Computer.co.uk

Lets not make any bones about it, the Toshiba S300-120 is not going to win any speed races, it’s never going to solve global warming, and it might have a hard time curing cancer.  But if you’re not after the latest, high-powered, Core2Quad-powered laptop with obscene amounts of memory, then you might be pleasantly surprised by both the spec of this model, and its price.

With its decidedly non-flashy appearances, sedate metallic grey casing, and distinct lack of flame-style artwork, you’re not going to mistake this laptop for anything other than the solid business workhorse that it is.

Hot

But that’s fine, because for £439 + VAT, the 2Ghz dual-core processor, 2GB of memory and 120GB hard drive are probably enough for your every-day business needs.  As far as connectivity goes, this machine is surprisingly well-equipped, mixing old and new with an interesting combination of USB, eSATA, gigabit networking, 56k modem and a serial port.  For attaching all those serial devices you have. From 1997.  The now-expected card-readers, headphone connectors, built-in microphone and web-cam are also present.

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On a slight downside, while the S300-120 model does come with a wireless network interface, it is A/B/G only, so if you’ve just bought a shiny draft-N router, you might be disappointed.

Likewise, for those busy executives wanting to release some stress at lunchtime by playing the latest 3D-shooter at maximum resolution with 16x anti-aliasing, you might find that the Intel GMA 4500 is a tad underpowered. And by a tad I mean massively.

Recommendation

A decent overall model, it shouldn’t disappoint you on the business desktop front, and has enough bells and whistles to give you some bragging rights at the board meeting.  However, unless you’re failing UK bank with massive amounts of toxic debt, you should seriously consider spending an extra £30 to get the next model up.