Originally posted by: wfay
I have this laptop and think its GREAT. I got a mini pci wifi card on Ebay for $60, and I'll be getting another 256mb DDR pc2100 ram at some point, but so far I am loving it. I had an HP 1210 that I sold to get this S173, and my out of pocket cost was really low, and wow is this laptop a TON better than the HP.
HP gave me about 400 3dmarks due to integrated crappy video.
This S173 gives me nearly 4200 3dmarks. See
link. There is no comparison between the two laptops, the S173 is superior by far.
The 15 inch screen is great. I have a single pixel that seems stuck but don't notice it much. The Cel 1.8ghz is great for everything I do on a laptop, which includes some gaming though not a lot. The video card is very nice and capable for average gaming. I primarily use the laptop for web surfing and programming.
One thing I will say -- there seems to be a bug of some kind with the keyboard in Linux. It has to do with the interrupts or something. I have found quite a few comments online about this issue and tried some of the solutions offered but none were perfect. It seems like Linux catches a double key input frequently from the keyboard, so when you hit A you get AA. It is extremely!! annoying so I don't know if I would suggest this machine (or any other Toshiba?) if you will only run Linux on it. But it is ok for dual boot and of course great for Windows. I hope Toshiba fixes this keyboard issue somehow, and makes a fix available on their site, but I'm not holding my breath.
As for the battery... I generally only use the laptop without power for 1hr max, though one time I ran it up to just about 2hrs and then it just suddenly blinked off heh. Just now, I pulled the plug on my laptop and it reports 100% battery remaining, approx 1hr 45mins. So I think 1.5-2hrs is about all you will get, which is ok by me.
Great deal, go for it if you can find it...
Wayne