Toshiba Satellite A665 Review

Satellite A665 

Review Summary:

The Toshiba Satellite A660 and A665 offer decent performance and a range of options for a desktop-replacement notebook.

Pros

• Attractive design
• Great keyboard
• ExpressCard slot

Cons

• Weak screen protection
• A little expensive as configured

Toshiba Satellite A665 Full Review

 

The Toshiba Satellite A660 and A665 are 16-inch laptops with a reasonably attractive design and solid performance. If you're shopping for a desktop-replacement notebook the Satellite A665 might be a worthy choice. Keep reading to see what we think of this Core i5-equipped model with Nvidia discrete graphics.

Toshiba Satellite A665 (A665-S6089) Specifications:

• 16-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• Intel Core i5 460M (2.53GHz)
• Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card w/ 512MB GDDR3 dedicated memory (Optimus switchable graphics)
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• 500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Toshiba MK5065GSX)
• 802.11b/g/n wireless
• DVD SuperMulti (+/- Double Layer)
• Warranty: 1-Yr Parts and Labor, 1-Year Battery
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (48Wh) and 90W power adapter
• Weight: 6.52 lbs
• Dimensions: 15 x 10 x 1.2-1.5 inches
• Price as configured: $879.99

Build and Design
The Satellite A660/A665 is the latest generation of 16-inch multimedia notebooks from Toshiba and is the "big brother" to the Satellite M640/M645. At first glance, the design of the A665 is pretty traditional with sculpted edges, a mixture of smooth and textured glossy plastics, and some attractive LED accent lighting. If you're familiar with the 14-inch Toshiba Satellite M645 and 15-inch Satellite C655 then this laptop just looks like a larger version of those notebooks. The exterior is covered in what Toshiba calls the "Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal." Personally, I call it black glossy plastic with a textured "chain" pattern imprinted in the surface to help hide fingerprints and dirt. Despite the silly marketing name for the finish, I have to give Toshiba credit here. The textured chain pattern gives you the modern look of the glossy plastics but doesn't look like a horrible magnet for smudges, dirt, or whatever else a student spills on a laptop.

The build quality of the A665 is very good with a durable main chassis that doesn't squeak, creak, or flex even under significant pressure. The screen hinges are a little loose, making it easy to open the laptop with one hand but also making it easy to accidentally move the screen if you bump the laptop. While we're on the topic of the screen, the screen lid doesn't provide as much protection as we'd like. If you press on the back of the screen while the laptop is running you'll see obvious distortions on the screen itself. In addition, placing more than one heavy textbook on the screen lid causes the lid to bend inward sharply toward the screen ... suggesting that the screen lid doesn't offer much protection during travel.

The bottom of the notebook includes two access plates for the RAM and the hard drive. Despite the fact that most consumers buying this type of general purpose or light multimedia notebook don't perform upgrades, Toshiba engineers made is very easy to get inside this laptop. You only have to remove one screw to access the hard drive and one screw to get to the RAM.

Ports and Features
The Satellite A665 features a great range of ports--making this laptop one of the more "future proof" 16-inch notebooks available in this price range. You get two USB 2.0 ports and a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port in case you want to use fast external storage drives. The A665 also features dual video out ports: a VGA connection for old-school projectors and HDMI for new monitors and HDTVs. More importantly, the A665 includes an ExpressCard slot so you can upgrade this laptop with USB 3.0 ports if you need them. All picture descriptions are left to right.

Front view: Memory card slot	Rear view: No ports
Left side: VGA, Ethernet, HDMI, combo  eSATA/USB 2.0, USB 2.0, ExpressCard	Right side: Audio jacks, two USB 2.0,  optical drive, power jack and lock slot

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard with dedicated number pad on the A660-series notebooks features Chiclet-style keys that are responsive and provide a little extra spacing to prevent typos. The keys are large and flat and have a glossy texture that shows smudges from your skin oils over time. There is no noticeable flex unless you apply significant pressure to the keys in the middle of the board. Individual key presses are quiet with virtually no "click-clack" noise while typing; making it an excellent choice for writing your term paper in the middle of the night without bothering your roommate. The keyboard also features dedicated multimedia keys above the keyboard as well as home, end, page up and page down keys.

Toshiba also offers the A660/A665 with a LED-backlit keyboard so that you can see what you're typing even in complete darkness. I can't help but feel a little disappointed by the lack of a backlit keyboard on this configuration considering the official MSRP of this notebook is almost $900.

The Synaptics touchpad is a fairly nice with a matte texture that provides smooth cursor movement. The touchpad drivers deliver excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. This is a multi-touch touchpad with customizable gestures and overall this touchpad works exactly like you want a touchpad to work. However, the touchpad buttons have very shallow feedback with moderately loud clicks when you press the buttons.

Screen and Speakers
The A665 has a 16-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is "very good" within the narrow vertical viewing angle sweet spot. The backlight is even and bright, contrast is sharp and colors are good though the colors are a little warm at the default settings. If there is a single obvious issue it has to be the narrow vertical viewing angles. While the horizontal viewing angles (side view) are nearly flawless, the colors become over exposed when viewed from above and significantly inverted and distorted when viewed from below. If you are using this laptop for color-accurate editing you will need to be certain you're viewing the screen from straight ahead.

The display's 1366x768 resolution is a standard resolution for mainstream notebooks. The horizontal resolution is adequate, however only 768 pixels of vertical space means a good deal of scrolling while surfing the Internet and only enough space to view about one-half of a page in a Microsoft Word. There are a few other laptop manufacturers that offer 16-inch notebooks with 1600x900 resolution or even 1920x1080, so it's a little disappointing that Toshiba only offers one screen option.

The Satellite A665 features harman/kardon branded stereo speakers located just above the keyboard. These speakers provide an excellent range of highs, midtones and lows with surprisingly rich base for a notebook without a dedicated subwoofer. Since these speakers are located above the keyboard they direct sound up and toward the user. The headphone jack also provides a great, static-free connection for external speakers or earphones.

Performance and Benchmarks
The Toshiba Satellite A660/A665 offers solid overall performance thanks to the combination of Intel Core-series processors, 4GB or more of RAM, and Nvidia graphics. Our review sample comes equipped with the Intel Core i5 460M dual-core processor and Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics.

Unfortunately, the slow Toshiba hard drive doesn't help in terms of the synthetic benchmark tests. Does this lethargic 5400rpm hard drive make the notebook painfully slow? No. Does it prevent this notebook from delivering better performance? Yes. Thankfully, if you want a faster computing experience the hard drive access panel on the bottom of the laptop lets you replace the hard drive with a faster model or a SSD if you want extreme performance. Toshiba also offers pre-configured versions of the A665 with faster 7200rpm hard drives.

Regardless, the Satellite A665 can still handle any typical multitasking duties like browsing the web, listening to MP3s, editing photos and typing a Word document all at the same time without any problem. The GeForce 310M graphics let you play some relatively modern games at the native 1366x768 screen resolution, but the A660/A665 models with the GeForce 330M graphcs are much better for gaming. Thanks to Nvidia Optimus technology this notebook automatically switches between the Intel integrated graphics (for extended battery life) and the Nvidia dedicated graphics (for better video and gaming performance). You don't have to worry about pressing any extra buttons to get the best out of this laptop.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):


PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark Vantage measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
The Toshiba A665 does an adequate good job delivering low heat and minimal noise. The self-adjusting fan speeds usually stay well below what you can hear in a quiet room, and the heat pours out of the vent on the left-hand side. I found it a little strange that Toshiba engineers placed a "fake" fan intake circle on the bottom of the notebook. What looks like a standard air intake on the bottom of the A665 is actually a sealed area. I suspect the air intakes were moved in order to promote better airflow across the heatsink inside the notebook, but it's just plain odd to have a fake air intake on anything. The only obvious hot spot on this notebook is on the bottom left next to the heat vent. In general, the A665 stays very "lap friendly" as long as you avoid the area around the heat vent.

Battery Life
In the "balanced" power mode with 75% screen brightness, the Satellite A665 lasted for four hours and twelve minutes of non-stop use while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty good for a notebook with a stock 6-cell battery. Of course, most people using a 16-inch or larger laptop are using it as a desktop replacement and usually keep the power cord plugged into the wall. That said, the battery can last even longer if you lower the screen brightness and occasionally let the system go to sleep.

Conclusion
The Toshiba Satellite A660 and A665 represent a large portion of the desktop-replacement notebooks that Toshiba is selling in 2010. As the year draws to a close these large-screen laptops are showing up in stores for some surprisingly low prices. On one hand the 14-inch Toshiba Satellite M645, 15-inch Satellite C655, and the 16-inch A665 are all carbon copies of the same laptop with different screens. On the other hand, that isn't such a bad thing.

Toshiba offers these laptops with a range of Intel and AMD processors and several different integrated and discrete graphics options to fit just about any budget. Our editors would like to see Toshiba improve the durability of the screen lid and the slow hard drive in our review sample was a bit disappointing, but overall the A660-series notebooks have a lot to offer most consumers.

Pros:

• Attractive design
• Great keyboard
• ExpressCard slot

Cons:

• Weak screen protection
• A little expensive as configured

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score