Laptops and Notebooks Reviews : Toshiba

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Toshiba Satellite L505-GS5037 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

A fantastic mid-range laptop. Great for college students.

-- 2010-03-09
Not too long ago, I needed to buy a new laptop computer since my old Dell computer nearly died. (There was some sort of hard drive problem that would only allow me to start up in 'safe mode.') After scouring Amazon for several days, I decided upon this Toshiba Satellite computer. It seemed like the best value for the money I was willing to spend.

Pros:
Big screen -- This is great for watching movies in true 16:9 ratio. The screen is also really bright so you won't miss any details.
It has a number pad -- I really like being able to use 10-key typing to enter numbers in documents and web sites. Having a number pad is surprisingly necessary.
Fast start-up / Fast wake-up -- This computer has enough resources to start up quickly from an off state. The start-up feels like it could be a little bit faster, but, again, it is still significantly faster than my old Dell. I usually don't put my computers in hibernation mode when I walk away for any extended period of time, so I can't critique that feature of this computer.
Stylish -- This computer looks sleek and sophisticated. It is a real joy to look at.
Generous system resources -- This computer has 4GB of RAM and 500GB of hard disk capacity. It also has those new Intel processors that feature "hyper-threading" technology. Since Windows 7 is a system hog, a new laptop should at least have 6GB of RAM, but 4GB seems to be just fine for this machine. I can switch quickly between programs, start programs quickly, and end them quickly, too. A 500GB hard disk is just an astoundingly huge amount of storage space. There is more than enough space for photos and movies.
The mouse-pad -- I don't know how Toshiba did it, but the mouse-pad is the coolest feature of the laptop. The mouse-pad looks like it was spray-painted on top of the plastic shell. It also works really well AND it offers multi-touch functionality. If you need to increase the size of the font on a web page, all you do is spread two fingers on the mouse-pad. It is actually pretty damn cool.

Cons:
Atrocious speakers -- OK, the worst feature in this computer are the absolutely horrible speakers. The sound that comes from them is tinny and without depth. I find it interesting, to say the least, that Toshiba would have a mid-range computer with decent hardware specs but include insufficient speakers. Whoduthunk?
Not enough ports / Bad port locations -- Again, for the amount of hardware specs this computer has, Toshiba only included 2 USB ports. The laptop shell is spacious enough to include 4 USB ports without any problems. My old Dell laptop had 4 USB ports. Also, the USB ports and power DC-in locations are really inconvenient: They are located on the right side of the machine. Most people are right-handed BUT protruding cords interferes with desk space which, in turn, limits the space that most people might have because of the locations of the ports. The USB ports and DC-in power port should be re-located to the back of the machine.

Other details:
The computer is finished with a matte black plastic shell. Just so you know, matte (any color) shows off every single speck of dust and finger print! After I type this review I'm going to wipe down the whole machine with a clean cotton cloth. Also, the keys are matte black, too, so they really show off finger prints! Don't laptop manufacturers know that laptops are dirty machines?! This laptop also weighs 6lbs. For me, it isn't heavy, but for others it might be too heavy.

Final thoughts:
Overall, I really like this laptop. It has plenty of resources for a multitude of applications. I can play some graphically intense games without too many problems. It has plenty of processing speed, RAM, and hard disk space for just about anything you can throw at it. This is a great all-around mid-range laptop. The only reason I didn't give this laptop a 5-star rating is because there simply are not enough USB ports, and the locations of the ports should be on the back of the machine instead of the right side. The speakers are also sub-par for what could have been included.

fast machine

-- 2010-03-08
Nice looking, fast machine and 649 is very good price, although OfficeMax was selling it at 579 couple of weeks ago.
It has 11n which is good since I can get wirelessely connected even from my back yard.
Win7 is more secure and there are less chances of getting affected by virus and spam softwares.

Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Grey/Black Laptop - 2 Hours 25 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

great

-- 2010-03-04
Easy to set up and very fast. My wife and I are in our 50's and this is our first experience setting up a laptop and it was a snap. The screen resolution is really good and the number keyboard is a real convienence.

The more I use it, the more I love it

-- 2010-03-04
I needed to update my home computer and the main decision I had to make was whether I wanted a new desktop, an all in one, or a laptop. I decided on a laptop (and in particular this laptop) for several reasons. The first reason was the freedom a laptop offers. This beats both the desktop and the all in one.

The second reason was the ability to connect it to my television. Again this beats both the desktop and the all in one. Just so you know, my wife doesn't consider a desktop to be suitable décor for the living room.

These positives outweighed the negatives. For one thing with a laptop, all your eggs are in a basket that could be dropped or forgotten on the subway. Also, if the LCD screen goes bad you're likely to drop some serious cash on replacing it.

The biggest negative I feel toward laptops is the keyboard and touchpad. The laptops I occasionally use at work have scrunched up keys, and no number keypad. Also, the touchpads need to have their itches scratched in just the right way or they don't move the cursor the way you want them to.

In deed, the first step in choosing this Toshiba was going to the big box store and practicing typing on all the models with number keypads. I made the least number of typing errors with the Toshiba. After that, I looked at the features and the price. After that, I read through the reviews and finally, I decided to buy it from Amazon.

After using this laptop for nearly a month, I'd have to say the more I use it, the more I love it. I do have minor annoyances with the touchpad. Probably every laptop has this issue and I guess I could mess around with the sensitivity and such, but it's not such a big deal to me. It's really cool to watch a movie instantly on my laptop or hook up a VGA cable and watch it on my flat screen TV.

The last little nick I want to mention is the fact that when I first got online with this laptop, I noticed it slowed down and eventually stopped working. I shut down the computer and immediately saw the problem. There were 10 Windows updates! I could not (and dared not) stop the installation process. The first 4 updates took nearly an hour to install; the rest took about 20 minutes. I couldn't use my computer for nearly an hour and half. It's a bummer when you have a new toy and Mr. Softy doesn't let you play with it.

I struggled with the decision to give this laptop 4 stars instead of 5. I truly love this machine, and I highly recommend it. The minor annoyances of the touchpad and a batch of updates for Windows are certainly not unique to this machine, none the less, they do detract from an otherwise stellar machine.

Toshiba Satellite T135-S1310RD TruBrite 13.3-Inch Ultrathin Black/Red Laptop - 9 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

I LOVE THIS LAPTOP

-- 2010-03-08
I had this notebook for a few days now and all I can say is this is the best decision I made in awhile!!! =)
Took me about a week of research to really finalize what I really wanted, luckily I got this on sale on amazon for $599 rather than $700. There were a couple of other model versions I had to look into like the T135-1309, which I believe does not have a dual core, windows 7 32bit, and 1gig less than this model T135-1310. According to CNET benchmark, the difference between the two were pretty big in terms of performance so it best to stick with this model.

Pros)
1) It is very light and can easily hold it in one hand
2) Battery life is amazing! 7-8 hours in economy mode, prolly 5-6 in regular mode. Great if your at school for a long time or a long trip
3) Size, 13.3 inch screen makes it portable but still provides a good viewable size.
4) I'm not much for colors, but the red and black is really stunning in person. Beautiful...O.O I'm glad I got in this color
5) Runs very efficiently with all the multi-tasking that I do
6) Windows 7 64-bit
7) HDMI output and Bluetooth (phone? and mouse without using the having to use a USB port)

Cons)
1) The speakers are very low... like every other review bout this notebook. Tho, if you follow the direction from one the reviewers bout the smartaudio adjustment... it does increase the volume. YOU ROCK!
2) TOUCHPAD
- It really isn't the best touchpad out there since it SOMETIMES does not follow your finger too well but it really doesn't bother me. The left and right clicker looks like 1 button, I really didn't like that either when clicking on things
3) The cam is really low quality, much like a cell phone.
- If you not one to use the cam that much, no biggie.
4) The keyboard is a hit or miss. I like it but to some people they might not. The buttons give a greasy smooth kind of feeling.
5) fingerprint Smudges

I really am happy with this notebook's performance and beautiful design. Each time I lug this out anywhere, people tend to recognize the nice colors. The performance has been on point with all the multi-tasking I do. The speakers are good once you adjust the settings. They keyboard and touchpad can be an issue to some. Does not have a CD drive but I can just make an ISO from another computer and load it onto a USB, or just buy a external for 50 buxs.

This notebook does leave a lot of fingerprint smudges but can easily be clean off. I'm soon going to get a gelaskin for the front, so thats going o reduce the smudges.

sweet laptop

-- 2010-03-07
Had this for a week now and love it. Fast,light,good battery life. I didn't realize how slow my old laptop was.The n wireless card working fine and fast with a dlink 655 router.Did the recommened updates on the toshiba bulletin board.Sound is fine considering the size of the laptop. Also bought the toshiba dvd burner and made rescue disks with no problem. i was nervous to buy this I always had a dell.Go for it!

Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125 LED TruBrite 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Perfect balance

-- 2010-03-04
I just received my S1125 a couple of days ago and I'm very pleased with it. I've looked hard at the various models in the area between a netbook and a full-sized laptop, and I think this is one of the best machines of that type. The display is gorgeous; 1366 x 768 at 11.6" is really nice and the Radeon 3200 graphics chip is excellent. I bought it along with the Toshiba external DVD drive and additional 2GB of RAM; so far both are working very well. As far as I'm concerned, this thing is the perfect size: it's small and light enough to carry it around, but it's still big enough to have a usable screen and keyboard. I've used a Dell Mini 10 netbook with an Atom N270 CPU, and although it worked, I wasn't happy with the performance.

So far I've added 2 GB of RAM (it took less than a minute; anyone can do this), resized the primary Windows partition, installed Ubuntu 9.10 in parallel (dual boot), and started playing with it. I hooked it up to my 1080p 46" HDTV via HDMI and watched an HD streaming episode of Battlestar Galactica. It looked great, and this machine had no problem keeping up with the HD stream from Amazon. I removed some of the crapware (Norton being a prime example) and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (free anti-virus from MS...it's actually pretty good. In fact, it's better than most of the alternatives; I've tried them all.) The keyboard is pretty easy to use; the touch pad works fine, but I usually use a wireless USB mouse if I'm doing much work with a laptop. I've only just started playing with the webcam, but the pictures I've taken so far are grainier than I expected. I haven't had an integrated webcam before, so maybe this is the way they usually look.

Windows 7 is actually pretty nice, though I prefer linux in general. If you're going to buy a machine with Windows 7, go for one like this with Win 7 Home Premium rather than Starter Edition. Starter is a sad, crippled version, one with which you won't be happy.

Summary of this monster!

-- 2010-03-03
I've had this laptop for about a week now, and I love it! I love the apperence, but the mouse cicker is a finger print holder, so i wipe it like everyday. This lsptop is a perfect size to, small but perfect, not to small. The built in cam and mic is great because I do a lot of traveling, so Skype rocks!

Now this laptop is fast, at everyday uses. But I don't do anything major, im a student, so Microsoft Office, and just web browsing.

I do alsso use this laptop for personal stuff. I have Itunes, the Itunes store runs slow, but everything else is good. I was suprised how loud the speaker was. It isn't blasing but its perfect. The glossy screen isn't much of a problem. The battery lasted for me about 4-5 hours denpending on what I'm doing. I do alot, im a geek.

But i sure would recremand this to someone, it's a great laptop for it's price. For the memory of this, I don't download stuff often, so I hven't had to upgrade yet.

Windows 7 makes this laptop the best!
It is just such a nice laptop.

Toshiba Satellite T135-S1330 TruBrite 13.3-Inch Ultrathin Laptop (Black)

Really nice

-- 2010-02-13
My laptop seems to have all the same characteristics with a slightly different model number so I am reviewing here. My main computer crashed with a problem that will take weeks to fix so I needed a substitute right away. I bought the Satellite U5O5-S2950 at Wallmart.

First the bad things: It has an impact sensor on it that gives a message that it has moved the hard drive to a safe place. Every time I bumped the table leg I got the message. It did not, however, interfere with what I was doing. Once I determined that the hard drive would promptly move back to it working position, I told the computer to not to give me the message any more, solving the problem. The second thing that is driving me crazy it the shiny dark gray on on shiny dark brown keyboard. What with the minimal contrast between the symbols and the background and the glare on the shiny keys, it is nearly impossible to see. I am a hunt and peck typist. I pretty well know where the letters are, but the symbols very hard to find. This is definitely not a computer for a low vision user - or even a user whose vision has any imperfections.

Otherwise the computer is wonderful. It comes with Windows 7. So far I have found no problems with it. It also has Works which is adequate for most needs. I installed Word Perfect Office X4. The Toshiba comes with a trial offer of Microsoft Office. I was unable to configure the new mail program called "Live" to pick up my mail, but my Word Perfect mail program seemed to have no problem.

I have a slight hand tremor, and the touchpad took way to much effort to get the pointer where I wanted it so I got an external mouse. I don't think the touchpad is worse than those of other laptops. There are many slots for peripherals. It comes with a DVD drive. Since my other computer isn't here and doesn't work, I have been unable to test the 'sync" function. Nor have I tried logging in from "hotspots" which I have never done and wish to try.

This computer is barely bigger than the "netbook" type, but it is slim and light weight and more functional than a netbook. Were it not for the low contrast keyboard I would have given it 5 stars.

Best Value for your Money

-- 2010-02-08
As a programmer/webmaster, I am usually upgrading/fixing my old computers for experience. However, after a CCFL (backlight) failure I decided it was finally time to upgrade past my 2gb RAM and eternally failing HP Pavilion; within a week, I had decided from a concatenation of research that the panoply of options available for the new model of the Satellite were definitely worth the amazing price.

At first I may have been wary of the smaller screen size, but after about a day of using it everything suddenly became copasetic. If you are really worried about the size, just get a second monitor for home-use. Also, the dual core on this tiny beast is FAST. And using the Eco mode, I have been able to effectively carry around my laptop for about 48 hours without the battery even coming close to running out, even while using it for about 9 of those hours!

Now it's definitely true that the trackpad has some problems; the simple solution: get an external mouse. All around I am very impressed with the device. Now I just need to find a reasonable way to fill 500gb of hard drive space.

Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1120 LED TruBrite 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Perfect balance

$Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q860 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black\Red)$

Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q860 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black\Red)

System not found!!

-- 2010-03-06
Refunded. Only 15 day return policy and you eat weekends.
But they waived that. Nice people. Super computer, but
HD problems? Not costing that much. But if you can
live with it, couldn't be better. I suggest a buy.

Best gaming laptop out there for the price

-- 2010-02-10
I purchased this laptop as a desktop replacement and I use it for gaming, watching movies, writing software, and basic Microsoft Office and web browsing tasks. Overall I am extremely pleased with it and would highly recommend it to others. Here's the breakdown:

PROS:
- This is an extremely fast machine. It boots up in under a minute with Windows 7 and I have yet to notice the occasional lag with starting up programs that I experience with most Windows PC's.
- Newer games like "Dragon Age: Origins" run extremely well on this machine with all of the graphics maxed out
- The screen on this computer is beautiful. The color quality and contrast are extremely good and there is a ton of screen real estate. Some people have complained that it isn't full 1080p but I find that the 1680x945 resolution makes icons and text the perfect size for this size of screen.
- Multitasking works great with a dual-core processor (four virtual cores with hyperthreading) and 4GB of DDR3 RAM. I routinely have 12 Firefox tabs up while watching videos in iTunes and editing four or five MS Office documents. A lot of computers don't like this but the Q860 handles it wonderfully.
- The battery life is over three hours, which is pretty good for such a behemoth.

CONS:
- This is an extremely heavy laptop and I wouldn't recommend it for frequent business travel. That being said, I do use this laptop for grad school and haul it back and forth to class one day a week using a Toshiba 18" gaming backpack and it isn't terrible on my back. I would definitely recommend a backpack if you want to carry this thing around as a normal laptop shoulder bag would probably destroy your neck and shoulder.
- Both Toshiba and Amazon claim on their websites that this keyboard is backlit but unfortunately, it isn't. Amazon customer service handled this issue extremely well after I reported it, so I can't complain about this too much. All X505-series keyboards are compatible so you can probably pick up a backlit one off of eBay if that's a big deal to you.
- There is a decent amount of junkware pre-installed on this system, although not nearly as much as on the last Dell computer I bought. It's kind of annoying that Toshiba does this on a high-performance computer that will probably be purchased by people that don't want or need it.

OVERALL:
- I did a large amount of research before buying this laptop and as of this moment, there isn't a better value out there in gaming laptops than this. It lacks some of the higher-end features such as dual graphics cards, a 1080p display, and solid-state drives, but for the money you can't do better than this. I am now selling both of my desktops and I plan on making this my sole computer.

Toshiba Satellite L555D-S7005 TruBrite 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Great light & large screen laptop for a reasonable price

-- 2010-03-01
I was first looking at smaller sub-notebooks in the 11.6" - 12.1" screen range. However, after trying that size out in a store, I realized 12" was an incredibly small screen. This laptop's screen is amazing. The size is perfect, the brightness is excellent, and the colors are vivid. Windows 7 Home Premium runs very well (you can tell the AMD dual-core processor helps with multi-tasking). Incredibly, even with a 17.3" screen, the laptop is very light and portable. The full keyboard with numeric pad is a great addition.

The only downside to the laptop is that it does not include HDMI out. This was disappointing considering that the screen is an HD display. It does, however, include VGA out, plenty of USB ports, memory card slot, and an SATA port.

If you are looking for a budget friendly large screen laptop, I would certainly suggest the Toshiba L555D-S7005. Also, there is a similar size/processor Gateway laptop in the same price range. However, before deciding on the Gateway, you should compare the customer service and warranties between Toshiba and Gateway. Toshiba definitely wins in this category. Gateway was bought out by Acer in 2007 and they are still getting their act together internally.

Truly a Best Buy

-- 2010-02-24
But not from Best Buy. My other laptop suffered some kind of disease and we're away from home, so I opted for a "cheap" replacement. 4 gigs of Ram (!!) and room for 4 more and a 320 gig hard drive are among the things that make this an outstanding buy. It's BIG - and that's either it's strength, if you want a big screen and full size keyboard AND keypad; or it's weakness if you like small........

I'm a great fan of Amazon, but before you buy this gem, you might want to run over to your nearest Office Depot - it's currently on sale for about a hundred bucks less........

Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q880 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black/Red)

Second Qosmio for me

-- 2010-03-08
Have owned the Qosmio G25 for nearly 5 years and never had any problems. It still works great, but when I tried the latest EA Battlefield game it was unable to play it.

So, as a previous owner happy with his purchase I had only to read a few positive reviews before buying the X505-Q880. I'm very pleased. The biggest drawback with Toshiba, in my opinion, is the customer support web page.

good and bad

-- 2010-02-23
After my Toshiba Satelite being stolen a couple of years ago, I have waited quite some time to be able to afford a new one. When I go to purchase, I look for something that can carry me through the next 5 years and something I believe will stand up to the test of time.

So I went with this Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q830 and that was a mistake so far. I love the computer when it won't freeze up. That has been an issue from the beginning.

It's performance is great, love many things about it except it's weight, locking up, the number of programs that come pre-loaded and also the fact that it comes with no software or restore disc but you have to create your own or order one at 24.99 which I had to. I had to eventually send it in for repair after a little over a month and they have had to order new graphics card, hard drive, and mother board to try and find the problem. The only problem with that is the fact the parts are on back order and so now I am without laptop for almost a MONTH!

Well, needless to say, I wouldn't repeat the buy but if it comes back and doesn't have any issues, I would give an overall rating of 4 considering all things about this computer.

I love Toshiba but I have just had a bad experience with this laptop. Also, it likes to over-heat when I am not really gaming but just using quite a bit with software and programs so I had to raise the base up by applying some strips of rubber to create more air flow.