Toshiba launches thin and light Portégé Z830 Ultrabook

Toshiba has made an impressive entry into the new Ultrabook arena with the 13.3-inch Portégé Z830 notebook. Claimed to be the lightest in its class, powered by a second generation Intel Core processor and featuring solid state storage, the new notebook is also more than capable of withstanding the odd bump on the road, with new internal structures and a honeycomb rib reinforced magnesium alloy casing.

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Intel announced the dawn of a new Ultrabook era a few months back with the unveiling of the UX21 and UX31 notebooks from ASUS. Toshiba has managed to come in even thinner than those efforts by shaving the frame down to a not-very-thick 0.63-inches (15.9 mm) - that's even thinner than Apple's MacBook Air, with which all new Ultrabooks are destined to be compared. The Portégé Z830 is lighter than the 13.3-inch version of Apple's trend-setter, too, tipping the scales at just 2.46 pounds (1.12 kg).

The Portégé Z830 has a non-reflective, high-definition, 1,366 x 768 resolution, LED backlit display, is the first Toshiba Core i3, i5 or i7 processor-based Ultrabook and comes with up to 6GB DDR3 RAM and 128GB solid state drive. Thanks to the company's Hi-Speed Start Technology, the new notebook is said to be up and running in seconds.

There's a backlit, spill-resistant full size keyboard fronted by a multi-touch touchpad, a fingerprint reader, stereo speakers with audio enhancement from Waves Audio, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Physical connectivity takes the shape of full-size VGA, HDMI, USB ports (including a USB 3.0 port), a multi-card reader and Gigabit Ethernet. The notebook also benefits from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 wireless capabilities.