Toshiba Satellite a505-s6960 is one of the budget releases of the Japanese manufacturer. Over the years, Toshiba has raised the bar of its quality, becoming one of the leaders in the laptop business. The Satellite family has been full of surprises and the a505-s6960 doesn’t disappoint.
It’s a 16 inch laptop that promises a lot. Although intended for students (due to the release date right before the beginning of the school year, the <back to school> marketing time) the Toshiba satellite a505-s6960 appeals to anybody. It’s a great deal looking at the price and at the performance it promises. We will show you why.
First of all, let’s see the components list we will get with the package: 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 CPU, 4 GB of 800 MHz DDR2 RAM, 320GB 5,400 rpm hard drive, Mobile Intel GM45 chipset, Intel GMA 4500MHD (integrated) video/graphics card. It’s a very good configuration, but not the best. The components blend in perfectly; very good speed, thanks to the 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and the 4 GB of RAM; very good hard drive with plenty of storage space. It’s not good for gaming, but you can always get a Play Station or an X-Box. The memory can be expanded up to 8 GB, but you won’t need it soon because 4 GB are enough for today’s applications. It can perform really great for CAD applications, Photoshop, Corel Draw, not to mention basic apps like Office and such. The real disadvantage is the fact that you can’t run demanding games on it, but it can manage most of the games released in the past years.
The 16-inch wide-screen LCD offers a 1,366x768 native resolution, very well for this price range. It's a quality display with beautiful color, good contrast, and powerful brightness. The a505-s6960 comes with all the features you would expect from a laptop this king, but it troughs something more. Beside the classic features like Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks, VGA-out, HDMI, ExpressCard/54, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and DVD burner, Toshiba ads 3 USB 2.0, eSATA/USB 2.0 combo, multiformat card reader. It’s not much, but is does make a difference when you get to use the laptop in complex environments. It suffers because it has no built-in Bluetooth, but you can’t expect that much from a laptop in this price range.
It comes with Windows Vista, and even if some consider Vista bad, you can manage with it quite well. You can upgrade to Windows 7 because the a505-s6960 supports 64 bit applications, although you won’t use them (excepting Win 7) in the next period of time.
On the outside of this Toshiba we can see the Fusion Finish consisting in a sonic pattern in black onyx. It’s a great finish and a row of touch-sensitive media controls (above the keyboard) and a Webcam and Mic (above the screen) complete it.
Looking for other the Toshiba satellite a505-s6960 reviews, we found out that this laptop has been rated excellent by almost every one. Expert’s reviews gave it 7.5 out of 10 and users have been rating it at 8 out of 10. Overall, it’s a great piece of machinery, especially considering the price. Not many companies afford to throw such a configuration at this price and that makes the Toshiba satellite a505-s6960 a great choice for a laptop, not just for students, but for any user.
Tags: a505, back to school, review, s6069, satellite, Toshiba