The Toshiba Satellite 5100 attracted by far the most attention around the PC Authority office this month. The hardened metallic blue chassis with its gentle curves and reflective sheen is more than suggestive of the contours of a luxury car. Indeed, the Satellite 5100 is loosely modeled on the Audi TT roadster, and with the lid closed does hint at the Audis sporty profile. Not only does this give Toshiba a head start in the looks department, but it also has a solid build.

Opening the lid reveals an equally impressive interior, with a simple and straight forward keyboard layout, solid and springy keys with just the right amount of give, and just the right amount of real estate on the body to rest your palms while typing, without too much wasted space. The mouse is controlled via the touchpad, but in this case it is a touchpad with a difference. The cPad (as it is called) also doubles as an LCD display backlit by a very cool blue light, and will activate various functions like signature capture,
cut-and-paste or a calculator. Beside the screen hinges are the harmon/kardon stereo speakers, possessing a fine sound for notebook speakers as well as delivering the headlight for the Audi TT theme. If there is one thing that this notebook has plenty of, it is personality.

Of course, when it comes to desktop replacement, personality alone is not enough to qualify. Fortunately for Toshiba, the Satellite 5100 is packed full of features and is built to perform. The TFT screen is outstanding featuring a hardened surface, crisp and bright at the native resolution of 1,600 x 1,200, and with an excellent viewable angle. Apart from the usual array of ports like LAN, modem and PC Card, it comes with SmartMedia and SD Card slots, accompanied by a DVD/CD-RW combo drive and a solid 40GB hard disk. Powering the Satellite is the Intel Pentium 4-M 1.7GHz processor, 512MB of DDR RAM and the awesome NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go. The Toshiba topped all but the battery test, with incredible results, to more than compete with current desktop machines. Money no object? Buy the Satellite 5100.