We're seeing more and more Chromebooks making their way onto the market and the CB30-102 is the first from Toshiba. With its lightweight chassis, Intel Celeron processor and 13.3-inch HD screen, can it deliver the goods it promises?The Chromebook concept hasn't yet quite caught on yet in the UK. The myth persists that it needs an internet connection to be able to operate though this isn't quite true. You can download and work on Google Docs offline, then sync them up netzteil toshiba cb30when you're next online, but it's correct that with its internet-based operating system, it works most effectively when you have a fast internet connection. As such, it tends to work better as a low-cost second laptop around the house, for the kitchen or the kids perhaps. The fact that they tend to be relatively low-priced helps in this regard too.
They're starting to look more and more like mainstream laptops. For its first Chromebook, Toshiba skipped past the common 11-inch design and headed straight for a roomier 13-inch display. This $279 laptop boasts a colorful screen large enough for productivity and entertainment and impressively long battery life. Add in powerful speakers and you have an excellent value for those willing to leave Windows behind.toshiba cb35-a3210 netzteilThe Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook reminds us of a low-cost MacBook Air. Its plastic silver exterior is encased in a textured material that makes it easy to grip. Upon opening the Chromebook, you'll see with a smoother metallic design that blankets the entire keyboard deck and display bezel.
The Chrome OS operating system that runs on this Chromebook bears few similarities to the Windows or Mac environments you might be familiar with. Essentially, you will be inside a Chrome Web browser for the entire time that you use this notebook, and you won't be able to install any applications apart from the ones that you find in the Chrome Store. Basically, if you're a after a traditional laptop experience,toshiba chromebook 2 cb35 series netzteil a Chromebook isn't for you.You need to be a heavy user of Google's services, or at least have only simple needs from a laptop, such as browsing the Web, watching YouTube, and using Web-based email and social media, in order to get the most out of this (and any other) Chromebook. You will have a great overall experience if you already use Google's services on an everyday basis; things like Gmail, Drive, and Docs are what this notebook is built for.You can use it for streaming video, local video file playback (MP4 filles play without any problems), listening to music, and viewing photos. But, primarily, it's Web-based tasks that are best suited to this Chromebook,netzteil toshiba cb30-102 and you will need a Wi-Fi connection to facilitate those tasks.Visit our review of the Acer C720 Chromebook to read more about what Chrome OS offers.
With plenty of affordable Chromebooks on the market right now from companies like Samsung and Acer, it's easy to overlook something like Toshiba's first Chromebook, which bumps up the display size to 13 inches and gives you solid performance while still maintaining a lower price. You normally don't expect a lot of design pizzazz from a laptop costing less than $300, but TechRadar says thattoshiba cb35-a3210 netzteil Toshiba's model "stands out among the largely drab" lineup of Chromebooks. The downside is the plastic construction that CNET says may "suffer from occasional creakiness." The use of plastic does make it very light though, and PC World says it's "very easy to tote." The 13-inch display comes with a resolution of 1366 x 768, and while Laptop Magazine says it offers "crisp and colorful images," viewing angles are an issue and Computer Shopper finds them "fair." Performance-wise it's decent, with PC Advisor saying it "feels responsive ... with less pauses and checkboarding when opening image-heavy sites than on some other models." And it has the battery life to match, with GigaOm saying it "excels" in that department. If you've been wanting a Chromebook with a bigger display, look no further than Toshiba's first effort. That sub-$300 price does mean a few trade-offs in build and display resolution, but if you just need a secondary laptop to browse the web you really can't go wrong here.
While Chrome OS is the main feature of the CB30 Chromebook, the hardware shouldn't be overlooked. The body has a clean and elegant styling that makes it stand out, and it offers ports and slots that will come in handy when you want to tap in to external storage and display devices. toshiba satellite click 2 l30w-b netzteilThe CB30 features two USB 3.0 ports, a full-sized HDMI port, a headset port, and a full-sized SD card slot (cards fit all the way inside it). A part of the reason for the good offering of ports is the 13in form factor, which provides plenty of room along the sides without compromising sturdiness and looks. With the lid closed, the CB30 is around 20mm thick.The build quality is strong enough considering the low-cost nature of the unit. It's constructed out of plastic (polycarbonate resin) rather than metal, both to keep the cost down and to keep the weight manageable. It tipped our digital scales at 1.49kg, and it's a notebook that feels well balanced when it's being carried around or rested on your lap. In fact, the balance is so good, we could open the lid with one hand without the base lifting up off the table.
The base feels sturdy overall, though we did experience a problem with the touchpad's left-click button. It's a button that's located beneath the surface of the pad, and the pad sometimes felt like it was getting caught on something when it was pressed - it didn't happen all the time, which suggests that the problem was caused by certain movements or pressing a little too high up on the pad. The lid is quite flexible, and lots of puddling was present on the screen when we applied the slightest bit of pressure from the back.We like the textured finish that's present on the lid and base, which makes the Chromebook easy to pick up and carry around, and it's a far cry from the glossiness that we saw in the previous Chromebook we reviewed, toshiba satellite click 2 pro p30w-b netzteilHP's Chromebook 11. Furthermore, it won't end up looking smudged after prolonged usage. A Chrome logo resides at the top-left of the lid, while the bottom-left has a familiar chrome-finished (funnily enough) Toshiba branding.
The Toshiba Chromebook's 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 pixel display offers crisp and colorful images. When watching a trailer for "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," the red in Peter Parker's spidey suit looked vibrant, as did Electro's luminous radioactive blue body.Viewing angles were sufficient for crowding your friends around the screen to view videos.toshiba satellite l30w-bst2n23 netzteil However, the display became dimmer the more we turned it at a right angle to our face.At 183 lux, the Toshiba Chromebook's display is less bright than the 251 ultraportable category average, but it still outshines the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook (143 lux) and the Acer C720P Chromebook (161 lux).For a notebook of its price, the Toshiba Chromebook's audio surpasses expectations. Listening to mellow songs such as "Simple Song" by The Shins was pleasant, and we clearly heard the singer's soft vocals, guitars churning in the background and sifting melodies. Rougher tunes such as "Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins still sounded clear and defined, but were slightly fuzzy during heavier parts like the chorus. Still, we were pleasantly surprised by the Toshiba Chromebook's full-bodied sound.toshiba satellite l30w-b-10d netzteilThe Toshiba Chromebook can pump out boisterous sound. The notebook reached a blaring 94 decibels LAPTOP Audio Test, which is far above the 85-decibel ultraportable category average and the Acer C720P Chromebook (91 dB).
The Chromebook's island-style keyboard is spacious, giving typists more real estate versus the layouts you'll find on smaller 11-inch Chromebooks. We also didn't notice much flex. However, key travel was shallower than we'd like. As a result, we typed 53.98 words per minute with 98.43 percent accuracy using the Typing Test KeyHero challenge. That's a bit slower than our 62 WPM personal average speed on a desktop computer.Like all notebooks powered by Google's OS, the keyboard features a dedicated row of keys for specific commands. This makes it easy to navigate back and forward within a browser, refresh the Web page, enter full screen mode, and adjust display brightness (among other tasks) with just a single keystroke.toshiba satellite p30w-b-10d netzteilThe Toshiba Chromebook's 4 x 3.75-inch touchpad is the perfect size for its keyboard deck. Using the touchpad, gestures such as two-finger scrolling and pinching to zoom were a breeze. We also appreciated the tactile feedback of the touchpad's click buttons.
We also like the keyboard on this Chromebook and think it's fine for long sessions of typing. The keys are full-sized (except for the arrows and Chrome-specific function keys), and while they don't possess a lot of travel, they are soft to hit and nicely responsive. You might have to get used to the lack of a Delete key, which is a key that isn't part of the toshiba satellite p30w-b-108 netzteilChromebook keyboard spec; in its place is a power key, which, when pressed accidentally, causes the screen to pulse. You have to keep it pressed a couple of seconds in order to log out of Chrome OS, and a little longer to switch off the laptop. Function keys across the top allow you to change volume, brightness and navigate browser windows.
The touchpad is 103x69mm, so it's quite large, and it supports the usual gestures. You can perform two-finger scrolling, three-finger tab switching, two-finger swipes (long ones) for going backwards and forwards on a Web site, and two-finger taps for right-clicking (there is no physical right-click switch, only a left-click). Its tracking was fine during our tests, and all of the gestures worked as expected. We miss the ability to double-tap-and-drag, though. We also think that the pad should be centred according to the space bar, rather than according to the width of the chassis.Speakers are located on the underside of the chassis on either side. They are decent speakers considering how small they are, but their location makes them too easy to block. Sound will often be muddled when you listen while using the CB30 in your lap or on other soft surfaces. netzteil p30w-bst2n22HP's Chromebook 11, has speakers that fire up through the keyboard. We think that's a much better implementation for audio on a small laptop such as a Chromebook.
As for the screen, it's not great. It has a resolution of 1366x768, which is standard, but it's a very glossy screen and we found reflections to be annoying, especially in the office. It's not an IPS panel, which means that the viewing angles are narrow and you might have to adjust the tilt and rotation often while you work. The screen also seemed to struggle when displaying photos with lots of fine colour gradients, and it accentuated flaws in compressed videos (especially in scenes with lots of black).You get dual-band Wi-Fi, and also Bluetooth 4.0. We had success streaming Google Play Music tracks over Bluetooth to a Parrot Zikmu Solo speaker. The music streamed without stuttering, even while we continued to browse heavy sites such as Flickr. We experienced one or two pauses while the music caught up, but these were rare. Basically, it's a good unit if you want to listen to your Google Play Music library over Bluetooth;pa5192e-1ac3 ac adapter not all Chromebooks can perform this task successfully.
Toshiba's Chromebook can keep its cool under pressure. After streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes, we measured a temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit on its touchpad and 86 degrees both between the G&H keys and on its underside. All are well below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.chromebook cb30 ac adapterThe notebook's 720p camera snapped clear and colorful images. When taking a selfie, we appreciate the level of detail in the roses on our dress and the red tint in our hair. There was a small amount of noise and pixelation in the image, especially in our face, but the photo was generally clear.The Toshiba Chromebook comes with all the ports you need to get work done and transfer files. On the right side, you'll find a headphone jack, two USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI-out port. The left side houses an SD Card slot, a port for its charger and a lock slot.
An important aspect of Toshiba's CB30 Chromebook is the dual-core, Haswell-based Intel Celeron processor that is housed in its slim chassis. It's a CPU that's surrounded by 2GB of DDR3L (low voltage) SDRAM and a 16GB solid state drive (100GB of online Google Drive storage is also provided, free for two years), and it can supply performance that is quick for intense Web browsing sessions and streaming media. In the Sunspider Javascript test, the Toshiba recorded a time of 462ms,chromebook 2 cb35 ac adapter which is slower than what the Acer C720 got in the same test (355ms), but the Toshiba was faster in the Peacekeeper Web browser test, recording a mark of 2876 compared to the Acer's 2806. The HP Chromebook 11, with its Samsung Exynos processor, recorded 595ms in Sunspider, and 1041 in Peacekeeper.You can easily use this Chromebook as a device for running Web-based video content on your big-screen TV, and we did just that when we fired up good old NBA League Pass for our tests. The streaming basketball games that we watch through this service can drop frames noticeably if the performance of a device isn't up to scratch, and we're happy to report that the CB30 offered a smooth experience, both when we watched on the laptop, and when we set up a Full HD television as a second screen. Furthermore, YouTube content was smooth up to 1080p.
Since this is a Chromebook and not a regular Windows laptop, it's not capable seeing other PCs on your home network and playing content off them. Instead, you will have to make video watchable through the Chrome Web browser. You can do this either by using a program such as Emit Web Player, which runs as a server on the computer with your media on it and does all the legwork for streaming content to you Chrome Web browser, or you could use atoshiba cb35-b3340 charger network attached storage (NAS) device with a built-in media streamer to access all your content. We used an Asustor NAS with the Plex media centre plug-in, which served up videos to our Chromebook without any problems. That said, the screen on this Chromebook doesn't provide an enjoyable experience for watching movies.Battery life is decent enough. In our rundown test, in which we maximise screen brightness, stay connected to a Wi-Fi network and loop a locally-stored video file, the CB30 lasted 5hr 40min. It's not as long as the Acer C720 in the same test (6hr 24min), though that model has a slightly smaller screen. How much life you get out of it will depend on the screen brightness you use and the amount of heavy Web browsing you do.
If the Toshiba Chromebook CB30 had a better screen, it would be a slam dunk product. It's just too glossy and doesn't have enough contrast and definition. That said, the rest of the laptop is very good. We think it's one of the best Chromebooks to be released so far, mainly for its performance, style, and the ports and slots that it supplies.