By Adli Yashir

IT IS hard to believe that the Toshiba Tecra M10 comes from the same company that produces eye-catching numbers like the Satellite M300 and the Qosmio G50. The Tecra M10 with its boxy design is, at best, ordinary looking.

I don't see myself buying it for its looks or its travel-friendly features.

Don't get me wrong. At 2.4kg, the M10 is not a a mill around the neck. Plus, its EasyGuard software and hardware features are a godsend in data protection - even if you accidentally drop it.

What I don't like is the bulk. The notebook, with a 14.1-inch screen, is bigger than A4 size and as thick as two Her World magazines.

Pit it against choices like the stylish HP Compaq 6530b or the compact Sony Vaio, and the M10 goes way down on my list.

However, in business computing muscle, security features and software, the offerings are decent. It comes with a high-end Intel Core2 Duo 2.53GHz processor. The test machine comes with 1GB DDR2 SDRAM but I add another 1GB to make it comparable to other machines in this feature.

It scores 5.4 points, according to the Windows Experience Index - similar to the others in this round-up. Battery life is fairly good and lasts 149 minutes.

Security features include an SD Token utility, a fingerprint scanner, and software like Toshiba Security Assist and Anti-Theft Protection Timer.

Like many corporate notebooks, graphics is not its strength. With just an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator the notebook scores 779 points on the 3DMark 06 benchtest.

Apart from the usual wired and wireless networking hardware, there are four comfortably spaced USB ports, a firewire for digital video transfer and a multi-memory card reader.

This article was first published in Digital Life, The Straits Times on Oct 15, 2008.