This is a first for me, reviewing a laptop which doesn’t run Mac OS X. After reading this review you will understand why…

So here I am setting up the Toshiba A200 SC3 notebook in order to demo it. With most laptops, Acers at least, you turn on the machine and select the user name you would like for your computer. This Toshiba required a complete “restore” of the operating system in order to proceed. The entire set up process took much longer than an hour. After restoring, the computer needed to setup Vista for the first time, which is normal for any pre-loaded computer. However Toshiba loads up their own software also, which look even longer than most Acer’s I install.

I had about 10 minutes of a waiting screen where saying I had to wait while it set up my desktop. After that I was able to create my user name and log in. After that I was once more locked out with the waiting screen for about 5 minutes. This happened after logging into Windows, after normal setup took place. I felt like taking a small nap during the waiting time, which is terrible for a laptop. My MacBook was properly “Pre-installed”, where the only thing I needed to set up was a user name. Part of this was due to Vista, but alot of it seems to be Toshiba’s software slowing down the process.

Once I was able to get into the computer I went straight to the internet so I could blog from the computer, however that too took some time to setup. It seems with most Windows based notebooks, there is an on/off switch for the wireless internet connection. Most are on the front or the side, and some even have a button on the keyboard, but on the Toshiba you need to look underneath the notebook and turn on a very small switch. Windows also encountered an error when connecting to the store’s internet. My iPhone had no issues browsing the net, however the Toshiba was blaming the dlink router for having no connection. It took a few minutes for it to fix that issue. After all that I was finally on the internet and ready to blog.

The keyboard is very stupid. It seems like Acer has the same sort of notebook keyboard, where everything is crunched together, such as a \ key where my shift key would be. It comes with basic function keys, normal stuff you would find on a notebook. It doesn’t come with any media keys, it feels more like a business computer rather than a computer for college/university students. There is also a 1.3 megapixel camera which sucks. The camera slows down the computer slightly, and the quality is not good for pictures, and mediocre for video capture.

The Toshiba A200-SC3 is a Intel Centrio Core2 Duo 1.86Ghz notebook, with 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a 180GB harddrive. Compared with my MacBook, which is the same thing as this computer, just with a smaller screen and smaller harddrive, I’d take the MacBook. For $899.99CND for the Toshiba, it’s not a great deal for a slow processor and minumal features. For $200 more you can pick up a MacBook with the same specs, and better software.

This Toshiba is not good value for your money, even if the notebook is $729.99 on sale at the Source. I would look into getting a more powerful Compaq or Apple notebook, you’ll get more bang for your buck. Even with the Microsoft Office 2007 Professional trial, you are better off with a different computer for less money.