This is a very solid machine. Bought this a few days ago as I have been looking for a while. After review of several other machines Dell 8600, Gateway 17", IBM Thinkpad, and Apple Powerbook 17" this and the Apple really stood out. As I chose to go Windows it was this. I also looked at the 17" version of this but it is REAL big, as are all the other 17" machines. This is almost too big as it is to be really portable anyway. IE....I wouldn't want to travel too much with the 17" of any of them. If you're an apple fan, get the Powerbook.
I am also impressed with the overall build quality. Very good in a world of cheap crap. The Dell is garbage in comparison and to get anywhere near the same Video, HDD, P4 etc on the Dell is several hundred more. Everything is very sturdy. Even the power cord is above average.
...
My only complaint is the keyboard. The top of this thing is PLENTY big enough that Toshiba could have fit a full sized board. Instead there are some idiot lights that let you know the HDD is spinning and wireless is working etc. I could easily do with out that for a full sized board. Few keys in some funky places too. It also has a remote and TV tuner that are external but I will never use them Could be a good idea for a college dorm or similar though.
I'm using it for portable video editing and so far so good. Ripping and burning a full (4.38 gigs) DVD takes a bit over an hour. Streaming from camera over firewire no problem. HT technology on the P4 2.8 with the included 512 ram seems to handle video processing better than my desktop AMD 2.8 w/ a Gig of memory. Haven't done any 3D gaming or such but it wasn't bought for that.
Had a question before I bought it so I tried tech support. They shipped some of them with "32 meg video" stickers (removeable) but they all have 64. Just a typo. A quick check of the system confirmed that it really did indeed have 64 as the specs say. Got through in literally 90 seconds, answered my question right away. Maybe a fluke but hey, when was the last time you got a tech support question answered in under 3 minutes?
So Toshiba if you're reading this....BIGGER KEYBOARD would have gotten you 5 stars!
| Standing screen display size | 15.4 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1024-by-768 |
| Processor | 2.8 GHz pentium_m |
| RAM | 512 MB DDR SDRAM |
| Hard Drive | 60 GB HDD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | nVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 64 MB |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 3 |
