Toshiba Satellite P75-A7200 Pro Reviews

With an extra hard drive bay (for an SSD) and two free SODIMM slots, the Satellite P75-A7200 can easily be made faster. But there's no getting around its reliance on integrated graphics.

For the price (MSRP: $950, street price under $800 as of this writing), there’s a lot to like about the Toshiba Satellite P75-A7200. For starters, it’s got a seriously powerful CPU, a bright and vivid 1080p screen, and a first-rate keyboard with a premium feel. It also manages temperatures well without too much annoying fan noise. It’s unapologetically conventional in its design, blithely ignoring the Ultrabook- and tablet-inspired trends of the last few years—but it features all the latest components, making it a great option for anyone who’s more interested in power and screen size than portability and efficiency. Of course, there are some drawbacks. Considering that it’s poised to compete in the premium notebook space, the blend of plastic and metal seems a little unrefined in places (even if the machine does come off as quite sturdy in its design). In terms of power, under heavy load, the CPU eventually reaches a scorching 99 °C, which results in throttling to 800 MHz on a frequent basis until load is reduced. However, layering GPU stress on top of this sometimes results in permanent throttling (requiring a reboot to correct), something which we found difficult to avoid during our testing. We also were irked by the decreased LCD brightness while on battery power, which made outdoor usage difficult in most cases. Finally, the touchpad, while certainly spacious and accurate, occasionally exhibited issues interpreting multifinger gestures. But when you factor in price, the competition doesn’t make a very strong case either. If you’re looking for discrete graphics—and perhaps in some instances a nicer-quality case—there are an abundance of options: namely, the HP Envy 17t-j000 ($1000 and up), the Acer Aspire V3-772G ($920 and up), or the Asus N750JV ($1,580 and up). But not much is out there below the $800 mark, and especially nothing with a 1080p screen and such powerful specs. As an entertainment notebook meant for around the house with few relevant shortcomings apart from portability, the Toshiba P75-A7200 is a serious contender.