Toshiba Satellite U845: Ultrabooks Go Mainstream
by Vivek Gowri on October 8, 2012 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- Ivy Bridge
- Ultrabook
Woe is me. Seriously. I dare someone to ship a worse display. Actually, wait, Samsung already did that with the Series 5, never mind (black levels of 2.501; please shoot me now). And because I’m fed up with writing this over and over again, I’m going to copy the next paragraph from Dustin’s review of the XPS 13.
Stop me if you've heard this one before. AnandTech receives a notebook for review from a vendor not named Sony or Apple (or sometimes ASUS now), and that notebook features a cut rate 1366x768 TN panel with poor viewing angles, poor color, poor contrast, and just poor quality all around.
The U845 specifially has a relatively woeful contrast ratio, somewhat low brightness (not that you ever really need more than 250nits unless you spend a lot of time outdoors), midpack color accuracy, and a very narrow color gamut. I've actually never tested a notebook with a display that covers less than 40% of Adobe's RGB1998 test gamut (in my memory at least— if somebody wants to prove me wrong, I'm all ears). And to make matters worse, the display panel itself is basically chromed out. Toshiba likes to ship super glossy displays for some reason, as you can see in the photo above. I really can't understand why.
Seriously, these are *Ultrabooks*. Even budget Ultrabooks, based on premium name and reputation alone, should have higher quality display panels. The minimum entry price for an Ultrabook with a good display should not be $1000. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few very high quality Ultrabook displays—the Samsung Series 9 Ultras (starting at $1300), the Zenbook Primes (starting at $1050), the Vizio CT15 (starting at $1000), and I guess the HP Envy Spectre 14 ($1399) display is good enough to count here too.
If ASUS can ship an IPS panel with an 850:1 contrast ratio in a $199 tablet, laptop vendors can find it within themselves to put decent panels into their midrange $800 Ultrabooks. And for a company like Toshiba who already has a lot of experience shipping high quality display panels in low cost devices through three generations of tablet devices, it’s quite disappointing to see the lack of emphasis on notebook display quality. Let's hope Windows 8 changes that.
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quiksilvr - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
*facepalm*W--WHY?! Why, why, why, why, why. That is a deal breaker to the nth degree for me. I hate lugging a USB HD webcam because of subpar cameras. Why can't I find a decent Ultrabook with a good HD Webcam that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?
retrospooty - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
forget that, It lost me at 1366x768. WTF!!! its Q4 2012 and its still 768 lines? Never. Not in anything larger than 10 inches.Samus - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
Lost you at 1366x768? Lost me at Toshib....HP Folio 13 can be had for under $600 on eBay and it comes with a 128GB SSD. So I don't see any appeal, at all, to this thing. The keyboard is crap, the screen is crap, it has a hard drive (personally, I don't think any laptop that will be moved around at all during its lifespan should have a mechanical drive in it...) and it's pretty heavy to be considered an Ultrabook.
Belard - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
What part of "mainstream / low cost Ultrabook" did you and others did NOT understand? Want something better, pay the price. Most of the top 10 pc notebooks that sell are under $500. While the bottom end MacBook air starts at $1000.Hence Ultrabook sales are low. Because for most people, a $400~600 notebook will get the job done.
Samus - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
Maybe you didn't understand. I just said you could get a high end ultrabook for the same price (or less) than this "mainstream / low cost Ultrabook"I'm not saying you can get a Thinkpad X1 for $600, but the Folio 13 and a number of Asus notebooks can be had for the same price as the U845, so I'm wondering why they are not being reviewed and THIS is.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
Do you just not read the site?We've reviewed a view ASUS ultrabooks AND the Folio 13.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
*few.nbgambler - Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - link
One of the few times in life I wish there was a '+1' button! LMAOquitesufficient - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
For putting 1366x768 on the first page so I can easily scroll down and stop reading the review immediately before wasting my time.r3loaded - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
I did exactly the same - Ctrl+F, typed in 1366, got a match, jumped straight to the comments section. Reading the rest of the review is pointless if a company can't get the basics right.