Bought my laptop at the local Office Depot for $649.99 then got $150 off for instant savings which makes it a better performance bargain. Love the fact that the windows 7 that is installed is the 64bit version instead of the 32bit version. Which is a good sign soon i am upgrading to 8gb. Like the fact that the screen is a 17.3" led backlite screen which makes the laptop lighter but not by much. The hard drive is of decent size but 500gb is more than enough for the average user. Can be used for casual gameplay at best. Might play some demanding games at lower settings. Built in speakers are not the best but the integrated desgin is neat to ponder at. Like the fake looking carbon fiber design that they chose. Process is of increadible speed for a mobile dual core desgn running at 2.5ghz. Doesn't get that hot for a large laptop computer. Full keyboard layout is good. But don't like that they chose not to use a DVD R/RW drive with labelflash or lightscribe support. Only has two usb inputs when most have atleast 3 and the location is right next to dvd drive. Two other features i like is the integrated esata and hdmi output and it still has vga output as well. I would highly recommend this computer who is looking for a better laptop that doesn't want to break the bank.
PROS
1. Nice bright screen with a basic ATI HD 4250, good for HD movies, bad for gaming.
2. Good solid build from the ground up, although all computers today feel pretty much the same.
3. Pretty quiet, although the fan usually always runs, but it's subtle.
4. Good for surfing the net, word processing, music and movies not much else.
5. Good burner, usually Toshiba puts on Cyberlink, but not on this machine, i put it on myself with an old disc i had.
6. Very smooth keys, soft actually, and where you rest your hands feels very comfortable.
7. Good sounding loud speakers, no Harmon Kardon but good.
8. No track pad problems, its sensitive but right over the track pad guess what? Yeah a shut off button, imagine that ha.
9. High Speed 3.0 USB, with sata port.
10. Large 17.3 inch screen, which is hard to find for this price. Not LED though, LCD only.
CONS
1. I myself hate AMD especially Turion, but this one does "ok". My Acer has the Pentium Dual Core P6100 which is much faster overall. Converting movies shows a big difference even though this is a 2.53ghz dual core. Mainly because the Acer has 3mb of L3 cache.
2. Finger print magnet, although it looks nice.
3. Little bit of flex in the keys, just a little though.
4. Extremely cheap mouse buttons, probably the worst i've seen. Very loud when using
5. Horrible web cam picture.
6. Runs a little hot sometimes underneath your right palm, small potatoes.
7. Slow boot, as with even faster computers.
8. Not enough "useful" software out of the box, no burning utilities, Microsoft works, etc.
9. Extremely weak on board ATI GPU, you can barely play half life on low settings. :(
So all in all it's an average computer with mediocre performance, but a good deal for the money. Every AMD i've used in the last few years on any computer i've worked on has been very sluggish. But if you want a good deal that won't break your bank, and just for everyday regular use, this computer is for you. Also as i said in this range other than Acer you won't find very many 17.3 inch screens for the price.I'll start off by saying the only reason I chose to buy this PC was because the price is right. It was on sale for under $500 so I didn't think there was any risk in such an investment. I've always wanted to get into PC gaming and to do that I knew that after a while I would either have to upgrade (which I don't know how to do for the life of me) or trade in for a new one further down the road. This computer will be awful for gaming! If you are looking for a good gaming laptop than I suggest looking for a laptop that costs at least $1000 and do your research about GPX cards. Regardless of that, I was easily able to make this otherwise weak GPU play very demanding 1080p HD videos with very high bitrates. Out of the box it didn't play them so well, but a $10 investment into CoreAVC will go a long way and improve H.264 video decoding like a pro.
The design of the laptop is also top notch in my opinion. I was hesitant to buy a gray computer, but only the lid is gray, and very dark at that. The keyboard was outstanding for me with soft flat keys with a stylish glossy black finish. Has a full number pad and a track pad lock as well. The track pad isn't the best....no maybe it is. All track pads seem to be different kinds of suck, but at least this one has a nice texture to it and not just smooth and flat. Either way, get yourself a wireless Logitech mouse. The display is your typical LED screen, and while it looks as good as you would expect a 17.3 inch 1600x900 LED screen to look, I can't help but remember how much more I enjoyed my old Sony Vaio and its regular LCD screen. But I guess laptops these days are all about seeing your reflection if you using it in a bright room. Ports are nice. Comes with 2 USB ports (and a 3rd in the form of a USB/Sata combo port) HDMI, VGA, and an SD Slot. 3 USB ports is alright, but the standard is 4. SD Slot makes the SD card stick out rather than click in, so I always took out the card before moving it to avoid the card getting hit. But everything works as expected.
I'll finish by saying that despite my small complaints, I liked this laptop. For a computer this price you can't go wrong with it. For just an average PC user I highly recommend it. It is by no means powerful, but if you really needed it to be, you wouldn't be reading a review for a laptop of this price anyway. Just seriously, don't game on it.I love this laptop. When it works. The main issue is overheating, which happens frequently. It happens mostly when watching video or playing games, though this computer was supposed to be excellent for that. Less than 18 months after I bought the computer, the entire cooling system has died. That doesn't seem like a reasonable amount of time before a major system of the computer craps out.
Howeverdespite all my problems with the computer itselfthe customer service while the computer was under warranty was AMAZING. They really work hard to help you and frankly, that makes me consider buying another Toshiba.
As for the computer itself, the 4gb of memory is great. 500gb of storage is more than enough. The integrated webcam and mic make Skype super easy. And the battery lasts a good deal of time when not plugged in. The only real con is the overheating/cooling system issue.After owning several problem-free Compaq and Dell laptops over the past 15 years, I made the mistake of buying my first Toshiba, a Satellite L675D. I admit that I was enthralled by the 17" display. Big mistake. HUGE MISTAKE. Less than four months after purchase, my wife opened the laptop one evening and the screen showed a crack in the upper right corner. I sent the laptop to the Toshiba repair depot and they claim she accidentily damaged it and they want $325 to repair it. BTW, the entire system only cost $530 brand new. According to Toshiba Customer Relations (and I quote) the "accident was caused by opening the case too hard". I asked how that was even possible. Seriously, how do you open a laptop too hard? Toshiba said (and I quote), "you could have pulled too hard". If anyone from Toshiba is reading this, refer to T1-1174583 case # 110 331 001 320. I swear these are exact quotes. I currently own several Toshiba products, but after this experience I will never purchase another Toshiba product of any type in my lifetime. And now whenever I see someone even looking at a Toshiba laptop in Best Buy, HHGreg, WalMart, etc, I will warn them not to even consider Toshiba. Stick with manufacturers who stand behind their products. Toshiba is not one of them.
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