Hasta La Gadget!

A few months after introducing its Kirabook flagship, Toshiba is back with some mid-range laptops that bring some of the same understated design elements. The 14-inch Satellite E45t Ultrabook and the 15-inch E55, announced today, have the same pared-down look as the Kirabook, except they’re made of aluminum instead of pressed magnesium, and the bottom isn’t made of metal but rather, textured plastic. The screen resolution is also lower, at 1,366 x 768; these are middle-of-the-road machines, after all. On the bright side, they all support 802.11ac WiFi — of a surprise on otherwise humdrum systems like these. The E45t, which will be sold only at Best Buy and on Toshiba’s site, comes in just one configuration, with a Core i5 Haswell processor and a 500GB hard drive paired with an SSD. Perhaps most interesting, though, is that the E45t will come with Dragon Assistant on board for simple voice commands (think: shutting down the computer, doing a web search, controlling multimedia playback, et cetera). You can expect to find that next week, on August 4th, with a suggested retail price of $818, though a Toshiba rep told us it’ll likely sell for $799.99 once it actually hits shelves. Just a heads-up.

The 15-inch version, meanwhile, will be offered with either a Core i5 processor and touchscreen (that’s the E55t) or a quad-core A6 APU. There are actually two AMD models: one configuration comes with a touchscreen (that would be the E55Dt) and one has a non-touch panel (that’s the E55D). Strangely, the non-touch model also offers lesser storage; that has a 750GB HDD, while the touch version goes up to a full terabyte. Either way, you get a number pad, which you won’t find on the 14-incher, though you’ll be missing out on that Dragon Assistant app with the AMD models. These will be available in September, a little later than the 14-inch model, with the non-touch E55D going for $580 and the touchscreen E55Dt priced at $700. We haven’t yet confirmed pricing for the E55t, that lone Intel-based model, but we’ll update this post once we do.

Filed under: Laptops

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Over the past couple of months, it’s become clear that the way computer makers–those companies that specify and brand the actual physical device–need to make less models. It’s because when you’re optimizing for portability and battery life, what you don’t include is almost as important what you do include. Newcomers to the laptop game Vizio and Razer have adopted this one-model few-options approach, and computers like Microsoft’s Surface show that it’s increasingly about the product, not the customization.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Toshiba Satellite C660 unveiled in Europe, Toshiba has new Satellite and Portégé notebooks out,

In addition to unveiling that U925t laptop / tablet hybrid yesterday, Toshiba is announcing some more conventional-looking PCs this week at IFA. These new models include the Satellite U945, a low-end Ultrabook; the Satellite P845t, an Ultrabook with a touchscreen; and the Satellite S955, a 15-inch thin-and-light. Across the board, these will be available October 26th, the day Windows 8 formally launches. For now, too, Toshiba isn’t revealing prices, though we already know plenty about the specs. Join us after the break where we’ll spell out those nitty-gritty details.

Continue reading Toshiba outs Satellite U945 and P845t Ultrabooks, Satellite S955 thin-and-light

Filed under: Laptops

Toshiba outs Satellite U945 and P845t Ultrabooks, Satellite S955 thin-and-light originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today we’re getting down to the very important business of helping you sift through laptops, and you can always head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

Freshman year of college may no longer be the gateway to the magical world of laptop ownership, but even if you already have a notebook, who can resist a new machine in the spirit of starting fresh when September rolls around? Whether you’re looking for a Core i5 companion to get you through semesters of paper-writing, Facebooking and WoWing, or a super-sleek centerpiece to your bare-bones dorm, there’s a vast playing field of machines to choose from. While sifting through the countless options would surely get you back in the academic research frame of mind, it’s a daunting task. We’re here to take some of the work off your plate with nine solid mainstream laptops that should satisfy every budget.

Continue reading Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: mainstream laptops

Filed under: Laptops

Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: mainstream laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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