Toshiba’s 4G packing Portege Z10t reviewed

While Toshiba opted to use a third generation Intel Core processor (we’re up to the fourth now with “Haswell” chips), the performance is still decent enough for most people to handle. As such, switching it on from standby took barely a second or two, and from being off was a rough 10 seconds, close to competitors in this regard.

The inclusion of 4G LTE connectivity is also excellent, and Windows 8 had no problem jumping onto Telstra’s 4G network in our test of this system, providing between 8 and 30Mbps of speed as we moved around Sydney.

Battery life is also decent, providing around five hours of life, although you’ll find less if you’re thinking of embracing some of the 4G and more of the horsepower from the processor.

We spent most of our time surfing the web, writing, checking email, and doing the regular office work, so five hours is decent for that, though not amazing.

With 4G switched on and being used, this brought the battery life down closer to three hours, which is less impressive.

But you need a decent keyboard for office work, for email, and for writing, and if there’s one thing we take seriously, it’s our keyboards. These are the main entry points for most of the data you throw into a computer, and if the keyboard is weak, it lets down the entire experience.

That is unfortunately the state of affairs with the Z10t, with a physical keyboard that feels too shallow for typing regardless of if you’re doing it on a desk or on your lap.

Despite the obvious factor that this is a smaller keyboard to match the 11.6 inch screen, the keys manage to feel undersized, unlike some of the comfy 11 inch keyboards we’ve seen from other manufacturers in the past. Keys like the tab key and arrows feel too small, while the sheer amount of cramping that has been made on this keyboard to accommodate everything doesn’t help either.

At least one key is useless in the dock, with the eject button (above) at the top right solely working to stop the tablet and keyboard dock from communicating.

You don’t actually need to eject the keyboard in order to remove the keyboard, and even though it sounds like it should eject the tablet, there’s actually a switch on the hinge that does this (below).

Essentially, it’s a button for the uber-safe that can’t take out a USB key without ejecting it from software, and need the same sort of assurance from their hardware that removing the tablet won’t break their computer (hint: it won’t).

While we can see the point, the eject button also doesn’t reconnect the two devices, meaning if you accidentally press the eject button and didn’t mean to, the only way to reconnect the keyboard and screen will be to detach the tablet and plug it back in again.

Ultimately, we think we’ll just stick with the touchscreen, as the responsive on-screen keyboard makes for one of the better in the business, and strange as it is, feels more reliable than the shallow keyboard dock.

But that’s not all we didn’t like about the dock, and even had an issue with the hinge.

We hope you like a roughly 90 degree angle because that’s all you’re going to get: dock the tablet in place and the hinge will sit there at only one usable point of view.

Heaven forbid you like typing on your lap and you need the screen to sit back at more of an angle to see, or even that you like typing closer and at an angle, as this dock won’t respond to your needs.

You also can only mount it one way, so if you wanted to recreate the experience from the Acer R7 that turns the computer into all-screen, you’re out of luck.

Toshiba’s dock also feels a touch unfinished, as the bottom reveals itself as a more industrial design rounded out with small bumps to stop the dock from moving on surfaces. It’s not slick or textured in the way the back of the Z10t’s tablet section is, and while it feels like the wrist pad, the clash between the two styles almost makes this part seem like it was an afterthought.

There isn’t even an included battery to recharge the tablet like on other tablets with hard wired keyboard docks.

About the only positives that come from the dock are that it gives you a full-size HDMI, Ethernet, VGA, and USB 2.0 port, which mean this dock is more of a portable port replicator, and less of a keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a fully-fledged laptop computer.

The included mice are also useful too, especially if you’re relying on Windows 7 and earlier apps in Windows 8’s desktop mode.

Conclusion

Toshiba has been making some of the better computers in the industry since the brand practically kickstarted notebook computing back in the eighties, but here in the Portege Z10t, the effort isn’t as strong.

There are certainly some positives in the Z10t, and we like the main tablet quite a lot, especially since it’s the first Windows tablet to properly integrate 4G from Telstra, but we wish Toshiba had refined the keyboard dock.

You certainly don’t need to take the dock with you, mind you, and this tablet flies solo better than it does together with its keyboard-equipped friend, but it could have been a truly excellent computer if Toshiba had just refined this part.