Toshiba Satellite A500-11U

Toshiba's Satellite range comprises its consumer laptops and theSatellite A500-11U, while not that portable, offers surprisingly goodperformance and a truly stylish design.

The 16-inch screenboasts a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio and watching films is a pleasure,with no black bands sandwiching the picture. Detail is average, thanksto a 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, and the screen coating enhancescolour reproduction, but it is reflective in bright conditions.

Buildquality is satisfactory and the laptop looks great, with shinypatterned plastics adorning the chassis. A line of touch-activatedhotkeys give you quick control of media applications, as well asToshiba's Eco Mode function for managing performance and batterysettings.

The keyboard is a little spongy, but still provides afluid enough action, and Toshiba has also implemented a dedicatednumeric pad, which is useful for inputting data. The keyboard is fullybacklit and is, therefore, ideal for working in low-light conditions.

Multi-gesture

Themulti-gesture touchpad is very responsive, letting you scroll throughdocuments and zoom into photos, for example, using just your fingers.An Intel Core 2 Duo processor is joined by 4GB of memory and everydayperformance is very fast. You'll certainly have no problemsmulti-tasking with office or media-intensive applications.

Thanksto the powerful dedicated ATI graphics card, 3D performance is alsovery good, meaning you'll have no problem editing photos or video andplaying the latest games – although you may have to turn down detailsettings in more resource-intensive titles.

The 500GB harddrive is generous and capacious enough to hold an entire family'sfiles. At 3.3kg, it's quite a heavy machine, and portability is furtherhindered by the 129-minute battery life which means you will have tocarry the charger with you when travelling.

Nevertheless, extrafeatures are impressive, with a digital tuner included for watching TVon the go and also Harman Kardon speakers that successfully enhance thelaptop's audio experience. 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet arepresent, providing fast wireless and wired connections to networks.

Thereare four USB ports, one of which boasts Sleep & Charge technologythat lets you charge USB-compatible devices while the machine isasleep. An eSATA interface is also in evidence, as are VGA and HDMIports for hooking up to external monitors.

The ToshibaSatellite A500-11U is a very impressive machine and, despite averageportability, it's a competent and feature-packed laptop that justifiesits price tag.

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