Toshiba Tecra A11 review: First look

The look of the A11 is undoubtedly business like – it’s black and imposing though it doesn’t quite have the same type of feel as a ThinkPad. In fact, a ThinkPad is very much the sort of machine this has in its sights, particularly as it mimics Lenovo’s pointer at the centre of the keyboard. We’re a fan of this as it enables you to move the cursor without having to take your finger off the keys but if you want to use the track pad that’s there too. The mouse buttons are silver coloured but luckily feel as good as they look and nestling between them you’ll find a fingerprint reader too.

If that’s not to your taste another security feature is on offer in the form of the Face Recognition software that Toshiba has provided that works with the webcam in the display bezel. Other software highlights include the Toshiba Bulletin board software, which delivers easy access to post-it style notes , photos and music. We’re not entirely convinced of its usefulness at this point and our initial feeling is that it’s designed more with multi-touch screens in mind.

In terms of connections there are two USB ports on the left and two on the right, where you’ll also find headphone and microphone sockets and a DVD-Writer. The USB ports will enable you to charge external devices even when the machine is in sleep mode.

At the front you’ll find five indicator lights, an SD card slot and a switch to turn wireless on or off.
Above the keyboard you’ll find the power button and four shortcut keys – two for volume, one for outputting direct to external devices, which saves having to hunt and use the shift/F5 keys, and one that fires up Toshiba’s custom Eco-utility, which provides details on power usage and enables you to tweak it if you’re feeling particularly green minded.

A machine this size is likely to be used as a desktop replacement and therefore the keyboard quality is crucial. It sounded a little rattley to our ears, but we couldn’t fault the travel action and we were typing at speed immediately.