When it comes to thin and light notebooks, Apple’s MacBook Air has been the talk of the town. Yes it’s extremely thin and weighs in at 3.0 pounds but these specs aren’t the only defining point to a notebook. You have to look at the hardware under the hood, which if you ask me, is pretty lacking for the price. So I began to search for other thin and light notebook options and came across the Toshiba Satellite U305-S2812 Notebook PC. If we compare these two notebooks spec for spec, the overall advantage easily goes to the Toshiba Satellite U305-S2812 Notebook PC.
Comparison of Toshiba Satellite U305-S2812 to the new Apple MacBook Air
The two notebooks share a similar footprint, the MacBook Air is thinner and lighter but the Toshiba Satellite U305-S2812 isn’t as wide. Toshiba’s Satellite U305-S2812 Notebook PC does feature an integrated Fingerprint Reader for enhanced security protection, a feature not found on the MacBook Air. I’ll admit I took a ride on the hype train for a while. It was impossible not to. Every tech site you go to makes some mention of the MacBook Air, but sometimes we need to pull ourselves back to reality.
The Winner is…Toshiba!
And the reality is, for about $700 less you can have a thin and light laptop that travels easy and outperforms Apple’s new hype machine. Sorry Apple fans, the MacBook Air is not the second coming. That may be a little depressing…but sometimes the truth hurts. If you’re looking for a thin and light notebook that comes “standard†with all of today’s common features, check out the Toshiba Satellite U305-S2812 Notebook PC.
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Why are you reviewing a product that you do not sell? Why ding Apple when the only Apple products you have are Mac Minis and iPods? You comparison is weak and biased! There is far more technology in the MacBook Air than the Toshiba anyway. Can the Toshiba back up wirelessly? NO! Can the Toshiba use the CD/DVD drive of a remote computer wirelessly? NO! IS the Toshiba availabile with a SS Disk Drive? NO! Did all Laptops use to include a 3.5″ Floppy? YES! Who was the first manufacturer to drop the 3.5″ Floppy? Apple. Hype? This is the future my uninformed man! Your little comparison chart is about as pathetic as your brain.
Your comparison chart is kind of skimpy. It seems that while the Toshiba has slightly more clock ticks that the MBA, the MBA uses an unconventional Core 2 processor (http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3203). Maybe you should pull yourself back to this reality, and realize that you can’t compare Apples to oranges, or Toshibas. Also, you give the Toshiba a “Winning” mark just because it has wireless PLUS an RJ-45 connector. When was the last time you used the RJ-45 over a wireless connection? Do you carry an RJ-45 cable with you at all times just in case, I mean, should that simple comparison between the two carry so much weight? I don’t think so. Perhaps your comparison chart should be a bit more comprehensive, and not so “Simple”. This review sounds like more of an advertisement, than a objective review.
David,
You really sound like an Apple apologist. Yes, the MBA has some nice extras as well–but as Desmond was pointing out it isn’t as clear cut as many are depositing.
In regards to core performance there is no real competition here. The Toshiba is slightly faster as well as having more than 4 times (!) as much storage space on a faster HDD. Paying a 50% premium for the Mac with lower specs is disconcerting.
As for footprint, I would call it a draw. The Toshiba is narrower, the MBA thinner and lighter. But this isn’t apples-to-apples at all because the MBA rips out an essential part of the system–the DVD Writer/Reader!
You attempt to hype the floppy disk example as a nod to Apple’s genius, but the reality is that the two are not congruent. Floppy drives at the time were being displaced by CD and DVD drives and to make a consession for size it became impractical to have both in a system (or bother with the additional cost of swappable drives). The problem with the floppy example (which was displaced by USB Flash and CD/DVD media) is that CD/DVD is an integral part of todays computing–much more so than floppy drives were. Not only are optical media used to load application and backup content they are also used for media (movies, music) as well as authoring. Further, there has appeared no ubiquitous standard to displace the functionality of an optical drive.
Sacrificing an essential component to the core design for a reduction in thickness and weight (especially if the weight is still present in carrying around the external drive!) is a poor trade off for many (but not all) users.
The MBA has some nice perks and is a quality design but for a user looking for performance and portability at the best price the Toshiba indeed has a number of advantaged. In many cases these advantages impact the core experience in a significant manner and should not be diminished, especially at the price disparity.
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