Reviewing the Inexpensive 15.4" Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804 Laptop

In this review I have my hands on the Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804. This is one of Toshiba's mid range offerings designed and priced to appeal to the majority of laptop consumers. It has been selling well recently making it to Amazon's top 10 so I decided to make it one of my first reviews in this laptop series. Let's get started with a few of the basics.

Hardware

Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Pentium dual-core processor

Storage Space: a 120GB hard drive

RAM: 1 GB (expandable to a total of 2 GB)

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

Graphics card: Integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics (Shares 251MB of RAM for video RAM)

Dimensions and weight: 14.3" x 10.5" x 1.55" and 6lbs

The first thing that sticks out with this notebook is the funky blue cover. I am not a big fan of the new trend that has laptop manufacturers decorating the outsides of their notebooks with funky designs. This one however isn't too obtrusive but still rather unsightly. Other than that the screen is what really makes this Toshiba pop. It has a TruBrite screen with a glossy finish. It's running at a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels which is a native 720p resolution for those familiar with HD terminology from the television market.

The processor isn't very impressive, and when combined with the single GB of RAM this is actually quite slow. My Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804 came preloaded with Windows Vista which really does need a minimum of 2GB of RAM to run smoothly. This notebook can certainly be upgraded which is something I would recommend if you were to purchase this Toshiba. It tends to lag with just a few internet browsers open - so you can forget about any decent gaming or video editing.

Connectivity

Integrated WiFi (to connect to wireless networks)

1 Ethernet port (to connect to wired networks)

2 2.0 USB ports (the gold standard of computer connections - use this to connect to things like digital cameras, thumb drives, and printers etc.)

1 ExpressCard 54/34 (to add additional peripherals like a BlueTooth adapter)

1 VGA port (to connect to a standard monitor)

Audio out / 1 mic in

1 modem port (for dial up)

The connectivity is really bare bones. I've seen less expensive notebooks come with more USB ports and S-Video outputs in smaller packages. At around $700 I wouldn't really recommend this notebook right now. There are better options even within the Toshiba lineup for less coin. If you do have your heart set on this notebook I would recommend using this with simple work, word processing, internet browsing etc. It would handle MP3's, burning CD's and movies fine, just don't expect too much.

Bottom line I would wait until this notebook experiences some sort of price reduction which I do expect. This is a little bit of an outdated model, with new mobile Intel processors hitting the market at reasonable prices I would expect to see some of these older mid range models to drop drastically this summer / fall.