Kerry Woo over at Gear Diary has had a go with a Satellite M205-S7452 and it’s fair to say he’s spent a fair amount of time making sure he’s explored every aspect of the machine. He has a lot to say about the variables as compared to other laptops and starts with what’s different.

He mentions the offset touchpad, which he measures at 1.5” off centre and wonders whether it might be a vehicle ‘to combat carpel tunnel’ syndrome. A major differentiator for him is the integrated webcam; a boon for him as his family is spread around the world. When using Skype, the 1.3 megapixel camera performed well with good colour and brightness. The front-edge WiFi switch and volume scroll wheel (pictured) were also a plus for Kerry as his usage is mostly music-based and this setup allowed his headphone cable to be directly in front of him.

The placement of the LEDs along the front are such that they ‘eliminate any distractions from focusing on the task at hand’ (which Kerry reckons is a decent size and spec). He has a slight issue with the battery life when a user is away from their desk, but reckons he could squeeze up to 2½ hours from it by having few applications open.

In summary, Kerry thinks this would be a great laptop for students or a high quality first laptop for an occasional user. Expanded memory and Bluetooth would upgrade this from a good laptop to an excellent one. Thanks  Kerry - and  if anyone else has an opinion on one of these models, do let us know.