Toshiba Satellite Review: First Thoughts

First thoughts: I received my Toshiba Satellite today.  I ordered the massive P30 with most options upped.  Huge, beautiful screen.  The machine itself is a bit larger than I expected, but it’s not quite as heavy as I thought, quieter than I thought and I haven’t had it on long enough to let you know how hot it gets.

New machines are great.  They always feel empty, but are fast and waiting to be filled and used.  A nice, fresh start, or so I thought…

When I ordered it I called up by phone instead of ordering online for one major reason: I don’t want anything pre-installed on it.  So I asked, “can nothing be installed on this machine?”  “Nothing?”, the rep replied.  “Just the operating system [XP Pro], that’s all I want.  Can this be done?”

“I’m not sure, I’ll mark down the request.”  Ok, no guarantees here, and I still expected some factory stuff, but not nearly as much as I received.

I understand that they probably have a series of pre-loaded images to slap onto a machine when someone orders it - but I know I’m not the only one who wants “nothing” - why can’t they just have one barebones image ready to use?  I don’t care how many sponsors you have, this machine is still too much money to have my desktop pre-loaded with “special offers”.

I spent some time removing a good deal of crap from the machine in hopes that some of my pre-bloated registry can be cleaned up and it can load a bit faster (after I get rid of that annoying “Start Navigation” click-sound).

I then flipped on the wireless connection (has a neat little on/off switch on the side).  I searched for my wireless network.  23 wireless networks found, most insecure.  Fun stuff, but I logged onto my own and went straight to Internet Explorer for a Windows Update.

Windows Update found five critical updates I needed.  Not bad, but from the time I ordered this to when I received it they all didn’t come out.  Toshiba should either update their image or update these machines before they send them out.  It’s irresponsible nowadays to send out a computer that’s not updated.

So now I use IE to download FireFox.  Get a little more secure here.

Out of sheer curiousity I go download SpyBot - Search & Destroy.  I update the definitions right away and do a scan.

Besides a cookie or two, it finds 5 reg entries for the DSO Exploit.  Nice.  I guess that’s another nice pre-loaded special offer for me.

So this got me thinking - what else is on here?  Time to head over to Trend Micro for a free virus scan.  So you might be thinking - with all those pre-installed programs, one has to be a virus scan, right?  Yup, it’s got an evaluation of Norton, which I don’t feel like starting right now.  Luckily Trend Micro says it’s virus-free.

So now I’ll continue cleaning this machine.  Shame I have to clean a brand new machine that I just paid a good amount for.

A few other thoughts about it:

- I wish they did have a picture of it relative to something else on the website.  It’s a big, big machine.  I probably would have gotten it anyway, as this is will mainly be used at home, but I wouldn’t have been so shocked when I first saw it.

- The touchpad buttons aren’t responding all too well.  Maybe they just need to be broken in, but I’d hate to have to send this thing back.  I’ll give it a few days to see how it goes.

- While it’s big, it certainly uses all that room, this thing has almost everything built-in.  I guess this would be more of a “desktop replacement” than a laptop.  Maybe more like “a desktop that’s easy to move”.

- The sound is very nice on it.

Time to continue setup…

Edit:  Yes, I realize formatting is an option, and still one I’m thinking about.


Update: Too much wasted time.  Formatting.

Posted by David M Singer on Dec 21, 2004 at 10:12 PM

Comments:

  1. Same laptop I’m picking up tomorrow!

    Posted by Jeremy C. Wright on Dec 22, 2004 at 01:12 AM

  2. I’ve had my Satellite 2105CDS for coming up on 5 years now. It really didn’t start showing its age until a couple of months ago. Glad to see the Satellites are still fairly solid; that makes them an option for a replacement.

    Then again, I’m seriously considering a Mac iBook/Powerbook for my next ‘puter. Less hassle with viruses and the like.
    ——-

    Posted by CT on Dec 26, 2004 at 09:12 PM
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