Toshiba Satellite P35-S609 Notebook PC (Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, Multi Function Drive)

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME..THE BEST THERE IS
Review: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS LAPTOP. RESEARCHED FOR 2 MONTHS BEFORE SETTLING FOR THIS, AND IT WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT. VERY POWERFUL, GREAT SCREEN, LESS FAN NOISE......JUST LOVE IT.


Rating:
Summary: incredible buy for the money
Review: I'm a computer scientist getting a PhD in computational neuro-science and bought this to bring to school, work, and home.
By settling for the 3.2 gigaherts instead of the 3.3 I saved close to $500 and the machine still performs really well.

The screen is incredible (great for gaming).
The speakers are incredible (never heard a laptop sound like that).
THe components are just incredible, fast wireless card, DVD burner, etc.

I did a personal benchmark and out of 130,000 operations and disk reads it outperformed my desktop (1.6 gigahertz with 5200 RPM disk) by 30,000 operations. Oh, and when I called and complained about the lack of an OS installation CD (see cons) they took note and a higher up actually called me back the next day. That blew me away, since usually I know more than anyone I can get a hold of, if I can get a hold of anyone.

dvd/cd drive is slow
Battery time is pathetic, but that's what you get for the power. Be sure the keyboard placement is good for how you type because this is a big machine so the placement is different than smaller ones.
On white backgrounds if you're not looking at an image the screen has an apparent mesh - however this is common to laptops and flat screens in general. I'm just a bit paranoid about everything being perfect. However, during games or when I'm looking at pictures the screen is absolutely incredible. The one other thing was that there is no real installation CD for the OS, there's only a disk image. Through trial and error I found that if I partitioned the disk however I wanted, the recovery CD would allow the image to be written to the first partition rather than overwriting the entire disk. Still, it was a pain in the ass to figure that out, and I'm also kind of tired of Microsoft billion dollar empire coordinating with hardware manufacturers to squeeze a little more blood from people - even when it limits their ability to use the software THEY ALREADY PAID FOR!




Rating:
Summary: Good desktop substitute
Review: Pro:
17" screen, free backpack offered by Toshiba is excellent, well built, lots of features

Con:
Heavy, short battery life especially when wi-fi antenna is on, shared video RAM, no printed manual

I bought the P35-S602 in early December. Toshiba currently offers a $50 cash rebate, but in lieu of cash, the buyer could opt for a backpack which I did. Got the backpack today and it is very nice, with lots of pockets, still small enough to carry it on to commercial airliners. The backpack makes the computer much more transportable.

The 17" screen is nice, but most software really couldn't take advantage of it except electronic spreadsheets which utilizes the entire screen, very nice. Most other software however use only part of the screen with the right side being blank. I may have to change the screen setting. While the screen is nice, my 19" Samsung 191T LCD TFT screen with a Matrox adapter is much nicer.

I was pleasantly surprised the 512 MB RAM that came with the computer was on a single strip using up just one slot. Toshiba suggests using Kingston RAM, but when I opened up the computer to add another 512 MB of RAM, I found out that the existing RAM was made by Samsung. So I now have two different brands of SODIMM in my computer. They work fine together. Adding RAM is extremely easy.

Someone commented that it's not a gaming machine. If shared RAM bothers you, a discount warehouse based in Kirkland, WA sells a model with 64 MB of discrete RAM for $100 more than I paid for my machine. So I figure I save the money by putting an additional 512 MB of RAM.

There are some very useful utilities added on by Toshiba. An example is to set up a LAN with the Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi network. But see below for disadvantages of some other Toshiba utilities.

The computer comes only with an electronic owner's manual in a PDF file which is far from comprehensive, for example, there is nothing to show you how to burn a CD. I have to use Windows XP Help to find that out. I still don't know how to burn a DVD-RAM disc. I am also surprised it only comes pre installed with Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5 since version 6 has been out for quite sometime.

A fully charged battery lasts about 2 hours, but half that when the wi-fi antenna is switched on (FYI, I couldn't surf the Internet until I upgraded my Linksys WRT54G firmware, apparently, there was a conflict between Windows XP SP2 and the Linksys firmware that I upgraded in May 2004, I also have to assign an alternate IP address. The Toshiba does not default to 192.168.1.xxx).

Toshiba added several features to Windows XP. As a result, you must use the Toshiba utilities. As an example, managing power usage must be made with the Toshiba utilities and not in the XP utilities. So you must know the idiosyncracies of the computer.

The built in flash reader does not support CompactFlash, which is used by most professional digital cameras.

It is a nice computer but does not appear to be any faster than my P4 2.4 GHz desktop. It is, however, definitely fast enough for what I use the machine for. It should be a good workhorse for a few years.

Rating:
Summary: Nice machine, but don't be misled by the "free" software
Review: The processor runs my tax software surprisingly fast. The monitor is awesome, good for watching DVD's. The only drawback I've encountered is that Microsoft's Office expired after a few months.
Unless I'm doing something wrong, the Office software that comes with this machine is a "trial" version. The keycode that came with the machine does not unlock it permanently. Still a nice machine for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Good deskpot, I mean laptop
Review: This things is the Hummer of laptops -- ridiculously large, ridiculously powerful. Which explains my pros and cons

PRO'S:
1) 17" screen is a joy to look at. Very bright. Widescreen. Beautiful.
2) Seems to have a good cooling system, had it on my lap for hours and it never so much as warmed up.
3) Lighter than I thought it would be (a shade under 10lbs)
4) More than fast enough for todays applications. 3.2 gHz hyper-threading chip is faster than most desktops'. Also, the thing finishs booting up practically before you're finished pressing the "on" button, a good hint of its speed
5) Did I mention the screen?

CONS

1) Shared video RAM. ARRRRGHHH, WHY DOES IT EXIST??!! Cant call this a true gaming machine solely for that fact. A real shame considering the potential of this computer. Its like building a Ferrari that only runs on cheap gas. Dont be decieved by Toshiba's attempt to market this as a gaming machine -- this is DEFINITELY NOT a gaming machine. This is the only reason I hesitated to buy the machine -- and Im not even a gamer.

2) With such a nice (and expensive) screen, you're going to have to get a warranty that covers physical damage to the screen, or else you wont have any peace of mind. And thats not going to come cheap -- cost me $350 for a 2 year plan.

3) Understand that you make sacrifices in the portability department for having a 17" wide-screen. I would recommend it as a stay-at-home laptop. You cant take it to work -- it'll take up your entire desk, and co-workers will be attracted to it like bees to honey.