The Toyota Corolla of laptops
Written: Feb 12 '03
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Pros: solid build quality, excellent screen and keyboard, perfect out of the box
Cons: heavy, so-so battery life, features only "average" for the price
The Bottom Line: IF you want a solid reliable machine that works as advertised, this is it.
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| dinosauract's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite 1415-S173 (PS141U-01F3WV) PC Not... |
With increasing problems on my desktop computer, and space becoming a premium, I decided it was time to replace my computer with a laptop.
Not being a computer expert, by any means, I took my usual approach and did A LOT of research, reading as many magazine and electronic reviews as possible, and spending a lot of time comparing models in electronic and office supply stores.
Within a few weeks, I felt I had a pretty good feel for what was available and at what price. I knew I wanted DVD/CR-RW capability, at least a 20GB hard drive, larger if possible, and 256 MB RAM. Most laptops, except for the very cheapest, come with at least the above features.
Compaq and HP seem to be the price leaders at any given feature set. However, upon studying PC magazine's recent reliability and satisfaction survey, Compaq was consistently at the bottom, receiving the lowest scores in virtually every notebook category. HP, the new owner of Compaq, score pretty well overall. The concern I had with HP was that their lower priced models do not have dedicated video memory, instead sharing the RAM of the main processor. As I learned with some research, this can slow things down quite a lot. But overall, I think HP makes a decent machine for the money.
I also considered Dell and Gateway. Despite their earlier reputation for quality, Dell seems to lead the way in customer complaints lately. Their notebooks were rated among the most trouble-prone by PC and there are many negative comments about poor support. Add in the 2 week delay in getting the notebook, and I decided against it. With their ever-changing promotions, a good deal can definitely be had, provided you catch it at the right time. Gateway seems to be improving lately, after losing significant market share. However, my old desktop was a Gateway, and I had a lot of problems with it. A friend also recently purchased a Gateway notebook, and the build quality was quite flimsy and there were quite a few glitches with it.
I had seen a few Toshibas around, but they seemed to be priced a bit higher than most of the rest. However, PC rated their laptops the most reliable and in talking with other notebook owners, they were the one brand that nobody had anything bad to say about.
So I spent a bit of time playing with the 1415-173 at Circuit City. I really liked the keyboard, the feel of the keys being much better than most other low-priced machines, and the screen was very sharp and bright. One thing I didn't like is the weight, over 8 pounds with the battery, much heavier than the competition.
With a $100 Circuit City rebate, a $50 Toshiba rebate, and a price match from Circuit City on an Office Max clearance price, the final price was just over $900, very close to the HP and Compaq machines, so I took the plunge.
The machine uses an Intel Celeron processor, not the top of the line Pentium 4. But the advantage here is the lower price, and the processor runs at a fairly high 1.8 clock speed. Other features are a 30 GB hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW drive and a floppy drive, something that is omitted from most budget machines.
After hearing so many stories about problems with laptops, I quickly unpacked it and fired it up. I was happy to see the solid case for the machine, it's plastic but it's quite strong. I was also very happy to see no dead pixels, something which seems to plague many or most laptops. In fact, manufacturers don't even consider a few dead pixels a defect, despite how annoying they are.
I was happy to see the on-board tutorial which makes set-up a snap. Also, back-up CD's are provided for the system, something which many manufacturers are beginning to cut corners on.
I also quickly tried out a DVD, something which many laptops stumble on. Playback was perfect, with crystal clear images and decent sound. The CD-RW capability also worked as advertised, again a stumbling point with some machines.
As you can see, I'm no computer expert. What I want is a machine that's easy to use, works as it should, and is well-built. The Toshiba fit the bill perfectly. Its not the price leader, its not the feature leader. What it is is a well-designed machine that feels solid and performs very well, just like a Toyota Corolla. A Corolla is not the cheapest or the most feature-laden or the best performer, but its reliable and competent and has a quality feel to it. It doesn't get overly hot, like many laptops, and the fan is quiet.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the Toshiba. It is heavy, no doubt about it, and battery life is only mediocre, at just over 2 hours. Speaker quality is decent, considering it's a laptop with tiny speakers. It certainly won't rival a good 3-piece desktop speaker set, but no laptop will.
But everything works perfectly, and there are a few nice extras that many machines cut in favor of cost savings. Like the floppy drive, the CD controls on the outside of the machine , so you can play CD's without having to boot up the machine, and the volume thumb wheel on the front. This is much nicer than having to wade through menus just to adjust the volume. The Toshiba is well thought out with a solid, quality feel. It feels like they designed the computer to do a job and then priced it accordingly rather than deciding on a price and then cutting costs to meet it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 910
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
dinosauract
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Reviews written: 4
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