Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (1.33-GHZ Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008KA8U
• Item model number: PP350U-002GF4
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,095 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 12, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Blending the functionality of today's top notebooks with the convenience of pen-based input, Toshiba's Portégé 3500 Tablet PC delivers a possible glimpse into the future of mobile computers. Versatile and extremely compact but not particularly powerful when compared to standard portables, the Portégé 3500 is a great fit for those who are handier with a pen than a keyboard and value a truly petite profile.

The unit is most at home when used to enter, store and share notes and concepts that might otherwise be kept in handwritten format. In fact, measuring just 11.6 by 9.2 by 1.2 inches and tipping the scales at a scant 4.1 pounds, the Portégé 3500 is as comfortably portable as a conventional paper-based notepad. Users input data in one of two ways--either by sketching directly on the swiveling, double-duty 12.1-inch poly-silicon TFT color LCD (maximum resolution 1024x768) or via an 84-key keyboard.

Though the Portégé 3500 is not as powerful as a comparably priced notebook, it is faster than many competing tablets. Featuring a 1.33 GHz Intel Pentium III processor-M with enhanced SpeedStep technology for improved battery life, 256 MB SDRAM memory (expandable to a whopping 1024 MB), and a Trident CyberALLADIN-T graphics controller with 16 MB external memory, the unit will easily handle most day-to-day mobile computing tasks and many 3-D apps too. Serious gamers or 3-D artisans should look elsewhere.

Connectivity amenities include an RJ-45 LAN port for network and online access, an RJ-11 modem port for low-speed e-communication, and integrated Wi-Fi compliant wireless LAN support. The system also sports a surprisingly large 40 GB hard disk and facilities for an external CD and/or DVD drive, a pair of ultra-fast USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals, an integrated TouchPad, 12 function keys, a speaker and microphone and full 16-bit stereo sound. Battery life is estimated at 3.5 hours under ideal conditions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Groovy couch companion, not a full PC replacement., September 30, 2003

By 

Jeremy Wadhams (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (1.33-GHZ Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

When my company decided to spring for new laptops for engineers, I jumped at the opportunity to try something a little different. I'm a huge fan of Toshiba laptops in general (more reliable than a Dell, less expensive/pretentious than an IBM) and the 'think in ink' feature set of this baby seemed like a great meeting accessory.

Now, with three months invested, I like it for a totally different set of reasons than why I bought it.

First: It's tiny. And light. One of my new favorite past times is putting it in "tablet" mode, hooking into my apartment WiFi, and browsing Amazon and web comics. It's no paperback novel, but for a few hours of web browsing, it's great. I also use it folded up with a USB bar code scanner for scanning serial numbers on my current project.

Second: It's got a real battery! I think I was unfairly trained to the 30-minute lifespan of my previous (first Clinton-term era) laptop, but this baby gets every minute of the 3.5 hours advertised. The power saving tools are infinitely customizable and never intrusive.

Third: Limited peripherals will set you free. I don't think it's really designed to be your ONLY PC. No floppy. No CD. No DVD. No serial (I got an external USB-to-DB9 adapter since serial consoles are a big part of my job). No parallel. No big freaky docking station jack. Instead, when I'm on the road, I have a Kensington wireless/optical/travel mouse. When I'm at the office, I plug into power and a USB hub that connects me to my iPaq cradle, scanner, external CD drive, and a wired optical mouse. When I'm at home, I'm wireless to my home PC-- that does all my DVD playing, CD writing, and floppy reading for me.

Do I use the writable screen? Heck yeah. There are a lot of times it's easier to email a hand-sketch than do ASCII art or a five paragraph description. A picture's worth a thousand words, etc. Plus, when your lap's just not available, the tablet form factor is a touch of genius. I've passed it around in a meeting when I wanted to be able to update a worksheet on the fly. I'll flip the monitor around backward to show the person opposite me what I'm working on. Have I eliminated the tree-killing scourge of paper from my life? I'd recommend "The Myth of the Paperless Office" if you think it could.

So, if I had to have just one computer... this couldn't be it. But if you're a geek like me, and you're looking for a laptop to be king among your gadgets, toys, and existing computer menagerie, this is your baby.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good laptop, crippling design choices, July 30, 2005

By 

Thomas Vaughan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (1.33-GHZ Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

This is a pretty decent tablet for the price. Toshiba managed to pack in a fair amount of processing power, and although small the screen is crisp and remains clear even after years of tablet use.

However, there were some bone-headed design decisions that hurt the usability of the laptop. One reviewer mentioned how they've positioned the off button. I shut the tablet off several times by mistake before I realized what was going on. How did that get past testing?

The worst decision, from the perspective of a techie, is that there is no way to boot from a USB CDROM or DVD. This means that unless you have a special PCMCIA-attached CDROM, you can't actually install any other operating systems.

A cute laptop, but obviously designed for the segment of the market that doesn't change any of the pre-installed options. For technical users, that's a killer, and even for non-technical users, the inflexibility hurts the resale value.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything I needed, January 13, 2004

By 

Clarke Fan (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Portege 3500 Tablet PC (1.33-GHZ Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

I was honestly supprised that this wasn't noticeably more expensive than a conventional laptop. This is really a full-fledged conventional portable (not desktop-replacement) laptop, but the tablet functionality is very convenient for taking notes (diagrams and such), and for reading electronic documents.

As for the comments about tech support, I wouldn't know. I've never had to use it, unlike Dell's friendly but frequently used support. That's a good thing for Toshiba in my book. Only problem I've had with this is a few more dead pixles than I'd like (3 or so).