Toshiba Satellite L650-12N Laptop Review

As standard it comes with a Core i3 330M processor, 3 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, DVD SuperMulti Drive and Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed. Normally, budget laptops do not tend be the crème de la crème but the slick, carbon fibre style pattern on the surface certainly adds a touch of class.

The UVD 2 video engine is able to decode HD videos (MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1) and allows the fluent playback of HD videos (e.g. Blu-ray) with a relative low CPU utilization. The HD 3200 was the first onboard graphics card that allows the fluent playback of Blu-ray videos. The UVD 2 on the HD 4200 supports the decoding of two video stream and therefore gives full Blu-Ray support.

The graphics core of the HD 4200 stems from the Mobility Radeon HD 3400 and is therefore DirectX 10.1 capable. Still older games like Doom 3 or Quake 4 are barely playable on the Toshiba Satellite L650-12N.

A capacious 320GB Hard Drive provides you with ample room for storing your files, documents, music and videos, while a satisfying 2GB of Memory is installed to enable you to run your applications seamlessly and again without a hitch – at all.

The Toshiba Satellite L650-12N is an attractive-looking laptop with its svelte black chassis, and sports a stunning 15.6" HD screen with 16:9 aspect ratio providing a bright, vivid picture which will make photo editing and movie-watching an absolute pleasure! However, the shared graphics chipset may cause a hiccup in the setup. Nonetheless, the Toshiba Satellite L650-12N features a built-in DVD Rewriter which means that entertainment never be far away, whether you're enjoying a film or listening to an audio CD.

As already declared the video processor in the Toshiba Satellite L650-12N is handled by the ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics GPU, as well as being easily up to the task of everyday tasks, the GPU gives you plenty of scope for activities such as full HD video playback and a little, I repeat, a little mainstream gaming.

The Toshiba Satellite L650-12N gives you more than sufficient connectivity choice too, with two USB ports, Wi-Fi technology for easy connection to networks and the internet, an SD card reader, an RJ-45 ethernet port, and a VGA connector for an anagloue video connection to either a monitor or most modern HDTVs.

In addition to all of this the Toshiba Satellite L650-12N comes pre-loaded with the intuitive LifeSpace interface, a fun and easy-to-use tool which helps you to effortlessly organise and locate your files. LifeSpace is divided into two applications: Bulletin Board, for managing your day-to-day activities and projects, and ReelTime, a visual history tool which makes it a cinch to find exactly what you're looking for.