Toshiba Satellite A205-S4617

Pros: Sturdy; comfortable keyboard; good touchpad; good speakers; good looking

Cons: A little thick and heavy; large AC adapter

Summary: Actually, I bought an A200 customizable with the "Santa Rosa" chipset, not the A205.

I had originally purchased an HP dv6500t special edition, but I returned it due to noise/fan issues. The A200, so far, is a clearly superior computer. Factoring in the discounts from each company, I paid about $100 more for the A200 than the dv6500. This included a step up in processor and video card, but a slightly smaller hard drive.

My initial positive reactions of the A200, compared to the HP:

-Although the fan does run most of the time, it is very quiet in comparison, and it rarely kicks into "higher gear"
-Although the screen is the same resolution as the HP, my photos do not appear as grainy
-The keyboard is comfortable to type on, and not particularly loud
-Toshiba's fingerprint and password managing software is simpler and less annoying
-The touchpad is quite good - my finger moves smoothly even with slight moisture (unlike HP); and, the horizontal and vertical scrolling areas as well as the customizable shortcut tap areas work well
-Although the power, shortcut, and media buttons aren't as flashy as the HP, I prefer their physical feel to the touch-sensitive ones on the HP
-Harman/kardon speaker upgrade gives pretty good sound, for a laptop

Negative impressions:

-Big TOSHIBA logo is a little tacky, as is the blue "Satellite"
-Feels heavier in my backpack than the HP, and seems a little thicker
-Fingerprints show easily on the outside case
-AC adapter is much bigger than HPs...maybe this has something to do with the 2-prong (instead of 3-prong) plug.
-USB port placement is a little less than ideal, but not awful. The cord from a USB device tends to block the CD/DVD drive