In a nutshell?Fast and brutal. I mean ... seriously fast. Think of it as a Toyota Camry with a 5 liter Mustang V8 and a shotgun bolted to the dash, and you wouldn't miss it by much.Gas mileage sucksbecause of the V8 - so ... not a true laptop. Desktop replacement is more appropriate.
Birth marks: Midsized, Blue hat, silver shirt, black trousers and shoes. Sleek and rounded.
The Basics:These were soldin 2006 and feature real P4's with Hyper-Threading, and mostly above 3.0Ghz - none of that pussyfooting "Mobile" Pentium stuff... Thisis a very fast desktop with a keyboard and fold-up screen. The Hyper-threading adds 20% speed at the top end, and you'll feel most of it.; DDR memory, good ole ATA hard drives. ATI chipset/video, Atheros wireless card, 15.4" Trubrite (and regular) widescreens. About 8 lbs in weight - it's not meant to be carried around, unless you're Shaq. XP Home, XP Pro. Max RAM is 1.5GB.
In the year 2011? With all that high-tech, tricked out Core-blah-blah-blah processors around, this thing still feels seriously fast. Nothing beats a good-ole V8.
Pros (what works in your favor): * A nice, solid chassis - this is half the war in a laptop, and this one ain't working against you, which is a good thing! * Kick-ass fast - and that is all that counts; * Wireless performance feels great - and that counts a lot, too; * Screenis bright and feels great - you'll be drawn to it like a moth; * Reliability - see above - A supremely simple, rock solid chassis; * Serviceability is .... not too bad.
Cons (what works against you):None, really. Since this thing runs on a desktop CPU and features a nice, bright screen, battery life is ... sacrificed. The twin turbo-fans that cool everything down? One sucks and one spits, and both of them are like ... Rocky Balboa's. So .... keeping it on a clean operating surface is key to preventing all the foreign objects from being sucked in and trapped - that's probably 90% of all the problems that these units will ever encounter. In any event, an occasional cleaning of the two internal fans won't hurt.
Quirks:These things all gee with internal WiFi (mini-PCI) when sold new. But ... in the world of okay, sometimes they don't, and they are picky about WiFi cards. Stick with the stock WiFi card, which is an Atheros card that is also found in the popular Satellite M35X series (PA3373U-1MPC), and you'll save yourself a ton of grief. The rule of thumb is: if the WiFi indicator LED turns on when the system is turned on, it's gepatible; otherwise, you get no signals.
Conclusion: if mobility is your gig, then this ain't for you. But if you can live with limited mobility and 1.5G of max RAM, and some fan noise, and you crave speed, then you have to check out the Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 series. Gotta do it!
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