Toshiba Qosmio X305 Review

The new Qosmio X305 is Toshiba’s newest gaming notebook. The best – Q708 is a lean, mean machine – very powerful and expensive. It is very costly at about $4,000. It has a superb metallic design, coupled with excellent build quality and offers the best performance you could expect from a notebook. Well, if not the best, it is atleast one of the best performers we have encountered. The specs include two Nvidia graphic cards in SLI, Intel’s Quad core processor, superfast 4 GB DDR3 RAM, a 128 GB SSD coupled with a 320 GB secondary HDD. It competes straight on with the very able Alienware notebook range, both in terms of performance and price. While it does have superb performance, no doubt about it, what remains to be seen if it actually deserves such a high price tag. In this review, we try to find out exactly that – whether it is worth all that hard earned moolah.

Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q708 Specs

• Dimensions: 16.2 inch x 12.0 inch x 2.4 inch
• Weight: 9.2 lbs
• Display: 17 inch WSXGA Glossy display, 1680 x 1050 pixels
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 Quad Core clocked at 2.53 GHz with 12MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB
• RAM: 4 GB DDR3 1066 RAM
• Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS with 512 MB GDDR3 VRAM X 2 in SLI
• Chipset: Nvidia GeForce 9400M chipset
• Storage: 128 GB Toshiba SSD (Primary) with 320 GB 7200 RPM (Secondary)
• Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi drive
• Wireless: WLAN, Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR
• Battery: 8 Cell Battery – 47Wh, 230W AC adapter
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, Headphone, Microphone, HDMI, VGA out, Display Port, 5 in 1 card reader, 56 K Modem jack, 1 eSATA / USB combo, Expresscard / 54 slot, Firewire, Power jack, Ethernet, Kensington lock slot.
• Price: $1,500 – $4,000 (Approx)

Design and Build Quality:

The Toshiba Qosmio X305 sports a superb stylish design. The body of the Qosmio X305 is very curvaceous and streamlined. It has a super stylish exterior, colored mostly in red and black with the body mainly composed of metal and plastic. The glossy and designer look suits the Qosmio X305 very well and lends it a nice feel. The design while being ultra modern, doesn’t affect the build quality. The build quality is very nice and the notebook feels sturdy and durable. The chassis of the notebook is very rigid and hard to bend. The external body has some flex though – especially the display area.

At dimensions of 16.2 inch x 12.0 inch x 2.4 inches and a weight of 9.2 lbs, it is definitely one of the bulkiest notebooks we have handled. After spending almost a month reviewing netbooks which were feather light, the Qosmio X305 feels like a monster. It is very heavy and definitely not for those looking for a portable companion – unless you are a wrestler or a lunatic. It can accomodate about 4 netbooks easily in its body volume and weight.

Having said all that, we would also add that the Toshiba Qosmio X305 has a very different design which is difficult to accept at first, especially for someone used to conventional simple notebook designs, but spend some time with it and it will definitely impress you.

Display and Speakers:

The Toshiba Qosmio X305 has a nice though huge 17 inch glossy display with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels. We would have preferred a better resolution on such a powerful beast, not that this display disappoints in any way. It has decent brightness levels and great contrast. The viewing angles are decent too, both horizontal and vertical. Despite being glossy, it is fairly visible under direct light. Nothing much to speak about it, it is an nice display and scores above average.

While it doesn’t really excel in the display department, it will completely blow you away when it comes to sound. Generally I recommend users to use better headphones if they want better sound in their laptops, but in this case, I won’t need to. The Toshiba Qosmio X305 sports a set of Harman Kardon speakers and subwoofer which is totally excellent. The sound quality is superb, both the highs and lows. The bass is remarkable and the sound very clear and loud. It can give normal desktop speakers a run for their money. The speakers make the Qosmio X305 a total audiophile device.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Toshiba Qosmio X305 sports a full size black keyboard composed of plastic. The keys are amply sized and have perfect spacing and travel. The keyboard, atleast layout wise, is a touch typist’s dream. The key quality is what lets it down. The plastic keys feel rather cheap and provide average feedback. Somehow, you don’t feel comfortable typing on the keyboard of the Qosmio X305, but after some time anyone should get used to it. Above the keyboard, you find an array of touch sensitive media control buttons.

The touchpad is situated right below the keyboard. The touchpad offers a nice grip which helps a lot during navigation. It is nice and responsive and offers decent sensitivity. Below the touchpad are the two mouse buttons which respond nicely and provide decent feedback.

Performance:

The Toshiba Qosmio X305 has monstrous specs: the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 Quad Core clocked at 2.53 GHz with 12MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB, 4 GB DDR3 1066 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS with 512 MB GDDR3 VRAM X 2 in SLI. This combo alone is enough to make any game crap in its pants. It can run almost any application, any game on earth easily. The latest games can easily be run at medium settings. It has the Hybrid SLI feature using which you can switch to the Nvidia 9400 GT integrated graphics when on battery to conserve battery life and switch back to the discrete graphics when on AC power. Windows Vista which is known to cripple most normal notebooks runs flawlessly on the Qosmio X305. The storage part is handled by a 128 GB Toshiba SSD (Primary) with 320 GB 7200 RPM (Secondary) drives which further speed up the laptop and add to the super fast performance.
The Qosmio X305 is nicely cooled and has proper vents which keep the monster inside very cool, even after extensive or heavy usage. It sports a number of expansion ports as listed above.

The Qosmio X305 is powered by a 8 cell, 47 Wh battery which can power it for about 2 hours thanks to the Hybrid SLI graphics solution. You can maximise battery life by following a few tips.

Pros:

• Very Powerful
• Intel Quad Core
• Nvidia 9800 GT’s in Hybrid SLI
• 4 GB DDR 3 RAM
• Superb Speakers

Cons:

• Average Display
• Mediocre Keyboard
• Very Expensive

Final Words:

The Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q708 is a very expensive proposition at $4,000 approx. It somes with its share of shortcomings which is not expected from a notebook so expensive. However it does deliver superb performance and comes with excellent, top of the line specs.

Our Rating: 3 / 5.