For $1,150, the Satellite U305 is a good deal. While there are smaller and lighter 13.3-inch notebooks, this thin-an-light still costs $600 ...
For $1,150, the Satellite U305 is a good deal. While there are smaller and lighter 13.3-inch notebooks, this thin-an-light still costs $600 less than comparable Sony VAIOs and a couple hundred cheaper than ASUS’ U3 series. Dell’s popular XPS M1330 is still probably the king of the 13.3-inch space, although when configured for similar components, it’s slightly more expensive than the Satellite U305
Battery life – Very good
DVD battery drain test netted 2 hours and 42 minutes, which is an excellent number – about the length of two normal movies, or one painfully long one. This shows the benefit of picking integrated graphics and a CPU under 2.0 GHz; they’re not powerful enough to do front-line gaming, but they also draw far less electricity. Normal productivity applications – typing Word documents, surfing the web – will extend battery life beyond the 3-hour mark.
Windows Vista is the only configurable operating system for the U305. Even with Microsoft’s release candidate for Service Pack 1 now available, Vista still lags behind Windows XP in performance. Our notebook, the U305-S7467, came with Windows Vista Home Premium installed, which has the Aero glass interface (unlike Home Basic), Windows Media Center, Mobility Center and DVD Maker
Battery life – Very good
DVD battery drain test netted 2 hours and 42 minutes, which is an excellent number – about the length of two normal movies, or one painfully long one. This shows the benefit of picking integrated graphics and a CPU under 2.0 GHz; they’re not powerful enough to do front-line gaming, but they also draw far less electricity. Normal productivity applications – typing Word documents, surfing the web – will extend battery life beyond the 3-hour mark.
Windows Vista is the only configurable operating system for the U305. Even with Microsoft’s release candidate for Service Pack 1 now available, Vista still lags behind Windows XP in performance. Our notebook, the U305-S7467, came with Windows Vista Home Premium installed, which has the Aero glass interface (unlike Home Basic), Windows Media Center, Mobility Center and DVD Maker
