11.6” AMD Powered Toshiba T115D Now Available, Reviewed

I didn’t expect to see my review make headlines, but hopefully it is helpful to someone.  :D

I got the dual-core in today, and I’m doing some testing on it.  Does anyone know a good battery benchmark?  I also put my dual-channel kit in it, bringing it up to 4 gbs and it seems a bit snappier now that it is running in dual channel mode.  The dual-core is a bit more powerful (obviously) than the single core, so I’ll be sure and report more on the heat & battery life. 

For those annoyed by the glossy screen, I got a Nushield DayView protector which cuts down on glare and makes it a bit more readable in sunlight (not a big improvement in that department).  It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get on correctly, so expect to have to fuss with it to get air bubbles out, but it provides a more “matte” display.

i’ve been looking for a small netbook capable of doing some lightweight gaming on (valve’s tf2 for example) when travelling.  Based on that, i got the hp mini 311 with the atom 270 and nvidia ion graphics. 

While this worked great in windows & linux (ubuntu&xbmc;) for browsing & HD play back (720p and 1080p), gaming was not really useable.  Aerows, the article mentions you were doing some gaming on yours.  What games, and how did you find it made out with them?  I’m considering ordering one of the models with the neo x2 L325 processor to replace my HP, but i wanted to hear from someone th had one already

thanks,
dwight.

I made the mistake of showing it to my mother yesterday morning, and I fear I may never see it again.  I stopped by for coffee (she lives next door), and I practically had to pry it out of her hands.  She is having PC problems since the grandchildren visited over the holidays, and of course, wanted to borrow it.  I may have to buy her one just to have some peace and quiet with mine :D

Now that I have the dual core, I’ve played Mass Effect at low settings.  It gets laggy in a few spots during combat, but it’s perfect during the story sequences @ 1024x600.  Update the drivers to the latest Catalysts, though, because the drivers it comes with are pretty old.  ME is one of the most demanding games I have, other than Dragon Age.  I’m going to try that if I ever see it again lol.  I imagine it will run fine, though, since ME is a lot more demanding.

Dwight, the cpu is more powerful in the T115D.  The most demanding games I play are ME, Fallout 3 and some MMOs (WoW, RoM and AoC).  I haven’t had time to load AoC on it, but ME uses the UE3 engine, and is likely the most demanding thing I have.  I can’t really compare with my desktop, since it’s got an overclocked GTX 260 and a quad core, so anything I’ve been inclined to play has been fine.

I have to turn ME to low in order for combat to be adequate and run at 1024x600,  but I played through Eden Prime and a lot of the Citadel (preparing a save for ME2 :D ).

Photoshop runs well according to other notebookreview users.  Can’t speak on L4D since I don’t have it and I’m not enough of a FPS player to give a decent opinion, in all honesty.  Ask me about an RPG or an MMO, and I can discuss ;)

As an aside, I picked up a cheap mouse from newegg with a dime size receiver.  I will try to get picks up to show how small it is, but it sticks out about half a centimeter.  It’s a rosewill RM-8500 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193046).  It’s a 5-button mouse, which is what I demand for web surfing - I need a back and a forward side button.  It’s small and pretty slick.

I tend to like gaming products, and this one is labeled as a gaming mouse despite being tiny, but it has HUGE teflon feet.  They won’t stay clean for long when I chuck it in my bag..unless it comes with a bag to throw the mouse in.  Which it does.  Still won’t last because it’s portable and has to work on whatever surface I present to it, but those who are more cautious will have better results.

So far, I’m happy as hell with this little laptop.  I hate the touchpad’s scrolling, but I have adapted to the keyboard (surprisingly usable to a touch typist).

I am trying to decide between the Toshiba Satellite T115-S1105 with a Pentium SU2700 processor, 2 gb DDR3, 250 gb HD, Wireless b/g/n versus the Toshiba Satellite T115d-S1125, with the AMD dual core, 2gb ddr2, 320 gb HD and wireless b/g - any thoughts and/or advice would be incredibly helpful as I am not particularly techy.
I want a portable that can run youtube/hulu/videos, do email and office.  I’m not a gamer.  I’m often away from power supply for much of the day, so longer battery is better.

Any thoughts?  Or would the 1100 (celeron 743) or 1120 (AMD single core) be fine?

thanks
janet

Either should be okay Janet, both are capable systems and should handle Flash video without issue, you have the option on both to use GPU acceleration if using the latest beta Flash.

Stay away from Celeron CPU’s not good for Flash.

Thanks, Gozer, I didn’t know that re: Celeron and Flash.  I’ll stay away from the Celeron and probably the single core AMD - it’s only about $30 difference anyway.

What about battery life?  It’s rated the same for both the Intel and the AMD, but a review I read said with AMD the battery doesn’t run nearly as long. 

any thoughts?