Toshiba Satellite A200

The Toshiba Satellite A200 is an affordable and inoffensive all-rounder laptop that features a display with 15.4-inch that has 16:10 aspect ratio, high definition TruBrite WXGA TFT with glossy and reflecting surface screen. The glossy coating of the screen improves the appearance of colours and heightens its contrast. Along with 1280-by-800 pixels of resolution, support 24-bit colour (16.7 million colours) and it also has an appropriate viewing angle for vertical and horizontal images. The laptop is built around the Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 Processor that comes with a 1.8 GHz, 64-bit computing, Toshiba Bass Enhanced SpeedStep technology, Mobile Intel PM965 Express chipset, plus it has 800 MHz of data bus speed. Its configuration also includes 3 MB of L2 cache that temporarily stores data and it can help speed up the system’s performance, 160 GB hard drive (Serial ATA/IDE with rotation speed of up to 5400 rpm) that provides a massive storage for storing multimedia collections or editing digital video, along with 2 GB of DDR2 SDRAM (4 GB maximum) that has 667 MHz speed. Apart from that, its graphics is managed by the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 that provides extraordinary faster graphic performance, quality visual and flexible display options. It also has 256MB of dedicated video memory and has a maximum allocated RAM size of up to 1023 MB. Its 5-in-1 media card reader supports a variety of flash memory cards such as Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, Memory Stick Pro and xD-Picture Card for fast transferring of data, video and photos. In addition, it is equipped with an optical drive DVD re-writer, DVD±RW (±R DL), with Double Layer High-definition DVD-RAM and HD DVD-ROM that provides enough space to store and manage files and folders of any size and it also works as a burner for recording data to DVDs or CDs. It provide reading speed of 24x for CD, 8x for DVD and 1x for HD DVD; writing speed of 24x for CD, 4x for DVD±R, 2x for DVD-R DL, and 2.4x for DVD+R DL; plus CD/DVD re-write speed of 10x for CD), 4x for DVD±RW and 3x for DVD-RAM. In terms of sound feature, it has a built-in sound card powered by Audio Codec Realtek ALC268 with Harman/Kardon stereo speakers and Toshiba BassEnhanced sound system. This audio technology also has a Compliant Standards DirectSound, DirectSound3D, High Definition Audio, and Dolby Sound Room. The Toshiba Satellite A200 features a full range of advanced connectivity solutions ranging from modem/fax that has 56 Kbps transfer rate with wake on ring feature (support ITU V.92 protocols), supports the standard data link protocol such as Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Wireless connectivity (that support IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n draft), plus also supports wireless LAN with its Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN. Other input devices include four integrated input/output high-speed USB 2.0 ports (4 PIN USB Type A), two expansion slots for upgrading its memory, one ExpressCard 54mm, one display/video VGA 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15), one display/video S-video output, one headphones output (mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm), one microphone input (mini-phone 3.5mm), one audio/video HDMI output, one V.92 Modem, one modem phone line (RJ-11), one network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX (RJ-45), one Firewire (IEEE 1394), one 5-in-1 card reader slot and one Kensington Lock. The laptop delivers a minimum operating temperature of 5 °C, maximum temperature of 35 °C, while its humidity during operation ranges from 20 to 80%. It also comes with compliance standard plug and play and in accordance with Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules.

Specifications
Form Factor
The Toshiba Satellite A200 is a glossy surface and blue-grey coloured lid laptop designed with Multi-Core Intel Centrino technology, built-in devices stereo speakers, and wireless LAN aerial. Although its surface are is made of plastics, it is a flexural rigid laptop, while the display comes with a light clamshell design and the screen bezel comes in a black colour design. It comes with a product dimension that measures in at 36.2-inch in width, 26.8-inch in depth, 3.9-inch in height and weighs in at 2.7 kilograms.

Features
The Toshiba Satellite A200 features a built-in digital web-camera with 1.3-megapixels and a built-in microphone.

Display
It features a diagonal 15.4-inch high definition TruBrite WXGA TFT widescreen display, with 16:10 aspect ratio, glossy and reflecting surface screen, support 24-bit colour (16.7 million colours), plus 1280-by-800 pixels of maximum resolution display.

Input Device
It has a user-friendly input device such as keyboard and touch pad, plus also features Toshiba EasyKeys that has dual mode pad.

Operating System / Software
The Toshiba Satellite A200 is pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit as its operating system. Furthermore, additional software that comes together with the machine includes Software Toshiba ConfigFree, Connectivity Doctor, Toshiba Speech System, Toshiba Bluetooth Stack, Toshiba Assist, Toshiba Bluetooth Monitor, Toshiba Disc Creator, Norton Internet Security 2007 (90 days subscription), Toshiba Value Added Package, Ulead DVD MovieWriter for Toshiba, Chicony Camera Assistant Software, Toshiba DVD Player, and Windows Vista Home Premium recovery DVD.

Memory and connectivity
It supports a 2.0 GB of DDR2 SDRAM that can be expanded up to maximum of 4 GB and comes with 667 MHz speed. The laptop also supports Firewire port, Kedron Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g+n wireless networking, USB ports, VGA, 10/100 Ethernet, 56k modem, media card reader and an Express Card slot.

Power and battery
It is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery that has a 44.4Wh capacity, external power supply with an input voltage requirement of AC 120/230 V (50/60 Hz) and its battery life can accommodate up to two hours of unplugged work.

Review

The Toshiba Satellite A200 is a good all-round laptop, but it doesn’t excel in any particular field. It’s slightly too unwieldy to be an ultra-portable, and a bit too underpowered to be a true desktop replacement, but it offers decent value for money and is well-built – (CNET UK, 2009)

Toshiba has a wide range of laptops and its Satellite series is aimed at those users who are likely to want to use their machine either to run a small business or for the home. With this in mind, Toshiba has had to design a high-quality casing and one look at the A200 confirms this. Made from plastic over a magnesium-alloy skeleton, this machine is solid and robust. – (Techradar, 2007)