Toshiba Satellite 14.4" Core I5 Notebook U840W-00WU

I really wanted to like this Toshiba product. I couldn't wait for it to arrive. When it did, I really liked the design and build and found it was really very fast to boot up. The hybrid concept, with the solid state drive, is a good one.

The picture clarity was good and the Harman Kardon speakers were superb - truly the best sound in a laptop that I have heard. If you heard the music from another room, you might well think it was a sound system playing because that's how good the sound is.

I got used to the wider screen and a few websites I visited did adjust accordingly but, since most sites on the web aren't built for the size, I found the pages I viewed centred in the middle of the screen. The same can be said for online film viewing. I watched a trailer of the new Tom Cruise movie, 'Oblivion', which was in widescreen and, coupled with the speakers, it was stunning. However, most movies and shows online aren't in widescreen so the ratios are off, and you are faced with black bars either top and bottom of screen, or on the left and right-hand side. Ratios also affect whether or not you get true 1080p HD.

Working on documents side-by-side is a good feature for those that need it, and it also works well if you want to view two different websites simultaneously.

My computer arrived with some wear already around the top right-hand side of the bezel around the screen as well as some obvious scratches despite the packaging. It also came with the right-hand side of the keyboard area sticking up slightly as though somehow it wasn't glued down properly.

As this isn't an inexpensive laptop, I felt that wasn't acceptable quality and, along with deciding the wider screen wasn't ultimately effective for me, I ended up returning it.

In the end, it's all about preference: I was disappointed in a few things to decide to return it, but there are a number of great things about the computer which is why I gave it 4 stars. Maybe Toshiba is ahead of the game offering a widescreen computer, but I'm not sure this size will take off.

This computer is a powerhouse. I purchased this instead of the acer showstopper because the Toshiba has windows 7/64. I do not like windows 8 and the tech reviews now coming out show that I am not alone. This computer has WiDi, 3 - 3.0 usb ports and an i5 processor. The build on this computer is exceptional, very sturdy. I am used to a smaller keyboard and the 14.4" screen is okay for me. Keys are back-lit and very responsive. This computer runs internet explorer 9 which has been proven to be reliable. I updated my HP with internet explorer 10 (windows 8) and had to remove it as the shopping channel website would not work properly. Still too buggy.
My recommendation is to stay away from IE 10 when it pops up in windows update.

The toshiba is an impressive machine. Fits me to a T. Would highly recommend Toshiba Ultrabook.