Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)An Office Depot special...with a price at a penny less than four Benjamins this Toshiba represented a nice offer that I couldn't pass up. No, its operational speed isn't as snappy as my i7 desktop or the MSI i5 laptop I looked at just a few spots down from the demo of the C655D at the store, but it certainly smokes the Aspire One netbook I had been relegated to using full time as a portable computer when my old 15.4" Dell notebook finally called it a life. And only $50 more than what I spent on said netbook 2 1/2 years earlier.
So far I've found that the Toshiba's performance speed is more than decent for most business apps and certainly is a fair bit better than the old Dell that I became so used to. Preloaded with Microsoft Works, the Word 9 (otherwise known as 2007) component loads quickly and operates smoothly even if it's a bit dumbed down from the full version. Other programs I've installed so far seem to be swift and lag-free, with only Photoshop showing a bit more hesitancy than what I'm normally used to seeing. As for the internet, Firefox and IE8 seem to run as smoothly and quickly as they do on our other computers and Google Chrome is as blindingly fast (relatively speaking) as always.
Downsides (so far) are few: one wouldn't think that 0.2" would seem so much more massive, but this 15.6" seem so HUGE next to the Dell. The widescreen aspect of the C655D is the likely culprit, giving the Toshiba the heft and feel seem closer to that of a 17" laptop than a 15" one. Battery charge life is anemic relatively speaking; the best charge length experienced so far is a bit over 3 hours, but several sessions have not hit the 3 hour mark before reaching critical power reserve levels. This is not wholly unexpected considering its price class, but still disappointing nonetheless. There's no built-in camera, which again is something that's usually the case at this end of the laptop market. Sound quality through the built-in speakers is atrocious, and frankly isn't even all that great through the headphone jack.
The screen display is decent enough; on AC power images look good and appropriate for this computer's price point, and the ATI display chipset seems to handle video content with competence even if it's not all that spectacular. Like most machines these days, the C655D comes with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. Build quality is decent for the money, but most of the plastics used definitely lean towards the bargain basement side. Heat buildup seems manageable; the left side of the computer where I believe the hard drive is located does get warm but it's not uncomfortably so. Even my netbook becomes more heated than this Toshiba.
There's some crapware loaded on the computer, but I've seen far worse in the past on other new machines. All uninstalled quickly. Norton is the preloaded security suite, a package that for me disappeared on the first day. To Norton's credit, it uninstalled cleanly and fairly painlessly and made the subsequent installation of Comodo--my security package of choice--quite easy.
It was probably too much to ask but only two USB 2.0 ports reside on this notebook, down from the four I was used to with the Dell. But at least there's a somewhat useful media card reader...even if it can't handle older CompactFlash II cards that I use with my Nikon D300. The DVD drive/burner seems to work well, although I've yet to really push its skill set. The keyboard design is passable as far as laptops go, feeling workable but personally for me it's not particularly comfortable. Perhaps it's the price one pays for going low-ball--having to put up with HUGE 'Toshiba' pronouncement on the cover--but the obnoxiously-sized logo on the back side of the LED display panel is more than a little off-putting. A date with a airbrush wand or a band-aid decal (Goodyear? Kawasaki? Budweiser? Sig Sauer? Hello Kitty?) seems like a much more preferable option.
In all I'm not doubting that this AMD-based laptop will do the job I will ask of it. It seems to pack a lot of performance for the discount price paid. For the money it's been a good, smart buy.
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