“Business” is the first word the Toshiba Tecra A9-S9013 brings to mind. Sporting a simple design, the Tecra is a durable, reasonably priced solution for the clumsy notebook owner. But despite packing Intel’s latest Santa Rosa chipset, it doesn’t have the best performance punch.
The 6.6-pound Tecra A9 is housed in a simple silver-and-black case that’s smooth to the touch. Though it won’t break your shoulder in a laptop bag, its 13.2 x 10.6 x 1.2-inch chassis doesn’t leave room on the tray table for a cup of coffee. The spill-proof keyboard is roomy and comfortable, as is the touchpad controller and the track point. We had some problems hitting our intended keys, mostly because of the inlay on the keyboard’s left edge, which is home to the Power button, Toshiba’s Assist shortcut button, and Windows Mobility Center launch button. We wish there were a volume control on the main panel; instead it’s located on the front edge of the case.
The 15.4-inch matte widescreen display has a 1280 x 800-pixel resolution but was dim even at its brightest setting. Vertical viewing angles were good, but horizontal angles were limited. We were impressed with the speakers located in front of the screen’s hinge. Bob Dylan’s Restless Farewell came through loud and clear; when the laptop was positioned in another room, we could still hear the harmonica.
You get three well-spaced USB 2.0 jacks, along with a VGA output, serial port, 5-in-1 memory card reader, and a PC Card slot. Our model was lacking a four-pin FireWire port, though Nvidia-configured versions of the Tecra A9 come with one. An 8X DVD burner is on the left side.
With the third generation of Toshiba’s EasyGuard protection, the Tecra A9 is equipped with a 120GB hard drive that’s both shock-mounted and guarded by an active protection system that parks the heads if the machine were to fall. This system’s protective zone has even been expanded to the entire length of each of the four sides. Although it wasn’t overly sensitive, moving the notebook onto our lap often produced an HD protection message. When we launched the 3D HDD protection viewer from our system tray and dropped the system into our hands, it detected the forward angle of the impact. In addition to protecting your hardware, Toshiba includes TPM circuitry and built-in security software that allows for multiple-level passwords. The Tecra A9 is equipped with a fingerprint reader as well, which is located below the arrow keys.
We weren’t thrilled with the Tecra A9’s performance. The 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor delivered a below-average score of 3,099 on PCMark05. When watching a DVD, chatting on Skype, and typing a document, the system didn’t slow down any of those tasks, but opening new programs tested our patience. Our system came with only 1GB of RAM, though it’s upgradable to 4GB. We’d recommend at least 2GB, an upgrade that costs only $71.99.
The Tecra A9’s graphics performance was also below average. Its 1,233 score on 3DMark03 means gaming is out of the question; however, we had no problem using Vista’s Flip 3D feature.
Battery life from the included six-cell battery was just shy of average, at 2 hours and 7 minutes for our DVD rundown. Wireless throughput around 16 Mbps on our tests was decent, and the system picked up a wide range of networks and connected at high speeds. We were disappointed with the lack of wireless 802.11n connectivity, however-especially for a Santa Rosa system. We liked that the built-in Bluetooth allowed us to easily connect stereo Bluetooth headphones.
The Tecra A9 offers a nice array of software and isn’t loaded down by crapware. You’ll find Toshiba’s management and recovery utilities, Google Desktop for easy searching, and InterVideo’s DVD-playback software. We did remove Google’s Desktop search from the startup because it was slowing down boot time. The standard one-year warranty covers parts and labor and includes 24/7 phone tech support.
Those looking for a solid, klutz-proof business notebook on a budget may be happy with the Toshiba Tecra A9-S9013. Just don’t expect the best performance.