Final thoughts and rating
Toshiba's AMD Puma-powered Satellite Pro is an entry-level laptop that's designed for the business user. Priced at just over £500 from leading etailers, it ships in a functional if unexciting chassis that's carried over from the current Satellite range.The choice of AMD Turion X2 Ultra as the CPU ensures that it trails similar-priced Intel Centrino-equipped machines in pure performance stakes, and that difference can be up to a factor of two in some cases. If the downside is CPU grunt, an upside remains the integrated Radeon HD 3100 graphics that provide a reasonable gaming experience on the laptop's 1,280x800px panel.
Knowing just what value can be had for under £500, the near-3kg Satellite Pro is distinctly average in most respects. Ports' arrangement is good, dual operating systems are handy, and Toshiba's Sleep-and-Charge feature is innovative, but battery-life needs to be improved and wireless connectivity should be augmented with as-standard Bluetooth and draft 802.11n.
Toshiba, too, needs to look again at how long it takes to load the operating system from the time it is first switched on and whether the DVD playback issue we encountered isn't symptomatic of the entire range.
There's nothing intrinsically horrible about the Satellite Pro, of course, but we feel that Dell and HP currently do a better job in optimising their business offerings.
A solid, no-nonsense business laptop that ticks most boxes but doesn't shout 'buy me' particularly loudly.
The good
Solid, well-constructed chassis
Dual operating systems bundled
Decent warranty, once user-upgraded
The not so good
Relatively poor battery life
Poor CPU performance
40-minute first-load time
Not the lightest for a 15.4in laptop
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS scores products out of a possible 10. A score for an average-rated product, therefore, is a meaningful ‘5’, and not ‘9/10’, which is common practice for a great many other publications.
We consider any product score above '5' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
Toshiba Satellite Pro A300D-14O
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Toshiba Satellite A300-14O can be purchased for £520.99, including VAT
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any Toshiba representatives choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
