Toshiba Satellite T235 Review

Satellite T235-S1350RD New

Review Summary:

An affordable thin and light notebook with solid AMD processor performance.

Pros

• Good performance
• Thin and light
• Low cost

Cons

• Cheap, mirror-like finish
• Too much bloatware
• No USB 3.0

Toshiba Satellite T235 Full Review

 

There seems to be a flood of budget-priced 13-inch laptops on the market today as consumers try to find the perfect balance of portability, performance and price. The Toshiba Satellite T230 and T235 series notebooks offer a range of options that just might help this laptop find a place on your holiday shopping list. We took a closer look at the AMD-based Satellite T235D to find out whether this laptop offers a truly impressive value.

Toshiba Satellite T230/T235 (T235D-S1345) Specifications:

• 1.5GHz AMD Turion II Neo K625 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
• 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 (2 x 2GB)
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 13.3" WXGA HD TruBrite LED Backlit display (1366x768)
• 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• ATI Radeon HD 4225 Graphics
• 802.11b/g/n, 10/100 LAN
• 6-in-1 card reader
• 6-Cell Li-ion 61WH battery, 45W Power Supply
• Dimensions: (W x L x H) 12.7" x 8.8" x 0.8"/1.1"
• Weight: 3lbs 13oz (with 6-cell battery)
• Price as configured: $599.99

Build and Design
The Toshiba Satellite T230 and T235 series notebooks are an update to last year's T130 and T135 notebooks. These thin and light 13-inch notebooks are designed to offer consumers a stylish alternative to netbooks with better performance and a larger screen for a modest increase in price. Toshiba keeps the profile only a fraction of an inch thicker than the USB ports on the side of the notebook, though this is done in large part by cutting out things like an ExpressCard slot and optical drive. For the average user this notebook has all the advantages of a standard computer--a high resolution display, a full-size keyboard and a dual-core processor--but none of the bulk. The combination of black and silver plastics give the T235D a very modern appearance, but we weren't particularly impressed by the durability of the mirror-like chrome finish around the keyboard. In our standard drop test (droping the notebook from 12 inches onto carpet) we noticed a small piece of the chrome paint flaked off the notebook. It's safe to say that if the finish can't survive a 12-inch drop onto carpet it won't hold up well to serious abuse.

The screen lid on our review unit features the "Fusion Chrome Finish in Gemini Black" but Toshiba also offers this notebook with a red lid. Despite the fragility of the finish and the thin chassis design, the overall build quality of the T235-series notebooks is very nice. Unlike some of the thin-and-light notebooks we've reviewed from other companies, flex and plastic squeaks are kept to a minimum on the T235D. The screen cover feels durable and doesn't suffer from much flex under pressure, although plastics used on the screen lid are prone to scratches. In short, while the overall structure of the T235D is sound, the glossy exterior of the notebook might not hold up to typical use and abuse inside a school backpack or an office briefcase. Even if the glossy finish on the body withstands most scratches you'll need to constantly clean off fingerprints and smudges if you want to keep your laptop looking new.

If you're interested in upgrading the internal components on your T235D you'll be happy to learn that the system memory and hard drive are easy to locate beneath a single cover plate on the bottom of the notebook. Toshiba even makes upgrades easier by using a single screw to secure the access panel. Remove that one Phillips head screw and you'll have access to the hard drive and RAM. We were a little upset that access to the wireless cards isn't as simple. However, given the low purchase price and the target audience, it's unlikely that T235 owners will bother trying to swap wireless cards. No warranty void if removed stickers were found anywhere, so it should be safe to swap out basic components without risking your warranty coverage. On that note, Toshiba provides a standard one-year parts and labor warranty as well as a one-year warranty on the battery.

Screen and Speakers
The 13.3" LED-backlit screen on the T235D appears to be identical to the display panel used on the T135 and T135D. Colors didn't appear quite as overly saturated as the screen on last year's model but the contrast ratio still looks below average with fairly light black levels and a lab test contrast ratio of just 182:1. Horizontal viewing angles are good out to at least 45 degrees to either side before you start to notice color distortion. Vertical viewing angles are below average as the display becomes over exposed or colors begin inverting after moving the screen 15 degrees forward or back. Overall screen brightness is good enough for indoor usage under bright office lights or in the shade outdoors. The glossy screen makes reflections something of a problem if you try to use the screen outdoors under direct sunlight.

Speaker quality is below average as the maximum volume output isn't loud enough to fill a large meeting room withn clear sound. The maximum volume setting on this notebook sounds more like what we expect when we set multimedia notebooks to 50 percent volume. Part of the problem is the speaker location on the bottom front edge of the notebook ... which means sound is directed down and away from you rather than up toward your ears. The other issue is the small size of the speaker drivers themselves. Toshiba simply didn't put impressive speakers into this notebook. If this is your only PC for listening to your music library then I suggest purchasing a good set of headphones.

Keyboard and Touchpad
One major change between last year's T135 and this year's T235 is the keyboard. The Satellite T235 features an island-style or Chiclet-style keyboard with more space between each key. In theory this makes typos less frequent, but in practice we didn't find much of a difference. I was personally a big fan of the full-size keyboard on the T135 series notebooks, so I'm a little sad to see the new keyboard on this model. On the bright side, the keyboard is comfortable for typing and offers excellent support even under very strong typing pressure. The individual keys have a springy, responsive action and each key has a flat surface. Typing noise is minimal, with no loud "click clack" noises while typing. Consumers who are thinking about buying this notebook for typing long documents or notes during class should have no problems with this keyboard. The palm rests are just about the perfect size for average adult male hands as they support the wrists without causing additional stress points while typing. However, the right palm rest suffers from a very small amount of flex under heavy pressure.

The Synaptics touchpad works fine and after a driver update the refresh rate seemed perfect. The touchpad surface itself is a joy to use. Most of our lab testers agreed that you can easily glide your fingertip across the touchpad surface. The touchpad buttons are covered in the same fagile chrome reflective silver finish and don't offer much in the way of comfort. The individual key press is rather shallow with an audible click when pressed. Thankfully the touchpad buttons have been improved since the T135 series and the buttons respond to each press regardless of whether you press the touchpad buttons near the middle or the edge.

Ports and Features
Port selection is fairly good when compared to ultraportable notebooks and netbooks, but we're starting to believe that every notebook (even budget-priced consumer notebooks) should have at least one USB 3.0 port. USB 2.0 is fine for now, but we're seeing more and more accessories that take advantage of USB 3.0 and laptops need to keep up with the times. The T235D includes three USB ports (one of which is a combo eSATA/USB port), VGA and HDMI-out, LAN, audio jacks, and a Kensington lock slot. Expansion slots include just the 6-in-1 SDHC-compatible card reader.

Front view: Activity lights	Rear view: Battery and hinges
Left view: Power jack, heat vent, HDMI eSATA/USB 2.0,memory card reader	Right view: Audio jacks, two USB 2.0, VGA, Ethernet and security lock slot

Performance and Benchmarks
We found the dual-core 1.5GHz AMD Turion II Neo K625 processor to offer solid performance on this laptop. Although the latest generation of Intel low voltage processors deliver better synthetic benchmark numbers, the real-life performance of the T235D is every bit as snappy as the Intel Core i3-330UM processor in the HP Pavilion tm2t. Although the Turion II Neo K625 is fine processor, we were particularly excited to see how the T235D would perform with ATI Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics. The short answer is that this laptop offers significantly better video and gaming performance compared to notebooks with Intel integrated graphics.

The latest generation of ATI integrated graphics clearly perform better when it comes to basic gaming such as World of Warcraft or older first-person shooter games. Similarly, the compination of the dual-core processor and ATI graphics made streaming video like Netflix far more enjoyable than with an Intel Atom-based netbook.

In terms of day-to-day activities it's fair to say that most consumers won't notice much (if any) performance difference between the T235D and the Intel-based T235 with Pentium U5400 processor. That fact alone probably means most budget-conscious consumers should consider the AMD-based T235D since it's $30 cheaper than the Intel-based T235. Overall multitasking performance and application launching with the T235D is fast and responsive.

The only issue we encountered during our lab tests that negatively impacted performance was the overwhelming amount of bloatware that Toshiba installed on the system. It's obvious that Toshiba wants to make life easier for consumers who aren't comfortable with modern technology, but the abundance of pop-up windows offering help, suggesting registration, hard disk protection settings, wireless configurations and more just get in the way. It's impossible to provide an exact measurement of the delay, but it's safe to say that the bloatware pop-up windows often divert your attention for several seconds when you're trying to do something else.

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 (high scores mean better performance):

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

CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Noise levels were great for normal daily use. The default fan speed is always on at a low setting, pushing hot air away from the CPU and out of the notebook. The fan doesn't get much louder even if you stress the system with a game or video encoding. Quiet fans usually mean you get higher than normal case temperatures when the notebook is left on for more than 30 minutes. That said external case temperatures on the T235D are roughly 5-10 degrees cooler than what we saw on the T135D from last year. This makes the T235D a more "lap friendly" notebook than the previous generation of AMD-based thin and lights. All temperatures shown below are listed in degrees Fahrenheit.

Battery Life
The AMD-based T235 offers roughly equivalent day-to-day performance compared to Intel-based 13-inch thin and light laptops but we really wanted to find out about battery life. Toshiba claims the T235 delivers "over 6 hours" of battery life, and that isn't bad for a 13-inch notebook. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 set to the "balanced" profile the system managed 5 hours and 34 minutes before shutdown. That is roughly the same as the previous generation Satellite T135D, but we're still seeing some low-voltage Intel processors deliver better battery life.

In terms of real-world use, five and a half hours of continuous use is probably more than enough for most consumers who just need a laptop for a few hours of web browsing at a coffee shop.

Conclusion
The laptop market has been flooded with value-priced thin and light notebooks since the introduction of netbooks. Many consumers want better performance than a typical Atom-based netbook and also want a larger screen a keyboard. Notebooks like the Toshiba Satellite T235 fill that role nicely by offering better performance than a netbook and pretty good battery life for a 13-inch laptop priced at less than $600.

In theory, the Sattelite T235 would make the ideal consumer laptop for many shoppers. In practice, Toshiba falls a little short in execution. I suspect that the chrome or mirror-like finish on the palm rests was intended to make the T235 look like more of a "premium" product, but the fragile finish gives the oposite result. Likewise, the various free applications that Toshiba pre-installed on this laptop were clearly intended to make life easier for people who aren't particularly technical, but all of the pop-up windows and drop-down GUIs just get in the way and owners are going to have to waste a lot of time uninstalling this "bloatware" from their new laptop.

Bottom line, the Toshiba Sattelite T230/T235 is a fine thin and light notebook with good overall performance for general use, but it lacks a quality finish (both literally and figuratively).

Pros:

• Good performance
• Thin and light
• Low cost

Cons:

• Cheap, mirror-like finish
• Too much bloatware
• No USB 3.0

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

* Ratings averaged to produce final score