by Kevin O'Brien

The Toshiba A305D is the sometimes overlooked AMD younger brother to the Intel A305 notebook. This model shares practically the same design, just fewer features that help to bring the cost down. At first glance it would be impossible to tell these two notebooks apart, but if you take a close enough look you can probably spot the differences. Read on to see if this lower cost AMD-equipped Toshiba A305D deserves a spot on your desk.

Observant readers will notice that much of this review is similar to our review of the Intel-based A305, and with good reason. The A305D is essentially the same notebook with a few different parts inside. Keep reading and we'll focus on whether those differences make the A305D better or worse.

Our review unit of the A305D features the following specifications:

• Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit)
• AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core TL-64 (2.2GHz)
• 15.4" diagonal widescreen TruBrite TFT LCD display at 1280x800 (WXGA)
• ATI Radeon X1250 Integrated Graphics
• Atheros Wireless 802.11a/g/n
• 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 4GB)
• 320GB 5400rpm Toshiba Hard Drive
• DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive with Labelflash
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• Harmon/Kardon stereo speakers
• Fingerprint reader
• Dimensions (WxDxH Front/H Rear): 14.25" x 10.5" x 1.4" /2.25"
• Weight: 6 lbs 2.5oz with six-cell battery
• 75W (19V x 3.95A) 100-240V AC Adapter
• 6-cell (4000mAh) Lithium Ion battery
• 1-Year Standard Limited Warranty
• Price as configured: $999.99

Build and Design

First thing you will notice is every part of this notebook is glossy, from the screen cover, to the palm rest, and even the keyboard keys. Toshiba is really showing off their new durable Fusion finish on every part of the notebook that they can, and in some ways it is a very good thing. Durability is a big thing with notebook finishes, as many glossy finishes will dull and scratch over time. The new Toshiba Fusion finish on this is incredibly durable, and has yet to actually scratch throughout my testing. With multiple trips in my backpack, I can't find any visible scuffs on the cover, where other notebooks would show fine scratches almost out of the wrapper.

So what does this Fusion finish mean to you? Your keys will not go from matte to glossy over time as they wear down (they are already glossy). Every part of the notebook will get full of smudges and fingerprints, but you can always wipe it down in a couple of minutes to make it look brand new. On other notebooks you get all the smudges, but it would take some hard work with some plastic polish before you ever got it looking new again.

Build quality is excellent in most areas, giving the notebook a very solid feel. Squeaks and creaks are not present, and panel flex is at a minimum. The only areas that stand out as needing some improvement are the wobbly battery, and rough edges around the screen frame where the two plastic pieces meet.

Body Changes

The new Satellite A305D changes quite a bit of its design, while still retaining some resemblance of its older A205 brother. The biggest change is the use of the new durable Fusion finish, which can be found on practically every surface of the notebook, from the top cover to the individual keyboard keys. Unlike the older glossy surface that would scuff with minimal effort, the Fusion finish holds up very well, and I have yet to find a fine scratches or other wear on it.

The keyboard and surrounding area has changed quite a bit form the older A205, including touch sensitive multimedia keys, which are all the rage these days on most notebooks. Another change is the flush touchpad area, which is surprisingly slick with its textured surface. It is almost too easy to slide your finger around on it, and slip off onto the palm rest. The touchpad buttons have also changed quite a bit, going from rectangular slabs to chromed ovals which are easier to trigger, as well as being more comfortable to use.

Display

The screen quality is above average for glossy screens, with an evenly bright backlight and vibrant colors. Backlight bleed is minimal, meaning better game play in dark scenes without areas getting washed out. Viewing angles are adequate, with a wide horizontal range, but shallow vertical range. When tilting the screen back, you will have to find a sweet spot, and going out of that means washed out or inverted colors.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Satellite A305D is made up of high gloss painted keys, which is fairly unique as far as mainstream notebooks go. The look is excellent, and goes very well with the silver striped glossy notebook, and the feel is even better. There is just something about typing on a soft glossy surface that makes long typing very comfortable. Even things like gaming seem to work better, letting you easily slide from one key to the next with minimal drag.

One disappointing aspect of the keyboard is that it is not backlit, as that could be the only possible way to make it even more awesome. Hopefully this keyboard stays the same in the Qosmio, and gets some special backlit treatment.

The touchpad is mounted flush with the palm rest, with the only indication of it being a touchpad at all is a semi-smooth textured overlay. I don't know what the surface is made out of, but it is oddly slippery. No matter if your fingertip is mildly sweaty or perfectly dry, it doesn't stick to the surface. For anyone who has used a notebook for hours on end, you know that eventually your fingers start to stick on some touchpad surfaces, this surface somehow prevents that. In use the sensitivity is excellent, with a wide range of adjustment offered through the Synaptics driver control panel.

The touchpad buttons are very nice, reminding me of the chrome bumpers on older cars. They feel soft to the touch without any hard defined edges, and even though they have very shallow feedback, they are probably some of the best touchpad buttons I have used.

Performance

The Toshiba A305D comes loaded with the AMD Turion TL-64 2.2GHz processor, and the ATI 1250 integrated graphics. For most activities this combination handles itself quite well, including office productivity applications or watching movies. Gaming is one area that this close brother to the Intel A305 can't follow, bringing in 3D benchmarking scores almost 93% lower.

The Intel-based A305 delivered an impressive benchmark score in terms of overall performance thanks to a second hard drive and dedicated graphics. Unfortunately, our configuration of the AMD-based A305D produced "average" benchmark numbers from a single hard drive and integrated graphics.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, the advantage of this program is that it is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, thereby giving more accurate benchmarking measurements than Super Pi. (Lower numbers mean better performance.)

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune results: