Toshiba Tecra A6-EZ6311
Notebook Reviews > Toshiba Tecra > A6-EZ6311

Review Date : 13th July' 2006

To those who've been hoping for an affordable dual-core notebook, rejoice! - It's here.

Toshiba managed to pack amazing components into the Tecra A6-EZ6311 and all at great bargain price. From the Intel Core Duo processor, to the 512MB of DDR2 RAM, the SATA hard drive and the ATI Mobility Radeon graphic chip with 128MB of dedicated memory; performance is a breeze. In fact, with such high-end specifications, Toshiba labels the Tecra A6-EZ6311 as a desktop-replacement.

That said, its relatively light weight of about 5 pounds and its compact size (due the 14.1" screen) make this notebook a lot more pleasant to carry around than the usual heavy & bulky "desktop-replacement" notebooks.

Despite being light and compact, the Tecra A6-EZ6311 feels solid with no noticeable flexing of the screen. The keyboard as well feels firm and the keys have a nice responsive feel to them; it's also spill proof. One thing we find annoying about most Toshiba notebooks' keyboards is the placement of the Windows and Menu keys at the top right corner; this makes it very hard to use the Windows key for the usual keyboard shortcuts I like to use. But that could just be us.

The aforementioned 14.1" display has a wide aspect ratio and unlike most recent notebooks it uses a matte screen which makes it a lot more legible in bright (e.g. sun-lit) areas. This, however, is achieved at the sacrifice of some brightness and quite a bit of contrast. Nonetheless, if you're not planning to do any serious graphics work this will probably not bother you.

Among the cool things you'll find in the Toshiba Tecra A6-EZ6311 is the finger-print reader. This allows for password-less security and can be used to logon to Windows among other possible authentication uses. Toshiba also managed to distribute the four available USB ports on the left, right and back sides allowing a very neat and clutter free work environment. And in addition to the expected wireless connectivity you also get built-in Bluetooth support. There's also an SD card slot for easy transfer of photos from your digital camera.

While this notebooks already meets the minimum requirement to run the upcoming Windows Vista, with a little investment in an additional 512MB of RAM the Tecra A6-EZ6311 will be able to run Vista quite comfortably securing your investment for a the few years to come.

If you've been holding off on buying a notebook until you can afford one with a dual core processor then you need not wait any more; the Toshiba Tecra A6-EZ6311 is here and it's just for you.