Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324 Review
User Experience
We enjoyed using the T135D. The notebook is lightweight and easy to tote around. Overall, the machine's keyboard feels solid while typing. The TouchPad isn't huge, but it's adequate in size and we appreciate that it offers multi-touch controls. Additionally, the TouchPad is slightly indented, so you're likely to notice if you mouse off of the surface.
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The Fusion black finish of the T135D-S1324 is attractive and subtle. Our only complaint with the finish is that it attracts fingerprints. Even though the T135D has a high gloss display that occasionally causes reflections, it did not seem to attract very many fingerprints. All in all, the 13.3-inch display was bright, crisp, and clear. The LCD hinge was solid, moving only when we pushed it and gliding smoothly the whole way.
The T135D scored higher than the Intel-based T135 in every category of the Windows Experience rating except for the Graphics score, where it scored four tenths of a point lower (3.2 vs. 3.6). Overall, the T135D achieved mid-range scores throughout the Windows Experience rating. The notebook was relatively quiet during our testing. The underside of the notebook was warm during use but not alarmingly so.
With regards to general, everyday computing, the T135D had no problems with a variety of tasks including word processing, surfing the Web, checking email, etc. The T135D played high definition video clips from the Microsoft Windows Media HD Content Showcase (both 720p and 1080p) just fine and didn’t appear to drop any frames. Although multimedia playback was good, the speakers of the T135D aren't anything to write home about. If you're into high-quality audio, you'll likely want to hook up some external speakers or use some good headphones.
As you've already seen from the long list of included software on the specifications page, the T135D comes with quite a few programs. We're not huge fans of preinstalled bloatware, so we would have preferred that Toshiba shortened this list and left some of the included software as optional—meaning, giving you the option to install, not the option to uninstall. Although you won't be nagged by most of the included software programs, Norton will pop-up each time you start the T135D until you do something about it (either activate or uninstall). Keeping in mind that the number of programs Toshiba includes with the T135D isn't out of line in comparison to other manufacturers, we won't knock the T135D just because it comes with preinstalled software but we really do wish all manufacturers would keep preinstalled programs to a minimum.
