Following review is provided by notebookcheck.pl, our Polish editor team.

The Portégé R400 is an almost perfectly designed laptop. At its front side it provides a small LED display called Toshiba Edge. Utilizing Windows Vista's Active Notification Technology it displays useful information like the wireless signal strength, the number of unread messages in the inbox, or the next entry of the organizer even if the computer is hibernated.

The Portégé R400's white case and black screen frame catches the eye. However, the coating is sensible to show signs of wear.

The R400 is very light. However, although LED lit its display is relatively heavy. During carrying the open Tablet PC, it seems as if it could easily overbalance and fall down. A shelf at the backside, which can be used like a handle helps carrying it.

In total the case is rather solid. Although the plastic at the bottom side is first class, it gets evident at a closer look that the cover of the supplementary battery slot slightly wobbles and clatters when the user handles or manipulates the Tablet PC. The display cover yields under pressure.

For volume control a little lever is provided at the right flank of the base unit. It works like a zoom toggle in digital cameras, and is very user-friendly.

The R400 has three hinges, the middle one can revolve, the other two are partly hollow in order to allow turning the screen around the pivot. In standard Laptop position the display see-saws a little after adjusting its position.

The Portégé R400 lacks a latch, which would hold the folded display steady. Instead the locking mechanism works like this: Once closed to about 30°, the display is automatically moved in, audibly dropping to the base unit.

Furthermore, it is not easy to disjoin the battery. 

Typical Tablet PC, the Portégé R400 unfortunately provides very few interfaces. There are only two USB ports placed next one to another.

Loudness

After turning the computer on, it's fairly quiet, audible only in low-noise environments. Some time after booting Vista, you can hear the hard disk operate, even without load. After no more than five minutes (still in idle mode) the fan starts running at maximum speed (38.3dB) and works thereafter without interrupting regardless of load. Considering that a convertible tablet PC is supposed to be used anywhere, also in very quiet environments, the noise level is quite high.

Temperature

Despite of a permanently working fan, the case gets considerably warmer. In this aspect the Portégé R400 reaches the record of the Apple MacBook 13" which is equipped with a regular Core Duo CPU whilst the Toshiba comes with an ultra-low voltage version of this processor. The maximum temperature on the top side exceeds 42°C, while at the bottom, it gets close to the 50°C barrier (we measured 46.5°C). High temperature emissions are the usual drawback of slim cases. 

Despite of a  low voltage CPU (U2500) and a LED back-lit screen, the runtime achieved with the 4000mAh is not outstanding. The battery runtime is between an hour and three quarters and a maximum of about three and a half hours.

Besides a nice outlook,  this notebooks impresses by sophisticated design.

Complaining about the low performance of Portégé R400 is not justified, because the main purpose of this notebook is simple office tasks, e-mail or keeping an eye on the share prices. As a Tablet PC, it is not supposed a computer for professional graphic designers, but rather a handy organizer for a CEO. It allows the users to take notes with a stylus, respond to incoming mail, or edit documents in a way more user-friendly, especially for those not used to keyboards. We can confirm that coming back to the keyboard after spending some time with the pen and the tablet might be difficult.