Toshiba A300-1BZ Laptop Review, Specification And Offers

Posted on May 20 2008 - 9:54pm by Richard Sharp

Toshiba A300-1BZ

If you are looking for a decent multi media laptop that will not break the bank then we have the model for you.  The Toshiba A300-1BZ is a true heavy weight for the price of a middle weight laptop, it boasts a generous 3 giga bytes of RAM and a powerful intel core duo 2 processor.  This is great for playing your favourite games or watching movies on the move or at home.

The Toshiba a300ibz has built in media keys for quick access to sound and dvd functions (play, skip, stop etc) and also includes some decent Harman Kardon speakers for clear sound quality.  This laptop has a larger than nessesary hard drive weighing in at 250 gb’s.

The 15.4 inch widescreen is crystal clear and is great for what ever you use your laptop for, the machine is also quite light so you will not find it to difficult to transport.  In summary this is a great laptop with real high end features, it is not just great for the money but it is great at twice the price.

As always if you have any questions please feel free to ask below.

Full Specification

  • Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8100
  • (2.1GHz, 800 MHz, 3 MB Cache)
  • Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
  • 3 GB Memory
  • 250 GB Hard Drive
    • DVD Super Multi ReWriter
    • 15.4″ TruBrite Widescreen Display
    • Face recognition software, webcam
    • Harman Kardon speakers, wireless enabled
    • touch sensitive media keys

    Buy now from pc world
     
     

    60 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

    1. Jon May 23, 2008 at 7:11 pm - Reply

      I like the Toshiba A300 1BZ but are unsure about the lack of an HDMI port. Is the S-video sufficient for output to 32″ LCD TV or is worth waiting for a model with an HDMI port?

    2. Ollie June 27, 2008 at 12:05 pm - Reply

      i was reading several reviews before wanting to purchase this awsome looking laptop, and alot of them say that the glossy black finish is annoying and requires frequent cleaning of fingerprints ect… would you agree?

    3. Richard June 27, 2008 at 8:36 pm - Reply

      The piano black gloss does collect finger prints but to be honest it is no chore to clean, I use a lint free cloth to lean mine (like a glasses cleaner). The looks are amazing so I would not let it put you off. Hope this helps

      • Muhammad Rehman July 10, 2011 at 5:24 am - Reply

        Hello richard
        can you help me getting the system restore disc for a300-1bz. I would appreciate if you could do that for me as buying online is way to expensive for me. Thanks. Will be looking forward for your reply.

    4. Ollie June 27, 2008 at 11:23 pm - Reply

      Well thanks for that Richard, one other thing, before the buy, is there and down points towards this laptop? like small annoying things like tinney speakers or it over heating??

    5. chuck July 1, 2008 at 6:32 pm - Reply

      Ollie don't be a tubby wally and just do it. now.

    6. Richard July 1, 2008 at 7:52 pm - Reply

      I have had no problems with it overheating mate. And no niggles that I can think of really

    7. Charlotte July 7, 2008 at 5:26 pm - Reply

      I like the looks of this laptop, what is the battery power like?
      I read in a review that the touch pad controls (play, rewind etc) light up and this is annoying when using the laptop in dark lighting, do you find this to be an issue?

      (I ask as I would obviously watch dvds in the dark and do not want a glare from the controls)

    8. Richard July 7, 2008 at 7:27 pm - Reply

      The battery lasts around 4 hours and a half and have not had any problems with the glare to be honest

    9. Charlotte July 8, 2008 at 2:33 am - Reply

      Great, thanks so much for your quick response. Now to convince my dad it's a good choice!!

    10. Laurie July 29, 2008 at 9:19 pm - Reply

      Had this laptop for one day now, so these are very much first impressions. Firstly the bad side. the glossy finish. Looks great but is actually awful. It collects marks like no bodies business and requires frequent wiping with a soft cloth to keep clean. the keyboard is the same and much more difficult to keep clean. A matt finish would have been so much better.

      The 250GB hard disk came split into two partitions, each of about 120gb (something gets lost in the partitioning). The E drive parition holds the backup and is used to install the operating system onto the c drive at first boot. It seemed completely pointless to ship it like that, took almost an hour before it was usable, and whats the point of storing backups on a partition on the same hard disk – a hard disk failure will lose your recovery software too. They should have supplied one large 250gb hard disk and supplied installation disks or recovery software on dvd. At the earliest point i shall use Partition magic to change the hard disk partitions and burn off the recovery software to a dvd.

      The hard disk was so full of preinstalled junk software – you name it there was a trial version on it that it took me ages to uninstall everything and then defrag the hard disk. this saved me about 15GB of HD space.

      Once up and running though it was impressive. The sound is good even from the built in speakers. It didnt get too hot even after 6 hours of constant running. battery life looks good, and the maximum life isnt achieved until youve done a few charges. I got 4 hours out of the first charge today. It took about 2 hours to fully charge out of the box whilst running the machine. Its fast to boot and fast to shut down too.

      Its real test will come tomorrow when i start installing my specialist software. First impressions are good though and i managed to get £30 knocked off the price at PC World. Their prices were roughly the same as internet prices – give or take a few quid, so its not worth shopping around. be warned though that there are a lot of model variations of the A300 and at first glance many online seem a lot cheaper, but when you dig you will find they have reduced specifications.

    11. Bill August 4, 2008 at 8:23 pm - Reply

      What speed is the hard drive ? and is it possible to get this laptop without partition ?

    12. Ron Cushing August 8, 2008 at 3:36 pm - Reply

      I have 12 volt ( cig lighter plug in) Auto – Air Adaptor Input = 11 – 16 vdc 8 amp max Output 20v 3.5a can this adaptor be used with toshiba A300- 1BZ

    13. Natalie August 8, 2008 at 8:34 pm - Reply

      Hey, I am about to buy a laptop for uni and am in two minds between these Toshiba A300-1BZ and HP DV6855

      the specs seem pretty similar but it will be my 1st laptop and i dnt know much about them. One thing is the graphics card… I’m not exactly a hardcore gamer or anything but would like a decent one to play some games. How is the toshiba games card? Apart from that, jus want it 2 be super fast really, any opinions are very much appreciated!

    14. Richard August 8, 2008 at 8:49 pm - Reply

      The Toshiba is a lovely looking machine and the spec is pretty good too. The graphics card is 128 MB dedicated card so it will be perfect for playing dvd’s and some games. What sort of thing will you be wanting to play? The HP is also a nice looking machine, the spec is very similar (same size hard drive, same processor, same ram). It is however more expensive!

    15. Natalie August 9, 2008 at 3:27 pm - Reply

      It would just be general games like sims lol embarassing, although it would be nice if it was capable of playing games such as call of duty but its not a necessity. I wonder why the hp is more expensive when they’re so similar :s I’m drawn more towards the toshiba coz of price and prettiness, it'[s just i was recommended the HP. thnx for ur help!

    16. Bing August 14, 2008 at 2:02 pm - Reply

      Does it have it's own graphics card??

    17. Richard August 14, 2008 at 2:11 pm - Reply

      Yes it is a dedicated 128mb graphics card on the toshiba.

      Natallie:

      I would say it would be perfect for the sims but if you are wanting a proper gaming laptop you would have to spend a lot more. The toshiba is a powerful machine that should suit 99% of everyones needs (as is the HP but it is dearer), it is NOT a gaming machine though. However an xbox or PS3 is 😉

    18. chucksman August 17, 2008 at 3:52 pm - Reply

      toshiba a300 1bz is amazing very quick not sure about looks but performance wise better that HP dv series

    19. Nebojsa August 18, 2008 at 11:58 am - Reply

      It is great compjuter. Ja buy those kompjuter

    20. Natalie August 19, 2008 at 10:14 am - Reply

      ahh im so indecisive its just i noticed the hp 1 has 1535 Mb graphics memory whereas the toshiba only has 128 so surely that means the hp is better? im seeing my uncle today who should be able to help me decide, then its off to pc world on sat 😀 oh yeh and i wish on the PS3! lol thnx 4 all ur help! U all seem more keen on the toshiba so it will probs be that 1

    21. Natalie August 20, 2008 at 7:31 pm - Reply

      Well i just though people might like to know i actually went for the toshiba A300d 15b which seems to be a step up from the other toshiba 1300-1bz. Thanks for all your help, can’t wait to get it now! :D:D

    22. Richard August 23, 2008 at 11:44 am - Reply

      No problem – glad we could help! Let us know how you get on with the new laptop

    23. Ross August 24, 2008 at 12:38 am - Reply

      i know its got 128mb of memory for the graphics but can you set it to use some of your systems memory in bios for your graphics

    24. saleh August 30, 2008 at 9:06 am - Reply

      Hi,

      I was wondering if someone could advise me as to which is the better laptop for general home and internet use. I was looking at the Toshiba A300-1BZ and the Sony Laptop VGN-NR32S/S with Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 Processor. Both same price but it seems the Toshiba spec is better but I just wonder if Sony is better built and has less faults??

      cheers

    25. Simmy August 30, 2008 at 6:52 pm - Reply

      I think that this laptop is great!!! starting with the badside it does collect my fingerprints all over the place and its kinda annoying to get the scroll function on the touchpad but with more practice i think you’ll get use to it…and about the keyboard i think its great and i like the feel of it but yet again it does collect allot of fingerprints all over the place…To slove the problem i am using a glasses cleaner cloth and it really works! and don’t go using dust cleaning cloths they simply just smudge the marks…

      I also like the fact it has sloping edges so you won’t feel the end of the laptop digging into your wrists…

      and the don’t worry abou it over heating.. it doesn’t overheat that quickly so don’t worry about it heating up the table! i have had it on for about 8 hrs already and the table is hardly warm..!!!

      The thing about Toshiba laptops are reliable, so for those out there looking for a reliable one Toshiba’s are the one!!!
      You can also switch off the light up systems so it won’t distract you from watching a dvd or something…

      The and the speakers are amazing!!!! really crystal clear… and even on a high volume

    26. hiba musa August 31, 2008 at 6:41 pm - Reply

      hello i’ve bought a Compaq, and i was jus so disappointed, av been told its all about the toshibas, so i’v been looking at this A300 1BZ… i study interor design architecture in university so all my uni work is evolved around a laptop, as i use lots of graphic softwares, like auto cad, archicad, etc.
      I need it to be really fast, due to a large amount of photo rendering, and has agod memory..
      so now u know what i need it for shall i get it? or do u think there’s a better one out there for me for around that price (£580)
      Thank you

    27. ketty September 1, 2008 at 12:57 am - Reply

      Hi,

      Am looking for a Toshiba laptop and i ve seen the Toshiba-A300-1BZ on pc world wibesite. Can anyone tell if it has a built in fingerprint reader. Am so much in love with it.

    28. Michelle September 1, 2008 at 8:15 pm - Reply

      I am not very experienced with computers and looking for my first laptop,its for studying interior design so the graphics need to be really good. Looked at 3Gb…will that be enough to run Abode Photoshop and AutoCad or best with 4Gb?? Been looking at – Toshiba A300-1BZ, HP DV6929, Advent 5401, Dell Studio 15 and Acer 6920G……prices vary by £250 which being a student is making it hard to decide, any help would be much appriecated

    29. mohit September 2, 2008 at 12:53 pm - Reply

      wht about d graphic card?

    30. siraj September 10, 2008 at 1:08 pm - Reply

      i Well i just though people might like to know i actually went for the toshiba A300d 15b which seems to be a step up from the other toshiba 1300-1bz. Thanks for all your help, can’t wait to get it now! :D:D

    31. Adil September 11, 2008 at 12:02 am - Reply

      hi im a student of computing at university who has been searching for a new laptop suitable for my needs – to replace my ageing toshiba L20 satellite pro which i have had turned on almost 24 hours a day for the last 2 and a half years and still going strong – and i had found a well spec’ed HP for only £399 however the day before i was going to purchase it i learned that the Nvidia graphics chips used to produce this laptop were defective this is a defect shared with almost every Nvidia GPU of the quatro, 7xxx go, 8xxx and the 9xxx series although Nvidia wont even officially own up as to which GPU’s are defective!!! both hp and dell have listed some of their models which are.

      So with nvidia being untrustworthy i opted to locate a well spec’ed laptop using an ATI GPU instead and initially found som retailers have stock of acer 6920g’s using ati gpu’s whilest the reference acer used an nvidia gpu in its incarnation – no doubt in responce to the defective nvidia ones however the high price tag it commands put me off a bit then i found this A300 1BZ it has an impressive specification i especially like the processor as it is manufactur using the smaller 45 nm process which is faster and more efficient than the older 65 chips most mid range laptops still use (as a side note the FSB of this chip is 800 mz as opposed to the 667 of chips found in most other intel chips in this price bracket – for all the computer illiterate this is a very good thing (]: ) and this particular model is the cheapest intel processor spec’ed laptop with a decent ATI GPU namely the HD 3470 which is vastly superior to any integrated intel junk the only real downside of this laptop for me is the lack of a HDMI output but honestly i would probably only have used this feature a few times a year so its not that much of a bother to me.

      in reguard to some people complaining about fingerprints on the keys i hardly notice them so im left wondering if your eating KFC (LOL!) while typing but then im a man and i guess mess dosent faze me much

      To summarise the toshiba A300 1BZ is a great specification laptop at a great price which still manages to look prettier than more expensive offerings from other manufacturers and Toshiba is one of the few to have implemented ati graphics, the A300 1BZ is a horrible name for what i believe is going to be a bulletproof laptop if my current satellite pro is anything to go by.

      N.B. try not to be swayed by the AMD processor varients due the their lower cost as they return a lower performance than current Intel offerings (and no im not an Intel fanboy as i use an AMD 3000+ 64 venice 1800stock @2700Mhz Stable in my desktop)

      i hope somebody finds this useful (im sorry it is so long winded)

    32. prinju philip September 20, 2008 at 10:03 am - Reply

      Yes, the toshiba A300 which i just bought yesterday has fingerprint reader and face recognition softwares pre-installed. You just got to activate it. This model is a real beauty in terms of finish and quality. The only downside is getting your fingerprints all over the body and requires frequent cleaning. The Harmon-Kardon speakers are fantastic. Toshiba’s True-Bright display is simply great. But I find the battery draining out pretty quickly after the initial full day charge. Now it’s been charging second time for five hrs straight and the battery charge display hasn’t gone out yet. I hope this gets better after a couple of discharge-charge cycles.

    33. ELLIOT September 20, 2008 at 6:07 pm - Reply

      I am also thinking about getting this laptop. I would need it for a bit of college work but I would also like to be able to play some games such as doom 3, FEAR or quake 4. I dont know an awfull lot about computers, so do you think that these games will be playable on this laptop?

    34. Jo September 30, 2008 at 5:41 pm - Reply

      I ave just bought a Toshiba A300-1J1 but does anyone know how to use the face recognition?

    35. Diamond October 1, 2008 at 5:03 pm - Reply

      sorry, should i say toshiba A300 1BZ

    36. Diamond October 1, 2008 at 5:02 pm - Reply

      Im getting a laptop for christmas, but i dont know what to get, ive been looking at the toshiba an the inspiron 1525, i dont know what to get, can you give me some advice?

      Bye xx

    37. Isobel October 3, 2008 at 9:49 pm - Reply

      Advent 5411 or Toshiba a300-1bz?

      Bearing in mind the advent is £70 cheaper has a 4GB RAM and 320 GB HD but I know Toshibas a better brand name. How much of a difference will this make?

    38. postie October 5, 2008 at 7:33 pm - Reply

      the gfx on the Toshiba A300-1BZ would i be able to play world of warcraft or maybe even cod4 or similiar types of games?

    39. DAVE October 6, 2008 at 4:28 pm - Reply

      Hi

      Does the Toshiba A300 IBz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8100, have "Centrino" technology incorporated?

    40. Peter October 12, 2008 at 4:15 pm - Reply

      Hi,
      I’ve now read through all the reviews / comments and this laptop certainly sounds great, maybe bar the fingerprint marks that a lot of you seem to be saying.
      I am looking for a laptop for music production and recording so my question to anyone who has this laptop is how quiet is it??
      Or if any knows of an alternative around this price bracket then i’d be most grateful.
      Cheers.

    41. Leon October 17, 2008 at 6:49 pm - Reply

      Guys im wanted to buy this laptop should i?''???????????????????????????why?''?????????????

    42. katie October 28, 2008 at 10:11 pm - Reply

      bought this laptop on 18 oct – installed vista updates on sunday, and it hasn’t restarted since. guy at pc world says he thinks the hard drive has died – anyone else have this problem? am gutted as i really like the machine, but am cautious to get the same one now in case the same thing happens. any advice?

    43. Richard October 28, 2008 at 10:16 pm - Reply

      I would not have thought it was the laptops fault – more than likely the vista updates. I once installed a load of updates and powered down mid update and it stuffed the laptop. I ran the recovery disks and all returned to normal. Don’t let it put you off getting another Toshiba – it is a great machine.

    44. chetan October 30, 2008 at 3:46 pm - Reply

      Hi,
      i am chetan i have toshiba satellite A300-1J1 product. I am not able to install nvidia graphics for this model. Please can any one help me out in installing or send me links to install.

    45. Geebs November 2, 2008 at 10:02 pm - Reply

      hey, am lookign for a new laptop and am divided between the Toshiba A300-1Bz and the Toshiba L300-13S, either one will be an upgrade on my old Acer travelmate 4050LCi. I really just want it for watching dvds/online tv and listening to music at uni and doing work. No gaming or anything like that. Which will be better – does any1 know. I know technically the A300 will be due to it costing £100 more but is this the one that is most value for money? does any1 know anything about the L300-13S??

    46. Richard November 2, 2008 at 10:05 pm - Reply

      We have written a guide on the l300-13 s http://www.gadgetsandgizmos.org/toshiba-l300-13s-laptop-review-with-specification/

      The basic differences is that the 1bz has a bigger hard drive (250gb), a slightly quicker processor and has quick launch buttons. It also has a piano black finish.

      The l300 13 s is still a pretty good machine, especially for the money

    47. Dee November 9, 2008 at 11:14 am - Reply

      Hey i am getting a deal for a Dell and a Toshiba. The Dell is a Inspiron 1525 and has intel core 2duo t8100 2.1ghz and 320gb, 4gb ram 15'4 integrated graphics but i am confused as to that one or the toshiba A300-1BZ. They are for around £550 so i do not know which 1 2 get as i have herd that Vista only uses 3gb ram and 4gb is unneccessary… Please can some one help. Thanks Dee

    48. zayyad November 9, 2008 at 4:45 pm - Reply

      hey every one! am new hera and just wanted to say what a wondeful job you have all being doing,you have being really helpful nwy i was checking this laptop toshiba A300-1EG and there was no specs whether or not it had the fingerprint function and am really in love with it, pls can someone help me confirm. Thanks for ur help

    49. Richard November 9, 2008 at 5:00 pm - Reply

      DEE:

      I run vista on my laptop (with 2gb of ram) with no problems at all. 3 GB is great for multi tasking but as with anything the more the better. 4 GB may not be nessasary now but you may need it in the future.

      Zayyad:

      There is not a finger print reader on this toshiba but in our experience this should not put you off. A good strong password will keep all but the most determined person out of your files (unless you are a secret agent ;-))

    50. julius December 26, 2008 at 11:31 am - Reply

      What kind of Satelite Pro is Toshiba A300-1BZ? is it available in Abu Dhabi?

    51. anas April 8, 2009 at 12:05 am - Reply

      hi i have a toshiba laptop,actualy it's very good quality laptop and very flexable……really it's the best i hope evryone try it…….it's realy batter than all the laptops that i did use it before (hp,dell,gateway)thankx for toshiba company……anas moqattash

    52. tyty May 20, 2009 at 3:49 am - Reply

      how do you guys format this laptop? (no fotmat CD was provided for vista)

      where is the file normally stored?

    53. T Rowbotham May 27, 2009 at 3:55 pm - Reply

      Could you please tell me the difference if any between Toshiba models A300 and L300

      Regards Tommy

    54. lee June 3, 2009 at 7:44 pm - Reply

      i’ve just bought a toshiba satellite a300-1j1 off a friend and she’s deleted the hard drive E: and because of this i can’t get back to the preinstalled settings…
      i’ve got in touch with toshiba and they said that if i can get someone with the exact same toshiba satellite a300-1j1 laptop that they can’t make a recovery disc for me…so can someone PLEASE help me out and make a copy for me and send it to my email address

    55. Jessica June 15, 2009 at 6:34 pm - Reply

      wow great points, so glad bout it not heating up like that, I'm usually on computer a long time so there's a really important thing when I buy my first laptop

      I'm getting 1 for my 18th which is in December so bit of a while but I'd like an idea of what I'm looking for.

      I don't know much about laptops myself so not really sure what to expect.

      I know the only makes i don't want to go for is Dell and Acer.

      If any1 thinks of any more advantages and disadvantages then please let me know.

    56. michelle February 21, 2010 at 6:17 pm - Reply

      Hi All

      I am looking toshiba A300-1BZ to buy. But the important question is will it run the sims 3 as i like playing this but fed up of being stuck in the one place on a computer.
      can anyone fill me in on this please as i need to know before i buy it ?

      Thank you
      Michelle

    57. Rob May 29, 2010 at 12:06 pm - Reply

      I have had the A300-1bz for two and abit years now being one of the first people to actually buy one!

      The machine is rock solid never misses a beat and it is used, abused and worked very hard, other laptops such as e-machines, Fujitsu’s, Packard Bell’s, samsungs and even a toshiba p200, just haven’t been able to take the heat

      However after 2 years of hard labour my A300 is starting to show signs of its demise, the battery life is now practically non existent, some of the plastics have become brittle and broken. An alarming noise keeps emanating from the HDD and moving the laptop causes a rattle, and the machine is now starting the slow decline into death, even my samsung n310 netbook is faster to start now!

      But overall this machine has been a solid work horse and has never let me down and would recommend a toshiba to anyone!

    58. Ally September 2, 2010 at 9:28 pm - Reply

      Today i got my A300-1bz back from the hospital, the hard drive had back sectors on it and needed to be replace sadly i also lost all data on it but now it seems back to normal running perfectly a great lap top almost bullet proof

    59. Lila January 4, 2011 at 7:12 pm - Reply

      I got this laptop 2 years ago, at first it was great, but now it's sadly starting to be quite worn. I do use it for a minimum of 8 hours a day though. The main issue I'm having is severe overheating. A screw has also come out at some point and the bottom right corner is now a bit loose! The disc drive doen't seem to want to close properly anymore either. And finally the silver finish on the buttons under the touchpad has now come off from frequents use.

      The good points, it loads up very fast, brilliant for gaming, lots of memory. I've never had a problem with the glossy finish myself, i prefer it to my old matt one. I give it a quick wipe once a week with a cloth and all is sorted.

      Maybe mine is so worn because of the extensive use it gets, my last laptop also ended up in a similar condition before it got destroyed by a bowl of noodles.

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