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13" rMBP has its first competitor: the Toshiba Kirabook

pgiguere1

pgiguere1

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 28, 2009
2,172
1,247
Montreal, Canada
Toshiba just announced the Kirabook, the first 13" ultrabook with specs that ressemble those of the 13" rMBP.

Specs:

1.7 GHz dual-core Core i5 (that's ULV, like in the MacBook Air)
2,560 x 1,440 13.3" display (16:9, 221 ppi)
8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
256GB SSD
Intel HD 4000 graphics
Magnesium alloy + plastic, 0.7" thick body

This configuration is $1599, but you can configure it up to $1,999 with a 2.0 GHz Core i7 processor and optional touch display.

There is no information about battery life.

toshiba_kira.jpg


I presume the high price tag and weird launch date (May 12th, right before Haswell) mean this will have very low sales, but it's still nice to see the first Windows OEM to push a HiDPI display.

source

For comparison, the 13" rMBP has:

2.5 GHz dual-core Core i5
2,560 x 1,600 13.3" display (16:10, 227 ppi)
8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
128GB SSD
Intel HD 4000 graphics
Aluminum, 0.75" thick body
$1,499

________________________________

EDIT:

The Verge just got to test the Kirabook, here's what they add:

- It's impressively thin and light
- The screen has bad viewing angles
- The hinge is still a bit wobbly
- The plastic feals cheap
- It comes with a software made by Toshiba to make Windows text bigger, but leaves the rest of the UI like buttons the same size
- Toshiba justifies the high price tag partly due to the fact that they have a separate 24/7 phone support team dedicated to Kirabook owners that they call "Geniuses".

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4...abook-takes-on-the-macbook-air-and-pro-all-at
 
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So inferior CPU and display (slightly), and arguably an inferior design for more money?

Not to mention how much I hate Winduhs 8, Ill pass.

And is it a competitor, meaning Apple will take it seriously and reduce price (again) or more than marginally improve hardware on the 13" rMBP? Let's not kid ourselves.
 
Agreed on build quality. There is a certain amount of value that goes along with build quality. Toshiba's are historically known for poor build quality, yet the pricing of this new model certainly doesn't reflect that. They should be selling it for $999 after taking that into account.
 
While I wouldn't buy that Toshiba either, I gotta agree with the OP that even just having another company embracing HiDPI displays is a good thing in itself. Maybe we'll see hi res external displays soon?
 
next, please! it seems very bad.... and an ilv processor for that price is even worse!
 
duervo said:
Agreed on build quality. There is a certain amount of value that goes along with build quality. Toshiba's are historically known for poor build quality, yet the pricing of this new model certainly doesn't reflect that. They should be selling it for $999 after taking that into account.
Click to expand...

srsub3 said:
next, please! it seems very bad.... and an ilv processor for that price is even worse!
Click to expand...

Both of you should take into account that this is probably list price. Look at the site of one of the other oems. It will say started at then the actual price they charge on the site. It may be available pretty quickly for less than the stated amount. I don't have any real experience with Toshiba, so I won't comment on quality.
 
If that were made by Lenovo I'd buy one just to compare the two.

Toshiba? I've seen about a dozen too many A/C plug sockets snapped right off the motherboard in the course of normal use to ever buy one. The benefits of experience from working in the industry...
 
thekev said:
Both of you should take into account that this is probably list price. Look at the site of one of the other oems. It will say started at then the actual price they charge on the site. It may be available pretty quickly for less than the stated amount. I don't have any real experience with Toshiba, so I won't comment on quality.
Click to expand...

And don't forget it has a 2x larger SSD by default. Meaning you can actually use the base model for work and play without having to go buy an external drive.
 
AFAICT, this is the first laptop with a Retina-grade display to ship with Windows and represents an important step forward in the adoption of hiDPI computing.

Only with more of these computers on the market will Microsoft/others fix their hiDPI bugs, and only with a relatively bug-free experience will demand for hiDPI desktop screens increase.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
And don't forget it has a 2x larger SSD by default. Meaning you can actually use the base model for work and play without having to go buy an external drive.
Click to expand...

I forgot the 13" started with a 128. The 15" which debuted earlier, came with a 256, so I tend to remember that. I prefer a 512:cool:.

mm201 said:
AFAICT, this is the first laptop with a Retina-grade display to ship with Windows and represents an important step forward in the adoption of hiDPI computing.

Only with more of these computers on the market will Microsoft/others fix their hiDPI bugs, and only with a relatively bug-free experience will demand for hiDPI desktop screens increase.
Click to expand...

This is a slight nitpick, but you won't see any labeled "retina-grade" as it's a trademark rather than a standard.
 
Nice to see other manufactures getting involved in the hi res race. Funnily enough I came to mac from a toshiba that broke on me for the 4th time lol
 
On the plus side: Display and harman kardon speakers. No MacOS......nope!:D
Nice try tough
 
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Toshibas are crap. Had a relative finally see that HP was crap, after the numerous issues with her HP laptops, she thought toshiba would be better - nope. Now the hard drive is clicking after just a year of use, and display is starting to have issues. She got nice "specs" for an excellent price, but the laptop itself is crap. People only realize that there is more to the price of a laptop than just specs, until they experience it. Now that relative doesn't think Macs are overpriced any more.

Anyway, competition is good, so that us mac users get a nice price drop on our macs.
 
The Verge just got to test the Kirabook, here's what they add:

- It's impressively thin and light
- The screen has bad viewing angles
- The hinge is still a bit wobbly
- The plastic feals cheap
- It comes with a software made by Toshiba to make Windows text bigger, but leaves the rest of the UI like buttons the same size
- Toshiba justifies the high price tag partly due to the fact that they have a separate 24/7 phone support team dedicated to Kirabook owners that they call "Geniuses".

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4...abook-takes-on-the-macbook-air-and-pro-all-at
 
It is funny these days Toshibas are said to be low quality, a few years ago their laptops were the best in class. (Satellite Series if remember correctly)
 
fskywalker said:
It is funny these days Toshibas are said to be low quality, a few years ago their laptops were the best in class. (Satellite Series if remember correctly)
Click to expand...

My sister always purchased Toshibas and was relatively happy with it. Based on that, my wife and I both purchased Toshibas.

2-3 years after I purchased mine (Last of the Core2Duo releases, advanced specs for the time), it would heat up to the point of shutting down when doing nothing but web browsing. Cleaning the innards and fans and completely reinstalling the OS and drivers did nothing to resolve the issue. A cooling pad only helped a little bit but not enough to make any real difference.

3 years after my wife purchased hers (first gen i3 release, mid specs for the time), it's still moving along but having similar issues with significant slow down. Again, reinstalling the OS hasn't helped. While it still works, it's nowhere near functioning at the same level as the first year of ownership. The kids use it now for schoolwork, light misc. stuff.

I replaced with a Macbook air 13" and she, with an advanced level BTO HP 17" (About a year old now). She is still rocking her HP and seems fine with it.

I kept my Macbook air 13" for a while and got tired of the small display and started experimenting with different Macbook 15"ers. Have finally settled with my MBPr 15".

Neither of us will consider a Toshiba going forward. Both of our Toshiba's felt like heavy plastic toys and we felt lucky they worked well enough for as long as they did. That last year with both of the laptops was kind of character building.

Of course, having said all this, I'm crossing my fingers that my MBPr doesn't develop issues a year down the road, too. However, if it does, I take comfort in the fact I have someplace to take it to. My wife's HP seems fine a year later, but we'll see what happens with it later this year and next.
 
thekev said:
This is a slight nitpick, but you won't see any labeled "retina-grade" as it's a trademark rather than a standard.
Click to expand...
That's why I say "retina-grade" or "retina-esque." It's not technical but it avoids confusion.

pgiguere1 said:
- It comes with a software made by Toshiba to make Windows text bigger, but leaves the rest of the UI like buttons the same size
Click to expand...
How could they have managed to screw that one up? I've been using Windows's built-in DPI scaling on my rMBP since day one and it scales the whole interface just fine.

I'm just happy to see more progress being made on the whole hidpi chicken-egg problem.
 
fskywalker said:
It is funny these days Toshibas are said to be low quality, a few years ago their laptops were the best in class. (Satellite Series if remember correctly)
Click to expand...

people mix enterprise class quality with consumer lvl ones, its like saying that hp is crap without having even touched an elitebook, their enterprise class is good, their consumer class isnt. I really hope that all OEMs start to focus again on the consumer lvl to raise the quality, razor thin margins are still razor thin margins while you are there you dont gain consumer awareness, you lose it, because your quality is so low that people start to refuse buying that and go to another brand. Basically the strategy is to shuffle between companies in that cut throat market to see if they changed anything, they havent.

The raising of the quality in their notebooks is something that you can see happening wide in some brands and nothing at all in others. Even acer started the shift, asus is trying to to, but failing in Q&A and engineering dept, dell is trying to shift the focus... And there are companies that dont know what to do, and are pushing back from their move to stay or to go towards better pcs, like sony that is devolving or HP that is lost in the fire of inefficiency and lack of direction

apple pcs are nothing special, they are in the prosumer lvl, they arent enterprise class in any sense
 
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