Toshiba Satellite Pro C660 review

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Toshiba Satellite Pro C660

The Good in Toshiba Satellite Pro C660

  • Large hard drive
  • Cheap

The Bad in Toshiba Satellite Pro C660

  • Poor keyboard
  • Limited range of ports
  • Pedestrian performance
  • Iffy build quality


Toshiba comes with a enviable reputation with regards to laptops, so it's something of a surprise to find the 15. 6-inch Toshiba Satellite Pro C660 going on a bargain-basement price. Our model, the C660-17J, is becoming sold by Laptops Direct for approximately £345, and you may pick it up for £295 in case you trade in your aged laptop too.

Cheap like a budgie

Toshiba Satellite C660 appearance is disappointing -- it looks cheaper compared to the cast of The only way Is Essex. The whole chassis is made out of black plastic and, although Toshiba has extra a dimpled pattern on the lid and wrist relaxation, it still looks about as stylish being a room full of location teachers. Worse still, the chassis doesn't feel all that robust, especially around this wrist rest. If you apply some pressure into it, it flexes quite significantly.

There isn't much to obtain excited about with regards to the computer's line-up regarding ports, either. In simple fact, you get just a couple USB ports, which is mean even at this price. Although there's a VGA output, there's no HDMI vent -- something that's becoming standard on most machines. Even the LAN port is limited to 100Mbps Ethernet, when almost all of today's laptops offer Gigabit Ethernet assistance.

The keyboard is also a huge disappointment. The keys rattle quite badly since you type, so we wouldn't have massive confidence within the keyboard standing up well to long-term abuse. The keys also provide very little travel so they really don't feel all which comfortable or responsive.

The trackpad is more preferable, though. It sits flush with all the wrist rest and is wide enough to allow you to easily sweep the cursor around the screen. The two large, tubular buttons also think quite sturdy and make a distinct click when a person press them.

Glossy films on screens divide thoughts and opinions. On the one palm, they generally improve the appearance of colours, making these people look more vivid, although, on the other palm, they tend to always be very reflective, which is usually uncomfortable if you're with them under bright, overhead lighting.

Toshiba Satellite C660 display is sadly more reflective in comparison with most, and this, put together with its tight vertical seeing angle, means getting an appropriate viewing position can always be tricky. Nevertheless, the resolution of 1, 366x768 pixels isn't poor, and the legibility regarding text in documents and online is good once you've gotten the screen positioned the right way.

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Toshiba Satellite Pro C660

Verdict

While the 15.6-inch Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-17J is cheap, its limited range of ports, pedestrian performance and uninspiring build quality mean this laptop doesn't really offer good value for money.

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660 has the most limited range of ports we've seen on a laptop in quite some time.
As you'd expect of an 15. 6-inch desktop-replacement machine, the C660 has some sort of DVD rewriter. Thankfully, Toshiba hasn't skimped on the hard drive. While most budget machines feature smaller 320GB drives, this place offers 500GB of safe-keeping, which should be enough for most people.

Stale chip

The laptop uses a dual-core Intel Pentium T4500 model clocked at 2. 3GHz. It's really a pre-Sandy Bridge processor, so that it uses the older, reduced Intel HD integrated design. Consequently, in the 3DMark06 standard test, it only managed to post a consequence of 773, which isn't superior to most netbooks. That means 3D gambling is pretty much impossible, but at least the actual Intel HD graphics offer some acceleration for tasks like high-definition video playback.

The particular T4500 chip isn't accurately a cutting-edge processor, so we weren't expecting much on the C660 when it stumbled on the PCMark05 test. The item racked up a ranking of 3, 918, that's pretty much what we all expected. In real-world words, this means the laptop are going to be fine for lighter tasks like Web browsing, seeing shows on iPlayer along with updating Facebook, but isn't actually suitable for more challenging tasks, like compressing HIGH DEFINITION video files or incorporating effects in programs such as Photoshop.

With a 15. 6-inch tv screen, this isn't really some sort of laptop that's designed for life while travelling. That's probably just too because it didn't perform particularly well from the intensive Battery Eater Traditional test, which runs the CPU at 100 % until the battery conks out there. The C660 managed and keep running for just an hour and 16 minutes, whereas almost all of today's 15-inch laptops find a way to creep above the an hour and 20 minute mark.

Conclusion

The Toshiba Satellite television Pro C660-17J is challenging to like. Its rickety keyboard set, lack of ports and pedestrian performance mean that, although it's cheap, it isn't very cheerful. If you desire a low-cost computer which offers better build quality, we'd suggest you read the likes of the Acer Desire 5552 instead.



Our rating

2.5 stars out of 5

User rating

2 stars out of 5