Toshiba Satellite U845: Ultrabooks Go Mainstream
by Vivek Gowri on October 8, 2012 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Intel
- Toshiba
- Ivy Bridge
- Ultrabook
Battery life is decent but by no means stellar given the rest of the Ultrabook class. The battery is a 54Wh 6-cell Li-ion (not lithium polymer, it should be noted) pack of the sealed-in, non-removable variety. Our battery life testing showed a hair over six hours in the internet benchmark and an idle life of close to eight hours. You can reliably expect at least 5.5-6 hours of runtime in light usage scenarios, about average for 14” Ultrabooks but well behind class leading 13”ers like the old Zenbook UX31E.
As I go through more Ultrabooks, I’m finding that the larger 14” and 15” models are not nearly as power efficient as the 13” Ultrabooks, so you find many more data points in the 4.5-6 hour range than in the 7-9 hour range that most of the 13”ers fall in. It makes sense, given the larger and more power-hungry display panels (which easily account for 30-40% of power consumption in our web-browsing test), but unfortunately, manufacturers aren’t putting in larger batteries to compensate. The U845’s battery is a meager 4Wh larger than the 13” Zenbook and Zenbook Prime. Also not helping here? The list of Toshiba services that drain even more power should you not disable or uninstall them first (I uninstalled Norton and ran the battery test with all unnecessary and easily killable processes disabled).
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quiksilvr - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
*facepalm*W--WHY?! Why, why, why, why, why. That is a deal breaker to the nth degree for me. I hate lugging a USB HD webcam because of subpar cameras. Why can't I find a decent Ultrabook with a good HD Webcam that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?
retrospooty - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
forget that, It lost me at 1366x768. WTF!!! its Q4 2012 and its still 768 lines? Never. Not in anything larger than 10 inches.Samus - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
Lost you at 1366x768? Lost me at Toshib....HP Folio 13 can be had for under $600 on eBay and it comes with a 128GB SSD. So I don't see any appeal, at all, to this thing. The keyboard is crap, the screen is crap, it has a hard drive (personally, I don't think any laptop that will be moved around at all during its lifespan should have a mechanical drive in it...) and it's pretty heavy to be considered an Ultrabook.
Belard - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
What part of "mainstream / low cost Ultrabook" did you and others did NOT understand? Want something better, pay the price. Most of the top 10 pc notebooks that sell are under $500. While the bottom end MacBook air starts at $1000.Hence Ultrabook sales are low. Because for most people, a $400~600 notebook will get the job done.
Samus - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
Maybe you didn't understand. I just said you could get a high end ultrabook for the same price (or less) than this "mainstream / low cost Ultrabook"I'm not saying you can get a Thinkpad X1 for $600, but the Folio 13 and a number of Asus notebooks can be had for the same price as the U845, so I'm wondering why they are not being reviewed and THIS is.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
Do you just not read the site?We've reviewed a view ASUS ultrabooks AND the Folio 13.
Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 - link
*few.nbgambler - Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - link
One of the few times in life I wish there was a '+1' button! LMAOquitesufficient - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
For putting 1366x768 on the first page so I can easily scroll down and stop reading the review immediately before wasting my time.r3loaded - Monday, October 8, 2012 - link
I did exactly the same - Ctrl+F, typed in 1366, got a match, jumped straight to the comments section. Reading the rest of the review is pointless if a company can't get the basics right.