1280 x 800 WXGA Display - 512 MB RAM - 60 GB HDD - Combo Drive - nVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 - Windows XP Home - 3.08 Hour Battery - MPN: PSM30U0QQ01V
Strengths: Widescreen 15.4", light weight, sleek design, roomy keyboard,
Weakness: Wish it was faster.
This is a nice, business "thin & light" notebook at just over 6 lbs and with a nice 15.4" screen. I like the design of this computer. I wish this computer had a DVD-burner. But mostly I wish this computer was faster, but 1.4ghz was pretty "fast" when I bought this computer approx. 1 1/2 years ago. I use this computer regularly, daily, and have had no problems. I have also travelled with this computer on numerous occassions, and it is NOT too heavy like my last 9+ lb notebook! There is also now a Sony Vaio that competes with this laptop, but this Toshiba costs less and is just as good! Would love to get the newer Toshiba Satellite M45 1gb, 2.0ghz version with DVD burner. Overall, I have been very pleased with this computer.
Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Gorgeous screen; lightweight; great battery life (I get 3 1/2 hours consistently)
Weakness: CDRW is problematic on these notebooks (i.e., problems burning CDs)
Overall, this notebook is fantastic with the exception of the CDRW (i.e., the ability to burn CDs). Mine has been problematic since I purchased this unit (i.e., the unit doesn't burn CDs very well, but it reads CDs and DVDs without difficulty). So if you plan to use the CD writer frequently, look elsewhere. Otherwise, I highly recommend this notebook.
Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Lightweight, 15.4"screen, CD-RW drive, DVD-Rom drive.
Weakness: No DVD-RW Burner
I love this computer as it has a 15.4" screen which is great for watching movies, but still retains a light weight of only approx. 6.2 lbs! It also has a cool sleek silver design. Keyboard is a good size for my big hands. I will be getting the upgraded version of this computer when this one gets old, such as the M-45 S355. The internal 54g wireless works great and I have used it while traveling to get wireless internet. This computer does not have a DVD burner, but I don't burn DVDs, so it is not a problem. It plays DVDs just fine. This computer has 3 USB ports on the right side; wish it had 4 or 5 USB ports. I think it would be better to put 2 USB ports on each side of computer & one USB port in the back. Like most computers this computer does not come pre-installed with Microsoft Word. Would love a faster version of this computer with more memory, like the upgraded version (stated above) I will get some day. This computer works well with my Cable Internet hook-up. This computer is not too big and not too small, it's just the right size & weight for travel and use.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: This notebook has a good size screen and great speakers. It also comes with a DVD player, CD-RW writer, and lots of USB ports.
Weakness: It comes with Windows XP Home edition. It would have been nice if it had come with the Professional edition of XP.
We did a considerable amount of research before we purchased this notebook. We are really pleased with this machine. It is really worth it to get a machine with the newest Pentium M processor rather than some of the older and cheaper processors. This machine is a great desktop replacement and it is not extremely heavy to carry about. I am a student and take it to campus every day. Toshiba does provide an excellent service support. I would strongly recommend this notebook. Don't look any further.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Excellent sound, quiet keyboard and touchpad buttons, sleek design and powerful
Weakness: For advance users, the recovery disks are useless except for the drivers, heavy battery and relatively short battery life. Also, this computer should come with a wireless g instead of b.
I actually own the M30 model with centrino 1.5 GHz and without DVD+-RW. This machine is sweet and it poses no problem in graphics applications, even in 3D games. It works magnificently on multimedia and wireless internet. The keys are firm but also quiet, unlike my Emachine M6805, whose keys are noisy and crispy. However, the recovery disks are the biggest turnoff for advance users, for the image has been preset as one partition. If we wanted to run in multipartition, you will need to have a copy of the OS that you want to use. Also, the tech support is a bit lousy, Toshiba certainly can use more skilled technicians. It's considerably a waste of time to call. You might as well figure the problem out yourself by looking up on the net. Nevertheless, if we are talking souly on the system, you can't get any better than this one if you are tight on your budget.
75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Great screen, good sound, powerful laptop.
Weakness: Recovery disk.
In buying this I only had it 2 days and thought it was great. I immediately went about customizing it for my own use but the hard drive crashed making the system inoperable. Never fear, the recovery disk worked fine and after an hour or so I was back to a clean install and buzzing along nicely. After about 4 hours of putting my programs in place it crashed again. I called Toshiba and they verified, no recovery option except to reformat and reload. So I did that and then took the machine back where I bought it.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Nice Screen, Excellent Graphics, Good sound...
Weakness: Very low video memory
I actually bought the Toshiba A45 S250 with the pentium 2.8 G processor. But went and exchanged that for this one.
Gamers would prefer a better PC with more memory devoted to video/graphics. But other than that I feel this is an excellent buy.
Looks great, with a nice wide screen and great sound. And I didnt find any problems with my keyboard, the left side or the right. And my resource hogging applications like oracle and sas work perfectly fine on this one, without any unexpected delay.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
TopStrengths: Bright excellent screen, vivid colours, excellent contrast and detail with exceptional improved viewing angle in all directions: top, bottom, side to side, similar to a plazma tv!
Weakness: Springy loose keyboard, very weak and bouncing especially on the right side over top where they positioned the cd drive. The keys feel weak, loose, very klacking, very noisy, worse on the right side.
An excellent monitor with beautiful details, bright colours displaying the best quality with photos, graphics, tex sharp right down to small font sizes. Speed is fantastic and battery life little over 3 hours. My big problem is the terrible klacking and the loose feel on the keyboard which is much worse on the right side than the left side. It is as if a supporting brace or some kind of plate below should have been designed to be there, especially with the cd directly below. Also, the processor felt quite warm for a Centino, which I thought is supposed to be cooler? It is very warm on the bottom right side. I feel Tosiba should recall this model to repair the bad, weak and very flimsy key board.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
Top
ONE of the BEST from the first line of Notebooks...
Strengths: Great display with super sharp resolution; good battery life; superior sound from built-in Harman Kardon speakers; built-in infrared and wireless; CR-RW is great,I copied and burned more than 100 CDs!
Weakness: Quite heavy; low video graphics memory; doesn’t come with any MS Office software, could at least install MS Word for free; Intel Pentium Centrino 710 is entry level in its class.
I paid for it $1,715 in 01/17/2004, which was very expensive at that time but included $250 worth rebate from Toshiba and CompUSA. So I’m using it over 2 years now and so far it was a great notebook. Sometimes it freezes and not responding, which I believe due to malicious viruses, spyware, adware, and others. However I’m amazed that it still works even having a bunch of Trojan infected files. Its hard drive never crashed, and hope it won’t because I want to reformat it soon. It was one of the 1st Centrino notebooks introduced by Toshiba so its quality is very good. Usually first models are made better! I'm satisfied with it and even if I buy new notebook in next couple years, I won’t sell this one! I’ll better pass it on my younger brother. Because it was my lucky purchase, and longstanding work-horse. You can listen to music CDs without launching Windows. Just plug in this laptop and use media buttons located on the front panel. Cool feature.
Also has built-in SD memory card reader/writer slot.
I never seen such amazing small speakers with CLEAR and LOUD sound in any other notebooks. They are Harman Kardon speakers and are really the best!
Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?