The Satellite Pro U500 is part of Toshiba's Performance Mobile range, which also includes Portégé and Tecra models (with screens sizes ranging from 12in. to 14in.). Prices for the Satellite Pro U500 start at £599, rising to £699 (ex. VAT). It's a slightly chunky 13.3in. notebook with a flashy aspect to the design that won't appeal to all.
Design
We generally expect a 13.3in. notebook to be a compact and lightweight system. However, the Satellite Pro U500, at 31.7cm wide by 23cm deep by 3.19-3.88cm thick and 2.2kg, is on the chunky and heavy side. On its web site Toshiba says the Satellite Pro U500 is a 'thin and light portable laptop', but we'd really rather not carry more than 2kg unless absolutely necessary.
The Satellite Pro U500 isn't the lightest or most compact 13.3in. notebook: it weighs 2.2kg and is nearly 4cm thick at the back.
There is some good news on the build front, as the casing is very solid. There is minimal flex in the lid section and the base seems very tough. The chassis has a mostly matte finish (unlike the shiny plastic of the recently reviewed Satellite Pro T130), but there are some telltale signs that this notebook also has a consumer alter ego (the Satellite U500).
Two speakers sit above the keyboard and deliver reasonable volume and fair quality. They lack the rich bass tones that music aficionados require, but should be fine for delivering multimedia presentations to small audiences.
Between the keyboard and the screen is a pair of speakers and a strip of touch-sensitive buttons.
A strip of touch-sensitive buttons provides media playback controls and access to the notebook's power-saving Eco mode. Several places on the keyboard section have bright white backlighting, including a strip atop the wrist rest and the strip of touch buttons. You can turn these off by hitting one of the touch buttons, and they're automatically turned off in Eco mode.
The touchpad incorporates vertical and horizontal scroll zones and supports pinch-to-zoom. You have to make very definite contact for the latter to work, and we never really got comfortable with it. An alternative zooming feature, involving the Fn key and spacebar, you accesses two full-screen zoom levels. A button sitting just below the spacebar disables the touchpad — a feature that more notebooks should adopt.
The touchpad supports pinch-to-zoom and can be disabled at the touch of a button.
The keyboard could be better. There is a fair amount of flex and the keys do not feel as solid under the fingers as we would like. Reaching normal touch-typing speed was not a problem but we are not fans of the design.
The 13.3in. screen has a native resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels — an aspect ratio of 16:10, in contrast to the 16:9 1,366 by 768 display seen on the Satellite Pro T130. For professionals, those few extra pixels of height may be a help when it comes to document creation.
A TrueBrite coating on the screen boosts clarity and brightness for media viewing but is quite reflective. Whether or not you like this kind of screen finish will be a matter of personal taste.
There's a webcam above the screen, and a slide-out menu on the left edge of the screen gives access to its various features. These include face-recognition-based login. The camera shoots stills and video resolutions up to 1,280 by 800 pixels.
No comments:
Post a Comment