No, I didn’t buy a new laptop. This thing right here is my cousin’s new computer. I accompanied her last week to the nearby BestBuy outlet to help her pick out a new laptop. She already had a brand of choice – Toshiba so it wasn’t difficult and it didn’t take long for her to narrow down her choice. My cousin decided to get the mid-sized Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005 for $649 (before taxes).
As I’ve mentioned here several times before, I am the family in-house geek/desktop support so I had the privilege of unboxing the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005, installing the necessary software, and testing it out for a week. Here are some of the tech specs and product images of this mid-sized laptop:
Specifications:
- Intel® Core™ i3-330M processor with 3MB L3 cache and 2.13GHz processor speed.
- 4GB DDR3 memory (expandable to 8GB).
- Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
- 16″ TFT-LCD high-definition widescreen display w/ TruBrite technology (1366 x 768 resolution).
- 500GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
- Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD w/ 32-1696MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory.
- Windows 7 Home Premium Edition
- Built-in Harman/Kardon stereo speakers with Dolby Sound Room support.
- Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)
- Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN w/ RJ-45 connector.
- Built-in webcam and microphone
- Multiformat media reader: Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard and xD-Picture Card formats.
Additional Images:
The first thing I did was to create the restore discs which ate up a total of 5 DVDs – 3 Recovery DVD Discs, 1 Windows Recovery Environment (64-bit) Disc, and #1 Toshiba Application and Drivers DVD. Since it was bought from BestBuy, it came with the BestBuy Software Installer program but I didn’t need it so I immediately removed it from the system. The Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005 doesn’t have too much bloatware (trial software/games) installed but it does have a lot of Toshiba applications and programs on it. I didn’t remove them but I disable some of them from Startup so that the computer can boot up faster.
It’s powered by Intel’s new entry-level processor the Core i3 with 2.13GHz of processing power so it boots up fast, loads programs fast and handles multitasking very well. It comes preinstalled with 4GB of RAM and is upgradeable to 8GB. The display is a 16″ TFT LCD high-definition widescreen which I tried playing videos with and I can say that the quality was very good, providing clear and crisp images. The built-in Harman Kardon speakers also do a very good job and produce very good audio for a laptop. It didn’t have any problems identifying and connecting to my WiFi network. It’s quite heavy at 6.5 lbs, but this laptop is not designed for portability but rather as a home computer or a desktop computer alternative. It has a glossy metallic finish like my Toshiba Satellite A305-S6872, so it can be a fingerprint and smudge magnet but that’s a very small issue compared to all the other features/specs that it has to offer. I also love that it has a powerful High-Capacity Li-Ion 12-cell battery that provides about 6 hours and 30 minutes of battery life.
The Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005’s graphics card is an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD which is good for watching HD videos but it’s not built for gaming, although I’m sure you can play some of the earlier game titles without any problems. If you’re looking for something that can play some of the new game titles, you might want to consider the A505-S6025 which comes with the NVIDIA GeForce 310M (512 MB GDDR3).
The only thing I wasn’t able to test was the built-in webcam and microphone. I installed Skype and tried a video call but it was long enough to test the video quality of the webcam and the audio quality of the microphone. Although it has HDMI connectivity, what sucks is that it doesn’t have Bluetooth or a Blu-Ray player.
Overall, the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005 is a very good and affordable mid-sized laptop. I made some comparisons with other mid-sized laptops, comparing price/specs and the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005 offered the best bang for the buck.
Check out the full product description and specifications of the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6005 here.
How do u stop the toshiba start up things so it can go faster? Email me please.
I have this laptop and have always bought Toshiba laptops, but I have to bring a strong ALERT to this laptop. The two right hand side of the USB will come loose and flop around, I’ve found many that has done this, mine did, about 35 days before the warranty was out, called Toshiba and told them, a box was mailed to me, and after waiting and waiting, I contacted them to find out they don’t want to honor there warranty I was told it was a non warranty problem and it would cost me about 175.99 dollars to fix it. I’m having them mail my laptop back to me, and I will find a way to fight them. I’ve found people with the same problems but there warranty either was out or they ran into the same problem I did. There’s no reason why those USB ports should come loose when they know you have to plug and unplugs items into them, from external drives, flash drives, ipod, cameras, etc. If anyone has any idea of how to make them honor there warranty please post. This model must have a problem with the USB ports if there are many post out there about them.
Cindyrsdu
I bought this laptop almost 2 months ago and love it. I have pushed it as far as I can by watching 2 movies and downloading at the same time. It barely phased it. On the the above article doesnt mention is the weird slot next to the HDMI on the left side. It is actually a USB 2.0/eSATA drive. Extremely nice and useful. The webcam honestly leaves something to be desired but the rest of the system is amazing. I have been a die hard Toshiba man for about 4 years and trust the name and quality. The battery is great thought my only complaint is it takes forever to charge from completely dead but then again it is a 12 cell. As for the HDD protection there is a little box you can check that says dont show again or something like that. I checked it and never got the message again. Also for what it is worth as a computer guru it pays to set the power option so that when you hit the power butten it goes to sleep. This allows for a faster resume of work. If you do that though make sure you tell it to do nothing when you close the lid. That way if your like me and always on the run you can hit the button to “Power down” and close the lid and pack it up.
i bought this laptop today. but i don’t know how to use bluetooth. i think it doesn’t have it. pls anyone, if it has, tell me how to use
I bought this laptop 2 days ago, it’s my first laptop. I’m quite impressed with it, however being a lifelong desktop user I’m not familiar with all stuff on it. I heard it has a media reader, that is the little tray that pops out on the front left corner? I’m pretty sure it is, but my fiance says NO, and wants to buy an external reader.
Thanks
I bought this computer from Best Buy last Sat. I did the Windows recovery dics but not the others. How do I do the others? I’ve had a couple of issues with mine. The HDD protection alert keeps popping up, even when I close the cd drive, I have it set on 2. I’m wondering if this is normal for it to have that much vibration. The computer has also restarted a couple of times while online & the screen will minimize. Are these windows 7 issuse or the computer itself. I would appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks
I recently purchased this computer as well and am not as computer savvy as most. I am always nervous when uninstalling programs and curious as to what you did end up uninstalling? Also, how do you disable the programs from Startup? Thanks for your help!
i JUST BOUGHT ONE OF THIS LAST WEEK AND I DID TEST THE WEBCAM AND IT “SUCKS” REALLY VERY REALLY MUCH, IS WORSE THAN A CHEAP CELPHONE CAMERA. EVERYTHING ELSE SEEMS WORKING REALLY GOOD, IS FAST AND WITH 500gb HARD DRIVE GOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR LOTS OF STUFF. BUT THE WEBCAM SUCKSSSSSSSS.
Wow this is sick! but is it true that toshiba has this laptop that can run up to 9 hours on batteries?
Nice new toy. But it’s a huge laptop! :D
Strange that it doesn’t come with a built-in Bluetooth capability. But we all know how this capitalists are. :P