Subscribe Feed (RSS)Portability is extremely important in the laptops range. Sure, some users need extreme powerful laptops for gaming, others as desktop replacements, and others need portability. And no, it’s not just about business consumers that need portability, but also everyday users who are looking for a good multimedia laptop, portable, with an attractive design.
For some manufacturers these might seam impossible, but not for Toshiba. This manufacturer offers a full range of different laptops, and not just spec different, but also design and functionality different. Even more, Toshiba has in its portfolio two laptops with the same name, L300, but in different ranges, the Satellite Pro (for the business consumers) and the Satellite range (for the everyday consumers). Therefore, you can easily imagine how many laptop models Toshiba created since it needs to use the same name for two laptops (which by the way are different not only in looks but also in specs).
If you are looking for a great 14 inches laptop from the Satellite family then you should check out the Satellite E105. You might be surprised to find out how many interesting features this laptop can include. The key features easy to underline are the subjective exquisite design, excellent dimensions and weight, good battery life, excellent keyboard. In terms of design this laptop can either win or lose without any doubts, depending on everyone’s impression.
Basically, Toshiba created another laptop with a design that stands behind the strange motto “love it or hate it”. With a varying height from front to rear 1.20 inches to 1.24 inches, wide of 13.4 inches, deep of 9.69 inches, the E105 weights about 4.99 lbs depending on the configuration chosen. Therefore, you get in terms of dimensions and weight a portable laptop. If you are looking at the E105 closed then you are going to love the Fusion Finish of the copper brown lid. With the good sized dimensioned metallic “Toshiba” logo, the E105 really looks stylish closed.
Also all the sides of this laptop have a silver color making the contrast more obvious providing an even better look in the design department. However, the truly weird feeling will surprise you when you will open the LCD cover, and observe that the E105 includes an angular design, making it look old. Even more, the difference in height between the front and the rear are almost impossible to see, leaving you with a feeling of “box” design. Basically, the E105 can only be appreciated when opened by the nice finishes that may divert your attention from the wider impression.
Therefore, the keyboard is strategically covered with the same copper brown including on the right side the LED status which adds a plus in the design department. Also, when you look at its corners, you will see how well this laptop is build, because Toshiba surprisingly tries to attract with the E105 not the “first impression” customers but more the calculated customers with high affinity over every detail.
Overall, this laptop has its niche of customers, and these customers are by far easy to satisfy, because of their attention to every single detail. Even more, Toshiba went with this design for a certain reason; by choosing the angular design Toshiba created the most stabile and solid laptop from its portfolio. The details are flawlessly inserted in the solid build, making the user experience extraordinary.
Therefore, if you are looking for a solid build laptop you should look for angular designs, since this design offer the best quality in build terms. Just like other thin laptops, the E105’s LCD cover works like a hinge. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to find any ports or slot on the back side. Even so on the front side you get two built in stereo speakers in the corners, LED status indicators, microphone input port, headphone output port, and memory card reader (compatible with several cards, such as xD Picture card, Secure Digital, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick card, and the Memory Stick PRO card).
On the left side, Toshiba included beside the cooling vent, the HDMI connector, the 10 / 100 / 100 Ethernet port, the modem port, S/P DIF output port, one USB 2.0 with sleep and charge, and one eSATA / USB combo port with sleep and charge. On the right side the E105 sports one 2.0 USB port, the security lock switch, and the AC input jack. Also on the right side it is included the Super Multi DVD drive (compatible with almost 11 formats, such as DVD + R single layer, DVD + R double layer, DVD – RAM, DVD – ROM, DVD – R single layer, DVD – R double layer, CD – ROM, CD – R, CD – RW, and others). Once opened, the E105 sports only an 85-key USA keyboard layout. The only under sized keys are the Fn keys.
The rest of the keys are well sized, and offer good feedback and no flex. The Media Control buttons and the Power On and Off button are located in the right of the keyboard. A nice feature for this range of laptops is the backlight of the keyboard, offering an excellent usability in every light environment conditions. Under the keyboard you get the touch pad, which offer good feedback since it’s made out of a matte pattern material offering sufficient grip.
Also, under the touch pad you get the two buttons which center the fingerprint reader. Both buttons offer good feedback since their not made out of any slippery materials. Toshiba included in this laptop a 14.1 inches diagonal widescreen TFT LCD display. This display sports the TruBrite technology and features a native WXGA resolution (also known as 1280 x 800 pixels). Even more, thanks to the TruBrite technology, the display offers sufficient brightness in any light conditions, even under direct sunlight.
The colors are vibrant, and the image rendering is quite good. This is not the best display on the market, but with the average viewing angles, Toshiba offers a consistent LCD display package within the E105. In terms of connectivity, the E105 includes Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 AGN with the 802.11 a/g/n profile, the 10 / 100 / 1000 Ethernet, Bluetooth version 2.1 with the enhanced data rate, the memory card reader, HDMI port, two 2.0 USB, one eSATA / USB combo port with sleep and charge function, and for security reasons, the fingerprint reader. An unusual step in advertising and selling, Toshiba only offers one predetermined configuration for the E105. The E105 S1602 is the only available configuration.
Even further, Toshiba doesn’t allow you to configure your own E105. The E105 S1602 is shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit version with the Service Pack1. Inside, the E105 S1602 includes the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 with 2.0 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache at 1066 MHz FSB.
Also, Toshiba included into this configuration the Mobile Intel GM 45 Express Chipset, and the maximum available RAM, 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz (in the 2 x 2048 MB configuration). With the 500 GB serial ATA hard disk drive with 5400 rotation per minute you should have no problem in storing your music collection, video files, and pictures, or even some games. “Some games”, because the E105 will not be able to run sophisticated games with the Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHZ with 128 MB dedicated memory, and 1342 MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory.
Beside the operating system, Toshiba also ships the E105 with several other software applications not all own branded, such as Toshiba Config Free, Toshiba DVD player, Toshiba Disc Creator, Toshiba Face Recognition, Toshiba HDD Protection, Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment 3rd party application, Adobe Acrobat Reader 3rd party application, Microsoft Works 9, Google Toolbar, Power Cinema for Toshiba and the 60 day trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Edition. However, you should definitely upgrade as soon as you can to Microsoft Windows 7 and (when available) Microsoft Office 2010.
Overall, Toshiba Satellite E105 is not just a good balanced laptop; it will certainly rise to any expectations, as long you like its design. Even more, for $949.99 price tag you should understand that you are buying a top product and not something that is included in the entry level line. Even more, the design is really good if you don’t mind its form, with excellent quality finishes and solid build quality, providing sufficient protection to all the good techs included in the E105. The Satellite E105 is certainly a unique product (because of its one configuration available making it more exclusivist you might think).
Related posts: