Toshiba Satellite L300-29X Review

Overall Rating

i was looking for a new laptop to replace my Toshiba M2. the M2 i purchased 2nd hand .. so this Toshiba Satellite L300-29X would be my 1st new purchase ever. up till now ive stuck with a tower system .. but laptops seem to be more convenient.
1st i must say i was told by the store salesman this was a 2Gb dual core .. and was somewhat disappointed to find out later it was only a 1.8G. it came installed with vista basic and could be later upgraded to windows7. im no fan of vista so i installed XP pro. i tested the laptop for 1/2 a day before deciding to format the drive and do a fresh install as there was too much vista stuff loafing about.
the install went easy. at the Toshiba web site there are all the nesc drivers to make things like the hotkeys work in XP. its been just over a week using the new L300 .. and i have to say its very transparent. it just gets on with it. ive several things plugged in to the USB ports .. like a ext sound device - printer - dvd burner - laser mouse - card reader .. in fact everything but the kitchen sink and theres no conflicts so far.
i did find one USB port to be fussy. the keys are slightly different but slick. the stripy finish has grown on me. sometimes u can purchase something for 1st impressions .. then get bored with it .. but this laptop seems to look better the more i use it. there were 3 other choices i had in the store for the budget i had set .. and to be honest if one of the others hadn't had so much bright silver on it i don't think i would have bought this L300. im glad now i did. although a budget i think its built well .. looks more expensive than it is .. and performs very well too.
about the performance .. compared to my M2 its similar to be honest .. even though the L300 is a dual core .. but i do think it has the edge. its no slouch. the audio is a lot better and the default drivers sound really powerful through headphones. the grafix are very good.
on time varys a bit .. but the best recorded time so far .. is 37 secs !!
quite amazing. battery life is not as good as some other laptops .. but 2hrs
isn't bad. i belive there are battery pack options.
finally .. i think im a Toshiba fan.