Toshiba Tecra R10-S4401

Lightweight, well-built, and offering plenty of performance, the Toshiba Tecra R10-S4401 is a well-rounded business machine with enough punch for plowing through spreadsheets or even through enemies on the digital battlefield. This $1,549 notebook also offers a helpful PC Health Monitor utility for anticipating problems and suggesting tune-ups. This is in addition to the hard drive protection, spill-resistant keyboard, and security features Toshiba typically offers on the Tecra line. The LED-backlit display and keyboard could be better, but overall the Tecra R10-S4401 is a good choice for business users on the go.

Design

Measuring 13.3 x 9.9 x 1.1 inches and weighing 4.3 pounds, the Tecra R10-S4401 matches the Samsung X460-44P almost inch for inch and pound for pound. Its all-silver magnesium case isn’t as attractive as the Samsung’s black and red aesthetic, but this notebook offers a solid body that feels surprisingly light but sturdy.

The comfortable, well-spaced keyboard made typing a breeze, but the small touchpad and shallow mouse buttons will have you reaching for a wireless mouse. We also noticed that the keyboard layout exhibited more flex than we’d like. A fingerprint reader helps keep private information away from prying eyes, and two buttons (Toshiba Assist and Windows Mobility Center) allowed us to access and tweak system parameters quickly.

Display and Audio

Streaming Hulu episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia looked clear and crisp on the 14.1-inch (1280 x 800-pixel) backlit LED display. Some may find this resolution a bit low considering that a number of 14-inch systems (like the Lenovo ThinkPad T400) feature 1440 x 900-pixel panels, which makes it easier to view open documents side by side. We liked the wide viewing angles, but tilting the R10’s lid forward even slightly began to wash out the visuals (a gripe that we also had with the Toshiba Portégé R500).

Music streamed from Slacker was clear, but the stereo speakers located above the keyboard didn’t crank out loud sound when we turned the old-school volume wheel to its highest level. As with many business notebooks, the R10-S4401 lacks a strong bottom end for replicating bass and other low-frequency sounds. A 3-megapixel webcam and mic are embedded into the bezel above the display for videochatting, which provided respectable (if somewhat washed out) visuals in our office environment.

Ports and Connections

On the right side of the Tecra R10-S4401 you’ll find an Ethernet jack, one USB 2.0 port, a Wi-Fi on/off switch, an ExpressCard slot, and the 8X optical drive. On the left are headphone and microphone jacks, a volume wheel, a VGA port, the second USB port, and an eSATA port that doubles as another USB port that boasts Toshiba’s Sleep-and-Charge technology (this lets you charge USB devices whether the PC is on, off, or in hibernation or sleep modes).

The back of the system is completely free of connections (which prevents users from having to reach around to the back of the machine to plug in devices), and the front of the machine contains a memory card slot that only supports the SD format. A dock connector is located on the bottom of the Tecra R10-S4401.