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One disappointment is the lack of an optical drive. Though uncommon on 13-inch ultrabooks, slot-loading drives have made appearances in 14- and 15-inch models, like the Dell Inspiron 14z (Summer 2012) $791.99 at Delland the Samsung Series 5 Ultra (NP530U4B-A01US) $674.96 at TigerDirect.com, and the U845W seems a perfect fit, especially since so few streaming services offer the widescreen format this model is built around. The 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive and 32GB SSD cache are both the same capacity and speed as those seen in the HP Envy 4-1043cl and Lenovo IdeaPad U310.
Toshiba preloads the Satellite U845W with plenty of extras, from Microsoft Office 2010 with battery such as Lenovo FRU 42T4656 Battery , Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 Battery , Lenovo FRU 42T4649 Battery , Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Battery , Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Battery , Lenovo 45J7706 Battery , Lenovo IdeaPad Y730 Battery , Lenovo 3000 Y510 Battery , Lenovo FRU 42T4658 Battery , Lenovo ThinkPad X200t Battery , Lenovo 3000 F50 Battery , Lenovo 3000 Y410 Battery Starter and Google Chrome to 30-day trials of both Norton Internet Security and Toshiba Online Backup, a service that starts at $4.95 per month for 25GB of cloud storage. Toshiba also includes a few other branded services, like Toshiba BookPlace and App Place for purchasing ebooks and apps, respectively. Toshiba covers the Satellite U845W-S410 with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor.
The Satellite U845W is equipped with a third-generation 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor, the same dual-core processor seen in the Lenovo IdeaPad U310 $729.99 at Walmart.comand the HP Envy 4, but offers better performance when paired with the Satellite U845w's 6GB of RAM. As a result, the Toshiba U845w scored 4,652 points in PCMark 7, ahead of both the Lenovo IdeaPad U310(3,570 points) and the HP Envy 4-1043cl $779.99 at HP(3,962 points). While CineBench scores were nearly identical (all hovering right around 2.40 points) since it's a pure processor speed test, the Satellite U845W's multimedia scores pulled ahead thanks to its extra RAM, completing Handbrake in 1 minute 58 seconds and Photoshop in 3 minutes 42 seconds.
Equipped only with Intel's integrated graphics solution (Intel HD Graphics 4000), the Toshiba Satellite U845W offered acceptable graphics performance, but it was met with complications due to the unusual size and resolution of its display. For example, while 3DMark 2007 ran just fine and scored 5,833 points at medium resolution and detail settings, the second run was completed at 1,280 by 768 rather than the 1,792-by-768 native resolution of the display. Consequently, the second score was weighed anecdotally, but isn't considered a standard benchmark score. Similarly, in gaming tests, Lost Planet 2 ran fine at 1,028-by-768 resolution and medium detail settings, producing 20 frames per second (fps), but when dialed up to native resolution, it ran at 9fps with a width of 1,796 pixels while chopping off the top half of the picture. Again, this score is considered anecdotal and won't be included as an official benchmark score. Crysis, meanwhile, was unable to run successfully at any resolution.
The Satellite U845W lasted 6 hours 42 minutes in MobileMark, which is decent but behind the HP Envy 4-1043cl (7:45) and HP Folio 13-1020us $980.98 at Amazon Marketplace(8:47). While it won't get you through an entire workday, it provides enough longevity to enjoy a triple-feature, provided you aren't watching the super-extended versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
If the Toshiba Satellite U845W-S410 were to be judged purely upon its performance and feature set, it would fare rather well, offering solid processing power and a healthy selection of ports and storage space. Unfortunately, the headlining feature of the laptop—the movie-friendly widescreen display—mars the overall user experience and distorts the dimensions of the laptop. For a superlative movie watching experience, the Editors' Choice Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 offers a 1080p display and excellent speakers, while the similarly-equipped Lenovo IdeaPad U310 and HP Envy 4-1043cl are both less cumbersome and less expensive.