Toshiba used to be known for its incredibly
light laptops that were also incredibly expensive. The company still makes
pricey ultra-portable laptops, but it also makes more affordable models such as
the 1.8kg Satellite U940-lln.
Toshiba has made the laptop lighter by
excluding a DVD writer and using a plastic build instead of a metal one, which
no doubt also helps keep the cost down. Unfortunately, while the blue- grey
design looks attractive, it also feels cheap and creaks under pressure too
easily.
We weren't fond of the keyboard either. The
keys are too small, feel stiff and don't have enough ravel. We found it
uncomfortable to use and made more typos using it than on most other laptop
keyboards.
The large touchpad is better, although the
buttons built into the bottom don't give enough feedback when pressed. The
touchpad replicates gestures used on touchscreen Windows 8 computers. This
means you can perform actions such as swiping from the left to switch to your
last-used application. On a laptop, these gestures are much more comfortable to
use on a touchpad rather than on a touchscreen, which Toshiba has wisely left
out.
The
large touchpad is better, although the buttons built into the bottom don't give
enough feedback when pressed.
Unsurprisingly fora laptop at this price,
the 14in screen has a low but usable resolution of 1366x768 pixels. It's bright
with good image quality.
You'll need headphones or external speakers
to enjoy music and movies. The built-in speakers sounded tinny and muddy with
weak bass. The laptop's Ethernet port doesn't support the fastest
transfer speeds, topping out at 100Mbps. There are plenty of other ports,
including HDMI, an SD card slot and three USB ports, two of which support the
USB3 standard.
Performance is good for a budget laptop.
The 1.8GHz Intel Core 15 processor and 6GB of memory handled our demanding
tests with ease. The memory can also be upgraded up to 16GB. Few programs
require that amount of memory, but the upgrade option lets you run software
that might do in the future. The large 750GB hard disk has been paired with a
small 32GB SSD, which makes it start faster. Battery life was good, lasting
over six hours in light usage.
Performance
is good for a budget laptop
The Intel integrated graphics chip handles
modern 3Dgames, but only with less detailed graphics. It's better suited at
older, less demanding titles.
If it wasn't for its small, uncomfortable
keyboard and cheap, uninspiring build quality, the Toshiba Satellite U940-11n
would be a great value ultra- portable laptop. The similarly priced Asus
VivoBook S400ca isn't perfect either, but it's a far better alternative.
Our verdict
A cheap ultra-portable laptop let down by a
poorly designed keyboard and creaky build quality
Key points
Inexpensive • Good battery life • Large hard
disk • Poor keyboard • Creaky plastic design
Best price online
Website: www.snipca.com
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Basic
Specifications
§ Rating:
3/5
§ Processor:
Intel Core i5-3337U
§ Processor
clock speed: 1.8GHz
§ Memory:
6.00GB
§ Memory
slots: 2
§ Memory
slots free: 0
§ Maximum
memory: 8GB
§ Size:
21x340x239mm
§ Weight:
1.7kg
§ Sound:
Realtek HD Audio
§ Pointing
device: touchpad
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