hello everyone. this is my review for Toshiba L745-1050X. this toshiba is the replacement for my previous HP Pavilion TX2500.

the best model for budget under RM2k

lets move on to the specification first.

Intel® Core™ i3-2310M processor (2.10GHz, 3M Cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
Mobile Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
2048MB DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM expandable to 8192MB
14.0" WXGA HD Clear SuperView LED Backlight TFT display (16:9), resolution 1,366 x 770
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT525M (dedicated 1GB VRAM)
640GB (SATA) with shock absorbers
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive (DVD ± RW/RAM)
TouchPad with Gesture Support
Bluetooth V3.0 w/ High Speed Technology, Integrated 802.11bgn, 10/100 Mbps
Built in Web Camera with Toshiba SmartFace™ Technology
Stereo Speakers, 16-bit Stereo with Dolby® Advanced Audio and Intel® High Definition Audio Support
3 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 (Sleep and Charge), RGB, HDMI, External Mic (stereo), External Headphone (stereo), 4-in-1 Card Reader (supports SD™ Card, Memory Stick®, Memory Stick Pro™,Multimedia Card™)
6-Cell Lithium Ion
65W/75W Universal AC Adaptor
340 x 229 x 34/38mm
Starting from 2.14kg
Grace Silver

SRP: RM1999 as of 13 June 2011 the day i bought

click here for photos:


scroll down for more photos.

What came with the box:

Laptop, Battery, Adapter, User Manual.

Appearance:

the whole laptop except the bottom have some dotted design. it uses 2 hinge on the right and left to hold the screen to the body. i think its okay but definitely cannot beat the Asus N53S design. scren can be tilt till 145+- degrees which is useful when using high notebook stand.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

a geat keyboard that did not feel cramped. it is well arranged and the typing response is tactile enough. i dont know if it's just me but the keyboard on the left just feel weird when playing games. function button on the top is very good. not too small and not too big. easily readable.
touchpad is also good. responsive and the feel is nice since it has a lil bit of rough texture to differentiate the pad and the palm rest. furthermore, it does support multitouch gesture.

Speakers:

honestly, this speaker is just crap. totally worst when compared to my previous TX2500. song played at 60% have already distorted. it wasn't loud enough for me. my expectation was high when it says stereo speakers but i guess you did get what you pay for right?
this is when you need to plug in external speakers with subwoofer for a great audio experience.

Preloaded Software:

Microsoft® Office Starter 2010, Norton Internet Security™ (60 days trial), WildTangent, Skype, Microsoft® Windows Live (Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer), Microsoft® Bing, Toshiba ConfigFree™ Connectivity Doctor, Toshiba Face Recognition, Toshiba ECO Utility, Toshiba Bulletin Board, Toshiba ReelTime, Toshiba Zooming Utility, Toshiba Power Saver Utility, Toshiba Assist, Toshiba PC Health Monitor, Toshib Video Player, Corel Digital Studio for Toshiba, Adobe Reader, Toshiba Speech System, Toshiba Web Camera Application, Toshiba Disc Creator, Toshiba Flash Cards, HDD Recovery.

at first startup of this toshiba when it come out of box, you can choose to install 32-bit or 64-bit of windows 7 home premium. thats a very nice feature. furthermore, you can set up the partition size of Drive C at that time. no need to mess around with your head since its done already.
for me, the microsoft office, norton, wild tangent, and skype are the only crap among all. others are fine enough to be kept. what's more important is the Toshiba HWSetup. what a nice feature it has such as Toshiba Fast Boot. look what i got, it really does start things up fast. my startup program is full with toshiba software and yet still no lag. hahahahaa

you need to download and install directX 11 since it doesn't come with the preinstalled software.

update as of 15 june 2011, this is my boot up time.


multitasking experience

this machine has the best multi-tasking experience for budget under rm2k. i never i thought i could do it all with this laptop. i've opened multiple tabs with chrome, rockmelt and ie9. still no lag or delay at all. furthermore, i've added black ops, plants vs zombies, dota and angry birds. the hell. everything still runs smooth. imagine this with core i7 quad core. i'd be dead i presume.

3DMark11 Benchmark
performance setting


Windows Experience Index
before i installed 2gb ram, the score is 5.5
after add 2gb ram that makes it a total of 4gb, the score became 5.7
then overclocked it to original spec of 600mhz rather than original factory setting of 475 mhz, the score became 5.9

before the overclock gt525m


after overclock gt525m


Gaming Experience:

i was surprised with the capability of this machine. it can play Prototype with all max settings without lag. wow. last time when i tried with the ATI3200, it looked like i was watching powerpoint. the hell? hahaha. got to test with need for speed undercover, max setting no problem. company of heroes set to ultra settings also no problem. battlefield bad company 2 max resolution also no problem. starcraft 2 can play up to high setting with minimal lag only but still very decent. ultra setting your laptop will meletup. tried crysis 2 with high setting. holy shit. smooth like megan fox ass. no pimple at all. black ops all set up to optimal setting with max resolution and it went smooth. no lag at all. DOTA? hell yeah. smooth and finger lickin good.

updated:
this is the temperature when playing black ops


this is temperature when playing battlefield bad company


this is temperature when idle




Battery Life:
the battery is good enough for me to survive when working outside. tested it with a lil bit of wifi, lil bit off typing, lil bit of berukband with 40% screen brightness and i got 3 hour and 15 minute with toshiba eco mode. maybe if i drop the brightness and close more program, it could add another half and hour. i guess its because of the 4400mah capacity which is considered low unlike N53S with 5200mah.



This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Aug 11 2011, 02:21 PM

^ naice review hehe, where is photos
Seriously Toshiba keyboard and touchpads are rather impressive
The keyboard may be glossy and different in terms of design, but the typing can be very accurate and fast once you get the hang of it

hehe. thanks to you brah.

i tried to attach the photo here, but not working. going to use photobucket pulak after this.

LOL. KFC. haha
nice review btw.

Bro, don't show your model number ar lol

hah? cannot meh? why why why?

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Added on June 14, 2011, 10:41 pmhihihi. thanks brah.

This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jun 14 2011, 10:41 PM

eh, gt ssd ha?? time boot 27s only nice riview bro... lain hari i go see LIVE..

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Added on June 14, 2011, 10:41 pmkna curi lak

This post has been edited by pandera999: Jun 14 2011, 10:41 PM

TS, why no photos showing the whole laptop? lol

hahahahaa. tengah guna macam mana mau ambil gambar whole. kihkihkih. wait aa. 5 menet.

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Added on June 14, 2011, 10:47 pmtoshiba fast boot gila pok. mun ku remove suma startup program tok konfem gik laju dari tok.

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Added on June 14, 2011, 11:29 pm

more pictures:

This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jul 27 2011, 03:07 PM

i think if u add RM250 more u can get asus A53 / A43 series with nvidia 540m and i5 core processor , 4gb ram plus 2 year warranty

This post has been edited by destee88: Jun 15 2011, 03:22 PM

@TS,

Why all your photos all so up-close one? lol
Wow, the squarish patterns and materials kind of reminds me of the HP G4

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Added on June 15, 2011, 3:31 pmTS's budget was RM1.9k. This was the best laptop for his requirements

This post has been edited by [PF] T.J.: Jun 15 2011, 03:31 PM

btw,this model is come with 3 years warranty,so it's worth buying

really 3 years warranty ar? OMG, then it should be the best around liao lol

great value! i like how it has usb 3.0
can't beat the price !


PS : it's low price, not cheap price.

lol my budget limited to 2k only. where to find 250 more.

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Added on June 15, 2011, 10:45 pmclose up la then you no need to zoom anymore.

This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jun 15 2011, 10:45 PM

Hey TS, finally a review on this notebook.

I'm seriously considering this notebook or the slightly more expensive version of it. L745-1051XB.

I'm just worried about Toshiba as a brand and its durability. Did you take that into consideration when you decided to buy this?

Toshiba has always been famous for its durability

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Added on June 16, 2011, 2:07 pmWant to see the whole laptop ma, both when lid open/close

This post has been edited by [PF] T.J.: Jun 16 2011, 02:07 PM

dont worry,Toshiba is a reliable brand and the quality is good

yeah i remember in the 90s, I used to see a lot of toshiba proteges ads , everytime my air liur keluar.

Intel 386SX 25Mhz, DSTN screen FTW !

since then, toshibas are industry standard

the build quality for this model is good le. only the speaker is crap. everything works fine.

hi, i saw a Satellite L745-1150X, i3-2310 + Nvidia GT525M@RM1999, 2nd & 3rd year warranty at Mr. [PF] T.J. 's price catalog, is it a new variant of this 1050X? since i can not find the 1050X in that thread @@

the correct model is Satellite L745-1050X

if come with icore 5 lagi best..

oh i see, thanks a lot for the clarification =)

quite a good price actually

got i5 but add rm499 more.

so much meh?? like dell add more 200 got 2nd gen i5 + 525m if less 200 only got 2nd gen i3 + hd 3k

sorry sorry. my mistake. 1999 + 300++ = toshiba l745 core i5 2nd gen + gt525m

why i heard many people complain about dell nowadays leh? they said not good like old times anymore.

Because there are a lot of hateboys/ misinformed people haha
So how's your laptop bro? Still enjoicing?

dell got good b4 like old days meh?

dell good is when i din use or buy it.. since i bought it.. not good with the issue is fan problem & design of heat-sink..
the rest is awesome with hdd 7.2k rpm momentus, samsung lcd hd ready, 1333mhz ram & adapter is better than other brand of lappy offer, bloatware is better & simple, able to change laptop skin color, etc..

This post has been edited by ngkhanmein: Jun 20 2011, 11:48 AM

Yes, Dell Inspirons 6400 was one of the best laptops I've ever seen... Alot of my colleagues are still using them (including my gf)... But things changed after the introduction of the crappy Inspiron 1420s...
Inspiron and Inspiron Rs are considered better already

Bro, I think you should try other brands, I don't think you'd be impressed with them as well

This post has been edited by [PF] T.J.: Jun 20 2011, 11:51 AM

asus good buy bloatware like shit.. i plan o buy asus/acer that time but dun have 15" with the decent gpu card sumore my budget that time is tight.. i choose dell cos numeric keypad, 5650, 7.2krpm hdd, 1333mhz.. most important the adapter..

wow dude, for only 2k, that's a damn good laptop.

I don't mind much about the speaker because I'm using an external speaker or a headphone anyway.

Does it have any heat problems when playing high graphics games?

got heat but the heat can't make ur egg cooked.. i think heat issue won't have problem.. u can ask the guys who own it..

Haha, okay. Looks like this is gonna be my next laptop.

Thanks for the review dude

heat issue. but not really a problem when you play under huge room fan. i guess the temperature is acceptable la. can play cod2 with max setting without lag at all. starcraft 2 optimal setting also no lag. this thing is wonderful.

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Added on June 22, 2011, 12:30 amthis laptop is frickin awesome la bro. thx for the recommendation. i on both dota and cod, ie9, google chrome, rockmelt, plus word and excel at the same time. no lag at all!. serious shit i'm not shittin around. damn cool la this thing

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Added on June 22, 2011, 12:33 amif budget below than 2k, this is the perfect machine for you. you're welcome dude.

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Added on June 22, 2011, 12:37 ambro, this i3 got 4 core kah?? it appears to have 4 different cpu with same 2.0ghz speed running simultaneously. correct ah?

This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jun 22 2011, 12:37 AM

It's only a dual core with Hyper Threading Technology. It makes the system think there are actually 2 threads per core than the usual 1 per core. So in essence, 2 physical and 2 logical cores working together.

ooooooo. nice explanation there dude. baru sy faham.

Bro, mind sharing some temperature tests? It'll be very useful since we hardly find any L645/L745 reviews out there
You can try "Open Hardware Monitor" , especially for laptops with Nvidia Optimus (The L745 has it right?)

i3 has 2 cores, 4 threads. Only difference between the i3 and i5 is the lack of turbo boost

will do it tonight then

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Added on June 22, 2011, 11:53 pmupdated with temperature!

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Added on June 22, 2011, 11:53 pmupdated with temperature!

This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jun 22 2011, 11:53 PM

Where is good place to buy L745-1050X from for the price mentioned?

This post has been edited by prasad: Jul 8 2011, 08:03 PM

can try Garage Sales, but the price mentioned is already recommended retail price

that 'Cooling hole' on the font side ? are you feel the air is very hot ? thanks.

The reason I ask was in the front page of lowyat.net where prices are listed cycom and others have higher prices ?
Does that mean that other dealers will be cheaper?

Hey Guys , We are doing PROMOTION For TOSHIBA NOTEBOOK! RM1930 Promotion!

the front side only have sd slot and blinking lights. air vent is on the left side. the air is only hot when you play games. normal usage no problem

how much different is the i3 and i5 version?

Difference in what?
Price?

performance, and price and is it worth it to get the i5 vesion?

depends on your usage imo, for basic usage even i3 is sufficient

even core 2 duo still enough lol

haha.. fjoker.. rarely c u on nowadays.. ^^

eh.. what u do wit ur lappy? curious..

hi TS,

what the latest price for this model?

good review for a price vs performance model

i think you can get it at 1900 nowadays. thanks brah.

My roommate is using this laptop now.

All he does now is installing and playing games lol, very impressive laptop for its price

Any temperature readings?

crysis2 with high setting no lag! Black ops oso max setting no lag!

speaker reli that bad? If watch movie?? Loud enough?

watch movie still can only if you dapat tahan the distortion level la. But still can

Bought this one too...quite happy with it.

One slight issue:

Youtube Flash video stutters bad, and it's not because of connection buffering. But if download the video and play on the computer using MPC, no problem. Seems to strike me as a display - adobe flash plugin problem.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Latest flash ?
Update nVidia driver ?
Disabled hardware acceleration on flash ?

you have to update everything first once you got the lappy. Install all windows update available, update to ie9 if you use ie. No problem afterwards once everything is updated. Trust me.

Everything's already updated, unfortunately Still same issue

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Added on July 27, 2011, 3:01 pmDone all that. Still there though the disabling hardware acceleration of the adobe flash plugin makes it just a little less jerky (but still there)

This post has been edited by 9M-MAS: Jul 27 2011, 03:01 PM

aik? How come mine works fine apart from usb prob? But seriously when i first got it, no problem like yours happened to me. Strange. Tried reformat factory out of box state?

9M-MAS, using what browser ?

Primarily FF but it affects all browsers I have (IE, FF, Opera, Safari, Chrome)

This one tried ?
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer11.html

working or not? Post your update on the issue here ok bro? Thanks

I downloaded the nVIDIA driver from Toshiba but the isntaller says my version is already up to date. I downloaded the one from nvidia and it says "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware"

Anyway just re-installed the flash plugin v11 as per the link by lee_what2004, am restarting now to see if there is any difference....

I have this problem as well...
Most ppl turned to modded files instead

ANyway I restarted. Still the same.

I think it's a problem with the Flash plugin. The new one I installed crashes more frequently now. But, even before installing the latest one, this is what leads me to think it's a problem with Flash, and perhaps its interaction with the graphics driver:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The anomaly there moves with the needle. I do not notice this with my older Toshiba though (intel display). Enabling / disabling hardware acceleration does not change the anomaly or the video stuttering problem.

This post has been edited by 9M-MAS: Jul 28 2011, 11:20 AM

if you think its pretty serious, do not hesitate to send in for warranty at service center. If you get lucky enough, they might change the whole thing for you.

Like I said, it only seems to happen inside browsers. If I download the Flash video and play it on Media Player Classic, it's smooth. SO I doubt it's a hardware problem (I surely hope not!)

I noticed the same problem with my previous Acer 4755G, which also has an NVIDIA display (GT540M).

This post has been edited by 9M-MAS: Jul 28 2011, 12:31 PM

if like that, for sure software related problem. No worries, just send for warranty. They said they can help if the software related problem applies to preloaded software. No harm in trying.

Still no joy. Tried uninstalling the graphics driver, reinstall Intel chipset driver and then reinstalling the nvidia driver from Toshiba's website - no change.

Can anyone please tell me where, apart from the Toshiba website, I can download newer nvidia graphics drivers? The version that's on the website is the same as the one I have pre-installed (269 something). Trying the much later version available from nvidia's website (275) is no joy either as the installer repeatedly says it could not detect compatible hardware.

Thanks

This post has been edited by 9M-MAS: Jul 28 2011, 11:42 PM

^as said by [PF] T.J., you would need to use the moddef inf, can get the inf from laptopvidoe2go.
Replace the inf file in the nVidia driver you downloaded from nVidia website and the installation should detect your GPU.

Darn, I kind of miss my previous Toshiba keyboard (which is also used in the current L745)... even though they're glossy, the letterings are different and the layout is weird, the typing feel is there...
Not sure whether its my typing posture, but I can't seem to bit my Typing Maniac score on the M14x

i thought m14x is killer already? Still got some downside huh.

because ur weird... so weird keyboard fits you. reasonable explanation. like lee sifu.. ur an entirely different entity that no human can understand. gratz on the leveling up.

As mentioned, I'm not sure whether its because of my typing posture... but the keys on the M14x seemed abit farther from one another than usual... the layout is like that possibly because them users in the US has larger hands?
Just a guess... You've used the Toshiba keyboard right? At 1st it feels weird to use, but after some time, it rocks... typing was like..... so easy

hahaha. Ya ya. At first feels shitty. Later on, i type without even look. Pawned the keyboard to dust.


This post has been edited by adibyusoff: Jul 29 2011, 09:35 PM

already got mine rm 1980 free 4gb ram haha

I thought you already have an Asus G53?

Downloaded and installed the driver from lapptopvideo2go, still no go.

Did you replace the inf file?

By no go I meant the new driver did not bring any change. It installed fine with the modded INF.

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Added on August 1, 2011, 11:55 amFurther curiosity: GPU-Z states that my GPU clock is 475MHz. Isn't GT 525M supposed to clock at 600MHz? Or is it 1.2GHz?

This post has been edited by 9M-MAS: Aug 1 2011, 11:56 AM

This one is for my little brother. love him so much, buy him 1 la haha. He is dying want my G53 haha

Please accept me as your brother too yo

me too.. i wun ask much..=P....cheapo m14x would do...

haha you guys ....

anyway this Toshiba L745-1050X is perfect for students la nowdays, gaming/multimedia - office work balance.

yeap.. it's nice.. =P


if it's not because of the roundness of the design... i would grab it. =P unkel... =P

I miss the keyboard... now I'll never get to break my Typing Maniac record

Still it would be better if the L745 comes with i5-2410M lol~

haha... nt keyboard problem la tj..... is ur hands getting old.. =P unkel..

Try the keyboard 1st

hmm, Toshiba underclock again?

What's your score ?