Toshiba Satellite 2520CDT review

Some Toshiba kit can be seriously pricey, angling itself towards the deep pockets of the corporate fraternity.

But like many major manufacturers, IBM and Compaq included, Toshiba also has a range targeted at home and small business users. These products are still more expensive than most Far Eastern equivalents but, as we'll see, there are some things the big brand names do better.

Toshiba's latest attempt to win the hearts of us ordinary folk centres around two additions to its Satellite range: the 2520CDS and the fancier 2520CDT. The CDS is £200 cheaper, with a lower-spec screen and only 32Mb of RAM. However, we've got our hands on the CDT.

To keep the price down, Toshiba has gone for AMD's 300MHz K6-2 processor in its new mobile, low-voltage form. This also accounts for the comparatively long battery life, which we'll come to later.

The chip is backed up by 64Mb of RAM and a 4Gb UltraDMA hard disk. This is about what we'd expect for a low to mid-range notebook, and should be fine for business apps, reference CDs and educational titles. Still, don't expect it to cope that well with the more demanding games on the market.

Despite an all-in-one design that incorporates both the floppy drive and a 24-speed CD-ROM drive, the Satellite is surprisingly light, weighing in at only 2.9kg. True, it's not quite as uncompromisingly solid as some Toshibas, but it's still pretty roadworthy. The case is rigid and inflexible, and (importantly) able to resist pressure that might otherwise damage the vulnerable screen beneath.

In keeping with budget notebooks, there's only one fancy extra: an integrated V.90 modem. Beyond that, you get just the basics, including a USB port, an infrared serial port and a PS/2 port for an external mouse or keyboard.

When you're out on the road, this notebook does have one trick up its sleeve. The Satellite's BIOS supports the new Microsoft ACPI power management standard. This is used by a Toshiba-written Windows Control Panel Power applet to provide unusually detailed and comprehensive power-saving options. And on our standard battery drain test, we got the very impressive figure of 2 hours 40 minutes intensive use.

Equal in importance to all these technical considerations is the quality of the display. Here, you'll find a 12.1in TFT screen, which isn't anything out of the ordinary, either in terms of size or the 800x600 resolution it delivers. However, it's reasonably bright, and we weren't really expecting a 14in 1024x768 panel for this sort of money, anyway.

Behind the scenes there's a 2Mb S3 ViRGE/MX graphics chipset, which will drive an external monitor at 1024x768 resolution in the standard 65,536 colours, so you have the potential for a bigger Windows desktop when you're working at home.

The keyboard is equally important, and here we were impressed. It was comfortable to use, thanks to a positive action and a sensible layout that incorporates Shift, Enter and Backspace keys which are large enough to hit easily. We were less impressed with the pressure-operated pointing device set in to the keypad - we prefer a good mouse pad, though you may beg to differ.

There are cheaper portables on the market, but this one has all the usual Toshiba hallmarks of quality build and attention to detail, along with the backing of the biggest name in notebooks. Its performance, too, is something to write home about, leaving Pentium II 266 notebooks (such as the Hi-Grade Notino AS7200 reviewed last month) in its wake. It does cost around £200 more than the Hi-Grade, though. But if you want a notebook with good looks and quality to match, the Toshiba Satellite 2520CDT is one to consider.