Why You Can Trust CNET Toshiba Satellite Z930 review: Toshiba Satellite Z930
An upgrade on last year's Z830, the Satellite Z930 is an excellent portable and flexible laptop.
Take the Satellite Z830 and whack new bits in — that's Toshiba's Satellite Z930. The processor gets a bump to third generation Core, we get 6GB instead of 4GB RAM, otherwise, everything else is pretty much the same.
Toshiba Satellite Z930
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Connectivity
- USB 3.0: 1
- USB 2.0: 2
- Optical: none
- Video: HDMI, VGA
- Ethernet: gigabit
- Wireless: 2.4GHz 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
That means a 128GB SSD, 2.4GHz 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 remain for the internal specs. Toshiba's strength as an ultrabook, though, comes from its ports: full sized Ethernet and HDMI, a VGA port, separate headphone and microphone jacks, an SD card reader, a single USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports.
At AU$1299, this will suit most people, although, if you want a bit more, AU$1899 will get you a Core i7 3667U and 256GB SSD.
It's quite light and, despite the screen bending a bit when pressure is applied, quite resilient. In fact, the only real annoyance in the entire package is the screen itself — a 1366x768 affair that's glossier than a nail varnish convention.
The backlit keyboard is excellent, as is the Synaptics touchpad: this is definitely a laptop that the hardened road warrior would appreciate.
Application performance
Choose a benchmark: Handbrake | iTunes | Photoshop | Multimedia
The Satellite did pick up a bit of fan whine when working hard, but nothing unreasonable. It otherwise performed about where it should, given the hardware involved.
Battery life
Once again proving that Windows 8 touch-based laptops aren't the best with battery life, the Windows 7-powered Satellite Z930 travels quite well.
Conclusion
Just like the Z830, the Z930 is a great laptop for portability and flexibility. We'd love it if it had a better quality screen, like Samsung's Series 9, but for port complement, it can't be beat.