Toshiba Portege R600 – first with 512GB solid state hard drive

Toshiba have launched the Portege R600, the world’s first notebook with 512GB SSD (solid state drive).

Accidents do happen, and with no mechanical hard drive or internal moving parts, SSD technology almost eliminates the risk of losing any data that could occur through the constant bumps, knocks and vibrations of everyday use. So as your notebook moves with you from the desktop to the coffee shop, to the aeroplane, you can be sure that important files are cocooned from the rough and tumble of daily life.

The integration of SSD reinforces the performance excellence of the Portege R600, making it the perfect notebook to use beyond the front door and out on the road. Using a 2-bit-per-cell multi-level NAND flash memory at the 43nm process generation, the Portege R600 now has the world’s largest SSD capacity, which means more space for the information that is important to you.

To allow the new SSD to cut power consumption, a newly developed controller enables high-speed parallel processing with the multi-level NAND flash memory. This cuts power consumption by approximately 50%, meaning less environmental impact, whilst boosting data access speeds to approximately 200% for read (max 230MB per sec) and approximately150% for write (max 180MB per sec), compared to a hard disc drive (HDD].

Additionally, the Portege R600 has an energy-saving design that cuts power consumption by adopting an ultra-low voltage CPU. Its trans-reflective LCD also uses natural sunlight to make screen images more visible even without switching on the backlight.

Offering true mobility, the Portege R600 has a light, (approx 1,095 grams) thin (19.5 mm to 25.5 mm) design that integrates the essential features for mobile notebooks, including long-time battery operation (up to 8 hours).

Price and availability

The new model will be available in Australia from June and will come with 3G mobile broadband. The Portege R600 will have an RRP of $4,999.