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    PC911 > Reviews > Hardware > Toshiba Satellite L25-S119

Toshiba Satellite L25-S119

 ====This is a third party review and the opinions mentioned in it are not necessarily representative of the owners of this site. ===


The Toshiba Satellite L25-S119 came out with a great screen and loud speakers for a good movie quality, but a low battery life is a major problem that complements the screens’ brightness. With a starting retail price of $899, it comes with a good price but is not the type of notebook that a business person would be looking for.
 

 

 

 

 

Type: General Purpose, Value
Operating System: MS Windows XP Home
Processor Name: Intel Celeron M 370
Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 60 GB
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon XPRESS 200
Primary Optical Drive: DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Wireless: 802.11g
Screen Size: 15 inches
Screen Size Type: standard
System Weight: 5.6 lbs

 

 

 

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The Toshiba notebooks are generally a great bunch, helped along by Toshiba’s eye for what the consumer wants to see. This time they had a few problems but once again they produced more than a decent laptop. The L25-S119 is a stark contrast to the Gateway
NX200S. Gateway’s low-end notebook is a great performer that sports a good look. It does have a few problems with the screen and speakers but excels in all other categories. On the other hand, the Toshiba looks good, blasts it speakers and flaunts its 15 in screen but does not have the battery power or the performance from a businessman’s standpoint. They are two low end notebooks from different manufacturers and different styles.

The price is also suggested at $899 which is rather high for the cheapest notebook designed by a manufacturer but it can be found for under $700 at places such as Circuit City. This once again proves the power of shopping around a bit on the internet, thus cutting the price nearly by 25%. It’s still a bit pricey in comparison to some of the other low end notebooks I have handled but the screen alone must cost a good part of that $899.

As I have mentioned several times already, the L25-S119 has an amazing screen powered by the Toshiba TruBrite. This technology allows the viewer to enjoy movies and games at many different vantage points. The glare resistant sheen reduces the ambience and gives the laptop a more pleasurable feeling. The TruBrite technology is an average feature of all Toshiba notebooks now days and it makes low end notebooks like the L25-S119 measure up to the high end Dell and HP laptops in terms of screen quality. The 15 inch display is extremely impressive and is something that many low and mid range notebooks lack. Most of the notebooks I’ve tested out have had slightly dimmed screens taking away a large effect in movies. Toshiba made sure that this laptop came equipped with a sharp, bright screen and to add to the movie experience they threw in a pair of decent speakers. The pair of powerful speakers can be heard over twenty feet away. They were not the excellent speakers that the XPS Generation may sport but despite the problems in bass and depth it gives a great effect when watching movies like Star Wars. There is a distinct difference between other low end laptops that had horrible speakers where one could not even watch a movie without cringing and the sound problems. There are very very few low end notebooks I’d be comfortable watching a movie on and not be afraid of being laughed at and the L25-S119 is one of those select few.

The idea of all notebooks is the tradeoffs. Each manufacturer has the checklist of all the features they could include in a notebook and are forced to decide what to keep and what to leave out in order to fall within the price quoted for the notebook. In deciding what is important for them in a notebook, some companies make good choices, some companies make terrible choices, and some companies make a few good picks and a few bad ones. I wish that Toshiba had traded down their screen ever so slightly so they could focus more on the battery life of the L25-S119.

Watching movies on the Satellite is fine as long it is stuck to an AC outlet. The power is then sufficient to handle the powerful screen that radiates a crisp, clean picture. The Toshiba is lucky to last an hour when playing a movie powered only by battery. This is pathetic in comparison to Gateway’s star NX200S who lasted over two hours easily. It ranks among the lowest battery power I have ever tested in a notebook. I credit most of this to both Toshiba’s disregard for the battery’s importance and the screen draining so much of the energy. If the battery is weak then it becomes more useful to simply buy a desktop. It will be cheaper and the portability will not be sacrificed greatly as there is only an hour of free roaming away from an AC outlet with the L25-S119. Other than the battery issues, the notebook comes out with a good showing.

The specifications are solid with the Toshiba, running a 1.5 Ghz 270M Celeron processor with 256 MB RAM and a 60GB hard drive. The memory could be improved up to 2 GB which may be the only problem with the specifications as the hard drive is larger than most notebooks in this range like the Gateway. I recommend that every notebook be upgraded to at least 512MB RAM. This may be a little bias but all notebooks should be able to support the new computer games that release sporting their amazing graphics. Given that the video card will be less than spectacular and the game will not displayed to its fullest potential, it can still run on the computer and be played. The processor also runs a bit faster than the Gateway, but the Gateway offered a much lower price for slightly less impressive specifics. Toshiba’s strong specifications and spectacular light and sound make it a great multimedia notebook.

Toshiba comes with a strong media heavyweight for a low range notebook but compromises too much for a person whose primary use of a notebook is to work. The Toshiba is still great as a notebook to enjoy and spoil playing movies and such. RATING: 8 out of 10.
 

 

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