Dynabook’s New Tecra A40: An Entry-Level 14-Inch Business Laptop
by Anton Shilov on October 29, 2019 2:36 PM EST
Dynabook, formerly Toshiba, has introduced its new entry-level business laptop that promises to offer an attractive balance between performance, portability, and price. The Tecra A40 is a typical ‘working horse’ type of notebook with a 14-inch Full-HD display, a mainstream CPU, a battery life of over 10 hours, and a three-year on-site warranty for select configurations in the US.
The Dynabook Tecra A40 is aimed at a wide audience and attempts to find the right balance of peculiarities to offer something for everyone. To that end, the notebook is equipped with a 14-inch Full-HD monitor with or without touch support. The mobile PC comes in an a modest chassis made of black plastic and featuring a slip resistant coating. The chassis is 19.9 mm thick and the computer weighs 1.47 kilograms (3.24 pounds), which is in line with other cheaper laptops.
At the heart of Dynabook’s Tecra A40 is Intel’s 8th Generation Core processor with up to four cores and UHD Graphics 620 that is paired with 8 GB of on-board DDR4-2400 memory (there is an additional SO-DIMM slot for upgrades) as well as a 256 GB M.2 PCIe SSD.
Being a mainstream notebook, Dynabook’s Tecra A40 offers a typical set of wireless interfaces and ports, including Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, one HDMI output, a microSD card reader, a 3.5-mm connector for headsets, and a power plug. Meanwhile, like many other business-oriented laptop, the Tecra A40 comes equipped with a spill-resistant keyboard, Synaptics’ SecurePad touchpad with integrated fingerprint reader, and a webcam with IR sensors for facial recognition. On the multimedia side of things, the laptop has stereo speakers and a microphone array.
As far as battery life is concerned, Dynabook equips its Tecra A40 mobile PCs with a quad-cell 42 Wh Li-ion battery that is rated for up to 11.5 hours battery life based on MobileMark 2014 productivity test according to the company.
| Dynabook's Tecra A40-E | ||
| A40-E1420 PMZ10U-01000X |
||
| Display | 14" 1920×1080 14" 1920×1080 with multitouch |
|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8250U | |
| Graphics | HD Graphics 620 (24 EUs) | |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR4-2400 | |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD (M.2, PCIe) | |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) | |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.2 | |
| USB 3.0 | 2 × Type-A 1 × Type-C |
|
| GbE | 1 × GbE | |
| Card Reader | MicroSD | |
| Fingerprint Sensor | Yes | |
| Other I/O | HDMI, webcam with RGB + IR sensors, microphone, stereo speakers, audio jack | |
| Battery | 42 Wh | |
| Thickness | 19.9 mm (0.78 inches) | |
| Weight | Starting at 1.47 kg (3.24 lbs) | |
| Price | Starting at $899.99 | |
Dynabook will start selling its Tecra A40 notebooks this November starting at $899.99. Besides the default configuration, the manufacturer will offer Build-to-Order machines featuring specifications defined by customers.
Related Reading:
- Dynabook Updates Support Policies, Now Offers 3 & 4 Year Warranties For Some Models
- Dynaboook Reveals Tecra X50: A Lightweight 15.6-Inch Laptop with a 10+ Hrs Battery Life
- The Return of the Portégé: Dynabook Launches 2019 Portégé X30
- Toshiba's PC Products Rebranded to Dynabook
Source: Tecra
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PeachNCream - Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - link
Agreed with others - those specs are make it no more than a $600 USD laptop and that would be pushing the upper limit of reason. Also, physical touchpad buttons would have been nice. There is space below the pad where they could have been placed. Integrating the buttons into the pad, in my opinion, detracts from mobile usability somewhat.Spunjji - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
Add on $200 to cover all the things enterprises require (reliability of supply chain and consistency of parts used are the biggest ones) and knock off at least $100 because nobody will buy these at sticker price, and there you have it - a moderately priced business notebook.Honestly the biggest drawback here isn't the price you pay for the spec you get - it's the terrible build quality of the Tecra series when compared with their competitors.
PeachNCream - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
I get what you're saying, but in the end if no one pays MSRP for these laptops, then the MSRP is incorrect and is too high for the hardware offered -- which was my original point (and I believe the point of others). We're just arriving at the conclusion that they will not sell for the lsited price from different origins.Flunk - Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - link
Toshiba spun them off for all the operating losses and the plan is to slap a cheap-sounding name on the same old boring product. That totally makes sense.Flunk - Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - link
Toshiba spun them off for all the operating losses and the plan is to slap a cheap-sounding name on the same old boring product. That totally makes sense.