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Home >> Photography >> Digital Object
of Desire - Toshiba Satellite P20 Notebook
Notebook computers were once the tools of the business elite and the merely rich, with most lucky users (or perhaps unlucky, as is now the case with company issued cell phones) being issued with company property to conduct business at home and/or on the road. Nowadays, notebook computers are plumbing the depths of the cost scale and we should soon see a time when entry-level units break the CAN $1000 mark (me thinks latter 2004), just as full desktop computers have (now available for less than CAN $500 new from Dell). What would have been a top-end notebook costing nearly CAN $5,000 a few years ago, can now be bought for well under $2000. However, the top of the line notebooks from the likes of Dell still cost upwards of $5000, which is a pretty heavy price to pay even compared to top of the line single processor desktops from the same company that will outperform that notebook. You pay a nice premium for the convenience of state of the art computing power that you can tote to the cabin (as if). It’s only taken me, oh, about ten years for me to muster up the resources to afford a decent notebook computing experience. Add to that about twenty-years of penance I will have to endure from my wife for splurging my meager finances on this forbidden fruit coming so soon after sending in an order for a new desktop computer. Indeed 2004 is the year of the mondo computer upgrade in my household, the better to tame those 16-bit digital capture files and begin the immersing of my kids into the world of computers so that they can be Johnny and Janie Cyberpunk in a few years. My five-year is already a competent solitaire player on the second computer whereas I didn’t even know what a deck of cards was at his age. There have been musings by some that a high-end notebook could replace the desktop and allow all the computing power one could desire and still be able to hit the road with it. A desirable alternative to the behemoth 21-inch CRT monitors weighing in at 60 lbs or more and taking up most of the desktop with their considerable girth. My Sony CRT is not quite a road-ready monitor, but then a notebook is still about compromise to a certain extent. The LCD screens used in notebooks have come a long ways in the ten or so years of their popularity taking off, likely prompted by Apple and their smashing PowerBooks (those old monochrome notebooks are quite quaint now). Where once a user’s head had to be locked into a narrow window of visibility thanks to those old dual-scan screens, the high quality TFT screens today offer a few more inches of latitude and longitude, but still not much more, as viewing from indirect angles still lead to washed out views. Notebooks come in all manner of sizes from the newish sub-notebook class to the current giants that offer 17 inch LCD screens, all being able to incorporate some manner of a full size keyboard with a built-in mouse/finger pad or keyboard pointer for navigation. The current standard for the notebook has settled in at 15 inches and this seems to be a happy compromise between obtaining enough screen real estate to do work effectively while still being small enough to be considered a “notebook”. Yours truly, being a greedy, materialistic kind of guy, went for the 17-inch giant in the form of the Toshiba Satellite P20. A notebook that offers a state of the art (at this time) Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Hyper Threaded processor with 512 MB of RAM, 80 GB hard drive and enough other technical innards to keep the compensating geek happy. It even comes with a remote control (?!) to allow for an authentic couch potato multimedia experience – armchair heaven for those too lazy to move their digit an inch to the keyboard, use the remote instead. It offers all the power and quality that a hard-charging photographer wannabe could desire with the ability to slay RAW files by the dozens (except for the low 512 MB of RAM offered as standard). It offers an impressive view for potential clients when they review your slideshows and it indicates that, hey, I am good and I am successful…okay, enough delusions. I bought the damn thing cause I wanted one, nothing more, nothing less. The fact that it could do all of the aforementioned is just icing on the cake to the motivation of giving into personal hubris, of which I have been told I have plenty of (on more than one occasion). Again, I am (a) greedy and materialistic (bastard, as my wife would add). I figured that if I’m going to spend a good chunk of money on a notebook, I should do so on a grand scale and buy a unit that might actually stay relevant computing wise for at least a year (having wrote that, Intel will probably announce the next generation Itanium or “Prescott” to be their new processing standard and prices will crash on the Pentium 4 based processors). I reviewed the 15-inch notebook offerings in the local computer shop flyers (and fondled more than a few in a way that would make my wife suspicious [and worried]) and noted that while many were priced attractively at under $2000, none were of the quality that I would actually want to spend $2000 on. Intel Celeron processors? Puh-lease! I’m not about to let any notebook do a great balls of fire lap dance on me. To get a modicum of the quality I desired would still have pushed that 15-inch notebook to $3000 and if I went whole-hog on a Dell loaded to the max, that price jumped to over $4000. No thanks, because the final after-tax price would still be close to $5000. Then a visit or two to the web sites of some of the local parts shops made me notice that they sold notebooks and gosh darn it, was that really a 17-inch Toshiba with specs that would match the $4000 Dell (with an even larger screen), selling for $1000 less. Indeed it was and it was lust at first read…whew, I think I need a cigarette. There are other 17-inch PC notebooks available in Canada, but some are at significantly higher cost than the Toshiba despite having a similar configuration of features and parts inside. Others, such as the HP Pavilion, come in under the Toshiba P20, but are less well specified for CPU speed and lack a DVD-RW drive. There are several retailers selling the P20, from the local discount parts shops with the lowest prices, but no stock, to the likes of Future Shop and London Drugs that sell for higher prices, but do actually have stock. Even Costco sells the P20, but at the same price as London Drugs or Future Shop and as with some of the local discount shops, at Costco, you need to pay cash to get the low price. I bought mine at the “drugstore” to take advantage of extra benefits provided by my credit card. About the Satellite P20
One of my few technical complaints about the P20 is that there is only one configuration available from Toshiba. That one configuration is with 512 MB of RAM installed, although it can be upgraded to 2 GB. There are only two memory slots available and Toshiba loads them both up with two 256 MB modules, meaning if you want to double up, then you have to toss the original modules and buy your own dual 512 MB modules (or dual 1 GB modules for 2 GB RAM). Good luck trying to get the local shop to take the originals on a trade-in basis. Given the relative ease that Toshiba has in installing higher capacity modules in a few units here and there, it is a shame that the buyer could not specify a higher RAM configuration, since all the units come directly from Toshiba anyway. Or, if Toshiba is only going to load 512 MB of RAM, then do it via a single RAM module instead of two 256 MB chips. Then at least all I’d have to do is order another 512 MB module to upgrade to a more appropriate 1 GB of RAM. The other “potential” cheese off about the P20 is the installation of Windows XP Home Edition. Er…the P20 is a state of the art notebook with the one of the largest screens available at this time. It’s meant for hard using professionals demanding performance and stability and Toshiba installs Win XP Home? Hell, you get Intel Celeron based notebooks with Win XP Pro loaded, so what’s up with that Toshiba? However, I’ve not experienced any issues with Win XP Home compared to Win XP Pro, except that I’ve not figured out how to wirelessly network the notebook with the desktop to share files, but I did get the wireless Internet connection working with the home router thanks to a brother-in-law’s assistance. In a curious turn of events, the P20 notebook is specifications wise, even faster than my coming new desktop, as the P20 uses a 3.2 GHz HT chip versus the 3.06 GHz HT chip in the new home box. But, I went with 2 GB of the fastest RAM in the home machine and the hard drives and video card blow away the ones in the notebook, so in terms of overall performance, the desktop is greater than the sum of the notebook’s parts and I’m thinking it should outperform the P20 – future confirmation and report to come. In terms of everyday use, the P20 does not offer tremendous battery life. Being a big honking mother (I’ve named it Big Bertha – reference, the World War I era German howitzers), the battery only lasts 1.5 hours. However, since I consider it to be really just a part of the home network with the occasional external use, I’m okay with it since it will be used on AC most of the time. It’s a way for me to break the chain bonding me continuously to the desktop and actually allow my family to see that I am alive and not just a figment of their imagination, especially when I’m busy making changes to this web site. Extra batteries are about $200 a pop. In this regard as a mostly home-use second computer, the large size and weight (10 lbs) is not a huge concern and the 17-inch screen is wonderful for being able to have enough workspace available. I suppose ideally, one would want two notebooks, one for regular work use and one very compact unit for use in the field. I write this based upon the needs of a full time digital photographer (not me) who needs some means of backing up and storing digital files on location where a full-size notebook becomes unwieldy and the reliability of specialized digital wallets can be spotty. Sub-notebooks have become more popular in recent years with a few well-known names competing in the market. Panasonic, Sony and Fujitsu are the primary brands I’m aware of in the PC market and Apple has their diminutive 12-inch iBook on the Mac side, which is slightly larger than some of the PC sub-notebooks available, but not much more. Most of these sub-notebooks offer DVD playback with CD-RW capability, very thin profile and still manage to get a full-size keyboard crammed into the work area of the notebook. Usually, the LCD screen is in the 10-inch widescreen aspect ratio size and hard drives can be as large as 80 GB. The major downside to the sub-notebook class is the lack of hard-charging computing horsepower available in such small packages, so you’re not likely to be wanting do much 16 bit editing in Photoshop CS. The other downer is the high cost of these sub-notebooks relative to their performance to full-sized notebooks. Whereas regular notebooks edge downwards in cost, sub-notebooks seem to get more expensive the smaller they are and a good unit packed with the accessories and options you want can run almost as high as the 17-inch P20. Not enough cost to quality ratio for my money; however, if you’re a regular Luminous Landscape web site reader, you’ll know that the two primary contributors (Reichmann and Kossack) use Fujitsu sub-notebooks in the field and that these unit sell for under CAN $2000 in their basic configuration. If you can live with the bare basics there are probably some Panasonic Toughbooks available for not much more than $2000 too. The Sony sub-notebook seems to run about 25% more in cost than the comparable Fujitsu or Panasonic units.
Can the P20 replace a full size desktop? It certainly could if a decent docking station is made for it, of which I have not found any indication that Toshiba has made one, which seems odd given the market that would have an interest in the P20. A good docking station should have all the extra inputs needed for an external monitor, printer, keyboard, mouse and plenty of USB 2 and Firewire ports (easy high-speed Internet connection would be great too). One could easily pull the notebook out for external use while easily docking in for home use. Otherwise you would be constantly plugging and unplugging cables for home to external use. The screen real estate is somewhat misleading. While the screen is indeed 17 inches in diagonal measurement, it is not as tall as the standard 17 inch LCD for desktops. The P20 screen is a widescreen aspect ratio, that would seem ideal for watching widescreen DVD movies, but the DVD’s always seem to crop the view. However, it is still a boost to the compensating “size matters” crowd to use a notebook that seems to double the screen real estate offered by the “tiny” 12-inch notebooks. Upon first use, the LCD is everything that you expect of high quality flat screens. Clean, crisp, saturated colors with a backlit view that can make even good CRT monitors seem dull and muddy. This is pre-calibration, so my opinion may change once I’ve bought a new LCD-capable colorimeter to calibrate and profile the P20. At this point, I’m not going to be keen to do much serious photo editing because of the lack of profiling and also because I don’t get to enjoy the screen real estate that I do with the 21-inch CRT, but I’m enjoying the view for editing my web site files. The major gripe about the LCD at this point is dust. Not very noticeable in actual use with the bright display on, but when it’s off, dust seems to have caked it over in just a few days of use. I’ll also note that the LCD brightness goes down when on battery power to conserve energy and that this lower brightness level seems more in keeping with what CRT’s offer. One of my co-workers interested in the same P20, decried the lack of a number pad, which for him as a video editor, would have made it more desirable than it already is. The 17-inch HP notebook provides a separate number pad thanks to the generous amount of space provided by the larger dimensions. A number pad would be nice, but for me, a person that types a lot, some kind of ergonomic orientation for the keyboard would have been awesome and of much more practical use. I have difficulty in using regular straight keyboards these days having used ergonomic boards at home and at work for several years now. The keyboard, as with all notebooks I’ve tried, does not offer the same tactile feel as a regular desktop keyboard and because various keys are positioned elsewhere on notebooks, one has to retrain a bit if one types by feel. I also dislike the finger pads used to navigate the screen and the little navigation nibs found on IBM notebooks are even worse. At home, it’s no big deal since I can just plug in a spare mouse and go at it, but on the road, I’ll have to live with the finger pad (or a new micro mouse I bought to use with the P20). I noticed that old hands with notebooks are very adept at using and navigating with the finger pad, so I’m certain it is just my lack of use that compels me to dismiss it so out of hand (or finger).
The multimedia experience with the P20 is not bad, but not necessarily great. There are two Harmon Kardon speakers built into the base of the notebook and despite looking very diminutive they do play loudly enough to satisfy most users, but they are only a few steps above transistor radio quality. They’ll never give Wilson or B&W frights of despair and deep bass is AWOL (okay, almost all bass is AWOL). Plugging in my Sennheiser HD 580’s into the headphone jack of the P20 brings back the bass, but is not going to provide aural delights to satisfy an audiophile. It compares well enough to portable CD players, losing just a bit of quality and deep bass impact, but we’re reaching at straws at this point (I used Telarc’s audiophile favorite, Time Warp CD for the testing). Volume levels were comparable to what a portable CD player would offer, meaning satisfyingly loud with the power hungry Sennheiser headphones – I would not play back at maximum levels with lesser or more efficient headphones given the increased danger of such immediate sound pressure levels so close to your ear. It is much easier to damage your hearing with headphones than with speakers in a stereo or home theatre environment. DVD’s modified to the awful TV 4:3 pan and scan aspect ratio obviously do not utilize the full screen width of the P20, but neither do widescreen DVD’s. It is odd that a screen seemingly ideal for the widescreen view still shows a smaller view upon playback. I found this was the case even with expensive home theatre TVs that offer a widescreen aspect ratio (actually, this is dependent upon the movie).
I have one major worry given my virgin status with notebooks, their longevity and ability to withstand long hours of use, as a desktop can. You don’t think twice about leaving your desktop on all day, or days, or even months for some users because a good desktop is crammed with fans to keep everything cool. A notebook does have fans (two or three from what I can see on the P20) but nothing fancy and given that you have a lot of heat generating parts crammed in tight, I’m not certain that this is a good thing for such an expensive device. The warranty on the Toshiba is merely one-year; however, given that notebooks have been around years and years and they seem to be up to constant day-to-day use, it shouldn’t be too much of a concern. Toshiba has also developed a stellar reputation in the production of notebooks. The aforementioned fans do not run continuous, kicking in only when thermal temperatures arise inside the notebook. Clearly audible, but nothing like the tornado that comes out of my current desktop. Silence is bliss and I can live with the relative quiet offered by the P20 – I shudder to think of what the new desktop computer is going to be like for sound due to the six or seven fan units that are going to be inside of it. Update - the new desktop is loud, but quieter than my previous desktop unit. Performance I expected a lot from a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU especially compared to the old 1.7 GHz CPU I’ve been living with for the better part of two-years. As far as everyday computing is concerned, there is little appreciable difference (no objective measurements to offer just subjective impressions). What I mean in everyday use is opening up the applications I use on a day-to-day basis, surfing the Internet, etc. A 3.2 is a lot of bones to pay for performance that the general public would never utilize. However, it is with specific applications that the speed difference reveals itself. Opening large HTML files are about 50% faster and of course the key applications for digital photographers, RAW converters and Photoshop, operations do definitely zip along faster. Keeping in mind that the P20 only has 512 MB of RAM at this time (future upgrade to 1 GB planned), the P20 halves the time to convert 51 RAW files in Phase Capture One than the old desktop. This was expected and I’ll have some other examples available in the future article about the desktop upgrade. Actual Usage I love it! All right, I haven’t left the honeymoon suite yet with the P20, so readers have to keep in mind the irrational exuberance I’m expressing here because I’m still besotted by owning my first notebook. The notebook experience also benefits from my having a wireless router set-up in the house so that I can be anywhere inside and still have fast Internet access. Once I have the wireless LAN figured out, it will be rocking and I won’t have to use compact flash cards and readers to transfer files back and forth.
Although the LCD has not been calibrated and profiled, I’m still enraptured by the clarity offered, especially for text. The details available for some images I’ve viewed is startling, especially in the highlights, but I won’t say more than this since it is currently useless for critical editing until I buy a new colorimeter. However, as is, the LCD is a fine tool for non-photo usage and you gotta like not having to worry about CRT radiation and long-term damage to your eyes – not that I can really enjoy it that much since I would still be using my calibrated CRT for critical photo editing sessions. Although it is shortened view compared to the normal 4:3 view, offered by most CRT’s and full sized LCDs, it is easy enough to get use to since the lateral resolution is so wide and thus offers a decent amount of working space. While the notebook is on, closing the LCD down puts the computer into sleep mode and it awakens once the LCD is up again. I’ve had no issues having it on and plugging and unplugging the AC power into it. Heat is vented out the back through grill slots. The backside offers the typical parallel and USB ports while the right side offers the PC card slots II/III, more USB ports, Firewire and an SD card slot. The left side offers multimedia access for sound. The lower left side houses the battery or other modules while the right side houses the included DVD-RW drive, which could also pop out and be used for dual battery configuration (I assume, as I don’t expect to ever use the P20 in a configuration other than as delivered). A monitor connector at the back rounds out the connections and offers dual monitor possibilities. The inclusion of an SD card slot is interesting and Toshiba has a vested interest in it since they were one of the companies that developed the card format, but I cannot help but think that it is a rather useless card format to include in such a nice notebook. A compact flash card is of much greater use for most of the potential users, but I do note that there are a number of camcorders out on the market that utilize SD card types for basic storage of still images and limited video. My Toshiba Pocket PC also has an SD card slot, as do most Palm Pilots, so it isn’t “as” useless as I first made it out to be, but I own no SD cards and I use compact flash in the Pocket PC anyway. I will likely buy the PC card adapter for the compact flash card down the road for mobile use. Right now it isn’t a hardship to use my spare card reader to move files around and again, once I’m wireless, I’ll be rocking. Gripes? Aside from the ones already mentioned throughout the review, I guess I have to return to the size and weight of the P20. This is no lightweight and while the size is an advantage when using it in a stable environment and platform, this unit is not going to go to the same places that one would not think twice about for a sub-notebook. In the same way that you would not take an Arabian thoroughbred out into the bush to round up cattle, you are not going to be hiking with the P20 to back up your digital files in the field. Horses for courses, as they say to continue the horse analogy. I’m pretty sure that I could have been just as happy with a 15-inch notebook, but those are also fairly large and still not svelte enough to want to take out into the field, so I figured why compromise between 15 and 17-inches. Being avaricious again, I’d like to have a second, sub-notebook to do that hauling around, from work to home, into the field (like I’ve been out since having kids) or anywhere else I would want to use my digital camera. Maybe in 2005 J The P20 really becomes a backup system for me, a way to keep things redundant and have important files and applications easily available incase one system goes down. It is a minimal risk, but it’s there (and I’ve suffered it before due to a hard drive crash) and a P20 is an expensive way to buy a glorified 80 GB hard drive (retails for under $100), but hey, that hard drive comes with its own processor ($550 retail) and a 17 inch LCD ($700 retail). Hmm…that still seems to put me about $2000 in the hole…intangibles, that’s it, it’s all about the intangibles offered by a high-end notebook. Conclusion What can I say, I like my computing equipment almost as much as my photography gear and I make no apologies for buying the Toshiba Satellite P20 even if objectivity rears its ugly head around. Whoever said I was objective anyway J |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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Notebook
computers once known as laptops until people actually started using
them on their laps and discovered, thanks to the prodigious heat generated,
the meaning to, goodness gracious “Great Balls of Fire!” Owning a
notebook computer has long been an object of desire of mine, unfortunately,
notebook computers have long been a prodigiously expensive proposition,
and like a married man wanting a mistress, not something to take up
without careful thought towards the consequences of the cost now and
down the road.
The
relative size of the P20 with a slim profile CD case on top for reference.
What you cannot determine is the thickness, which is about 1.5 inches,
a bit fat as far as notebooks are concerned.
A
notebook "can" replace a heavy CPU and CRT and in the case
of the P20, offers even more usable real estate than a 17 inch CRT,
as seen here. Inside the notebook resides a 3.2 GHz HT processor that
is leagues ahead of the ancient Pentium II 400 MHz box shown.
Hard
to obtain audiophile quality from such tiny speakers. $2 CAN coin
at left and 25-cent coin above - same size as the American 2-bit coin. 
Watching DVD's on the P20 is no substitute for a high resolution,
large screen TV and it does not even equal my Sony CRT, but available
in a pinch. A scene from the Hunt for Red October seen here.
The
relative difference between the P20's 1440X900 resolution and a 21
inch CRT's 1600x1200 resolution. Note that the CRT has been calibrated
and profiled whereas the P20 has not been, hence the big difference
in color cast. You don't lose much horizontal resolution, but I have
missed the extra 300 pixels for top and bottom.