Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Review

The Bottom Line and Sibling Rivalry

Overall, the Satellite Pro 4600 scores near the top of the charts, as long as you judge it as an office desktop replacement -- suited for occasional commutes home or infrequent business trips -- instead of an always-on-the-go ultraportable or gaming/graphics-editing system.

Pros:

• Fast performance
• First-class keyboard
• DVD-ROM, CD-RW, and both wired and wireless Ethernet built in
• Video setup includes great 15-inch screen, TV-out port

Cons:

• Fairly heavy and bulky
• Mediocre battery life
• No IEEE 1394 port or Microsoft Office
• Video setup suitable for office chores, not 3D games or high-res external monitor

If our $2,709 test model doesn't light your fire, two other Satellite Pro 4600s are available, with 14.1- rather than 15-inch LCDs (making them half a pound lighter): a Pentium III/750 with a DVD-ROM drive is $2,049, and a Pentium III/800 with the DVD/CD-RW drive is $2,419. Neither, however, includes the 802.11b wireless adapter, so they don't strike us as equal values.

We confess, however, we're tempted by the Pro's less businesslike brother, the Satellite 2805: Comparably equipped (P-III/850, 128MB, 20GB, DVD/CD-RW, 15-inch TFT), the 7.5-pound Satellite comes with Windows Me instead of 2000 and a video editors' IEEE 1394 port instead of a WiFi adapter. More to the point, it replaces the middle-of-the-road Trident with Nvidia's state-of-the-laptop-art 16MB GeForce2Go graphics accelerator, making it a much groovier game platform, all for a less-than-you'd-expect $2,399.

Satellite Pro 4600, or Satellite 2805 (plus, perhaps, an 802.11b PC Card)? Your business and pleasure priorities will determine your choice, but we think either Toshiba deserves a place on your laptop shopping list.