Toshiba Satellite L355-S7834 17-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Dual-Core T3200 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.7 x 11.5 x 1.4 inches ; 6.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001GQ39N2
• Item model number: L355-S7834
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,559 in Computers & PC Hardware (See Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 27, 2008

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
Replace your desktop PC with the Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7834 laptop, featuring all the power and hard drive space you expect from a top-of-the-line desktop but in an easily mobile package. Stylishly designed, this Toshiba Satellite features a large, bright 17-inch XGA-resolution LCD (1440 x 900)--perfect for viewing multiple application screens or watching widescreen movies on DVD. It's also great for using as a media center, with Toshiba's Express Media Player enabling you to bypass the system and access CDs and DVDs with a touch of button. The dual-layer DVD±RW drive also burns CDs and offers LabelFlash print functionality. A 1.3 megapixel digital web camera built into the LCD's bezel lets you quickly snap photos and participate in live video chats.

This notebook PC is powered by the 2.0 GHz dual-core Intel Pentium T3200, which provides easy multitasking capabilities, and it offers Draft-N Wi-Fi networking. Other features include a spacious 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM (maximum capacity), 5-in-1 memory card reader, 10-key keypad, and Intel GMA X4500M integrated graphics (with up to 1342 MB of dynamically shared video memory). Additionally, this Toshiba notebook is RoHS-compatible, effectively reducing the environmental impact by restricting the use of lead, mercury and certain other hazardous substances.

This PC also comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit), which includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center. In addition to easily playing your DVD movies and managing your digital audio library, you'll be able to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV). Vista also integrates new search tools throughout the operating system, includes new parental control features, and offers new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures.

The Basics

• Processor: The 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium T3200 dual-core processor delivers additional computing resources and help expand the PC’s capabilities by providing higher throughput and simultaneous computing. You'll be able to perform multiple tasks such as digital rendering and gaming all while running virus scan or other background tasks seamlessly. And its Intel 64 architecture is also ready for tomorrow's 64-bit applications, and offers enhanced performance through improved virtual memory. Each core shares 1 MB of L2 cache, and they have a 667 MHz front-side bus. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.)

• Hard Drive: The extra large 320 GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive (5400 RPM) offers a wealth of storage space, perfect for storing a vast multimedia collection or for editing digital video. This SATA hard drive also quickens the pace with a higher speed transfer of data--akin to Firewire and USB 2.0.

  Spec Check 17-inch LCD screen 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium T3200 dual-core processor 320 GB hard drive 4 GB RAM (maximum) Dual-layer DVD±R drive Draft-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) Intel GMA X4500M graphics (up to 1342 MB) Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit) Weighs 7 pounds

• Memory: The 4 GB of installed RAM (PC-6400, 2 x 2 GB) maximizes the capacity for this notebook. It also offers an ultra-fast 800 MHz speed.

• DVD/CD Drive: The dual-layer Labelflash DVD drive is compatible with a wide range of formats, including both DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, CD-RW discs, and dual-layer (DL) DVD+/-R discs, which can hold up to 8.5 GB of data--great for backing up your MP3 collection or your most important documents. It features the following speeds: 6x DVD±R DL, 8x for single-layer DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM, and 24x/16x for CD-R/RW. It reads DVD-ROM discs at 8x and CD-ROMs at 24x.

  With the Labelflash functionality, you can burn high-resolution, high-contrast pictures on the label side of DVD discs using the same laser used for data recording. Enjoy transparency and high-quality not found in traditional printable media. All you need is a Labelflash DVD disc to start labeling without a printer.

• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a 104-key keyboard--with 10-keypad on the side--and electro-static two-button touchpad. It also offers CD/DVD media player and control buttons (play, stop, next, previous) as well as a volume control dial.

Screen, Video & Audio
This Toshiba Satellite has a 17-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels (native 720p for high-definition viewing). It also provides TruBrite technology, which makes images brighter and more vivid thanks to its anti-glare feature. Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500M, which uses shared video memory (up to 1342 MB allocated from the system memory) and provides Windows Vista Aero interface support and enhanced 3D graphics performance--delivering over 2x scores on 3DMark 06. Intel Clear Video Technology provides outstanding video playback with sharper image quality, increased clarity, and customizable color controls. It also enables enhanced visual quality of interlaced content on progressive displays.

This notebook also features an integrated audio card and two stereo speakers.

Networking, Connectivity & Expansion
This notebook has an integrated tri-mode Atheros wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n). Based on the draft 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, it offers up to five times the performance and twice the wireless range as existing 802.11g wireless. It's also backward compatible with 802.11b/g networks (commonly found in home routers and Wi-Fi hotspots. It also includes a next-generation ExpressCard 54/34 card slot (though no PCMCIA card slot), which lets you take advantage of thinner, faster, and lighter expansion cards for even more advanced wireless, networking, storage, and security features. Here's the full list of connection options:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 ExpressCard 54/34 slot
• Video out: VGA and S-Video
• Microphone/line-in and stereo headphones/speakers/line-out
• RJ-45 port for 10/100 Ethernet connection
• 56K modem port (V.90)
• 5-in-1 memory card reader (Secure Digital, MultiMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD Picture Card)

Operating System
The 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium (with SP1) is the operating system for users with advanced computer needs, and it includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center for watching DVD movies and accessing your digital audio library. You can also use Windows Media Center to record and watch your favorite TV shows (even HDTV) and to access new kinds of online entertainment content. Computers that include Windows Vista Home Premium and an auxiliary Windows SideShow display will also allow you to access key data even when your computer is off. It is also easier than ever to share files between other PCs in your household and to manage your laptop computer settings to more securely connect via Wi-Fi.

Every edition of Windows Vista provides the essential tools and technologies to help protect you whether you are browsing the Internet, connecting to a wireless network, or just reading e-mail. All editions of Windows Vista include new tools that can warn you of impending hardware failures long before you have lost any important personal data. And, all Windows Vista editions include parental control features that allow you to manage and monitor your family's use of games, the Internet, instant messaging, and other activities.

Preloaded Software
Microsoft Works 9.0, Google Desktop and Picasa, Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5, Norton 360 All-in-One Security (30-day trial), and Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60-day trial).

Dimensions & Weight
This notebook measures 15.7 x 11.5 x 1.7 inches (WxDxH, and it weighs 7 pounds.

Power
It comes with a 4000 mAH lithium-ion battery pack for extra-long battery life.

What's in the Box
This package contains the Toshiba Satellite L355-S7834 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a one-year limited hardware warranty.

Product Description
With a broad display, full-size keyboard and other features, the Satellite L355 Laptop Series is ideal for those who want to enjoy affordable Toshiba value and more spacious computing. Financial pros, students and business people can use its 17-Inch diagonal widescreen LCD to see more spreadsheet columns, give great desktop presentations or multitask. A full 10-key pad eases typing and data entry. Powerful Intel dual-core processors, plus ample memory and storage provide the tools for doing more, at a desk or away. While a built-in Wi-Fi and a Webcam help you stay connected or capture, send and store still pictures. The Media Card Reader on this laptop makes it easy to transfer files from a digital camera, video camcorder, MP3 player or smart phone using SD cards, Memory Sticks and more. The Toshiba L355-S7834 ships with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64 bit version), 2.0 GHz Intel Dual-Core T3200 Processor, 3MB L2 Cache, Mobile Intel GL40 Express Chipset, Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M with 128MB-1342MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory, 320GB (5400 RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) Drive, 17.0 in (Diagonal) Widescreen TruBrite TFT LCD Display at 1440 x 900 Resolution, webcam and microphone built into LCD bezel, Atheros 802.11b/g/n wireless. Dimensions: 11.5-Inch x 15.7-Inch x 1.41-Inch without feet, weight: Starting at 6.94 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good upgrade for me, January 5, 2009

By	Palyne Gaenir (Ozarks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have a predecessor to this model, which reached its predictable obsolescence factor about two months after the 1yr warranty expired. On Toshiba's website it's currently 800. On Amazon's website it's 999. I went to walmart and bought it for 599, fyi. Try there first.

Pros:
* 17" glossy widescreen, I love this, now I'm so spoiled
* 4G RAM, 320G HD, some shared video memory, eh-ok processor (better than the one I had anyway), a good everything- disc drive
* memory card reader, video output port (both cool), 3 USBs one on right
* Pretty. Keyboard is black (I don't prefer this, harder to see in low light) as well as the hardbody so it looks Matrix-ian cool.

Cons:
* Whatever bozo decided the volume should be a wheel on the front-bottom of a laptop needs to be counseled. If you use a laptop on your lap (imagine that), this tends to get constantly messed with. Especially if you are kinda fat. Don't ask me how I know.
* Typical of package computers it comes with all kinds of crap which needs to be uninstalled -- various sales stuff, Norton and MS which are only 'trials'. Once I uninstalled that junk, and installed the dozen programs worth having instead (all free, or with a free version), it was ready to go.

All in all this is a good price--but a better price at walmart frankly--but I'm reviewing it primarily for the computer itself, which so far is pretty good. All Toshiba, Dell, Gateway, etc. package computers are pretty cheap parts, they're likely to need some kind of repair even in the first year and especially after, but if you're not rich enough to buy custom built better quality stuff (I recommend ASUS for example) then these allow a nerdish life on a budget.

[1] Free (or close enough) programs worth putting on your new laptop:
* Firefox browser (use this to go download everything else)
* AVG Anti Virus (uninstall expensive bloatware AV your PC has first)
* Filezilla FTP (couple firefox plugins do FTP well, but I like FZ)
* Textpad text/code editor ("nagware" your conscience is your guide)
* Open Office (does everything MS Office does, reads ppt/doc/xls/etc.)
* Media Monkey (music management software)
* Spybot Search & Destroy (kills those pesky ad-invaders)
and because I'm a nerd,
* ColdFusion Developer edition is free
* Jungle Disk (amazon's S3 backup service) is not free but uber-cheap and has already saved me with backups I can get to from anywhere
And some trivial things like:
* Skype internet telephony (call Czech free, sounds like next door)
* Trillian IM (yahoo/aol/msn/icq/irc all in one client)
* Caffeine (teeeny thing, keeps computer 'awake')
* Screen Hunter (useful screen capture utility)

I will eventually add Amazon unbox but my loathing for the software and the way it locks up my VISTA (augh) making me say, "Yes, ok!" like 25 TIMES when my computer starts (the number varies. Must be something obscure. Reinstalled, can't solve it.) is so moronic that I'm delaying in morbid dread. It's so totally invasive I don't even want it on my computer but now I've spent way too much money to let it go (gah!). I like Unbox except for that horrible detail. This is what comes of having software people are locked into with no competition I guess. (Plus videos you would re-download 'cause you paid for 'em become 'unavailable'-- so you better have mega hard drive backup space ready.)

In defense of it though -- you can watch video on demand here online with unbox--from a buck or a few just like a rental movie or TV show on the fly, you don't need the software for that (amazon.com/unbox/ to go).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pleased with product; disappointed with amazon, January 12, 2009

By	CDDavis "CDDavis" (southeastern USA) - See all my reviews

The 17" laptop was exactly what we were needing - larger screen and full keyboard for ease of use. It was not selected for graphics or gaming applications. We were, however, very diapoointed with the Amazon store and customer service. The Toshiba orginal factory packaging was intact, but the outer protective box and packing material was flimsy and inadequate. There was only 1 small piece of protective air pocket packing material. When I contacted Amazon Customer Service, they did not take the time to understand the problem or follow-up, which was diasppointing for the expense of this item. This has made me skittish from ordering big items in the future.

4.0 out of 5 stars Portable Desktop?, May 24, 2009

By	A. Dent "Aragorn" (Minas Anor, GD) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The brief assessment

The Satellite L355 is a large, heavy portable - I can't make myself call it a LAP-top - machine that provides sufficient computing power to run Vista in full Aero mode, decent hard disk storage, good 17-inch display, adequate IO, a somewhat subpar near-full-size keyboard and a few bells and whistles such as 801.11g Wi-fi and integrated Webcam and microphone. The bundled free software includes Microsoft Works, Skype, some games and some annoying '60-day-trial' bloatware such Norton 360.

Overall, this is a good machine if travel is not its main purpose and if the relatively low price is factored in. It will replace a basic desktop once a mouse is added.


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Detailed review

Delivery and physical setup
---------------------------
The 'laptop' comes securely packaged in a relatively small box. The package is easy to open and there isn't a lot of assembly required. Besides the laptop's body, there is the power supply, a couple of CDs and not much else.

Specs
-----
- Dual-core Intel processor at 2 GHz
- 4GB SDRAM
- 320GB hard drive
- 17" display
- 802.11b/g Wi-fi
- DVD drive
- Webcam + microphone
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- Modem
- Ethernet port
- RGB monitor port
- 5-in-1 Bridge Media Adapter slot that supports Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital, MMC and xD media
- Near full-size keyboard with numeric keypad
- Touchpad

On the Vista performance benchmark, the Satellite scores a 3.3 with 'graphics' accounting for its lowest scores - 3.3 for Aero and 3.4 for 3D business and gaming and the CPU (5.1) and the hard drive (5.3) being the highest.

Setup
-----
Vista Setup begins as soon as the power button is pressed and it completes quickly. Once an account is created and after given permission, the Satellite was able to quickly find and join my Wi-fi network and download and install the latest mostly Vista updates - over 40 of them.

To my surprise, there wasn't a lot of bloatware, Norton 360 60-day trial being the most annoying of them all - its window pops up and it can't be closed, the only apparent option being to run the setup. I was able to get rid of it by immediately removing it and other unwanted 'free' or 'free trial' offers such as NetZero before touching their setup processes. The Google Toolbar installed itself before asking but a 'thank you' pops up when it's finished.

Explorer and Windows Media Player are present but it was easy to install my favorite browser (Chrome) and relegate the Explorer to the second-tier, 'backup browsers' status.

Once the Norton 360 is removed, Vista begins to complain about its lacking virus protection. One reasonable truly free offer, and this is what I installed, was Avira. Once Avira was installed, I was able to register it with Defender and Vista stopped complaining.

Other pre-installed but not '60-day trial' packages included are Picassa and Google Desktop. They can be easily downloaded off the Net but I don't mind them being there since they do not interact intrusively with the user.

Operation and Ergonomics
------------------------
As I mentioned already, the keyboard is a little unusual. While large, some of the keys are not where I would expect them - the Fn and Ctrl keys, for example are switched as compared with my familiar Thinkpad layout, the shapes of the 'Backspace' and 'Tab' are a little odd and so is the layout of the top row function keys. I would not type my next novel on this keyboard. Being a spoiled Thinkpad user, I missed the little knob that controls the mouse pointer movements. The touch pad works but it doesn't work for me. I wasn't comfortable until I attached a Logitech Nano cordless mouse by inserting its little dongle into one of the 3 available USB ports.

In my opinion, the display is the best part in the Satellite. It's large and it's bright. Wide-screen DVD movies play great on it but, sadly, this being a Toshiba (not a Sony) the optical drive does not support Blu-ray.

The integrated Webcam works well with apps such as Google Chat or Skype and it's well integrated and easy to use.

The Satellite weight - really, really heavy - does not make it suited for frequent travel. Its lacking a docking station add-on does not make it a good telecommuting choice.
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Rating and evaluation

The Satellite 355's size and weight do not make it a good choice for anyone looking for a traditional 'laptop'. However, anyone looking for a 'sometimes portable desktop' that integrates just about everything other than the mouse, this can be a good compromise. This is exactly what I wanted for one of my sons and I am therefore happy with my purchase.