Dynabook Portégé X30L-K-139 review – Business laptop weighs only 900 grams

With the Portégé X30 series, Dynabook (formerly Toshiba) offers particularly compact business laptops with 13-inch displays. Our test device, the X30L, is a standard clamshell, but with the X30W , Dynabook also caters to those interested in convertibles. With a weight of just over 900 grams, the Portégé X30L is primarily aimed at customers who want to use a notebook that is as light as possible on the go without sacrificing many ports or performance.

Our test device (X30L-K-139) offers a modern Core i5 processor from Intel, 16 GB RAM, and a fast PCIe 4. 0 SSD from Samsung in addition to the IGZO 1080p display from Sharp. The manufacturer charges around 1,600 Euros for this.

One of the highlights of the X30L is certainly the magnesium casing, which is why the device only weighs a bit more than 900 grams. Paradoxically, however, the device is almost too light because it does not feel particularly high-quality in handling, but rather like a plastic bomber. There is also still room for improvement in terms of quality.

The base unit is very stable, but there are slight creaking noises when twisting. The display hinges are well adjusted (maximum opening angle 180 degrees), but opening with only one hand is not quite easy due to the low weight. The display lid itself is also very thin and quite flexible, but there were no creaking noises and we could not provoke any picture errors.

The case in a dark blue (Mystic Blue) is visually quite discreet, from the outside only the Dynabook lettering and the hinge cover serve as visual accents. As soon as you open the lid, the blue pointer replacement (AccuPoint) in the center of the keyboard immediately catches your eye. However, the screen’s edges above and especially below the display are quite wide; a 16:10 panel would have fit here as well.

The lower case cover is secured with a multitude of Phillips screws, but there are no other hooks or plastic clips. Compared to the old model (which was even a bit lighter), the maintenance options are now more limited because both the working memory and the WLAN module are soldered in the meantime. Only the SSD can be replaced.

In terms of ports, Dynabook shows that even a compact device does not have to make do with USB-C alone. Besides two modern Thunderbolt ports, there is also USB-A, HDMI, and even a Gigabit Ethernet port. The manufacturer also installs a modern Wi-Fi 6E module from Intel (AX211E), but we could not establish a connection with the 6 GHz network of our reference router from Asus.

The transfer rates in the 5 GHz network were still very good. The Portégé is also optionally available with an LTE module. The microSD reader offers decent transfer rates, but the webcam only has a weak 720p sensor that does not allow for particularly good pictures.

Besides a mechanical shutter, an IR camera is also installed for using Windows Hello. The black chiclet keyboard is illuminated and offers an average typing feel, it does not feel as high-quality as in other business laptops and the keystrokes also feel a bit clattery. Furthermore, the keys on the right side are partly very small and crowded.

The clickpad works well in principle, but it is very small due to the additional dedicated keys for the blue AccuPoint, and there is also a fingerprint scanner on the upper left, which takes up additional space. However, the functionality is okay, only the click noise is very loud The AccuPoint in the keyboard’s center works precisely, especially in comparison to the ThinkPads the initial resistance is too high, so you have to use a lot of force, which affects the precision a bit. The two dedicated mouse keys only have a very short travel and the loud click noise feels cheap.

Dynabook offers the Portégé X30L with three different matte Full HD IPS displays, but we would not recommend the two versions with 250 cd/m² and 300 cd/m² (touch). Our review sample features the much brighter IGZO display from Sharp, which achieves an average brightness of 450 cd/m² and also offers a good subjective picture impression since even bright surfaces do not look grainy. Halos are not a problem, the response times are inconspicuous and the viewing angles are very stable, but we could detect PWM flickering from a brightness of 20% (about 115 cd/m²) or less.

However, the frequency is extremely high at almost 24 kHz, so there should be no restrictions here. We measured the panel values with the professional CalMAN software (X-Rite i1 Pro2 spectrophotometer) and the performance is not very good ex-factory, because there is a clearly visible color cast towards purple, and the deviations compared to the sRGB reference are very high. You should definitely calibrate the panel (our profile is available for free download above) because there is a lot of potential here and the calibrated performance is excellent.

The sRGB color space is almost completely covered and overall this is a good panel for office use. Outdoors, you benefit from the matte surface and the high screen brightness. As long as you avoid direct sunlight, you can still work reasonably in bright environments.

The Dynabook is offered with Intel’s faster Alder Lake P CPUs. Besides the Core i5 of our test device, a Core i7 or Core i3 is also available (also as vPro versions). There are no additional performance profiles from the manufacturer, so only the Windows profiles can be used here.

This is basically perfectly fine, but the profiles are not well adapted to the weak cooling. The processor can consume a lot of power for a short time (up to 64 watts), but then the temperatures go through the roof and the chip is suddenly throttled to 11 watts. After that, it can briefly consume more than 20 watts again before it then settles at a stable 15 watts.

In the more efficient profiles, the maximum values are a bit lower (e. g. 35 watts), which is also kept a bit longer, but even then there is a drop to 11 watts and the results are overall the same.

Looking at the cooling, it would have made much more sense to set the PL2 to 25 watts, for example, and then set the permanent consumption to 15 watts, which would have actually been ideal for an Alder Lake U chip. The Intel Core i5-1240P offers four fast performance and eight efficiency cores. Due to the previously described TDP issue, the multi-core performance, which is the main difference from the Alder Lake-U chips, turns out rather modest.

Compared to the old X30W (i. e. the convertible variant) with the Tiger Lake processor, the multi-core performance is only slightly higher, which is disappointing.

The single-core performance on the other hand is very good, but that would also have been possible with an Alder Lake-U like the Core i5-1235U (2x performance, 8x efficiency). Overall, the Portégé offers sufficient performance for everyday office use, where single-core performance is the most important factor in most cases. The performance is not reduced even further in battery mode.

Further CPU benchmarks are available in our technology section are available. There are no surprises when looking at the general system performance. The Dynabook responds quickly to inputs and the combination of the Core i5 CPU and the fast SSD simply makes for a snappy system.

The benchmark results in the synthetic tests are average. Our test device of the Dynabook Portégé X30L was still shipped with Windows 10 Pro, however, a free upgrade to Windows 11 is possible at any time. Our standard latency test (web browsing, YouTube 4K playback, CPU load) reveals some issues and with the BIOS version at hand, the test device is not suitable for using real-time audio applications.

Dynabook relies on a fast PCIe 4. 0 SSD from Samsung. The PM9A1 is the OEM version of the 980 Pro and the transfer rates are very good at first, but the performance quickly drops significantly, which is probably due to the SSD’s temperatures.

However, the effects will be minor in everyday use. Of the total 512 GB, there are 413 GB available to the user after the first startup. More SSD benchmarks are available here .

The Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 we already know from the old Tiger Lake processors and in combination with the Core i5, it is the slower version with 80 EUs. The iGPU offers enough performance for everyday office use, but it does not cut a particularly good figure when gaming after work. Theoretically, you could connect an external GPU at home, but that honestly does not make much sense due to the low CPU multi-core performance The rapidly falling TDP limit also has an impact on the iGPU and the performance is not completely stable; the Time Spy stress test is not passed with 93%.

However, the GPU performance is not reduced further in battery mode. More GPU benchmarks are available here . At idle, the device is usually silent, but the fan can start from time to time.

However, this is hardly noticed with less than 30 dB(A). However, as soon as the device is loaded a bit more, the small fan immediately jumps to its maximum speed. The noise at just under 35 dB(A) is already clearly audible and also relatively high-frequency, you simply notice that it is a small fan.

We could not detect any other electronic noises. The surface temperatures are absolutely uncritical. Even in the stress test, the Portégé X30L can still be placed on the lap without any problems, and you do not feel any heating at all during low load.

However, that is not really surprising in view of the low TDP limit of 15 watts. Since the CPU and the iGPU have to share this value in the stress test, the clocks are correspondingly low. The stereo speakers are relatively loud but sound extremely thin.

The modules are well suited for conferences because the voice reproduction benefits from the linear treble reproduction here, but we would definitely recommend external speakers or headphones for music or video playback. The Portégé X30L is basically very efficient in energy measurements. The consumption only reaches the power supply’s limit with more than 60 watts during load, but the laptop quickly reduces this and the consumption settles at around 30 watts in the stress test (~15-watt TDP) The included 65-watt power supply is thus sufficiently sized.

The power supply itself is also very compact, but the weight is 375 grams due to the long cables, and the competitors often have an advantage here. The review sample achieves good battery runtimes with the 53 Wh battery and overall, the comparison devices are all on a very similar level here. In our WLAN test with 150 cd/m² (corresponds to 30% of the maximum brightness), we determined a bit more than 10 hours and even more than 8 hours at full brightness.

The efficient IGZO display is noticeable here. A full charge takes a bit more than 2. 5 hours, but 45% is already available after half an hour.

The Dynabook Portégé X30L shows that even very compact and lightweight business laptops do not have to do without many ports. With Thunderbolt 4, PCIe 4. 0, and Wi-Fi 6E, the latest technologies are also used and an LTE module is optionally available The magnesium casing is extremely light and the stability is also good.

The matte Full HD panel is basically good as well, but a 16:10 panel would easily fit in here as well. You also notice that the cooling is simply too weak and that the choice of the Alder Lake-P processor does not make sense because the multi-core performance is only marginally better than the Tiger Lake predecessor. An Alder Lake-U processor with adjusted TDP limits would suit better here.

We also notice the influence of the high TDP limits of Intel’s current chips, since the small fan immediately reaches its maximum speed even at low load. Extremely light, long battery life, and many ports: The Dynabook Portégé X30L offers many features and modern technology, but there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of performance. A 16:10 display would also be a nice addition for working.

The rivals offer considerably fewer ports and are usually a bit heavier, but they have advantages in other areas. For example, the input devices or the display of the ThinkPad X1 Nano should be mentioned. The new Dell Latitude 13 7330 offers a more balanced performance package with the Alder-Lake-U and also a better keyboard.

If you prefer more performance and a very good OLED panel, you will hardly be able to avoid the Asus ZenBook S 13 which is currently one of the best compact notebooks on the market with its AMD processor. Our test device of the Dynabook Portégé X30L is currently available for around 1,530 euro at various online retailers, e. g.

at HeinzSoft . .