Toshiba Satellite U500 review

You also get a front-mounted memory-card reader that supports the SD, Memory Stick and xD-Picture Card formats, an ExpressCard/54 slot and a DVD Super Multi drive. Just above the keyboard, which is extremely comfortable to use, lies a set of shortcut buttons. These let you as launch your favourite media application, adjust the volume, play, pause, and skip forwards and backwards between multimedia files. Unfortunately, they also issue a very annoying beep when pressed, which can get on your wick.  

Behind the scenes
Three versions of the U500 are available. Our review sample, the mid-range U500-1EX, uses an entry-level Intel Core i3-330M CPU running at 2.13GHz, 4GB of DDR3 1,066MHz memory, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA HD graphics, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The entry-level Satellite U500-1E0 uses exactly the same components, with the exception of the touchscreen, while the top-end U500-1CN trades the Core i3-330M chip for a performance-orientated, 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor, a 400GB hard drive and a faster, gaming-capable Nvidia GeForce G210M graphics card.

None of these specifications will knock you on your backside with the sheer awesomeness of their performance, but all can handle everyday browsing, CPU-intensive desktop tasks and -- in the case of the U500-1CN -- light gaming.

Fast for a fatty
Based on the fatness of its chassis alone, we expected the U500-1EX to be pretty fast, and we were right. Its Core i3-330M chip helped it on its way to a relatively impressive PCMark05 benchmark score of 6,012, which, back in the year 2007, was the sort of score you could expect from Alienware laptops.

This model's graphics performance was far less impressive, however. It scored 602 in 3DMark06, which isn't very good. It'll run 720p high-definition movies, but turns its nose up at anything but the most basic of games.

Battery life wasn't great, either. In Battery Eater's Classic test, which runs the CPU as quickly as possible to indicate the laptop's minimum battery life, the U500-1EX lasted a mere 1 hour and 33 minutes -- nearly two hours short of the 3 hours and 21 minutes achieved by the Satellite T130-13M.

Conclusion
The Toshiba Satellite U500 is an attractive, well-built laptop, but it falls down in several areas. Its touchscreen option all but destroys its image quality, its battery life is poor and it's heavy. By all means buy it if you like the colour brown, but you may be better off with the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro or a Dell Studio XPS 13.

Edited by Charles Kloet