 |
| Date Reviewed: 06/08/2007 |
|
Strengths: Low price, good looking, bright screen, relatively light, Dual processor.
Weaknesses: 512mb RAM isn't enough
Summary: 2007-06-09 18:03:07 Okay, so this laptop ships with Vista, yet, the RAM it has is only 512MB. And that is the only bad thing I can say about this laptop. As Vista requires a lot of RAM, you might find the operating system/laptop slower than say, Windows XP. The first thing you need to do to make it faster is to disable all startup programs (in factory settings, there are tons of stuff that start up when you turn on your laptop), except perhaps your antivirus and firewall. I am not sure how I did it, but play around with the settings, and use help command, I am sure you'd be able to figure it out. Next, but more RAM. You need 4200 DDR So-DIMM RAM, and the laptop can handle upto 2GB. I have bought 2 1GB RAM sticks, and the laptop is now extremely fast. Even the programs that require lot of resources start up in split second. Dual Processors really do their job. However, I can't help but think if Windows XP--with 2GB RAM--would have made it even faster. At any case, I am happy with my purchase.
 100% of People (5/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 10/08/2007 |
|
 Defective Parts Strengths: cost
Weaknesses: wireless doesn't connect, optical drive doesn't work, doesn't take charge, won't update Windows Vista
Summary: This laptop is my first and last Toshiba purchase. Sincing purchasing it in May 2007, I have had numerous problems, both minor and severe. First, the system wouldn't power on because of a defective ATI graphics card. Second, the system wouldn't charge because of a defective a/c port. Third, the Wi-Fi wouldn't connect to my a/b/g home network or any wireless network at the airport or college campus. Fourth, the 512mb RAM wasn't being read. I had to pay for another 1GB RAM chip to be installed. Lastly, the optical drive doesn't read CD-R, CD-RW, or CD-ROM.
Toshiba technical support and customer service are worthless. They will not fix the problems, even when the item is under warranty, unless you send it in for 6+ weeks. The Toshiba reps are EXTREMELY rude and unhelpful. When you ask to speak to their supervisor, they refuse. I am still battling them to this day.
Take my advice and DO NOT PURCHASE any Toshiba product. They do not stand by their products and their reps will not help! They just settled a $2.1 billion dollar lawsuit and I guess they did not learn from this situation!
100% of People (3/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 07/11/2007 |
|
 Browsing laptop at best Strengths: cost cost cost
Weaknesses: Vista,512MB RAM (you kidding me), hot hot hot ... it gets hot
Summary: Good browsing laptop at best. Fails to load any of my games due to poor graphics card. Only buy if you want to use it for browsing and checking emails. Not a gaming laptop...so do not buy if you want to play games. Good as a backup to a desktop or for your girlfried who does not play games. Also vista is so slow at times, I wish it came with WinXP.
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 07/05/2007 |
|
Strengths: Looks great, nice wide screen, solid keyboard, media keys, and the great Vista.
Weaknesses: Only comes with 512mb ram, which limits its full potential.
Summary: The Toshiba a135-s2386 is another great laptop from Toshiba. It's priced pretty well for what you get. You get Vista Basic, a nice 15" wide screen LCD, and Intel Pentium Dual Core technology. It looks really sleek with it's silver and black colors. Case feels fairly solid, and keyboard does too. I like the media keys - they are well-placed and responsive. My only complaint is that is comes with 512mb RAM, so it's full potential is limited out of the box. However, it is well-priced, so upgrading to a GB of RAM shouldn't break the bank too badly. I recommend!
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/20/2007 |
|
 Good laptop Strengths: Inexpensive
Feature-packed
High build quality
Stays quite cool
Weaknesses: Battery life is short
Tru-Brite screen shows a lot of glare and fingerprints
System is quite slow memory needs upgrade.
ATI m200 video card is slow for 3d games but fine for dvd/mpeg4 videos
Summary: For the typical user who only plans to surf the Internet and use a laptop for light use, this machine seems perfect.
I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone in the category of users who aren't looking for the most powerful machine for the heaviest of tasks, but are light users and are not so demanding on a computer.
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/20/2007 |
|
Strengths: covers all the basic needs
bright and sharp screen
price
vista
Weaknesses: 512 mb ram
poor form factor..heavy and thick
vista "basic"
Summary: bought this few days back..satisfactory performance considering teh price (450@OD). sturdly built,a nd a very brite sharp scren. overall upto toshiba standards. defiantely need to upgrade RAM (512 for vista!)...that wud be another 70$ for a 2 gig.
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/05/2007 |
|
Strengths: The design is very good, and it has plenty of features. Very bright and sharp screen; DVD burner can handle almost all formats, very solid build quality.
Weaknesses: Needs more memory to better run vista. 512mb is definitely not good enough, and it takes long time to start up. It is a little heavy to carry.
Summary: Overall, I like the laptop very much and am satisfied with the purchase. It is a budget laptop with tons of features. I highly recommend it to people who do not travel too much.
100% of People (1/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/05/2007 |
|
Strengths: 15.4 TruBrite Screen, Dual core Intel Pentium CPU, Dual layer DVD burner, Inexpensive
Weaknesses: Not enough Memory, Small hard drive
Summary: At $479 AR this notebook is a great buy. Comes with 512 MB DDR, which is simply not enough to perform even the most basic task. Startup takes forever, so if you are not planning on adding more RAM, then pack a lunch because it will take you all day. Vista does not function well with anything less that 1GB. Very nice looking computer with slim profile and conveniently placed DVD and internet browsing buttons. Toshiba loads this thing up the trial and junk software. Do yourself a favor and spend some time un-installing 90% of it.
86% of People (6/7) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/21/2007 |
|
Strengths: Dual core Intel Pentium CPU, Double layer DVD burner/DVD-ROM, Reliable and Inexpensive
Weaknesses: See below
Summary: OfficeDepot sell this for $479 after $150 mail-in rebate. Plus you can get some bundle stuff for free (printer, USB drive, software???). Well you can not resist it at this price. What can you complaint for a notebook with sub $500. You can do a lot with this one: web surfing, word processing, personal financing, watch video, burn CDs or DVDs, and a lot … The machine comes with a dual-core CPU! Think about it, a CPU like this would cost $500 even two years ago! Right, we should be happy with it.
The Toshiba’s products are more reliable, compare to the products manufactured many years ago.
The only complaint is installed memory as mentioned by many others. So what? Buy 1GB or 2GB memory, DDR2s are cheap now. Make sure you get the right one (some higher speed ones are not downward compatible).
0% of People (0/2) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/21/2007 |
|
Strengths: Good Build Quality
Big screen
Good layout of keyboard
Weaknesses: 512 MB memory
Vista Home basic
Battery life
Summary: I have a Toshiba Celeron before buying this one and the primary reason for buying this toshiba is the good experience I had with the earlier machine.
This has a solid build quality, not like the dell machines you see. The 15.4 widescreen is good for movies etc. However the battery life is not so good. This is a problem with most toshibas.
As you know 512mb ram is useless for Vista, So you need to upgrade and spend at least $35 more for 1gb ram.
also, I would have preferred Home premium on this, since home basic does not have all the frills.
0% of People (0/1) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 06/13/2008 |
|
Before you buy Toshiba--search for the words solder Toshiba, Disassemble, AC and (probably) lawsuit
Strengths: None, really.
Weaknesses: Like many Toshibas (you'll find plenty of references to this on the internet--and I now own two with the same problem)the connection between AC adaptor and the laptop is faulty
Summary: Many Toshiba laptops have power connection problems and charging problems. It is very difficult to disassemble the laptop and repair the problem areas. One of mine is 1 month out of warranty and they offered to fix it for $400.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 09/27/2007 |
|
Strengths: Relatively cheap. Great screen.
Weaknesses: Ram. Battery life.
Summary: I bought this to use in my lab. The 512mb ram it came with is definitely not enough for running vista. I upgraded it to 2gb. Overall, this laptop handles all the document work I need to do, but it is sometimes slow when dealing with slightly heavier graphics (like scanned images and high resolution pictures). The keyboard and touch pad feels quite good. Battery life is quite short, it's only about 1hr even when I'm at power saver setting, but I have it plugged in all the time so that is not a problem for me.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 07/15/2007 |
|
Strengths: dual core power, toshiba build quality.
Weaknesses: amount of built in memory as shipped from factory.
Summary: Its a great notebook if you buy it at good deal and and if you know how to upgrade it a bit. Bought 2GB of memory. Preloaded vista now works like a charm. Could not expect any better for the money I paid. Having said that if you do not intend to upgrade the memory not a good buy. Even adding a 2GB flashdisk to take advantage of Vista's Readyboost technology did not improve the long startup and shutdown time in its factory shipped configuration.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 07/11/2007 |
|
Strengths: Stylish design, bright screen, good performance with dual core
Weaknesses: A little big and heavy
Summary: This laptop has the dual core T2080 CPU, which operates at 1.73 GHz with 1MB cache. The dual core is not as fast as core dual or core 2 dual, but it performs pretty good with vista. The 512MB ram is too small so I upgrade to 1.5GB. Now the vista runs great. The battery life is so so but for the price this is still a good laptop.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
| Date Reviewed: 07/10/2007 |
|
Strengths: Affordable price, dual processor, DVD burner
Weaknesses: Not enough memory, too many trial software preloaded
Summary: This entry level notebook is ideal for kids who need notebook in very affordable price. It comes with dual processor, though the memory is only 512 MB. It can handle most basic need. I removed most “unwanted” trial software then the system runs in acceptable speed.
There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
|
|
Report this as 
