Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite L455D-S5976 15.6-Inch Laptop (Matte Silver)

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

 

 

While the listed $394 price tag is not that extreme, take that listed "$204 off" from a 599.99 base price with a grain of salt.

Overall the reliability record of Toshiba Satellite machines has been quite solid, ranking alongside Asus and Sony in as the best terms of malfunction rates despite some of the lowest prices, so taken from that aspect this is a great budget machine that won't get too hot or eat too much power.

That said, the price is somewhat in line with sale prices you can find of machines one step above this in terms of specs (dual core processor's with 3 gigs of RAM).

If you can find it for $329 or less and don't have needs much heavier than web-browsing/word processing/maybe playing (if you purchase a pair of speakers or at least headphones) than this could be the perfect machine for you.

At $394 however you can probably do better, and if you want to be able to play games a couple years old, use photoshop, mutlitask, etc. then you are probably best of looking for a machine just a touch more powerful than this.

Bought this for my 9 year old son for Christmas!! Got it for $278 at Walmart..Cant beat the price!! It was ready to go right out of the box. Great for surfing the net gaming and everyday tasks. Crisp screen quality and DVD playback is great! Good investment for kids without breaking the bank!!!

I picked this system as a backup computer to my desktop and to use when I travel. I have to say you get great bang for the buck. It not a light system by any means (heavy...using it on an airplane might be a challenge)but it's fast, and the keyboard is fantastic. I would suggest adding the extra 2GB of ram (comes with 2GB)and bring it to 4GB. The HD TruBrite screen is really nice....Crisp and clean. I purchased the system at Walmart for $278, a steal!

bought this laptop 6 month ago , it was running very slow from the start, after 3 month it would not load windows anymore, I called Toshiba CS and they agreed to send me a box to ship it to them to have it repaired, apparently it needed a new hard drive and it is a problem they know about ( why not recall them all and fix it?)- if yours turns off all the time on its own you need a new hard drive, it took 10 days to get my laptop back, it was covered under warranty and free of charge but a huge inconvenience- I will not buy Toshiba again

ETA: Here we are 6 month later and out of warranty- the same hard drive failure as before,I was told "well you are out of the warranty we can change the drive but now you will have to pay around $250 for it" They will replace the TH- the drive is barely 6 month old but the warranty for it was only 30 days!! After a lot of back and forth Toshiba will replace the drive free of charge again for which I am greatful but I am saving up for a new laptop!

ETA again:
I finally received my laptop back- hard drive repaired but now the fan does not work!! After 2hours on the phone with several "Toshiba representatives". I have to send it in again so they "can get to the root of the problem". No telling how much longer this will take- Toshiba never again!!

I purchased a Toshiba laptop model LD55 and 1 month later, the keyboard stopped working. I had to send it in for repairs at Toshiba depot. 4 months after this, the hard disk crashed and the Toshiba repair depot has been holding my laptop without repair because they have a delay in arrival of parts ordered. I have asked for a refund or replacement with an equivalent computer but all I got after several phone calls, writing Toshiba and loosing approximately 14hrs talking to Toshiba customer reps was an offer of a reconditioned laptop with a 90 day warranty. I would accept this if the warranty was extended considering the problems I had experienced with the new laptop. Now I am told again that my laptop part will be late for another 1 month in addition to the 2 months already gone. I don't know what to do. Toshiba has got to be the worst laptop company out there. They are living on past glory. I will never touch any of their products again!

I purchased my Satellite 15 months ago and have loved it until two weeks ago when the 2 USB ports on the right-hand side came loose and fell inside. I took the computer to a repair shop and was told this is a common issue with Toshiba laptops due to the weld Toshiba uses for the ports; they couldn't repair it but could send it in to Toshiba for repair -- at a cost of $400! I contacted Toshiba and was told that since I was 5 months out of warranty, they could repair it, but it would cost me ... $400! If you go online and search for Toshiba USB Port problems, you will find a slew of people that have experienced the same issue with their Toshiba laptops, even current year models. Save your money and purchase a different brand of laptop.

We tested a dozen Toshiba Satellites, and love them all. The problem with this model is, the processor uses 10-year-old technology. It's the slowest on the market.

I see some of the reviewers bought this at Walmart (for $278-$300). I would NOT buy this laptop for that price. I strongly recommend a Toshiba Satellite, but this model was specifically made for Walmart & discount stores, with the cheapest possible chip.

The chip used here has a clock speed of 510, which is pathetic (CPUbenchmark-net). For LESS MONEY, you can get a Toshiba Satellite right here on Amazon with clock speeds of 800-1,200. If you've come here looking for a Toshiba Satellite, this is a good company and a good brand, just don't buy the "Walmart version".

There are plenty of options right here on Amazon for under $400 (just look at the processor type, and look it up at the CPUbenchmark site - 800-1,000 should be the minimum by today's standards). And, don't think that faster chips means it will cost more. Actually, it may cost less.

That said, let me proceed to the review:

PRO's:

-We tested a dozen models, and except for variations in speed, all the models were great.

-Screen is fine - no complaints. (I would not recommend the Toshiba models with the Trubrite screen - models with the TruBrite cost about $100 more & it picks up lots of reflections.)

-I'm fairly impressed with the battery. I also have a netbook with a 10 hour battery life, but for a full sized laptop these are great. For normal use (internet, some music, etc) I get 2-3 hours. If I'm just working on data offline, I get 4.5 hours.

-Stays very cool (even when playing videos), and the fan rarely kicks on.

-It's light weight & durable. My 12-month old will pound on the keys occasionally, and it holds up just fine.

-Comes with built-in antivirus software. I recommend also installing Avira, and every computer/laptop you own should be running Hostsman (both are free downloads).

CON's:

-No built-in camera or mic.

-Sound is not great. Most people assume it's cheap speakers, but it's not. Speakers are fine - but the sound driver itself is the problem for some reason. You can uninstall the driver & have Windows install a generic driver that will boost your sound levels by 50% (easier said than done in Windows 7).

-This model lacks the numeric keypad on the side. I would not buy a model without the keypad - with page up/page down, and other shortcuts, it's very convenient.

Bottom Line: (1) Please be an INFORMED consumer. Don't pay more because you think they're higher quality, but also don't buy the cheapie because you think it's a good deal. (2) Unless you need a super-computer for specialized programming, you should be able to find a Toshiba Satellite with a great processor & all the amenities you need for under $400, right here on Amazon.

Hope this helps, and enjoy your new laptop!

Purchased this laptop for my son on 10/31/2010, about 2 weeks ago while at home during holiday break from college, he opens the computer, turns it on and the screen just goes black. I contacted Toshiba and sent the computer in for repairs per their instructions. Several days later I am contacted by Toshiba and told that the LCD is damaged and this is not covered under their warranty because it is considerded customer damage. My argument was how do you damage a computer simply by opening the case and turning it on? In my estimation this computer is a cheap piece of junk, less than 3 months after purchase it is damaged and the company does not stand behind their 1 yr warranty. Avoid at all cost, I will end up having to replace this computer because of the price it cost to repair it. I will go back to HP, Dell or something else, I will not purchase another Toshiba.

From the first day I got this this thing ran hot. Aside from the overheating it also has random crashes and it is very slow! No one should buy this laptop. Actually you shouldn't even get a toshiba for they are known for overheating constantly.

Note: This is a review of this product bought from Wal-Mart, not Amazon. I had a Toshiba Satellite I bought from Best-Buy in 2003 that I really liked (although overpriced) and so we decided to buy this machine for my wife to use. We paid about $300 for it and have had it for a year. Currently, the power cord is not working, and we will need to buy a replacement.

Graphics: Acceptable, 15.5" screen
Hard Drive: Acceptable, 250 GB is plenty of space for a machine in this price range
Sound: Terrible, unless you use headphones. It's just weak.
Processor: Terrible, passmark score of 498: [...]
Memory: Acceptable at 2GB

The only reason I gave this machine three stars is the price. It is almost useless for our noisy household of three children under 5. I still like Toshiba, but it seems you get what you pay for (almost). This is essentially a souped up netbook.