REVIEW: Toshiba Satellite S40t Touchscreen Laptop under RM2000

Toshiba Satellite S40t is not expensive laptop with fastest processor and graphic card, nor it is lightweight ultrabook which can fit in a file. S40t is marketed as “entertainment laptop” with an affordable price tag and practical features. Read on my review for Toshiba Satellite S40t specs, features and performance.

Hardware

The loan unit I received is Toshiba Satellite S40t-AS107. It is powered by Intel Core i3 3227U 1.90 GHz CPU and 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM (expandable to 16GB). 500GB SATA hard disk.

Display size is 14.1-inch LED display (1366×768 pixels) with 10-point multi touch. Computer graphic is powered by Intel HD Graphics 4000.

S40t has a DVD-RW drive on the left side, along with a USB 2.0 port and RJ45 (LAN port). On the right side, there are 2x USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, D-Sub (VGA) port, headphone and mic jacks. SD memory card reader is located at the front. It supports WiFi, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, too.

Toshiba Satellite S40t uses 43Wh battery and weight starts from 2.15KG.

Toshiba S40t Review

Toshiba Satellite S40t is pre-installed Windows 8 (64-bit); a touchscreen display is recommneded for Windows 8 computer. S40t display is 14.1-inch 10-point multi touch. Like all the glossy displays, you have to bear with the glare and smudges. The good news is that S40t touch screen is responsive, no lag nor sluggish; the display colour is bright and sharp.

Also, I would like the lid has bigger adjustable angle. The lid’s current maximum angle is not comfortable to use the laptop on laps.

Toshiba Satellite S40t has a big button-less matte surface trackpad. You press it down on left/right side to simulate left/right mouse click.

The trackpad supports Windows 8 gestures; one-finger-swipe out from left edge return to previous application; one-finger-swipe out from right edge calls out Windows 8 charm bar. Two-finger gestures are supported too for page scrolling.

Unfortunately, the page scrolling gesture is not smooth, such as: it can not keep up my gesture movement and stopped scrolling while I was still swiping with two-finger. Also, I kept getting unintended Windows 8 charm bar pop-up because the trackpad registered my two-finger swipe as one-finger. I could not find the trackpad gesture setting to disable it.

Here is a tip to reduce the gesture error: keep your fingers in the middle of the trackpad, reserves the left and right area for Windows 8 gestures.

S40t notebook uses tiled full-size-like keyboard with glossy frame. The keys are actually smaller than full-size keyboard. The glossy keyboard frame looks gorgeous at first but you will notice smudges after a while. Personally, I think S40t keyboard key press is a bit soft, not enough tactile feedback.

What I like most about Toshiba Satellite S40t is its great sound output. The built-in Onyko speakers with DTS sound located right under the display. The speakers are very loud that the sound can fill your whole room (surround sound). Speech is clear; treble is good, but I like to have more bass.

Performance benchmarks

First of all, Toshiba Satellite S40t boot-up in seconds that it uses SSD! Credit to Toshiba HDD Accelerator technology, perhaps. Not performance related, but I want to mention that I like the light ring around power button.

Overall, I did not notice performance problem. My usage mainly web browsing, writing, streaming online music and tested some Windows 8 small games.

The loan unit I received uses Intel HD Graphic 4000. If you are into 3D gaming or photo/video editing, you would like to upgrade it to the optional dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT740M with 2GB RAM. Otherwise, the shared graphic is capable to handle your daily home/work usage.

I did not notice laptop heat problem. The palm rest is cool; laptop bottom is a bit warm but not hot.

In order to have a better performance overview, I ran FutureMark professional benchmark softwares on Toshiba Satellite S40t-AS107:

• PCMark 7 (basic edition): 2,640
• PCMark 8 (Home*): 3,642
• 3DMark (CloudGate): 3,070

*PC Mark 8 (Home) tests includes web browsing, writing, photo editing, video chat and casual gaming

For laptop battery life, S40t could last up to 4 hours in my usage: writing, web surfing, streaming online music. I also used FutureMark’s PowerMark to benchmark the battery life:

For “balanced” usage (even splits between web browsing, word processing, video and gaming workloads), S40t last 3 hours 7 minutes. For “multimedia” test (includes video and gaming workloads), the battery last 2 hours 16 minutes. Just enough to finish watching a movie.

Photo Gallery

Price & Availability

Toshiba Satellite S40t-AS107 retail price in Malaysia is RM 1,999 (Intel Core i3) and RM 2,499 (Intel Core i5). Other S40t configurations are also available, such as Intel Core i5 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M dedicated graphic card, and 750GB hard disk.

Please visit Toshiba Malaysia for more information and where to buy.

LiewCF’s Buying Advice

Toshiba Satellite S40t is an affordable Windows 8 laptop with multi-touch display, many input/output ports, and great sound output.

I would recommend S40t for most home users whose main computer usage is writing, surfing, playing videos and some games. It is a desktop replacement laptop and entertainment hub for most families.

Pro: great sound output; good touchscreen display; full array of buil-in ports; affordable price.
Con: trackpad gestures are not smooth; not comfortable use on laps.
Rate: 4 out of 5

I would like to thank TOSHIBA for the opportunity to review Toshiba Satellite S40t. This is a free product review with honest write-up. Interesting to send your products for review? Get in touch with me.