Most people looking at a 12″ notebook want something considered “ultraportable,” but the dual-nature of this machine makes it substantially bulkier than your standard ultraportable. Weighing in at a hefty 4.5lbs and measuring 11.6″ x 9.8″ x 1.53″, the 12″ M400 has the size and feel of a 14-15″ notebook without the screen real estate. If you’re in need of a tablet that doesn’t sacrifice traditional computing (i.e. via a keyboard & touchpad), the M400’s size can be easily overlooked.

Case and Design
Toshiba went with a fairly conventional design, and a well built one at that. Dressed mostly in grey with some black accents and black LCD bezel, the M400 has a simple yet modern look.

The only LED indicators are located on the front bezel of the machine, and with the way the LCD sits slightly back from the front edge you can view the LEDs with the notebook opened or closed. From left to right you have AC Power, Power Indicator, Battery 1 status, Battery 2 status, Hard Drive Activity, and Wireless indicator.

Designed to allow access when the notebook is in Tablet mode, there are a number of buttons on the LCD itself. The power switch is also here and is actually a button which you slide to the right to activate. From left to right you have the Cross-Functional joystick, ESC/Display Rotate, Windows Security, Toshiba Assist, and Toshiba Presentation buttons. The Cross-Functional joystick is a directional joystick-like button that can be used to scroll a page and when pressed will generally perform the same function as if you hit the ENTER key. The ESC/Display Rotate button either performs the function of the Escape key or when held, rotates the display to either landscape or portrait mode. Windows Security locks the computer or brings up the Toshiba security options. Toshiba Assist launches Toshiba’s custom utility which offers near endless customization of the computer. Finally, the Toshiba Presentation button toggles between display output settings for presentation use.

Toshiba has a reputation in most circles as having good built quality with their business models and the M400 is a shining example of it. From the LCD cover to the keyboard to the palm rest, the entire notebook feels incredibly solid and robust. The case is made of a Magnesium and Polycarbonate ABS plastic material. The M400 tablet ranks up their with Thinkpads and Apples for build quality, which is quite a testament to Toshiba.

Keyboard
We have two things to say about the M400’s keyboard: it is a top-notch keyboard with an incredibly unique layout. To touch on the first point there, if you have been using anything short of a Thinkpad or Apple keyboard you will be amazed. The key size is comfortable and there is no flex even when pressing hard. Key travel depth is near perfect and the overall feel is just amazing. Here’s the catch: Toshiba has pretty much the most unique layout ever. When I say unique, I’m trying not to say pointless and un-intuitive. The Start and Context keys are on the upper right corner, the tilde key is left of the space bar, and the Ins & Del keys are to the right of the space bar. This takes a lot of getting used to, to say the least. You will hit the tilde key a lot when getting used to the layout and most people will probably hunt for the Start key quite a bit. Make your own judgements about the layout, but we really prefer a more common layout.

 

Toshiba has included a unique feature on the keyboard. When you press the Fn key, a green LED lights up below the F10 key, something we’ve not seen from any other manufacturer.

Toshiba Portege M400-S933 Keyboard
Number of keys	84 keys
Number of rows	6 rows
Key Pitch/Stroke	19mm / 1.7mm
Special/Function Keys	Fn+Esc: Audio Mute Fn+F1: Lock Fn+F2: Power Schemes Fn+F3: Standy Fn+F4: Hibernate Fn+F5: Video Output Fn+F6/F7: Brightness Down/Up Fn+F8: Wireless Fn+F9: Touchpad Enable/Disable Fn+F10: Directional Arrows On/Off Fn+F11: NumPad On/Off Fn+Home/End: Pause/Break Fn+Space: Zoom Fn+Tab: Optical Drive On/Eject

Design Continued

Touchpad
For the most part, a touchpad is a touchpad is a touchpad. The feel of the M400’s touchpad is smooth and responsive. The two buttons have a very shallow, solid click to them. While a bit on the small side, most users should find the touchpad sufficient.

Connectivity Options

The front of the machine is home to some indicator lights, wireless on/off switch, headphone/mic jacks, volume control, and of course the LCD release button.

Going against traditional wisdom, Toshiba has placed a number of ports on the back. From left to right: AC plug, USB 2.0 port, VGA output, modem, and network connections.

The left side has from left to right: cooling vent, security lock slot, two USB 2.0 ports, 4-pin Firewire, and PC Card slot.

The right side features the stylus, 5-in-1 card reader, and optical drive.

3 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, and a 5-in-1 card reader make this a pretty fully featured tablet. Unfortunately we have two problems with the layout: the rear ports and lack of ExpressCard support. Used as a traditional notebook, ports on the rear of the notebook are a hassle. While being used as a tablet, users will probably not care where the ports are as they are all equally accessible. Disappointingly, Toshiba elected to use the more common PC Card slot instead of the more recent ExpressCard format. While this is good news for mobile users who may rely on a device only available in PC Card format, we prefer notebooks that support the latest standards to increase “future proofing.” With more and more devices being announced in ExpressCard format, in general we recommend users to elect for the newer technology.

Heat and Noise
At over 1.5″ thick, Toshiba certainly had room to fit in a robust cooling system. At idle while clocked at 1GHz, the relatively power thrifty Core Solo T1300 is in the mid-30 degree Celcius range. Bump the CPU up to Maximum Performance and the temperature will idle at 40 C. Pegging the CPU won’t flog temperatures too much, staying in a relatively comfortable 50 C range.

We didn’t notice any abnormal hot spots around the notebook, on the palm rest or otherwise. This is another testament to the cooling system of the M400, especially in a 12″ chassis. Fan noise isn’t noticeable or even present except under the highest load situations.

Upgrading and Expansion
Unfortunately the M400 is a mixed bag with regards to upgrades. The hard drive is easily accesible via a removeable panel on the bottom, but system RAM is under the keyboard. Should one get ambitious, the CPU looks to be easily upgradeable as you can see it through grill on the bottom side.

 

The M400 comes with stereo speakers, placed at the rear of the notebook just below each corner of the LCD. There is no doubt the speakers are plenty loud, but of course lack any bass or midrange quality. Those who want to watch movies frequently will still want to invest in a decent set of headphones, and maybe even an external sound card like the Creative Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA.

Display
With standard laptop displays, most users are concerned about brightness, clarity, and viewing angle. While these attributes are important, a relatively poor screen generally doesn’t make or break the notebook. However with a tablet PC, the display is of uptmost importance. If you first unpackage and turn on your M400 anywhere except a brightly lit room, the first thing you will notice is how bright the screen is. The maximum brightness setting is overpowering in most settings, which bodes well for the display’s performance outdoors.

 

When scrolling web pages or other text quickly, there is some noticeable text blurring. The blurring isn’t terrible and if you scroll slower it isn’t an issue. As previously discussed in our Thinkpad X60s review, another 12″ XGA notebook, this editor finds XGA resolution to be limiting on even a small 12″ display. We know Toshiba has in the past produced SXGA+ (1400×1050) 12″ notebooks and would love to see the re-emergence of these displays. With Windows Vista’s ability to scale text more appropriately with respect to both resolution and display size, it is entirely possible we will see a re-emergence of high resolution, small size displays.

When you head outside with this tablet PC, the screen’s special coating and high brightness make it very useable even on a bright day. It also has an excellent viewing angle, which will make the screen easily viewable for another person standing next to you. Users should have no problem using the M400’s screen in a regular or tablet mode, indoors or outdoors.

Optical Drive
Despite being an ultraportable tablet, a model aimed at portability and flexibility, Toshiba was able to include an optical drive in the M400. The M400-S933 model comes equipped with a CD-RW/DVD-ROM. The noise level is moderate, but not bothersome. There is a Toshiba applet included which allows you to power off the optical drive via a convenient icon to save power, and the Fn+Tab key combination allows you to power the optical drive on and optionally eject it as well.

The supported read and write capabilities are as follows:

• Read: 24X CD-ROM/CD-R, 8X DVD-ROM, 8X DVD+/-R, 8X DVD+/-RW
• Write: 24X CD-R, 10X CD-RW

Stylus Interface
So you bought this fancy schmancy tablet and now you can write down your own notes & navigate Windows with a pen. But really, how easy to use is it? Pop Toshiba’s stylus out of the right side of the notebook and you’ve got a convenient way to make your way through Windows. You can hover the pen near the screen if you like, or rest directly on it. The cursor follows the pen accurately and without much delay.

Like with a touchpad, you tap the screen once for a single-click and twice for a double-click. This action isn’t terribly effective on default settings and you have to get used to it. After some practice you’ll be navigating like a pro, but there are some settings you can alter that may make things proceed smoother. There is a small button about where your thumb rests on the stylus, when held while tapping a right-click is triggered.

One complaint I would’ve had is regarding scrolling in tablet mode, but then I discovered the joystick-like button on the LCD panel allows you to easily scroll. You can also of course use the stylus to interact with the scroll bar, but in the age of scroll wheels and scroll touch pads, that just seems so inefficient.

If the application you’re using supports it, you can also flip the stylus over and use the other end as an “eraser” of sorts and clear your previous input.

Features Continued

Wi-Fi
As a Centrino-branded notebook, the M400 uses Intel’s 3945ABG wireless card. Performance was as expected and satisfactory. Unlike most companies, Toshiba has included some utilities to manager your WiFi connection. The ConfigFree utility offers a few different tools to manage your network connections, but overall these are just your standard options with a pretty user interface. It is not nearly as functional as Lenovo’s Access Connections, and less practical than the Intel utility due to its convoluted interface, but cool nonetheless.

Battery
The rated capacity and voltage of the 6-cell lithium ion battery is 4700 mAh and 10.8V, respectively. Battery performance is sufficient, but unimpressive. Users will see around 4 hours on average, which is reasonable given the extra power that the digitizer draws in order to provide the tablet capabilities. Since the battery is a small block which pops into the underside of the notebook, there is no room for an extended size battery.

AC Adapter
The M400’s AC adapter is on the small side, given it is a 75W charger versus the more common 90W models. Each cable is about six feet long, providing plenty of length to find a wall plug, and the wall-side connector is a 2-prong type.

Fingerprint Scanner
Biometric security is becoming common on most business laptops and even some consumer laptops these days. Toshiba has included a fingerprint scanner on the bottom right corner of the screen. This is a very convenient location for a quick thumb scan, but any other digit may be awkward to scan when the laptop is open.

The software setup is as easy to use as any other we’ve come across. Simply select which finger you want to register, scan the appropriate finger three times successfully, and you’re good to go. As with most fully featured fingerprint software, Toshiba’s solution allows you to password protect the hard drive with the fingerprint scanner as well as associate website logins with your fingerprint.