Customer Reviews
A great desktop replacement 
2008-04-02
My wife and I bought this computer a couple of weeks ago and we could not be happier. I was looking at the sli2 when to my surprise she suggested we buy the sli4. We are not gamers, just movie and music buffs, and will keep personal items on this machine. It works great, has a beautiful picture when showing HD DVD movies on it, and the sound is equally impressive. We are both very happy with it. Watch for deals on this computer, we bought ours for hundreds less than what shows on here.
Great hardware from Toshiba, not bad for Vista... 
2008-03-27
This is the 3rd Toshiba notebook I've purchased this year. All my Toshibas are solid, fast and eye catching. I'm still not 100% sold on Vista, but this time I installed Vista SP1 first thing out of the box and didn't have any Vista issues after that. The notebook even appears to be faster after SP1. This particular notebook is quite heavy, but I didn't buy it for it's weight, I bought it for it's speed and so far I'm very impressed. Bottom line, another great product from Toshiba.
Great Laptop But Not For The Road Warrior 
2008-03-18
Toshiba has a wonderful laptop with this model. The exterior is stunningly beautiful and the specifications are well thought out. However, I knocked TWO STARS off the model because of the size and weight of the AC power adapter. My previous 17 inch laptop has an AC adaptor that is half the size. The AC adaptor for this model is downright huge.
excellent number crunching machine that runs autoCAD with no problems 2008-03-03
Excellent laptop for number crunchers. Thanks to the excellent video card the computer handles autoCAD with no problems at all. This unit not only looks great it runs excellently.
Toshiba Satellite x205 laptop 2008-02-29
Great machine that met all my expectations but was disgusted that Microsoft office/student was only a 60 day trial. Had I known this I would have looked at other laptops more seriously. Would I buy this item again probably not but only because of the trial program which left only a notepad for a write program unless additional purchase is made. Service from Amazon was great, shipping great and machine great. Program trial instead of installed... stinks.
A top-notch laptop for power users 2008-07-13
First, the bottom line: If you're someone who's heavily into gaming, watching videos or any 'power' application, you won't find a better 17" laptop for under 1800. And, right now you can cut that MSRP by more than half. Check with your local BestBuy (BB) - they are selling these off as floor samples for < 900. That's a truly unbeatable deal.
Second: Just got through reading the other reviews, here. Isn't it amazing how many people buy something (esp. an expensive something), only to later complain about dimensions & features which were plainly evident before they bought it? Makes me shake my head, every time. Its like whining about how the VW Beetle is 'small and curvy'.
Come on, folks, read the darn specs or don't grouse when FedEx shows up, Ok? Didn't you notice those color photos, showing the shiny, plastic case? You think a 3" x 6.5" power brick makes this laptop 'unroadable', but _not_ the 17" screen & nearly 10 lb. weight? And then there's my favorite: the guy who compares this beast to a puny, 13" Mac 'Air'. Jeez, give me a break.
Third, my review: The X205-SLI2 performs brilliantly - very fast despite the somewhat piggish OS (Vista), even with a stock 2Gb RAM. H-K's stereo system is surprisingly good. Sure, my H-K desktop speakers are better, but this Toshiba offers the best sound I've heard from any laptop. And the LCD produces gorgeous, well-lit images. I plan tests vs. a MacBook Pro, ASAP.
Lots of nice touches, too. Given its weight & size, I was happy to see the nearly full-length hinge. And, holy cow, can you believe all the ports on this thing? 6 USB2, Gb Ethernet, HDMI, S-video, Express Card, blah, blah...even a 5-in-1 card reader? Plus, as laptops go, the X205 does not run very hot. My scope showed typical surface temps of only ~105F-110F, near the vents (my coffee is hotter) and cooler on the bottom, which is unvented.
My own whining: I was surprised to see Toshiba loaded in several demos & craplets but no cool games. Meanwhile, BB installed SP1 before delivery - without asking me - and this caused a few problems. Keyboard is average, at best; this ain't no ThinkPad, folks. I wish the wireless switch was in prefs, not on the case. The touchpad locks up during wireless mouse install (?). Oh, and space for an optional, backup battery would be nice.
Otherwise, I'm very pleased. Again, its the best 17" machine at this price, esp. if you get a discontinued unit from BB. I saved so much cash that I've already ordered 4Gb RAM. I'm looking into a processor upgrade and the possibility of dual booting XP, from drive #2 (drivers are available only from Toshiba's non-US websites). If you're shopping around for a 17" lappy, this is definitely one to consider - you won't be disappointed.
Glossy screens are just hard on the eyes 
2008-06-15
This notebook came with a glossy screen, just like almost all notebooks nowadays. And I still don't understand why they replaced the matte screens from before. In just a few minutes my eyes are already strained from viewing a glossy screen, because there is so much glare and light. Thanks Toshiba for making computers even harder on the eyes. Well, it's not just Toshiba but almost every other laptop manufacturer out there. Buyer beware. Test out the now ubiquituous glossy screens at your nearest computer store first and see if your eyes can handle it.
Best 17" yet for me 2008-04-30
I've owned five different 17" laptops over the last few years and this is the best yet - in spite of a few flaws. First the flaws:
-The power chord has an odd connector that just "feels" loos or odd when connecting it. Maybe just a nerve system programming issue??
-The internal keyboard is very iffy. It just misses a lot of letters when I type them.
-The computer has a fan that sporadically decides to make a rattling noise. I just don't have the patience to send it in for repair.
-The HD video system is outdated and apparently Toshiba is doing nothing for us in spite of this. This one is almost frustrating enough to bring it down to three stars.
The positive aspects ar many, including:
-Super fast video. The dual video SLI with 512 MB of video memory runs even modern games with beautiful graphics.
-Dual hard drives. Great for running the virtual machines I run for the technical training classes I teach. If you don't know what virtual machines are, don't worry. This feature just gives you better drive performance.
-The screen is beautiful. I'm not referencing the graphics card here, but the actual screen display.
-For a laptop, the sound is the best I've had yet. I can watch a movie on it in my hotel room from across the room and the sound is clear and even has some bass to it with the subwoofer.
Now, with the flaws, you're probably wondering why I gave it four stars. Simple... the last positive: I can actually stretch this laptop to about 100 minutes on battery on a plane. I've never been able to do this with any other 17" I've owned.
Hope this helps.
Awesome Laptop 2008-04-12
Extremely thrilled with this laptop. Great graphics. Fingerprint scanner is awesome. Full size keyboard is great. Fits great into my home network.
Some tidbits that are hard to find on the net: It comes with 2GB of ram but they are 1GB chips os if you want 4GB (max) obviously you have to sell both 1GB and buy two 2GB. I have not done that. I dropped in a 4GB thumbdrive and use it as ready boost drive.
The battery does not last long, but thats to be expected with all the hardware built in. Battery pack is a little long, maybe 6 inches.
Lots of built in software but it's mostly trial ware so there's nothing really value added there.
Speakers sound good. They boast that it has a subwoofer but as a fan of hip hop, I'm not impressed.
Built in Webcame is 1.3MP I thought it was 2MP but that doesn't really matter if you just want to see your families faces while on the road.
Even with these neg's I still give it a 4.
Also, this was my first laptop in 10 years and the last was a Toshiba Satellite Pro. It still works by the way. Anyway, I must reccomend that if you buy this laptop, run down to Staples and buy a Swiss Gear laptop backpack for 17" models. Made by the same people that make the knife. I swear this bag is AWESOME and a perfect fit for this laptop.
Best Bang for the Buck 2008-04-07
I've been runing the latest games such as COD4, Unreal Tournament 3, FFOW= frontlines Fuel of War, & they all run around 30 fps with fraps, this is a playable framerate & i wasn't expecting any less, after all it is advertised as a gaming laptop, there is some lag with these games but very minimum like a second or 2 that normal people wouldnt mind but I'm to picky when it comes to performance & i think it's due to its 5400 rpm HDD, I havent formatted the laptop as i had thought in a very begining to start off with a fresh system because it is runing quite smooth after removing all the trials; although I did notice it took a bit longer to load maps in cod4 compared to my desktop which has a 7200rpm sata drive, so replacing the hdd to a 7200rpm should speed up things.
Been using it for video editing as well, it does get a bit choppy in the timeline when you want to work with compressed files such as divx, xvid in premiere CS3, this is a known issue & unless you have a blazing laptop there isn't much you can do for it relies on your cpu the most, followed by your ram & hdd speed, changing the hdd & adding 2 gb of ram should make this laptop a great tool for standard video editing.
Size= Although this has been said before i want to share my opinion.
A 15.4 laptop looks like a todler compared to this goliath, its BIG but i find this a fare trade, after all the question always stand, you either want portability or performance? there is another comment that they compare this laptop with the mac air, its true its the complete opposite in size but it must be the complete opposite when it comes to performance, good luck trying to play cod4 in the mac air i doubt it would last to tell the story for it wouldnt be possible to cram a cooling system in 1 inch thick for heavy gaming.
my only complaint is the lid, although the red satin is very eye catching its very catching for fingerprints as well & gets scrathes easily, i had to cover it with a seethrough plastic protector to avoid scratching & the inside where the speakers are, all the plastic black area is from the same material of the ps3, if any of you have a ps3 you know what i mean, as hard as you try to be careful it gets scratched, it gets scratched only by looking at it, its insane, although these are only cosmetic flaws it counts for me, besides these points it has a great performance considering its the lowest model for the x205 line.
