Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7437 15.4" Notebook PC (AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core Processor TL-58, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have seen many Amazon reviews that are of different computers, so just to be clear this is the Satellite A215 S7433 with the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-551, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, and Vista Premium. Some of the details are important to the functioning of the machine. Also, my rating will be for the machine only and I'll have separate comments/warnings about the Vista Premium operating system after discussing the machine.

Counting computers that I bought, my wife bought, and that I asked my employer to buy for me, this is my 4th Toshiba. I use a computer for work and pleasure and I want something that will be an appliance, that is, plug it in and expect it to work for a reasonable period of time with minimal trouble (like a refrigerator). All my previous Toshiba's have fit this mold and the S7433 I have had for about three weeks seems to be carrying on that tradition. It is not fancy, just gets the job done and is reasonable value for the money.

There were several considerations in the choice of the S7433. First, unlike some of the other machines it lacks a webcam and LabelFlash CD writer. The webcam seemed to be a problem and cause conflicts and crashes and I wouldn't use it anyway. LabelFlash CD's are expensive, and not widely available and with flash drives and cheap, large portable hard disks who really needs CD's? The computer has a reasonably fast processor (the AMD seems to work as well as Intel) and importantly 2 GB's of RAM, which helps with Vista, and a 5400 rpm hard disk. I had read reviews of other Toshibas with larger but slower hard disks and hard disk speed was apparently a limiting factor in performance. The 160 GB hard disk is plenty large (the 60 GB hard disk on my Satellite 1905 S303 still has about 20 GB of space) and performance seems good.

Considering everything I have done the machine has been remarkably stable (no random black screens). It has not crashed (without my help - see below) and Toshiba's implementation of Vista seems really stable. This machine has a lot to recommend it: it is reasonably fast (but not significantly faster than my 1905), the screen is sharp and clear and easy to read (though glossy), the keyboard and touch pad have a good feel (though a mouse is always preferable), and the wireless is much better than the USB Netgear wireless I use on the 1905. Also, unlike the competition that frequently sports just 3 USB ports, the S7433 has 4, two on each side. That one additional port can make a big difference. Finally, the S7433 is much quieter than my old Toshiba which has a very noisy cooling fan.

On the con side, there are some (what I consider to be) design flaws. They all have to do with the placement of switches or ports on the front of the machine. All are difficult to use because it is hard to see them. These include the wireless on/off switch and light, the flash card reader, and, to some extent, the volume wheel. Although all work well, using these requires picking up the machine so you can see under the front. Also, battery life is short, about 2 hours unless you get the larger and heavier 9 cell battery. The 6 cell battery is light in weight, so it might be worth getting 2 of them instead of the 9 cell.

The cons aside, this is a good machine. Is it a major advance over my 5 year old Toshiba 1905? No! Computer design seems to have been on hold for the last 5 years and trading up won't get you much. The battery on my 1905 is going after 5 years and I thought "Why spend $200 on a battery when $750 can get you a new computer?". Having done it, I probably should have thought harder about getting a new battery.

So everything considered, I give the computer a 4 star rating.

Now for Vista, and don't buy this computer without reading about Vista and its limitations. I've had a lot of experience with computers. I've been using them since paper tapes and punch cards. I like to have things my own way and I don't want an operating system that is too intrusive. I've been able to coexist with DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, and XP. Vista, however, is much more demanding that you do things its way. Classic folders in Vista does not mean folders like the ones you find in Win 95, but instead folders that look like IE. And, I have yet to figure out how to put a toolbar that has copy, paste and cut on the folder or have it tell you how many files are marked and what their total size is. I have crashed Vista twice requiring a system restore, once from the safe mode and command line. One time was forgivable since I was trying to install and old Win 3.1 database that wanted to exit to DOS to install. It worked on XP but not Vista. The second time I tried to install Canon Scanner and just plugged it in. Vista said put in the disk that came with the scanner and when I did everything slowed to a crawl - second system restore. Once I downloaded new drivers everything worked fine. Moral of the story is always check for new drivers.

HP printers present an especially aggravating situation. I have a number of printers ranging from 10 to 2.5 years old. My HP 5550 and 5650 have drivers built into Vista that have limited functionality. That means no checking ink level, no recognizing the photo cartridge, no borderless printing, and so forth. For my 2.5 year old HP 9650 wide format printer they said to use the driver from the 9800. I haven't tried it yet, but suspect it isn't good news. And for my ancient HP 320 portable no driver is available. So even using a USB to parallel cable doesn't do any good. I can't get too excited about the old 320, but the other printers should still be supported. Why bother buying a good printer only to find out it is obsolete when the next operating system comes out? Of course, this is just HP taking advantage of Microsoft changing the operating system. So before you buy a computer with Vista carefully check with your peripheral manufacturers to make sure real drivers (as opposed to limited functionality drivers) are available.

One other minor irritation, updates. By the time I got all my programs installed the computer needed about 350 mb of updates. This includes mainly Vista, Office 2003, and several Adobe programs. Without DSL or broadband there are many hours of updates.

On the positive side Vista does seem stable. With every thing I tried to have it do I was always able to recover from problems. I was even able to partition the hard drive without any problems. Surprisingly, I even got an old compiled Quick BASIC program to run.

Bottom line is Vista is OK, but if you have a lot of legacy equipment be prepared to replace some. The operating system itself is stable but more limiting than XP. If I had it to do all over again I probably would have bought a new battery for my old computer, mainly because of the operating system. But of course, every other new computer on the market uses Vista also.

Purchased 11/3/07
Like most of the other reviews that I have seen while trying to find solutions to problems with my Toshiba Satellite A215-S7462 Laptop, the screen would just simply black out and nothing that I could do would bring the screen back up. The Toshiba Service Center told me that the only way to get the unit to come back up is to crash it by turning off the AC power and then take the battery out, which means loosing anything that you were working on back to your last save. Toshiba knows of this problem and it has existed on other series of their laptops. The problem is that their power saving features do not work.

The Service Rep said the only way to stop this from happing is to:
Access the Control Panel
Select Power Options
Choose the last power option feature which maximises power to the computer at all times and cuts off power saving features.
For "On Battery" and "Plugged In", set "Tun off the display" and "Put the computer to sleep" to "Never".

This works, but the unit runs on max power all of the time, which causes the battery to completely run down is less than an hour even with minimal use.

If you are needing a laptop with long battery life, this is not the unit that you want to buy. This is really poor performance, especially for a lithium battery.

Toshiba's docking stations will not work with Vista. The Toshiba service rep said that Toshiba is aware of the problem, but is not working on a fix. So if you are going to use this at home, be prepared to have a laptop that looks like an octopus with several cables plugged into each side since none of the USB or other ports are in the back of the unit.

The only manual that comes with the unit is electronic and is made for 2 different series of laptops. The guide does not differentiate which features are on which series. The explanations of the features and utilities are useless. You are told that they exist and how to access them, but are not told how to use them. Some features are not even talked about like how to access the WiFi feature. Kind of like buying a rocket ship and being told to enter a close the door, with no instructions on what all those gadgets inside are for or how to use them.

There a numerous junk software programs that come preloaded that you have to pay additionally for after a 30 day trial period. This consumes a lot of time trying to figure out what you can get rid of safely.

All of the new machines are coming with Vista. Be prepared for a big learning curve. Vista and Microsoft Office Pro 2007 are user hostile because all of the basic tools have been so radically changed and relocated that it is just like having to learn a completely new way of doing things. If you have not had the privilage to experience Vista yet, go to a computer store, click on the Start icon and try to figure how to shut the pc down.

First, some background. I'm a contract sys admin, administering a bunch of disparate small businesses in a small agricultural community. I actually received a [new] Tosh' A215-S7428 (this is the Office Depot version of the A215-S7433 ...its specs are exactly the same) in trade from a very, very desperate business consultant working at one of those companies several weeks back.

My client had called me in and asked me to look at the consultant's apparently non-functional laptop; yep, it was indeed dead (you could still smell burnt electronics). The consultant asked what he could do, and I'd recently noticed both Staples and Office Depot had some very attractive prices/rebates on laptops, so I directed him there.

But! He said he *had* to have a laptop with XP Pro (and it's all Vista, all the time around here); so I recommended he call Dell ...which was also untenable: he really needed it right! now! today! (he was a very expensive consultant).

Hmm. I thought about it for a minute, and saw opportunity knocking ...so I offered to trade him my two year old (and very nice) Dell (and transfer the data from his dead laptop's hard drive to the Dell) if he'd buy *me* one of the laptops I'd seen. And he was quite happy to do so. (When the rest of the consulting team showed up a few days later, I understood why he was so happy: they were all using worse laptops than my "old" Dell: that firm really needs to cut loose with a little cash).

Really, we were both happy: I needed an opportunity to familiarize myself with Vista, and the Tosh' A215 fit my equipment needs, and his pocketbook.

Anyways, on to the A215.

I'm not going to review the equipment list ...I presume you can read, and you're already familiar with the features. Suffice to say its got excellent performance & features for a very moderate price (that said: why-oh-why did Toshiba not include an internal Bluetooth with this ...so if you want Bluetooth, be prepared to buy a USB dongle, like I did ...but the lack of BT is not a show-stopper, just something for you to keep in mind). Overall, Toshiba has a winner here.

But there are a few issues you should be aware of.

First, you need to uninstall a couple of the Toshiba provided drivers/utils right off: they're quite incompatible with the display driver (near as I can make out ...unfortunately, it was several weeks ago when I did this, and I can't recall the exact one, but I think it was something to do with the keyboard: a google search will give you a more precise clue). The "symptom" is annoying display artifacts across the top of the screen (which are about one pixel "deep"). After uninstalling the offending utility, no more problem. Actually, that is arguably the only real problem I've had.

Next. Battery life - at four hours - isn't bad at all. UNLESS you leave it in high performance mode all the time (which I do). You can expect about two hours of mixed browsing and reading (light on the hard drive access) with this configuration. For me, that's more than sufficient. I primarily use it plugged in, sitting in a recliner.

Wireless is flawless. BUT DO NOT UPDATE THE FACTORY DRIVER THROUGH MICROSOFT UPDATE. I did, and all of a sudden my connectivity was subject to "interruptions" (I'm not sure, but it seems that the wireless NIC was going into sleep mode). I rolled back the driver, and the problem went away.

Sleep mode. If you've ever used a Compaq laptop, you know how badly wrong a manufacturer can screw up sleep mode (since I bought my wife a Presario at the same time the consultant traded me for the new Tosh', I can report that HP still hasn't gotten sleep mode quite right). In contrast, Toshiba has a superior implementation of sleep mode.

...WITH one small procedural gotcha however (and particularly if you're using a wireless mouse ...which I do, as I loathe touchpads): you MUST disconnect the power prior to putting the laptop into sleep mode. If you don't, you'll be tearing your hair out to try and get it to awaken (just give it up press-and-hold the power button: you're forced to power cycle to wake the thing).

So long as you remember to pull the mains adapter before putting it to sleep (and I leave it unplugged until I'm ready to use it again), you almost never have to reboot the thing: it's "instant on", even for online sessions.

(Sleep mode on the A215 is almost as nice as the old HP OB300/425/430/530 LCD models, which inarguably had the best sleep mode implementation of any laptop ever.)

Remembering to unplug the adapter before putting it to sleep is a potentially annoying quirk to be sure, but the reward of rarely having to power-cycle your system is immensely satisfying (I've went as long as two weeks without power-cycling the laptop completely).

SIDE NOTE: I disabled hibernation on the Toshiba. Sleep mode works well, and I don't see the point of hibernation (since it stays plugged). If I'm going to leave it in sleep mode for an extended period, say, several weeks, I'd just do a proper shut-down.

Last isn't really a Toshiba issue. It's about Microsoft Vista, and the stock configuration on the A215 ...which is quite simply awful. Vista as-factory-installed simply sucks the life out of the A215: it's dead slow.

Happily, the A215 doesn't have to stay that way. The fix is simple: turn off all the Vista eye-candy effects, and tune the operating system for performance. It is quite startling how much more responsive the A215 becomes by turning off all the dreck.

I'll go a step further. Vista turns out to be a quite capable and useful (and stable) OS once you disable the thoroughly unnecessary and CPU-cycle-sucking visual effects (and by turning off the annoying UAC: google it). Indeed, Vista may well turn out to be the most stable Microsoft OS to date (and by de-tuning the UI, it is certainly the best "Windows 2000" UI ever ...and since that remains my favorite Microsoft UI, you can regard that as high praise indeed).

A good start on performance tuning Vista is achieved by going to Control Panel, opening Performance Information and Tools, choosing "Adjust visual effects" in the left hand column, and clicking the radio button for "Adjust for best performance" on the Visual Effects folder tab, and finally clicking Okay.

It's as simple as that.

Oh yes, there's more performance possible, and a google search will turn up a plethora of suggested tweaks of varying complexity and effectiveness, but turning off the eye candy alone is a fine start to reclaiming the built-in power inherent to the A215 as it comes from Toshiba.

I'll summarize by saying it's a fine machine, and with a few simple tweaks, you'll have a quite capable personal computer that should meet your needs for several years, and at a relatively nominal cash outlay (under six bills, if you keep your eyes open). It's a good value.

I'm reviewing A215-S7437 (200GB HD). I noticed the review By William Balsam "Ursus" was for a different model with a smaller HD (160) A good review though.

First of all, as was mentioned by A. B. Davis "brdavis", in an above review. There are some initial issues that need to be addressed. I first powered the unit up I noticed a lot of "crap-ware" (if you Google "cnet crapware" the top hit is a link to a helpful video to rid your PC of crap-ware) this is relatively easy to remove, remember without crap-ware, you pay more for your PC.

As mentioned also above in A. B. Davis's review (I found most helpful, BTW) there is some (he called "artifacts, one pixel deep") weird dimmed lines segmented at the very top of the display about 1" long each, 1mm wide, and about 5 or six of them all across the top of the display, right up at the very upper edge, the furthest right one being brighter than the rest. I knew this was loaded by some program, not sure which one either I went to run>msconfig, (to bring up the run box in Vista hold the start button and press R key). Go to select startup tab, in Windows Vista, all of the Windows's essentials are loaded through "Windows Services" - this means that most of the startup item you see in Vista are completely optional. (For help in identifying items go to http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php)
Anyway, that solved that problem, no more lines at the top of the display.

The other problem was loading Roxio 7. I kept getting errors and I kept trying to force feed the install, the battle ensued, I eventually won... ?? I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't really care, it works. There is a DVD burner program on this PC already, I just like Roxio. Other than these little glitches, I like this PC, its sleek looking, sturdy, has all I need, has plenty of speed. The display is quite bright and the resolution much better than my old Gateway MX6025, (the only other laptop I've owned before). Vista is pretty cool, I was skeptical at first, but so far, I like the new platform. It's not so bad. I'll get used to it, so will you.

Looked at a lot of notebook/laptop PC's (would have rather got a Mac, not that rich though) this was the best for the price. It met my needs, actually exceeded them.

If you are willing to set reasonable expectations from a laptop, then the Toshiba A215-s7437 is a great value. I picked mine up on sale for $699 and at that price it was a real bargain. Obvious pros: generous 2GB RAM, spacious 200GB hard drive (albeit with a slower 4200 rpm speed, but it doesn't seem to slow things down much), Turion dual core processor. Not so obvious pros: great screen, good speakers. Many laptops these days are overly reflective and make extended work sessions hard on the eyes, but not so with the Toshiba and its nice, clear display that doesn't overdo the reflective glare. The speakers are very clean and crisp and while they won't provide any major bass response they sound good and don't disintegrate into distortion madness if you turn them up.

So far I haven't run into any performance glitches. I've read complaints of buggy power-down modes, but I've tried out sleep and hibernate with the computer set in low, mid, and high power management modes without any problems. The wireless adapter has worked flawlessly both at home and at work without any interruptions. Haven't tried out the CD/DVD burner yet but don't foresee any problems (I'll edit the review if I discover any!).

On the negative side the unit is pre-loaded with a fair amount of bloatware, but so are almost all the rest of the new laptops these days and it is easy enough to remove. Like most other laptops in this price range, the included Microsoft Office Suite is a trial only, so expect to pay for it or use an alternative such as the really nice free app OpenOffice. Finally, the battery life isn't stellar if you're a road warrior doing extended sessions without power. In low power mode I got a little over 2 hours of web surfing before it conked out. This would probably be even shorter if you watch DVDs, so keep this in mind.

By the way, other reviews have mentioned strange pixelated lines at the top of the screen. This is not a problem, it is part of a Toshiba loaded program called "Flash Cards." Scroll your cursor up to these lines and icons slide down to adjust various settings (screen brightness, power mode, etc). If it bothers you, you can easily turn the program off within the Start menu.

Overall this is a great laptop for work and casual home use. If you want a competitively priced and competitively featured laptop that is also reliable and performs well for standard tasks like web surfing, office productivity, and consumer multimedia use then I can't find any reason not to check out the Toshiba A215-s7437.

Succinctly, this computer has good value for the price. If keeping Vista, you should upgrade the RAM to 2GB. Otherwise, its standard features are more than enough for most users (non-hardcore gamers or video editors).

Suggestion: uninstall most of the software it ships with. (insert Linux advertisement here)

Blank screen? Instead of rebooting a bunch of times, try one of these two things: 1) "If you are running VISTA, try going to the Power Options, advanced options, processor power management, and change the value of the minimum processor state to 100%."
2) "changing the hibernation setting to never"
--- do this for all power settings.

I pulled those from other reviews of similar models, and it fixed their problems.

I've only used this for a week, and so far it does a great job, and looks pretty slick. It is also a lot lighter than my previous Toshiba (circa 2003), and from what I've read, about 0.4 lbs lighter than most of the comparable Gateway or Dell models.

-----Update
When upgrading RAM, use only the recommended Kingston RAM KTT667D2, because due to apparently strict timing characteristics, I was only able to swap out the top RAM slot with what I thought would be a compatible Mushkin stick. Other people have experienced similar hardships, noting that inserting a non-approved memory module in the bottom slot causes the screen to go blank after the BIOS loads, even if the RAM is fine.

Also, I noticed a significant speed improvement after removing McAfee and replacing it with AVG.

This is a great computer, very easy to use and logically arranged. The problem is that the computer shuts down without warning. I think it has something to to with the Vista operating system and the perception that the machine is overheating. Hopefully there will be a downloadable fix for this problem soon. Lost data is never fun.

My job provided me with a Toshiba A215-S7422 about a week and a half after I brought an Acer laptop. Normally, I wouldn't feel comfortable writing a laptop review; but since I have point from which to compare, I think I can actually form an opinion here.

The machine tends to handle MS Vista Home Premium well. With upgrading the RAM from 1 GB, I'm sure that could move up to very well. The only programs that have frozen on me so far have been Firefox (Mozilla 5.0); and that was because of web scripts. With 160 GB hard drive, you can feel pretty secure that you have enough room to install your programs and store files (although I'm a big fan of storing files like pictures and music on external drives).

I am also impressed with the keyboard on the A215-S7422 in that it has a wonderful feel to it. I just wish they would have made the keys black instead of the grayish-white. I also appreciate the pre-installed Ulead DVD burning software...which isn't a pain to use like other DVD burning software can be.

But I have some gripes with this machine as well. The first is the touchpad. I've been using touchpads for a long time (I had one on my desktop starting back in 1999) and the touchpad on the Toshiba tends to be a bit inaccurate and on the far left there is a scrolling area that is not visibly marked; which results in some surprise behavior of the cursor (as your finger drifts to the left, you can through your screen into "hyper-scroll"). Also the buttons below the touchpad just feel a bit off ergonomically. I'm also a bit annoyed that all the ports connect to the sides of the machine. I understand why this is though, because of the way the laptop lip is connected (when opened, the lid 'covers' the back of the machine), but I find having the Ethernet port and the spot for the lock cable in the back (like it is on my Acer) more convenient. And finally, the card slot in the front and the wi-fi switch are almost impossible to see. Personally, I don't use them that much...but still, bad design.

I have also had issues with the machine "blacking out" as well...but I just implemented some of the suggestions I read here, so maybe that will help. But even before, the battery life is not great. The machine also feels heavy/bulky to me anyway, so if it came down to it, I would take my Acer to go and keep this one plugged in. I also find that the screen on the Acer looks sharper as well.

Overall, I think the Toshiba is one of the best laptops available via mainstream retail outlets for the price. You could probably do better by looking online though...to get more bang for your buck.

This toshiba is the best value for money you can get, it's durable and works quite fast. The hard drive is a bit small but thanks to the built in dvd burner and my portable hard drive i can never run out of space. I strongly recommend you buy this system especially if you are looking for a low budjet system........

Best price, right size, only need to get more memory,(on it's way 2gb's),
7 pounds wt, nice screen res, will recomended to anyboddy., good batt life