M35 TruBrite

Trubrite is Awesome!

I saw the TrueBrite on the Toshiba M35 Special Edition at Fry's last night and it was awesome! In fact, it was sitting next to the Sony K-27 (I think) with 15.4 " XBrite and it looked better than Sony's Xbrite. The M35 is also nice and light as well... It has me reconsidering my other options, although Ive heard some horror stories about Tosh.

Anybody have one of these yet?

I just got an M30-YSJ00E (Special Edition) with TruBrite, and I'll attest to it's awesomeness. There are concerns about glare, but so far I haven't had an issue. In some cases (when the lights are out) I need to turn down the brightness. Otherwise, I like it much better than the standard laptop screens which have been purposely scratched up to reduce glare. The viewing angle is perfect...the only way you can't see what's on the screen is if you're looking at the back of the laptop. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better than the sony XBrite, but it's just as good.

I was looking at the M30-YSJ in store, and realised in an environment with large amounts of lighting there is a severe amount of glare, could you explain the environments you've worked with the unit in? Ex. A school environment. As well could you post some bench marking results?

I have the YSJ00E too, it an awesome machine. I don't understand this glare ppl talk about. It's just like a TV or CRT moniter, if it's black the glare will be very noticable, like a mirror. Even when i am reading this post right now, I can't tell there's any glare, unless I carefully search for it. The contrast and brightness is much better than my friends P10, another friend's P20 and my other friend's M30 without the Trubrite.

It's better than my CRT and my gf's LCD... I love it.

I agree, the brightest level is only neccessary when you are working outdoor. I don't think conventional laptops LCD can handle bright sunlight this good.


How do i post bench mark results, what program

can I ask where you guys were able to get an M30 with Trubrite? I really think i'd like a Trubrite screen, but $2000 for the M35 is out of my range. Ideally I'd like to get a Trubrite/Brightview screen for <$1500. Is this possible?

The Trubrite is available in Canada only in the M30-YSJ model. Not sure about USA since you guys can customize the M35, not us

I'm in the States, but on toshibadirect.com the M35 isn't customizable. M30 is customizable but doesn't offer the Trubrite option.

I got my Toshiba M35-S456 Special Edition from CircuitCity last weekend and I will say it is the most amazing screen ever. I have been waiting for a screen like this as I do a lot of graphics and video work. And it is BRIGHT, I keep my brightness on about half indoors and yes it is like a CRT as far as reflectivity. Very glossy screen but not given me any problems yet. Already put 1 Gb of ram and a 7200 rmp drive, it screams!!

So Asus_fiend, how's the temp and the fan activity on your unit? You are describing exactly the Toshiba I am considering, the M35 with 1GB and the 7200 rpm Hitachi (vs. an Asus M6BNe ).

......Peter

Peter, CPU temp I have not actually gauged with say an application that will measure true CPU temp. I can say this is the "coolest" laptop to ever sit in my lap meaning the heat is not bothersome while the computer is actually in your lap, in fact you hardly notice the warmeth at all. The fan kicks on quite a bit but you can control this in the customized power application Toshiba provides. There are several power parameters you can change in the power profiles, this application goes beyond the normal Windows power options. If I am not mistaken you can control how the CPU is cooled. I keep my on maximum cooling so the fan kicks on quite a bit more than say if I reduced that setting. I would hope if you turned CPU cooling to the minimum setting it would still "know" when to kick on so as not to completely overheat but that may be an interesting trial to undertake. If you want to see a screenshot of this customize power application let me know and you will be able to see what settings you can change on the fly. Pretty cool stuff!!!

If you would like a great little utility to measure CPU and Disk Temps, download Mobile Meter.

If you are willing to experiment, run it on the minimum cooling for a bit and see if you hear the fan come on at all in normal use (not heavy/gaming, etc). I've seen a screen shot of the utility. It looks like great flexibility, I just don't want a noisy notebook and haven't yet found a way to make sure I don't get one.

Thanks!.....Peter

Oh! one more question... I assume your machine came with 512MB. Was it one module or two x 256MB?

The fan does make a small amount of noise but I am not sure how to characterize it. Is is not the most quiet notebook I have ever had but it is by no means noisy. Would I mind using it in a library, heck no!!! The machine came with one stick of 512 so upgrading it to 1 GB is very easy

Tony

Oh dear! I'm really agonizing between the M35 and the Asus M6BNe. The Asus has better rep for build quality, a much better video card, better battery life (not counting the M35 12 cell option), a parallel port, and much, much better service options. The M35 has a better screen and keyboard, no parallel port, unfortunately has XP Home only (unless I order from Tosh direct.. have reasons not to).

I think they would end up about the same price. The Toshiba is now $1850 after rebate. Add $190 for harddrive, $100 for memory. The Asus is about $2200.

Tough decision.

.....Peter

A laptop is a VERY personal choice, I tell everyone that when they ask my advice at work. Heck I have gone through 4 laptops in about 8 months trying to find what I like... The Toshiba sticks merely for the amazing screen, performance is no slouch either!

I'm considering buying a toshiba but I was having some questions regarding the screen. How does it compare to a dell 8600 sxga+ screen? I know that toshiba only offers xga in the m35 but does the trubrite technology make up for it? Also since I only use up to 1024x768 would it be a waste to get a sxga+ since i would never go up to higher resolutions?

I will let someone with more experience on the Dell 8600 chime in here but I think if you purchase an SXGA+ screen and only intent to run it at 1024x768 (or XGA) you will be VERY unhappy with the percieved screen quality. Most laptop LCDs are best viewed at the native resolution so I would think running SXGA+ at XGA resolutions would give a very "blurry" image on screen (unless Dell's has some built in technology to compensate for this). The TruBrite made me have to have the Toshiba. I compared it side by side to the XBrite of Sony. The Sony and Toshiba were in a dead heat for color rendition but the Toshiba has a slight edge on the Sony for actual screen brightness.
I use to swear by SXGA resolutions for more screen space when running multiple apps, but I haven't looked back with the purchase of the Toshiba with XGA. An SXGA with TruBrite would be nice though!!!!

Tony,

(you are becoming my goto guy for M35 questions!)

Is the WinXP disk that comes with the Tosh one that can do a non-destructive install of windows? Or is it an image that only gives the option of wiping everything out?

If the latter, could I use my own copy of Win XP and install the Toshiba utilities, drivers, etc., from their disk successfully?

Thanks again..........Peter

Thanks very much, that's one thing I really needed to know to make a decision.

Peter,

HEY, that is what these forums are for... exchange of INFO!!!!!!
The restore disk is where Toshiba dropped the ball... Your options are only to restore the Toshiba produced image on the laptop. There is "talk" in the manual about how to create your own "custom" install image that will not install all their bloatware and this lappy comes with alot of crap installed!!! I used another copy of my XP home and then used the Toshiba XP license key so it would be legit. Once you use your personal XP home disk you can use their restore disk to install all the necessary drivers so that is a good thing. You don't have to go searching the Toshiba website for all those drivers and things. The Toshiba also has a automated FTP function to check for updates on their server which is nice as well if you like that sort of thing.
One thing to mention is I had already rebuilt my machine from a clean XP install and installed the drivers when I realized that the express media player software HAS to be installed before the operating system is installed!!! What the crap!!!!! According to Toshiba, for express media player software to work you MUST first install the media player software from the software disk (provided separately from the recovery disk). Then you must run the complete Toshiba recovery disk (installing all that bloatware again). Another strike against Toshiba.
Even with these drawbacks I would not switch, I just hate that I will be unable to use the express media player as it has some nice features if I ever wanted to use it!