Toshiba Expands Ultra-Thin Laptop Portfolio

Toshiba is looking to push the adoption of slim machines after expanding its ultrathin laptop lineup to include new systems built upon Advanced Micro Devices’ dual-core Neo platform.

Toshiba’s Digital Products Division announced the new ultrathin laptops at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Toshiba news of its expanded Satellite T100 Series comes amid a host of notebook announcements from other OEMs, including Asus, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Acer’s Gateway unit.

The AMD Neo chip and accompanying ATI Radeon graphics technology are key parts of the new ultra-thin laptop lineup for Toshiba, according to company officials.

AMD introduced the Neo platform at CES in 2009, and rolled out a dual-core version later last year. The Neo platform is aimed at ultrathin laptops, which are slightly larger than the netbook systems that have grown in popularity in the wake of Intel’s release of its Atom processor in 2008.

The new Satellite T100 systems, which will be available from 17 January starting at $499.99 (£312.74), are aimed at giving users performance and multimedia capabilities at an affordable price, a balance that has helped drive the adoption of ultrathin devices.

“The emergence of the low-cost ultrathin category has quickly proven that consumers do not need to give up performance for mobility,” Carl Pinto, vice president of product development for Toshiba’s Digital Products Division, said in a statement.

The new Satellite T100 laptops, which are less than an inch thick and weigh less than four pounds, come with a host of features, including a full-size keyboard, a built-in webcam with face recognition technology and Microsoft’s Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.

They offer hard drives of up to 320GB, up to 4GB of memory and several expansion ports. Some models also have built-in Wireless-N Wi-Fi capabilities and Bluetooth technology.

The Satellite T135D, powered by AMD’s Turion Neo X2, Athlon Neo X2 or Athlon Neo MV-40 chips, will come with a 13.3-inch screen.

The T115D, with the Athlon Neo X2 or Neo MV-40 chip, will have an 11.6-inch screen.

The systems also will come with Toshiba’s Media Controller software pre-installed. The technology is designed to make it easier for users to share content – including files, photos and streamed music and video – throughout a wireless home network of Windows PCs and Windows 7-compatible devices.