Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Great things about the Satelite:
+ 16" wide screen display - it's beautiful
+ Fast, starts up in a couple of seconds and no waiting on your apps
+ Huge 500GB hard drive.
+ Windows 7, I wasn't expecting much, but no problems, runs without issues
+ Microsoft Office, installed, free for 60 days
+ Huge high quality speakers, this machine is music and movie ready.
+ Attractive
+ A little heavy but not bad for its size.
+ Toshiba is very reliable
+ Motion detector locks the hard drive in place when it detects the laptop is being jostled around.

Could be better:
> Light above track pad too bright
> Keys are LOUD
> Norton installed and bugs you about paying every time you log on

Overall, this is a great laptop. SOme of the display lights are a little bright and the keypad is noisy. I can forgive that though because this laptop is so fast. I'm never waiting anymore. Windows 7 is proving to be very reliable and easy to use.

Initially, the touch pad was "helping" me and this was really annoying. To turn off some of the trackpad features that do things for you: Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound, under the Devices and Printers section click on Mouse. Another dialog pops up, CLick on the Device Settings tab, then on the Settings button. From there you can set up the touch pad the way you want it.

I upgraded my laptop to a 12 cell battery and that battery lasts about 7 or 8 hours. If you can afford the extra battery, it's worth it. THe 12 cell does take about 2 hours to charge though.

My friends who work in computer repair say they get less Toshibas in the shop than any other brand and highly recommend them.

Buy a large laptop case to carry it in. It will not fit in a standard size case.

Norton is slow and a pain, I uninstalled it and installed Vipre.

Review for the A505-S6004

This laptop looks great out of the box and you will be pleasantly surprised by the speed at which windows 7 boots initially. The screen is properly bright and the speakers do a wonderful job for the size that they are. It is not until you start to use it that you will notice the inherent drawbacks that its beauty hides.
First thing you will notice is that this thing attracts fingerprints so quickly its not funny. Just typing this review alone and I am sure the police will get a full set of prints if they needed it. :)
The next problem i noticed while on msn live messenger. As soon as you start up your webcam, you can see where they saved money in putting this thing together. Its aesthetically pleasing to have a webcam that is built "flush" into the lid but they threw all the functionality of it right out the window. I'm not exaggerating here....THE WEBCAM IS THAT BAD; it has so much noise and no colour correctness AT ALL. You will appear like a Vampire to the person who is receiving your webcam feed. My girlfriend has one of the L505D models from toshiba which is cheaper than this model but the webcam in her's is at least 3 times better.
What this model lacks in webcam clarity and resistance to finger prints it makes up for with Battery life. Switching this thing to "eco" mode takes off the LEDs lighting the touch sensitive media control buttons and the "SATELLITE" logo, and also dims the backlight on the screen. In this mode it will achieve roughly 3 1/2 hrs battery life, give or take a couple of minutes depending on the work your doing. The L505D can barely manage past 2 1/2 hrs on battery.

In short

THE Pros:
+ Good Battery Life
+ Good Sound
+ Great Value for the money
+ Bright Glossy Display (its a Pro for me)
+ Piano Black Fusion Finish Looks great
+ 500GB Hard drive (only 426 free initially; that's still alot)

THE Cons:
- Bad Webcam (don't even think about this machine for "Social Notworking")
- Finger Print Magnet (Piano black finish just shows up every little finger print or scratch)

Just picked this up at Best Buy for $679 and got to say my only complaint is that the keyboard is a little too loud and the touch-pad is deafening, but an easy feature on the bottom of the keyboard can disable the touch-pad with a click of a button. No hunting around windows 7 to try and figure out. The webcam is so so, but I never use it so i don't care.
It runs quietly, the i3 processor speed you will notice upon the first boot up and all in all after three days I am very pleased with it.

The battery life is excellent as well and I agree with the other 4 reviews. It is a great computer at now even a better price.
And no warranty for me sir. Biggest waste of money ever to spend anything on an asset that depreciates as fast as a laptop.

4 1/2 stars.

Of course right after my price protection ended this laptop is now on sale for 599. You can't beat that price anywhere for what this computer does.

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6004 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

After several months researching various options available at Amazon.com I decided to stick with Toshiba. A friend of mine had seriously recommended that I should buy an Acer, but the more I researched the more I was impressed with Toshiba, especially in terms of reliability. Since my own experience with Toshiba was so positive once I had decided to stick with the brand I knew, it was a matter of which one. My reason for buying a new one was that I'd had my Toshiba Satellite since 2003 or 2004 -- can't remember which and technology had definitely moved on. But that machine is still working, all be it slow.

Well, I have not regretted my decision at all. Many of the negatives reported by other reviews I have found not faults at all. The keyboard, for example is not too loud for me -- in fact it is perfect for my touch. One thing that does drive me nuts is the touchpad: when I am surfing it is so sensitive that it keeps scrolling down the page and back up again at what seems like warp speed. (I think somebody in the reviews may have found out how to fix this, so I much look and see if I can find it.)This machine boots up so fast -- quite an improvement that the 10 to 15 minutes it took my old machine!

Back to deciding which one to go with. Initially, I planned to go with a 15.6 inch screen -- mainly because that was what I was used to and also because there were some really good deals price-wise. However, I couldn't find one in the price range with 4 USB ports and I also wanted an HDMI port. It still amazes me what I can get for around $700 considering I paid $1200 for my old and antiquated machine. The computer looks beautiful, but fingerprints are an annoying problem. Also it's lighter than my old laptop, which is a pleasant surprise.

I've had the machine since April 10th so I am still on a learning curve as how things work and what I can do. But so far it's all worked like magic. I've talked to my son on Skype and he lives in Korea. Some people have complained about the quality of the webcam and my son has told me on one occasion that the picture was not that great and then the next time that it was really clear! My son in Italy said it was great. So what can I tell you -- is it the Internet connection or is it the camera. I really like having it and it's worked seamlessly. And it's absolutely true that the wireless connection works right out of the box. I often download tv programs that I've missed and the quality of the picture is as if watching the tv. I should add that I'm American and had the machine delivered to my mother's, but I live in the UK and have been using it here since the end of April. No problems have arisen as a result of being in a different country.

I am going to have to replace a lot of software, which is an expensive negative. I've used Microsoft Office Professional 2000 for years and Adobe 5 and Paint Shop Pro 9 -- all will have to be replaced. However, I am experimenting with Open Office software which is free and so far has been great. Having said that I am using the trial version of Office Professional 2007 mostly because I really needed Outlook. So the question is will I just buy Outlook and go with Open Office.

I do like Windows 7, the software that comes with the computer has been adequate so far. I use the movie maker software a lot and was pleased that it could improve the quality of some of my little homemade videos -- the kind you can make with either a cell phone or digital camera. Also a nice little scanning/faxing program that has made it very easy for me to scan and email. I was able to make a DVD of some photographs for my husband, but was not able to figure out how to find/use the lable/flash program that I thought was part of the package -- the one that is supposed to print directly onto the disc.

Glad to say my old 2179 HP printer was no problem to install and works perfectly. I was sure I would have to get a new one so that was a nice surprise.

All in all, with 6 weeks ownership in hand I am thrilled with this laptop.

Just got it and love it..First time user of Toshiba and its great. Always bought dell with their small hard drives and dumb graphics. I turned to Toshiba mainly because it was a bigger hard drive. I got 640GB and 4GB ram. I didn't even know the keyboard lights up. Its great. The mini touch screen music buttons comes in handy too. I love Windows 7. Another well done job Microsoft. Well the camera is not so good but what the heck.. You dont need it buy an external web cam. Shuts down fast and boots up fast to. Toshiba face recognition is great.

The laptop is fine. The screen is bright and true with good definition. The keyboard is full sized and adequate. There are plenty of USB connections and the wireless works well and has great range. I did not like the mouse pad scrolling feature and had to turn it off. The webcam is slow and barely usable but it was advertised as a 1.3 mp camera so you get what you pay for. So far I'm very satisfied with the computer as it has lived up to what I expected for the money paid (<$750.00).

Summary: Very fast 2.5GHz AMD Turion II CPU, great looking, bright display, huge 640GB drive, 4GB RAM, bad webcam, better than average Wi-Fi.

I wasn't expecting the speakers to perform this well, quality-wise. Trebles ring clearly, bass response is very good for such a small size and the bundled Dolby Surround Software is useful and gives a nice ambiance to the music. The volume is limited, though.

This laptop brings four (4) USB ports, and that's including the SATA/USB port. At first I couldn't find the one on the left side, next to the left speaker. I uninstalled Norton without any hassles, and now I'm happily running AVG free edition. HD videos are played excellently and Microsoft Office 2007 opens up very quickly.

The integrated Wi-Fi works better than any other adapter I've used, even external USB adapters. Signal strength at this location has always been "Low" because the router is several rooms away: surprisingly this adapter reports "Excellent" all of the time. Frequent Wi-Fi outages are now a matter of the past. Note that this laptop comes without internal Bluetooth.

I find the webcam's image to be truly terrible indoors (artificial light). It may perform better outdoors. The battery also under-performs, lasting around 100 minutes on normal and maybe 110 on "eco Mode" (assuming continuous, semi-intensive usage). This is probably due to the high-speed CPU: the A505D-S6004 sister product is reported to last around 3 hours on batteries. I'm planning on buying the 12 cell battery in the near future:
Toshiba Primary High Capacity Battery Pack - Notebook battery ( high capacity ) - 1 x lithium ion 12-cell 9000 mAh

The keyboard heats up a little after 30 minutes of intensive use, even with a chill mat. Some people complain that the keyboard is noisy but I have to disagree: I find the sound to be nicely muffled when striking the keys with the required force. Very intense typing may produce more noise, but not really that noticeable. I'm a fast typist (70wpm) so you can trust me on this. Put on some music and this thing is, in my opinion, virtually noiseless. The keyboard light is a nice feature that works well, providing much needed-lighting in dark rooms.

Here are the specs page at Toshiba Web if you want to take a look:
[...]

works great, just what I needed as a laptop, decent speed and wide keyboard for fat fingers. Works great on wireless network . Good picture apps and quality.

After using the laptop for several days, it's ok although I expected alot more with speed because it has the new intel i3 chip. It takes along time to boot up and the DVD combo drive is noisy. I thought I was getting an excellent product with the Toshiba brand, I researched alot of others but because I've had other Toshiba brand electronics I tried to stay loyal to the brand. My son has a Dell and his is far better with speed and quietness and his laptop doesn't even have the new intel chip. When your're reading the product details online it leaves you to believe that this is the best of the best. I'm alot disappoointed.

Nice computer, but the media player sensor buttons are in the way just to the left of the keyboard - always muting it or starting it inadvertently. All the ports are on the sides, so wires and sticks are in your face. Display - Too much reflection.