A powerful computer with some high end specs, but at a price that’s a bit more friendly on the pocket
Toshiba have been producing some really top quality computers in recent years, and we reckon the Toshiba Satellite S50t has the power and the price tag that makes this machine worth your hard-earned cash. So what’s it all about?
Design
Let’s start on the outside. The brushed aluminium casing of this machine gives it a premium feel, but that also gives it a bit of extra bulk. You’ll notice the added 2.5kg (give or take a few grams) in your bag, as you will the large screen (15.6″), which makes this big enough to carry around. That said, it’s a pretty slim model, and fit into our backpack without much of a problem. The charger is surprisingly big and weighty though, so if you can find a way to avoid carrying that around, then it will be all the better.
The large full keyboard with number pad is nice and feels quite comfortable to type on, and the track pad is pretty decent and responsive enough. It does have a touchscreen though, so you can do a few tasks with that instead of the pad, but more on that later.
Underneath all that packaging is what really counts of course (never judge a laptop by its cover) and this machine packs a punch. It has an Intel i7 quad core 2.4GHZ processor, which is lightning quick and handled everything that we could throw at it. When it came to audio editing it put our current Toshiba to shame, image editing didn’t even make it break a sweat, and for your average tasks (browsing, word processor etc.) it barely needs to leave first gear.
Over the Christmas break we had it up and running to do some image editing while we were surfing to do research for an article in word processor (all our wonderful European football roundups) all at the same time and it didn’t slow down even a jot. While for high end users that might seem a pretty usual thing, if you’re upgrading from a slower machine (like JOE is) then it’s a real pleasure for something to simply work well. That’s possibly the key to this machine too, if you’re on the look out for a computer that will speed up your day to day tasks but also give you the option of doing something that requires a bit more power, the S50t can handle both. The P50t (the model up from this) is very similar but with largely the same specs, so if you want a powerful computer at a cheaper price, then this is the laptop for you.
One small detail, there’s a vent located in the top right hand corner, and after a while this can get pretty warm, as can the area around the trackpad (again, in particular on the right) but only after a bit of use.
Touch screen
Seeing as this machine runs on Windows 8, the touchscreen is going to be a pretty key element. Once you get used to using one, it’s also really difficult to go back to a non-touchscreen, and you can look a bit silly when you try to get your computer to do something by hammering away at the screen.
The screen itself is a 1366×786 display, which is slightly less sharp than the higher end models, partially thanks to the resolution and partially thanks to the fact that it’s a touchscreen. That said, the touchscreen does work very well, with few errors, and when cropping images, scrolling through webpages or flicking through pictures in your library, this is a much neater way to get around. It also makes Windows 8 much more pleasant to use, and the tiles design makes sense in this context. Realistically you’re not going to use it all that often in your every day tasks (it’s a bit fiddly to use in word processing applications) it can come in handy for a few tasks.
With a big screen and a bit of power behind it, this machine is decent for media, but we must admit that the screen visibility is not great from varying angles. At times it was straight up difficult to see when watching sporting streams or Netflix, and when you plug it out the default setting on powersaving mode was pretty dark. That’s obviously adjustable, but even at that low level, this machine still burns through the juice.
Battery life
That brings us on to our next point. One area where perhaps the machine is lacking a bit is in battery life. With the huge advancements that have been made with the Haswell chips in the last year or so, we would have liked to see this machine really stretch out the amount of hours you can work away on it without failing. When it comes to media we found that you would get just about two hours of streaming out of it, and while there is a DVD drive, we didn’t test it to see what it was like. Our point about the screen was that we wouldn’t like to turn up the brightness to put even further stress on the battery, and the lads at Trusted Reviews found a similar experience to us, getting about three hours out of the battery at the best of times.
Overall
Overall however, battery aside, this machine is a solid performer. The battery performs that bit poorer because of all the power this machine needs, and it can get you through most tasks without any hassle. For the price though (RRP €699) we don’t reckon there are many faster or more powerful machines out there. The touchscreen is a great option to have, and our main selling point is that i7 processor, which is a real joy to use. What it really comes down to is value for money, and we reckon that’s definitely what you’re getting here.
If you’re interested in this laptop, you can check out BT Shop, www.soundstore.ie, and www.eurieka.ie, who all stock it
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