Toshiba has updated and redesigned all of its business laptops to look more like its Portege lineup; the once-stodgy Tecra is now slimmer and sleeker. The Tecra R840 sports a second-generation Core i5 processor power, AMD Radeon graphics, and offers strong battery life for a 14-inch business notebook. However, with a price of $1,279 as configured (starting at $889), how much value are you really getting? Read on to find out.
Design
The shape and curves of Toshiba's new Tecra now closely resemble its Portege notebooks. The black graphite lid which has chrome Toshiba logo in the middle sports a ridged texture that helps avoid unattractive fingerprint smudges. Like the Portege, the Tecra R840 has chrome colored plastic hinges, which stand out on the all-matte black deck and bezel. Like the lid, the palm rests have a ridged pattern.
At 13.4 x 9.4 x 0.8-1.1 inches, the new design is thinner than the Tecra A11 (1.3 inches thick at its thinnest point). The R840 is also more compact than the Dell Latitude E6420 (13.9 x 10.3 x 1.3 inches) and the Fujitsu S751 (13.4 x 9.7 x 1.4 inches), and is lighter than both: The R840 weighs just 4.6 pounds compared to the Dell E6420's hefty 6.2 pounds (with a nine-cell battery) and the S751's 5.4 pounds.
The R840 has some durability features. It includes a spill-resistant keyboard, a fiberglass-reinforced chassis, a hard drive accelerometer, and a reinforced security cable lock slot. However, the Dell Latitude E6420's tri-metal design and the HP EliteBook 8460p's DuraCase are both more rugged.
Keyboard and Touchpad
That fiberglass-reinforced frame lends the R840's slightly recessed, spill-resistant keyboard a sturdy feel. Thanks to the roomy island-style layout, the keyboard was responsive. However, the flat, slick surface of the keys made typing less comfortable on this laptop than on business notebooks with slightly curved keys (like ThinkPads). Above the right side of the keyboard are dedicated buttons for activating Toshiba's eco Utility software and a presentation button to extend the desktop or mirror the screen when a projector is connected.
The 3.4 x 1.9-inch touchpad on the Tecra R840 provides a larger touch area than both the Fujitsu S751 (2.5 x 1.6 inches) and the Dell E4260 (3.1 x 1.8 inches). Its matte, plastic surface is smooth and pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scroll gestures worked well. A fingerprint reader sits between a pair of discrete, chrome-colored mouse buttons. The R840's touchpad uses multitouch software designed by Alps Electronic. That software allowed us to set custom touch controls in the Mouse settings within the Control Panel.
For instance, any of the touchpad's four corners to perform actions such as cut and paste, or open the Windows Explorer. Other welcome gestures include circular scrolling (climbing up or down pages by moving your finger in circles on the touchpad) and inertial scrolling, in which forceful swipes scroll longer distances on a page. You don't get the three- or four-finger gestures that Synaptic touchpads provide.
Pointing Stick
For more nuanced navigation, the R840 comes with a pointing stick between the G and H keys. The R840's blue pointer is smaller than like and is covered with a material that's a little scratchy. The ThinkPad line's TrackPoints still, the Tecra was fairly accurate and more comfortable to use than the Dell E6420, whose stick sits the level of the surrounding keys and was slippery during use.
Display and Audio
The 14-inch LED display on the R840 offers a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Next to the HP EliteBook 8460p, the Tecra R840's matte panel delivered a brighter picture. In addition, viewing angles are comfortably wide. The black splotches at about 120 degrees to the right and left, just enough space for three people to watch video.
However, a 720p trailer of the movie Hanna on YouTube looked somewhat washed out, with low contrast.
Don't expect great sound out of the Tecra R840. While the two speakers produced plenty of volume when streaming a track from The Strokes on Slacker, the audio was tinny and flat.
Ports and Webcam
On the right side of the Tecra R840 are a tray-loading DVD burner, an ExpressCard 34 slot, 6-in-1 Memory Card Reader, USB 3.0 port, an Ethernet jack, and a reinforced security cable slot on the hinge. A VGA port, DisplayPort, USB/eSATA port, USB 2.0 jack, and audio jacks for headphones and a microphone line the left side. That's a total of three USB ports, although both the Dell Latitude E6420 and the Fujitsu S751 offer four. The Dell also packs an HDMI port.
Equipped with a standard-definition camera, the Tecra R840 captured images with accurate colors but only so-so detail. A Skype call looked acceptable under the florescent lighting but a call conducted from a low-lit coffee shop looked even better, especially when activated night mode in Toshiba's Web Camera Application. That software also adjusts brightness, contrast, gamma, hue, saturation, and sharpness, and adds effects such as background filters and video frames.
Callers reported that the Tecra R840's microphone picked up voice very well without any distortion. Unfortunately, the sensitive device also registered background noise such as ambient music and traffic noise.
As a security measure, customers can use Toshiba's Face Recognition software with the R840's webcam to help lock and unlock the notebook.
Heat
For a thin laptop, the R840 was pretty good at keeping its cool. Streamed a Hulu for 15 minutes at full screen, the touchpad measured 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the keyboard (between the G and H keys) was just 88 degrees, and the underside of the notebook reached 94, temperatures of uncomfortable heat (95 degrees). The notebook's hottest point was the area by the left-side vent, which rose to 108 degrees. That vent heat warmed lap after about an hour of couch-surfing, so users might want to keep the R840 on a desktop during continued use.
Design
The shape and curves of Toshiba's new Tecra now closely resemble its Portege notebooks. The black graphite lid which has chrome Toshiba logo in the middle sports a ridged texture that helps avoid unattractive fingerprint smudges. Like the Portege, the Tecra R840 has chrome colored plastic hinges, which stand out on the all-matte black deck and bezel. Like the lid, the palm rests have a ridged pattern.
At 13.4 x 9.4 x 0.8-1.1 inches, the new design is thinner than the Tecra A11 (1.3 inches thick at its thinnest point). The R840 is also more compact than the Dell Latitude E6420 (13.9 x 10.3 x 1.3 inches) and the Fujitsu S751 (13.4 x 9.7 x 1.4 inches), and is lighter than both: The R840 weighs just 4.6 pounds compared to the Dell E6420's hefty 6.2 pounds (with a nine-cell battery) and the S751's 5.4 pounds.
The R840 has some durability features. It includes a spill-resistant keyboard, a fiberglass-reinforced chassis, a hard drive accelerometer, and a reinforced security cable lock slot. However, the Dell Latitude E6420's tri-metal design and the HP EliteBook 8460p's DuraCase are both more rugged.
Keyboard and Touchpad
That fiberglass-reinforced frame lends the R840's slightly recessed, spill-resistant keyboard a sturdy feel. Thanks to the roomy island-style layout, the keyboard was responsive. However, the flat, slick surface of the keys made typing less comfortable on this laptop than on business notebooks with slightly curved keys (like ThinkPads). Above the right side of the keyboard are dedicated buttons for activating Toshiba's eco Utility software and a presentation button to extend the desktop or mirror the screen when a projector is connected.
The 3.4 x 1.9-inch touchpad on the Tecra R840 provides a larger touch area than both the Fujitsu S751 (2.5 x 1.6 inches) and the Dell E4260 (3.1 x 1.8 inches). Its matte, plastic surface is smooth and pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scroll gestures worked well. A fingerprint reader sits between a pair of discrete, chrome-colored mouse buttons. The R840's touchpad uses multitouch software designed by Alps Electronic. That software allowed us to set custom touch controls in the Mouse settings within the Control Panel.
For instance, any of the touchpad's four corners to perform actions such as cut and paste, or open the Windows Explorer. Other welcome gestures include circular scrolling (climbing up or down pages by moving your finger in circles on the touchpad) and inertial scrolling, in which forceful swipes scroll longer distances on a page. You don't get the three- or four-finger gestures that Synaptic touchpads provide.
Pointing Stick
For more nuanced navigation, the R840 comes with a pointing stick between the G and H keys. The R840's blue pointer is smaller than like and is covered with a material that's a little scratchy. The ThinkPad line's TrackPoints still, the Tecra was fairly accurate and more comfortable to use than the Dell E6420, whose stick sits the level of the surrounding keys and was slippery during use.
Display and Audio
The 14-inch LED display on the R840 offers a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Next to the HP EliteBook 8460p, the Tecra R840's matte panel delivered a brighter picture. In addition, viewing angles are comfortably wide. The black splotches at about 120 degrees to the right and left, just enough space for three people to watch video.
However, a 720p trailer of the movie Hanna on YouTube looked somewhat washed out, with low contrast.
Don't expect great sound out of the Tecra R840. While the two speakers produced plenty of volume when streaming a track from The Strokes on Slacker, the audio was tinny and flat.
Ports and Webcam
On the right side of the Tecra R840 are a tray-loading DVD burner, an ExpressCard 34 slot, 6-in-1 Memory Card Reader, USB 3.0 port, an Ethernet jack, and a reinforced security cable slot on the hinge. A VGA port, DisplayPort, USB/eSATA port, USB 2.0 jack, and audio jacks for headphones and a microphone line the left side. That's a total of three USB ports, although both the Dell Latitude E6420 and the Fujitsu S751 offer four. The Dell also packs an HDMI port.
Equipped with a standard-definition camera, the Tecra R840 captured images with accurate colors but only so-so detail. A Skype call looked acceptable under the florescent lighting but a call conducted from a low-lit coffee shop looked even better, especially when activated night mode in Toshiba's Web Camera Application. That software also adjusts brightness, contrast, gamma, hue, saturation, and sharpness, and adds effects such as background filters and video frames.
Callers reported that the Tecra R840's microphone picked up voice very well without any distortion. Unfortunately, the sensitive device also registered background noise such as ambient music and traffic noise.
As a security measure, customers can use Toshiba's Face Recognition software with the R840's webcam to help lock and unlock the notebook.
Heat
For a thin laptop, the R840 was pretty good at keeping its cool. Streamed a Hulu for 15 minutes at full screen, the touchpad measured 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the keyboard (between the G and H keys) was just 88 degrees, and the underside of the notebook reached 94, temperatures of uncomfortable heat (95 degrees). The notebook's hottest point was the area by the left-side vent, which rose to 108 degrees. That vent heat warmed lap after about an hour of couch-surfing, so users might want to keep the R840 on a desktop during continued use.