Toshiba Satellite C55-B5100, C55-B5101 and C55-B5302 via Amazon
Toshiba Satellite C55-B5100 (C55-B5101 or C55-B5302: Different models for same specs) is one of the lowest priced current 15.6 inch notebooks out there and comes with with reasonable specs for its price- an Intel Celeron processor, the usual 4GB memory and 500GB hard drive common to budget systems, Intel HD graphics Bay Trail, 720p resolution widescreen display and Intel HD graphics, regular 802.11bgn wireless, a USB 3.0 port, an Optical DVD drive, connectivity options and other features you’d find on lower cost models.
As the main technical specs, Toshiba Satellite has the dual core Bay Trail Intel Celeron N2840 processor (1MB cache) at 2.16-2.58 Ghz speeds with turbo boost and without hyper threading, 4GB DDR3L SDRAM memory at 1333MHz for some multitasking power for daily use of reasonably demanding apps and programs while having several browsers open, standard 500GB Serial ATA hard drive at standard 5400rpm rotating speed and 64-bit Windows 8.1 OS as a reasonably decent platform for whatever you may do on the laptop- more the daily chores in this case as this is what this computer is for, it won’t be good for very heavy or demanding tasks of more advanced users.
15.6 inch LED-backlit TruBrite technology TFT HD widescreen display with the regular 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and 16:9 image aspect ratio (no IPS and is not FHD which would not be possible at this very low end price level anyway), Intel HD graphics Bay Trail that shares memory with the main CPU is good for streaming videos and helping with decent visuals overall but not gaming- you can only play the older not so demanding games fluently and at lower settings. Sound through the stereo speakers is not really loud enough so if you want better sound quality you may want to get a couple of low-cost stereo speakers. It has a regular front 720p high definition webcam with microphone that would let you stay in touch with people you care about. To sum it up, picture quality is better than average, graphics card is basic and sound quality is OK- nothing to brag about.
Matte black plastic chassis with a simple minimalistic design Toshiba Satellite C55-B5100 (C55-B5101 or C55-B5302) has the measurements of 10.20 x 14.96 x 1.05 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds so it is relatively lightweight, compact and portable- not bulky at all despite being a budget computer. It has a standard but spacious and comfy to type on non-backlit keyboard with a numeric pad on the side and a small touchpad underneath the space bar with separate mechanical left and right click buttons. The 4 cell 32Wh battery should last about 5 hours on a single charge given the low TDP power efficient Celeron processor- is an Energy Star qualified unit. It comes with a DVD±RW/CD-RW optical drive with double layer support that is not available on a lot of modern day computers, 802.11bgn WLAN, 10/100 Ethernet and RJ-45 connector, Bluetooth 4.0, 1 x USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port to connect to an external HD display or HDTV, an RGB port, a Headphone jack, a Multiformat 6-in-1 Media Card Reader that supports SD, SDHC, SDXC, miniSD, microSD and MMC formats and a Security Cable Lock Slot.
Conclusion: Textured resin finish jet black Toshiba Satellite is a basic internet browsing, emails, social media, word processing, video streaming and music listening kind of laptop with the late 2014 release Celeron CPU with a Passmark benchmark score of 1000 as of today. It includes 30 day trials of McAfee Live Safe and Microsoft Office 365 for new customers, Adobe Reader and some bloatware you will probably need to uninstall for better speed and performance. Being a lower end machine, you’ll be better off continuing to keep it cleaned up at all times if you want to get the best performance and speed out of it but will still not be a heavy multimedia editing or advanced gaming system. Touchpad apparently doesn’t feel like the best so you can get a low-cost wireless mouse to use if you don’t feel good about it. RAM is not upgradeable by the user, you can only have the factory installed 4GB which should be enough for what this computer is for most people. We like that it is lightweight and slim, feels durable, is powerful for everyday things, offers good amounts of memory and hard drive, good graphics and as long as you don’t have high expectations from it then it can’t be beat at the price level and for basic usage of budget-conscious people. It is offered with a 12 month standard warranty by the manufacturer- Toshiba.
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