Make no mistake, this is one heavyweight of a notebook. The 3.3kg of the Satellite 2800 accounts for some of this, but otherwise it applies to some of the exceptional features found on this model.

The rounded clamshell chassis looks familiar in its gunmetal and silver colour scheme, with a DVD-ROM drive and audio ports on the right side, floppy drive and PC Card slots on the left, and an array of ports on the back for Ethernet, modem, PS/2, serial, parallel and external video. There are louvres all over the place for ventilation and they must be doing the job as the Satellite 2800 is comfortable in the lap while running for extended periods.

Look closer though and there are some buttons on the spine of the notebook which resemble audio/visual controls and a switch that allows you to play audio CDs without turning the notebook on. Best sound is achieved when the clamshell is actually opened up, as the satellites are set into the chassis just above the keyboard and sound muffled if the CD is played with the clamshell closed. In the case of DVD movies, the Satellite 2800 actually boots when the toggle is switched on. And the sound? Remarkably good for a notebook. Still less than perfect in quality but ahead of anything else found on an off-the-shelf notebook.

Theres a bass boost button next to the play controls, which explains some of the audio quality. When enabled the Satellite 2800s subwoofer, integrated into the notebook and situated on the underside of the chassis, kicks in and fills out the bottom end of sound. Two satellite speakers lie above the keyboard. Driving the speakers is an integrated Yamaha sound chipset with software synthesis.

The 13.3in TFT screen is not as large as some of the high-end offerings but is adequate and helps keep the cost down compared to the 15in monsters seen on some of the greyhounds of the notebook market space like the Dell Inspiron 8000 (reviewed issue 40, p70). The graphics are nowhere as fast as the Dell Inspiron 8000 including 3D, using a S3 Mobile Savage IX graphics chip, which with the good quality TFT maintained a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels comfortably.

Elsewhere around the world there are different configurations of the Satellite 2800 family to be found including some with the new nVidia GeForce2 Go graphics chip. The family, as released in Australia, consists of four models: a Celeron 650 with an ATi Mobility graphics chip and a Crystal Semiconductor sound chip below the Celeron 700 that we have here, and two Pentium III models running at 700 and 750MHz above. Display sizes will vary across the range to 15in on the top model without any change in dimensions and only a small increase in weight. All the models in the range except the lowest offering come with a 56K modem and Ethernet built-in and a DVD-ROM drive, leaving nothing to desire except maybe CD-R capabilities.

The Celeron 700 in the Satellite 2800 put up a fine showing scoring a credible 1.50 in the PC Authority Benchmarks. Some recent notebooks sporting Pentium III CPUs would have the Satellite give them a run for their money; for example, the HP OmniBook 6000 with a Pentium III running at the same frequency (700MHz), which only managed 1.67 in the same tests (reviewed issue 37, p72).

To make another comparison, in 3D testing with 3DMark2000 Pro the Savage IX of the Satellite 2800 makes the OmniBook look like its standing still. While you still wouldnt want to make a habit of action gaming on the Satellite there is scope there to keep the notebook out after dark for entertainment purposes. Certainly DVD movie viewing was not compromised in quality. The only concern was slight glitching in some action sequences leading me to think the Pentium III models might serve better for this purpose.

Toshiba does not rate the Satellite 2800 as its entry-level notebook, that mantle being held by the Satellite 1730 series. At a modest $3,630 though, the 2800 model is a steal when you consider that it will do all you would expect from a desktop replacement notebook, plus more in the multimedia features that puts the others to shame.