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Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 – Bring on the games!
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Fast Intel Core i7 CPU, big 18 inch 1080p display, comes with a second SSD.
Thumbs Down:
Expensive, touch pad is tiny.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is powered by Intel Core i7 720 QM / 1.60 GHz processor, a Quad-Core processor, it has bus speed of 1333 MHz, features for the processor include Intel Trusted Execution Technology, Intel Virtualization Technology, Execute Disable Bit capability, Enhanced SpeedStep technology, Intel Turbo Boost Technology, Hyper-Threading Technology, Enhanced Halt State (C1E), Intel 64 Technology. Chipset type is Mobile Intel PM55 Express. It has L2 cache of 6 MB.
The notebook has 6 GB DDR3 SD RAM of 1066 MHz, which can be expanded to 8 GB, for storing data there is a 64GB SSD as well as 320 GB SATA hard drive at 7200 rpm. BD-RE is the included optical drive. Read speed is 24x for CD, 8x for DVD, 6x BD. Write speed is 24x for CD, 8x for DVD±R, 6x for DVD±R DL, 6x for BD-R, 4x for BD-R DL. Rewrite speed is 24x for CD, 6x for DVD-RW, 8x for DVD+RW, 5x for DVD-RAM, 4x for BD-RE, 4x for BD-RE DL. The optical drive comes with Labelflash Technology.
Card reader installed can read cards like SDHC Memory Card, Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick. The 18.4 inch LCD has a native resolution 1920×1200 pixels. Graphics processor is PCI Express x16 – NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M TurboCache with 1 GB GDDR5 SD RAM. Interfaces include 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45, 1 x Storage / Hi-Speed USB – Hi-Speed USB / eSATA, 3 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A, 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire), 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, 1 x Audio – SPDIF output/headphones, 1 x Audio / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A, 1 x Audio / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A.
8000 mAh 12-cell Lithium ion battery has a rated battery life of 3.3 hours. Bundled OS is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, bundled software is Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial), Norton Internet Security 2009 (30 days subscription), Toshiba Power-Saving Eco Utility, TOSHIBA Hard Drive Impact Sensor, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0, Toshiba Recovery Media Creator, Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment, Microsoft Windows Media Player, WildTangent Orb Games Console, QuickBooks Financial Center, Toshiba PC Health Monitor, Face Recognition software, Toshiba Bluetooth Stack, Corel DVD MovieFactory, Toshiba HDD recovery, Toshiba Disc Creator, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Works 9.0, Toshiba DVD Player, Toshiba ConfigFree, Dolby Home Theater, Google Toolbar, Skype.
Toshiba gives a one year international warranty for this product.
Razzle Dazzle:
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 has been improved on looks as compared to the previous Qosmio machines. It looks more attractive but still has the same high-contrast black/red palette with rounded chassis. The notebook is designed to be a desktop replacement and hence we won’t mind the ten pound weight. Don’t even think about stepping outdoors with this notebook because you might end up spending lot of time at local masseuse massaging you shoulders. Though attractive, the entire unit along with the keyboard is very glossy and hence attracts a lot of finger prints.
Inside Dope:
Toshiba’s Qosmio category churns high end notebooks and the manufacturer has always been experimenting in this line up. It has given us a variety of devices from multimedia home theater notebooks to massive gamming rigs. We’ve reviewed this lineup before, the prices here are astronomically high and though the hardware is all high end, we would some outdated components lurking inside.
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is centered on gaming. The laptop makes sure you get all the gaming eye candy with the Nvidia’s GeForce GTS 250M graphics card and it is accompanied by the blazing fast mobile Intel Core i7 CPU.
The display of the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is 18 inches big and gives a full HD resolution. Given the price, we assumed that the notebook would come with built in Blu-ray drive. Toshiba was initially reluctant this technology since it belonged to the HD-DVD block. You also get a SSD along with standard SATA hard drive. All these components drive the cost up to $1899.
Asus, HP and others are also working on making similar gaming rigs and it will be interesting to see what they have to offer. We are expecting such a high end system sans a Blu-drive and SSD drive. You may not need these components and hence you can save money on them.
The keyboard is backlight and the buttons fully exploit the big size of the unit. The keys are big and we didn’t have much problems typing for long on this keyboard. Our only gripe was that the spacebar key is a bit small and you might accidentally hit nearby buttons assuming the big size of the spacebar. There is a media control panel which is located on the left side of the space bar. It has touch sensitive buttons for media transport, mute and volume control. There is also a “Eco” mode for energy efficiency, it underclocks the CPU, turns off the backlit keyboard and lowers the brightness of the screen. Some might think this superfluous because you get all these functions in Windows 7 power menus but we think it is nice to have them ready at our fingertips. One more thing about these touch sensitive buttons is that they give a loud beep when pressed, including the mute button.
The touch pad of the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is very small but we won’t complain much about this because you’ll be using an external mouse. Such touch pads are impossible to use while gamming. We also didn’t understand why the touch pad buttons were so big. They could have been smaller to make way for a bigger touch pad.
The display of the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is gorgeous at 18.4 inch size and what sweetens the deal is the 16:9 aspect ratio. It gives you a full HD 1,920×1,080-pixel native resolution. Accompanied by the Blu-ray drive, we think this is a great for watching HD movies. Apart from gaming, you can also use this system as a entertainment unit for a small room.
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 gives you full set of connections and ports including FireWire which is seldom seen on notebooks these days. This notebook has three different configurations to choose from but you can’t escape from Blu-ray, all three units come with one.
1.6 GHz Intel Core i7-720QM is fast enough to handle any high end applications that you might throw at it. The speed was similar to a notebook running on quad-core 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9300 CPU.
The Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is a great for gaming even thought it feels short of what we would expect from a $2000 laptop. We played Unreal Tournament III at 1,900×1,050 pixels resolution and go up to 60 fps with the Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M. Comparing this with Alienware m17x, another gaming laptop, we got 170 fps with the dual GeForce GTX 208M GPU. What we are trying to say here is that once a gaming rig goes past the $1500 mark, we expect dual gamming cards.
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is powered by 12 cell battery and ran for a little less than two hours in our battery drain tests. This may sound very less but considering the high end hardware, it is not that bad. Also remember that this is desktop replacement notebook, so Toshiba assumes that you always have a plug nearby you.
Toshiba gives you an industry standard one year warranty for labor and parts with this Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850. Considering this is a high-end system, we expected bigger warranty period. There is also a toll free 24-7 helpline and you can visit the Website for other related help such as driver downloads.
Nitty Gritty:
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 is a high end laptop made for gaming enthusiasts. It comes with all the high end components that you would expect in a gaming rig like fast processor, 1080p display and Intel Core i7 CPU. Buy it if you can afford the price.
