Toshiba Satellite A660-14C review

The Toshiba Satellite A660 is one of a rare breed: it squeezes a Blu-ray drive into a very tight budget of little more than £500. That’s impressive enough, but it also features a 16in display up top.

The design is a bit edgier than many Satellites, with a mix of smooth outer edges and rough surfaces. It has a few lights too, giving an overall look that’s unmistakably enthusiast.

That 16in TFT may be a minor upgrade, especially as the resolution is still 1,366 x 768, but it packs a punch and has good viewing angles. Our one gripe is its very reflective coating, but as long as you’re using it under soft home lighting it won’t be too distracting. The speakers are loud and offer a fair amount of bass, and there’s a 1.3-megapixel webcam and microphone.

The chassis feel particularly strong, with a solid hinge and barely any give to the lid. The rigid keyboard backing makes for a firm typing style on the Scrabble-tile keys, and the touchpad has a dry finish to it that makes it surprisingly pleasant to use. There’s a good selection of ports too: three USB 2 and one eSATA/USB 2 combo, plus an ExpressCard/34 slot and another for memory cards.

The A660’s internals are less impressive. The 2.13GHz Core i3-330M, 4GB of DDR3 and 500GB hard disk pushed it to 1.26 in our benchmarks, and the Nvidia GeForce 310M averaged 36fps in Crysis at Low settings. The A660 is plenty quick enough to play Blu-rays, but it’s by no means as powerful as its image suggests. It also won’t last long on the road either, managing just 3hrs 27mins in our light-use battery test.

It’s evident that the cost of the Blu-ray drive has an impact on the rest of the core components, so for performance there are better options. But if it’s features you want, the Satellite A660-14C is certainly a strong budget entertainment choice.