Toshiba Libretto 60

  

Left, A Libretto M2. Right, a Libretto 60

A nice little upgrade over the first generation Librettos and the 50CT. Very popular choice amongst enthusiasts of the Libretto series. 

Basic Specifications

>Intel Pentium 100MHz
>16MB RAM *proprietary card, NOT shared with first or third generation Librettos*
>810MB Toshiba Hard Disk Drive (special thin Toshiba disk drive)
>Windows 95
>6.1" TFT Display with High Color

Buyer beware / things to look out for

>Just like all first, second, and most of the third generation Librettos, these units are incredibly fragile, and CAN NOT BE TAKEN APART unless you are willing to accept damaging the frame of the laptop.
>Will not boot unless a working hard drive is present
>Crack where the screen latches catch (either side), broken screen latches, crack on frame beside rear AUX jack
>Dead battery (while on : unit has 3 green lights, no amber light or fourth green light, while off : blinking orange light or only right most LED is illuminated) 
>Leaking CMOS battery
>HDD actuator arm is stuck
>Max RAM is 32MB using a very hard to find 16MB Upgrade module
>PCMCIA Bus is 16bit ONLY
>Can get VERY hot (no active cooling)
>The Libretto M2 and 60 are identical, the M2 is supposed to come with a special DoCoMo NTT PCMCIA modem for use with DoCoMo's CDMA network
>Not a bad little system for running real old software, but don't expect to be running anything newer than Win95 on this system.

*A small disclaimer regarding batteries : Just because they charge does not mean they hold a charge. The above symptoms are merely telltale of a 101% dead battery*

My unit

I picked up these 2 units as junk units for around 290$ CDN many months ago. To my surprise, they were both nearly immaculate. All 4 batteries (yes, 4 batteries) worked very well, the portable battery dock accessory worked, and they both had flashed factory installs of Windows 95.  

If you look closely you'll see I ended up with an M2 and a 60. Identical units on the inside, though. These were what got me really into these laptops this year. The M2 was what I experimented on, and the 60 was my "pristine" model. Actually, when I got these I was expecting the M2 to be dead as the auction listing said it would not power on, but it worked perfectly first try... Good luck maybe?
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find a 8MB upgrade module in the 60, and even happier to find a 16MB upgrade module in the M2. Furthermore, both systems had an upgraded 4.3GB Toshiba thin drive. 

I have a post talking about these drives here, basically they're a non standard height, and up until the third generation of Librettos, they are the ONLY drives that will fit in first & second generation Libretto drive bays (normal 2.5" drives are too tall and WILL NOT fit).
The M2 was the unit I tried to disassemble first as the display had a small blemish in the top corner, so it was going to be my unit to be less careful with, however I found out real quick that you really can't open these old Librettos up. The plastics are literally disintegrating and even the slightest bit of pressure will crack and crumble the plastic frames.

I was so upset, but thankful that I at least had one cosmetically good unit still....

Do not open these systems unless you absolutely have to!

Not knowing what to do, I removed the leaking CMOS battery, cleaned up the corrosion, poked around inside the unit to see what sort of hardware was in it, and then re-assembled the system. I took the 16MB RAM upgrade and swapped it for the 8MB one out of my 60. However later on I would realize how scarce these RAM upgrade cards are, and decided on removing the swapped 8MB module from the M2 and just listing it separately on eBay for around 25$ CDN.
Feeling a bit upset and defeated, I decided to sell the M2 on eBay as I don't really have a use for a now cosmetically tarnished unit. I managed to sell it for 150$ CDN with no drive bay tray/cover, no hard drive, no RAM upgrade card, and no AC adapter... I did show that it works but wow, I was really expecting someone to haggle me down to 100$ or less... I guess the working battery alone was worth it to the buyer. 

As for the 60, I kept it for quite some time until I got my first Libretto ff1100. After falling in love with that unit I decided to sell the 60 with all the goodies including all batteries (big mistake on my end as I would later find out) and made out with a cool 400$ CDN. 
Thinking about it now, I think I made just a little bit of money off of this auction. 290$ for both units, about 120$ in shipping, about 58$ in UPS brokerage fees made the grand total come to 469$ CDN (nice).
150+400+25 is 575, 575-469=106$, not factoring eBay fees. It isn't much, but I didn't lose out financially by playing with these two units.

The Verdict

While they are not the most sought after Libretto, the 60/M2 is still in demand by those looking to dip their feet into vintage UMPC computing. Faster than the ubiquitous 50CT while maintaining an equal footprint, these systems are good if you're looking to run some very old software on something more "portable". I did try a few DOS games, and aside from sound config issues, they ran respectfully well. But with a guaranteed destruction upon disassembly, the scarcity of RAM upgrade cards, leaky CMOS batteries, and the issue of finding a hard drive that will fit in the hard drive bay, not to mention the going rate of the unit itself, these second generation Librettos are becoming very expensive to dip your feet into. In my opinion, for the price you pay to have a decently decked out unit, you could get yourself a whole lot of nicer things. 
If you can find a confirmed working unit in good cosmetic condition with some goodies for 200$ CDN or less, I say go for it. Otherwise, I can't recommend picking one of these up.