Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 Budget Laptop PC

The Bottom Line
Overall the Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 is a very strong budget notebook computer system. Performance is quite good with a very large amount of storage space. Battery life could be improved and the power saving functions can be annoying but can be corrected.

Pros

* Extremely Large Hard Drive
* Lots of Peripheral Connection Options

Cons

* Power Options Can Cause Issues With Screen
* Battery Life A Bit Below Normal

Description

* AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 Dual Core Mobile Processor
* 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
* 200GB 4200rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
* 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) Display with AMD Radeon X1200 Integrated Graphics
* v.92 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless
* Four USB 2.0, FireWire, ExpressCard/54 and 5-in-1 Card Reader
* 14.3" x 10.6" x 1.6" @ 6.3 lbs.
* Vista Home Premium, Works 8, Ulead Movie Factory

Guide Review - Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 Budget Laptop PC

One of the first things that most people notice about the Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 is the amount of storage space that it has. Most budget notebooks tend to include a fairly small 80GB hard drive in them. Toshiba has included an extremely large 200GB drive providing plenty of space for digital media files and programs. Of course, it also features the very standard dual layer DVD burner for playing back or recording of DVDs and CDs.

The system is based around the AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 dual core mobile processor. While this isn't as fast as the newer Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors, it does a respectable job at most general application tasks that users have. The 1GB of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory is about standard for this price segment and lets it run OK with Vista as long as not too many applications are open.

The Toshiba Satellite A215 notebook chassis also provides a lot of options for external peripherals. The system features a total of four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port and the newer ExpressCard/54 slot. This is a good deal more than what many budget notebooks offer users.

This brings up probably the biggest issues with the Satellite A215-S4747 notebook. The battery life with all these features is a bit below average, but the power options are also set so that it can cause issues. Essentially the power options within Vista are set such that if the system is inactive for a short period of time (1 to 2 minutes), it will go into the sleep or hibernate modes. This can be annoying as it requires waking it up again, but it can be corrected by adjusting the power options to a longer period.