A full-fledged 15.4-inch laptop for $350 is an enticing proposition. The Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955, which is exactly that, gets you a large viewing display and a full-size keyboard for the cost of a netbook.
While it’s technically a laptop, this entry-level machine doesn’t really bring much more in processing power compared to a netbook. It sports a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron 900, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160GB HDD. While it’s definitely a tad faster, can run Vista and should offer better video playback than your favorite 10-inch machine, it’s still relegated, for the most part, to less-intensive processing tasks.
Don’t expect much in terms of physical attractiveness, either. The L305-S5955 is meant for the low-expectation consumer and is designed accordingly, with thick and boxy dimensions, apart from weighing close to six pounds.
There are two reasons to choose this laptop over a netbook: large screen and full-size keyboard. The 15.4-inch TFT LCD gets you a 1280 x 800 resolution, with pretty impressive display quality. It comes with built-in speakers that sound about average, although it could use a little more volume. Keyboard panel is just about average for this category of machines.
Features include a VGA out, standard audio jacks, three USB ports, an ExpressCard expansion slot, Wi-Fi and a DVD burner. Toshiba decided to ditch the webcam for this machine, which, in all honesty, is fine for me – as long as it helps keep the cost low.
Battery life is decent for its category – around 2.5 hours of straight video playback. For basic multimedia, internet, office and streaming use, this machine should get the job done. Things get a little difficult when you try to tax its performance with graphics software or something similar – it’s just not built for that.
For $350, though, I don’t expect anything more.
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