Toshiba’s MacBook Air-beating R500

Toshiba’s Portege R500 lappy is lighter than the MacBook Air, and comes packed with all the goodies Apple left out of their ultra-portable.

It’s like having your cake, and wolfing it down at the same time!

The lowdown
There’s no denying Apple’s MacBook Air is gorgeous, but there’re a lot of sacrifices to be made in the name of fruit-flavoured fashion. Unless you plump for Toshiba’s tasty ultra-portable. It’s like the Air on steroids.

Inside is a powerful processor, 120GB hard drive and a DVD burner, beating the MacBook on every level.

On the downside, the screen’s a little smaller than the Air at 12.1 inches to Apple’s 13, but there’ also the option of having a 3G modem built in, making the Toshiba more useful on the road. Oh, and there’s more than one USB port here too.

Top talents
DVD drive - Sadly lacking from Apple’s skinny laptop, the R500 will spin discs without any extra add-ons or fancy network drives, so watching films and installing software is a cinch.

Hard drive – The R500’s 120GB hard drive is 50% larger than the MacBook Air’s standard-issue 80GB. That means more space to save files and install applications. There’s also the option for a shock-resistant flash alternative.

Weight – Toshiba’s laptop weighs in at 999g, compared to the MacBook Air’s 1.36kg. That’s including its built in optical drive and, ahem, extra USB ports.

Toshiba Portege R500 Laptop £1,237.10 on 26 February 2008.

Closest rivals
Apple MacBook Air – Yes it’s skinny, but it’s not as light as the R500, and it lacks a lot of its extra features too. That said, it sure is purdy.

Asus EeePC – Nowhere near as powerful, and without the familiar Windows operating system installed, but still a good alternative if you’re looking for a lightweight laptop that won’t break the bank.

Sony Vaio TZ - Sony installs smaller hard drives than Toshiba as standard, but the Vaio TZ series are gorgeous, powerful and light weight. Plus, they run both Windows and Linux, with the later being used to save power while watching movies or listening to music.

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