Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5310 / C55D-B5212 Laptop with AMD A8 CPU

The Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5310 / C55D-B5212 (models are identical) is an affordable 15.6-inch notebook computer with decent performance. It’s loaded with the AMD A8-6410 quad-core processor. The CPU provides enough computing power for smooth running of Windows OS and common applications, such as web browsers, Office apps, and multimedia playback programs. Professional photographers and video producers will be more satisfied with something more powerful, such as the Intel Core i5 and i7. The A8-6410 has the Radeon R5 series graphics processor built-in. Benchmarks of it aren’t available yet, but judging from the specifications it should be better than the Intel HD 4400 found in the Intel i3, i5, and i7. In the real world, it means enough oomph to play the latest AAA games, but you’ll still need to pull back significantly on the resolution and detail settings.

As for the screen, the 15.6-incher on the C55D-B5310 / C55D-B5212 has the usual 1366-by-768 resolution, which is not something to write home about. You won’t have as sharp image as on the Full HD laptops, but that’s one of the concessions to make this model affordable. Touchscreen capability is missing.

For interaction with the system you can use the full-sized keyboard with numeric pad and trackpad with mechanical buttons. They are built into the plastic casing in black color. The lid of the display is made of the same material, and the whole chassis measures in profile and weighs in at 4.9 pounds.

The C55D-B5310 / C55D-B5212 is outfitted with stereo speakers and a 720p web camera. Regarding ports and slots, three USBs, HDMI, VGA, media card reader are all on board. Networking is enabled through Wi-Fi wireless and wired Ethernet LAN connections. Bluetooth is also present.

The battery is a 4-cell unit, but info on battery life isn’t provided.

All factors combined, the C55D-B5310 / C55D-B5212 is well equipped for the given price, but keep in mind that there are other equally or similarly good options in the budget notebook category.