Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722 17" Widescreen Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo T7200, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive)

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

 

 

This is an outstanding computer. I was very impressed with Toshiba. This is probably the first non-Qosmio Toshiba laptop that I actually enjoyed testing. There are some things that overshadow this computer, but continue to read anyways to see if these concerns pertain to you.

PROS:
Processor - FAST, Intel Core 2 Duo (new line) at 2GHz. This is the first Core 2 Duo laptop that I've had a chance to toy around with, and I was VERY impressed. It's not a REMARKABLE upgrade from the Core Duo 2.0GHz, but it is very noticible, espeically in gaming.
Graphics - Powerful nVidia 7900GS. Great for playing all the current games, and is Vista compatible for the January launch. Half-Life 2, Doom 3, F.E.A.R., and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion all played excellent. World of Warcraft also ran without a hitch, even on a wireless connection.
RAM- 2GB! Not 1GB, 2! This is all the computing power you'll need. Excellent. Not only that, there is still room to expanand, accepting up to 4GB (which is ridiculous, I don't recommend it unless you are a graphics whore)
Hard Drive - 200GB! MASSIVE. Keep in mind, this is a single hard drive, not RAID 0 linked 2 ATA drives, this is 1!
DVD Burner- Standard, but always nice
GREAT CONNECTIONS - Bluetooth, Firewire Port, USB, Express Port, Card Reader... just about everything seems to be here, including a fast 802.11 connection
Quiet - also under cons, see below
Lighweight - about a pound lighter than the Dell XPS; only 7.8lbs

CONS:
Battery Life - Like most 17" laptops, the battery life is atrocious. I got about 88 minutes in my battery drain test, 119 minutes under normal conditions, and 130 minutes under my power saving settings
Quiet - Although quiet, it's because the hard drive speed is running at 4200RPM to improve battery life and noise regulation. If you don't know, 4200RPM is slow, most laptop hard drives run between 5400-7200RPM.
Heat - Warms up pretty warm, but not like a Mac, so no exploding batteries in this.
Track pad - very small and awkwardly places for someone who's left-handed like myself
Screen - very bright, but the resolution could be better
Nothing next gen- No HD-DVD drive, no Blu Ray drive, no next gen ATi or nVidia card... everything is just top of the line for this generation
Slow recharge time- 4 hours to fully recharge a battery is pretty lame. Similar laptops are between 90-150 minutes.
Speakers - very disappointing for Harmon Kardon speakers

BOTTOM LINE: Great desktop replacement, but for on the go, keep the trips limited. Great airplane traveler, not so great for students.

Im currently studying architecture and rendering is very very fast, i compared it to an HP(not Core 2 Duo) with 512MB of Nvidia and this baby did 20 seconds faster render than the HP. Which in the short term isnt that much but calculate while both do 3 renders you save up a minute in this notebook.
One thing to note is it DOES NOT HAVE FIREWIRE, so if you were thinking of using forget about it. well atleast mine doesnt have it...

Bought this thru Amazon six months ago. Amazon has been great. Arrived sooner than expected. Got all the cool discounts.

Overall, nice 'puter. Easily got used to the smaller arrow and right-shift keys.

THE BAD NEWS: The DVD/CD multi-drive crapped out after only 2 months--one day it just stopped recognizing any disks. Toshiba customer support in various foreign countries ran me thru the normal checklists (which I had already done) and, after 1.5 hours on the phone, gave me a number and told me I had to ship the whole 'puter in for replacement/repair of the DVD/CD multidrive and that it would take two weeks or so.

Now I can't just ship the thing off...I'm USING it. So they promised me that since I got "the number" within 2 months of purchase, it won't expire. I'll let you know...

You get a lot of benefits from this computer for the price you pay. Though we already know the lack of helpful Toshiba Customer Support, do not take Kelly Miller's into consideration as Kelly Miller only leaves behind negative comments if Kelly's profile is viewed. I've owned this for over 2 months now, and it gets me by just well in gaming, graphic and web design, and web surfing. Tons of hard drive space (even though it's at a grueling 4200rpm) and plenty of memory with strong Core 2 Duo CPU power (not to mention a snazzy 7900GS video card). I would have given it 5 stars if the display resolution was larger and if the craftsman ship was better (previously owned 2 Sony laptops). It's a very light and stylish notebook, and I've gotten plenty of attention from it already.

This computer is a good performer. Unfortunately it suffers from Toshiba's poor support. The technicians know less than I do and are unable to troubleshoot anything besides the most BASIC of problems.

The Toshiba Satellite P105-S0722 is a good value. I was looking for a desktop replacement for my primary personal computer. After reviewing offerings from Dell, Ibm, HP and IBM determined that for the money the Toshiba was the best if my budget was less than $2000.

Good features: (1) speed, (2) everything works, (3) good screen; (4) very good video card, I run the native screen plus a 24" dell monitor with no problem.

Poor features: Keyboard layout is strange. For a touch typist the smaller than usual right shift key is a problem. I would have perferred if the 10-key was removed and a larger keyboard was available.

Bottomline: This is my first Toshiba, it was good but did not awe me. When it comes time to order a new computer, I will probably look at either a Dell or Alienware and pay extra.

I purchased this notebook based on reviews from Consumer Reports stating that it was a good computer for the money. I know that with every batch of products, there will be a few lemons, but I have had a ridiculous time with mine.

Within one week of purchase, the operating system crashed (and by the way, Toshiba only has driver support for Vista, so if you want to install XP, good luck). I had to call customer service to have them send a recovery disk since it does not come with the computer. That was a hassle in and of itself. They said I had not registered the computer, although I had a printout of the email that I received thanking me for registering the computer.

After talking with several people, and going back and forth with them, I finally received the disk. I reimaged the hard drive and reinstalled Windows, it began to crash again within a few days. Long story short--I have now sent it in for warranty repair THREE times and it is still not fixed. Not only that, if I had a dollar for every minute I spent on hold waiting to talk to their 'customer relations' people, I would have a big pile of money.

My advice--if you are thinking about buying this laptop (or any Toshiba laptop, based on their technical support), I would think again.

Lets get to what you want to hear, the cons, if you dont care about these, buy it:

1)Keyboard, terrible layout, you get used to is a few month's later, unfortunately no one else has your layout so using someone elses computer, say your jobs for example, is hell.
2)Battery Life : Hour and a half at the most if being used. Its 2007 and they still havent figured out a batter that can last at least half a work day ?
3)Touch pad, this has got to be the worse I have seen ever. Due to its 17 inch screen, the one thing this computer has is space, its wide, yet, they choose a touch pad that is simply ridiculous, it is 6cm wide, yet only 4cm can be used, the other 2 cm actually lock the pad... in other words you have a almost 40cm wide computer with a 4 cm wide touchpad....simply hate it.
4) No firewire, I could not believe it actually has no firewire yet it say s it does.
5)It does not have the compact flash card size, so if you use this type of card for digi cameras, you are no good.
6)Fan, 20min on and its a constant fan battle, noise, comes and goes, not good.
7)Locks up with Explorer. Noticed it 5min from first using it, so I thought it was a software issue, rebuilt from scratch with the rebuild CD, no good, always locks up for about 2-3 seconds with explorer, its random, but manages to happen just when you need it most. Think of this, you double click "My Computer" or "My Documents", then it holds for 2-3 secons, opens the folder, say there is another folder inside you try to open, holds 3-5 seconds, then opens...terrible.

Thats it, everything else is pretty cool, I have to say I will not buy Toshiba again, I paid $1,900 for it, a friend bought an HP last August on Black Friday, a few weeks after min, for $900 and it seriously kicks this computers but.

I'm not going to get into the tech part of this computer, that could take all day! The first time I turned on this computer it walked me through setting up all of the security (which I liked) and I was really pleased with the quality of watching a movie. Basically, I would buy this computer everyday of the week and pay more if I had too, everyone in my office loves this computer!

Derrick

I like to work on my laptop. Huge hard drive, big screen - that's what I like the most. Fingerprint security and many more making my notebook awesome and usefull.