TOSHIBA P505 MULTIMEDIA NOTEBOOK REVIEW

The Toshiba Satellite P505 is a powerful multimedia notebook equipped with ATI Radeon HD 4650 discrete GPU and a gigantic 18.4" display. It offers dual drives for optimal performance and storage.

Toshiba Satellite P505-S8950 Specifications:
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1)
Display: 18.4 inch 1680 x 945 HD+ TruBrite Display (Glossy)
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 with 1GB GDDR2
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache)
Memory: 6GB DDR2-800 RAM
Storage: 64GB Toshiba SSD + 320GB 7200RPM Hitachi
Retail Price: $1,599

Build and Design
With its 18.4 inch display the P505 looks really gigantic. The machine weighs over 11lbs and isn’t very portable. The glossy black pinstripe finish on the exterior of the notebook lends it a classy look. Build quality is satisfactory, but the weight and width of the notebook does make it susceptible to some flex. The screen hinges also don’t appear really tight, but that is nothing surprising considering the heavy screen.

Each hard drive has its own individual bay. There are easy access panels to both hard drive bays and memory slots. So upgrading components wouldn’t be an issue.

Screen and Speakers
The display panel comes with a resolution of 1680x945. The panel itself is very good: colors are bright and vivid. But the glossy display makes reflections a huge problem when you work in a bright setting. Vertical viewing angles are average but horizontal viewing angles are satisfactory.

The P505 comes with a Harman/kardon sound system. The speaker performance is quite impressive. It is more than adequate for watching a movie or listening to music.

Keyboard and Touchpad
There is a full-size keyboard and keypad. There is also a 1 inch wide touch sensitive multimedia key section on this notebook. The keyboard has an easy-to-follow layout and is very comfortable to type on. The large touchpad is a Synaptics model, but its performance seemed lacking.


Ports and Features
Port selection is good. There are three USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, FireWire, VGA-out, LAN, HDMI, SD-Card slot and audio jacks. Other features include slot-Loading DVD SuperMulti, Intel 5100AGN, Bluetooth v2.1 Atheros AR8131 1GB Ethernet and built-in web camera.

Performance
Performance is quite snappy thanks to the Intel P8700processor, ATI Mobility HD 4650 GPU and Toshiba 64GB SSD. Boot times are minimal. Multimedia performance is good. It can easily handle 1080p HD video content. This is not a dedicated gaming notebook, but you can still play most games on this system.

Heat and Noise
The P505 has a large chassis which allows plenty of airflow that keeps the system cool. Noise levels are also within normal limits.

Battery Life
The P505 is equipped with a large 12-cell battery (6-cell option is also available) with a capacity of 100Wh. At around 4.5 hours, the battery life is quite good for a notebook of this size and capacity.

Conclusion
The 18.4 inch Toshiba Satellite P505 is an excellent desktop replacement laptop. It is good at handling most tasks. You can watch HD video and play most modern games. The touchpad performance isn’t very good, but that problem can be solved by using an external mouse.

Pros:
Amazing speaker system
Good battery life
Snappy performance

Cons:
Heavy
Average touchpad