Toshiba Satellite L300-148 Laptop Review

Toshiba has a reputation of building budget laptops that also look and feel more expensive. The L300-148 has an extremely cheap price tag but have Toshiba managed to sustain their reputation or have they fallen into the hole of poor keyboards and cheap plastic casing.

Well just from looking at the L300-148 you can tell it’s a budget laptop. The laptop doesn’t come along with any of the glossy finishes that more expensive laptops come with but it is still sturdy and has an expensive feel.

The L300-148 is a powerhouse; it comes with an Intel Mobile Dual Core T2370 which runs at a smooth 1.73GHz along with that it comes along with a decent 2GB of RAM. It also comes along with Windows Vista Home, which isn’t bad at all. Not does it just come along with all of that but also 160GB of hard drive which is more then enough space for storage. It gets even better a lot better. The L300-148 comes with three USB ports, an Express Card slot and a D-Sub VGA connector so you can hook it up to an external screen. It also comes with Wireless and an integrated webcam but unfortunately you don’t get Bluetooth. Yet it gets slightly worse, seeing it’s a budget laptop it relies on a Intel integrated graphics chip for its 3D support so don’t expect amazing 3D rendering, the basics are all you’re going to get.

The keyboard is one of the main areas that shows that this laptop isn’t actually that bad. The keyboard is nicely spaced and the layout is sensible and the keys are not small at all. It gets even better the touchpad is also responsive and comfortable.

The impressive 15.4” screen is also very impressive with a nice glossy display but it can cause reflection in brightly lit areas. The screen is perfectly sized for working on documents or surfing the web.

That all sounds amazing and it seems that Toshiba haven’t fallen into the trap of poorly shaped keyboard and cheap plastic casing. Yet the L300-148 is not totally perfect. It already isn’t the best in terms of graphics and doesn’t come with Bluetooth but it also has a poor battery life of about an hour and a half. This laptop isn’t really the one for being on the road all the time as it weighs in at a hefty 2.49kg, it isn’t really the lightest of laptops.

If you’re looking for a no nonsense around the house laptop that is a reasonable price but is also powerhouse then this is the laptop for you. If you’re a road warrior who is always on the move then we would advise you to look for something better as the L300-148 has a short battery life and weighs quite a bit.