Toshiba Tecra S3

Don’t let its Nvidia graphics processor fool you; the Toshiba Tecra S3 is designed for business users, thanks to features like a TPM security chip and a fingerprint reader.

This black-and-silver notebook has a very manageable 6.3-pound weight, but the Tecra S3’s 13.5 x 11.3-inch footprint is too unwieldy for road warriors. It runs for over three hours on battery power, which is nice, and that time doesn’t drop at all when the Wi-Fi adapter is turned on.

The Wi-Fi performance was rather good, too. The Tecra S3’s 12.6-Mbps performance at 5 feet from our access point is nothing to write home about, but its 10-Mbps data transfer rate from 50 feet is very impressive and more indicative of real-world conditions.

The notebook’s processing performance was mixed. Its 1.73-GHz Pentium M 740 is a very capable CPU, but in the base configuration Toshiba sent us, it’s supported by a paltry 256MB of system memory. As a result, the S3 performed well in most individual applications, except the most memory-intensive ones like Photoshop, and it bogged down when we ran multiple applications at once. MobileMark 2005 gave this machine a score of 188, which is a bit below average and indicates the system’s relatively weak multitasking capabilities.

You can configure the Tecra S3 with 512MB of memory for only $50 more, and that’s an upgrade we strongly recommend. While you’re at it, you should upgrade from the standard 40GB hard drive to a 60GB or 80GB model for $50 or $90, respectively. All of the available hard drives, including the one in our test system, spin at a fast 5,400 rpm, allowing applications to load quickly. Toshiba bundled this Tecra S3 with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, but a double-layer DVD burner is available as an $80 upgrade.

With a 64MB Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 GPU at the helm, users that do a fair amount of graphics work will be pleased with the Tecra S3. Far Cry played smoothly as long as we brought the detail settings down a notch. The 3DMark03 benchmark recorded a good score of 4,939, which seemed spot on to us.

The Tecra S3 features a 15-inch 4:3 aspect ratio screen. This display is ideal for productivity applications, but you should spend the extra $75 to upgrade it to an SXGA+ resolution, rather than its stock XGA arrangement. This will let applications like Excel fit more information onscreen without having to reconfigure each program’s display settings. The integrated speakers are above average, generating sound that’s fairly robust and very loud for a notebook, which is great for games, DVDs, and presentations. The hard-wired volume control wheel is a nice amenity.

Toshiba includes a nice array of connectivity options on the S3, including PC Card, ExpressCard, and SD card slots, in addition to serial, parallel, S-Video, FireWire, and three USB 2.0 ports, and an IR transceiver. There’s also a built-in 802.11b/g radio and a Gigabit Ethernet adapter. An integrated Bluetooth adapter is available as a $40 option.

The Tecra S3 ships with Windows XP Professional and our test configuration included a copy of Microsoft Office One Note 2003. Its warranty (like the memory, hard drive, and display), could use an upgrade. You can move from the standard one-year plan to three years of coverage for $100, and we recommend you do that. Those four upgrades, totaling $275, would take the Tecra S3 from three to four stars and make it a much better value.