Toshiba Satellite L455-S5975 Review

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: especially in this economy, it's hard to hate a laptop that only costs $330. It's even harder to hate a Windows 7 laptop that costs that much. The Toshiba L455-S5975 is, by at least 50 dollars, the least expensive notebook computer in2009. Less expensive than many Netbooks, the L455 sounds too good to be true for a computer with a 15.6-inch screen and Microsoft's newest OS. And, to some extent, it is. Starting with a shape that comes from a time machine dialed to 10 years ago to an underpowered Celeron processor inside--the very same Celeron that we've already seen before in the last retail roundup--the L455 won't ever be confused for anything other than a bargain.

We thought the L455-S5975 looked familiar, and it turns out we weren't crazy. The Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955 (you have to love Toshiba's naming conventions) had nearly the same specs. The L455 does have a larger hard drive, at 250GB, as well as the aforementioned Windows 7 Premium, and a massive 15.6-inch, 16x9 screen.
While this laptop is fine for basic e-mail, media-viewing, music-playing, and other simple tasks, we wouldn't recommend it for any sort of multitasking or serious multimedia. It was a dinosaur before, and it's even more of a dinosaur now processor-wise, but Windows 7 does run fine on it, and, all things considered, this could be the sort of bargain a low-expectations consumer is looking for.

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$330
Processor	2.2GHz Intel Celeron 900
Memory	2GB, DDR2 800 MHz
Hard drive	250GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Mobile Intel GM45
Graphics	Intel GMA 4500MHD
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (WD)	15.1 inches wide by 10.5 inches deep
Height	1.5 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	15.6 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	5.8 / 6.5 pounds
Category	Mainstream

The next question you may have is, "Why wouldn't I just buy a Netbook?" To that, we answer: it depends on whether a larger screen and keyboard matter to you. Netbooks are considerably more portable, and many newer Netbooks have enhanced GPUs like the Nvidia Ion that can handle HD graphics quite well. On the other hand, although many Netbooks are getting larger screens and keyboards, they still have compromised keyboard sizes and small screens that might be too limiting. One previous "advantage" in laptops' favor--that full-fledged laptops ran Windows Vista while Netbooks came with Windows XP--has been equalized, as even new Netbooks now have Windows 7.

The good: Ridiculously affordable; large screen
.
The bad: Slow, older CPU; no Webcam; terrible battery life.

The bottom line: While it's hard to argue with a $330 laptop, the old-fashioned-looking L455-S5975 cuts some serious corners to get you a package that will suit only basic users.

Buy From Amazon.com