Toshiba Satellite L745D-S4220 Pro Reviews

If you are currently in the market for a low-cost 14-inch laptop that has enough muscle to perform basic tasks (Microsoft Office work or light Photoshop editing) and has the graphics capability to play streaming HD video, then the Toshiba Satellite L745D might be a good choice. Unfortunately, I have to stress the word, "might" in that previous sentence. The single biggest problem preventing the L745D from earning a stronger recommendation is that Toshiba might have cut too many corners on this laptop so it could be sold at a $500 or lower price. The AMD E-350 dual-core processor and AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics aren't horribly weak in terms of performance, but if you pair them with an extremely slow hard drive and an average battery the end result is cheap laptop with subpar performance. If Toshiba used a faster hard drive inside the Satellite L745D this notebook would have felt much "snappier" during general use and it would have performed as well or better than the HP Pavilion dm1z (which has similar technical specs). Likewise, a higher-capacity battery would have made this budget laptop really stand out for back-to-school buyers. In short, if you buy the Toshiba Satellite L745D and plan to do more than surf the web or write school papers then we highly recommend that you also invest in a faster hard drive or solid state drive in order to give this laptop a much needed speed boost.

The Toshiba Satellite L745D-S4220RD will meet your basic computing needs for a low price, but its limited feature set and components are better suited to a netbook, and left us wanting more.

This budget laptop, with a nice 14-inch LCD, is fine for light browsing and computing. It's only a good choice, though, if speed and portability aren't top concerns, and price is.

Budget shoppers had best look elsewhere than the 14-inch Toshiba Satellite L745D-S4220. A low-end processor and middling speed aren't worth the $499 asking price, and we've seen many laptops in the same range that offer more.