A Product Review of the High End 17" Toshiba Satellite X205-S9810 Notebook

Multimedia notebooks have had a serious surge since the drastic price reductions of high definition flat panel televisions last Christmas season. These notebooks have a lot of appeal in the living room where they can replace a number of components including DVR's and receivers. In this review I take a look at the Toshiba Satellite X205-S9810 which has been one of the more popular multimedia laptops on the market this season. First let's get started with some of the basics.

Hardware

Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 dual-core

Storage Space: (2) 160 GB hard drives (for a total of 320GB's)

RAM: 3GB (Expandable to a total of 4 GB)

Optical Drive: CD R/RW burner with and integrated dual-layer +/- DVD burner

Graphics Accelerator: Nvidia GeForce 8700M card (with up to 767 MB of shared and dedicated video memory)

Demensions and weight: 15.7" x 11.3" x 2.1" and weighs 9.37lbs

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista

This notebook has a substantial amount of hard drive space thanks to the dual drives. This is crucial for a multimedia notebook which has the ability to become a DVR and record both standard and high definition programming. The graphics card is great and can even run games with moderately intensive graphics and does a fairly decent job editing video and images.

There is very little lag straight out of the box and does a great job multitasking. The machine looks great overall and has a great looking Toshiba trubrite screen which operates at a resolution of 1440x900. The reflective screen looks crisp but does have some glare under bright conditions.

Connectivity

Integrated WiFi (so you can connect to wireless networks where ever you are)

Integrated BlueTooth 2.0 (to sync with your other BlueTooth enabled devices)

1 Ethernet port (to connect to wired LANs)

6 2.0 USB ports (use these to connect to a number of peripherals like MP3 players, cameras and printers)

1 FireWire (or EEE 1394, which is used for high speed data transfer primarily between digital camcorders)

1 HDMI output (this video connection is used to connect to a HD television)

1 VGA video output (the standard monitor connections)

1 S-Video outuput (for connecting to projectors and some televisions)

1 ExpressCard (this can be used to add peripherals like a cell phone company's wireless modem)

1 audio / 1 mic jack

5 in 1 memory card reader (use this to directly insert your solid state memory from mobile devices)

1 56K modem jack (used for dialup)

The Toshiba Satellite X205-S9810 has everything that I want to see in regards to connectivity. The integrated Bluetooth is crucial and I love the HDMI port. This notebook is a great option for those that want to replace some of their entertainment center components. This isn't a great option for those that need to hit the road with their notebook. So student's that need to take their notebook to class the X205-S9810 isn't a very good option for you. It would probably do an OK job entertaining you on the plane however the battery life isn't very good.

At $1400 it is priced about average for compatible multimedia notebooks with high definition video outputs. I don't expect any drastic price reductions but as more notebooks start to include high definition writers and ROM's a little more frequently we'll begin to see these drop in price. In the end most will be very happy with this notebook just remember it is more of a desktop replacement then anything.