Toshiba Satellite L50-C – first impressions of the sleek mid-ranger

We are always happy to see a mainstream notebook that’s worth the money and even offers something more than we expect. We found ourselves in the very same situation the other day when we first got our hands on the new Toshiba Satellite L50-C. However, design isn’t the only thing to phone home about. Spec-wise, this machine will be fully capable of running some of the games in low resolution, but the best part is the IPS panel that delivers great viewing experience that’s hard to match in this price range.

Design

Toshiba Satellite L50-C features a full plastic body with glossy finish on the lid and around the keyboard. The material can easily be mistaken for brushed aluminum, but the good news is that the surface doesn’t attract smudges and fingerprints. The laptop always looks as clean as a whistle.


Toshiba Satelite L50 keyboard2

Toshiba Satelite L50 face1

Toshiba Satelite L50 top4

In addition, the overall construction of the chassis feels light and somewhat sturdy. It weighs just 2.2 kg and the thin profile measures at 23.5 mm, while still managing to house all the necessary ports and an optical drive to boot. As for the interior, it features the same glossy plastic as around the keyboard. Speaking of which, the keys are big, well separated and appear rather comfortable to type on. Finally, the touchpad felt awesome – no wobbling effect,  great responsiveness, high accuracy, and mouse buttons worked just fine.

Toshiba Satelite L50 wide open

A more in-depth analysis of the design and construction will be presented in our upcoming review. Stay tuned.

Hardware

The Satellite L50-C ships in various configurations with a wide selection of CPUs – Intel Pentium N3700, Core i3-4005U, Core i5-5200U, Core i7-5500U, AMD A8-7410. As for the GPU selection, you can either stick with the built-in Intel HD Graphics GPU in the SoC or else pick either the NVIDIA GeForce 930M or AMD Radeon R5 M330. Storage devices also vary from 1TB HDDs to SSHD with 8GB SSD cache. The amount of RAM can go up to 16GB with two 8GB RAM chips.

The best part, however, is the display. It comes in two variants – 1366 x 768 TN panel or Full HD (1920×1080) quality IPS panel. We have the configuration with the IPS panel so it would be interesting to see how it performs, as this is quite a rare find in this price segment.

How it looks on the inside

We’ve already performed a teardown of the notebook and you can check it here. Unfortunately, no additional 2.5″ HDD/SSD slots were found, nor M.2 SATA SSD upgrade options. You can still swap the optical drive for extra storage space, though.


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Specs sheet

Keep in mind that the specs may differ depending on your region.


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CPUIntel Pentium N3700 (4-core, 1.60 – 2.40 GHz, 2MB cache) / Intel Core i3-4005U (2-core, 1.7 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i5-5200U (2-core, 2.20 – 2.70 GHz, 3MB cache) / Intel Core i7-5500U (2-core, 2.40 – 3.00 GHz, 4MB cache) / AMD A8-7410 (4-core, 2.20 – 2.50 GHz, 2MB cache)
RAM8GB (1x 8192MB) – LPDDR3L, 1600MHz / 16GB (2x 8192MB) – LPDDR3L, 1600MHz
GPUNVIDIA GeForce 930M (2GB DDR3) / AMD Radeon R5 M330 (2GB DDR3)
HDD/SSD1TB HDD (5400 rpm) / 1TB SSHD (8GB of SSD cache)
Display15.6-inch HD (1366×768) panel, glossy / 15.6-inch Full HD (1920×1080) IPS panel, glossy
Optical DriveDVD burner
ConnectivityLAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 1x USB 2.0
  • 2x USB 3.0 (one supports Sleep-and-Charge)
  • built-in webcam
  • built-in microphone
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
  • RJ-45
  • HDMI
  • SD card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC supporting UHS-I, MMC)
Battery4-cell, 45Wh (2800 mAh)
Thickness23.5 mm (0.92″)
Weight2.2 kg (4.85 lbs)

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