Toshiba Satellite T235D-S1345RD Review
Back as thin and light notebooks were all the rage in 2009, a surprise contender for the most affordable thin 13-inch Toshiba laptop came from. Satellite T135, an optical drive-free laptop with an Intel Pentium or AMD dual-core CPU Neo, knew exactly provide the sort of computing power that is missing most netbooks. For everything from streaming video to general office work, it was more than enough. It was not as cheap as a netbook, but it was not as expensive as many thin laptops, either.
Toshiba’s update, the Satellite T235 is like its predecessor in many ways – perhaps too much. We can not really wrong, but because it remains one of the thinnest all-around affordable 13-inch laptops. However, the AMD Turion dual-core powered Neo II T235D-S1345, it’s the same price as many i3 Intel Core laptops.
The weight and battery life on this ultra-portable 13-incher is superior to many standard 13-inch machines, but it comes at the same cost as the performance of the other Satellite models T135 had. The T235D still lacks an optical drive, and it is no longer the thinnest machine around, in fact, for just a few hundred more, the Toshiba Portege R705-P25 offers a lighter chassis, a i3 Core processor, and a DVD-burning optical drive. However, if an all-around fine machine you are looking at a price that is reasonable, the T235D-S1345 can handle much more than a Netbook, and a more ergonomic design.
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Satellite S1345-T235D is a relative lightweight in the 13-inch laptops, less than 4 pounds, has a tapered design that also gives a smaller overall profile. At first glance it looks more like a 12-inch ultraportable. From the outside, the T235D is not really different from the previous T135 Series – the same shiny plastic cover dominated – this time in a gray shaded etched pattern on the fingerprint Securities, or reduce an optional red – and a slightly bulging battery protrudes at the bottom, but hardly enough to feel intrusive.
Inside, a foreign domination of textured silver plastic surrounding the keyboard deck, the effect seems to be sticky. After some use, we have softened the draft – to a point. While Toshiba may be credited for not playing it safe, we would prefer something more subdued. Combined with the overall feel is very plastic laptop ownership, T235D tends looking for something cheap. Fortunately, the chassis construction feels quite sturdy, starting with a new keyboard.
We have criticized previous generation of satellites with Toshiba’s flat keyboards that are not feeling well, but his honor, the new order on the keyboard T235 series is a real improvement. The solid square buttons look too small at first sight, but their distance shows a surprisingly good ergonomic experience. It feels like we found the keyboard on the Toshiba NB305 Netbook Mini, blown up and put on a larger laptop. The arrow keys are even thoughtfully to compensate, and the function keys are placed in small clusters of four buttons. If there is a big improvement for the T235D, it is in those keys.
The wider than high multitouch touchpad tends to be a bit too slick, but the sensitivity is excellent, and we found under the contour curved buttons easily accessible. And textured deck have complained about is to provide comfortable friction on your palms while typing. Clever stuff, after all.
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The Satellite T235D-S1345 has a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen LED-backlit display with a 1366 x 768 pixel native resolution, which is normal for screens of this size. Photos looked pretty clear and readable text, though the screen looked washed at wide viewing angles. The built-in stereo speakers emit sound through vents under the front of the soil, they are loud enough to enjoy videos, but are not suitable for music. A built-in webcam is a lot like the one on the previous T135 – OK for Web chat, but we’ve seen better.
Except for the missing optical drive and the lack of Bluetooth, the T235D-S1345 is the selection of ports, we would expect from a 13-inch laptop. Toshiba added a combo eSATA / USB 2.0 port, which is nice, like the ubiquitous bed-and-charge USB port which can power USB devices when the Satellite is sleeping or even eliminated. It turns a laptop into a big battery for your phone when traveling.
Like its predecessor, the Satellite T135D-S1324, the S1345 has a T235D-Neo AMD dual-core processor, although this time it’s slightly upgraded to a Turion dual core II Neo K625. The performance has improved a bit but not massively so. For most mainstream computing needs, these dual-core CPU does the job surprisingly well. We are also pleased to say that generally, the full-screen video streaming nicely handled, but we had better results if we avoided trying to watch HD streams. The T235D-S1345 is a much better solution for mobile computing than the single-core Atom processor or netbooks, but it also falls short of what even a basic i3 Intel Core processor can do. In terms of overall performance benchmark, but edged out the slim 11.6-inch Dell Inspiron M101z that an Athlon II Neo K325 dual-core CPU packs. Its performance is impressive for a 11.6-inch system, but it’s not far off what we would expect the budget 13-inch, either.
The included ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics are close to Intel’s integrated graphics in terms of effective performance. The video chip does definitely a boost, but all based on 3D games are barely playable. The system ran Unreal Tournament III at 13.1 frames per second at 1,200 x 768-pixel resolution. For casual games and more forgiving graphics settings, you need more viable results.
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An included six-cell battery, Toshiba Satellite S1345-T235D ran for 4 hours and 28 minutes using our video playback battery drain test. That is very good and certainly above average for the 13-inch laptops, better battery life than the average 13-inch Core i3 laptop significantly. However, it is a dive of the last generation of satellites T135 battery lives, approximately one hour longer. It is also less impressive under Netbook competitors, so it depends on what category you consider the trim T235D-S1345 covered. With a low-power CPU and no optical drive, one would expect better.
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