Toshiba Portege R500

Toshiba Computer Systems Division today announced the launch of the world's lightest notebook PC with optical disc drive - the ultra slim Portege R500.

Building on Toshiba's commitment to lead industry innovation, the Portege R500 has been designed to take mobile computing to the next level by re-defining portability, productivity and style.

Built on the previous design credentials of the popular Portege range, the Portege R500 gives business users a stylish and productive choice to work with, while at the same time securing business data and personal information.

The Portege R500 measures just 19.5/25.5 mm in height, making it one of the thinnest notebooks with ODD in the industry, but with a full size screen and keyboard. The notebook also addresses user demand for longer battery life, providing between 7 hours and 12.5 hours of battery life, depending on the specifications.

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'Toshiba continues to build on its reputation as an industry leader in terms of notebook innovation - and the Portege R500 is a perfect example of our leadership in this area. Slim, light and stylish, the Portege series has redefined notebook mobility as we know it,' said Santosh Varghese, Regional General Manager for Toshiba Computer Systems Division Middle East and Africa.

'When designing a truly mobile device, the initial focus is always on weight and size. This is the easy bit. Increasing functionality and maintaining high quality - now that's where the challenge lies. The Portege R500 may be deceptively light and thin, but it has more technology than most notebooks twice its size.'

The Portege R500 is available in single and dual spindle configurations. The single spindle Portege weighs in at a tiny 779 grams and is Toshiba's first notebook to feature a Flash-based Solid State Disc (SSD), making the notebook more resilient to shock and vibration, more power efficient, quieter and with faster boot-up and read times.

The dual spindle configuration of the Portege R500 also includes the world's first 7mm optical disc drive, a feature that helps it to maintain its 'ultraportability', while increasing the system's overall productivity level. The inclusion of an integrated DVD-Super Multi Drive into a system that is 19.5 mm thin eliminates the bulk and inconvenience of carrying external drives and cables, making it Toshiba's ultimate ultraportable mobile computing solution.

Additional features include a hard disc drive with up to 120GB, with built-in shock protection and 3D Accelerometer, which detects acceleration from all directions. The 3D accelerometer helps guard the HDD against accidental falls.

Designed to embrace the diverse usage options that mobility promotes, the Portege R500 series is also the world's first notebook computer to incorporate an indoor/outdoor transflective 12.1 inch diagonal widescreen LED backlit display. This unique innovation is ideal for usage in virtually any type of lighting environment. Indoors, the LED backlit display produces an image rich in colour and quality. Outdoors, the transflective screen uses natural sunlight to bring the display's colours and images to life. Integrating a transflective screen enables users to expand their mobile computing experience beyond the traditional four walls of their office, home or local coffee shop.

The notebook comes in a sleek silver design with blue illuminated front edge display, and reinforces Toshiba's focus on creating the 'wow' factor in business computing.

Performance

Upon launch the Portege R500 will come in two virtually identical configurations: The R500-S5002 (Windows Vista Business) priced at $2,149 and the R500-S5001X (Windows XP Professional) priced at $1,999.