Toshiba Notebook Pinches Pennies, Not Power

A six-cell lithium-ion battery comes with the unit, and eWEEK Labs found users should expect about 2.5 hours of heavy use of the system before needing a recharge. Toshiba offers nine-cell extended-life batteries as an optional add-on for the A210.

Also on the power management front, I was impressed by the speed with which the system went into standby and hibernation modes. The A210 took approximately 5 seconds to go into standby and 2 seconds to wake up from that mode. Going into hibernation mode, the system took approximately 20 seconds, and 20 seconds to wake up. In both cases, my wireless networking connection reactivated almost immediately.

To compare, my IBM ThinkPad x31 took 45 seconds to go into hibernation mode, 20 seconds to wake up and about 25 seconds to reconnect to my WLAN. My ThinkPad matched the A210 in terms of the time it took to go into stand-by mode (5 seconds) and to wake up from that mode (5 seconds), though it did require an additional 10 seconds to reconnect with my WLAN (wireless LAN).

The laptop's full-size keyboard is a definite plus, with plenty of wrist space and responsive keys. The A210 has only one input device, a touch-pad below the keyboard, which wasn't a deal-breaker for me, as it offers a nice touch response, and I prefer to use touch-pads or external mice with my laptops.

The system's built-in speakers provide average volume and sound quality, though I found the speakers on the IBM ThinkPad, a longtime eWEEK Labs favorite, far superior. If I were giving a presentation with the A210, or doing anything requiring careful listening (as opposed to passive listening, as to music) I'd turn to external speakers or headphones. The unit does include an old-school volume control dial for adjusting sound levels, though I again prefer the volume keys on the IBM ThinkPad which prompts a visual volume control interface on the display, making it easier to adjust volume levels.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the A210 offers an RJ-11 modem and an Atheros 802.11 a/b/g WLAN module (Bluetooth is available as a separately sold accessory only). I was able to switch off the WLAN radio with a hardware switch at the front of the unit.

I was impressed with the assortment of expansion ports that stud the A210, which include microphone input and headphone output ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and an RGB output port. In addition, the A210 boasts an S-Video port, which makes it easy to connect the machine to a TV as an external display, and is something that many high-priced notebooks don't offer.

The notebook also includes a multiformat memory card slot that supports memory stick, Secure Digital and multimedia cards, great for giving users plenty of flexibility to work with a variety of devices and formats, which would be especially important if the A210 were used to replace a standard desktop PC.

The A210 comes with a standard one-year warranty that covers parts and labor and a one-year battery warranty, with the option to upgrade the notebook's service plans, including up to four years of extended warranty coverage.

eWEEK Labs Technical Analyst Tiffany Maleshefski can be reached at tmaleshefski@eweek.com, or at her blog, where she invites you to share your take on sub-$1,000 business notebooks.

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