Satellite P25 series

I hear that the P25 series is receiving some props lately. Does anyone own one of them yet? If so, please elaborate on some of your experiences.
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,116609,00.asp

PCWorld seems to love the P25-S670, even though it weighs 11.3 pounds.

 

I purchased a P25 model configured specifically for Costco at a great price of 1699. I had been contemplating the 676 model for some time but the 2800 price gave me reservations.
I always plan on a laptop giving me 2 years of usable technology. 2000 is easier for me (read: wife) to accept.

Anyway, the size of the unit takes some getting used to. You've probably heard the usual stuff: too big, too heavy. But I think people take that into consideration when buying this model.

The screen is awesome. I wish higher resolution was an option. I'm not much a gamer but I do like Quake and Flight Simulator. Both run perfect (so far). I still plan taking FS 2004 to more demanding scenarios. but I will say that having a 1440x900 view out the windshield is unbelievable. I'm sure the tech out there will begrudge the 4200 RPM drive and the 64MB video card. But for a thousand dollars this will do me for the next 2 years. This config came with 1 512MB RAM card so I will be upgading with another. This could help too.

The unit is very quiet. The processor side is very, very cool. The right palm rest gets a little warm. Speakers are very good.
I haven't tried burning any DVDs yet.

I have owned many Toshibas over the past 10+ years. The quality of this unit is on par if not better than those in past.

Sorry, I'm not into benchmark tests.
Hope this helps.

 

Helps a lot! It looks much like the laptop I'm looking at. What can you tell me about the screen? Is it an enhanced LCD?

Is the DVD swappable for an additional battery?

 

Following is from http://yahoo.pcworld.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,116609,00.asp and refers to your question about the optical drive:

In addition to having top-notch multimedia features, the P25-S670 makes a fairly good desktop replacement, starting with its having two front modular bays. You can record any flavor of DVD disc (+R, -R, or -RAM) in the multiformat rewritable DVD drive located in the right front. Need more storage than the primary 80GB hard drive provides? Buy another internal hard drive with a capacity of up to 80GB for use in either bay when you're plugged in or when you don't need the DVD burner or TV tuner.
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So you know its a modular bay. The drive is swappable for another hard drive and this would lead me to believe that it would also be swappable for another battery. I dont know for sure, but I bet someone else on this site will.

I also found this interesting picture (from www.scottmanning.com)that shows the rather large size of the machine:



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Fujitsu S6210: 1.6Ghz PM ~ 768MB RAM ~ 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
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Gargantuan mammoth. But isn't it a very cute mammoth?

 

It is huge, but that is what you are looking for if you buy this unit-POWER! It is a similar situation for a Dell XPS, HP zd7000, or Acer 1710 (the king of size at 15 pounds! A true desktop replacement.).

 

I'm just curious: how come Apple could squeeze so much power into its 17" Powerbook which is 2 kgs lighter than the Toshiba and only half as thick?

 

Apple computers use a RISC processor. They're much more powerful that the CISC based CPU's like Intel & AMD even at lower clock rates. The reason why they're so light, is because they're built with an all-aluminum body. Not just the top cover, but the entire body. This would also allow for a slimmer case. Since most Intel/AMD based units are made of platsic or composite materials, they have to be thicker to have the same strength.

Also, you have to remember that the Toshiba P20/P25 series notebooks are based on a P4 CPU, they produce a lot of heat and need the room to cool it off. I'm pretty sure if cooling wasn't an issue, the notebook would probably be smaller & therefore lighter. Switch to an all-aluminum body and I think you might have a challenger. The only issue would be that the prices would skyrocket.

-Vb-

 

What I'm trying to figure out is..on the p25 670 & 676 you can watch tv on the unit and record tv shows. How do you connect your video coaxal cable to the laptop? Ive looked all over the unit and cant find how you do this? anyone?[?]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by rlatzo

 

Just joined in here because I've been really interested in one of these. I am a recent college graduate who is going into the field of graphic design and I want to get away from desktops; I want a notebook that I can take almost anywhere (I don't care about weight or size, I can manage) and I am just really curious as to how well graphics programs run on this (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and maybe 3D Studio Max). And also I like to play the occasional video game now and then and would like a notebook that could at least handle Doom 3 on it's highest settings.

I'm looking at the P25-676, but that thing costs nearly 2700 bucks; it's the one I want but like I said I'm a recent college graduate and still haven't found a job related to my field and loans will be kickin in shortly. Anywhere that I can get financing? If I get one of these then I can certainly begin producing some excellent work; my current CPU is a four year old HP with a 20 GB harddrive and a Voodoo 3dFx card I got three months before they went out of business. Long story short I need this machine.

 

Reuber1,

This notebook should be able to handle your college requirements. It is one of the heavier units, but since weight doesn't really matter, you don't really have anything to worry about. Playing Doom 3 at max settings may be pushing the limits of the system. It'll be better if you had a desktop system rather than a notebook. There are other systems that you may want to consider.

HP NX9500
HP ZD7000
HP ZX5000
HP NC8000/NW8000
Sony A Series
Acer Aspire 2012/2025 series
Acer Ferrari 3200
eMachines M68xx series

-Vb-

 

It's a really powerful laptop. Believe me, I benchmarked one down at the store and I was really impressed.

However, you will never find a laptop that can handle Doom3's max settings. Especially not with FSAA and Aniso.

 

To all P25 owners, as it related to my another thread,

I'm curious whether P25 produce fan noise from its vents even the CPU on Idle, the voice however is not obvious, and its on for just about 5-15 seconds and silent for 3-5 minutes. but after longer period of use the fans activated for 2 minutes and silent for about 1 minutes.

The fan is not too loud, but irritating in a very quiet room. Is this a common behavior?

On other thread, moderator has remarked that this is a common behavior for P4 3.4 Ghz. I Just surprised when I hear the fan is triggered, because I hope ths will be a very quiet computer

As I have compared it with my friend (with Centrino Mobile Banias),it produce ZERO noise, even on Busy.

But my laptop has this little noise that irritates me, and it activated even on idle (random sequence) and more frequent when it is busy

Please response [ ]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Ethelbert

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Venombite

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Ethelbert
uhm.. my harddisk is lke produce sound "click" on operaion, is it normal
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Depending on if the click continues continuously, the drive should be fine. If it happens continuously or in some sort of pattern, then there's something wrong. My drive has the same occasional click, pretty annoying, but that's how the drive is made.

-Vb-