14.1 spacious inches of widescreen estate, a 1.7 GHz processor, 64 MB of dedicated video memory and more: Toshiba's Tecra M4 Tablet PC flips both ways.

Rounding out its spring update of notebooks, Toshiba has introduced the Tecra M4, the company's first Tecra-branded convertible Tablet PC targeted at mobile professionals. Part of Toshiba's 20th anniversary of its first laptop, along with the libretto U100 and Portege R200, the M4 integrates Toshiba's EasyGuard suite of security technology and a powerful set of specifications.

A convertible tablet, the Tecra M4 is built around an Intel 915 chipset and Pentium M 740 processor running at 1.73 GHz, rendering it one of the more powerful tablets on the market today. Also under the hood sits 512 MB of 520 MHz DDR2 RAM, expandable to 2 GB, as well as a 60 GB, 5400 RPM SATA hard drive.

More spacious than most tablets, the Tecra M4 boasts a 14.1" SXGA widescreen display running at a resolution of 1400 x 1050 pixels, powered by a Nvidia GeForce Go 6200 TE with 64 MB of dedicated video RAM. This features Nvidia's PureVideo and TurboCache technologies combined with Microsoft DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0.

Similar to the libretto U100 and Portege R200 models also announced this week, the Tecra M4 incorporates Toshiba's EasyGuard technology which includes several software and hardware measures to protect data. Among these is biometric security courtesy of an integrated fingerprint reader and the Toshiba Trusted Platform Module (TPM) embedded security chip for data encryption purposes. In addition, the M4 incorporates a 3D accelerometer which detects motion to enable the laptop to park hard drive heads in case the laptop is dropped, as well as a shock-protected display.

Also featured in the Tecra M4 is an optical drive bay fitted with a DVD SuperMulti DVD+R dual layer drive, fitted with a dedicated on/off control key to reduce power consumption and backed up by a host of other connectivity options. Three USB 2.0 ports compliment a FireWire (IEEE1394) connector, 10/100/1000 Ethernet and a 56K V.92 modem, an infrared port and an SD/MMC Card expansion slot. In addition, the M4 also plays host to VGA and S-Video out ports.

Wireless connectivity is ensured courtesy of integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, with the M4 also featuring Toshiba's Diversity Antenna design which places dual-band Wi-Fi antennas in the notebook's display.

Weighing in at a relatively hefty 6.2 pounds, the Toshiba Tecra M4 is immediately available in North America from $1999 USD, and is according to Toshiba a likely candidate for introduction in Europe later this summer.


Source : InfoSyncWorld