Apart from the glitz of the ruby red finish, the Satellite L755D looks like your archetypal budget laptop. Look more closely, however, and a sticker on the Toshiba’s wristrest reveals a genuine novelty: it’s the first retail laptop we’ve seen using AMD’s Llano architecture.
It’s heartening to see one of AMD’s newest quad-core parts appearing on such a keenly priced portable, and there’s certainly nothing obvious lacking, either. Once you’ve finished pawing at the pretty patterns of the crimson finish, you’ll find a generous 6GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk thrown in for good measure.
On paper, AMD’s A6-3400M CPU is bursting with promise. While its four cores of its CPU operate at rather pedestrian 1.4GHz, AMD’s Turbo Core technology is capable of bumping an individual core up to 2.3GHz, providing a big boost for single-threaded applications. The processor’s equally ready for gaming action, packing in an integrated Radeon HD 6520G GPU alongside the four CPU cores.
Disappointingly, in our application benchmarks the A6-3400M struggled against even Intel’s entry-level CPUs. Despite its copious system memory, the Satellite L755D racked up a mere 0.46 in our benchmarks. That’s fine for lightweight desktop applications, but a typical Intel Core i3 laptop scores around 0.53 in our Real World Benchmark suite.
Switch to gaming, however, and AMD’s graphical might trounces Intel’s integrated GPUs. Our Low quality Crysis benchmark proved no challenge at all, the lush jungle environments sliding past at a smooth average frame rate of 50fps. Task one of Intel’s Core i3 processors with the same test and you’d be lucky to see an average of 30fps. More demanding tests saw the performance delta yawn wider: with Crysis running at Medium quality and 1,600 x 900 resolution, the Toshiba managed an average of 25fps, against the Intel chip’s 12fps.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 1yr collect and return |
Physical specifications | |
Dimensions | 380 x 250 x 38mm (WDH) |
Processor and memory | |
Processor | AMD A6-3400M |
Motherboard chipset | AMD |
RAM capacity | 6.00GB |
Memory type | DDR3 |
SODIMM sockets free | 0 |
SODIMM sockets total | 2 |
Screen and video | |
Screen size | 15.6in |
Resolution screen horizontal | 1,366 |
Resolution screen vertical | 768 |
Resolution | 1366 x 768 |
Graphics chipset | AMD Radeon HD 6520G |
Graphics card RAM | N/A |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 1 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
S-Video outputs | 0 |
DVI-I outputs | 0 |
DVI-D outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
Drives | |
Capacity | 320GB |
Hard disk usable capacity | 298GB |
Spindle speed | 5,400RPM |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Hard disk | Toshiba MK3275GSX |
Optical disc technology | DVD writer |
Optical drive | TSSTcorp TS-L633F |
Battery capacity | 4,200mAh |
Replacement battery price inc VAT | £0 |
Networking | |
Wired adapter speed | 100Mbits/sec |
802.11a support | no |
802.11b support | yes |
802.11g support | yes |
802.11 draft-n support | yes |
Integrated 3G adapter | no |
Bluetooth support | no |
Other Features | |
Wireless hardware on/off switch | no |
Wireless key-combination switch | yes |
Modem | no |
ExpressCard34 slots | 0 |
ExpressCard54 slots | 0 |
PC Card slots | 0 |
USB ports (downstream) | 3 |
FireWire ports | 0 |
PS/2 mouse port | no |
9-pin serial ports | 0 |
Parallel ports | 0 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 0 |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 |
3.5mm audio jacks | 2 |
SD card reader | yes |
Memory Stick reader | yes |
MMC (multimedia card) reader | yes |
Smart Media reader | no |
Compact Flash reader | no |
xD-card reader | no |
Pointing device type | Touchpad |
Audio chipset | Realtek HD Audio |
Speaker location | Above keyboard |
Hardware volume control? | no |
Integrated microphone? | yes |
Integrated webcam? | yes |
Camera megapixel rating | 1.3mp |
TPM | no |
Fingerprint reader | no |
Smartcard reader | no |
Carry case | no |
Battery and performance tests | |
Battery life, light use | 5hr 33min |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 50fps |
3D performance setting | Low |
Overall Real World Benchmark score | 0.45 |
Responsiveness score | 0.58 |
Media score | 0.42 |
Multitasking score | 0.36 |
Operating system and software | |
Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Recovery method | Recovery partition |
Software supplied | N/A |
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