Toshiba Tecra M2 > Reviews (2)

The Toshiba Tecra M2 is aimed squarely at the business market (I'm writing this review from my work Tecra laptop!) and is a good, if not brilliant, option for the mobile business worker. The 1.6Ghz processor, 512MB memory and 40GB hard drive (on the standard model) aren't going to give you the ultimate laptop gaming experience, but this machine is aimed squarely at the business market.

For business users the main benefits are the in-built Centrino mobile processor, which avoids the need for any fiddly USB or PCMCIA card wireless add-ons and the lightweight design which makes this model particularly suitable for the busy business exec who regularly works away from the office.

The standard OS build is Windows XP Professional Edition. On top of the standard XP utilities, Toshiba have bundled some useful tools included a wireless network sniffer (Config Free), PC Health Check & Diagnostic tools, and an SD memory card manager.

The 512MB memory and 1.6Ghz processor ensure that you can run multiple business apps (Word, Excel, Outlook etc.) quite comfortably and the in-built NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 display adapter comfortably handles 1024x768 resolution and supports Nview dual screen capability, which is handy if you want to hook up to a fixed monitor when in the office.

In terms of connectivity you get only two USB ports which is one of the downsides (if you have a mouse and keyboard connected, you will have to unplug one of them if you want to e.g. plug in a USB data stick). There is a inbuilt combo DVD / CD player but whilst this supports CD +-RW, it is doesn't support record/re-record to DVD. Further slots are available for an SD card, a parallel port (for printing), a VGA port, S-Video, LAN and modem connections, but there are no PS2 ports which means you must use a USB mouse and keyboard, if you want anything better than the in-built keyboard and touchpad (even after several years of laptop use, I still cannot get the hang of touchpads!). There is no floppy drive, but then these days, memory sticks have pretty much rendered these obsolete.

The one other main gripe I have with the Tecra M2 is the keyboard, which is not the most durable - the legends tend to rub off with regular use and won't take much heavy-duty use, so keyboards thumpers beware!

All in all a pretty decent busines laptop although personally I think they are a little over-priced for what they are, but hey, my company paid for mine so I'm not complaining!