Laptop and Computer Reviews

The Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 is a winner. Its sleek, reflective black exterior and upscale silver interior look more expensive than its $999 price tag might indicate. It has a beautiful 17-inch display and a remarkably comfortable keyboard. But the cliche about books and their covers applies to laptops and their cases as well. In the case of the fixed-configuration Satellite P205-S6237, a lovely exterior houses a super-economy Pentium processor which, though it has multiple processing cores, couldn’t keep up with Core Duo systems on our performance tests. We’d be willing to excuse the weak performance if the price was low enough, but for $999, you can configure competitors’ laptops, such as the Dell Inspiron E1705,

Stylishly accented with an onyx blue metallic LCD cover, the Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 notebook PC is a great blend of multitasking productivity, multimedia prowess, and efficiently powered portability. It features a giant 17-inch WXGA+-resolution LCD (1440 x 900)–perfect for viewing multiple application screens or watching widescreen movies on DVD. It’s also great for using as a media center, with Toshiba’s unique Express Media Player enabling you to bypass the system and access CDs and DVDs with a touch of button. The dual-layer/multi-format DVD drive also burns CDs.

Technical Details
* Bright 17-inch LCD stylishly accented with an onyx blue metallic LCD cover
* 1.73 GHz Intel Core Duo T2080 processor, 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM (2 GB max), dual-layer DVD/CD burner with Labelflash printing
* 54g Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), 10/100 Ethernet, Intel GMA 950 video card with up to 256 MB shared memory
* Connectivity: 4 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 1 headphone, 1 microphone, 1 ExpressCard 34/54
* Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)

Batery life 4/5
Features 5/5
Graphics 4/5
Processor speed 4/5
Quality 5/5
Support 4/5
Value 5/5

Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237  Reviews From pcmag

Pros:
A 17-inch LCD at $999. Design consistent with other Satellites. DVD burner uses LabelFlash technology. Very good speakers.

Cons:
Middle-of-the-road performance. Deskbound.

Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237  Reviews From cnet

The good: Attractive design; movie-friendly display; comfortable keyboard and well-designed touch pad; lightweight for a desktop replacement.

The bad: Economy processor results in mediocre performance and below-average battery life; large company logo on lid is off-putting; lacks Bluetooth option.

The bottom line: The 17-inch Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 laptop looks good but is hobbled by its budget processor. You can get more for your money elsewhere.