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By Brian Westover People have been using laptops to enjoy movies on the go for years. With an extra-wide screen and sweet-sounding Harman/Kardon speakers, the Toshiba Satellite U845W-S410 is targeted to be a dream laptop for movie lovers. But the oddly shaped ultrabook and its stretched dimensions may be more gimmicky than glamour and glitz.
The U845W-S410's standout feature is its extra-wide screen. That super-wide screen offers the same 21:9 aspect ratio seen in CinemaScope movies, and is designed to play widescreen movies full-screen, sans letterboxing. The result is a display with the unusual resolution of 1,792 by 768—essentially an 11-inch 1,366-by-768 display stretched an extra three inches wider. Measuring 0.83 by 14.5 by 7.9 inches (HWD), the Satellite U845W sits as wide as a 15-inch laptop, like the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Late 2011) $1,599.37 at B&H Photo-Video, but the screen only has the height of an 11-inch screen, sitting even with the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Thunderbolt) at . Weighing 3.65 pounds, it's heavier than most 14-inch ultrabooks with battery like Lenovo L08S6D12 Battery , Lenovo IdeaPad U330 Battery , Lenovo 43R1954 Battery , Lenovo 3000 Y300 Battery , Lenovo 40Y8318 Battery , Lenovo FRU 42T5251 Battery , Lenovo ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC Battery , Lenovo 57Y6455 Battery , Lenovo IdeaPad Z560 Battery , Lenovo IdeaPad B570 Battery , Lenovo 43R2499 Battery , Lenovo FRU 42T5264 Battery , but lighter than 15-inch laptops. The design, though stretched by the widescreen display, looks sharp, with tinted metal on the lid and chassis and a wide stripe of soft-touch texturing across the palmrest and the leading edge of the lid.
The extra-wide screen is an interesting idea, but it raises plenty of questions. What about every other type of video, like non-Cinemascope movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, Netflix and Hulu offerings, or the hundreds of games optimized for the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio? Anything that doesn't conform to these wide dimensions will be letterboxed anyway, but with 1.5-inch wide black bars on either side instead of on top and bottom. This is assuming you've got everything set the usual 1,366-by-768 resolution—anything set higher will look fine width-wise, but will still be cut off along the top. Watching a standard 4:3 image will look even smaller: reruns from the age of classic TV could be displayed in a small square surrounded by black bars above and to the sides. If you zoom in, the sides of the screen will still be empty. For a high resolution picture without the wonky dimensions, the Editors' Choice Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 $1,099.00 at Microsoft Storeboasts a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution display with IPS technology, and its Core i5-equipped sibling, the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A-R5102F at has that same display at a price comparable to the U845W.
While the U845W claims ultrabook status due to its thin profile and light weight, the reality is that it is too wide for convenient portability and too short for productive use. Despite the obvious focus on movies, you'll have to add your own external optical drive for DVD or Blu-ray playback. And with that extra width, the U845W won't fit into a case made for 14-inch laptops— because it's too long—while 15-inch laptop sleeves may fit it in one direction, but not the other.
On either side of the keyboard, you'll see perforated grilles covering two built-in Harman/Kardon speakers. These premium speakers are paired with SRS Premium Sound, so the audio quality is actually quite good, but the layout is puzzling. With such a long chassis, why isn't there a 10-key numeric pad? Speaking of the keyboard, the typing experience is fairly decent, with quiet chiclet keys and a backlight that illuminates in the dark without a lot of light leakage. The black chiclet keys have a semi-gloss finish, and there's a bit of flexing when typing in the center of the keyboard.
Design aside, the Satellite U845W is well-outfitted with features. Three USB 3.0 ports provide speedy connectivity for drives and peripherals, including one port with sleep and charge for powering other devices like your smartphone or tablet. A card reader on the front of the laptop supports SD and Memory Stick formats (SD/SDHC, MS/Pro), a compact Ethernet jack lets you plug in when the 802.11n Wi-Fi won't cut it, and there are the usual headphone and microphone jacks. Bluetooth 4.0 supports wireless headsets, speakers, and plenty of other peripherals. An HDMI-out port lets you connect to an external display, but you can also stream wirelessly with WiDi, provided you have the necessary Netgear Push2TV $94.99 at BUYDIG.comadapter.