us.toshiba.com/education/home■Retail Price: $984.99
Product Description: The Toshiba Portégé Z20t-C2100ED 2-in-1 detachable PC is Toshiba’s ultrabook solution designed for education. The Z20t is a durable and well-constructed unit, yet it is also lightweight and convertible. It comes with a base configuration that includes an Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor, 4 GB RAM, and a 128 GB SSD drive. Wireless connectivity includes dual band AC wireless, Bluetooth, and WiDi capability. The Portégé Z20t comes with Windows 10 Pro National Academic installed and a three-year warranty out of the box.
Quality and Effectiveness: The Portégé Z20t is a well-conceived ultrabook laptop that gives teachers and students the flexibility of both a laptop and a 12.5” HD digitizer touch-screen tablet. With stereo speakers and a quality digitizer pen, it is flexible in both configuration and inputs. The spill-resistant LED backlit keyboard dock comes equipped with full-size HDMI, RGB, 2-USB 3.0, and Gigabit NIC ports. The dock also contains a 36 Wh battery that boosts battery life from nine hours in tablet mode to a generous 17 hours.
When undocked, the tablet’s generous-sized screen auto rotates for landscape and portrait modes. The front 2MP FHD camera with microphone and the back 5MP camera with autofocus and up to 1080p video capture provide students and teachers with the tools for multimedia content creation. The tablet also sports a well-secured emergency pen, micro HDMI, microphone/headphone combination port, USB Type-C, and micro SD card reader ports.
Ease of Use: With its thoughtful design and multiple configuration options, this ultrabook is easy to use and will be up and running quickly in any classroom. The backlit touchscreen allows students to use either a finger or the active digitizer pen so they have a choice for input. When docked, the full-size backlit keyboard has both a generous touchpad with gesture control as well as an Accupoint pointing device with left and right mouse buttons.
Creative Use of Technology: The Toshiba Portégé Z20t-C2100ED has an array of features that give educators and students the options they need to both create and consume content in a format that works best for their needs. Like many ultrabooks, this unit is designed with portability in mind. What makes the Z20t stand out is the flexibility to configure the device either undocked or in multiple docking configurations. The screen can be docked traditionally, or in reverse so it points away from the still-functioning keyboard, or it can be docked and laid flat so it can still be used as a tablet while taking advantage of the extra battery power and full-sized ports in the keyboard.
Suitability for Use in a School Environment: The Z20t is extremely well suited for a school environment—in creative, scientific, or traditional classrooms. The familiar ports and features are all there, as are newer ports and features to keep it up to date with emerging technologies.
OVERALL RATING:
With its combination of thoughtful design, flexibility, reasonable cost, and multiple features, the Z20t is an excellent addition to any school’s technology fleet. Teachers and students equipped with the Z20t will have the tools they need now with the ability to add the ones they want in the future.
TOP FEATURES
● Design and flexible configuration to suit almost any user’s needs.
● Long battery life to give users plenty of up time to complete projects without interruption.
● Generous-sized HD screen with Active Digitizer Pen and emergency pen stored in display.
