Carla Thornton

Toshiba Satellite 2805-S402

It's a laptop! No, it's a portable CD player! A DVD player! The Toshiba Satellite 2805-S402 folds music playing, movie viewing, and CD burning into one reasonably priced consumer laptop. Like many home and small-office portables, the 2805-S402 sports external buttons that let you use it as a music-CD player without booting up Windows. Once you pop your favorite disc into the 6X DVD-ROM and 4X/4X/24X CD-RW combination drive, you can start play, stop play, and move through song tracks without having to turn on the notebook. But the 2805-S402 takes CD playing further. For one thing, its audio controls, including an external volume thumbwheel, also work when the notebook is on, an obvious convenience missing from other similarly equipped laptops. In addition, the audio buttons' location in the screen-panel hinge makes them handier than controls that are on the front, which is what most notebooks have.We liked being able to simultaneously power up the laptop and launch a DVD movie by sliding one switch located near the audio buttons in the screen-panel hinge. When you queue up a music or DVD disc, the 2805-S402 does not disappoint. Powerful speakers and a built-in subwoofer sound great. And this laptop's NVidia GeForce2 Go graphics chip makes watching movies or playing games a joy. Our only beef: There's no LCD panel for showing music CD tracks or the time left in a song.
With a case that measures nearly 2 inches thick and weighs over 7.5 pounds at its minimum travel weight, the Satellite 2805-S402 falls on the hefty side. It also suffers from a stubborn latch that is difficult to open with one hand. Its built-in network adapter would help it fit well in a home network, but its lack of a docking connection detracts from its appeal as a desktop replacement.
Attractive and nicely appointed, the gray-and-silver 2805-S402 has fixed optical and floppy drives, a spacious keyboard augmented by a single Internet launch button, side-by-side modem and network jacks, and twin USB connections. The laptop's eraserhead pointer works smoothly in conjunction with the crescent-shaped mouse buttons, which come flanked by small scrolling buttons. Do-it-yourselfers will have no trouble performing memory and storage upgrades. Toshiba provides both a thick printed manual and several help resources on the desktop, such as an electronic user guide and links to technical support online. Included is Lotus SmartSuite productivity software. On the performance front, the 2805-S402 turned in a PC WorldBench 2000 score of 144, which is perfectly respectable for a PIII-850/700 system with 128MB of RAM and Windows Me.
With its musical talents, the 2805-S402 is suitable for budget-conscious shoppers looking for something beyond a basic machine.

Buying Information

Toshiba Satellite 2805-S402 PC WorldBench 2000 score of 144, Pentium III-850/700 CPU, 128MB of RAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows Millennium Edition, 15.1-inch active-matrix screen, NVidia GeForce2 Go graphics chip with 16MB of SDRAM, 20GB hard drive, combination 6X DVD-ROM and 4X/4X/24X CD-RW drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, eraserhead pointing device, 8.8 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord), Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition. One-year parts and labor warranty; free unlimited 24-hour toll-free tech support. $ 2399 PC WorldBench 2000 score of 144, Pentium III-850/700 CPU, 128MB of RAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows Millennium Edition, 15.1-inch active-matrix screen, NVidia GeForce2 Go graphics chip with 16MB of SDRAM, 20GB hard drive, combination 6X DVD-ROM and 4X/4X/24X CD-RW drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, eraserhead pointing device, 8.8 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord), Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition. One-year parts and labor warranty; free unlimited 24-hour toll-free tech support. http://www.csd.toshiba.com 800/867-4422