Toshiba Satellite L500-1WP Review

Not so long ago (namely, 3 days ago) Toshiba announced that they are ready to give a laptop for a test ( pruflink ). I decided to try to write a review on it. Of course, there was very little time to borrow, but I tried to find out all of his strengths and weaknesses, which I’ll tell you about now.

UPD: Corrected specification table

The laptop arrived in such a long box, but as it turned out, the device itself is of normal size, and there was just a box with wires on the side.
')


A bit of dry specifications:

Appearance

Outwardly, it is a bit like a MacBook: the same metallic matte finish. But, in terms of thickness, of course, they are very different. In general, the design is quite pleasant, again, there is almost no gloss that the community is so fed up with. In general, some design elements scare me as an ordinary user. The first thing that surprised me, while I hadn’t even opened my laptop yet, is adjusting the sound not with the help of the function keys, but with the help of a relay (!) On the front panel. A very unexpected decision, but in principle, during the operation there are no complaints, it is moderately convenient.



The name of the company is written on the lid, and the lid itself opens without any latches. After opening the device, the huge touchpad buttons, which are even larger than the touchpad itself, caught my eye. But, this disadvantage compensates for the fact that the Satellite L500 has a full MultiTouch (2 and 3 fingers, scrolling, turning, zoom).



Also, the somewhat clumsy view of the built-in speakers and the power on / off buttons seemed unpleasant. Somehow it does not look, despite all the other details.





The keyboard also surprises with its unusualness. And, although it cost the developers a lot, the Toshiba Satellite L500 has a separate numeric keypad. But, because of it, some buttons are trimmed. "Space" has become very small, almost like on a netbook, but you can get used to everything over time.



By the way, the display of the pressed Caps Lock and Num Lock keys is made quite funny. In Caps - LED is built into the key directly. BUT



And in Num - lights up above it. And, although the Scroll Lock button is present, it has no indication.



I think it is worth noting the connectors that are present in it, not all of them are characteristic of each laptop model. On the right side are 2 USB ports, Kensington, charging connector and DVD drive. The front panel is distinguished by its austerity. It has only a volume control and a card reader (SD / MMC, MS), and the indicators: power, operation, battery, HDD, memory card, wireless connection. But on the left side, in addition to the already traditional VGA, Ethernet and microphone and headphone jacks, there are HDMI and eSATA + USB (dual port). From wireless there are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which is enough for communication. In all other respects, this is probably an ordinary laptop.





Above the screen is the eye of the Web-camera, which is made very convenient, because "Looks" directly on the face (and not as in some models - it is displaced). The pre-installed program for working with the camera, the menu of which appears when you move the cursor to the left side of the screen. There you can make frames, adjust the brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc., in general, everything is the same as in all notebooks. By the way, next to the camera there is a miniature blue LED that performs the role of some kind of backlight.



The camera shoots, of course, is not very good, but to see something real. This is about quality:



But let's not dwell on the outer charms, let's move on to the insides, so to speak.

Iron and software

Of course, one of the downsides can be called the weight of the laptop, because it is as much as 2.94 kg, and this with a screen of 15.6 inches. But, in my subjective opinion, this is not a huge minus, because the laptop is intended rather to save space, and not for frequent carrying. And the battery life is about 3 hours, so it’s impossible to spend all day with him in nature. :)



Judging by the internal stuffing, this is a cross between cool gaming laptops and middle class devices. After all, here are Intel Core i3, and 4GB of RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5145. So, at work or at home, you can now play not only a kerchief or tapeworm, but also more resource-intensive games, without spending on buying transcendental laptops.

But, not to be unsubstantiated, I conducted several tests, the results of which I submit to your review.

When you first turn on, the already installed Windows 7 will be configured, and in 2-5 minutes it will appear before you in all its glory, and with the company desktop screen saver. By the way, during the installation you can choose the version 32-bit or 64-bit. As you can see, McAfee, Skype, eBay, 60-day version of Microsoft Office is immediately installed.



When you press the Fn button, a hint menu pops up, which is also duplicated by stickers on the keys themselves.



The system has already installed some programs to assist in working with a laptop. For example, Toshiba Assist, which allows you to understand and configure many functions.



As well as the program Tempro, which in the background will monitor the operation of the laptop and issue warnings in case of malfunctions. Yes, often the built-in software is annoying, but here it is the really necessary programs.



3dMark gives about 4000 points. This is very, very good, because it allows you to play almost all modern games. Tested on NFS: Shift and GTA IV. Good enough, even at the maximum settings almost does not slow down and displays good graphics.



The laptop has a 4Gb ram installed, but it is possible to install another one. Hard disk on 320Gb.



According to the Windows 7 system itself (from 1 to 7.9 points). Evaluation is based on the minimum value.



Built-in sound is not very. A little rattling, the volume is low, but stereo. It’s quite normal for a laptop, because you’re not looking at a rock opera on it, but for toys and YouTube will do.

As for cooling and noise: several coolers are installed in the laptop, but this does not create noise. Moreover, if the laptop is on the table, then there is no noise at all. When it is “on the knees”, the processor, of course, heats up more and coolers accelerate, but still the noise is insignificant and much less than that of the same Dell Inspiron 1525, with which they are similar.

The price of a laptop is about 28 000 r. It seems to me more than good. At one time, I took for the same money a laptop with an integrated video card, 2 GB of RAM, in general the size is the same, and the performance is an order of magnitude worse. In general, the price is more than adequate for a laptop of this class.

Results

pros
+ Matte design
+ Technical indicators
+ Almost silent
+ HDMI, eSata
+ Price

Minuses
- Weight
- Some design flaws
- Sound

In comparison with the Samsung n130 netbook and the ViewSonic full-notebook



And so it looked on my desk (sorry for some artistic mess)



I personally liked this laptop more than not. Yes, something confuses him (the relay to adjust the sound), something I don’t really like (touchpad buttons), but basically this is a good product with high-quality hardware in its price category. Previously, I did not have to deal with Toshiba laptops, so I was pleasantly surprised that they produce decent things that the consumer might like.

For those to whom the price / quality ratio is slightly more important than the price, the Toshiba Satellite L500 is what you need, especially if you don’t want to pay 80 thousand for a gaming laptop. In general, the Satellite is a good new series, which will undoubtedly find its popularity, and this model is an excellent confirmation of this.

Well, on the Rights of the ma-a-scarlet advertising - Promotion from Toshiba , where you can exchange your own at a discount of 10 000 r when buying a new laptop.