Toshiba Satellite P50t 4K laptop review: The world in UHD

Design

The Satellite P50t is a large laptop with a 15.6-inch multi-touch screen. It has a brushed aluminium body with a grille above the keyboard that houses the harmann/kardon speakers. The keyboard is full size, may be a bit bigger than that and a lot of people will relish this extra space in the age of micro-mini laptops and tablets. The keyboard is also backlit and is a pleasure to use as it senses when you want to type. The keys also have the right amount of travel and is ideal for those who have to write a lot. There is a separate number pad on the right and having used an Ultrabook for a couple of years I kept looking there for the Delete and arrow keys.

The P50t is not lightweight in any sense of the term and weighs well over 2 kilograms. So you would be using this more as a desktop replacement than a carry-in-your-backpack device. It comes with an optical drive which is becoming a rarity these days. The are four USB ports, an HDMI port and so that you are short options when you are creating new content.

Display

And this screen is the hero of this device, after all it has a 3840x2160p resolution screen. Now that is almost four times the screen resolution of the Full HD screens that are the vogue these days. And the screen is stunning. Play some 4K video, if you are lucky enough to get hold of some, and you will see what we are talking about. I have always felt that 4K was actually a bit better that what your real life vision is, and this laptop only reinforces that view.

Performance

The Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor clocked at 2.50GHz means this laptop can munch through any work at ease. Let’s take 4K content for instance. Processing these files are among the toughest things a personal computer would have to face these days. And being the only laptop with a 4K screen, we can see a lot of content producers buying this device to start working on the new videos they would be assigned. We tested the laptop with some 4K content shot with the new Xperia Z3 phone and it played and processed these files without breaking into a sweat. However, the laptop can heat up a bit when you are working on heavy files and you can feel it near the fan on the right. But that is expected with any device trying its hand at 4K.

Verdict

If you are one of these who has access to 4K content and will need to work on these files, you should not think twice before buying this laptop. But for the regular user, there is no need to hurry and pay a premium for the first 4K device. You can wait for the content creators to churn out some 4K videos you can watch on laptops. By then these laptops would have shed much of its price and weight.