| For one thing, the glossy black chassis, accented with | | | | great package that's worth stepping up to, even if |
| a subtle carbon-fibre graphic, can be quite a magnet | | | | you are considering saving a few quid on an additional |
| for fingerprints and smudges; however the unit's | | | | laptop with Vista (or even XP). You'll also find on this |
| subtle curves and smart tapering down (from about | | | | machine a fair collection of basic media and |
| 1.5 inches in back to just over a half inch within the | | | | maintenance utilities to assist lighten the tedium of |
| front) turn it into a great design for carrying in your | | | | computing. For neophytes and experienced users |
| hand or inside a bag. | | | | alike, the T135D-S1324's electronic and paper |
| Along the front edge from the chassis is really a row | | | | documents cover fundamental setup, Windows |
| of LED status lights (power, Wi-Fi, hard-drive access, | | | | functions, bundled utilities, and troubleshooting in fair |
| and so forth), which are visible regardless of whether | | | | detail. |
| the laptop is open or closed. Thankfully, they're little, | | | | Once you become familiar with the Toshiba Satellite |
| neatly arranged, and not annoyingly bright. General, | | | | T135D-S1324 and get down to typing, the initial shine |
| the Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324 maintains the trim, | | | | starts to dull a bit. The Satellite's touchpad has a |
| classy appear of Toshiba's Satellite line. | | | | slightly textured surface for easier fingertip control, |
| At a price of close to £500, it's not necessarily a | | | | however the pinch-and-zoom and scrolling multitouch |
| bad bargain - albeit that this specific sku is really a US | | | | functions aren't quite as smooth as they could be. |
| version, not directly available in britain. You'll find the | | | | The large drawback, however, is the keyboard. While |
| Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324 by shopping around | | | | the layout is good, all the keys are relatively little, and |
| online, and there are UK versions with slightly | | | | the use of function keys a lot, you will need to use |
| different specs. | | | | your fingernail to press the tiny F1 to F12 buttons. |
| Though the Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324 laptop | | | | (Slightly offsetting this concern, the laptop computer |
| computer is tough to beat for text and video, it isn't | | | | has an on-screen menu that pops up whenever you |
| ideal. Whilst you are able to crank up the brightness | | | | hold down the Fn key, letting you toggle some of |
| to a very high level, the screen offers only eight | | | | the basics such as screen brightness and muting.) In |
| levels of brightness, which isn't enough for fine-tuning. | | | | addition, the keyboard has no backlighting, so typing |
| Complementing the sweet display may be the | | | | inside a dim environment can be challenging. General, |
| Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324's sound, which is | | | | it is a decent keyboard if you'd prefer a softer feel |
| somewhat better than the audio of other | | | | about the keystrokes, but for those who have big |
| ultraportables but still has noticeable roll-off about the | | | | or even average-size/mitts, the small keys could |
| lower range (a typical concern for laptop computer | | | | make typing a chore. |
| speaker systems). On the whole, the Toshiba's voice | | | | For all that there's to like about the Toshiba Satellite |
| is pretty clear for a notebook, but the volume | | | | T135D-S1324, its benchmark scores put it during the |
| seemed low even when we turned it completely up. | | | | pack. Outfitted with an AMD Turon Neo X2, 4GB of |
| Luckily, the Smart Audio utility has an equalizer | | | | DDR2 RAM, and an ATI Radeon 3200 graphics chip, |
| function to boost the presence. While the | | | | this laptop was powerful enough to decode every |
| T135D-S1324 sounds more advanced than number of | | | | digital video file we threw at it; its anemic |
| laptops, its speakers lack the power and precision | | | | WorldBench 6 score of 59 took a toll, however, and |
| essential for it to be a true multimedia machine. | | | | it finished in the center of its class for overall |
| Folks searching for additional value will appreciate the | | | | performance. On balance, serious travelers will like its |
| fact Toshiba doesn't skimp on software. The Toshiba | | | | battery life, as it managed to last 4 hours, 55 minutes |
| Satellite T135D-S1324 comes bundled with Windows | | | | in our tests. |
| 7 House Premium 64-bit and Microsoft Works 9/a | | | | |