Affordable, portable and seemingly well-designed, the Toshiba Satellite R830 is a very tempting proposition. Are there any hidden trade-offs against features and performance?
What we like best
The Toshiba Satellite R830 takes part of its lightness from the magnesium chassis, but fitting up to 6 Gb RAM, 640 Gb and an optical drive into a machine not weighing more than 1.5kg is a very impressive feat.
Toshiba have chosen wisely with the Intel Core i5-2410 – it’s not the most high-powered of the latest generation processors, but it’s perfect for office multitasking and browsing.
The only very lightly brushed metal finish on the lid is a good choice for a laptop that doesn’t need to brag. There is very little shiny about the Satellite R830, and we mean that in the best possible way. No fingerprints, no fancy colours – Toshiba saved in the right areas with this one.
As you can tell from the matte screen choice, the Toshiba Satellite R830 has been produced with a business user in mind. Offices, train stations and airports are often either too brightly or very unevenly lit, so you won’t get annoying reflections distracting you from getting your work done. The brightness is good, too.
The large touchpad supports multi-touch commands and also has scrollbars going in both horizontal and vertical directions. It’s receptive but not sticky, and the keyboard, despite not having a numerical pad, threw up no complaints either.
What we like least
The magnesium chassis does attract more scratches and bumps than a more sturdy aluminium version would have done, and the area around the keyboard yields a bit too much under pressure for our liking.
The integrated graphics chip means that the Satellite R830 is unlikely to be of much use when it comes to gaming, but, considering this is mainly a work laptop, this is a minor quibble.
The Toshiba Satellite R830 is portable, with a pleasant, understated design and a screen suited to working environment. Images won’t be displayed to a graphic designer standard, and gaming won’t be much cop with the lack of dedicated graphic specs, but for everything else, this is a very decent option.
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Processor Speed
2.3 GHz
Processor
up to Intel Core i5-2410M
RAM
up to 6 Gb
Screen Size
13.3 inch
Graphics
integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000
Hard Drive Storage
up to 640 Gb
Battery
6-cell Li-ion
Multimedia
Microphone jack
Headphone jack
0.3 MP Webcam
24-bit stereo w/Toshiba Bass Enhanced Sound System
Hard drive protection sensor
Ports
1 x USB 3.0
1 x USB 2.0
1 x HDMI
1 x VGA
1 x Multi-card reader
Weight & Size
starting at 1.48 kg
(W) 316 x (H) 18.3 - 26.6 x (D) 227 mm
Connectivity
Bluetooth 3.0
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Gigabit Ethernet
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
The Toshiba Satellite R830 is a 13 inch laptop that packs good performance and features into a small form business device without being all up in your grill with shiny colours or snazzy graphics.
It comes equipped with the second-generation Intel Core i5-2410 processor and up to 640 Gb hard drive space. These features, along with an optical drive, make the Toshiba Satellite R830 into an incredibly rounded laptop – but round in this case doesn’t mean heavy-set.
TOSHIBA Satellite R830 13
Far from it: The Satellite R830 weighs only 1.47 kg and is about 1.3cm thin. It doesn’t have a numerical keypad or a dedicated graphics chip, but the non-reflective screen and the matte magnesium finish do provide some visual appeal.
To read more about the Toshiba Satellite R830 and its features, check out the PC Site review here.
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