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It looks like the Toshiba Portege R500 is getting all beefed up with a new 128GB solid state drive. Weighing in at less than 2-pounds, the newly updated Portege is expected to cost more than its present $3,000 price tag.

Additional features include a chip upgrade to a 1.33GHz U7700 processor from the current 1.2GHz U7600 Intel Core 2 Duo. The Portege, being one of the lightest laptops that actually has an internal DVD writer also comes with a PC card slot, Firewire port and has three USB ports. The R500 also has a 12.1-inch display with a 1280 x 800 resolution, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth connectivity, Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics and of course Wi-Fi.

The Toshiba Portege R500 currently ships only with Windows Vista Business edition, which is a major downfall for many, we can only hope they decide to offer an option to have Windows XP instead. 

Via [Gizmodo]

While Mr. Jobs is claiming the thinnest notebook, it seems that Toshiba may actually claim the lightest with their recent addition to the Portege R500 line. The soon to be released R500-11J will come in a just 11.14-inches x 8.49-inches x 0.76-inches/ 1-inches and weighs just 1.72-pounds. Overall the dimensions are pretty close to the 12.8-inches x 8.95-inches x 0.1-inches/ 0.76-inches found in the Air, that weighs in at about 3-pounds.

Similar to the MacBook Air, the R50-11J will include the 64GB SSD. In addition it will also feature a 12.1-inch WXGA Transflective LED at 1,280 x 800, 1.20GHz Intel Centrino Duo with Intel Core2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600, 2GB RAM, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, touchpad, Gigabit Ethernet, Buetooth, 3G+ and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/g/n). Similar to the MacBook Air it will also not include any optical drive.

The R500-11J will run Windows Vista Pro and be available later this month for 2500 euros or around $3600 US.

Via [Akihabara News]