By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
23/09/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,43839082p,00.htm

It is a common misconception that all a gaming laptop needs are a high-end graphics card and blazing processor. Though these form the foundation for a good playing experience, it takes much more to gain recognition as an excellent gaming platform. The Toshiba Qosmio series has always had top-end components to target the entertainment crowd. However, the latest X300 is the first Qosmio to pave the way into the gaming segment for the Japanese maker.

In Asia, the current laptop selection for hardcore gamers is very limited, consisting of only Dell's XPS M1730 and the Asus G series. Even so, the Qosmio X300 is not going to have an easy time competing, considering that the XPS is currently the only machine in this region to offer a dual graphics setup, while the Asus G2S comes with a pimped-up look.

Design

When Toshiba designed the Qosmio X300, it was obvious what the company intended the laptop to be. This machine is not meant to be used for gentle (read wimpy) social titles like The Sims or Wall-E the Video Game. Hell no. When one whips out the Qosmio X300, Toshiba wants you to know it means business. The shiny fiery-red motif was made to stoke the flames of glory and strike fear in the hearts of opponents.

At least that was the original plan. What really happens is that this effect occurs only in dimly lit environments where the flickering lights give the machine a fearsome effect. However, under strong office lights we felt the laptop gives off a plasticky impression which does little for its appeal. Fortunately, most hardcore gamers will probably play in low-light conditions and, in any case, aesthetics is a personal choice.

But what is not subjective is that this laptop is both huge and heavy. Occupying a space of 412 x 306 x 62.5mm with a 4.3kg heft, this is not a portable you want to commute with on a daily basis, especially if you take public transport. To be fair, even this proportion is dwarfed by the XPS M1730 which needs extra space and power to support the two internal graphics cards.

Like most desktop replacements, there is a separate numeric keypad next to the keyboard. Unfortunately, the keyboard is coated with a glossy layer which does wonders for its look, provided you never ever use it for typing. In our opinion, fingerprints get picked up too easily for comfort and this is something we could do without.

Features

Coming in at over S$4,000, we expected and got an excellent feature set with the Qosmio X300, save one. To date, no Toshiba laptop has incorporated a Blu-ray drive and the X300 is no exception. Even in machine which cost half as much, Blu-ray combo drives are becoming commonplace. The optical drive reads and writes to almost every DVD and CD standards available, though Toshiba went with its proprietary LabelFlash labeling technology instead of the more common LightScribe format.

Another gripe is with the screen. Though a Blu-ray drive isn't present, there is no excuse not to bump up the resolution to full-HD. The 17-inch widescreen's native resolution of 1,680 x 1,050 may be sharp enough for most games, but falls short when rendering high-definition videos. There is also a trend for desktop replacements moving to new 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs with 16.4- or 18.4-inch sizes. 16.4-inch machines like the Sony Vaio VGN-FW12G offer almost the same screen estate but keeps to a midsized form factor, while the 18.4-inch HP HDX18 give much more viewing area with a relatively small increase in dimensions.

The LCD is powered by an Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS with 512MB of dedicated video memory (which can be bumped up to 1,791MB by sharing with the system RAM). As we will see later, this graphics card (GPU) provides excellent gaming performance. We tested the system with Crysis and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and had no issues running at an acceptable frame rate with high settings. External displays can be hooked up to the VGA or Regza-Link HDMI ports.

The audio performance of this laptop doesn't play second fiddle to the GPU, as the Qosmio X300 is one of the few machines to sport a 4.1-channel sound system. Like the Acer Aspire 8920G, this elevates the audio qualities of the Qosmio above even other entertainment portables. But if four Harman Kardon speakers and a subwoofer aren't enough for hardcore audiophiles, an S/PDIF port is available for digital hookup to external speakers.

Though the Qosmio series is known as an entertainment line, the Qosmio X300 drops a few multimedia features in its bid to be the fastest gaming machine in town. There is no integrated TV tuner, but an FM receiver is built-in instead. There is also no remote control provided. However, in the latter case there is a workaround. The Regza-Link HDMI port is HDMI-CEC-compatible. This means that when the machine is hooked up to a Toshiba LCD TV, the remote control which comes with the latter can be used to control the portable as well. Alternatively, you can stick close to the laptop and use the built-in multimedia control buttons on the top of the keyboard.

The Qosmio X300 is equipped with a Gigabit Ethernet port as well as wireless 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity. The machine also comes with a mini-FireWire and three sleep-and-charge USB ports that can power your USB-connected devices even when the portable is turned off. The fourth port is an eSATA/USB port that provides the best of both worlds, giving next-gen connectivity while not compromising on the number of USB slots. Other features include an ExpressCard/54 slot, 5-in-one memory card reader, Webcam and fingerprint sensor. There are also two harddisk slots which, in our review unit, were populated with 250GB drives, giving a huge 500GB of storage.

Performance And Battery Life

The S$4,099 Qosmio X300 is based on the Centrino 2 platform, though in this case switchable graphics have not been implemented in this model. The 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS proved to be a good combination, blasting away at 3DMark06 tests to score an impressive 7,062 result. Only the XPS M1730 did better, but a similarly configured Dell machine with dual 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics card and full-HD display costs S$4,275.24.

It is fortunate for the Qosmio X300 that battery life is not a major factor for a desktop replacement. Running a DVD movie at half screen brightness, the machine played for only 1 hour 2 minutes before shutting down with 5 percent of charge left. Intensive gaming may suck even more power, so make sure you are near an outlet when fragging.

Service And Support

Toshiba offers a one-year international carry-in warranty for this machine, with options to upgrade the coverage period at the point of purchase. For greater convenience, you can register the warranty online instead of mailing it in. Prompt assistance is available through a toll-free number for over-the-phone support and troubleshooting. An online support database called IRIS (Instant Response Information Service) features a search engine for solutions to commonly encountered problems. If the issue still cannot be resolved, the unit will have to be brought down to a Toshiba service center for repair. A list of service centers can be obtained from Toshiba's Web site, which also hosts updated drivers and utilities.