Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5102 / B5214 Notebook with AMD A8 & 1TB HDD

The Toshiba Satellite C55D-B5102 / B5214 (both with the same specs) is an affordable notebook, which offers more in terms of data storage space than the competition. The 15.6-inch laptop comes with a decent processor by AMD – the A8-6410 quad-core and sufficient amount of RAM memory which is 4GB large. However, the main selling point of the C55D-B5102 / B5214 is its large hard drive with a 1-Terabyte capacity, which is double the size of an average notebook HDD.

If you don’t have a habit of saving large files and throw only the lightest tasks on your computer, you have multiple cheaper choices with the same screen size on the market. They start at about only $250. On the other hand, Toshiba’s C55D-B5102 / B5214 delivers computing speed well above the entry-level. With a PassMark score of around 2,600 points, the AMD A8-6410 easily outperforms the current Celerons and Pentiums in the cheapest laptops, scoring about 1,100 and 1,800 points respectively. CPU and graphics performance of the A8 chip with Radeon R5 series integrated graphics is in line with speed of the widely adopted Intel Core i3 “U” series CPUs with the Intel HD 4400/5500 integrated graphics. This means flawless operation in majority or routine PC tasks, some potential for occasional hardware-demanding video production, and running the latest 3D games on lower settings.

Other than gobs of hard disk space and good processor, the laptop doesn’t offer anything special you can’t find on almost any other budget notebook. It has a DVD burner, 1366-by-768 pixel count on the non-touch display, non-backlit keyboard with numeric pad, stereo speakers, a 720p webcam, three USB ports, Wi-Fi wireless connection and Ethernet LAN network jack, Bluetooth, HDMI and VGA video ports, a multi-in-one media card reader.

The laptop looks a little pedestrian in matte black plastic, but that’s expected since it is an inexpensive one. On the positive side, it’s quite thin and light for a 15.6-incher, measuring 1″ in profile and weighing 4.9 pounds.

The battery has 4 cells and 45Whr capacity. The official battery life info isn’t provided, but judging from the specs one can assume it’s at least 4.5 hours long with light tasks involved.

As a side-note, Best Buy currently offers the C55D-B5102 bundled with internet security software, notebook sleeve, Flash memory stick, and screen cleaner for only $329.99.