Toshiba v. Emachines

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Chomp

Gawd
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I may be getting a laptop soon and after looking and looking, custom or prebuilt, I've narrowed it down to two.

Toshiba M35-S320 which is $1449 after 3 rebates.

Or the ever popular Emachines M6805 which is $1299 after a couple rebates.


I will mainly be using it for music, movies, and school. Also, playing games every now and then.


I'd just like as much input and experience as I can get before I decide. Thanks!
 
Well, the Toshiba is a little thinner and weighs 1lb less. It might have better overall speakers for music, but it only has a 32mb 5200FX card.

So for a $150 less with the Emachine, it's just a little thicker and heavier, average speakers, but a powerful 64mb 9600 card for gamers. Also memory card readers if the Toshiba doesn't have any.

A thing to also check is the port placements. I hate when the USB ports are on top of each other, the emachine has 2 side by side on the back and the left side of the laptop. The emachine power adapte cord stays in, so it's not loose.

Also, go to the store and look at the screens. The emachines screen is very well evenly lit, so the bottom is hardly lighter than the top. Don't know about the toshiba screen.
 
When dealing with notebooks, quality is where it's at. Not specs.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
When dealing with notebooks, quality is where it's at. Not specs.
Click to expand...

and on that note, the Toshiba laptops I've had are the only ones that have ever broken.

But, yeah..the M6805 is a much better built laptop than the Toshiba 3000-S305 that I used to have. Tech support there is better than Toshiba's as well.

I think the only issue here is whether you want more power or more battery and portability.
 
Toshiba is to laptops what Gateway is to desktops.

Gateway was a huge desktop manufacturer and they have slowly faded from #1 to bairly on the charts.

I consider Toshiba the same. People used to goto stores and ask for a Toshiba with an Intel. They didn't know why they just did now I hardly know anyone with Toshiba laptops. The two that do have them bought them because they couldn't wait for a mail order Dell / IBM machine.
 
i dont know about that. my father worked with all sorts of laptops, he preferred the toshiba's.

he bought my sister a toshiba sattellite pro. best laptop i've ever seen. absolutely beautiful. i dont particularly like the graphics card, but you dont buy a laptop to play Doom3 on....
 
Sure you do.

Laptops change... there are new companies out there now, and old ones aren't what they used to be. Use your own experience, not that of your fathers :)
 
I am really interested in the Toshiba Tecra M2. Never having used a Toshiba, and wanting to get an idea of their laptop build quality, I went to Fry's to play around with their Toshiba laptop selection; the laptops did not leave me impressed. Every Toshiba laptop I played with had an annoying amount of keyboard flex. Also, the Toshiba screens didn't look so great when sitting side by side with Vaio's and Fujitsus -- I'd say their screens are slightly above those of Powerbooks. Nevertheless the Tecra M2 is Toshiba's business solution so I'm expecting them to be more solidly built. It must be mentioned that Frys did not carry a Tecra model so I hope they are built better than the Toshiba's I examined.
 
NecessaryEvil, when I said the above comment I meant the Toshiba was better.

Personally I prefer IBM but between those 2 I prefer the Toshiba. Emachine just started to make notebooks. Toshiba's been around. Toshiba is sturdy and they have a track record for making well built useable laptops. Emachines I do not know. I saw them at a retail store and they are huge, bulky and heavy. I don't know I would want to carry that around.

But if your just going sit in one place with that thing I guess it's cool since it does come with a radeon 9600. Most young people bought it cause it's cheap and does come with a radeon 9600. Sure gaming is cool but I rather get my work done first. I have a desktop and a xbox for playing games. But for work and light gaming IBM is where it's at.

Also I prefer Intel for lappys. AMD for laps I don't know about all that.


Laptops change... there are new companies out there now, and old ones aren't what they used to be. Use your own experience, not that of your fathers
Click to expand...

Experience comes from the wise. You should at least try to listen to your father. ;)
 
if thats all you need the lappy for, you can get one for half that price, why pay extra for power you dont need or use?
 
Originally posted by lopoetve
Sure you do.

Laptops change... there are new companies out there now, and old ones aren't what they used to be. Use your own experience, not that of your fathers :)
Click to expand...

my own experience with laptops is in total a Toshiba Sattellite pro, pentium 1 133 mhz.

i dont use laptops. i have no need or want for them. i much prefer using a desktop.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
NecessaryEvil, when I said the above comment I meant the Toshiba was better.

Personally I prefer IBM but between those 2 I prefer the Toshiba. Emachine just started to make notebooks. Toshiba's been around. Toshiba is sturdy and they have a track record for making well built useable laptops. Emachines I do not know. I saw them at a retail store and they are huge, bulky and heavy. I don't know I would want to carry that around.

But if your just going sit in one place with that thing I guess it's cool since it does come with a radeon 9600. Most young people bought it cause it's cheap and does come with a radeon 9600. Sure gaming is cool but I rather get my work done first. I have a desktop and a xbox for playing games. But for work and light gaming IBM is where it's at.

Also I prefer Intel for lappys. AMD for laps I don't know about all that.




Experience comes from the wise. You should at least try to listen to your father. ;)
Click to expand...


yeah, i'd have to aggree with you there. from what i understand, it's generally assumed that IBM makes the best laptops, and i can see why. my mother's work laptop is an IBM thinkpad, and it's quite well built. i prefer my sister's toshiba, though... but it's a hell of a lot newer, so that has a lot to do with it.

one thing, though. IBM lappys are butt ugly :p and that's pretty much my only complaint about them.


still, i stick to desktops. i cant quite figure out where i'd fit a lappy into my life.
 
I've used a good number of laptops in the past year (top of the line, brand new laptops from Dell, Gateway, IBM, and Toshiba) at work. I also own the eMachines m6805. Which do I like most? The eMachines. Its solid, well built, performs like a champ, had traveled around the world with me in the couple of months I've had it, and has yet to give me a problem. At work we were always killing laptops, be it a dead hard drive or a backlight going out on a screen, or a keyboard breaking , and those systems saw less use or rough handling that my 6805,

Only complaint I have is the weight. This mofo is big and heavy, but its not that bad to carry around if you get the right case for it. For a laptop of this size I don't recomend a traditional bag, but its just fine to carry in something like this backpack from Targus..
 
Let me just share with you my recent research on getting a laptop. After a month, I finally went with the eMachines.

Basically, it can be summed up with: You are absolutely not going to get what you want for 1500 bucks. End of story. Concessions need to be made. My biggest thing was I at first I wanted a UXGA screen. Priced on out on Dell's site, ended up being about 1650 after all the FatWallet deals and so on. Decided after playing with a WUXGA, that it was too small a resolution to do me any good. Played around with the WXGA's, not too bad, close to my 19 at 1280x1024.

Concession 1: WXGA for WUXGA.

Also, I was pricing these with 128MB R9600. Either that or a 64MB GFFX5200. Since ATI has superior DX support, I went with ATI. Good luck finding a retail lappy under 2K that has a 128MB DEDICATED (remember, the R9000 is shared) video card

Concession 2: 64 for 128MB card. HAS to be R9600

And, with all concessions, I have to get something back, and that was the A64 3000+ (which I do intend to OCthe hell out of), a OCable vid card (could have probably done it with the Dell, but oh well), 512MB of RAM (configed the Dell with 256, would buy the rest myself), 60GB HD (40 with Dell, same deal), and with also the rave reviews of all the people here, this way I know I'm not foraying into the great unknown.

So, as you see, it's all relative. I had a set budget, and you need to work around that. Personally, I think the Toshiba is a hella nice unit, but I really don't think that it offers all the value and LONGEVITY (need to think about that too) that the eMachine brings to the table.

But, as always, this is just my .02. The reality is, it's your money, and your laptop. Use them how you see fit.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
Personally I prefer IBM but between those 2 I prefer the Toshiba.

But for work and light gaming IBM is where it's at.
Click to expand...

And that's why I have an IBM X31 laptop for work, and the M6805 for play.


There is no better built laptop than an IBM.

Some call them ugly. To me, their simplicity in design is beautiful.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
NecessaryEvil, when I said the above comment I meant the Toshiba was better.

Personally I prefer IBM but between those 2 I prefer the Toshiba. Emachine just started to make notebooks. Toshiba's been around. Toshiba is sturdy and they have a track record for making well built useable laptops. Emachines I do not know. I saw them at a retail store and they are huge, bulky and heavy. I don't know I would want to carry that around.

But if your just going sit in one place with that thing I guess it's cool since it does come with a radeon 9600. Most young people bought it cause it's cheap and does come with a radeon 9600. Sure gaming is cool but I rather get my work done first. I have a desktop and a xbox for playing games. But for work and light gaming IBM is where it's at.

Also I prefer Intel for lappys. AMD for laps I don't know about all that.




Experience comes from the wise. You should at least try to listen to your father. ;)
Click to expand...

eMachines is Arima (for laptops). Arima's been around a LONG time.
 
Originally posted by NecessaryEvil
And that's why I have an IBM X31 laptop for work, and the M6805 for play.


There is no better built laptop than an IBM.

Some call them ugly. To me, their simplicity in design is beautiful.
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth. If I can just have the best of both worlds, i.e., IBM putting in a bit more advanced video chipsets into their mid- to mid-high end laptops, I would be a happy kid.
 
Originally posted by lopoetve
eMachines is Arima (for laptops). Arima's been around a LONG time.
Click to expand...

I can't speak personally to this, but to me it makes logical sense. Take, for instance, eMachines first foray into laptops, I think it was in 2000 or 01 or something. Cheaply made, glaring pieces of crap. Reason? eMachines made those kind of PC's, and they had no experience with laptop design and manufacturing (I know they probably outsourced to some other company, but at that time they weren't too concerned with quality over quantity)

Enter the new eMachines, came out of bankrupcy, and now gobbled up by Gateway. This has been a paradigm shift in the overall product thinking of eMachines, and as such, we are seeing much higher quality units, built from much higher quality manufacturers.
 
Let me answer your question with another question?

What laptop has some of the highest 3dmark scores, its own Sticky FAQ, gets rave reviews, and has the most potential to have enough power last well into the future?

m680x?
Correct
 
Originally posted by Cheech
I can't speak personally to this, but to me it makes logical sense. Take, for instance, eMachines first foray into laptops, I think it was in 2000 or 01 or something. Cheaply made, glaring pieces of crap. Reason? eMachines made those kind of PC's, and they had no experience with laptop design and manufacturing (I know they probably outsourced to some other company, but at that time they weren't too concerned with quality over quantity)

Enter the new eMachines, came out of bankrupcy, and now gobbled up by Gateway. This has been a paradigm shift in the overall product thinking of eMachines, and as such, we are seeing much higher quality units, built from much higher quality manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Merging with Gateway ;)

I like how the "buyout" has the eMachines CEO taking over for the Gateway CEO.

And yep, their earler systems are totally different from their current ones.
 
Arima makes okay laptops. Their track record isn't too good. Just checked.

I still have to disagree. Call me an Intel slut but I would never buy an athlon based laptop for # of reasons. Heat, weight, chipsets etc...

Mobility and how well it's built is the # 1 concern when I buy a laptop.

Desktop is different. Peformance price ratio is most important to me.

I'm not gonna lie. I wish I had money for those emachines and play some games on it. But buying a laptop is a major investment for some of you, others might be not.

I've had several laptops including the newer Toshiba sattelite pro, old p3 gateway, old IBM celeron 466, Old Dell p3 450, IBM t23, IBM a31.

Try dropping your heavy emachine see what happens?? :D Smashed into little plastic pieces I bet. I dropped my IBM couple of times working on my bed. Not a dink or scractch.
 
i have a toshiba and its the biggest pice of garbage, a whole subnet of pixels underneatha dead pixel turned green and wont come back, and the hdd died recntly, this was a 1805-s254 toshiba
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
Arima makes okay laptops. Their track record isn't too good. Just checked.

I still have to disagree. Call me an Intel slut but I would never buy an athlon based laptop for # of reasons. Heat, weight, chipsets etc...

Mobility and how well it's built is the # 1 concern when I buy a laptop.

Desktop is different. Peformance price ratio is most important to me.

I'm not gonna lie. I wish I had money for those emachines and play some games on it. But buying a laptop is a major investment for some of you, others might be not.

I've had several laptops including the newer Toshiba sattelite pro, old p3 gateway, old IBM celeron 466, Old Dell p3 450, IBM t23, IBM a31.

Try dropping your heavy emachine see what happens?? :D Smashed into little plastic pieces I bet. I dropped my IBM couple of times working on my bed. Not a dink or scractch.
Click to expand...

Heat? You ever compared the Athlon64 with the Prescott?

There is no way that an eMachine, or a toshiba, or anything else other than the iBook, that can be dropped and survive much. Only IBM and Apple have that ability.
 
Originally posted by lopoetve
Heat? You ever compared the Athlon64 with the Prescott?

There is no way that an eMachine, or a toshiba, or anything else other than the iBook, that can be dropped and survive much. Only IBM and Apple have that ability.
Click to expand...

I only know of one brand (Sager) which even offers a Prescott in a laptop. Utilizing a desktop processor in a mobile environment doesn't put the comparison on a level playing field. In terms of mobility, battery life, and size, Intel owns the market with the Pentium M.

In terms of your other arugument....Toshiba USED to be built for durability, and though I'd say this is not longer the case, I myslef own a fairly new Toshbia notebook, and I happy with it. I've abused it (taking it from class to class, and hauling it around with books and stuff in my bag/car) and it still looks great. My only complaint is the screen seems to mark up from the keys - bad design I suppose.

Also...Panasonic Toughbooks beat the shit out of Apple and IBM hands down in regards to durability. You can freeze, smash, drown and crap on a toughbook and it'll still boot up. Even my father's 4lb Panasonic W2 Centrino Toughbook is a beast - I'd take a guess and say I could probably jump on the magnisum alloy chassis and still have it work...That's durability.
 
Could you crap on the notebook and tell me if it still works plz? That prolly be a great test. And your reasons for not getting an athlon in a notebook are nill. Heat? I have never had a notebook run as cool as my M6805. Weight? There are some VERY light Athlon based notebooks. Chipsets? Alot of what I been reading and hearing is good. All in all I like both chips for my graphics design and cd ripping I use my Intel. For my raw horsepower ass kicking Gaming I use AMD. If you do excel any number crunching or all around windows use look no further than AMD.
 
I have never had a notebook run as cool as my M6805
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Your joking right? Let me see. Athlon 64, athlon chipset, radeon 9600, 5400rpm or 7200 rpm = Furnace



Weight? There are some VERY light Athlon based notebooks
Click to expand...

Show me where? I can get a centrino computer that weighs less than 3lbs. Can you get this in a athlon 64 or any AMD processor for that matter.

Chipsets?
Click to expand...

Yes chipsets. Their processors are cream of the crop but their chipset is still mediocore at best.


Most people buy laptops to get their work done. Not play games. I've got a desktop and a xbox for that. And I do not want to log around 8lbs into the bathroom or kitchen. Shit if I drop it it's toast since it's so freakin' heavy. What was it $1500 in the drain. Sure just leave it on your desktop and work and play there. What's the point of doing this? I have a desktop for this.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
Your joking right? Let me see. Athlon 64, athlon chipset, radeon 9600, 5400rpm or 7200 rpm = Furnace





Show me where? I can get a centrino computer that weighs less than 3lbs. Can you get this in a athlon 64 or any AMD processor for that matter.



Yes chipsets. Their processors are cream of the crop but their chipset is still mediocore at best.


Most people buy laptops to get their work done. Not play games. I've got a desktop and a xbox for that. And I do not want to log around 8lbs into the bathroom or kitchen. Shit if I drop it it's toast since it's so freakin' heavy. What was it $1500 in the drain. Sure just leave it on your desktop and work and play there. What's the point of doing this? I have a desktop for this.
Click to expand...

Furnace? No. Under battery power, at 800mhz, it runs cooler than my P4m 1.8 I had. Under full power, it's still cooler, but not by as much.

Weight? Well, you're right there?

Chipsets? Who cares. It does what it needs to.

I carry mine around all the time. No problems of note, other than a HD that died (bad luck). It's still plenty portable. You have different needs, doesn't make any of them bad...
 
I picked up one of the eMachines laptops. I love it. I was looking between the Toshiba DTR laptop (17" wide screen, dvd burner, etc) that was sellng for the same price after rebates as the normal price of the eMachines M6805.

I went with the M6805 for a few reasons. As much as the 17 ws would be great for what I do, I still have to carry it around some. The keyboard on the 6805 was nicer. Screen looks good with NO dead pixles although the screen on the Toshiba was REAL nice. It really doesnt feel any warmer or louder than my friends 1.2Ghz Celery HP laptop.

Only down side is one of the memory slots is not able to be changed out by the user easily.

I run SQL server, VS.NET, VS6, etc installed and even on battery (800mhz) it doesnt skip a beat.
 
Originally posted by Marvelous
Well I do. Chipsets is more important than you think. Stability!
Click to expand...

There have been stable and unstable chipsets for both. The Kt800 is one of the former.
 
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