We wanted a good notebook that could replace an everyday desktop. Toshiba’s A665 was up to the challenge. Packed with a ton a features we gladly took it on. Let’s see if this notebook has what it takes to get us away from the old ball and chain desktop that we do most of our work on.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the A665 is awesome! Your keys are large and spread out. You’ll enjoy using this backlit keyboard over any standard desktop peripheral. The touchpad also delivered. It’s hard to find a good mouse replacement, but I’m glad to say this comes mighty close. It was very, very responsive, and that tends to be an issue with most notebooks, but Toshiba managed to get this right. The mouse buttons had a nice feel also, no squeaking or clicking, they pushed in really smoothly. With these sections being where you spend most of your time actively using a laptop, I’m glad to say the A665 is first class all the way.

Display and Audio

I played a variety of DVDs, games, and online videos which all handled well. This build is ideal for listening to music, watching Netflix and lightweight gaming. The display holds up pretty well, supporting a native 720p resolution, luckily most HD content on the internet is in 720p, so this works out nicely. The only thing missing was a blu ray player. As far as sound goes the A665′s audio was outstanding! The built-in Harman Kardon speakers pack a punch! It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you’ll hear it! For a moment it felt like I had a gaming machine.

Performance

One of my favorite ways to test a system is by doing real everyday tasks such as: video conversion, gaming, and websites loaded with Flash content. Sure, anything can sound and look good on paper, but how well will it actually perform? Loaded with an AMD Pheno II Quad-Core the A665 is up for your multitasking, and just about whatever you can throw at it.

In regards to graphics ATI’s Radeon HD 5650 faired well. Games didn’t blow me out of the water, but were on par with what you’d expect from a home gaming console, and that’s not a bad thing. You’ll be able to play most titles on this machine, but you might have to tweak the settings a bit here and there. If you’re a Steam user you’ll come away happy.

I also managed to do a little video converting, and browsed the web while at it. If this is to truly replace my desktop it needs to hold up doing similar task. Video editing was quick and painless, even when browsing the web. Things slowed up a bit when I got to some of the heavy Flash sites, but that was somewhat expected. As far as battery life goes you’ll get about three hours of action after a charge, which is pretty decent. However, I still would like to see a higher capacity battery, but that would also drive up costs, resulting in a higher price tag.

Conclusion

When it’s all said and done the A665 makes a decent desktop replacement. It can pretty much handle the average user’s needs, and those of some advanced users. The price point is decent for what you’ll get. I really see this machine working for a college student that might be limited on space, but still wants the reliability of a home PC. As long as your heart isn’t set on blu rays and hardcore gaming, you’ll come away more than happy.

Final Verdict: 9.5 out of a possible 10