Toshiba Satellite M645: The Steady March of Progress
by Dustin Sklavos on April 29, 2011 12:50 AM ESTThe Portability Sweet Spot
The 14-inch form factor is often the best place to find a compromise between weight, performance, and price. Dipping down to 13.3" can usually get similar hardware but the price begins to creep up and often GPU performance drops; going up to 15.6-inch can get you a lower price tag but more bulk. A notebook like Toshiba's Satellite M645 can really shine if it hits the right notes in portability and performance. We know the performance is largely there and the weight isn't too bad, so how's the battery life?
Battery life isn't great, but it's not dire either, and the M645 benefits from leveraging NVIDIA's Optimus technology. If there's a real weakness, it's in the mediocre battery the unit is saddled with; there aren't any other full-powered laptops with batteries this small that can still produce four hours of useful running time.
Heat and Noise
While typically we like to use HWMonitor to get a good look at the temperatures of the internals of our review units, in this instance even the most recent version was unable to track anything useful. The temperatures we can report put things into perspective a bit: the processor cores idled at around 46C, and under load bumped up to a still reasonable 77C. For a notebook processor, that's actually a pretty normal load temperature. The GeForce GT 525M did even better: it idled at 43C, and under load only scraped 66C. And finally, regardless of system load, the hard drive hung out at a relatively cool 38C. But it's when I look at those GPU temperatures that I start to feel a little cheated. Did Toshiba have to clock the chip down that badly? Let's see how that heat translates outside of the chassis.
It's by no means the coolest-running notebook, but it's actually not punishingly warm either. In my admittedly anecdotal experience with overclocking mobile graphics (and NVIDIA produces some fantastic little overclockers), raising core clocks doesn't usually produce that much more heat; it's when you start ramping the RAM up that temperatures go through the roof. I don't see any reason why the GT 525M couldn't have been run at spec in the M645; there's thermal headroom here and Optimus ensures the battery life wouldn't take the hit.
As far as noise goes, the fan does whirr up under load but it's not particularly offensive. You'll hear it, but the cooling system really does a fine job of keeping everything running at reasonable temperatures while preventing the fan from producing too much noise. All told, the M645 runs cool and quiet for a 14-inch notebook.
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james.jwb - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
There are plenty of corporations that behave exactly the same, in fact most do. Prepare to buy amost nothing ever again on that position. But i do agree with your general theme, it's just i can think are far worse companies to get angry with than intel, so i hope you have also informed yourself on some of those and are staying away, like coca cola, for instance.bji - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
I will never read a notebook review past those awful, horrendous display specs. Which cuts out alot of reviews.alephxero - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
Any word on when HP plans of releasing the Sandy Bridge update to their Envy14 line? I know the 17-inch models have had it for awhile now.TrackSmart - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
This keyboard looks suspiciously similar to the keyboards on the Toshiba Portege series laptops, yet the Porteges don't have backlit keyboards. It makes you wonder why their high-end ultraportable models are lacking this feature.LoneWolf15 - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
I don't call the glossy plastic still there, or the lack of a 1600x900 display or Intel wireless for a grand progress. My ThinkPad T420 didn't cost a lot more (it would have cost less had I skipped Optimus graphics) and I got all of those and a real Intel gig NIC instead of Realtek. I also got the extra features of a Core i5-2520M processor.The one thing I didn't get that the Toshiba has is Blu-Ray, but to me, that's a questionable need. I'd rather carry video around on my hard drive instead of discs.
Jared, does the Toshiba still have the insane amount of bloatware (mostly in the form of multiple utilities, each taking the form of an individual executable rather than a few unified control-center type apps) they used to have? I found that highly annoying in the past, because it was extremely hard to tell what you did and didn't need, and the apps munched heavily into RAM because of the number of them.
Maccollector - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
I might buy one of these as they don't look like too shabby. It is a bit pricey for what I would use it for though. I would definitely prefer a faster hard drive though. Thanks for the review!yyrkoon - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
If you're going to review a product, and compare it to others, you really should have some hands on with what you're comparing it to. Your guiding light seems to be performance, and features. Despite obviously never have laid hands on what you suggest as alternatives.What good is a feature, if the system using said feature is either quirky, or just completely unstable. Is having GbE eithernet more important than having drivers for every version of windows since Windows XP ? Probably, because that Sony VAIO you suggest is going to be down so often, you're going to need it to make up for lost time.
Anyway, yes, if you're going to claim something is better than another, googling prices vs features is not going to cut it.
JarredWalton - Saturday, April 30, 2011 - link
So, um, "There are two laptops we'd seriously consider in the 14-inch market." And, "There you have it: six viable alternatives, but none of them comes off clearly superior in every category." Having not had a chance to review the Sony (or any of the other alternatives, other than the Dell XPS 15), we wouldn't actually states something is better or worse -- just an alternative to consider.As for your complaints, have you actually used the Sony we mentioned, or have you just had a bad experience with Sony in general? Because if it's the latter, you're doing even less than "googling prices vs. features". I can't find a good review of the Signature Collection C Series at present, but I wouldn't suggest Sony's consumer laptops are any worse than Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, etc. offerings. It looks reasonably nice at least, so maybe I'll see about looking around local stores to get an idea of what they're like in person.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - link
No I have not put hands to that given model. However after being in the business of repairing systems for a living. You come to realize there are brand names that are reasonably consistent, and those that are not.After that. Go to Toshiba's website, and look at any laptop driver list. Every_single_driver_for_any_OS_since_WinXP. That is, concerning Windows. It does not matter if the laptop was a $400 budget model or not. *That* is what I call pride in a brand name. Have you ever tried retrograding/upgrading an Operating system on a Sony laptop ? To put it nicely, it is a very inconsistent experience. Acer, also is very inconsistent from my experiences.. But Dell, and HP both usually are decent so long as the "normal wear and tear" did not include treating the laptop as a Frisbee, or football. Most are not built with this in mind.
Stability is a personal major concern. As I believe it is for anyone. However, after reading some of the reviews of this site. Apparently performance, and features matters more( to you ). Yes, yes, we all buy something because it has something we want. This is understood, and implied. However, if laptop-a is not consistently stable, but has GbE, where another laptop(laptop-b) is rock solid stable, but only has fast ethernet. Does that make laptop-a "better". No, it makes laptop-a *potentially* faster in networking. Assuming you can keep the system up long enough to use that luxury.
The funny thing here, is that most of the time, GbE is no where near as fast as it should be. Even after protocol overhead. Most of the time, GbE ethernet on a home network runs at about 20-30% of its full capacity. Which as it turns out is 2-3x as fast as a good performing 100Mbit network. The average user would be better off transferring large amounts of data over USB2, or firewire. I would say eSATA, but eSATA can be very flaky from one device to the next. Sadly.
So anyway. When this user gets ready to research a product for himself, a friend, or customer. Reading your reviews has nothing to do with the decision. Frankly, newegg user reviews offers more in that respect. If that fact cuts deep, then be glad in knowing you can do something about it. If not, then maybe you think I am a racist, or something, Since that seems to be the trend lately for anyone who does not agree with another's methods.
randinspace - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
Right when SB came out Toshiba crept a few i7 models (with a nvidia card, though which one fails me) into retail stores with the 15.6" version of that chasis for $900. It didn't have blu-ray and I didn't care, and US 3.0 would have been nicer than eSATA for me but I snagged it anyway. Then it was recalled. Then my ancient laptop stopped working and since I needed SOMETHING I picked up a heavily discounted MSI notebook (not netbook...) with AMD's E-350 in it and uh... I kind of wish I'd taken my chances with the eSATA failing on me at some point and kept the Toshiba. Mostly because of the horrible screen on this laptop which actually has NO viewing angle no matter how much I tinker with the Catalyst Control Center, but it also somehow started trying to boot from my external hard drive and I barely figured out how to stop it from doing that before having to take it back.Eh hem sorry to vent there, it's just been a stupid year for me and laptops. At least this thing doesn't have a tendency to freeze when I have Word 07, Chrome, and Foobar2000 open like my old laptop would. At the end of the day that's all that matters, right? Now if only I could do something about the 'A' key's tendency to not register my presses...