Toshiba A25-207

Marketed primarily as an ideal tool for business power users, Toshiba's A20 and A25 series of Satellite laptop's blend high-end processors with solid battery life, average 3-D performance and integrated wireless communication. At the budget end of the A25 lineup is the Toshiba Satellite laptop computer - A25-207, which shares many of the upscale traits of its pricier peers but lacks a few of the bells and whistles and offers a more affordable price point.

Driven by a powerful 2.66 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor (512 KB Level 2 cache) and 512 MB of DDR SDRAM memory, this Toshiba Satellite laptop computer - A25-207, is no slouch when it comes to raw speed. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any 2D application it couldn't easily handle. As for games and other demanding 3-D tasks, the forecast is not quite so rosy. With 32 MB of shared (not dedicated) video memory, the integrated Trident CyberBlade XP2 graphics chipset simply isn't fast enough to guarantee smooth frame rates during ultra-complex 3-D rendering.

Measuring 13.4 by 11.6 by 1.9 inches and 7.9 pounds, the unit is substantially smaller than most notebooks manufactured before the turn of the millennium but slightly above average when compared to today's ultra-compact models. It does, however, feature a large 15-inch XGA TFT display and a variety of welcome amenities, including a full size 85-key keyboard with 12 function keys and a TouchPad pointing device, three high-speed USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals, and a trio of communication options - wireless 802.11b LAN, 10/100 wired LAN, and a low-speed 56K modem.

In its stock form, this Toshiba Satellite laptop computer - A25-207, does not incorporate a FireWire port (often used for digital camcorder connectivity), nor does it permit the burning of DVDs. An integrated 40 GB hard disk handles data storage duties, and a combination DVD/CD-RW drive facilitates file archiving, audio CD listening and burning, and DVD movies. According to independent testing, estimated battery life is a commendable 3 hours, 18 minutes.