Toshiba Satellite L645D: Mobile AMD at 3GHz
by Dustin Sklavos on March 9, 2011 3:20 AM ESTConclusion: But it's $619
Reviewing the Toshiba L645D-S4106 has left me with decidedly mixed feelings. Cheap Arrandale-based notebooks are going to provide better processor performance than even AMD's fastest in the L645D, and they'll offer better battery life in the process. Likewise, I really wish Toshiba would just put glossy plastic out to pasture. I've griped about this before but it bears repeating: glossy plastic photographs reasonably well and that's about it, and using it on the keyboard is a horrendous idea.
But...the L645D is $619.
Taken in a vacuum the L645D might be underwhelming, but thankfully for Toshiba (and possibly you and Joe Sixpack), it's not in a vacuum. Toshiba attacks the budget market fairly aggressively, and the value proposition of this notebook is certainly strong. The processor may be competing with some of Arrandale's slowest, but Arrandale's architecture is really quite fast so there isn't much to complain about there. Toshiba may be shipping it with a slow hard drive, but that drive still packs 640GB of capacity. The Mobility Radeon HD 4250 may be on its last legs, but it still gets the job done in a pinch (and at very low settings). And hey, you get a Blu-ray drive standard and an HDMI output to use it with.
A quick visit to NewEgg proves that if you want the 14" form factor, you're going to have to spend a little more to get it. There aren't any cheaper 14" notebooks with the Blu-ray drive, and there are maybe one or two available that promise better CPU performance than the L645D does. If you're buying on a budget you need to accept that you'll have to make some trade-offs. In the case of the L645D, that means putting up with Toshiba's glossy finish (really only an authentic nuisance on the keyboard) and middling battery life in exchange for a decent processor, a Blu-ray drive, and mobility. For the college student strapped for cash the L645D may not be such a bad call, but because it's a budget notebook you're really going to have to decide what's important to you.
Under the circumstances we'd suggest taking the L645D (or a similarly built Toshiba notebook) for a test drive in retail before taking the plunge. The entire L640 line looks like it offers tremendous bang for the buck, with this one being king of the castle. It's tough to recommend any budget notebook because of all the trade-offs that are always involved, but if you need something portable and don't have a lot to spend the L645D is a good option. If you're in the above situation, though, losing Blu-ray and saving another $100 is probably an even better idea.
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Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Glossy plastic looks good in photos and that's about all it's good for; using glossy plastic for the keyboard is insane.mmatis - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I no longer touch any Toshiba products. Your mileage may vary.Vincent - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I see 10/100 ethernet offered on a surprising number of notebooks. Why cripple a machine like this? I wish reviewers would criticize manufacturers for not offering gigabit ethernet.alent1234 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
almost everyone uses wifi these days, and this is a way to cut some costs on a low margin product. most people won't care about no gigabit since no one has gigabit broadband and the whole home media server thing is a tiny nicheanactoraaron - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
yeah but let's face it, we're talking about a difference of about a dollar to Toshiba for the gigabit upgrade. And to say whole home media server or even media sharing is a niche in regards to a laptop with a blu-ray player seems a bit off base.piroroadkill - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
No. If you want to use the laptops in a small business situation, imaging over gigabit is much, much faster.Believe me, consumer laptops DO get used in small business/education environments.
Also, gigabit ethernet would cost almost nothing to add over 10/100. There's simply no reason not to have it.
piesquared - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I recently bought an Acer 5552G with one an N660, and it's a terrific notebook. It has a 6470M but I never bought it for the gaming, even though it has no problems for what I use it for. Highly recommend the processors, and i'd wouldn't touch one of those flakey sand bridge things, or whatever they're called. It's a big risk buying one of those unstable and flawed parts.Kibbles - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I'm curious as to why glossy plastic is so adamantly deemed as bad, as if it's fact. I myself prefer the ultrafine matte that's almost like a paper texture, but that's a personal preference. I'm sure there's lots of people out there that like glossy plastics. I know my mom likes it. Could it be that the demographics that these low end laptops target predominantly prefer glossy plastics? Has any manufacturer ever given any statistical feedback on this?LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
The amount of crap loaded on Toshiba laptops disguised as useful software makes me avoid them. Hey, we have a separate widget for managing absolutely everything, and each one runs in a separate process that takes up additional RAM, and each one is a separate executable that takes up disk space too! Isn't that NEAT?Toshiba, a bit of advice: Look at apps like Dell ControlPoint, or even a few of Lenovo's (not as cohesive, but still better thought-out), and realize what a great service you could do your users by bundling nearly a dozen system utilities into a single, unified app. That way, the average user doesn't have to send a system to me to figure out what is useful, what is not, and why all of the stock software is sucking half a gig of RAM (on top of what the OS takes) out of the box, and thrashing the disk. Actually, you're also less likely to have a user say "I'll never buy a Toshiba again, they're ungodly slow."
KiwiTT - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
After nearly 8 years since that model was released, I would have thought we would have had double or even triple the resolution in a 14" form-factor.And it is not just Toshiba, it is nearly all the manufacturers. And if you want comparable resolution to the T41, you have to pay almost double. While you may say that the new notebooks have better brighter Screens, CPUs, Graphic Cards, Battery life, etc., it seems as if screen resolution has been stuck in neutral. This is the main portal to all that is available in the notebook, so it should be the best it can be.
I think major review sites like this one and others should actually start bemoaning this lack of increase in resolution for more mainstream notebooks. Even the new ipad2 was rumored initially to have a better resolution, but no, this was false again.