Toshiba C655D-S5130 Review: Affordable AMD E-Series Brings Mixed Performance

Toshiba C655D-S5130 (Source: Notebookcheck)

Budget laptops have been getting better and more affordable lately, allowing cash-strapped consumers to enjoy decent computing power without breaking the bank. Toshiba's new C655D-S5130 aims squarely at the value-oriented market, packing an AMD E-240 processor and integrated Radeon graphics.

The E-240 is a dual-core chip based on AMD's Zacate architecture, clocked at 1.5GHz. While not a performance powerhouse by any means, it does provide a welcome boost over the aging single-core Atom netbook CPUs still found on some budget models.

In use, the E-240 handles basic productivity tasks like web browsing, document editing, media playback and light multitasking reasonably well. The integrated Radeon HD 6310 graphics also allow for some casual gaming and hardware acceleration of video decoding.

However, you'll quickly feel the system's limitations under any serious workloads. Booting up and switching between applications can feel sluggish due to the modest 2GB DDR3 RAM. The 5400RPM 320GB hard drive is also painfully slow compared to an SSD.

Gaming is a mixed bag - older and less demanding 3D titles from a few years ago like World of Warcraft and Left 4 Dead 2 can run acceptably at low settings. But you'll struggle with anything too graphically intensive released in the past couple of years.

The 15.6" 1366x768 LED display offers decent image quality and viewing angles for the price bracket. But it's nothing to write home about, with limited brightness and washed out colors compared to premium panels.

Build quality is plasticky but reasonably solid for a budget offering. Toshiba has opted for an inoffensive design with a textured black finish that doesn't look too cheap. The chiclet keyboard has decent tactile feel, though the touchpad can feel a bit sticky at times.

Battery life is about 3-4 hours with fairly conservative usage - not amazing, but par for the course given the E-240's power efficiency limitations compared to AMD's latest APUs.

At the end of the day, the Toshiba C655D hits the value proposition it's aiming for - delivering acceptable performance for basic home/office use at an attractively low price of $400-500. Just don't expect a speed demon and you'll likely walk away satisfied if your needs are modest. For more demanding users, stepping up to a Core i3 or AMD A-series APU system would be advisable.