Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite P25-S607 17" Media Center Laptop (2.80-GHz Pentium 4 (Hyper-Threading), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive)

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

 

 

I purchased a P25-(s)607 about a month ago and have been nothing but pleased with its performance.

Pros-
a. HUGE screen that really allows you to see a lot at one time
b. really fast computer. Benchmarks were outstanding for this product when I ran them right out of the box. They did nothng but improve after I did all the recommended steps (esp. driver upgrades)
c. Lots of goodies that no other laptop has... 4 USB 2.0 ports are great, and the DVD R/RW is really fast (4x) by today's standards. The 5400 rpm hd is fast, though with 60GB isn't the biggest out on the market these days (though with a dvd rw you really can't mind too much)

Cons-
a. This puppy is BIG... and heavy. Even though the screen is a whopping 17 inches, there is an area around the screen of unused plastic (about a 1-1.5 inch edge) This only adds to the huge footprint of this laptop.
b. The keyboard is relatively big, but is still not quite full size. In fact, the keyboard on my 15 inch compaq laptop is actually wider by almost 3/4 of an inch. It is still a capable keyboard though. It is also placed in about the center of the huge case, which can make using it a bit uncomfortable.
c. Lights, Lights, Lights... boy, this thing has a lot of pretty blue and green lights... and I can't find any way to turn them off. This can be a bit distracting while watching a movie in the dark.
d. Battery/TV tuner issues. there is only one battery port, and if you want to use a secondary drive (or the included tv tuner for that matter) you have to remove the battery. I know it seems semi-logical as you will be plugged into a cable anyway for the tv, but at the same time, you would think toshiba would find a way to incorperate a battery.
e. price- lets face it... this isn't the cheapest laptop on the planet... though it is one of the fastest and best equipped
All in all, I would probably rate this as a 4.5 star computer. I haven't fallen in love with it yet, but the courtship is well on its way.
L.

I waited a long time for a windows laptop to get a 17" screen, and this model made it worth the wait. This machine is huge! It weighs almost 10 lbs, and dwarfs my old 15" machine. If you plan on taking trips with this, think again.

The screen is very crisp, and gives you the room to place two windows side by side. So far, everything seems very fast, probably due to the faster hard drive and the extra video memory. But, I would have liked to have seen a 7200 rpm drive instead of the 5400 rpm one.

One thing I will say is that the machine looks much better than the pictures indicate.

This machine has just about everything you need in a desktop replacement. Surpisingly, it runs very cool with a 2.8 GHz processor. There are 3 fans on the bottom and a huge heat sink in the back.

I would have liked to see a separate keypad since Toshiba had the room to put one in, but the overall feel of the full-size keyboard is good. The small tab key, though, is tough to get used to.

Another major annoyance is the touchpad. It will select items with a slight touch, and I have not found out how to turn it off. I have called tech support 3 times on this to no avail. Toshiba's tech support has not impressed me on this issue, and I have had trouble understanding the tech support staff.

***Update***
Tech support has told me that this machine does not support the features most touch pads have, like being able to turn off the tap to click feature. However, I believe it just needs a different driver.
***

I have also had trouble with the supplied TV Tuner. The machine will not boot with it installed, nor will it allow me to connect to the TV. Tech support's solutions so far are to re-install all of the drivers, which did not work. This has not been resolved yet.

Having said this, I am very impressed with the product, and would highly recommend it. But I think some of the lower models may be a better value. It depends on your needs, but you will not go wrong with these computers as long as you don't mind the size and the short battery life. The issues I am having look like they can be resilved.

Hello. I love this machine, You should know that the TV receiver can only be used without the battery, (the module goes in that bay) so you MUST be plugged to an outlet. Also needs an external antennae conection (includes conector) The Remote Control for the media center is quite nice BUT you need to attach an IR receiver (also included) to one of your USB ports so this is not that practical after all... Great buy, but I just wanted you to know what I did not when I ordered... :)
Awesome screen, very useful.

Great machine, well worth the money and with what's on the market today spending over two thousand dollars you are sure to want your money's worth. This is the machine to give you just that. The 17 inch screen is the best I have seen to date on a notebook or a monitor and a double bonus of getting the new XP pro media version - - for the people that don't already know media version - - its just XP PRO with new media built in, so you still get the great XP pro. The remote functions control your dvd cd tv radio and taping features so you can now control your remote controls that run all your needs on one system. I am used power house systems so the power of this system is a little slow for being called a desktop replacement. Bootup time with nothing on the system takes up to 2 min and shut down is even slower but please don't let that stop you from purchasing this great system. I am used to power house 3.6 gig systems like Alienware, however I wanted a system that would cover what I could do on the powerhouse system and be mobile at the same time. You do lose a little speed but your all the way mobile with this wonderful 17 inch system. My other gripes are the keyboard is downright painful to use and that forced me to buy another one. I also put another 512 mem in to speed up the machine hoping that would increase bootup and shutdown times but no help. The wireless on this system is amazing I had to do nothing but turn it on and it found it and I was up and running. This machine has more extras on it than a brand new Hummer. All and all I give it two thumbs way up.

I have not generally been kind to Toshibas, but I must say I took a liking to this one the first time I booted it up. It is impressive to look at, quite high-tech with great lines and lots of cool colored lights. But it's what's inside that counts.
It has a very, very fast 2.8 GHz CPU with an ample 512 megabytes of 800 MHz FSB RAM (expandable to 2 gigs), a 64 megabyte dedicated vidcard and a 17" display that is unbeatable. The 60 gigabyte hard drive, though, is a bit smaller than I would have expected.

That it has a digital TV tuner, can play and record DVDs as well as CDs (so it can be used as a true media center instead of just as a PC) and that it features a full function remote control are all just that much more "lagniappe" (oh, that's a cajun word for 'that little bit extra' you didn't expect but were pleased to get).
Anyway, why only 4 stars? Well, mainly because this computer is not really a laptop, unless you have a very, very big lap. This is a desktop masquerading as a laptop, and believe me, at a whopping 10 pounds it isn't going to be making very many trips. That may all be fine and dandy, but there is a significant penalty for it being called a laptop, namely a higher price than an equivalent desktop media center (look at the Gateways, for instance) would command.
For most folks, this is overkill. Where would it be perfect? I would say it would be true Nirvana in some lucky person's dorm room, though it would also look most handsome under anyone's Christmas tree!

I recently purchased this machine and while it works as advertised a couple of caveats should be noted. There are no clear instructions on how to connect the machine to your satellite or cable box. I could find nothing in the supplied "documentation" which seems to be more interested in preventing lawsuits than in telling the consumer how to use its product. A call to tech support was similarly useless. After waiting 20 minutes on hold, I was told by someone in India(read the current issue of PC World) that she had no clue how to set up the machine. I was then transfered to another rep who hung up on me(after another 20 minute wait) before I could say hello. I figured it out myself after many false starts and I get quite a good picture although the sound is a second or so delayed. On another site I read that it is best to set the resolution to the standard 1024 x 768 for a much better picture. I concur. The supplied resolution makes the picture very fuzzy. I have yet to be able to get the remote to operate my satellite box but the regular remote works fine. I have also read that I can record ala Tivo but I must admit that has little interest for me since I already have that capability and it seems to be a waste of hard drive space. All in all I give the machine 5 stars(provided you are willing to do some homework) and the Toshiba staff based on my one phone call one star(at least one person said hello).

I will never buy another Toshiba Computer again. I've owned 3 laptops made by Toshiba (P25-S607, M30 and P25-S676) and am impressed with the machines. However, Toshiba's support is by far the worst that I've ever encountered; in fact, I would go so far as to say that they have NO SUPPORT!

One day I was working on my P25-S676 and I shut the lid of the computer, which would obviously put the system on standby. When I opened the lid again and tried to turn the computer on, it wouldn't give me anything but a blank, black screen. I found out that the motherboard was fried (???) and that it needed to be sent into the Toshiba Support Depot. I sent my laptop to Toshiba on 1/15/2005 and here it is 2/25/2005 and it is still not fixed. It's not the fact that I've been without my laptop for over a month that bothers me; it's that I was promised EIGHT different E.T.A.s! If I was told that it would take two months to fix my laptop, I would've been disappointed, but respected the honesty. However, it really ticks me off when a company lies to me eight times and counting!!! I have no faith that I will receive my laptop back in the next month, or maybe even this year. I've contacted the Better Business Bureau and I'm hoping that they can light a fire under Toshiba, since Toshiba's customers can't.

When shopping for a laptop, shop for support first and performance second.

I teach high school and own a graphic art company. This machine can do it all. From Premier Pro to Photo Shop CS to Electric Rain's Swift 3-D, there is not another machine that can even remotely touch it. It is not a gaming machine, mostly due to the 64 megs of video ram, however, when I replaced the two slots outfitted with 256 MB of 2100 ram and put in a gig of 2700-333 MHz ram (2X512), that incidentally, fit perfectly, I could have never fathomed the results!! This is a true media center in every facet and aspect of this well deserved title. I am working on some stuff at the local state university branch, where they are using top of the line Macintosh machines, and this thing blew them all out of the water on comparative rendering times, screen resolution, and memory overload, mostly because I didn't have any memory overload. Additionally, I use Corel, Bryce, Poser, Illustrator, and a few other parametric vectoring programs, etc, etc., and I have been overwhelmed by the capability of this machine. It runs like a Lamborghini and rides like a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. The screen is deep, opulent, clear, and dazzling. The keys have a nice, natural feel to them. Every part of the machine screams out major graphics. I run and work out, so the 10 lbs. or so, that so many seem to complain about, isn't any hindrance for me. I take it everywhere because my work is that important to me. I guess it comes down to this...If you want to run with the big boys, don't whine about the load because in the final analysis, I can guarantee that this machine will walk easily through any tasks, and I do mean any tasks at all, you put to it. It is, unreservedly, the only true desktop replacement I have found out there besides its big brother, the P25-S609. Believe me, I have looked around everywhere. I recently created a 13 minute movie with the windows movie maker program, complete with music, 50 or so transitions, and several video clips for a funeral. Can you imagine something not working during a funeral??? With only a half hour to work with before the funeral, I hooked it up to an Infocus projector, and I had no doubts that this machine would pull off the job with no complications and so, I was correct. This is the one bad, bad boy, if you can handle it. This machine is not for everyone, but if you need the best, this is it. I would most assuredly stake my reputation on this machine, because I already have. It is one awesome piece of technology for the true graphics professional..RP

HI, I my name is Frank and I am currently in China. I had this brought to me by a friend whom visited the US..... I got this computer because my previous one was a Toshiba, which I sold and wanted to stay with it because this brand I trust, unlike the lemon which I bought from Compaq several years back. This computer is really good.. the sound is WOW! You can adjust equalizer to suit your music needs... from Club... to classical sounds... this is amazing.. you can even play a music and hear it as if you where in the toilet.

Now let me start....by saying that I bought mine with the Toshiba recommended Roller/Backpack case (and it is like a luggage man but very good a WELL padded). The 17" screen is awesome and very easy on the eyes.... You CAN turn off the mouse pad.... As I have an external mouse hooked to it.... The three fans that it comes with are very quite even if all of them come on at the same time... but you can hear them..... the only sound side to this is that you must leave the open to hear quality sound... even though the computer is off... unlike my 1800 Toshiba were I could actually close the display and still hear some sounds... but not as good as this though. The keyboard needs some time to get used to, but the keys are a pleasure to type on and very speedy (I do agree with the other person who said that they needed to expand the keyboard a bit and or put a keypad next to it since there is a large wasted space - but you have to also consider the components within).

The only reason I did not buy the HP is because the cooling sucks... my friend has one (not the 17" model though) and he needs an external fan to cool it. The brands with the best cooling systems are Sony and Toshiba in that order, but you get more value and more gadgets with this one. I also did not think a need for a TV tuner.. I never use it and if I was in Australia I would just turn on the TV with a bigger screen. A word of WARNING ... NEVER install anything when the XP software tells you that you should stop installation. I did that and ended up formatting the whole drive because my webcam that I used previously did not want to go to bed with XP... also ... you will need a boot CD to completely format your drive... the quick format that the restore cd comes with does not clean it and leaves some nasty bugs, which won't let your system to boot up again. You must completely format it... once you have completely formatted the drive, you then can insert the Toshiba Restore CD and then reinstall everything.

Another downside to it is that it weighs a lot.. but that does not matter since most of the time it is at home and when I want to travel, it just goes straight into the case and onto somewhere else.

Oh.. the only good thing about this computer coming with a TV tuner is that you can leave it in and take out the battery so that you do not reduce its life considerably if you leave it in the computer while it is plugged in.

That is all.. I do recommend this machine to anyone over any other machines.... Toshiba is a QUALITY brand name and I will continue to buy their products... but make sure you do a lot of research into other brands before making your decision... thanks and take care

Frank
http://clik.to/myurl

Toshiba may make good products, but their support is the worst i have ever come across. They have lost my laptop for over a month now and do not care a lick about it. They're tech support team is in Turkey and they dont care a thing about anybody. They kept hanging up on me and refused to help me saying it will take some time. When i called back- no one knew anything and had zero updates. DO NOT BUY TOSHIBA PRODUCTS! Get a Gateway or Dell instead...two companies that actually care about their customers.