Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Platinum)
Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Platinum)
- Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.3 GHz (2.9 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology), 3MB L3 Cache
- 6GB DDR3 1333MHz (max 8GB)
- 640GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA hard disk drive, 8x SuperMulti DVD drive
- 15.6” diagonal widescreen TruBrite TFT display at 1366 x 768 native resolution (HD), Intel HD Graphics with 64 MB
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 6 Hours 28 Minutes Battery Life
When you’re looking for above-average performance-and show-stopping mobile entertainment-discover Toshiba‘s brand new Satellite P755. Sleek, stylish and ready for its close-up, this full-featured PC lets you do more by offering the latest in just about everything, starting with visibly smart processing power of the 2nd-Generation Intel Core i3 processor. Compact yet loaded with entertainment focused features, it’s great for multitasking, mastering everyday challenges and tearing through visually
List Price: $ 733.99
Price: $ 649.99
Theoretically Great,
I purchased this laptop 6/30. I received and un-boxed it 7/5. It is well-equipped for the price.
Positives
-The 2nd Gen Core-i5 has excellent benchmarks, comparable and even better than some 1st Gen Core-i7. (See Passmark Benchmark ratings)
-The video card puts out 1080p video without issue. It is not really capable of doing any gaming but that is to be expected at this price from the Intel HD 3000.
-For the price point the theoretical specs are fabulous, hence my purchase and excitement upon arrival.
-It comes with a full size keyboard built in which I enjoy. The sizing and spacing is all acceptable although the backspace is a touch smaller than I would like.
As far as negatives are concerned,
-The webcam is horrendous, I mean, it works, but the resolution and video quality is pretty shameful. I knew this going into the purchase and was willing to accept it, but if you are hoping for a decent integrated webcam this is not a computer for you. Of course you can always get a very high quality external webcam which will best any internal.
-Toshiba Bloatware, I haven’t fully investigated them, but a lot of them are redundant to services that windows provides, or just excessive little power hungry toys. Thus far I do actually like the extra power settings, but that is the only one among many.
-Other Bloatware (Extra links to install trial programs…etc)
Now, the reason for 1-star.
The laptop I received on 7/5 was defective. The audio card integrated on the motherboard was deemed defective by Toshiba. Of course Toshiba customer support made me re-install the driver, and “revert to factory settings”. I found this excessively annoying as I has just opened the box and reverting to factory settings wouldn’t do anything. Regardless the problem remained and they agreed it was defective and told me I could send it to a repair facility (a brand new laptop? and wait a few weeks, i think not). Or Amazon could send me a new one. I have had better dealings with Amazon than Toshiba so I opted for a replacement. Props to Amazon for the prompt replacement (it arrived within 24 hours). Now, believe it or not, the 2nd laptop is also defective. I then had to call Toshiba again to inform them of this. They didn’t seem to find it odd that two of the exact same computers are both defective. Anyway Amazon is refunding me the money and I intend to get something else. Preferably not Toshiba despite my previously high impressions of them.
I would be interested to know if anyone else is having these issues. For anyone who may be skeptical as to the fact that two computers are both defective let me assure you sound was tested with several samples of audio from the HD, and the internet. It was also tested on both computers using the laptop speakers, Sennheiser Headphones, and a high quality system with Polk Audio speakers.
Bottom Line:
The specs are great, but I cannot recommend a computer that has come defective 2/2 times. Once is acceptable, it happens, but twice is not acceptable and both Amazon and Toshiba should be ashamed to be selling faulty merchandise repeatedly.
[UPDATE]
After receiving a third defective laptop I have ordered a Lenovo from Best Buy. I cannot fathom that nobody else is having this issue. This has been tested on numerous receivers, numerous cords, numerous speakers. I have had friends with me to verify that I am in fact not going insane, and Toshiba has verified they are all defective. The error occurs upon setup without changing factory settings at all.
Stay away.
In other news the touchpad is definitely a little far to the left and while typing I often touch it with my left palm. Minor issue though.
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|Very happy with this machine.,
Bear with me here folks, I’m still trying to pull together my thoughts on my brand new laptop here, consider my review a “first draft”.
Received this laptop early this morning. My first impression is pretty good, but I’ve only been with it for a few hours thus far. I’ve surfed around online some, streamed some HD video, played a couple games, and removed a ton of bloatware.
Was a little worried at first, because the first boot-up took quite awhile, but once I removed some bloatware, shut down, and booted up again, it’s ready to go within 20-30 seconds. After running it for 2 hours straight, mostly surfing around online, it’s not hot enough to even call it warm, so it should be good about keeping cool. The fan seems to come on pretty often, but it’s not very loud, it’s mostly just the sound of air moving in and out. Wireless internet seems to work perfectly, and I easily connected to my network.
I actually quite like the touchpad on it, which is strange for me to say, because I’m picky about touchpads. I think it works well, and it’s slightly textured, but not overly so. The keyboard seems nicely built for a laptop too.
I don’t own much in the name of games, but I’ve played some Sim City 4 and The Sims 2 on high settings without any hiccups. HD video streamed smoothly as well.
Only issues I’ve had thus far?
-AOL Instant Messenger. For whatever reason, it won’t work with the audio on this laptop. If the program tries to make a sound, it will freeze up. Disabling sounds on the program fixed it.
-Battery meter doesn’t seem right. I looked at the battery meter often, last I saw… it read 1 hour and 13 minutes left. Not more than 10 minutes later, it died. There was no warning, and I almost had a stroke thinking that the laptop itself died.
-Webcam circa 1999? Seriously, it’s pretty bad. I don’t care though.
Overall, I’m quite happy with my purchase. I’ll be updating this review once I spend more time with it and finish getting my thoughts together.
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|Perfect laptop for a student,
This is my first laptop, and even though I’ve only had it for 9 days, I believe I’ve drawn a conclusion already.
Pros: 6gb ram and huge 640gb hard drive
Extremely smooth Youtube video playback
USB 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, HDMI and VGA out
Quiet
Great battery life (in my opinion?)
The “chiclet” style keyboard is incredibly easy and satisfying to type on. The keys give off a satisfying light click, and they’re far enough away from eachother so I rarely hit another key.
I have never seen an HD Youtube video play back so smooth before, not even on my desktop with an Nvidia Geforce GTS 250.
Speaking of video performance, Minecraft plays as smooth as my desktop plays it. I have not played other games, but DO NOT buy this laptop for gaming; you’ll likely regret it.
It takes 22 seconds from power on (with the BIOS option “Load BIOS onto harddisk” checked), until you get a usable Windows 7 login screen.
The laptop has quite a few ports and features including: USB 2 and 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, and HDMI and VGA out. Very handy to have and use all of them.
Internet browsing is far from slow, it feels much faster than my desktop.
You can only hear the fan occasionally speed up, if you strain to hear it in a quiet room.
Battery life is awesome, I was able to type an entire 725 word essay from start to finish with 10% left.(3 hours at least, maybe 4. I lost track of time)
Speedfan claims both cores are idling at 109f, but you can hardly feel any warmth from the laptop even after several hours of use.
Display is glossy, vivid and bright. Some may see it being glossy as a con; it’s fine indoors, but tough to use outside (I never use it outside).
The numpad is an awesome feature to include, it was one of my main requirements in a laptop.
Windows 7 makes everything feel instant and responsive.
I’ve never run out of ram with the included 6gb.
Now onto the bad stuff (Minor whining on my part)
Cons: Keyboard is not backlit
Off center touchpad location interferes with typing
Dust magnet
Bloatware madness
Speakers suck(ish)
This laptop has doesn’t have backlit keys, not a con if you know how to type; I just always thought they looked cool at night.
Regularly while typing, my hand rests on the touchpad and jumps the mouse around as another reviewer also mentioned. Annoying at times, just reposition your left hand slightly.
Needs to be wiped off daily or it grows a beard of dust. (Or maybe I just need to vacuum my room more than once a year)
Copious amounts of bloatware — some bundled with drivers. Google a program before deleting to make sure you don’t inadvertently kill flashcards or the touchpad.(Happened to me)
Extremely slow until you kill off bloatware and stuff you don’t plan on using.
As another reviewer stated, I have had the laptop claim it had an hour of battery life left, then 5 minutes later, it shut off. I remember reading through the Toshiba manual, and apparently it has to kind of “calibrate” the battery meter and run itself down once in a while to be accurate; I am guessing this applies to the first cycle especially. It has not done this since.
Speakers are clear, but severely lack bass. Using skullcandy earphones remedies that problem.
The bright Satellite letters and line above the touchpad can be turned off in the BIOS. I believe another reviewer said that already.
I am not a picky person, so these cons don’t annoy me enough to be worth subtracting a star. The bottom line is that this is an awesome laptop for everything except gaming. (After you get over the minor quirks.)
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