Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 review

When NVIDIA played its signature GPU number-bump card back in May , it made some extent to throw around some big names. Alienware , MSI and ASUS each announced notebooks with the outfit’s new GeForce GTX 560M, but one lone machine played coy, listed only because the “new Toshiba gaming laptop.” Known today because the Qosmio X775-3DV78, it pairs 1.5GB GDDR5 with the aforementioned GPU, an Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, 1.25TB of storage split between two drives and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. So, can this heavyweight desktop-replacement hold its own in Engadget’s review ring? There’s just one technique to discover.

Appear and feel

We’ll just come right out and say it: Toshiba’s Qosmio laptops have a protracted tradition of being hideously ugly. Confident, proud, powerhouses who aren’t afraid to be seen in 1 shocking pink flames 1 , or shimmering 2 chameleon paint 2 . Sure, any company able to cramming an 3 autobot-usb-hub 3 into the shape of a laptop deserves the advantage of the doubt, but we will not mince words: the X775 is not the exception to the guideline. That is not to claim it is not trying, as indicated by the blood-shade stain of “extreme” red crowding the threshold of the display’s hinge and returned-lid. Pay close attention to this red strip, because it’s where each of the action is — under the lid you will find a dash sensitive media-bar nestled between a couple of aggressive looking speaker grills. Each of the standard controls are here: power, WiFi, volume, or even a toggle for the Qosmio’s 3D capabilities — each activated button glowing to compare the laptop’s red lip. Travel south just some of short inches, and suddenly we’re in dull, drab business land. A boorish gray texture of horizontal lines plow around the remainder of the machine’s surface, broken only by a single red line atop the awkwardly positioned trackpad (more on that later) and the chicklet keyboard’s brooding glow.

At 16.3 x 10.8 x 1.4-inches, this 7.5-pound behemoth is best suited as a desktop-replacement than a conveyable gaming rig. Those “official” measurements are even slightly conservative: we measured 2.1-inches from the bottom of the X775′s meaty battery to the sting of the laptop’s closed lid. Still, the X775 is nearly two pounds lighter than Dell’s Alienware M17x R3 and (excusing the raised battery) only a hair thinner. The beast thins out near the laptop’s front edge, utilizing the thicker sections of the body to accommodate an rewritable Blu-ray drive and a large vent, while splitting port space between thinner sections on each side. The left side sports VGA, HDMI, and Ethernet sockets, in addition to two USB plugs (2.0 and three.0). At the right, it has two additional USB 2.0 plugs and 2 headphone / mic jacks. Finally, the laptop’s front lip contains a 5-in-1 card reader and a slew of blinking indicator lights for power, HDD activity, and so forth.

Keyboard, touchpad, and screen

The laptop’s keyboard layout makes few sacrifices in squeezing within the core experience of a desktop sized keyboard, delegating scant few keys to the authority of the secondary function button. Even better, the CTRL and ALT keys are extremely comfortable to toggle from the gamer’s WASD position, making accidental “Windows key” quits less frequent. The keyboard’s comfortably spaced and smooth keys do not feel in the least mushy, and are beautifully backlit by a red glow, easily switched on or off or delayed with assistance from an Fn shortcut.

The Qosmio’s chicklet spacing suited us just fine, but we did find the keyboard’s loss of advanced anti-ghosting technology a little bit a let down. Eight simultaneous keypresses is unquestionably nothing to scoff at, but it is a far cry from the 20-plus that many 4 dedicated 4 5 gaming 5 6 keyboards 6 offer — let alone that we found greater than a pair three-key combinations that simply wouldn’t register. Although the few combinations we found won’t effect gameplay for the typical user, hardcore gamers will want to stick with their external keyboard.

Speaking of additional input devices, an external mouse is a boon to the X775 owner. While the laptop’s touchpad performed adequately under ideal conditions, its placement is usually a little bit of a burden for oldsters with larger hands. People who are inclined to rest their non-mousing hand at the keyboard’s home row might obstruct the head-left part of the trackpad with their palm, rendering it temporarily inoperative. Although the three.6 x 2-inch pad itself moves the cursor well enough, its buttons feel loose and plasticy. Sure, it does the trick for lazy couch browsing, but we were guaranteed to keep a wireless rodent handy for anything more taxing than checking our email.

Display and sound

The X775′s 7 Harman / Kardon 7 stereo speakers (and bottom-dwelling subwoofer) blast rich, clear sound with negligible distortion, even at maximum volume. The laptop’s overall audio fidelity won’t be a replacement for a correct sound system or headset, however definitely won’t disappoint in a pinch. For sure, the baked-in Dolby Advanced Audio and Waves Maxxaudio 3 enhancements do most of the heavy lifting, and the sound falls noticeably more flat without them. While the enhancements definitely improved the sound overall, a few of the default settings were problematic, namely an auto-leveling feature that might auto-adjust for sudden loudness in reaction to the rig’s “volume level tone” that plays to signify what the present windows volume level is at. Suffice to mention, having the quantity go down after we were looking to crank it up quickly became confusing and frustrating. Still, it was just a minor annoyance. All in all, we found the Qosmio’s integrated speakers to be among the best we’ve heard on a conveyable machine.

The Qosmio’s 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 full HD display can be a hair smaller than 8 its predecessor’s 8 18-inch panel, nevertheless it sure didn’t leave us wanting. The LED backlit TFT display bombarded our pupils with bright, vivid colors, producing a picture so sharp, even the textured background of Kung-Fu Hustle’s FBI warning appeared like a piece of art. Screen viewing angles almost overreach the play of the laptop’s hinge, displaying just a slight loss compared from sharper angles. The X775′s screen suffered a standard laptop fault: it’s just a little too glossy for out of doors use. Not which you were planning to take the beast into the comprehensive outdoors, were you? The pinnacle fringe of the screen sports a dual-webcam to capture your fancy stereoscopic video blog drama, and an embedded IR emitter so that you can enjoy your personal greatest hits with the rig’s included NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses. The IR / glasses combo also works for watching 3D Blu-ray movies and getting some depth out of 3D Vision enabled games.

Performance and battery life

Does the Qosmio X775′s Intel Core i7-2630QM processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M GPU make this ugly duckling pretty at the inside? Let’s put it this manner: we ran simultaneous instances of Fallout 3, Team Fortress 2, and Crysis — all fully playable and cranked to high or very high — while running two tab-overloaded web-browsers and watching a high-definition film on Blu-ray. If that isn’t a specific thing of beauty, we do not know what’s. The 17-inch gaming powerhouse breezed through as regards to everything we threw at it, stuttering only after we pushed Crysis to its absolute max. Throwing NVIDIA’s 3D switch, however, tended to drop framerate by about half. Portal 2′s 50fps stepped all the way down to 27, as an example, and Batman: Arkham Asylum’s 30fps average became an unplayable 13. Still, with the 3D gimmick switched off, the X775 has some serious stuff to strut, and we were intentionally cranking every game’s settings as much as 11. With a couple of reasonable tweaks, there has been nary a title we tried that did not play well with NVIDIA’s 3D vision or break the 100fps barrier.

The Qosmio performed just as adequately wrangling our cluttered work desktop: over 30 open tabs across two web browsers, piled atop Photoshop, two open email accounts, various IRC and chat interfaces, and 2 word processors? Smooth as silk. PCMark Vantage clocked the Qosmio at 7,900, while its graphic benchmarking cousin, 3DMark06, pegged it at 15,169.

So, a fabulously vivid 17-inch screen and NVIDIA’s latest in portable graphics? Sounds great, but here’s the rub: you will not get far without the Qosmio’s massive 2-pound AC adapter. Big screens and pretty scenes suck down plenty of power, and the X775 burned through Engadget’s standard battery test in just an hour and 26 minutes. Fancy a game when you look forward to a flight? Cut that right down to a trifling 35, and that’s the reason without 3D Vision. Paired with the laptop’s already cumbersome size, its poor battery life does little greater than secure the machine’s status as a desktop-replacement — but nevertheless, gaming rigs aren’t known for his or her electric longevity. The Qosmio will still be a success at your next LAN party, but don’t expect it to get you thru your next flight — or perhaps your next layover.

Configuration options

The X775 is supplied in three pre-built configurations: budget, mid-range and flagship (we’ve been twiddling with the high-end X775-3DV8). Our $1,900 review unit sports a Intel Core i7-2360QM processor, Blu-ray burner, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, dual hard drives with a complete of one.25TB of storage and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M graphics with 3D Vision. an almost identical machine, sans 3D, can also be had within the X775-Q727, a $1,450 rig with the identical processor and graphics, but with only 6GB RAM and a single terabyte of storage over two drives. Budget-minded folks can save a further $250 by stepping right down to a Core i5-2410M processor, a single 640GB HDD and a DVD-RW drive. The pre-configured options offer a large enough range to maintain you from feeling out-priced, but when you’ll want to actually customize your machine, you need to seem to the…

The contest

On the subject of high-performance gaming laptops rocking huge screens, impressive graphics, and baked in 3D tech, it seems your options are pretty limited — but we found a number of. Our favourite X775 alternative happens to be Dell’s Alienware M17x R3, which are customized to both undercut the X775 in price in performance, or outgun it. an identical configuration to Toshiba’s toy (including 3D Vision) will set you back just over $2,100. Its worth nothing however, that the Dell’s visuals are powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M, not a 560M.

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Needless to say, if you are willing to forgo Blu-ray drive and silly 3D glasses, there are definitely cheaper options. The Core-i7 ASUS G74SX-BBK7 will also be had for roundabout $1,200, and sports an identical 17.3-inch screen size, the identical 8GB of RAM, and an analogous GeForce GTX 560M graphics because the Qosmio. In case you just should have everything, you may always spring for MSI’s GT780R-057US, a hefty 17.3-inch machine also rocking NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 560M, a Core i7-2630QM processor, a 1.5TB hard disk, Blu-ray burner and never just eight, but 16GB of DD3 RAM. Minus the X775′s 3D gimmick and doubling its RAM, the MSI beast shares the Qosmio’s $1,900 ticket, leaving the client a decision: extra RAM or extra depth perception?

Wrap-up

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By now, you’ve probably found out that Toshiba’s latest Qosmio is somewhat a Quasimodo — beautiful at the inside, but covered in enough repulsive blemishes to offer pause to the Esmeralda in every body. Beneath its rough exterior lies an multi functional platform tailor made for the very latest in media entertainment: extreme graphics, a whole-HD display, Blu-ray rewritable / DVD combo drive, or even 5 NVIDIA 3D Vision 5 baked right in, glasses included. This package just may be enough to polish in the course of the Qosmio’s craggy cast if you are willing to miss the hunch of its atrocious battery life — not that you would wish to lug the hefty rig very far anyway. Despite its looks, the X775 is not any slacker, and also you pay for that performance — although not up to you may. Toshiba’s total-package toy isn’t cheap at $1,900, but seeing that you have to easily pay a further few Benjamins for an equivalent configuration of Dell’s 6 Alienware 6 M17x R3 (with an NVIDIA 3D Vision package), it isn’t a nasty value. Overall, the Qosmio X775-3DV78 is an outstanding machine, despite its somewhat bland appearance and annoying quirks. And that suits us fine. Of course, didn’t your mother always let you know that it’s what’s at the inside that counts?

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This post is tagged: 3d capabilities, benefit of the doubt, chicklet keyboard, exception to the rule, heavyweight desktop replacement, horizontal lines