Toshiba KIRAbook KIRA-10D (2015) Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

Featherweight. The updated version of the Toshiba KIRA weighs 200 grams less without the touchscreen and is therefore one of the lightest 13.3-inch devices on the market. The new Broadwell hardware ensures sufficient performance and long battery runtimes, but is the high price justified?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Toshiba-KIRAbook-KIRA-10D-2015-Notebook-Review.142823.0.html

[Stefan]

Nice work, Toshiba.... but why can't the matte display be a touchscreen as well? Is there some sort of limitation with the display hardware?

Otherwise high praises, especially for giving us a well-calibrated, uniform, reasonably bright and high-contrast IPS panel.

[Jeffrey Bellin]

Ditto on the matte/touch screen apparent mutual exclusivity.  Fujitsu, Lenovo, and HP have been making "Tablet PC's" for years with matte screens with both active digitizers and multitouch functionality.  I am typing now on a Thinkpad Yoga which, while not strictly a matte screen, has a screen with a coating that shuns virtually all reflections and handles 10-point multitouch brilliantly.  It is an absolute falsehood that touchscreens must be glossy and it is bad enough that manufacturers seem obsessed with promoting this lie, I would hope such quality resources as NBC would make a point of informing its readers that there is no technical or functional reason why touchscreens cannot be matte and to make clear those few models - including the Thinkpad Yoga, which combines a very bright (370 nit) screen with a highly non-reflective surface - that are designed with the user in mind rather than, well, I confess I don't even know whose interest is served by most manufacturers' refusing to provide matte finish touchscreens.  Perhaps NBC could do some research and lend some daylight to this foolish premise.  Thanks

[HP]

Matte screens have in principal rougher surfaces than glossy screens. That's the difference between a matte and smooth/glossy surface. For touchscreens a smoother surface is used due to the fact that less debris contamination can be ingrained within the surface. The result is that the screen is easier to clean after the fact. The glossy surface of touchscreens also help to act as an added protective layer to the touchscreen surface.

[Claude]

I own a Kira 10D. After 2 months, I have a love/hate relationship.

The trackpad is awful: my previous Toshiba Tecra was a dream in comparison. The Kira's trackpad is not smooth and very poor quality. I end up using the mouse 99.5% of the time. You would not do precise work - especially photoshop work with the trackpad.

The screen is great, but the high resolution is a problem for slightly older applications. These apps believe you have a 22" screen, so small fonts. I cannot use the full screen at all while we use older applications.

The plastic on the front left (near the trackpad, where you rest your wrist is starting to wear out after 2 months.

The Kira 10D is not on Toshiba's support site, so forget about Toshiba updates. The wifi was terrible at the start. You need to download the updated driver from the card manufacturer and install yourself.
It comes with Windows 8.1 standard, so you need to fork an extra €150 to get the Pro edition and avail of encryption. For a computer that price, I think it is a flaw I had not seen prior to purchase.

Battery time is great, and it is fast thanks to the SSD hard drive and 8gb of RAM.