I recently bought this laptop and "Saya tak rela diliwat lagi"

This is my 5th day using this new laptop. Here's what I think of it.

1. it's fast but the tons of Toshiba utility programs that bogs the startup time - really really dulls the excitement.

At least 14 Toshiba applications are pre-installed and starts running from the time you hit the ON button - from things like security thumbscanner to a HDD monitor that faithfully pops up a message to tell you that it's so clever to have had sensed that you had 'bumped' the laptop and hence parked its HDD head - for safety.

2. if you have sweaty fingers or do not like shiny surfaces that will literally display finger and palm smudges - this is not something you will like. So that's why-la they bundle with this laptop a 5x5inch surface cleaning cloth - ya as if grated you will put in the effort to wipe wipe wipe all the time. I do however think that CSI would love this laptop as evidence in their lab as they will find all kinds of prints on it.

3. It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium but why is the MS SQL Server 2005 hogging it? It's preinstalled but by whom? Toshiba or did it come with Win 7 Home? And what is it for? An ordinary Joe consumer wouldn't appreciate it. No documentation, hardcopy nor did I find anything online that could tell me. Anyone?!

4. Whether you are a techie or not, you will wonder why is this new and modern machine running so 'slow', especially at startup - after all it has the latest Core i5 with Turbo Boost technology and I had even upgraded from the default 2GB of RAM to 4GB (and that's DDR3 speeds for you thank you).

IF you are a techie and you go get something like the Yamicsoft Windows 7 Manager and run all the tweaks therein, then the effort makes the difference. What difference? Well from a the point when you press the ON button till you get to click a desktop icons and get an actual response from your action:

- before 'tweaking' - 4 minutes of coffee-making waiting time on your hands;

- After 'tweaking' - it came down to a decent 15 seconds.

Now somebody tell me what's wrong with that scenario and how would Toshiba like to answer the average Joe-computer-illiterate?

5. The Toshiba telephone customer support SUCKS! (I can find a nicer, better word but I purposely want to spell this word S-U-C-K-S)

The website gives you a list of support centre numbers to call. They will even do a callback if you enter your phone number on their website. Great. But guess what after waiting 5 minutes listening to some music and the AVR messages?

A live person comes on and you end up shouting profanities at him after which you bang down the phone, hard, when a simple query like 'how-to get this utility working' is put to him.

Want to know the response? - here it comes ... 'I recommend you re-image your laptop'.

I Do What? Re-what? Re-image, as in wipe out everything to factory-defaults and start my 5 days of life all over again just because you don't *bloody* bother to advice me on my drivers or perhaps perform some troubleshooting steps over the line with me? Li-wat la.

So I paid RM3499 for this thing and added RM160 for the additional 2GB RAM making my cost RM3659. If I could turn back time and do it again would I want this beast?

'Saya tak rela di liwat lagi'. Funny how the grass does usually seem greener at other side - well at least until you get there and find out someone's asking you to re-image just to get a utility working again.

Sure I've got more to share but for now, this is Toshiba - Leading Innovation for you.