Toshiba Satellite U840W – The world’s first ultrabook with 21:9 cinematic display

I’m in the market for a new ultrabook.
Frankly, I’m huge fan of ultrabooks as they are usually light (or rather the first generations ones were) and they are designed for mobility which suits me very well.

For Toshiba, I was mightily impressed with the Toshiba Portege Z830 which is the world’s lightest ultrabook back then. Weight aside, it’s durability was remarkable, withstanding weight, pressure and knocks easily.

When Toshiba sent me their latest ultrabook to review, I got a shock.

What? What odd sized thing is this?

I was shocked at first by its dimensions and was immediately put off by its weight of 1.58kg.
1.6kg??

But it didn’t take long for the large screen estate to grow on me. Since I’m a multi-tasker and I like all my windows/programs active simultaneously, the screen size does allow better view of my active applications.

It was good for stalking as well, since now I can edit pictures, design my proposals and reply emails while having my Facebook and Twitter screens open side-by-side, enabling me to view my social feeds as I work. The split screen utility increases the screen’s usability by snapping applications to the edges of the display with a click of a button. Even playing 16:9 movies with your social networking sites or word processing displayed concurrently is now possible.

The solid feel of the Satellite U840W certainly accumulated brownie points from me. Other than looking good when I carried it around as a clutch (I’m joking of course) the size is awesome for ENTERTAINMENT.

BELOW: Premium finishing, luxurious soft touch trim, sophisticated design.

LED backlit raised tile keyboard and ClickPad. Very smooth typing satisfaction!

Yes, perfect for entertainment  just like how it was intended in the first place. I beg to differ if one says this is for portability. Not my kind of portability anyways. You guys realized I travel a lot? Personally, I don’t think this is ideal for that. Unless you’re used to lugging a MacBook Pro around, this is not the kind of weight that I’ll put into my bag and carry around as I attend 3 press events, meetings, hit the gym and review a dinner in one day.

BELOW: 1.58kg, but still less than an inch thick.

But for everyday productivity and entertainment? This baby is ready to rock your world.

The Satellite U840W Ultra-wide HD display enables you to enjoy movies in their native aspect ratio, without the black bars commonly seen on most notebook displays.

No doubt when it comes to entertainment sound quality is very important. The U840W totally blew my mind with its Harmon Kardon stereo speakers and SRS Premium Sound 3D.

The sound quality from the speakers were remarkable; superbly strong, powerful, clear and LOUD. Frankly, I could easily invite 30 friends over for a house party and play tracks from the Satellite U840W without the need of an amplifier or external speakers. It’s that GOOD.

Of course then it’s all boils down to the specs. Toshiba has certainly bundled some rather impressive specs for this baby.

* It’s still i5 (why not i7 Toshiba?), but 3rd Generation Intel Core processor for Ultrabook
* Windows 7

* 14.4 inch screen|
* 500G + 32G SSD Hybrid HardDrive – perfect for the intense gaming and movies watching
* RAM: up to 10GB DDR3
* Ports: LAN Ethernet (one of the very few ultrabooks that offers LAN port), 3 x USB ports – allows Sleep and charge (very useful – my current Zenbook can’t do that and I have to leave it on as I charge my iPhone), HDMI, multicard reader (essential for photographers/bloggers like me).

* Large ClickPad with gesture support, full sized A4 keyboard with backlight.

* Dimensions:  368.5 mm x 200mm x 20.8 mm
* Weight : Starting from 1.58kg (depending on configurations)

Do I like it? Yes I do.
Will I bring it around with me? No I won’t. I move around too much in a day (average of 6 places in one working day) to be lugging this around. If you’re only going to office and back with perhaps 1 meeting out of the office, the weight is still bearable. For guys, no excuses! 😀
Recommended? For gamers and those with a penchant for watching youtubes and downloaded movies on their laptops, this is certainly the ultrabook for YOU!

Now that aside, what Windows 8 ultrabook (less than 1.3kg) should I get?? :DD