Toshiba Satellite T115-S1105 11.6-Inch LED TruBrite Black/Grey Laptop Run On Windows 7 Home Premium

Toshiba’s 11.6-inch Satellite T115 ($ 479) has much to offer Windows 7 PC shoppers looking for something easy to wear, but not too tight. It certainly exceeds netbooks and lasts almost an entire day on one charge. The design is better, and other systems deliver more oomph for less money, but this system is worth a look.

Toshiba’s wavy, checkered Fusion Finish in Nova Black graces the cover and cover of the 3.4-pound Satellite T115. The look is beautiful at first sight, but the glossy plastic housing is a dreadful fingerprint magnet, so you’ll want a cloth handy if you suffer from spots to keep. The 11.3 x 8.3 x 1.4-inch notebook is only a hair larger and heavier than the Acer Aspire 1410. Despite the plastic body, the T115 does not feel or look cheap. It struck us as very solid, but still tight.

The checkered design covers the touchpad. Under a long bar mouse whose design results in a row of status lights, similar to the Satellite U505 is larger. The housing for the 6-cell battery makes the unit for about half an inch, resulting in a gentle slope.

Despite being a thin system, the T115 dissipates heat quite well. After an episode of Heroes Hulu streaming for 15 minutes, the touchpad registered 94 degrees Fahrenheit, the space between the G and H keys was 90 degrees, and the center of the bottom was 98 degrees. Although the latter reading is on the warm side, the T115 never uncomfortable while on our lap.

Keyboard and Touchpad As expected on a 11.6-inch system, the keyboard is close to full size with large keys in the middle. However, we are disappointed that Toshiba did not opt for the lay-out to extend to the edge, so that keys on the outside left and right can also be full-sized. The right Shift key is shortened, but correctly placed in special cram Page Up and Page Down keys. The Enter key is smaller than usual, and the Ctrl and Alt keys on the right are so small that almost unusable. On the left Alt, Fn keys and Windows are all very thin and not very convenient for those who are used to shortcuts.

Despite the distance question types on the T115 was comfortable. While typing this review we achieved our normal typing speed after only a few minutes.

Nice and wide, the 3.0 x 1.5-inch touchpad surface on the T115 (almost same size as the wide touchpad on the Toshiba NB205 mini) is a little rough, so our fingers glide effortlessly over it. We are pleased that the touchpad is as wide as it meant less as we pick our finger across the screen. The T115 supports multitouch touchpad, and we could pinch and zoom in Google Chrome with little effort.

The large but united on this notebook mouse is a disadvantage. The bar is nice and long, but we had the extreme outer edges to use to get a good response. It is also a bit stiff and noisy, but not enough for us to drive to an external mouse.
Display and Audio

The glossy, 1366 x 768 pixel display matches the 11.6-inch well and delivers sharp, bright colors and deep blacks. When watching dark scenes like the opening to Torchwood: Children of the Earth, the screen kicked back reflections under normal lighting. The bezel around the display is glossy, which meant that even when we are surfing the Web or typing this review, there were flashes of reflections in the bezel and the screen sometimes.

The T115’s speakers, located under the front edge of the notebook, an impressive sound. When listening to “One Girl Revolution” by Superchick we heard the distinct bass line, but the sound came out flat and tinny, and the volume was not great. We had to connect external speakers to get passable sound like watching an episode of House via Hulu.
Ports and Webcam

The port range is what one would expect to find on a netbook-sized system. HDMI and VGA ports line the left side, along with a 6-in-1 memory card reader. You will also find a USB port that can charge gadgets such as smart phones, even when the notebook is in hibernation or outside on the left. Two standard USB ports, Ethernet, power, headphone and microphone jacks line the right side.

Along the cursor on a thin bar in the top left of the T115’s screen pulls down a tab on the built-in webcam. Sitting above the display, the 0.3-megapixel camera captured dark images and video, even under good light conditions. We tried adjusting the settings, but we never a better picture. The T115 is available to order from Amazon from $479.

Users can set up face as a login from this tab. We have tried to register our face, but the software had a hard time recognizing us, which caused the registration to fail several times. [via toshiba]