Toshiba Satellite M645 Review

The Toshiba Satellite M640 and M645 offer a 14-inch laptop with solid performance and an attractive design at a modest price. As parents and students gear up for the back-to-school season, does the Satellite M640 below at the top of your shopping list? Keep reading to see what we think of this Core i5-equipped model with Nvidia discrete graphics.
Our review unit of the Toshiba Satellite M640 (M645-S4055) comes with the following features:

14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting

Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Intel Core i5 450M (2.40GHz)

Nvidia GeForce 330M graphics card w/ 1GB GDDR3 dedicated memory (Optimus switchable graphics)

4GB DDR3 RAM

500GB 5400RPM hard drive (Toshiba MK5065GSX)

802.11b/g/n wireless

Slot-Loading DVD SuperMulti (+/- Double Layer) with Labelflash

Warranty: 1-Yr Parts and Labor, 1-Year Battery

6-cell Li-ion battery (48Wh) and 75W power adapter

Weight: 5.26 lbs

Dimensions: 13.3 x 9.1 x 1.12-1.45 inches

Price as configured: $1,049.99 ($719 starting price)

Build and Design
The Satellite M640/M645 is the latest generation of multimedia notebooks from Toshiba and is designed to offer a perfect balance of performance and style. At first glance, the design of the M645 is pretty traditional with sculpted edges, a mixture of smooth and textured glossy plastics, and some attractive LED accent lighting. The exterior is covered in what Toshiba calls the "Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal." Personally, I call it black glossy plastic with a textured "chain" pattern imprinted in the surface to help hide fingerprints and dirt. Despite the silly marketing name for the finish, I have to give Toshiba credit here. The textured chain pattern gives you the modern look of the glossy plastics but doesn't look like a horrible magnet for smudges, dirt, or whatever else a student spills on a laptop.

The build quality of the M645 is very good with a durable main chassis that doesn't squeak, creak, or flex even under significant pressure. The screen hinges are a little loose, making it easy to open the laptop with one hand but also making it easy to accidentally move the screen if you bump the laptop. While we're on the topic of the screen, the screen lid doesn't provide as much protection as we'd like. If you press on the back of the screen while the laptop is running you'll see obvious distortions on the screen itself. In addition, placing more than one heavy textbook on the screen lid causes the lid to bend inward sharply toward the screen ... suggesting that the screen lid doesn't offer much protection.
The bottom of the notebook includes two access plates for the RAM, wireless card and the hard drive. Despite the fact that most people buying consumer multimedia notebooks don't perform upgrades, Toshiba engineers made is very easy to get inside this laptop. You only have to remove one screw to access the hard drive and one screw to get to the RAM and wireless card.

Screen and Speakers
The M645 has a 14-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is "very good" within the narrow vertical viewing angle sweet spot. The backlight is even and bright, contrast is sharp and colors are good though the colors are a little warm at the default settings. If there is a single obvious issue it has to be the narrow vertical viewing angles. While the horizontal viewing angles (side view) are nearly flawless, the colors become over exposed when viewed from above and significantly inverted and distorted when viewed from below. If you are using this laptop for color-accurate editing you will need to be certain you're viewing the screen from straight ahead.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The full-size keyboard with LED backlighting on the M645 features Chiclet-style keys that are responsive and provide a little extra spacing to prevent typos. The keys are large and flat and have a glossy texture that shows smudges from your skin oils over time. There is no noticeable flex unless you apply significant pressure to the keys in the middle of the board. A individual key presses are quiet with virtually no "click-clack" noise while typing; making it an excellent choice for taking notes in a classroom or office meeting room. The keyboard also features dedicated multimedia keys above the keyboard and dedicated home, end, page up and page down keys.
The Synaptics touchpad is a fairly nice with a matte texture that provides smooth cursor movement. The touchpad drivers provide excellent accuracy and minimal lag with a range of options. This is a multi-touch touchpad with customizable gestures and overall this touchpad works exactly like you want a touchpad to work. However, the touchpad buttons have very shallow feedback with moderately loud clicks when you press the buttons.
Heat and Noise
The Toshiba M645 does a very good job producing low heat and noise. The self-adjusting fan speeds usually stay well below what you can hear in a quiet room, and the heat pours out of the vent on the right hand side. The location of the vent might bother people who use right-handed external mice, because the laptop pushes heat out where your hand is likely located. The only other obvious hot spot on this notebook is on the bottom right next to the heat vent. In general, the M645 stays very "lap friendly" as long as you avoid the area around the heat vent.

Battery Life
In the "balanced" power mode with 75% screen brightness, the Satellite M645 lasted for four hours and nine minutes of non-stop use while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty good for a notebook with a stock 6-cell battery, but we're seeing more and more notebooks with this level of performance deliver five hours or more continuous run time, so we'd have to call this "average." That said, the battery can last even longer if you lower the screen brightness and occasionally let the system go to sleep. Of course, if you're running applications that stress the processor, hard drive, or Nvidia graphics then you can expect the battery life to drop even lower.
Pros:

Attractive design

Excellent performance

Great keyboard

Cons:

Weak screen protection

A little expensive as configured