If portability is what you are looking for in your laptop, then Toshiba’s L735-S3220RD might just fulfill your purpose. Inspite of its lighter and smaller dimensions, poor battery life (3 hours and 10 minutes) along with not so good input ergonomics could be a letdown. The unit is relatively highly priced at $779(as of September 24, 2011) owing to the Blu-ray drive and its accompanying software.
The L735-S3220RD in comparison to the usual 14-15 inches all-purpose notebooks is only 13.3 inch with 1366-by-768 pixel display and weighs 4.3 pounds making it relatively lighter and portable. The smaller 48-watt battery also makes the laptop lighter in weight but the run-time is being compromised on this. The laptop with its red-and-black looks might jus impress you once all the stickers plastered over the keyboard deck are removed.
The unit has a pretty good configuration, equipped with Core i5-2410M CPU; 4GB of DDR3 memory; and a 5400-rpm, 640GB hard drive, the laptop has a world bench 6 score of 114. the Intel HD graphics delivered maximum 30 frames per second at low detail and resolution, though 1080p video playback was real smooth. The speakers are poor, the shortcoming least expected from Toshiba, though the audio heard from headphones qualify as fine.
With a top-notch layout, evenly sized and unsculpted keys the laptop is a mixture of good and bad in terms of input ergonomics. The red keyboard has a nice feel but the small, textured key board is distinguished only by a slightly textured coating. Even the buttoning and cursoring feel a little cramped.
L735-S3220RD provides good connectivity options with three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA video output, audio-in and -out, and a Kensington lock port, an SD/MMC card reader, 802.11b/g/n wireless, and 10/100 ethernet.
A standard array of utilities and trial software, including Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Norton Internet Security, and the Google toolbar comprises the software bundle of the unit. Other apps are also provided ranging from hard drive protection via motion sensor to duplicating functionality. Windows 7 home premium is the OS on which the laptop runs and the Corel Win DVD handles BLU-RAY and DVD playback. The performance can be enhanced by removing the chaff.
The L730 series of Toshiba can provide you for the basics with lesser performance and no blu-ray for a relatively low price as well. Older Intel Pentium B940 and an i3-2310M processor form the cheaper CPU option. The cheaper models would cost you around $479.
The L735-S3220RD can be considered a mixed bag owing to its smaller, lighter design and short battery life with subpar input ergonomics.