Toshiba Satellite 5205-S703 Laptop (2.0-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Amazing Piece of Machinery

As a pro new media designer, I needed a machine that would be very powerful, have lots of features, and still be pretty portable. After looking over dozens of Sony, Apple, and other machines, here's why this one won me over:

1) GeForce 460 64MB: Aside from being able to drive two monitors (excellent for video editing and menu-intensive apps), I do like to play the occasional game. This card pumped out Unreal Tournament 2003 at 1280x1024 resolution with high levels of detail set. Very impressive.

2) DVD-Burner: I've seriously wanted to get into DVD-Authoring, and this opened up the door. It's only a 1x, but it does the job.

3) Subwoofer: As part of my work, I compose and work with a variety of music styles. The sub adds a full octave of bass response to the output, which is excellent when building beats, watching DVD's, or blowing away the other team in Unreal.

4) Screen: 1600x1200 resolution looks beautiful. In my profession, I'm usually using a ton of different programs, each of which may have up to a dozen tool or option palletes open at once. The additional screen real estate is wonderful.

5) Power: 2Ghz, 512MB of Ram, and Intel's Speed-step power-saving make for a lot of efficient horsies under the hood.

6) Synaptics cPad: Very useful little gadget. Combines a touchpad with a built-in application launcher that is totally customizable. You can also customize the graphic behind the touchpad however you'd like. In my case, I put my company logo in there - I like.

7) Remote control: Great for controlling your machine from a distance, like if you're watching DVD's.

8) Output options: Dolby 5.1 surround, VGA port, Audio/Video output, etc. Why bother getting a full home theater system? All you need is this machine and some surround-sound speakers. It already plays CD's, DVD's and outputs surround.

9) SD Card slot: My video camera uses those Multimedia Cards for storing digital pictures. The SD format is a derivative of the MMC cards, so the slot reads both. Now I don't need to carry an external card reader any longer.

10) CD Player: The machine has dedicated CD player buttons on the front, so that you can play CD even with the laptop turned off. Great for conserving battery power well all you want to do is listen to music.

11) Look and feel: This thing is beautiful. I love the glossy blue screen back. It makes people go "whoa". The keys are very comfortable and actually have some travel, so they feel like you're actually typing on a real honest-to-god keyboard (unlike the Sonys, which don't have nearly enough travel). The positioning of the specialty keys (Home, PgUp, `, etc.) take a little getting used to, but actually are much better laid out than on some other laptops I've seen.

12) Last but not least: Price! This baby beats out the Sonys, Apples, and others in price-to-performance ratio and sheer number of features. I feel a got an excellent deal with this machine, and it does everything I wanted - and more!

Problems:

1) No DVD authoring software! Usually, machines with DVD burners or standalone DVD burners bring at least a copy of MyDVD. This brought nothing.

2) Battery consumption - this thing eats battery life with a quickness. A second battery is highly recommended.

3) Weight and Size: Don't get me wrong - this is no desktop-replacement battleship. However, it's not a thin-and-light by any means. It's a workhorse machine, and it's built solid.

Size-wise, it's a healthy (1.7" thick, 11Lx13W), but not nearly so big as the 16" screened desktop rep. monsters. It's actually a very comfortable size.

4) No floppy: Once in a while, I'll be at a client's who has no network, no wireless, and no CD-burner. A floppy drive is not by any means a neccesity, but it does come in handy once in a while.

Honestly, the above problems are almost nit-picky in comparison to what you get with this machine. I am absolutely thrilled with this computer, and actually enjoy using it much more than my desktop.

Check it out yourself and you'll see what I mean!

(5 out of 5)

A tale of two notebooks

You may have noticed Toshiba is selling two very different notebooks for the same price: the 1955-S803 and the 5205-S703. So which is better? The 1955 cost about the same as the 5205, has the same memory, same HDD, a bigger screen and faster CPU, so it must be the best choice right? Well maybe not.

The 1955 has a nice big 16" LCD, but the *quality* of that screen is much lower than the 15" screen on the 5205. Also the 1955 is using a P4 desktop CPU, whereas the 5205 uses a P4 mobile CPU. The desktop CPU runs hotter and drains the battery faster.

So which is better? Well it depends on what you want. The 1955 is a great choice if you are going to plug into a wall socket and don't plan to use your notebook on your lap (the bottom gets hot). It more like a desktop computer you can move around easily. The 5205 is a better choice if you need more battery life or want a very high quality screen to reduce eyestrain, do CAD work, or to play the latest 3D games.

Personally I prefer the 5205 for the longer battery life and high quality screen. The build quality is also a little better (both are good).

CPU:
1955 2.5 GHz P4 Desktop CPU
5205 2.0 GHz P4 Mobile CPU (cooler, battery last longer)

Screen:
1955 16" LCD 1280x1024 pixels (that pixel count is too low for a 16")
5205 15" LCD 1660x1200 pixels (provides a much sharper image)

Graphics chipset:
1955 NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (good enough for some 3d games, light CAD)
5205 NVIDIA GeForce4 460 Go (about 30% faster than the 440)

Weight:
1955 9.5lbs (getting a little heavy)
5205 7.5lbs (not bad)

Both offerings have serious competition from Dell, HP/Compaq, and Gateway so look around.

(3 out of 5)

if only it would'nt breakdown

I purchased this Toshiba 3months ago and really loved it...then a month ago the dvd-r drive went bad...it was replaced and I became happy again...but that was shorted lived because yesterday(1/30/03) the wireless connection stop working and was told by Toshiba that the wireless card has to be replaced (free of charge of course). This makes me wonder whats next. I really like this machine and maybe I just got stuck with a lemon. I hope this is the end of the repairs. I would really advise everyone that they take out an extended warrenty (as I did) expecially if this is a sign of things to come.

(4 out of 5)

Should have used a 16 inch screen

Before getting this unit, I checked out the Sony GRX-670 at Best Buy. I decided to get the Toshiba because of the following advantages over the GRX-670 series: USB2.0, 64MB sound card, Better sound, Integrated wireless. A GRX at the same price would get you a 1.9Ghz system with a 30GB hard drive.

After using the unit for a week, I still like this machine but I would have defintely wanted the Sony's brighter and crisper 16" screen. With the same 1600x1200 resolution, the extra 1" at the top and bottom translates to bigger fonts. I tried to change the display font in windows to 125% normal size and this has worked for most programs except Internet Explorer. If you are viewing websites formatted with CSS to use the smallest font, changing the font size in explorer won't make any difference and you have to decrease screen resolution to view these pages without straining your eyes.

One disadvantage of adjusting resolution below 1600x1200 is that fonts seem blurry because of the interpolation it does to fill 1024x768 to 1600x1200.

I've been using the Dlink Wireless 614+ in my home and enjoy connecting at 22mbps. The Toshiba integrated wireless only give me 11mbps but it has better signal quality than my external wireless card.

(5 out of 5)

Additional Information on 5205-S703

Concur with the other reviews about the 703 being a great machine. I have had it for a week, and have been very pleased with the processor, screen (the UXGA+ 1600 resolution is incredible - clearly a competitive advantage), and the storage (60 Gig). But some additional thoughts -

1. No other machine like it. I looked at Dell and Gateway, but neither have both the graphics nVidia chip w/64M with the 1600 resolution screen & 60 G drive, for anything close to this price. The graphics is very important, as the graphics RAM significantly speeds up all programs!

2. Toshiba is running a nice rebate [$$$] as they close this model out - you ought to act fast if you are going to buy a laptop within 120 days... no more 703s are being built (the 705 will be out in 6 weeks and has some features I don't want and costs more).

3. THERE IS NO ROLLING LAPTOP CASE BIG ENOUGH FOR THIS MODEL OR THE 704! Targus is suppose to put out a rolling 16inch (screen size) that will fit this model. I went to [a local store] armed with my laptop (they were kind enough to let me bring it in) and I went through 20-odd cases from Targus, Case Logic, et al, and nothing was a good fit. You will have to make do with scrunching the laptop into a carry case style, and even then it is barely a tight fit...

4. I have DVD MOTION STUDIO pre-installed, so the previous post about no DVD authoring software is bogus (also included CD drag&drop program for CD-R/RW).

So far, everything is working perfectly. Bought the laptop through Amazon, went to TOSHIBA.com and bought the warantee at a discount... plus AMAZON gives $200 gift cert 4-6 weeks after purchase... this is a MUST BUY!