Hardware
Toshiba Announces A New Tablet PC: The Portege M700
There’s a new Tablet PC in town. With anticipation focused on Dell’s soon to be released entry into the Tablet PC marketplace, Toshiba is catching everyone by surprise today with the announcement of a new Tablet PC in the Portege line. Toshiba is rolling out its 9th generation Tablet PC, The Portege M700. The M700 is the first Tablet PC Toshiba offers with a touch screen LED backlit display. Combining what looks like features of the M400 and the R400, with an Intel Core Duo T7500 processor running at 2.2GHz, Toshiba looks to be aiming at those that what a little more power in their Tablet PCs. Here at GBM we’re hoping to get our hands on a review unit soon (we’re on the list), and will be looking forward to spending some time with the M700 at CES as well.
Prices for preconfigured models listed in the press release are $1799 with Vista Business, and $1699 with XP. Here’s a link to a virtual tour of the M700. (We’ll be updating other links in this post as they come online.)
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the product page, as well as a link to the customized ordering page, which provides processor options up to 2.6 ghz and a 7200 rpm harddrive choice.
The Portege M700 Tablet PC is running Intel’s Core 2 Duo T7500 at 2.2GHz, supporting both touch and pen input. Like other dual touch systems, the screen detects whether or not you are using a pen or your finger for input.
The M700’s LED backlit screen (12.1 inch widescreen, WXGA) and also comes with an anti-glare coating which allows for indoor and outdoor viewing and Toshiba is boasting that it yields 30 percent more details than a standard XGA display. The M700 also includes a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and an integrated DVD SuperMulti drive in the Ultra SlimBay, which can also alternately house a second hard drive or a weightsaver. (The optical drive and weightsaver come as part of the package.)
Toshiba is also introducing a new feature, ““Sleep-and-Charge†USB ports that allow users to charge mobile phones or MP3 players whether the system is on or off. Two of these ports are included on the M700. It will be interesting to see how this works with the issues surrounding ““Sleep of Death†and ““Vista Insomnia.†It also looks like Toshiba borrowed the hinge and swivel system from the R400 Tablet PC.
Good news for Toshiba M400 owners. Some accessories for the M400 are compatible with those for the M700, including the digital pen, reserve pen, battery, second battery, and the Express Port Replicator.
Here are some specs for two different configurations, one with Vista Business, and one with XP Tablet PC Edition 2005:
Portégé M700-S7002 Recommended Configuration (ESUP $1,799)8
Genuine Windows ® Vistaâ„¢ Business (32-bit version)
Intel ® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo Processor T75001
o 2.2GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB
2048 MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory9
160GB (5400 RPM) Serial-ATA hard disk drive10
12.1-inch diagonal widescreen LED backlit display
o supporting digital pen and touch screen
o Indoor/outdoor display
o Wide viewing angles
o 1280 x 800 (WXGA) native resolution
Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 8MB-251MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory11
Integrated DVD SuperMulti (+/-R Double Layer) drive4
Intel ® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
Intel ® Pro 82566MM 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Bluetooth ® v.2.0 + EDR
Integrated 1.3 megapixel Webcam ® with built-in microphone
Portégé M700-S7001X Recommended Configuration (ESUP $1,699)8
Genuine Windows ® XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
Intel ® Coreâ„¢ 2 Duo Processor T7500
o 2.2GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB
1024 MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory9
160GB (5400 RPM) Serial-ATA hard disk drive10
12.1-inch diagonal widescreen LED backlit display
o supporting digital pen and touch screen
o Indoor/outdoor display
o Wide viewing angles
o 1280 x 800 (WXGA) native resolution
Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Integrated DVD SuperMulti (+/-R Double Layer) drive4
Intel ® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
Intel ® Pro 82566MM 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Bluetooth ® v.2.0 + EDR
Integrated 1.3 megapixel Webcam ® with built-in microphone