Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4050GY
- Category: Notebook Computers
January 5, 2011
Editor's Rating
- Unique design
- Ultraportable design
- Multitouch trackpad
- eSATA
- Mediocre battery life
- Performance stops at anything other than productivity tasks
The Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4050GY, besides having a very long name, is a 14-inch ultraportable laptop that has 3GB of RAM, a 2.2GHz AMD dual-core CPU and an ultra cool design. You'll also find some more advanced features, like a USB/eSATA combo port, without breaking the bank.
This ultraportable laptop's body is made of a hard plastic shell that has a "Fusion Finish" as Toshiba brands it and this particular model has a gray color called "Helios Gray." Whatever that means, it has a metallic-like gray color with a really neat design on the back of the lid. Some might find this design a little non-professional, but it's up to the individual user (we personally really like the design).
Measuring 13.3 x 9.1 x 1.5-inches (wdh) and weighing just short of 5 pounds, the Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4050GY is one really lightweight and portable laptop. It's definitely the type of computer that frequent travelers and commuters will want to use. It also would make a great college laptop because it has the portability of a netbook, but also a few added features that netbooks do not include.
The 14-inch WXGA LED display has a resolution of 1366 x 768-pixels and looks very good, both in brightness and color depth. The mouse trackpad is textured, which may turn off some buyers, but it supports multitouch, which means you can do gestures like pinch to zoom.
The port selection includes a 7-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB 2.0 ports (one is a eSATA combo port), Ethernet, VGA out and your standard audio jacks. There is no HDMI out, but that's predictable because of the lightweight design and focus.
Specification of the Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4050GY include an AMD Athlon II Dual-Core Mobile P340 CPU (2.2GHz), 3GB of DDR3 RAM (expandable to 8GB), a 320GB hard drive, a DVD+/-RW optical disc drive, 802.11b/g/n wireless connectivity and a built-in Skype-certified Webcam and microphone. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics processor powers the graphics end of things. The inclusion of an optical disc drive and increased hard drive capacity further illustrate how this Toshiba laptop is a step up from a netbook, but it isn't a giant leap, which provide users with a more laptop-like experience compared to a netbook. Toshiba pre-installs Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit edition).
The Dolby Digital Sound and optical disc drive make for a good multimedia laptop that allows you to watch HD movies and other content with ease. The screen isn't 1080p full HD, but it is 720p capable.
The Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4050GY has more than enough processing power to perform the usual computing tasks, like running multiple programs and browser windows, but don't expect it to do much more than that. Playing 3D games or doing a lot of processor-intensive tasks, like video encoding, simply isn't in this laptop's "blood" due to the almost netbook-like internals.
Battery life, which is a major concern for ultraportable laptops because they're frequently used away from a power supply, is rather lacking with this Toshiba model. The 6-cell lithium ion battery only gives you about 3.5 hours of battery life, which is way lower compared to similar notebooks, which easily provide 5 hours or longer. There is a 9-cell battery available and is sold separately.
