The Toshiba Portege Z20t-B2112 ($1,699.99 as tested) is a detachable-hybrid ultrabook for business that combines a 12-inch Windows tablet, docking keyboard, and slim ultrabook design into a versatile productivity machine for working in the office or on the go. Toshiba has outfitted the Portege Z20t with an Intel Core M processor, which makes for a slim, fanless design, but compared with competitors like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3($889.00 at Amazon) or the Editors' Choice business ultrabook Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series (E7450), there's a big gap to deal with in terms of productivity and performance.
Design
The Portege Z20t consists of a standalone tablet with a keyboard you can attach for laptop use and extra battery power. When used in Laptop mode, the Portege Z20t is thin and light enough to qualify for Intel's Ultrabook branding, measuring just 0.83 by 12.2 by 8.5 inches (HWD), and weighing only 3.3 pounds. The tablet alone makes the system an even more portable 1.6 pounds, and is a scant 0.35-inch thick.
The 12.5-inch display has a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. While many tablet designs have moved away from the 16:9 aspect ratio, it still works quite well for laptop displays, though it does make for a tablet that feels especially long when held in Portrait orientation. The screen has a matte finish that effectively reduces glare and reflections, but the surface tends to flex a lot under the press of a finger or stylus. Two built-in speakers along the bottom edge of the tablet provide stereo sound, but there's not a lot of separation between the two speakers, even with the help of DTS Studio Sound software.
The docking connection is also unique in
that you can connect the tablet in one of two ways: facing forward in Laptop mode, or backward, both for use in Display mode or folded closed for Tablet mode without leaving the keyboard behind.
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The docking keyboard features a backlit, chiclet-style layout, and it's spill-resistant, so while you still won't want to use it in the rain, you can get some work done at Starbucks without the fear of a splashed latte ruining your system. A blue Accupoint pointing stick in the center of the keyboard gives you cursor control without taking your fingers off the home keys, and a regular touchpad provides touch and gesture support.
When using the tablet, you'll have access to Microsoft's on-screen keyboard and handwriting tools. Unfortunately, our review unit was set up with Windows 7 Pro (still available to businesses through Windows 8.1 downgrade rights), which doesn't have the best touch interface. Toshiba improves the situation slightly with an active digitizer pen (which includes buttons on the pen's grip for right-click functions) and a second "emergency" stylus (with no buttons) that stows in the tablet chassis, but the end result is a system that works best as a laptop rather than a tablet.
Features
The tablet is outfitted with a micro HDMI port, a micro USB port, a microSD Card slot, and a headset jack. There are also physical buttons for power and volume control. For wireless connectivity, the system is equipped with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, along with support for Intel Wi-Di media streaming.
The docking keyboard—which connects via a docking port along the bottom of the tablet—expands the port selection with an Ethernet port, two full-size USB 3.0 ports, outputs for HDMI and VGA, and a security lock slot.
The tablet features two built-in cameras: a front-facing, 2-megapixel webcam and a rear-facing, 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and digital zoom. The webcam is pretty good, and well-suited to video chat services, like Skype and Google Hangouts. The rear-facing camera, however, was less than satisfactory in our testing. The 5-megapixel resolution is relatively low—recent competitors have been equipped with 8-megapixel cameras—and the camera struggled to compensate for dark shadows or bright light.
The tablet boasts a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) for storage. That's on par with other tablets and convertibles, like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro($949.99 at Lenovo), but you will find larger storage capacities offered in some laptops, like the Acer Aspire R 13 (R7-371T-72TC), which has a 512GB SSD. Because it's a business system, the Portege Z20t is also equipped with Trusted Platform Module (TPM v1.2). Toshiba doesn't include much extra software on the Portege Z20t, but it does come with a free 30-day trial of both McAfee Live Safe Internet Security and Microsoft Office for new customers, and some Toshiba-branded utilities for things like power settings and disk management. Toshiba covers the Portege Z20t with a three-year warranty.
Performance
Our review unit has an Intel Core M-5Y71 CPU with 8GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics 5300. The Core M processor line is built to provide better performance than Intel's low-powered Atom processors, but better heat- and energy-efficiency than the Core i5 CPUs found in competing systems. As a result, the Portege Z20t's performance was pretty good on our tests, but predictably fell behind its Core-i5-equipped competitors. For instance, it was slightly slower in tests like PCMark 8 Work Conventional (2,607 points), Handbrake (4 hours 13 minutes), and Adobe Photoshop CS6 (5:16) than the Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series (E7450) or the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, which both offer Core i5 processing.
Graphics performance is also competent, but not stellar, relying upon the integrated Intel HD Graphics 5300 solution. Its 3DMark scores of 3,690 points in CloudGate and 222 in Fire Strike Extreme make it pretty clear that this system will do well with basic graphics demands, like video streaming and rendering graphics-heavy websites, but it may occasionally lag, and there is a noticeable difference between the Core M's graphics processing and the integrated solution offered by a Core i5 or Core i7 processor. With single-digit frame rates in Heaven and Valley, gaming is pretty much out of the question on this system, aside from simple browser-based games like Candy Crush.
The Core M processor may lag behind in performance, but the lower clock speeds and power consumption make for excellent battery life. The tablet, running alone in our battery rundown test, lasted 7 hours 6 minutes. When docked to the keyboard, which has its own secondary battery, that time is extended to an impressive 14:08. In Tablet mode, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 lasted a little longer (8:55), but it doesn't have any sort of secondary battery, and the 14:08 of the docked tablet outlasted all of the competing ultrabooks and convertible laptops, like the Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series (E7450) (10:12) and the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro (8:19).
Conclusion
The Toshiba Portege Z20t-B2112 is a good detachable hybrid ultrabook and tablet, with a slim, fanless design, and a docking keyboard that lets you use the system as a laptop, or to take it on the go as a tablet. The decision to include an Intel Core M processor provides middling performance, but excellent long battery life, making it a good pick for anyone who needs the freedom to forget their charger for a full day or longer. Unfortunately, that performance will slow down some workers, and in terms of sheer performance, you'd do better with something like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, or the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 14 7000 Series (E7450).
The Toshiba Portege Z20t-B2112, a slim, detachable-hybrid ultrabook and tablet, is great for working on the go, but its Intel Core M processor and an older operating system means it doesn't have the productive chops it needs to lead the category.
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