Toshiba rolls out Portege M780 tablet

To replace the M750

16 April 2010 9:00 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Toshiba has decided that its Portege M750 tablet PC is getting a little long in the tooth, and has replaced it with a new model - the Portege M780 - aimed at business and education users.

It behaves like a normal laptop in most respects, except that you can spin the display 180 degrees to make it lie flat on its back with the 12.1-inch touchscreen facing upward. From there it acts just like a tablet, thanks to Windows 7's touchscreen functionality, and you can use your finger or a stylus to write on it.

Inside, there's a Core i3 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard disk with impact sensor, b/g/n Wi-Fi, 1.3-megapixel webcam, 3 USB ports, card reader, and Bluetooth 2.1. There's also a spill-resistant keyboard, which will give you three minutes to save your work before automatically shutting down the device. There's also a bit of extra padding, in case you drop it, but it's not quite up to the standards of the most "rugged" machines.

There's no pricing details, but it should be arriving at some point in April 2010.