Toshiba’s Satellite Pro L850-11U is an low-priced business laptop with useful performance and a certain amount of style. The Satellite Pro’s casing is chunky, but it is sober and minimised color scheme, and nicely curved casing and polished lid, put it a cut above the typical budget laptop. The rough-hewn two-button Synaptics trackpad is big, but it is neither comfy to use nor responsive.
Most of the keys are of a good size and properly spaced, with the tiny cursor keys the only exception. There’s very little depth to the buttons, though, and we didn’t find our typing especially accurate.
The Toshiba has a substantial 15.6in display, but we’d like to see more detail than its 1366x768 panel can provide. The matt surface doesn’t pick up reflections, yet the colour palette is lacking in bite and vitality, and viewing angles are dire. The Toshiba is fitted with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i3-2350M, 6GB of RAM and a capacious 750GB hard drive. We recorded 107 points in WorldBench 6 under Windows 7 Professional, which isn’t slow, but other budget laptops are faster.
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As a business laptop, the Satellite Pro with its integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics was never intended to play games. We recorded just 15fps in Fear at Maximum detail, and the more intensive. Crysis was playable only at its lowest settings. The Toshiba managed 56.9fps at Low quality, DirectX 9. and 34.21 ps in DirectX 10 mode. At the game’s Medium quality levels, it recorded 25.9- and 20.51 ps at DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 respectively, and tumbled to just 14- and 12.2fps at High. The Toshiba offers good battery life, though, and lasted 5 hours 46 minutes in MobileMark 2007.
Most of the keys are of a good size and properly spaced, with the tiny cursor keys the only exception. There’s very little depth to the buttons, though, and we didn’t find our typing especially accurate.
The Toshiba has a substantial 15.6in display, but we’d like to see more detail than its 1366x768 panel can provide. The matt surface doesn’t pick up reflections, yet the colour palette is lacking in bite and vitality, and viewing angles are dire. The Toshiba is fitted with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i3-2350M, 6GB of RAM and a capacious 750GB hard drive. We recorded 107 points in WorldBench 6 under Windows 7 Professional, which isn’t slow, but other budget laptops are faster.
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As a business laptop, the Satellite Pro with its integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics was never intended to play games. We recorded just 15fps in Fear at Maximum detail, and the more intensive. Crysis was playable only at its lowest settings. The Toshiba managed 56.9fps at Low quality, DirectX 9. and 34.21 ps in DirectX 10 mode. At the game’s Medium quality levels, it recorded 25.9- and 20.51 ps at DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 respectively, and tumbled to just 14- and 12.2fps at High. The Toshiba offers good battery life, though, and lasted 5 hours 46 minutes in MobileMark 2007.
The speaker system isn’t bad. You shouldn’t expect sonic fireworks from the Toshiba, but the speakers are bearable when playing music tracks. You’ll still resort to the headphone socket when possible, but this is far from the worst budget speaker system we’ve heard. The built-in webcam Is also nice, offering good resolution (1280x800) and a clear image.
The Toshiba has a decent sprinkling of ports and connectors. Two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 are included, along with VGA and HDMI. A memory-card reader caters for various flavours of SD card; gigabit ethernet is also included.
Wireless connectivity runs to single-band 802.llb/g/n, plus Bluetooth 4.0. The Toshiba also has a Samsung SN-208B DVD ± R reader/writer, specified for eight-speed.
Windows 7 Professional is preinstalled in 64bit form. The Toshiba comes with a vast array of software titles, including limited version of Microsoft Office and Nero KwikMedia. The many Toshiba utilities carry out a wide range of tasks, from checking the laptop’s temperature to conserving power.
Specification
2.3GHz Intel Core i3-2350M; Windows 7
Professional; 6GB DDR3 RAM; 75068 HDD
15.6in (1366x768) matt TN display; Intel HD 3000;
802.11b/g/n, gigabit ethernet; Bluetooth 4.0; 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0;
HDMI; VGA; 8x DVD ± RW; SD slot;
SRS Premium Sound HD speakers; mic input; headphone jack; HD webcam
six-cell 48Wh lithium-ion battery, removable;
380x242x34mm; 2.3kg
The Toshiba has a decent sprinkling of ports and connectors. Two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 are included, along with VGA and HDMI. A memory-card reader caters for various flavours of SD card; gigabit ethernet is also included.
Wireless connectivity runs to single-band 802.llb/g/n, plus Bluetooth 4.0. The Toshiba also has a Samsung SN-208B DVD ± R reader/writer, specified for eight-speed.
Windows 7 Professional is preinstalled in 64bit form. The Toshiba comes with a vast array of software titles, including limited version of Microsoft Office and Nero KwikMedia. The many Toshiba utilities carry out a wide range of tasks, from checking the laptop’s temperature to conserving power.
Specification
2.3GHz Intel Core i3-2350M; Windows 7
Professional; 6GB DDR3 RAM; 75068 HDD
15.6in (1366x768) matt TN display; Intel HD 3000;
802.11b/g/n, gigabit ethernet; Bluetooth 4.0; 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0;
HDMI; VGA; 8x DVD ± RW; SD slot;
SRS Premium Sound HD speakers; mic input; headphone jack; HD webcam
six-cell 48Wh lithium-ion battery, removable;
380x242x34mm; 2.3kg