Toshiba appears to have given the Satellite Pro 6000 very careful consideration before finalising the specifications for the basic model, as reviewed here. It has resisted the temptation to boost its margins by opting for a Flip Chip CPU, and instead you get the latest generation of Mobile Pentium III-M processor running at 1GHz. Not only does this boost performance thanks to a fast 512KB Level 2 cache on the chip itself, but it also takes some of the strain off the battery.
Mobile PIII-M chips still come at a premium, which is probably why the rest of the specification of the Satellite Pro 6000 is moderately conservative, with 128MB of SDRAM, a 20GB hard disk and a 24-speed CD-ROM rather than anything more exotic.
If you wanted more from your optical drive, you are in luck since the Satellite Pro 6000 has a modular bay and you can swap the existing CD-ROM for a DVD-ROM or even a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW. If needs be, the bay could alternatively hold a second battery or a second hard disk.
The floppy drive is external - the only in this group test to be so - and connects via one of the two USB ports on the machine. If you take it on your travels, the weight goes up from a fairly light 2.75kg to a still manageable 3kg.
Graphics processing in the Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 is done by a Trident CyberBlade XP Ai1 with 16MB of its own memory, and the results display on a bright, readable 14.1-inch XGA resolution (1024 x 768) TFT screen.
After due consideration, we decided that the Toshiba's keyboard was probably the best of the group; just that bit more conveniently organised and uncluttered than any of the others. This made Toshiba's continuing insistence on the pressure-operated stud as a pointing device all the more frustrating, since a decent touchpad would be an improvement in accuracy, speed and intuitiveness.
All the little extras are present in the Satellite Pro 6000, including parallel and serial as well as USB ports and an expansion bus for a port replicator. Both a modem and a LAN adapter are built in as standard. If you have a device like a camera, MP3 player or PDA that has a Secure Digital (SD) flash memory card slot, you will also benefit from the one on the notebook when it comes to exchanging data.
The effect of the Mobile PIII -M was very apparent from the battery life: we managed 3 hours 20 minutes in a single session, which was by some way the best running time of any of the machines tested here.
The solid feature set, slightly below average carrying weight and good battery life of the Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 all recommend this machine. However, you might be obliged to pay more and opt for extra memory and perhaps a more sophisticated choice of optical drive to really get the most out of this notebook.
Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 battery code: pa3084u-1bas,
Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 battery code: pa3084u-1bas
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