Toshiba Satellite C870-11F 17.3 inch Laptop (Intel Pentium B960 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, USB 3.0)
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Satellite C870-11H, By
S. Patel "S Patel" (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite C870-11H 17.3 inch Laptop (Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, USB 3.0) (Personal Computers)
The laptop is very easy to setup. From switching it on to actually using it took less than 30 minutes. You just have to ensure all the settings you choose are what you actually want, rather than clicking through.However, after restarting the laptop, there are a lot of updates which need to be downloaded and installed (windows update etc) which you are prompted for.
Its best to get these done and out of the way first, before properly using the laptop.
Build / Dimension
The laptop is widescreen and light in weight.
The keyboard area also has a full numeric keypad which is very handy when using Microsoft Excel and has all the function keys you require enabling you to quickly activate/deactivate settings
The keys and base feel a little plasticy and the mouse area takes a little getting used to, however after using the laptop for a while you soon get used to everything.
The lower half of the keyboard has a textured pattern giving a nice and comfortable feel when typing.
Software
The laptop comes packed with loads of pre-installed with software you may want to use.
Its particually handy as internet explorer and google chrome is pre-installed
I personally wouldn't use any of the software therefore I uninstalled it via Control Panel
Video and Sound:
The laptop has a inbuilt camera and microphone which I use for Skype (which is also pre-installed).
This is quite a good feature to have, espically as it saves you carrying around an external webcam when using the laptop outside the house.
Obviously the picture quality from the built in camera will depend on your lighting and surroundings.
Video review
Written review
Sound is amazing. Great for watching DVDs on via the internal drive. The sound can also be turned up or down from the function keys on the keyboard - a handy feature
Although there is no indicator telling you actual volume. You just have to put it up and down until you are happy.
The picture quality is clear and helps with the LED backlit screeen.
I also connect this laptop to my TV (via the built in HDMI port) allowing me to watch the DVD in HD.
Battery life:
Excellent! Lasts for a good few hours (at heavy use) until I am prompted to plug in the charger
Conclusion:
The processing speed is quite fast for a laptop in this range, and is quite responsive although I don't play games therefore I can't comment on the speed for this.
I would have liked to have more than just 3 USB ports built in but this wasn't such a big deal for me.
All in all this laptop is good enough for work or personal/university use. I would recommend it to a low to medium user
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Toshiba Satellite C870-11H, By
Bergen "Norge" - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite C870-11H 17.3 inch Laptop (Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, USB 3.0) (Personal Computers)
When I think of laptops Toshiba don't come forefront to my mind and this is the reason I was a little hesitant about buying this.I was on the verge of getting a higher spec 15" laptop for about the same price but saw the screen on this and after an evening musing decided that the larger screen size would be better for my needs.
The laptop arrived the next day in its slender Toshiba box (not the usual brown Amazon packaging I was expecting).
Plugged it in, booted it up and was taken through the Toshiba/Windows setup process which was relatively painless but felt unnecessary.
Once that was taken care of I removed all of the pre-installed software and updated all the drivers.
So after a while using this here're my views:
Pros:
- The screen feels enormous compared to the 15" of my last laptop, this over everything is the one thing I am happiest about.
- The screen itself is quite bright too. I have mine on maximum luminosity constantly. If you want a direct comparison and have an iPhone to hand set its brightness to about 70%.
- It's fast to boot and generally fast.
- The operating noise is very quiet even under heavy use. The only noise you can hear is a fan on the right hand side towards the back which when cooling sounds a bit like someone blowing gently down a Smarties tube.
- Battery life: I'm getting 3+ hours with the screen brightness set at maximum.
- The 640GB HDD is ample storage for my needs and other than a very brief wind up noise when it boots it makes no noise.
- There is rarely a time where I don't have several memory-heavy applications running simultaneously which this laptop's handling with ease (no slow down/lock ups etc.)
- The full keyboard is also something I've grown to appreciate. The keys (though not as solid as your standard Dell's) feel sturdy and responsive. It's nice being able to rapidly key in numbers on a full numeric pad too.
- It's thin and light (about as heavy as a 1.5 bags of sugar), easy to carry in one hand and feels very comfortable on my lap.
Cons:
- The whole casing feels pretty cheap (a bit like a budget car's dashboard). It also seems to hold onto finger prints; my case is now literally covered in grapple marks. There's also the part of the case above the keyboard where the speakers reside; it has a golf-ball effect the length of the screen which is a pain to clean and dirt seems to be attracted to it.
- The mouse pad has a roughness to it which took a bit of getting used to.
- It can be tricky to open sometimes; seems to want an element of precision to prize it apart.
- For the most part the full size keyboard is perfect; however, the cursor keys in it are squashed at a 2:1 ratio so there are times where I keep accidentally pressing shift and the up key together.
- The speakers (although clear) don't have much mid-range and absolutely no low-range response. It's similar to having a big pair of headphones on your lap turned up really loud (a bit tinny). An iPad really does have a much fuller sound than this.
- By default the FKeys & Fn keys are backwards which I found annoying. If you remove the Toshiba software they behave as FKeys and the Fn Key has no effect. If you download the latest "Value Added Package" from Toshiba's website there's an option to reverse the standard behaviour.
- The power lead plugs in on the left hand side about 1cm up from the ESC key. I understand that it can't go in the back because of the way the screen opens but to me it just feels wrong where it is.
- Sometimes my left hand happens to wander over the mouse pad while I'm moving the mouse with my right hand. This translates to the laptop interpreting it as a gesture for the "pinch zoom" action. For a long time was unaware what I kept doing to the mouse pad to make it zoom.
A couple of additional notes:
- The built-in camera has a tiny operating LED which glows blue when in use.
- The power lead is about 3m in length.
Overall I am very happy with my purchase and wouldn't hesitate to buy this again. It's no high-end gaming pc but for the price with a screen this big I feel that I have great value for money. I'd also look to buy a future Toshiba laptop having been impressed thus far.
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Toshiba Sattelite C870-11H, By
Mr. I. Robinson "Honest Ian" (Cardiff) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Toshiba Satellite C870-11H 17.3 inch Laptop (Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium, USB 3.0) (Personal Computers)
The laptop was straightforward to start up. The package included quickstart instructions and the installed software includes the instructions as a .pdf. I am hardly an expert, to put it mildly, and had no problems installing Windows 7. But you do have to be careful about options and not go merrily along accepting the recommended options: supplied software is full of trash and there is the dreaded Windows update to consider. Why Toshiba boast about quickstart I cannot imagine: if you tick for auto updates from Windows and Mcafee it takes ages to boot up. Despite the free month I uninstalled Mcafee and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (free). I also was not tempted by the awful Office 10 as I have Office 2003.The C870 is thin, very thin, and this means no connections at the back, all crammed onto the sides and just the card slot at the front. There is not a catch for shutting the screen either; the screen is almost as heavy as the base and you have to be careful how you open the laptop; I opened it carelessly and then the base dropped back-crashing the computer. Bad form. But the worst aspect is the disk drive: I have to lift the base to locate the opening tab which is really tiny. I have to use my fingernail although my wife has less problem with her tiny fingers. So the 870 is slim but it compromises user-friendliness. The best point of the 870 is the display which is superb. I watched BBC-i Countryfile in HD and was very impressed.
I like this laptop but the diskdrive prevents five stars.
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