If there were ever a purpose to trade in your carrying case for a backpack, it would be to take the burden of the Toshiba Satellite A-60 off your shoulder. But if you were to assign some of that weight to its user-friendly features, you may find the extra burden justified for a budget laptop.
Weighing in at 7.7 pounds, the Satellite A-60 looks like a heavy-duty laptop. It houses an Intel Celeron D 2.8GHz CPU, a 60GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM (upgradeable to 1,280 MB), integrated Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive, three USB ports, a TV-out port and more. It distinguishes itself from your typical gray and black laptops with a royal blue lid that is secured by a rather clumsy slide latch. Once open, however, you'll find an interior that's not nearly as cumbersome.
Its 15.4-in. TruBrite-enhanced display offers a wider viewing angle and brighter screen. So if you'd rather watch a DVD than finish that report on your next business flight, you'll find the viewing clear and easy on the eyes -- and you can easily adjust the volume with the external dial control. Just be sure to bring a battery charger if the flight is longer than one hour. It cut out on me just as Without Limits' Steve Prefontaine was taking the lead in one of his Finnish tour track races -- long before he reached the Munich Olympics.
The keyboard offers more-than-ample wrist support and full-sized keys, making typing on the Satellite A-60 more like typing on a desktop keyboard than your typical, cramped laptop keyboard. One downfall is the size of the touchpad buttons -- they're just too narrow. I can't count the number of times I jammed my thumb against the wrist rest when trying to click on something.
The Satellite A-60 comes with several nice-to-have programs, including Quicken 2004, RealOne and QuickTime players, and a 30-day trial of Napster (Would you want this on your work computer?). It also has more essential applications, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, Internet Explorer and a three-month subscription to Norton AntiVirus. The one thing it is missing stands out like a white elephant in the middle of a room: Microsoft Office Suite. Instead, the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system comes with Microsoft Works -- probably not your business application of choice.
While I'd personally require Microsoft Office in a laptop used for business purposes, the Satellite A-60 is a bright, cheerful-looking sort with several fun and user-friendly features that would make this a good choice for a secondary laptop.
