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Lots of plus points for this notebook from Toshiba
Some recent Toshiba notebooks left us feeling distinctly ambivalent, but they’ve turned the corner and started to impress once more.
The A110-275 achieved a Sysmark score of 200 and a PCmark of almost 3,000, which is excellent, especially when you consider that it’s £50 cheaper than all the other systems on test.
Aided by Intel’s T2400 (1.83GHz) processor and 1GB of memory, the A110-275 is also Windows Vista capable. Unfortunately, the integrated graphics means that all the flashy bits of Vista probably won’t work, but it’s nice to know this notebook is equipped for future developments, which can’t be said of some entrants in this group test.
The 60GB hard disk is smaller than that found on all the other systems, perhaps showing where that £50 saving has gone, and potentially a problem for the media-hungry. The 15.4in screen is nice and bright, but the integrated graphics aren’t powerful enough to play the latest 3D games.
As you’d expect from Toshiba, it’s one of the best-looking models on test. A solid keyboard, a column of media shortcut buttons and snazzy trackpad buttons look and feel appealing, while the build quality feels more rugged than most of the competition.
At 2.7kg, it’s easily portable. If we have one slight criticism, it’s the size of the trackpad, which is small and has no scroll bar.
Battery life wasn’t that impressive, but the A110-275 still managed 1 hour 40 minutes in Windows. Our DVD test ran to just under 2 hours, which, apart from the Asus, is about average from the notebooks that we looked at.
However, this notebook still has a lot of plus points in its favour and a decent software bundle.
See
full
performance results for Toshiba Satellite A110-275 laptop
Compare to all
laptop
performance results
This article is part of a group test of
laptop
computers costing under £700.
See also:
Asus F3F
Evesham Quest A430
Hi-Grade A9700
MSI Megabook M662
MV Mobeus 13"
Graphs and table of features can be read via our pdf downloads above.
Our verdict
Pros: Good relative system performance; lightweight; well built, Vista capable Cons: Small trackpad; DVD playback will only last a couple of hours; smaller hard disk than most. Overall: The cheapest notebook here, but among the best performing. Toshiba has impressed us again
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Toshiba Satellite A110 ls junk for the casual audio user
My mobile computer Toshiba Satellite A110 with REALTEK drivers has more audio issues than anyone should ever have to deal with straight out of the box. Toshiba technical support finally admit, "these are the limitations of the computer you purchased, lf you don't like it, take it back!" Can you imagine... how moral is this? l am tired after doing all this research. ln order to have people capable of hearing me on mic and myself hearing even loud audio output, l have to work harder than their tech support. lt has been very disturbing to come across help such as suggestions that a set of external laptop speakers with a power supply of there own, on a MOBiLE Computer should work. l am fully aware the problem here is not just realtek, lt ls also toshiba's fault for not labeling the box as junk audio, can't hear anything, not even windows startup sound very well. Until realtek/toshiba ""VlCTlMS"" are offered new drivers and more than likely, new speakers so the new drivers can be supported, this problem is only going to get worse by removing the .dat files. l have already noticed removing the .dat files has caused my audio input(mic) quality to go scratchy and static sounding. On top of this, after removing the .dat files, my audio output fluctuates once DAlLY. (ie. kicks in high and then low audio output. AND l'm not talking about a bad headset/mlc or set of speakers. These are the "limitations" of this awful machine.) This is a serious issue and misrepresentation! Everyone that owns a pc with these realtek/toshiba issues should get together and maybe finally get the proper outcome we deserve.
Posted by hup, 17 Apr 2008