Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Review

A Performance Pro (But Not a Player)

Turn on the Satellite Pro 4600, and you'll be greeted by some unattractive Toshiba logo wallpaper and an Active Desktop gadget that adds a to-do list and links to Toshiba's Web support sites to the desktop; the support sites are worth a look, but we disabled the feature after a day.

Neither Microsoft Office nor any other productivity software is preinstalled, although Lotus SmartSuite is one of the choices Toshiba buyers can get via a free (actually $9 for shipping) software offer. The system does come with McAfee antivirus software (or Norton AntiVirus on Windows Me models), as well as some handy utilities for launching applications via Fn-key shortcuts and exchanging files or presentations with coworkers. Adaptec/Roxio's Easy CD Creator 4 and Mediamatics' DVDExpress take care of the CD-RW and DVD-ROM sides of the combo drive's split personality.

Another utility, resident in the taskbar tray by default, takes care of the portable's pair of network adapters -- it lets you activate, deactivate, or switch between the Satellite Pro's wired and wireless Ethernet ports with a couple of points and clicks. Along with Windows 2000's built-in detection of connected and unconnected network devices, it makes commuting between home and office a lot simpler.

Performance-wise, speed freaks could hold out for one of Intel's ultra-scarce 1GHz mobile Pentium IIIs instead of the Satellite Pro's 850MHz chip, but we doubt they'd net noticeable improvement: Even though detailed, quantitative testing must await a follow-up report (our copy of BAPco's new SysMark 2001 benchmarks hasn't yet reached the Hardware Central Labs, Weather, and Sports Desk -- Ed.), the 4600 feels impressively fast in launching applications, calculating jumbo spreadsheets, and flipping through presentations and PDF files. As with every 128MB PC we've tested, we were able to start a round of sluggish swap-file thrashing by loading and editing a huge Encapsulated PostScript image, but in everyday tasks, the Toshiba was swift and snappy.

Demanding users will have one complaint, however: Though its 15-inch, active-matrix display is as bright and beautiful as it is big, and its 16MB of SDRAM display memory is adequate, the Toshiba's Trident XP graphics controller is more of an office-suite workhorse than a 3D gaming, CAD, or image-editing powerhouse.

Presentations looked fine at the LCD's native 1,024 by 768 resolution, and flipping between alternate and simultaneous LCD and CRT monitor display was as easy as pressing the Fn and F5 keys. But though the Trident can drive an external monitor at 1,280 by 1,024 or 1,600 by 1,200 resolution, it does so at a pale, flicker-prone 60Hz refresh rate, with 65,000 instead of 16.7 million colors. You'll want to stick with XGA, and steer clear of Quake III or Unreal Tournament deathmatches.