Toshiba today announced Toshiba Satellite T100 Series, a new line of consumer ultra-thin laptops designed to provide notebook-class performance at a netbook-class starting at just $449.99.

Measuring less than one inch thick and starting at just under three and a half pounds, the slim Satellite T100 Series laptops are packed power-efficient Intel ultra-low voltage processors and will come pre-loaded with Windows 7. Toshiba promises the T100 Series laptops will be ready at a moment’s notice, including extremely fast resume from standby times and power saving enhancements that deliver up to 9 hours of battery life.

These new thin and light notebooks will be available in two screen sizes and multiple color choices. The Satellite T135 features a 13.3-inch widescreen display and will be available with Toshiba’s Fusion Finish in "Nova Red," "Nova Black" and "Nova White." The Satellite T115 offers an 11.6-inch widescreen display and will be available in Nova Red and Nova Black. The color-matching Fusion Finish design extends inside the laptop, around the keyboard, touchpad and the display.

Thin and Light, But Loaded With Features

Much like some of the other ultra-thin notebooks we've seen recently, the Satellite T100 Series laptops are engineered to provide the same experience you'll find in a standard laptop but squeezed into an ultra-thin package. The laptops feature full-sized keyboards and full-sized touchpads with multi-touch control for gesture-based commands, such as two-finger pinch, swipe, rotate and scroll.

As previously mentioned these notebooks will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium, large capacity hard drives, DDR3 memory and plenty of expansion ports ... including HDMI-out. Built-in Wireless N technology and Bluetooth (available on select models) help you stay connected.

These new laptops are not only designed to be light on the scale and light on your wallet, but they go easy on the planet as well. The T100 Series notebooks feature power-efficient, mercury-free LED backlit displays and are RoHS compatible, effectively reducing the environmental impact by restricting the use of lead, mercury, cadmium and certain other hazardous substances. The Satellite T135 and Satellite T115 also meet the requirements of the EnergyStar 5.0 standard and achieved Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold status.

Features available on the Toshiba Satellite T135 (pictured above) include:

• 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite LED Backlit display
• Windows 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel Pentium SU4100 processor or Intel Pentium SU2700 processor
• DDR3 RAM, upgradeable to 8GB
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD
• 802.11b/g/n wireless and 10/100 Ethernet
• Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR (available on select models)
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• Lightweight at only 3.88 lbs.
• Long-life 6-cell battery delivering up to 9 hours of battery life
• One eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge and two USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• Toshiba PC Health Monitor
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

Features available on the Toshiba Satellite T115 (pictured above) include:

• 11.6-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite LED Backlit display
• Windows 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel Pentium processor SU4100 or Intel Celeron processor 7433
• DDR3 RAM, upgradeable to 4GB
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD
• 802.11b/g/n wireless and 10/100 Ethernet
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• Lightweight at only 3.49 lbs.
• Long-life 6-cell battery delivering up to 9 hours of battery life
• One eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge and two USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• Toshiba PC Health Monitor
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

Pricing and Availability

The Toshiba Satellite T135 (starting from $599.99 MSRP) and Satellite T115 (starting from $449.99 MSRP) will both be available on October 22, 2009 at major retailers, e-tailers and direct from Toshiba on toshibadirect.com.

We'll have in-depth reviews of these new ultra-thin notebooks after their official release later in October, so be sure to keep visiting NotebookReview.com for our full reviews.