Satellite Pro M15-S405 has more stickers than features

I HAVE JUST spent a couple of days with the new Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405 laptop, and it is a decent machine for the money, but far from a road warrior. Lets start out with the raw numbers. It is one of the 'professional' series of laptops from Toshiba, meaning it is built a little better than the standard Satellite models, and has a longer warrantee. Supposedly the stronger construction and greater durability are aimed at the higher use found in a business versus the desk ornament that home laptops tend to become.

This particular laptop is a Pentium M/Centrino model running at 1.4GHz, a generous 512MB ram, 60GB hard drive, and a 15 inch screen. 802.11b is built in to the chipset, and there are a ton of ports covering all sides of the laptop. In no particular order, it has firewire, microphone, headphones, video out, VGA, modem, lan and 2 USB 2.0 ports. In the nice touches column, it has a few standout items, a real volume knob, a CPU vent that exits to the rear, a physical off switch for the IR port, and a locking latch on the PCMCIA ports. All laptops should have these things, they make a lot of sense while costing very little to put in.

The last parts of the computer are a pair of Harmon-Kardon speakers and a DVD/CDRW combo drive. The speakers can get loud enough to annoy you with enough clarity to let people on the far side of the room realize exactly what you are annoying them with. No deficiencies here. The combo drive, coupled with the firewire ports, make this a mobile multimedia workstation should you chose to us it in that way.

As for the parts of the laptop that you interact with, the keyboard, mouse (mice) and screen, nothing stood out. The screen, while a generous 15 inches, was a measly 1024*768 resolution. After looking at the Compaq Evo N800w with a 1600*1200 (link: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11396) , this one seems cheap. The fact that it wasn't as bright as the IBM or various Compaqs I use didn't help matters. This screen is a bit below average for a 'corporate' laptop, but well above average 'home' fare. The keyboard is nothing spectacular, nothing stood out, good or bad.

The touchpad was a notable minus, it was a lot more 'touchy' than most laptops I have used recently. Resting your finger on it could produce a 'shake' in the cursor, something that annoys me to no end. The eraser head mouse pointer was just fine to use, but I personally would prefer a marginal pad to a decent eraser. Get an external mouse for this laptop.

Moving on to the case construction, I was again less than impressed. The plastic was a shiny black plastic with speckles, looking rather sharp, but the case developed a large gouge in it that was made more noticeable by the sheen on the case. Long term durability may not be a problem, but I think it will get dull and ugly in less time than most.

The durability of the machine also comes into question in three ways, two are screen related, one hinge related. The screen bothered me on two different housing related fronts. The first thing I do when I turn on a laptop for a review is to grab the top corners of the screen with both hands and twist. A good laptop will have a decent amount of resistance, and the screen will only mildly distort. This one was 'floppy' and the screen discolored with an alarmingly small amount of pressure. The housing here should be stronger.

When I was testing the hinges, the other screen related issue came up. If you open the screen, and push it back with one finger on the top, the bottom of the screen moved visibly with respect to the case it was in. There was a noticeable crack between the screen and the plastic. I haven't seen a 'professional' laptop do this in a long time, the hinges should bend, not the case. This worried me a lot, and makes me question the long term durability again.

The hinges themselves were adequate, but nothing incredible. Better than the 'home' laptops, but certainly a far cry from the IBM T40 Stinkpad that is the class of the field in this regard. If it weren't for the underwhelming quality of the screen case, I wouldn't worry here, but unfortunately I am. If you are considering this laptop for a job when it won't be opened and closed much, this shouldn't be a problem, but heavy use, it may become an issue.

The last bit about the case are the stickers. Normally, I like reserved, classy cases, and am willing to overlook the 'intel inside' ad, or the obligatory battery warning label. This Toshiba took the cake in the sticker cramming sweepstakes. The front of the case had 6 stickers on it, and probably only that because they ran out of room.

The bottom of the machine had 11 stickers on it, truly a record. When it comes to sticker to weight ratios, there is no manufacturer that has the technological gift that Toshiba has.

I was planning on looking up things like weight and dimensions on Toshiba's site, but I couldn't find any reference to the laptop. After a fruitless search for a search button on anything but the 'Buy Toshiba' site, which returned no matches, I gave up and decided to do a more touchy-feely comparison here. The machine seems to be a little wider than the big 15 inch screen Compaqs, but also a little thinner. Subjectively, the weight is a between the large and medium Compaqs, I would guess at around 7 pounds. Not objectionable, but I would gladly add another half pound for a bit more structural rigidity and denser case plastic.

Overall this laptop is a better than most 'home' class laptop, but a far far cry from the 'corporate' standards set by Compaq and IBM. If I were rating it against them, I would give it a 4/10 for quality, but a 7/10 for features for the money, there is a lot packed in here. Forced to pick a single number, 5/10 would not be out of line. Spending my own money, I would drop the extra $500 or so on a slightly less content filled T40. If money is tight, and you aren't planning to move it around much, this is a perfectly adequate machine. µ