Toshiba Satellite L645D: Mobile AMD at 3GHz
by Dustin Sklavos on March 9, 2011 3:20 AM ESTAt Least 720p Makes Sense Here
More and more on 15.6" notebooks, the 720p resolution feels almost idiotically low. The LCD industry must be thankful Windows XP isn't in heavy rotation anymore: between the look of Luna and the gigantic taskbar on a 15.6", 720p screen, every notebook would feel like it was shipped from Fisher Price's laptop division. At least on the L645D's 14" screen, 720p makes more sense. Keep in mind that this notebook retails for $619 when you look at our test results, though. You get what you pay for; asking for DreamColor at that price is dreaming at best—foolhardy at worst.
The L645D's display isn't great but it's not completely awful either, offering decent brightness and color gamut. What is troubling is a trend I'm noticing on more and more of these budget systems: the screen lattice and poor dithering on these cheap 720p TN panels seems to be getting more and more apparent, and it's a problem not easily captured in photos. It was most egregious on Gateway's ID49C (still our champion worst notebook screen), but has been present on both this notebook and the Sony EE34.
Viewing angles aren't great either, with massive washout at low angles and some trouble finding the "sweet spot." That problem has historically been extremely common in 14" notebooks, though, to the point where you might as well ask for a GeForce GTX 485M for how often you find a large sweet spot in this form factor.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
61 Comments
View All Comments
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
5400 RPM HDD, decent CPU hampered by terrible graphics, intentionally ruined graphics drivers, glossy screen, 10/100 ethernet?Pass.
XZerg - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
no usb3 also.it feels like these guys and many others purposely f**k up on AMD version to ensure they make more even though they could have sold it at a much cheaper price with all the bells than what a similar config from intel would have been.
alent1234 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
it's $619. some people don't care about good graphics or USB3. some people just want a laptop to surf the internet and hold some datai just want something in the $600 range with a 15" screen, SB and 500GB hard drive. i use android and iOS a lot more than Windows so most of the time the laptop is off.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Then why the decent CPU?Why the blu-ray drive?
They're setting a standard the rest of the system utterly fails to match.
alent1234 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
because this stuff is dirt cheap now. it's not like they make this stuff up. they have projected selling prices and profits per unit. they get a bill of materials from suppliers before designing something and prices probably dropped so much they can put in more hardware and still sell for a low price.a lot of times it's cheaper to use a more expensive part but use less parts in your products overall. think apple. it makes logistics easier and cheaper. and since toshiba is part of the blu ray consortium they are pushing their other products with this
Sam125 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I think AMD was the first to realize that there comes a point where going dirt cheap is kind of stupid when you end up with gimped/lopsided systems like this L645D which is why they're cutting the manufacturer out of the picture when it comes to choosing a balanced system architecture. That's why going SOC always made sense for AMD but not Intel.quiksilvr - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Seriously. Go to Newegg and look at the cheapest Core i3 laptops. They are all ProBookks that are mostly under $500. I'd rather get a slightly bigger laptop for less than gimp out just for "portability" (The Probooks are 5.25 lbs. That's plently portable enough)mino - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Sorry sir to spoil your party, but calling the second-best IGP (after Brazos) on the amrket a terribel graphics ?Well shall we talk about ALL those Intel notebooks (taking 50% of the market) selling with their IGP's ... who not only do not have the performance are not actually able to _run_most of the graphics stuff ?
Just remember, those Intel notebooks had a similar or faster CPU on board ... and sold for much higher prices ...
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Do you think I'm anti-AMD or something?Because I'm not.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
HD 4250 is hardly the "second-best" IGP. In order, the best IGPs at present are:GeForce 320M (only in MacBook)
HD 6310 (Brazos E-series)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (not as compatible with games, but generally more than twice as fast as the other stuff below)
GeForce 9400M (yup, this was still faster than the 4250!)
HD 6250 (Brazos C-series)
HD 4250. Yay! So I'd put it as the seventh-best IGP, or sixth-best if you want to lump the two Brazos IGPs together. (I didn't because they have wildly different clocks.)