Toshiba Satellite U505-S2980 laptop review

The Toshiba U505-S2980's primary gimmick is a multitouch touchscreen. Outside of that, it can be, for the most element, a good laptop, even previously mentioned average in lots of techniques. But that one particular gimmick will be the root of my issues using this 13-inch notebook--and assists raise its cost to a somewhat expensive $1050 (as of 11/24/09).

Since the panel is really a touchscreen, the U505-S2980 suffers from grainy photograph good quality. This exacerbates a more standard issue of the display just currently being dim. Viewing angles and backlighting are all right--the hinge really sets the display screen for the best angle when the unit is fully open--but the display screen is actually not vivid plenty of. What you wind up with is often a show that is made too many compromises for an notion that just doesn't work in apply. (In all fairness the touchscreen variant from the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s along with the Dell Latitude TX2 have been also just a little dim--it's not one thing special to Toshiba).

I suspect Toshiba wants you to use the touchscreen far more than anything at all else, but I'm just not sold. The 13-inch screen runs at a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, way also very good for the appropriate touch interface without having a stylus. Certain, you are able to up the font size, however it grossly decreases usable room on an by now cramped resolution. Multitouch also seems foolish, given how awkward it can be to achieve ahead and manipulate the bundled multitouch application when the notebook is upright. That bundled app--software for posting notes and photos like a blackboard--is in alone quite adorable, but hardly useful. That mentioned, together with the touchscreen, it is a breeze to zoom in and out of pictures or Internet sites. And when you would like to do some on-screen doodling in something like Photoshop, you are able to.

If the screen is problematic, the good news is always that the mousing touchpad is rather stellar (although a little tiny), presenting up multitouch capacity, also. So in the event the utilizing the display by means of touch turns you off, no less than you've a reputable choice.

Now if Toshiba could just obtain the keyboard element down. The glossy, flat-surfaced, backlit keyboard is often a pain. The low cost plastic utilised for it squeaks and squeals whenever you slide your fingertips across it, and it's just not comfortable to use. However the touch-sensitive buttons above the keyboard are nice, along with the visual styling using the white LED backlighting is actually lovely along with a welcome change through the earth of blue LEDs elsewhere in the marketplace. Another user may possibly discover the keyboard type to their liking, but to me it remains a gaudy reminder of Toshiba's over-glossed yesteryear.

The performance with the U505 is quite reasonable--though it can be hardly a velocity demon--but the now-standard 4GB of DDR2 arrives coupled having a meaty 500GB hard drive, which is almost leading of the line for ability in contemporary notebook drives. The 2.2GHz Intel Core two Duo T6600 processor isn't really heading to win any awards, but backed with 4GB of DDR2 RAM and that big hard drive, it scores an 87 in WorldBench six. That's much more than enough for basic use. The Intel integrated graphics preclude any genuine gaming efficiency, but high-definition media playback worked very well, without any stutters or hiccups.

The trade-off for that efficiency is diminished battery life--you get three.five hours if you're fortunate. The typical for an all-purpose machine is about four hrs, 14 minutes.

The speakers around the body beneath the display screen fare at the very least just a little better. Even though still tinny as notebook speakers are wont to be, they at the very least make some work made to supply on the reduced conclude, so you get a good amount of volume. At sixty percent volume the speakers are plenty loud plenty of for either video clip or audio.

I locate myself really liking the overall search of the unit, although it is a tiny bulbous to get a 13-inch laptop (it measures twelve.5- by 9.1- by 1.5-inches and weighs 4.7 pounds). A satisfying texture to the lid along with the within (equivalent to what we saw on the NB205 line) give a modern day, toughened type plus a comfy texture for that palm rest.

The U505-S2980 is quite firm, with no creaks or flexing within the chassis. Port choice is excellent, with 3 USB ports (certainly one of that is a combo e-SATA port), together with VGA- and HDMI-video outputs, speaker and mic jacks, gigabit ethernet, and in some cases an olde-tyme modem port. You will also discover an ExpressCard slot, as well as an SD/MMC card reader around the front. These connections are incredibly nicely put, too, with two with the USB ports in the vicinity of the front. And lastly, hats off to employing a slot-loading DVD drive as a substitute of the flimsy tray-loading ones much more typically identified in laptops.

Even though I locate a lot to like concerning the U505, it can be ironic that the primary offering point can also be what's holding this laptop back--the touchscreen. A user's experience using a notebook is often going to rely chiefly on the keyboard and also the screen--the two most immediate techniques of interacting with it. It is possible to match all of the hardware you need below the hood, but when these two never hold up their end of the discount, individuals are not heading to wish to utilize it. The touchscreen can be a cute gimmick whose poor visual good quality unfortunately brings the entire thing down a peg.