T235-S1345 First Impressions

I have been looking for a new laptop and ended up purchasing the T235-S1345 from Office Depot the other day (it's on sale for 499 right now). It's the red model and my first impressions are very positive.

First of all, the main negative is the Toshiba bloatware installed. It's really bad - worst I have ever seen and that includes Acer. After getting all the bloatware cleaned up with Revo Uninstaller and general Windows tuning (turn off indexing, etc.), the performance has improved drastically. The only thing I will say is that Toshiba actually has a few somewhat useful utilities. Still way too much bloatware...

The AMD K625 processor is very responsive so far at everyday tasks. I was worried about heat and fan noise being an AMD. The fan noise and heat have both been very minor to me but I have not fired up any games yet. I will do that tonight and see how it goes. By the way, this system is not recommended for someone wanting the latest performance in games. But, for a few older games, I am pretty sure it will be adequate. I have a I7-940 on my desktop for the latest and greatest games.

The keyboard is nice - I really like the separation of the keys but some may not. I use a mouse so the trackpad does not matter to me. The keyboard does not show finger prints. The screen is nice and shows blacks real well. I did have to calibrate the monitor. No wireless issues either...Download speeds are fast. There have been a few reported issues with the wireless setup and slow download speeds but no issues here.

The system comes with 4GB DDR3, which is a step up from 1-2 GB you sometimes see with netbooks. I will add more about the video card performance later after playing a few games.

If you are wanting a step above a netbook and do not require the latest and greatest games, I can highly recommend this model at this point.

 

I saw the Toshiba T235D at Hhgreg and its such a beautiful laptop. Much better the one its replacing, the T215(much better keyboard and touchpad). With my tight budget, i think i'll settle for one instead of the UL30vt
But i have some few questions for you BigCTM,
+Heat and fan noise - what is the temp on it with normal use and understress? how is the fan? always on? super silent?
+battery life...

 

I just purchased the T235 from Office Depot. The first thing that I noticed is that it feels very much like plastic. There is nothing that deters from that feeling. Unlike most laptops that have the plastic feel, it is very sturdy and has very little keyboard flex. Once you get past the plastic feel, you find that you have a pretty well built machine. The plastic feel is a side effect to the laptop being very light.

I previously had an HP DV2 with the first generation AMD Turion Neo X2 dual core processor running at 1.6Ghz. It also had the Ati HD3200 video card with a dedicated 512MB. The Toshiba comes with the new generation of AMD Turion Neo dual core processor running at 1.5Ghz but, the newer core runs much smoother then the older. I haven't tried any gaming yet but, since the ATI 4225 is an integrated video, I doubt it will have as good of performance as the older core.

The chicklet style keyboard is a nice touch but, the keys have to be pressed harder then most chicklet style keyboards and that really defeats one of the nice features of the chikclet style keys. Other then that, they are nicely spaced and the keyboard is comfortable to use.

The display resolution is 1366x768, which is higher then my DV2's (1280x800). Web pages fit nicely on the screen, it has good viewing angles and gets fairly bright on the highest settings. As a matter of fact, when I was shopping for 12"-14" ranged laptops, the Toshiba had one of the best viewing angles. it was one of the reasons I got the laptop.

The overall look of the laptop is pretty good but fits more in the "cute" category rather then the "cool" category with the silver/red contrasting finish.

I haven't really pushed the laptop to its limits or played any games but, during installs (openoffice) and uninstalls (MS Office), It never got more then warm and I didn't hear the fan. I will be testing this more in the coming days.

I also had it unplugged for 4 hours last night just doing monitoring and the battery didn't die but I am not setting those times in stone since I am guessing around the start time. Still, I am going do some testing of the battery life tonight to get some good figures.

Overall, it is a responsive machine which multi-tasks well. The display is easy to read at most angles and has lots of room for your applications. At the $499 price point, it is worth the money if you are looking for something light weight and easy to tote.

 

is this toshiba T235D or just T235?

 

Toshiba Satellite T235D-S1345RD

Toshiba Satellite T235D S1345RD 133 LED Backlit Widescreen Laptop Computer With AMD Turion II Neo Dual Core K625 Processor by Office Depot

According to Toshiba's site, the T235 is the Intel and the T235D is the AMD based units. The whole line is the T230 line but they all start T235. There are about 10 different models. That is a little bit too many for a single line. The last 2 digits are the color. RD for a red top, WH for a white top and no digits for a black top. I think I prefer the red top after looking at the other pictures.

 

This laptop continues to impress. This is my first Toshiba and honestly am very impressed. It does not get that hot compared to the DV2 I had at one point and the fan is not that loud either. I have been getting around 4 hours battery life for straight gaming and about 6 without gaming.

I had an Alienware M11X (R2) but ended up with this one instead. I do not travel much and use my desktop for all the new games and just decided that I did not need that much portable gaming power.

Plus there is not much about this Toshiba that I do not like better than the
M11X besides the graphic card of course. The screen is MUCH better than the M11X. I honestly did not think the screen of the M11X was that bad until I tried this one. The Toshiba is not as glossy and reflective for sure. The keyboard (even though it is not lighted) on the Toshiba is better. The
M11X one (at least the one I had) was warped slightly toward the center of the keyboard. The Toshiba is quieter and does not get as hot as the I7 did on the M11X (hard to believe with this one being an AMD). The build quality of the Toshiba is solid. It is not a tank like the M11X but at least I do not worry about the hinge issue like I did with the M11X.

Another bad thing is the lack of discussion on these boards about Toshiba. The M11X forum is always active.

Still I have zero regrets and think Toshiba has a winner on its hands with this line.

 

4 hours with straight gaming???? and 6 hours regular use??? WOW. thats really impressive.
What games did u play on it BigCTM?? Do have the turion 1.5ghz? Did u over-clock the CPU or GPU?

 

It has the K625 1.5 ghz. I did not overclock the CPU/GPU.

To be conservative, I would say 3.5 - 4 hours gaming and 5.5 - 6 hours without gaming.

The only games I have played are older ones like Titan Quest and Torchlight. Like I said, I use my desktop for newer games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2. I would not recommend this system for playing the latest games.

 

I put WOW and Guild Wards on my T235 and while Guild Wars seems to play nicely, WOW is at its most minimal settings. Don't get me wrong, WOW is playable at the minimal settings but, I wouldn't get into a Raid with the T235.

I completely agree, it is not a gaming laptop and can only handle light gaming. The nice part is that you CAN do some light gaming on it. It is possible to do dedicated memory with the HD4225 GPU that is in the T235 but, Toshiba (and most manufacturers) opt to do shared memory with it. This is likely the biggest bottleneck. Even though it is an underpowered GPU, dedicated RAM would really have given it a much needed boost. I too had the DV2 for a while and think the dedicated GPU is what gave it better gaming performance then the T235. Mine had 512MB of dedicated video RAM. Bear in mind, the DV2 could barely go over 2 hours with light usage so the T235 is a great improvement on battery life.

I am amazed that you can get even 3.5 hours while gaming. I am not that familiar with those games so I can only guess at how system intensive they may or may not be. Are you running the stock drivers? I upgraded the chipset and video drivers to ATI's latest, so that may be a reason.

I am only getting 4.5 - 5 hours with light usage, not the 6 you are getting. Did you do any battery priming (discharging and recharging)? Any tricks in the power management settings that you can share? Any special drivers that you've installed that help?

 

I hope i can play CoD2 and GTA:san Andreas once in a while.

 

I too bought this laptop while on sale at Office Depot and really like it but, the one I bought had a blown out right speaker!

Thankfully I was able to return it for a replacement no questions asked.

I was really torn about getting this one or waiting for the 12.1" Asus 1215N that's coming out in a few weeks, since it can do 1080p output via the HDMI port, whereas this one can only do 720p, however it appears that the Asus will only come with 2GB of RAM and a 250HD standard, you can up it to 4GB and a 320, but I assume that doing so would make it much more than the $500 that it is supposed to cost, and that this one went for while on sale.

After owning it for a week and 1/2 I'm really glad I went with the Toshiba! And am especially happy that I was able to find this model (the 1345 vs. the 1350) as I wanted the AMD processor and better GPU, and it's getting a Windows 7 Experience score of 4.0 whereas the 1350 got a 3.4

I didn't find many (if any) reviews on this model from actual owners, just the usual websites who reported on the comparisons to it's predecessor.

I've never owned one before, I've always had Dell's and IBM Thinkpads at work, and while it feels a bit plastic like, I like the stiff fingerproof keyboard and textured surface surrounding it.

It really feels solid and well built, and yet is light enough to sit out the couch and surf the web or play a game while watching tv! (Beats the crap out of an iPad)

I'm getting a solid 4 hours of battery out of it, but would like to remove some of the additional bloatware it came with.

I took Norton and the trial version of office 2007 off of it, along with MS works, and installed the full version of Office 2003 Pro that I have here at home instead.

There is a lot of other Toshiba bloatware on it, and I'd like to remove it but I'm not sure what is safe and what isn't.

Here are the programs listed, which I'm unsure of, if anyone can provide some guidance on what is safe to remove, I'd REALLY appreciate it!

Toshiba Assist
Toshiba Bulletin Board
Toshiba Face Recognition
Toshiba Laptop Checkup
Toshiba Online Backup
Toshiba PC Health Monitor
Toshiba ReelTime
Toshiba Service Station
Toshiba Value Added Package

There's a bunch of other Toshiba stuff, but most of it appears legit or necessary.

 

Honestly, I think they can all go. I don't see anything that is really needed.

 

Thanks for the reply, it appears that the Value Added Package "MAY" be the utility that shows the various Function key's overlayed at the top of the screen, when you press and hold down the Fn key for more than a second or so, without pressing any other key in combo with it.

I removed a lot of the others, as many of them seemed to be tied to a trial version of some service like the backup for instance, which you'd have to pay for after like 30 days.

I'm still enjoying this laptop and for fun installed Dragon Age Origins, which will run ok with all the graphics turned to their lowest setting.

I have a powerhouse gaming desktop and media center system at home as well, but wanted to see if this little guy could handle a new title like Bioware's RPG game.

I also see that Office Depot put this back on sale again this week, for the same $500 that it went for a few weeks back when I bought mine. So for those who may be interested, you won't find this any cheaper anyplace else as of August 2010.

 

I also bought mine from Office Depot and think it is an awesome laptop. However, had I known about their return policy and done my research ahead of time, I would have paid more and bought it elsewhere. Once you open a technology product, the only option is to exchange for the exact same item. This is also the case if it is defective. There is no option to return for a restocking fee like at many places. For example, at Best Buy with premier silver, I have a 45 day no questions asked no restocking fee return policy. Just something to consider if you are not 100% sure this is the laptop for you...I will never buy another technology product from Office Depot.

 

thanks for the posts, guys.

what is the touchpad like on the T235? I'm thinking about buying: it from costco but I have always been hesitant to buy a computer without knowing how the touchpad functions. I can barely use a "mirrored" style touchpad (tons of resitance, almost stick) and almost always prefer the matte style (or even the kind that is bumpy and textured), can someone tell me what style of pad this is? Thanks

 

The touchpad is textured, has scroll (vert and horz) sensors on the right hand side and bottom so you can scroll webpages up and down quickly and is multi-touch!

It comes with Win 7 64bit Home Premium installed, so you can use your fingers to "pinch" and stretch websites to make them bigger or smaller, etc.

I'm not a fan of touchpads, but this one is pretty nice.

As for Office Depot's policies, yeah, when I bought mine I got it because of the price drop/sale they had going on, but was unsure weather or not to keep it or return it and wait for the Asus 1215n to come out.

Therefore I had to leave it unopened for a few days before I made up my mind, however it would have been nice to have taken it for a test drive before putting down $500+

 

I have known about Office Depot's return policy for awhile and is the reason I no longer buy Tech products from them. I guess they got fed up with all the tire kickers. Heck even Amazon allows you to return certain tech items with no restocking fee.

Enjoy your laptops everyone, sounds like a nice one. I bought a Tosh laptop last year and the thing is stunning with the fusion finish and a really nice build. Here's my Tosh:

 

How about options for extra large batteries from Toshiba?

Do you know of any available?

 

Hey guys how do you think Starcraft 2 would run on this? And are there any higher capacity batteries out there for the T235 that's the same size?

Maybe i am asking too much ..but either way i think i am gona get this

 

Not sure about batteries, I sort of doubt it.

As for Starcaft 2?, it might run, but you'll need to turn down the graphics to the point that it might not be worthwhile. You'll also have to get the PC download version, either that or have an external DVD/CD drive connected. As i mention above, I was able to install Dragon Age Origins, but had to set everything to low, and still only get like 15-18 FPS.

The T235D is by no means a gaming PC, that said, if you have some older titles, games from say 2000-2006, you should be able to play them just fine.

I installed and am successfully playing Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2, with graphics turned fully up on both games and they run just fine.

 

Appreciate the reply Jay. All i want is to have a nice small laptop for taking notes and play Starcraft 2 in between classes lol

 

Hi Guys,

I am interested in this one for the quality of the screen- but have some worries about HD.
How does it play full 1080HD videos? I am planning to hook it up to my big screen for movies while still using my laptop for browsing. Could the Intel Graphic card perform?

I have a Asus UL30VT-tired of waiting for the ULJT (with core i3) to hit the US.

Thank you for any help/info.

 

Well the T235 only has a 1366x768 screen resolution, and according to it's specs, the HDMI port an only do 1280x720 out, so if you had a 1080 video, it would have to be downscaled to one of those two resolutions depending on if you were going to watch it on the laptop's LCD screen, or use the HDMI out to connect to your TV.

Not sure what resolution the VGA port can do, but would assume it's 768, just like the LCD.

That's one of the reason I was hesitant to get this as the new Asus 1215N that's due out in a few weeks is supposed to support full 1080 out from it's HDMI port.

Still, since it doesn't have a blu-ray player built in, so whatever video you play would have to be streamed from a media center PC or other device, or downloaded/installed on the hard drive, and I'd bet you'd have a difficult time finding true 1920x1080 movies available for download/streaming, so this might not be a big issue, assuming you don't mind watching at 720p resolution.

I can tell you this much, I've watched 1280x720 content on the web, at sites like YouTube and it looks great on the T235.

 

Can anyone say whether the mouse buttons/lip pick up fingerprints? I know the lid does, but I was wondering about any other parts of the laptop.

 

Yeah, the "chrome" lip around the edge of the keyboard, and the mouse buttons are fingerprint magnets, as is the LCD screen bezel and back cover.

They keyboard and palm rest, and mouse pad do not however.

 

Ah, thank you for the quick reply. I guess I'll have to figure out if it's too much of an issue for me or not. I just don't like chrome :/

 

I bought a t235 at the office depot sale and I love it so far, but the fan runs continuously and it's a little distracting. Is this just me? Is there something I can do to turn it off?

 

In the brief time I had the t235 (intel, it turned out to be in a pretty unsightly used condition) I did notice the fan. I don't really have any experience with the model beyond that, but I heard that if Windows 7 is set to active cooling, then setting it to passive cooling helps work the fan less at the expense of performance. Or is it the other way around? I'm not sure. Also, it's always been my experience that replacing the hard drive with an SSD goes a great way toward reducing the heat the laptop generates, but that's no guarantee that the fan will actually work less often, and SSDs aren't exactly everyone's cup of tea price/capacity-wise. Anyway, not terrifically good advice I realize, but I wish you luck.

 

The fan noise on this laptop is a little load for me, so i decided to undervolt the CPU. CPUgenie won't recognize the CPU but RMclock does. Thats when i realize something odd. The CPU is ALWAYS running on 1.5ghz (no matter what you are doing), there is no throttling, no Pstates to choose from. Everything is grayed out!!! So if anyone has successfully undervolted thier turion II neo K625 please please let show me how...
edit: RMclock recognizes my CPU model as "AMD Engineering Sample". CPU core and revision is unknown, PM features N/A. I'm using RMclock version 2.35 with a file that makes it digitally signed for Win7 64bit. Really need some help here...

 

Yesterday I broke down and purchased the T235-S1345.

My first question is how do I get the "function" keys on the number keys and some of the letters to work. Esc-F12 work fine. But trying to change the volume, etc doesn't seem to work. Hitting FN and say the 3 or 4 key just brings up the FN key map image.

Also, has anyone put Linux on this guy yet?