In a flurry of announcements today, Toshiba has refreshed and expanded major portions of its notebook computer line, adding multimedia-oriented Qosmio notebooks, bringing 13.3-inch widescreen notebooks into retail with an eye towards students and small business users, and added an HD DVD and Centrino Duo processors to its Satellite P205 notebooks.
First up, Toshiba’s new Qosmio F45 AV notebook series gets three new models, the Qosmio F45-AV410, AV411, and AV413. Each feature 15.4-inch 1,280 by 800 widescreen displays, Dolby Home Theater technology, 802.11n Wi-Fi Wireless networking, a DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash, and a glossy "piano white" finish. The systems also feature 1 GB of flash using Intel Turbo Memory technology, dramatically decreasing the time it takes the systems to boot, wake, launch movies, and run applications. The $1,299,99 AV410 sports a 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM (expandable to 4 GB), a 200 GB hard drive, an integrated Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium, and a fingerprint reader. The AV411 sports a $13,49.99 price tag and comes with Vista Ultimate, while the AV413 comes with two 120 GB hard drives. (Toshiba’s release lists the MSRP for the AV413 at $1,309.09, but we suspect the real MSRP is $1,399.99—although Toshiba also says it’ll be offered exclusively through Costco, so you never know.).
Next, Toshiba has unveiled three new Satellite U305 models with 13.3-inch widescreen displays and feature sets designed to appeal to students and small business users. The systems weigh in at just 4.6 pounds, sport a 1.3 megapixel Webcam and a DVD SuperMulti (±R double layer) drive supporting 11 formats—and they’re all available at major retailers now. The $899 U305-S5097 comes with Vista Home Premium, a 1.86 GHz Pentium dual-core T2130 processor, 1 GB of RAM (expandable to 4 GB), a 160 GB hard drive, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. The $1,149 U305-S5107 sports an Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 processor running at 1.73 GHz, 2 GB of RAN (max 4 GB), 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi networking, BlueTooth 2.0+EDR, and a fingerprint reader. Rouding out the new additions, the U305-S5127 carries a suggested price of $1,399 and offers a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB of flash-based Turbo Memory to accelerate startup and waking, and a 200 GB hard drive.
Last but not least, if you need to go high-def on your notebooks, Toshiba has added HD DVD drives and updated processors to its Satellite 205 desktop replacement notebooks with 17-inch, 1,400 by 900 pixel displays. Coming in at the high end of the Satellite P205 line the P205-S6347 offers a 1.66 Ghz Fore 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 200 GB hard drive, an HD-DVD ROM/dual-layer DVD drive, 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi networking, integrated Webcam and microphone, and built-in Harmon Kardon stereo speakers—is should be available now from Toshiba Direct and selected retailers at a suggested price of $1,449.99.
