After months of begging, I finally bought my wife a notebook computer. It’s a Toshiba A100-SK4 (manufacturer’s part number: PSAA8C-SK400E). Here are the specs:
- Processor: Intel Centrino Solo T1350
- Processor Speed: 1.86GHz
- Screen Size: 15.4″ (wide screen)
- Screen Type: WXGA TFT With TruBrite
- RAM: 1GB DDR
- Hard Drive: 80GB
- Optical Drive: DVD Super-Multi Drive
- Graphics: 128MB (Shared) Intel GMA 950
- Average Battery Life: Up to 3.5 Hours
- Battery Type: 6-Cell Lithium-Ion
- Cache: 32KB L1, 2MB L2
- Fax/Modem: 56K V.92
- I/O Ports: 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x S-Video Out, 1 x RGB
- Network Cards: 10/100 Ethernet LAN, Wireless 802.11bg
- PC Card Slots: 1 Type II, CardBus, Express Card
- Pointing Device: Touchpad
- Preloaded Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home (yuck)
- Product Weight: 2.8 kg
- Product Dimensions: 36.00(W) x 3.68(H) x 26.70(D) cm
- Speakers: Built-In Stereo Speakers
- System Bus: 533MHz
So far, I like this notebook. Granted, I haven’t used it for more than checking my email, surfing the web and watching a DVD movie.
Here are some good things I have noticed:
- It boots very quickly. I haven’t timed the boot yet but I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed. If I’m feeling bored this week, maybe I’ll time the boot.
- The wireless reception is excellent. I get a strong signal all over our two-story house and also outside on the sundeck.
- The screen is bright and supports a pretty wide range of viewing angles in both the x-axis and the y-axis.
- The speakers sound pretty good with the “surround sound” feature activated. I turned this feature on while watching the movie Sea Biscuit and I was quite impressed.
Something I don’t like about this notebook is its extremely loud DVD drive. The first time I watched a DVD on it, I was distracted by the noise. It sounded like a jet engine!
I did some research and found out that the notebook comes with a small utility called the Acoustic Silencer, which is supposed to mitigate this noise. When activated, the Acoustic Silencer limits the spin rate of the DVD drive to reduce vibration, which is supposed to reduce the noise. Toshiba recommends that you activate the Acoustic Silencer before running a movie DVD or a music CD. I tried it a couple of nights ago and it worked! It noticeably reduced the drive noise and as a result, I wasn’t distracted by it when I watched a movie. Of course, I think the Acoustic Silencer is a probably kludge to cover up a shitty-ass drive but if it works, I guess we can’t complain, can we?
Thanks for the review, I am thinking of getting this model. Sounds like a good inexpensive model that I won’t cry about if it falls off the table…
I have had Toshiba laptops on and off for several years now and have not been dissapointed yet. Always wondered what the Acoustic Silencer did, but never took the time to find out. After reading your review it came to my mind that it probably extends battery life when watching a movie on an airplane, for example. I will test this on my next flight and report if it worked. Cheers!
Yves Alexandre Savoir: To see what the acoustic silencer does, just play an audio CD, you will hear the cd player working. If you set the acoustic silencer to Quiet mode, it will reduce the speed of your cd player so you won’t hear it anymore.
Very useful !
I’ve had this laptop for almost a year now and I am very pleased with it, I wouldnt get anything other than a toshiba after the experiences I’ve had with the other brands such as Compaq and Acer.