Face Off: Toshiba Portege Z30 vs. Dell Latitude 13 7370 vs. HP EliteBook 1030 G1

High-end business notebooks are almost always made more robust and durable than a similarly priced Ultrabook. This remains true here with the use of magnesium, carbon fiber, and CNC aluminum for the Toshiba, Dell, and HP, respectively. The Dell and HP notebooks are surprisingly rigid with taut hinges and displays that feel stronger than on the Toshiba. This is despite the fact that the Toshiba is thicker and with a larger footprint than both of its competitors. We would have expected a physically larger notebook to carry more benefits than what the Portege Z30 is offering over the Dell and HP.

Outside of size and materials, the three notebooks weigh nearly the same at about 1.2 kg each. Thus, the Dell and HP feel denser and more substantial than the Toshiba due to their thinner form factors and passive cooling systems.

Ports vary widely between these notebooks with notable pros and cons for each. The Toshiba is one of the few notebooks still shipping with legacy VGA that business users in particular can appreciate, though it skimps on any USB Type-C ports. The Dell is the only one of the three without a dedicated docking port as the manufacturer has openly stated that it plans to drop its proprietary docking port in favor of the more universal Thunderbolt 3. As a result, the system ships with two Thunderbolt ports for better future-proofing while still providing Micro-HDMI, MicroSD, SmartCard, and SIM options.

The EliteBook 1030 G1 includes both USB Type-C and a proprietary docking port. Unfortunately, it is lacking key options like SmartCard, RJ-45, and a SD reader and is thus more reliant on adapters and docks for connectivity.

3DMark 11 ranks the HD Graphics 520 in the Toshiba about 20 percent and 40 percent faster than the HD Graphics 515 in the HP and Dell, respectively. This translates directly into higher frame rates when gaming as shown by the Bioshock Infinite benchmark, but the integrated GPU is still not powerful enough to play most modern 3D titles at the native 1080p resolution smoothly. Unlike its CPU, the GPU in the Toshiba shows no signs of major throttling when under load.

See our dedicated GPU pages on the HD Graphics 520 and HD Graphics 515 for more technical information and benchmark comparisons.

System Noise and Temperature

Fan noise is present only on the Toshiba notebook as opposed to the passively cooled HP and Dell. Thus, these latter two systems offer truly silent operation not unlike most Android tablets. We can notice some coil whine, though only when placing our ears very close to the base of the notebooks.

The Toshiba thankfully runs silently as well when idling on desktop. Sustained low-medium loads will bump fan noise up to almost 32 dB(A), which is still quiet enough to be largely unnoticeable under ambient office or classroom conditions. Gaming loads are very loud at 40 dB(A) or higher.

Surface temperatures are cooler on the Toshiba due to its active cooling solution whereas the Dell and HP utilize large heat spreaders in place of fans. At worst, we can measure a surface temperature of almost 41 C on the Toshiba compared to 50 C and 44 C on the Dell and HP, respectively. The HP in particular is noticeably warmer on its palm rests and keyboard than on the Toshiba and Dell.

The three systems are each at single-digit Wattages when idling on desktop. When gaming or processing demanding loads, the Toshiba becomes the more demanding system at over 42 W compared to just 26 W and 15 W on the HP and Dell, respectively. Note that our maximum stress power measurement for the Toshiba is lower than its gaming average as the system begins to throttle when under extreme processing conditions. The HP system is notably more demanding than the Dell despite each carrying 4.5 W TDP processors due in part to its higher resolution panel and brighter backlight.

The HP notebook carries the larger internal battery capacity and the more power-efficient Core m7 compared to the i7-6500U in the Toshiba, yet it disappointingly has a shorter battery life than both the Toshiba and Dell. Users can expect a runtime of about 5 hours of real-world use from the HP while the Toshiba and Dell can last for 30 to 60 minutes longer each under similar conditions. Again, the shorter battery life on the HP may be partly attributed to its more demanding display.

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