A Review of the Affordable 17" Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7809 Laptop

The 17" desktop replacement notebooks are very popular right now as kids find out what school they're getting into and parents start buying notebooks to get them prepared. Dorm rooms are small and it helps to have a nice compatible desktop replacement notebook that can be moved to produce a writing surface on that small school issued dorm room desk. The Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7809 does a great job in this capacity so it is no surprise that it is often cited by Amazon as one of their best selling models. In this review I'm going to let you know what I like and dislike about this Satellite, but first let me get started with a few of the basics.

Hardware

Imaging: Integrated Webcam

Processor: 2.0 GHz 64-bit AMD Turion 64 TL-60

Storage Space: a 200 GB hard drive

RAM: 2GB (expandable to a 4GB maximum)

Optical Drive: A CD R / RW with integrated +/- dual-layer DVD R RW drive

Graphics card: ATI Radeon X1250 (with up to 831 MB shared and dedicated memory)

Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista

This notebook is large and in charge! It certainly isn't one you'll want to drag around with you too often. This is often the case with these larger screen laptops and why they make such a great desktop replacement over anything else. The screen on this notebook is bright and has a reflective surface on top of a TFT producing a resolution of 1440 x 900. It looks great and thanks to the 2GHz AMD runs well too. The 200GB HD is plenty of room for about all the MP3's and movies you could desire. The ATI graphics card is decent and capable of playing most games albeit not necessarily with the graphics turned all the way up.

Connectivity

Integrated WiFi (to connect to wireless networks)

1 Ethernet Port (to connect to wired networks)

3 2.0 USB ports (these are used to connect to a number of devices like digital cameras, printers, and MP3 players)

1 ExpressCard (so you can add things like a Bluetooth adapter since it isn't integrated)

1 VGA output (a typical monitor connection)

1 S-Video output (normally used to connect to projectors and sometimes televisions)

1 audio out / 1 mic in

1 56K modem input (so you can dialup)

5 in 1 solid state memory card reader (this is so you can insert the memory cards from your mobile devices directly to your notebook)

The connectivity is great although I would have liked to have seen more USB ports especially for a notebook this big. It would have also been great if there were an integrated Bluetooth adapter. While it doesn't have everything, at about $730 it is a very reasonable notebook. I would expect that most users looking for something compact but not necessarily super mobile would be pleased with this notebook.