If you’re in the market for an inexpensive laptop, the Toshiba Satellite NB15t-A1304 ($379.99 list) may have caught your eye. While the low price is attractive, and features like a touch screen and full selection of ports are definitely appealing, don’t forget the old adage “you get what you pay for.” It’s a common caveat when discussing low-priced PCs, but it bears repeating—lower prices are often achieved by cutting corners, and the compromises made to bring down the price of the Satellite NB15t-A1304 may not seem like such a bargain.

Design
The small laptop has an 11.6-inch touch screen, with 10-finger touch—better than the five-finger tracking offered on other laptops in this price range—but it only offers 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is a little disappointing. It does, however, offer a touch-capable display, perfect for use with Windows 8.1, with its various gesture controls and app tiles. While we’ve seen a few other touch screens in this price range—the Acer Chromebook C720P-2600($299.00 at Acer)(Opens in a new window) and the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB)($463.69 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) come to mind—most laptops in this category are still non-touch.

The NB15t-A1304 is sized for use on the go, measuring just 0.99 by 11.20 by 8.20 inches (HWD), and weighing only 3.3 pounds. While that’s light enough to grab and go, it’s still a fair bit heavier than other low-priced competitors, like the Asus T100TA (2.4 pounds with docking keyboard), or our two favorite Chromebooks, the Acer C720P-2600 (2.8 pounds) and the HP Chromebook 11($130.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (2.3 pounds).

The NB15t-A1304 keeps the expenses low with plastic construction and Toshiba opted for a vertical ribbed pattern in silvery gray. While it doesn’t feel as luxurious as polycarbonate plastic or as sturdy as the magnesium-framed HP Chromebook 11, the plastic chassis of the NB15t-A1304 is still surprisingly solid. There’s some flexing noticeable when you lift the laptop by the corner, but almost none while typing.

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The NB15t-A1304 features a compact chiclet-style keyboard, which feels a little cramped, thanks to the smaller dimensions of the laptop. The key travel is very shallow, but the keys have a comfortable matte finish and are well spaced, so it’s less of a problem than it could be. The small touchpad does its job fairly well, though the right and left mouse buttons are a little stiff.

Two stereo speakers on the underside of the laptop provide sound, but only at lower volumes, and of lower quality. When tested with “Silent Shout” by the Knife, the bass was nearly silent, while in “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix, the tinny speakers added unpleasant distortion and buzz to Hendrix’s impressive guitar work.

Features
Despite the low price, the NB15t-A1304 still offers a decent selection of ports. On the right of the system are two USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a headset jack. On the left you’ll find a Kensington case lock slot, VGA and HDMI output, one USB 3.0 port, and an Ethernet port. It also comes with surprisingly good wireless options, namely dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

The NB15t-A1304 boasts a 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive, which is the same capacity and speed as the drive seen in the Lenovo IdeaPad S405($279.90 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), and it’s much, much larger than the tiny 64GB drive found in the Asus T100TA or the paltry 16GB of the Acer Chromebook C720P-2600.

Toshiba also puts Google Drive right on your desktop, which means Google Docs and other Google-based tools and cloud storage are ready to use after signing in to your Google account. The NB15t-A1304 comes with several other programs preinstalled, including trial versions of Microsoft Office (30-day trial) and Norton Internet Security (30-day trial), as well as apps from Amazon (both Kindle Reader and a shopping app), Ebay, Evernote, Netflix, HuluPlus, and WildTangent games. Toshiba covers the Satellite NB15t with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

Performance

The NB15t-A1304 is equipped with an Intel Celeron N2810 processor, a low-powered 2GHz CPU paired with 4GB of RAM. Celeron processors are primarily found in budget systems, because they offer only low-powered performance—such are the compromises made for a lower price tag. As such, the NB15t-A1304 will do an adequate job browsing Facebook, checking email, and writing up a paper, but you will notice a distinct lag whenever you open a program or attempt to multitask. The dual-core processor scored 0.70 point in Cinebench, just behind the AMD-powered Lenovo S405 (0.79 point) and easily outpaced by the Intel Atom-based Asus T100TA (1.24 points).

The NB15t-A1304 couldn’t run our PCMark 7 benchmark test. It was, however, able to complete our multimedia tests, though it huffed-and-puffed along the way. It completed Handbrake in 5 minutes 4 seconds—the Asus T100TA did it in 2:41—and took an interminably long 17:35 to grind through our Photoshop test. While the NB15t-A1304 does offer integrated graphics, it’s really only suited to rendering Web pages and watching videos. While it’s little surprise that it was unable to run either of our gaming tests, it was also unable to run 3DMark 11.

The one area where low-powered processors usually offer an advantage is battery life, where low-voltage CPUs sip power for hours on end. The NB15t-A1304, however, only lasted 4 hours 2 minutes. That’s long enough to take you from breakfast in the morning to lunch around noon. The Asus T100TA, on the other hand, lasted 11 hours 20 minutes, enough to carry you through dinner and into the evening. Everything else fell somewhere in between, but the NB15t-A1304 has the shortest battery life of the bunch.

Conclusion
The Toshiba Satellite NB15t-A1304 is a bargain-priced Windows 8 laptop that offers a touch screen and full selection of ports in addition to a low price, but it’s got some flaws that can’t be overlooked. The audio quality is decidedly poor, the performance is hobbled by a laggy processor, and the battery life is quite short. If you just need a system to let you browse the web and type up the occasional paper, try our top pick for Chromebooks, the Acer Chromebook C720P-2600. If you want the best budget-friendly, touch-enabled Windows PC, your best bet is probably the Editors’ Choice Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB), which also doubles as a tablet.