MELBOURNE: An ultrabook or hybrid? If you’re buying a notebook, you might be having this conversation: “Do I want a dedicated ultrabook or a pull-apart that also gives me a tablet?”
So we’ve looked at a newcomer in each category. Lauded by some as a Windows ultrabook worthy of challenging Apple’s MacBook Air, Dell’s XPS 13 is light and attractive, with a thin bezel, bright screen and comfortable keyboard.
Toshiba has released its Protege Z20t hybrid. DisACconnect the keyboard and you have a usable Windows 8 tablet. The Z20t also features lots of ports and connectivity options, and extremely long battery life.
So which way will you go?
Toshiba Protege Z20t
WE are generally lukewarm about hybrids. But we’ve grown to like the Protege Z20t, a Windows 8.1 Pro hybrid with a lower powered Intel Core M-series processor and some clever features.
Like some of the Asus Transformers, the Z20t has a second battery in the detachable keyboard that doubles battery life. That means lots of extra juice given the Z20t has a low-energy Core M 5Y71 Broadwell chip set.
What’s clever is the way the Z20t charges and discharges power. When you connect the charger, the Z20t mostly juices-up the tablet’s battery before charging the keyboard one.
So if you disconnect the keyboard, the tablet section is more likely ready to go. Likewise, it discharges the battery attached to the keyboard first so that tablet juice is retained longer.
With the keyboard connected, the battery lasted 13.5 hours when continuous playing video at 75 per cent brightness. That’s enough for watching soapies on a flight all the way from Sydney to Los Angeles.
Cinebench 11.5 tests returned OpenGL and CPU ratings of 16.07 frames per second and 12.93 pts, which is hardly stellar, but the saving grace is that this is a business rather than gaming computer.
The Z20t has four modes: standard ultrabook and tablet modes, a display mode when you reverse the display, and a tent mode: an inverted V. The first three modes were fine, but in tent mode, text tended to be upside down. I got it to work but the screen had to be virtually vertical in tent mode.
You attach the display to two latches on the keyboard. The latches lock, so the tablet part doesn’t detach inadvertently.
There’s a generous smattering of ports on the Z20t. The tablet section has micro SD, micro USB 2.0, micro HDMI connectors and cameras front and rear. Attaching the keyboard adds two full USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit ethernet, a full HDMI port and VGA.
The 12.5-inch touch display has a matt finish; they tend to look a fraction less sharp than glossy ones, but offer less glare and fingerprint smudges. It’s full HD: 1920 x 1080 — 16:9 aspect ratio, which is common for Windows tablets. You also get a digitiser pen.
The keyboard is backlit and comfortable to use, and weightwise the hybrid is comfortably light but not the lightest in market, with the combined weight of 1.51kg. The tablet alone weighs 799g. For comparison, a 13-inch MacBook Air weighs 1.35kg and a 10-inch iPad up to 478g.
At $2000, the Z20t is pricey, and it’s up against a wealth of competition in the hybrid space.
It’s available through Toshiba-authorised business resellers.
