r800

Toshiba's Editors' Choice Portege R835 available for even less

As it is an excellent update to last year's Toshiba Portege R705 (one of the most popular laptops we reviewed in 2010), it's no surprise we also liked the new Portege R835 model. We just reviewed the $929 R835-P56X, with a fast Intel Core i5 CPU and outstanding battery life, and awarded it a very rare Editors' Choice designation.

And now, just as it did with the R705, retailer Best Buy has just put an exclusive version of the R835 on sale at a steeply discounted price. The Portege R835-P50X is $749 at Best Buy, while Toshiba lists … Read more

Toshiba's R800 series priced; sequel to one of our favorite laptops

One of our favorite laptops in recent memory (and giving rise to one of the most popular laptop reviews we published last year) was the Toshiba R705. This slim 13-inch laptop packed in tons of features and decent performance, all for around $800, and was one of the best Windows-based alternatives for those who like the general size and shape of MacBooks but need a Windows machine.

But with the first few rounds of laptops featuring Intel's second-gen Core i-series processors hitting stores, the R700 series is a bit behind the times.

Toshiba has mentioned the next version, the R800, a few times, but specs, prices, and actual availability information have been sketchy. Now detailed specs and prices are up on Toshiba's Web site (we spotted these via Engadget), and they run from the $889 Intel Core i3-2310M Portege R835-P50X to the $930 R835-P56X, which has a Core i5-2410M processor. All four models have 640GB hard drives and USB 3.0 ports.… Read more

Toshiba adds Sandy Bridge to the Portege R800

Sandy Bridge processors in laptops still haven't been seen yet, but we can start putting together a wish list of laptops we'd most like to see with the updated Intel Core i-series CPUs. The Toshiba Portege R instantly rises to the top of that list. The Portege R705 was one of our top-rated laptops of 2010, and at MWC in Barcelona, Spain, Toshiba has unveiled the next generation of these laptops, the R800 series.

The Portege R830, as it's being called in Europe, corresponds directly with the 13-inch R700 line we loved so much. The big changes come under the hood: the Sandy Bridge CPUs should add greatly improved integrated graphics, a missing feature in the R700 line. In addition, a newly engineered air-flow cooling system detailed by Toshiba could help run operations with a little less heat. … Read more

A tale of two Delves

During its touch-screen phone marathon this autumn, Samsung left almost no carrier untouched. And that includes both U.S. Cellular and Alltel. Instead of the Behold, the Omnia, or the Eternity, both carriers opted for the Samsung Delve instead.

From the outside, both the Alltel Delve and the U.S. Cellular Delve look a lot like their touch-screen counterparts. They show some unique physical aspects, but front and center on both devices is an expansive touch screen with a vibrant resolution and a responsive TouchWiz interface.

Both handsets offer solid mid-range feature sets that center on multimedia. You'll find … Read more

Alltel delves into the touch-screen phone game

Alltel is the winner of a new touch-screen phone from Samsung. The Samsung Delve, aka the r800, offers a thin candy bar design with an expansive touch screen and few physical keys. It shares some of the characteristics of both the Samsung Omnia and Instinct, but it shows its own unique design touches such as a tapered bottom and silver Talk and End buttons.

Features include a 2-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headset jack, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, a microSD card slot, EV-DO 3G support, Bluetooth with a stereo profile, a speakerphone, a virtual QWERTY keyboard, a 500-contact phone book, … Read more