A Review of the Best Selling Toshiba Satellite A205-S7443 15.4" Laptop: An Intel Powered Mobile PC

Midrange 15" notebooks are far and away the most popular types of notebooks in the market. They combine a clear easy to read screen with power, mobility, and are often some of the least expensive offerings. I have gotten my hands on the Toshiba Satellite A205-S7443 15.4" Laptop which has been a very popular model in the past. I'm going to give it a review and see if it is still worth a purchase, or if consumers should move on. Let's get started with a few of the basics.

Hardware:

Processor: A dual-core 1.46 GHz Intel Pentium T2310

Storage Space: 160 GB hard drive

RAM: 2 GB RAM (This can be upgraded to a 4GB maximum)

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

Graphics Accelerator: Intel GMA X3100 graphics (up to 358 MB of available memory)

Dimensions: 14.3" x 10.5" x 1.5" and it weighs in at 6 pounds.

When you seen this notebook compared to others at a retail store the first thing that stands out is the excellent 15.4" XGA LCD display running at a resolution of 1280 x 800. The screen is clear and crisp with a glossy finish. The screen does wash out somewhat with direct sunlight but not any more than the majority of notebooks. This notebook has longer than average boot times but this is helped by deleting a few of the pre-installed trial ware that Toshiba insists on loading their notebooks down with. The majority of this stuff you'll probably find unnecessary anyway thanks to the features found bound with in Vista. The low end processor likely contributes to the extended boot times and the video card isn't much better. The RAM is adequate for Vista, but the hard drive is undersized.

Connectivity:

Integrated Wireless

1 Ethernet Port (so this notebook can connect to wired networks)

4 2.0 USB ports (to be used to connect a number of peripherals like mice, digital cameras, and printers)

1 FireWire port (this is used for high speed data transfer between digital camcorders or other compatible PC's)

1 ExpressCard slot (to be used to easily add additional hardware like a Bluetooth adapter or cellular modem)

1 VGA output (a typical monitor connection)

1 S-Video output (used to connect to projectors or some compatible televisions)

1 audio out / 1 microphone in

This notebook has plenty of connectivity, however not enough to make up for the high price tag of $899 (the current online average). When you consider the weak processor as well as the small hard drive and unimpressive video card it just isn't worth more than $600 in my opinion. If you're looking for an inexpensive notebook I would recommend waiting on this one to have a price reduction (which should be happening pretty soon as this notebook it very antiquated) or looking around at other options. I would bet that something a with a few more features and for less money will be easy to come by. This notebook would disappoint anyone looking to perform anything other than work (office programs for example), playing some music, or watching a few videos. So keep looking if you want to play some games or edit some video.