Toshiba's Satellite 1800-364e notebook PC

(Reviewed by Roger Frost for Times Educational Supplement April 2001)

Once a symbol of extravagance, more and more we see laptops, like this capable Toshiba Satellite, proving their place in school. Despite the fact we work in the most frugal of IT environments, in some schools you’ll find them in use everywhere. How they do this is a mystery I’m afraid, but how they’d afford a Toshiba is easy given today’s asking price. This Satellite 1800 is a special edition tuned to the world. At one end of this world is a built-in floppy drive to show that floppy discs are still part of the currency. At the other is industry-standard wireless networking where you can surf the Internet or exchange files with the school network. Dig inside Windows and you and a colleague can find the way to connect directly to each other’s laptops. It’s an elegant trick, it spoils you and there’s no going back to modems and floppies. They’ve become old money, but they’re here, along with serial port and printer port for when you want them at home.

Set beside as many laptops as could be mustered, the Satellite 1800 had the brightest of screens, and at 13.3 inches the screen is a good size. A sturdy keyboard, and a noticeably good build; wrap up a very good piece of hardware. Only a strip of CD player style keys that sit on a step along the machine front suggest that this doubles as a home machine. For software there’s the latest Office suite and Windows XP, accounting for a fair piece of the pie here. Add insurance, a luxurious warranty for a laptop and there’s a bit less worry in the time ahead. All that remains is a phone call to one of those schools to answer this mystery: how do you turn vision into the cash for a laptop as nice as this?

‘EDvantage PC’ consisting of Toshiba's Satellite 1800-364e notebook PC with modem, infra red Ethernet and wireless networking. Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office XP Standard; 12 months insurance and 12 months collect & return warranty. Typical spec is Intel Celeron 1.1GHz processor, 15GB hard disk space and 128 MB RAM at £999 or £29.99 per month leased +VAT

From XMA Tel 01158 464 646  Email edvantage@xma.co.uk  www.xmaonline.co.uk/edvantage