The good: Available in several colors for the fashion conscious; full set of connectivity options which includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared and Gigabit Ethernet; fingerprint security scanner; innovative dual-mode touchpad; plays CDs without booting into Windows; excellent audio output.

The bad: Speaker muffled when laptop is closed; poor battery life.

The bottom line: The Toshiba Satellite A100 with its sunlight copper color is sure to turn heads. However, it's not all looks and no brains as this notebook is chock full of features for work and play.

Read full review of the Toshiba Satellite A100 »

By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
Apr 3, 2006

Toshiba may be one of the more underrated notebook manufacturers in the market. Though the Qosmio G20 was one of the most powerful laptops of its day and even won our Readers' Choice silver award last year, Toshiba is not one of the first names that comes to mind when looking for a portable system. However, if the company plays its cards right, the Satellite A100 may just tip the scales in its favor. At first glance, the multimedia applications and uncommon casing color project this as a lifestyle product, but the fingerprint scanner makes it adequate as a business system.

Design
Made from durable polycarbonate plastic, the sunlight copper Toshiba Satellite A100 is eye-catching while the rounded contours make the notebook seem smaller than it really is. With dimensions of 360 x 267 x 36.8mm and a weight of 2.72kg, users who carry their notebooks for long periods may want to invest in a lighter unit or get a really good notebook backpack.

	An unusual position for multimedia control buttons. (Click for larger image)

The ports and slots on the Satellite A100 are evenly distributed on the flanks and rear of the system. Two USB 2.0 ports are located on the right for easy access and, in a nod to right-handed mouse users while thumbing noses at minority left-handers, the heat vent is found on the left to prevent your phalanges from being barbequed after an extended gaming session.

The multimedia and power buttons are positioned in a column to the left of the keyboard, a rather rare sight considering most notebooks put theirs at the top. We suspect this was done to make way for the speakers which, in our opinion, could be better located as audio becomes muffled when the laptop is closed. Fortunately, the audio ports are well-placed at the front of the system, preventing headphone wires from being tangled during typing. A small switch toggles the wireless feature on and off.

Features
For a notebook its size, the Toshiba Satellite has almost all features one would want from portable computer. It may not be the multimedia powerhouse that is the Toshiba G30, nor is it a dedicated business machine like the ThinkPad T60, but it combines a little of both for to be adequate for work and play.

Not your ordinary no-brand horns, these Harmon Kardon speakers produce quality audio output.

Though not the most powerful graphics card available, the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 has enough juice for all but the most demanding games. The thin bassless audio output that is the bane of most notebooks does not exist on the Satellite A100, which chose a combination of Harmon Kardon speakers and Realtek's high-definition driver to give superior sound quality. Games and A/V entertainment are roles which this Toshiba notebook fits into well.

After Joe junior has had his fill of shooting aliens and watching "educational" videos, Joe senior can easily whisk it away to the office. A fingerprint scanner protects data from theft as it does away with easy-to-hack passwords (admit it, nobody actually follows the rule that passwords should be an unrecognizable string of letters and numbers). The spill-resistant keyboard and hard drive with shock absorbers give strong persuasion to use the Satellite A100 as a business machine. However, for even greater security we felt a TPM (trusted platform module) security chip should have been included.

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