Toshiba Satellite T135D Review Discussion

The Toshiba Satellite T135 series is a popular 13-inch thin-and-light notebook available in a variety of configurations. We previously reviewed the T135 with Intel inside, but what about the T135D with the latest AMD dual-core processors and ATI graphics? Does the AMD-based T135D offer more than the Intel-based T135 for $100 less? We took a closer look to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: Toshiba Satellite T135D Review

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Jerry - Very informative review - Thank-you! Your timing is perfect because I have been toying with the idea of getting one of these to compliment my Acer Timeline 3810. But, I am especially interested in a T135 because I have a left-over 6-cell Toshiba battery from my old U405 which should fit it...

 

shocker...
AMD runs hotter and gets considerably worse battery life

btw, not taking a stab at NBR
I'm just bitter about my poor decision to give AMD another chance when I bought my HP DM3, should've just gone with the Intel alternative

 

It seems that Toshiba's goal is to consistently deliver mediocre products that aren't even priced accordingly. For $600, one can have an Intel-based system with a decent screen and no cooling problems.

 

First of all thank you for the excellent review. This laptop has exceeded my expectations significantly. The fact that you guys got over 5 hrs of battery life is very encouraging. I was expecting somewhere between 3-3.5hrs at best.

I am leaning heavily towards amd because of their IGP solution. However i am going to hold off until the next gen, which i believe is the Nile platform, before i purchase one.

Any ideas when that one will be out?

thank you

 

If you're looking at something like the Toshiba T135D, consider the following model: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4963&review=hp+pavilion+dv2

for $150 more you get a slimmer and more powerful computer with an overall better design. It still gets about 4.25 hours of battery life, and that's without undervolting.

 

I'm eager to see when the next generation of Intel thin and lights hit the market. The i5-UM (18W total including graphics) arrendale thin and lights should be perfect. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i5) They will run cool, have great battery life, benefit from turbo boost and have superior integrated graphics.

Benchmarks: 3dMark06
4500 MHD: ....750
ATI 3200HD: ..1050
new Intel HD (5700MHD): 1900

Correction... the Intel HD graphics are dependent on the speed of the processor. So with an i5-M you get a 3dMark of 1920. But with a lower clocked i5-UM the HD get a 3dMark of 1500.

See here for examples: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/dnp-thinkpad-x201-tablet-review/

 

I'm confused, isn't the HP system a single core, while the Toshiba is a dual core? Shouldn't it perform vastly better? Certainly the wPrime is half the score of the HP, although the PCMark scores confuse me a bit.

 

As I mentioned in the review, we've noticed in our lab that PCMark05 isn't as "favorable" to AMD processors as it is to Intel, but if you look at the raw calculation power (wPrime) and compare day-to-day activities like video encoding you'll see that the AMD processor performs just as well or better than the Intel solution.

At the end of the day PCMark05 is a "synthetic benchmark" and not always an accurate representation of real-world performance.

Likewise, when you're looking at a gaming notebook the best way to judge performance is to see what type of frame rates the notebook gets while playing specific games at specific settings. The 3DMark06 or 3DMark Vantage synthetic benchmarks might give you a rough idea of how one system performs compared to another, but it won't tell you if the notebook can play the specific game you want to play.

 

My bad, that is the Athlon Neo. HP has released a Neo X2 version though.

 

Nice review... don´t think it runs much hotter than the Intel based T135.

 

Has anyone with this notebook been able to update the touch pad driver to correct the slow refresh rate issue? I was in CompUSA looking at these, but after reading NBR's review and checking them out, they definitely have a problem with their touch pads lagging.