Toshiba Satellite Z830-10U Pro Reviews

The Toshiba Satellite Z830-10U costs less than the Portégé Z830-10P and has better hardware specifications. Business users will have to swallow the difference though in order to get Windows 7 Professional. For anyone else, the Satellite is the best option of the two Toshibas this month.

With the Z830, Toshiba has created one of the lightest and most affordable Ultrabooks on the market, yet it’s packed with connectivity, sports a matt screen, and offers premium touches like a backlit keyboard. Unfortunately, its staid design limits its visual appeal compared to rivals, its keyboard doesn’t provide the best typing experience, and poor viewing angles let the 13.3in screen down badly. Like most Ultrabooks we’ve seen, it comes close, but no cigar.

The Satellite Pro Z830-10U is one of the best ultrabooks we've yet seen, and certain features, such as connectivity and touchpad usability, outshine all its rivals. However, there are still niggling issues such as build quality and excessive bloatware that mar the whole experience. This is certainly a great piece of kit from Toshiba, but it feels like an extra step onwards from the Portege rather than the completely different computing experience the Asus Zenbook provides. Extra pressure from evolving tablets such as the Asus Transformer Prime also gives us something to consider. We would rank the Toshiba Satellite Z830-10U as a great purchase, and higher than ultrabook competitors such as the Acer Aspire S3 and Lenovo Ideapad U400. But, ultimately, the ultrabook crown still belongs to the Asus Zenbook UX31.