Irvine, Calif. — Toshiba today brought out three new thin and light laptop models, one under Intel’s Ultrabook label and another powered by an AMD processor.
The models fall under the new Satellite E series and include the E45t and the E55t/E55Dt. The former has a 14-inch HD display while the latter models sport a 15.6-inch screen. This is the first time Toshiba has included this screen size in an Ultrabook or ultra-thin model, said Carrie Cowan, Toshiba’s senior product marketing manager.
The E models will come with hard drives ranging from 500GB to 750GB with a 32GB solid-state drive cache option. Also included are two USB 3.0 slots — one with USB sleep-and-charge capability — and a single USB 2.0 port.
Cowan said the model’s industrial design is based on the same look as Toshba’s high-end Kirabook Ultrabook. All have a reinforced keyboard and similar lines. However, the E series has an aluminum chassis instead of the Kirabook’s magnesium.
The Intel-equipped E45t Ultrabook will be available on Aug. 4 with an $817 suggested retail price. It will be available exclusively at Best Buy and BestBuy.com through the holidays, Cowan said.
The Intel-powered E55Dt will also feature Dragon Assist speech-recognition technology. Users will be able to control a variety of multimedia and web functions via voice command in much the same way as Apple’s Siri and Google Now, Cowan said. The Dragon assistant is activated by the person saying “Hello Dragon.”
The E55t uses AMD’s quad-core A6 APU and drops Dragon Assist.
Both models ship into general retail distribution in September with the E55Dt expected at $899 and the E55t at $579.
