Review: Toshiba Satellite A660-X5310

Toshiba has announced some new laptops for the Indian market in various price changes. And one such laptop happenned to be a 3D capable entertainment laptop, Satellite A660-X5310. This latest 3d laptop and is powered by Intel Core i5 560M processor. It sports a dark chocolate brown shell and has glossy finish with textured surface on lid.

The Toshiba Satellite A660-X5310 features a 15.6 inch LED 3D display screen with 1366 x 768 resolution. It als comes with a Web Camera with face recognition software, Multi-touch touchpad with gesture support. It runs on Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system and equipped with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.2Ghz, Intel HM55 chipset motherboard and 4GB DDR3 RAM.

Features

CPU: Intel Core i5 560M CPU

RAM: 4 GB DDR3 RAM

Storage: 500 GB

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTS 350M

Display: 15.6 inch – 1366 x 768 resultion – 120Hz refresh rate

Networking: 10/100 Ethernet Jack, Wi-Fi

Other: USB ports, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, SD Card Reader

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium

Dimensions (W x H x D): 380.5 x 25 x 254 mm

Weight: 2.62 kg

Review

Toshiba Satellite A660-X5310 sports a dark chocolate brown shell and has glossy finish with textured surface on lid. This laptop has enough power for full HD playback, gaming and slightly heavy applications like basic image editing, video trans-coding and audio editing. The native resolution of 1366 x 768 combined with a refresh rate of 120 Hz makes it 3D capable.

The 3D vision kit, that comes with the laptop, comprises of a pair of shutter glasses and a transmitter. The tiny Harmon/Kardon speakers at the top corner complements the large screen and produce loud and clear sound.

The laptop offers good ergonomics, with a wide design and the keyboard has separate numeric pad. the keyboard is a chiclet-style one with backlit keys and the key spacing and tactility are both very good. The trackpad offers enough room for maneuverability.

The USB, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet port are placed on the sides, while the card reader is placed on the front. The battery life is not good and it lasted slightly less than 2 hours on idle mode. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 350M is powerful enough to play games at the native resolution (1366 x 768) with medium settings. It scored 3749 points in 3D Mark Vantage (Entry Mode) and Crysis Warhead ran smoothly at 38 fps with Mainstream settings at 1366 x 768.

For

Backlit Keyboard

Bundled 3d Vision kit

Excellent sound quality

Against

Expensive for its configuration

Conclussion

The overall performance of the laptop is good but the battery life is a bit of concern. At approximately Rs. 76000, this laptop is expensive for its configuration. A full HD screen and a Blu-ray drive would have added a lot more value.