Satellite Laptop M305

Features the new Fusion Finish, the M305 places itself in a rather more expensive looking crowd. Not a bad thing to achieve, however, it still seems a little thick for our tastes.

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Full review of Satellite M305

Meet the M305 from Toshiba. It features the new Fusion Finish - a gloss and appeal that makes this laptop seem to fit in a rather more expensive looking niche. The LCD lid is an amazing gloss with chrome letters, and the that treatment is carried straight onto the display as well - with it's 1280x800 display, it seems crisp and vibrant gathering this is only a 14.1 inch display. The keyboard also gets the glossy finish.

The glossy keyboard looks and feels awesome, but gather fingerprints like a dollar menu item after closing time - quick, fast, and there in the morning to remind you of what you ate the night before. But, at least the harmon/kardon speakers that are on either side sound nice, and look the part of it as well.

Lights surround the upper trackpad bezel - and that's about the best thing for the trackpad. It was too small and too unresponsive for our taste. It could be down to drivers, but the trackpad needs vast improvement.

Features, Performance, and Conclusion

The M305 features a standard amount of connectivity for the package. And understanding that this is the more budget friendly line-up for the Toshiba Satellite series; we weren't taken back at this price point. It carries a card slot, standard RGB output, fan, FAKE HDMI output (which leads me to believe other units may poses this function, or at least this chassis will get that upgrade) two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-firewire port and audio out / mic in. It also has an Express card slot tucked above the latter ports, which offer some benefit to using newer technology. The right side of the unit houses the DVD-RW Labelflash drive, another USB 2.0 port, Modem and Ethernet port, along with your standard slot-lock. The rear is really simple, housing only the power jack

Performance was ample enough for Vista Home premium, and with 3GB of Ram, a 250gb 5400rpm hard drive, and a speedy T8100 Core2Duo - applications experienced little to no lag. However, the unit did get a bit warm (due to it's small and restricting chasis) and didn't do well in 3d gaming. But, that's not what it's made for.

The Toshiba Satellite M305 didn't exactly wow me, but it didn't leave me unimpressed. I'd love to see the updated unit with a dedicated graphics. But for under a $1,000, it looks good and performed good. Small is the new big, and this one looks to be pretty decent.

Satellite M305 Technical Specifications

• Processor 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100
• Memory 3GB DDR2 RAM
• Harddrive 250gb SATA 5400rpm
• OS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Weight 5.2 pounds
• Screen 14.1 inches
• Screen resolution 1280x800
• Graphic Card Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• Battery Life 170 minutes