NEW YORK
— Toshiba’s digital products
division revamped its entire line of
Satellite laptops and netbooks for the
back-to-school selling season.
The across-the-board refresh includes
the addition of new lower-cost laptops
and netbooks that will appeal to consumers
hurting from the ongoing economic
crunch. On the other end of the price
spectrum is the A665 3D-edition entertainment
notebook that also features a
Blu-ray Disc rewriteable drive.
Philip Osako, Toshiba’s product marketing
director, digital products division,
is looking for this year’s back-to-school
season to be a bit better than 2009. However,
he added that unlike other seasonal
selling periods, back-to-school is somewhat
immune to economic pressures
because parents have to buy laptops for
their children going off to college.
“A laptop is now a necessity,” he said.
The A665, $1,599, has a 120Hz 15.6-
inch LED backlit 3D and comes with a
pair of active-shutter 3D goggles, said
Osako. It ships on June 20.
While 3D movies are all the rage right
now, Osako believes gamers will be
the driving force behind 3D adoption in
computers.
“From a gaming point of view, 3D is a
good fit. The movies will come later,” he
said, adding that already there are many
3D PC games already available.
The A665 also features Toshiba’s Fusion
X2 finish, which is a combination of
a textured and glossy surface that is on
the unit’s case and palm rest.
Other specifications include an Intel
Core i7 740QM processor, Nvidia, Ge-
Force GTS 350M with 1GB of discrete DDR3 memory, 4GB of DDR3 memory,
640GB hard drive, Harman/Kardon
speakers, webcam with facial recognition,
combo eSATA/USB port, HDMI
port and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.
On the other end of the price spectrum
are Toshiba’s C600-series laptops.
Osako said to help consumers impacted
by the ongoing economic crunch,
Toshiba rolled out the C600 series,
which starts at $450 for a basic laptop.
The C600 series includes 15.6-inch
and 14-inch screen-size models with
hard drives ranging from 250GB to
320GB, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a DVD Super-
Multi drive, and a choice of Intel Celeron
or AMD Athlon processors.
The C600 started shipping on June 20.
Toshiba has also introduced a budget
netbook, the NB250. It lists for $299,
has a 10.1-inch display and uses an Intel
Atom processor.
For the back-to-school shopper
Toshiba has revamped its L series, adding
an ultra-portable 13.3-inch model to
its current line of 14-, 15.6- and 17-inch
laptops Osako said.
The four models in the series are the
L635, $619; the L645, $515; the L655, $569;
and the L675, $599. All ship on June 20.
The L-series notebooks are available
with Intel Core i3 and Core i5 Turboboost
processors. AMD Athlon II and Turion II
dual-core processors along with Phenon
II triple- and quad-core processors are optional
features. Other configuration possibilities
include up to 4GB of DDR3 memory,
250GB to 500GB hard drives, and all
are eco-friendly, meeting the EPEAT Gold
Status. The models come in steel gray,
black, red, white and brown.
Toshiba’s ultra-thin T200-series portfolio
also has two new designs, the T215
and the T235. Pricing starts at $469, and
these units also ship on June 20.
The 3.3-pound T215 has an 11.6-inch
LED backlit LED display and is available
with an AMD Athlon II Neo singleor
dual-core processor, a 320GB hard
drive and 2GB of DDR3 memory.
The 13.3-inch T235 weighs in at 3.9
pounds and can be equipped with either
an Intel ultra-low-voltage Pentium
dual-core processor or AMD’s Athlon
II Neo or Turion Neo. It has the same
hard drive but doubles the amount of
memory to 4GB.
