Visual Cafe, Word 2000, and Outlook 2000 are almost always open).
On the negative side, you definitely give up some things to get the small size and weight. The floppy drive is external, and the DVD-ROM drive is an option (get the DVD network dock). So far I haven't been able to get the network interface in the docking station to work in conjunction with the PC card NIC. Perhaps my biggest negative toward this laptop is the keyboard. In my experience, Toshiba just doesn't know how to make/buy a good keyboard. The Tecra 8000 has a terrible keyboard, and they seem to have carried it over to the Portege 7020. It feels cheap, and is just a bit cramped. I long for the wonderful keyboard on the Thinkpad 600e. Another problem with this laptop is that they don't supply any hotswap software for the PC cards under NT. In fact, I wasn't able to get either of my favorite cards working under NT until I installed SystemSoft's Card Wizard driver software. Also, the placement of the PC card slots is idiotic. The slots are at the extreme front of the laptop, to the left of the keyboard. This isn't a problem if you use a network card or modem with a dongle. However, I like the XJack cards from 3com and the placement of the slots puts the cable right in the way of my hands.
Overall, I really like the Portege 7020. The weight and size more than makes up for the small inconveniences. If Toshiba replaced the keyboard and moved the PC card slots, this would be the perfect laptops.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 4000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium II
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 13"
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
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Epinions.com ID:
Bluecoat93
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 2 members
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