Toshiba Satellite U500-178
Specifications
Notebook: Toshiba Satellite U500-178 (Satellite U500 Series)Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce G210M
Display: 13.3 inch, 16:10, 1280x800 pixels, glossy: yes
Weight: 2kg
Price: 1000 euro
Average of 2 scores (from 2 reviews)
Reviews for the Toshiba Satellite U500-178
Source: Trusted Reviews
There's plenty to like about Toshiba's Satellite U500-178: it's very fast, portable and offers excellent connectivity, both wired and wireless. It also has one or two outstanding features, such as the backlit keyboard and the ability to charge USB devices even when switched off. In use, however, it's ultimately let down by mediocre battery life and a slightly sub-par keyboard, but if you don't mind buying an extra battery then its performance and varied features still warrant it a place on your shortlist.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/20/2009
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 80% performance: 80% features: 90% mobility: 60%
Source: Pocket Lint
Toshiba’s Satellite U500-178 is a highly portable laptop that’s great for either home use or a life on the move. With a 13.3-inch screen, it’s small enough to slip into most laptop bags, yet also packs in a powerful Nvidia GeForce G 210M graphics card. Although the quality of the keyboard lets it down, the Toshiba Satellite U500-178 is a great machine for those wanting to combine their desktop PC and laptop. It’s easily small enough to take to work with you each day, yet provides outstanding office and multimedia performance. A great all-rounder, and well worth a look.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/02/2009
Rating: Total score: 80%
Comment
NVIDIA GeForce G210M: The GeForce G210M is the successor of the G110M and also possesses 16 shader cores. Because of the 40nm process, the chip is clocked much higher but is still staying in the same power envelope.
Non demanding games should be playable with these graphics cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core 2 Duo: This is the Core Duo and Core Solo successor with a longer pipeline and 5-20% more speed without more power consumption. As an addition to the Core Duo design there exists a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU).
The Core 2 Duo for laptops is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors but the notebook-processors work with lower voltages (0.95 to 1188 Volt) and a lower Frontside bus clock (1066 vs 667 MHz). The performance of equally clocked notebooks is 20-25% lower than Desktop PCs because of the lower Frontside bus clock and the slower hard disks.
P8700:
Mid-range dual core processor with 3 MB level 3 cache and a TDP of 25 Watt.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
13.3": This is a common display format for subnotebooks. Netbooks, UMPC and some subnotebooks have tinier displays. Nevertheless, the majority of standard laptops has a higher format. The advantage of a small display is, that the subnotebook can be small dimensioned and can be carried easily. Further the small display needs few energy, which improves the battery runtime and in consequence the mobility. The disadvantage is that the reading of texts is a bit exhausting for the eyes, especially with high resolutions.» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.
2 kg: These sub-notebooks weight less than the average of all notebooks, but represent a heavier class of weight among the sub-notebooks. 12 inch displays are normal for this class of weight.
Toshiba: Toshiba Corporation is a multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Japan. The company's main business is in Infrastructure, Consumer Products, and Electronic devices and components. Toshiba-made Semiconductors are among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Toshiba is one of the biggest international notebook-manufacturer. There exist many reviews for Toshiba models.
80%: This rating is not convincing. The laptop is evaluated below average, this is not really a recommendation for purchase.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
