Unboxing Toshiba Satellite A505 - S6965

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In a week I'll make a Complete Video/review of this baby, and some pics later on.

Feel free to ask anything! Have in mind I just got it

p.d This Toshiba also has Face Recognition!!!!!

 

Are you able to get the face recognition software to work? Couldn't get it to work on my Qosmio so uninstalled it. Thought it would be cool if it wasn't gonna be a hassle--but it was.

 

Yeah, I got it to work without problems. And I see it quit useful, but now my mom will have to wait until Im in front of the laptop to get her in Since my mom sometimes needs to check stuff hehehe

anyways, its not complicated at all... Its my first time with that function.

 

Maybe I will reinstall the face recognition software, seems like there was an updated version to the one that was preinstalled on my machine. How do you like that LEd backlit screen? My only experience is with LCD's, read somewhere that those backlit screens are very good outdoors.

 

Thank-you very much for taking the time to take this video and post it - I could see clearly that it has a slot-loading DVD. I'm looking forward to your full review ...

 

I can't wait for your full review! I am going to BB either today or tomorrow to purchase it because I thought the specs were good for the price and it could take the games I play easily enough.

 

Thanks for the Comments Guys!

Well, I do enjoy the screen though I haven't gone outside. The backlit is just great since It isn't on the whole time. You gotta type on it for it to lit up, then you got 15 secs. until it goes off again. Its just the best...

When I bought it I didn't know it had back lit, DVD Slot nor Face Rec. Which all of them are awesome details

 

So I got mine yesterday and so far it rocks!

The backlit keyboard is amazing w/ the numpad on the side, the speakers are loud and clear, everything operates very quickly, and so far I've loaded up Doom 3 and World of Warcraft on it.

I've been playing Doom 3 on Ultra settings with no problems yet.

I have World of Warcraft set on High settings since the fps is a little low for my taste on Ultra, but its still very playable on Ultra. It does great on High though, but I have yet to go to any big cities so I guess we'll see how it performs there!

 

Congrats!

Well, I installed Medieval 2 Total War and it runs on all High 1338x768 or something like that without any lagg. I just love it... But i gotta buy myself a mouse since its pretty difficult to play on touch pad lol

Also installed Crysis Demo. Fully Playable gotta say. But It was on Default settings which I didnt see (Dont have it anymore since I installed W7 yesturday) so cant really say on what settings they were :/

 

I got the A500 from the toshiba site. I am falling in love with this laptop. I got it on Friday and I almost made an unboxing of it too.

What specs did the A505 come with?

Edit: OOPS. Just noticed them in your signature. Hehe. Mine are similar. Mine are 2.8 GHZ processors. 320 GB hard drive. 4B of RAM. ATI HD 4650 1GB DDR3 and the windows 7 upgrade.

I hope you enjoy your new toshiba as much as I love mine!

 

I may being buying this system soon. Are you guys still enjoying it? Any issues you would point out to prospective buyers? Thanks!

 

Im still 100% happy with it... No problems at all! Just Installed Call of Duty 4 and maaaann... its so SMOOTH and so much fun. I just love it hehe

anyone else who plays CoD4 can find me with the same name here, im just a noob though xP

 

I so far don't have any complaints about my a500, if you look into that one, It was the customizable one on the Toshiba website. The only complaints i can think of is that the volume control buttons beep when you turn them up or down and I haven't found a way to get rid of that. and, as with most laptops, it comes with a lot of trial programs you'll have to uninstall. Other than that, I have no complaints. I made it have the specs i was looking for and I am happy.

What are you looking for the laptop to do?

 

I had that beeping too, but got finished with it since I installed Windows 7 RC.

 

Windows 7 gets rid of the beep?

 

I bought this laptops today too and all i can say is im impressed! I too am going to put medieval 2 total war on my comp (its gonna be the ultimate test-can it handle it well?) because my desktop cannot handle it well at all. I heard that you can upgrade cpu in this thing? Its only a 2 ghz but it works fine... Do you know if the gpu is upgradeable? What about an upgrade to ddr3 ram? (im still getting used to my new laptop!)

 

I know RAM is upgradeable. I am unsure about everything else. I got the best the website would let me get, so Im hoping I dont have to. Hehe. I hope you like your laptop!

 

To adjust the media button beeps go to control panel, under sounds. Go to the speaker properties, and then the levels tab and mute or turn down the computer beep level.

 

...oh my god I love you.

 

HA HA

your welcome

 

As far as the volume control button beeping, you can turn that off directly in your BIOS, or by using the Toshiba Hardware Setup utility.

 

It's a great system for a great price. What are you looking to do with the notebook? The only drawbacks that come to my mind is that it's a little big and bulky if you're very concerned about size. I don't think it's too big, but I also have a netbook for when situations call for something smaller than a laptop sporting a 16" screen. Also, the battery is rated for 2.5 hours, which isn't exactly high, but not as bad as I think some people make it out to be. I'd call it average. So if battery longevity is a top concern for you, it may not be the best laptop.

Otherwise, the A505-S6965 is a great laptop and a remarkable value. I'm genuinely impressed by the machine, and I'm not easily impressed, nor was I expecting to be considering the price. As far as work at the office during the day, it handles my frantic multi-tasking without hesitation. At home, it's handling WoW on high at 1366x768 (native resolution) at 60 FPS, and other gaming equally smooth. I primarily got the laptop to power ProTools 8, mainly for recording, but also a bit of mixing/post-production, all which it does without complaint.

There's a lot of features packed in this notebook for the price: A great screen, a huge hard drive, dedicated graphics, a decently fast CPU with a good amount of speedy RAM to back it up, HDMI, gigabit wired networking, wireless N networking, 3 USB ports, 1 USB/ESATA combo, etc. There's no end to the features, basically. While prone to fingerprints, the laptop is very stylish and the backlit keys look great.

There's not much crap pre-installed, and that can be remedied by a clean install anyways. With a free upgrade to Windows 7, and Windows 7 drivers already posted to Toshiba's site for this laptop, I'm pretty confident that this machine will be decently supported.

All in all, it's hard not to recommend this laptop, but if you have specific questions, I'd love to do my best to answer them! I'm definitely enjoying this laptop.

 

Ha i didnt even notice the third usb...

 

Ive been having a few minor problems with this laptop that i got yesterday. One, my task manager says i have 80 process going on! Whats up with that? Ive downloaded itunes/quicktime, medieval 2 total war, and some windows updates. Any suggetions? Also i tryed wc3 and it was a little choppy so i uninstalled it. Maybe i need a driver update? Can anyone give me a link? (they're free right?)

 

Heres the link for Toshiba updates: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/...A505-S6965&selCategory=3&selFamily=1073768663

As far as reducing the number of running processes, you can uninstall programs that you don't use via programs and features in the control panel.

You can click start, type msconfig in the search bar, enter, select startup, uncheck boxes of programs you don't need to start when windows starts.

 

Would a need any specific ati drivers? Which ones do i even download?

 

First, you can check to see what your current driver is by going, start, control panel. display adapters, double clicking on HD 4570 or whatever is there, driver.

The latest driver from Toshiba for Vista is 8.611--for Windows 7 is 8.63.

or you could try these... http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista64/common-vista64

 

display adapters? uh....

 

Well, for the Drivers I got THIS website ...

As you can see, its from the official Toshiba website

 

Funfact:
If anybody with this model is really not happy with battery life. Get the 12-cell battery. ( I got it customized into my purchase because of college starting this fall ) and when not playing games? it lasts about 5-6 hours in balanced or eco mode. Longer times in eco mode, obviously. And when I played Left 4 Dead on max settings with the battery.. it lasted about 3 to 4. It would drop a little at more graphically intensive moments but it's good.

It's a good investment if you really want that battery life.

 

nice said! I think thats the best way to have this A505 Series without paying alot huh?

 

Picked this up from Best Buy the other day to replace a (much) older Qosmio I got off of eBay for $300 awhile back (2GHz Pentium M, 1GB of RAM, 6600GT). So far I'm liking it a lot. Playing WoW, in Dalaran with all settings at max (except for Shadows of course) and view distance at 50%, I pull off 30+ FPS, which is nice. The lowish resolution for this screen size doesn't really bother me much, and I can definately appreciate the LED backlighting.

Just a few minor complaints. Some of the keys squeek a bit (the spacebar especially) and the "mouse" buttons are a little loud when you click, which can get annoying after awhile. And of course the finish is very vulnerable to fingerprints and smudges and the like.

I did notice there's a model of the A500 on Wal-Mart.com with a 64GB SSD and a 320GB 7200RPM drive... I'm assuming the SSD is a mini-PCIe model, yes? I think I might pick up this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227438

...when I get my Windows 7 upgrade in and go to reformat the machine with it.

 

Since I use a Mouse, I don't really use the touchpad... so it doesn't bother me hehe

 

Did you have to download any driver updates for the games to work well? What about processes? Mine said that it had 80 running on the first day after only downloading a few things. Im 16, and my dad was with me when i got the comp and he said i should get the "geek squad optimized" version for 70 bucks more. I have not really noticed anything that could have been imrpoved by them. They said they did updates, tweaks, and the like to improve performane but idk if it was worth it what do you guys think? Hopefully they would exchange it free of charge if you think i should its only a few days old.

 

I think I'm going to buy one of these...it looks like a wonderful deal, but how is it in terms of noise and heat?

Do you think the noise/heat is about average, or worse or better than the average laptop?
Do you think the heat is enough of an issue to need an external fan or something like that?

Thanks!

 

You know I also noticed that when you have headphones and have the volume all the way up (not to mention the piercing beep that loud) with the Beep turned ON, there is some interference noise associated with it.

When I rather completely disabled the beep altogether, the sound through my headphones cleared up a little, so thanks . Makes all the difference when you have earbuds that could double as ear plugs...

 

Noise is something normal. Not saying its loud but its notable. The heat is not a big deal; when you game it kinda does but only where the vent is...

Not a Problem with what you mention buddy

 

The best thing to do (In your situation) is doing it by yourself

 

"Geek Squad Optomized" is a HUGE load of bull, just like every other extra service Best Buy tries to sell you when you buy a laptop. They just uninstall all the extra bloatware and a few other things anyone else can do on their own.

 

Anyway on to the laptop. I was originally going to get the gaming Gateway FX ( http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827 ) from Best Buy. Not seeing that it was an Outlet Only item until I got to Best Buy left me wanting to buy one since I was already there.

I needed one that I was going to spend under $1000 for. Since I'm also taking it with me to Iraq in a few months I also had to factor in the $250 Accident Protection Plan and what not. Anyway I'm quite proud that I stumbled upon this laptop. It has a 500GB hard drive which now only has 200GB free (movies, games, music, pictures), lol.

As far as gaming go it seems pretty decent. It runs HL2, Portals, Sims 3, and COD 4 in its native resolution respectively well! Obviously the touch pad does not do any good while gaming, so a wireless mouse and gamepad will replace it just fine.

Lastly, and what I am most impressed with, is the audio. I love listening to listen to music ALL THE TIME! When I saw the speakers I figured they were just for marketing purpose, then I saw they were Harmon Kardon...In one word, AWESOME!! They are much louder than I anticipated which makes me nice and happy.

Overall though: video editing, photoshop, gaming, and general internet surfing makes this an awesome all in one underdog that I didn't expect to like this much!

 

@XxLblinkxX

I have some question regarding the GPU .
-can this play crisis in medium setting and what about GTA-4?

I am thinking to buy this and the only concern i have is GPU capability .

 

Can you please look what is the GPU & Memory clocks of the Ati 4650 in this machine?

Also I'd like to know the cooling-behaviour: is the fan constantly spinning around (even in idle) or does it switch on and off periodically?

 

Hi!

Well, Crysis run with 1338x768 Low/Med (I downloaded the Demo)... I dont know about GTAIV but im sure it will run in Low setting

 

The fan is doing an EXCELENT job It doesn't make much noise at all and it just simply does the job... Keeping the laptop in great temp.

 

The A505-S6965 is from Best Buy, so it can only come with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570. In this notebook, the 4570's GPU is clocked at 680 MHz, and the memory is clocked at 800 MHz.

If you leave the laptop on the "Balanced" power setting in Vista, it will only run the fan when needed. I would suspect if you left it in "High Performance" most of the time the fan would be running much more often if not continuously. According to CoreTemp, I'd say the average temp of the warmest core in this notebook is 40-42 C while in use, dropping to around 30-35 on idle, and in the 50-60 range when gaming for an extended period. It will get warm, but at least the exhaust is on the left side of the laptop. On my old laptop, the exhaust was on the right, which would fry my hand while using a mouse...

Thus far, I'd say that under normal circumstances this laptop runs cool and quiet.

 

Just picked one up at Best Buy for the wife today. So far so good but we have some old peripherals that won't work with 64-bit OS. More $$$ to spend.

Just registered to get the upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit home premium. Do you think that will be a fresh install disc or an upgrade in place? I would prefer a fresh install but don't want to spend a lot of time installing programs now only to have to reinstall them all again.

Or could I install Windows 7 RC now (even though it's Ultimate) and "upgrade" that to Home Premium?

 

If they give us the actual disk, it should give you the option to either upgrade or do a fresh install, but I have no idea what we're actually getting. And, as far as I know, if you use the 7 RC you will have to do a clean install, but I'm not totally sure on that.

 

You will not be able to upgrade the RC to the retail version, you will have to do a clean install. You can however, upgrade from Vista to retail version of Windows 7

 

I was just wondering howw the keyboard iss on the a505-s6965. does it have any flex??

i'd like to have a comfortable keyboard for school and typing up papers.

 

Thanks sgilmore62!