After my overpriced, underperforming, Vista disabled HP laptop died on me, I shopped around for a good deal on a budget priced, reliable laptop. Asus is the only laptop brand that has better reliability than Toshiba (see ). When I checked the Toshibas, this is the model they were pushing (and apparently, still are). It's got an even bigger screen than I expected. It has a full size keyboard with a number pad on the right. It's a little large for carting around, but it is incredibly high performing with a great display. When I put a tumb drive in to copy some folders and files, I wondered why it wasn't working. I was used to watching the little folder transfer icons on my HP. Well, I was wrong it did work. It just worked so quickly I didn't even see it. It transferred a ton of data in the blink of an eye. I've only had it a month, so I can't speak to longevity. But the battery life is reasonably good, and it's a great computer especially at the price!
Other than that, it does what I need it to do and, again, for the price, I don't think you will find a better laptop. It runs nice and cool and is silent as a mouse.
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I'm typing this just thinking about what I wanted to know before I bought so this will be very back and forth as I'm thinking. For the price this is a great laptop. This one is replacing and older desktop that is close to death so I'm not picky. I like the number keypad but if you don't like having that like some people then don't buy a laptop with the number pad so you can't complain. I can actually type without having to turn off the touch pad unlike other laptops I've used. The lock for the touch pad is below the space bar so it would be easy to turn off if you end up with problems typing. It's also great to have the multi touch touch pad to zoom in and out. I can find the delete, number lock and insert keys easily so that's good. The backup took about an hour and used 3 DVD disk to complete plus one disk for the system repair disk. It has a great screen for watching Hulu unless you are use to extremely large screens. The speakers are good for a laptop. Really do you expect much from laptop speakers? I turned up the volume on both the player and main volume control and could back up where multiple people could watch and hear. They are better than other laptop speakers I have used where you have to hover inches from the screen to hear or use headphones. I'm happy with it. The web cam did well with Skype. It has a microphone which low end laptops don't always have. The blue light to tell you the web cam is on is a little bright but maybe that will help when in low light. Plus you'll know when you're on camera when it activates and blinds you for a couple of seconds. I'm having to get use to the windows 7 but already like the ease of sharing files with my wife's laptop. I haven't tested the battery life yet but everything I read said it has really long life if you use the correct settings with dimmer display and short time before sleep kicks in. I set mine to that when not plugged in but always awake when plugged in for when I use it to play videos. I'll see how the battery life does this weekend while out of town. I don't notice it getting hot. I don't hear much mechanical noise unless the fan to the left kicks on but that's not often. If you are use to a more expensive laptop you may say this is a loud laptop. There is extra software added but I think that's fairly usual and I don't see much extra crap to be removed. With a 20% discount this was the same price as some other's I was looking at (also at a discount) but it had a larger hard drive by 150GB and a GB more memory. The one thing I didn't read that I don't like is that the memory card slot only takes the SD style cards/adapters. My wife's much cheaper Acer has a multi card reader that will accept SD style and XD. We have Olympus cameras that use the XD cards. I can use an adapter or just upload to her laptop and transfer to mine so I'm not too upset over this. It probably is written somewhere in the specs but I just didn't see it. I hope this answers any questions you have. I used the laptop last night without the cord and the battery life is great. It ran for about 4 hours before I got the 10% warning. I also hadn't turned on the eco utility until the last 30 minutes which dims the screen by 1 level, turns off unimportant programs and resets the standby to about 2 minutes of unuse. I'm sure with that it would easily reach the 5 hour battery life that is in the specs. It does have a cool chart when using the eco utility that shows the amount of power being used at that moment. Normal use when I checked was around 20-25 watts and the eco utility on setting dropped it to 8-10 watts.Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite L655-S5158 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here
I can't say enough good things about this laptop. Fires right up, nicely responsive, easy to use. I thought I was really going to struggle with the concept of using a finger pad instead of a mouse, but this computer makes it so easy, it's a pain-free way to learn the different cursor-moving technique. I LOVE the numeric key-pad that is included in the alpha section of the keyboard, because that makes it more like a desk top keyboard for me.When the power consumption is set to 'Eco', it can run for five hours on a single charge, depending on what you are doing. The screen is beautiful and crisp. I view a lot of my photos on it and they present very nicely on this Toshiba. It weighs just under five pounds, considerably lighter than many full-size laptops I have seen, so I don't mind taking it with me when I go somewhere.
The only problem I have encountered (and the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5) is that I cannot get it to stream video without stopping and starting. I haven't read any other reviews that mention this issue, so it might just be my IP connection, or it is exclusive to mine, like a glitch, but it is severe enough to reduce the star count in my opinion. I don't use this computer for that purpose often, so it won't present much of a problem for me in the long run, but it needed to be mentioned.
The outer shell is attractively shiny, but it is a HUGE finger-print magnet. I promptly got a protective skin for it. I would highly recommend that to anyone considering this... or you will constantly be cleaning it, or walking around with a nasty-looking, grubbed-up device.
I don't understand the complaints about the fan running; it seldom does, and when it does, it's not for long and I often use this laptop sitting on a pillow on my lap.
I also don't understand the complaints about the speakers. I didn't buy it to listen to music... and the speakers work just fine for the things you need to hear. If you want 'nice speakers', buy a nice stereo or some surround-sound for your television. This laptop easily gets the job done, but it's not going to make your bed or fold the laundry for you. Unless you're the kind of person that buys a sofa hoping you will be able to drive it to the store, or a coffee maker hoping it will make breakfast for you, this laptop is a GREAT portable computer.
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This laptop was purchased to assist me in day-to-day tasks associated with my job.I currently work in the IT field and need a stable, working, quick laptop to assist me with repairs.
Toshiba has always built, what I consider, a high quality product.
This laptop is no different.
For the price, the Intel Core i3 processor really delivers.
After removing most of what I consider "bloatware", there wasn't a whole lot, the computer ran just as fast as it would have with a fresh install of Windows 7.
The screen is bright an vivid.
The keyboard is excellent.
The mouse pad feels good, you can always tell you're on it thanks to the grainy matte finish.
The laptop is surprisingly light for a 15" screen.
The fan noise, as some have reported, has not been an issue for me at all.
If you're considering a new laptop for everything but gaming, this is a very good product.
I recommend Toshiba against any other laptop brand.
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