Hands-on with the Toshiba Tecra W50 and its eye-popping 4K screen

By published

We’re here at CES, checking out what’s new and great in the world of Windows. Toshiba announced two “laptops” earlier today that push bleeding edge specs. The Toshiba Tecra W50 and Satellite P50t both feature 4K displays. We swung by the Toshiba booth and spent a few minutes checking out the bigger and more powerful of the two machines – the Tecra W50.

As you can see, this isn’t a machine you’re going to be taking to your local coffee shop as you work on your screenplay. Instead, this is a machine for those of you needing to power through in your CAD programs and other intensive video work. The Tecra W50 has a 15.6-inch screen with a display resolution of 3840 x 2160. That’s a mind boggling 282 pixels per inch. You’ve got 4th generation Intel Core processors inside and an NVDIA Quadro K2100M GPU with 2GB of dedicated memory.

It’s an insane machine and something that is overkill for anything we do. Any of you out there have a need for a machine like this?

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
83 Comments
  • Looks nice, but windows 7??
  • Nope. Windows 8.1. 
  • If you zoom up it is running Windows 7.
  • IF you look real close at the end of the video, you can see the ellipses in the bottom right corner indicating that this is indeed fullscreen IE 11 running on Windows 8.1
  • Yeah my bad, I was only looking at the image as I couldn't watch the video. The banner image must be a screen cap of a video or something.  
  • If you look real close . . . You still can't see the pixels. :D
  • Intel Core logo
  • 7 is what id have on it
  • I prefer Windows 7...
  • Then you're ridiculous and should go live on an island and hunt with spears with that out dated technology. It literally does all the exact same things and runs the exact same programs. Even saying you prefer 7 is a redundant point. If you don't want to you don't even have to look at the Start screen. Just run the desktop and never touch any of the amazing apps. Might as well be careful not to touch the screen since this may confuse and befuddle you.
  • ^^ well said!
  • im still not convinced.... i feel like most programs wont work on it. i like famous games. lots of it. and autocad and such
  • All of my programs work, I play several games (DOTA2, Aion, Skyrim, AoEII, Guild Wars 2, etc) and use SolidWorks and Visual Studio regularly for work, so that's just unfounded fear.
  • DOTA2? ok im convinced now. hahahaha
  • I have not come across a single program that works on Windows 7 and not on Windows 8.  i'm not saying they don't exist, but they are few and far between.
  • Guess personal preference has no place here...
  • you are redundantly stating something that doesnt matter to people that are interested in the news of windows 8.1. im not attacking you im just saying. if you prefer windows 7 thats awesome its a great operating system but, the way you typed it, when read sounds like this, "I Dont like windows 8." at least to me thats what was implied with the ...
  • Now, put that adapter on a Surface 2 Pro, for shits n giggles.
  • Tecra❔... They're running out of names... They should've called it the "Shaniqua WRX"...
  • Racist.
  • You remind of of Hit the Lights...
  • The tecra line has been around for a while... Since 1996... I don't think they're running out of names. At least for those of us who can remember that far back :P I remember my dads cutting edge dell latitude with 128MB of RAM with an external CD drive.
  • And Tecra also coated an arm and a leg at the time; the office bought me one, do not remember the model, that even had an external, detachable camera and costed around $6000.
  • He's in Android heaven with me know❕ For we are the masters of the tecnoverse❕..
  • He's going by JG Wentworth lately.
  • Kill em all❕
  • Not sure if trolling or ignorant, but Tecra is one of Toshiba's oldest laptop lines dating back almost 20 years. They were some of the first laptops on the market to offer TFT LCD displays, which were a huge advance over TN LCD displays. So, in a way, it's kind of a fitting launch vehicle for the 4K displays (overkill as they may be).
  • Actually, I'm trolling, and ignorant.. You see, my job is to take WPcentral down because I despise the awful OS that is WP, and the readheaded stepchild of WP W8.1... They have zero apps, and zero features, and nobody will ever buy either one.... Die❕ Die❕ Die❕
    When will you Microkia sheep realize that Android will rule the world with its servers one day❕❕❕
  • Your hollow exclamation marks don't threaten anyone.
  • In your dreams...
  • The hell did I just read?
  • Sorry but Android will never rule the mobile world even though I switch usage between a Android and a Windows Phone. First of all, zero apps in the WP Store is nonsense. Android have a lot of copycat apps AKA fart apps in the Play Store that Google can never finish cleaning up. Microsoft on the other hand can pull down any app that copies the other app in just minutes provided the copycat don't respond to any email from Microsoft. Next, another nonsense, zero functions. Android is open-source which means manufacturers can pre-install a lot of bloatware though I don't consider skin themes bloatware. Yes Windows Phone 8 don't seperate volume controlling, notification center, VPN and proper file management but all these will change if WP 8.1 comes these functions. Nobody will ever buy a Windows Phone is the biggest nonsene I've ever read. Nobody buys a WP is equal to a 0.0% market share. A 3.6% market share means out of 9 people 3 of them buys a WP high-end smartphone and 6 of them buys a WP mid-range or low-end smartphone.   And please don't be too smart to call us Microkia sheep in this website, not ALL of us own Nokia Lumias and there's also people who own HTC Windows Phones, Huawei Ascends and Samsing ATIVs viewing this website and calling all of us Microkia sheep is a very big insult.
  • I feel like I'm the only one that noticed that intentional trolling
  • Lol❕... Yeah.. I was being supper sarcastic.. I have these "moments" from time to time....
  • I think your math is wrong on the 3.6%
  • No point wating your time...
  • You don't speak troll, do you?
  • Dude.. I'm the biggest WP fan here.. Lol.. I have a red 920, and a 1520❕❕.. I've been around since the old WinMo days... And, I seriously hate Android, and I'm not to fond of cheap ass Google at all... Me and NIST joke all the time.... Lol..
  • Why did I remember Sharkeisha?
  • Oh, brother.... Lol❕
  • Win 7, but what's cooler is the VGA plug
  • It's running 8.1. Look very closely near the end of the video at the bottom right corner of the display for the ellipses indicative of IE 11 in Windows 8.1
  • Oh, I was going off image
  • Those things are going to run like $3000, arent they?
  • ^^^This?
  • Possibly not that expensive, but it's a business oriented laptop with a Quadro GPU. It will be very expensive... Models will probably start in the 1K range and fully tricked out quadro models could be up at 2-3k+
  • You got the right idea, my son.. They will not be very affordable for saps like me, and you..:-\:-\
  • Saps like you. Hmmm
  • I would assume at least 4k....pun intended
  • I was going to say overkill, but then I read 282ppi. I'm sure that's sexy as hell.
  • Photography, design, cad or anything that has large pixel images or model benefits from a resolution like that. I thought 1920x 1200 was enough until I got 2560x1600
  • Ya, I could use this for video editing and photography. Nice.
  • That's so pretty!!! I want one! As for Win7...le sigh...but I could manage
  • Read the comments above.
  • True...that's what CES is: a showcase of awesomeness! I'm sure there will be improvements come later in the year. :)
  • I need this machine. It should be able to handle paint right?
  • If 5" phones can have 1080p displays then 4k is not overkill for laptops.
  • What about 8k (yes, 8k) on phones? o.o One of these days... /happy place
  • Will it run GIMP my work is heavily focused on that.
  • I definitely need for editing videos on the go. But i don't think thei will sell for a while in india
  • Windows Phone 8.1 ?????
  • Minesweeper on this beast will be awesome!! Oh and maybe visiting Facebook :D
  • As a 3D/VFX artist and app developer, this beast represents the kind of horsepower I would need in a mobile workstation. Should be worth giving a closer look.......though I think I would prefer a high end geForce card over a Quadro card.
  • I don't agree that it's the first 4K laptop. Just yesterday Lenovo announced their Y50 laptop with the same resolution. Or is that the first ultrabook, and this is the first "laptop"? :-)
  • How is desktop mode on that resolution? Do you need to squint when text size is 100% in settings? 
  • This will probably cost around$3,000 which is not bad for a machine like this. I do a lot of video and photo editing so every bit of detail helps. I will probably buy it.
  • Unfortunately Microsoft will have to add this to the possible surface 3. Because its a surface and its made by Microsoft. -_- Looks nice but how is this on the battery?
  • What?
  • Staring blankly...
  • My money is on Dell Precision M3800
  • Dell with ya!
  • Would prefer a Kepler card 770m or 780m, for the money i expect this would cost - want the witcher 3 in this!!! Lol
  • Well, that was quick. Does it come with its own wheels or do we have to hire a moving company to carry it?!
    Seriously, it's of no use to me but I can already hear the design geeks rapping their bank accounts. What's next, a 4K phone?
  • "coffee shop" lol here in Holland coffee shop has a different meaning
  • 4k on such a small screen is just pointless, especially when having to sacrifice so much for it (no touch screen, thickness)
  • Go pick on Apple clones.
  • 3840 x 2160 is NOT true 4k; 4096 × 2160 is.  
  • A 2"X4" is not truly a 2"X4" its smaller
  • I don't think any one needs this but who wants a Nic e high res display laptop that's nit a mac. I want it! Do some light gaming on it, bf4 sounds right. :-)
  • NVIDIA Quadro? Holy hell
  • Just to clarify, that has a UHD screen, NOT a 4K screen.  That's like confusing a 1080p screen with a 1920x1200 screen.  Similar, not the same.
  • You people realize that any new laptop will not run W7 period right? Why is this a debate?
  • False statement. You can choose what OS you want to run on it. I have just ordered a laptop with w7 in it. Granted, it is a custom, but still!!!!!!!!!!!!!