Review Of Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 Laptop

Laptops — By Ricky on October 30, 2009 at 1:30 am

Toshiba returns with its Qosmio series of gaming laptops. Stripped of its stripes and tribal designs, the X505 still is a devil. In the days when Alienware is being challenged for it’s pennies, Toshiba steps in with a killer machine to draw some blood.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

A really well designed system, with to of the line configuration and components. A huge 18 inch screen; for those who want their gaming to be a parallel reality. A lightning fast Intel core i7 CPU.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive, at around $2000. It is heavy, weighing in at around 11 lbs including charger. The Blu-ray drive could’ve been optional, but Toshiba offers it as standard across three variants of the X505.

Inside The Trunk:

The Qosmio is a well designed gaming laptop that has its objectives straight. Packed to the brim with lightning fast pixel crunchers like the new mobile Intel Core i7 CPU, married to the Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics card. You get the massive 18 inch full HD screen, Blu-ray drive and a spattering of ports. A second Solid State hard drive also makes its appearance in this system. You get literally everything, even to the now obsolete Firewire port.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

It is a system that strives to deliver, and gamers are usually very finicky customers. If you do manage to keep these people happy, you have achieved technological nirvana somewhere in silicon heaven! Qosmio range of gaming rigs from Toshiba have been liked by gamers but they usually would make a beeline for the Alienware or simply get a desktop with a better configuration. The X505 was tailor made to cater to this sect of gamers who were caught bang in the middle. Retailing at close to $2000, with features that are worth the buck and bang, the gamers will hopefully be drawn in. The massive 18 inch screen is also a huge feature when it comes to gaming. Thankfully, the OTT tribal stripes from the X305 are now discontinued. They’ve been gray crosshatch pattern with red highlights. This may be gaudy for some, but I simply loved it!

Razzle Dazzle:

Based on the Intel 55PM Chipset, the rocking new Intel i7 720 QM is nicely paired with the Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics card with 1GB memory. You get the Blu-ray drive, all kinds of ports, from HDMI to Firewire and 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066 MHz. I know that you are interested to know more, so here I go again! What would all these components be worth if not paired with the right screen right? Thankfully, the guys at Toshiba also thought so and threw in an 18inch monster screen. It weighs in at 11 pounds, but I really don’t expect people to lug these rigs around. These highly specialized laptops usually occupy the place of pride back at home, and don’t move from there!

Inside Dope:

The new Qosmio X5050 is clearly leaps ahead of the previously launched X305. The X305 has been discontinued and Toshiba was left without a specialized gaming platform. Design wise, Toshiba thankfully dumped the stripes for some subtle gray crosshatch with metallic red accents. Something that bothered me was the system was glossy. That included the keyboard too. It kept on picking up fingerprints, smears and smudges. If you had it, you’d keep wiping it off to keep it sparkling clean!

Toshiba laptop review

The keyboard is large and has well placed keys. The only odd factor is the short spacebar. But this has been done to accommodate the media controls that are located to the left of the keyboard. From these controls you could control the media transport controls, mute and a touch sensitive volume control. There is also a button to open the system’s Eco mode, which helps conserving power, lowering screen brightness, turning out the keyboard lights and underclocking the CPU.

There is one area about which the gamers could be disappointed with, (like I said, they are finicky), is that the touchpad is really small. Toshiba would argue that a mouse will be most probably used with this system, but it does not justify the large red mouse buttons bossing over the touchpad!

The Qosmio X505 is one of the first i7 based laptops in the market, and it can be safely said that the performance was blistering. The argument here is that is the i7 better or is the Quad Extreme series of processors better? There are some laptops in the market with the Quad Extreme with performance slightly better than the X505. On testing some of the games, we found out that the FPS rate reached upto 60. However, with the price at almost $2000, we would’ve expected it to be better and have a dual video card system.

The battery test result was as expected at around two hours on the standard 12-cell battery. For a desktop replacement, running the top components and supporting an 18-inch monster screen, a two hour mark is good. Usually, these rigs are kept at home, so there are no worries, but if you plan to spend time on the road, please do not forget your charger.

Toshiba extends a one year all inclusive warranty with the Qosmio. The support website for the Qosmio surprisingly had a dedicated page of info. Assistance can also be accessed through a 24/7 toll free phone.

Nitty Gritty:

A gaming laptop that could be even called a desktop replacement. The Qosmio delivers what it promises and does not cut corners. Its display is crisp, and eye-candy. We liked the toned down styling, and the salient features like the eco mode. There are obviously some features that we would’ve liked or liked to have been different. They being, the presence of a single video card and the tiny touch pad. Toshiba could’ve also launched one model without the expensive Blu-ray drive. All in all, it is a very competent system and will keep their users happy. It is evident that care has been taken to create a user sect specific system, and the Qosmio will surely keep the most finicky sect happy!