Bought this for my wife to replace a 4-year-old Acer. Ordered last night and got it this morning...
Right off the bat, the huge screen size mesmerized me. Migrating from a 14" to this with a much better quality screen was a pleasure to the eyes.
The system booted up quickly for the first time but I had to do LOTS and LOTS of updates including SP1. Toshiba never stops short of putting bloatware in its laptops sadly. But about 2 hours of "cleaning" made the laptop breath a lot easier...
The web cam sliding panel on the screen is annoying and I haven't found a way to completely disable it yet.
Overall, on looks I give it a solid 5 stars. I got the black one. It's shiny and very good-looking. It's a bit on the heavy side at over 7 lbs but that was totally expected.
The keys on keyboard are very comfortably spaced and are very responsive. The 10-key is a HUGE plus. The mouse is very tactile and responds great to the touch of the fingertips. It's supposed to allow multi-finger touch as well I think, but haven't had a chance to mess around with that yet.
It also comes with instructions as to how request your free copy of the Windows 7 upgrade. You can do so through Toshiba's web site.
The bottom of the laptop does not get nearly as hot as the older Acer used to, so that's a plus.
My first laptop ever was Toshiba Satellite (that was n years ago!) and only if I had kept that one and I could put the side by side... what a world of difference.
I left the BEST feature (in my opinion and so far) for last: The speakers are THE BOMB!!! They are hands down the best speakers on any laptop I have ever seen/owned. I owned another Toshiba that I bought from the retailer that sells things in bulk and it also had very loud speakers for a laptop but this laptop's speakers are both LOUD and FANTASTIC quality. The harman/kardon label says it all. Indeed one of the best features so far...
Again, it's been only 1 day and I spent most of it getting rid of the bloatware, downloading numerous VISTA updates, and installing many of the software she uses, so I didn't get to play with it much. But overall, I am loving it, and most importantly she's been truly enjoying it so far.
<<**UPDATE 7/12/09**>>
One little annoying feature I could've lived without is the volume buttons' system beep. These touch-sensitive buttons (located on the top right corner of the keyboard) are very responsive, but by default they produce a very annoying system beep every time one or the other is touched. I found through the Sound settings in Control Panel an option that let me turn that off which improved my experience with the volume buttons 100%. Before, sometimes after holding the + or - button for a few second, I guess because the annoying system beep itself was glitchy, it'd get "stuck" and would continue to beep even after I let go... That's resolved now that I turned off the system beep associated with it. The touch buttons now function the way they ought to. The buttons are lit so when you touch one or the other, the light goes off for each touch indicating the volume is going up or down one notch. No need for the buzzing system beep... Anyhow, thought to share this...
<<**UPDATE 7/23/09**>>
VERY IMPORTANT-----READ!!!!
Last night, as my wife was using the laptop, it just died.... literally, the whole screen went out.... The power button and battery button were both on; the hard drive light was off; the indicators right below the screen (top of the keyboard) were all off; the power button was fully lit. The fan (yes, it actually has a fan... I found it, but it's SUPER quiet) was functioning but the keyboard didn't seem to respond....... Long story short after troubleshooting for at least 45 minutes and getting nowhere, I called the tech support. It was a call center overseas but the response was quick and tech seemed knowledgeable enough I guess; troubleshooting steps were exactly same as what I had already tried...... sadly, he declared the laptop dead at 10:46 p.m... Cause of death: Unknown (hardware related!). So the tech support tells me I have to ship it to their depot... nothing is done overnight! They would ship the empty box -- ground shipping --, then I'd ship it back to them -- again GROUND --, then it'd take them 7 to 10 business days to repair, and then they'd ship it back to me -- GROUND! I am sorry, but my poor Sony laptop after 10 or so months of heavy use, started having problems with its Wi-Fi card; long story short, I had my laptop picked up, repaired, and sent back to me within 5 business days good as new.
Back to this review, Amazon at the end saved the day... They overnighted one for me last night and I'll have the brand new laptop tomorrow, and then I have to send them this one back... just like that. So as of right now, I am disappointed with Toshiba's overall customer service.... The laptop was doing fantastic, and I have no idea why it died so suddenly... but it did and it's a done deal.. Moral of the story: 1) Sometimes you just end up getting a lemon 2) You get you what you pay for. With the money I bought my Sony laptop I could've bought 6 (I am not joking) of these laptops.... and neither their service nor their product has ever stopped short of being perfect... I am just sayin'...Get more detail about Toshiba Satellite A505-S6973 16.0-Inch Laptop - Black/Grey.
