Dynabook Portege X30L review: Comet Lake power in a featherweight shell - wilsoneand1939
Ben Patterson/IDG
At a Glance
Expert's Rating
Pros
- Featherweight, til now difficult conception
- Bright display
- Fingermark lector and IR facial recognition camera
Cons
- Middling multi-core performance
- No Thunderclap 3 port
- Sober design
Our Finding of fact
We've tested faster laptops than the Dynabook Portege X30-L, but none that were this light while also packing in a U-serial publication Intel CPU.
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There's light, then there's light, and the Dynabook Portege X30L waterfall into the latter category. Weighing a mere 1.8 pounds, the Portege X30L manages to jam in decent (if not chart-topping) quad-core Comet Lake performance, a silver 13.3-inch display, fingermark and facial biometrics, and solid battery life. Productivity-disposed users who like to change of location light (and have a thriving budget) volition get a kick out of this hardly-there laptop, although we brawl wish Thunderbolt 3 had been part of the package.
Portege X30L Specs and Features
Dynabook's 13.3-inch Portege X30L offers many configuration choices. A single off-the-rack fashion mode (the Portege X30L-G1331) comes with a quad-core, 10th-gen Intel Core i5-10210U Comet Lake CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB homogeneous-land drive for a list Leontyne Price of $1,600 from Dynabook.comTransfer non-product link. (Every bit of this writing, it was $1,374 with discounts.) Ramp up-to-ordain options range from the Core i5-10210U the whole way ascending to a hex-core i7-10810U CPU. Alike, you can lucubrate the 8GB of RAM up to 24GB, Oregon quadruple the SSD storage to 1TB. You could also choose for a touch-enabled FHD display. No 4K option is available, but on a screen this size it's arguably overkill. (A 1440p option would have been fastidious.)
Our inspection laptop retails for a hefty $2,014 from Dynabook.com as configured, although that price is comparable to that of a close competitor, the HP Elite Dragonfly. The Portege X30L is besides stiff-backed by a three-year guarantee, versus the standard unmatched-yr warrantee you'll get with nearly mainstream laptops.
Here are the specs on the assembled-to-order review model we acceptable:
- CPU: Quadriceps-core 10th-gen Intel Core i5-10210U
- Memory: 16GB DDR4
- Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Display: 13.3-inch IGZO (470 nits, not-partake), 1920×1080 resolution
- Webcam: 720p, three-fold microphone
- Connectivity: One SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps (formerly far-famed equally USB 3.2 Gen 2) Typewrite-C port, two SuperSpeed USB (5Gbps, formerly renowned as USB 3.2 Gen 1) Type-A ports, HDMI, combo audio jack, microSD memory card reader
- Networking: WI-Fi 6, Gigabit ethernet
- Biometrics: Fingerprint reader and Atomic number 77 external body part recognition camera
- Battery capacity: 42 watt-minute
- Dimensions: 12.2 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
- Weight: 1.8 pounds (2.5 pounds with AC transcriber)
Whole, that's a nice mix of mid- and heights-end features, particularly when IT comes to the roomy 512GB solid-state drive and the Wi-Fi 6 networking (which means you'll be ready for hemorrhage-butt 802.11ax routers). The 16GB of RAM should offer plenty of headroom for multitasking or having many browser tabs open at erst. The quad-core Pith i5-10210U should deliver smooth everyday performance patc holding its own with CPU-intensive activities so much every bit video processing and database crunching. The full-HD video display comes with an impressive 470-nit brightness rating (in our real-world tests, it scored even higher), but IT isn't touch-enabled (the optional FHD touch screen has a somewhat lower 300-nit rating).
Naturally, the key specification to keep in mind hither is weight—a simple 1.8 pounds (that's our measuring, a tad ignitor than the 1.9-pound mill specification). That makes the Portege X30L one of the lightest laptops (if non the lightest laptop) we've ever tested with a loaded-on U-series Intel processor. The U-series chip allows for high base clock speeds compared to low-power Y-series CPUs, not to mention DDR4 memory support.
Design
The corporate-focused Dynabook Portege X30L has a few design advantages, but looks ISN't one of them. With its ordinary onyx-blue magnesium chassis, dead flat lid and utilitarian hinge, the X30L reminded me of the likewise dull (design-wise, anyway) Lenovo ThinkPad series, although at least the logotype on the ThinkPad sits at a jaunty angle.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Dynabook Portege X30L isn't the prettiest laptop ever, just boy is it alight.
Only the Portege X30L's best design boast must be felt rather than seen. It feels ridiculously light, making it a delight to hold your hands (or symmetrical unmatchable hand, for that matter). It's also tough, with Dynabook promising that IT exceeds military Cc-STD 810G standards for drops, shocks, and another environmental hazards.
Display
The Dynabook Portege X30L's 13.3-edge in display is a bit of a departure from standard display panels in this the TFTs (thin-film transistors) that even up the display lie in of IGZO (indium atomic number 31 zinc oxide) transistors, rather than to a greater extent typical a-Si (noncrystalline silicon) transistors. IGZO-TFT displays fanny achieve the very brightness level as a-Si-TFT screens patc consuming less power, but (as Reveal Ninja notes) they're besides quite a snatch pricier.
Ben Patterson/IDG The top display bezel of the Portege X30L packs in a 720p webcam and an Iridium facial recognition tv camera.
In any event, the Portege X30L's display is certainly bright, mensuration about 550 nits (operating room candelas) according to our measurements. That far exceeds our 250-nit standard for comfortable indoor wake (I actually dialed down the brightness to 36 percent while using the laptop in my dining-room). IT's even up bright enough to wont outdoors on a shining day (although I soundless had to squint a bit to work out the text on a webpage). BThe display also boasts expectant viewing angles, dimming only slightly when viewed from the sides or the top or bum.
The screen has relatively narrow side bezels but somewhat chunkier bezels on the top of the inning and butt. Embedded in the top bezel are two cameras: a 720p webcam with dual microphones, along with a Windows Hello-enabled Inland Revenue surface recognition photographic camera. I used the IR cam to log into Windows for much of my testing, and it typically recognised my face within a endorse just about.
Keyboard, trackpad, loudspeaker, and extras
The Dynabook Portege X30L's keyboard feels good, with tolerable travel (the outdistance a cay travels when it's pressed) and a satisfying tactile bump and resilient rebound with apiece keystroke. The keyboard ma a tad flimsy compared to the robust feel of, say, the HP Elite Dragonfly's keyboard. Then again, the Elect Dragonfly weighs a good fractional-pound more than the Portege X30L.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Dynabook Portege X30-L's backlit keyboard features plenty of hotkeys, while the touchpad has an integrated fingerprint reader.
The Portege X30L boasts Function-enabled hotkeys for Windows lock, muting the microphone, disabling the trackpad, cycling between power plans, and Airplane mode, although there aren't any media playback hotkeys. Remarkably, the volume hotkeys sit on the '3' and '4' keys rather than on the top row of function keys.
The X30L's trackpad worked smoothly and with few hiccups. The pointer resisted fictive inputs on the touchpad. Even up when I dragged my palms along the penetrate corners of the trackpad, the pointer alone jumped sporadically, and it almost never jittered during the rule course of typing.
Embedded in the upper side left corner of the Dynabook Portege X30L's touchpad is a Windows-enabled fingerprint reader. I alternated betwixt using the fingerprint reader and the X30-L's IR face recognition camera for unlocking Windows. Every bit with the Iridium camera, the fingermark reader worked smoothly for me, generally recognizing my fingerprint within a split second or soh.
The Portege X30L's down-firing stereo speakers sounded in-bounds as far as laptop speakers go, forte and reasonably detailed on the high end but delivering little in the mode of bass response. Obviously, the X30L's sound quality won't impress anyone patc you're cyclosis Spotify playlists (you'd be better away with headphones operating theatre an extraneous Bluetooth speaker), just they'll be fine for Zoom calls or audio presentations.
Speechmaking of Surg, the Portege X30L's 720p webcam delivers colorful, if typically coarse-grained and somewhat splotched video—in other row, par for the course, and adequate for Skype, Google Meet, or Zoom.
Ports
The Dynabook Portege X30L comes with a sensibly divers selection of ports considering its size. On the left position, you produce a SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps (formerly known as USB 3.2 Gen 2) Type-C port, a untouched HDMI port, a combo sound jack, and a microSD memory card reader. Our inspection model came with a USB-C power adapter. There's a barrel-wrought charging port too, with an optional matching 45-watt AC adapter.
Ben Patterson/IDG The left-side ports on the Dynabook Portege X30L include a SuperSpeed USB Type-C port, a microSD card reader, and a untasted HDMI interface.
Happening the right side sit a pair of SuperSpeed (5Gbps, formerly USB 3.2 Gen 1) Type-A ports, a Gigabit ethernet port (non something you usually see on a laptop computer this slim and light), and a slot for a laptop security cable.
Ben Patterson/IDG Happening the right side of the Portege X30L, you'll find two USB Type-A ports and Gigabit ethernet.
All in all, not bad, particularly when it comes to the ethernet and twin USB-A connectors. We're disappointed by the deficiency of a Thunderbolt 3 port, which we'd generally expect along a laptop computer this pricey.
How does a laptop this thin and light do? Get wind on the following page.
Portege X30L Performance
Cutting to the furrow, let's simply say that the Dynabook Portege X30L's multi-core performance won't blow anyone's socks off. That said, the numbers look a bunch rosier when you study the X30L's sylphlike 1.8-pound design. The laptop too makes the most extinct of its small battery.
PCMark 8 Work Conventional
First up is PCMark 8, a test designed to simulate such everyday activities as web surfing, spreadsheet crop, online shopping and video shoot the breeze. A score of 2,000 or better bodes well for smooth Office performance.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Dynabook Portege X30L's PCMark 8 performance sits rectify eligible with its competitors, a good sign away when it comes to informal computer science duties.
With a tally a shade north of 3,600, the Dynabook Portege X30L lands in the central of the coterie. We should also call attention that most of the activities simulated aside the PCMark 8 benchmark demand only a single core, which means multiple-core group laptops much score just as asymptomatic as quad-core systems like the X30L.
HandBrake
Adjacent comes a much tougher test, which involves encoding a 30GB MKV TV file using the free HandBrake utility-grade. It's a multi-pith benchmark that faithfully cranks up the heat on laptop CPUs. Systems with the most cores broadly speaking rise to the top of the chart.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Portege X30L's last end in our HandBrake chart doesn't tell the wholly story.
The Portege X30L's worst finish doesn't look so great at first sight, but remember that it's leastways a uncomplete-pound lighter than every early laptop computer in our equivalence. The ignitor the laptop, the tougher IT is to keep poise, thence the dialed-down CPU performance.
Also, it's basically in a three-way tie for last place, neck opening-and-neck with the HP Elite Dragonfly, another lose weight-and-light laptop for corporate users. Only unrivalled laptop in our roundup managed to score below 4,000 in our HandBrake test (call back, lower scores are better): the emotional Dell XPS 13, with its edged-abut Core i7 Ice Lake processor.
Cinebench
Cinebench, our former CPU quiz, shows America how a system performs during a short but intensive sprint of activity, rather than a endurance contest like HandBrake.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Dynabook Portege X30L's multi-threaded Cinebench score is meh, only its single-threaded mark fairs more than better.
Again, the Dynabook Portege X30L is stuck in last place, somewhat behind the Lenovo Yoga C740-14ML (which has the same CPU but a heftier chassis), yet surprisingly close to the Acer Swift 3 (which benefits from a speedier Ice Lake processor) and the HP Elite Mosquito hawk (which has a quicker boost time thanks to its Effect i7 silicon chip). Preeminence that its single-thread Cinebench result is right in the mix with that of every other laptop in our graph, keep open for the Core i7 Ice Lake-powered Dell XPS 13 and HP Envy 13. Overall, the Portege X30L's sacrifice is a discreet ace.
3DMark Sky Diver
You can't look silky-sinuate gambling operation from a business sector-oriented ultralight like-minded the Dynabook Portege X30L, only 3DMark's Sky Diver benchmark can help you care your expectation. Laptops with discrete graphics cards testament usually ticktack anything with integrated graphics such as the Portege X30L's Intel UHD, although we've been seeing great results from systems with Intel's new integrated Iris diaphragm Advantageous graphics.
Ben Patterson/IDG The Portege X30L's 3DMark Toss Diver musical score is what i would expect given its integrated Intel UHD graphics core.
The Dynabook Portege X30L brings up the rear of a cluster of laptops that have similar incorporate graphics cores. Meanwhile, our trinity chart-toppers all boast Intel's spiffy new Iris Plus.
The Portege X30L's performance is absolutely adequate for light photo redaction and streaming picture. If you truly want to gamey on this laptop, there's always GeForce Now Oregon Google's Stadia serving. I dog-tired several hours playing Destiny 2 on the Portege X30L via Stadia without some issues.
Battery life
We test battery life on laptops by looping a 4K video exploitation the stock Windows Movies & TV app, with the screen brightness put up to about 250 nits (which, in the Portege X30L's casing, meant dialing its brightness down to 46 percent) and the volume set to 50 percentage (with a pair of wired earbuds attached).
Ben Patterson/IDG Even up with the smallest battery of the bunch, the Dynabook Portege X30-L manages an impressive score in our battery enfeeble test.
This time, the Portege X30L lands right in the middle of our chart. The outcome (557 minutes, Oregon about 9.3 hours) is even more impressive when you consider that the laptop's 42 W-hour bombardment is the smallest of the bunch.
Your mileage will depart. If you're streaming Netflix or encryption video, the laptop's battery will die preferably. Stock-still, considering its featherweight design, the Portege X30L wrings an impressive amount of performance out of a relatively small (and light) assault and battery.
Note: Our original Portege X30L review unit's USB-C world power adapter bit by bit lost its ability to fully billing the laptop's battery. We sent the unit back out to Dynabook, where engineers managed to replicate the issue. A Dynabook rep assured US that the problem (which may have resulted from "a faulty USB-C port or solder joint") had never been reported earlier. A second unit worked flawlessly for the remainder of our testing.
Nethermost line
Sure, we've tested faster laptops than the Dynabook Portege X30L, only no that were this light while also packing in a U-series Intel CPU. Spell compromise is the name of the game when it comes to much featherweight designs, we conceive the performance merchandise-offs are largely worth it.
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Ben has been piece of writing about technology and consumer electronics for much than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/399244/dynabook-portege-x30-l-review.html
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