Toshiba Satellite P755 Review

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“If you need one computer for all your needs, and you will use it primarily at home, the Toshiba Satellite P755 is a good choice.”

Table of Contents

Avg

Good build quality
Full size numpad
Class-leading sound
Minimal bloatware
Excellent performance

Against

So-so battery life
Thick and heavy
Jerky touch pad

The hype around thin and light laptops has reached a new peak this year. Ultrabooks are on the rise, and Intel’s processor update is just around the corner, promising products that are even faster and more energy efficient.

It’s enough to make you forget that relatively thick and cheap laptops remain the bread and butter of the laptop market — and will likely remain stubbornly popular for some time to come. That’s why we’re looking at the Toshiba Satellite P755.

On paper, this laptop is the quintessential example of a powerful and affordable laptop for mainstream users. It offers a Core i7-2670QM processor and Nvidia GT 540M graphics, all wrapped in a 1.4-inch-thick chassis that weighs 5.8 pounds. The predictable 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1366×768, and no high-resolution option is available.

The hardware of this laptop is powerful, but the price has managed to drop below a thousand dollars, at $979.99. This should be considered the top model in the line. You can get this laptop for less than $600 – but you’ll be set back with a Core i3-2330M and Intel HD 3000 graphics.

Does this heavyweight still have the power to compete with more nimble transmissions? Let’s see.

Video review

Big and beautiful

Toshiba never made the most attractive laptops, but they never made the most boring either. The P755 follows this tradition. Faux-aluminum plastic is the order of the day, but it doesn’t feel as tacky as other laptops that try the same. This may be due to the laptop’s dark and sleek palette of grays and blacks, which helps make the plastic look metallic from a distance.

Many small details help the design. For example, instead of using plain black plastic to surround the keyboard – an approach used by many mainstream laptops – Toshiba matched the material to the surrounding interior. The speakers are covered by small, tasteful shields that allow you to see the speaker underneath, a nice visual effect that other manufacturers should take note of. The chrome bezel is used in several places and works well with the laptop’s glossy, silver-grey exterior.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

The quality of the materials reinforces the impression of cheap, yet premium quality of this laptop. Most surfaces are solid, especially the bottom half of the chassis, which never squeaks or groans in protest when mistreated. The screen could be better reinforced, but it’s on par with most laptops in this price range.

Smooth keys

The Toshiba Satellite P755 makes excellent use of the available space. Unlike many competitors, it has an edge-to-edge keyboard. Only half an inch of space on either side is unused. This allows the insertion of a full keyboard and a full numeric keypad. Other laptops of this size usually include a numeric keypad, but are forced to use annoyingly small keys.

This does not mean that there are no compromises. The placement of the numeric keypad is still a little tight, so all the keys are on the small side, although they are still perfectly usable. The feel of the keys is better than usual and you will find enough space between them. The only problem (and it’s a bit of a nit) is the strangely smooth coating on the keys, which can cause your fingers to slip during furious typing.

The media function keys are located just above the keyboard. They work well and provide the user with an easier way to access certain functions, such as volume control.

The quality of the touchpad is average. The surface is medium-sized and untextured, but two physical left and right keys are included with significant key travel. These advantages are reduced by multi-touch support. Even two-finger scrolling is jerky and sometimes not responsive at all.

Good looks, great sound

You won’t find any surprises with this screen. It’s a gorgeous 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 screen — like the stock screen on almost every other 15.6-inch laptop.

That being said, this particular board is one of the better examples of the breed. There’s no easily visible pixel gap, black levels are decent, and overall contrast feels solid.

Games and movies get the best out of the screen. Highlighted colors and even dark scenes, which often bring out the worst in TN-panel laptop screens, are tolerable. There are certainly better options on the market, but generally you’ll have to spend more or settle for less powerful hardware.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

Harman/Kardon lent its name to the P755 model. Usually such tactics are nothing more than branding exercises, but in this one there is some substance behind the flash. In fact, this laptop may have the best sound quality we’ve come across yet. Distortion is moderate even at maximum volume, and some bass has a hint of punch.

The clearly visible speakers are also an advantage as they throw the sound directly towards the listener. Many laptops place the speakers on the front or even the bottom of the case, which means that the sound quality is affected by the surface the laptop sits on.

Cooling

Although this laptop is packed with powerful hardware, its large case provides enough space for cooling. This means that operating temperatures are usually comfortable. At low load, most surfaces are in the mid-70s, with certain spots on the bottom of the laptop hitting the low 80s.

Attaching the processor and turning on the GPU changes the weather quickly, but temperatures of around 95 degrees Fahrenheit along the bottom of the laptop were the worst we encountered.

Such pleasant cooling sometimes comes at the expense of noise, but this is not the case here. The laptop is extremely quiet when idle. Increasing the load results in adequate system fan response, but the noise level remains low for a laptop that has a discrete GPU.

Portability

The Toshiba Satellite P755 is a standard full-size laptop, so while portability is somewhat of a concern, it’s not the focus of the laptop. This is clearly evident after spending some time with the laptop. Its large, chunky frame is difficult to fit into small bags and isn’t easy to grip with one hand for a quick jaunt from the kitchen table to the couch.

The large power brick that comes with this laptop only makes matters worse. You’ll need a full-sized backpack or a thick messenger bag to pack everything.

In the Battery Eater Standard, Toshiba offered a reasonable hour and 43 minutes of endurance, and in the less demanding Reader’s test, we got five hours of use. Expect between three and four hours of moderate use with Wi-Fi on, which is about average for a mainstream quad-core processor.

Software

To our surprise, Toshiba started with an almost empty desktop. Only the trash can was present. There were also no initial pop-ups about special offers for software or services.

That’s not to say there’s no bloatware, but Toshiba has taken the smart route and placed pre-installed software on the Windows taskbar. Sony and Dell should take notes. Both companies include boring docks that copy the functionality of the taskbar.

If you start digging, you’ll find several apps designed to improve the user experience. The only one we found useful was Eco Mode, a custom power scheme that aims to save battery life. It does just that, but it’s also restrictive. If the user changes any setting related to power management – like screen brightness, for example – Eco Mode is automatically turned off.

Performance

Our review unit is well equipped, featuring a Core i7-2670QM processor, Nvidia GT 540M discrete graphics, 6GB of RAM, and a 750GB hard drive. This hardware places it firmly in the realm of multimedia laptops, meaning the Toshiba is built to handle productivity, gaming and video with equal grace.

The inclusion of a quad-core processor certainly puts Toshiba on the right foot. In SiSoft Sandra’s processor arithmetic test, it offers a combined score of 79.32 GOPS. By comparison, a typical dual-core Core i5 scores between 38 and 48 GOPS. Our 7-Zip benchmark offers the same story, returning a combined score of 15,903. Once again, this is almost twice the result of the mobile Core i5.

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

The results were less promising in PCMark 7. In this test, the system scored a disappointing 2,295. The problem appears to be the hard drive, which returned a system storage score of 1343, the lowest score in recent memory.

What about gaming? In 3DMark 06, the GT 540M scored 9,418, while 3DMark 11 offered a score of 1,013. While this Toshiba isn’t a gaming laptop, both of these results are solid and show that this laptop can handle modern 3D games, although you won’t be able to play the most demanding titles at high detail.

Conclusion

Performance is certainly the strong point of this system. Although the slow hard drive drags the pack down a bit, this system is fast in demanding workloads that are most likely to strain the laptop’s resources. This computer can handle anything the average consumer asks of it, and it does so without straining the customer’s wallet.

Sound quality is another strong point, and while the screen isn’t outstanding, it does well with movies and games. This reinforces the multimedia focus of this laptop. The P755 is a great entertainment computer.

It will be best for you to enjoy yourself at home instead of in a hotel. This laptop is not made for travel. While it will certainly fit in a large backpack, there are better options for frequent travelers.

This laptop is competent in all areas except portability. If you need one computer for all your needs, and you will use it primarily at home, the Toshiba Satellite P755 is a good choice.

The tallest:

Good build quality
Full size numpad
Class-leading sound
Minimal bloatware
Excellent performance

Lowest values:

So-so battery life
Thick and heavy
Jerky touch pad

Editor’s recommendations

Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

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