Toshiba Satellite P505-S8025 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased one of these elsewhere ([...], its a bit cheaper) and it is probably the best laptop I have ever used for the things I do. I have had it a little over a week and everything seems sturdy, which is good since I am known to abuse electronics. The screen is massive, which as a downside makes the machine fairly large and heavy (it absolutely dwarfs my HP G60 that it replaced. Go ahead and get the Toshiba branded case, as finding one locally is not only hard, but is pretty much impossible. The guy at best buy laughed at me when I told him how large it was.
The processor and GPU are amazing for the money, this is the cheapest I have seen an i5 machine sell, especially one with a dedicated GPU and 1 gig of graphics memory. I tested it on Half Life 2 (which as I know, is outdated) and Crysis. Both of them ran smoothly, not a single point of lag. HL2 was on the highest settings, and Crysis was set pretty high up there (you could probably pull off the highest settings with a little tweaking). It also runs Photoshop CS4 smoothly and quickly, so it is overkill for any word processing programs.
The sound out of the Harman Kardon speakers is great, but I recommend deleting the factory drivers and using the Windows default driver. The pre-installed driver has some major issues that causes the audio to be choppy and drop volume randomly. But that is an easy fix.

The power consumption and battery life are respectable for a machine this large (18.4" screens dont run on air), I have gotten 2 hours of battery life out of it under normal usage, and a little over an hour playing games (both of these tests done in "High Performance" mode). If you are just surfing the web or working on a spreadsheet, I would recommend making use of the "eco mode" which has a dedicated button under the power button. This dims the screen, underclocks the processor, and turns off the unneeded lights on the keyboard to save power. Just surfing that dropped my power consumption from 36 watts to 21 watts with the push of a button. That should drastically lengthen the battery life.

The mouse and keyboard are overall layed out well. Although with my large hands I accidentally hit the "soft buttons" to the left of the keyboard with my little finger and I keep opening windows media player and muting the volume. The touchpad is textured, so you can tell that you are on it without looking. There is a minor issue if you are used to other laptops though, as the gap between the pad and the left/right click buttons is larger than most. I got used to this after about 3 days of use.

The wireless card has a nice range, and having B G and N capability is good if you aren't always on the same network. The webcam is decent, not the best I have used but it does the job; and it is also used for Toshiba's "face recognition". Which allows you to log in without typing the password. I personally don't see what is wrong with typing it, but if you are the forgetful type and don't mind looking a little stupid using it, the face recognition could be useful.

Overall the laptop is the best out there in this price bracket (if purchased for the 850 I mentioned on another site). I am very satisfied with mine and a few of my friends have purchased them after using mine.

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Product Description:

Toshiba Satellite P505: Exceptional Power and Extra-Large 18.4-Inch Screen

With exceptional power, features and room, the Toshiba Satellite P505-S8025 is a portable alternative to a desktop computer with its extra-large 18.4-inch screen--giving you the freedom to work and create, plus super-size your music, 3D games, photos, movies and more. The bright 18.4-inch TruBrite LCD has an HD+ native resolution (1680 x 945) and the P505 is great for using as a media center with the touch-sensitive media keys placed above the keyboard.



Fusion Finish in Quantum Black.

The Satellite P505 is a portable alternative to a desktop PC thanks to its HD+ 18.4-inch display (see larger image).

The sophisticated styling of Toshiba's Fusion Finish in Quantum Black (see larger image).

Media buttons on the left side let you control video and music playback (see larger image).
You'll also be able to burn through the hottest new digital media, content creation and advanced 3D gaming with the breakthrough performance of the Intel Core i5 processor--with 4-way multitasking processor power to work on four tasks simultaneously.


Thanks to the built-in webcam and Toshiba Face Recognition software on this machine, you'll enjoy a more convenient way to communicate, log on or share your laptop among the family. Other high-tech features include a power-saving Eco Button to help reduce power consumption based on your needs, USB Sleep-and-Charge port, a hard drive impact sensor that protects your data, and a dual-layer DVD