But are there any discreet graphics options? Asus had a very good version of the Zenbook Prime that had NVidia graphics as an option, that is pretty much the only feature not discussed on this ultrabook...
It's an Intel chipset and an Intel chip. The only thing that won't work out is the bundled apps (Photoshop etc) and the touch screen might be shaky (IDK for sure).
Frankly, I'd stay with Windows here for the power management.
When my current laptop dies I want a laptop made for Linux/Ubuntu. Currently that means the Dell Sputnik laptop because System76' designers have no taste. Give this thing proper Linux driver support and I'll definitely consider it.
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online.(Click Home information) http://goo.gl/DA52J
It doesn't, it is the same as the 13" rMBP which only have a HD4000 drive 2560X1600, if Apple deem that acceptable I am sure Toshiba deems it acceptable to have HD4000 drive 2560X1440.
There's no reason why a discrete card should be better than integrated in driving 2D. Even Aero like effects are nowhere demanding enough to deserve being called "3D".
The issue all lies on the drivers and the Operating System. Of course running games at that resolution is a different story, but hopefully most people get that.
I use the Intel HD 4000 in my Thinkpad x230 to drive my dual WQHD monitors. In other words, I routinely drive twice as many pixels without any problems. Docking stations are awesome.
Looks like they spent a ton of time on the industrial design. Oh wait....
This is like fodder for Apple, c'mon Toshiba. Everything from the keyboard layout, the hinge, to the wedge shape is ripped straight off a MBA. At least TRY to innovate a little on that front and avoid a lawsuit, sheesh.
It's not about being the first, it's about combining multiple design aspects in the EXACT same way as another company. So few companies are willing to innovate nowadays, it's pretty sad.
It's not just the island "style", it's the same key layout. It's also the same inset/sunken keyboard w/ beveled edges, same power button, same trackpad, etc.
Looked closer... Yep, it's the same key layout. They both use QWERTY.
Seriously, you take a closer look. There's page up/down keys on the Toshiba where there's none on the Apple, key size/spacing differ, and all the similarities essentially boil down to the QWERTY nature.
Intel HD 4000 graphics (the ULV version that is) concerns me at that resolution. Given the framerate troubles the Retina 13 inch macbook pro has just in basic applications, I'm a bit concerned about general performance on the new KIRAbook. On top of that, the Retina MBP 13" uses a full power i5-3210M (GPU clock 650 to 1100MHz), while the KIRA uses a ULV part (GPU clock idles at 350MHz).
The point I'm making is that if the Retina 13" MBP has performance problems, this just might be worse. I still do appreciate the attempt at higher resolutions though!
That is an issue. But given a 50Whr Battery(13" rMBP have a 74Whr Battery), using ULV i5 is the only way for the battery life of this Toshiba to be even comparable to rMBP.
The source of the Retina MBP 13" performance problems is the OS, not the GPU. I'd thought this to be the case considering that Intel's HD 4000 supports 4k display resolutions, but it's easy enough to test! Hooked my media computer with an i5-3570k using the integrated graphics up to my U2713HM by displayport and there are no visible issues in Windows 7. Oh, and the GPU-z sensor tab is reporting that the GPU core clock stays at the 350MHz floor.
A lot of the performance problems is actually bad applications. For example, Google Chrome has very poor scrolling performance at high zoom levels, which is effectively what HiDPI mode is. Both Safari and Firefox are much better, but many people automatically assume Chrome is the fastest when it is not.
About a year ago I built a System with a Sandy Bridge Celeron with HD2000 graphic as an inexpensive home office & media player box for a friend of mine going to college. For the installation part, and just to test it a little, I had it connected to my own 2560x1600 main screen and the 900x1600 secondary screen on my desktop. There was absolutely no framerate troubles on this combined 3460x1600 desktop in anything I have tested it with, be it surfing the internet, watching Blueray-Movies, viewing PDF-Documents with loads of vector-graphics, working on large word-documents, you name it.
Of course it would fail horribly at playing games or as a CAD-Station, but for a very large part of usage scenarios, HD2000 is fine, and HD4000 is more than enough.
I also don't understand the concern with the IGP. The last two retina iPads have lots of pixels that are driven by a SOC with a lower TDP than a Core i5. It's all about bandwidth, and dual channel DDR 1600 is quite sufficient in that regard. I wouldn't expect gaming at native res, but Windows will run just fine.
The resolution doesn't choke up that IGP, they can be a lot weaker than the HD4000 and run that resolution. The problem with the Retina models was the additional scaling they need for the retina tech, it has to render at two different resolutions then downscale etc.
I've driven a 2560x1600 monitor with no issues on my X230 with an Intel HD 3000 graphics. Heck, even my old first-gen i5 EliteBook 2740p drove that monitor without any framerate issues. Maybe Mac OS just doesn't work well with Intel graphics and high resolution screens?
yes, they did essentially name this thing "Killerbook" but with a little Japanese flair just so they wouldn't get sued for a different trademark infringement.
GPU performance is certainly a concern (perhaps it will be best to wait for Haswell to arrive?) and so is battery life, but I would also very much like to see a 16GB memory option.
Yeah, I totally agree with this. It is very puzzling as to why Toshiba would bring out such a nice ultrabook on the eve of the Haswell release and not include the new tech.
This model in a 15" version, with the option to purchase with 16GB RAM using the top end Haswell chipset, would make this an instant buy for me. What a nice unit.
I know I am going against the prevailing sentiment, but on a 13 inch screen, do you really need more than 1080p? My work laptop is a 15in with a 1080p screen, and even on a screen that large text is somewhat difficult to read. I do a lot of spreadsheet work, and I would love to have higher resolution on a large monitor, but on a 13 inch screen, I am not so sure.
The point of "retina" screens is not to make things smaller, but to make them sharper. If developers got their heads out of their arses and actually made everything compliant with resolution-independent DPI settings 10 years ago (when it first started to become obvious we weren't really moving anywhere on resolution) we wouldn't be having this problem now.
With the nightmares I've had with Toshiba equipment at work recently, and a personal history that's even worse, I wouldn't touch any Toshiba product with a ten foot pole. If they could get their reliability (over a 3% initial and 15% over 3 year failure rate on enterprise level hard drives, really?!?) and service up to at least industry average levels, I might consider them, but as they are now, no way in heck.
I am really pleased a new manufacturer has come out with some laptops with decent spec. I would say the rez is somewhat too high, but I'd rather they erred on the high side!
This looks like a potentially great laptop, but as someone else said, I'd wait for a while to see what problems get reported by early adopters.
I still have a Tecra M9 (nvidia, core2duo, 6GB ram) still going strong five years on, and I know some other people who've been very satisfied with their Tosh laptops. OTOH, I know other people whose Tosh's were not particularly satisfactory. I learned my lesson buying a Sony ultraportable and being unable to get a replacement fan for it (Sony refused to sell the fan, and wanted $270 just to look at it), so I would also want to be sure that Toshiba will not try and milk their customers over support and maintenance. This is why I bought a Dell Latitude E6420 last year - not glamorous, but solid and easy and cheap to repair.
this is awesome hardware but how the heck are you supposed to use that high of DPI in windows? the only thing it will work with is the metro apps since those are designed for high DPI natively... but desktop? yeah right.
im hoping windows blue fixes desktop DPI scaling and goes to the same kind of solution mac OS X has.
Scaling was working quiet well in Windows XP too, I've been using the 120DPI setting on my 30" screen for almost a decade now. Hardly any pieces of "work" related software had problems with it, but quiet a few games did.
Also, I've never owned a Retina-Device myself, but wasn't the mac OS solution just to switch software between the original solution or a 2-screen-pixel-per-software-pixel scaling, rather than allowing a defined scaling?
It's bad enough figuring out the difference between HD, FullHD, TrueHD, HD+, but now they want us to remember the difference between qHD (quarter HD aka 960x540) and QHD (quad HD aka 2560x1440 also sometimes referred to as 2K?). As if the people who can't figure out the difference between MB and Mb will be able to properly differentiate between qHD and QHD.
They really need better names for "standard" resolutions.
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46 Comments
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Reflex - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
But are there any discreet graphics options? Asus had a very good version of the Zenbook Prime that had NVidia graphics as an option, that is pretty much the only feature not discussed on this ultrabook...rvagg - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
All I want to know is: can this baby run Linux?lmcd - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
It's an Intel chipset and an Intel chip. The only thing that won't work out is the bundled apps (Photoshop etc) and the touch screen might be shaky (IDK for sure).Frankly, I'd stay with Windows here for the power management.
Tormeh - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
When my current laptop dies I want a laptop made for Linux/Ubuntu. Currently that means the Dell Sputnik laptop because System76' designers have no taste. Give this thing proper Linux driver support and I'll definitely consider it.TaylorSandler - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Love my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online.(Click Home information)http://goo.gl/DA52J
mikeglass - Sunday, April 21, 2013 - link
More specifically, um, will it run ChromeOS? It's essentially chromebook pixel specs +extras but lighter. Add LTE and I'd pay.And now feel free to go on about why ChromeOS is just a glorified browser and I'll go ahead and tune out.
powerarmour - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
First thought that came into my head also!lmcd - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
It almost has to IMO. Intel 4K doesn't drive 1080p that well, let alone 1440p.sherlockwing - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
It doesn't, it is the same as the 13" rMBP which only have a HD4000 drive 2560X1600, if Apple deem that acceptable I am sure Toshiba deems it acceptable to have HD4000 drive 2560X1440.IntelUser2000 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
There's no reason why a discrete card should be better than integrated in driving 2D. Even Aero like effects are nowhere demanding enough to deserve being called "3D".The issue all lies on the drivers and the Operating System. Of course running games at that resolution is a different story, but hopefully most people get that.
purrcatian - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I use the Intel HD 4000 in my Thinkpad x230 to drive my dual WQHD monitors. In other words, I routinely drive twice as many pixels without any problems. Docking stations are awesome.CSMR - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Current Intel graphics drives 1440p with no problems. I have this on my Dell U2711 display.StealthX32 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Looks like they spent a ton of time on the industrial design. Oh wait....This is like fodder for Apple, c'mon Toshiba. Everything from the keyboard layout, the hinge, to the wedge shape is ripped straight off a MBA. At least TRY to innovate a little on that front and avoid a lawsuit, sheesh.
karasaj - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Apple doesn't generally sue products with Windows on it; I believe they have a cross licensing agreement.purrcatian - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I think you will find Apple wasn't the first to do any of those things.StealthX32 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
It's not about being the first, it's about combining multiple design aspects in the EXACT same way as another company. So few companies are willing to innovate nowadays, it's pretty sad.hfm - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
You do know Sony was the first major notebook manufacturer with that island style keyboard layout, right?StealthX32 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Look closer.It's not just the island "style", it's the same key layout. It's also the same inset/sunken keyboard w/ beveled edges, same power button, same trackpad, etc.
Gigaplex - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Looked closer... Yep, it's the same key layout. They both use QWERTY.Seriously, you take a closer look. There's page up/down keys on the Toshiba where there's none on the Apple, key size/spacing differ, and all the similarities essentially boil down to the QWERTY nature.
frogger4 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Intel HD 4000 graphics (the ULV version that is) concerns me at that resolution. Given the framerate troubles the Retina 13 inch macbook pro has just in basic applications, I'm a bit concerned about general performance on the new KIRAbook. On top of that, the Retina MBP 13" uses a full power i5-3210M (GPU clock 650 to 1100MHz), while the KIRA uses a ULV part (GPU clock idles at 350MHz).The point I'm making is that if the Retina 13" MBP has performance problems, this just might be worse. I still do appreciate the attempt at higher resolutions though!
sherlockwing - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
That is an issue. But given a 50Whr Battery(13" rMBP have a 74Whr Battery), using ULV i5 is the only way for the battery life of this Toshiba to be even comparable to rMBP.Khato - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
The source of the Retina MBP 13" performance problems is the OS, not the GPU. I'd thought this to be the case considering that Intel's HD 4000 supports 4k display resolutions, but it's easy enough to test! Hooked my media computer with an i5-3570k using the integrated graphics up to my U2713HM by displayport and there are no visible issues in Windows 7. Oh, and the GPU-z sensor tab is reporting that the GPU core clock stays at the 350MHz floor.madmilk - Sunday, April 21, 2013 - link
A lot of the performance problems is actually bad applications. For example, Google Chrome has very poor scrolling performance at high zoom levels, which is effectively what HiDPI mode is. Both Safari and Firefox are much better, but many people automatically assume Chrome is the fastest when it is not.ShieTar - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
About a year ago I built a System with a Sandy Bridge Celeron with HD2000 graphic as an inexpensive home office & media player box for a friend of mine going to college. For the installation part, and just to test it a little, I had it connected to my own 2560x1600 main screen and the 900x1600 secondary screen on my desktop. There was absolutely no framerate troubles on this combined 3460x1600 desktop in anything I have tested it with, be it surfing the internet, watching Blueray-Movies, viewing PDF-Documents with loads of vector-graphics, working on large word-documents, you name it.Of course it would fail horribly at playing games or as a CAD-Station, but for a very large part of usage scenarios, HD2000 is fine, and HD4000 is more than enough.
MonkeyPaw - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I also don't understand the concern with the IGP. The last two retina iPads have lots of pixels that are driven by a SOC with a lower TDP than a Core i5. It's all about bandwidth, and dual channel DDR 1600 is quite sufficient in that regard. I wouldn't expect gaming at native res, but Windows will run just fine.tipoo - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
The resolution doesn't choke up that IGP, they can be a lot weaker than the HD4000 and run that resolution. The problem with the Retina models was the additional scaling they need for the retina tech, it has to render at two different resolutions then downscale etc.peterfares - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
I've driven a 2560x1600 monitor with no issues on my X230 with an Intel HD 3000 graphics. Heck, even my old first-gen i5 EliteBook 2740p drove that monitor without any framerate issues. Maybe Mac OS just doesn't work well with Intel graphics and high resolution screens?Mayuyu - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Death Note?dgingeri - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
yes, they did essentially name this thing "Killerbook" but with a little Japanese flair just so they wouldn't get sued for a different trademark infringement.jramskov - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
GPU performance is certainly a concern (perhaps it will be best to wait for Haswell to arrive?) and so is battery life, but I would also very much like to see a 16GB memory option.piroroadkill - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Eh, it'd be nice if it was 16:10.Also, I'd not buy a laptop with onboard intel graphics until Haswell.
ToTTenTranz - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
It's clearly a mistake to release this within a month of Haswell's release.I bet it'll come at about the same time as the MBP13 Retina's refresh with Haswell.
gxtoast - Sunday, May 12, 2013 - link
Yeah, I totally agree with this. It is very puzzling as to why Toshiba would bring out such a nice ultrabook on the eve of the Haswell release and not include the new tech.This model in a 15" version, with the option to purchase with 16GB RAM using the top end Haswell chipset, would make this an instant buy for me. What a nice unit.
frozentundra123456 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I know I am going against the prevailing sentiment, but on a 13 inch screen, do you really need more than 1080p? My work laptop is a 15in with a 1080p screen, and even on a screen that large text is somewhat difficult to read. I do a lot of spreadsheet work, and I would love to have higher resolution on a large monitor, but on a 13 inch screen, I am not so sure.evilspoons - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
The point of "retina" screens is not to make things smaller, but to make them sharper. If developers got their heads out of their arses and actually made everything compliant with resolution-independent DPI settings 10 years ago (when it first started to become obvious we weren't really moving anywhere on resolution) we wouldn't be having this problem now.evilspoons - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Can I have this thing in a heavier chassis with a real video card, real processor, and a larger battery?At least we're getting somewhere on the 'compete with Retina' front.
hfm - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
This thing looks like it might give Samsung's NP900X3 1080p models a run for their money.dgingeri - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
With the nightmares I've had with Toshiba equipment at work recently, and a personal history that's even worse, I wouldn't touch any Toshiba product with a ten foot pole. If they could get their reliability (over a 3% initial and 15% over 3 year failure rate on enterprise level hard drives, really?!?) and service up to at least industry average levels, I might consider them, but as they are now, no way in heck.Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
Hard drives != notebooks. Completely different departments.speculatrix - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
I am really pleased a new manufacturer has come out with some laptops with decent spec. I would say the rez is somewhat too high, but I'd rather they erred on the high side!This looks like a potentially great laptop, but as someone else said, I'd wait for a while to see what problems get reported by early adopters.
I still have a Tecra M9 (nvidia, core2duo, 6GB ram) still going strong five years on, and I know some other people who've been very satisfied with their Tosh laptops. OTOH, I know other people whose Tosh's were not particularly satisfactory.
I learned my lesson buying a Sony ultraportable and being unable to get a replacement fan for it (Sony refused to sell the fan, and wanted $270 just to look at it), so I would also want to be sure that Toshiba will not try and milk their customers over support and maintenance. This is why I bought a Dell Latitude E6420 last year - not glamorous, but solid and easy and cheap to repair.
dgingeri - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
you have a Toshiba that has actually lasted a while. Well, you're one of very, very few. I can tell you that.skiboysteve - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
this is awesome hardware but how the heck are you supposed to use that high of DPI in windows? the only thing it will work with is the metro apps since those are designed for high DPI natively... but desktop? yeah right.im hoping windows blue fixes desktop DPI scaling and goes to the same kind of solution mac OS X has.
JDG1980 - Thursday, April 18, 2013 - link
DPI scaling in Windows 7 works quite well, except for a couple of specific ill-behaved applications. What were you having trouble with?ShieTar - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
Scaling was working quiet well in Windows XP too, I've been using the 120DPI setting on my 30" screen for almost a decade now. Hardly any pieces of "work" related software had problems with it, but quiet a few games did.Also, I've never owned a Retina-Device myself, but wasn't the mac OS solution just to switch software between the original solution or a 2-screen-pixel-per-software-pixel scaling, rather than allowing a defined scaling?
Benjamin Pabellon Corpus - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Does this have a firewire connector?phoenix_rizzen - Friday, May 3, 2013 - link
It's bad enough figuring out the difference between HD, FullHD, TrueHD, HD+, but now they want us to remember the difference between qHD (quarter HD aka 960x540) and QHD (quad HD aka 2560x1440 also sometimes referred to as 2K?). As if the people who can't figure out the difference between MB and Mb will be able to properly differentiate between qHD and QHD.They really need better names for "standard" resolutions.