The Toshiba Satellite M640 and M645 offers a 14-inch laptop with solid performance and attractive design at a modest price. As parents and students prepare for back to school season, is the Satellite M640 below in the top of your shopping list? Read on to see what you think of this model i5 Core equipped with discrete Nvidia graphics.
Toshiba Satellite M640 (M645-S4055) Specs HighLight:
Design
The Satellite M640/M645 is the latest generation of multimedia notebooks from Toshiba and is designed to offer a perfect balance between performance and style. At first glance, the design of the M645 is quite traditional with sculpted edges, a mix of shiny plastic and soft texture, and some attractive LED accent lighting. The exterior is covered in what Toshiba calls the "Fusion X2 Finish in charcoal." Personally, I call it shiny black plastic with a texture "chain" pattern printed on the surface to help hide fingerprints and dirt. Despite the trade name fool to the end, I have to give Toshiba credit here. The pattern of string texture gives the modern image of plastics is not brilliant but as a magnet for the horrible stains, dirt or anything else that a student is spilled on a laptop.
The bottom of the notebook includes two access plates of RAM, wireless card and hard drive. Although most people who buy consumer multimedia laptops do not perform the updates, the engineers at Toshiba's actually very easy to get inside this laptop. Simply remove one screw to access the hard drive and a screw to get to the RAM and wireless card.
Display and Sound
The M645 has a 14-inch diagonal screen with LED backlight and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the screen is "very good" in the narrow vertical viewing angle sweet spot. The backlight is even and bright, the contrast is strong and the colors are good when the colors are a bit hot to the default settings. If there is one obvious question that has to be the narrow vertical viewing angles. While horizontal viewing angles (side view) are virtually flawless, the colors become more vulnerable when viewed from above and downwards significantly and distorted when viewed from below. If you are using this laptop for editing color accuracy will have to be sure you're viewing the screen straight.
The Satellite M645 features harman / kardon stereo speakers mark just above the keyboard. These speakers offer a great variety of high, medium and low tones with the base of a surprising richness of a laptop without a dedicated subwoofer. Because these speakers are located above the keyboard that direct sound up and toward the user. Another element worth mentioning is "Toshiba's Sleep-and-Music" feature that lets you isten to music from your MP3 player through these fantastic portable speakers, even when the notebook is turned off in sleep mode. The headphone jack also provides a great connection, static-free external speakers or headphones.
Touchpad and Keyboard
The full-size keyboard with LED backlight M645 with Chiclet-style keys that are responsive and provide extra space to avoid typos. The keys are large and flat and have a glossy texture that shows patches of his skin oils over time. There is no significant flex unless you apply significant pressure to the keys in the center of the board. An individual keystrokes are quiet, virtually without a "click-clack" noise as you type, making it an excellent choice for taking notes in a classroom or office meeting room. The keyboard also features dedicated media keys on the keyboard and dedicated home, end, page up and page keys.
Other Features
The Satellite M645 features a variety of ports - making this a laptop of the most "future proof" 14-inch notebooks we've reviewed recently. You get two USB 2.0 ports and one combo eSATA / USB 2.0 if you want to use fast external storage units. The M645 also includes dual video ports: VGA connection to the old school projectors and HDMI for the new monitors and HDTVs. More importantly, the M645 includes an ExpressCard slot so you can upgrade this laptop with USB 3.0 ports, if needed. All descriptions of the picture are from left to right.