Toshiba's Satellite Pro 6100 has everything you'd want on a notebook, as long as you've got enough power to keep it fed.
Rather than announcing the mobile Pentium 4 processor in a vacuum, as it has done in the past with previous processor launches, Intel has waited until vendors had notebooks available with its new processor. The Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 is one of several notebooks that were available to coincide with the new mobile Pentium 4 (or the Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor-M, as Intel's marketing department incomprehensibly would like us to call it).
By shrinking the processor design rules down from 0.18 micron to 0.13, Intel has managed to fit the Pentium 4 into a package that can nicely fit into a notebookâ€"the smaller the elements in the processor, the less space and power they take up. Despite its small size, the mobile Pentium 4 has all the advantages of the full-sized desktop processor, including the 400MHz system bus, 512KB of integrated level 2 cache, and SSE2 multimedia-processing extensions.
Intel released the new mobile processor in 1.6GHz and 1.7GHz speed grades, and the Satellite Pro 6100 has the 1.6GHz processor. This desktop replacement notebook emphasises power more than portability at just over 3kg, Its stylish packageâ€"using Toshiba's sports car-like -Audi TT" designâ€"includes a 15in TFT screen, a 40GB 5400RPM hard disk, 256MB of DDR memory, and a DVD/CD-RW combination drive.
The 15in 1024 x 768 display is easy to read; its viewing angles are good on the horizontalâ€"you can see it clearly from either sideâ€"but not so great on the vertical. Although the screen surface is not reflective, it's still a little hard to read outdoors, particularly when running on batteries. The notebook comes with a powerful nVidia GeForce4 420GO graphics card, which we're sure has numerous legitimate business uses.
This notebook doesn't want for connectivity options, with built-in network and modem sockets, two PC Card slots, a composite video out jack, and a Secure Digital media slot. It has a built-in wireless LAN adaptor which was very easy to set up using Windows XP's standard interface. The notebook also has a built-in Bluetooth antenna, however the Bluetooth adapter is an optional extra and wasn't installed in the notebook we received for review.
Despite the innovative design, the mobile Pentium 4 is a beastie when it comes to power consumption and heat generation. Toshiba's cooling system adequately takes care of the excess heat, but battery life is relatively short. Toshiba's claims of a two-hour battery life stood up under testingâ€"the notebook ran just a smidge under two hours, but that was with the wireless LAN in almost constant use. Road warriors will be pleased to know that the DVD/CD drive can be hot-swapped for a second battery, giving a total of four hours roaming time.
| Product: | Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 |
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| Price: | AU$5500 |
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| Vendor: | Toshiba |
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| Phone: | 1800 021 100 |
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| Web: | www.isd.toshiba.com.au |
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| Interoperability: |  ½Excellent variety of pluggable and wireless connections. |
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| Futureproofing: |
Fast new Pentium 4 Processor is the latest mobile powerhouse. |
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| ROI: |
½A very good price considering all you get in the package. |
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| Service: |
1-year warranty, including courier pick up and return. Ph: 1800 680 662. |
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| Rating: |
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10%
8%
