Dynabook Portégé X40-Ka range already known under the name of Toshiba Portégé, is a laptop that is aimed at all those professionals who need multitasking execution expensive in terms of hardware. It is not a machine specifically for gaming, although its equipment can easily make it fall into this category.
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For the benefit of the curious, let’s immediately say that it is an excellent notebook and, during the six days of testing, it did not reveal any weaknesses relating to operation. Before talking about the hardware it is advisable to appreciate the machine on the outside.
How it looks
Entirely in aluminum alloy also in the rear part of the display, the laptop shows up robust. The backlit keyboard it is inserted in a solid plane that does not flex even by exerting abnormal pressure on keys which, however, are well spaced between them and with a deep stroke.
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On left side there are two USB-C ports, one of which is dedicated to power supply, a standard Hdmi-out port (with 4K support) and a USB 3.1 port. On right side in addition to an RJ-45 port for ethernet connections up to 1 Gbps there are two other USB 3.1 ports, one for charging when the computer is off, a slot for micro-SD and one for smart cards, in addition to the classic audio jack. The speakers are stereo with Dolby technology, have a clean and powerful sound beyond what can be expected from a laptop.
Wireless connectivity includes Wi-fi 6 (802.11ax) and the Bluetooth protocol version is 5.1.
The hard drive is a 512 Gb Samsung PCIe 3.0 x 4 SSD with a sequential read of 1,811 Mb / s and sequential write of 1,236 Mb / s.
Lo screen 14-inch is in Full HD anti-glare, has a resolution of 1920×1080 and is equipped with reliable and smooth touch technology. Equally practical and fluid is the mousepad that supports up to 4 finger gestures.
All enclosed in size of 323.6 x 220.6 x 17.9 mm and a weight that the manufacturer declares “starting from 1.46 kg”. Security is entrusted to both the fingerprint detector and Windows Hello Face, face recognition mediated by the infrared HD webcam.
Processor, Ram and graphics component
It must be said that we tested a “sample”, or a PC with less performing hardware than those arriving on the market. Important aspectbecause the laptop we had in our hands is really powerful.
The processor is Intel Core i7-1260P which dates back to the first quarter of 2022, equipped with 12 cores and 16 threads, an architecture that deserves a quick study.
These are in fact 4 “performance cores” with 8 threads and 8 “efficient cores” with 8 threads. A “performance core” is designed for offer maximum performance and contrasts with the “efficient cores” designed for lower but less energy-intensive performance. The two different cores have different clock speeds and voltage.
In the specific case we are talking about 4 “performance cores” with a clock speed of 2.1 Ghz which increases up to 4.7 GHz while the “efficient cores” have a base speed of 1.5 GHz up to 3.4 GHz. bus is 4 gigatransfer per second and the cache is 12 Mb. All respectable equipment.
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The Tdp (the Thermal design power), that is the consumption in watts of the processor varies from 28 to 64 and, even more interestingly, the single thread rating, that is the workload completed in a certain period of time, projects this processor between the best currently on the market. The single thread rating is an important value for all those activities that require the use of the CPU.
The machine is equipped with 32 Gb in Ramdivided into two modules of 16 Gb Ddr4 (3200 MHz) while the graphics card is Intel Iris Xe, equipped with 16 Gb of shared Ram and which goes hand in hand with Intel processors from the eleventh generation onwards, returns excellent performance also for gaming , although it is designed primarily for the creativity, multitasking and online collaboration.
The standard equipment
The Dynabook Portégé X40 is designed in three different models including the 12th generation Intel processors i3-1215U, i5-1240P, i7-1260P with 4, 8 or 16 Gb Ram (expandable up to 32 Gb) and solid state drives 128 Gb, 256 Gb or 512 Gb.
The operating system is Windows 11 and the color of the laptop is “Dark Tech Blue”, a dark blue that differentiates it from the more classic gray, dark anthracite or black colors.
Proof
We have simulated professional use and therefore, considering the high potential of the laptop, we took the role of the system administrator by installing VMWare Workstation Pro 16 on which we emulated a Windows 2022 Standard server (Desktop experience) that we have equipped with 8 processors and 8 Gb of Ram. After promoting it to Domain controller we installed two virtual Windows 11 Pro clients to which we assigned 4 Gb of Ram that we placed in the newly created domain and on which we distributed software packages (Office and Teams) via Group Policy.
To remain faithful to the choices that a system engineer would have reasonably made, we have chosen the VMWare “Side channel mitigations” configuration which, in exchange for greater security, tends to make virtual machines less performing.
Il laptop held up very well and we were able to write this article naturally smoothly while the server and the two virtual clients were running. All this protected from the foreseeable overheating of the PC which, equipped with two fans particularly silentit has always remained cool (despite the heat of these days between the end of June and the beginning of July).
As for the 4-cell lithium-ion battery, the duration is considerable. Using Windows 11 Pro we didn’t need to plug in the power cord for 9 hours and 38 minutes, doing normal tasks like web browsing, rereading and completing this article while listening to low volume music on Microsoft’s media player.
Using this laptop gives back a smooth and pleasant experiencewithout sudden slowdowns even during the workloads to which we have subjected it.
Hardware engineering
Over the in recent years it has become more and more frequent find laptops that do not have special compartments on the back designed to be easily removed and be able to access at least the hard disk and the Ram without worries. The same can be said of the batteries: once easily removable, today they tend to “disappear” inside the shells.
If the power supply via the USB-C port responds well in advance to the parameters imposed by Europe starting from the autumn of 2024 (for laptops the deadline starts 16 months after this date), the same cannot be said for the difficulty with which you can access the battery and, with it, the hard disk and the Ram. Replacing the battery of any electronic device according to the EU – with an effective date yet to be determined – must be easy and, in the case of this laptop, it is an unfulfilled condition. In order to do this, it must be opened by separating the body, an operation for steady and decisive hands.
Price and conclusions
The Dynabook Portégé X40-K laptop is a great PC that does not impose compromises on its user, free to perform traditional tasks while the machine is busy doing complex jobs in terms of hardware resources. It will go on sale in late September, starting at € 1299 including VAT, in line with computers with similar characteristics.
What we liked
· High-performance hardware equipment
· Laptop solidity and sturdiness
· Battery life
· Cooling down
What we didn’t like
· Difficulty reaching solid drive, Ram and battery bays