I bought this at Best Buy on Black Friday…. Before I open the box, can I get input on the suitability of this notebook for my needs. I need wi-fi capability and the ability to run several programs at the same time.

Gayle, the the P205-S7402 does have WiFi and 2GB of RAM. 2GB of RAM is plenty if you want to run multiple applications. On my Vista machine w/2GB of RAM, I run all of my Office apps (Exel, Word, Outlook), Firefox and Photoshop at the same time without problem.

It’s a very nice machine for the price, my third choice but the better deals were long gone by the time I joined the line up at 1:30 AM…

It’s my second laptop in 15 years and quite a change and so far it seems to be OK. I wish Toshiba had held on the nub pointing device with which I was much more comfortable. Frankly, I can’t understand how anyone can be productive with that touchpad. Oh well, sign of the times I guess.

As for Vista, quite frankly, I HATE it. Why are Microsoft and others insisting so much to prevent users from accessing the actual computer hardware? Why is it so difficult to ‘open the hood’?

I sure hope some hacker will find a way to strip this idiotic, useless UI to its core functionality to restore some performance and allow actual access to its core components like it was possible in older windows OSes.

As for WiFi, no trouble at all, Gayle, I had no trouble to access a local hotspot during my visit at the inlaws (they have no broadband access for their desktop), so that was a pure pleasure. To access WiFi you first have to switch the WiFi antenna on, it’s the first switch on the left of the front edge.

I had trouble getting the sound to work loud enough, there are at least three places to set it up but it’s doable. I read it’s a common complaint with Vista and this laptop. There is a volume wheel, a device setup and a sound card setup. Once they are all set to maximum sound is pretty loud, at least in a quiet room.

Multitasking is no trouble at all, but what kind of work are you expecting to do with it?

Like you I have yet to test it’s full functionality. Apart from the touchpad and a keyboard that is a bit too ‘touch typey’ for me, it’s allright. Got it to complement my desktop and for $749 it’s a decent deal, especially with the 17″ screen which is pretty much the largets of what’s available on a laptop these days. A big plus for older eyes such as mine…

Also for the price I feel they should have included a notebook carrying bag. And I miss the old brickless power cord. I wonder if they skimped on toughness, as my old C110 was tough as nails and could be dropped without permanent damage. I am also disappointed at the lack of backwards compatibility with PC cards, the express card slot is going to require an adapter to read your memory cards…

Well I wish you perseverence with getting used to this new machine. I come from quite afar so my learning curve sure is going to be steep, but so it is with progress.

Regards,
Chris

Hi I have purchased this computer from Best Buy on thanks giving day … With all softwares included and installed.

I am now looking to sale this peice for 1000$ If anyone is intrested please call me at 9252979691

I got this laptop for Christmas, and its awesome!!! It loads vista way faster than other laptops, or heck, even some desktops. The sound could be a problem if you can’t hear real well. My recommendations is to dual boot (only if you are a pro with the computer) vista with a linux distribution, such as Ubuntu, or if you are a windows lover, dual boot with XP.And to Gayle, this laptop can handle multiple computing without a problem, thanks to the core 2 duo. And it has a built in wifi switch on the bottom left corner.

Does this computer have bluetooth?
Thanks

Hello,

I would like to know more about the gaming capabilities of this compter.
If anyone can elaborate and maybe have some
optional upgrades suggestions I would be very thanksfull.
I think the most demanding game there is today out there is Crysis so did anyone play this one on the Toshiba P205-S7402?

Thanks,
Yoni.

Yonathan,

This laptop comes with an integrated Intel shared memory video card which is fine for playing DVDs and watching photos but not great for high end videogames.

I know there are versions of the P205 series with ATI cards. Also if the video card has a shared instead of dedicated memory architecture, no way it’s going to be fast enough for high end games.

I have this laptop I bought it in January for about 602 but it came with an already installed security package and they wouldnt let me have it for 602 it ended up being like 729 or something like that. But I think this was a really good deal to get into. This thing is performing flawlessly. I still have not slowed this thing down with as much as I do. Great laptop.

I haven’t tried to play any of the high end games on it yet but I want to try just to see what happens

Hi
I am located at india and looking for a carry case for the laptop. Could you guys suggest where i can get one Online. it is difficult to find one since this is 17″ wide screen….

How can I obtain bluetooth capability on my P205/S7402 computer I just purchased?