100% OFF

Toshiba Satellite 1115-S103 Notebook (1.5-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive)

List price:	~~$1,099.00~~
Our price:	that is 100% off!
Manufacturer:	Toshiba

Average user rating:
More than decent beginner/cheap laptop
This is a great laptop for the value. If you get a deal with rebates then you can come out real good on price... I am not sure of Amazon.com's deal. But as for the price, is still a great deal. Especially for me, I am a college student who needs a decent mobile system on top of my desktop system at home. Comes with a built in network interface and modem (not that I'll ever use that really). All I need to do is add a wireless network card and I am done. My only problem with it is the missing built in floppy drive and a TV out adaptor. Other than that, its a great laptop. I don't need a CD-RW on my laptop I have that angle covered and I enjoy having a DVD-ROM (if anything I must have DVD capability). It would have been nice to make atleast one of those USB ports an IEEE 1394 firewire port. But other than those three major draw backs it again is a nice system. Microsoft Works isn't that bad. It is cross compatible with the Office software package. The 1.5GHz celeron is perfect, and 256MB of ram makes this thing even better. I LOVE IT! Pick one up. . . .
Shockingly good value for the dollar...
I've had the S103 for a week, and for the price I paid (about 500 clams), this is a breakthrough model for value notebooks. Out of the box, this is ideally a supplement to an existing desktop or as a network machine rather than a desktop replacement, due to its lack of a CD burner or floppy drive, but you could add those externally. Here are some of my first impressions: 1) The computer is plenty fast for me so far. Word processing, high-speed Internet functions, movies, even a few year-old games, loaded no problem and play without a hickup. I haven't tried Warcraft III or Age of Mythology yet, but heard on Toshiba tech support message board that both cause major problems, but hopefully driver updates will resolve this soon. 2) Screen is the big selling point for me. It's a brilliant, 14-inch TFT, true color, 1024X768. Gorgeous. 3) Battery life is barely adequate, but what's new? It lasts almost exactly 2 hours, as stated in the instructions, and that includes a slightly less bright screen when in battery mode. 4) The build quality/design are not the best. My "Y" key requires too much pressure to click. The buttons for the touchpad are recessed too much for a poor tactile response. I'm considering trying to exchange it because of the stuck Y key. 5) The DVD drive is pretty loud. Better use your headphones when watching movies (plays movies fine, but the experience isn't so good when running on the battery due to the short life and dimmed screen). 6) There is no Floppy drive, and no way to buy an internal one (I checked with Toshiba). You can get an external floppy. 7) Memory upgrade is PC2100 SODIMM, not PC1600 as stated in some Toshiba documents nor regular SDRAM as stated in others. Check out tech support or open up your memory slot and look at your existing memory chip and you will see I am right. Certified 256MB upgrade from Kingston costs about 100 clams. 8) I added a D-Link wireless 802.11b card with few problems and am currently filing this wirelessly. 9) The fans do run from time to time, and they are jarring at first, but you get used to them. It's really not that bad IMHO. I have run down the entire battery with this thing on my lap, and though it gets very warm, I never felt uncomfortably hot. This issue is overblown. 10) The processor is a Mobile Intel Celeron 1.5Ghz processor, not a desktop model. I have confirmed this with Toshiba. 11) Haven't tried this yet, but laptop supports an external monitor at up to 1280X1024 at 100Hz, not bad. Video card is Radeon Mobility 6 with 16MB DDR Ram -- Not top of the line, certainly, but a lot more than I expected in a bargain-basement notebook and certainly better than some of those "shared memory" deals I have seen. 12) Neither the processor nor the video card are upgradeable. 13) There is no USB 2.0 or Firewire port. You can add PCMIA cards with these high-speed ports for about ($$$) or so, and through them add on high-speed hard drives, CD burners, printers, video cameras, iPods, etc. But this would be an issue if you plan on using high-speed peripherals a lot. 14) The laptop is 6.9 pounds and relatively thin. Compared to some of the 8.5 pound behemoths out there for four times the cost, this is truly a portable machine, but not an ultralight by any means. 15) Has Microsoft Works, Quicken 2001 (!) and a few other gizmos and doodads, but that's about it. You may view this as either great -- no detritus taking up disk and desktop space -- or as a minus. I personally prefer not having 20 programs installed that I will never use. If you look hard, you will find some great deals out there. Enjoy!
if you want to waste 650 dollars, be my guest.
I bought this laptop, and its the worst 650 dollars i ever spent. it ran flawlessly until the warenty expired. the day after, the whole right side of my keyboard died. also, when you type, the whole keyboard goes up and down, actually the whole laptop. a month later, the soundcard died. the month after, the battery wouldnt sit. when i tried to put it in, i found a little button, that was light blue, which wasnt there before. i pressed it, and my sound worked for 20 seconds. also, random keys fall off, and my whole right side of the keyboard eventually fell off. the only reason this laptop got 1 star is because nothing goes lower than that. your better off with just about any pc. also, this is a MOBILE CELRON. i was a beta tester for this laptop, and filed my complaints on the keyboard and reliability on other OS than windows XP. If you want a laptop, go for a higher end toshiba. this doesnt cut it for anyone. i spent more money in it than i bought it for after it released. i had to buy a usb keyboard, usb 2 card, wireless card, new mouse, because the onboard touchpad caught on fire. so much money spent, go for a desktop or another toshiba/ibm. jsut not a dell though.