Dynabook Tecra A50-J review – Toshiba or not Toshiba

Chances are high that you are not very familiar with the Dynabook brand. And this is to be expected, given how new the name is to the world. However, it acts as the moral and physical successor to the Toshiba brand in the laptop world, and they hope they can rebuild the long-lost trust in the platform.

Ultimately, Dynabook is mostly invested in the business notebook world. With laptops like the Portege and the Tecra, we should see a worthy competition to the ThinkPads and Latitudes of the world. However, how does the company plan to do that? Well, firstly, the Tecra A50-J we have here today comes with a MIL-STD-810H certification for durability. Through the years, we have learned that this is not a guarantee for pristine build quality and rigid chassis, but it has to mean something, right?

In addition to that, you can pick a processor from Intel’s Tiger Lake-U lineup. This means you get plenty of performance and quite some graphics power while retaining the efficiency of a 15-28W chip.

That’s not all, there are a ton of security and privacy options built into the laptop, and it will be interesting to see them. Let’s get started.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dynabook-tecra-a50-j/

Contents

Specs Sheet

What’s in the box?

This laptop comes in a pretty standard package. Inside, you will see some paper manuals and a 65W charger.

Design and construction

Let’s put it straight – this device is entirely made out of plastic. However, you reap the benefits of that with the weight of 1.65 kg, which is pretty light for a 15-inch laptop. Indeed, neither the base nor the lid is super resistant to flex. So, make sure you don’t sit on your laptop, or use it as a nunchuck replacement.

Unfortunately, its lid can’t be opened with a single hand. Yet, once you open it, you will see pretty thin bezels flanking the matte display. Additionally, the top one houses an HD Web camera, paired with a privacy shutter, and an optional IR face recognition sensor.

Moving to the base, we see another sensor. This one reads your fingerprints and works pretty well. However, it is embedded onto the touchpad, and the space above and to its left can’t be used for touch inputs. Ouch! On the bright side, the touchpad is pretty accurate.

Another good feature here is the keyboard. It offers long travel and clicky feedback, which results in a comfortable typing experience. In addition, there is a backlight and a NumPad.

Here, the speaker cutouts are placed on the bottom of the laptop. Besides that, the panel houses a ventilation grill, while the hot air gets exhausted from the back.

Ports

On the left side of the notebook, there is a charging plug, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack. Switch sides, and you will see a security lock slot, a LAN port, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and a MicroSD card slot.

Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

This laptop’s bottom panel is held in place by 9 Phillips-head screws. After you undo them, pry the panel with a plastic tool. Then, lift it away from the device.

Inside, we see a 53Wh battery. It lasted us for 11 hours of Web browsing, or 8 hours of video playback. Interestingly, the internals look exactly the same as those on the 14-inch version of this laptop. So, if you want to take the battery out, you need to unplug the connector and undo 4 Phillips-head screws.

When it comes to the upgrade options, you get two SODIMM slots for memory expansion. They fit DDR4 sticks of RAM and work in dual-channel. Storage-wise, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Looking at the cooling, we see two heat pipes, leading the way to a long heat sink. Furthermore, two fans are blowing the heat away.

Display quality

Dynabook Tecra A50-J is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, model number Innolux N156HCA-EAB (CMN15E7). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at a distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 265 nits in the middle of the screen and 246 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6680K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is very good – 1630:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dynabook Tecra A50-J’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only 56% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dynabook Tecra A50-J with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 25 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Dynabook Tecra A50-J’s backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable for long work periods, without introducing any additional eyestrain in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with Blue light, the TL;DR version is – light emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dynabook Tecra A50-J configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS Innolux N156HCA-EAB.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

Sound

Dynabook Tecra A50-J’s speakers produce a sound of decent quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations, but we feel that the lows are too quiet.

Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.dynabook.com/support/driversOSResults?freeText=1200018381

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This laptop’s 53Wh battery lasts for 11 hours and 7 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 10 minutes of video playback.

CPU options

This notebook can be found with the Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1165G7, or Core i7-1185G7.

GPU options

Currently, there are configurations only equipped with an integrated GPU. This includes the Xe Graphics G4, and Xe Graphics G7 (with 80 or 96EUs).

Gaming tests

CS:GO	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)	HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS	105 fps	77 fps	35 fps

DOTA 2	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)	HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS	107 fps	66 fps	37 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)	0:02 – 0:10 sec	0:15 – 0:30 sec	10:00 – 15:00 min
Dynabook Tecra A50-J	3.77 GHz (B+57%) @ 97°C @ 52W	3.22 GHz (B+34%) @ 87°C @ 36W	2.82 GHz (B+18%) @ 76°C @ 28W
Dynabook Tecra A40-J	3.74 GHz (B+56%) @ 96°C @ 51W	3.21 GHz (B+34%) @ 86°C @ 36W	2.91 GHz (B+21%) @ 77°C @ 28W
HP ProBook 430 G8	3.32 GHz (B+38%) @ 97°C @ 35W	2.74 GHz (B+14%) @ 89°C @ 24W	2.29 GHz (B-5%) @ 75°C @ 17W
Acer Swift 3 (SF314-511)	3.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 91°C @ 34W	2.89 GHz (B+20%) @ 91°C @ 28W	2.69 GHz (B+12%) @ 91°C @ 25W
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5)	3.80 GHz (B+58%) @ 80°C @ 46W	3.62 GHz (B+51%) @ 89°C @ 43W	1.99 GHz (B-17%) @ 60°C @ 13W
ASUS VivoBook 15 OLED K513	3.39 GHz (B+41%) @ 83°C @ 40W	3.28 GHz (B+34%) @ 91°C @ 37W	2.96 GHz (B+23%) @ 85°C @ 28W
MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo	3.65 GHz (B+52%) @ 96°C @ 45W	3.31 GHz (B+38%) @ 96°C @ 47W	3.03 GHz (B+25%) @ 96°C @ 29W
Dell XPS 13 9310 (2-in-1)	3.36 GHz (B+40%) @ 99°C @ 41W	3.16 GHz (B+32%) @ 99°C @ 37W	1.92 GHz @ 72°C @ 16W
Dell XPS 13 9310	3.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 100°C @ 40W	2.73 GHz (B+14%) @ 100°C @ 30W	1.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 15W
Dell Vostro 14 5402	3.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W	2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W	2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
MSI Modern 15 (A11X)	3.59 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C @ 44W	3.45 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C @ 40W	3.18 GHz (B+33%) @ 91°C @ 34W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga	3.52 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C	3.24 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C	2.63 GHz (B+10%) @ 75°C
Lenovo Yoga 7 (14)	3.34 GHz (B+39%) @ 94°C	2.97 GHz (B+24%) @ 94°C	2.39 GHz @ 75°C
Acer Aspire 5 (A514-54)	3.54 GHz (B+48%) @ 87°C	2.01 GHz @ 66°C	2.03 GHz @ 67°C

Given the fact that this laptop has exactly the same internals as the 14-inch Tecra A40-J, the similarity in performance is not surprising.

Comfort during full load

Interestingly, the laptop was not loud during the tests, while the heat on the keyboard was within adequate margins.

Verdict

Ultimately, the Tecra A50-J is a good purchase. It offers a great number of upgrade options, while the feature package is on a high level. This includes a fingerprint reader, a camera privacy shutter, and an optional IR face recognition sensor. Add a TPM 2.0 chip to the mix, as well as a wide variety of security features.

We are also happy with the performance of the laptop. It makes full use of the Tiger Lake-U processors, enabling them to work at their higher 28W TDP limit. And if you pair the integrated graphics with enough memory in dual-channel mode, you get a quite powerful little monster.

Dynabook Tecra A50-J’s IPS panel (Innolux N156HCA-EAB (CMN15E7)) has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a very good contrast ratio. Additionally, its backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. This makes the device comfortable and safe for long periods of use in this aspect. Unfortunately, it can’t be used for professional work, and the image looks a bit dull, due to the 56% sRGB coverage.

In addition to the narrow color coverage, we didn’t particularly like the sound quality of the speakers. While they are a bit better than those on the 14-inch Tecra, we wouldn’t be using them as a primary audio device.

On the other hand, you get two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a MicroSD card slot, a LAN port, and an HDMI 2.0 connector. All of that is further expanded by two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports. This is an I/O that would make the ThinkPad E15 Gen 2 pretty envious.

At this pace, Dynabook is going to establish itself as one of the leaders in business computing. We would really like to see what kind of innovation have its R&D specialists prepared for the future. Also, we are going to be excited for a gaming laptop from this brand, given the good efforts on the cooling front.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dynabook-tecra-a50-j/