Wal-Mart's $348 Toshiba 17'' Laptop is a Steal
One of the best ways to spend $348.
Remember that $300 Compaq laptop that Wal-Mart was selling? Those sold out in a hurry. Now Toshiba is next up to offer an ultra-value-based laptop this coming Sunday, August 16.
Wal-Mart will be selling the Toshiba Satellite L355 (S7915), a 17-inch desktop replacement, for an incredible $348.
Laptop Magazine reviewed this budget notebook and gave it four stars out of five along with its editor's choice award thanks in large part to price.
The specs for this $348 model are as follows:
CPU: 2.2-GHz Intel Celeron 900
Operating System: Windows Vista Basic (32-bit)
RAM/Expandable to: 3GB/4GB
Hard Drive Size/Speed: 250GB/5,400 rpm
Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW
Display/Resolution: 17 inches/1440 x 900
At $348, it does sound like quite a steal. It sure makes netbooks look a little outclassed.

You can fit about 5 Netbooks into the area of that huge 17" notebook.
and yes, beats the hell out a netbook, except for that portability part...toshiba 17" laptops are HUGE
You can fit about 5 Netbooks into the area of that huge 17" notebook.
I know from firsthand experience Vista will bog down that Celeron, my netbook runs quite snappy with a pre-tweaked XP OS, not to mention is a fraction of the weight and size with a large keyboard. I wouldn't trade it in for this garbage.
With the main difference being that a netbook is usually small and light, whereas the Toshiba 17" is big and heavy--so it gives up the only real advantage a netbook has in the first place.
I think i might get one for my girlfriend. The only uses PC for social networking and emails... LOL.
Many fail to see the point. This is a notebook and it will out perform any netbook in all categories except battery life. It has a faster processor, more memory(and can be upgraded), Bigger hard drive, and I do not know of a netbook with a burner in it. DUH! It is a notebook! This is a great value and can be easily made better by installing XP and getting rid of the Toshiba bloatware. A 17" notebook for $348? Try and find a better buy. Of course you can go and get a used notebook on ebay that MIGHT meet the same spec's. Get real......
I don't see any reason not to upgrade the OS on that toshiba. vista certainly only qualifies as bloat.
but apart from that, it remains that this Penrym 45nm based Celeron will absolutely kill the Atom N270 in every performance benchmark out there. It's at least twice as fast.
I can't say I like the atom processor thought, it does not like photoshop too well
I have to agree with that.
If it had a better CPU and windows 7 included...
Well.. I'd probably convince the wife we should buy it.