72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding entertainment and working Laptop, July 27, 2010
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite A665-S6055 LED TruBrite 16-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
I am about to course a Master in Germany in Engineering, and I was looking for a laptop that could stand the exigency that a career in Engineering demands. This means, a decent video card (Nvidia 310) for my 3D modeling software, specialy Solidworks, a fast processor (Intel i5) por multitasking and calculations. And so far I can not complain, this laptop does all of these tasks very smoothly. But in particular, it is the new i5 processor what worths the money here. Believe me, if you are one of those like me that had a dilema between the cheaper i5, or put an extra money to get a laptop with i7, save that money, because i5 is more than enough for high speed demanding tasks (and remember I use engineering programs). I guess that if you are into multimedia editing of large videos and photos at the same time, then i7 would be your best choice. But for the rest 85% percent of us that will never take full advantage of this processor, it is just not worth it.
But I was also looking for a entertainment center for my 2 year academic program. This means, that I wanted something that could gather TV, DVD, Music, Nice resolution (1366 x 768, it is not 1080p, but you wont even notice), nice grapchics card and nice speakers in one laptop. And this Toshiba Satellite A665 S6055 does it all. DVD movies play very smoothly and vivid, plus the awesome sound coming from this pair of stereo Harman/Kardon speakers, which are very loud and crisp. I even use them as portable speakers to play my Zune thanks to "Sleep and music" feature.
Not to mention the design, limited edition because of the 25th anniversary. It is just beautifull and very stylish, less prone to fingerprints, the keyboard is great because the keys are a little separated one from each other and it is very confortable to type in. The numeric 10 pad is an useful add-on for a person like me that use numers the whole day. Windows 7 is a nice tool, I am just getting used to it, but certainly is so much better than Vista.
This A665 series laptop is so low priced, not because of lower performance, but because of lower hard drive capacity (who needs more than 285 GB?) and for having an Nvidia 310 instead of a 330M (If you are not a hard gamer, the 310 is perfect). So, for the price, this is an awesome entertaining/working laptop, REALLY fast, Big screen yet portable that I highly reccomend.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love this new laptop!, October 6, 2010
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite A665-S6055 LED TruBrite 16-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
This computer is a GEM.
The screen is wider and shorter (which takes a bit of getting used to after having two other very SQUARE screens) but, I'm adjusted to that now.
The touchpad is way too spazzy with all of the "capabilities" which actually "handicap" you, but, that's easy to fix, just click on your synaptics pointing device properties, click the "Device Settings tab" and click the "settings" button to disable that gawdawful "one finger scrolling" and nightmarish "pinch zoom". UGH!
The wireless hooked up like a dream. No problems there and it was able to connect to my older wireless router without a hiccup. (*phew*)!
Windows 7 is a bit of a pain to tweak to your own taste but doable once you google some windows 7 tweak sites.
The webcam is really crisp (yes, you have to take the plastic off of it first though lol). I haven't tried the face recognition stuff yet, because, I really don't care about that, but, it works great in yahoo messenger. The computer loads with the webcam application loading up which is annoying, but all you have to do is right click on it and uncheck "autorun". No big shwing. If you want the webcam app back again, just type "web camera application" in your start bar and then right click on the app and pin it to your start menu or taskbar so it's always available to re-start up when you want it (you can move the app to either side of your computer once it's loaded btw).
The lit "Quickie" 'touch' buttons are very convenient and are listed in order:
Power button
Eco utility button
Wireless on/off button
Lighting on/off button (looks like an arrow)
Pause/Play button (which controls media player and other video/audio apps)
Mute/unmute button
-volume down button
+volume up button
(Also, be sure to take the plastic off of that too).
The Toshiba HDD protection is WAY too sensitive and annoying but you can adjust those settings via the icon in the taskbar.
There are only THREE 'regular' USB ports, but, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my external hard-drives that normally use two ports for power only need to use ONE on this machine!
The memory-card reader is built into the FRONT of the machine which is kind of dorky if you have it on your lap, but, otherwise, it works great even with my much older memory cards.
ALL of my .avi movies played seamlessly with great video and sound without having to load codecs and other extras! THAT was a huge [surprise] BONUS!
The sound is good for a laptop (not great, but, again, it's a laptop).
The video is AMAZING and the bright screen ROCKS! Compared to my 3+ year old Gateway laptop, it's night and day. With my old machine, I could barely see my laptop screen in the morning under my skylights, but, with this machine it's clear and super bright!
You have plenty of function+ keys and having a number keypad is very handy as well.
Making a partition for my hard-drive was super-fast and easy.
I've only owned this for a couple of weeks, but, so far I am really pleased.
Be sure to make backup DVDs before you do ANYTHING! Use Recovery media creator (it will take approx. five dvds). Be aware this utility will restore your computer back to what the factory installed (operating system plus programs and drivers) and is NOT an ISO image. There is a separate windows ISO image utility for that.
Oh and Norton Security SUCKS and will really slow down your machine's performance! Microsoft makes a free anti-virus/trojan utility called "Microsoft Security Essentials" and once you are "protected" you can google for better rated anti-virus programs or stick with MSE.
Good luck and happy computing! =0)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
very nice machine, August 18, 2010
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite A665-S6055 LED TruBrite 16-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
I must say this machine impressed me. It is very peppy, and all the features just work. The best part about it is that it did not come with tons of bloatware. The keyboard is very good, and in my opinion has no keyboard flex. There is a full number pad, and it does not weigh as much as it appears to weigh, meaning this is a pretty big machine. The sound out of the speakers is very crisp, it is also pretty loud if need be. it handles multimedia with ease. It does not have the most advanced graphics card, but for basic media it is more than adequate. I get about two and a half hours of battery life, but that will differ depending on the power settings used.I chose this over the i7 model, which is not much more, because I felt this was a good power to battery life ratio. Last but not least the machine feels sturdy,and the hard drive protection works great, it seems to sense vibrations very well. If you are on the fence of purchasing a laptop, and comparing this to something else I would suggest this one. I could not recommend this enough.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No