Customer Reviews
Great for the price, great for multiple tasks! 
2008-06-14
I bought this laptop last year after my other Toshiba had an unfortunate accident. I use it for school work, as well as RAM-consuming design programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. Even with all three running, this computer can handle it. I've been really happy with the Toshiba brand, and this computer has not let me down. The only downfalls are short battery life (I always leave it plugged in anyways), and Windows Vista has it's annoyances, but in all, I'm really happy with this product. It is good for anyone who uses it for surfing the net, working on a term paper, or using more sophisticated programs. It's got a great sized screen, and is light enough to take on the road.
Terrible Laptop DO NOT BUY TOSHIBA 
2008-06-02
WHen i first bought the laptop, it worked fine. Then, the sound card went to i had to take it to best buy to get the whole motherboard replaced. This was in the first 4 months of owning it. 2 months later, the whole hard drive goes, so i lose everything + i have to get it sent out for 2-4 weeks. Best Buy was able to recover some of the data, but not all. Also, the wireless card sucks so i have to restart the computer every time i want to use Internet Explorer (i suggest using Safari for Windows, it doesn't have the same problems with the wireless card). Finally, it is the slowest computer i have ever used! it only came with .5 gb of ram, and needs at least 1 to run properly with vista. DO NOT BUY TOSHIBA
Defective Motherboard Issues? 2008-03-21
I agree as well; there is a problem with this computer screen. It does not appear on the start up screen but only on the active background. Lines at the top and trying to open and close Windows is extremely problematic. I have to close them at the bottom in the dialog box. This problem appeared almost immediately. This is definitely a problem with the motherboard. In addition the Vista/Toshiba combination is horribly slow. It takes forever for this computer to respond when using pictures and moving files. This is one of those computers that looks good on paper but in real life is a total dud. Consumer Reports had this as a "Best Buy" but I guess they just ran clock speed tests; anyone who actually uses this computer will be well aware of functionality issues. This may be restricted to the models displaying the Toshiba motherboard defect but my experience matches the others.
toshiba's edsel 2008-03-06
There was a time when Toshiba dominated the low-mid price notebook market. Toshiba virtually "invented" the "laptop", so dominant were they at the origin of the genre. No longer is this the case. What made the old Toshibas as good as they were, was that they either made their own components, or subcontracted locally in Japan, and assembled all their machines at home. This situation enabled excellent quality control. In the 90's, they started subcontracting in Korea and other parts of the Pacific Rim, and assembling the machines all over the world. In my opinion, the biggest mistake was the cheap harddrives they have built by Hitachi. These Hitachi harddrives are simply junk. The notorious Hitachi "Death Star", as it became known,may have crashed more frequently than any other hard drive built in the late 90's. The tragedy is - Toshiba hard drives are still made to the exacting standards of their early 90's machines, but they can knock off hundreds of dollars per machine by installing the cheap Hitachis. Combine this situation with the compatability problems of Vista in its current state and there you have major problems. Take it from one who has learned by hard experience. You get what you pay for. If these were Toshiba drives, you'd be paying $899 US not $699 or lower. Voila!
Good for the price 2008-02-11
Good product for the price. Only had trouble with a DOS based program, but of course those are about out of date, so it was to be expected. As for speed, it's ok. Only thing I didn't like was that it had 2 512MB DIMM's and I thougt it was 1 1GB, so the expansion I bought only brought it up to 1.5GB
Do Not buy a Toshiba A135-S2386 laptop- It's a lemon 2008-02-07
The Satellite A135 Series is economically priced with technology you'll value. Systems feature the latest in Intel processors for optimal performance. There's big memory for all your mp3s, work, picture and video files. All systems feature a 15.4" diagonal WXGA TruBrite display adding the WOW factor to games and movies! Toshiba's DVD SuperMulti optical drive (select models) reads and writes up to 11 formats, including DVD-RAM which acts like an optical HDD. High-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g) lets you work cable free. No more searching for phone jacks, network cables, or plugging in special cards. Connect easily to networks in your home, office, and in wireless LAN hotspots at airports, hotels and coffee shops.
Heavy, but bright and sturdy 
2007-12-28
Definitely consider for home desktop replacement. Sturdy - but heavy - huge bright screen. Good buy
Did not regret this purchase. 2007-12-18
I haven't regret the day I have purchased this item.Toshiba products are really durable and hardcore.Its running very stable and works all my programs without any speed bumps.Would highly recommend this...One of the best price performance labtop you can find around.
Vista and Toshiba are a bad match 2007-11-30
I am always skeptical with these inexpensive laptops and this time I should have been more so. The lap top has been in the shop more than out and the technicians keep claiming that Vista is not working right with the equipment. Who knows? The vaunted media capabilities of vista don't work with it. Leaving you with a pretty useless machine. By the time you purchase the necessary additional software to get what you need to make the machine even marginally useful (word processing and spreadsheets), you are at the price of a basic Mac. The Mac is like your television, you open the box and it works. All of these windows based computers would be like receiving your television without the remote and then having to purchase that seperately and then program it in. Would you ever buy such a TV? Then why buy one of these?
Good Computer 
2007-11-26
I got this A13585-s4527 from Office Depot and added 2 gig memory and removed Vista and installed XP Professional. I didnt have any issues with the laptop :) this really works very well and the speed is really good. Good computer to have.
