Bottom Line
The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 is a simple, business-focused laptop with good battery life, plenty of features, and a nice price.
The Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 ($699.99) is an SMB laptop
with solid components and practical looks at reasonable price.
Sometimes you just need a laptop to do the job, and that's what you've
got here. It's not too expensive, and it has the power and battery life
to suit many office workers, and for that we award it our Editors'
Choice for laptops for small-to-medium-size business.
Design and Features
The Tecra C50-B1503's$674.35 at WalMart
chassis is a very dark gray, almost-black polycarbonate, with a ridged
pattern molded into the lid for extra grip. While a bit utilitarian, the
look of the laptop is still modern, with some tapering to the front
edge. You'll find a good selection of I/O ports on the sides, including
an Ethernet jack, an SD card reader, one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0
ports, and a VGA port. There's also a built-in DVD burner. Wireless
connectivity comes by way of 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, letting
you connect to a wide variety of the latest wireless hotspots and smart
devices.
The 15.6-inch, 1,366-by-768-resolution LCD is LED-backlit for even
lighting, and it has an anti-reflective coating. The resolution might
seem limited if you're setting up a Web development business, but it's
perfectly fine for clerical work in Word and PowerPoint. You won't find a
touch screen on this system, but it ships with Windows 7 Professional
pre-loaded, so that's not too much of an issue. Its Microsoft license
covers an install of Windows 8.1 Pro on the same machine, and Toshiba
includes a restore DVD if you want to use the newer OS.
The non-backlit keyboard is comfortable, but has keys that are flatter and more slippery than the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431$599.99 at Amazon.
The space bar is also a bit narrow in proportion to the wide keyboard
deck. That deficiency is balanced by the extra convenience of a full
10-key numeric keypad, which the Lenovo E431 and other competitors like
the Acer Aspire E5-471G-53XG$582.56 at Amazon and Lenovo Z40 lack.
The system has 4GB of memory and a 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. That
means it's slower when you launch programs and reboot the system than
newer ultrabooks with solid-state drives (SSDs), but it is plenty fast
when everything is loaded and active. The hard drive is free of
bloatware, and the only extras are a 30-day trial subscription to Norton
Internet Security and a one-month trial for Office 365. The removable
battery is a good throwback. It will let you replace the battery with a
fresh one once it no longer holds a charge. The system comes with a
one-year warranty.
Performance
An Intel Core i5-4210U processor
with Intel HD Graphics 4400 helps the Tecra C50-B1503 achieve a score of
2,587 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, well within
striking range of the 2,854 points scored by the Lenovo Z40. Likewise,
its multimedia scores are good: 3 minutes 43 seconds on the Handbrake
video encoder test, and 5:48 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. This was
within a minute of the systems to which we compared the Tecra C50-B1503.
The system trumps the Lenovo E431 in battery
life. The Tecra C50-B15043 lasted an excellent 7 hours 20 minutes on
our battery rundown test, while the Lenovo E431 lasted 3:55. The Tecra
C50-B15043's battery life is just about enough to last a full 8-hour
workday, and certainly enough to last on a cross-country flight.
Sometimes a well-priced, competent laptop is more attractive than,
say, a flashier all-metal ultrabook, particularly if you're buying
several for a small startup. With all-day battery life, a newer
processor, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and business-friendly features like a numeric
keypad, the Toshiba Tecra C50-B1503 trumps our former Editors' Choice,
the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431. It gives small to medium business a
reliable utility player.
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