Poor design flaws and low QA
Written: Aug 25 '03 (Updated Aug 25 '03)
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Pros: Just about has everything
Cons: Quality of manufacturing low. 35% rate failure.
The Bottom Line: Received several laptops, 35% of them had manufacturers defect. Design flaw where TFT screen case weak from outside shell and will allow TFT damage.
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| mmaceluch's Full Review: Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405 (PS630U-G205HV) PC ... |
Received a few of these laptops also labeled as M10-S405s family. Several of the laptops had manufacturer defects that will not be repaired or in limbo status even though units came straight out of the box sealed and were no sooner sent back by us to Toshiba only to be turned back unfixed.
The quality is not top of the line when you’ve worked with laptops for 15 years in the industry and have worked with 100s of laptop models. Sorry Toshiba, what went wrong.
OK, so there was a bad taste all of a sudden on this unit. But when you receive a new shipment and the first batch of these units come in and they are defective. Something is wrong.
Major defect in unit design: Top outside end of laptop which secures TFT (screen) is made of light non-resistant plastic. Again receiving factory sealed box, packaging at factory had placed the power supply against the outside on the top laptop case. Pressure apparently applied during shipping or warehouse storage must have pushed the power supply lightly to the top outside TFT case. Enough to crack the internal the TFT screen. No damage to the external visual aspect of the case nor if laptop cover opened, no damage to external screen. Damage to internal part of this unit pretty much scraps the TFT. This becomes apparent the minute you turn the unit on and you get a shattered mirror image.
I assume if you put a College or University book on top of the laptop, lean on it or press it lightly, accidentally or simply transporting it in a laptop bag and it gets squished or shoved. Well, you’re done for.
One of our units also had a TFT screen with 3 pixels "stuck on" in white mode (meaning white star effect) smack in middle of peripheral vision. Oddly Toshiba has a nonconforming pixel policy rule and you need 12 of these to be deemed suitable for replacement upon the discretion of the Authorized Service Provider. I can’t hint strongly on the word “discretion”. That’s a grey area, meaning depending on the mood of the technician it goes to, they can say “Yes” or “No”. If it’s a “No”, then your only recourse is to write to Toshiba’s Corporate Relations. I doubt that’s what you will want to do when you just bought a laptop. Any of us (Executive or Not) receiving a new laptop with a nice white dot smack in the middle within a 2 inch radius of the center screen would get irritated especially if youre stuck with it for the life of the laptop for about 2-3 years.
Not at all suitable for Corporate or student use even if you are willing to sacrifice on budget. Toshiba will not repair the units, will not return calls, some units we’ve sent get returned with questionable.
Very surprised at Toshiba on this design. Overall, big bang for the dollar on bells and whistles. I have to argue that audio is standard, burning CD software beyond simplistic (no ability to label CD etc.) just drag and drop good enough for some but very unforgiving. Overall Customer Service experience was poor.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1,700
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
mmaceluch
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Member: Markian Maceluch
Location: USA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Involved in IT industry since 1983 in IT Enterprise Management, implementation and software development.
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