Toshiba Satellite P750-114 15 inch laptop review

The Toshiba Satellite P750 is a powerful, pricey hunk of hardware that will take care of most people’s gaming and multimedia needs. The P750-114 option comes with a quad-core, second-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 6Gb RAM and a 640Gb hard drive.

What we like best

As befits a laptop that has been mainly built for entertainment, the Toshiba Satellite P750 comes with a Blu-ray Disc drive. This might be considered a superfluous addition by those people who are sat comfortably on their cloud bandwagon, but we who enjoy films appreciate gestures like this. Soon to be obsolete or not, it’s nice to have the option.

The same goes for 3D, which the Toshiba Satellite P750 supports (it also offers 2D to 3D DVD conversion for those who won’t watch video content without it being dangled in their faces). The stereo speakers are meaty and boomy for a laptop this size.

With a maximum speed of 2.9GHz, multi-tab browsing and streaming as well as heavy multimedia editing should be a breeze. All port needs are addressed, and there is WiFi as well as Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity.

The Toshiba Satellite P750’s keyboard felt a bit light to the touch but the keys were spacious and well-laid out, and the trackpad was spot on in terms of responsiveness.

Skype comes pre-installed, but you’ll have to buy the latest version Microsoft Office to make use of the full editions of Word and Excel.

What we like least

On a scale of glossiness where 1 is a 2-month-old newspaper and 10 is a freshly printed copy of Vogue, the Toshiba Satellite P750 is a solid 9. You might as well buy a pack of wet wipes and leave it next to your laptop, because it will attract finger- and palmprints faster than you can clean them off.

Oddly enough, gaming on the Toshiba Satellite P750 isn’t as satisfying an experience as you might expect. Sure, the games run fluidly, but turns out the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M isn’t up to the more recent games. Then there is the screen, which tends to blur colours and contrast and doesn’t offer very good viewing angles.

The thin-stripe glossy design might look funky on the lid, but to continue this unorthodox look on the inside of the laptop is a bold move. It was a bit too garish for us, however.