Thin, light, and reasonably priced, the Toshiba Satellite M105-S3004 features the Media Center OS, a beautiful 14.1-inch screen, and a massive 100GB hard drive. Toss in good multitasking performance and wireless throughput and this notebook definitely offers a lot of bang for the buck.
The Toshiba M105-S3004 sports a very basic appearance when the lid is closed. Once you pop the top of this 5.4-pound machine, you're greeted with a very well-designed interior. The front and back of the base has subtle curves that give the unit's 13.5 x 9.5 x 1.5-inch frame a sleek appearance.
In the upper right and left corners of the keyboard are twin Harman Kardon speakers that churn out decent sound. Between them sits a power button, handy quick-launch keys for the Web browser and Media Center, and CD/DVD playback controls. The lower right of the laptop has an integrated fingerprint reader for increased security.
The center of attention here is the gorgeous 14.1-inch TruBrite widescreen display. The bright and glossy screen is quite inviting, making watching DVDs a joy. However, the viewing angles are tight; stray a bit to the left or right of center and the glossy screen kicks back rather distracting reflections.
While the keyboard layout is wide enough room to type comfortably, we found the keys themselves to have a little too much give. We're not big fans of the small touchpad, either, which was a little jumpy when it came to controlling the cursor.
The Toshiba M105-S3004 comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, giving users a variety of tools to create and organize digital media. With the 100GB hard drive, this system has enough space for all of your favorite music, photos, and home movies. A dual-layer, multiformat DVD burner is also included, along with a 5-in-1 memory card reader. An optional remote control navigates the Media Center menus, raises and lowers the volume, and powers off the machine. Unfortunately, we couldn't use the remote to activate Express Media Player which plays CDs and DVDs without booting Windows. Once we manually turned on Express Media Player, however, we were able to use the remote normally.
We put the 1.6-GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 processor through its multitasking paces by running an antivirus program while watching a DVD: This notebook didn't flinch. The M105-S3004 also fared well in our other tests. With a MobileMark 2005 score of 236, the M105-S3004 turned in an average score for a thin-and-light notebook. For wireless throughput, the M105 turned in 13.9 Mbps and 16.9 Mbps of throughput at 15 and 50 feet, respectively.
We were able to get 3 hours and 25 minutes of juice out of the M105 with Wi-Fi on, and an additional 5 minutes with the radio turned off. That's a bit below average for this class of machine but long enough to watch a full movie on your next flight and then get some work done.
Preinstalled software includes WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum and Sonic Solutions RecordNow for your media creation needs. This system also comes with a one-year limited warranty and 24/7 technical support.
The Toshiba M105-S3004 is a full-featured notebook packed with a wealth of options at a very attractive price. Although some minor flaws keep it from unseating the HP Pavilion dv1000t as our favorite thin-and-light, this system should satisfy multimedia connoisseurs on the move.
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|
| Processor |
| Processor Type |
Intel Core Duo |
| Data Bus Speed |
66 MHz |
Cache Memory |
| Installed Size |
2 MB |
RAM |
| Installed Size |
1 GB |
| Technology |
DDR2 |
Storage |
| Hard Drive |
100 GB |
| Drive Controllers |
Serial ATA |
Optical Storage |
| Type |
DVD+-RW Dual Layer Combination Drive,
Hard Drive |
Display |
| Type |
LCD Display w/ TruBrite Technology |
| Aspect Ratio |
16:10 |
| Graphics Processor / Vendor |
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 |
| Max. Resolution |
1280 x 800 |
| Video Bus |
PCI Express x16 |
Audio |
| Sound Support |
Realtek ALC861 |
Networking |
| Data Link Protocol |
Ethernet (10/100/1000 Mbps),
Wireless Ethernet - 11 Mbps IEEE802.11b,
Wireless Ethernet - 54 Mbps IEEE802.11a,
Wireless Ethernet - 54 Mbps IEEE802.11g |
Expansion |
| Expansion |
Memory Stick PRO,
MultiMedia Card (MMC),
SD Card,
Sony Memory Stick,
Type I PC Card,
Type II PC Card,
xD-Picture Card |
Miscellaneous |
| Chipset Type |
Intel 945GM |
| Input Devices |
Keyboard,
Touchpad |
| Included Devices |
Fingerprint Reader,
Modem |
Operating System |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition |
Dimensions (W x D x H) |
| Unit |
13.5 in x 9.53 in x 1.5 in |
Weight |
| Unit |
5.42 lbs |
Warranty |
| Warranty |
1 Year Limited Warranty |
|
|
= Comment
= Outstanding
= Good
= Poor
= Bad
