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THINQ! Best Desktop Replacement

Toshiba Satellite P500-12D Price £799 Why is the Toshiba Satellite P500-12D a desktop replacement? Well unless you’re the governor of California you won’t be carting it around all day as it weighs in at an impressive 4.4kg, so it’s bound to spend most of its life connected to the mains.

So why the heavy weight, well it needs a hefty chassis (443 x 42 x 294mm) to support its massive 18.4in screen.

The gloss black exterior finish continues through to the wrist pad, so not only does the lid attract fingerprints like a magnet, so does everything else so you’ll be forever cleaning this beast with the cleaning cloth that comes with it. The black finish is neatly set off by the chrome mouse buttons and speaker trim. As with most Toshiba laptops the keyboard is first rate and given the huge size of the P500-12D it comes as no surprise that it is excellently laid out with a full number pad, and has large easy to use and responsive keys. To the left of the keyboard are a set of touch sensitive short cut controls that look after the playback controls for audio etc.

At the heart of the beast sits an Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 speeding along at 2.13GHz backed by 4GB of DDR2 which the installed 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium can take full advantage of. Despite the screens huge size, its resolution is disappointing, just 1,680 by 945 pixels meaning it doesn’t support Full HD which is a real missed opportunity especially as the integrated Harmon Kardon speakers are some of the best laptop speakers you’ll ever listen to. All is not lost however as there is a HDMI port built in the chassis which allows you to connect up to an external HD screen.

Good Huge screen. Excellent speakers
Bad Screen resolution. No Blu-ray drive
Overall Stylish and impressively big desktop replacement that covers everything from gaming at low detail settings up to taking care of most of your entertainment needs.
 

Specifications
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2.13GHz, 3MB L2 cache)
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2
Graphics: dedicated nVidia GeForce GT230M (1GB)
Hard Drive: 500GB
Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW, DVD +/- DL
Screen: 18.4in Toshiba TruBrite (1,680 by 945 pixel resolution)
Webcam: HD Web cam
Networking: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi
Ports: 1 x 54mm Express Card slot, 4 x USB (1 x eSATA/USB combo), 2 x audio, 1 x HDMI, 1 x VGA
Card Reader: 5-in-1
Colour Options: Black
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (HxWxD): 42 x 443 x 294mm
Weight: 4.4kg