Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6970 16.0-Inch Laptop - Black/Grey

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

 

 

After doing much research on Laptops, My son and I decided on Toshiba. As a high school student his need for certain applications were very important to him, but the need for these applications and price were very important to me.
Some highlights: Great sound and Graphics, smooth to the touch , Sleek look and love the face recoginition security. These are just a few of the many things my son enjoys. It was definitely worth the investment..

Within 2 months of using this laptop the wireless internet does not work properly and the E drive only accepts DVDs/CD's when it wants to. Now the USB connections are loose and does not connect. Toshiba tech support is not much help and the only way I can get repairs done is by shipping it to the South (live in CA). Think twice before ordering a Toshiba.

I'll start with cons first:
1. No description for use of multi-touch track pad (still haven't quite figured that out)
2. Speakers were a bit over-hyped; still produces excellent quality
3. Unless in really good lighting conditions; the webcam disappoints
Pros:
1. Great looking laptop with intuitive touch sensitive media controls
2. Full keyboard (with number pad)
3. Great looking screen (with a pretty good graphics card to compliment)
4. Slot loading drive is always a cool extra
5. All the expansion ports you'll need
6. Runs really quietly (with little heat). Sometimes you wont even know its on
7. Super fast
Now some people may have issues with fingerprints being thats it's a glossy finish and i am one of those people however, i must say that the finger prints left arent really apparent; you have to really look for them and put the laptop at an angle. besides they wipe off eaasily.

My USB ports came loose after a while... then the DC jack went loose... sent it in to a 3rd party repair shop and was told by the tech that the cause is bad design... these items are each held in by thin piece of plastic and one small screw. They offered to reinforce it by molding some extra plastic in those areas. In addition, the free Win7 upgrade card and receipt was sent in (back in 2009 when it was bought) with no response and ultimately no Win7 coming my way. I am disappointed in Toshiba.

EDIT 11/18/11: I have had to replace the AC adapter twice, and now the voltage regulator has gone out... the laptop is only 2.5 years old... I won't be buying Toshiba again.

After only a couple of months my USB ports magically unscrewed from the frame (I never even took it out of my home) rendering them useless and the one on the left keeps dropping connection. I did some online searching and it appears that this is common with this model but don't expect a free or easy fix from Toshiba. Another thing that I dislike is that the screen doesn't display colors accurately. I have tried every custom combo possible. If you are a designer this is not the laptop for you. I wish I would have gotten a Mac.

The Toshiba replaces a five year old HP Laptop. What a speed difference! Only negative I've seen so far is Vista, but hopefully that will go away when the free upgrade to Windows 7 goes out later this month. This is the first Toshiba I've owned and it has not disappointed me in any way.