Rating: 
Summary: Just a few drawbacks
Review: A year and a half of use and it is stable, the display is fine, the battery life is nothing special.
If you need to record audio, you'll be surprised: the only input is MONO!
This computer spends more time in hourglass mode or stuck with the hard drive spinning than I'd like. But if you watch your Task Manager, you may find, as I did, that it's usually because certain program combinations cause one to start grabbing handles without stopping. Before I figured this out, I was ready to kill it. I guess a lot of XP machines have had trouble with such hiccups, so you be the judge.
Yes the fan is noticable, but pleasant for a fan, I suppose. The only overheating problem I've had was when it was hot out, and I accidentally nudged the machine beside something on the desk that partially blocked the vent. You can manage the fan intensity through the software. No doubt this affects battery life, as do the other energy settings such as screen brightness. ***If you put a spacer of some kind under the back of the laptop, it cools better.*** I'll bet a lot of people who've had trouble would benefit from that trick. I only do it because I can feel how hot the desk gets under the vent area. Anything about the depth of a little dental floss box will do.
The keyboard is fine for fast typists, good action for a laptop.
It's a budget machine, don't expect sleek and light. The touch pad is ok, nothing special. There's no numeric keypad, of course.
Get a USB hub, it has only two USB ports. Yes, it has wireless. Does well with a USB connection, but wouldn't interface with the Qwest LAN modem, so I was stuck using a shorter USB line it fortunately had.
If I had it to do over, I'd have gotten a desktop with more RAM and speed, but if you need a laptop, the price/value ratio is not bad. I have several programs up at once and am mostly happy when I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, unless you like your computer to stay ON
Review: Don't get me wrong, all is not bad with this computer. It is pretty fast, pretty inexpensive, doesn't freeze much, Windows XP is easy and better than Windows 2000, lots of memory, etc. BUT there is a dark, dirty side to this computer as well. If you decide to do too many things at once (for example run Word, WinAmp, and Internet Explorer at the same time) or use the laptop on a soft surface (your lap, your bed, carpet) you might just find that the computer overheats and shuts down. So, say you are a college student writing a final paper or a business executive writing a big proposal or just a video gamer trying to beat that final level, you might just find that *poof* your computer is no longer on! Now, one might say, "well, that's why we buy warranties!", but no, this didn't start happening to me until shortly after my sweet, sweet warranty expired. Woe. ANYWAY, there is a class-action lawsuit in the works against Toshiba regarding the fact that they were producing fans for their laptops that couldn't handle the speeds of the processors they were also using. Needless to say, I am trying to become involved. Until then, I cannot in good faith recommend this model to anyone. Oh, and the Satellite 5005 models do the same thing, from what I've been reading. Happy hunting!
Rating:
Summary: terrible tech support
Review: I bought this computer in December of 2002. I had no problems at all with the computer.Goods: The computer ran fast with 2.0 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor and 256 mb of Ram. The Hard Drive has plenty of space to hold music, movies, pictures, etc. I love the Dvd/Cd+Rw drive, and built in 3.5 Floppy. Bads: The fan can be a bit noisy if you plan on leaving your computer on overnight. The video card is small although a Radeon. The size of the computer is terrible it weighs almost 10 pounds, so dont play on taking it anywhere before working out. And WORST of ALL, the fans are not strong enough for the big processor that Toshiba put in the computer. You will be in the middle of a game about to finish, or watching a movie, or in-my-case finishing your HTML website when BOOM it shuts off. You wait a minute, turn the computer back on, and it is normal running fine. But make sure not to run to many programs or open too many windows or you will find yourself staring at a blank screen. Because of this major problem I called Toshiba. I talked to an Indian who I could barely understand and all she told me was that the only thing she could think it would be was a Defective Processor...Great! I was told to send it to Toshiba. So I did. Last Friday morning I sent my computer to Toshiba. I am still waiting for it to return hopefully fixed. Because of this major problem I would not advise anyone to buy this computer. You will definitely be dissatisfied.
Rating:
Summary: Beware before Buying
Review: I bought this computer in December of 2002. I had no problems at all with the computer. Goods: The computer ran fast with 2.0 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor and 256 mb of Ram. The Hard Drive has plenty of space to hold music, movies, pictures, etc. I love the Dvd/Cd+Rw drive, and built in 3.5 Floppy. Bads: The fan can be a bit noisy if you plan on leaving your computer on overnight. The video card is small although a Radeon. The size of the computer is terrible it weighs almost 10 pounds, so dont play on taking it anywhere before working out. And WORST of ALL, the fans are not strong enough for the big processor that Toshiba put in the computer. You will be in the middle of a game about to finish, or watching a movie, or in-my-case finishing your HTML website when BOOM it shuts off. You wait a minute, turn the computer back on, and it is normal running fine. But make sure not to run to many programs or open too many windows or you will find yourself staring at a blank screen. Because of this major problem I called Toshiba. I talked to an Indian who I could barely understand and all she told me was that the only thing she could think it would be was a Defective Processor...Great! I was told to send it to Toshiba. So I did. Last Friday morning I sent my computer to Toshiba. I am still waiting for it to return hopefully fixed. Because of this major problem I would not advise anyone to buy this computer. You will definitely be dissatisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Notebook
Review: I bought this Notebook a week ago and I'm very glad I chose Toshiba. It's everything I wanted and more and, contrary to another review, the display is excellent. This machine is fast, the display is sharp, sound is very high quality. The only thing I was worried about was the 256 MB RAM, but it surprised me. All but the most complex games run smoothly. I'm very, very happy with this purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent battery life
Review: I got the 1905-S301 which shares the same specs as the 1905-S303.
The best feature of this notebook is its battery life. I got 2hours and 50 minutes playing DVDs and 3hours and 20min normal use. Note that I only set the screen to power saving mode and all other hardware were functioning at full power. I read a lot about the battery before. Some said it lasted long, other said it did not. I run the test for myself. I previously had an HP ze5155 (1.8ghz, 512mb ram, 40gb HD, 32mb video ram). But the battery life [wasoor]. I only got 1hour and 30 minutes playing DVDs and 2hours normal use. Toshiba uses a 12-cells battery while HP uses an 8-cells battery. The toshiba battery has a 33% higher capacity than the HP battery.
Rating: 
Summary: Love-Hate Relationship
Review: I have had this laptop since the beginning of february and i cannot say it has been working A-class. As many users would have discovered by now, it is very heavy and niosy at times. The large speakers are also a dissapointment. what is even more dissapointing for me is the price at which i got it. My sister paid a much more than anyone would pay for this laptop at Broadway Computer and Video in New York. If i had know my sis was buying this computer for this outrageous price i would have instructed her not to since i know that the highest quoted price on almost all websites was significantly less. However i live in the Caribbean so i was stuck.
Repeatedly i have been having a problem as the computer shuts down without notice. It was possible that this was related to the installation of new hardware or software so i remove all components of new software that i had installed even if they were compatibe with windows XP. The problem persisted nevertheless. over the last week i have not been having those troubles so i hope this is the end.
Without the troubles i have been experiencing, this laptop is appropriate for students and anyone with low budgets. The quality of the display is good (especially when watching DVD's). The CPU is also pretty fast. Sadly, the battery life is disapointing and tends to be much less than that quoted by Toshiba. My advice to potential buyers is to carefully consider all pricing options before you buy this laptop. Also look closely at comparable laptops from other manufacturers.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Machine
Review: I just got this laptop last Sunday. And this machine runs very very fast and display is great. After reading a lot of reviews on Toshiba 1905-S301, I decided to buy it over Dell, HP, Compaq...etc. I would recommend everyone to buy this valuable equipped powerful sytem laptop in the market.
Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Blending of Performance and Affordability
Review: I looked at laptop offerings from Dell, Gateway, IBM, Compaq and Toshiba; HP, Sony, Fujitsu, and Winbook were never seriously considered, because I have had bad experiences with all of those manufactures notebooks in the past. In the end I choose the Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 because I thought it provided me with the best combination of price, performance, and quality available. I bought my laptop at Circuit City for $...which included a $...instant rebate. That added to a $...Toshiba mail-in rebate, drew down the final cost to ...! For this tidy sum my new notebook came with the following features: Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor @ 2.0GHz;
Screen: 15" XGA active matrix display (1024 x 768);
Memory: 256MB PC2100DDR SDRAM, max 1.0 GB;
Video Card: ATI M6-P graphics controller w/16MB external DDR VRAM video memory;
Removable Storage: DVD/CD-RW multifunction drive;
Fixed Storage: 40GB Hard drive;
NIC: 10/100 Ethernet;
Modem: V.90/56K Modem;
Ports: 1x Parallel printer port; 2x USB 2.0 ports; 1x VGA; 1x 1394 Firewire; 2x Type II PC Card (PCMCIA) slots; 1x S-Video out.
OS: Windows XP Home Edition.
First Impressions: I love this laptop! The speed of the CPU; the sharp, clear, vibrant richness of the display; the overall performance of the machine; I love this laptop! And quiet, this machine is quiet. While my Tecra's one cooling fan was obnoxiously noisy, the 1905's two cooling fans (one on the left side in the rear, and one on the bottom of the computer) are surprisingly and wonderfully quite. Ditto for the hard drive and CD/DVD-ROM drive. Sometimes the computer is so quite I forget it's even on! The only problem I've had thus far has to do with the touch pad and the multi-feathered software the comes with it. Word to the wise, disable the "Tap" portion of the software it will interfere with the normal operation of the computer whenever your thumb or finger accidentally touched the pad. Product Features: a closer look: Processor The Satellite 1905-S301 features a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor, with a 400MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) which runs the machine at lighting fast speeds. I have read a lot about the possibility of over-heating with this barn burner, but so far it has not been an issue. I regularly leave the computer (named Khufu, after the ancient Egyptian city of the same name), running over night; and in the morning it's still quiet as a whisper, and as cool as an ice cube. Memory The Satellite 1905-S301's predecessor the Satellite 1905-S277 shipped with 256MB SDRAM, but Toshiba upped the ante with the S301 and slipped 2100 DDR memory under the hood. The stock 256 megabytes is more then adequate for everyday computing needs and multimedia applications, but more is always better in my book, so if you can afford it spring for 512 megabytes do so; I couldn't so I didn't. The maximum amount you can add is 1.0 GB. Storage The 1905-S301 features a generous 40GB user accessible hard drive, which is again quiet as a mouse exploring for bread crumbs in the dark of night. Some 5 GB is used up by the OS and application programs out of the box, leaving 35 glorious GB for storing those need to listen to MP3 files, and those all important documents and spreadsheets. The CD-RW/DVD combo drive is built into the system. And while I would have been happy with just a CD-ROM, having a RW/DVD drive at this price point is a bargain hard to pass up. Toshiba included WinDVD for viewing DVD's and Drag' n Go for burning them. A 3.5" floppy drive is also built into the built into the system. Some might think this antiquated, but believe there is still a need to have a floppy drive. How else can one easily swap briefs and outlines with ones fellow students, not to mention the need to print that last minute, hastily completed assignment at the school computer lab? An extra spindle for a second battery or ZIP drive would have been nice, but not expected at this price point. Display This is the real selling point of the Satellite 1905-S301. The display is beautiful; bright, sharp, crisp, and vibrant. The 15" XGA TFT screen brings graphics to life like a regular display never could, and the text is well defined, bright, and easy to read. I vacillated for a time between the XGA, SXGA, and UXGA display, but in the end I didn't want to spend the extra money for the higher end displays. I went to the local CompUSA and compared them all side-by-side, and while there are some subtle difference between them, in the final analysis the XGA display proved adequate for my needs. DVD viewing is a wondrous experience even at full screen; who needs a big screen TV? And while I will probably never mate my 1905-S301 with an external monitor, it's nice to have the ATI Radeon video card with 16MB of DDR video memory at my disposal. Unlike the 1905-S277, the 1905-S301 is equipped with an S-Video out port. Conclusions: At this price point you would be hard pressed to find a better desktop replacement computer. Toshiba has found the right combination of price, performance and features and incorporated them into the Satellite 1905-S301. For the student, or professional on the go, this is the one! Note: Toshiba offers another notebook in this line the Satellite 1905-S302. The only difference between the two is the OS; Windows XP Home for the S301, and Windows XP Professional for the S302.
Rating:
Summary: Great Buy
Review: I purchased the Satellite 1905-S301 last month as a replacement to an older laptop to use in my office in place of a desktop. I am extremely happy with its performance. It is quiet, displays brilliant colors, is very fast (for the limited applications I use), is a bit heavy yet it can be transported with ease, and most important of all, a bargain for the price I purchased it at. I highly recommend it if your use is limited to simple office applications.
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