X-bit labs

14" Widescreen: Most Optimal Solution? 10 Contemporary Notebooks Roundup (page 30)

Category: Mobile

by Vasily Melnik

[ 06/07/2006 | 10:56 PM ]

This keyboard should be familiar to all users of Toshiba notebooks:

The layout is classic except that the Window and Context Menu keys are in the top row – if you are used to keyboard shortcuts involving these keys, you have to learn them anew. There are only two additional buttons here:

And one button of these two is responsible for switching between the displays which is not a very frequent action.

A fingerprint scanner is available:

So, the notebook is up to the latest trends in notebook-making. The touchpad looks like the one of the Sony notebook.

The same minimalism and functionality, but the cursor positioning accuracy seems a little worse to me.

The display is average. Its maximum brightness is not very high; its anti-glare coating is too “grainy”; its viewing angles are narrow and color reproduction is average. This display would suit an ordinary low-end product better than to a midrange business notebook.

The bottom panel is unique in its own right – I haven’t seen such an irregular bottom in any other notebook:

There are a lot of individual compartments here, so it’s not a problem to replace a component like memory or wireless adapter.

The battery is nearly standard:

It’s a little below average in capacity, and you’ll see in the Tests section how it tells on the notebook’s battery life.

And this is the included power adapter:

Its size and characteristics are average, so I have nothing more to add.

The Tecra A6-S513 is a kind of entry-level business-class notebook. With the configuration it has, it is not a low-end product, but it is not a normal business notebook, either. The most disturbing fact is its price. I doubt this model can make anyone interested when it costs the same or even bigger money than most other models in this review.