Computersight -

With the launch of new Intel Centrino 2 processors over and done with, we here at zynaps are getting more and more notebooks armed with Intel’s newest processor. This month, I managed to grab a Toshiba M300; a mid beauty from Toshiba’s refined Satellite line of notebooks.

One thing I’ve noticed from handling countless Toshiba from the past is that they make it solid and assuming. Not the satellite M300 though-from the first time I took it out of the bag, it just screamed. It’s also the recipient of Toshiba’s new horizon line design, which makes it a definite looker.

Measuring in at 334×242x32.7mm, the Satellite M300 is a substantial piece of kit. The keypad is well laid out, and seems to have a black, gloss coating on the keys. There are touch sensitive shortcut keys near the hinge, in the middle of the Harman or Kardan speakers. On the left side of the notebook sits a D-sub connection, a usb slot, an eSata slot which also doubles as another USB slot. There’s also an expansion card slot, as well as the plugs for earphones and a microphone. The right side of the notebook holds a USB slot, a DVD drive, a plug for the FM tuner, and an Ethernet slot.

Under the hood lies an Intel Centrino 2 Dual Core P8600 CPU running at 2.4 G Hz. It also has 2GB of memory and a 250GB HDD. Additional features include a 1.3-megapixel webcam with a built-in microphone, face recognition software and a built-in FM tuner.

Being a hefty notebook at about 2.35 kilos, the satellite M300 is more concerned with performance than weight. In this regard it performed beautifully with nary a hang-up in the two weeks I’ve used it. Web pages loaded quickly, and I gather that the Satellite M300 can even handle moderately demanding graphic tasks, thanks to its Radeon HD 3470 GPU. Battery life is about 3 hours on power saver, which is good enough for a midsized notebook– remember, this isn’t a notebook you’d want to carry around with your all day, and 3 hours is just the right amount for its size.

What’s even nicer is the addition of the eSata USB plug. Essentially, eSAta is an external interface for sata technologies. This is more or less the same interface that most modern hard drives use, and promises to deliver speeds triple those of traditional USB connections. Unfortunately, you need eSATA certified hardware to be able to enjoy those speeds.

One of the things I didn’t like with the satellite M300 was the amount of heart the unit put out, which was considerable. This wouldn’t bother me at all besides the fact that the new Intel processor was designed specially to counter this problem.

Lets just hope that newer Satellite don’t have this heat issue.