Amazon.com Product Description

Not everyone needs a high-end, high cost notebook. A midlevel workhorse that offers solid but certainly not spectacular amenities and speed, the Toshiba Satellite A45-S121 Notebook PC delivers CD burning, DVD playing, reasonable 3-D performance, a very affordable price point and enough muscle for day-to-day personal and light business tasks. Power users should definitely look toward one of Toshiba's more upscale machines, but budget-minded shoppers may just find the economical Satellite A45-S121 more than meets their requirements.

Driven by a cost-effective 2.8 GHz Intel Celeron processor and a nominal 256 MB RAM, the Satellite A45-S121 isn't designed for complex multitasking or demanding state-of-the-art applications. However, it will easily handle general chores such as word processing, personal finances, electronic communications and Internet browsing. Surprisingly, Toshiba has equipped this comparatively inexpensive system with a 32 MB Intel 852GME graphics controller. Though not ideal for high-end 3-D games, this chipset will allow you to efficiently play older and less demanding games and perform some 3-D graphics work. This level of 3-D capability is uncommon in this price range.

Measuring 13.2 by 11.7 by 1.9 inches and weighing in at 7.7 pounds, the Satellite A45-S121 is of average size -- less bulky than a "desktop replacement" unit but nearly double the weight of some of today's lightweight tablets and ultra-compact notebooks. Inside, Toshiba has included a 40 GB hard disk, a full-size 85-key keyboard with 12 hotkeys, a midsize 15-inch XGA TFT active-matrix display capable of 1024 by 768 resolution, and a convenient DVD/CD-RW drive through which you can burn and listen to audio CDs, archive files, and enjoy the latest Hollywood blockbusters. If you wish to burn DVDs, you'll either need to upgrade or utilize an external DVD writer. As to be expected in this price range, connectivity options are only fair. The system features a traditional 56K modem port for dial-up communication and an RJ-45 LAN port for high-speed networking, but does not include wireless facilities or an IEEE 1394 FireWire port (normally used for fast downloads from digital camcorders). Furthermore, Toshiba has fitted the unit with four traditional USB ports rather than the new USB 2.0 standard, thus limiting data streaming speed from external devices such as digital cameras and the like.

The bundled software package features Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition operating system, Microsoft's Works productivity suite, and Intuit's Quicken New User Edition 2004 financial center. In ideal conditions, battery life is estimated at an impressive 2.9 hours. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Well made and good performance, but with a few glitches.
Purchased the A45-S121 yesterday(Memorial Day Weekend) to check it out and compare to the CPQ 2199US, and here are my 2 cents.
Pro:
- Well built and different design from the rest.
- Intel 852/855GME chipset, this could ensure future support for next generation and other Operating Systems, unlike the ATI/VIA chipset on the 2199US which may be drop by CPQ/HP once they come out with a new line of notebooks. Example, Intel released a driver for the 852 on 3/04, while the ATI driver is dated 6/03 and can only be optained from Compaq since ATI won't support their IGP 320M.
- 4 x USB 2.0, this is the standard and every notebook should have at least 3 ports. USB 1.1 is more than 3 years old and notebook makers like CPQ/HP should keep up with the rest of the industry instead of pushing an outdated technology.
- Intel Celeron 2.8Ghz, 256MB RAM & 40GB 4200RPM HD, "diehard" fan of AMD may be suprise of this CPU with 128Kb cache and 240MB of system memory performs as well as the AMD XP-M. Boot up time and overall usage of the system is a little slower than the 2199US, but with 240MB left(16MB for Video) it does a good job even when playing games or opening several applications at once, probably will give credit to the Intel chipset here again.
- Battery seems to last around 3Hrs with normal usage like surfing and word processing.
- Video card has good performance, with only 16MB got an 1700 score with 3DMark01 @ 1024x768x32 almost the same as the ATI IGP on the 2199US.
- Most people claim that the support and service from Toshiba is far superior than HP/CPQ, can't account for that since I only had these systems for a few hours.
- Audio, volume control is on the right hand side and adjustable by hand, unlike the 2199US that is dificult to reach and works only under Windows. The built-in speakers are very good indeed and well located.
- The CPU fan is somehow more silent specially when controlled by the Toshiba Power Saving Modes.
- Haven't tested the rest of the peripherals like DVD/CDRW but they seem to be of standard quality.

Cons:
- Misleading specs, Toshiba claims to include an Intel Celeron M 2.8Ghz CPU when in fact this is a your average OEM desktop CPU, Integrated 32MB VRAM video card is another wrong specs about this system since the Intel 852GME is an IGP that uses/shared system memory and allocates 16MB when you have 256MB or 32MB when 512MB is installed, these settings can't be changed by the user.
- Heavy an bulky, another specs blunder by Toshiba on the A45 line, it's as thick as the 2199US on the front(1.6") but the back is almost 2.5" thick, also the sides are around 1/2" - 3/4" bigger than the 2199US. This notebook won't fit on your averge bag.
- The LCD is just too bright and controlled by the Toshiba Power Saving application, don't remove it from your startup config else you will have to adjust the brightness everytime you boot. To get a good contrast and viewing angle the screen has to be at least 125 degrees from the base of the unit, this is problem especially in small places like in a car or small desk or just sitting on your lap.
- No S-Video out, if you want to watch a DVD/Divx on your TV or simply make a presentation then you may have to buy an extra peripheral to do the job.
- Video support for OpenGL games only, I didn't see any settings for Direct3D only for OpenGL and the fact that Serious Sam played without a problem but Splinter Cell 2 fail to load may be a problem, also the lack of video memory could be an issue most games require at least 64MB of video RAM to work now days.
- Noisy HD, the access "clicking" noise from the HD is very loud at times, I also was getting a pulsating pixel on a right hand corner when accessing the HD, which dissapeared after a while.

Well this is my opinion and my overall reaction to the few hours of usage, in the end is you(or myself) that have to choose between this Toshiba, the HP/CPQ or any other low budget notebook out there.

Incredible Notebook!
I received this notebook as a present from my mother and it is also my first notebook, and let me tell you---this is a great buy. Compared to other notebooks on the market, this one is truly cost-efficient and works PERFECTLY! Not recommended if you like to play complicated games on the computer. But otherwise, buy it, you won't regret it! ... Read more