- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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15 out of 15 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"Stay away from this model!"
Pros: light weight
Cons: poor build quality and terrible customer service
Summary: I purchased this unit about six months ago. I can't say that I'm very impressed at this point. Of course, everyone I hand it to says "wow - this is light!". And it is - but after that, things start to go downhill.
To begin, the computer does run the Vista software at a reasonable speed - if you turn off all the fancy display options. The keyboard is a decent size, with a slightly unconventional layout (you get used to the delete key being in a different place, eventually). The display is OK - nothing to write home about. While the solid state hard drive is quite fast, the graphics performance is pretty poor - the Toshiba/Microsoft benchmarks I ran says it's about the minimum you need for Vista. That's about all I can say in the positive sense.
Now for the not so good stuff. The case appears to be made out of very thin plastic. Maybe it is tough plastic, but it flexes all over the place. Kind of like very thick paperboard. The battery pack rattles in its holder - securely held in place, but allowing several millimeters of movement.
The touch pad has been replaced. Even so, light pressure on the frame where your palm rests can still cause repeated "back arrow" entries, which is hugely frustrating when navigating using an Internet browser. Just when you want to complete a transaction, you are thrown back to the previous 3-4 screens. Argh!!!
I have also had this unit in the shop to replace the DVD drive - it worked on arrival, but died shortly thereafter. Toshiba sent the wrong cables and delayed repairs several days until the right parts were received by the repair facility.
Finally, I can't believe the arrogance of Toshiba with respect to their direct sales web site - www.toshibadirect.com. That's really why this unit gets a "1" rating - they misled me and probably continue to mislead scores of others. I pretty much relied on the positive descriptions of the unit I saw there for user ratings, only to find out that just 30% of the submissions are actually posted - and Toshiba claims they have no control over what is posted on that site. This is especially suspicious when I see that other products definitely have more reviews posted. C'mon, give me a break. Do you think they don't have enough disk space to save the reviews???
How did I learn about this, you ask? When I complained to Toshiba about not posting my own review of this unit on their site! Even though I thought my review was pretty even-handed (positive and negatives fairly represented - and this was before my DVD died), apparently someone at Toshiba did not like it - and so it was never posted.
I went to the Better Business Bureau about this, and here is a direct quote from Toshiba in response to my BBB complaint about failing to post reviews on their website:
"Only a small portion of customer reviews actually show up on the company website (around 30%) and is governed by a third party. Unfortunately we can not control which reviews are published to the website. At this time we will consider the matter closed."
So, caveat emptor! Make sure you have one in your hand to try out before paying so much money for a flimsy product that has only so-so overall performance. I would definitely recommend the Dell XPS1330 instead. It is much faster, and the display is gorgeous! While Dell is not perfect, at least they never misled me. Dell's customer service is also quite good. Yeah, the Dell is heavier, but it's also built much, much better. In other words, unless you must have a really light unit, do yourself a favor and stay away from Toshiba.
- 6 replies to this review
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Good to see people speaking out about poor quality and poor service
The nerve of Toshiba to tell us that they cannot control the content of their website !!! Please, give us a break. -
I completely agree. Yesterday My R500 just died. I've been frustatingly using it for almost a year now and yes I feel the same pains too. The track pad keeps on jumping whether your working on a spreadsheet, browsing or sending email. I almost like to pull my hair. But when I bought a wireless logitech mouse life was a bit easier. I shouldn't have activated the finger print security system in the first place. Anyways back to my dead Toshiba Portege. I was transfering some file via usb the night before and when i went to dinner i left it at the desktop only to found out that the battery was exhausted. I brought the thingy the next morning cuz i decided that I will just charge it in the office later. To my surprise after charging it for two hours I was expecting that I will be back to where I left off but no it just gave me a black screen. Not even a blue screen of death that I was used to get. I remove the battery and let bios reset. I will get to part 2 of this issue. Meantime dnt buy
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Stay away from this laptop and the service is terrible!
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I got a very expensive Toshiba convertible several years ago. It came back from repairs with the screen cracked. When I sent it back again after the screen broke completely , they kept it for weeks, said they had never received it, and returned it unrepaired, saying I did not have all-problem coverage. Seems like they did not have that entered in their system after 9 or 10 months. When it acted up again, I took it to a local Toshiba service tech who both sold and repaired them. He ended up canceling his contract with the company because they would not support even their own contracted technicians. I tossed the unworkable computer in the dumpster. I suppose I could have kept it for a doorstop. Even though they look good and get good reviews on CNET, I will never buy another Toshiba product.
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I was beginning to think I was going crazy, but Mark's experience mirrors mine exactly. My DVD drive hasn't blown up yet, but the flexing, poorly fitting battery, idiotic touchpad placement and lousy display performance are all exactly what I've suffered. I also wrote a negative review, which also did not appear on Toshiba's website. This is the last Toshiba I will ever buy. I wish I had merely upgraded my Fujitsu P-series instead.
Replacing the touchpad with a wireless mouse at least makes the thing usable. -
I have similar, though not as bad, build quality issues with my Panasonic CF-W7. Are the Japanese having problems competing with China?
