Dynabook Tecra A50-J-11X review: A robust 15-inch business laptop with excellent connections Review

Dynabook’s Tecra variety of business laptops spans 3 styles: the thirteen.three-inch A30, 14-inch A40 and 15.6-inch A50. These are no-nonsense typical laptops — there are no contact screens or 360-degree rotating hinges below. But they are large on connections — and in the case of the Tecra A50-J-11X reviewed below, large on measurement. This entry-amount A50-J model is light-weight on the wallet far too: in the British isles you will pay back £789 (ex. VAT £946.80 inc. VAT), whilst in the US the A50-J variety begins at $939.ninety nine. 

A 15.6-inch notebook is not likely to be ultraportable, and you will surely observe the Tecra A50-J’s one.65kg excess weight in a bag or backpack. And having said that you have it, this notebook will need to have plenty of house as it steps 358.2mm huge by 236.9mm deep by 19.9mm thick. 

Despite the fact that there is some flex in the lid, the chassis feels stable. Dynabook claims the Tecra A50-J meets MIL-STD-810H, so it ought to deal with drops, substantial and minimal temperature, humidity, vibration and shock. The chassis is Mystic Blue, a colour that lies somewhere among deep blue and black. 

As observed, the Tecra A50-J-11X has a sizable footprint, and the means to rotate the display screen a hundred and eighty levels to lie flat on the desk, whilst probably valuable, may possibly challenge end users with cluttered desks.  

The display screen sits in fairly slim brief-edge bezels, but the base bezel is sizeable. The higher bezel is just deep ample to house the webcam, which has a sliding privateness go over, and IR assistance for Windows Hi face authentication. If you do not want face login, there is certainly a fingerprint sensor in the touchpad. Supplemental security functions contain an optional smartcard slot, which was existing on my evaluation unit on the entrance right aspect.  

The 15.6-inch IPS display screen is not contact-responsive (none of the 3 Tecra A50-J styles accessible in the British isles are) and has a matte end, which will be sure to those who do not like viewing their possess reflection whilst they get the job done. Its FHD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels, 141.2ppi) is good for typical writing, electronic mail and website searching tasks, although viewing angles are not excellent in possibly horizontal or vertical planes. The 16:nine aspect ratio will make it possible to have two performing documents aspect by aspect. Video clip is rendered fairly perfectly, but if you happen to be seeking substantial-quality comprehensive-display screen video playback, seem elsewhere.  

The stereo speakers sit on the entrance of the chassis, with grilles on the underside wherever the chassis curves upwards somewhat. Seem percolates up by the keyboard fairly perfectly, and audio quality is appropriate at most effective. Quantity goes up fairly substantial and does not distort, but it can be light-weight on bass and major on treble. 

The keyboard space is huge ample to incorporate a independent quantity pad, but not huge ample for the quantity pad keys to be comprehensive measurement, or for there to be a crystal clear separation among it and the most important QWERTY area. It took me rather a whilst to hit the Enter important accurately just about every time somewhat than jabbing the seven or four important in its place. 

The important motion is bouncy, but you need to have to use considerable strain to depress every important. Typing generates a dull ‘thunk’ that receives louder the heavier the typing motion. This may possibly turn into annoying for other individuals in quiet spaces. Not like in Dynabook’s Portégé variety, there is certainly no AccuPoint stick as an alternative to the (responsive and productive) touchpad. 

The Fn keys are fairly tiny. There are no assigned second functions for F10, F11 and F12, nevertheless Dynabook puts quantity management as third Fn-important-managed actions on the three and four keys, and a zoom function as a Fn important motion on the one and two keys (this will, for case in point, zoom in and out of website pages, or improve/lessen text measurements in a term processing app). This arguably results in some unneeded overcrowding. 

There is an expansive variety of connections. On the left edge the three.5mm audio in/out jack is joined by a pair of USB-C Thunderbolt four ports, a comprehensive-measurement HDMI port, a USB-A port and a spherical-pin energy input. The advantage of a dedicated energy jack is that the two USB-C ports are constantly accessible. There are two lights on this edge: a single allows you know the energy jack is plugged in, whilst the other tells you the equipment is powered on (helpful if you just shut the lid with out switching off, but only noticeable if you materialize to be hunting at the laptop’s left edge).  

The smartcard slot is towards the entrance of the right edge, whilst towards the back there is certainly a MicroSD card reader, another USB-A port and an RJ-45 Ethernet port. The chassis isn’t rather deep ample to accommodate the latter with out giving a hinged flap at the foundation, but that flap pushes down with out influencing the laptop’s equilibrium on a desk. If you opt for LTE mobile broadband, the SIM slot is also on this edge.

This array of connections is remarkable looking at that many laptops offer you no a lot more than a couple of USB-C / Thunderbolt ports and a USB-A port, and that a single of the USB-Cs is usually out of motion when the device is staying charged. Bravo, Dynabook. 

There are 3 configurations of the Tecra A50-J accessible off the shelf in the British isles. My Core i5-based evaluation unit was the entry-amount model: 

Tecra A50-J-11X (as reviewed) 
Intel Core i5-1135G7, Home windows ten Pro, 15.6-inch one,920 x one,080 pixel IPS non-contact display screen, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD 
£789 (ex. VAT) 

Tecra A50-J-151 
Intel Core i7-1165G7, Home windows ten Pro, 15.6-inch one,920 x one,080 pixel IPS non-contact display screen, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD 
£839 (ex. VAT) 

Tecra A50-J-13W 
Intel Core i7-1165G7, Home windows ten Pro, 15.6-inch one,920 x one,080 pixel IPS non-contact display screen, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD 
£949 (ex. VAT) 

There are five preconfigured Tecra A50-J styles in the US, beginning at $939.ninety nine and increasing to $one,329.ninety nine. There is also a configurable build-to-buy option. 

Dynabook costs the Tecra A50-J-11X’s four-mobile 53Wh battery as excellent for up to nine hrs of daily life. My normal test, based on an daily workload of writing, streaming and searching, consists of performing from a fully charged battery for 3 hrs. After that period of time the battery had fallen to 65%, suggesting battery daily life of all-around 8.5h on a linear extrapolation. On other occasions I accomplished 6h and 7h performing periods from a fully charged battery. So, based on what you happen to be accomplishing, you may possibly or may possibly not get a comprehensive day’s get the job done from this notebook on battery energy. 

Dynabook claims the battery will arrive at forty% capacity in 30 minutes. Screening this on a single celebration when the battery had fallen to forty%, I place it on cost and soon after 15 minutes the battery had risen to fifty five%. A further 15 minutes took it to 67%, and soon after a full of 45 minutes of charging the battery was at seventy seven%. 

Conclusions 

The Dynabook Tecra A50-J-11X is a fairly cumbersome and major 15.6-inch notebook. It really is a no-nonsense business device, whose screen and audio subsystems are not up to buyer pursuits these types of as gaming or video viewing. But it has sensible battery daily life and a plethora of connections, which includes an Ethernet port. If you price a large display screen for performing with phrases or spreadsheets, recognize a independent quantity pad, and do not need to have a contact display screen or top-quality seem, it could be worthy of looking at.  

Latest AND Related Content material

Dynabook unveils redesigned Tecra A Sequence business laptops

Dynabook Portégé X30L-J-13R evaluation: A sub-kilogram ultraportable with excellent connectivity

Dynabook Portégé X40-J-11C evaluation: Trustworthy 14-inch portability for mobile pros

Dynabook Portégé X50-G evaluation: Thin and light-weight, but underwhelming

Most effective Home windows ten notebook 2021: Leading notebooks in contrast

Read a lot more opinions