Review Toshiba Satellite S955D-S5150 Notebook

Toshiba’s marketing has focused on the fact that the S955D features a new, “sexier” design—and it’s true that it is attractive for a 15-inch notebook. Measuring just around an inch thick, it’s among the most portable 15.6-inch models with an optical drive that we’ve reviewed.

In spite of the S955D’s slimmer form factor, it actually comes off as a bit sturdier than our S855D review model did. That’s likely due in part to some minor changes made to the case design, though it still remains predominantly plastic in all the same areas (due to savings in terms of both cost and weight; once again, only the display lid and palm rest are coated with brushed metal). Most noticeably, the tendency of the base unit to flex under minor pressure has actually been reduced—though the area underneath the optical drive still yields willingly to any sort of pinching (a common problem). It also boasts a lighter weight: just 4.97 pounds versus the S855D’s 5.28 pounds. Regardless of the improvements, however, this is still a fragile machine overall.

While the plastic covers may look a bit chintzy, the hinges do their job in holding the screen relatively tightly without too much wobble. Apart from the fragility of the design, the biggest problem overall with the casing is the propensity for fingerprint collection, which the assortment of glossy surfaces manages effortlessly. Still, it’s better both in terms of perceived quality and practicality than, say, the HP Sleekbook’s form-over-function wall-to-wall gloss.

Maintenance is mostly convenient with the S955D unless you need to go beyond the basics. A hatch on the bottom of the notebook still provides easy access to the hard drive and memory, while the screen bezel is secured by four hidden screws and an assortment of plastic clips, making LCD swaps relatively painless.

Keyboard

Regrettably, Toshiba has made no upgrades to the S955D’s keyboard, which remains the same lackluster model as the S855D. The so-called “Premium US keyboard” is ultimately a far cry from truly great selections such as Dell’s Latitude models or Lenovo’s ThinkPad keyboards of all varieties. The Chiclet-style design is trendy, but its operation leaves a lot to be desired. It’s mushy, flat, and the keys feature a short travel distance. They also provide a muted sense of feedback, which makes discerning the difference between a hard press on a key and a hard press on the space between the keys very difficult. That means that typing errors are frequent, normally manifesting in the form of missed keystrokes.

Making matters worse are the half-height, difficult to operate arrow keys, which need to be eyeballed to properly operate. Finally, no option exists for backlighting. These are precisely the same issues we complained about when reviewing the S855D; it’s disappointing that the keyboard hasn’t been improved since then. On the bright side, at least the full-sized number pad is available—though this is hardly uncommon for 15.6-inch notebooks.

Touchpad

The Synaptics touchpad is exactly the opposite—namely, accurate, comfortable, and easy to operate. Its size is generous and its smooth texture provides for easy finger movement. The buttons below it are stable and provide a firm, palpable “click” when depressed. Meanwhile, driver support is as robust as usual coming out of Synaptics, with a full array of options and functional support for multi-touch gestures, too.

The various Satellite S950 series configurations include both AMD and Intel CPUs, ranging up to an Intel Core i5-3337U. Note that, unlike the S855 series (which featured options as powerful as quad-core Intel processors, including the Intel Core i7-3610QM), these are all ultra-low-voltage processors with a maximum TDP of 19 W—so performance ought to be below that of the S855D. The price difference between the Intel and AMD S955 models is currently around $100, and our review unit includes the more budget-conscious AMD A8-4555M APU.

The A8-4555M is a late 2012 entry in AMD’s Trinity-based lineup, manufactured in 32nm SOI and featuring Turbo Core 3.0 technology, which (like Intel’s Turbo Boost), overclocks the processor automatically when more power is required, so long as thermal headroom exists. It possesses a base clock rate of 1.6 GHz and can increase its frequency all the way to 2.4 GHz in this way. Its power consumption is just slightly (2 W) above that of Intel’s ultra-low-voltage Ivy Bridge line, but performance is consistently behind Intel’s offerings.

For system memory, our review unit shipped with 8 GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) RAM in the form of two Kingston 4 GB DIMMs. Meanwhile, the on-die Trinity GPU featured with the A8-4555M is the Radeon HD 7600G. As with all other AMD Trinity and Intel Core GPUs, the clock rate varies based on the performance demand. The 7600G’s frequency ranges from 320 to 424 MHz.

In terms of processor performance, our synthetic benchmarks place the S955D on roughly the same level as other notebooks sharing the same APU. For instance, both superPi and wPrime provide nearly identical results to the IdeaPad S405, though the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15z-b000 lags behind due to its issues with throttling under load. Cinebench R11.5 reinforces these results.

To check whether performance degrades when operating only on battery power, we ran 3DMark 11 a second time without AC power. The result of 887 confirms that the machine does not need the AC adapter attached for full performance.  Finally, our testing with DPC Latency Checker revealed no problems streaming real-time audio and video.

Our Satellite S955D-S5150 was outfitted with a Toshiba MQ01ABD100 1 TB 5400 RPM hard drive, which is a standard mechanical drive. Although it isn’t a 7200 RPM model, its scores are still quite fast, with a good average transfer rate of 72.1 MB/sec. No SSD options exist, and there are actually not even any 7200 RPM drives to choose from. Fortunately, swapping out the drive yourself is very easy; it’s accessible beneath the maintenance hatch on the bottom of the unit, and since it’s a standard 9.5 mm drive bay, any 2.5” replacement drive should fit without a problem.

Unfortunately, the negative side effect of low fan noise is often high temperatures—and in the S955D’s case, this is a definite problem. While idle, things are reasonable (though not fantastic), with a maximal reading of 34.8 degrees C recorded on the bottom-left of the notebook (just underneath the exhaust vent). Fire up a game, though, and things heat up pretty quickly. The S955D reached an uncomfortable 46.2 degrees C under full load (recoded in the center-back of the bottom of the notebook), which renders use on the lap impractical. The power adapter also reached rather high temperatures of 46 degrees C.

In addition to our usual array of system benchmarks, we also like to explore whether a machine can handle heavy stress. For this, we impose 100% load on the CPU, GPU, and then both simultaneously using FurMark and Prime95 while monitoring temperatures, clock rates, and other parameters.

During the S955D’s Prime95 full CPU stress test, all four of the A8-4555M’s virtual cores began at the 1.8 GHz base frequency. Before long, however, each core began shifting between 910 MHz and 1821 MHz (two at a time), most likely due to temperature (having reached 56.5 degrees C) interfering with continued operation.

Following that, our FurMark full GPU stress test revealed only a short burst of Turbo Core operation (at 424 MHz) before the GPU eventually dropped to just 200 MHz permanently (below the base clock rate of 320 MHz).

Following such a shaky performance during the individual CPU/GPU stress tests, it stands to reason that the system would not likely be able to handle simultaneous stress very well. Sure enough, the S955D almost instantaneously throttled to a CPU frequency across all four virtual cores of just 910 MHz and a GPU frequency of 200 MHz. These values are bare minimum clock rates for all of these components, and they suggest that, like other notebooks we’ve reviewed before it with the same chipset, the S955D simply isn’t made for heavy operation.

Directly after completing the full system stress test for one hour, we performed a subsequent run of 3DMark 11 to see if the stress would affect the score. Fortunately, it did not (with a resulting score of 892), though that does not mean that real-world performance is not affected by the throttling—only that it is quite possible that the effects of throttling have already been baked into our recorded scores from previous tests.

Slimmer, sexier, and lighter than the S855D-S5256—and also priced $50 lower—the S955D-S5150 could make for quite a contender if the rest of the package fell into place. It’s certainly a very portable 15-inch notebook. Plus, its battery life still beats the S855D, which included a larger battery (but also a full-voltage APU).

But the S955D succumbs to the same fate as the other budget A8-4555M models we’ve reviewed before it: specifically, weak CPU performance coupled with restrictive battery life. Gaming performance is better thanks to the dual-channel RAM, but this notebook still isn’t meant for gaming. The only upside is the price and portability, but for $50 and some size and weight savings, the compromises elsewhere don’t feel warranted. Moreover, for the most part, the majority of the S855D’s construction complaints still apply here, with a frustrating keyboard and a predominantly plastic construction leading the pack.

Where to go, then, if you’re searching for an ultraportable, affordable 15-inch notebook? Options remain unfortunately thin, with HP’s Sleekbook 15z and Lenovo’s IdeaPad S405 receiving mixed reviews as well. It might be worth saving up a bit more and expanding your budget to include such models as the well-received Samsung Series 5 510R5E, the Asus PU500CA-XO002X, or (if you don’t mind a 14-inch screen), Toshiba’s own U840t—you’ll likely appreciate the difference the extra cost makes.