R. McElveen

I have had this laptop for over a month, and I absolutely love it. It is a replacement for my Dell Laptop that has decided to move onto greener pastures. This is my first Toshiba, and I use computers for work all day. This is a wonderful laptop it has plenty of power thanks to the i7 Intel Processor, which was the main selling point for me. I needed a laptop that would hold up and be able to handle the Adobe products (Dreamweaver and Photoshop) that I use regularly and so far no issues at all. The speakers are very good, considering this is a laptop and the speakers are built in. I LOVE Windows 7 it is SOOOOO much better than Vista! The Webcam is wonderful and does a very good job as well. Overall, considering this is a budget priced laptop, when you factor in the i7 chip, 500GB HD, and 4GB DDR3 RAM. I am very pleased and I without any reservation recommend this product and I would purchase it again if I had to do it over.
Rating: 5 / 5

  Acontius

The slot-loading DVD drive that comes with the S6040 model was so noisy and vibrated so much that I had to send the unit back. For comparison, I played the same audio CD’s on a seven year old Asus laptop with a tray drive, and there was no detectable vibration or noise. Both the Toshiba and the older laptop were on the same, very stable coffee table.

The noise from the Toshiba drive was so loud it drowned out the music at normal playing volume. The vibration ran from my fingers/palms way up my arms; it was impossible to ignore.

—> Note that I went to a BigBox store and tried the S6033 model (same CPU, but slower GPU and only 4GB RAM). It has the TRAY-loading DVD drive and ran very smoothly and quietly.

This is a beautiful machine. The specifications are dynamite. (By the way, mine came with a 120W adapter, a good match for the Core i7 CPU.)

I can’t say if the slot-loader was a lemon or typical. One thing that bothered me was that the laptop was delivered in its own box only; it was not packed within another insulated box. If audio-cables and paperbacks are well cushioned, shouldn’t a laptop be too? (Maybe the laptop companies have decided this is the best way, so the UPS crews see right away they are handling fragile merchandise?)

Rating: 2 / 5

  Paul M. Zahorosky

All right… this may take a while. Let me start by saying I have abstained from owning a laptop computer my entire life and have strictly been using and building desktop PCs. For the past year and a half I have been going to school for graphic design. Now I spend so much time in front of a computer that I just had to be able to separate myself from my desk. Granted, being a graphic designer, I get a lot of flak for not purchasing a MacBook, but I just couldn’t fathom the inflated price for a machine with lower performance (why can’t I get a MacBook with a Quad Core?). Don’t get me wrong- Macs are great computers- but for those of us that actually know about computers, we don’t fall into the scheme of “it must be better because it’s more expensive”, which most novice users are likely to do. I spent almost two months researching and testing laptops trying to find one that included as many of the features I was looking for. The first computer that drew me to laptops was a HP Pavilion Entertainment PC at Sam’s Club. I was just playing around on their laptops one day and brought up a song on Media Player… and it sounded awesome (for a laptop). Sure enough, there is a mini subwoofer on the bottom of the laptop. Unfortunately, the HP didn’t win the battle due to the lack of a backlit keyboard (come on, HP- this is the one thing almost ALL laptop owners and shoppers want in a laptop- WAKE UP!). Living in Duluth, MN, the only place with a decent selection of laptops on display is Best Buy. There, I was first introduced to a Toshiba Satellite which caught my eye because of the i7 Quad Core it had as opposed to the i5 of the HP… for the same price ($899). Audio is a big part of my decision making process since I listen to music 24-7. I specifically tried the audio on every laptop at Best Buy (which I had to set up their Media Player libraries for every computer myself- Best Buy actually sucks at making their displays useful- other than their stupid Best Buy demo, nothing else on any computer was set up) only to be disappointed by everything (Dell, Gateway, standard HP, Samsung, even Sony all have absolutely useless speakers) except the Toshiba with its harman/kardon stereo speakers. Now that I have one at home I turn the audio all the way up and it sounds awesome (for tiny laptop speakers, anyway). They have a decent amount of mid-range and moderate bass response and have yet to distort. They still have a little trouble with loud rock music with a loss of bass at maximum volume, but classical music is perfect as well as big band (my Swing Kids soundtrack at full volume is priceless). I spent a long time kicking around whether to buy a custom built unit from Toshiba Direct, which was pricing out between $1,500 and $1,800 with tax, or order a prebuilt model. I eventually decided on the Satellite A505-S6040 which had absolutely everything I wanted (minus 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth, and Windows 7 Professional instead of Home Premium) and I purchased it (from Buy on ebay) for $1,201 with free tax and shipping. Some minor features of this machine are: seamless trackpad with multi-touch (no border and blends with deck seamlessly, it’s just textured, and multi-touch works like a touchscreen with pinch-zoom, etc.), responsive out-of-the way touch media controls, full numeric keypad (this is about the smallest laptop available with a full-size standard AND numerical keypad, all with nice, big buttons that are comfortable to type with), and hard drive impact sensor which can save your important information in the event of a drop or even just a bump.The major features that make this model perfect are as follows: Intel i7-720QM Quad Core processor at 1.6 GHz and up to 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost (basically, it works at a lower speed for normal use to save energy, then seamlessly kicks into high gear when needed), 6GB DDR3 SDRAM, 500GB 7200rpm hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 1GB graphics, slot-loading DVD/CD drive with Labelflash (like Lightscribe direct disk labeling), Edge-to-Edge display (the glass covers pretty much the whole screen- still with a black bezel around it- but it’s seamless and much nicer looking), LED BACKLIGHT KEYBOARD WITH NUMERICAL KEYPAD (this was awesome and definitely a selling point), HDMI port (connect right to a bigger monitor or TV easily- with Hi-Def audio as well- also has standard RGB out, too), integrated 1.3mp webcam with microphone, 802.11n wireless (which, once set up, finds and connects to wireless networks perfectly and quickly), wired LAN connection for extra speed, and enough USB ports an one eSATA/USB combo port to connect anything. The only very minor drawback to this or any laptop is battery life (but Toshiba’s Eco Utility makes it easy to change to a minimal-power-consumption mode for when you’re away from an outlet). And I really wish someone other than Apple would make an aluminum unibody- it just helps make it thinner, lighter, and better at dispersing heat. Final notes: the charger is a bit heavy and bulky- not very portable- get yourself a Targus APA6922US (it’s smaller and more portable than a MacBook charger) which can charge your laptop and cell phone or other electronic device simultaneously; like all laptops, battery life is so-so, just buy another battery- you can switch it on-the-fly; portable mouse- I have a Microsoft Arc- super portable, full sized, and Laser responsiveness so it works on just about anything- no mouse pad or desk needed; this laptop is a little large- doesn’t fit in two of the three messenger bags I own, and barely fits into my school backpack which is made for laptops, but it makes for a perfect combination of keyboard and screen size! As for speed and multitasking- I was running Pandora streaming music, Adobe Photoshop, had two internet windows open, and ripping a DVD to the hard drive at one time with no system lag at all! Oh, and for all you die-hard Mac users… I tested my Toshiba A505-S6040 laptop side-by-side with several Macs… I loaded Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Bridge simultaneously in less time than any Mac (laptop or desktop) took to load just Photoshop (but the Mac still boots up from power-on faster, darn that Microsoft). BUY THIS LAPTOP. I AM DEFINITELY GLAD I PURCHASED IT! INFINITELY USEFUL, POWERFUL, AND PORTABLE WITH A PLETHER OF FEATURES!
Rating: 5 / 5