Toshiba Tecra A4 First-Impression Review
First, I'd like to thanks all those who've provided valuable information on this forum to make my pre-purchase research experience a positive one!
That is my main motivation for typing up this review, as I hope this would aid future buyers, especially the Tecra A4.
Alright, now to the laptop review!
Usage of laptop
This is my first laptop and I plan to bring this to college on a frequent basis. Being a budget oriented student, I was particulary looking for a reliable laptop that hopefully won't break down easily and will last me for at least 2 years. Major school usage includes preparing powerpoint presentation on a regular basis, word procssing, a lot of excel work and of course surfing the internet. As I work in a radio station, I will also use my laptop to do a good amount of sound editing. Little to none 3D gaming will be done on this laptop.
Qualitative Requirement
In the order of importance...
1.Screen: Because of the excel and sound editing work, I can't bare working on a small screen. Therefore, the screen must be at least 14" with WXGA or above, with glossy-type screen.
2.Reliability: As mentioned above, a repair-free laptop is highly valued.
3.Weight: less than 6.5lb (I kinda used ASUS M6N as a reference of the max. weight I can tolerate.)
There are certainly other features I would like to have a laptop, but the above ones are the most important to me.
Spec of laptop
-Pentium M 1.6Ghz (Sonoma)
-512MB (1 stick) DDR1 RAM
-Intel 915GM Express Video
-40GB HD
-15.4" WXGA TruBrite
-DVD/CD-RW
-Microsoft Windows XP Pro
-1 Year International Warranty
Exterior
Upon opening the box, you can immediately see the silver color finish of the Tecra A4. Aside from the silver colored lid, the theme is all black once you open it up. The layout is very much the same as Toshiba other laptops, where there are a couple of convenient shortcut keys to the left of the keyboard. On the A4, below the power button, there are the Toshiba service assitant key and the "presentation" key. As far as I can tell, though I haven't tried it out, this button lets you switch into a presentation mode, whereby you connect your laptop to a projector.
The keyboard has a rather soft feel, but the travel of the keys is satisfactory. This is certainly not as firm as the IBM ThinkPad. The layout of the keyboard is undoubtedly weird! The "delete" key is located beside the space bar and so is the "~" key. These are, in my opinion, the major flaws of the keyboard and it will certainly take some time to get used to.
On the other hand, I find the layout of all the ports around the edges of the laptop very well-thought and convenient. Starting off from the front edge, you can a card reader (SD, Smart Media etc), headphone plug, microphone plug, a volume dial, and the WiFi on/off button. The card reader has a little sliding door, which is kind of neat, to keep dirt from getting in. As for the USB ports, which I believe almost all of us frequently use, are located on both sides of the laptop; one on the left, two on the right. The ports are positioned vertical and spaced apart just enough so that you will be able to use plug two devices in without blocking the other port.
Screen
The TruBrite is marvelous! The LCD is evenly lit and when it is very very bright. It has 8 level of brights and when working in front of the laptop, I set it at level 5 to avoid my eyes getting strained. I have yet to watch DVD on this machine but I could imagine it would look superb with setting at full brightness. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the TruBrite screen and this is the major reason I picked Toshiba. It also has a very large viewing angle. Multiple people looking at the screen at the same time would not be a problem at all.
Performance
Initial impression is very good in terms of its performance. When compared to my desktop computer (AMD A64 2800+, 512MB, Asus K8N-E), the Tecra A4 is just as fast. Note that, this is only a subjective and early impression as I have only used the laptop for two days. I would elaborate on this department later on after I have used it for some time.
Toshiba installed a pile of softwares that in my opinion are not necessary and will slow down the computer. There are around 15 active programs shown beside the windows' clock. It takes a while to uninstall them.
Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the quality of this laptop. Please excuse this brief review. Pictures will be uploaded on Tuesday. I'll certainly come back in a week or so to update and post a more in-depth review.
First, I'd like to thanks all those who've provided valuable information on this forum to make my pre-purchase research experience a positive one!
That is my main motivation for typing up this review, as I hope this would aid future buyers, especially the Tecra A4.Alright, now to the laptop review!
Usage of laptop
This is my first laptop and I plan to bring this to college on a frequent basis. Being a budget oriented student, I was particulary looking for a reliable laptop that hopefully won't break down easily and will last me for at least 2 years. Major school usage includes preparing powerpoint presentation on a regular basis, word procssing, a lot of excel work and of course surfing the internet. As I work in a radio station, I will also use my laptop to do a good amount of sound editing. Little to none 3D gaming will be done on this laptop.
Qualitative Requirement
In the order of importance...
1.Screen: Because of the excel and sound editing work, I can't bare working on a small screen. Therefore, the screen must be at least 14" with WXGA or above, with glossy-type screen.
2.Reliability: As mentioned above, a repair-free laptop is highly valued.
3.Weight: less than 6.5lb (I kinda used ASUS M6N as a reference of the max. weight I can tolerate.)
There are certainly other features I would like to have a laptop, but the above ones are the most important to me.
Spec of laptop
-Pentium M 1.6Ghz (Sonoma)
-512MB (1 stick) DDR1 RAM
-Intel 915GM Express Video
-40GB HD
-15.4" WXGA TruBrite
-DVD/CD-RW
-Microsoft Windows XP Pro
-1 Year International Warranty
Exterior
Upon opening the box, you can immediately see the silver color finish of the Tecra A4. Aside from the silver colored lid, the theme is all black once you open it up. The layout is very much the same as Toshiba other laptops, where there are a couple of convenient shortcut keys to the left of the keyboard. On the A4, below the power button, there are the Toshiba service assitant key and the "presentation" key. As far as I can tell, though I haven't tried it out, this button lets you switch into a presentation mode, whereby you connect your laptop to a projector.
The keyboard has a rather soft feel, but the travel of the keys is satisfactory. This is certainly not as firm as the IBM ThinkPad. The layout of the keyboard is undoubtedly weird! The "delete" key is located beside the space bar and so is the "~" key. These are, in my opinion, the major flaws of the keyboard and it will certainly take some time to get used to.
On the other hand, I find the layout of all the ports around the edges of the laptop very well-thought and convenient. Starting off from the front edge, you can a card reader (SD, Smart Media etc), headphone plug, microphone plug, a volume dial, and the WiFi on/off button. The card reader has a little sliding door, which is kind of neat, to keep dirt from getting in. As for the USB ports, which I believe almost all of us frequently use, are located on both sides of the laptop; one on the left, two on the right. The ports are positioned vertical and spaced apart just enough so that you will be able to use plug two devices in without blocking the other port.
Screen
The TruBrite is marvelous! The LCD is evenly lit and when it is very very bright. It has 8 level of brights and when working in front of the laptop, I set it at level 5 to avoid my eyes getting strained. I have yet to watch DVD on this machine but I could imagine it would look superb with setting at full brightness. Overall, I'm very satisfied with the TruBrite screen and this is the major reason I picked Toshiba. It also has a very large viewing angle. Multiple people looking at the screen at the same time would not be a problem at all.
Performance
Initial impression is very good in terms of its performance. When compared to my desktop computer (AMD A64 2800+, 512MB, Asus K8N-E), the Tecra A4 is just as fast. Note that, this is only a subjective and early impression as I have only used the laptop for two days. I would elaborate on this department later on after I have used it for some time.
Toshiba installed a pile of softwares that in my opinion are not necessary and will slow down the computer. There are around 15 active programs shown beside the windows' clock. It takes a while to uninstall them.
Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the quality of this laptop. Please excuse this brief review. Pictures will be uploaded on Tuesday. I'll certainly come back in a week or so to update and post a more in-depth review.
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