Izulde
10-24-2009, 09:14 PM
Okay, so we apparently have bad wiring in my apartment that a couple weeks ago took out my 360, my 360 controller and the cable receiver. That was bad enough, but I thought maybe it was just a fluke run of bad luck.
Then this morning I wake up to my laptop and my Wii both fried. I immediately unplugged the TV, PS3, phone charger, cable modem, wireless router and desktop, because if those things go down, especially the BC PS3, I'd go psychotic.
But that still leaves the fact that I need a laptop and as soon as possible. I'm thinking just something cheap to last me till fall and I'm hopefully in an MFA program somewhere.
So I hop on the bus and go to Best Buy. I'm walking along, looking at the laptops, figuring I'll maybe spend about $500 or so. I'm checking out the Gateways and thinking about one of them since they seem cheap enough and I haven't heard anything horrid about their durability.
I'm thinking about it as I start to leave the computer section and head over to the games section.
Then out of the corner of my eye, I see white backlighting.
I go over to the endcap and sitting there is a stunning, 18.4 inch monitor black Toshiba with a few white blacklit elements.
I look up at the specs tag overhead and read the list:
Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 Processor (Hmm, okay. Duo is fine)
Windows 7 (At least I won't have to upgrade)
500 gig hard drive (That's awesome!)
6 gig video memory (Highest I've seen so far. Very, very sweet.)
Blu-Ray drive (....Did that just say... Blu-Ray?! I LOVE!!!!)
Then I let my eyes drift over to the price, expecting it to be some Mac-level amount.
$879.99
I nearly fainted right there. I couldn't believe it was that cheap.
And so I couldn't resist. I ended up getting it. :)
The speakers on this thing are the best I've ever heard on a laptop and the keys and touchpad feel awesome beneath my fingertips. While I do wish the keyboard was backlit as well, at this price point, I'm okay with that. And I love the backlit elements it does have.
It's a very new laptop apparently, as I had trouble finding reviews even on its line, let alone the model #. But I did find this little snippet from a review on a different model in the line very cool, as it validated my impressions of the speakers:
The last notebook that really impressed me with the onboard speaker system was the Toshiba Satellite A305, giving rich audio from oversized flush-mounted speakers. The P505 continues that trend with an impressive harman/kardon sound system. Unlike the majority of notebook speakers, you can actually hear bass and midrange, although not enough to shake picture frames off walls or annoy neighbors. For a small room the sound system is more than adequate for watching a movie or just playing music in the background. For larger areas, headphones or a stereo system would still be preferred.
I'm also very much enjoying 7 over Vista. It feels much more intuitive and pleasant to use.
Getting a Toshiba laptop was also a homecoming of sorts for me. I'd used Toshiba laptops a lot when I was younger and they were absolute tanks. My first one, probably about 12-14 years old now, still runs extremely well (I gave it to my uncle some years ago) and it was only my frustration with its slowness that made me switch to Sony, then Acer. I had problems with both Sony and Acer, especially the latter with the keyboard and touchpad's durability. In fact, it was the Acer that fried this morning and I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. It had numerous busted keys and a broken left mouse button on the touchpad.
So now I'm back to the old durable Toshiba and this thing is flying. :) It's the P505-S8980 if anyone's interested.
http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o395/Izulde08/crookedlaptop.jpg
Apologies for the crookedness of the picture. I took it with my cell phone at a weird angle.
Still need to get a carrying case for it as it won't fit in my backpack. :) But thus far, I absolutely *love* this laptop and can't wait to play a Blu-Ray disc in it, even though I have my PS3.
Oh, it also has 4 USB ports and an HDMI port, which is good enough for me.
Then this morning I wake up to my laptop and my Wii both fried. I immediately unplugged the TV, PS3, phone charger, cable modem, wireless router and desktop, because if those things go down, especially the BC PS3, I'd go psychotic.
But that still leaves the fact that I need a laptop and as soon as possible. I'm thinking just something cheap to last me till fall and I'm hopefully in an MFA program somewhere.
So I hop on the bus and go to Best Buy. I'm walking along, looking at the laptops, figuring I'll maybe spend about $500 or so. I'm checking out the Gateways and thinking about one of them since they seem cheap enough and I haven't heard anything horrid about their durability.
I'm thinking about it as I start to leave the computer section and head over to the games section.
Then out of the corner of my eye, I see white backlighting.
I go over to the endcap and sitting there is a stunning, 18.4 inch monitor black Toshiba with a few white blacklit elements.
I look up at the specs tag overhead and read the list:
Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 Processor (Hmm, okay. Duo is fine)
Windows 7 (At least I won't have to upgrade)
500 gig hard drive (That's awesome!)
6 gig video memory (Highest I've seen so far. Very, very sweet.)
Blu-Ray drive (....Did that just say... Blu-Ray?! I LOVE!!!!)
Then I let my eyes drift over to the price, expecting it to be some Mac-level amount.
$879.99
I nearly fainted right there. I couldn't believe it was that cheap.
And so I couldn't resist. I ended up getting it. :)
The speakers on this thing are the best I've ever heard on a laptop and the keys and touchpad feel awesome beneath my fingertips. While I do wish the keyboard was backlit as well, at this price point, I'm okay with that. And I love the backlit elements it does have.
It's a very new laptop apparently, as I had trouble finding reviews even on its line, let alone the model #. But I did find this little snippet from a review on a different model in the line very cool, as it validated my impressions of the speakers:
The last notebook that really impressed me with the onboard speaker system was the Toshiba Satellite A305, giving rich audio from oversized flush-mounted speakers. The P505 continues that trend with an impressive harman/kardon sound system. Unlike the majority of notebook speakers, you can actually hear bass and midrange, although not enough to shake picture frames off walls or annoy neighbors. For a small room the sound system is more than adequate for watching a movie or just playing music in the background. For larger areas, headphones or a stereo system would still be preferred.
I'm also very much enjoying 7 over Vista. It feels much more intuitive and pleasant to use.
Getting a Toshiba laptop was also a homecoming of sorts for me. I'd used Toshiba laptops a lot when I was younger and they were absolute tanks. My first one, probably about 12-14 years old now, still runs extremely well (I gave it to my uncle some years ago) and it was only my frustration with its slowness that made me switch to Sony, then Acer. I had problems with both Sony and Acer, especially the latter with the keyboard and touchpad's durability. In fact, it was the Acer that fried this morning and I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. It had numerous busted keys and a broken left mouse button on the touchpad.
So now I'm back to the old durable Toshiba and this thing is flying. :) It's the P505-S8980 if anyone's interested.
http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o395/Izulde08/crookedlaptop.jpg
Apologies for the crookedness of the picture. I took it with my cell phone at a weird angle.
Still need to get a carrying case for it as it won't fit in my backpack. :) But thus far, I absolutely *love* this laptop and can't wait to play a Blu-Ray disc in it, even though I have my PS3.
Oh, it also has 4 USB ports and an HDMI port, which is good enough for me.