TH2002
Experienced Member
It's 1997, and your teacher gives you an assignment - an essay about what not to do at a stoplight, written in no less than 800 words. Sure, you could type away on your Model M or a regularly sized laptop... but said no one ever, "Hey, that keyboard is too big! I want something smaller!"
Okay, that SpongeBob episode came out in 2001, but there is a solution to that almost unsolvable problem - the Toshiba Libretto series of laptops. This review will focus on the one I purchased, a Libretto 60/D-2. Both the standard Libretto 60 and Libretto for DoCoMo D-2 are identical apart from a different name and badge, but the D-2 the included a special PCMCIA card (which I unfortunately didn't get) and some software to make it work on DoCoMo's CDMA telecommunications network. Regardless of the name and badge, it was only sold in Japan and as such, I had to import it.
Chances are I won't be connecting this to a cellular network any time soon, but how does it look from a vintage computing standpoint?
Specifications:
-Pentium 100
-6.1'' TFT active matrix display
-16 MB of RAM (standard, mine was upgraded to 24 MB by the previous owner)
-Chips and Technologies accelerator
-741MB HDD (most sources say 810, but only 741 is usable by the system)
-Yamaha OPL3-SAx sound
Build Quality: C
Unfortunately, these Libretto systems are among the ones to suffer from so-called "Brittle Plastic Disease" - and my unit is no exception.
Here's a list of what has fallen apart on it:
-the HDD cover: completely disintegrated and I couldn't save it. Thankfully the HDD itself is still held firmly in place by its two screws.
-a piece of the plastic surrounding the right hinge: fortunately, the hinges are a good design and the laptop still opens and closes fine, so this damage is largely cosmetic
-a chunk of plastic on the side: broke off along with the HDD cover, had to glue + epoxy back on
-the entire palmrest: broke off into two large pieces, had to glue + epoxy back on
Despite all of that, I'm giving the Libretto a C on build quality because believe it or not, I have machines that have suffered a lot worse! The hinges are well designed and the keyboard, (more on it later) despite being very small, at least doesn't feel cheap and crappy like I've seen on lots of laptops.
Display Quality: A-
The little 6.1'' TFT display looks pretty good! Colors and saturation are fine, so no complaints there. The refresh rate isn't quite as good as other TFT panels I've seen, but still nowhere near as bad as an STN panel.
Overall Design: B
The overall design is undoubtedly iconic in the vintage computer community due to the Libretto's compact size alone - hell, it still amazes me that Toshiba was able to make a Windows 95 laptop this small and light with the technological constraints they had back then.
The pointing device is not the usual Toshiba AccuPoint nub located in the center of the keyboard (too small for that, LOL) - instead, it's on the right side of the screen bezel, with your left and right mouse buttons immediately behind it on the back. It sounds awkward, but I think it's actually a clever solution and it works pretty well!
Obviously, some concessions were made to make a laptop as small as the Libretto back in 1997. The keyboard is... needless to say, not great if you're going to type an essay on this thing. It's small, cramped and the keys feel stiff and don't have a lot of travel. But surprisingly, it's not horrible either - it doesn't feel cheap and hollow, and after some practice I can somehow manage to type between 50-60 WPM on it (for reference, my typing speed on a normal keyboard is 80-90 WPM). Another gripe I have is the amount of storage the system comes with - it came standard with a relatively small 741MB HDD, of which only about 73 MB was free when I first got the system. Compare it to the roughly 1.24GB HDD that came standard with my Toshiba Satellite from the same time period, and it's obviously quite a bit less storage. I do like that the interface is standard 2.5'' IDE though, so finding a replacement drive with a larger capacity shouldn't be too difficult, I don't know what the maximum HDD size supported by the BIOS is. Still, I'm not gonna bother with replacing it unless it actually dies.
The bottom line: some concessions had to be made for the small size of the laptop, but it packs a surprising amount of functionality in a very small package.
Gaming: B
As far as MS-DOS and early Windows gaming goes, it's pretty much just a typical laptop from the time period in a very small package. Comes with a 100MHz Pentium I, enough RAM, a Chips and Technologies graphics chipset, OPL3 sound, all the usual goodies. If you enjoy playing games on a really small, cramped keyboard, the Toshiba Libretto is for you.
The only game I've bothered to put on it at the moment is, of course, none other than DOOM. Runs fine and plays well with no significant performance issues. The only weird thing is that the sound effects don't work sometimes, although the music always plays fine so I'm sure there's a way to fix that.
Novelty: A
It's among the smallest Windows laptops ever made... and the fact that it runs Windows 95 just makes that 10x better. Sure, you can get an Ultrabook running Windows 11 and Micro$oft Recall or a Chromebook laced with diarrhea... but who needs one of those when you can get a Toshiba Libretto? :D
Other comments:
Needless to say, these systems are pricey. I paid $232 for mine after shipping from Japan (the shipping ended up being twice what I thought it would be, I would have spent right around $200 otherwise). That might sound expensive, but honestly it isn't a horrible deal for a Toshiba Libretto these days, especially considering I got a docking station and extended battery. The absolute cheapest you're likely to find one of these is for around $130, but these systems (even broken ones) routinely sell for $175 to well over $200 on eBay, with selling prices nearing $300 or even more not being uncommon. If you find one of these for under $100, you might consider playing the lottery.
If you buy one of these Libretto systems, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing one that comes with at least the basic docking station, even better if you can get one that comes with the PCMCIA floppy drive. Go figure that eBay sellers want $100+ for the floppy drives by themselves, but anyways... mine came with the smaller docking station that gives you serial, parallel and VGA out (none of these ports are on the laptop itself). Good enough if you want to use LapLink, a ZIP drive or other parallel port drive for data transfer. The larger docking station includes those ports as well as PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and 2 more PCMCIA card slots. If you buy one of these just by itself - no docking station or floppy drive, your only option for data transfer is to pull the HDD out and hook it up to another computer which is incredibly inelegant, or maybe a network share using a PCMCIA ethernet card.
There are two different battery packs these Toshiba Libretto systems can use - a standard pack and an extended pack. Mine came with the extended battery pack, and amazingly it still holds a charge! Perhaps I'm not as surprised as I should be since I usually regard Toshiba laptop batteries (and vintage Toshiba laptops in general) to be really damn good. Haven't done a proper test yet, but it ran for almost half an hour from a charge of about 37%. Despite this, it is a bit finicky in the sense that the system has a habit of randomly shutting down whilst the battery is charging (if you take the battery out and use the system just off the AC adapter, it doesn't do this).
Overall Verdict:
If you're just starting to get into the vintage computer hobby and/or don't have the patience to deal with brittle plastic, I'd honestly recommend avoiding these systems. They're pricey and data transfer can be difficult, especially if you purchase the system just by itself. If you're a more seasoned collector, looking for something extremely small or just seriously like Windows 95 laptops, a Toshiba Libretto is a must-have for your collection. I'm admittedly already a bit of a fanboy when it comes to older Toshiba laptops, and this one is no exception.
(Too lazy to add photos right this second; I'll get around to attaching some tomorrow.)
Okay, that SpongeBob episode came out in 2001, but there is a solution to that almost unsolvable problem - the Toshiba Libretto series of laptops. This review will focus on the one I purchased, a Libretto 60/D-2. Both the standard Libretto 60 and Libretto for DoCoMo D-2 are identical apart from a different name and badge, but the D-2 the included a special PCMCIA card (which I unfortunately didn't get) and some software to make it work on DoCoMo's CDMA telecommunications network. Regardless of the name and badge, it was only sold in Japan and as such, I had to import it.
Chances are I won't be connecting this to a cellular network any time soon, but how does it look from a vintage computing standpoint?
Specifications:
-Pentium 100
-6.1'' TFT active matrix display
-16 MB of RAM (standard, mine was upgraded to 24 MB by the previous owner)
-Chips and Technologies accelerator
-741MB HDD (most sources say 810, but only 741 is usable by the system)
-Yamaha OPL3-SAx sound
Build Quality: C
Unfortunately, these Libretto systems are among the ones to suffer from so-called "Brittle Plastic Disease" - and my unit is no exception.
Here's a list of what has fallen apart on it:
-the HDD cover: completely disintegrated and I couldn't save it. Thankfully the HDD itself is still held firmly in place by its two screws.
-a piece of the plastic surrounding the right hinge: fortunately, the hinges are a good design and the laptop still opens and closes fine, so this damage is largely cosmetic
-a chunk of plastic on the side: broke off along with the HDD cover, had to glue + epoxy back on
-the entire palmrest: broke off into two large pieces, had to glue + epoxy back on
Despite all of that, I'm giving the Libretto a C on build quality because believe it or not, I have machines that have suffered a lot worse! The hinges are well designed and the keyboard, (more on it later) despite being very small, at least doesn't feel cheap and crappy like I've seen on lots of laptops.
Display Quality: A-
The little 6.1'' TFT display looks pretty good! Colors and saturation are fine, so no complaints there. The refresh rate isn't quite as good as other TFT panels I've seen, but still nowhere near as bad as an STN panel.
Overall Design: B
The overall design is undoubtedly iconic in the vintage computer community due to the Libretto's compact size alone - hell, it still amazes me that Toshiba was able to make a Windows 95 laptop this small and light with the technological constraints they had back then.
The pointing device is not the usual Toshiba AccuPoint nub located in the center of the keyboard (too small for that, LOL) - instead, it's on the right side of the screen bezel, with your left and right mouse buttons immediately behind it on the back. It sounds awkward, but I think it's actually a clever solution and it works pretty well!
Obviously, some concessions were made to make a laptop as small as the Libretto back in 1997. The keyboard is... needless to say, not great if you're going to type an essay on this thing. It's small, cramped and the keys feel stiff and don't have a lot of travel. But surprisingly, it's not horrible either - it doesn't feel cheap and hollow, and after some practice I can somehow manage to type between 50-60 WPM on it (for reference, my typing speed on a normal keyboard is 80-90 WPM). Another gripe I have is the amount of storage the system comes with - it came standard with a relatively small 741MB HDD, of which only about 73 MB was free when I first got the system. Compare it to the roughly 1.24GB HDD that came standard with my Toshiba Satellite from the same time period, and it's obviously quite a bit less storage. I do like that the interface is standard 2.5'' IDE though, so finding a replacement drive with a larger capacity shouldn't be too difficult, I don't know what the maximum HDD size supported by the BIOS is. Still, I'm not gonna bother with replacing it unless it actually dies.
The bottom line: some concessions had to be made for the small size of the laptop, but it packs a surprising amount of functionality in a very small package.
Gaming: B
As far as MS-DOS and early Windows gaming goes, it's pretty much just a typical laptop from the time period in a very small package. Comes with a 100MHz Pentium I, enough RAM, a Chips and Technologies graphics chipset, OPL3 sound, all the usual goodies. If you enjoy playing games on a really small, cramped keyboard, the Toshiba Libretto is for you.
The only game I've bothered to put on it at the moment is, of course, none other than DOOM. Runs fine and plays well with no significant performance issues. The only weird thing is that the sound effects don't work sometimes, although the music always plays fine so I'm sure there's a way to fix that.
Novelty: A
It's among the smallest Windows laptops ever made... and the fact that it runs Windows 95 just makes that 10x better. Sure, you can get an Ultrabook running Windows 11 and Micro$oft Recall or a Chromebook laced with diarrhea... but who needs one of those when you can get a Toshiba Libretto? :D
Other comments:
Needless to say, these systems are pricey. I paid $232 for mine after shipping from Japan (the shipping ended up being twice what I thought it would be, I would have spent right around $200 otherwise). That might sound expensive, but honestly it isn't a horrible deal for a Toshiba Libretto these days, especially considering I got a docking station and extended battery. The absolute cheapest you're likely to find one of these is for around $130, but these systems (even broken ones) routinely sell for $175 to well over $200 on eBay, with selling prices nearing $300 or even more not being uncommon. If you find one of these for under $100, you might consider playing the lottery.
If you buy one of these Libretto systems, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing one that comes with at least the basic docking station, even better if you can get one that comes with the PCMCIA floppy drive. Go figure that eBay sellers want $100+ for the floppy drives by themselves, but anyways... mine came with the smaller docking station that gives you serial, parallel and VGA out (none of these ports are on the laptop itself). Good enough if you want to use LapLink, a ZIP drive or other parallel port drive for data transfer. The larger docking station includes those ports as well as PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and 2 more PCMCIA card slots. If you buy one of these just by itself - no docking station or floppy drive, your only option for data transfer is to pull the HDD out and hook it up to another computer which is incredibly inelegant, or maybe a network share using a PCMCIA ethernet card.
There are two different battery packs these Toshiba Libretto systems can use - a standard pack and an extended pack. Mine came with the extended battery pack, and amazingly it still holds a charge! Perhaps I'm not as surprised as I should be since I usually regard Toshiba laptop batteries (and vintage Toshiba laptops in general) to be really damn good. Haven't done a proper test yet, but it ran for almost half an hour from a charge of about 37%. Despite this, it is a bit finicky in the sense that the system has a habit of randomly shutting down whilst the battery is charging (if you take the battery out and use the system just off the AC adapter, it doesn't do this).
Overall Verdict:
If you're just starting to get into the vintage computer hobby and/or don't have the patience to deal with brittle plastic, I'd honestly recommend avoiding these systems. They're pricey and data transfer can be difficult, especially if you purchase the system just by itself. If you're a more seasoned collector, looking for something extremely small or just seriously like Windows 95 laptops, a Toshiba Libretto is a must-have for your collection. I'm admittedly already a bit of a fanboy when it comes to older Toshiba laptops, and this one is no exception.
(Too lazy to add photos right this second; I'll get around to attaching some tomorrow.)
