I've been using an earlier model Toshiba Satellite for four years now. I've hauled it all over the U.S., and as it has gotten older, I've certainly stopped babying it. It has never missed a beat, which is why when *this* model became available at an even deeper discount in a brick and mortar store, I picked it up immediately. Although I've only had it a a week (and the true test comes over time), it works great. Had a small issue with the integrated wireless connecting to my WEP-protected network. I changed the encryption at the router to WPA-PSK, and it it's worked fine. Although the bundled software isn't terrific, it's adequate, and overall it's free of shovelware. Light, big screen, quiet and a dual-layer DVD writer. Gotta like that! For the price, I can't imagine doing better.
Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 15.4" Notebook PC (Intel Pentium D Processor T2080, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I purchased this laptop at a store at the last minute. One thing that was important to me is the surface at which your hands rest to type. I had this one laptop that got so hot it would turn my hands and wrist red to use it. I tested every laptop in the place that had been running all night, like hp, gateway and Sony. Others, even some in the $1800 and up price were VERY hot running the dual core processors. I can also set it right on my lap in the car traveling and it doesn't get hot or weigh to much. The keys have a nice typing touch, screen is excellent although I don't like the glare from a shiny plastic face on the monitor that disturbed others during a meeting.
My little cell phone has wi-fi and that was another thing this had with a radar sensor that will look for a signal. I had this beauty at a convention for taking notes and people were watching this thing like a submarine depth sounder. The battery lasted about 3 hours with constant typing and everything geared down.
Vista has some cool features to it like drop shadow around the windows but it sure takes some getting used to. It plays great dvd's that we used for a TV when traveling. I notice the fan as one person was talking about but it's was very small occasional noise that is hardly noticeable at all even when I was falling asleep with one hand eye on this beauty and one eye closed.
I compared this next to the Sony viao, and couldn't get my self to spend $2,000 for the smallest lightest unit. Some of the Sony units had a much hotter face plate. This is a great laptop, much better than the one that finally froze up on me and pushed me to purchase it.
I highly recommend the product, not just for the price but for a quality well thought out machine.
UPDATE: It is now Dec, 2009 and I still use this laptop EVERYDAY!!! I'm almost embarrassed to say this but I've watched hundreds of DVD's next to my bed, well, cause I've been sick. It just keeps on ticken! One of the few electronic gadgets that have hung in here for us. Nice Job Toshiba.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I just got this laptop two days ago from online store. It was only $599. It has a Pentium Dual Core at 1.73 GHz (which is basically T2250 Core Duo with only 1M of L2 cache instead of 2M).
My old laptop is Satellite 1905-S303 P4-2.4GHz, which I got for 1250 as a display item 4 years ago. The new computer is >4 times faster on Super PI test (40 seconds two copies simulatenously, old computer runs 85 seconds), so I think it is a great value for the money.
It is also very quiet comparing to the old laptop since it runs half the speed (at 800 MHz) when you don't need the processor power.
The only downside so far is that both memory slots are taken, so the upgrade to 2 Gb will be costly. But I think 1 Gb should be enough. Windows VISTA runs quite fast and smooth.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
For a $599 laptop, you can't go wrong. After reading all the complaints about Vista, I think it's pretty fast and easy to use (even with the 1GB ram). Laptop seems light for one with a 15.4 display (seems lighter than a hp and dell i have with the same display size). Builtin card reader is a very nice feature. Surprised to find a complete system restore cd included (desktop and laptop manuf's either don't normally include or want to charge you extra for it). Battery life seems to get knocked, but is comparable with other laptops in this price range. Would buy again.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I purchased my Toshiba two months ago. Everything runs smoothly but, as I was reading some reviews afterwards, I had some concerns regarding the speed of MS Vista on this notebook. So far no problems at all, even when I make it very busy when running several very demanding programs at the same time and Internet also. Despite that, I purchased aditional 1GB RAM from Amazon too. That just in case. The problem is, didn't checked before, Amazon never announced that RAM consists of 2x512 Mb memory instead of 1GB RAM as it is stated in notebook description, so my additional memory will be useless 'cause both memory slots are already possessed. I don't know why they made false information, and I don't what to do, especially because I'm curently overseas (Western Sahara) and it is too expensive for me to make a phone contact to customer support. I think they should have to make a fair offer regarding this 2x512 Mb RAM to be replaced with another 1GB RAM. Oh, there is biggest disadvantage. Battery is running out too fast. I measured discharging time, and it is about one hour and thirty minutes. total frustration. And additional battery is so expensive... They could put longer lasting battery, especially knowing that MS Vista is so demanding.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
I have now owned this laptop computer for a year officially. It has been super. It has gone through 3 months of no use because of a mistake I made. It has gotten a new CD/DVD drive, because the old one shorted out when it got wet. It has also gotten a companion External Hard Drive, An Upgrade to 2GBs of memory and a wireless keyboard and mouse. I must say, This is the first laptop I have owned and it probably won't be the last, but It is great and has only given me pleasure this past year. (Now that my Toshiba one year warranty is up, lets pray nothing goes wrong...lol...)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
So who would have thought that this laptop would be listed #3 out of all laptops in this range and a best buy from consumer reports. I bought this laptop doing very little research without knowing how it was ranked and I must say I'm very pleased. I had a IBM T42 prior and this performs better. The wireless connection speed is very good and the glare screen is very bright. I haven't used it much on battery but it seems like that might be one of the only weaknesses. For the $$ you are nuts not to jump on this one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Its almost a month since I started using this laptop. The only thing that disappointed me was Vista. It has to hang every day atleast once. Infact, the other day, I was not able to shut down the laptop inspite of pressing the power button continously. I had to disconnect the battery for restart.
But all thumbs up for Toshiba. The looks are amazing especially for the price. I would have given 5 stars if I had purchased this with Windows XP. Here is a breakdown of stars:
I purchased the Toshiba satellite laptop to replace a failing home computer. I wanted a laptop mostly for the portability. I researched various brands through web reviews and Consumer Reports and this particular laptop was rated very high in both consumer satisfaction and reliability. I had to purchase an Ethernet cable to connect the laptop to my modem, but once I made the connection, I was able to access the interrnet right away. I hadn't heard great things about MS Vista, which came preinstalled on the laptop, but I haven't experienced any issues with it (knock on wood). I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Toshiba satellite laptop - they've won me over!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Checking PC World and PC Magazine, all the budget PCs they choose to review are $1,200+ machines. With rebates, I paid little more than half that and am very pleased.
I was concerned that the RAM hungry Vista would make this IGB RAM product sluggish, but it seems super-fast compared to the 4 year old XP loaded Dell Latitude that it replaces and that cost around $1,500. That said, we don't use it for games or heavy graphics work. The Windows Experience Index (Start | right click Computer | left click Properties) gives it a Vista capability score of only 3 out of 5. However, click on the link next to Ratings and the detail reveals that it is only the graphics capability that drags the score down: it gets:
Processor 4.6
Memory 4.5
Graphics 3.1
Gaming Graphics 3.0
Hard Disc 4.6
So maybe this is not a machine for graphic designers or gamers.
Nevertheless, the screen is bright and clear, if a tad too reflective. The 15.4" (diagonal) screen, actually 13" x 8" (1.625:1) has to be navigated using a 60mm x 45mm (1.3:1) touch-pad, which is about the aspect ratio of my old desk-top monitor. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to drag an object all the way across the screen without dropping it in the wrong place.
Vista takes some getting used to and I have yet to understand the hype surrounding it. I find its constant security warnings very aggravating but just could not find a new XP loaded laptop available.
This machine is light on serious software and high on junk. I guess the price is kept low partly by filling the desktop with paid links to trial versions of software that the vendor hopes we'll buy. I am sure many PC novices are scared to delete this garbage. The worst of these is MS Office. Start using this and producing documents and you'll find that you have to cough-up a lot of money when the free trial period is over in order to even view your own files. It does have the lightweight MS Works, which is OK if you don't share files with others in business where it is almost never used.
There are plenty of ports. 4 convenient full sized USB ports around the machine's periphery and one mini-USB, one COM port, one LAN outlet, one RG11 phone jack, a PC card slot, a PS1 socket, mic and headphone jacks, a PC Card slot and a slot for media cards such as flash memory. Note that there is no LPT1 parallel printer outlet, which is normal these days. We figured we could overcome that with a parallel to USB converter, but it wasn't until we bought one that we realized that Vista does not support it, so we ended up having to replace our trusty laser printer.
All in all, this machine is great value for money and highly recommended, unless perhaps you need fast graphics.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Recent discussions in the Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 15.4" Notebook PC (Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor T2080, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium) forum
![QuickBooks Pro 2008 [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZOugyW-OL._SL160_SL90_.jpg)
