I am working on a review of a Toshiba Satellite P205D, which features an AMD dual-core and is suited for the business/media crowd. So far, I am enjoying it quite a bit and have no serious complaints, except that I wish the monitor was a tad sharper and had less fade at small angles.
That aside, I don't review that many notebooks, so I am not sure how the "bloat" situation has been lately. I've been pleased with all of ASUS' offerings so far... the included software has been kept to a relative minimum. This Toshiba, though, is a stark contrast. I couldn't believe how bloated it appeared after the first boot (see screenshot).
I will admit that a lot of these applications will be appreciated by some, but how many people use Napster, compared to iTunes? Or Picasa, which tends to be slow. Skype I can understand, but there is so many other applications here I have not even heard of, and their use escapes me.
Those desktop icons are not a huge deal though - just spend a few minutes to uninstall what you don't need and be done with it. However, things get a little more complicated here. It's difficult to see, but at the very top of the screen is a menu system that lowers when your cursor hits it. This is a slow and finicky process and is inconvenient when you have your cursor up there accidentally. Another menu is found to the left of the screen, but it can't be seen in that screenshot at all. Even now, I have been unable to figure out what program I need to uninstall to rid that, or even find an option to disable it.
Overall I am impressed with the notebook... it's treated me well the past few weeks. The bloat.. just seems a tad ridiculous though. Are all Toshiba notebooks like this? For a business-type model, you'd expect that it would be optimized for performance, not bloated to the nines.
That aside, I don't review that many notebooks, so I am not sure how the "bloat" situation has been lately. I've been pleased with all of ASUS' offerings so far... the included software has been kept to a relative minimum. This Toshiba, though, is a stark contrast. I couldn't believe how bloated it appeared after the first boot (see screenshot).
I will admit that a lot of these applications will be appreciated by some, but how many people use Napster, compared to iTunes? Or Picasa, which tends to be slow. Skype I can understand, but there is so many other applications here I have not even heard of, and their use escapes me.
Those desktop icons are not a huge deal though - just spend a few minutes to uninstall what you don't need and be done with it. However, things get a little more complicated here. It's difficult to see, but at the very top of the screen is a menu system that lowers when your cursor hits it. This is a slow and finicky process and is inconvenient when you have your cursor up there accidentally. Another menu is found to the left of the screen, but it can't be seen in that screenshot at all. Even now, I have been unable to figure out what program I need to uninstall to rid that, or even find an option to disable it.
Overall I am impressed with the notebook... it's treated me well the past few weeks. The bloat.. just seems a tad ridiculous though. Are all Toshiba notebooks like this? For a business-type model, you'd expect that it would be optimized for performance, not bloated to the nines.
