Toshiba Portege A100 P-M

First impressions are hard to shake, and as much as we'd like to deny it, a device's look can really sway our buying choice. The A100 therefore got into our good books very quickly: it's a fine-looking notebook, all clad in silver and Apple-esque pearlescent white plastic.

It's a sturdy beast too, as unlike so many Apple wannabes, the thick plastic casing feels very secure. Its dimensions mark it as a good travelling companion too. Coming in at a comparatively lowly 2.2kg, it slips easily into a bag and won't be too much of a strain on the shoulders.

With its clamshell case open, the Toshiba continued to impress. The blight blue light around the 'on' switch is a nice touch, for example. It's also informative - if the machine goes into power-saving hibernation, the light glows green; when it's in standby mode, red.

The keyboard has good-sized keys that are generously spaced and with a good amount of travel. The wristrest area of the chassis is perfectly contoured and positioned to foster comfortable typing. Our only reservation was that over a lifetime of being tapped by grubby fingers, the white keys might begin to look rather unsightly.

You wouldn't want to spend too long typing with this on your lap either, as the machine's base gets very hot when using mains power. Toshiba is aware of this problem, to the extent that a sticker on its underside warns you to avoid 'prolonged exposure to bare skin'.

The Toshiba's display has a 12.1in diagonal and a native resolution of 1,024 x 768. For detailed and comparatively static tasks like word-processing and spreadsheet work, the screen was excellent. It was crisp, sharp, detailed and had a wide viewing angle. There were very few complaints when playing a DVD on the included combo drive either; drama and action were played out with little or no blurring and there were few distracting artefacts.

On the outside, all the essential connectors, ports and sockets are present. The machine has four USB 2 ports, leaving plenty of options to expand. We doubt you'd feel the need to plug in a mouse, though, as the touchpad is of good quality, if a little small. There's also an SD card slot, TV-out and FireWire.

Unfortunately, performance is less impressive. As graphics are handled by an Intel 855GM Extreme Graphics chipset, as opposed to an offering from ATi or nVidia, it's no gaming machine, as testified by a 3DMark2001 SE score of 1,828. The A100's 2D performance is good but unexceptional, scoring 0.97 in our real-world tests. By means of comparison, the Labs-winning Dell Inspiron 510m scored 1.36 and costs just £849.

Where the Portege wins by a mile is portability: it's a notable 0.6kg lighter than the Dell. If this is your priority, and you like its Apple-esque looks, the A100 is a fine choice.

Author: Martin Cooper