... Thankfully, I know someone in the know, and he pointed me in the direction of the Toshiba Satellite 1700-300 series. They retail for about £750 - £850 and pack a pretty mean punch for your cash.
One of the things I hated most about a laptop was that, if you used it on your lap (which ... Read review
Advantages: Lightweight and urban Disadvantages: the "mouse" stick
...in the direction of the Toshiba Satellite 1700-300 series. They retail for about £750 - £850 and pack a pretty mean punch for your cash.
One of the things I hated most about a laptop was that, if you used it on your lap (which is the intended method), it tends to burn the Hell out of your legs. Am almost convinced I got prickly heat from the Advent laptop !! With the Toshiba model, my legs remained relatively cool and comfortable throughout. ... ...less than the average laptop (sorry but I didnt weigh it), this cute little black and silver number was picture-perfect on my lap as I sat and whiled away the hours.
With a 56kbs modem, 13.2", 24bit colour screen, 64MB graphics card, and intel celeron processor with a speed of up to 650MHz, it provides good quality connection and high screen resolution. The battery is made of nickel metal hydride, and proports to run for up to ... more
After a huge debacle with the manufacturers of my Advent laptop, it was decided that I was now in the market for a new one. One that worked. Thankfully, I know someone in the know, and he pointed me in the direction of the Toshiba Satellite 1700-300 series. They retail for about £750 - £850 and pack a pretty mean punch for your cash.
One of the things I hated most about a laptop was that, if you used it on your lap (which is the intended method), it tends to burn the Hell out of your legs. Am almost convinced I got prickly heat from the Advent laptop !! With the Toshiba model, my legs remained relatively cool and comfortable throughout. Coupled with the fact that it weighs a lot less than the average laptop (sorry but I didnt weigh it), this cute little black and silver number was picture-perfect on my lap as I sat and whiled away the hours.
With a 56kbs modem, 13.2", 24bit colour screen, 64MB graphics card, and intel celeron processor with a speed of up to 650MHz, it provides good quality connection and high screen resolution. The battery is made of nickel metal hydride, and proports to run for up to 2 and a half hours.
All this aside, there are still the occassional flaws with this model. Once the battery has been drained to around 50%, any games or films you are running begin to slow down considerably. Its almost like watching a film in semi-slow-mo' (which is funny for the first minute, but soon becomes tedious). I also decided to have a look at the battery, and realised I may have audtioned for the Krypton Factor when trying to get my hands on it!! Once you've manouvered your way under and around the base compartment, you will find the battery (providing you havent sliced a finger off in the process).
The "mouse" looks more like a Lilliputian gear-stick, and is not very easy to manouver. I much prefer the little mouse pads that you usually see on laptops, but I am slowly becoming accustomed to it. They say a change is usually for the better, but in the case of the mouse stick, I still say original is best.
The only other 2 points of compaint I have are that the volume on the speakers just do not go up high enough. I am deaf in one ear, and the volume levels on this thing made me wonder if i had lost hearing in the other ear too !! Of course, that can be solved with an extra set of speakers, but who wants to hook their laptop up to more speakers? Not I, thats for sure !!
My last bugbear is with the instruction/upkeep manual, which is stored on the laptop's hard drive.
Now, it sounds like a good idea to have everything on the laptop so you dont have to search for manuals and suchlike, but when the whole system shuts down and you can't access the manual, you have to call a help centre. Guess what they do? Not only do they try and get you to turn your laptop on (doh!!), but they also send you out a hard copy of the manual!! Why they don't just give you one in the first place is beyond me. Britain's households are used to wading through piles of manuals, guarantees and receipts, desperately trying to find the relevant documents. We love searching for those things really, or we wouldnt misplace them!! Just give us the hard manual when we buy the laptop next time.
All said and done, this really, truly is a great laptop. The bugears I have with it are no different to the bugbears I would have with another new model that had been given a couple of nifty little tweaks here and there. I would certainly recommend buying one if you are in the market for a laptop, because it is reasonably priced, has a cute look, and runs like a dream (unless you watch films using just battery power!!).
Advantages: Price, range of features, big screen Disadvantages: stupid cd player controls
I've been oohing and awwing for a while now about whether to invest in a laptop computer. It always seemed a little pricey for what I was going to get out of it. Fortunately there's been a bit of a price war and that finally prompted me to take the plunge.
I decided on the Toshiba, initially because of its long standing place in the laptop market, they've been around a while and know whats what. Secondly I wanted a lot of features but didn't really ... ...got it. For £890 (inc vat) I got
650 MHZ Processor
64mb RAM
DVD
13.3" TFT
6 GB Hard Drive
4mb AGP Grapics card (ATI Rage Lt)
PCMCIA:- 2 x type II or 1 x type III
Onboard modem
Bunch of bundled software.
Needless to say the mouse is on the computer, one of those nipple types.
OK I'll admit there are some corners being cut, most notably the 64mb ram (cf 128mb) and only a 6GB (unformatted) hard drive, but these are things that you can upgrade ...
eridu 25.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Toshiba Satellite 1700-300
Advantages: Slim and Lightweight Disadvantages: Mouse is rubbish
I recently acquired one through work. Straight away I could see that it is lighter and thinner than my own laptop, which is a Packard bell easy one sliver. It weights 3.2kg and is a compact 32.2 cm x 27.7 cm x 3.8 cm approx. On further investigation I have also found that it does not get too hot, other laptops I have used, including the bell, the fan tends to over heat and if you are watching a DVD on it, it will start to run really s-l-o-w-ly. So ... ...with the machine so far the only things that have really bugged are: the mouse nobbley bit is small and daft as it is not easy to control, I much prefer machines which have a touchpad. Also the volume does not go very high (I guess in a way this is a good thing, at least you cannot deafen yourself.)
It does tend to crash quite a bit and it is also a bit of challenge to get to the battery.
What a superb idea to put the machine manual on the system, ...
emmaewok 19.01.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Toshiba Satellite 1700-300
Advantages: Overall good quality, fantastic screen size, runs well Disadvantages: Outer shell/lid area showed signs of wear and tear after just a few weeks
I bought this laptop Christmas 2001, at a bargain price. Since then, it has been great to work with. I have had no problems with it whatsoever. It came with the Windows Millenium Edition Software, which has required some downloads from the Windows website as there were a few gliches. Now that the software problems are out of the way, the laptop works like a dream. After a few weeks of using the "nipple" mouse controller, the casing below the keyboard ... ...as I had to buy a mouse to plug into the back. The advantage of buying the new mouse though, was that it gave me more control, as I found the nippple mouse to be tricky - more to do with me being heavy handed than laptop incapability. I think that this is a fantastic computer to accompany anyone through college/university, with a moderate games capability (for when college/university work does not appeal). ...
wispylily 25.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Toshiba Satellite 1700-300
Drivers & Utilities, McAfee VirusScan, WinDVD, Corel WordPerfect Office Professional, Microsoft Works Suite 2000
Manufacturer's product description
For outstanding functionality at a truly affordable price, look no further than Toshiba's Satellite series of portable PCs. These portable PCs are built to deliver impressive specification together with exceptional value-for-money: an unbeatable price/performance combination that ensures the world's most advanced mobile technology is accessible to every portable computer user. Ideal for the student and markets, the Satellite 1700 offers powerful processing bang for the buck. The Satellite 1700 continues Toshiba's strong tradition of feature-rich, value-priced notebooks. Toshiba has the perfect answer to your mobility needs, with the Satellite 1700 opening up exciting options to users on a tight budget. Advanced technology and intelligent design make it possible to work wherever you want, whenever you want, while enjoying all the benefits of worldwide communications.
