New Laptop, New Frontiers…

I would’ve posted something spectacular yesterday about having conquered a 16-year-old curse belonging solely to the PC-era, but I finally got it!

My first laptop!

It’s big as hell–the largest one I’ve seen. I’ve always wanted something big–because that’s just how I am.

No…I am not compensating for anything here. I’m plenty happy in the package department and so is my wife; even though she wishes for something smaller from time to time. :0)

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite C655-S5049–which belongs to the Toshiba C650-Series laptops.

It’s got a 15.6″ screen–give or take–has a nice 250GB HDD with DVD-CDRW capabilities. (And I can watch movies–as soon as I figure out how to do that.)

It has Microsoft Works 9.0–which is a big leap forward from the Version 8 that I’ve been using for the past 10 years.

And it has Microsoft Office 2007 (or is it 2009? I dunno)–which is also cool.

The laptop has a 4.5 hour battery life, has a “lockout”-feature which gives me piece of mind; in case it was ever stolen. (Password protection.)

Every time it boots up, it asks me for my password.

(But who would be desperate enough to steal from someone who is too poor to buy anything outright and has to save up months for something?)

The laptop also has a recovery system in case something goes wrong. (And it often does.)

But above all?

The games!

I am a major Mahjong nut and I love the new Titan game it comes with! And the newly updated Solitaire game is equally cool.

And while I’ve never had the chance to experiment with a laptop at length, I’ve been trying out my writing on it.

It’s a slow go, but I’m sure I’ll be flying by in no time at all.

The only two things I’m concerned about the Toshiba is the heating issue: It heats up pretty fast, so I have to use it carefully and make sure that the airflow isn’t impeded. (I plan on seeing if I can get a cooling unit for the laptop which I can place under it in September.)

The speakers aren’t that great, but I’m not too terribly worried: I just went out and bought a set of headphones and I got instant surround-sound that left me happier than a pig in slop.

Paying the full $404 dollars for the whole setup is well worth the money in my opinion. If you can get an optical mouse (Targus) that changes color periodically…?

That makes the whole setup even more special!

Overall? 4.8 stars out of 5.

I would highly recommend this laptop for writers only.

Gaming is something I’m not going to worry about. I rarely play PC games anymore these days.

The internet? I’d stick with a netbook or your regular PC and not use the laptop for Wi-Fi connections.

This way…you won’t ruin your newfound toy any quicker. :0)