Pros: Light weight which is a plus when taking it to and from school. It's slim design also made for more room for other things (books, etc). Fast speed, so I didn't have to sit and wait for files to load and be used. Long battery life. I am able to run multiple programs (even programs that take up a lot of memory. Cubase, Photoshop, etc. I can even run them all at once with no issue).

Cons: The small sliver corner cover on the left of the model fell off within days. The battery locks also plopped off without my knowing, and I am unsure how. My disc drive stopped working, and finally the unit stopped charging after a year of use. I want to see if I am the only one with this problem?

Pros: - The i5 is a great chip and this laptop seems to make great use of it.
- Having an inbuilt optical drive (DVD write) is fantastic at this weight/price.
- Screen size and resolution are perfect for what I need, which is a portable machine that I can use for a little development and general browsing/reading.
- The keyboard took a little getting used to, but I've grown to really like it, positive but not overly 'clicky'.
- I like being able to disable the touchpad when using a usb mouse, stops random mouse movements when resting your palms!

Cons: - The camera sucks, but for low quality video calls on Skype it's really just fine.
- The pre-installed OS/utilities are a pain, but as others have said, I just grabbed a clean install of Win7 and installed that using the key on the base of the unit.
- The screen can be a little reflective in high brightness environments as it's a bit glossy, but nothing that makes it unusable and I'm rarely in situations like that.
- I find the track pad a little insensitive when trying to use the scroll (stroking the right hand edge of the pad), find that sometimes it works and other times it just moves the mouse. That might be my inaccuracy but it can be annoying as my old laptop did that really nicely (about all it did nicely mind).

Overall Review: Pro or con, depends on your view, but there is no catch when you close the lid. This worried me at first, but has not proven to be a problem. The battery life isn't quite what they state but it's not bad either, I get 4-5 hours with it on WiFi and charging other devices plugged in on the USB, so still very reasonable. Has a good set of ports, all that I need from a laptop. It runs quietly most of the time, unless I put it under real load and its build quality is very good. Overall, I'm very happy with it and would have expected to pay a good few hundred bucks more for what I got.

Pros: It's really as light as they say, despite the optical drive--3.2 lb! It's lighter than my old 11.6" machine. I also managed to snag it on sale elsewhere (sorry!) for $649. My initial disappointment with surrendering my intent to get a machine with discrete graphics was quashed by the realization that Sandy Bridge's HD 3000 IGP is remarkably capable--better than the G 105M in my old unit. It's responsive and sensitive, with a screen that remains vibrant even at low levels of light. The presence of both eSATA and USB 3.0 is weird but has been useful, as I simply run files from my old external to this unit and back them up in to my new USB3 drive. The sleep-charge feature is pretty nice too for travelers. Tinkerers: I buy Toshiba in part because it's pretty easy to get at the innards to upgrade drives, memory, and whatnot, and the R835 chassis is no exception. Upgrading to 8GB of memory required no more than two minutes and a small screwdriver (and $40).

Cons: These are not deal-breakers and I considered pulling an egg for them, but they are matters of personal taste. First, the screen is that glossy reflective finish that has no reason to exist on a computer ever, ever, EVER. Has it ever been useful to anyone? I don't think so--it's for aesthetic quality only. Second, you can't turn off double-tapping or multitouch on the touchpad that I've been able to find. Even after fiddling with sensitivity, it is still WAY too easy to accidentally click things. Third, the keyboard...where to start? Toshiba used to use shallower versions of standard keyboards, and even Acer-style chiclet designs, but now the keys are weird rectangular islands that are too stiff and require getting used to. I did it, and I certainly appreciate that they are more robust, but this can't have been the only option. The final issues are all connected to the model, so don't warrant an egg being docked: no Bluetooth or docking; & the integrated camera is pretty bad.

Overall Review: If you buy the warranty extension from Toshiba directly, you can get it at 2 years for under $100. The box includes a coupon for a discount on various plans and accessories that may be useful. If you're on the road a lot this is a nice machine that won't destroy your back. You can overcome a lot of its absent features either by getting the P75 or by getting aftermarket USB modules for things like Bluetooth. Even at $800, this is a good buy. It doesn't get too warm, it's easy to pull off the bloatware with a modicum of expertise, and the build quality is pretty good even though you may worry about damaging it because it's so light. With a matte screen and a better keyboard, this would be the best laptop in creation for the specs; as it is, it's "merely" great.

Pros: 1. size and weight
2. battery life
3. Price
4. CD/DVD drive

Cons: 1. while burning restore backup DVDs, drive made noise until i placed the cord under the front right side, this stopped the rattling...
2. the push 2tv netgear box is not available yet (not issue with PC, but not able to use the technology yet!)
3. both memory slots filled with 2g each (would prefer not to have to replace all memory to upgrade - although this is a common issue with these smaller laptops...)
4. Hard to see keyboard with out proper room lighting

Overall Review: The cons were all minor, nothing major. Overall i like the pc and was aware of most minor issues prior to purchasing. I went ahead and bough 8g of memory from crucial... right at $100, so i will be really happy with this pc. Works great on my work's vpn connection and was each to setup. The battery life is impressive - this was a major pro for me and a top 3 reason for picking this pc over others. Weigh is great too, no issue with moving around daily and easy to have on your lap! First ordered from a different site, they later told me it was not in stock, went with Newegg, no issues and shipped next day. Impressed with Newegg order. will order again...

Pros: It's so light. People are almost always amazed when they first pick it up. I am extremely happy with this notebook. Toshiba did so many things right. Trackpad is good with 2 and 3 finger support. You may need to tweek it a bit. The CPU is fast and responsive. Some of the Toshiba apps are actually very useful. The battery life gives me all day computing.

Cons: No 2 finger right click. No idea why. I'm going to have to upgrade to as SSD. Why? Because my wife has an SSD in her's. Screen is ok. It won't blow you away but it won't disappoint you either.

Overall Review: It has up to 3 finger gesture support. Adobe Reader proves it supports 3 finger swipe up and down in addition to left and right even if it isn't listed in the trackpad settings. If you got more cash to spend look at the R830 series for some serious power upgrades to the notebook. This is the consumer version of the notebook. However, I think this is the best bang for your buck.

Pros: Lightweight, beautiful bright screen, speedy CPU. Solid construction.

Hard drive is a standard 9.5mm / 2.5" 5400 RPM laptop drive (Hitachi 5k750-640 in my case). As such, it would be easy to replace/upgrade.

Touchpad is smart and has this cool cyclical scroll style (you can make clockwise rotations with your fingertip to scroll). There is also a dedicated kill switch to turn on/off the trackpad when not in use.

Overall impressions are that the unit is snappy. The hard drive hurts it, but is easily replaceable, but all the CPU/GPU stuff you care about works fine. This is not a gaming laptop but browsing/flash/flickr type stuff is all great.

Cons: These are *minor* quibbles but knock 1 star off when aggregated.

4gb ram is achieved by populating both slots with 2gb chips. This could be an issue for future expansion.

Webcam is only ok/serviceable. Not good in low light. Face detection gimic is totally a gimic and takes longer than just typing your password.

There is *alot* of preinstalled software that you don't want. This doesn't bother me as I always wipe and reinstall but is a consideration.

There is a tiny wobble to the chrome hinge cover on the left side. On such a solidly constructed machine this bothered me a bit, but if you aren't completely OCD it is not an issue.

Overall Review: Could be a pro or a con, this model is the basic/fast SKU. i.e. it has the core i5 not i3 but it doesn't have the frills like the fingerprint reader/bluetooth etc. I think this is a good thing as I have never needed either of these and it knocks $200 off the price compared to other SKUs for this laptop.

This is *not* a recall model. The recalled models... were RECALLED. As such this is the updated version.

Pros: Very light weight, screen is the perfect size for me, does not seem to run hot.

Cons: Webcam is pretty awful. If it is even remotely dim in your room you won't be able to see a thing. Other than that for this price a back lit keyboard would have been nice, combined is why its only 4 stars.

Overall Review: To the guy who said this might be a recall model, the model on the bottom of mine says P56X which I do believe is the fixed model even though the product page just says P56 so you should be all set.

I will update the rating later if I feel necessary.

Pros: Looks like a great laptop

Cons: May be a recalled model.

Overall Review: Toshiba recalled the R835-P56 in February, due to the Intel Sandy Bridge problem with SATA drives. I've heard the fixed model is R835-P56X.