Toshiba Sattelite C70-C series review

[ManWithBeard1990]

Good evening. 

 

Before I do this review, it's important to give some backstory about how I came to own this laptop. About a year and a half ago, I still owned a Dell XPS L702x with an Intel Core i7, 6 gigs of RAM, a GeForce GT555M with 3gigs of VRAM, and a pair of 1TB laptop SSHD's. A magnificent machine, until I dropped it. It seemed fine at first, with a broken power jack which seemed an easy fix. After said fix was performed, though, it simply wouldn't power on anymore. It was dead. Around the same time I was given an iPad, so I assumed it could be used on the go and it'd be okay to build a desktop rig, so I went to work in Inkscape and designed the machine in my signature, called StealthRay. It eventually became apparent that the iPad wasn't going to cut it for all but the most basic tasks when not at home, opposing me every step of the way with its idiot-proof, and frankly belittling interface, and lack of noteworthy multitasking. I decided I needed a fully-fledged computer. Not a fast one, just one that could do what I wanted it to do, when I wanted it. To make it not too much of a transition from my multi-monitor setup, I wanted a 17 inch model. For the budget I wasn't going to get 1080p but 1600*900 seemed acceptable. So I browsed the web for the cheaper 17-inch laptops. Enter the Toshiba C70.

This machine comes with a surprising amount of possible choices when it comes to specs, so let's give a run-down, shall we? In terms of CPU, the can be had with a dual-core AMD E1-series APU, the quad-core AMD A4-7210, A6-7310, and the A8-7410. The AMD-powered versions are called C70D. On the Intel side you're spoiled for choice as well, as you can get Pentium, Celeron, Core i3 and all the way up to the i5-5200U. That one can also be had with an nVidia GeForce 930M. Apart from that some versions have 4GB of RAM, some have 8, some have a 500GB HDD, some 1TB and some an SSD. It comes in both black and white. It can also be had without the optical drive. In this version it has been replaced with nothing, to save a few bucks. The whole thing is kept alive by an, in my opinion, relatively anemic 45Wh battery.

 

The version I selected was the C70D-C-10Q, which comes with an AMD A4-7210. This is important to get to this low price because AMD's FP4 platform is as close to an SoC as it gets, easy to implement for manufacturers. It's shared between all of AMD's current mobile lineup, from the lowly Carrizo-L which I've got (which is a rebrand of Mullins), all the way up to the Carrizo FX8800. The laptop also has 8GB DDR3@1600MHz, running in single channel mode, a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive, a glossy 1600*900 17-inch display, 802.11n WiFi, even BlueTooth, and, most importantly, a price tag of 499 euros, including shipping and a 3-year warranty. All in all, it's very cheap, then, but is it also cheerful?

 

Well, if you go looking for reviews out there one thing you'll see is that this is one of the flimsiest laptops you can buy, in terms of construction. To be honest I wouldn't use it as body armour myself, but it's not that bad. For the price you pay and the specs you get it's a bit hard to actually be expecting a lot of metal. Injection-molded plastic reigns supreme here. The parts that are a bit flimsy are the bit that houses the optical drive, which you can push in a little if you pinch it hard, and although I do really like the hinges the lid is really not that stiff in the middle, so doesn't relieve pressure from the LCD panel very well. In normal use it's fine though, and all in all the thing is much more solidly built than what you would've gotten, say, five years ago. Another thing of note is that should the case get bumped, unlike metal, you don't get dents in plastic very easily. But it isn't very scratch-resistant. 

 

In terms of aesthetics, this is one of the prettier laptops you can buy. It's less than 3 cm thick, and the hairline texture on the body and the lid really makes it look good. It's also not that heavy. On the left we find a power jack, an Ethernet port which I think supports up to 100Mbps, but not Gigabit, a USB 2.0 port and an optical drive, which can read and write CD's and DVD's, but not Blu-Rays. On the right we have a kensington lock port, some vents, a HDMI port, a USB 2.0 port, a USB3.0 port, a headphone jack (but no microphone jack), and an SD(XC) card reader. The glossy screen has a decent viewing angle for a TN panel, but quite a bit of backlight bleed, and the speakers are average, for a laptop. The keyboard is a joy to type on, especially for the price. It's quite Apple-esque in design, though not backlit, with tile-shaped keys that have almost no contour to them. It feels solid, doesn't flex even when you press keys vigorously, and the tactile feedback is excellent for a membrane keyboard. The trackpad, though, isn't perfect. First off, it's not that big. The surface itself seems to provide more friction than I'd like, and after about three weeks of use, it is already slightly shinier where I rub it the most, so not very wear-resistant either. Mind you, on a rough surface like this, it shows easily. The friction does get better as it wears in but it feels weird at first. The button's click isn't as clear as I'd like, but not really worse than average.

 

But now we get to the ugly bit, and that's the performance. It's not bad but all things considered it lacks that "oh yes it's so much better than what I had before" kind of feeling, and instead I'd describe it as "exceptionally unexceptional". The device as ordered runs Windows 8.1, and comes with such bloatware as My Toshiba, McAfee, Skype, Netflix, Amazon Kindle, Google Drive, OneDrive, Wildfire Games and PowerDVD player. It operates smoothly but lacks the immediacy of an SSD, something I've become accustomed to lately. It doesn't matter though because I'm a Linux man, so what matters to me is how smoothly that operates. The answer is a little disappointing due to sloppy drivers from AMD, and poor support for GPU acceleration from browsers. The result is that this machine has difficulty playing 1080p video on YouTube, which on Windows it can do just fine (expect this problem to be solved in the near future though). Everything else works well though, and my most important gripe with it is the battery life.

 

Now, AMD isn't exactly known for running cool or quietly, and consuming little power, but that isn't what the problem is, here. In fact, running cool and quiet and consuming little power is something the little A4 does quite well. To be honest I consider the 5 hours it manages on the wimpy 45Wh battery a decent achievement for a 17-incher, but it's not enough. 

 

So all in all, is the C70-C a laptop you should consider? The answer to this question is yes, if you buy it for the right reasons. It isn't going to win benchmarks. There are far more powerful machines out there if that's what you're after. It isn't meant for gaming. In fact I would even hesitate to recommend a GeForce 930M for that, although it's probably just fine. But if you're on a budget, and need a serious machine to do serious work when you're seriously not at home, and want to consume some media from time to time, the C70-C is right up your alley.

[ManWithBeard1990]

Ignore the thing about YouTube playback. I think I have it working now, even though it does require some tweaking. It can even do 1080p 60fps now without stuttering. For smoothest playback 720p 60fps is where this machine is happiest though, for now.