东芝 Satellite L830-10F 笔记本测评

One of the main features, if that word is to be used in this context, must be the design of the subnotebook: except for its underside, our test sample is covered completely in white. The palm rest as well as the lid are also finished in a carbon fiber pattern. The display frame and large parts of the upper side of the body reflect the light, thanks to their white piano lacquer coating, which is also found on the keyboard bed. Only the frame of the trackpad glistens in a silver metallic color. All status LEDs have been placed at the front right part of the laptop.

The underside of the laptop is dominated by black matte plastic. Still, this fits nicely with the overall look of the laptop.

A pretty design is fair and well, but it also has to win on stability and workmanship. Unfortunately, the Satellite does not completely satisfy on either count. While the right palm rest cannot be buckled, the left-hand side gave way slightly under normal force levels. The same can be observed in the middle of the keyboard, where the keyboard bed gives way considerably. The display lid, too, isn't built that sturdily and is prone to flexing. The display hinges, on the other hand, are faultless. They do their job well in keeping the lid stable and showed no sign of vibrations or other undesired movements.

In terms of workmanship, the 1.9 kg (4.2 pound) subnotebook leaves only small room for criticism. While the keyboard is nicely framed by the surrounding plastics, the upper and lower sides of the display lid are very slightly misaligned in the lower left and lower right sections. However, let's not be nitpicking; if you don't go out searching for faults explicitly, chances are you would not notice this even after years of use. Apart from these minor blemishes, all corners are nicely rounded.

The battery of our test system can be replaced during operation, and is easily accessible on the underside. We will get back to user serviceability further down in this review.

Most multimedia notebooks feature glossy displays, and the Toshiba Satellite L830 is no exception. In this case, a panel by AU Optronics is responsible for showcasing data, movies and other content. The resolution of 1366x768 pixels is on par with other 13.3-inch devices. Screens with higher resolutions are mostly reserved for much more expensive ultrabooks, such as the Asus Zenbook UX32VD, and make text difficult to read without modifications in the Windows settings.

A major disadvantage of the panel is its strong reflections, which become apparent even in a relatively dark room. While the brightness distribution is good at 90%, the average brightness of 181.3 cd/m² is not enough to allow productive work in brighter environments, for example on a terrace or balcony. Multimedia applications such as watching movies won't be much fun in these conditions either. The measured brightness values are similar, however, to a majority of competitors in this class and price range, including Lenovo's IdeaPad Z370, or HP's HP ProBook 4330s (matte screen).

We already mentioned that outdoor use definitely isn't the strong suite of the reflective (glossy) screen. While reflections are already distracting indoors, the panel performs just as expected when taken outdoors: reflections are almost omnipresent, making text hard to read, and almost impossible to decipher when bright objects are reflected off the screen. Under direct sunlight, the situation gets even worse, and our screen is more akin to a portable mirror than a notebook display.

Given these impressions, watching movies on train journeys will offer only limited enjoyment, especially during dark scenes. Mobile web browsing won't be impeded as much, but here too, one has to contend with distracting reflections, which make reading texts considerably more difficult.

With the ultra-low voltage CPU installed, we do not expect fireworks in our benchmarks. The computing performance of the 1.4 GHz CPU is expected towards the lower range, but it should still outperform other and cheaper subnotebook processors like the AMD E-Series E-450. It is worth noting that the CPU configuration has changed compared to the previous generation model: the Toshiba Satellite L730 featured the Core i3-380M, instead of a power-saving ULV processor.

To evaluate the performance of the CPU, we deploy the Cinebench 10 and 11.5 benchmarks. Already in single core mode, the 2367M was clearly ahead of the E-450 in Cinebench 10 (64-bit), and outclassed the cheaper competitor with a score of 2258 to 1137.4. A comparison with other laptops that feature the same i3-2367M should prove more interesting. Here, the Toshiba comes in slightly behind the ThinkPad Edge E130, which achieved 2293 points, and takes second places among a group of five in our rankings.

The results of the multi-core benchmark paint a different picture: Both cores combined score 4918 points, which only places the L830 second to last among the Core i3-2367M laptops we have tested. Only the Portégé Z830-10N is slightly slower with a score of 4821. 

In the Cinebench 11.5 in multi-core mode, a result of 1.34 means an average position of the L830-10F compared to its rivals. Unfortunately, comparable single core results for Cinebench 11.5 are unavailable at present. We did not experience any decreases in CPU frequency under load (throttling), neither during the course of our benchmarks nor during our stress test, where the CPU kept running at 1.4 GHz throughout. It also managed to keep relatively cool at 70 °C, as we expected.

Make no mistake: The HD 3000 is definitely not a gaming graphics card. Nevertheless, contrary to older Intel graphics solutions, modern games will run at low, sometimes medium detail settings. Older games like Sim City 4 should pose no problem, even at higher settings.

In order to confirm this hypothesis for the L830-10F, we have tested three current PC games at low, medium and high settings. Least demanding is the sports game FIFA 12. While at low settings, we had no trouble chasing the ball through the stadium at almost 50 frames per second, the fun factor went down somewhat at medium settings and 22 fps. While we still managed a relatively smooth 18 frames per seconds at high settings, at this point, our virtual games were not much fun anymore.

The Batman game "Batman: Arkham City" proved just playable with the somewhat constrained HD 3000, even though the measured 23 frames per second were borderline tolerable. At medium settings, we only reached 18 fps, no longer acceptable, let alone enjoyable. At high settings, the frame rate plummeted even further - precise measurements in line with the benchmark requirements would have required DirectX 11, however, which is unsupported by this graphics card.

We concluded our gaming benchmarks with a round of the action racing game Dirt Showdown. At 24.8 fps, nothing stopped us from a race at low settings. The picture changes dramatically at medium settings, where we were only able to achieve a measly 15.1 frames per second, which meant that a race was no longer on. Of course, the drop in frame rates continued to high settings, and at 9.5 fps the game now felt more like an accelerated slide show.

Already in FIFA 12, the limited graphics card in combination with the ULV-CPU was having an effect. As in all the other games, the subnotebook came in last among the notebooks with the same graphics card, and was beaten by up to 70 frames per second. The same story is repeated for Batman: Arkham City and Dirt Showdown, although the differences in frame rates are less marked. Nevertheless, occasional games are possible on the L830-10F - just don't expect it to run Battlefield 3 and similar games, the performance isn't nearly good enough.

System Noise

While the TDP of 17 Watts made its effect felt negatively in terms of graphics performance, when it comes to system noise, it offers decisive benefits: where little heat is produced, little heat has to be dissipated. In idle mode, the fan doesn't quite shut down completely, but it is hardly audible. During load tests, the picture changes: the fan now spins up forcefully and becomes clearly noticeable. DVD playback has similar results, although the fan is initially drowned out by the noise of the DVD drive, whose noise level decreases after a little while. While a movie is playing, the fan remains audible, but not enough to become disturbing.

Toshiba did a good job with the integrated hard disk: While it is noticeable, it remains considerably quieter than several other drives we have come across. Thankfully, annoying high-pitch noises, as caused by some screens, are completely absent.

Not just in terms of fan management, but also in terms of the measured surface temperature, the overall cooling solution feels well-balanced. Even during the stress test, which represents an exceptional situation not normally reached under real life conditions, neither the graphics card nor the CPU exceeded 70 °C. The case stayed quite cool meanwhile, at a maximum of 36 °C. Subjectively, we merely noticed a considerable warming in the upper right area of the keyboard.

As you would expect, the laptop is similarly cool running on idle. Here, the average temperature of the case is actually slightly higher than under load, due to the fan running at lower speeds, but the temperature is also more evenly distributed. Apart from a slightly warm right palm rest, we did not notice any temperature hotspots. Neither during the stress test nor in idle did we encounter any problems while working with the notebook sitting on the lap.