Toshiba L655-S5161x Laptop Review, Part 2

The Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x is powered by a second-gen Sandy Bridge-based Intel Core i3-2310M processor running at a clock speed of 2.10 GHz. It is fitted with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and has a 500GB Serial Ata hard drive rotating at 5,400 rpm. This Intel-powered version of the laptop is significantly quicker than its AMD-powered sibling. The operating system is booted in approximately one minute  which is a few seconds faster than the average in the segment.

As you would expect from a laptop that has an Intel Core processor, this Satellite model comes with an integrated HD 3000 graphics chip that borrows the necessary memory from the system’s RAM. This means that this isn’t the laptop to get if you plan on playing games as it can run World of Warcraft in autodetect mode at 42 fps, a great result but no way near in comparison to laptops with dedicated GPUs.

You mustn’t worry about the heat generated by this notebook as the Intel-powered model remains mostly cool at all times, with the highest registered temperature being near the vent where it hits 96 degrees. The AMD version is not only warmer than the Intel one but it also runs considerably louder.

Connecting to a Wi-Fi network is done with the help of the Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n wireless card which can provide mixed results as sometimes it offers great download speeds while from time to time the download and upload speeds are quite low.

Let’s talk about the software that comes bundled with this Toshiba Satellite L655-S5161x. It comes with support for built-in recognition, Toshiba App Place, Bulletin Board and Book Place which is an e-reader powered by Blio. In addition, the laptop comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Starter Edition, Google Chrome, Skype and a trial version of Norton Internet Security.

If you don’t know whether to get the Intel or the AMD version, we would like to recommend getting the former as even though it is a little bit more expensive it manages to be a lot faster, has a better battery life and it also runs cooler and more silent. Other similarly priced laptops that you might want to consider include the attractive Samsung RV511 or the HP G6x.

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