Review: Toshiba Kira

Introduction

Introduction and design

Toshiba's new Kira is a 2014 update to last year's model, which marked the company's first foray into premium Ultrabook territory. With a sleek chassis, still-impressive WQHD+ display and improved battery life, it joins a growing list of competing Windows Ultrabooks toting high-resolution, high-pixel-density displays. And there's a fair few of them.

For the Kira's entry price of £1,299 ($1,749), you could bag yourself a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina, a Dell XPS 13 or a hybrid like Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro or Asus' UX301. In the business arena, Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Fujitsu's Lifebook U904 also pack sharp screens, slim designs and the latest Intel Core processors.

After years of putting out dependable if slightly uninspired mid-range laptops, Toshiba's original Kira was a statement of intent, a flash Bentley coming off a production line of three-door hatchbacks. A spec boost to an already attractive Ultrabook is welcome, but is it enough to launch the Kira into pole position?

Design and build quality

Apple hasn't yet launched its almost legendary MacBook Air with Retina, but if it did, it'd probably look a bit like the Kira. Measuring 23mm at its thickest point, its body tapers toward the bottom, making it appear thinner.

The black bezel surrounding the screen is eye-catching; not only is it thinner than what you would find on a MacBook Pro, it's part matte and part glossy which makes it a little more interesting to look at too.

The lid and base are coated in an attractive silver finish that's complimented by a shiny silver lining around the power button - which turns blue when activated, along with an orange Wi-Fi indicator - and trackpad.

Sure enough, the Kira is a very good (but not quite great) looking machine that curiously looks worse when the lid is closed. A silver Toshiba logo adorns its bottom left-hand corner, and its opposing square and rounded corners contrast effectively, but there's nothing here that screams premium.

Build quality is good overall thanks to the Kira's magnesium alloy construction that uses a honeycomb structure. You'll only notice the flex on the underside of the base if you actively go prodding it, but the lid is worryingly bendable to the point that you'll want to avoid using it to pick the machine up.

Thankfully the hinge is sturdy enough to prevent the lid from wobbling, so you'll only have to touch the lid when opening and closing it - an act that takes two hands. One is to prise it open and the other to hold the base steady. Four rubber mats on each corner of the base keep the machine sturdy when you're typing.

Display

Though it was more of a standout feature on last year's version, the Kira's 13.3-inch WQHD (Wide Quad High Definition) PixelPure display still makes for impressive viewing, with high contrast levels that show off its deep blacks and solid colours.

The high quality of the display is partly because it's an IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) variant, the same type that's used in the iPad Air, which allows for higher pixel densities by using smaller semiconductor components.

It's far from perfect though: despite its solid color reproduction, the panel's image quality is hampered by a dim backlight, which maxes out at what feels like around 85% brightness. It's made worse by the display's highly reflective nature, which makes viewing its contents awkward in places like our brightly lit office - or outdoors.

The display features 10-point multi-touch, which is responsive and accurate. It may be questionable whether you would need touch on a non-hybrid model (especially for the added cost), but it certainly allows you to perform some tasks faster than using a trackpad or mouse.

The panel is made of Corning Concore glass, a type of glass designed for touch-sensitive panels that should protect against drops and scrapes.

Keyboard, trackpad and speakers

Despite feeling quite compact for a 13-inch Ultrabook, the Kira doesn't provide a cramped typing experience. However, that's not helped by the fact that its keys aren't completely square; they're slightly wider than they are tall, which may take some readjusting. After a short period of readjustment I found that it wasn't a problem.

A little more annoying is the small shift button on the left-hand side of the keyboard. If you're anything like me, you'll have to retrain your left pinky in order to hit it every time.

The Kira should never be chosen as your main sound system for house parties as its Harmon Kardon speakers are no substitute for a dedicated 2.1 and subwoofer system. That said, it bodes fine for personal listening and you can tweak the sound settings using its DTS Studio Surround app, which lets you alter the max volume output, bass boost and settings to change between between 3D sound and surround sound. There's also an equaliser that allows you to play with a number of presets.

Windows 8.1 and software

Like other Ultrabooks with high resolutions, the Kira struggles with Windows 8.1's poor scaling abilities, making text difficult to read in certain apps. Different apps attempt to combat this in different ways - some with more success than others.


The desktop version of Evernote, for example, doesn't attempt to adjust to the high resolution. You'll need to squint to pick out the names of Notes and Notebooks, and it's likely that you'll have to increase the font size of your Notes to read them comfortably.

Internet Explorer, on the other hand, sets itself to a 200% zoom level by default, which makes web pages appear comically large in comparison with everything else (I found that 125% makes for comfortable reading).

Aside from playing around with individual apps' settings, the only other option is to change to a lower resolution, such as 1920 x 1080, which readdresses the imbalance and makes the desktop more comfortable to use.

On the other hand, if you have particularly good eyesight, or if you mainly use Windows 8.1 apps (which always look great and are perfectly readable as they can scale to high resolutions), you'll find that the large amounts of screen real-estate afforded by Kira make it a pleasure to use.

Connectivity, performance and battery life


Benchmarks


Cinebench 11.5 


OpenGL: 20.14fps

C
PU: 2.77pts

3D Mark 8

Ice Storm: 15086

C
loud Gate: 4622

F
ire Strike: 625

PC Mark 8 H
ome battery life test: 5 hours and 30 minutes

Our Kira came with Windows 8.1, an Intel Core i7-4500 CPU clocked at 1.80GHz, 8GB of RAM and a 220SSD. Graphics are powered by an integrated HD 4400 chip, which handled 3DMark 8's lesser- demanding benchmarks with ease but soon began to struggle.

The Kira provides a decent set of connectivity options, including a full-size HDMI output and two USB 3.0 ports on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side is an SD card slot, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack and one more USB 3.0 port. Connectivity options include 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Hands on gallery

Official gallery

Verdict

We liked

The Toshiba Kira remains unchanged from last year's model, which is certainly no bad thing. It has a slim bezel and feels decidedly more compact than competing models of the same size without sacrificing screen size. With a comfortable keyboard and good, pleasingly loud speakers, the Kira is a great device for watching movies, playing not-so-graphically demanding games or doing work - so long as you can stomach the slightly dim display.

We disliked

It's a shame that the Kira's display couldn't notch the brightness up by just 15%, something that would have made it infinitely more appealing. The flex in the Kira's lid is also cause for concern for a laptop in this price bracket. Set to its native resolution, the Kira's desktop provides a huge working area that can be used to lay out multiple documents or apps, but it's at the expense of unpredictable scaling in Windows 8.1 that can frustrate at the best of times.

Final Verdict

The Kira's longer battery life, compact stylings and attractive looks (with the lid open) are all plus points for Toshiba's second Ultrabook, but some of the flaws are real deal-breakers. The most glaring one is the display's lackluster backlight, which is an unfortunate one considering the highly reflective nature of the display and its average viewing angles. If the Kira was a bit cheaper - somewhere around the £1000 mark - it would be easier to look over its misgivings, but when the competition is this strong, it makes it a very hard sell indeed.

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