Computing

The New Laptop – Toshiba!

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Although you may not care all that much, I thought I’d talk about the new laptop I just purchased earlier today. Why? Hey, it’s a blog post, but I have some thoughts on the general process as well. That and I figure I talked about the new computer when I bought it, so I have to give equal time.

As you can see, I didn’t buy a Mac; even if I were considering it, I wasn’t starting at $1,300 for any laptop. lol I purchased a Toshiba instead, officially the Satellite P755 from Best Buy. Yeah, I know, not always my favorite store because normally their customer service stinks. But they have laptops, many of them to choose from, and let’s face it, there’s no other store in the area that has so many you can actually touch in person anymore, at least in the Syracuse area.

The general specs are 640GB hard drive, Intel® Core™ i3 Processor. 15.6″ Display and 6GB Memory. It comes with the webcam and ethernet card built in. The battery supposedly can last up to 6 hours, it has a blu-ray player, I can burn videos and CDs and it has 4 USB ports, with one of them being a USB 3.0; I hadn’t even realized those were out yet.

So, why this one and what other considerations were there? Well first, I had a budget I wanted to stay within, and almost went outside of that budget by looking at its big brother, the 17.3″ monster with the 750 GB hard drive and the i7 Pentium chip. I felt that paying $850 for that was just a bit too much in the long run, and my friend Scott had another one of those talks with me in saying that a large laptop was just a bit ridiculous since I was already used to the 15.6″ which, when I bought that particular laptop back in 2004, was actually one of the larger screens on the market.

Second, I bought Toshiba because my first laptop is a Toshiba, since I still have it. You want to know the two reasons I bought the first one? It had the large display and it was blue; yup, I bought a laptop because it was blue, as there were almost no laptops with colors in the past. The new one is black, which is a bit distressing because it looks like every other laptop out there except for the Macs (and there’s no way I’d have a white laptop; please, it’s me!). Now, I had always wanted to buy the Superman laptop some time ago when it was still Alienware, but since Dell bought them & ruined them not so much now; yeah, I said it. Anyway, you know I tend to be loyal until a brand messes with me, and the ol’ Toshiba has held up really well for me. Truthfully, if I wasn’t having some problems with the power I might not have even considered buying a new laptop.

It was time to buy a new one though. Things have changed over the years and the old laptop has problems dealing with some of the latest software. I added an extra RAM chip a few years ago to give it a boost, but it still falls short of my needs these days, especially when I’m on the road. It wouldn’t handle Office 2007 and that’s problematic when I want to give presentations and create files using that program, then have to try to remember to convert them to the old office format; messed up last year in New Jersey because I forgot to do that and almost messed up again earlier this year when I went out of town. This renders all of that worry moot.

And this sucker just went on sale, which was lucky for the store because I had stopped by last night just to take a quick look and it was $80 more than it was online; luckily the price changed overnight and the guy in the store said they’d have matched the online price since it was still their company. However, even though I went in, knew what I wanted, and paid for it in cash, a transaction that should have taken 2 minutes took about 7 because the guy needed someone to come and recount the cash I gave him. We waited 4 minutes, then he said he’d just count it again and count that as the second person as long as I watched him count, which I did. It was good to see that even employees have to wait for people to wait on them; then again, I had to wait 5 minutes before anyone noticed me standing by the laptops. Customer service is still an issue at Best Buy; oh well…

I feel like I’ve rejoined the new world again. Sure, everyone else was at the Apple store today buying the new iPhone, and even in Syracuse there was a long line of people, so I shouldn’t overly complain about my wait. At least I have something new and shiny; and some time today I’m even going to open the box to look at it. 😉
 

29 thoughts on “The New Laptop – Toshiba!”

  2. Congrats on finally breaking down and buying a new laptop. Sorry it took so long for someone to help you out at the store. 🙁 I hate when employees don’t notice me when I’m waiting for someone to ask if I need help. grr… lol Enjoy your new lap top.

  3. Hi Mitch, not only did I not know we had USB 3.0 yet, I didn’t even know we had gone beyond a dual-core processor; although I’m not surprised. Both my laptop and desktop are getting older and every once in a while I entertain the thought of replacing both with Mac. I know it’s a lot of money but someday I’ll probably go ahead and splurge. So far I’ve came to my senses before I made the purchase though.

    I agree with your friend Scott to a degree, a laptop doesn’t have to be big as that defeats the purpose of portability. On the other hand, I find myself using my laptop at home more than the desktop. I’m on it right now with a separate keyboard and mouse. There’s just something about sitting at my desk lately that bothers me. I’d rather sit here at the kitchen table with the curtains open. The leaves are falling here in Michigan and the fall colors are amazing. Congratulations on your new laptop.

    BTW, I walked out of Best Buy the last time I was there so it’s not just the Syracuse area, they truly have customer service issues.

  4. I’ve heard good things about the Toshiba Satellite, Mitch. It usually does really well in the reviews for reasonably priced lap-tops. But you know that already. Congrats!

    It does amaze me that Best Buy’s personnel can’t be trusted to count a little cash all by themselves. I used to work in a casino where I counted many tens of thousands of dollars worth of cash every night as I closed my people out of their banks. Of course, we had cameras everywhere… but… still!

    1. I was surprised by that as well Allan, and had I thought about it more I’d have just put it on the card and moved on. But I’m sure that would have sparked something else I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with. Yeah, I figure the Toshiba will work pretty well, though I’d have probably wanted to buy the Asus if it hadn’t been $1,200.

  5. Toshiba is one of the best brands when it comes to laptops. I personally prefer Asus as I own one but Toshiba are reliable and last a long time compared with other brands. I mean, I have a Toshiba from 1998 with windows 98 installed and it works just great…

    1. If the Asus had been in my budget I’d have thought more about buying it Cristian. But I saved more than half the cost getting the one I got, and I’m happy with that.

  6. Congrats on your new laptop and sharing your deal. Although I’m feeling you about the $1300 laptop, I still want a MacBook Pro. I think….Anyway, enjoy your new laptop!

    1. Thanks Marcie. No, if I was going to spend that kind of money I’d have gotten that Asus 17.3″ screen, Pentium i7Core with the terabyte drive & 8GB DDR3 RAM. But to me that was overkill. Too many other things to buy instead of putting all my money into a laptop that I don’t really use all that often.

  7. Haha, that’s very interesting, I’ve got the same model. Personally I favor this brand, as my first laptop was Toshiba and after 10 years it is still working. About this model, it is perfect as it have processing power, it is cheap and battery last very long. I just want to warn you to be careful with display. I broke the matrix of mine during traveling. Just somebody have put a bag over my bag on the airplane and a “spider” cracks appeared on the LCD matrix. However it was still in guarantee and surprisingly was fixed for free. I don’t think that other company will repair display, usually guarantee do not cover this.

    1. Carl, I’ve always worried about my screens, but I figure that if I keep it in the same case I kept my other one I should be just fine, as it’s very sturdy and offers lots of padding for protection. That and I usually use my wireless keyboard and mouse so I shouldn’t have any reason to touch the screen.

      1. For about 10 years I have never had problem with laptop screens. In the last 2 year, laptops from 2 different brands nearly the same issue. It is strange that before that I have fall from motorbike with laptop and there was no even scratch, well the first time, the 2nd battery fell down and DVD was broken. I guess just bad luck. However I am really sure that you will be very happy with this Toshiba, I really like battery stamina which I can’t compare to any other.

  8. Hi Mitch,

    That the exact same one my son has! Toshiba, for the win!
    Enjoy it 🙂

    Cheers,

    Mitch

  9. I’m with you on this, Mitch. Macs are overrated, sometimes for just a simple tool you don’t need to buy a top of the budget computer. For what I read of your Toshiba specs, it is a very good computer and you have there something for some good years. And yes, I also don’t like Best Buy client relationship, but they do have a lot of alternatives regarding laptops.

    1. Thanks Kristina. I used to think that I had to buy top of the line everything but not only can that get expensive but those things become obsolete as well. Might as well stick with good and affordable, right?

  10. I read a lot of reviews about this laptop, and the majority of them were positive. So probably, I’d like to congratulate you on with your new purchase)

  11. Congratulations on your new laptop Mitch. I purchased a Toshiba Satellite two years ago and, yup, I purchased it at Best Buy. It was my first Toshiba and I have not had any complaints.

    It was quite an investment since I only purchased it and only use it to show my Powerpoint presentations and when I need to be a Skype (with the camera). I now need a new desktop and not looking forward to conducting that research .

    1. Thanks Rachel. I have to admit I like the Satellite, and if I can get used to the keyboard I’ll be an even happier camper. I mainly use mine for business as well, but if I can get it going for other things, well, you just never know.

  12. Toshiba is a nice option Mitch!! I also love that brand! Though I’m using a different one right now. I’m planning to get myself a new Satellite series later. Thanks for sharing this. Congrats on your new laptop!

  13. Toshiba laptops are the right product to spend your money, Have you hear Toshiba ultrabook? Please try one at your next purchase, you won’t regret.

    1. I have to admit I’ve never heard of IMB, so I’m wondering if that’s in another country. In any case I really have found that I like Toshiba’s a lot. I’m one of those people who tends to stick with a brand once I’ve gotten to like it.

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