Llano in the Wild: Toshiba's Satellite L775D-S7206
by Dustin Sklavos on August 12, 2011 12:45 AM ESTRunning Cool and Quiet
One of Jarred's big takeaways and certainly one of the things AMD representatives are the most proud of is the vast improvement in power consumption and heat that Llano brings, and that's where you're really going to see the difference with the Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7206.
The A6-3400M unfortunately still has trouble keeping up with Sandy Bridge and Optimus, but it's a massive improvement on AMD's last generation. The A8 test laptop also performed much better in battery life, a combination of the smaller 14" panel and higher capacity battery. Despite the meager battery Toshiba equips the L775D-S7206 with, it still manages to produce solid running time, keeping in mind that many of these competing notebooks aren't saddled with having to power a 17" screen on top of everything else.
As for noise, the L775D-S7206 is actually blissfully quiet even under sustained load. At a meeting with HP and AMD in San Francisco a couple of months back to discuss the impending Llano launch, the AMD rep was keen to have the press touch some of the Llano-equipped laptops there just to feel how cool they were running, and he was right. Toshiba's notebook barely warms up, and the fan barely has to spin up. This, at least, is a major coup and step forward for AMD.
Those temperatures are incredibly frosty. The "THRM" temperature at the top is actually the overall CPU temperature, and it runs as cool as or cooler than I've seen Arrandale or Sandy Bridge run in most of the notebooks I've reviewed. The 17" chassis certainly does a lot of the work for Toshiba, but the end result is a notebook that's both cool and quiet.
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Crazymech - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
Gotta agree with Dustin here.Tho I would like to add that I'm begining to think the problem is that the UI elements of windows aren't really being designed with this resolution in mind. I think Microsoft should start setting a 1920x1xx0 baseline resolution for designing the next UI, so that things wont be too small at our current standard.
This would allow us to enjoy the higher PPI without straining our eyes to see the tiny details. Like iPhones 4's screen for example. Icon size just the same, just more PPI - lovely to look at.
kmmatney - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
I have crappy eyes, and a 17" laptop with 1920 x 1200 resolution. I normally run the screen at 1440 x 900, which looks great. I like the fact that I can go to 1920 x 1200 when I really need the extra real-estate, but i can't handle that resolution very long. it nice to have the option, though.seapeople - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
I have really crappy eyes too, but I went to this thing they call an eye doctor (i.e. Walmart) and now while wearing these special lens type things I can actually see far away things just like I could when I was younger. I didn't realize this was an uncommon thing?Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
The sarcasm is amusing but not entirely appropriate. Some of us with eye problems have a harder time getting them corrected as exactly. Despite my horrifically strong scrip and regular visits to the eye doctor, I still have trouble focusing sometimes.frozentundra123456 - Saturday, August 13, 2011 - link
Good comment Dustin. I still have decent vision, but I have had some problems that are not correctable that have decreased my vision somewhat. Believe me, it is really frightening to think that you might be losing vision in one or both eyes. Fortunately, the problem was not as serious as I first thought.However, I do know others that have very serious vision problems that are not totally fixable after many thousands of dollars of expensive surgery, much less a trip to Walmart. So I agree that seapeople's comment, intentionally or not, was not appropriate and is offensive to those who have serious vision problems.
joe_dude - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
IMHO, the NV75 is much better deal than the Toshiba. It comes with A8-3500m + dGPU. In Canada, it's $700 fully loaded with Blu-Ray.I think the A6 is better for low-end 13" to 15" laptops, where Intel + dGPU has a tendency to overheat (e.g. Acer TimelineX) or sounds like a jet engine in games.
Also, the productivity benchmarks are very misleading. On the NV75 (and I assume the Toshiba as well), the system is very responsive for day-to-day use. The CPU is definitely NOT a bottleneck.
Dustin Sklavos - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
The Gateway NV75, at least the models I've seen, does not include a dGPU. Any Radeon HD with the letter "G" at the end of the model number refers to the graphics built into the Llano APU. That said, you're right, the NV75 does look like a better deal.joe_dude - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
The Canadian model has a 6650m with 1 GB of VRAM.http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/gateway-gat...
The smallest AMD A6 laptop I can find so far is the 14" HP G4. Wanna review that one too? :>
charliek45 - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
Hi Dustin,Would you be able to expand on the heat and noise section of this review? I own an old Asus laptop and it gets very hot and noisy while playing games, sometimes to the point of shutting down, so this is one of the most important criteria for me when selecting a laptop. Can you please compare the heat and noise under load to other laptops? In particular, I am interested to know whether Llano is able to run cooler than Intel + dedicated graphics cards when playing games and if so, how much cooler.
MrCromulent - Friday, August 12, 2011 - link
10/100 Ethernet... are you serious, Toshiba?Even for low-end machines that's unacceptable in this day and age.