Customer Reviews
Good product, bad software 
2007-03-22
The Good: Hardware is quite good (except for the shared memory between the CPU and the GPU; I will explain this further down). The price is good too
The Bad: Vista, and the loads of software (mostly trial versions)
The Ugly: The Aerio 3D interface just slows down almost any task.
I would say that the fault lies with Vista. For instance, I have a quality check application that has to scan through all the pages of my company's web site. A Centrino running XP or a P3 running Windows 2000 is able to complete the whole site of 3000+ pages within 3 minutes whereas Vista's 3D shared memory does not complete even 30 pages in 10 minutes. A Task manager check did not show much CPU activity either. I was wondering where the problem was, as this application needed strong display as well as string parsing "cycles". Disabling the 3D interface got it back to its old speed. Now I am using this in a "Windows Classic" mode to conserve memory and to speed up applications.I believe that the GPU prevents the CPU from accessing any memory while it is working (and not just the shared memory alone). This rather explains the low CPU cycles in the 3D interface. When the 3D interface is disabled, I could see CPU utilization going up to 95% and I even saw many of my applications performing faster than a single CPU machine.
The odd thing is about the microphone. Is it there or not? System says there is one, the quick tour manual says it is there on certain models. Anyway I guess I will buy the web cam cum microphone available at Aldi's for less than $17.00.
I do have plenty of Vista gripes, though. Linux seems very user friendly compared to this monster called Vista. An example is the dialog boxes. The file open dialog displays the new folder icons for software that is part of Vista. On the other hand, all existing software shows the older style of file open dialogs. Folder icons are vertical in one set of dialogs and horizontal in the other set of dialogs.
Coming back to the hardware, Toshiba always makes very good hardware, and this is no exception. I have bought Toshiba notebooks for the past 12+ years and I see no reason to switch from Toshiba. The only gripe I have is about the 3D interface, and all notebooks seem to have the problem right now.
good 2007-03-20
The machine works very good so far, i'm very upset with the tons of TOSHIBA SOFTWARE ( a trial crap), but i think that all the brands do the same.
About Vista, well, i don't like it but i have to use it, i prefer my old XP. we will see it in about 5 years, jajaja.
By the way: DON'T PLAY GOOD GAMES LIKE HITMANN OR SPLINTER CELL, just smaller games.
Great Laptop!! 2007-03-19
Just got it... It looks great. Run smooth! Vista is cool.. 1 GB is fine to run vista but 2 GB is perfect... I will upgrade it later, but I guess Toshiba should install 1 1GB Ram instead of 2 512Ram. This S4467 is perfect for movies and music. Anyway, I think Toshiba is a very good brand and their laptops are very good.
Toshiba Satellite A135-S4517 (aka A135-S4467) 2007-03-17
First off it's important to know that the S4517 is simply the "retail" version of the S4467. I printed the detailed specs on both models from Toshiba's website and compared them line by line. Same exact hardware, same exact software. That being said I have found that the S4517 seems to be priced somewhat less.
I have only had the system < 1 week. I purchased it for $() from easttrades.com. The transaction was very smooth and it arrived in good shape. Staples.com had it for the same price, however I would have had to pay sales tax making easttrades the clear winner.
I am replacing a POS Compaq that I paid over $1500 for nearly 3 years ago. My kids use the laptop on a regular basis and the Compaq had many issues including the infamous BSOD due to overheating issues.
My requirements for this purchase were to stay under $900 and get the best price/performance ratio. I tend to prefer to stand behind the technology curve however with the S4519/S4467 I feel as though I am closer to the front of the pack. By that I mean it has the Core 2 Duo processor and comes with Windows Vista. Both of which are relatively new entries into the consumer mainstream.
The esthetics of the machine are certainly nothing special. i.e. Black/gray and a relatively cheap feeling touchpad setup. However, compared to the Dell E1505 and comparable other vendors I felt that the Toshiba was the clear winner.
The only downside that I decided to "settle" for was the mediocre graphics engine that is provided with the S4517/S4467. It comes with an integrated Intel graphics engine (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950) that shares (steals) memory from the operating system. I was very concerned about the performance as Vista Aero is a 3d interface. I am happy to say that it has performed superb. Granted if you are a serious gamer/graphics user the Intel graphics offering may present a problem.
Being a complete skeptic about whether the dual-processor what worth the additional $ I decided to put it through a few unorthodox tests. For example, I inserted a DVD (Over the Hedge) and started creating other processes to see if I could make it "hiccup". The first thing I tried was to download a product from the internet that was approx. 20mb and install it. At the same time I was transferring some of the contents of the POS Compaq (approx 9gb). I kept expect the DVD to freeze or at least pause, however everything continue to multi-processing as advertised. Needless to say I am very impressed w/ the Core 2 Duo. (and this is all 32-bit code.)
Windows Vista is interesting. The fact that the S4517/S4467 come w/ the premium version is a perk as Aero is a part of Premium. It is not a part of Vista Basic.
The fact that the wireless network adapter supports all three forms of 802.11 is nice. i.e A/B/G. I use WPA-PSK and was able to quickly configure all adapter and get up and running. THis may sound stupid..no, it is stupid.. I have never owned a laptop w/ a built in wireless adapter. It took me a few minutes to figure out there is an OFF/ON switch for the wireless adapter....esp. seeing as I am "allergic" to books.
The hard drive is a nice size for our needs. One bit of consternation that I had was that drive was a 5400 rpm unit. I replaced the drive in the POS Compaq w/ a 7200 rpm drive to help the performance. It made a significant difference, however there are heat/energy trade-off considerations with the 7200 rpm drives. Any way, the drive performs reasonably well according the the computed performance index.
The screen is adequately nice. I did not want a 17" screen as they are overwhelmingly large and besides I didn't want to have to buy a new carrying case.
I thought the standard sound was actually pretty good when I was playing the DVD keeping in mind these were laptop speakers. I could definitely sense the texture of the sound as I played different medias.
Built in combo CD/DVD reader/writer is sweet. It is a dual layer drive that supports DVD-RAM. Not sure I will ever use that feature, however nice to know it is there.
The rest of the configuration is pretty standard. I do like the built in media reader. I am also interested in testing the Vista feature that supports the flash-ram in a configuration called ReadyBoost. From what I have read the performance improvements aren't real impressive however maybe this will improve.
The bottomline is that for the money I couldn't find a better deal that the S4517. So far I am impressed and hope to remain that way for the next couple years. The fact that my kids will be the main user of this machine will certainly put it to the test over the next several months.
value for money 
2007-03-11
I found this laptop quite a bang for the buck. It's not too heavy/bulky that's why even girls like me won't have a hard time lugging it around. The widescreen is bright and clear - perfect for viewing movies. I especially like the shortcuts provided in the keyboard to start/stop the disc player. The laptop doesn't easily heat up as well.
I would have rated this item as 5 stars if not for a few nitpickings:
1. The Delete key is not positioned in the usual way (near the function keys at the top). Instead, it is beside the space bar. This needs some getting used to.
2. The volume control is a bit tacky/old-fashioned because it is shaped liked a knob instead of a touch-button like other laptops.
Overall, I find this product to be a very good value for money.
As good as it shows 2007-05-07
The item that I bouhgt is exactly the one I expected. The shiping was great also.
GREAT GREAT GREAT 2007-04-10
I'm a desktop user and this is my first laptop, it's great, even windows vista is user's friendly, great choice for tight budgets
minor complaints 
2007-03-29
I've had this Toshiba notebook for a month now, and I haven't had any problems with the pc itself. This computer has the same issue that nearly every new computer has these days--it's loaded with junk software and trials. The main problem I have is that Toshiba will not send me the actual Windows Vista software disk (They only send a recovery disk). So if you run into any issues with Vista (like I did) and want to run XP in a dual-boot, you're out of luck (since it is recommended that XP is loaded first, then Vista, which can't be done without the actual Vista software).
Great item 2007-03-29
I was alittle worried about getting this laptop with vista but I have not been disapointed yet. Great system that slammed my presentation out of the park. This is my 3rd Toshiba and I couldn't be happier with them. My only complaint is that it needed more than 1GB out of the box, but I run high graphics and CAD a ton.
Buy this one for work. 2007-03-28
I bought this notebook from Amazon at the end of February and was surprised to find that the McAfee software free trial had expired the month before. I was also surprised to find that Roxio was not installed as it is on the HP notebooks. After installing Norton Security, I found that everything worked well. Perhaps the best feature of the Toshiba Notebook is the ability to expand the memory to 4GB which may well be in this notebooks future.
