Toshiba Satellite T235 Review Discussion

There seems to be a flood of budget-priced 13-inch laptops on the market today as consumers try to find the perfect balance of portability, performance and price. The Toshiba Satellite T230 and T235 series notebooks offer a range of options that just might help this laptop find a place on your holiday shopping list. We took a closer look at the AMD-based Satellite T235D to find out whether this laptop offers a truly impressive value.

Read the full content of this Article: Toshiba Satellite T235 Review

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Hmm ... good review. I am particularly interested to see the keyboard and trackpad buttons updates from the T115/135 line. Battery life and heat control weren't bad either....

Are there any plans for you all to review the Intel versions of the T215/235 line?

 

I think this review shows that AMD has actually been getting it's act together. 5 1/2 hours of battery life isn't bad especially for the performance you are getting and the price you are paying.

 

The K625 CPU and 4225 GPU really makes for an awesome performance combination and is putting the hurt on Intel's Atom.

However, I'd be safe to say the HP Pavilion dm1z is better than the Toshiba T235, since it's priced lower at $525 with the same exact configuration, is smaller/lighter, offers a nice set of speakers and has a multitouch trackpad to boot.

lgpOnTheMove - taking a new cut on notebook reviews: First Impressions - HP dm1z notebook

Regardless of whether you call it the Cadillac of netbooks or the "Atom smasher", finding the Nile platform make it's way into 11" and 10" footprints is impressive.

 

Seems to me that the review makes a strange choice comparing this 13 inch laptop vs Atom netbook for graphics performance.

A more reasonable comparison would be versus a Core i3 13" laptop - say, the Toshiba 235A which is essentially identically configured but with Intel internals. LaptopMag did a comparison and found the two relatively close - Both were fully capable for HD video, AMD slightly ahead on gaming graphics (but neither offering real gaming horsepower), Intel ahead on battery life, wi-fi, and general cpu speed.

LaptopMag gave the nod to the Intel option as better.

Hexus did a similar comparison of 15.6" laptops (Thinkpad Edge) and found that the Intel variant was faster in both CPU and also GPU as well as having better battery life.

 

Or we have this guy: PC CANADA - ACER BILING AS3820 I3 W7HP64 4G,500G,13.3HD, ATI HD 5650,BGN,WEBCAM, [LX.PV102.288] - The Original and Highly Rated All-Canadian WebStore

 

Since i own a red-colored T235D, I think i should chip in my thoughts/observations;
1. i bought mine for $499, so look around. You will find a deal
2. My screen looks amazing, with good black levels (and whites), great viewing angles- colors dont invert until you look from ridiculous angles.
3. There is NO bluetooth. Its just not available on the T235's
4. Even though it doesn't take much to get the fan ON, it is not ALWAYS ON.
5. The bottom of the laptop is always cool to the touch and unless gaming, the fan blows out air that is barely warm...so why is the fan at mid/high level making noise? In short, the fan seems to work much earlier/faster than necessary.
6. Battery life when stressing the laptop/gaming is about 3.5 hours! Amazing!
7. RMclock and CPUgenie do not recognize the processor so No undervolting which really hurts because i read somewhere that the processor runs at a constant voltage whether or not its at 800hz or 1.5ghz. When i installed RMclock, i realized that the processor is ALWAYS at 1.5ghz (i could not undervolt, all options were greyed out). I believe that undervolting will be very beneficial to this laptop. If someone know how to undervolt this processor please let me know.
8. Everything else in the review is true; great keyboard, perfect Synaptics (multitouch) touchpad, tiny speakers, surprisingly snappy processor. Good job AMD.
9. Just speculating here....even thought the 11" Hp with similar specs is smaller, have much better speakers etc, it may have inferior screen and/or keyboard and/or touchpad and/or noise levels. So compare before you choose.

 

The keyboard on the dm1z is far from inferior, it is in fact one of the best keyboards you will find for an 11" device with a perfect layout. That said, the 11" Toshiba T215 also has a very nice keyboard. Both are great choices if your work involves lots of typing.

The screen on the dm1z was washed out, as I admitted, but calibrating it with the CCC fixes that.

Not sure how the touchpad could be considered inferior, again it's the best you will find for any 11" device, and offers full multitouch.

Noise on my dm1z was minimal, the fan stays on low when idling, and only cranks up when thermal loads increase. Again, it's an 11" device, with smaller chassis and smaller heatsinks than what a 13" may offer, so it might be a notch louder than a 13", all other things being equal.

I agree with you though on the undervolting - bringing that down would boost battery times by at least an hour, if not more, and make the units run cooler and quieter. Do that with a 6600mAh battery, and the dm1z would hit 7-8 hours of unplugged web surfing time. Somebody out there needs to figure out how to get RMclock working with AMD's Nile platform!!!

 

Hello Guys!

Sadly the AMD Nile platform is not very popular, there are only a few of these machines. I've bought (in Hungary) a Lenovo U165 with K625 inside, and have successfully done undervolting. Since RMClock is for Intel CPU, K10STAT is for AMD. Search for it and have fun!

Guide: Aspire Gemstone: K10STAT AMD Griffin Processor UnderVolting Guide

My results: (i've changed the frequencies, too)
CnQ; CPU Freq; CPU V; NB Freq; NB V
P0; 1500 Mhz; 0,8125 V; 1600 Mhz; 0,8500 V
P1; 1200 Mhz; 0,7500 V; 1600 Mhz; 0,8500 V
P2; 800 Mhz; 0,7000 V; 800 Mhz; 0,7000 V
P3; 400 Mhz; 0,6250 V; 800 Mhz; 0,7000 V
Note, that i've done underclocking as well. If I'm only moving the mouse around, the CPU pumps 400 mhz @ 0,6250 V. Going on 200 mhz caused lag. The P2 and P1 states were also underclocked to fill the gaps accordingly.
The NB is in most cases locked at 1600 mhz, althought the CPU is in P3 or P2. I had 5,5h in Battery Eater Reader's test with the stock 48Wh 6 cell battery pack (but it was only discharged one time before that i.e. its capacity will increase a bit).

Stock was:
CnQ; CPU Freq; CPU V; NB Freq; NB V
P0; 1500 Mhz; 0,9625 V; 1600 Mhz; 0,9000 V
P1; 1300 Mhz; 0,9250 V; 1600 Mhz; 0,9000 V
P2; 1000 Mhz; 0,8750 V; 1600 Mhz; 0,9000 V
P3; 800 Mhz; 0,7750 V; 800 Mhz; 0,8125 V

I'm interested in: overclocking the CPU, switching off a core, undervolting GPU, overclocking GPU, please let me know, if you find something about it.