Satellite Pro A50-EC
Dynabook’s first laptop since deconsolidating from Toshiba is a solid business machine, but nothing more
SCORE PRICE £699 (£839 inc VAT) from toshiba.co.uk
Toshiba, you say? That company is no more, at least when it comes to manufacturing laptops. On 1 October 2018, Toshiba’s notebook division undertook its own version of Brexit and “deconsolidated” from the Toshiba Group. The business is now 80% owned by Sharp and calls itself Dynabook, in honour of what it describes as the world’s first notebook, 1989’s Toshiba Dynabook J-3100 SS001 (no relation to the Dynabook concept cooked up by Alan Kay in 1968).
So why isn’t this new laptop called the Dynabook Satellite Pro A50-EC? In the main, no doubt, because the Dynabook brand isn’t yet established in IT managers’ minds, whilst they will instantly recognise the words “Satellite Pro”. Indeed, the approach is cautious all round; design-wise it is business as usual, right down to the Toshiba logo emblazoned on the Satellite Pro’s lid and above the keyboard. You have to search hard to find the word “Dynabook” anywhere: it’s printed on a sticker on the undercarriage, but that’s it.
So what has changed? In truth, there’s very little difference between the old Toshiba Satellite A50-E and the new Satellite Pro A50-EC. That extra “C” primarily denotes the addition of a USB-C port, with the same trick applied to the A50-E models in the company’s Tecra line.
The other enhancements are to security. Top of the list are a Windows Hello-compatible webcam and fingerprint reader, but both are optional – and neither was included
in the A50-EC-11K model that I put to the test. It does, however, include a smart card reader.
As a laptop, then, it’s standard business fare. All the legacy bases are covered, with a DVD writer set into the left-hand side, along with two USB-A ports and an RJ-45 port. And if that doesn’t transport you back to the heady days of 2009, allow me to introduce the VGA port on the righthand side. The new USB-C port sits on the right edge too, but it isn’t for powering the laptop; a proprietary charger takes care of that. A third USB-A port, SD card slot and HDMI output complete the list.
As for the internals, Intel’s Core i7-8550U Kaby Lake R processor is the star attraction. With four cores, Hyper-Threading support and a 1.8GHz base frequency, capable of jumping to 4GHz when needed, it’s a solid base for a modern laptop. If anything, it’s slightly held back by the modest 256GB SATA3 SSD (which delivers sustained write and read speeds of around 500MB/sec) and 8GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 memory.
That doesn’t mean it’s slow, though. An overall score of 80 in our benchmarks indicates a machine that will cope with everyday challenges for several years to come. You can add a second stick of RAM too, although you’ll need a screwdriver to do so.
The removable battery, meanwhile, can be instantly swapped out with no tools required, and a score of 8hrs 21mins in our video-rundown test suggests that the Satellite Pro A50-EC will
“It’s steady as she goes, with Dynabook smartly targeting the pain points of IT managers who need to roll out a fleet of laptops”
get you through a working day without much struggle.
In the portability stakes, the A50-EC’s biggest problem is its sheer size, with meaty bezels around the 15.6in screen making it bulky by modern standards. It’s not as heavy as you might fear, though: despite the brushed metal effect around the keypad, the materials are more plastic than metal. This looks stylish under the right lighting, but picking up this laptop reveals its budgetfriendly construction. Dynabook also scrimps on the screen: the 15.6in Full HD panel is a decent size, but creative professionals such as photographers will laugh at its Delta E of 4.29 and mediocre sRGB gamut coverage of 55.2%. Still, if you just want to plough through spreadsheets, it’s perfectly fine; for instance, there’s no sign of the yellow hue that marks out truly poor panels.
The keyboard is good without being great. Its best feature is how quiet it is to type on and, thanks to the size of the chassis, it doesn’t feel cramped, despite the presence of a separate number pad. My only criticism is that the touchpad would benefit from being a centimetre wider – and there’s no trackpoint to complement it, either.
Is this an exciting, world-affecting laptop? Absolutely not: it’s steady as she goes, with Dynabook smartly targeting the pain points of IT managers who need to roll out a fleet of laptops. It’s a solid machine that’s relatively easy to service, and ticks every box in terms of functionality. As the saying used to go for a one-time giant of PCs, you won’t be fired for buying one – and if you already buy Tosh laptops, this will seamlessly slip into your estate. SPECIFICATIONS Quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550U processor Intel UHD 620 Graphics 15.6in 1,920 x 1,080 non-touch IPS display 256GB SATA3 SSD DVD writer 8GB DDR4-2666 RAM 0.9MP webcam 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4 HDMI VGA RJ-45 USB-C 3.1 3 x USB-A 3.1 SD card reader 44.5Whr battery Windows 10 Pro 379 x 258 x 24mm (WDH) 2.15kg 1yr European RTB warranty