Toshiba might confuse you with the way they name their laptops but these notebooks are really cool. One such example is Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 which costs $1,050. When a notebook goes past the $1,000 mark I expect some high end features because laptops are getting really cheap these days. For this price, you get an Nvidia Optimus graphics, 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, and a Core i5 processor. The graphic card is really fast and I would recommend this if you are a looking for a mid range gaming laptop. The performance will certainly not satisfy hard core gamers, however. But I was disappointed to see that this laptop doesn’t have Wireless display or Blu-ray optical drive for this price point. Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 does have a slot loading DVD writer and the 14 inch display too is pretty bright. The Harmon Kardon speakers on this laptop have superb sound quality. Such excellent  [...]

Toshiba Satellite T235D-S1345 has a 13.3 inch screen with resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. This resolution is standard for 13-16 inches screen these days. The display has LED backlighting. Pictures look bright enough and the text too is readable. But when seen from wide viewing angles, the screen looked a bit washed out. The stereo speakers are located in the front base and sound is emitted through the grilles. You can watch movies through these speakers but music quality is really awful. There is a built-in Webcam above the display meant for Web chatting but the quality is not really good. Toshiba Satellite T235D-S1345 doesn’t have Bluetooth or an optical drive but apart from this, the port collection is similar to other laptops in this size. The manufacturer has also added a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port which can charge your devices even when the laptop is switched off. This is called the  [...]

Sound quality on the Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 is stellar especially considering the price at which it is offered. There is a pair of Harmon Kardon speakers located above the keyboard and it is covered by rectangular grills. The sound is full and quite loud. It is been a while since I saw a good set of speakers on a laptop. The depth that the speakers offer is really surprising. The oomph is there for the movies and at times, the sound gets so loud that you have to turn it down while sitting in front of the notebook. You will still have to resort to a set of external speakers for filling up a small room. Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 comes with some software utilities. ReelTime gives you a row of big thumbnails on the bottom of the screen and this shows the recently viewed Web pages and documents. The thumbnail row is made to resemble a movie reel. I found it quite useful  [...]

With a small size you would think that this note book is thin and light. But you will be disappointed because this is not a thin and definitely not light. It is only a tad lighter than Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802 but with this size we would have expected more in portability and Toshiba disappoints us.  We don’t get a light notebook and nor do we get a bigger display. Usually note book manufacturers dump the big size in favor of ultra portable notebook, but what is the use if the laptop is heavy as well as not good in features? Toshiba Satellite U505-S2970 is heavy at 4.9 pounds so get prepared to run straight to a masseuse if you want to carry this laptop for too long on your shoulders and a 1.5 inch thickness makes it not-so-portable laptop. Keyboard on the notebook are not one of the best but they are not that bad either. You will notice that they make a lot of noise if you type  [...]

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802 is a lot like its predecessor, Satellite E105-S1602 with only one change that is the OS. This model has Windows 7 and the earlier on had Windows Vista. But this laptop will cost more than the earlier model. The display of the laptop is 14.1 inch big which gives a display resolution of 1280X800. The resolution is good as compared to the screen size but you will struggle when you have to tile two word processing documents side by side and work on them simultaneously, because the resolution is not large enough for it. The keyboard provided is very comfortable to type on, normally keys are all cramped on keyboard since it is small in size, but we had no problems on this. Typing was smooth. There is also adequate backlighting on the keyboard so it won’t be a problem when you type in the dark. There is a strip of illuminated, touch sensitive media control buttons  [...]

The display supports HDMI, so you can plug this device on to your panels and enjoy movies on a big screen. The display is 16 inch offers a native resolution 1366X768 which is good enough and gives you plenty of room to work on the screen. The resolutions let you tile 2 word documents along each other and work comfortably with them. Videos look great on this monitor and are well complimented by the good speakers. Toshiba Satellite A505-S6980 comes bundled along with Windows 7 Home Premium. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is pre-installed. The speakers are Harman Kardon speakers and it sounds great. The laptop doesn’t have a graphic card installed in it, so you can’t play high-end games on this notebook. However, you can play basic games. We weren’t much happy with the keyboard. It was one of the worst part of the notebook. The keys are flat and placed close to each  [...]

Toshiba had earlier launched the T135-S1300, although it does not match up to the competition. The upgrade to the S1310 was a wise move for Toshiba, and for you if you are looking for a budget thin and light without compromising much on the performance. The launch of the S1310 has been in perfect timing with the launch of the new Windows 7. Windows 7 has been well accepted and the market has been responding well to the new Windows. Mind you, this is the same market that completely shot down the fiasco called the Windows Vista. The uni-button for the touchpad may be a bother for some. 4GB of DDR3 RAM is most of the programs that you’d use on your thin and light. The speakers are quite tinny and I’d recommend that you buy yourself a nice pair of headsets when u are buying this laptop. There are almost no complaints about this well packaged product. Nitty Gritty: This  [...]

The U505 sports a 13.3-inch screen, resolution is 1280x800, a standard resolution for a laptop this size. The icons, videos and text were sharp and well-defined. Although Harman/Kardon speakers aren't included here, the bass-enhanced stereo speakers still pack quite a punch. The keyboard was the most disappointing of them all, with cramped and shaky buttons, Toshiba threw user-friendliness out the window. They did however; add back-lights to the keyboard. The touchpad also feels too small for the laptop design, whereas the touch-pad buttons are large and easy to access. In the multimedia and multitasking front , the Satellite U505-S2940 performed well, the 505-S2940 has a good selection of ports, ranging from HDMI-out and ExpressCard to the Toshiba hallmark sleep-and-charge USB/eSATA combo port, which can charge devices even when the laptop is asleep  [...]