Toshiba Satellite A75-S226 Notebook PC (3.06 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive)

Rating:
Summary: My new Toshiba A75-226
Review: I bought this computer on July 29,2004 and did not open it until late the next night. The reason I did not open the box is because I could not find many reveiws on this notebook and I was not sure if I wanted to keep it and if I broke the seal bam 15% restocking fee.

Anyway, I went and checked out other laptops in the middle and came to find out that this toshiba was pretty well packed with what I needed for the price. Best Buy was selling it for $1549 and they were running a $150 Mail in Rebate which made it a perfect price. I looked at Sony Vaio's only to be more pricey and looked like you were just paying for that screen and the name VAIO, but I did upgrade from an old VAIO so I am not knocking that they are bad, just expensive. Did not like the HP & Compaq's they just looked too much like a crappy piece of plastic and did not have the same setup for the price.

This toshiba is great! The screen is awsome and looks just like the 17" they sell only smaller. The thing is super fast even with big programs I installed and having lots of programs running as well is not a problem. I am a pretty big computer guy and I can say this is worth the $1400 I paid.

I can now say that toshiba is a great laptop and I would buy another in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I got this m/c last week... and boy is it fast! For $1500 you get the latest hardware thats out there... DVD+-RW and DVD-RAM, and P4-3+ GHz with HT, atheros 802.11g! WOW!
Performance wise I compared it with an IBM T41 1.6M 512RAM... (not fair on the IBM m/c!) and it is way-way faster than it... partitioning the 60GB hard-drive into 4 partitions was done in under 1.5 minutes! This also has great touch-pad functionalities, good sound (though could be a tad louder), great LCD... excellent power management functionalities - gives you 4 modes with the long-life mode giving you 3+ hours of use (silent like how)!!!
All in all one of the best laptops for the price!

just a few quirks though... I couldnt get the media reader to read my MMC card yet and there are dead pixels on my LCD...

Rating:
Summary: Very Excited.....now frustrating
Review: I had this laptop for about 4 months now. I was really excited to get this laptop for work, it has a wide screen and all....looks really great!!! Don't get me wrong.....it's a great laptop, everything works fine up until around my 3rd month owning it. I noticed it just turns off by itself once or twice and didn't think anything of it because I thought it was my fault. Just until these past 2 weeks it shuts off by itself at least 2 times a day. Like one of the other owner....it just shuts off and when you turn it back on it just shuts off again and won't let you log in. It has probably shut off on me about 4 times today already. I notice that this laptop does get pretty hot by the fan, I know it's suppose to be normal.....but not this hot. Well.....I just hope they can help me fix the problem.....because I'm stuck with it now......:(

Rating:
Summary: Don't Listen To The Competition! They Lie!
Review: I have had the S226 for a week now, and as a geek who has had many computers, I must say that I don't know what the complainers are talking about!
This is a fantastic pc! It is powerful, and has great fans that make noise at times because they are much larger than most found on dinky little dell machines and a few ibm's! Fear not the fan noise! Its no big deal. But this notebook is a big deal! You've seen all of its features above, so theres no need for me to say much more than this is a very fine machine with tons of power, and a SUPER SENSITIVE WIRELESS SYSTEM! I have a Orinco Delta 802-B which is very fine, but I do believe that the chipset in this S226 is more sesnitive to remote signals than anything I've seen, hence, if you're a WarDriver, I highly recommend this pc! So, I have no idea what else a person would want in a notebook / laptop. This S226 has it all right out of the box. Sure you can expand it a little, but why waste the money unless you're just a freak about such things? This Toshiba is not a cheap looking pc. Its a crowd stopper! Take it to Starbucks and watch everyone come over to look at the ultra fine monitor! Battery life is great on low power setting which is perfect for most things. Get the inexpensive extended warranty just in case you drop it. I could not be more pleased, and I hope youll find it equally great. Write me if you have any questions. Im not a rep for dell or ibm or compaq. Im a real to life nerd who is telling you the truth. Happy New Year!

Rating:
Summary: Beware of ATI IGP graphics chipset
Review: I have used a notebook with the ATI IGP-345M display chipset. This chipset is used by both the Toshiba Satellites, and several low-cost Sony notebooks. The problem with this chipset family is that it uses shared system memory for video.

When I attemted to run some games, the first one complained about the drivers level (which are dated mid-2003). When I contacted ATI, they told me that I should contact the system manufacturer. When I contacted the system manufacturer, they told me
that they only support software that comes bundled with the notebook, and nothing more. (!!).

Not to mention that ATI's IGP linux support is muddy at best (ATI
should be ashamed for their lack of linux support). That's the reson why I decided NOT to get a notebook unless it has a full ATI Radeon (9700 or 9800) with REAL video ram, and not to buy ever again a system with the ATI "IGP" family of video chipsets.

Buyer beware. To browse the web, send e-mail and use Office with the installed drivers, things can be fine. But if you plan to use games or move to linux, get a notebook (even if Toshiba) that uses a "real" video chipset, with video ram (instead of "shared memory").

Rating:
Summary: So Far So Good
Review: I picked up the laptop from Best Buy. (...) It was hard to compete on price alone. I was looking at Toshiba's to begin with so this worked out well.

Pros: 3.06 GHz Pentium 4 with HT, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive, 3 USB ports, Integrated WIFI with on/off switch, 15" WXGA

Cons: Fan intakes on bottom of laptop, no s-video, last one at Best Buy or I would have gotten two!

Rating:
Summary: My first laptop
Review: I was always the desktop kind of computer users, i had chances to get a laptop before and never did, i get this to try for somethng diferent, and i am very impress, the computer is so fast, the power management is awesome, everything works great.

I like the idea of geting the laptop anywhere in my house and i browse the internet using wireless.

If you are unsure about getting this laptop or not, stop thinking and get it you will be thanking me for the advice :)



Rating:
Summary: A huge headache
Review: I was browsing for laptops at Best Buy one day, and I was very excited when I came across this particular model. Unfortunaetly, problems started before I even left the store. When Best Buy was doing the installation service, they noticed that the DVD drive was defective. So, as they should have, my laptop was replaced with a new one. I brought my computer home and noticed that it was a little louder then I would have expected. Actually..a lot louder. This could have been my particular computer, or it may be how all of them are for this model, but it was distracting and not something that I felt was right. I had planned on returning my laptop to Best Buy within a few days. After a couple more days, I was writing a long e-mail to a friend and the laptop turned off with full battery power. I turned it back on, and once Windows loaded, it turned off again. I repeated this a few more times and the same thing happened.

Needless to say, I returned my laptop to Best Buy today completely disappointed. I will now be purchasing a Dell instead.

I give this computer 2 stars because it DOES have some great features for a reasonable price. Disregarding the fact that my laptop shut down (which is obviously a personal problem for my laptop, and not one that happens to every laptop by Toshiba,) I would recommend this laptop ONLY if you don't mind noise.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for Laptop or Desktop Replacement
Review: Just bought this computer and am extremely impressed. It comes with everything that is standard on mid priced laptops plus more. The price is amazing! (...) Highly recommended if you want a laptop with just about everything (including a video card that will actually play todays games). It is a little on the heavy side, but hey - with everything that it comes with...it is expected. Oh did I mention the 15.4" screen?

Rating:
Summary: I love it!!
Review: So far so good. I have had this computer for about 1 week and is making me really happy.