Toshiba Satellite P755D: Nearing the End of the Road for Llano
by Dustin Sklavos on April 11, 2012 12:00 AM ESTFusion X2, We Won't Miss You
Toshiba's Fusion and Fusion X2 finishes are long in the tooth, and unfortunately the Satellite P755D continues the trend with the Fusion X2. Texturing glossy plastic mitigates a lot of the issues with using the material in the first place, but the shell as a whole still looks very bulbous and busy, and Toshiba continues to use a glossy black plastic in (IMO) the worst place a designer can put it: the screen bezel.
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Where Toshiba continues to do a decent job is with the keyboard, though. With the success of the Portege line, Toshiba started transitioning the rest of their notebooks to chiclet keyboards that are substantially improved over the flat glossy keycaps of their predecessors. While I'm still not overjoyed with the use of glossy plastic in the construction of these keycaps (or Toshiba's insistence that these are premium when the matte keyboards they use in less expensive notebooks are actually superior to the touch), the layout of the keyboard continues to be one of the more traditional (and one of the smarter) ones on the market. For some users the keyboard won't matter, but for others it will be a make or break experience, and as a more finicky user I can say the one Toshiba employs is definitely comfortable enough for regular use.
The P755D also enjoys a touchpad with dedicated buttons. The buttons themselves are large, but they do feel like there's a little bit too much resistance. It's a minor quibble in the scheme of things, and the surface of the touchpad itself is plenty comfortable to use. The touchpad can also be easily toggled on and off by pressing a button just above it.
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As for the rest of the overall build quality, it's easy to say that Fusion X2's time has passed. Despite having a weight comparable to the Acer TimelineU "ultrabook" we recently reviewed, the P755D feels a lot bigger and bulkier. It continues to be a situation where, when recommending a budget notebook, I feel like I have to continually say "as long as you don't mind how it looks, Toshiba makes good budget machines."
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JarredWalton - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
There's a setting in AMD's control panel called PowerPlay. Set that for Maximum Performance and you shouldn't have any downclocking (except maybe on high-end parts like the 5870, 6870, etc. and above?) Using those settings, the AMD "test Llano" laptop lasted 161 minutes doing "gaming" while on battery power. I don't think Dustin tested the Toshiba, but it would be less most likely (given the other battery life numbers are all lower)--probably around two hours, give or take. By contrast, the Sony VAIO SE with a 49Wh battery and 6630M (and better gaming performance overall) lasted 90 minutes in the same test. I'm not sure how pertinent "gaming on battery" tests are, though -- most people I know don't usually play many complex/demanding games on laptops while unplugged.kamm2 - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link
As mentioned in the article, the case on these laptops is not very desireable. A coworker bought a P755 for his daughter and I helped set it up. My wife needed a new laptop and the price and specs were good so I was very close to buying one. I just couldn't do it though due to the cheap feel of the case and trackpad buttons.stimudent - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I have an A8-3550MX for about a month now. It can comfortably run four computational chemistry projects while playing a Blu-ray. It has been a pleasure to use too for everything else in between.The only problem may come when the computational projects tap into the GPUs causing a slight hesitation in the Blu-ray playback.
Etern205 - Saturday, April 21, 2012 - link
I currently still have my Toshiba, but I got their business line up the Tecra. It's was the very first Intel dual core @ 1.8GHz, 512MB DDR2, 80GB SATA HDD, and Intel IGP. I later on upgrade my HDD to 160GB and installed Vista Home Premium 32bit upgrade it to 2GB and Vista runs great. No lags or slow responses where other notebooks may require more ram just to work properly.I like Toshiba, but their configurations sucks big time. Let's say you want a system with a decent GPU, then must get their 17" models. I want a 13" or so with a decent GPU, but I see none of in their line up. Even their GPU in their 17" model aren't that great compare to others.