Hands On: Toshiba Satellite U845w

Toshiba today announced several new slim-bodied ultrabooks, but the most intriguing of the new laptops is easily the Toshiba Satellite U845w.

A variant of the Satellite U845 ultrabook, Toshiba gave the Satellite U845w a unique look, stretching the screen's width to accommodate the 21:9 aspect ratio used for movies and many TV shows.

Toshiba is billing the Satellite U845w as the world's first "entertainment optimized ultrabook," touting a noticeably wider screen along with premium speakers, Intel third-generation processors (aka Ivy Bridge), and a full slew of ports.

The stand-out feature of the Satellite U845w is, obviously, the ultra-wide 14.4-inch screen. Stretched to accommodate the same 21:9 aspect ratio used for CinemaScope, the Satellite U845w is made with entertainment in mind. The wide screen lets it display movies and many TV shows in full width with no letterboxing—those black bars filling the empty space above and below widescreen content.

The entertainment-minded features don't end with the screen however. The wide build of the laptop provides room on either side of the backlit keyboard for premium Harman/Kardon speakers with SRS Premium sound. In demonstrations with Toshiba, we watched the trailer for the upcoming movie The Bourne Legacy, and in addition to a truly fullscreen, widescreen experience, the sound was excellent. Dialogue was crisp and clear, with the bass rumbling score and gunshot sound effects coming through undistorted.

Toshiba uses machined aluminum construction for the chassis and lid of the Satellite, and a wide stripe of textured soft-touch rubberized paint runs along the opening edge of the lid, with a matching stripe covering the palmrest and touchpad.

Our initial impressions of the Satellite U845w were a bit leery—How will it fit into a laptop bag? Why not buy a 15-inch system and get the extra screen space? But we quickly warmed up to it while watching a demonstration of the widescreen capability. Toshiba has added a grid layer to Windows' Aero Snap, letting you quickly position windows to make optimal use of the extra screen space, and one Toshiba spokesman was delighted that the shorter height of the Satellite U845w made for a much more comfortable laptop experience while on a long airplane flight.

The Satellite U845w will feature the same third-generation Intel processors seen in the Portege Z935 and Satellite U845, with a Core i5-equipped base model starting for $999 (with 500GB hard drive and 32GB flash memory cache). On the higher end, configurations will be available with faster 256GB solid-state drives (SSD) and Core i7 processors, with prices up to $1,500. The Toshiba Satellite U845w is scheduled to hit stores July 15.