Toshiba unveils world's lightest notebook

Electronics giant Toshiba has unveiled what it claims is the world's lightest notebook PC with an optical disc drive.

The Portégé R500 is available in single and dual spindle configurations. The single spindle Portégé R500 weighs 779 grams, around 100 grams lighter than previous industry bests for a single spindle configuration. The dual spindle configuration includes the world's first 7mm optical disk drive.

The Portégé R500 is Toshiba's first notebook to feature a Flash-based 64GB solid state disc.

Additional features include a hard disk drive with up to 120GB with in-built shock protection and 3D accelerometer.

The accelerometer detects acceleration from all directions, which helps guard the drive against accidental drops by rapidly removing the drive head from between the platters.

Toshiba said that the Portégé R500 is the world's first notebook to incorporate an indoor/outdoor transflective 12.1in diagonal widescreen Led backlit display which caters for use in virtually any lighting conditions.

"When looking at a truly mobile device, the initial focus of the design has to be the weight and size," said Thomas Teckentrup, general manager of EMEA marketing at Toshiba Europe Computer Systems Division.

"Reducing weight is the easy bit; putting more functionality in and maintaining high quality for data protection is the challenge."

The notebook also boasts a claimed battery life of between seven and 12.5 hours, depending on battery specifications.

The notebook can be connected to its own bespoke Toshiba Slim Port Replicator II, which includes four USB ports, a Gigabit Ethernet connection, DVI and RGB interfaces.

The Portégé R500 ships with Microsoft's Windows Vista Business or XP Professional and will be available in July from £1,099 ex VAT.