it is a decent laptop...

The Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 is good for development but with win xp and home users instead of desk top.

The good thing is that it has desktop processor which is must faster so need to worry about the speed. Heavy, no wifi, battery will gone after 4 years, no good for games. Resolutions:
1. extend the ram first and you will see the big difference in speed.
2. use the ecternal wifi adopter or smart card

3. Buy the adopter which will hold the battery upto 4 hrs.

This is great little unit, I busted the lid hinge on one side but it still carries on after 4 years of service. Can't find a reason to change it yet

I still like my laptop and would be keeping it if it weren't for the RAM issue. I bought it as a student, and it was perfect for what I needed. I run many programs on it, (obviously not more than 2 at a time) including Photoshop7, Photopaint, CorelDraw 11, Microsoft Office, itunes and a load of other tat. It is an ideal as someone's first laptop, or if you want to write an essay whilst surfing the net and listening to music. (It can do it.....I did)

Disappointed that it is so slow and there is insufficient RAM to allow something as simple as the BT Yahoo Security package to work. More RAM so is required.

Nice laptop, bit pricey originally but still holding its own against some newer models. Recommended as a good laptop for students/home use.

Toshiba need to do better with this one. Start-up screen says "In touch with tomorrow". But this machine is more interested in hanging on to the past. Performance is not refined enough for 3.0GHz class.

It's not even wireless enabled, and I've got the Linkysys internet thing, and it hasn't worked at all.

This is my second laptop. It's going back to Toshiba for the second time.

My Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 laptop keeps overheating and crashing etc. It is rubbish!

DO NOT BUY A TOSHOBA A60 LAPTOP!

I have had the Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 laptop for over 6 months now and it was working great when I got it. Over time the exhaust fan seemed to get louder and louder. As a graphics and website designer, this computer is good for the simple things. When it comes down to doing anything graphically intensive, like playing a game that requires the use of the video card's abilities, the computer overheats and crashes without warning. In order to prevent this from occurring I have had to prop up the back right corner using the USB to PS/2 adapter that I had to buy separately, as this computer did not allow me to connect such devices to it. From a name brand like Toshiba, I expected a whole lot more for the price I paid for it. I wish I could still return this computer and get my money back, as this computer is a joke.

The Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 laptop is ideal for entry level home users, and possibly students who have some time on their hands to sort stuff out. I wouldn't say it was suitable for the lower end of the business market, as Toshiba seem to be targeting with this product. I could be wrong however, maybe I was just unlucky!

I have had mine for 8 months now, after previous satellite old faithful, which I had owned for about 7 years, gave up the ghost in the middle of a project, and I needed a cheap laptop quickly. I was impressed by the blue design which veers away from the boring black/grey you're used to seeing on the budget end notebooks.

For the budget it was a toss up between this or a Dell, and in the end I decided to go for the Tosh which wasn't the bottom end of the scale like the Dell was for the same money.

Due to the ATI graphics being on the motherboard, you don't really get 256MB Ram. This slowed things down a lot. It's certainly not a gaming notebook, but that's to be expected. Things had a habit of freezing up if there were 2 or 3 apps open simultaneously.

I purchased a 1GB Ram from Crucial, and this improved things considerably. 512MB are about half the price, but I thought what the hell, I need it!

I had a few problems with the laptop overheating and freezing/crashing. The fan was on full blast constantly, like working at Heathrow. At one point I was afraid the plastic was going to melt it got so hot! As well as the ram upgrade, I found the following helpful, so if you're having problems a bit of advice...

1. Found most of the tosh apps quite useless, and they just eat memory up. Removing all these helped a great deal. Get a tweak UI type program to help with this.

2. If possible, do a 'clean' install of your operating system to get rid of all the 'rubbish' software that's preloaded. All the drivers are on the website for re-installing the graphics and sound cards.

3. IMPORTANT - Upgrade your BIOS from the Toshiba site. They are reporting that a version of 1.7 or older will cause the overheating. However, I had 1.7 and found upgrading to 1.9 really helped to overcome the problem.

4. If the above fails, invest in some more memory, your Tosh will thank you for it.

I was a bit disappointed as there was no XP CD, just a 'recovery disk', but I guess this is the way they all operate these days.

Overall, I probably wouldn't go for this model again, although for the money it's not a bad little laptop. I would like to think though, that these problems have been sorted with later orders shipped out to customers. Get this if you want a cheap notebook that you don't mind getting bashed about a bit, and if you're prepared to spend some time tweaking it to your requirements.

I would never buy a Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 laptop again!!!

Toshiba Satellite Pro A60: As I carry around this machine I can't help but notice that it is extremely heavy. I don't think it is practical for a student to carry around or walk with to work on the bus for everyday use. The heat generated by the 2.8 Intel does not add to its out side use either. After about an hour sitting on your lap the heat is to intense. The battery in my experience does not last more than an hour on full charge before it starts to adjust to low battery use and at that time the screen goes dim. Overall the speed of this machine is anything you through at it, but can't seem to get it to run faster than a snail. Case in point maybe it is the ton of software loading on that you have to make sense of. In closing I would say it is a practical system for those who need the power but don't need to take there laptop many places, maybe to move around the building they work in and recommend this machine to the professional and not the average user. Impressive 2.8 is nothing to sneeze at in that it can do almost anything task.

Everyting is good with the Toshiba Satellite Pro A60!

I find it hard to believe that this Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 laptop is sold as a new product. I have just been given one as a work unit, and I am very disappointed. It can't run more than 1 or 2 programs at once without stalling, crashing or hanging. Forget about running anything other than Microsoft Office unless you have the patience of a saint, or a lot of time on your hands. To put this in context, I have an old Dell laptop at home, a PIII with 256MB RAM, nearly 4 years old, and it trounces this Toshiba A60 in every area except screen size. Don't buy one.

Decided to spend a few days checking out the Toshiba Satellite Pro A60 before I wrote a review.

I went for the 14" screen as I wanted to save money in case I needed to upgrade to the 512 meg of ram.

Downsides/Quibbles.

Windows XP home is okay but not as good as XP Pro that I`m used to.

Battery life. I know it says three hours but unless you turn the screen off and don`t use it you`ll not get three hours. As mine will be plugged in at home, this doesn`t cause a problem, but if you are wanting to travel get a spare battery, as I think 2.5 hours maximum. My battery is still new and not to its maximum capacity yet but I`m getting less than 2 hours presently.

Memory - This is an odd one. The wife is quite happy with the laptop and in fact loves it. For me it doesn`t run quick enough when you have a few programs on the go. So it depends if you are wanting a laptop for 1 or 2 programs at a time or just need the space and browsing the net you`ll not what to change anything. If you are a geek like myself you`ll want to spend the £60 for half a gig of ram. If you buy the 14" monitor you've already saved more than that over the near identical 15" version , so go on treat yourself.

Plus sides

Screen size - 14" is a lot bigger than I was expecting (stop giggling at the back!!). As its sat on my lap (this is getting worse!) I can't see why you would want anything bigger. If you get anything bigger you`ll have to sit further away to see it properly and you`ll need a keyboad and mouse...whats the point of a laptop with all that?! You may as well have a desk top.

Price - Over £600 on most other sites for the price this is a steal.

Build - Nice and solid nothing hanging off. Wouldn`t want to be hit with the thing put it that way.

Keyboard and touchpad - Nice solid feel. No side numeric pad but keeps everything compact. Touchpad almost too sensitive but the Toshiba software has a mind-boggling amount of options to change and finally I have it just the way I want it.

Talking of Toshiba software there is a lot of it on there and with only 192 meg to work with (64 meg is taken with graphics card) I'm not sure why there is so much but now I`ve removed most of it its really helped with the speed of the machine.

I will post more as I go (if you`ve managed to read this far.)

Summary:-

For the price, this is an ideal machine, takes up no space at all, if you are browsing the net you`ll not need to do anything to it(comes with a cable to connect to t'internet) if you want to do a little more I would say get the 512 meg from here...go on treat yourself as you`ve save money buying this model anyway !! I now have more space in the house now the desktop has gone and a better machine in its place.

Oh and if you think £60 for 512 meg is expensive try Toshiba Direct. £350 plus VAT for 1 gig !! I only spent £500 on the laptop !!

If anyone has any questions please comment on this review and I`ll try to answer them for you.