Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 14" Laptop ( Intel Celeron M Processor 380, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive)

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000DN7N4A
• Item model number: PSM53U-01800R
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 3, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Maximize your mobile performance as well as your multimedia capabilities with the Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 notebook PC featuring a bright 14-inch TrueBrite screen and ATI Radeon XPress 200M video card with up to 64 MB of shared video RAM. It's ideal for both savvy professionals and students who want outstanding performance and advanced capabilities at an affordable price. It's also great for using as a media center, with Toshiba's unique Express Media Player enabling you to bypass the system and access CDs and DVDs with a touch of button. It has a battery-sipping 1.6 GHz Celeron M processor, an 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of installed RAM (2 GB maximum), combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, integrated 54g wireless connectivity, USB 2.0 connectivity, and Windows XP Home edition operating system.

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The 60 GB Enhanced IDE hard drive is average in size when compared to other business-oriented notebook PCs, and is fine for storing business productivity applications, presentations, and a decent-sized digital library.
  
• Processor: The Intel Celeron M Processor 380 is designed specifically for mobile computing, offering a balanced level of mobile-optimized processor technology, good mobile performance, and exceptional value. The 1.6 GHz speed resides at the very top of the spectrum for this processor (as of October 2005). It also features a 400 MHz front-side bus (FSB) and large 1 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance.)
  
• Memory: The 256 MB of built-in memory (1 x 256 MB, PC4200, DDR2 SDRAM) will get you started, but you'll want to add to the 2 GB maximum RAM capacity to take on today's demanding business productivity software suites and presentation applications.
  
• CD/DVD Drive: With the included DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, you'll be able to watch DVD movies as well as burn data and your favorite music mixes to CD. It has 24x write, 10x rewrite, and 24x read speeds for CDs, and an 8x DVD read speed.
  
• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a standard 85-key keyboard and electro-static two-button touchpad. It also offers a launch button for the Express CD/DVD media player and control buttons (play, stop, next, previous).

Screen, Graphics and Sound
The M55-S141 has a 14-inch TruBrite TFT screen with a widescreen 1280 x 768-pixel resolution. Video is powered by the ATI Radeon XPress 200M IGP video/graphics card, which delivers good, though not high-end, 3D graphics. It delivers between 32 MB and 64 MB of dynamically allocated video RAM that's shared with the system RAM. ATI's HyperMemory technology allows the chipset to run in either Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) mode or with dedicated frame buffer memory to enhance graphics performance. It also features an integrated audio card with headphone and microphone jacks.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
The M55-S141 has an integrated Atheros 802.11b/g wireless-LAN that enables you to easily connect at wireless hotspots wherever you roam You get a fairly basic offering of connectivity options:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 VGA monitor port
• 1 S-Video out
• 1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type II, PCMCIA R2.01, PC Card16, CardBus)
• 1 headphone jack, 1 microphone jack

It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Gigabit Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).

Preloaded System and Software
This system comes with the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 operating system with Advanced Security Technologies, which helps to reduce unwanted downloads and pop-ups while surfing the Web. It also comes preloaded with Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, McAfee AntiVirus, InterVideo WinDVD and WinDVD Creator, Sonic Solutions RecordNow.

Dimensions and Weight
This notebook measures 13.5 in x 9.5 in x 1.5 (WxDxH) and weighs 5.1 pounds.

Power
It's powered by a 6-cell rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which has a battery life of up to 2 hours, 7 minutes (depending on usage). It has a 4-hour full charging time with the notebook off, and 12 hours with the computer active.

What's in the Box
This package contains the M55-S141 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a one-year limited hardware warranty.

Product Description

Includes: lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, & Microsoft Windows XP Home. Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 Notebook Computer - At a price that's hard to beat, this laptop computer gives you all of the basics you need when you're computing on the go. An Intel Celeron M Processor 380 (1.6 GHz) and 256MB of DDR memory allows you to handle everything from business applications to multimedia programs. With built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, when you're on the go you can easily stay connected to the world around you. Wirelessly access your e-mail and the Internet from any number of Wi-Fi Hot Spots, which can be found at airports, hotels, parks, coffee shops, and more! Native Resolution - 1280x768 ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card with up to 64MB of shared video memory (memory is shared with the main system's RAM) 60GB 5400 RPM HDD CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive Built-in 56k Fax Modem Built-in Atheros 802.11b/g Wi-Fi Wireless LAN Support Battery Life - up to 2 hrs. & 7 min. Ports - RGB VGA Out, 1 Ethernet, 3 USB 2.0, S-Video Out, & Headphone Out Unit Dimensions - 13.5 x 9.53 x 1.5 Unit Weight - 5 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent laptop!, February 25, 2006

By 

Darshan Ramavat "DR" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 14" Laptop ( Intel Celeron M Processor 380, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive) (Personal Computers)

This is the best laptop I have ever had. I use this primarily at home for day-to-day work. Here is a list of salient features:

1. The TruBrite screen is amazing, puts less stress on the eyes.

2. The processor is Celeron M which is enough for home use.

3. I have upgraded the RAM to 512 MB and its DDR2 PC4200 which is very fast.

4. Its amazingly light (around 5 pounds) making it highly portable.

5. Speakers have surround sound which is again, a great feature.

Hope this review helps you guys to make a better decision.

Cheers!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Great Product, March 29, 2006

By 

burntumber (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 14" Laptop ( Intel Celeron M Processor 380, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive) (Personal Computers)

I love this machine. It works like a charm. The keyboard setup is well thought-out and the screen quality is bright and crisp. Yes, there's too much fluffy value-added software on it, but you can always scrape it off. (Its presence helps keep the price low.) Toshiba's own laptop utilities are excellent. The oversensitivity of the touchpad can easily be rectified by adjusting the touchpad settings. As for documentation, Toshiba has always had the very best--a complete manual is in the form of a .pdf file on the hard drive.

My only complaint is that Toshiba's included paper docs and tech support information are misleading. As far as memory upgrades are concerned, for example, the documentation that comes with the unit (including the latest update) is wrong. I suspect it's the nature of the business; it's hard to get everyone on the same page at the same time. On this latest model, the installed RAM is DDR2 and you can not replace it with DDR regardless of what is written in the included docs or suggested by Toshiba tech support. I'll give them this: I reached a live tech within 1 minute. (I almost went into cardiac arrest.) Unfortunately, his info was incorrect. To upgrade the RAM on these latest M55s, you must either 1) add another 256 DDR2, or 2) remove the included 256k DDR2 and replace it with one or two DDR2 chips of a greater capacity: you cannot remove the included 256k DDR2 chip and replace it with a single DDR-type chip.

The hardware's performance is excellent so if you experience undue sluggishness, try adjusting the start-up and XP services settings.

All in all, a champ.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light and portable, March 10, 2006

By 

Bookworm (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Toshiba Satellite M55-S141 14" Laptop ( Intel Celeron M Processor 380, 256 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive) (Personal Computers)

The laptop is very light which makes it great for students or others who shlep their laptop a lot. The quality of the screen is good enough for most kinds of work but of course when watching DVD's or looking at pictures it is not the same as an LCD screenf - but it's also a lot cheaper. The "limited" disk space mentioned is only a problem if you have large music files or stuff like that. If you use your laptop mostly for taking to classes and doing your work on - it's more than enough.