Recently a Sony tx770p given to me had it's hard drive die on me after 2 months of really getting used to using the laptop. I have had my eye out for a long time for a replacement for it that would be comparable: 11.x screen, 1366 x 768 screen res, light weight, excellent battery life, excellent trackpad, and a particular type of keyboard that is similar to "chicklet style" but slightly different. Well, I finally found a replacement in the person of the Toshiba T115-S1100. Essentially it is a more-than-standard powerful netbook style computer.
Pro's:
1. Screen and size - LED backlit and "TruBright" ... lovely, crisp and clear! And 1366 x 768 screen resolution to boot, which is the minimum screen resolution I find actually usable when doing day to day things like browsing the internet and reading docs (both .pdf and word processing). It weighs roughly 3.5 lbs - nice and light on your shoulder as you carry it around!
2. Battery life - with everything turned off I have been able to get a little over 10 hours doing simple word processing or reading docs on this machine.
3. DDR3 RAM - the machine comes with a 2 gb chip in one slot, with another slot available to upgrade the memory. It maxes out at 4 gb. The ddr3 makes a noticeable difference in netbook level machines in my opinion.
4. Windows 7 Home - that is, a full installation of the OS, giving you way more options than Windows 7 Starter. The OS is only the 32 bit version, but it works fine considering the physical specs of the machine proper.
5. Keyboard - I personally really like the keyboard "style" used on this machine - there is spacing in between the keys a 'la "chicklet style", but the part of the keys you actually hit with your fingers are a teeny bit smaller than the bottom part of the keys, providing extra space and in general a sturdy feel when typing.
6. Trackpad - a pleasure to use. Responsive and just plain well made.
7. HDMI port - for those of you interested in such things this is a plus!
8. Web Cam - a 2 mp camera, a bit more for those of you who would use this than can be found on your average note/netbooks.
9. Intel 4500 graphics card - true, not that great, but still enough to use the hdmi port out and provide good battery life. Much more powerful than most offerings on netbooks in general.
10. ULV CPU - yes, it is single core and it is a Celeron (something many might associate with poor performance or "second rate"). However, the fact that it is an ULV means that not only is it good for battery life but it can actually crank out a fair amount of speed. This cpu runs at 1.3 ghz, 800mhz FSB, and has 2 mb of cache on it. Combine that with the ddr3 ram and a sata hard drive and you get quite a nice bit of speed for a machine its size and price.
11. Hard drive size - you get 250gb, whereas most netbook style machines give you a 160gb. Nice!
Cons:
1. Fingerprint Magnet - Argh! This thing (like many of the black colored machines produced today) attracts fingerprints to the outside of the machine and all around the outside of the screen proper. Frustrating.
2. No bluetooth - would have been a nice extra feature to add in. One should note, though, that built-in bluetooth is not an option on any of the Satellite T115 models available out there. It would be easy enough to get an external adapter though if it were really needed.
3. Mouse buttons - the mouse buttons used are "rocker style", that is, one button over the area that goes downwards on either side. I am not a fan of the rocker style buttons myself and find them difficult to use. Fortunately I had an external wireless mouse already.
4. Audio card - I have read accounts of people who have found the audio card far too weak to send noise out through the laptop speakers, although the sound through the headphones is quite fine. For me this is not an issue as I use it only with headphones. A simple "fix" for this is simply to uninstall the specific drivers for the audio card and opt for the microsoft standard drivers instead - they are reported to be a big improvement over sending sounds out of the speakers directly.
Middle-of-the-Road:
1. Heat control - it can get moderately warm when doing somewhat intensive tasks, like watching video files, for example. Nothing bad, but it is noticeable.
2. Wireless card - it is 802.11b/g rank only. This is kind of "for the par" on netbook style machines in general, but why not put in an N rank?
3. "Fusion" finish in Nova Black - the external decorations on the machine proper - it does not really excite me, but on the other hand it did not turn me off to considering to purchase the machine in general.
4. Indicator Lights - there are nine of them, and they are all on the front of the machine. If they were all active your machine would look like a small string of Christmas tree lights! :) Seriously though, it is not so bad, I simply prefer fewer indicator lights on a machine in general.
5. Standard port offerings - 3 usb 2.0 ports, mic/headphones jacks, sd card slot, vga out port, kensington lock, 10/100 ethernet.
6. USB sleep and charge - basically some software by which you can configure a certain device to draw a charge form the laptop while it is asleep. Not really something I can use or am interested in, but perhaps some may find it useful.
7. Overall Build - the machine is fairly sturdy and the screen and keyboard do not flex much at all. Good build in general overall from a "home line" product.
8. No optical drive - either internal or external. Again, I had one of these already, so this was not much of an issue, but to make dvd recovery discs you will need one.
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Conclusion: Overall I must say that I am very satisfied with this little machine. It is an excellent replacement for me, basically a "super-powered netbook": that is, one that portability, connectivity and battery life of a netbook, yet has more options and "umph" than most offerings out there. For a little more cpu speed and wireless N you can pay $40 more or so and get the T115-S1105. For me, however, this machine more than does everything I would want it to do for its size and price.Get more detail about
Toshiba Satellite T115-S1100 11.6-Inch LED TruBrite Black/Grey Laptop - 8 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium).
