Carla Thornton

Toshiba Satellite 5205-S503

Though the Satellite 5205-S503 doesn't have the DVD-RW drive and mini LCD touchpad of Toshiba's racier 5205-S703 and S704 multimedia models, and though it lacks the S703's stylishly beveled case, it's still a stunning wireless-ready notebook. The hard plastic lid resembles the glossy hood of a sports car, complemented by a blue lower casing and a silver-and-black panel of music controls on the front. Strong audio is another point of distinction: A small set of Harman/Kardon stereo speakers backed by a subwoofer on the bottom turn out beautiful audio with no distortion, even at high volume, and the S503 can play music CDs loudly. There is a Secure Digital card slot, and a combination DVD-ROM and CD-RW drive is fixed on the right side. You even get a remote control for flipping between the high-resolution 15-inch screen and a TV display. Our test machine's battery life exceeded that of the 5205-S703 we tested for the March issue by almost half an hour, lasting 3.5 hours on one charge.
The 5205-S503 is almost as heavy as the better-equipped 5205-S703 we've tested, weighing in at 8.7 pounds including the power adapter (7.6 pounds without). It is missing legacy connections--parallel, serial and PS/2 ports--and a floppy drive costs extra.
The controls and speakers remain exposed when you close the lid, so you can kick back and enjoy a CD even when the notebook isn't booted up. Topping off the impressive audiocentric design are a recessed volume wheel on the front and an informative track LCD that also displays the time of day and a battery gauge. All the notebook's parts are user-accessible. The 5205-S503's large keyboard is easy to type on and includes a couple of dedicated shortcut buttons for launching your favorite applications. A FireWire port and a trio of USB 2.0 ports round out the connections. Printed documentation consists solely of a setup poster, but a thorough and easy-to-access software-based manual is loaded on the hard drive. Our only complaint is the confusing explanation for the notebook's two audio modes. Toshiba provides an extensive chart detailing the functions of each but offers no overview, leaving you to figure out that the CD-ROM mode is the ticket--it plays CDs without turning on the notebook and powers up the notebook and launches movies when a DVD-ROM is in the drive. The less-useful digital mode simply turns on the notebook and launches Toshiba's Media Player.
The Satellite 5205-S503 represents a compromise between a workaday notebook and one of Toshiba's decked-out multimedia models.