Toshiba Satellite T135-S1305 TruBrite 13.3″ Ultrathin Laptop
Posted by admin | Posted in Notebook | Posted on 09-05-2010
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- 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 Ultra-Low Voltage Processor
- 3GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM Memory
- 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM); 802.11 b/g/n
- 13.3″ LED-Backlit 1366×768 Display (16:9); Intel GMA 4500M Graphics
- Windows 7 Home Premium; Up to 9 hours of Battery Life
Product Description
Satellite® T135 Series laptops are ultrathin PCs built for your life on the go—and on a budget. Our thinnest, lightest Satellite® models yet, they offer the battery life rating and lightweight portability you want, with performance you’d expect from bigger machines. So they have horsepower to handle the day’s tasks or evening’s entertainment, plus a great communications package to keep you effective, online and in touch. And with the 13.3″ LED-backlit disp… More >>
Toshiba Satellite T135-S1305 TruBrite 13.3″ Ultrathin Laptop
I love the size and weight of this laptop. Battery life is good also, which makes it a great laptop for carrying around. In theory, if you want an iPad, here is a device about the same size, but with full Windows (now THERE’S an “apps” collection) and a real keyboard, and USB (not to mention HDMI), BlueTooth and WiFi and MUCH more disk space. Sadly, like the iPad, there is no optical drive on this, but that is why it is so thin. I like the trade-off as I find myself using CD/DVD less and less.
So, I bought one and I’ll keep it, but I have two serious problems with this laptop, both related to input. First, as was mentioned, the touch pad is abysmal. The buttons are clumsy and when released, the button disconnects BEFORE the click, so you can think you are holding down the button but it has released electrically. The result is that you often “let go” of scroll bars or mouse drags. The two buttons are on one big button bar which makes them hard to find. And finally, the whole touch pad is an epic fail and Toshiba had to recall it. The bug is that if you push that single “button bar” near the middle, the touch pad stops working until you reboot, hibernate or even just sleep the thing for a moment. Toshiba will replace for free, but that means sending it in for 2-4 weeks. Blech.
I am also picky about keyboards and this one is a loser. many of the keys will not register if pushed near the edges, so drop-outs are VERY common when you go back and re-read what you typed. I have had to add-in dropped letters three times already in this post.
One more little nit: Toshiba, PLEASE bring back the dial-type volume knob mounted on the side. NOBODY likes to adjust the volume by holding down the FN key and looking for the buttons that do volume. NOBODY.
Rating: 3 / 5
The first Satellite that arrived had a defective “delete” key that either didn’t work or locked down, deleting the whole document. Toshiba support advised me that there are no service locations in New York city (huh?) so it would be quicker to return the unit…. which I did and THREE WEEKS later, I got a function Satellite. Three weeks is a long time to wait!
It is a nice PC: the CPU is fast, the screen has sharp resolution and bright, clear color, the keyboard is MUCH better than any net book. Quite light weight, and the battery life is acceptable.
The pointing device (touch pad, whatever) is a complete piece of crap. If there is a way to turn off the click “feature” on the pad and use only the buttons, it is a secret. I learned to avoid rolling over ads and hyperlinks on web pages, lest a random, unwanted “virtual click” send me off to la-la land. If you buy this PC, save yourself some agita and buy an external mouse from the get-go.
There is a typical bushel basket of free bundled software preinstalled. I have not yet tried to clean up the 90% that is useless…
Overall, I find the T135-S1305 to be a pretty good PC at a competitive price.
Rating: 4 / 5
This lap top has met all my expectations. The battery life was one of my key selling points and has lasted a three hour drive while watching movies with lots of power to spare (the pasangers where watching the movie). This lap top is the perfect size. It is thin and small enough to fit in a backpack or under a car seat. The 13 inch screen is perfect for web serfing and watching movies. The resolution is very crisp. I have not tried the eco mode yet whitch will prolong the battery life. I did about three months of research and am very happy with my purchase.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have been using this computer for about two weeks now, and so far I am very satisfied with my purchase. I previously had an HP dv6000 series laptop which lasted nearly 3 years, yet had its share of hardware problems along the way. Eventually, its motherboard completely fried, and I wanted to replace it with a lighter, more portable laptop with better battery life, and I didn’t want to break the bank. After doing some research, I settled on the Toshiba T135 series, with the s1305 being (in my opinion) the best combination of price, processor speed, and memory.
This computer has the Intel-based SU4100 processor, which IS dual core, and is faster than the AMD Neo processors that some of the other T135s have. Battery life has been surprisingly good, as I can get about 6-7 hours of web surfing and email in on the normal battery settings, with slightly longer times if you select ECO mode. Windows 7 has been a joy to use, as my HP had Vista, which was pretty miserable. I also like the ability to output video AND audio to my hdtv through the hdmi port; it makes watching hulu and other video sites really enjoyable. One thing I also noticed is that this computer is nearly SILENT, and it generates very little heat, so it is very easy to sit with it on your lap for long periods of time. By comparison, the HP’s fan only got louder, and got very very hot.
There are only two things about this computer that have mildly irritated me. The first is the finish, which is piano black with an almost carbon fiber look. It makes the comp look really cool, but gathers fingerprints very easily, which tends to annoy me as I am always trying to wipe them off. The second thing is the touchpad and click buttons. The pad is somewhat temperamental at times, and the buttons are a rocker-style, and not their own individual buttons. This just makes it kind of frustrating to use sometimes, but its fairly rare and isn’t that big of a deal. If you’re going to try to do some serious work with this computer, you would really want to have a wireless mouse to use. That’s what I’ve been doing and it works out fine.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend this product. Amazon had the best price among online retailers (and brick-and-mortar stores), and the shipping was fast. If you’re still on the fence, I would recommend going to Best Buy and looking at this computer first(they sell different models of the T135) and making sure you like the aesthetics and such. Otherwise, I hope you like it as much as I have.
Rating: 5 / 5