Review Toshiba Satellite L855D-10K Notebook

If you have a look at the Satellite-L855 series on the Toshiba website you could think Toshiba has thought of everything: Brushed aluminum surfaces are resistant against fingerprints and also stay cool, a keyboard with a "perfect pressure point" and a large touchpad should provide convenient handling. In addition, powerful processors and graphics cards - that should be perfect for multimedia purposes. We have a look at the Toshiba Satellite L855D-10K and determine whether these are just marketing slogans from Toshiba or if this notebook series can really convince us. Dell Inspiron 17R(5721) Charger

The "D" behind the model designation indicates AMD based systems, while notebooks without "D" in the designation use Intel processors. In both cases the graphics are provided by AMD. Currently there is just one model with the designation 10K from the AMD based Toshiba Satellite L855D series, which we review. Besides the quad-core processor AMD A8-4500M it also has 8GB memory, a 750 GB hard drive and a Crossfire combination of the two AMD graphics solutions Radeon HD 7640G and 7610M. Dell Inspiron I15N-3910BK Charger

Case

At a first glance the Toshiba Satellite L855D-10K inspires us with its unusual color - Toshiba calls it "Iceblue" - and with the brushed aluminum at the cover. However, with the first contact it becomes evident that the stability is not very convincing: Even under slight pressure the cover is clearly pushed in. If the cover is open it can be easily twisted, which can also be seen in brightness changes of the display. Furthermore, the display frame made of glossy plastic arches forward considerably; the result is a gap between the aluminum and plastic.Dell Vostro 2421 Charger

All in all, the notebook cover leaves the impression of poor build quality, the lower part of the case seems to be more stable. The palm rest can also be pushed in under pressure but not as easily as the display cover. We can also see a noticeable indentation of the keyboard during normal typing.Dell Vostro 2521 Charger

Except for the stability the brushed aluminum convinces with a good look and the cool haptics. The touchpad frame is also a visual highlight. Only the glossy plastic parts around the keyboard and the display are annoying, which cause the notebook to attract fingerprints, contrary to Toshiba's statement. Dell Inspiron 15R 4520 Charger

Connectivity

Toshiba wants 799 Euros (~$1047) for the Satellite L855D, so a certain minimum in terms of ports should be present. In short: The device is within the standard of competitors but you should not expect any highlights. Two USB 3.0 ports are mandatory by now, as well as the HDMI output. The L855 series devices that are equipped with a Blu-ray drive also support 3D output via HDMI port; the notebook could be used as a 3D Blu-ray player for the TV. However, our notebook only has a DVD burner on the left side.Dell Inspiron 15R 5520 Charger

The port layout could also be better: Almost all the ports are at the right front, a place that is usually occupied by a right-hander's mouse and in addition the ports are very close together. This could lead to some conflicts between USB sticks and HDMI cables. Dell Inspiron 15R 5525 Charger

Communication
A multimedia notebook like the Toshiba Satellite L855-10K should obviously be able to establish a fast connection to the internet. A network card from Atheros is responsible for that, however, it does not support fast gigabit networks. The card should be able to fully use the latest fiberglass lines for consumers but it is not very future proof. It is a similar situation with the WLAN: Fast 300 Mbit per second is not supported, 54 Mbit per second is the maximum. The reception and transmitting performance of the WLAN module are good, even with a distance of 10 meters to the router Windows still indicated four bars. The latest Bluetooth generation is also supported with version 4.0.Dell Inspiron 15R 7520 Charger

Accessories and Software
Except for a quick start guide there are no additional accessories in the box, also there are no physical recovery DVDs for the operating system. Apart from memory extensions (which can be purchased for less elsewhere) and laptop bags there are no noteworthy accessories on the Toshiba website.Dell Inspiron 15R SE 4520 Charger

Toshiba installs some applications in Windows 8 worth mentioning: Nero 12 also includes video editing software and a video converter besides the known burning software, which could be very useful. The most advertised application is Toshiba Places. Aside from links to the support it almost exclusively contains streaming services for music or videos that create costs or offers from Toshiba. You should have a look at some of the preinstalled applications but you can also safely delete them.Dell Inspiron 15R SE 5520 Charger

Maintenance
After loosening just one screw you have quick access to the memory and the hard drive via the cover at the bottom. Exemplary: Even the battery, which supplies the BIOS with energy when the device is turned off, can be easily replaced; which saves time by not having to deal with tech support. The fan can be seen behind a cover but it cannot be accessed to remove dust.Dell Inspiron 15R SE 7520 Charger

Performance

The AMD A8-4500M is a popular processor that is used in many notebooks, for example in the Samsung Series 3 355E7C-S05DE, Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E535-NZR5BGE or Toshiba Satellite L875D-10E. The CPU has four cores and a nominal clock of 1.9 GHz. If necessary the clock can be raised up to 2.8 GHz. It is based on the current Trinity-architecture and manufactured in 32 nm, based on our experiences it usually cannot keep up with Intel's current Core-i3 processors. The chip also contains an AMD Radeon 7640G graphics unit. 8 GB memory and a large 750 GB hard drive complete the package.Dell Inspiron 15R TURBO Charger

Processor
In general the turbo-feature of the quad-core processor is very turbulent: Even during idle the clock constantly fluctuates between 1.4 GHz and 2.3 GHz, Intel's Turbo-Boost technology is more relaxed in this regard. Performance wise the processor can hardly convince us: Despite its four cores the AMD A8-4500M only reaches values similar to cheap Pentium or Celeron processors in Cinebench. During battery use the processor clock is reduced in every energy profile: 1.9 GHz is possible under load. Also, the processor cores can only execute one task at the same time, Intel Core-i processors can execute two threads simultaneously thanks to Hyperthreading technology.Dell Inspiron 15R(7520) Charger

Similar priced competitors sometimes even have an Intel Core i7 quad-core processor (Acer Aspire V3-571G, Dell Inspiron 15R SE), which is at least twice as fast in the synthetic benchmarks. If you only use less demanding applications like text processing or want to watch movies the AMD processor works just fine. However, the identical base price for considerably lower CPU performance is not justified in our opinion.Dell Inspiron 15R(N5520) Charger

System Performance
We had no problems with the system performance during daily tasks. The already very fast Windows 8 boots quickly and all the preinstalled applications can be executed without a noticeable delay. The system does not have problems with HD videos on YouTube either, only impressive 4K videos with four times the Full HD resolution show the limits of the system.

The similarly priced competitors Dell Inspiron 15R SE and Acer Aspire V3-571G are significantly faster in the synthetic system benchmark PC Mark 7. Dell Inspiron 15R(N7520) Charger

Gaming Performance
We played three games on the notebook, all of them ran smoothly in the native display resolution but FIFA 13 and Diablo III are not very demanding anyway. As mentioned before there were some issues with unpleasant micro stutters.

Mass Effect 3 is a bit more demanding but also ran smoothly even on an external Full HD display - a positive surprise. Our Graphics Overview also shows that more demanding games can quickly bring the notebook to its performance limit: Hitman: Absolution especially suffered from the weak CPU. An extensive games check of the APU can be found in the Toshiba Satellite L875D-10E review. Dell Inspiron 17R 4720 Charger

The Toshiba L855D-10K does a good job in our stress test but confuses most graphics utilities. They just add the values of both graphics cards and indicate values above 100 °C. You don't have to worry though, FurMark Multi-GPU shows the correct values and both graphics cards stay below 60 °C, the CPU is not in the critical area either with 66 °C. The 3DMark 06 score is just slightly reduced after our stress test with 7,423 points; we do not expect significant performance losses during long load periods.Dell Inspiron 17R 5720 Charger

The surface temperatures also get a good rating: A maximum of 40.5 °C at the top can be felt but is not unpleasant. With common tasks the notebook hardly warms up and the power supply unit remains pleasantly cool in all situations

Energy Consumption
The energy consumption shows two pictures: During idle our review unit consumes at least 8.3 Watts - very frugal within the competition. However, the maximum value of 17.1 Watts during idle is however much higher. If both graphics cards are active and we run more demanding applications the notebook consumes up to 73.3 Watts, an average value within the competition. The Acer Aspire V3-571G (Intel Core i5-3210M and GeForce GT 640M) consumes up to 81 Watts and the Dell Inspiron 15R-5521 (Intel Core i5-3317U, AMD Radeon HD 8730M) is more frugal with a maximum of 53.3 Watts. Dell Inspiron 17R 7720 Charger

Battery Runtime
The Satellite L855D-10K is clearly ahead of the higher performing competition: In the more practical WLAN scenario it runs over 4 hours, the Acer Aspire V3-571G and Dell Inspiron 15R SE only manage around 3 hours. All three systems have a 48 Wh battery. Dell Inspiron 17R SE 4720 Charger

The behavior of the Crossfire combination with both graphics cards is very interesting during battery use. Under load the GPU clock is significantly reduced to 380 MHz, independent from the selected energy profile. To save energy the dedicated graphics can also be deactivated; this usually happens during idle or with less demanding tasks.

How can you justify the 799 Euros (~$1047) for the Toshiba Satellite L855D-10K? With the performance? Many competitors offer significantly more performance for a street price of 550 Euros (~$721). With the metal surfaces? Not really, the build quality is not very good. With the screen? Just average. Dell Inspiron 17R SE 5720 Charger

So what remains in favor of the Toshiba in an environment with IPS displays (Acer Aspire V3-571G) and higher performance (Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition)? The battery runtimes, the cool case and the speakers are advantages of the review unit. All in all, we cannot give a recommendation for the Toshiba Satellite L855D-10K for this price, the competition just offers more for the same money.

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