Toshiba Port�g� R830: Arguably Better Than an Ultrabook

"There was a time when Toshiba's line of Portégé business ultraportables was the epitome of sleek utility, particularly in the days of the R500 and R600. Samsung stole some of that show when it released the Series 9 (reviewed here)-the closest a PC has come to a MacBook Air to date. But while the Portégé R830, much like the R700 before it, won't win any design contests, it offers many useful amenities in a very-portable package."

At slightly over 3-pounds and about an inch thick, the R830 (at $1,650) has a faster processor than the Samsung Series 9 and is better performing at most benchmarks. It ships with 4GB RAM, and is upgradable, but the 128GB SSD has a proprietary connector, so it isn't upgradable (yet). One odd configuration blip is that the R830 ships with a 32-bit version of Windows 7 Professional, losing 1GB of memory. The 64-bit version (upgrade) is recommended. The R830 ships with USB 3.0, eSata, and an optical drive, with 7-hour battery runtime. A great road warrior laptop!