P50 Review ?

Anyone gotten there hands on it and played with it ? I'm mostly asking about the screen .

 

I'd like to know the same thing. Anybody have any experience with this model? Is the HD & Ram be upgraded? Is it heavy and does it produce a lot of heat?

 

I've had one for a couple of weeks. i7-4700 @ 2.4 GHz, 8 gig o' ram. Replaced the sloooow 750/7200 rpm drive with a 256 gb SSD. Fast, quiet, about 3.5-4 hrs on battery. Doesn't get hot. Trackpad is okay but "clacky" sounding, nowhere near as nice as my Macbook Pro (2011 HD 15"). HD screen is amazing but glossy, may even be an IPS screen, it's that good looking. No dead pixels. Keyboard is okay, has some flex in the center - illumination seems even.

Kind of a "unibody" design - you have a cover for memory, but the entire bottom must be removed to get to the HD and battery. You have to remove ALL of the rubber plugs and screws on the bottom, EXCEPT for the screw for the RAM door ( ! ). Then lift GENTLY on the bottom cover near the screen hinge on the USB2 port side and pop it off.

BIOS has some interesting options - lift screen to turn on was one I haven't had in any of my other lappies. Everything else is solid, but has UEFI and GPT formatted drive. That was interesting.

Weight doesn't seem to be out of range compared to others in this size. Is actually thinner than it looks in the pics on Toshiba's website. Mine just has the stock Intel graphics, I don't need a faster GPU for what I use this for.

Anything else you need/want to know?

 

Can you undervolt / mess around with the CPU in XTU ?

What screen reso did you get ? Did you get touch, if yes then whats it like .

Also, hows the sound ?

Did you buy it on Toshiba Direct or at a Best Buy / B&M ?

 

1920x1080 HD screen, no touch. Sound is better than than average, but I don't listen to music through laptop speakers. It's passable, though. Bought direct from Toshiba, BTO with larger HD and up-spec wifi adapter (but not /ac).

Noticed something odd - when charging, there is apparently some voltage leaking to the aluminum case. My fingers "ripple" across the case when charging, and they don't when on battery.

Looks like almost everything is tuneable with XTU, except Turbo Boost Power Max, Short Power Max and Boost Power Time Window.

 

Oops, I reread and found my answer. Curious why battery life is less than 6 hours with that Haswell processor and integrated graphics.

 

Because they put a very small 43Wh, 4-Cell in it. I've got a Toshiba 14" P740 with removable 12 cell that gets over 7 hours and that is with sandy bridge i5 cpu. I called them up and they raved that its their premium top of the line.. And the P 50 does not even have a SSD option? Really? In 2013 that's really wrong. And then they make it very hard for the user to upgrade the P 50. I upgraded my P 740 in less then an hour.. copying image to 256 SSD and booting up to it in 40 minutes flat. Something said for the older designs. I'm really starting to lean towards getting a thinkpad X230 with 9 cell with ivy bridge that gets 12 hours easy on a 12 inch IPS screen. W7, easy upgrades, best KB and decent display being its only 720P.

 

I would have to agree with HI DesertNM to me the current P series seems a bit of a step back in comparison to the previous series. Also Toshiba has not had any P40 models for sale on its website in awhile. Promotion also seems to be very limited for the new P series a quick google reveals very little images or even results for the series.

I think manufacturers should realize that it is not everything that Apple does that should be copied. If people wanted everything to be Apple-esque they would probably buy an Apple. I am totally against giving consumers less control so I hate non-replaceable batteries. When the battery goes bad why should I have to stress myself out to replace it.

I am still waiting on a true replacement for the previous P series line.

 

Here is the new P series 14" Toshiba Satellite P40 14" Power Laptop - YouTube Not sure if and when it will be released in the US. On the Toshiba chat they said it did not exist and I fired them off that you tube and said don't lie. Unfortunately same old mac like uni body with fixed battery and I would not be surprised if no SSD options either. But it does show off a full HD screen. Toshiba told me that when they do repairs after warranty it will cost 250 dollars minimum. That better not be for battery replacements or that's a real deal killer IMO.

 

I called Toshiba up to try to find out how much they charge to send in the P 50 for battery replacement. First off, let me say the support is horrid. I was blown off, hung up on, etc.. We can't provide that info, etc.. But eventually, found out it was 252 dollars. Really left a bad taste in my mouth. Not sure I want to buy anything from this company.

 

Ouch! $250 for a battery replacement!; makes me think twice about those non-user-friendly replaceable batteries [I am assuming that is what it has].

As for the P40, Toshiba USA should get them; it's just a matter of time.

 

I actually pulled the trigger and purchased the i5 version 4200 with integrated graphics and the hybrid drive. But ended up cancelling since I read that custom builds have a 15 percent restock fee. Two people in the chat said they don't charge restock fees but believe me, they lied. Toshiba CSR's are bad. But its my belief if you do buy Toshiba, you have a better chance of not having issues then with most other major brands. Reason I cancelled was I just can't get myself to buy anything with a spinning HD again ( i've had just about every HD fail in my life and that's over 10 drives). For whatever reason, which I clearly do not understand, this premium series does not have a SSD option. And then they seal it up in a unibody and i'm not sure how hard that would be to replace. And in the end, would the 4300 4 CELL battery just not provide enough juice?
This system is close but is heavily compromised with lack of SSD and the small battery.

 

I picked up the Toshiba Satellite P50-A 1TB/16GB/i7-4700 model last week. First impressions are quite positive with only two caveats:
1) It has a glossy screen, I prefer matte - but I knew this before purchase so not a real complaint
2) It doesn't come with a SSD and it is non-trivial to upgrade the HDD to SDD.

I had put SSDs into my current (Dell XPS) laptop when I bought it 2 years ago and was completely unprepared for just how slow the 5400 HDD is.

Are there dis-assembly instructions floating around to aid in the HDD->SDD conversion?

I have tried removing all the rubber feet on the bottom. There are "big" rubber feet which support the laptop in normal use - they did not cover any screws. There are 14 "small" rubber plugs which cover screws. I removed all 14 screws and attempted to lift off the bottom of the case but it still felt securely attached.

I'm obviously missing one or more steps, any hints?

 

From my post earlier in the thread:

"Kind of a "unibody" design - you have a cover for memory, but the entire bottom must be removed to get to the HD and battery. You have to remove ALL of the rubber plugs and screws on the bottom, EXCEPT for the screw for the RAM door ( ! ). Then lift GENTLY on the bottom cover near the screen hinge on the USB2 port side and pop it off."

Couldn't find a svc manual on the webs. Taking the bottom off is kinda nerve wracking, but if you use a thin piece of hard plastic as a wedge between the bottom cover and the case, it will come off.

Good luck!

 

Still mind boggling no SSD option on a P series Toshiba. But once you do get the bottom off, is there easy access to HD? I also wish there were real numbers on the battery life on the dual core 15 watt 4200 haswell. Its got to be a least 5 hours before I would consider purchasing this again. But then again, not too excited about paying 252 dollars to have Toshiba replace the internal battery. I've always had to replace my user replaceable batteries in the past. What makes these unibody sealed POS batteries any better?

 

Yes, easy access to almost everything on the motherboard, including the hard drive and battery. I didn't look at the battery connector, but I'll bet some 3rd party vendor will have something that could be popped in there when needed.

Eat some chile rellenos for me. I was born and raised in ABQ, went to UNM and NMSU... Love that double meat, double green chile and cheese Lotaburger. Texas mex food is, well, not good.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I found 14 screws hiding under rubber plugs and got them all out. I lifted the rubber "feet" and didn't find any screws hidden there.

After doing this the plastic bottom still seemed to be attached quite firmly. I could seperate the case at the edges but it still seemed attached internally somewhere.

I did a cursory check on the top to see if I could remove the speaker grill but didn't get anywhere.

I will try again later today.

 

Yes, NM does not export much green/red chili. Good stuff. One more question for ya. Do you remove the optical drive before taking off the bottom cover? Normally those have a single screw whereas they just pull out.

 

One of those bottom screws hold in the optical drive, but it's not marked like you would normally see (icons, etc.) The bottom is blank... That's why I pulled all the screws, it goes back together easily enough. Didn't have to remove the optical drive first, the bottom comes off with it in place.

There seem to be some "snaps" holding the bottom in place after all the screws are out (just like a Mac laptop). Constant, moderate lifting force on one of the back corners released it, and it comes of easily now. Maybe tape? Didn't pay that much attention when I had the back off.

 

Hi,

Well drbnc already said alot on how to open it up, but i know a lot of people still want to know how and what can be done.

So here's the howto:

1: like drbnc said, you have to remove all the rubber plugs and the screws (don't need to remove the big rubber plugs and the memory screw).

2: then you place a plastic card near the upper right corner and you move down to the dvd


3: remove the dvd (really easy as you just pull it out)


4: Keep going with your card


5: At this point, you can easily remove the bottom cover.


As you can see, you can replace the HD (i put a SSD drive). I'll put the original HD in a new enclosure and fit it in the DVD bay. Then, i'll replace the WIFI chip with the Intel 7260 AC.

It's not as hard as it seems. Remember to keep all parts cause doing so voids the warranty.

Oh,,, and when the battery dies on you, you replace it yourself instead of paying 250$ to get it fixed by Toshiba

 

Great thanks for the pics. Looks like taking apart a Samsung book 7 ultra. Except that one has a much larger battery that spans across the chassis. Gets better battery life too with ivy bridge.. imagine that. Anyway, I chatted with Toshiba and confirmed that replacing hard drive does NOT void warranty which is good. But changing out the battery does. That is one tiny battery But I can understand why, the optical drive takes up allot of space. And when you convert to a uni-body design that is what is going to happen. Also, just want to let everyone know that you can configure a Intel AC card when you build a custom system.. but not the one with the nvidia card. So if you just want a basic i5 4200u or the quad core, you can get Intel 7260 AC wireless for 15 dollars more.

 

As i said in my previous post, you can replace the wireless chip yourself (you see it in the picture on the middle top).

Just get the latest Intel chip:

Amazon.com: Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC: Computers & Accessories

I really like that laptop so far. It boots up to the desktop in 5-6 sec with the SSD drive installed.

 

Hi

I bought the same laptop, slightly diff spec, Mine was 8Gb, 1Tb/i7-4700/Nvidia GT740

Fantastic laptop - EXCEPT for the internal battery !!!!!!! - like you just know a true Quad Core i7 is going to eat a battery pretty quick............

I replaced my Hdd for an SSD, I removed all the rubber covers (except for the 4 big ones you described) also removed the DVD (single exposed screw) and the memory cover (think there might have been a screw in there too - can't remember thou) and carefully prised the bottom off...was not too bad, just dont use excessive force and it will come off fine.

But yeah a great laptop, I really have grown to love it.

If you are *really* stuck let me know !! I am having a few beers tonight - so def NOT going to try and re open it !!! but can do so again if you are stuck.

Gary

 

I''m looking to see battery numbers for the i5 4200u with integrated graphics. There's no doubt the P 50 will not last long with the pathetic 4300 wah battery running a 47 watt i7 quad with nvidia graphics on top of that. Its going to be bad no way around that. But I think Acer has a new model with the i5 4200u with similar battery (15" screen) that does get over 5 hours. The i5 runs a much lower 15 watts so I would think the battery life would be significantly better. But no where are there numbers or tests to validate that. If your not a gamer, I would think the i5 a better choice since it can perform everything else fairly fast. I'm not too thrilled with the smallish battery the P 50 houses but then again, for the size and weight of this machine, and keeping a BD R burner drive as a option, I can't complain too much.

I'm also still on the fence on this whole unibody design Toshiba seems to have taken on to. They want to be like mac too? Right now, I notice my older sandy bridge is idling around 13 watts right now and listening to winamp. My toshiba P740 is over 2 years old gets over 7 hours on its 12 cell that is removable which is around 9000 mah.. over twice the size of the P 50. Not sure haswell benefits this model much with the compromised battery. IMO, they should have stuck with the removable 6, 9, and 12 cell battery. It may be barely tolerable with the 4200u, but for folks with the quad core, they will be wondering why their new haswell powered system only gets 2.5 hours battery life.. not really exceptable in this point in time when Samsung, Apple, and everyone else is doubling those numbers.

 

Have you seen the P55t which is a similar model that is at Best Buy. It has the i5 and is $779. Laptopmag also has a review in which they got 5.5 hours of battery life.

Here are the links:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Satellite+15.6"+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive/8968411.p;jsessionid=55AD80C93BC3D3D31E44481F5B61D700.bbolsp-app04-121?id=1218957873039&skuId=8968411&st=toshiba%20p55t&cp=1&lp=1

Toshiba Satellite P55T-A5202 Reviews | Windows 8 Laptop Reviews

 

Do you know where to buy a replacement battery? Or the exact model number of the battery in the p50?

 

Ok went down to BB tonight and checked this one out. I liked the deck, KB, and form factor but the screen was pretty washed out TN panel. Someone said earlier on this thread that the panels were pretty good on the P50. Maybe this one gets a crappier BB P55 panel? I don't know, but I'm glad I finally got to see one in person. I'm done with thinking about the P50. Its actually bigger then I had imagined. I guess the 16:9 displays are really wide on 15" machines. My last 15" had a 16:10 which is much nicer. Looked at the matte 1080P samsung series 9 13" and can only say, wow. My next machine has to be IPS and hopefully matte.

 

I don't know. I guess you'll have to wait a few weeks before they start appearing on eBay and other web sites.

 

It was between the P50 and the new Envy 15 from HP (and the new Asus), the screen is pretty bad on the Envy but the specs looked good so I ordered that one .

How are the angles / gamut on the 1080p P50 and is there an mSata slot or optical drive so I can put 2 HDs in this thing ?

 

Thanks to the poster who mentioned Intel XTU, neat utility.

I had been looking at the P50-A series on Toshiba's website... the only difference I can tell between the S50 and S55 models is the aluminum keyboard portion on the P50 vs plastic keyboard portion on the S50 & S55 and the different USB port configuration -- P50 has 4, S50/S55 have 3, but the difference is in a USB daughterboard.

It seems that the these 3 systems share the same motherboard... a Toshiba VG10S. I searched for VG10S a few days ago, and came across a benchmark site that listed S50-A, P50-A using that same motherboard, and mine uses it as well.

Also, Toshiba claims that the P50 series is able to output 4K resolutions over HDMI, but not the S50/S55 series... I have found out this is correct -- the S55 is not able to drive the Seiki 4k TV at the native resolution.

The P50/S50 and my S55-A5279 share the same battery/internals, given mine looks pretty much identical to the earlier internal pictures you posted. My battery is a Toshiba (internal) Model No.: PA5107U-1BRS, 14.4V, 43Wh, 2838mAh. It's identified as PEGA G71C000FP110 by BatteryInfoView software.

I found out that if you answer the right questions on Toshiba website's "Troubleshooting Assistant" on their support page related to the battery not holding a charge, it will send you to a page where you can input your serial # and last 4 digits of the product model part #. Then, after you enter your address information, they will inform you that they can authorize your credit card for the battery pack's value and will not charge you if you return the original battery pack within 30 days. They even say they include a pre-paid UPS return shipping label in the box with the replacement part. Might be a good thing to do just before the 1 year warranty is up.

FWIW, when I go through the process above, the replacement battery comes up as: "BATTERY PACK, 4-CELL (USD $131.60)"

I ordered a retail i7-4800MQ (BX80647I74800MQ) CPU from Rakuten.com, and tried it on the S55 and it worked just fine, but used about 2-3W more at full load.

The power brick is a bit on the heavy/large side, given that it supports up to 120W -- Model PA5083U-1ACA, Input 100-240VAC 2.0A 50/60Hz, Output 19VDC, 6.32A. I purchased a spare one, which is slightly bulkier than the original, but more reasonable in price -- search for Anker 120W Toshiba and you'll find it. There are similar no-name brand compatible adapters as well available online.

---

Not related to a review, per-se, but it seems like the i7-4700MQ processor is decently power-efficient. Compared to an Acer M5-481TG-6814 with an I5-3317U CPU, the battery drain on idle in the 4700MQ version is 0.823 W less, averaged over about 10 measurements. With idle w/ mouse movements, the difference is much less, 0.12 W less, but it's still something.

When doing a more practical test of compiling some C source code on Visual Studio 2008, the 4700MQ shines -- around 2.59 W lower battery drain than the 3317U processor.

Caveats: Acer laptop is running Windows 8 x64, Toshiba laptop is running Windows 7 x64.

---

The laptop does not seem to throttle, even when running Prime95 and rendering full-screen in GPU-z test. That being said, it does tend to get a bit warm near the exhaust vent during normal use.

As others pointed out, an Intel 7260 AC card (and earlier 6235 version) works well, and I've also upgraded to SSD. The laptop is compatible with Intel's Anti-Theft feature, but as configured, mine is not compatible with Intel Rapid Start technology, not sure if that is because the BIOS is missing it, or because the i7-4700MQ processor does not support it.

 

My P50 died yesterday. Won't turn on, no LEDs lit, power supply is pumping out 19.4v, so it's okay. Now to deal with Toshiba warranty service.

 

hey drbnc, what with your P50? is realy dead?
I want also buy P50, and also replace the HDD to SDD drive, Now I'm scared of losing the warranty....

 

I ended up getting the custom-built P50-ABT2G22 model with the Intel i5-4200U. The heat dissipation of the lower TDP processor is better suited for the heat/case design of this laptop, IMO -- the laptop definitely feels less hot/warm to the touch as compared to the i7 model. The 75W power brick is also very portable compared to the 120W version.

It's very easy to replace the HDD to SSD. The hardest part is to take off the rubber screw covers without damaging them. I used a plastic pry tool for most of them, and haven't bothered putting them back in -- stored them safely in a plastic ziploc bag. I should have returned mine, but didn't want to wait another month for them to deliver one with a screen that wasn't as dim in full brightness, so I pulled the trigger and ordered a matte screen from laptopscreen.com. It's probably going to be a pain to replace it because I'd have to take the heatsink off. It's not as easy as just removing the screws from the display because you cannot get to the bottom screws without detaching the screen from the case. I might see if Microcenter will do it in warranty or cheaply and avoid the hassle of doing it myself, but we'll see...

If anyone has a repair manual for these new P50/S50/S55/P55 models I'd be every grateful!

 

Apparently REALLY dead. Sent if off for repair, and noted that they had to order part(s). Probably the motherboard. Noticed in my original review that there was some voltage leakage on the case when plugged in. Probably a short from the motherboard to the case. Finally died. They apparently have the part as of the status page today, so I should get it back "soon". Eventually.

From what I read earlier, you won't void the warranty by going to a SSD. Been looking for the svc manual, can't find one yet. Will probably be a while before it shows up.

 

It's back from Pegatron repairs. Looks like they replaced the motherboard, and sent a new a/c power supply. Left off one of the little rubber screw covers on the bottom...

Other than the wait,process was painless. Still sense the a/c leakage on the case when plugged in to the mains - going to measure it this weekend.

 

Wanted to reply to my own post... after I ended up taking the old screen off, I realized that laptopscreen.com shipped me the wrong part... they assumed it wasn't a slim eDP display. The part # of the OEM screen is B156HTN03.0, (30-pin interface) and it looks like this from the back:



I looked at a different P50-A model in Best Buy with the same display, and it seems that this AUO screen is just not the best in regards to brightness compared to other laptop screens I've seen in the past. I went as far as to actually purchase one to look at it at home (and then returned it) -- the screen brightness is virtually identical in both.

I also wanted to point out that it's not all that hard to change the screen if matte displays ever become available. However, you do have to do a re-paste job on the NVIDIA GPU/Intel CPU because you cannot take the laptop screen out without removing the heatsink... kind of a stupid design, but oh well. After removing the heatsink, the next step is to remove the screws from the hinge area on one side, and on the other side there is a bracket that holds the USB daughterboard in place, so you remove that bracket and set it aside and remove the screws from that hinge. You also want to disconnect the WiFi antennas and take the WiFi card out. The eDP connector is a bit fragile.. if you look closely it has sort of two latches on either side that you can pop out with a thin plastic pry tool, and you'd want to disconnect the ground wire screwed to the main board next to it as well. Lastly, IIRC, there is one more cable that's attached to the display, maybe webcam, not sure. Once disconnected, you want to gently free the cables from the plastic guides that hold them without moving. The last step is to gently open the screen with the screws off, and you'll see that it pops out when you reach about a 80-90 degree angle with the keyboard. Thought I'd do a slight walk through in case anyone else needs it later on.

Also, to anyone opening up the laptop to replace any components or the screen for that matter, make sure you disable the battery from the BIOS menu with the power cord attached before you attempt anything.. otherwise if you drop anything metal (e.g. a screw) in the wrong place you'll see sparks fly

 

Great information.. thanks!
I just purchased a P50-ABT3G22 directly from Toshiba and I purchased a Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD on sale from Newegg. Laptop won't be shipped out until next week, but I'm real happy I found this thread regarding the HDD replacement.

Laptop Specs.

Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Windows 8.1
12GB DDR3L 1600MHz SDRAM (8GB + 4GB)
500GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial ATA) - Swapping out with the 256gb SSD
2GB GDDR3 NVIDIA ® GeForce® GT 740M with Optimus™ Technology
Blu-ray Disc™ RE with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer drive
Touchscreen
Lithium-Ion Battery (43Wh, 4-Cell)
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, 2x2 AC + WiDi + Bluetooth 4.0 (867Mbps)

-Jeff

 

I'd be interested in getting the native Windows 8.1 hard drive removey image, since mine is a P50-ABT2G22 that came with Windows 8. I'd gladly ship you a 16 GB USB flash drive so you can make me a copy of the recovery media onto the USB flash drive I'll even provide you a few $ for return postage, even.

But yes, replacing the hard drive is fairly straightforward, just unscrew the hard drive brackets from the case once inside, unscrew the brackets, screw them on the new drive, place the brackets back onto the case and you should be all set.

The only thing to note is before you change the hard drive, open the BIOS and set it to CSM mode (instead of UEFI).. and shut off the battery. Reason for the CSM change is because that way you'll be able to choose a boot media upon startup with the new drive, I found myself changing back to the original drive to be able to boot and disable that just to plug the new drive back in to format. Of course if you're imaging the new hard drive outside of the machine that won't be an issue.

 

@vacaloca
I'm unsure why you would want the P50-ABT3G22 recovery image when the drivers might be different from your ABT2G22. If the reason is only because you want 8.1, then simply make an image of your current setup. If you're still on windows 8 - upgrade to 8.1 is free.

Assuming the SSD is the same size as the spinning drive then I shouldn't need any special bracket. This is my first SSD.. woohooo lol

I'm confused about the "CSM mode". I think this is in the BIOS so this option could be changed regardless if a hard drive is present or not.

I plan on creating recovery media at first boot-up and will save that to USB stick.
Replace HDD and boot up to the USB stick to load setup to new SSD.

 

I believe the images are pretty generic and span across the P50 laptop series. Just would be nice to have, I actually do have 8.1, but had to mesh through the drivers myself, would just be something good to have if I ever sell it in the future. That being said the hardware is identical, minus the touchscreen, I actually do have the same 7260AC card, I just bought mine separate and dumped the crappier WiFi card mine came with.

Yes, the CSM option is in the BIOS... the thing is that Windows 8 tends to set a flag in the BIOS NVRAM to "fast boot", and I believe the BIOS in the laptop -- at least up til 1.30 (maybe yours will have a new version that's not affected) does not let you go into the BIOS/choose alternative boot options if that flag is set. At least that's what I think is happening, anyway.

 

Replacing the SATA for SSD was very smooth. Thanks to everyone for all the info posted here.
From a complete power-off it takes 2-3 seconds to boot-up to desktop... it's unbelievable.
Is it necessary to install the software which came with the SSD? And, is there anything I should tweak in the BIOS? I did set the boot mode to "Fast".

Thanks

 

Hi, all, I provide now some information from the distant East, Hungary. First of all, as I came through the thread, there were not always mentioned the proper version, although there are a plenty of variants of P50. (Mostly with i7-4700) Aaand I have a really exotic version in terms of reviews (I found cca. 2 or 3), the P50-A11-U. (i7-3630QM/2.4Ghz, 8GB RAM, GT745M/2GB). So some thoughts about this one too, and I promise, I'll try not to repeat the other's answers. So, first of all, I love the keyboard. It's quite silent, and has a good defined (i don't know the word, it's the point, where you fell, you pushed the button). Backlit, with function keys, which is great too. (Although there is an interesting synergy between Toshiba driver, Toshiba program and BIOS in this. Properly said, I have no idea, if the delete of toshiba function key really kills the function keys...) The metal cover is great as always, and looks like a piece of art for me ("nice" for others ). The weight is below the average, I think, 2.4 kg (~5lbs) isn't so hard to carry around. One annoying thing: I carry it in a backpack, so it stands on its edge, and sometimes the power button is just randomly pushed. (As closed, it doesn't begin to start windows, and so, but as I put it out it's half alive - which is useful, but with this battery life (2,5-3h, with browse and filming)) quite frustrating. And I lost the thin material which was between the screen and the keyboard - worst thing ever, it's REALLY ugly, when you can see the whole keyboard on the screen... (Anyway, a piece of sheet paper just fine for this.)

Last thing: If plan to use the 100% potential, buy a laptop cooler! AC4 died just after 15-20 mins... (in FHD, but I'm not sure, that lowering the settings will not end like this, just later...)

Very last thing: At least here, in Hungary, Toshiba has awesome customer care. I wrote them twice, and always had a relevant(!) answer in 48h. (2 workdays) And someone mentioned SDD replace: it works the same with all laptops, I think... I asked for this once, and the item for the optical bay (which will contain the SSD, which I have) was ~$50. And in this case, the warranty stays. (However, don't forget the service price, which as I expect is at least the price of the SSD bay, or more...:/)

P.S.: Sorry, if I made some grammar/vocabular mistakes, my second foreign language is English, and I study in German... (And speak default hungarian!^^)

Edit: No, I think it's not necessary. (I had an 120GB system SSD in my desktop.) And no nedd to tweak BIOS either. Although you should search for some guide for first SSD users, where they expalin what are SDDs for, and what not. (For example using a professional video editor makes the SSDs lifetime shorter, but if you use it on a regular basis, it's a good exchange for the speed. But it's not so good idea to pack there games, which reading and writing a lot, but doesn't really shine with the extra drive speed.)

 

No need to install it, depending on the brand it might alert you to firmware upgrades or let you do some sort of TRIM / maintenance operations, but the OS should take care of that on its own. I'm still interested in getting the Win 8.1 factory image if you or someone else cares to share.

 

Also, I saw that laptopscreen.com had in stock a matte replacement for the factory glossy AU Optronics (AUO) B156HTN03.0 screen. I got it last week and I installed it on Saturday, and it worked great. The (compatible) panel they shipped was an LG LP156WF4-SPB1, which seemed to have better color calibration out of the box, not to mention being considerably brighter and matte of course.

Here's the specs on the old and new panels on panelook.com:
LG Display LP156WF4-SPB1 Overview - Panelook.com
AUO B156HTN03.0 Overview - Panelook.com

Apparently Acer has been using the same LG panel on some of their newer 1080p laptops: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-V3-571G-53214G50Maii-Notebook.88733.0.html

 

The Satellite P50/55 and P70/75 models have the same brushed aluminum case, so to ask. Do any P50 owners have the 'static on the case' issue that I describe here? Looking for help/options. Thanks!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/tos...atellite-p75-a7200-owners-static-problem.html

 

Update: For anyone that has the 'static' or ac leakage issue, using an ac adapter that has 3 pins will stop this problem. I got a new 120w 3 pin power adapter from Toshiba and all is good now. The Targus model sold at Best Buy also works fine. Hope this helps someone!

 

Been using the P50 for almost 2 weeks now and I really love it. I installed Start8 (from Stardock) and it looks like the Windows 7 start menu. And I don't need to see the useless tiles any longer, but I think 8.1 lets you choose which screen to boot to.

My only complaint is with the mouse pad right-click. It's very difficult to select.. at least for me. I checked out the mouse settings, but didn't see a way to correct this problem. Anybody have a fix for this?

 

Hi guys, I bought this laptop few days ago. Tried to do a clean factory reset, but missed deleted the recovery partition. Instead of hitting F12 during boot, 0 key was used.

I contacted toshiba, and they would want to charge AUD 66 dollar for recovery disc set. Would anyone able to share recovery image here?

 

I couldn't resist, and decided to order a matte wide-gamut panel from China -- an AUO B156HAN01.2, Panelook stats here:
B156HAN01.2 Datasheet download - Panelook.com

I replaced the LG LP156WF4-SPB1 panel I had received previously, because it seemed to have some orange tones when displaying reds, although it was better after calibration. According to the Spyder4Pro colorimeter, I get 96% of sRGB on the AUO B156HAN01.2 panel, versus 78% of sRGB on the LP156WF4-SPB1 panel, so it definitely fulfills the claim of being wide gamut! It's also as bright or perhaps even brighter than the LG panel. Needless to say I'm very pleased.

 

Not really a fix, but you can always right click the Mac way with two finger tap around the middle of the panel if that makes it easier. If you are having trouble clicking althogether, it might be that when you put the bracket of the hard drive back in, you might have missed the plastic guide that it goes into.. happened to me and I was wondering why I could barely click anything...