Unless price is your only reason, stay away from this Satellite with Vista...

Author's Rating:

Pros: Screen is bright and clear, huge hard drive, large and easy to use keyboard,

Cons: BATTERY-LIFE!!! Easily-scratched exterior, slow, tons of shareware, prone to sleeping, oh yeah, and Windows-Vishnu...errr Vista.

The Bottom Line: 
Slow, constipated, and cumbersome, the A215 isn't recommended by me for anyone looking for do-it-all system. Oh yeah, battery life is pitiful.

Author's Review
Toshiba Satellite 15.4" Laptop
Graphics Card: ATI RADEON X1200 W/128-319MB shared system memory
Processor: AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58
Hard Disk: 200GB Serial ATA drive
Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
Drive: Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW
MSRP: $850.00

----- Introduction -----

Just so everyone knows, this isn't a real review of this laptop as I only owned it for 6 days. I like to think of it as more of a warning to prospective buyers looking for a good deal. I was left without a laptop computer when my 4-1/2 year old Apple iBook G4 12" finally died on me. I stopped by the Apple store to look (drool, actually) at the newest lineup of MacBook 13.3" laptops. They look sweet and I know the Apple O/S inside out, but they were as expensive as ever. Since money wasn't growing on trees I decided I could get buy with a lower priced PC instead of buying a new Apple MacBook ($1,100+).

After wandering around Best Buy for awhile a sales associate directed me to the Satellite A215 model. After looking at the impressive (to me at least) system specs it seemed a good deal for under $800. The keyboard was clear and spacious enough to type easily on, the 15.5" screen was large, bright, and clear, and on the outside it looked pretty tough. Much like a freshman geek in the presence of a coed cheerleader I didn't look past the outer package. I trundled my bundle to the checkout and left with the little brown box under my arm.

----- Using and living with the Satellite -----

Unpacking my Satellite at home I found the laptop, quickstart guide, 120V house charger, and restore CDs. Once I started the setup and first-time boot up I realized this sure was no Apple and Windows Vista was my mortal enemy. By the time I finished answering questions, entering passwords, restarting, connecting to the internet multiple times, downloading updates, restarting, setting up the antivirus software, restarting, closing the countless popups from trial-version software... well you get the idea. A few hours passed and my patience shortened to dangerous levels. There were trial version of Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, Microsoft Works 8.5, Ulead DVD MovieFactory, several AntiVirus programs (all running I might add), several games, lots of productivity apps, and other junk such as movie and music programs.

The system (probably due to Vista and all the shovelware pre-loaded) boots very slowly and takes almost a minute to get to the main Vista screen and stop loading info from the hard disk. One you start using programs the system slows down even more, with several browser windows open, Windows Media Player running, and Microsoft Word open, I noticed pauses and hiccups when fast-switching between apps. This didn't go away and annoyed the friggin' crap out of me... so much so I tried to delete all inessential software. 3 hours of work later I had deleted roughly 18 programs and still had 75GB of hard drive space taken up by software... that's roughly 30% of the storage space gone without installing a single program of my own! After years of using Apple self-loading CD/DVD drives I wasn't impressed with the pop-out tray style of the Toshiba's drive. It was also VERY loud and changed RPMs frequently during installations of software. I burned an audio CD and the write speed was pretty quick, but again it sounded quite loud and almost out of balance when running.

Battery life is abysmal, I saw a maximum of 2 to 2.5 hours with my screen at 50% brightness and Vista on Battery Saver mode. Just trying to change the default settings for screen brightness and power savings is an exercise in patience with Vista, it took me 15 minutes to find the correct menu. On average I got slightly less than 2 hours before my power was drained... 2 hours! That's not what I bought a laptop for, get your act together Toshiba! For example, my new Apple MacBook 13.3" gets between 4 and 7 hours of life on one battery charge (with the screen at 30% brightness). On top of that this sucker gets hot when you've used it for a couple hours, it's more of a portable desktop than a true laptop, especially since it's almost 6 pounds.

As for the exterior of my Toshiba I purchased a Timbuk2 Laptop Sleeve the same day as my Satellite, however the highly polished lid somehow got scratched twice in only 6 days and I treated it with kid gloves. Come on people, don't make a black exterior with a grand-piano finish on a laptop... what were you thinking?

The sleep mode on the A215 seems to stay stuck on sometimes, when I opened the lid on two different occasions it stayed sleeping and wouldn't wake up even after pressing keys and waiting for over a minute. Finally I just used the power switch and rebooted the system. I found a few owners online that had a similar problem with their Satellites and some fixed it by turning off hibernate in power saving mode, I didn't even have hibernate turned on so there goes that idea.

----- Bottom Line -----

Yes I'm ranting and growling about all the things I didn't like, but for $800 I'm very frustrated with how slow and irritating this laptop is to operate. I don't mind WIndows XP, but Vista taxed my patience just learning to get around in the Start button menu. It seems as though Vista is an attempt to use an Apple style "dock" without streamlining the actual interface. I returned my Toshiba Satellite 6 days after purchasing, Best Buy did charge me $105 for restocking which I understood, after all it was opened. I replaced it with an Apple MacBook Intel Core2 Duo 13.3" 2GHz with 1GB of ram. On paper it sounds slower but in real life it's light years faster, with no garbage pre-loaded and slowing down the system.

Yes, there are some good features on the Satellite such as the previously mentioned bright and detailed WXGA TFT-LCD screen, 802.11G wireless card, front mounted audio controls and headphone jacks, 4 USB 2.0 ports for accessories, built-in Lightscribe style direct-disc labeling, lighted status icons for power, battery state, and hard disk access. I also liked the 5-in-1 media adapter for SD, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Cards. These positive aspects didn't outweigh the irritation of living with it in everyday situations.

Since I was already having a few issues with it waking up I considered extending the warranty but decided to return in instead. Best Buy does offer a 2 year protection plan which covers all accidents or failures, but it's $250... not cheap on an $800 laptop and you only have 14 days to add it if you want it. Granted, the AppleCare program is also $250 but you have a full year to decide if you need the extra coverage or not.

Now that I've vented a bit I'm to the point where I just want to let people know there's other options out there. I was disappointed with Toshiba's system and with Windows Vista, after using Apple's operating system I just can't go back. Before you buy a new laptop in the $800-$1,000 range please at least go check out the MacBook 13.3" at an Apple store near you. You'll say goodbye to registry errors, popups, and Windows Vista, good enough reason to never look back. I hope this helps someone out there shopping for a new laptop perhaps for a student or even for work.


Related links:


•Apple MacBook Intel Core2 Duo 13.3"
•Apple iMac Intel Duo 20"
•Apple iMac Intel Duo 24"
•Apple iBook G4 12"
•Apple Powerbook G4 17"
•Apple iPod Photo 40GB
•Apple iPod 20GB
•Nikon D70 Digital SLR
•Viosport Adventure Cam 2 Kit

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

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