Decent Corporate Laptop
Written: Dec 17 '01 (Updated Nov 14 '02)
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Pros: Presentation-friendly, display, keyboard, pointer
Cons: power management and driver support under Windows 2000, no built-in NIC
The Bottom Line: This is a good choice in a corporate laptop; for wireless use, consider the similar 8200; for personal use, take a look at a similarly configured Satellite series notebook.
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| bc0203's Full Review: Toshiba Tecra 8100 (PT810U-12CP7) PC Notebook |
The 8100 is part of the Tecra line, which is designed for "fleet" rollouts of laptops in large companies, where keeping components interchangeable and steady over time makes the increased up-front costs justifiable. As such, it competes quite nicely with the Dell Latitude and IBM ThinkPad lines of notebooks in that it's not a stand out in any particular area, it just does a number of things competently.
The display, keyboard and DVD ROM are all first rate, as one would expect from this class of notebook. The pointer stick is a matter of personal preference; I travel enough that it makes working on a plane painless, and my hands never leave home row to use the mouse.
As far as overall durability is concerned, the 8100 is above average. Still I recommend the (excellent) Port line of computer bags, as well as putting something stiff, like a legal pad, in between the top cover and the other items on the inside of the bag, to keep the display from cracking inadvertently while traveling. This is a common problem with laptops, and replacing a broken display can easily top $1000, so keep those steno pads handy!
I've found the docking station to be wonderful, as it overcomes the 8100's lack of an internal NIC and makes taking the laptop home for the night a breeze. My only caveat is that the docking station's port is not bidirectional ECP compatible, which makes for problems with some HP printers.
The biggest complaint I have about this unit is that to get all of the drivers and the power management to work correctly under Windows 2000, you have to carefully follow the directions from their website. If you mess up - and by mess up, I mean, install a single driver in the wrong order, or use the wrong driver - you have to uninstall everything back to that point and start over again. While they've improved this somewhat over time with software patches, this is the type of thing that can boggle a novice user (or even an experienced systems administrator), since all the right software has been loaded, but it has actually been done in the wrong order.
Even with the drivers and power management set up correctly, you're not going to be able to work an entire cross-country flight or watch an entire DVD on a fully-charged battery, so it's a good idea if you're buying one of these units to invest in a power converter and/or a spare battery. This isn't a gripe as much as it is a statement of fact, especially as more and more airlines (particularly American on their MD80s and US Airways on their Airbus equipment) have power jacks in most if not all of the seats.
Still, I've been using the 8100 for over 18 months now, and it's difficult to imagine life in the office or on the road without such a valuable tool at my side.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3499
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
bc0203
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Member: Brian Campbell
Location: Richmond, VA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Work in software industry. Hobbies include electronics, computers, music, movies, golf bicycling and road trips.
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