Toshiba Satellite Click W35Dt-AST2N01 Pro Reviews

So, here's a proposition for you: do you buy an iPad, a Microsoft Surface 2, or...a Toshiba Satellite Click? OK, maybe the analogy is flawed. The Click, at $599, actually costs more than either the iPad Air or the Surface 2. But, the proposition it offers is that of a full-fledged Windows 8 laptop -- one that has a tablet top half that detaches from its base. A long time ago, this type of proposition would have seemed like the future. Now, it seems like a vague hindrance if it means compromising on what a computer offers. And, sadly, it is a compromise in every sense: heavy, underperforming, uncomfortable, and underwhelming. I'd recommend you look for a plain old Windows 8 laptop if you want an affordable Windows PC right now. Don't get fancy. And if you do, then spend up: get a better convertible, or a laptop like the Lenovo Yoga. Or, if you want a tablet, then get a tablet. This tries for too much and does too little. The Click...well, I'm pretty sure, no matter who you are, this isn't what you're looking for.

At a quick glance, the Toshiba Satellite Click seems like an intriguing low-priced, attractive detachable best fit for basic tasks. For what it’s worth, the Click certainly sports aesthetics that are much more attractive than what we typically see in this price range, and we’d take the system’s mediocre keyboard and touchpad for text input over an on-screen keyboard any day. However, the Click simply has too many other things working against it for us to recommend it to anyone. The second battery didn’t work, with the unit we originally got or the replacement we asked Toshiba for. The longevity of the tablet itself is also so short that you’ll have to recharge it every few hours. Then again, considering it weighs nearly three pounds without the keyboard, you probably won’t want to put it too far away from the charger anyway. And then there’s performance which, while good enough for surfing the Web and writing emails, lags very far behind the Intel Core i chips found in laptops and convertibles in the same price range as the Click. If Web surfing and writing is about all you need from your device, you could save yourself a lot of money by opting for an Android tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard, or choose a low-cost Atom-based Windows device like Acer’s W4, or the Asus Transformer Book T100T, which starts at $349 and comes with a keyboard that’s better than the one found on the Click. Alternatively, Lenovo’s Flex 14 currently starts at $479 for a Pentium-based model, or $569 for a Core i3 version. Both are much more powerful than the AMD chip found in the Click. With all these lower-priced alternatives, it’s hard to argue that the Satellite Click is a good value, even if you overlook some of its other serious issues.