After a long delay facilitated by the lack of employment (that was painful), I finally landed a new job, entered Law School and scraped up enough money to purchase a new laptop. My old laptop, a Toshiba Tecra 8000, was getting a little long in the tooth; she was getting progressively slower, making far too much noise, and was running out of usable hard drive space.

So, I did a fair amount of research and shopped around for the right “desktop replacement laptop” to fulfill my ever increasing mobile computing needs. My criterion for the new system was as follows:

1. Price: between $1,500.00 and $2,000.00.
2. Pentium 4 @ 1.6 GHz (400MHz FSB) or above clock speed.
3. Minimum 256 megabytes of DDR 2100 SDRAM.
4. Minimum 15” TFT XGA screen.
5. Minimum 30 GB hard drive.
6. Built-in 3.5” floppy drive.
7. Built-in CD/DVD-ROM drive.
8. Windows XP Home

I looked at laptop offerings from Dell, Gateway, IBM, Compaq and Toshiba; HP, Sony, Fujitsu, and Winbook were never seriously considered, because I have had bad experiences with all of those manufactures notebooks in the past. In the end I choose the Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 because I thought it provided me with the best combination of price, performance, and quality available. I bought my laptop at Circuit City for $1,699.00, which included a $200.00 instant rebate. That added to a $100.00 Toshiba mail-in rebate, drew down the final cost to 1599.00! For this tidy sum my new notebook came with the following features:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor @ 2.0GHz;
Screen: 15" XGA active matrix display (1024 x 768);
Memory: 256MB PC2100DDR SDRAM, max 1.0 GB;
Video Card: ATI M6-P graphics controller w/16MB external DDR VRAM video memory;
Removable Storage: DVD/CD-RW multifunction drive;
Fixed Storage: 40GB Hard drive;
NIC: 10/100 Ethernet;
Modem: V.90/56K Modem;
Ports: 1x Parallel printer port; 2x USB 2.0 ports; 1x VGA; 1x 1394 Firewire; 2x Type II PC Card (PCMCIA) slots; 1x S-Video out.
OS: Windows XP Home Edition.

First Impressions: I love this laptop! The speed of the CPU; the sharp, clear, vibrant richness of the display; the overall performance of the machine; I love this laptop! And quiet, this machine is quiet. While my Tecra’s one cooling fan was obnoxiously noisy, the 1905’s two cooling fans (one on the left side in the rear, and one on the bottom of the computer) are surprisingly and wonderfully quite. Ditto for the hard drive and CD/DVD-ROM drive. Sometimes the computer is so quite I forget it’s even on!

The only problem I’ve had thus far has to do with the touch pad and the multi-feathered software the comes with it. Word to the wise, disable the “Tap” portion of the software it will interfere with the normal operation of the computer whenever your thumb or finger accidentally touched the pad.

Product Features: a closer look:

Processor

The Satellite 1905-S301 features a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor, with a 400MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) which runs the machine at lighting fast speeds. I have read a lot about the possibility of over-heating with this barn burner, but so far it has not been an issue. I regularly leave the computer (named Khufu, after the ancient Egyptian city of the same name), running over night; and in the morning it’s still quiet as a whisper, and as cool as an ice cube.

Memory

The Satellite 1905-S301’s predecessor the Satellite 1905-S277 shipped with 256MB SDRAM, but Toshiba upped the ante with the S301 and slipped 2100 DDR memory under the hood. The stock 256 megabytes is more then adequate for everyday computing needs and multimedia applications, but more is always better in my book, so if you can afford it spring for 512 megabytes do so; I couldn’t so I didn’t. The maximum amount you can add is 1.0 GB.

Storage

The Satellite 1905-S301 features a generous 40GB user accessible hard drive, which is again quiet as a mouse exploring for bread crumbs in the dark of night. Some 5 GB is used up by the OS and application programs out of the box, leaving 35 glorious GB for storing those need to listen to MP3 files, and those all important documents and spreadsheets.

The CD-RW/DVD combo drive is built into the system. And while I would have been happy with just a CD-ROM, having a RW/DVD drive at this price point is a bargain hard to pass up. Toshiba included WinDVD for viewing DVD’s and Drag’ n Go for burning them.

A 3.5” floppy drive is also built into the built into the system. Some might think this antiquated, but believe there is still a need to have a floppy drive. How else can one easily swap briefs and outlines with ones fellow students, not to mention the need to print that last minute, hastily completed assignment at the school computer lab? An extra spindle for a second battery or ZIP drive would have been nice, but not expected at this price point.

Display

This is the real selling point of the Satellite 1905-S301. The display is beautiful; bright, sharp, crisp, and vibrant. The 15" XGA TFT screen brings graphics to life like a regular display never could, and the text is well defined, bright, and easy to read. I vacillated for a time between the XGA, SXGA, and UXGA display, but in the end I didn’t want to spend the extra money for the higher end displays. I went to the local CompUSA and compared them all side-by-side, and while there are some subtle difference between them, in the final analysis the XGA display proved adequate for my needs. DVD viewing is a wondrous experience even at full screen; who needs a big screen TV? And while I will probably never mate my 1905-S301 with an external monitor, it’s nice to have the ATI Radeon video card with 16MB of DDR video memory at my disposal. Unlike the 1905-S277, the 1905-S301 is equipped with an S-Video out port.

Peripheral Connections:

With the Satellite 1905-S301, Toshiba has done away with habitual two serial ports, and the combination mouse/keyboard PS/2 connection, and left us with just a legacy parallel printer port. But it does include 2 USB 2.0 ports, one S-Video port that I mentioned above. In addition there is one microphone jack; one headphone jack and 2 PC card slots that accommodate two Type II or one Type III PC cards.

For old fashioned phone communications, the laptop features a built-in 56K v.90 modem which sits side-by-side to the 10/100 Network Interface Card (NIC) on the back of the unit. The built-in NIC has come to be one of those conveniences we expect from PC makers.

Audio is provided by two speakers mounted just below the screen. I find the sound quality somewhat lacking, but still better then most I’ve heard. The provided software lack controls for separate bass and treble manipulation, but the equalizer built into Microsoft’s Media Player somewhat makes up for that.

Battery

Battery power is provided by a 12 cell Lithium Ion unit that is rate at 2.5 hours. I rarely run the laptop on battery power but on the few times I have, 3 hour seems to be about the limit. Toshiba included a handy little utility that lets the user set a dizzying array of controls for the laptop when it is on battery and A/C power. For instance, you can control the brightness of the display at certain power levels; have the display shut off; have the system automatically go into standby or hibernate when on battery power.

Other Features

The Satellite 1905-S301 features a full sized keyboard, which feels good under my fingers. The keys have the feel of a solid IBM keyboard with plenty of spring and feedback.

I have mixed feelings about the touch-pad, which I alluded to earlier. While I like the feel and silky movement the touch-pad provides, a mouse is more fluid in motion and provide more control over the cursor. And then there is the annoying software…Of course if you wish to add a mouse bear in mind there is not a dedicated PS/2 port to hook it to, nor serial ports, but mice and keyboards for that matter, are USB compliant.

Weight & Size

The Satellite 1905-S301 weights in at some 8.3 lbs and is 2.0” thick. Special care must be taken to find a travel bag to accommodate this rather large portable, but have heart one can be found. I found a perfect bag by High Sierra at ebags.com for a little over $100.00. Having found the right bag, I carry my Satellite 1905-S301 back and fourth to work every day and then to class. Some many find the 1905-S301 cumbersome and somewhat heavy, but to me the power and performance are worth the small workout, and to be honest the laptop feels good in my hands and not the least bit heavy.

Conclusions:

At this price point you would be hard pressed to find a better desktop replacement computer. Toshiba has found the right combination of price, performance and features and incorporated them into the Satellite 1905-S301. For the student, or professional on the go, this is the one! Note: Toshiba offers another notebook in this line the Satellite 1905-S302. The only difference between the two is the OS; Windows XP Home for the S301, and Windows XP Professional for the S302.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1699.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40