Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite A15-S127 Laptop (2.0-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This Toshiba laptop is built very nice with superb features. 15" screen is very good for watching DVD or computing work, resolution is great. 30GB hard disk is enough for most people considering that it has a CD-RW built-in.

All the usual connectivity features like USB 2.0, ethernet, modemare built in. You can add a 802.11b WiFi card is wireless option is needed. RAM can be upgraded easily if need be, one slot is empty for expansion. 256MB is ok for Win XP, future OS versions might need 512MB.

2GHz Celeron is more than enough for 99% of people. The battery life is adequate and weight is a very reasonable 6 lbs for 15" screen laptop. Keyboard is very good and touchpad is excellent once you get used to it.

It will get hot since it uses a desktop Celeron and there will be some fan noise. Get a Centrino/Pentium-M based laptop if you want cooler, more portable and smaller laptop. But it might cost you twice the money.

Much better built than a Dell or HP. Dell has too many tricks on their website to get a decent price for similar configuration. HP uses third party chipsets on their low end laptops. Athlon laptops are also equipped with poor quality SiS chipsets. The chipset used in this is Intel 852GM with 32MB shared video memory. Intel chipsets are solid and stable.

All in all a superb laptop for students, home users and small business use. Perfect PC replacement with easy portability. Toshiba rocks!

As an owner of a Toshiba S127 and this S157, I can tell you that this thing is pure quality. Dell's laptops have gotten almost pitiful in quality, while IBM are insanely priced. Where's the quality, inexpensive laptops? Toshiba is your answer.

Trust me guys. Get this model. I bought the S127 and ended up giving it to my mom. This model comes with the built in wireless Internet (which is awesome), 40GB of storage, 512MB DDR (XP uses MUCH more than 256MB even doing the simplest tasks), and 2.2Ghz Celeron (you can't tell the difference between 2Ghz & 2.2 Ghz,trust me).

I scored my S157 in brand new condition for $825 off some really nice guy off eBay I struck a deal with. (I picked it up locally)

I'm going to review every single thing about this laptop, sequentally. Please note that this is an unbiased review:

1.) Keyboard: Probably the best keyboard i've ever used in over 18 years of computers. I loved these soft key laptop keyboard. Doesn't have that annoying cursor thing in the middle of the keyboard that some people like to use. (Most despise it, though)

2.) TouchPaD: Works great. Two basic buttons, silver color, and work perfectly.

3.) 15" XGA screen. The screen is nice, bright, and vivid, but I definately could use SXGA (1280x....) XGA is only 1024x768 and is just enough for basic tasks

4.) Speakers: Silver titinium stereo speakers. They work adequately for basic needs. What can I say? They're laptop speakers. Go pickup some Logitech Z-340s for $30 at Best Buy. They will compliment these nicely.

5.) Design: Design is superb. The laptop is suprisingly thin (1 inch) and the colors are perfect. Really great job.

6.) Weight: 6.15 lbs, according to my measurements.

7.) LEDs: The LEDs are great. 5 basic small LEDs that tell you what's going on. Nothing fancy.

8.) 802.11b Wireless (S157 only). This is great. You can save your PCCard slot; you can also disable/enable the device whenever you want. Someone mentioned somewhere that the built-in wireless card means it uses the notebook as an antenna. I don't believe that though.

9.) CD-RW/DVD ROM: Works perfectly. I would've perferred a trayless drive (like the Pioneer 16x DVD drives) but hell, this is great. They both work great.

8.) Battery Life: Battery life is not as good as I would like it to be. I get 2 1/2 hours max out of this computer on a full battery charge, assuming light working conditions. Extra battery costs $150+tax at Best Buy or Circuit City. I'm using my mother's S127 batter. ;)

9.) Noise Level: Both computers are dead silent. There is a fan that turns on once in a while to cool the computers. The fan isn't loud at all.

10.) PC Card Slot: It only has 1 PC Card slot, but that's not an issue anymore now that I have built in wireless internet

11.) Ports:
Serial: Great but I don't use it.
Parallel: Ok, I still don't use it.
2x USB 2.0: Now, this is beautiful. I have several USB devices, some even USB 2.0, that I use with this computer.
Neither models come with S-Video, DESPITE what some specifications say. The model also comes with external VGA for connecting to a projector or external monitor.
RJ45 (Ethernet) AND Modem already installed. What a great value.

12.) Performance:
Hard drive: Works decently. Only 4200 RPM, so don't expect mind-blistering performance, but it's fast enough even for an end user.

Processor: 2.2Ghz Celeron is like a crippled P4; nevertheless, it performs almost all basic functions with ease. Gamers apply elsewhere.

Sound: No comments. Sound works. :)

Video: This is my biggest complaint (besides the microphone) about this model. Comes with 32MB Intel Extreme Graphics (Shared). Because it's shared with system memory, people tend to think it's 64MB Intel graphics; believe me, it's NOT. It's 32MB Intel extreme graphics that will let you do only the basic video or gaming. Don't expect any kind of performance from this. I really wish Toshiba had put an ATi Radeon mobility in here, but for the price I'm not complaining. :-)

* Software: I don't use the software that comes with this bundle, but make sure to check the personal cons below for additional details.

* Toshiba Utilities: As with most utilities, I don't like running manufacturer's utility files, but Toshiba's aren't _that_ bad. (I still don't run them, though). They allow you to control most of the function buttons at the topic and assign them different functions.

Build Quality: This is where the laptop truly shines. Putting IBM's insanely high quality and price tag, this is the best laptop you can get for budget-price quality. Toshiba rules.

Personal Cons:

* No built in Microphone. The thing has a port for a microphone, but I really, really wish Toshiba had put one in. I know this isn't an issue for most people, but I use microphones on a daily basis. They're cheap, granted, but that's another thing to lug around.

* Rebates: Ugh, I hate rebates. I got my S127 for $760 (after 8.5% tax) and after $250 rebates. I got my S157 for $825 cash from some guy on eBay.

* One thing that annoys me is that Toshiba has loaded this comp with plenty of useless junk like AOL, Special offers, etc. This is an easy fix. I just wiped the drive and put XP Professional on there and boom, it's done. :) The S157, IIRC, comes with Microsoft Works, which I don't use.

If you want more detailed pictures of this laptop, search on www.newegg.com. They have both models and detailed pictures on it.
I hope I haven't missed anything. :)

I've had my Toshiba a little over a month now and could not be happier. After a major investment in a Sony Vaio 2 years ago I was devastated with its tragic,unexpected death due to a bizare internal power "arc" (as described by the repair shop). Rather than replace the entire mother board for over $800 I did some homework and lots of shopping around. For a great number of us who want an easily transportable machine for word processing,email, and a bit of gaming I don't think anyone would be disappointed considering the fantastic price and reputation of the Toshiba name. Sure, if you are looking for top notch speed and super high speed gaming capability this is not the model for you and you aren't going to get those qualities for this price. This is a great machine for "grown ups" as well as students who need the basics and believe in getting the most value for their hard earned dollars. The only thing wrong that I have found is the battery life comes closer to 2 hours than 3, but hey...that's enough time to watch most DVDs on your next plane trip. Thank you Toshiba!

I recently purchased this laptop and find it to be a very worthwhile investment as a first laptop for any person. The spacious 30GB of room, excellent video and 256 MB of DDR Memory should be enough for day-to-day duties and for students and office workers on the go. The large screen works and looks great, and the speakers, although not very loud, come through as clear as I've heard on any laptop. The laptop's physical appearance is sleek, with a medium-sized thickness for the body, and nice appearance from the outside. As for cons, the lack of firewire ports, two USB ports, and lack of 'quick-launch' buttons take away from the beauty of it, but for this price, you get more than what you pay for.

We're primarily loyal fans of Micron computers, but when it came time to getting my wife her long-awaited laptop computer, we forced ourselves to look around (largely due to cost considerations) and ran across many positive reviews (and a fortuitous price deal) on this Toshiba Satellite A15-S127 Notebook.

My wife's been using it regularly for about a month or so now, and she couldn't be much happier. The computer has been steady and dependable, as well as light and easy to carry and settle into place, and durable enough to handle a little bumping around during and between uses. The 15" screen is clear and sharp (and only slightly darkened when viewed at shallow angles), our Netgear MA521 wireless network card connects the machine to our home network without a hitch, CD-RW drive works great (including allowing her to burn her first custom CDs), etc., etc, etc. She uses mostly lighter apps such as email, web-browsing, word-processing, etc., but even her basic uses of Photoshop seem to do well enough (although for those who are serious about Photoshop or similar usages I'd suggest a stronger non-Celeron processor).

My wife's only negative issue so far is the TouchPad. This may be in part just something to get used to (as opposed to the more familiar mouse), but the 'Pad does seem erratically (and frustratingly) jumpy at times. But the notebook does have two ready USB ports, so we should be able to find her a nice trackball to plug in and take care of that problem.

Overall, the wife is very happy with her new "puter", and her new connected mobility. And that's good enough for me.

I bought the Toshiba Satellite A15-S1292 for about $550 after all (annoying)mail in rebates and for the cost I paid, its an amazing machine.I have also installed Redhad Linux operating system (I can work in either Redhat Linux or Windows XP)and a wireless PCMCIA card & there have been no problems.I dont have extreme processing requirements & for all the work that I do,this machine is pretty fast.

Things I like-
1.There is ample palm-rest space - so there is no strain at all when typing.

2.The display is an inch above the keypad and it gives you a feeling that you are looking into an ultra thin monitor.

Things I dont like-
1.Junk Software that comes along - Quicken,AOL,Drag'n'Drop - the cd writing software(was Horrible).
2.The keyboard is bouncy & really annoying.

A note to those who want to play with BIOS settings. Normally if you want to enter BIOS,pressing F1 or F8 or Del key(One of these three) will take you there.But with Toshiba you will have to start up XP first and then go to BIOS through Toshiba console.

Overall I would say that this is an EXCELLENT performance for a budget system.

i just purchased this laptop recently as a companion to my desktop system and i couldn't be more satisfied with its performance. i'm an artist by trade and a heavy gamer on the side and this little portable (which is suprisingly easy to transport) has catered to my every need flawlessly. running photoshop and illustrator at the same time with multiple large documents open didn't give me any trouble at all. the system comes loaded with preinstalled software that's actually useful too, although there is the usual junk progs that always end up on store bought computers along with it, but that was easily uninstalled within half an hour. the battery holds a decent 3 hour charge and juices up nice and fast (an hour and a half) when i'm low. and while it's not the best gaming computer in the world, i was able to run plenty of 3d games online and off with relative ease and respectable graphics performance.

my only possible complaint is the awkwardness of the jumpy touch pad, but that is easily solved by purchasing a $10 usb mouse at radio shack or where ever.

in short, if you're looking for a machine that's great for work and will be able to have fun on your lunch break, you can't possibly go wrong with this toy. and at under $1k, it's well worth the price. :)

I have two other laptops, a Panasonic ToughBook for work and a Dell Latitude. I immediately noticed the Toshiba Satellite has a solid feel and is comfortable to use, much more so than the Dell. I have not noticed any problem with the touchpad as mentioned by other reviewers. There is plenty of space for your hands to rest on the keyboard, and I noticed my hands do not tire as easily. The keyboard is well laid out. It is virtually silent, unless the fan is briefly running. I did find that the unit gets quite warm, but I use it on a lap desk. The 15" screen is very bright and clear; the resolution is great! The sound through headphones is very good. I am used to having two card slots, so having one, was different, but hey, I only use one card at a time anyway, for my wireless. Two USB slots are enough for me and I consider the combo DVD-RW drive a plus. All in all, this is turning out to be a stupendous buy, made more so by the fact that I paid less than $500.00 brand new, after (the dreaded) rebates. In my opinion, to get something this wonderful for this price is certainly worth the rebate hassle!

Confession: I got this laptop for an absurdly low price after rebates, so that might influence how happy I am with this laptop. I am the not-so-proud owner of not one, but two HP laptops that were great for a year each and then they died. On one, the backlight went out, and the other the motherboard and/or CPU went on the fritz. Nice. So, being in law school, I needed a laptop, and happily this one was on super sale! I love the 15" screen, though I would prefer higher resolution. The touchpad, as you probably have read IS a bit jumpy, oddly enough--not sure why, but hey, there you go; I probably just need to adjust the sensitivity settings. I'd like integrated wireless standard, but wireless cards are pretty cheap these days. And the hard drive could be bigger. That's all I'd change though. I don't play games on computers much anymore--no time, and if I do, I'll just play on a console. So the Celeron works fine for what I do: research on the internet, and write papers. I haven't had ANY problems whatsoever in over a month, but check back in a year and let's see how it goes!

I purchased this laptop 1 year ago next month. It is nothing but trouble. Looks ok, but operates horrible. This is NOT a laptop designed for your lap. It has a sticker on the bottom saying that it will burn bare skin. It gets really hot, really quick. NOt to mention, 3 days ago my motherboard randomly went out. I reasearched this problem and found that MANY Toshiba laptops have this problem. Toshiba will do nothing for you. I've tryed. If you buy this laptop, I PROMISE you you will not be happy after awhile. Pay about $200 more and get a nice IBM.