Toshiba Refreshes Satellite Notebooks

Toshiba's bread-and-butter notebook line will now sport new Intel processors, facial recognition, and even FM tuners.

Toshiba’s Qosmio line of multimedia notebooks may have received a major overhaul last week, but the changes it has in store for its mainstay Satellite line will be much less dramatic. The company announced a sprinkling of new features for the next generation of Satellites on Tuesday, including eSATA ports, facial recognition, and FM tuners.

The P300, A300, M300 and U400 will all get the next generation of Intel’s Core 2 processor, which should offer better battery life. They’ll also pick up eSATA ports for high-speed transfer of tiles between compatible external hard drives, and “sleep-and-charge” USB ports that allow USB devices to charge even when the laptop is powered off. More novel upgrades include facial recognition for built-in webcams, and the rather unusual addition of an FM tuner for listening to the radio through the computer.

The modestly upgraded notebooks are shipping immediately from Toshiba Direct and other Toshiba retailers.