Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8930

Instead of just a flat solid color, Toshiba used its Fusion Finish on the P505D with its sonic pattern in black onyx. It's a light pinstripe pattern on a glossy black background on the lid, with palm rests, and speaker surround above the keyboard. The speakers sound great by the way, far above the laptop's budget price tag. The keyboard is large and comfortable with a full number pad on the right end. The keys are flat like a chiclet style keyboard, but they float above the tray so you'll have to watch your cookie crumbs.

They're also somewhat slick, making it slightly unpleasant to type on. Due to the glossy nature of everything, the laptop collects a lot of fingerprints. Overall, Toshiba Satellite P505D is a nice looking package and is certainly what a majority of its cost went to. To the right of the keyboard is a set of backlit touch sensitive media controls, the power button, and an Eco mode key. This mode significantly cuts back on power usage by cutting back on display brightness and other nonessential features.

It also shows a line graph to prove the power savings. The 18.4 inch wide screen LCD display offers a 1.680x945 native resolution, which is not standard for a screen this size. In fact, we've never tested a system with this size screen carrying such a low resolution. More standard for this size are resolutions of 1.920x1.080 or 1.900x1.200. Despite the lower resolution, the screen is good for just about anything you'll do on it, with decent color performance, brightness, and dynamic range. If those are two things you're interested in, you'll want to search out a P500 series laptop that actually has them.

Features

• Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8930 : Average for category (desktop replacement)
• Video VGA : VGA and HDMI or DisplayPort
• Audio Stereo : speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Stereo speakers with subwoofer, headphone and microphone jacks
• Data : 3 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, eSATA/USB, multi-format card reader 4 USB 2.0, SD card reader
• Expansion : ExpressCard 54
• Networking : Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, modem Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Optical drive : DVD burner
  

Ports for the most part are what we expect to find on a system in this price range. Only the eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port is an anomaly, but it's a good one and has Toshiba's sleep and charge feature for charging devices even when the computer's sleeping. Also, though there are spots for HDMI and DisplayPort connections on the left side, they have been plugged up.

If those are two things you're interested in, you'll want to check out another version of the P500 series that actually has them. Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8930 is a retail only fixed configuration, so what you get is what you get. However, the memory and hard drive compartments are easily accessed through the bottom of the case. This model comes with 4GB of memory, but can be expanded to 8GB total.

Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955

Last year's Toshiba Satellite L305-S5875, which cost $675 and was housed in a nearly identical case, came with a 200GB hard drive, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 1.86GHz Pentium Dual-Core T2390. Therein lies the difference : this year's L305 has a 160GB hard drive, only 2GB of RAM, and an inferior Celeron 900 processor for nearly half the cost. In essence, it has the guts of a Netbook in a 15.4 inch laptop's body (the earliest Netbooks actually used Celeron chips, before Intel release the Atom processor).

While this laptop is fine for basic e-mail, media viewing, music playing, and other simple tasks, we wouldn't recommend it for any sort of multitasking or serious mission critical computing. It's already more than a bit of a dinosaur in 2009, and it won't get any less outdated, making it a questionable investment on the other hand, Windows 7 should run fine on it (although most new Vista Basic systems are ineligible for a free upgrade), and this could be the sort of bargain a low expectations consumer is looking for.

Features

• Price as reviewed / Starting price : $349
• Processor : 2.2GHz Intel Celeron 900
• Memory : 2GB, DDR2 800MHz
• Hard drive : 160GB 5,400rpm
• Chipset : Mobile Intel GM45
• Graphics : Intel GMA 4500MHD
• Operating System : Windows Vista Home Basic SP1
• Dimensions (WD) : 14.3x10.6 inches
• Height : 1.5 inches
• Screen size (diagonal): 15.4 inches
• System weight / Weight with AC adapter : 5.92 / 6.78 pounds
• Category : Mainstream
  

The next question you may have is : "Why wouldn't I just buy a Netbook?" To that, we say: it depends on whether a larger screen and keyboard matter to you. Netbooks are considerably more portable, and an Atom processor doesn't make much of a computing difference compared with the Celeron 900 in Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955. However, many budget Netbooks have compromised keyboard sizes, and screens that might be too limiting for power users. Also, the L305-S5955 runs Vista as opposed to Windows XP. Take that as you will. We also find there's a sizable psychological factor : small Netbooks come with one set of expectations attached, while users expect larger laptops no matter how low powered or inexpensive to behave more or less like standard mainstream systems.

Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955 will never be confused for a Netbook from the outside, however. At 1.5 inches thick, it's one of the beefier nongaming laptops on the market. The muted blue gray exterior is prone to fingerprint smears, but the plastic feeling lid is solid. There's a full size keyboard with tapered keys, and six physical media control buttons that aren't backlit. Volume control, like with the similar Toshiba L505D-S5965, is operated via a wheel at the front of the laptop, under the touch pad.