Toshiba Satellite Pro L830-10G review
Toshiba sets out to prove business laptops don’t have to be expensive, with this £400 Satellite Pro. Mike Jennings takes a look at whether this 13.3in model is able to provide the performance to match the budget price.
SoftwareDell, Apple and Lenovo load their business notebooks with useful utilities, but we can't say the same for much of the software included with the Satellite Pro. A free trial of McAfee Internet Security only lasts for a month, some will find Nero KwikMedia, BackItUp and Autobackup useful. There's Skype and the ad-supported versions of Office 2010, too.
Toshiba's own TEMPRO software merely provides notifications of potential system issues, and the rest of its proprietary software is basic. There's a disk creator, Bluetooth manager, and utilities to monitor your hard disk's health and your PC's status, as well as creating recovery media.
Some of the third party tools included seem out of place on a business laptop, however. Clicking the Music Place icon simply takes you to Toshiba's own download store, and the Wajam game service merely offers casual games of the type often found on Facebook.
The Toshiba's popups and applications aren't just irritating - they have a serious impact on system performance. The 0.38 benchmark result was achieved with all of the Satellite's crapware turned off; with it turned on, this score dropped to 0.34.
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