Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Major fan and heat issues including flawed heatsink design
By reverbfreak
For those of us that rely on the Amazon reviews to decide what to buy, or not buy, I thought it would be helpful to post these comments.I own the Toshiba R835-70 laptop. I didn't buy it on Amazon as it wasn't available, and bought it at Best Buy. Have had it for about 5 months. In most respects I am happy with it except for a few major issues. I did replace the stock 640GB 5400rpm drive with a Seagate 500GB hybrid solid-state drive ($100), which provided about a 20% performance boost in file access.The big issue with this laptop concerns the constant fan noise, even when you do not use the laptop. The cooling flaws of this laptop, and many other laptops manufactured by Toshiba, concern the cooling design. There are many posts on the internet, and an extensive Youtube video that goes into depth concerning the laptop trapping dust which causes overheating, and on this particular R835 series, a flawed design of the copper heat conduction pipe from the CPU to the heatsink, which is supposed to be copper, but in fact is aluminum. Two other related design flaws relate to the poor heat conduction from the CPU to the heat vent pipe which leaves an improper contact between the two parts, and the fact that the heat pipe which is made of cooper is not soldered to the aluminum heatsink (which was supposed to be copper according to Toshiba's own promotional videos for this laptop series). The Youtube video which discusses these technical issues is found at [...]What does all this mean? In layman's terms the laptop will have continual heat issues, resulting finally in complete breaking down, perhaps being unrepairable. The warranty is only 1 year - keep that in mind.I had an old Toshiba Satellite 17" laptop which also had the same issues regarding trapping of dust due to the bottom case design of the fan pulling air into the laptop. It would finally stop running or would run the fans continuously. I put up with this for years. When I did a LOT of research to buy another laptop for my wife I settled on the wonderful Asus U30X1 purchase right here on Amazon. It is quiet, cool, and works flawlessly. The difference between it and the Toshiba R835-70 is the Asus is a little heavier, has an I3 processor, and no CD-DVD writer. I would have purchased another Asus and was hoping they would release an I5 model with or without a CD-DVD that would also have no heat issues, but after reading numerous reviews over the past year, I came up empty, and then was "trapped" by all the features and price of the Toshiba R835-70. I would not have imagined that the heat issues I had with my 9-year old previous Toshiba laptop would not have been fixed with a new laptop, but I was dead wrong...So my friends, my recommendation is for you NOT to buy the Toshiba R835-70 because of the heat-cooling and fan issues. My next step is to get another laptop (probably another Asus), and sell my Toshiba while it is still under warranty and working as it is supposed to, and before anything "bad" happens. Forewarned is forearmed. From all of the postings that I have read concerning Toshiba's lack of response to this issue, which has been well documented all over the internet, I think my days of buying Toshiba are finished.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Road Warrior's Dream with no sacrifices
By Tech Nurse
Most ultra portables in this size leave out the DVD drive forcing you to carry an external one. For road warriors, this defeats the purpose of being portable if you have to carry additional cables and drives.This is a great machine, very light weight and compact.Unlike the Asus U46e, this has a plastic feel and is a finger print magnetEven though it has a plastic feel, for the most part it still feels solid. I've used the older R700 model for over a year for business and I have never had a single problem with it.Sound is not as loud as I'd like, but most laptops do not have great speakers. When I need loud quality sound, I use external speakers or headphones.With the weight and size, I can easily place this on an airplane tray table without issues.I would love this even more if they included a back lit keyboard and a touch screen.Keyboard and track pad is responsive, keys are a bit smaller than the Asus u46e, but you can still type pretty well and over time, you'll adjust to the feel.For road warriors, this has the battery life, power, all the necessary ports and DVD drive in a small footprint.What's great about it: Lightweight, great battery life and includes a built in DVD driveWhat's not so great: No bluetooth, no back lit keyboard, no touch screen, fingerprint magnet, built in speakers not so great.I would recommend this to a friend!Best Buy had this for $729 plus a $100 gift card, so the cost was $629, but even at $729, it's a bargain. Great for business and college students at a great price.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Great laptop!
By Brian
Very happy with this laptop - the Portege series really competes with the toughness of the Lenovo line. It is incredibly thin and ultra-light, yet is very durable and well-built with Portege's Hard Drive impact sensors, chassis material, etc. It is super sleek, and has everything needed for almost all work and play applications. I'm very happy with my purchase, and the price is perfect considering all that you get.
See all 3 customer reviews...
Junk and Toshiba doesn't honor warranty
