Toshiba Satellite A215-S5802 15.4" Laptop (AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core TK-57 Processor, 1024 MB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Onyx Bluegreat overall BUT WATCH OUT FOR THE SPEAKERS!!!
this is my latest toshiba laptop and my third one, after the first i got a NEC before my previous Toshiba. Im not going to talk much about the processor and screen or keyboard or speed or whatever, it's great overall, well, of course, if you use windows system instead of vista, i never use vista anyway so im speaking only for windows on this new baby.
one unbelievable flaw needs to be watched out!!!
me buddy got one similar model, not sure if it's M215, but also come with a round shaped Harman Kardon speaker pair, the 'incredible' thing with this supposed to be superb speaker is its soft volume!!!! i mean, my previous M50 has thinner rectangular speakers on the top panel, and it's loud and powerful, but this M215 and my friend's has this terribly mushy and low volume, why is that? i once thought it's because of the EU volume limit law that says about any device with an earphone plug, but i bought mine in Beijing, so apparently it's not that. plus, other brands and models on the shelf don't have this problem, even if they don't have HARMAN KARDON.
can anybody explain this?
Toshiba Notebooks
The Satellite A215 notebook delivers cutting-edge technology that's built to match your lifestyle mobile and multitasking. Systems feature the latest AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology and large memory for optimal performance. A 15.4" diagonal WXGA TruBrite display shows off media from a DVD SuperMulti drive that reads and writes up to 11 formats. High-speed wireless LAN 802.11b/g lets you work cable free. Connect to your home, office, and in wireless LAN hotspots at airports, hotels and coffee shops. The spacious 120GB hard drive provides ample storage and faster speeds to make quick work of multimedia files. Packed and priced to go, it's great for students and everyday use. 15.4 diagonal WXGA (1280 x 800) TruBrite TFT LCD display ATI Radeon X1200 with up to 319MB shared graphics memory DVD+-R/RW Super Multi Drive with Double Layer Realtek 802.11B/G Wireless 10/100 Ethernet 5-in-1 Bridge Media Adapter - MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD 1 ExpressCard Slot (34/54 Slot) 4 USB 2.0, 1 Headphone out; 1 Microphone-in, 1 VGA, 1 TV-Out (S-Video), 1 IEEE-1394, 1 RJ-11, 1 RJ-45 Approximate Unit Dimensions - 14.3 (W) x 10.6 (D) x 1.55 (H) Approximate Unit Weight - 5.78lbs
"Freakin' Sweet" bios Flash solves "black Screen of death".
IMPORTANT: Toshiba has very recently released a fix for the "Black Screen of Death"; Toshiba released a BIOS flash using Toshiba's safg v1.70 or v1.90, depending on your model number, which seems to fix the problem... It was a long time in the coming, but better late then never.
This computer is an adequate performer, that had been hampered with the problem of the screen intermittantly going blank, leaving you high and dry if your work had not been recently saved. In the computer lore this problem was known as the "black screen of death", which affected most of Toshiba's Satellite A215-xxxxx laptops. This was a very frustrating problem that drove many consumers to violent daydreams, but it seems Toshiba has finally released a fix.
For the price, this computer is an excellent performer, able to run Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, and Half-Life 2(excluding episodes 1&2) at a playable level on low settings. A RAM upgrade is highly recommended (get kingston or corsair: $50-$60 for a 2 GB sodimm) and everything seems to run just fine.
It could be better
I bought this laptop as a tool to access the internet, play DVD movies, and do basic (non-gaming) functions such as word processing, spreadsheets, maintain school information.
I searched other brands (Dell, HP/Compaq, Sony, Gateway, and several others) for price, perceived quality based on reviews, speed, HD space, etc - all the typical features. Overall, for what I needed a laptop to do, the Toshiba seems to fit.
This Toshiba (sold by Amazon) beat the others only because everyone else was charging shipping and California sales tax. Otherwise, I would have purchased an HP model. I had even checked Costco (my preferred retailer), but the costs were much higher compared to Amazon.
This computer came with 1 GB SDRAM and Windows Vista Home Premium. Everything is perfect for what we need this laptop to do. This computer is NOT being used for gaming or any sort of complicated programming. So, the 1 GB of SDRAM is fine, even with Windows Vista Home Premium. And the sound design is somewhat better than expected - using a variable wheel rather than a push button.
The negatives are relatively minor. The power cord is plugged into the laptop on the same side as the DVD drive. Second, I'd rather have XP than Vista. Vista seems like a slightly glorified XP. A few button changes and you get Vista. I did have difficulty loading a simple medical dictionary onto it. Last, the location of the WLAN button isn't obvious. Toshiba uses a black slider switch located on the black base.
Tags : Toshiba Laptop , Laptop , Notebook
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