Once a symbol of extravagance, more and more we see laptops like this capable Toshiba Satellite proving their place in school. Despite the fact that we work in the most frugal of ICT environments, in some schools you’ll find them in use everywhere. How they do this is a mystery I’m afraid, but how they’d afford a Toshiba is an easier one given today’s asking price.

This Satellite 1800 is a special edition tuned to the school world. At one extreme there’s s a built-in floppy drive to show that floppy discs are still part of the currency in schools. At the other is industry-standard wireless networking where you can surf on the internet or exchange files with the school network.

Dig inside Windows and you and a colleague can find the way to connect directly to each other’s laptops. It’s an elegant trick and after that there’s no going back to modems and floppies - Jbut they’re here anyway, along with serial port and printer port for when you want them at home.

Set beside as many laptops as could be mustered, the Satellite 1800 had the brightest of screens and, at 14 inches, it’s a good size. A sturdy keyboard and a noticeably good build, wrap up a very good piece of hardware. A strip of CD player-style keys that sit on a step along the machine front reminds you that this doubles as a home machine.

For software there’s the latest Office suite and Windows XP, accounting for a fair piece of the pie. Add insurance, a warranty for a laptop and there’s a bit less worry in the time ahead. All that remains is a phone call to one of those schools to answer this mystery: how do you turn vision into the cash for a laptop as nice as this?

Roger Frost

Toshiba Satellite 1800-364e Intel Celeron 1.1GHz processor

15Gb hard disk

128 Mb RAM

modem

infrared ethernet

wireless networking

CD-Rom

14-inch screen

Microsoft Windows XP Pro 12 months warranty

Price: pound;849 + VAT or around pound;29 per month leased + VAT

Available from XMA

Tel: 01158 464 646

www.xmaonline.co.uk

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