Gallery: 25 years of Toshiba laptops

1990: Toshiba T2000SX

Next to the golden laptop was this more conventional looking 386-based model.
2010: Toshiba Libretto W100

The screens can be set up in a variety of different ways: you could use it in dual-screen mode, with one screen as a keyboard, or you could bring up a specially designed file browser.
2008: Toshiba Portege R500

Perhaps the cornerstone of thin and light computing, the R500 shipped with a transreflective TFT screen, built-in 3G connectivity, a Core 2 Duo CPU and it only weighed 1.1kg!
1989: Toshiba T10

The T10 was another of the small laptops of the '80s. It featured an 80C88 CPU running at 4.77MHz, 512KB of RAM, and it ran MS-DOS 2.11.
When you get 25 years worth of laptops in one room, this is what it looks like. Well, you can't really see it all, but it's a massive ring of notebooks; from the T1100, which was released in 1985, to 2008's super-light Portege R500. This setup was part of Toshiba's 25-year anniversary celebration onboard the Starship in Sydney's Darling Harbour, and it brought together many of the company's most important notebook models. In this gallery, we've attempted to bring you all the old models that were on show, as well as some of the brand new models (such as the Libretto W100) that are part of Toshiba's 36 new notebook offerings for this year alone. It's amazing how far we've come in such a short time, all due to the miniaturisation of the transistor.
1985: Toshiba T1100

This is claimed to be the world's first mainstream laptop. It had an Intel 80C88 CPU with a clock speed of 4.77MHz, and it shipped without a hard drive.
1986: Toshiba T3100e

This ran a 286 CPU with a frequency of 8MHz and it had a 20MB hard drive.
1986: Toshiba T3100e

The right side had a built-in floppy drive and a serial port.
1987: Toshiba T110+

This had an 8.5in monochrome screen, an 80C88 CPU with a 4.7MHz frequency, and it only had a floppy drive for storage. It was an ultraportable compared to the T3100e.
1988: Toshiba T3100/40

This is the beefy version of the T3100e. While it looked the same, it was available with a 12MHz 286 CPU, 1MB RAM and a 40MB hard drive.
1988: Toshiba T5200

The T5200 was even faster! It had a 20MHz 386 CPU and a 40MB hard drive, but it was also available with 100MB or 200MB options. It had a 10in screen and a built-in floppy drive.
1989: Toshiba T10

An original cheat sheet.
1989: Toshiba T3200SXC

This 386-based laptop ran at 16MHz, had a 40MB hard drive, a 10in plasma screen and a built-in floppy drive.
1989: Toshiba T3200SXC

Just look at those descriptive status light labels and the function key label holder!
1990: Toshiba T1200XE

This was bling before there was bling! Its golden colour housed a relatively fast 20MHz 386 CPU and it also had a huge 60MB hard drive. The 9.5in screen was just monochrome though.
1990: Toshiba T1200XE

Status lights aplenty. Beautiful!
1994: Toshiba T4900CT

This laptop marked the introduction of the Pentium CPU and helped usher in the era of real fast computing! The 4900CT even has a moderately sleeker design than its predecessors.
1992: Toshiba T3300SL

The T3300SL had a shorter depth and looked much more lap-friendly than its predecessors. It used a 25MHz 386 CPU, ran 8MB of RAM and it had a 9.5in gas plasma screen.
1993: Toshiba T100X

Look ma, no keyboard! This was the first pen-based tablet PC. It had a 9.5in black and white TFT screen, a 40MB hard drive, and it weighed a measly 1.5kg.
1993: Toshiba T100X

It even had expansion ports!
1993: Toshiba T1950CT

Compared to the T100X, the T1950CT was just plain boring, but it featured a 486DX2 CPU running at 40MHz. It also had a 200MB hard drive and an 8.5in TFT screen.
1995: Toshiba Tecra 700CS

The Tecra 700CS offered a bigger screen -- it had an 11.3in DSTN screen -- and its Pentium CPU ran at a blazing 20MHz! It also had a huge 810MB hard drive.
1996: Toshiba Satellite 400CS

Another Pentium-bsaed laptop, with a TFT colour screen and Windows 95.
1997: Toshiba Libretto 50CT

This 6.1in Libretto had a 75MHz Pentium CPU, 16MB RAM and an 810MB hard disk. It ran Windows 95.
1998: Toshiba Tecra 780DVD

This had a 13.3in TFT screen with an XGA (1024x768) resolution and it ran a Pentium II 266MHz CPU. It also had a massive 5.1GB hard drive.
1998: Toshiba Tecra 780DVD

The Tecra 780DVD was a thick beast, but there was a good reason.
1998: Toshiba Tecra 780DVD

It was one of the first laptops on the market to have a built-in DVD drive (after 1997's Tecra 750DVD) in addition to a built-in floppy drive.
2001: Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600

Skipping ahead two years, and finally we get to something that looks more in tune with what we've been used to in the noughties. The Satellite Pro 4600 was available with a 14in screen, a Pentium III CPU, 128MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive and its lithium-ion battery had a stated maximum life of three hours.
2001: Toshiba Tecra 9000

The Tecra 9000 was the epitome of style back in the day and it was based on the look of the Audi TT. It had a 14.1in TFT screen, a 10GB hard drive and it weighed 2.1kg.
2002: Toshiba Portege 2010

Sleek and awesome! That was the Portege 2010. It featured a 12.3in TFT screen with an XGA (1024x768) resolution and it ran a Pentium III 866MHZ CPU.
2002: Toshiba Portege 2010

It was so thin, yet it still had a built-in DVD drive.
2002: Toshiba Portege 2010

Its slim base held a 40GB hard drive, and there was also room for expansion via a PC Card slot.
2003: Toshiba Satellite 5200
2003: Toshiba Satellite 5200
2004: Toshiba Portege

This Portege featured the Pentium M CPU.
2004: Toshiba Portege

It's even thinner than the previous generation Portege.
2004: Toshiba Qosmio G10

The Qosmio G10 was the first AV laptop that Toshiba offered. It shipped with a glossy LCD that was said to be equal to the quality offered by TVs.
2005: Toshiba Libretto U100

This 7.2in ultralight laptop also featured the Pentium M CPU, but it was a 1.2GHz ultra-low-voltage model. It also had a 60GB hard drive.
2008: Toshiba Qosmio G50

This laptop is not so much for your lap as it is for your desk. It's a huge entertainment notebook with lots of gloss and it's designed to be a replacement to your desktop. Personally though, we prefer the [[artnid:342550|F60|Review: Toshiba Qosmio F60]].
2010: Toshiba Libretto W100

This is a limited edition laptop with two touchscreens. Think of it as a foldable iPad.
2010: Toshiba Libretto W100

It even has a USB port.
2010: Toshiba AC100 Cloud Companion
2010: Toshiba AC100 Cloud Companion

It's a very thin and light laptop for running Internet-based apps.
September 2010: Toshiba tablet device to take on iPad

Toshiba managing director, Mark Whittard, said that the company will be releasing a slate-style device around September, but he was mum on the details. He said there will be an Android and a Windows version, but would not say any more about the subject.

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