Toshiba is in the business of manufacturing flash-based solid state drives (SSDs), and it’s also in the business of manufacturing computers. Therefore, it’s not too surprising that the company would put one together with the other and pack its highest-capacity SSD into one of it’s lightest notebook computers to produce am appealing—though pricey—offering for the road warriors among us. Toshiba’s Portégé R500 now offers an option for a 128 GB solid state drive, and Toshiba is claiming it is the lightest notebook computer available with a DVD drive.
The Portégé R500 weighs just 2.4 pounds and is just 0.77 inches thick, which also makes it one of the slimmest notebooks on the market. The R500 sports a 12.1-inch 1,280 by 800-pixel LCD display, a 1.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a DVD ±R drive. For connectivity, the unit offers both 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, along with gigabit Ethernet; users can connect peripherals with three USB 2.0 ports and an i.Link IEEE 1394 port, and add a Type II PC Card. Folks needing more options can latch onto additional gear via a dock connector. The R500 is also available with a fingerprint reader.
Pricing for the R500 with a 128 GB SSD drive starts at $2,999; Toshiba is offering it with either Windows XP or Windows Vista Business.
