What we're really looking for is a reason to buy this over the cheaper, faster Zenbook. You can remove them, of course, but they shouldn't have been there in the first place. Like the games market, Amazon and eBay apps – they have no business on what is ostensibly a very sensible corporate machine, and give the Portege a slightly confused identity. Unless you count the incredible amount of pre-installed software, most of which simply raises the question: why? There are peculiar application choices. Yes, you can carry it in one hand, but there's very little on offer that an Ultrabook doesn't do better. You also have easier access to the underside for upgrades and changing the battery.īut despite its future-friendly Sandy Bridge CPU, the Toshiba leaves the distinct impression of being very 'last-gen' thin and light. It has a better screen, for example – there's a slight blue colour cast and an overly bright backlight, but these are both easy to tune out in the settings. There are some advantages to the Portégé. It's soft, it flexes to the touch and it doesn't feel like it offers much protection next to the deadly corners of the Zenbook. To make matters worse, the magnesium alloy with which Toshiba coats the Portégé R580-138 may help to keep the weight down, but you'd be forgiven it's a cheap plastic rather than a metallic shell. Where once 'thin' and 'light' commanded a premium in the market for their cleverly engineered heatsinks, the UX31 is an even lighter and – in some respects, like instant start up – more capable machine for a third less cash. The problem that Toshiba faces is the arrival of the Ultrabook, in this case a role played by Asus' Zenbook UX31.

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