Slim is in

We’re covering laptops that are so slim and gorgeous that they can give top-notch models a run for their money.might take a while for the latest tech toys to hit the Nepali market, but when it does arrive, it is always worth the wait.  
 
Apple Retina MacBook

  Expected to release in the second week of July in Nepal is the Apple’s newest, lightest (at 907 gm) and slimmest (13.1mm) Retina MacBook. So what’s new in this stunning laptop? Well for starters the keyboard is completely new, along with the 12″ retina display with IPS technology. Under the hood is an Intel Core M processor and the laptop runs on the OS X Yosemite operating system. 
Price: Price on request
Contact: 01-4225486 (Durbarmarg)
 
 
Asus Zenbook UX305 

 A look at this gorgeous laptop from the Taiwanese manufacturer and one cannot help but notice how similar it looks to the MacBook Air. Measuring just 12.7mm thin with 13.3 inch HD display, the laptop has Intel Core M processor, 8 GB memory and 256 GB SSD. Made entirely of aluminum, this looker from Asus will grab plenty of attention from onlookers.
Price: Rs 122,500
Contact: 01-4168637 (Kamaladi)
 
 
Dell Vostro 5470 

 Sleek and stylish, the laptop is available in 4th Gen Intel Core i3 and i5 processor options and measures just 18.3mm thin. It has a 14″ widescreen HD TrueLife display making watching movies a joy. With the 4 GB RAM, and 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M graphic, there won’t be games that you can’t enjoy. 
Price: For i3: Rs 65,000 and for i5: Rs 78,000
Contact: 01-4216036 (Putalisadak)
 
 
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 

 Measuring just 16.9mm, this laptop/tablet is super thin and weighs around one and a half kg. This laptop can transform into a tablet if you want it to be by just flipping the 13″ touch screen 360 degrees. On the inside the device comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and an 128GB SSD. There are also two USB ports and an SD card reader.
Price: Rs 120,000

Asus Chromebook Flip Goes Up For Pre-order

chromebook-flip

  
The Asus Chromebook Flip was announced back in April and now this new Chromebook is available to pre-order for $249.

A number of stores include CDW and Provantage have started taking pre-orders on the device which will launch in the next few weeks.
The Asus Chromebook Flip comes with a 10 inch display that has a HD resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the device is a convertible tablet and it is powered by a Rockchip 3288 processor.
The device will be available with 16GB of built in storage and a choice of either 2GB or 4GB of RAM, it also comes with WiFi, Bluetooth and a battery which is said to last up to eight hours. As yet there are no details on the exact release date of the new Asus Chromebook Flip, as soon as we get some more information, we will let you guys know.

Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Series 2-in-1

Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Series 2-in-1

• ---

  PROS

  Sharp IPS touch-screen display. Good performance. Sturdy construction.

• CONSSlightly heavy as a tablet. Tinny speakers.
• BOTTOM LINE

  The Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Series 2-in-1 is a well-built, 13-inch convertible-hybrid laptop that delivers solid all-around performance and features a crisp In-Plane Switching (IPS) display.

  ---

Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5244

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• PROS Nice price. Numeric keypad. 6GB of memory. 750GB hard drive.

• CONS Lots of bloatware. Slippery keyboard. Non-removable battery. Memory not upgradeable.
• BOTTOM LINE

  The Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5244 is an average budget desktop-replacement laptop. It’s sufficient for basic computing needs, though you may be left expecting more.

  ---

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The Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5244 ($469.99 as tested) is a budget desktop-replacement laptop priced quite a bit higher than the $250 budget Windows 8.1 laptops, for a good reason. This one is a more powerful and feature-rich Windows system with a full numeric keypad and DVD burner. It is faster, but it also eliminates some of the traditional features of a desktop-replacement (like a replaceable battery) that let you keep using it for many years. If you plan on upgrading from an older laptop, put the C55D-B5244 in the middle of your shopping list.

Design and Features
The laptop’s design is old school, with a textured, black, polycarbonate shell. It measures 1.05 by 15 by 10.25 inches (HWD) and weighs a manageable 4.6 pounds. Thanks to that 15-inch width, there’s room for both a full-size keyboard and a numeric keypad. The traditional scissor-switch keyboard has keys that can accidentally pop off and are a little slippery to type on, compared with the chiclet-style keyboards seen on more modern-looking laptops. For example, the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E545 has scalloped keycaps that are much more comfortable to type on and are more durable.

 

The 15.6-inch screen has a 1,366-by-768-resolution and lacks touch capability, which is typical in the budget category. Text and graphics can look a little blocky when blown up to fill a 15.6-inch screen. That’s forgivable for less expensive systems like the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531), but we’d rather see higher-resolution screens like the 1,600-by-900 resolution of the 17-inch screen on the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series, our Editors’ Choice budget desktop-replacement laptop. We’re stopping short of mandating a touch screen at this price point, but we do admit that Windows 8.1 is a lot easier to use if you have one.

On the sides of the system you’ll find a gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and a VGA port. Wireless network connections are handled by the system’s 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, but there’s no Bluetooth for other wireless devices like keyboards and mice. The DVD burner is a throwback, one that might be necessary in your family for watching old DVDs or if you need to access archived pictures on optical discs.

The system appears to have a removable battery, but looks can be deceiving. There are gaps in the case in the usual spots by the hinge, but it’s not a removable panel. That’s unfortunate, since replacing a worn battery is a good way to add years of life to a laptop.

The rest of the chassis is off limits to users as well, so you can’t upgrade the system’s 6GB of memory and 750GB hard drive. That said, most users won’t need to upgrade, since the system exceeds the usual 4GB of memory and 500GB hard drive you’ll find on budget systems like the Acer Aspire E5-471-59RT. The 6GB of memory will help you keep dozens of browser tabs open simultaneously, and 750GB is plenty for music, photos, and videos. The drive spins at a relatively slow 5,400rpm, but that’s a fair tradeoff for this amount of space.

Some of the hard drive is occupied by an unusually large amount of bloatware, including programs and shortcuts to sites like Amazon, Book Place, eBay, Evernote, Hulu Plus, iHeartRadio, Kindle, Netflix, Next Issue, Norton Internet Security, Pokki, Wild Tangent Games, and Zinio. To be sure, there’s a lot of drive space to spare, but you’ll have to budget an hour or two to remove all the programs you don’t want to use or be prepared to ignore all the tiles in the Start screen and in the taskbar. The system comes with a standard one-year warranty.

Performance
The C55D-B5244 is equipped with an AMD A6-6310 quad-core processor with integrated AMD Radeon R9 graphics. It helped the system return a decent 1,967 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, ahead of the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (1,554 points) and Lenovo E545 (1,777). The Intel-powered Dell Inspiron 17 (2,097) and Acer E5-471-59RT (2,688) returned higher scores, however. Multimedia scores are mostly good, at 4 hours 50 minutes for the Handbrake video test and 157 points on the CineBench test. However, the system lagged behind rivals on the Photoshop CS6 test (10:13). Gaming tests returned slideshow-like, single-digit frame rate scores, similar to the other budget laptops.

 

 

On our battery rundown test, the system lasted 5 hours 25 minutes. That’s 5 minutes better than the Dell Inspiron 17, and almost an hour-and-a-half better than the Lenovo E545 (4:01). The Acer Aspire E5-471-59RT is the class leader, however, having lasted 8:45 on the same test.

The Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5244 is a competent desktop-replacement laptop for a nice price, but drawbacks, like a non-removable battery and a somewhat flimsy keyboard, keep it in the middle of the pack. Even features like 6GB of system memory and a 750GB hard drive can’t elevate the system much higher. The Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series remains our top pick, thanks to its large 1,600-by-900-resolution screen, removable battery, more expensive feel and build quality, all for a list price that’s $20 less than the Toshiba model.

Lenovo Ideapad Z400 Touch

Lenovo
Price Range: $725.99 – $796.53

Overview:

The good: Attractively priced for a touch-
enabled laptop with a large hard drive, the
Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch doesn’t lack any
ports.

The bad: Thick, old-fashioned design;
surprisingly heavy, unimpressive keyboard and
touch pad.

The bottom line: The budget-friendly Lenovo
IdeaPad Z400 Touch is a bulky, heavy
commodity touch-screen laptop that doesn’t
stand out from the pack.

Review:
The future of Windows 8 laptops is clear: they’ll
all have touch screens. Touch technology is
becoming increasingly affordable, and it’s a
helpful, some would say necessary, way to
experience Windows 8 . In the present, that still
means manufacturers going through their
back catalogs and popping touch into old
designs. Sometimes that works, and
sometimes it just feels like what it is:
shoehorning.
Lenovo makes some excellently designed
laptops. The IdeaPad Z400 Touch doesn’t feel
like one of them. A thick body, a less-than-
impressive-feeling keyboard and touch pad,
and basic mainstream specs add up to a
laptop that feels generic. It does have a 14-
inch touch screen, but so what? So do many
new laptops.
The Z400 Touch has a DVD drive, and a large
1TB hard drive. It doesn’t have bumped-up
graphics, though, or a more workhorse-level
processor. For its price — about $700
depending on where you buy it — it’s a fine
deal but no bargain. Plus, it’s much heavier
than other mainstream 14-inch laptops we’ve
tested this year.
With newer laptops on the horizon and this
being a buyer’s market for PCs, you’re better
off waiting, or spending up for a thinner,
frankly better laptop. This is a functional but
skippable product, and a perfect example of
why PC sales are probably in decline.

Price as reviewed.         -$699
Processor.                       -2.6GHz Intel Core
                                         i5-3230M
Memory.                         -6GB, 1,600MHz
                                         DDR3
Hard drive.                       -1TB 5,400rpm
Graphics.                           -Intel HD 4000
Operating system.             -Windows 8
Dimensions (WD).              -13.6×9.6 inches
Height.                               -1.15 inch
Screen size (diagonal).        -14 inches
System weight / Weight
with AC adapter.                -5.3 pounds / 6.        pounds

Category.                            -Midsize

Design:
In one sense, the IdeaPad Z400 has a clean,
not unattractive design. A matte chocolate-
brown lid and two-tone silver and black plastic
inside give the impression of something
higher-end. But it’s the fit and finish here that
runs cheap. Everything’s plastic, not metal.
Also, this laptop is seriously thick and heavy:
over 1 inch thick and 5.3 pounds. The 15.6-
inch-screen Asus VivoBook S500CA , recently
reviewed, weighed only 4.8 pounds. The top
lid alone feels thicker than many tablets.
Looking at one side, with its giant vent grille
next to a VGA port, this laptop feels way too
much like a spare hand-me-down from two
years ago.
The keyboard, too, usually a strong point of
Lenovo laptops, looks the part but has a lot of
flex and a hollow feel. It comes off like a cheap
lookalike knockoff of the far better ThinkPad
keyboards. Don’t be fooled. At least the
volume and brightness keys are function-
reversed for single-press use, and there’s
backlighting. A smaller-than-normal clickable
touch pad beneath sometimes didn’t register
two-finger scrolling smoothly, either.
The 14-inch display’s touch response, as with
many touch screens, works excellently. The
1,366×768-pixel resolution, however,
combined with a washed-out and not very
bright picture, adds up to a passable
computing experience. It’s an average laptop
display for a few years ago, and now that
screens are increasing in quality and resolution
with regularity, it feels a step behind. The 720p
Webcam, at least, looks crisp. The Z400’s
stereo speakers are adequate.

Ports, configurations, performance:

The good news is that at least it has Bluetooth,
HDMI, USB 3.0, Ethernet, an SD card slot, and
DVD burner. Is that good news? It’s perfectly
ordinary news. This isn’t an ultrabook, and in a
“mainstream” laptop, that’s what you’d expect.
There are several configurations of the Z400
Touch, and many more, it seems, in little retail-
specific tweaks. Lenovo’s Web site currently
has the Z400 Touch starting at $599 with a
third-gen 2.5GHz Intel Core i3-3120M
processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard
drive. Configurations top out at $999 for one
with a 2.9GHz Core i7-3520M CPU, 8GB of
RAM, a 1TB 5,400rpm hard drive, and a
higher-res 1,600×900-pixel display. All
configurations have DVD drives, Bluetooth, and
touch screens. None have AMD or Nvidia
graphics or solid-state drive (SSD) storage
options.
The closest configuration on Lenovo’s site to
the one we reviewed costs $679, and has a set
of features preferable to ours: a 2.6GHz Core
i5-3230M processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard
drive, and a 1,600×900-pixel display. Our
review unit, which costs more on other sites,
has 6GB of RAM and a 1,366×768-pixel
display. Confusing? Yes. But not atypical for
laptop vendors with numbing sets of
coexisting retail configurations.
Keep in mind that this is a faster, full-voltage
Core i5 laptop processor, and performs better
than the average ultrabook equivalent. But the
advantage keeps narrowing every year: this is
faster, but yet it’s not as fast as a quad-core
powerhouse Core i7. Integrated Intel HD 4000
graphics are suitable enough for everyday use,
but many laptops of this size tend to have
some form of more robust Nvidia/AMD
graphics.
You’d think a 5-pound laptop would have
good battery life. The Z400 Touch’s is fair: it
ran for 5 hours and 3 minutes in our video
playback battery drain test. That’s certainly
good enough for a solid day’s work, but I have
to admit that I’d think a heavy laptop with
unimpressive specs could do an hour better.
As a commodity package of specs, the price-to-
value ratio of the Lenovo IdeaPad Z400 Touch
could be attractive. But I think laptop buyers
should think beyond that. As a portable
product in the current landscape, it’s
downright old-fashioned, with the exception of
its touch screen. For its price, you could get
something far thinner and lighter, or,
alternatively, more powerful. Better yet, I’d just
suggest you wait a few months or consider
another alternative. This is not a laptop we can
think of recommending for any specific
shopper as our first, second, or maybe even
third choice.

Apple macbook Air (13 inch)

Apple
MSRP: $1,199.00
Typical Price: $1,199.00

Overview:

The good: The 13-inch MacBook Air has new
Intel CPUs, better battery life, and an improved
720p Webcam, and finally adds USB 3.0 ports,
while shaving $100 off the price from last
year’s models.

The bad: The design, while strong, stays largely
the same: there’s no Ethernet port, and the
base SSD storage option of 128GB is smaller
than a standard hard drive, though common
for ultrabooks.

The bottom line: This year’s MacBook Air opts
for gradual improvements rather than
anything revolutionary, but lowered prices
continue to make it the go-to mainstream
recommendation for any MacBook owner-to-
be.

Review:
Not too long ago, the MacBook Air practically
stood alone in the computer landscape with its
unique blend of design, size, and performance,
an improvement on the thin laptop with low-
voltage CPU. The MacBook Air, in turn,
influenced the arrival of the ultrabook, and a
wave of newly designed Windows ultrathin
computers aspiring to one-up the Air at its
own game.
The 2012 MacBook Air no longer stands as the
coolest Mac laptop: that crown has been
temporarily stolen by the Retina Display
MacBook Pro . Nor is it as unusual. However, it
still remains the best example of an ultrathin
laptop — for its construction quality,
performance, and ergonomics.
The 13-inch Air has the same looks as last
year, and nearly the same build, with a few key
differences: a new third-gen Intel Core i5
processor, USB 3.0 ports (replacing the
previous USB 2.0), a higher-def 720p Webcam,
and an altered MagSafe 2 charge cable and
connector. Also, both 13-inch MacBook Pro
models now cost $100 less, bringing the entry-
level model with 128GB solid-state drive (SSD)
to $1,199, the exact same cost as the 13-inch
MacBook Pro . While the new Air doesn’t have
Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X,
installed, a free upgrade will be made available
when it’s released.
The improvements in this year’s 13-inch Air are
far less dramatic than last year’s, both from a
features and performance standpoint, but the
Air is truly the go-to MacBook now, and even
more affordable, although its cost still looms
well above that of most Windows ultrabooks.
Because of that and its excellent performance,
the MacBook Air remains the MacBook of the
current batch we’d most recommend.
Want a MacBook that’s easily portable? This is
it. Want a back-to-school MacBook? This is the
one. And, until the $2,199 Retina Display
MacBook Pro drops in price, the $1,199 13-
inch Air remains the MacBook for the masses.
It’s lighter, it performs better than ever, and it’s
less expensive, and in head-to-head tests with
the 2012 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Air
performed very closely, and had better battery
life: nearly 45 minutes better than the 2011
MacBook Air.
Owners of last year’s Air need not consider an
upgrade, but if you haven’t pulled the trigger
on getting an Air yet, this is the best time to
leap on board.

Price as reviewed.            $1,199
Processor.                        1.8GHz Intel Core i5
                                          ULV (third-gen)
Memory.                         4GB, 1,600MHz DDR3
Hard drive.                       128GB SSD
Chipset.                              Intel HM77
Graphics.                            Intel HD 4000
Operating system.             OS X Lion 10.7.4
Dimensions (WD).              12.7×8.9 inches
Height.                               0.11-0.68 inch
Screen size (diagonal).        13.3 inches
System weight / Weight
with AC adapter.                 2.98 pounds / 3.68.                                                               Pounds
Category.                            ultrabook

The all-aluminum unibody design of the
MacBook Air has become iconic, and its rock-
solid wedge-shaped build has influenced
many of the current crop of Windows
ultrabooks. However, just as the iPhone
started iconic and gradually found itself
surrounded by a sea of similar competitors,
the MacBook Air now sits among ultrabooks,
no longer as much of a stand-out it was a year
ago. That doesn’t mean the Air is any less
comfortable or excellently built, but the look,
going on a few years old, is less surprising.
The 13-inch Air is still one of the thinnest
laptops around, but it does have a screen
bezel that’s larger than the current norm in
high-end ultrabooks. The keyboard, wide and
comfortable with slightly shallow keys, also has
quite a bit of extra space around it. It’s hard
not to imagine a 13-inch Air that’s a little more
compact, perhaps shrinking to a smaller
footprint. That’s a small quibble, though; at
2.96 pounds, this laptop is unlikely to feel
imposing in any bag.
The new 13-inch Air has one small but
important change: it uses a different charge
cable, called MagSafe 2, that replaces last
year’s MagSafe. It looks similar, but it’s actually
wider and flatter, and requires a differently
shaped power cable that juts out from the side
of the Air rather than hugging the side like
existing MagSafe cords. I prefer the older
design, and unfortunately, old MagSafe cables
you have lying around will now require a $9.99
adapter to work with your new Air. Keep that in
mind.
The Air has a shallower keyboard than the type
that’s on Apple’s MacBook Pros and the
wireless Bluetooth keyboard you get with an
iMac, but it’s just as great for typing. The
backlighting adjusts well to ambient light. Like
on all Macs, a row of function-reversed
buttons control volume, screen brightness,
and other functions. A button to the top right,
normally the eject button, powers up the Air.
It’s still a tiny bit weird that this isn’t a hard
circular power button instead, like on the Pros.
The large multitouch and multifinger clickpad
still stands as the best touch pad in the
industry. It never hiccups, and gestures are as
silky-smooth as on an iPad. It remains a
perfect synchronization of hardware and
software, and no Windows ultrabook has been
able to match it. Competitors now offer
similarly sized pads, but not ones of similar
quality.
Unlike the 11-inch MacBook Air’s, the 13-inch
screen is not a 16:9 display, maintaining the
same aspect ratio fragmentation as last year’s
Airs. The screen area also lacks the edge-to-
edge glass over a black bezel found in other
MacBooks; instead the screen is surrounded
by a thick silver bezel. On the positive side, the
native resolution of the display is 1,440×900
pixels, which is a better than the current 13-
inch standard of 1,366×768 pixels. In head-to-
head comparisons, the new 13-inch Pro’s glass
showed far more glare than the Air’s, which is
treated with an antiglare coating. The 13-inch
MacBook Pro screen has a lower resolution of
1,280×800, and does not offer any higher-res
screen upgrades, meaning it has the highest-
resolution 13-inch display you can get on an
Air; if you want a Retina Display, you’ll have to
pay up for that far larger $2,199 next-gen 15-
inch Pro.
The MacBook Air comes with OS X Lion 10.7.4
preinstalled, but owners will be grandfathered
in to a free OS upgrade to Mountain Lion when
it’s released — a $19.99 value. Apple’s standard
suite of iLife software is preinstalled as well,
giving you GarageBand, iPhoto, and iMovie.
The Air’s speakers are oddly quiet, especially
compared with those of ultrabooks such as the
Sony Vaio T . They’re fine for solo streaming of
TV and movies, and game audio, but in a
crowded room you’ll prefer headphones.
A new HD Webcam has an increased 720p
resolution, catching up to the quality of the
Webcams in other Macs. FaceTime calls look far
crisper, and it’s a welcome upgrade.

Toshiba Satellite U845T

Price Range: $734.99 – $799.99

Overview:

The good: The Toshiba Satellite U845T is
thin, with a decent brushed-aluminum body, a
128GB SSD, and better performance and
battery life than the competition.
The bad: The keyboard has squeezed-down
keys, a small spacebar, and some flex under
heavy typing. The low screen resolution feels
dated in a midsize laptop.
The bottom line: While it’s not going to dazzle
anyone, the Toshiba Satellite U845T is a great
example of exactly how much laptop $799
should buy in 2013.

Review:

There’s a reasonable chance you’ll end up
hearing about the Toshiba Satellite U845T on a
semiregular basis from us. That’s because, at $
799 for a 14-inch laptop that’s ultrabook-thin,
with a touch screen, Intel Core i5 processor,
and 128GB solid-state drive, it’s about as
middle-of-the-road as laptops get.
For the moment, that makes the U845T the
perfect example of a midsize, midprice laptop,
and thanks to a sharp aluminum design and
lack of any overly annoying or deal-killing flaws,
it may end up being our default laptop
recommendation for a lot of readers.
This is an especially important comparison
when we look at Atom-powered touch-screen
laptop-tablet hybrids. Those systems usually
have small screens, slow performance, and
compromised designs, but can cost just as
much when you include the optional keyboard
docks and other accessories. A handful of Core
i5 touch-screen laptops are available for about
$100 less, usually with bulkier, plastic bodies,
and adding $100-$200 gets you into premium
territory, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga .
The U845T isn’t perfect — the keyboards on
most Toshiba Satellite laptops are oddly
squeezed, with especially small spacebars, and
only one of the three USB ports is of the
current 3.0 variety. But it’s right in that
midprice sweet spot, so if you’re looking for a
decent all-around laptop for under $800, this
is a great place to start.
Price as reviewed $799

Processor
-1.8GHz Intel Core
i5-3337U

Memory
-6GB, 1,600MHz
DDR3

Hard drive
-128GB SSD

Graphics
-Intel HD4000

Operating system
-Windows 8

Dimensions (WD)
– 9.1×13.5 inches

Height
-0.8 inch

Screen size (diagonal)
-14 inches

System weight / Weight
with AC adapter
-3.6 pounds / 4.2
pounds

Category
-Midsize

Design and features:

If you think of a typical laptop design on the
“nicer” side of the fence — as opposed to the
plastic, budget side — you’ll probably picture
something that looks and feels a lot like the
Toshiba Satellite U845T. Despite the midsize
14-inch screen, it’s thin (0.8 inch), light (3.6
pounds), and solidly built. Spend more, and
you can shave off some size and weight, but
these 14- and 15-inch ultrabooks no matter
what are sort of skirting the definition of
everyday portability with their larger screens, as
least compared with 13-inch models.
The brushed aluminum on the lid and
keyboard tray is upscale without standing out.
If you took the mirror-finish Toshiba logo off
of the back of the lid, this could be a laptop
from any number of PC makers. Open the lid,
and the interior is minimalist, with only a
couple of indicator lights and a backlit power
button to accompany the touch pad and
keyboard (OK, and a bunch of Intel, Energy
Star, and EPEAT stickers).
The backlit keyboard has black keys set against
a gray keyboard tray. Like other Toshiba
Satellite laptops, the actual island-style keys are
more rectangular than round, but the end
effect is that each key is slightly squashed,
giving the keyboard a cramped feel. Many
Toshiba laptops have unusually short
spacebars, as is the case here, which can
interfere with some typing styles. Add a small
but noticeable amount of flex in the center of
the keyboard, and you get a keyboard that’s
usable, but not my favorite part of this laptop.
The large clickpad-style touch pad fares better.
With no separate left and right mouse buttons,
there’s more room for multitouch gestures,
and two-finger scrolling is reasonably smooth.
The 14-inch display is one of the few lower-
end components here. The 1,366×768-pixel
native resolution is on the low side for a
midsize laptop, and henceforth we’ll likely see
this resolution in fewer and fewer laptops,
outside of the least expensive budget systems.
Interestingly, while the U845T has a touch
screen (and a perfectly responsive one at that),
this is one of the only touch-screen laptops
without an edge-to-edge glass overlay over the
entire inside surface of the lid.
Toshiba Satellite U845T
Average for category
[midsize]
-Video HDMI VGA plus HDMI
or DisplayPort
-Audio
-Stereo speakers,
-headphone/
-microphone
-jacks

Data
1 USB 3.0, 2 USB
2.0, SD card
reader

Networking
Ethernet,
802.11n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth
Ethernet,
802.11n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth
Optical
drive None DVD burner
Connections, performance, and battery
The U845T continues its streak as a perfectly
average laptop, with a perfectly average
collection of ports and connections. There’s
only one video output, HDMI in this case, and
also only one USB 3.0 port (it has two USB 2.0
ports), but I always like getting a built-in
Ethernet jack and separate audio-in and -out
jacks. Note that the single USB 3.0 port is of the
sleep-and-charge variety, which means it can
use the laptop’s battery to charge devices such
as a phone, even when the laptop is asleep or
powered off.
While this Satellite U845T is a fixed-
configuration $799 laptop, Toshiba does offer
another model, also for $799, that swaps out
the 128GB SSD for a standard 500GB,
5,400rpm hard drive. If you need a lot of
storage space, that might be a good idea, but
I’d stick with the SSD for its advantages in
speed, power consumption, weight, and heat.
With a 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U CPU, the
Satellite U845T performed a tiny bit better than
some other recent slim midsize laptops in our
benchmark tests, most of which have a slightly
slower Core i5-3317U processor. But the
performance difference is slight, and for
everyday use — Web surfing, social media, HD
video playback, basic productivity — you’d be
hard-pressed to tell the difference.
One area where the U845T does stand out,
however, is battery life. In our video playback
battery drain test, the system ran for 6 hours
and 4 minutes. Any laptop that tops 6 hours is
impressive, and for a $799 14-incher, that’s
even more impressive. HP’s similar Pavilion 15
Sleekbook ran for only a little more than 3
hours on the same test.

Conclusion:
Every once in a while, a laptop comes along
that’s just a great example of what a shopper
should be able to get for a specific price. While
it doesn’t massively overshadow what other PC
makers offer in the same category, the Toshiba
Satellite U845T is exactly what I’d hope for in a
midsize $799 laptop right now. It’s thin, with a
decent brushed-aluminum body, a 128GB
SSD, and even slightly better performance and
battery life than the competition gives.