Toshiba Satellite W30Dt-A-100 Pro Reviews

Toshiba has bitten off more than it can chew: the ads claiming that the new W30Dt is a "High Performance tablet" with "true Power" and "Top Performance" have no basis. A quick look at the hardware performance reveals tha the A4-1200 of our test model is at the level of an Intel Cloverview Atom. The new quad-core Bay Trail is far more powerful in terms of performance per watt. As such, this model is suited for users who are willing to accept the bad with the good: if they can, then watching movies, playing online games, or writing mails are all comfortably possible on the W30Dt. Older games, which have been released as DRM and often cost less than 5 Euros, should run without issues. The Satellite W30Dt may have issues, but it is not a bad device. It does not claim to be a slim model and its solid chassis will allow it to withstand quite a bit of abuse, especially at the hands of excited children. The heavy display hinge and the resistant aluminium cover are further pros of the model. The ports on the device are quite good and offer good connectivity. USB 3.0 is provided on the docking keyboard and the tablet houses USB 2.0 and HDMI. The 500 GB HDD will be really useful and it is protected by a fall sensor. The input devices are far from perfect: they (especially the keyboard) lack clear feedback. The same applies to the display, which may be an IPS panel but the contrast is modest at best. Competitors do not exist at this price (669 Euros) in the 13.3 inch format. We took a look the stronger HP Split x2 (13 inch, roughly 900 Euros) and the Transformer Book T100TA-C1-GR (10 inch, 470 Euros with a 500 GB HDD in the dock). The Split x2 is suited for those users who want the performance of a subnotebook and want to do more than watch movies, write mails and play old games. The Transformer-Book is also quite fast and offers a docking keyboard. Its Intel Atom Z3740 is fast and is more efficient than the A4-1200 APU of our Satellite W30Dt.