Pros: Great price, reasonably fast processor and enough memory for basic requirements.
Cons: Short battery life, may need to add RAM.
The Bottom Line: Given its low price, this laptop delivers great value, with a good processor and enough memory for most applications. The battery life is lousy, but you can buy extra.
lucidlemur's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422 (PSAFGU-020002) PC No...
Update: 6/19/08
After I wrote this review, I again had the laptop shut off without warning, twice, so I went online to research if others had had this problem. I found that, indeed, other Toshiba Satellite users found their notebooks suddenly shutting down, and attributed the problem to clogged heatsinks. You can read more here:
I didn't want to jump in and take my laptop apart, so I figured first I'd just try to vacuum the fan on the bottom. Voila: I saw big fat dust bunnies get sucked up against the fan cover, and eventually go into the vacuum. Ever since then, the notebook appears to be running cooler, and, more important, has not shut down without warning.
This appears to be a design flaw on the part of Toshiba: many laptop users will put the computer on . . . wait for it . . . the TOP of their LAPS. This means that the fan intake on the bottom is mostly blocked, but is also sucking up dust and lint from your pants. Even if it's on your desk, you'd still expect it to have some way to keep from getting clogged.
My husband bought a furnace filter that's the wrong size, so I'm thinking about either cutting a small square to put over the fan intake, or making a more elaborate stand to help air circulate. I'd recommend other Satellite users try vacuuming their fans, even if they haven't had problems yet. Ounce of prevention, and all that.
The Review
I bought this laptop in November 2007 from Circuit City. It was $550 after rebates, and the deal included an all-in-one printer and anti-virus software. For that price, I didn't have high expectations of it. I just need it to get me through 2 more years of school, and I don't do any gaming, or much at all with videos, etc.
Specs and measurements
This laptop weighs 5.8 pounds, and has a 15.4" screen, so it's a bit clunky to carry around on a regular basis. The actual measurements are 14.3 x 10.6 x 1.55 inches.
The battery life is just awful. Consumer Reports recommended the extra battery, and I thought about upgrading but didn't. I wish I had, but I just didn't realize what a pain it would be to never be unplugged for more than 90 minutes. The battery is supposed to last for 2 hours, but it absolutely does not, even on the "power saver" setting.
Connectivity and Media
4 USB 2.0 ports
1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals
1 ExpressCard 54/34 slot
Video out: VGA and S-Video
Stereo headphones/speakers/line-out
Microphone/line-in
5-in-1 memory card reader (Secure Digital, MultiMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD Picture Card)
This notebook also has a DVD player and writer, neither of which I've tried yet. But they're there. :)
Software
Windows Vista is pre-installed, as are like 20 various free trials and programs like QuickBooks, Vongo, Memeo LifeAgent, Picasa, and a 60-day Microsoft Office trial. I know some people don't like all that stuff, but you can always try it out and then uninstall it. Vista isn't as bad as I feared, and I haven't had significant problems with it (although it is a pain the way it asks you to confirm a lot of actions).
Memory and Processor
I mainly use my laptop for schoolwork and the internet. I don't have any games other than the pre-installed ones, and I don't store a lot of movies, pictures or music. So it would be hard for a laptop to have too little memory or processing speed for me!
The Satellite has a 160 GB hard drive, and I'm using about 1/4 of it. It comes with 1GB of installed RAM (2 x 512 MB DDR2, PC5300). I wanted to run a microclimate simulation program, so I had to buy 2 GB, and that's working out well. It has a maximum 4GB capacity.
The processor is an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core. Similar to the RAM, this works well for my purposes.
A sign of trouble?
One weird thing that has happened twice in the last couple of weeks has been that the laptop just suddenly turned off. It was plugged in both times, so it obviously wasn't the battery. It was like someone just pushed the off switch. The laptop came with a 1-year hardware warranty, and is only 7 months old, so hopefully if there's anything seriously wrong I can get it fixed. I'll update the review if anything changes!
Overall
The Toshiba A215-S7422 is one of several dozen Satellite models. Consumer Reports gave a good review to a slightly different Satellite, so I crossed my fingers and hoped this one would work out, since the price was definitely right.
For my purposes, this laptop has been very good. I use it basically as a desktop replacement, except I like to be able to use it in different rooms and occasionally take it with me to school. Of course, I can't take it anywhere without an outlet for longer than about 90 minutes. But it's kind of hard to be somewhere without power nowadays. For the money, it's hard to find anything even close to this!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 550 Operating System: Windows Processor: Other Processor speed: over 1000 Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches RAM: More than 256 Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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