Back in July, we awarded a CNET Editors' Choice to the Toshiba Portege R705-P25 laptop. At the time, Senior Editor Dan Ackerman proclaimed that "the new 13-inch Portege R705 is close to a perfect balance of design, price, and performance." Indeed, the R705 was a great laptop at a great price: the 13-inch Windows 7 system weighed just 3.1 pounds and was just an inch thick, but it was still able to pack in Intel Wireless Display, a DVD optical drive, 500GB hard drive, 4GB of memory, and an Intel Core i3 CPU--and it was widely available at Best Buy for just $799.
Since then, the R705 was routinely among the most popular laptops--and among the most popular products overall--on CNET. Indeed, it's currently the number-four most trafficked review on CNET--comfortably ahead of the
Unfortunately, that summer configuration of the R705--the P25 model--is no longer widely available. The good news? A nearly identical P35 model is. Even better, it's got 4G wireless built-in. You can activate it at purchase or thereafter through a variety of providers if you'd like (monthly charges apply, of course), or you can just let it lie dormant if you'd prefer to rely on Wi-Fi--but it's cool that the option is there.
The best news? This new configuration of the Portege R705 is $50 cheaper than it was earlier this year. Right now, it's just $749 at Best Buy.
Put it all together and you get an already great laptop that adds 4G at a price that's $50 more affordable. In other words, it remains an enthusiastic CNET Editors' Choice.