Earlier in the week we told you that Toshiba had announced a cinemascope laptop called the U840W Ultrabook. We had some hands-on time with it so here are our thoughts.
At only 20.8mm thin and weighing just 1.814kg, the 36.6cm (14.4”) Satellite U840W is an ideal travel companion. Constructed with a premium brushed metal finish that is both striking and robust, a woven pattern adds additional grip on the chassis, while metal speaker grilles and display hinges complete the Satellite U840W’s elegant feel.
A large gesture control touchpad lets users intuitively swipe, pinch, zoom and scroll through documents, while integrated buttons maintain its clean, minimalist appearance. The matte-black tiled keyboard complements the overall look, aided by a backlight that illuminates each key for typing in low light conditions.
This really is the world’s first cinemascope 21:9 ratio display. You can watch movies the way they are shown at the cinema. The screen size is 14.4” and the resolution is actually 1792 x 768! You can get cinema visuals without the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.
Toshiba offer a split screen mode enabling you to have both a 16:9 area and also a 5:9 sidebar, meaning you can easily work in one area whilst having something like Twitter or any other application in the sidebar, so sort of your own two screen desktop layout.
Audio is provided by Harmon Kardon speakers and SRS Premium Sound 3D which sounds very good, and again, we were in a very noisy environment when we played with the U840W, so expect even better quality when using it somewhere less noisy!
There is even a backlit keyboard for using it in darker environments.
The casing looks very nice as well with a metal finish.
It is a little on the large size at 368.5 x 200 x 20.8mm, but it is also quite lightweight for it’s size at 1.57kg. I think calling it an Ultrabook might be pushing it a little, as when I think Ultrabook I think of something smaller than the U840W!
All in all it’s an interesting idea and one that might just pay off for Toshiba.
The U840W will be available during Q3 2012 with a starting price of £899.
So..Does it weigh 1.814kg or 1,57 kg? :-S