Toshiba Satellite P35-S611 review

The Toshiba Satellite P35-S611 is the ultimate gaming machine, loaded with the latest sight and sound technology plus a 17" diagonal Wide-screen display for the best in graphics. The sleek, ultra-cool chassis contains a massive 100 GB hard drive that has plenty of room for your applications and files. The P35-S611 also features a hyper-threaded 3.33 GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB of installed RAM, a Super Multi-Drive that can burn CD, DVD-, and DVD+ discs, and an integrated 54g wireless LAN

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The 100 GB hard drive (4200 RPM) is one of the largest hard drives offered in a notebook, and it provides enough room for storing a multimedia library and for some video editing.


• Processor: The Mobile Intel Pentium 4 548 processor features one of the fastest notebook clock speeds available: 3.33 GHz. It also offers Hyper-Threading technology, which allows a single CPU system to behave in some aspects like a dual-CPU system. This results in more efficient software performance (such as faster reaction times in gaming applications) and enhanced multitasking. It is also well suited for professional-quality image, audio, and video editing. Thanks to its Mobile features, the processor can save power when its not needed, thus conserving battery life. It also has A 1 MB L2 cache and an 533 MHz front-side bus (FSB).


• Memory: The 512 MB of built-in memory (1 DIMM, PC-2700 DDR333) is a good start for power users. It can be expanded to a toal of 1.5 GB.


• CD/DVD Drive: The DVD Super-Multi drive is compatible with both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs (as well as DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM). It offers a 4x DVD read speed, and writes at 2.4x for DVD+R/RW and 2x for DVD-R/RW. You can also burn CDs at 16x and read them at 24x.


• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a standard 85-key keyboard and electro-static two-button touchpad.


• Battery: Li-ion PA3383 , PA3383U , PA3383U-1BAS , PA3383U-1BRS

Sound and Graphics

The P35-S611 comes installed with an ATI Mobility 9000 IGP video/graphics card, featuring 64 MB of shared video memory. It will deliver relatively strong 3D graphics rendering and it can can drive an external display that works in tandem with the notebook's native display. The 17" diagonal wide-screen display (1440 x 900 pixels) is intensified with TruBrite technology, producing sharp, mesmerizing images. Harman Kardon speakers and SRS TruSurround XT technology create a rich, more immersive audio experience.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots

The P35-S611 offers a good range of expansion and connectivity options, including a PCMCIA slot for one Type II PC card and the following:

1. 3 USB 1.1 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players


2. 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) ports for connecting digital video camcordrs and other peripherals


3. 1 RGB monitor port


4. 1 TV-out (S-Video)


5. 1 headphone jack and 1 microphone jack

It also has an integrated 802.11g wireless LAN (which is compatible with the more widespread 802.11b and offers faster data transmission rates), integrated 56K modem (V.92), and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).
Preloaded System and Software

The P35-S611 comes with the Windows XP Home Edition operating system, and it also includes Microsoft Works (for working with word processing and spreadsheet documents). Other preloaded software includes Norton Antivirus 2004 (with 90 days of complimentary live updates), Quicken New User Edition, Napster online digital service (30-day trial), Adobe Acrobat Reader, InterVideo WinDVD (for playing DVD movies), ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD, and Sonic Solutions RecordNow Basic.

Dimensions and Weight

At 9.5 pounds, the P35-S611 is weightier than most notebooks used by business professionals, but is on par with other notebooks in this gaming class. It measures 1.6 x 16.5 x 11.5 inches (H x W x D).

Power

The included 12-cell rechargeable lithium-ion PA3383U-1BRS battery has an approximate 2-hour battery life (during normal use). It also comes with a 120W AC adapter.

What's in the Box

This package contains the Toshiba P35-S611 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (compatible toshiba a70 battery ), AC adapter, and operating instructions. It's backed by a 1-year warranty for parts and labor.

Product Description

The Satellite P35 is the ultimate gaming machine, loaded with the latest in everything, including a 17" WXGA display with TruBrite for the best in graphics. The 16: 9 aspect ratio makes it perfect for viewing wide-screen format movies!The Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor supports Hyper-Threading Technology, improving the performance of many applications. The ATI discreet graphics optimizes visuals without compromising system performance. The 17" diagonal wide-screen display is intensified with TruBrite technology, producing images so sharp they are mesmerizing from across the room. Harman Kardon speakers and SRS TruSurround XT technology create a rich, more immersive audio experience. And the sleek, ultra-cool chassis contains a massive hard drive that has plenty of room for your applications and files. With razor-sharp images, robust sound and intense power it all adds up to the ultimate gaming machine.

toshiba satellite a75 laptop review

Design and Build

The design is fairly sleek as a nice consumer line notebook should be. A nice blue power light sits above some media buttons, it's nothing special but it looks cool. The top (back side of screen) is a slick metallic-looking cobalt color which is nice opposed to some of the standard black, charcoal and magnesium alloy cases. Overall this unit is fairly sturdy. I do not feel like I am going to break it while I'm moving it around and I even twisted the screen lid a bit to test it out, it holds up pretty well. Again, it is a consumer line, not business so it's not quite the rigid metal frames of the expensive ones, but does quite well.

The weight of toshiba satellite a70 (original battery code : toshiba pa3383u-1brs ) is not a huge problem . A lot of people prefer the small and lightweight models of notebooks these days, but this one comes in at 7.9 pounds and doesn't cause me any trouble. As a college student, it's about the size and weight of some of my larger books for class. Sitting in my lap it can get a little warm, but not unbearable under normal use with the processor power turned down. If the CPU is set to high it heats up rather quickly and the fans kick on, and their noise is a little annoying after a while, but with good ventilation, it rarely gets hot enough to require much use of the fans.

Screen

The screen is absolutely wonderful. It was a factor in my purchasing this machine as my digital camera battery . A Toshiba Pentium M system with a widescreen TruBrite screen is several thousand dollars more, so this unit was quite appealing. It is always bright enough for me to see, even when I set the brightness down to save battery life. When outdoors, there is a glare on it because of the glossy finish, but it doesn't annoy me because the screen is bright enough to shine through and I never really notice the glare. Indoors, I haven't noticed a glare at all and it is the brightest, most brilliantly colored screen I have yet to see. Absolutely beautiful. I was fortunate in that it has absolutely no dead or partially lit pixels. It is a 15.4" widescreen factory set at 1280x800.

For a mainstream laptop toshiba satellite a75 ( toshiba pa3383u-1brs) the Toshiba's array of ports and slots falls right on the money. The laptop's left edge accommodates an infrared port and one Type II PC Card slot. The back edge is home to ports that include one for S-Video out, one VGA, one parallel, a 56Kbps modem, a 10/100 Ethernet, and two USB 2.0 ports; there's a third USB 2.0 port on the right edge, along with a headphone jack, a microphone port, and a couple of handy extras: a wireless on/off switch to conserve battery power and a volume-control wheel. Toshiba's Web site offers the Satellite A75 line in five preconfigured versions; in-store versions may vary. While many mainstream laptop manufacturers take this tack to save cash, the fact that you can't customize your A75 system irks us.

The Satellite A75's five configurations have five different model numbers (our evaluation system was the A75-S206), but they all use many of the same basic components. Each Satellite A75 runs a mobile Pentium 4 processor with Intel's much-hyped Hyper-Threading technology, an average 512MB of memory, and an aging ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics chip that borrows up to 64MB of video RAM from the main memory. Also onboard is a fast Atheros 802.11b/g wireless mini PCI card and a preloaded version of Microsoft's pared-down office suite, Microsoft Works.

Processor and Performance

The overall speed and performance of the system is quite fast. I never have noticed any serious lagging when loading programs and playing games. Boot up is about as quick as my desktop with similar specs. I am picky when it comes to performance and do not tolerate lagging. The hard drive is 4200 RPM, slow as far as hard drives are considered as a whole, but for notebooks, it is pretty much the standard. Even with being a slower RPM, the seek times are quick and everything loads with haste. The RAM, sadly, is only at 512MB as of now. It is perfectly tolerable, but I plan to upgrade to 1BG as soon as possible, just for my peace of mind. However, I have heard many reports that the extra 512 does not make a world of difference in some machines, but I'll see about that. The games I have run on the A75 so far include Rise of Nations, run at maximum graphics, and Unreal Tournament at max graphics, as well. Both of them run amazingly well. I have not yet tried a high end game such as Doom 3 or Half Life 2, but I seriously doubt that any notebook less than one of those $3000 mega-machines would be able to play them with adequate satisfaction.

Wireless

Toshiba packages the Atheros Super G 802.11g wireless adapter built in. I love this feature, it is wonderful. It works extremely well, no difficulty and it has a convenient switch on the right side to toggle on/off. Wireless internet is a marvel in its own right. Not that it is a huge deal, but I would rather have one built in as opposed to one in the PC Card slot sticking out. There is no Bluetooth on this model. I have nothing to utilize the technology anyway, so that has no effect on me.

Battery

Toshiba pa3383u-1brs Battery (replacement battery code toshiba pa3382u-1bas)life is surprisingly decent for a big and powerful desktop replacement. I set the screen to middle level brightness and also set the hard drives and screen to never turn off and left the wireless adapter on. With these settings the system ran for 3 hours even.