Toshiba Satellite M645 Review Discussion

The Toshiba Satellite M640 and M645 offer a 14-inch laptop with solid performance and an attractive design at a modest price. As parents and students gear up for the back-to-school season, does the Satellite M640 below at the top of your shopping list? Keep reading to see what we think of this Core i5-equipped model with Nvidia discrete graphics.

Read the full content of this Article: Toshiba Satellite M645 Review

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Very nice ... definitely would consider this if I was looking for a 14".

 

Think the Gateway ID59C is a better deal. Also 14", similar specs, but just about 1" thick.

Anyway, how come it's said that this computer has the same graphics chip as the M11x? 330M and 335M are pretty far apart.

 

I meant to say "similar" not the same. I've updated the review in that sentence.

Both in terms of synthetic benchmarks and in terms of real-world gaming the M645 does a pretty good job compared to the M11x ... just not quite as good.

That was the point I was trying to convey.

Also I don't know if I'd say the 330M and the 335M are "pretty far apart.

The 330M has the following specs:
Pipelines: 48
Core Speed: 575 MHz
Shader Speed: 1265 MHz
Memory Speed: 1066 MHz
Memory Bus Width: 128 Bit
Max. Amount of Memory: 1024 MB (DDR2 or DDR3)
Raw calculation power: 182 Gigaflops

The 335M has the following specs:
Pipelines: 72
Core Speed: 450 MHz
Shader Speed: 1080 MHz
Memory Speed: 1066 MHz
Memory Bus Width: 128 Bit
Max. Amount of Memory: 1024 MB (DDR3)
Raw calculation power: 223 Gigaflops

 

I've also looked at the Gateway ID series, in particular this one: Gateway Official Site: Shop - Notebooks - ID49C08u Laptop Product Details

I think that if I had to choose between the two, I would go with the Gateway because I know that the fingerprint magnet glossy black of the Toshiba would drive me nuts wiping it every couple seconds. The downsides to the Gateway though would be that it doesn't have the Harmon/Kardon speakers, and the keyboard, even though it is the same design as Acer's fabulous TimeLine series, doesn't seem to have enough travel (distance pushing down on a key), plus the giant touchpad-as-a-button concept doesn't really work for me (the glowing part doesn't bother me actually)

 

Anyone interested in this model should also take a look at this one (canada):

Newegg.ca - ASUS K42 Series K42JV-X1 NoteBook Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz) 14" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

14' (1368x766), Core i5 450, Nvidia gt 335m, 500 gig 7200 rpm HDD,----> 979,99$

better hdd, better GPU, lower price...

But I think the keybord may be better one the toshiba.

I hop this can help someone in the 14-inch market

 

The biggest negative that jumps out is the weight. A 14" laptop should not weigh over 6 pounds. At that weight you can get a 16" laptop.

Having better graphics requires some extra weight as a trade-off (think M11) but the 33% difference between 4.5 and 6lbs is going to very noticable if you are planning on carrying around your laptop. And most people chose 14" over a larger size for increased portability.

Lenovo, Acer and Asus all offer price competitive 14" offering with similar specs, but under 5 pounds. Why is the Toshiba so heavy? Its not rugged, and we know Toshiba can make a light laptop.

 

I was gonna say the same thing, tktk. It is actually thicker and heavier than most 15.6'' laptops.

 

Sort of OT, I've been looking a while for an ultra-light laptop with switchable graphics. I see a laptop like this Toshiba and am shocked at how heavy it is.

For my needs, the Vaio Z is perfect but about $600 more than I want to spend.

The M11 is too heavy for its small screen (I have lousy vision.) The UL30JT's graphics and processor are a bit weak. The 3920TG is good but might never come to the US...

So I'm debating now between going up to the 4.6lb range, where there are several options, or going with something like the R705 and forgo being able to play any games on the road.

Are other people in the same boat?

Sorry, I should probably post this in the what to buy thread.

 

I would. While the core speeds on the 335M are slower than the 330M, it's not a massive difference, and the difference in shader numbers is tremendous. The 330M is honestly pretty anemic even by yesterday's standards, where it's still trying to catch up to the old Mobility Radeon HD 4650.

 

Unfortunately Toshiba has arrived a day late and a dollar short with the M645. A 14-inch system with decent graphics and a backlit keyboard would have been big news two years ago. Now, for a hundred or so dollars more a person could have the (vastly?) superior build quality of a MacBook Pro 13-inch. I have owned a number of Toshiba's and they have all been pretty decent - my wife still has a U405. But, they lingered too long on the sidelines with Intel graphics, glossy/cheap keyboards and fingerprint-magnet lids and palmrests.

 

What Canadian retailers carry this?

 

We recently discovered that the lab scale wasn't zeroed properly before weighing the Toshiba Satellite M645 so the weight is actually less than five and a half pounds and NOT more than 6 pounds.

We apologize to Toshiba and have corrected the weight error in the review.

 

Nice read as always

I won't argue that there are better offerings in this size class (such as the aforementioned Gateway ID series and Asus K42), but it looks to be a solid value that will give Dell's Inspiron 14 a run for its money.

 

I think the real deal isn't the version of the M645 with the Nvidia Graphics card. Its the M645-s4048 for $829. Difference between this version is that it doesn't have a nvidia graphics card but it does have blu-ray. I haven't been able to find another laptop that is still on the market with blu-ray, 500 mb of memory, and i5 at this price and low weight (5.4 lb) for that price. Of course students probably don't need blu-ray but they probably are better off without a fancy graphics card either (to discourage young couch potato video gamers)