Toshiba Satellite M30 Review (pics, specs)

[notebookguy2000]

by Chris Wintle

Toshiba M30 Overview & Reasons for Buying

After 2 years of questionable computer services at my local College, I decided a laptop would be useful in University. I set a price limit of about $2000 Canadian and the search began.

I wanted a Centrino for the extra battery life. Portability was also important as I would be carrying it around. I considered some models with Integrated Graphics, but after reading some reviews a separate video card was definitely required. So it seemed I would have to sacrifice some portability for better performance, but as long as it didn’t weight too much it wouldn’t be a problem. Widescreen wasn’t really that important, but if it had one all the better.

The choice came down to the Toshiba M30 or the Acer 2012-WLMi. I personally preferred the look and ergonomics of the Toshiba, but for the same price the Acer had more features. But when the Toshiba M30-YSJ with similar, if not better features than the WLMi was accidentally priced at 1999.99 at Best Buy (the same price as the lower M30-710), I couldn’t resist and picked one up.

This is first notebook and first review, so I will try to cover as much as possible. If there is anything I missed, feel free to ask me via the discussion boards.

Toshiba Satellite M30-YSJ

Toshiba M30 Image Gallery

To save bandwidth and reduce download time the following review of the Toshiba M30 includes direct links to pictures associated to each section.  To see the entire image gallery associated to this review click the following link:

Toshiba M30 Image Gallery

Brief Specifications:

The specifications for this notebook as tested are as follows:

• 15.4¨ WXGA screen (1280 x 800), with TruBrite
  
• 1.6 GHz Pentium M 715 CPU (1Mb L2 cache)
  
• 512Mb DDR PC2700 ram (1x512Mb), expandable to 2048Mb.
  
• 80 GB 4200 rpm HDD (Toshiba MK8025GAS)
  
• 64Mb DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX GO 5200
  
• Intel 2200bg wireless, 100/10 built-in wireless and internal V.92 data/fax modem
  
• Super-Multi drive (MATA DVD-RAM UJ-820S)
  
• Harmon/Kardon speakers
  
• Windows XP Home Edition

Out of the Box:

Straight out of the box, the Toshiba M30 came with several accompanying papers and information booklets, an RJ-11 phone cable, an AC Adaptor, an adaptor for the monitor-in feature (which will be discussed later), a Toshiba software restore DVD and restore CD for the Express Media player (also to be discussed later).

[click to view image of box and contents]

Design, Build and Weight:

I think the Toshiba M30 is very cool looking but the design of a notebook is very subjective. Its dimensions are 360mm (W) x 270mm (D) x 25 mm (H) in the front and approx. 35mm (H) in the back. It weighs 2.86kg (6.3lbs) and the power adapter adds 370g. It’s just at the extreme of a thin-and-light notebook, but with a 15.4” screen it can only be so small. Nevertheless it is small enough to carry around without being too much of a nuisance.

[click to view image of Toshiba Satellite M30-YSJ]

The case is entirely plastic, but still sturdy. When closed, the top is metallic-silver, and the bottom is black. When opened, the trim around the monitor is black, and the keyboard surround (including a 3mm strip around the sides) is metallic-silver. I don’t believe it would survive a drop from too high, but could take a bit of a beating.

[click to view image of top view]

On the back, you can see the AC Adaptor in, the RJ-11 and RJ-45 jacks, and the VGA-out.

[click to view image of back-view]

On the front left side, there are media-keys which help control the Express Media Player and other media in windows. Just below, there is a wireless ON/OFF switch, a volume control dial and the FIR. To the left, there are some media-related indicators. To the right, there are indicators for AC power, power-on, and if the battery is charged or charging.

[click to view image of front view]

On the left side, there is a firewire port, an S-Video in, a PC-Card slot and an SD card slot. Behind a small flap, there is a USB port and the monitor-in port. On the right, there is the mic-in port, a headphone-out port, 3 USB ports, and the Super-Multi drive. I will restate all the connectivity ports in a convenient list later.  
 
[click to view image of left-side]

[click to view image of right-side]

To the left of the keyboard, you can find the power switch, indicators for the hard-drive, the SD slot, the CD-ROM and the wireless network. There are also buttons to activate the Express Media Player, to switch to monitor-in, and for S-Video out. There is also a microphone which records very clearly at a comfortable sitting distance from the laptop, and with a bit of noise at longer distances.

[click to view image of keyboard left-side]

On the bottom, both RAM slots, the wifi-adapter and the hard drive are easily accessible by removing some panels.

[click to view image of bottom and RAM panel]

[click to view image of hard drive (note the small size!)]

One aspect that does concern me slightly is the latch. It is made of plastic and if treated too roughly it would probably snap off.

[click to view image of latch]

The Screen:

Some people on the forums have said they do not like the TruBrite screen, but I find it very bright and crisp. The brightness can be set from 1 to 8. I find 2 or 3 good if you’re not using where there is sunlight. There were no dead pixels out of the box, and there still is none.

[click to view image of screen]

The widescreen is great for movies, word processing, excel and other general activities. However, I have found the odd screen resolution a bit of a hassle when trying to use the S-Video and VGA out, and in some games. There is an option in the in the display properties so that games not supporting the native 1280x800 resolution will display within the screen at the resolution set in the game. However, this leaves black bars on the sides and the top.

The Speakers:

I don’t know too much about laptop speakers but for the size (about that of a dime), the Harmon/Kardon speakers are great. They lack bass, but they still sound good and can be turned up loud. You might want external speakers if you want a lot of volume and bass, but for normal use the internal ones are more than adequate for me.

[click to view image of right speaker beside a dime]

Optical Drive

This notebook comes with a MATA DVD-RAM UJ-820S Super-Multi drive. I believe this is the same Super-Multi drive that is in the Acer 2012WLMi. It can be removed from the computer by removing two screws from the underside of the notebook. It reads and burns pretty much everything at varying speeds, which I have listed below:

• Read: CD-ROM (24X), CD-R (16X), CD-RW (8X), DVD-ROM (8X), DVD-R (4X), DVD-RW (2X), DVD+R (2.4X), DVD+RW (2.4X), DVD-RAM (2X).
  
• Write: CD-R (16X). CD-RW (8X), CD-RW (8X), DVD-R (4X). DVD-RW (2X), DVD+R (2.4x), DVD+RW (2.4x), DVD-RAM (2x).

I’ve only burned a few things on this drive: a full CD-RW and a full DVD-R, when the computer was plugged in. They both burned in the same time as a desktop (for a full DVD-R it is about 30 minutes at 4x, and for a full CD-RW it is a bit over 10mins at 8x).

The drive is noisy when speeding up, and when running at full speed. Toshiba provides a program to slow down the speed, thus making it nearly silent. It is only useful if you want minimum performance from the drive. I tried turning it on when loading a program, and it reduced the loading time considerably. I also noticed that some applications lag a bit when the drive speeds up.

[click to view image of super-multi drive]

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Overall, I find the keyboard and touchpad to be well placed. There is noticeable flexing in the keyboard when it is used normally, but is not too bad. There is a numeric mode to overlay a number pad on the keyboard. The touchpad works well too. Tapping on the keypad acts as the left mouse button, which I find useful. The buttons below the touchpad are also well-placed and not stiff. However, a scroll button would have been a good feature. Toshiba provides some interesting software for the touchpad. With one program, you can set it up so a motion of your finger from each of the 4 corners can open up different files, folders etc.

[click to view image of touchpad]

[click to view image of keyboard]

Ports and Connectivity:

The Toshiba M30-YSJ comes with these connectivity options:

• 4 well-placed USB ports
  
• 1 IEEE-1394
  
• SD card slot
  
• 1 S-Video out
  
• 1 Infrared (FIR)
  
• 1 VGA output for an external monitor
  
• 1 32bit type II PCMCIA Card Bus slot
  
• 1 speaker,  headphone and line-out jack
  
• 1 microphone/line-in jack
  
• 1 DC in jack for the AC Adaptor
  
• 1 RJ-11 jack for the integrated V.92 modem
  
• 1 RJ-45 jack for the 10/100 integrated Ethernet
  
• 1 monitor in and audio-in jack.

There is no parallel port, but it doesn’t really make a difference to me. There is only an SD card reader on this notebook. I know some other notebooks have a multiple card reader, but again this wasn’t an important feature for me. My digital camera uses xD picture cards anyway, and I haven’t seen a notebook that supports this format yet.

A feature I found particularly cool on this notebook is the monitor-in port. The notebook comes with an adaptor cable to connect a composite video and audio left/right input at one end, and connect it into an input port on the laptop which looks like a headphone jack.

[click to view image of monitor-in port ]

Wireless:

Wifi is supported via the integrated Intel 2200bg card, which is easily accessible as I mentioned above. There is a wireless indicator by the keyboard, and an ON/OFF switch. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able test the wifi yet, but I will once I start school again. I am not sure if this laptop has Bluetooth.

[click to view image of Wifi adaptor]

Battery life/ AC Adaptor:

The stock battery is a 6-cell Lithium Ion (Li-ion) 10.8V x 4400mAh capacity. The battery life on this notebook depends greatly on what you’re doing, the display brightness etc. I managed about 4 hours with the long-life mode at 600 MHz, without the wifi on, doing word processing and listening to music some of the time. If you play games, run the processor at full speed etc. it lowers the life.

I don’t have any programs to benchmark the battery life. However, it was suggested that a good test is to run a looping MP3 playlist with the screen brightness on its highest level. Since I find the brightest screen setting overly bright, I ran a looping MP3 playlist on Winamp 5.04 at half brightness and the battery lasted about 3 hours. Again, this test was done at 600 MHz without wifi on. These readings are decent, but could be a bit better. I recommend a second normal battery, or Toshiba’s high-capacity batter (double that of the normal one) if you don’t have any access to a plug for the day.

[click to view imageof main battery]

[click to view image of battery slot]

 The AC-Adaptor is small and well-built. It adds 370g to the travel weight and should easily fit into a notebook carrying case.

[click to view image of AC Adaptor]

Heat and noise:

The amount of heat and noise produced by this laptop varies greatly. If you are just doing word-processing or surfing the net on low processor power, the computer will run pretty cool. However, if you are playing games at full computer power, it can heat up quite a bit. The touchpad is one place where it will heat up, but it is normally not too bad. However, the bottom left side of the computer (where the CPU is located) can get quite hot (I measured 43 degrees C after playing SimCity 4 for a few hours) when you place a large demand on the computer. So I wouldn’t want to place it on bare skin.

The fan makes a bit of noise, but only kicks in when a heavy demand is placed on the computer. It works via a small vent on the left side of the notebook, so if you place the computer on a surface that doesn’t allow for venting beneath, the fan can still vent from the side.

[click to view image fan vent / CPU area (which can get hot)]

Software:

This laptop came with Windows XP Home SP1 pre-installed. I am using XP Pro on my desktop and considered upgrading my notebook to pro, but for what I do on Windows I can’t tell any difference between the two. The following software (apart from drivers, etc.) was also installed:

• TOSHIBA Networking
  
• Config Free
  
• V.92 Modem on hold
  
• TOSHIBA Speech System
  
• TOSHIBA Utilities
  
• TOSHIBA Power Saver
  
• TOSHIBA Console
  
• TOSHIBA Controls
  
• TOSHIBA PC DiagnosticTool
  
• TOSHIBA Touch and Launch
  
• TOSHIBA Zooming Utility
  
• TOSHIBA Picture Enhancement Utilities
  
• Adobe Acrobat reader
  
• InterVideo WinDVD / WinDVD Creator 2
  
• Sonic RecordNow! Basic 7 for Toshiba
  
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2003

By default, the hard drive was setup in one large NTFS partition. I was able to use Partition Magic without difficulty to split this up into 3 smaller partitions.
 
Toshiba supplied one Product recovery DVD-ROM, and one Express Media Player Recovery CD. The Recovery DVD-ROM gives you the option to either install individual drivers and applications, or to restore the original system default install.

Express Media Player:

I thought this feature, which lets you play DVD’s and CD’s without turning on your computer, would be worth mentioning. It functions pretty much like a home DVD player and has good functionality, in my opinion. However, I did notice that in certain circumstances the movie will “jam” for a few moments, or start to play really fast or really slow, both without sound. Also, the volume level is lower in the Express Media player than in Windows. Except for these issues, the player works very well.

Performance:

Overall, this computer is quick. Even when at 600 MHz (for power-saving), I am easily able to use word and/or use the net, and listen to music at the same time. I have only tried a few games (SimCity 4 and Need for Speed Underground), and they worked on their highest modes without any problems. I am confident it would not have any trouble with games currently on the market.

To test and compare this notebooks processor performance to other notebooks I ran the program called Super Pi (download link: ftp://pi.super-computing.org/windows/super_pi.zip).  This is a simple program that allows you to calculate the value Pi to a selected number of digits.  When plugged in and running at full performance, the best time to calculate 2 million digits of accuracy for Pi was 2:17. When running on battery power (long life mode at 600 MHz), with the same programs running in the background, this time increased to 9:55. I only ran Super_Pi once under those conditions! So there is a great variance in performance, depending on how you have everything set-up in the Toshiba Power Saver program.  To see how other notebooks perform when running this Super Pi application, view the NotebookReview.com forums here: http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2657

With my current set-up, startup and shutdown are quick (about 25 seconds for startup and 10 seconds for shutdown), however these would probably vary based on how many applications you have starting up and shutting down. Running McAfee Virus Scan in the background, for example, adds greatly to the shutdown time.

Customer Support and Warranty:

This notebook comes with a Toshiba one year standard warranty, which is also International. I haven’t had any experience with customer support yet, so I can’t comment on it. I’m still not sure if I will extend to warranty for two additional years.

Summary (Pros, Cons and Conclusion):

Pros:

• Good build quality
  
• Excellent overall performance
  
• Express Media Player
  
• Very Bright and crisp display
  
• Good speakers (for a laptop)

Cons:

• Battery life could be a bit longer
  
• Some keyboard flex
  
• Latch could be stronger
  
• Somewhat noisy optical drive (as stated in the Acer WLMi review)
  
• Somewhat expensive at it’s normal price

Overall, I really like this notebook. Although I did mention some cons above, there is nothing serious enough to warrant a disclaimer against buying this notebook. I would recommend it to anybody who wants a good all around notebook. It is a bit pricy, however, at full cost.

Toshiba Satellite M30 Pricing and Availability

View updated pricing for the M30 here

[freerider_120]

Hey this is probally the only review on this notebook that i can find so i thank you for making one. There are some questions that i wnat to clarify though, one feature that i found cool with this notebook is the express dvd player, i was told that you caould watch dvd's and play music without the cpu or computer on. have you or ny one had a chance to try it yet. Also have u had a chance to try the wifi haha well thanks alot []

[Col. Stevo]

Very nice review.
I liked the abundant number of pictures. Hey, are you sure that is a TruBrite screen? It looked a bit fuzzy to me     :-) (j.k.)
One thing that the forum left a little ambiguous was the brand name of the optical drive. I am wondering if that MAT****A drive is actually a MATSUSHITA DVD drive? (I know, it's just the forum try to auto-block bad language.)
Seriously though, you made a very good explanation of the merits of this machine, and it looks like it will carry you down the road a quite some time.


Enjoy - cheers,

Stevo

zv5000z: Ath64_3200+ (2.0GHz) - 1GB DDR - 80GB 5400rpm - 64MB GeForce4 440 - 15.0" XGA (1024x768)

[WinsomePictures]

Hi Chris -

Great review. Just got basically the same machine, US model number M35-S456.

Very frustrated to find the UJ-820S optical drive very picky about media. What's worse, no matter what, it will only burn at half its rated max speed -- 8x for CD-R, 2x for DVD-R -- even though Nero and other programs report 4x burning. (Just winds up taking twice as long as predicted. 4x on my other machines takes about 16 minutes, this one takes almost 30 minutes.)

I know this is not a software issue, because an external Sony DRU-500A attached to the machine burns at the drive's full rated speeds.

DMA is on, so that's not it either.

Am also noticing a faint herringbone pattern on the LCD screen that fades in and out of view about every 10 seconds. Most noticeable when watching a DVD or when using a program with a dark or grey background.

Writing to ask, have you noticed either of these issues on your machine?

Thanks!

[Richard Wood]

I have recently bought an Acer 8006LMi laptop using same Matsu****a DVD-RAM UJ-820S drive. I have also found it very choosy with about blank media when writing DVD+/-R. Not so bad with RW although slower with DVD-RW. So far have found no updates to 1.00 firmware.

One interesting? point that's come to light. It doesn't work with any of the several "region free" software progs available. The reason I have found, is as follows:

Regional restriction (RPC II) works by not revealing the title key on CSS protected discs IF the region code of drive & disc do not match. Usually this brings up prompt to change region, but you only get to change drive five times before firmware locks it onto last region (Nero drive info tool will tell you present state). Regional free software works with a brute force attack on the scrambled sectors containing the title key. Unfortunately Matsu****a (Panasonic) have exceeded the MMC standard on this drive by not allowing even the scrambled title key to be read. Few if any other drives behave this way which is why the software manufacturers often claim it will work with ALL DVD drives

Seems like I will have to hope for a firmawre update that turns off the RPC II regional code restriction, which to my mind is an unfair restriction on consumer rights. Wish I'd known this before I bought laptop.

[TOSHIBAm35x]

Nice Review! I saw one of these at Best Buy and it is one beauiful laptop. However, as much as I dreamed of having one of them, it was out of my price range. So I opted for the new Satellite M35X with a Celeron M processor. All I know is, my next laptop is going to have a Pentium M. The Celeron M just can't keep up with my applications. Anyways, nice review; and really nice computer. Wish I had one! []

Windows - The operating system that runs the world.

Toshiba - Quality, price, and features!

[sidim]

Hi,
I'm having problem with my laptop Satellite M30 special edition.
Like 2 weeks after having it my screen when blank, I bring it for repair and they fix it changing the LCD screen, the inverter the cable and system board.
But now I’m having a display problem.
Anytime I’m using a really demanding 3D application, like 3D Benchmark, I'm having some green shiny pixel all over the screen.
After I stop the program, the green pixel just fade away...

Anyone have an idea,
I think it has to be a contact problem (Assembling mistake …) causing a heating issue???
Also, when the green pixels are still on the screen, anytime I press the left shift key or some where in this keyboard area (strangely where the CPU is located), the pixel intensity gets worse...

Thanks for any tip....

Sidim

[kahz]

I have a problem with my toshiba m30.

I was using it on a CRT external monitor for almost two weeks, one day I had to take it with me somewhere, when I got to my destination I noticed my laptop was starting up but the screen was staying blank. I took the laptop home hooked it to my external CRT monitor and again it worked.

So my problem is that I can only get a display on an external monitor. I have tried using function f5 when to switch it back to my screen, but the screen just stays blank.

Also I tried hooking it into an external LCD monitor and I got no signal.

ANY help wold be appreciated.

[skywalker]

I think you should post itat toshiba forum so you could get more attention there.

[theicemanx]

Thanks for the review I also have one of these laptops