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Toshiba announces high-end Kira ultrabook

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 19 Apr 2013 1:19 User comments (8)

Toshiba announces high-end Kira ultrabook

Toshiba has announced its entrant in the high-end ultrabook market with its Kirabook device.
The notebook runs on Windows 8, has a 13.3-inch display with a large resolution of 2560 x 1444 and 221 ppi, on par with the Macbook Pro with Retina Display. The display is also 10-point multi-touch.

Under the hood is either a 3rd-gen Core i5 or Core i7, 8GB of 1600 MHz RAM, and 256GB of solid state storage.

The magnesium alloy chassis is just 0.7-inches thick and the laptop is extremely light at just 2.6 pounds.



"At the core of the KIRA brand are products derived from inspired engineering," said Carl Pinto, vice president of marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "Products that will carry the KIRA name will be more than a collection of the latest hardware technologies, but a statement of craftsmanship, fit and finish, and features built for the consumer's benefit, not technology's sake."

Additionally, the Kira comes with Toshiba's Platinum Service & Support, including a two-year warranty, 24x7 access to dedicated U.S. agents, quick repair and annual tune-ups.

Depending on the specs, the Kira will sell for $1600 to $2000 starting on May 12th.

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8 user comments

119.4.2013 02:36

Fine... except all the Toshy laptops keep busting as far as I know.

219.4.2013 09:50

WINDOWS 8!!!!
Good luck unloading them.

319.4.2013 22:32

Specs look decent to me.....I wish it was cheaper...

420.4.2013 13:50

Ya'll need to stop bashing Win 8. It's just Win XP/7 with a cover screen. It only takes seconds to shut down.

520.4.2013 17:44

Originally posted by Hrdrk20:
Ya'll need to stop bashing Win 8. It's just Win XP/7 with a cover screen. It only takes seconds to shut down.
Don't mind Robertmro, he would purchase an Apple branded trash can for 4x retail price.

620.4.2013 20:58

I have a Toshiba Qosmio, and my wife has a Satellite. From my limited experience with them, they have rather impressive specs but very shaky build quality. For example, my Qosmio (along with MANY others, according to a little googlin') overheats, due to a flaky graphics card cooling system. Toshiba is notorious for shoddy thermal grease application, which is what I believe is the issue here, which begs the question: WTF? What kind of manufacturer lets their product die over something so simple and easily rectified?!

My wife's Satellite has similar, but lesser overheating issues, as well.

Here's the deal: IF you can get a *very* good deal — say, 30% off or so; enough to cover the later cost of fixing manufacturing problems, if you don't detect them in the warranty period — then Toshibas can actually still be a good buy, believe it or not; I actually ended up liking my Qosmio quite a bit eventually. But if otherwise, or if you simply don't want the hassle, stay well away.

Edit --> Win8 will be sort of OK with the next update (8.1), supposedly. We'll see. Even Vista eventually got its act together, after all.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 20 Apr 2013 @ 9:01

720.4.2013 23:55

Originally posted by Bozobub:
From my limited experience with them, they have rather impressive specs but very shaky build quality.

Yup in a nut-shell.

Would not buy a Toshy lappy for the life of me.

821.4.2013 01:16

Originally posted by Bozobub:
my Qosmio (along with MANY others, according to a little googlin') overheats, due to a flaky graphics card cooling system.

trust me, cooling is an area where companies like apple, hp even fail to impress. apple laptops have Al body, so it's supposed to cool off fast, but if you read reviews, it does not happen in practice, MBPs are notorious for being heated up. hp is worst as i have almost never seen an hp lappie (including mine, sold out for that reason) that stays cool. dell is okay, but i have the best experience with sony in this regard. i wanted a mobile desktop rather than a laptop; therefore, ended up buying this asus, and i can tell you this has fantastic cooling mechanism (oh well, at the cost of its relatively larger size/weight, i guess).

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