With its Satellite A55-S326, Toshiba has put together a very well-rounded laptop that offers a solid blend of performance, features, portability, and price-all in a fairly compact 6.8-pound silver-colored system.
At its heart is a 1.6-GHz Intel Pentium M 725 processor. Complete with a 2MB Level 2 cache memory buffer and a 533-MHz system bus, this CPU was able to easily handle the tasks we threw its way, like editing digital images in Photoshop, recalculating spreadsheet data in Excel, and playing DVD movies.
The DVD drive installed in the Satellite A55-S326 is a multiformat model that can read from and write to any CD or DVD format. When you're using that drive to play DVD movies, you'll appreciate the bright, crisp image displayed on the system's 15-inch screen. Although it doesn't offer a widescreen aspect ratio or a high resolution, this 1024 x 768 XGA screen is fine for everyday PC chores. For photo editing or spreadsheets, though, we wish the display could at least reach SXGA resolution.
Connected to that screen is the video adapter integrated into Intel's 852 core logic chipset. If you really like to play 3D games in your downtime, this graphics processor isn't going to cut it for you, but for productivity tasks, it's more than adequate.
A farther-reaching problem of this graphics adapter is its use of main system RAM as video memory. This setup not only allows the video adapter to usurp a portion of the A55-S326's total 512MB of memory, but it also clogs the memory interface, which can slow down the CPU. This is the primary culprit for the small amount of sluggishness we noted from the system when it was multitasking.
The other half of the system's multimedia system is a mixed bag. The audio adapter integrated into the Intel 852 chipset is typical of what you'll find in virtually every laptop, but the speakers are tinnier than average. With a nice set of headphones or external speakers, though, the sound is just fine. We also appreciated the Satellite A55-S326's volume control wheel. This is a welcome departure from the typical function key combination.
Intel 802.11g wireless networking is included. This Wi-Fi adapter was able to transfer just about 10.2 Mbps at 50 feet-a very acceptable data rate-while consuming almost no power.
With the Wi-Fi adapter switched off, the Satellite A55-S326 ran our MobileMark battery-life test for an impressive 3 hours and 26 minutes. When we switched on the Wi-Fi adapter and pulled the plug on the system, the system lost only 2 minutes of runtime.
Like most laptops, the Satellite A55-S326 is protected by a mere one-year standard warranty. If you'd like a little more protection just in case something goes wrong, though, you'll be glad to know that for just an additional $149, you can upgrade to a three-year parts-and-labor warranty.
Although we'd like to have seen a higher resolution on the display and a memory reader, its strong performance, multiformat DVD burner, long battery runtime, and low price, in addition to plenty of USB 2.0 ports, make the Toshiba Satellite A55-S326 a strong value for $1,599.
|
|
| Processor |
| Processor Type |
Intel Pentium M Processor (Centrino) |
| Data Bus Speed |
400 MHz |
Cache Memory |
| Installed Size |
2 MB |
RAM |
| Installed Size |
512 MB |
| Technology |
DDR-SDRAM (DDRRAM) |
Storage |
| Hard Drive |
80 GB |
| Drive Controllers |
IDE (ATA/EIDE/ATAPI) |
Optical Storage |
| Type |
DVD+-RW/CD-RW Combo,
Hard Drive |
Display |
| Type |
Active Matrix LCD (TFT) |
| Aspect Ratio |
4:3 (Standard) |
| Graphics Processor / Vendor |
Intel Extreme Graphics |
| Max. Resolution |
1024 x 768 (XGA) |
Audio |
| Sound Support |
STAC9750TG Codec Chip |
Networking |
| Data Link Protocol |
Ethernet (10/100 Mbps),
Wireless Ethernet - 11 Mbps IEEE802.11b,
Wireless Ethernet - 54 Mbps IEEE802.11g |
Expansion |
| Expansion |
Type I CardBus,
Type I PC Card,
Type II CardBus,
Type II PC Card |
Miscellaneous |
| Chipset Type |
Intel 855GM |
| Input Devices |
Keyboard,
Touchpad |
| Included Devices |
AC Adapter,
Modem,
Power Cord,
Speakers |
Operating System |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows XP |
Dimensions (W x D x H) |
| Unit |
13.3 in x 10.8 in x 1.56 in |
Weight |
| Unit |
6.83 lbs |
Warranty |
| Warranty |
3 Month Limited Warranty |
|
|
= Comment
= Outstanding
= Good
= Poor
= Bad
