Review of the Best Selling 15.4" Toshiba Satellite A215-S7437 Laptop

This is another AMD powered offering from the A215 Satellite series by Toshiba. In this review I have my hands on one of these and take a look at what it has to offer. I'm going to compare it with other Toshibas in this series and compare its performance versus its cost. This notebook is a little on the higher end of their A215 AMD processor series but I don't think it's justified and I'm going to tell you why. Let me get started with the basics.

Hardware

Processor: 64-bit 1.9 GHz AMD Turion 64 TL-58

Storage Space: 200 GB hard drive

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

Optical Drive: a CD R/RW burner with dual-layer DVD +/- drive

Graphics Accelerator: The ATI Radeon XPress 1200 (up to 319 MB of shared memory)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home

Dimensions and weight: 14.3" x 10.6" x 1.5" and weighs 5.8 lbs

Like almost all Toshiba Satellites this notebook has a great screen. It has a maximum resolution of 1280x800 and utilizes TruBrite technology. It is decently fast with an impressive 64bit AMD processor. The 2GB of RAM is enough to get by with Vista, but doesn't leave much to spare. I didn't experience any considerable lag with normal multitasking (i.e. a couple of web browsers and a media player running). It runs the entire office suite fine and even operates Photoshop with little trouble, although will lag during multitasking. The storage space is more than adequate for a notebook this size and will hold all of the MP3's you'll ask it to.

Connectivity

Integrated WiFi (so you can connect to wireless hotspots with this notebook)

1 Ethernet port (so this satellite can connect to wired LANs)

4 2.0 USB ports (use this to connect to a number of devices like MP3 players, Digital cameras and printers)

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

1 ExpressCard slot (so you can add a Bluetooth adapter)

1 VGA port (for use with typical monitors)

1 S-Video port (so this can connect to projectors and compatible televisions)

1 audio output / 1 microphone input

5 in 1 memory card input (this can be used to insert memory from digital cameras etc)

1 Modem input (this can be used to establish a dialup connection)

The connectivity is fine you just need to add a Bluetooth adapter. This would be a find notebook for about anyone but especially good for students and those on the go. While it isn't super mobile it does well on the plane and in the classroom.

At $850 it is about $100 more than the Tosiba A215-S5857 and for that what do you get exactly, a slightly slower processor. These two offerings keep flip flopping as they go on sale, I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a fairly drastic drop in prices of both this model (the A215-S7437) and the A215-S5857. Basically for $850 it is slightly over priced, and is a perfect example of why I would be sure to shop around a little before I make the purchase.