Toshiba contacted me a few weeks ago to see if I wanted to borrow a Tecra A8 Laptop to do a review of it. Now I love freebies so thought why not? The laptop arrived, I unpacked it, took some photos then thought, now what? How do I review a laptop? There's no point in discussing the spec of the machine as there are loads of different combinations available, you can get a choice of processors, memory and so on.
So what on earth do I review? Here goes...
It looks "alright"
Its not particularly sexy like a MacIbookTouchPod or whatever they're called. Its not widescreen or anything like that, it just looks like a laptop. Sorry, but I don't know what else to say :(
Its not as good as my Toshiba Satellite Laptop
Here it is (left) next to my Satellite laptop (right). As you can see my laptop has a bigger wider screen and an extra numerical keypad thingy. Very handy.
Its not as sexy as my Toshiba Satellite Laptop
As you can see my laptop has a sexy metallic orange "lid" and looks cool. The one Toshiba sent me is a bit dull.
And to be honest thats all I can think of saying. I really do hope Toshiba aren't disappointed with this review (at least you didn't pay for it guys) :) I could have gone into loads of detail about its technical spec and how many ports/slots dongles etc it has but I thought that would be really dull and I'm not qualified to talk about that tecky stuff anyway. I'm actually a bit surprised as to why Toshiba sent this laptop out to be reviewed also. I mean why didn't they send out some real high end super wide sexy state-of-the-art piece of kit? The lappie they sent me is perfectly functional, and probably good value for money...but I can't get excited about it. Which is a shame as I've owned Toshiba laptops for years and would always buy them over Dell for example.
But, what's probably more interesting than reviewing a laptop is the whole
Talk Toshiba program.
I think its really cool that Toshiba are reaching out to bloggers and communities and giving them laptops to review. The end result is that not only do they good loads of reviews out there but lots of links too. Can't be a bad thing at all. So well done Toshiba, the laptop was "OK" but the thinking behind the Talk Toshiba program is very cool.
If anybody else wants something reviewing then please
get in touch. Particularly if you represent any of these products/brands:
Lamborghini
The Wynn Hotel
Peroni
Good R&B Music
Jacob & Co. limited edition Royal Watch
Pioneer PDP-LX608D 60 Inch Plasma TV
What I'm listening to right now:
Young Nate - Mixed Messages
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
Following on from what Kieron said, if anyone from Sandy’s Superstars in Northenden is reading this I’d be interested in reviewing your whole inventory
Looks pretty cool! But Sony Vaio still rules
Do you have to give it them back? Or can you keep it? Use it as a prize to give to one of your blogging throng?
It has to go back mate.
Nice post but the laptop looks rubbish. I’ve just reviewed the Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC – now that’s good looking!
I bought the top of the range A9 Tecra a couple of months back and have to say it’s not sexy, doesn’t look cool or leap tall buildings in a single bound etc.
But on the plus side it just works.. day in day out.. no drama no hassle and it’s a cool package.
It’s got fingerprint reader that actually works first time about 99% of the time (others work about 40% from my experience lol) on top of that time saver (no need to login, just swipe and go from boot up) it’s got a spill resistant keyboard which is a big plus point for a clumsy Taurean like me !
Staying on the keyboard theme it’s the best keyboard I’ve every used, far nicer to use all day than my previous one, a sony vaio.
The battery life is pretty good too for an xp pro machine at around 3 hours of propper use with plenty of apps open multi tasking etc.. with plenty of notification of impending death.
Unlike sony’s 1 year warranty, toshiba have some faith in their machine’s so mine came with a nice 3 year no worries warranty,
personally I’ll stick with toshiba, sure viao’s are slick and are the coolest laptop this sied of a macbook but I don’t think they sony are the ideal affliate workhorse machine like a tecra.
did you get to keep the laptop? how did you get them to contact you!?
Shane, I agree with you, my personal laptop is a Toshiba too (altho I have no idea what model, lol) and I wouldn’t use any other make tbh. In the past I’ve had both Dell and Sony laptops and have been unimpressed by both. However I’m just not sure why Toshiba didn’t send out a top of the range lappie for review, so I could have raved about it a bit more.
Mahdi – No the laptop is on loan. And I didn’t contact Toshiba, they contacted me.
If you get to review the Wynn, I’m coming in your suitcase! Don’t care what Duncan says, lol. It looked wonderful.