Toshiba Satellite U405 Review

At first glance,I didn't think I would like the visual style of this notebook,however,today I stopped by the local CC in my area and layed hands on this Toshiba,it does feel sensuous,looks much better in person than any pic will convey...hmmm maybe going to put my T61 on ebay.

 

I just popped into Office Depot this morning to take a look at this little guy. I have to admit, it's pretty cool. It's very glossy and very black. Some say it's very 80's. That's cool by me. As long as it doesn't have big hair!

The Office Depot version runs on a T5550 with a 250GB HD and 3GB of ram. It was a snappy little machine. Microsoft Word loaded up almost instantly, as did most of the other programs I played around with installed on the machine.

I agree with Jerry, the keyboard is excellent. It has great response and is silky smooth. Being a writer myself, that's one thing I place a lot of value in. Even more so than a fast CPU or a big hard drive. If the keyboard is mushy or clackity, or not conducive to fast and easy typing, I don't buy the computer.

However, I did notice that the keyboard is a bit smaller than a traditional notebook keyboard. Not a big deal, but I definitely could feel the difference as my fingers beat out a sentence or two. Also, there wasn't much of a palm rest. My palms kind of hung off the front of the computer. For me at least, that's a mild problem. I guess I could live with it after a while.

The last thing that caught me eye was the build quality. Of course, Office Depot had the thing locked down, so I couldn't lift it up and give it a 360. But with the access I had, it seemed kind of cheapish. Especially the display housing. As I was typing, it wobbled backwards and forwards. It was very loose at the hinges. Also, the display has tremendous flex. I could bend and twist it very easily.

In Toshiba's defense, this was a display model. So it's probably been beat on quite a bit. I sure would have loved to hold the thing, close it, open it, etc., to see how it feels in hand. But alas, it didn't happen. It's a good thing too; I probably would have bolted for the door and taken my chances on getting a new Toshiba. I'm pretty sure I can outrun the OD folks.

I may or I may not bite on this deal. Office Depot puts it on sale tomorrow, Sunday, for $799 after rebates. The good thing about OD is that they'll refund it no questions asked if you don't like it. And with no restocking fee. How do you like them apples Best Buy and Circuit City? So hey, I may give it a try. If I do, I'll report back with my findings.

 

Hey Jerry, very nice review. This laptop is very tempting, really it's almost exactly what I'm looking for... So, like John above, I dropped into the nearest Office Depot to check it out.

Here are my initial impressions of it:

1. VISUALLY - I love the way it looks, the finish is really cool. It is flashy, everything on the computer is shiny, but kinda like a shadow chrome, which I like. And typically I've preferred muted designs, but this one is attractive, especially in person.

2. KEYBOARD / TOUCHPAD - The touchpad is awesome, it has a matte finish to it that doesn't stick like a lot out there. I'd still love to have a pointer stick though. But I was a little shocked about the keyboard. It got rave reviews from Jerry and some others, but the one I was using had a ton of flex. Yes, the keys had good movement, and maybe I'm just used to the excellent keyboard on my Dell D610 and even the Lenovo R61 at OD, but the flex alone would make me rate the keyboard as a con not a pro... Could this be since it was a floor model, or perhaps a one-off problem? I don't know, can Jerry or someone chime in here? Also, I liked the shiny keys... I'm just wondering if I'd get tired of them after a while.

3. SCREEN - Excellent, really looked sharp and bright. Much better than the one on my D610... Admittedly, that's not saying much.

4. CHASSIS / BUILD QUALITY - I have a business-grade laptop right now, so I'm used to being able to abuse it somewhat. I have always picked it up from the lower right hand corner and lug it all over the place like that, carry it by the screen when it's open, and it's even taken a couple spills, with no problems to date. There are a few creaks here and tehre, but it's held up beautifully. I noticed that the U405 case seemed a bit fragile feeling in comparison. Like Lambert said above, the laptop was locked down, but you could kinda move it around a bit, and the area in the lower right hand corner (where the DVD drive is located) felt really flimsy. I'd be worried that I'd break it if I didn't handle the computer carefully every time... Again, perhaps I'm used to business grade laptops or maybe it was that I was dealing with a display model, I don't know. I will say this much, Lambert mentioned screen flex and I agree that there was some (again especially compared to the metal screen cover of my D610), BUT the hinges seemed fine on the one I looked at, so maybe his was a case of display model abuse.

5. OVERALL - The overall package is very compelling, I'm definitely considering replacing my D610 with the U405. I was impressed with the looks of the machine, plus it packs in a lot of performance for a great price. It's nice and small, if not a little heavy for it's size.

Quick question for those of you out there: I'm not a big gamer, but I am a WoW player (I know, I know...)... I'm assuming the U405 will run it easily since my D610 does a pretty good job at it...What do you think?

Any thoughts guys?
greg

 

WoW will run fine on the U405 ... any configuration of the U405. I can play WoW (with very poor resolution and frame rates) on my weak Asus Eee PC running Windows XP. Since the U405 is considerably more powerful than an Eee PC you won't have any problems running WoW on the U405.

If you have any concern, make sure you get a good processor and plenty of RAM in your U405 so the integrated graphics can use as much shared RAM as possible.

 

I bought it on Amazon. Is very fast for me. BUT touchpad getting extremenly hot What a crap ! Im going to sent it back

 

i want to ask about touch-sensitive media buttons this light is alwayes on or not ! ??
beacuse i buy this labtop in the last weekend and the light is off after few days of buying it ...i dont know if i press something ! if you now way to turn this on please tell me !

 

Is this laptop only available in US?

 

JerryJ Thank you for your review. After reading it i understood that it is the model i need. But in my version there is no fingerprint reader for some reason...
00uni00 You can switch the light on/off by pressing the first sensor button.

 

Yes, Toshiba (like many notebook manufacturers nowadays) offers a number of configurations of the same notebook all with subtle variations of the model number. Our review unit was the "U405-S2830" but there are at least four other configurations that I know of ... probably more worldwide in various retail outlets. Some might have a different hard drive, different processor, or might not have features like a fingerprint reader.

It certainly doesn't make life easy when we're trying to figure out which configuration to request for review. That said, the situation isn't unique to Toshiba since HP, Dell, Asus, etc. all do the same thing in terms of offering multiple configurations worldwide.

 

Just few random questions about this model:

1.) Will I be able to play Spore on it? I mean, according to shacknews.com Intel GMA X3100 is listed between supported graphic cards but as the text continues: 'Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly.' So I don't know. Anyway, here are actual specification of a built I'm considering to buy:

Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0 GHz, FSB: 667 MHz, 2 MB L2 cache​

(no Penryn... hm, too bad?)

2048 MB DDR2 RAM, 667 MHz​

(sadly, only 2GB of RAM)

Oh, and it's Toshiba Satellite U400-10L, not U405. What does it mean really?

2.) Will it handle Vista (the model above) when it has only 2GB of RAM? (even less considering it's going to share it with X3100)?

3.) What about the battery life? I've read statements from above-avarage to excellent (this review). It's one of the most important features for me so I want to know the real life experience in the field.

4.) Is it really compact model which I can just pick up, throw into my bag and take it where I want? You know, for the same price I could have ASUS M51KR with much stronger performance but it's, well, 15.4" laptop. Resumé: does the slick design of this Toshiba boy overweight it's weaker performance next to M51KR? (you can check out my thread for more 'what I want' info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261242)

Thank you very much, folks!

 

JerryJ Thanks for the reply. I have one more question. In the manual there is a whole chapter about the remote control that can be inserted into the express card slot! But i couldn't find any information about this feature anywhere including toshibadirect.com. Is it possible to find it and how does it work? Through IR port?

 

I've never played Spore so I don't know for sure.

The U400/U405 label is used by Toshiba to distinguish between pre-built/pre-configured systems and built-to-order/custom configurations. Both the U400 and U405 are essentially the same notebook ... but one is configured to order and one comes in a variety of pre-configured models.

Even the underpowered HP 2133 Mini-note can "handle" Vista ... but Vista runs smoother when it has 2GB or more system RAM, a fast dual-core processor, and a reasonably fast hard drive. The graphics card doesn't really matter unless you plan to use all the cool Aero toys in Vista.

There are a number of things that will impact battery life (leading to varied reports on battery life for the same notebook), but in general I found the battery life of our review unit to be quite good. Not "amazing" but very good for a budget system.

If I personally had to chose between a 15.4" A300/A305, 14.1" M300/M305, or a 13.3" U400/U405 and I wanted a "compact" travel notebook that I can just throw in a bag and take everywhere then I would buy the U400/U405.

If mobility wasn't a concern and I wanted/needed a "desktop replacement" then I'd buy the A300/A305.

 

I'm honestly not sure about that one. I didn't notice the section in the manual about the remote when we had our review/loan unit in the office and ours didn't come with an ExpressCard remote.

 

Jerry: I went to buy this computer based on your initial review but was surprised by how hot the touch pad was on the display model in the store. Your review said this computer had good heat dissipation, but it was by far hotter than any other model on display and was actually hot to the touch. Is this a concern ? Also, do you know anything about Toshiba's customer service ? I've heard that it is pretty bad.

 

Frankly speaking it's terrible, at least in Russia. They even couldn't tell me with which batteries are u400 imported in our country!

 

I haven't had a hard time with Toshiba customer service. We did a short article about basic customer service/support and Toshiba did quite well:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4377

As for the touchpad, thermals can vary from notebook to notebook based on the configuration and the actual assembly process (such as if an assembly line worker doesn't put enough--or too much--thermal paste on part of the notebook).

The other thing to keep in mind is that the new Toshibas have an LED backlight on the touchpad and if the display model at the store was on all the time then that light will also be on and raise the temperature of the touchpad over time. The temperatures we saw in our review unit weren't troublesome so we doubt that would be an issue.

 

I got this u405 for a few days now, and this touchpad temp. is one of the main concern for me. I install the latest driver for the wireless card from Intel (11.5...) then change the power to 3-medium which helps a bit. You might want to try that.
I'm running Server 2008 (eval) instead of Vista.

 

One other thing to keep in mind is that I'm 95% sure the WiFi card is located directly below the touchpad on the U405. WiFi cards ALWAYS get hot and it isn't a problem unless they get VERY hot and stay VERY hot. For example, most WiFi cards start to develop problems (can't maintain a connection to a WiFi router) if they sustain temperatures of 125+ degrees Fahrenheit for more than about 30 minutes.

Most WiFi cards we see in our office get into the 105-120 degree range when working hard downloading files and complex webpages.

I suspect the heat is transfer from the WiFi card more than anything else.

 

I bought this computer from costco 2 months ago and am returning it. thankfully I bought it there!

I can't deal with Vista's issues and the INCREDIBLY HOT touchpad. why couldn't the hot spot on this computer be someplace other than where your hands are constantly sitting?

If you live in a cold climate where you want a computer to keep your hands warm then this is the computer for you.

I am now opting for the Thinkpad X61s - WITH XP. I don't like XP but I HATE Vista. Who decided that the OS should have more privileges than the user? Sounds like software fascism to me.

 

I'm planning on buying my first notebook in the next month or two and was really frustrated trying to find one that would work for me. Then I saw the u405 at BestBuy and it looked good to me, and after reading the review, I was pretty sure this is the laptop for me. Now I'm concerned by the talk here about how hot the keyboard gets! <<<aaaaarrrrggggghhhh!!!!>>>

Also, the salesman at BB said that it didn't have the fingerprint reader and I was under the impression that all of the U405's did.

Anyhoo.......... I don't download music or play games, although I might watch a movie on it now and then. I do travel, but not a ton (not as much as I would like!) and this one seems portable enough for me. Is there any reason that this model would be hard to hook up wirelessly with my printer?

:confused2:

TIA!

 

I own the U400, which is I believe very similar to the U405. I have successfuly undervolted the Core2Duo, but I still can't find any tool that could control the fan speed. I have tried NHC and SpeedFan, but none of them works.

At idle, the fan starts only once per minute or so and stops after several seconds, but even the lowest fan speed seems to me too loud. I would rather set it to run constantly, but at lower speed (the same as I did with my HP nc8430).

Some of Toshiba owners said that there is some cooling option directly in the Toshiba setup software, but I haven't found the Cooling option there.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Petr

 

Mr. Jerry:
Good moornig for you and all users of notebookreview.
Please, I need to know the model of the screen of Toshiba on review.
One pick shows the model is U405-s2830
The screen could be (in example):
- LP133WX1-TLA1 from LG?
- B133EW01-V3 from AUOptronics?
- Another manufacturer or model?
Please, who knows this, answer me.
(you can see the model scree in EVEREST)
Thank you everyone.
Antonius

 

Wow! Never saw such an extensive review of a laptop.
Seem I joined a very smart community

I have used some Toshiba laptops in the past with win xp, and when I got one with vista I forced it to be an xp (it was an A series)

Now I got in my hands a U405-SP6929R, and the seller told me that It was not possible to tweek it to xp (don’t know if that’s quite true or he doesn’t like to bother with it)

I know this is a superb machine, any way I have some inquiries I wanna share today.

1) when just starting the machine the startup is very slow from the very moment it was out of the box, when I started internet explorer It usually kept “thinking” and later iexplorer froze and gotta be restarted.
2) I have a fuji camera, and when I plug to the laptop it usually shows error when trying to open the camera files (removable drive)
3) I plugged a small bluetooth adapter to connect to a cell phone and transfer files but I kept detecting and installing and nothing happened.

The laptop as that is not showing its horsepower for me, so I would like to know if it can be the laptop or if it’s just a matter of the windows vista operating system.

Anyway I:
Disabled the aero interface
Disabled the graphic effects (smoothing, etc)
Tweak some two or three things more recommended to accelerate vista.

So dear community, I would like to know

1) can I use xp on this machine?
2) Can I upgrade to windows 7 without re purchasing licence? Must I talk with Toshiba directly?
3) Can windows 7 and XP coexist? (would be great)

Thank you all of you