This should be the official laptop of the Boy Scouts of America
Written: Aug 19 '01 (Updated Aug 19 '01)
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Pros: Has everything. Excellent value. Solid performance.
Cons: Windows Me, limited software bundle, only a one year warranty.
The Bottom Line: As close as you can get to a desktop replacement and still be mobile. It offers a lot of bang for the buck and is hard to pass up.
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| meltdowndave's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite 2805-S603 (PS287U-000TJHD) PC No... |
Just over one year ago, I reviewed the now discontinued eMachines eSlate 450 laptop (http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-1299-11F692FB-39776BC4-prod2). It is still working great and up to the task of surfing or checking email. But an upcoming one year trip to Antarctica made me realize that I needed a machine that could do it all and, sadly, the old warhorse wasn't up to the task.
After 3 months of comparing Gateways, Dells, and Sonys I opted instead to give Toshiba a try. Enter the Satellite 2805-S603. A short list of the features illustrates why I think that it was the obvious choice:
-Mobile PIII @ 1Ghz with speed step.
-256 MB PC 100 SDRAM.
-30 GB UDMA 66 hard drive (not 33 like other laptops).
-DVD and CD/RW combo drive.
-Integrated ethernet card and modem.
-15" display.
-SmartMedia slot, 2 USB ports, and a firewire port.
-Yamaha sound card with stereo speakers and subwoofer.
-An onboard nVidia graphics card with 16MB DDR memory.
-Most importantly, a price tag of just under $2300 before a $100 manufacturer's rebate ($2200 after it's all said and done).
No other laptop manufacturer offered a comparable machine with this configuration. And even if I decided that I didn't need the SmartMedia slot, Dell and Gateway couldn't come within $500 of Toshiba's price. I could have perhaps gotten a loaded Sony Vaio for a little less, but I'd be giving up the nVidia graphics card along with the SmartMedia slot. So, the product sold itself. Toshiba is wise to have positioned the S603 at this price point.
Details and Good Stuff
Starting with the basic hardware and working down the above list:
CPU, memory and hard drive: I'd have to say that the Satellite can compete clock cycle for clock cycle with my dual PIII 866 w/RAID workstation in non SMP optimized applications. Both machines can do a Seti@home work cycle in around 9 hours (running full time in the background, not as a screen saver). Using Paint Shop Pro (Adobe is an unfair comparison as it can take advantage of dual processing), it takes about the same time to resize and crop even the largest of photos. Housekeeping? It takes about 90 minutes to defragment a 7.5 GB volume using the Win Me defragmenter.
DVD-CD/RW drive: Works well enough. You can even take the included video out cable and connect it to the RCA inputs for your television or VCR to watch on a larger TV if you wish. I've watched a few movies to put it through it's paces and found that it will not replace your stand alone unit as I noticed a few jerky frames from time to time. There was no regularity, but it was noticeable. But then, the solution may well have been as simple as turning off some of the background applications. Since I've seen the same hiccups with other DVD equipped computers, I'm hesitant to say that this is a design or driver flaw.
The burner works as advertised, although some people may prefer to upgrade the included Adaptec 3.01 to the newer Roxio. But if you want to do simple burn or just drag and drop to RW media, it will work without creating any coasters.
Display: Very crisp and bright, not to mention spacious. Nothing looks too cramped at the native 1024x768 resolution.
SmartMedia slot: No problems and works much, much faster than the USB port to download images from your digital camera. I simply removed the SmartMedua card from my camera and inserted it into the slot beneath the DVD drive. As the drive is a permanent fixture with its own drive letter, I simply went to "My Computer", opened the SmartMedia card, and dragged the 20 MB of images to my desktop. It was as fluid (and quick) as copying files from a CD to your hard drive.
Sound: Well, laptop speakers are laptop speakers. Even though Toshiba added a subwoofer, everything still sounds "tinny". You'll probably want to pick up a set of external speakers if you want to use this as a stand alone unit. Also, the sound isn't loud enough. No matter how high I adjust the volume, I still have to strain to hear the music (and I have perfect hearing, as far as I know). But this could simply be a personal preference...I just like loud music. As this will be doubling as my entertainment center I would have like to have gotten a little more "oomph" from it, though.
Graphics: Now what you gamers have been waiting for.
But first, a concession. This is a laptop and not your gaming box. So there is no way that it will win a "frame rate war." However, the simple fact that one can mention the S603 in a gaming discussion shows how far notebooks have advanced.
This Toshiba's predecessor, the S402, came only with 16 MB of regular graphics memory. After listening to critics, Toshiba upgraded to 16 MB of DDR, or double density RAM, in the 603. DDR theoretically operates at twice the speed of normal memory. And although I do not know the degree of quantitative improvements this made, it's a fairly safe bet that there is a noticeable difference.
Now for the nuts and bolts.
For the informal test, I used some games that I had laying around: Max Payne (a new game with steep system requirements) and Clive Barker's Undying, another first person shooter.
On set-up, Max Payne assigned me humble default settings: all of the sliders were set to medium and anti-aliasing was disabled. Most embarrassingly, the default resolution was 640x480 with 32 bit color. Thinking that I knew more than the software, I bumped the resolution up to 800x600 and started playing. Well, it's playable provided that you can tolerate a hiccup every 10 seconds or so. The game goes fairly smoothly until it suddenly skips a few frames and freezes for a second or so. Back down the resolution to a still playable 640x480 and the problem disappears. But at both resolutions, the colors and lighting are good (for such a gloomy game) and the details are crisp. Unfortunately I haven't looked up the cheats, so I don't know how to get the frame rates to be displayed.
I have Undying on both the laptop and the Matrox equipped Win2K workstation that I mentioned above. So, I'm able to offer a head to head comparison and, believe it or not, the laptop comes out on top.
With the workstation, the Matrox G450 graphics card is definitely a limiting factor. At max detail and a resolution of 1024x768, I could barely get above 20 frames per second. The game stopped completely or chugged along at 12 fps when the action started. Default lighting is also very poor making the game to be so dark as to be almost virtually unplayable. Dropping the resolution to 800x600 helps very little with increasing the frame rates. I suppose that I can tweak the graphics card settings or revert to a single monitor to get better frame rates, but this is just to give you an idea.
Playing on the Toshiba, I can run all day at 50-70 frames per second with no activity and occasionally dropping to 30 with lots of monsters on the screen...and this is at max detail, 1024x768, 32 bit color. Dropping the resolution to 800x600 made the fps increase. Also, the default color/lighting settings made the game much brighter than with the workstation. I was even able to find doors and hallways that I didn't know previously existed.
So, even though this little test was unscientific you can get a feel for how well it performs when playing games.
Other good things:
Excellent documentation. It came with more booklets than did the Dell Dimension that I bought 2 years ago.
At only 7.5 pounds, it really isn't too bulky.
The fan works well and is ultra quiet. Even after extended use, the laptop is not overly hot and the fan is barely audible.
You can listen to CDs without booting up the laptop.
Just because you have the DVD/CD-RW drive, SmartMedia slot, and PC/MCIA slot doesn't mean that you have no room for a floppy. It's there...just forgotten about most of the time.
It ships with a universal power supply. Just find the outlet adapters you need and it can go with you anywhere.
If you purchase before 9/30/2001, you get a $100 rebate from Toshiba. And if you purchase before 8/31/2001, you also get a rebate for a free Epson 777 color printer (you buy first and then they reimburse you up to $75).
No icky touchpads here. It has the ThinkPad style Accupoint button located in center of the keyboard.
Multi-monitor capability. Plug a monitor into the back and you can have left and right screens to create more work area.
Price. As I've said, noone else could come close. As a footnote, I could have purchased it from some vendors on Pricewatch.com for a few hundred dollars cheaper than the ShopToshiba price. However, after investigating these places, I didn't feel as though I could completely trust them with my credit card number. So, I paid a little more and got some peace of mind by ordering it directly from Toshiba.
Not So Good Stuff
There are a number of issues that could keep the 2805-S603 from getting a perfect score. The most serious of them are stability and battery life. Then there are a lot of little things (read: goodies that I wish were added). But read on:
Windows Me: From what I have read, people are experiencing some strange problems with Windows Me. And even though I'm a first time user of this OS (Win 98 and Win 2K Server), I'm no exception.
If I run my Satellite for more than a day without powering off, I experience some weird crashes. It doesn't take much...closing Seti@home from the system tray, installing the Flash 5 plug-in, etc. One time I put it into hybernation and could not get it started again. I had to unplug the power, disconnect the battery, and "hard reboot." I have a minimum of applications running when these crashes occur (having dispensed with the pre-installed bloatware shortly after the first boot), so I suspect an OS issue more than anything.
I would have been much happier with the more stable Win 98 SE or even Win2K if I wasn't as interested in gaming or multimedia. Remember, this only happens after extended "burn in" periods. So who knows what memory leaks and/or overly hot hardware problems I'm experiencing. I'm also a "power user" and always manipulating this and that. So,I may well even be the culprit. With that in mind, I'm slightly inclined to give both Microsoft and Toshiba some slack. This wasn't intended to be a server, so 100% uptime is out of the question. It's also something that I suffered with a work supplied IBM Thinkpad, so it hasn't been an experience unique to this notebook.
Battery life: Not so good. Don't expect more than 2 hours if you use CPU intensive applications. This isn't a big concern for me as I am looking for a desktop replacement. But to those who travel a great deal, consider packing a spare.
Warranty: I was initially apprehensive about buying something with only a 1 year warranty. Given that I will be in Antarctica without means to ship it back during its final 6 months, I was even more so. Afterall, if it breaks, I'm stuck with it until I get off "the ice." But after spending some time with it, my initial impression is that I made a safe bet. Time will tell, however, and I plan on making updates to this review as time goes on. But if warranty and service are the single most important criteria for you, then maybe Dell would be a better option.
Software: It would have been nice to have Office XP (as opposed to Lotus 1-2-3...yes, they still make it), a full year of virus protection (and not the 3 month McAffee trial version), and a more powerful version of Quicken 2001 instead of Quicken "lite." I supposed that Toshiba includes the only bare essentials as a means of cutting costs. And at the end of the day I can live with it. Others may want the larger software bundle that comes from competitors' machines.
Misc:
No infrared port. Sorry. When you're giving a PowerPoint presentation you have to push the spacebar.
Keys popping off. Although I've not noticed anything wrong with my keyboard, it seems that a lot of the Toshibas that I see on display in shops have keys missing. I don't know if they are poorly assembled or if they are being vandalized. But I suspect the latter.
You can only upgrade the memory to a maximum of 386 MB. Even though it comes with 256 MB, it would still be nice to double that in a few years to get just a little more useful life out of the computer.
Boots too quickly to get to BIOS. OK small quip. But still, you only have about a second and one half to get into BIOS by pressing the F2 key. Miss that window of opportunity and you'll just be shutting down again.
Toshiba hasn't produced and compatible docking stations that I'm aware of. You'll have to plug everything directly into the laptop and disconnect it when you are done.
I like power buttons on the side. This one is located on top of the keyboard. It's just one more step to go through if you have an external monitor connected.
Only 1 PS/2 port. Meaning that you need either a USB mouse or keyboard if you feel confined by using the laptop's.
Not Observed
Even though I think I've done a good job putting the 2805-S603 through its paces, there are some things that I haven't gotten around to:
Customer service/Tech support- I did place my order over the phone and had a pleasant shopping experience. The computer arrived three business days later. For security reasons, they would not give me the Fed Ex tracking number. Apparently, they are fearful of someone getting hold of it and altering the final shipping destination. As someone who likes to track packages in route, it was annoying to not be able to follow the progress of my shipment. However, I can appreciate their concern for my security.
I have not dealt with Toshiba's technical support staff. So, I know very little about it. I tend to solve my own computer bugs and do not anticipate giving them a call unless it totally goes "kaput." From looking at the site, it seems difficult to track down a phone number to contact their help desk. Instead it seems as if they try to direct you to a forum (appears fairly active) where you can get assistance (not too helpful if your computer is on the fritz). However, the download center on the Toshiba web site seems to be fairly up to date with the latest drivers and BIOS updates. There also seems to be a respectable number of authorized service centers across the US if you need to take it in for repair.
Ruggedness: Although I am tempted to place it into the freezer overnight to see how well it stands up (don't tell my wife), I'm probably not going to do it. But it looks solid and well built. Like most electronic devices, however, you probably don't want to give it a "gravity check."
Portability: I have yet to use it in an airplane, but I suspect that due to the large display, you may have a problem. Especially if the passenger in front of you tilts their seat back.
Conclusion
Even though I've had some irregular software quirks, I'm convinced that the S603 is a wise purchase for someone who is looking for a multimedia oriented laptop/desktop replacement and still manage to pinch pennies. There are way too many options for the price you pay.
So, if you are looking to "be prepared" then give this Toshiba a test drive.
Final Note
I apologize for the length of this review.
I was unable to find any review of this notebook on the Internet. Thus I was essentially "flying blind" when I made my purchase decision. So, I thought that I would include as much information as possible to make up for this general lack of professional reviews.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2299
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
meltdowndave
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 3 members
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