U300-NS1 Opinion

Post 2 week opinion of the Toshiba U300-NS1, please note this is an opinion piece only, you may have had a totally different experience.

In a nut shell: CRAP, worst laptop I have ever used. Returned it to Futureshop in disgust.

Base Features

Approximate Battery Life: 4 Hours
Hard Drive Speed/Capacity: 160GB 5400RPM
Optical Drive: Super Multi DL DVD Burner
Processor Speed: 1.73GHz
Processor Type: Pentium Dual Core T2080
RAM: 1GB
Screen Size: 13.3 Inches (glossy and wide screen)
Native Screen Resolution: 1280x800

CONS

-Battery life is no where close to 4h like it states, backlight to low, no wifi, just using a word processor drains the battery in 1-1.5h

-HOT HOT HOT, the laptop feels like it is on fire internally because of the Dual Core chip

-The T2080 Dual Core processor; who ever decided this was a good idea needs to be dragged out into the street and shot. The T2080 Pentium D uses 2x as much power as a Core 2 Duo, so putting it in a laptop seems insane to me (but I might be missing something?)

-Together with Vista, the T2080 and 1Gig of RAM, this laptop felt like it was a molasses on a cold cold winter day. It was slow to boot, slow to do pretty much anything on it, even after ALL visual features were turned off in Vista and all the drivers were updated etc...

-Glossy screen was just way to finger print prone, and trying to use it anywhere but a dark office just way too much glare occurred! To my having a laptop means I should be able to use it outside in some form of light, maybe in a car (for Streets and Trips) or a tea house. This is more of a personal preference.

-Glossy Cover; I do not understand the appeal of having a laptop cover that looks always so dirty, there is no way to keep it clean! Everything shows up on it, dust, hair, finger prints, there is just no way to not make your laptop look like you are the filthy person. This is more of a personal preference.

-Volume control, the M2 has a great volume control knob, but the U300 fails, as it's a Windows volume control, so when turning it up and down, you need to wait for Windows to change volume, and if the OS is busy loading a file or a webpage, there can be a delay between the adjustment and the actual volume change.

-The keyboard felt very cheap and flexible, as did most of the laptop construction. The finger print reader felt it was in the way and was placed with out much thought to it's use. How often do you need to swipe your finger Vs. click the left or right mouse button. I felt putting it there took away from the mouse buttons and was in the way. This is more of a personal preference.

PROS

-Can't really say much, the memory card reader was a nice option, price is low, but not worth the short commings

-Size, great little laptop size (there, I did come up with one positive thing to say!!!)

I do expect a significantly better version of this laptop is the U305 with the Core 2 Duo processor, and the reviews I have read confirm that most of my heat, power and performance issues are addressed, but the cheap feel of the laptop is not. In conclusion, I say do not buy the U300, get the U305 if you like the size.