Toshiba Satellite P205-S7806 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 Processor, 2GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(4 out of 5)

Excellent all-around laptop

Updated 4-16-08:

I've now had this for over a month, and so far so good. It seems to be very well-built.

This is an excellent all-around performer and was a great deal at Circuit City for $950 (at time of this review). For less than $1000, you get 3 GB (not 2), yes 3 Gigs of memory and a 250 GB 5400 rpm hdd. And of course, it has the gorgeous 17" widescreen display. This is what really makes it stand out, in my opinion.

In addition, you get 6 USB ports, a firewire port, WiFi 802.11 a/g/n, and the do-everything DVD drive. Sorry, no HD though. As we know, HD DVD lost the battle to Blu-Ray, so this is no surprise.

Keyboard layout is very good with good key travel and feel, though I would recommend turning off the "tap zones" in the mouse settings. Otherwise, you'll find yourself minimizing screens and other such unplanned annoyances. That's just a personal thing. Of course the width of this machine allows Toshiba to include a numeric keypad on the right side. I am accustomed to using the number keys above the keyboard, but I find myself using the numeric keypad more and more, and I've come to appreciate having it there. The right/left mouse click buttons are a little noisy and clunky, but not unbearable.

Sound quality is adequate with the standard speakers. It's not going to blow you away with super high fidelity surround sound, but it's okay for a laptop. I wish it had the upgraded Harmon/Kardon speakers, but it's not a show-stopper. For the most part, they're loud enough and clear enough to watch movies and videos and play the occasional music file just for background noise. If you're in a noisier environment, you may have a hard time hearing and will want to get a set of cheap, portable external speakers.

I don't use this for gaming or heavy-duty video or image-editing, so I can't comment on that from experience. With an integrated 251 MB intel grapics chip, it's not going to handle the very high-end games, but it should run 95% of the games out there with aplomb. The 3 GB main memory will most likely help with that. I suspect that most people don't buy laptops for heavy-duty gaming, anyway.

It also has an integrated video camera above the screen. I've tested it briefly and it appears to work just fine. However, you'll need sufficient lighting to see the images clearly, as they appeared quite dark in an average-lighted room during the evening.

Battery life could be better, but with a 17" display, that's not uncommon. I run mine on AC power almost all the time anyway, so it's not been a problem for me yet. An upgrade to a 9- or 12-cell battery would probably help. Also, turning off the WiFi when not in use will help. There is a very convenient on-off switch on the front-left side for this.

It also runs reasonably quiet and cool, especially for this size of laptop. In addition, the weight is respectable considering its dimensions. Make no mistake: this is no "road-warrior, lightweight travel companion", but for around-the-house and vacations, it's just fine.

Overall, I give this a strong four stars. For what it does and for the money, I'd really give it 4.5 stars, but we obviously don't have that option. If you're looking for a desktop replacement (or just an additional home computer), you're not needing heavy-duty gaming, and you want excellent multimedia capabilities and overall flexibility, then I would highly recommend it. It does all those things very well, and I'm confident that's exactly what it was designed to do.

PROS:
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* Gorgeous 17" widescreen
* Generous 3 GB memory and 250 GB hard disk
* 802.11 WiFi includes the newest 'n' standard (on the S8811 version)
* Six USB ports, Firewire, and Mediacard slots
* Nice keyboard layout and feel
* Integrated web cam
* You get a LOT for the money

CONS:
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* Integrated video memory
* Way too much bloatware pre-installed
* Button on DVD drive sticks out so it's too easy to accidentally open
* Battery life

SO-SO:
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* Right/left click buttons a little clunky
* Sound quality just okay
* Weight (not great but not terrible)
* Wish it allowed 1680x1050 resolution (maxes at 1440x900)
* Overly bright LEDs and "Satellite" logo on front edge of work surface

(5 out of 5)

Perfect for what I needed

I have a lot of photos and video and I like to work on my computer but hate being stuck at the desktop. This computer offers me all the power and speed needed to edit and manipulate my files with a large enough screen --same as my desktop BUT with the flexibility of working in different rooms around the house--there are other notebook computers that are as powerful but few in this price range that come with a T2330 processor. I LOVE THIS COMPUTER!!!

I am not sure why the description states 1 gb ram/160 gb hard drive. The version I own comes with 2 GB Ram (2048 mb); 250 GB Hard drive

(5 out of 5)

awesome

Recieved laptop before ETD. EZ setup and ez to work even with vista. Love it :)

(5 out of 5)

Toshiba p205-s7806

Wow, some of you have gone over the edge with your review. Anyway, THIS laptop will do anything you want to do except, extreme gaming. You can still game on it, however I recommend turning down all the settings to low for WOW and Guild Wars. if your going to EXTREME game on it, buy something else. If you going to do anything else on it, buy this laptop. It is really good...AND...the price drop to $[...] makes it a great buy. The 17" screen is the smooth glossy type screen, not the grainy type. Yes it comes with a lot of crap software, but what laptop doesn't. Just delete the garbage, ghost the image, and move on. Yes the WIFI button on/off switch is small, so what. The only people that will complain is those with fat fingers. Moderate hand-size people will not complain about the WIFI button. If it was any bigger, people would complain here that it sticks out too far, so just ignore the silly posts on the WIFI button being too small. Other than that, you can read other reviews to find any other questions you may have. I am just tying up the ones that are not answered.

Candle Darklight

(4 out of 5)

Great first time lap top.

Since this my first time purchase of a laptop, I really do not have others to compare it to. However the only down side I have encountered is the extremely tiny switch to turn the internet on with. You almost need a magnifying glass to find it, and is very stiff to turn on and off, perhaps over time it will not be quite as stiff. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed having this product. It is slightly heavier than I had expected, but then again I've had nothing to compare it to. I am impressed by the fact that I can add just about anything I will need to add due to the many ports on each side of this computer. I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone looking.