Toshiba brings first 128GB SSD notebook to US
updated 09:55 am EDT, Tue June 17, 2008
Toshiba R500 128GB SSD
A second announcement from Toshiba sees the US release of what it says is the first notebook with a 128GB solid-state drive. The Portégé R500-S5007V exploits the company's in-house 128GB drive to double the storage available in a very thin ultraportable while still keeping the incidental benefits of an SSD, such as very quick response times as well as the better battery life and skip-proof nature of flash memory. The system weighs just 2.4 pounds and maintains its earlier thickness of just 0.77 inches while keeping a built-in DVD drive -- the only notebook in the class to do so.
The R500 continues to rely on several other features that help keep older versions light and longer lasting; its 12-inch display is LED-lit and transflective, keeping it thin but reducing glare while outdoors; a 1.33GHz ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM give it just enough performance to run Windows Vista Business while netting about eight hours of battery life. Bluetooth, a fingerprint reader, and 802.11n Wi-Fi are also standard on the system, as are Ethernet and other features sometimes dropped from ultraportables.
Toshiba doesn't say whether the S5007V edition of the R500 is shipping today but gives the configuration a $2,999 price point.
