The Toshiba Satellite is a pretty popular notebook. I've always thought it was something to do with price. I've never really liked the look of them but I should be more objective - I know that the plastic of the clam shell doesn't have anything to do with the silicon inside. Since I'm looking, I owe it to myself to surf on over to their site and see what's up. Since I've noticed that some of the features that are important to me are optional on a lot of mobile computers, I have to lowball my starting price. I hope to end up well under $1400USD. I'd be more comfortable around $1200. So it looks like the candidates here are the Satellite A70, M30X and M35X, and the Tecra A2 and A3. These all start around $1000USD and I know I'll want a faster hard drive, more RAM or some removable media drive that they charge a little more for. That'll push the price up but not beyond my comfort zone.
Pricing a Toshiba Satellite
Let me say again that I love tabbed browsing with Firefox. Open all the relevent links at once, then I don't have to check back to my list. Let me also say that I love having one monitor to type this on while I read in the other one. Let me now say that I'd better get down to business.
The Satellite A70 can be customized on Toshiba's website. It comes standard with a Celeron D330 CPU, but can be upgraded to a Mobile Pentium 4 for under $40. I don't need the Celeron stigma, that's an essential upgrade. Ooops, misread that. The discounts on the customization screen are just as prominent as the actual price, so skimming the page one sees the "save $37.50" instead of the actual cost: $112.50. Still an essential upgrade. Upgrade RAM to 512MB for $75. The next essential is the 5400 RPM hard drive for $60. Finally the wireless LAN: $22.50 upgrade from no WiFi to Atheros 802.11 g. The total comes in under $1300, so what does that buy us? A mobile P4 518 (this sounds like a Pentium M, but it's not), Windows XP Pro SP2, 512MB RAM, 15.4" WXGA (1280x800), 60GB 5400RPM hard drive, a DVD/CD-RW drive, 802.11g and a 12 cell battery. Sounds okay, but I still can't get over the Satellite being pretty ugly. The A70 also has 1394, and a 5-in-1 card reader (Media Bridge, but I'm geussing that's a flash card reader).
Okay, no magic yet. On to the Satellite M30X. The problem with this notebook is that it can't be configured with a 5400 RPM hard drive. It's off the list. See how demanding I've become?
The M35X can't be customized from the web site. Instead there are four versions to choose from, each with a technical feature thrown listlessly up as if it were a marketing slogan. "CD Burner, Windows XP Pro" - How does that make the M35X-S1611 special? Comments like these just waste space. Anyhow, none of them have a 5400RPM hard drive, so processor speeds are really moot.
The Tecra A2 lists four different models, one of which can be customized. Looking at the preselected options, the A2-S336 has potential. Here, potential means a 5400 RPM hard drive, 512MB of RAM, and 802.11g. The CPU is a Pentium M 715 and the screen is 15" 1024x768 and it only has two USB 2.0 ports. I don't see a flash card reader built in, either. I'm not moved. I tried customizing the A2 to see if there's more to it, but there wasn't much I could do but improve the screen.
The Tecra A3 can't be customized from the web site and neither of it's models include a 5400 RPM hard drive. Since that seems to be the feature I care about tonight, they're both out.
Maybe I'm misremembering the others I looked at, but Toshiba seems to actually be a little expensive for what they offer. Most of the laptops they advertise seem to start with fairly low specs and with customization don't get that much better. This is, of course, just in the price range that I'm looking at. There could well be niches that they offer real value in, just not mine. As far as looks go, the Tecra doesn't look all that bad. I think I could have convinced myself to get one if there had been some technical feature that distinguished it from others I've seen. Instead, they seem to be middle of the road.
Now that I'm geared up and dissatisfied, I'm going to have to find another notebook manufacturer to go peruse. Perhaps back to Compaq... I seem to be in a more discerning mood, maybe I'll be less impressed with them tonight.