Toshiba Satellite 1400
Of the Windows systems we've examined for this review, the Toshiba Satellite 1400 by far has the best overall design; the keyboard is nice and responsive, although we're not wild about the relocation of the Windows key, a fault shared with the Dell Inspiron 2650. The visual design, accented by a silver trim, actually makes the system look better than most budget machines.
The Satellite 1400's base specifications aren't top of the range, but they're also nothing to be scoffed at; an Intel Mobile Celeron 1.2Ghz provides the grunt, backed up by 128MB of SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive, alongside an 8x DVD-ROM and a 16MB Trident chipset graphics card.
| Introduction |
| Acer Travelmate 223X |
| Apple iBook |
| Dell Inspiron 2650 |
| IBM ThinkPad R31 26562MM |
| Sony Vaio PCG-FX950 |
| Toshiba Satellite 1400 |
| How we tested |
| Benchmarks |
| Specifications |
| Editor's Choice |
In terms of results, the Satellite 1400 was exceptionally similar to the Acer Travelmate. It disappointed us in Productivity terms, coming dead last, but managed to offset that disappointment with solid battery performance, where it came second, both times to the Travelmate. It fell just shy of 200 minutes Productivity battery life, and managed to hold on another 45 minutes in our Reader tests.
While all of our testing was done with battery saving features disabled, it's worth making note of the Toshiba's incredibly indepth power management console, which allows you to set individual levels for everything from screen brightness to hard disk activity depending on your current battery level. It would certainly be conceivable to eke out even better performance than we got with the Satellite 1400.
The one factor that does make the Satellite 1400 stand out is the RRP;
While it doesn't quite have the multimedia grunt of the Inspiron 2650, Toshiba's clearly aiming the 1400 at the consumer market; it comes with two customisable buttons near the power button, and CD controls on the front face if your notebook also doubles as your entertainment center.
The Toshiba 1400 bottomed out our performance tests, making it a poor choice for anyone needing absolute fastest performance. Its battery life is something of a saving grace, as is the responsive keyboard and relatively low price.
Toshiba Satellite 1400
Company: Toshiba Australia
Price: AU$2,640
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9887 6000
