A Review of the Top Selling Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 15.4" Laptop

Quite popular and coming in at under $1000 I've gotten my hands on the Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 15.4" laptop and have decided to give it a review. Toshiba's brand of satellite notebooks includes some of the most popular and best selling laptops around. However not all of these notebooks are worth the cash. Let's find out if this one shines, or should fade away.

Hardware:

Processor: 1.9 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58

Storage Space: 160 GB hard drive

RAM: 1 GB RAM

Optical Drive: CD R/RW with an integrated dual-layer DVD +/- Burner

Graphics Accelerator: ATI Radeon X1200 graphics card (utilizing up to 319 MB of RAM as video memory)

Dimensions: 14.3" x 10.6" x 1.5" and it weighs in just shy of 6lbs.

The most obvious feature of this notebook is the onyx blue metallic bezel surrounding the gorgeous bright 15.4" XGA LCD running at a resolution of 1280 x 800. This is a handsome design however I would make sure that you see this in person for yourself to ensure that it is in line with your tastes. Unfortunately it sort of goes downhill from here. The processor is a decent AMD however when paired with a single GB of RAM and a weak graphics card it just doesn't perform up to my standards. The boot up time was excessive I also experienced lag performing routine tasks like having multiple flash heavy browsers open. In my opinion you really need at least 2GB of RAM to operate Windows Vista smoothly.

Connectivity:

Integrated Wireless

1 Ethernet port (so that you can connect to wired networks)

4 2.0 USB ports (these are used to connect peripherals like printers, MP3 players, and digital cameras)

1 FireWire port (for high speed data transfer from a digital camcorder or between a compatible PC)

1 ExpressCard slot (this is used to add un-integrated hardware like a cellular modem or Bluetooth adapter)

1 VGA port (a typical monitor connection)

1 S-Video port (typically used to connect to projectors or compatible televisions)

1 Audio out / 1 microphone in

5 in 1 memory card reader (this is so the consumer can directly insert their solid state memory directly into the notebook)

The Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 has surprisingly good connectivity considering it's hardware package. Performance wise I would recommend this notebook to someone who wants something simple and won't need any hard core processing power. It will be fine to operate Microsoft's Office line of products or to play movies and some music, but don't expect to play any intensive games or to bring this into your entertainment center. Priced at just under $700 I would look at comparables for a better deal, at least something with more RAM and perhaps a little better processor.