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CNET product brief

Description: The Toshiba Satellite M305-S4910 is a 5.5-pound, general-purpose notebook computer.Compared to other mainstream notebooks on the market, it is very inexpensive.The 14.1 inch widescreen has a native resolution of 1280 x 800, which is fairly standard among notebooks. Powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. This notebook has a 320GB hard disk drive and 4 GB of memory. Features integrated graphics with 128MB of video memory.

Pros: Has a 5.9 Greenpeace ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ manufacturer rating (Nov 2008), which is considerably more favorable than some similarly priced notebooks. In fact, the average cost of a product with this favorable a Greenpeace ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ manufacturer rating (Nov 2008) is $1,080.Also, this notebook has a 320GB hard drive, which is larger than some similarly priced notebooks.In fact, the typical cost of a product with this large a hard drive is $1,150.The External Serial ATA port (ESATA) will transfer data to an external hard drive much faster than USB 2.0.

Cons: Has only a 14.1-inch screen size, which is somewhat smaller than some similarly priced notebooks.For example, the Dell Vostro 2510, a 5.7-pound notebook at around $675, has a 15.4 screen size.The fair battery performance of this notebook means it has to be recharged more often than other laptops in its class.Shared video memory has a negative impact on system performance which may be okay for users with more modest graphics needs.Users with more demanding needs should look to a graphics solution that brings its own muscle.

Suitability: Suited for those who just need a basic notebook.If you have awireless network at home, wirelessly browse the Web from any room in your house with this Wi-Fi enabled notebook.Comes with a DVD writer, allowing you to convert home movies from your digital Handycam onto DVDs.With 128MB of dedicated video RAM, this machine will do OK with some games and multimedia applications, but will fall short of satisfying the serious gaming enthusiast.

Value: Given its very inexpensive price, this notebook has great features for the money. Generally, given the trade-offs between performance and low price, this item will likely only appeal to serious bargain hunters.

Suggestions: (1) Given this device’s Wi-Fi capability, you may want to get a wireless access point for your home, so that you can browse the Web more conveniently from any room.(2) The integrated camera, while it does not have the resolution of most digital cameras, can be handy if you want to teleconference over the Internet.

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Under the lid of this notebook, you’ll find a beautiful 15.4-inch widescreen framed by a silver bezel. The 1440 x 900-pixel glossy panel delivers vibrant colors and a sharp picture with very little reflection, and viewing angles are good from all directions.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The upper portion of the silver keyboard deck contains a set of low-powered speakers that lacked bass response, plus a power switch and a nice soft-touch media control bar for adjusting volume and controlling CD/DVD playback. However, it has a hotkey that launches Dell’s MediaDirect application, where you can access movies, music, and video clips, as well as view pictures from a central launching point. This same hotkey gives you access to your calendar and contact database via the Instant Office applet.

The keyboard is comfortable and well spaced, but the wide-aspect touchpad was a tad sensitive and jumpy at first. A quick tweak of the speed and sensitivity settings took care of that.

Plethora of Ports on the Inspiron 1525
The placement of two headphone jacks on the notebook’s front edge, which lets you share music or movie soundtracks with a friend, is a feature one could definitely love. A microphone input and an 8-in-1 card reader are also mounted on the front edge.

It’s advantageous that all connectivity ports are located on either side of the chassis instead of in the back. On the left are two USB ports, a VGA connector, a FireWire port, and modem and Ethernet jacks. There’s also an HDMI port for connecting to external audio and video components with a single cable. On the right side is an 8X dual-layer DVD burner, an ExpressCard slot, two additional USB ports, and an S-Video jack. (more…)