Toshiba Satellite C55-B5352 15.6 inch Laptop Review

Toshiba Satellite C55-B5352
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Toshiba Satellite C55-B5352 is a good value, reliable and modern laptop that focuses on value for money while managing to be a solid performer in low to moderately demanding everyday applications like net surfing, working on spreadsheets and documents, checking emails, using social media and playing lighter games- suitable for entertainment or multimedia use at home, schoolwork or small/home business as the Passmark benchmark score of 2494 (on the review day) is not bad at all.

Toshiba Satellite is offered with the dual core Intel i3-4005U (3M Cache) processor at 1.70GHz base speed (no turbo boost to move the speed up) but hyper threading so the CPU is used better with two cores handling four threads, 6GB DDR3L SDRAM at 1600MHz memory that is not user upgradable but quite sufficient for multitasking without any slow-downs at this level, 750GB Serial ATA hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed as above average storage space to be able to save a good amount of regular and media files and Windows 8.1 operating system. Intel i3-4005U is an ultra low voltage processor with a TDP- thermal design power of just 15 watts, helping with longer battery life as well.

15.6 inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite LED backlit TFT display at 1366 x 768 pixel native resolution and Mobile Intel HD 4400 graphics with shared memory with the main CPU are the main specs for screen. Naturally you’re not going to see a Full HD display that supports 1080p resolution with IPS panel as both cost money and a bit hard to get at this price level. It comes with a high definition webcam with a microphone for casual live chats on Skype and does its job fine. We couldn’t come across any complaints about the sound quality through its integrated stereo speakers so we’re assuming it should be OK. And for gaming you really do need more than the integrated HD 4400 graphics card that comes built into this PC but having said that it performs better than the Intel HD 4000- you can expect an easy 20-30% boost in speed and it is not as fast as the HD 5000, so it will depend on the main CPU but what we’re looking at here is overall performance that compares well to the Radeon HD 7550M dedicated graphics and it will still let you play the older games at higher and some of the newer titles at lower resolutions and settings.

Black Toshiba Satellite C55-B5352 weighs just 4.85 pounds, which means it is lighter than an average 15.6 inch laptop and measures 10.16 x 15.18 x 0.89 inches- relatively slim too. It has a regular black US keyboard with 10-key numeric pad on the right hand side for quick numeric data entry, but obviously it is not backlit and can’t be at the budget price level and the trackpad appears to be responsive and supports multi touch control to use with Windows 8.1 apps and functions. The lithium Ion 45Wh 4-Cell battery is not user replaceable and we do not have the info on battery life but you can probably expect about 4-5 hours considering the system TDP is only 15 watts. The exterior is not solid aluminium like on some of the expensive laptops but plastic and provides adequate protection around the internal components. There is no Bluetooth (Antenna) on this computer by default and you just need to get a cheap Bluetooth USB dongle if you want one, but a DVD SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer) supporting 11 formats, Memory- SD Card Reader to transfer multimedia files from other devices like camera, 10/100 Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connectivity, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Wireless networking, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x USB 3.0 port, an HDMI output to mirror the laptop screen to HDTV, an RGB port, a Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack and a Security Cable Lock Slot.

Conclusion: The most important part of any computer is probably its CPU and Toshiba Satellite C55-B5352 has a winner here with the Intel i3-4005U with a Passmark benchmark score of 2494, which means this CPU along with the 6GB memory can handle basic to moderate demand tasks smoothly and easily. We also like that the hard drive has above average storage capacity at 750GB (also has HDD Recovery function) and the graphics card is the reasonable Intel HD 4400 which allows some gaming and basic multimedia editing. You get 1 month trials for the new Microsoft Office 365 and Norton Internet Security which you’re probably better off replacing with free AVG or AVAST online but of course this is up to you. It is an EPEAT Gold registered and Energy Star qualified computer and 1 year standard limited warranty for parts and labor is included. It is not loaded with junkware or advertising like many other PC’s, is easy to set-up and transfer files from your older PC and easy to use for a newbie. Lack of Bluetooth and the presence of Windows 8 (but Windows 10 is out soon and you'll be able to upgrade for free for 1 year from its release date) would be the two cons but for the price you really are getting the most of what matters most- CPU and RAM for decent daily overall performance.

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