Toshiba has launched its mid-range machine- the Satellite U845 which is a grey slab with the Toshiba logo in a shiny material.
At 0.8 inches thick and weighing in at 3.9 pounds, this device is a highly portable machine. It consists of a 1.5GHz Intel Core i5-3317U and 4GB of RAM combined with a 500GB SATA drive clocked at 5400RPM. Alongside the full-sized HDMI port, a 7-in-1 card reader and three USB ports (one of which is USB 3.0) fill up the sides of this ultrabook.
The U845 has a screen that outputs at a maximum of 1366×768, despite having it connected to a graphics card that outputs at 1080p via HDMI with no problems at all. The keyboard on the U845 offers a unique experience. They keyboard itself is recessed just enough that the keys are just barely raised above the rest of the lower case, but the keys are raised higher than is normally seen with ultrabooks. As with the keyboard, the 2.45×3.75-inch trackpad on the U845 is slightly recessed.
Because the Ultrabook has a quality touchpad, Windows 8 will be a much easier experience on the U845 than many other machines in this category. The 1366×768 resolution screen will not greatly affect usage in Windows 8, and since the new OS focuses on full screen applications the resolutions will likely not be noticed often. As long as Windows 8 doesn’t do anything to affect the 6.5 hours of battery life that comes from normal use, the U845 will convert to the next version of Windows in a good manner.
