One of the great things about working for a dotcom company was the ability to fool around with expensive computer components that in no way could I ever afford myself.

I never had the pleasure of owning a Toshiba Laptop at work, no matter how much I pleaded. But I did get the opportunity to fool around with them frequently.

Looks Expensive
Standing 5 feet away you can immediately tell that the Toshiba 4300 is worth some big bucks. The cover is slim and entirely coated with silver. The laptop is less than 2 inches tall and fairly wide. When the cover is down there are five sets of lights that tell you if it's on, in standby mode, or if the hard drive is thinking away.

Feel like a child on Christmas Day
Opening up the 4300 will immediately bring a smile to anyone's face. The screen is huge! It stretches on all sides to less than an inch from the edge. I've opened up plenty of laptops in the past and have always felt cheated when the screen turns out to be indented a couple of inches. Not in the 4300.

Starting Your Engines
Located on the left side is the power button (also included is a lock to prevent accidental turn on). The computer takes about 90 seconds to power on completely. I consider a power on, to include the time it appears that Window's has started but that the hard drive is still rapidly working. My desktop at home takes about 3 minutes to start up and finally calm down ready for use.

Hear That Mouse Roar
Included on the 4300 are two speakers which sound fine for normal computer sounds. But they have no bass, so music and/or games sound terrible. However, the 4300 has headphone jacks located on the left side of the unit next to the volume control. I only point this out, since I was quite surprised to learn that not all laptops come with a volume control on the unit, or the headphone jack is located in the back.

If Only I Had A Microscopic Screwdriver
The 4300 is packed with little goodies inside. With a Pentium III processor chip, programs start up fast and run fast. Included memory is adequate for most uses, although an upgrade would probably be advisable if the 4300 is going to be your main computer. The 4300 I used, also came with a DVD-Player. I've noticed that there is a slight lag when using the DVD-Player. For best results, it's best to turn off as many programs as you can that run in the background (those little icons next to your clock) to increase the quality. One such utility that causes lots of problems for the DVD-Player is a QuickLaunch utility for WinAmp. It causes the DVD-Player to freeze for about a second then jump back into place. Since it happens frequently it really brings down the personal enjoyment of the movie.

Another note on the DVD/CD Player, I find that it's really loud when playing Data CD's. For example, if you have a burned CD of MP3's and you want to play it using WinAmp. During playback, the CD has to turn all the time, which I guess in turn makes the computer's fan kick into high gear. For whatever reason it occurs, the laptop makes a lot of noise and gets annoying.

The Conclusion, Because I'm too tired to type anymore
The 4300 is a good deal if your looking for a Laptop computer that has plenty of thrills without going overboard. You won't spend a lot of money on this purchase, but you will gets lots of special features in return. Yes, there are plenty countless other laptops out there that offer far more features and are faster, but the 4300 is a good deal when considering a top of the line laptop without the top of the line purchase price.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1,600.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 601-700
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD