Toshiba - Satellite Laptop with Intel® Centrino® Processor Technology

I have been using an Acer Aspire laptop for the last four years, and it was a great computer, but it's a little old now and gets to slow to work on, so I decided I needed a new computer. I did a lot of research and looked at all the laptops in the $500-$1000 range, and this one seemed like the best choice. I went to the local Best Buy and checked it out and then bought it. I've had the computer for about a week now and have used it a lot. Overall it is a great computer, but there are a few minor things I don't like. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this computer to people though. First let me get some of the minor nitpicking out of the way: 1. This is a fingerprint magnet! The slick/glossy design of the laptop/keyboard seems to get dirty really fast. 2. Volume control is a little weird. My last computer had two buttons for turning the volume up or down. This one just has a dial that you spin, and it is hard to tell just what level the volume is at. Also, sometimes I bump the dial and turn the volume up without meaning too. Those are minor though, here is a breakdown of the laptop. Speed: This is a very fast computer! It has 4GB RAM, which is about 8X that of my old computer. It seems to be very quick...I was downloading software, had music playing, writing in Word, and had the internet with several tabs open and everything was fine. Great speed! Display: The screen on this is really nice, not like some of those annoying ones that glare badly. The display is good and the colors are vibrant. Also, this is a widescreen...that took some getting used to, but it really is nice now. Design: This laptop has a special edition design that actually looks pretty cool. The design even goes over the touchpad and has a cool effect. I would have preferred a smaller laptop, but the design on this one is pretty nice. :) Sound: The sound is really good with these giant speakers! They look kind of big and bulky, but they are good quality. My music gets fairly loud and actually has some bass....not just a tinny sound. I usually use headphones anyway, but the unplugged sound is pretty good. Gaming: The dedicated graphics card is a big help with gaming. I'm not a big gamer, but I wanted to give this laptop a try. I tried the Call of Duty 4 demo and it worked great on high graphics. I am also going to get Oblivion, and this shouldn't have a problem with that. This might not be a top of the line gaming machine, but for the price it really is amazing and can easily handle most games. Features: There are some nice features with the computer such as Lightscribe, a pretty good webcam, lots of ports, etc. The media control buttons are nice when you are listening to music. Quiet: This is a very quiet computer UNTIL you put a disc in the drive, and then it is pretty loud. I haven't watched any movies on this, but that may be annoying. If you don't have a disc in though, it is a very quiet running laptop. Vista: Everybody always complains about Vista, but it has worked fine for me so far. No compatibility issues, no slowing down the computer, no problems at all. It does take some getting used to because of the different desktop layout, but so far I think Vista is really nice! Bloatware: This computer didn't come with too much bloatware/junk that needs to be uninstalled. There is a 60 day trial of Norton antivirus and Microsoft Office, and that is all I really had to uninstall. Battery: The battery kind of sticks out a little bit, but it seems pretty good. I can get about 3.5 hours of battery life with this. So yep, I really like almost every aspect of this computer. I am an the computer A LOT....I am a college student, and I also do some web design and my computer gets used during most of the day. This laptop can handle anything I want to use it for and it is pretty fast too. Again, there are a few minor things I don't like, but the good sides definitely outweigh them. I love this computer and believe it is the best laptop available for under $1000. I recommend it!

I have overall been very pleased with this laptop. It runs as quickly if not quicker than any other machine with these internals, and has a good display and speakers that are definitely above average for a laptop. I liked and wanted a VAIO, but this machine was $200 cheaper than a comparably equipped Sony. That's a pretty good chunk of change for laptops that are nearly the same performance wise, and the Toshiba gets better battery life. In power saver mode just surfing the internet you can squeeze 3hrs. and 20mins. out of the battery new. It's not as good as some other Toshibas, but it's pretty good considering that this thing is drawing extra power for a dedicated graphics memory. The graphics card in this machine is very good, and the hardware of this computer seems to handle moderate gaming needs fairly well. This laptop is very well equipped with every port you will ever need, including an S-video and and USB's on both sides (which is good so that a wireless mouse receiver or similar plugged in doesn't get in the way of your hand or the CD drive). Build quality seems good off the bat, and the touchpad and keyboard feel very nice. The touchpad does seem to get a little hot, but it's not too noticeable. Overall the laptop runs pretty cool. The are a few negatives, but not more than I can deal with considering the price point. The battery pack has a large bulge on the back, which props the back of the laptop up like it's on a kickstand and makes the laptop a bit uncomfortable to hold in your lap. I'm sure it's actually a good thing because it helps with airflow, and I have noticed that this laptop overall seems to run quite cool. It just kind of hampers comfort but it's not a big enough issue that I can't deal with it. The laptop is pretty thick and heavy, so it's not great if you really need ultra-portable. Not a big deal for me, carrying around an extra pound or two isn't that big of an issue. Also, like everyone else has said, if your going to own one of these high-gloss Toshiba laptops, you're just going to have to suck it up and accept that fact that it has fingerprints. Overall I am happy with the laptop and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better one for $750. If I had my choice over I would definitely buy this one again.

I've used this laptop for a few months now. I'm a homemaker, do regular things like quicken, MS Office documents, and video streaming and sometimes movies online. My 3-year old HP computer would not stream properly over our wireless home network, not even a youtube video. For now this laptop easily handles my regular stuff wonderfully; wonder if it will last as apps get more complicated over the next few years. Streams video beautifully, works great with Windows Vista 64-bit, though I did have difficulty installing a networked printer. The speakers on this computer rock! Love listening to music and video on them without having to have external speakers. Battery life is much better than my old HP is...maybe 3 hours of regular use and less if streaming. That works for me. Power cord on this thing is huge and heavy. Face recognition not worth it and built-in camera very low-res. I will buy a better one for Skype probably. Fast-scroll on touch pad takes getting used to, but can be a time saver once mastered. Other than its incompatibilitiesk, which I think they will fix, I DO like Windows Vista much more than XP. It has cool and useful features and I find it more user-friendly. I promised CAVEATS, and here they are: * Buyer beware* on Best Buy's same-as-cash financing on this (which they outsource to a California company called "retail services", which seems like a good deal, but can easily turn into a rotten deal with one missed payment. We qualified for 18 months same-as-cash but were levied a $40 late fee for being a day late with the first payment. On a $800 computer that is a lot of "interest" to pay and you'd probably be better accepting regular financing -- you may want to compare to see. You can also pay from your checking account by phone (they answer in India) but it will cost you $15 to do so. Better than $40. So be sure you get those payments in on time. * Microsoft Vista support is not available on this computer because it was *factory loaded*. Microsoft wants you to pay for support on pre-loaded computers. But I managed to get around that by writing an email to Microsoft and they ended up solving my problems, but it took probably 5 hours of online support (see below). Hate to think how much that would have cost if charged. BTW Microsoft's support is just exemplary, IF you manage to get them. I got the impression Toshiba's tech support is very good as well with my few contacts with them over the same issues. * It was impossible to re-install our HP home laser printer on the home network as we had set up with our prior 32-bit HP laptops. I believe the problem was having one 32 bit computer on the network and then this 64 bit computer. Toshiba tech support seems good but did not resolve issue. Microsoft ended up solving the problem, but after *hours* of support. I believe the problem was also that we needed a new printer driver and some settings on my Norton Internet Security. But it seems that Vista 64-bit may not like sharing wireless printer networks with 32-bit computers, research that a bit to be sure if that is your situation. * Some 64-bit drivers are still not available for Windows Vista. Make sure your favorite items will work with this computer. Bluetooth headset I bought at Best Buy, which I love for walking around and listening to video as I work around the house, will not work with this computer until the manufacturer gets around to releasing a new 64-bit driver. I'm SOL for now. * This computer is quite large and not really suitable for carting around much. To the coffeeshop, ok, but not on a plane for extended distances. It makes a great desktop replacement, one you can move about the house with. * At first I thought the outside looked cheesy, but now I really like it, it's snazzy. * I dont' notice any fingerprints and it looks great to me, though I'm not carrying it closed that often. Hope this helps! Complain to Best Buy about the excessive fees, maybe if enough people do so they will choose another company or make the company change its fee structure for Best Buy customers.

This laptop is great. If you are looking for a fast laptop with a ton of features, this one is for you. Before we bought it, we researched Consumer Reports, we asked friends, we spoke to our IT guys at work and there was one theme...every brand has it's good and bad and you need to decide what is best and most important to YOU. After reading the few negative reviews for this laptop from others on this website, we determined that most complaints were petty and that people were nit- picking. The laptop looks great. Fingerprints??? give me a break. Maybe if you have really sweaty or greasy fingers. The look and feel is great. Speed - unless you're looking for a gaming machine, this is certainly plenty. We've had the laptop for 3 weeks now, waiting to write the review until after we've used it for a while...and we have NO COMPLAINTS. But if you are looking for negatives: Windows Vista leaves something to be desired. I have had to reboot the machine at least 4 times when it just froze. One review stated that the battery on the bottom is good when on a table but uncomfortable when on your lap...I agree that if you work with it on your lap for a long time you may find it digging a bit into your thighs, but not bad enough to look for another laptop, in my opinion. But the positives are too numerous to mention them all...great look, fast speed, easy to use, awesome picture and sound (DVD's look great), great control features for sound and DVD controls. In summary, we did all the research for you...go buy this machine.

My husband and I searched and searched online for deals on a new laptop. Tigerdirect, Dell, Amazon, you name it. We had a budget and we also had very specific needs for this new laptop. First and foremost, it HAD to have dedicated graphics. We were not going to buy any laptop unless it had a decent graphics card. Our previous laptop had integrated graphics and failed to do a lot of what we really wished it could do. We also wanted the laptop to have 4gb of ram with option to upgrade later. This Toshiba had everything we had hoped to find within the budget that we had set. My husband has been playing World of Warcraft on the new laptop all week and it is running the same frame rates as my desktop at quality settings! It's blazing fast and multi-tasks like a dream. We will probably have this laptop for years to come. Which I expect from a Toshiba anyways with the experience we have had with them. I was very stupid to not have bought a Toshiba when I bought our last laptop. It is a bit of a finger print magnet, but unless fingerprints drive you mad, it really isn't a big deal. My husband sometimes accidentally lowers the volume when he is using it on his lap due to where the volume control is. But personally, I was happy it wasn't one of those touch volume controls like my HP has. An actual volume control is much better. I do wish it was a bit more than 2.0ghz (Our other laptop was 1.9ghz), but for the price, I would be really pushing it to be that picky. It also didn't have a lot of that extra garbage that you usually get when you buy a new laptop. HP is great for doing that. Pre-installed junk that you will never use and just wasted your hard drive space. We were happy to know we wouldn't have to weed through all the garbage and waste our time testing out the uninstall feature. I was a bit wary of buying a laptop at Best Buy at first. They charge a hefty restocking fee if you return a laptop that you do not end up liking. So we did a lot of research before buying this one and hoped for the best. It would have been $120 restock fee if we returned it. Staples and most of all the other technology stores do not charge any restocking fee. But even with knowing about the fee, buy with confidence. This laptop will not disappoint you. When we got there to buy ours, there was only one left. A laptop similar to this would cost us over $1000 on the the sites we had searched through. (We almost bought the XPS Studio from Dell which would have run us $1199.) So we saved over $400 by finding this Toshiba at Best Buy! I have yet to play with all of the other many features this laptop has. My husband has been guarding it since we got it, so who knows if I ever will! But definitely buy with confidence. It is a lot of bang for the buck. :)

I was 2 months searching in best buy a computer that satisfied speed and promised me of a durable computer. Finally I found this TOSHIBA laptop which offers a video card that really helps the graphics of VISTA and 3D games not compromising the RAM, since it is dedicated. This really makes this computer runs super fast. This video card is new technology from ATI and makes the game runs super fast. I did not find junk programs installed in the computer but only the basic ones, I really liked it since many computers come with many programs that you will not completely uninstall and will make you PC slow. I had an XP computer running pretty well but I wanted to buy a more modern computer, and even with some doubts of VISTA, and windows 7 on the way I decided to buy this one. And, lucky I am completely satisfied with it. Keyboard is fantastic and precise. This computer heats up a little bit, but I think this is normal in all laptops. Something that really surprised me are the speakers, really amazing with my mp3 files and my 3D games (command conquer), I just saw that the screen cannot show the black color perfect and in some videos it seems that you have no good contrast at all, but overall is fine. I would strongly recommend this computer to everybody; I think this is the best option now in best buy in price and excellent performance. The TI guys at work buy only TOSHIBA computers; this is a good option if you want a computer for many years. I found that it supports 4GB max RAM, and in the store the guy told me it could be upgrate to 8GB which it seems it is not possible, but 4GB I think will be enough. Something that I found very well is a plastic bar in the bottom that helps to have better ventilation and reduce heat in the computer. Finally, if you already took the decision to buy a laptop and you want to spend $600, dont do it, buy it for $799 and you will have a computer running smoothly for years, or buy any other buy with a dedicated video card installed. Very luck!!

This computer is $779 and it outperforms any laptop within this price range. To be honest this laptop is worth $950 for all the great features it has. Its also very reliable. no crashes no blue screens, also the wireless networking is great no dropped signals very fast. the speakers are some of the loudest i ever heard. 512 megs of discreet graphics that's just unheard of for laptops in this price range. can play games at a reasonable frame rate although this is not a gaming machine its good for the casual gamer. the display is the brightest and clearest for any models under $1000. just amazing. also the viewing angle is great which is unheard for this price of laptop. only one problem is that the touch pad gets a little warm but it never burned me and its really no big deal. This computer is blazing fast for its budget specs. it screams. My advice if your looking for a budget machine in the 500 -650 range save up a little more cash and pick up the greatest budget machine that i ever seen built for $779. its well worth it trust me.

I thought long and hard about which laptop I wanted, I was definitely on a budget and was debating this laptop and the Sony Vaio FW. I made the right choice. Toshiba hit it out of the park, this thing is super fast. Everything runs like it should and if you have your doubts about Vista than prepare to reconsider. I was personally dissapointed that I was forced to buy a laptop with Windows Vista on it, but everything runs so quick and looks amazing, I am now thoroughly impressed. This is Vista the way it was meant to be. The display is great, super bright. The sleek keys, although they collect fingerprints, look and feel amazing... they are soft to the touch and make me think that this is the perfect keyboard. Heat has not been a problem because of the battery/prop and the laptop is Super Quiet, you can't even hear it running. Speakers provide exceptional sound with nice bass to create a full and rich sound. Battery life is exceptional for a laptop with these specs, I am getting about 3 hours and 15 minutes out of a charge... and I haven't even tweaked the brightness or anything else. Did I mention this thing is F-A-S-T..... everything I want to do on this computer just zooms... this is the first computer I have ever used that had absolutely no hesitation while doing two things at once. The bloatware (A serious pet-peeve of mine) that comes with a Toshiba is very minimal and most of it actually useful. Just quit looking and buy this laptop.