Although only an average performer and higher-priced than its competition in the same class, the Toshiba Tecra 9100 has several features that make it attractive to travelers who appreciate quality design in a diminutive package.

The Tecra is attractive, with its subdued dual-color elegance. It’s fairly thin, at 1.5 inches, and the lightest of the Windows-based mainstream laptops, at 5.3 pounds without the adapter, which adds almost another pound.

Space is well utilized, with the full-size keyboard occupying most of the laptop’s width. We also like the four buttons that complement the pointing stick, as they feel more comfortable than the grainy plastic found with the pointing-device buttons on other notebooks. Toshiba includes a neat software package, hwsetup, on all of its current notebooks. The software can edit the bios from Windows (on other brands, you have to go into the bios to edit its settings, usually by hitting f2 or Delete when you boot the pc).

Another smart feature is the wireless switch located on the front of the system, which allows you to toggle quickly between wireless connectivity and the built-in Ethernet port. An easily accessible tv-out port is sure to be a presentation pleaser, and the integrated sd card slot is something we expect to see more. But we would have liked a more powerful graphics subsystem in place of the s3 SuperSavage mx/ix.

Surprisingly, the Toshiba didn’t score as well as we expected, given its 1.7-ghz p4-M processor, 5,400-rpm drive, and 256mb of ddr sdram. Although it had the highest score on Content Creation Business Winstone 2002, it lagged behind the Dell Latitude c610 (with a 1.2-ghz piii-M) on all our other tests. The c610’s battery life was also superior—more than twice as long as the Tecra’s 2 hours 5 minutes.

Though the Tecra is a capable, lightweight machine with good features, its high price and average performance let us down a bit.

DOWNLOAD DRIVER TOSHIBA TECRA 9100 For Windows XP :

• Driver LAN (Intel PRO 10/100 Model Driver V8.0.43.0)
• Driver Bluetooth (Toshiba Bluetooth Stack)
• Driver Sound (Sound Driver for Yamaha AC-XG sound systems)
• Driver Modem (Toshiba Software Modem driver)
• Driver Display (S3 SuperSavage IXC display adapters)
• DMI Driver (Toshiba TBIOS Driver)
• Driver SD Card (Toshiba SD Card driver)
• Wi-Fi LAN Driver (Toshiba Wireless LAN Driver)
• Wi-Fi LAN Driver (Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Driver)
• LAN Wi-Fi (Toshiba Wireless Hotkey application)
• LAN Wi-Fi (Cisco Aironet Client Utility)
• Toshiba Display (Toshiba Display Hotkey Utility)