Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba Satellite M35-S320 Laptop (1.50 GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-CDRW Combo)

I just purchased this machine to replace my desktop after looking primarily at the Dell 8600, the 15" Power Book and the HP ZV5160 and am having no second thoughts. My friends who bought the 8600 are. By comparison, the Toshiba is a little faster running the same applications, the screen has a bit better picture and the machine is over a pound lighter. I couldn't justify the extra $1,000 for the Power Book just for the "cool" factor. And my co-worker who went with the HP returned it a week later due to iffy quality and poor performance and bought a Toshiba. I am a novice when it comes to computer stuff, but right out of the box this machine was extremely easy to get going. The wireless worked like a charm. The machine, despite its light weight, has a very solid feel to it. For just storing pics and music, surfing the net and handling personal finance issues, I'm sure I over-bought. I was able to get this machine with a wireless router for $1,500, and I couldn't find anything that even came close for bang-for-the-buck. My friend tried running some super-intense game, and the machine couldn't quite keep up, but Toshiba doesn't market the machine for that, and that ain't what I got it for. As someone who has perpetual buyer's remorse, I cannot recommend this machine enough.

It was time to upgrade and I thought I wanted one of those mini laptops, you know the ones so small they don't even have an optical drive. Well I found one, the sony vaio v505, that did. However I ended up going for the toshiba machine because I realized that I would be using it as much or more at a central site than on the road. I am in med school and travel to different cities for weeks at a time for rotations. I need the portability of a laptop, but like the convenience of something nice to look at, enter the widescreeen. In a word it is magnificent. The notebook itself is very thin and although you feel the weight in your bag, it is not cumbersome. The things I like best about this laptop are its screen, sleek look, but more importantly great processor speed and good battery life. The utility config free is great and makes it a snap to connect to the internet, truly config free. The wifi is great too, my first run-in with them so no basis for comparison. I am rarely somewhere that I don't have an outlet, funny how most hospitals need electricity, so I carry the power cord, I wish they made a more portable version, and my travel mouse, I hate touch pads. The sound from the built in speakers is good, they don't sound tinny and don't break up at louder volumes, but don't forget they are less than an inch in diameter.

I do have a list of nit picky negatives, it's just the way my mind works, and I am also very wary of a review that has no negatives. First it could be lighter, but you could say that about any laptop. Secondly, I wish there were more usb ports, it has 3 all on the right side. You can buy one of those port splitters, but again its a laptop and too much bulk gets you away from the reason you bought one in the first place. Next, the IR port is on the front, and while I haven't needed to use it for a printer it seems an odd place to put it. Probably on either side near the back would be better. Finally, it doesn't come with Office 2003, you can buy it for $149, but then the value for the system comes down a little bit.

Overall, this computer is a do-it-all all-star. If you want to play games it handles them with ease, if you want to watch movies the widescreen is unusually good at it, if you want to write a research paper and have the accompanying PP presentation on the effects of lispro on gestational diabetes you can do that too. It works on the road and as a desktop too. I am very happy with it and am glad I went big!

Got this laptop a week ago and I just love it. Being a computer nut, and a computer programmer, I had to pick a machine that would work well with my tasks. So far this one is handling the processor-intensive tasks I need very well. After realizing that I had been working on my old Pentium III 900MHz 512MB desktop for more than three years and still not feeling the urgent need to upgrade that one, I concluded that I'll probably use this laptop as a full replacement for my old warrior and not need to upgrade laptops in a long time.
The main factor when I decided for the Toshiba after comparing different brands was the reliability and reputation of this brand. Seriously, everytime I take some equipment (TVs VCRs, etc) for service at the retail store I notice the high number of HP and Sony Vaio laptops piling up the shelves. After Compaq merger with HP, and seeing their models similiarities, I'm now scared of Compaqs too. I took Dell out of the contest because of a personal bad experience with tech support and bad drivers I got in the past. All this, combined with the great price and package made it almos a no-brainer for me.
One thing that would make this one even better would be a multi-card-format reader instead of the SD-only reader. But I can live without that with my USB flash drive.

Not to repeat the other review, let me just say that the computer is great. Watching a movie and surfing the web at the same time is totally possible with the great and wide screen. The keyboard feeling is great, the setup out of box is superb.

I would only say the when considering this machine with others with Pentium 4-M, the main tradeoff is between 1.5-2 pounds less versus computing power for processor-intensive uses like MatLab or Engineering software or advance digital work. If you are a traditional (mostly MSOffice kind of software) user this is by far the best option.

The only little detail I would like to point out is that I find the SD-slot somewhat difficult to reach when using the computer on a flat surface. Btw, the SD-slot is very convenient to transfer pictures and movies from digital cameras without the need to install specialized software. I also find it very useful for transferring info from my PDA to the computer.

Excellent for home-school, home-office frequent trips. Once again Toshiba did a great job.

I bought this machine to replace my sony vaio pcg-grz630 that had some sort of unfixable issue that caused it to turn off and then only turn back on occasionally if you held your breath and tossed salt over your left shoulder while saying chants to the old-gods. My experience with Sony support was the stuff of nightmares. I never did talk to anyone who could give me any answers despite hours spent in frustration. My vaio was a "better" machine if you just look at the specs. It had a bigger hard-drive, more memory, was faster, and more expensive, but my toshiba outperforms it. Here's how:
1. When I play dvds everything is smooth. With my vaio, I had to turn the screen specs all the way down in order to get it sort of smooth
2. The battery lasts forever and the power management settings are easy as pie and very relavant. ie. dvd playback, presentation, long life, etc. I live in Florida and during all the hurricane power outtages we watched dvds on my laptop. It charged quickly in the car and would play nearly 2 entire movies before needing a charge. I could use my sapphion external battery and charge it in the car and have continious laptop use with the power out. The vaio used so much power that my external battery would not work with it and on airplane rides, had such short life that I couldn't even watch a movie if I started with a full charge. Frustrating.
3. All laptops get hot...fact of life. If you want a cool laptop, don't turn the thing on, but this one has little feet that keep it up off of surfaces a little and it doesn't get as hot as that vaio did, not by a long shot. If you are worried about generating too much heat, for instance if you are outside on a hot summer day, there are power settings that can minimize the problem.
4. The vaio had a 2.4 gig processor, the toshiba a 1.5, but I can't seem to tell the difference, not even when I use my demanding statistics software.
5. This baby is light and thin and very sexy looking.
6. Best built in laptop speakers I ever heard.
7. That volume wheel on the front is just plain handy
8. Built in wireless with a handy little switch for turning it on and off in case you aren't using it and want to conserve power.
9. the secure digital slot is awesome. I have a camera, an mp3 player, and a pda that also use sd.
10. An IR port. I can hotsync my pda wirelessly without having to deal with the configuration nightmare that is bluetooth. IR is a bit slow for an initial hotsync...I recommend the wire for that, but for the frequent calendar, notes, memos, address book hotsyncs, it is perfect.
11. This is a big one for me...there is a number you can call if you have questions or problems with your computer. Sony goes to a lot of trouble to make themselves hard to get ahold of. I will never purchase another sony product as long as I live no matter how great it is for that reason alone. When you are writing a thesis and you have deadlines and your computer screws up, you don't need the crap they put you through. Toshiba provides you with stickers with phone numbers on them for you to put on the bottom of your computer.

The downside--2 of the 3 usb ports are in an unfortunate location. They are on the right side toward the front, which means that if you have limited space and a usb mouse, the 2 front ports put wires right where you want your usb mouse or wacom pad or number pad to sit. I usually plug my targus hub into the rearmost port (also on the right side, but away from the other 2 all the way in the back) and plug everything into it to avoid this frustration.