Toshiba Satellite M505-S4945 review: Toshiba Satellite M505-S4945

Covered with a pinstripe dark gray glossy finish and lined in silvery plastic, the Satellite M505-S4945 has an attractive look to it, although the surfaces (including the keyboard, which also has a glossy finish) are extremely fingerprint-prone. This is a boxy laptop, though: at 1.6 inches thick, it has a seriously chunky base compared with recent thin-and-light machines with optical drives.

While the keyboard of the M505 isn't backlit, dedicated media keys above the function keys are LED-lit and touch-sensitive, controlling volume, play/pause and track-skipping, a launcher to Toshiba's PowerCinema photo/video viewing software, and a hot key to an Eco utility panel for energy-saving presets. The touch keys work, but the volume buttons are finicky and make annoying beeps when used. The keyboard is flat, with soft-feeling keys. Typing was made slightly awkward by the slick surfaces of the keys, which tend to feel greasy after a while. A multitouch touch pad has an LED-strip at the top for (we assume) finding it in dim rooms, but the glossy feel to the pad, as well as its smaller-than-normal size compared with the buttons below it, made it feel inaccurate and hard to control.

The port selection covers many of the basic needs for mainstream laptop owners: a generous three USB ports, plus a sleep-and-charge USB/eSATA combo port, which can charge USB devices when the laptop is sleeping or even off. This is a nearly universal Toshiba laptop feature, but it's a notable benefit for those who own Satellites. HDMI, a full-size ExpressCard slot, and a memory card slot are all welcome features. The M505 even has a 3G WAN antenna in addition to b/g/n Wi-Fi, and included wizards for configuring a broadband wireless account.

What's not great, though, is the hard-drive size. At 160GB, it feels ridiculously small. While 3GB of DDR2 RAM is a fair amount, the total package still feels inferior to what the Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 provides. Although the Toshiba Satellite M505-S4945 costs $100 less and has a slightly faster T6500 processor, the IdeaPad's keyboard, touch pad, and overall feel were superior--plus it had a larger base hard drive. Then again, the M505 does offer a fairly complete total package that should be just fine for someone who wants a media-savvy, somewhat stylish all-in-one option.

One other note: an included vibration-sensitive hard-drive protection feature was hyperactive in our model, often activating in the middle of typing. It's nice to be safe, but our M505 felt cautious to a fault in its base configuration (this can be adjusted).

The T6500 Core 2 Duo processor and Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics are a package that's similar to what the IdeaPad Y450 and Gateway TC7804u featured, although those had slightly slower T6400 processors. The T6500 processor is a decent dual-core that will perform most office and casual media tasks well. In our multimedia multitasking tests, all three machines performed similarly, with some minor variations. For most office and casual use, and even some basic game playing without graphics card requirements, the M505 will perform just fine.

Juice box
Toshiba Satellite A505-S6960	Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent)	0.57
Sleep (10 percent)	1.09
Idle (25 percent)	17.03
Load (5 percent)	38.65
Raw kWh	58.18
Annual energy cost	$6.60

The M505-S4945's six-cell battery lasted 2 hours and 46 minutes in our battery-drain test. That's close to what we'd expect for a standard 14-inch laptop. Also, remember that our video-playback battery drain test is grueling--you can expect longer battery life under normal office work and casual Web use conditions.