Got my P100, some pics

I ordered my P100 on the 9th and got it this morning (21st of April). I ordered it from www.Toshibadirect.com and paid $1835 with discounts.

specs:
Intel core duo T2G300 (1.66 GHz)
17" Widescreen SXGA (1680x1050)
Nvidia Go 7600 with 256mb ram
1 gig ram
100 Gb 7200rpm hdd
a/b/g wireless
6 cell, 4000 mAh battery
MS XP Home
cdrw/dvdrw drive
Peacock Blue shell

So far I havent played with it to much. I took off all the 'junk' software like AOL, McAffee virus etc and installed my own stuff. I know some people do not like the glossy screens but I love this one, to me it looks amazing. I had heard good comments about Toshiba screens and I have to agree. As a bonus there were no dead pixels. The following pic is what the screen looked like right after I turned it on. Click on it for a bigger version.



The standard color of the P100 is Peacock Blue. You can get copper or mist gray as a $30 option. I chose to get the blue because I didnt really care to spend money on a different colo. After seeing the notebook in person I actually like the color, it is not as far 'out there' as I though it would be. It is different enough so that it stands out from the standard grey/black notebooks but it doesnt call to much attention to itself.



The left side of the notebook has a PC Card slot and a ExpressCard slot along with firewire and a USB 2.0 port.


The right side has USB ports and the CD/DVD rewritable drive.


The back has another USB port, modem/network ports, power connector, monitor port and a security lock slot. It also has S-Video and DVI Video Out ports.


The front of the notebook has some status lights and a volume control. The speakers are located at the front of the palm wrest area and actually sound pretty good. They do not have alot of bass but they were handled movies and mp3s fine. If this was my only computer I would probably invest in a set of speakers but I would do that with any laptop.



Because it has a 17" screen they were able to put in a number pad next to the keyboard. Most of the keys on the keyboard are in the right spot but the right Shift key is smaller than I am used to and the Home/End keys require the Fn key to be used. After using the keyboard for several hours I am already used to it enough that I hit the right shift key correctly every time so I think I will get used to the keyboard pretty quickly. There have been a few times that my thumb has hit the touchpad and I end up moving my cursor but thats not much of a concern.

There is also a fingerprint reader located beneath the numberpad which is kind of a cool idea, I havent used it yet though. The touchpad works fine but I have never used a touchpad yet that is as good as a mouse.



I havent used the wireless outside of my home but I am happy with the reception I am getting in my house. My modem is down the hall past the bathroom in a spare bedroom while I am sitting at the kitchen table and the power bar is lit up all the way except for one.

The Intel cpu seems comparable to my AMD 3800 X2 in my desktop machine. I ran SuperPi on both machines and the Intel was faster with a time of 1m30s versus the AMDs 1m36s. The AMD was faster with the newest Divx codec (dual core compatable) beating the Intel by about 10%. Overall I would say its pretty close to a tie.

I ran 3DMark05 on both machines also and my X800XL in my desktop got a score of 5168 while my Go7600 got a score of 3208. For the games I play I dont think this will be a problem. Neither system was overclocked in anyway and I did not update the drivers in the notebook.

I don't have a great digital camera but I took a few pics of a Matrix movie, one with flash and one without.





Various notes:
I have noticed that the hard drive is pretty loud for a notebook drive but I think most 7200rpm drives are that way.

The right palmwrest doesnt really heat up much but the left one gets warm to the touch after running some benchmarks but not enough that you can't get used to it.

The fan isnt to loud at idle but it is kind of loud when it kicks on, it also likes to kick on in short bursts. I bought a laptop cooler which I plan on using so that should help out in keeping the fan in low speed.

The notebook comes with a remote, which I thought was unusual since I just have XP Home and not the Media Center edition. I did try it out in pausing a movie in WMP10 and it worked but I don't think I will use it much. You can store it in the PC Card slot which is kind of convenient.

I didnt do any temperature measurements because I think PC Wizard wasnt getting the right temps. I am really not sure why. I will try again with a different program in a day or two. I also havent had a chance to measure the battery time but that isnt anthing that concerns me as I am never far away from an electrical outlet.

The Toshiba website was down so I called them to find out if my laptop had shipped and I got a friendly person in only 2 or 3 rings. Other than that I havent had to contact customer support but thats to be expected in the first day

After 1 day of use, I am very happy with my purchase. I will post any further developements.

 

Very nice mini review from an end-user - would be interested when you had a chance to install some gpu intensive games and see what this machine can do as well as the battery life, thanks!

 

I plan on doing some battery tests in the next few days. I am running on battery right now actually listening to mp3's and surfing the web. I don't expect to get great battery times with a 6 cell battery, I may end up getting a 9 cell at a later date if I need to.

I am still copying stuff over but I plan on putting Steam and a few games on here so I will update when I do.

 

Excellent mini-review dgkulzer! I've been wanting to see the notebook in person but haven't found the time to go to BB/Circuit City - your review wants me to look even more!

 

Sweet! I'm planning to get one with a nearly identical configuration. I want to upgrade the hard drive myself though, so I'd much appreciate it if you took a peek underneath to see if it's easily accessible or not.

 

I took a few pics of the bottom with the hd cover on and with the cover off. The hd looks pretty easy to replace. There is a inner hd cage that I did not take off, I just removed the outer cover. To get the outer cover off you just have to remove 2 screws (labeled) and then lift up. (click pics to enlarge)





I also did a battery test today and I wasnt that impressed. I do have a USB mouse so I dont know if there is still a problem with USB and Core Duo but I dont think that was much of a factor.

I had the battery at 100%, unplugged it and listened to mp3's and surfed the web. I did not allow the screen saver to come on and I did not leave the computer. I ended up getting 1 hour 32 min on battery power before it went into hibernation. If you use the battery alot I would get the 9 cell 6000mAh optional battery instead of the stock 6 cell 4000mAh battery that I got. Since I dont plan on using the battery much this isnt to big of a deal but I still may get the higher capacity battery later.

 

Nice review,

I am kinda upset with Toshiba, I ordered mine on the 30th and it only shipped on the 20th, they said it was a production delay, but mine is the same config except less RAM and 80 Gb drive, I guess if they were out of the drive ... Most of their customer service was good, but once i got this manager guy and he was just shy of being extremely rude, did not want to help me in any way
Other then that, just couple of notes
the USB 2.0 problem with duo and pentium M still exists, it is not really a processor problem but rather OS problem that microsoft is trying to deal with. If you have a USB 2.0 connected to the laptop the battery life will reduce by up to 20 % i think. What is interesting that if the notebook comes with built in 2.0 hardware like camera or maybe a finger print reader (I am not sure about the last one) it will have the same effect on the battery.

the other point is that number of cells dont mean anything in terms of battery life unless you are comparing within the same brand. 9 cell toshiba battery will give you more unplug time then 6-cell, but a 6-cell from one company could have higher capacity then a 6-cell from another brand. got to look for the current capacity rating given in mili Ampere Hours (mAh). Also the 9-cell according to the Toshiba sales guy is the oversize unit that sticks out somewhere.

Enjoy the lappy, cant wait to see mine, i was gonna do a review but i suppose there is no need now,

 

Nice. Thanks a lot man.

 

Definately want the 9-cell with this. I read that people are getting anywhere between 2.5 - 3.25 hours with the 9-cell on the P105 which is the big brother to this laptop.

 

I guess you're right except 7900 will probably drain the battery a lot quicker then 7600

 

Does the P100 have all of those interesting blue lights all over it? What about the mousepad volume control? If not, I guess I would be sold back to the HP (I hate volume dials).
Good mini review

 

My P100 has a different touchpad than the one on the front page review. Mine is just a regular touchpad with the exception of the right hand side being used for scrolling. It is not optical like the one reviewed on the main page. I am not sure why this is, I assume that some features are available in one part of the world and not in others. Since the one on the mainpage is from Toshiba Canada and I am in the US I would guess that if you are in the US you would get a standard touchpad and if you are in Canada you get the optical one.

Another difference is that mine has a fingerprint reader where that one has a 'Centrino Duo' sticker.

As far as the blue lights go, the main power light, num lock light etc are in blue but they are pretty small and not overly bright. They are bright enough to notice in the daylight but not so bright they are annoying at night. The P100 does not have XPS type lights in any of the vents or anything like that.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the reply. I did look into it some more, and it is the P105 that gets the lights and touchpad. It has nothing to do with US or Canada. The P105 is the one with either an Intel GMA 950 or 7900 GPU. Emphasis on "or" I don't want GMA and I don't want to spend $2000 (even though that is a badass price for such a machine).

 

The last time I checked, Toshiba only offered the lights with the P105 that had the 7900 Go.

 

Hmm, maybe so. I just gathered that assumption from the product tour demo thingy.