Toshiba has just introduced KIRA, its new consumer-oriented premium brand, and the first produce under the brand, the KIRAbook. The premium Ultrabook features a lightweight and compact design and clean lines and rounded edges. It gets an AZ91 pressed magnesium alloy housing, and and a honeycomb-base. The Windows 8 ultraportable also sports the company’s first PixelPure ultra high-resolution display.
One of the main features of Toshiba‘s KIRAbook is its 13.3-inch ultra high-resolution, factory color-calibrated PixelPure display. The 13.3-inch display has a 2560×1440 resolution that translates into 221ppi. There are non-touch and touchscreen models, with the latter protected by Corning’s Concore Glass for damage resistance and a smooth 10-point multitouch surface. The Ultrabook measures super slim at 0.7-inch and weighs 2.6 pounds.
The KIRAbook is a powerful ultraportable. It is powered by an Intel’s Core i5-2227U 1.8GHz or Core i7-3537U 2GHz processor, integrated Intel HD graphics and 8GB of RAM. There is a 256GB SSD for storage. The Ultrabook also features harman/kardon stereo speakers with DTS Studio Sound, dual microphones with Beam Forming technology, frameless LED-backlit keyboard, touchpad with Windows 8 gesture support, HD webcam and a SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader. For connectivity, you can expect Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band WiFi 802.11b/g/n, and three USB 3.0 connectors. Other than HDMI, support for Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) is also included.
The included 4-cell Lithium Polymer battery pack can provide up to 6 hours of use. Running Windows 8, the notebook comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 software. The i5 model is priced at $1599.99 and the i5 touchscreen model costs $1799.99. The top-of-the-line i7 touchscreen version is available for $1,999.99.
