Toshiba Satellite C655D

Toshiba Satellite C655D

Welcome to a laptop battery specialist of the Toshiba Laptop Battery

For the last few years, the sub-$400 notebook realm has mostly been the exclusive province of netbooks. Budget mainstream notebooks sometimes dip below the $500 mark, but it's usually a clearance item or a Black Friday deal. So the 15-inch Toshiba Satellite C655D may shock a few consumers when they see it with a $398 price tag at Walmart (where it's being sold exclusively). This machine offers a basic design, an AMD Fusion processor that promises slightly better performance than a netbook, and long life battery like Toshiba Satellite A70 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A75 Battery, Toshiba Tecra 8000 Battery, Toshiba Tecra 8100 Battery, Toshiba Tecra 9000 Battery, Toshiba Tecra 9100 Battery, Toshiba Satellite 1900 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A60-662 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A65 Battery, Toshiba Satellite 2100 Battery, Toshiba PA3291U-1BAS Battery, Toshiba PA3591U-1BAS Battery. Was Toshiba able to bring the mainstream budget price range down without sacrificing too much? Read on.

Weighing in at 5 pounds, the Satellite C655D is pretty light for a 15-incher. The matte black lid and deck have a dimpled texture that gives the notebook a nice grip. Above the keyboard are two oval speaker grilles, which are also plastic, but have a nice glossy trim. We're fans of the simple all-black color scheme, which isn't marred by many ostentatious LEDs (though there are two that indicate when the Number and Caps Lock is on).

During testing, the Satellite C655D notebook remained pretty cool. After playing a Hulu clip at full screen for 15 minutes, the space between the G & H keys was only 83 degrees, the touchpad only 82 degrees, and the middle of the underside only 84 degrees. Those temps are all well within our acceptable range. The hottest area on the notebook was near the vent, naturally, but even then it only reached 95 degrees--also within the acceptable threshold.

One area where the Satellite C655D did very well is on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi). It lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes, about 50 minutes longer than the average mainstream notebook. The MSI CR650's runtime was just a bit behind (4:38), and the Dell Inspiron 14R was almost 2 hours shorter (3:01).

The Realtek b/g/n wireless radio offered achieved a date rate of 29.1 Mbps at 15 feet from the router and only 15.6 Mbps at 50 feet away. Both scores are below the mainstream average (33.9/22.1) and well behind the MSI and Dell notebooks.

It helps to think of the Toshiba Satellite C655D more as a big netbook than a well-rounded mainstream notebook. At $398 (currently $378 at Walmart), it costs the same as many of those higher-end 10-inch systems, yet it offers a much larger screen and better graphics. Still, consumers must temper their expectations. Even though it has a 15-inch screen, you can't expect it to perform like similarly sized notebooks that cost $150 more. But if you're looking for a very basic laptop and a 10-inch screen is too small for you, the C655D is a pretty good deal.