Toshiba Satellite L755-15R review

A highly portable creative laptop that offers excellent performance

Toshiba Satellite L755-15R
The glossy red finish to the chassis might not suit all tastes

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Good office performance

  • +

    Decent graphics performance

  • +

    Features

  • +

    Battery life

Cons

  • -

    No dedicated graphics

  • -

    Screen not as sharp as others

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Toshiba's latest Satellite L-Series is a collection of powerful multimedia laptops, designed to entertain as well as create. The Satellite L755-15R has many positives, including strong performance and a vibrant screen, and comes with a low price tag.

Intel's Core i5 Sandy Bridge processing technology is once more on board and it's used here to great effect. The Satellite scored high in our benchmarking tests, so if you need a powerful machine that can run loads of applications at once, this laptop will last you for years.

Sadly, the Satellite only has integrated graphics, which means the processor also handles images. Having said that, Intel's Sandy Bridge processors do a good job with rendering images, so you will have enough power to manipulate your high-resolution photos and pull together a DVD or two from your home movies.

However, if you want a laptop that can handle professional design packages, you should consider a laptop with a dedicated graphics card instead.

tech labs

Benchmarks

Battery life: 356
MobileMark 2007: 303
3DMark 2003: 7114

The screen may lack the sharpness of the Lenovo W520 and Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch, but it's stunningly bright and produces rich, vivid colours. You also have VGA and HDMI outputs if you want to use an external display.

Audio playback isn't a strength sadly, with rather weak output compared to the HP Pavilion DV7-6002sa and Asus N53SV-SX303V.

If you're planning on shooting video, the built-in integrated camera does a decent job of capturing footage. When you're done you can quickly upload your clips to the internet with 802.11n Wi-Fi support, and there's plenty of space on the 640GB hard drive for storing your files and media.

Excellent battery

The Satellite is highly portable, making it a good choice if you want to stay creative on the move. Six hours of battery life is available and means you won't run out of charge during commutes and lengthy trips, while the bright red chassis is light enough at 2.5kg to comfortably carry all day.

While the Satellite's keyboard looks and feels a little plasticky, it does its job well. The keys are well sized, even with the inclusion of a numeric keypad, as they stretch the entire width of the chassis. We found our palms often brushed the touchpad when typing, which jerked the on-screen cursor, but the touchpad can easily be disabled if needed.

Toshiba

With terrific performance, long-lasting battery life and plenty of storage, the Toshiba is a great way of staying creative on the road. The lack of dedicated graphics means hardcore design suites will struggle, but it's hard complain at this reasonable price.

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