The good: Lightweight body; Windows 7 preinstalled; very good battery life.

The bad: Underperforming single-core CPU; weak speakers.

The bottom line: Toshiba's slick entry into the thin-and-light laptop world is timed for Windows 7, but the Satellite T135 isn't as multimedia-savvy as it seems to be at first glance.

Read full review of the Toshiba Satellite T135 »

By Scott Stein
Oct 13, 2009

Thin-and-light laptops may look similar, but they're not all made the same. It's a deceptive world out there, especially since many thin-and-lights trade performance for a stylishly slim chassis, all while marketing a mainstream look that suggests performance equal to other notebooks.

The Toshiba T135 is part of the Japanese maker's new T100 line of optical drive-free thin-and-lights, losing thickness in exchange for a portable design competitive that's with products such as the Asus UL30 and Acer Timeline 3810T. It's set to debut on October 22, when Windows 7 rolls onto retail shelves and into PCs everywhere.

Unfortunately, while the design tries hard, it simply doesn't provide the power that its Windows 7-running, HDMI port-toting countenance suggests. This is not a multimedia machine on a budget. Rather, it's a slim but underpowered single-core 13.3-inch laptop.

That's not to say we aren't excited about Toshiba's long-term decision to slim down its laptops and enter the world of thin-and-lights. In other configurations, the T100 series could probably provide better value. But right now, we were left a little in the cold.

At US$599, the T135 just didn't provide the value--or the design--that we'd need to see to recommend it more highly. While thin-and-lights like the Lenovo IdeaPad U350 have also used the same SU2700 Pentium ULV processor, the U350 had a body design we found far more appealing. Other thin-and-lights, like the Asus UL30, have dual-core CULV processors with much better performance for only a little more. The T135 bridges the gap between a Netbook and full laptop, but with its weak CPU, it affords the benefits of neither.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

From a casual overview, the T135 shares a number of design similarities with the rest of the Toshiba Satellite lineup that received an upgrade earlier this year. Covered inside and out in a glossy checkerboard Fusion Finish in either black, red or white--ours was black--along with chrome highlights along the edge of the palmrest and on the trackpad buttons, it has a very slick appearance. However, that slickness continues to the keyboard, which is finished in the same glossy coating we've been less than enthusiastic about in other Satellites. While the T135 is thinner than Toshiba's midrange Satellites, it's still 35.6mm thick.



The flat keyboard performs better than we remembered on larger Core 2 Duo models, but it still feels a bit too greasy. The trackpad is a matte rectangular inset along the glossy palmrest, and feels decent but not spectacular. The silver button bar beneath is one continuous piece of plastic that toggles on either side for left or right clicks, but we've always preferred distinct buttons instead. Other than the power button, there are no other buttons besides the standard keyboard, so control panel adjustments such as screen brightness are all handled with function-key combinations. The volume control is oddly relegated to a function combination with the "3" and "4" number keys, which took us forever to locate.

Features

The 13.3-inch glossy LED-backlit display on the Satellite T135 has a 1,366 x 768 native resolution, sharp colors and good brightness, and it looked perfectly crisp in our use. Above the screen is a Webcam that took fair video but grainy and low-resolution snapshots. More disappointing were the Satellite T135's speakers which were buried somewhere inside the body, below the keyboard, emanating from a non-specific place. The volume at maximum was so soft and tinny as to be practically worthless. We had issues with Toshiba's Netbook speakers, but its midrange speakers were generally exceptional. This was a big letdown.



Technically, the T135 leaves nothing to be desired as far as ports and features. In addition to a sleep-and-charge USB port, there's also an SD card reader and an HDMI port. Which raises the question: Why include an HDMI port? To have one suggests the T135 is an HD-savvy laptop. That's hardly the case. While video files tended to play borderline passably, streaming full-screen clips from sites such as Hulu came in extremely choppy, and that was in low-res mode. While it's true that HDMI is fast becoming a universal CE standard, we're not exactly sure what you would use the included HDMI port for.

Performance And Battery Life

Our T135 configuration had a 250GB hard drive, 3GB of DDR3 RAM, and an Intel Pentium SU2700 processor. The T135 can also be configured with an SU4100 processor, and we're curious as to whether this would improve the performance, and by how much. Our T135 also had Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled, as it's a launch laptop for Microsoft's new operating sytstem. Windows 7 was a good experience on this machine, which further convinces us of Windows 7's versatility.

Intel's Pentium SU2700 processor is a single-core ultra-low-voltage processor that performs better than a Netbook-grade Intel Atom processor, but not by much. Single-core CULV CPUs, as opposed to dual-core processors, don't do multitasking well and are best for basic tasks. For general email, Web browsing, and office work, the SU2700 will do just fine. The T135 performed similarly but worse than the Lenovo IdeaPad U350, which also had an SU2700 processor (but an extra gig of RAM). Compared with other thin-and-lights such as the Lenovo IdeaPad U350, Dell Adamo and Asus UL30, the T135 was the worst-performing of the lot.





There is good news, however, in the battery life department: The six-cell battery in the Toshiba Satellite T135 ran for 5 hours 42 minutes using our video playback battery drain test, which is a more extreme challenge than normal laptop use would provide. That battery life is better than most thin-and-lights, including the Acer Aspire 3810T.



Toshiba Satellite T135
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700; 3,072MB DDR3 SDRAM 800MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 250GB Toshiba 5400rpm

Asus UL30
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 800MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Seagate 5400rpm

Lenovo IdeaPad U350
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700; 4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Western Digital 5400rpm

Acer Aspire 3810T
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 1066MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Dell Adamo
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 779MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 128GB Samsung SSD

Service And Support

Toshiba includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the Satellite T135, which can also be upgraded to a three-year coverage. Support is accessible 24/7 via a toll-free phone line, an online knowledge base, and a Web site with driver downloads.

Tags: Toshiba Satellite, Trackpad, Intel Core 2 Duo, Dell Computer Corp., Microsoft Windows

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