Satellite Pro A120 review

We're all familiar with that agonising feeling as we drop something expensive on the floor. However, if it's the new Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 all may not be lost, as Toshiba has gone to great lengths to protect this notebook's valuable innards.

The motherboard is shaped to keep it away from the vulnerable corners of the chassis. So if the worst happens and the corner of the chassis breaks, it's unlikely to affect the working of the notebook. The 60GB hard disk has been given extra protection, too, with impact-absorbing materials. It also parks its heads automatically if it senses a fall or blow.

The keyboard has a reservoir beneath to prevent small spills reaching the internal components, which is useful if you tend to drop things on your notebook. The keys have a crisp action with good feedback, making the keyboard a pleasure to use. The touch pad has a strange paper-like texture to its surface. It's sensitive, but you soon get used to it, while the buttons are large and have plenty of travel.

The 15.4" widescreen display has a native resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. This is sufficient for most tasks, and only the most complex of applications will clog the screen with toolbars. It's capable of producing a bright white with no undesirable coloured tint. Colours on our test images were well recreated. It's a decent display, though it doesn't have the contrast you'll see from the notebooks in this month's Labs test on page 78.

The A120's speakers won't blow you away with bass. However, they suffice for listening to the odd track if you're sitting at the notebook. There's a useful dedicated volume control on the front of the chassis too. Alongside this is a handy switch for disabling the wireless network card. There are three USB2 ports but all are on the rear of the notebook, so you'll have to struggle to reach them. A memory card reader is fitted, but supports only SD cards.

Toshiba has fitted an Intel Celeron M 410 processor to this model. It's powerful enough for day-to-day tasks such as web browsing and office tasks, and will even manage a little photo manipulation. However, it won't play back HD video or plough through video-editing jobs. Battery life is an acceptable two-and-a-half hours, so it will suffice for use around the house or the office, but it's not enough for a life on the road.

This notebook has a better screen and bigger hard disk than the more expensive Notino C7000L-1600A (see 'Also consider...' below). The A120's battery life isn't as good and the Notino has a DVD writer rather than a CD-RW/DVD drive. But we think the Satellite is the better buy if you're on a tight budget, especially if you're accident prone.

Author: Seth Barton