Official X500 Owner's Lounge!

Yeah honestly? While that sounds like a decent build, if I was willing to spend $2,700.00 US on a laptop, I would get the Sager NP8120 fully loaded. Well, not fully loaded, but with some extras. What are the advantages of a laptop you are semi-building like that, particularly considering how outdated the 9800 card is?

 

This getting completely off-topic, but the same, twice less the thickness, half less the weight. 16:10 RGB LED anti-glare screen. Silent. Almost silent even on full load (try to do this with ordinary 9800 heh). Other goodies which Sager does not have (like VT-d). Plethora of very good engineering ideas (like magnesium chassis, spill-proof keyboard, placing low-noise headphones output on separate board, etc).
As for gfx card I don't care much, since its MXM 3.0, and while not exactly piece of cake, it's still possible to upgrade. I could upgrade to HD 5870 right now (say that's not good heh), but I prefer to wait for next gen AMD to arrive (pretty satisfied with my quadro for now).
The fact alone that NP8120 is 16:9 makes it already no go for me. Had my share of 16:9 with X505, thanks, no more.

 

Well semi-back-on-topic, what's wrong with 16:9? Yeah, to me, I am not concerned about a lot of the features and engineering ideas you listed, nor do I care about noise, thickness, or weight. Yep, I want a gaming cinderblock. In short, I want the most power for the least money.

 

For me 16:9 has too much useless horizontal space, and less useful vertical res. Speaking raw numbers even 1920x1080 is significantly less pixels than 1920x1200, that's why I am glad to be off it.

BTW that 18" Clevo platform that Sager uses... Review on notebookcheck pretty much summarizes it all in Pro and Contra section. Nothing really that impressive (unless you somehow find consolation solely in high benchmark and FPS numbers).

 

16:9 is the reason I only look for laptops 17" and above. Otherwise, they have less vertical space than my 7 year old 15" Satellite 1135.

As an aside, the screen on that Sager looks terrible.

 

What do you guys mean by wasted space? Does the Qosmio suffer from that as well? Oh and I will read the review later.

 

I played around with a Q890 for about an hour today, but my review mostly addresses the entire x505 line:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/toshiba/510329-qosmio-x505-review.html

 

I just read your review and man, if what you posted is accurate, it really sounds like the Qosmio is a terrible laptop for anything but gaming.

 

I'd say Q888 and above is indeed a waste of money, but that doesn't mean I'm not still looking at the Q885. It's actually a thousand (well, -$.1) at Amazon right now. It uses the lower-res (and supposedly better quality) screen, and were it not for the keyboard, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. As it is, I'm still sorely tempted.

But I took 2 lessons from my Q890 experience: 1) Always thoroughly research a high-end purchase. None of the reviews on Newegg, Amazon, TigerDirect, etc. mentioned the lousy quality of the HD screen. This forum was the first I'd heard of it. I was never shopping for one anyway, but if I had bought one, you can bet I would have buyer remorse. 2) Even if you have the money, an i7 rig may not be the best option. Why? Simple. The heat. The x505 in this regard did very well, but there were HPs, ASUSs, and Alienwares around it that were hot to the touch AT IDLE!!! If the outside of an idling laptop running nothing is hot, what's the inside like? All those constant hot temps can't be good for the lifetime of the laptop. I mean it, I really don't believe many of today's i7 rigs can last almost 8 years of constant use like my old Satellite. Maybe the next generation of i7s will solve this problem.

 

Thing with the screens - a lot of people simply did not see (or at least not for long) other screens, or have seen screen that even worse (yes, there are worse). So they think "this one is decent", and write good reviews.

The fact that laptop is hot to the touch, not necessary means that it's even worse inside. In fact it could mean that it has well-designed passive heat dissipation system - that transfers most of the heat from inside to the outside. If you don't want fans running on idle, passive heat dissipation is a good thing (except when you heat the keyboard and such )

And in any case, i7 emits a lot less heat at the same processing power than, say, Core 2. It's pretty silly trying to avoid i7, just find a laptop that has good design, and maybe stay away from very powerful CPUs you won't need anyway (dual core i7-620M or even i5 may be a good option). Personally I think that with proper design 17" size and above should be able to effectively handle i7 of any power, that's why X505 does well in this respect. However it gets tricky when you try to also cram something like 3 HDDs or 2 very hot graphics cards in

 

I wasn't knocking the i7, I meant that not to buy a laptop just cause it HAS i7. i7s are filtering down to the $1000 level now, but that doesn't mean those chassis can necessarily handle the heat of the i7. Like I said, the x505 excelled here.

And anytime I can feel my hands cooking, it's not okay.

 

Well, of course it's pretty pointless to buy laptop based on some single factor (like big benchmark numbers). From my experience usually "laptop that does *X* best in the world" means that there will also "but it totally sucks at *Y* and *Z*". I guess that stems from the fact that there is constraint on *total*.
That's why I prefer "laptop that does *X*, *Y* and *Z* well" - to minimize a lot of niggles, not to maximize single source of joy

 

Yeah, but you're a (checks) Notebook Evangelist, of course you have a level headed opinion. I was talking to the tons of mindless buyers wanting i7 or bust.

 

Well, it's all fine as long as they are enjoying their purchases

 

Another problem I have is that even though my dinosaur of a laptop is just that, a dinosaur, it has one thing I love. It has a gorgeous screen that has a native resolution of 1920 X 1200. I should have posted this in your review thread and not here, but I don't want to have to take that massive of a hit down to 945 because the full 1080p monitor is substandard!!

It will feel like my so-called upgrade is a visual step backward, at least in terms of "lighting" and resolution. I don't want to open my brand new gaming laptop and the first thing I think is, "Wow! This looks like utter crap compared to my Dell XPS Gen 2! How come this 1080p is so dark? Or how come the damned icons are so big and blocky and I cannot run my games or desktop in a higher resolution?"

 

I hear you (how couldn't I, you've said it 4/5 times), but unfortunately, everyone's doing it. Otherwise, picking a laptop wouldn't be a problem; I like Toshiba, but if ASUS delivered a gorgeous 18.4" HD screen and full sized beveled keyboard in a beautiful chassis, adios Toshiba. But no one's doing it, and as I've said before, I think ASUS has much more serious problems than the Qosmio does.

I had a DV7 for a while which I hated (lousy HP crapware, serious overheating on an i5 (!), terrible touchpad), but I have to say it beat out the Q890 on screen quality and keyboard layout. BTW, the DV7 had a 1600x900 screen and I didn't find it to be a problem, so my beef is not necessarily with the lower resolution.

 

lol The only reason I have re-posted the same thing several times is because nobody has responded to it, but yeah you're right. Hey, maybe the chicklet-keyboard is the next big thing, but you know what? I don't want to dump one to two thousand into a laptop only to find out that it isn't and that even after a month or two I can't type on it and am now stuck with this huge, overpriced, cinderblock of a one-trick-pony!

 

One day, someone will put a touchscreen keyboard on a laptop, and that'll become the next big thing, and we'll all remember the chiclet with fond memories.

Progress is terrible sometimes.

 

LMAO! I hear you. Well I am going to go off topic one last time. I just spoke to Justin of Xoticpc at length about my issues, and he is telling me that the chicket keyboards are here to stay and that if I don't want one, I should either just hold onto my old lappy or buy something a year or more old with the old style keys.

We were talking about a bunch of laptops and he was telling me that the issues with the G73 in the last month or so have been mostly resolved with Asus drivers. He was very helpful, and I am not really sure if this changes anything, to be honest. I may still have to wait and see what comes out. But your review of the Toshiba screen, in particular, really turned of off of it.

As of right now, the only thing I like about the Qosmios are the 18.4 inch screen, 3D capabilities, and the beautiful aesthetics of the design of the units.

 

About the x505 1080p screen, I wasn't able to get into the Control Panel so I don't know whether it was turned to full brightness, I can only assume. However, that wouldn't solve the graininess issue.

It's sad if everyone's switching to chiclets. I mean, I hate HP, but they had a bevel keyboard on the DV7/8!

I've heard some people say the G73's problems have been solved...I don't buy it. If that were true, the ASUS forum would be full to bursting with cheers and joy, not GSODs and PSODs.

 

LMAO good point, Not to mention it is not lost on me that I was talking to a salesman. However, one thing that gave me hope is that he told me a month or so ago, in no uncertain terms, that he could not, in good conscience, recommend the G73 for the myriad of issues associated with it. Back then he said many of his customers were having a lot of problems with them. Today, when I asked him about why he now recommends the model more, he told me that he is not encountering a lot of issues with the customers who are buying them.

Oh and supposedly the new G73 is coming out as early as next week, though it will be an intermediate between this one and the G73JH slated for September. This one is going to be the G73JH-B1, which supposedly is a fix for a lot of or all of the issues.

 

a5400435, not sure on the graininess you are referring to. Sure the laptop was set for the native resolution? That's the only time I've seen this "graininess" you talk about. Other than that, yeah, the keyboard bites. If you're a touch typist, you'll hate it. The trackpad also isn't the greatest. The sound is decent. Not the best, not the worst. The demo model with loose things? probably abuse from the store. My speaker bezels or whatever they would be called are just fine, no issues.

I've never had a heat issue at all, tho some folks have had where fans were disconnected from the chips during transit (probably).

Everything has been 100% fine on mine after some driver and bios updates. The 1080p on this small of a screen does make it difficult to read text and stuff at native resolution, but it's good for what I do.

FYI, I do use mine as a space constraint area desktop replacement. AKA, on all the time 24x7, never use the battery, never thought about transporting it anyplace (it's a heavy beast) I use a full size mouse (Logitech performance MX wireless) and a full size keyboard (Logitech Dinovo BT)

The Wifi Card on mine is a bit weak, is NOT dual band.

I've upgraded the drives (2nd one) and maxed the RAM. All in all, it's a decent machine. it's not a powerhouse gamer machine, but it's pretty good all around usable machine for what I do.

 

Yeah, this honestly is the big deal breaker for me.

What model do you have, by the way?

 

I'm certain the Q890 was set to full HD resolution. I analyzed the pixels.

I'm considering asking Fry's to pull a Q885 out of storage so I can see that in person, as that's the model I've been hoping for the entire time.

 

I was an early adopter when they first hit the market, to it's the x505-q850

 

@Compusmurf, what would your opinion of the screen be? I'm quite confused by the divergence of opinions on it; on one hand, there are some people who say it's low quality and dim, and seeing the Q890 in person I would agree, but there are an awful lot of review sites that say the display is beautiful and the highlight of the whole laptop.

 

I have the feeling that the dimness is more than likely something that is a Fn control as it is a function easily slid back and forth (up and down).

 

Hmm. Well, I may go back and try it again then, the nice thing is Toshiba has kept the same Fn controls from my old Satellite, Fn+F6 lowers brightness, Fn+F7 increases brightness.

 

The review on this site has four pictures of varying brightness that show how diverse the control is:

Toshiba Qosmio X505 Review

 

You see, that's a very positive review, and it baffles me. He does say the screen is dim, but only "alittle". And he practically loves the keyboard.

I dunno, maybe this is what we should get used to in the market of high-performance laptops.

 

And maybe a lot of this is opininion, coming down to the individual taste of the reviewer. I think I said something to this effect in a couple of other threads, or maybe even this one.

Reviewers are paid to take a microscope to whatever they are reviewing, whether it be games, laptops, desktops, TVs, or whatever. They have to ferret out every stupid little flaw, and I have found that sometimes this means that some of the things they criticize are things that the average and even hardcore enthusiast would barely notice, if at all. Things like the screen being "a little too dim" could simply mean that this guy evaluated twenty-five gaming laptops in the last 6 months and this one was a little dimmer than the ones costing five grand! lol

Seriously, haven't you ever read reviews of products you own, such as the latest games, and found that you could barely notice a lot of the issues the reviewers cite and sometimes cannot even notice them unless you really try?

To me, the key in evaluating reviews is two-fold:

1. Read a as many different reviews as time allows or that exist and try to look for all the common denominators. If ten reviewers, for instance, say that the G73JH and the Qosmios have keyboard flex, then it probably does. But, I have read only a few reviews that actually cite this as a viable concern. Another example is the sound quality of the Qosmios. Most reviews that mention the sound say the laptop sounds great! One guy even said it would fill up a large living room and act as a stereo replacement. High praise! Yet one review, and ONLY ONE, which I posted in this forum, said the sound was tinny and not very good. That was, coincidentaly, the one from this site.

2. I try to look at the "tone" of the criticism. If the reviewer mentions it in passing, not making much of a big deal out of it, or even sometimes coming right out and saying it is a very minor problem, then perhaps this is a good issue not to worry about very much. Your "slightly dim screen" reference might be just such a niggle. You have to ask yourself, if a guy who is going over the laptop with a fine-tooth-comb to find every stupid little thing wrong (because that's his job) and even his words are almost dismissive of it, is this something that you and I, who are not looking to launch space shuttles for NASA with our new laptop, need to even worry about?

Hey, now that was one serious run-on sentence. Yikes! :laugh:

 

Well, if I hadn't seen the Q890 in person, I definitely would have agreed. Problem is, I have seen it, and it's not just "slightly" dim.

But most of your other points are valid.

 

Yeah, but you don't know if that is an issue with the settings or not. Keep in mind, you were testing out a demo model that probably ten thousand people have had their hands on. Who knows what was accidentally changed, it the thing got knocked around, one of the LCD bulbs is out, someone kicked down the contrast, reduced the brightness, anything.

 

a4500435, I don't have a problem with the screen. I don't even keep it at max brightness, I did calibrate it with a spider calibrator. It adjusted the color some. I actually watched my first blueray movie on it the other day. Avatar. Very nice, very clear and the sound (with good headphones) was very very good. I can't say anything about the speakers themselves. Limited to low vol dings, mail alerts, lol. everything involving sound I use headphones for as not to disturb others near me.

My ONLY complaint with the screen, again, is the IMO, extreme high resolution with this small of a screen. Without increasing your text size or without reading glasses, it's absolutely too tiny for me to read with my 40+ yr old eyes.

Chirovette, you're spot on with how one should look at reviews. Many times, a reviewer is PAID by the company for reviewing their products. There's no way it'll be fair and unbiased, just no way.

About the keyboard comment. I've been touch typing for many, many years and am very picky about my keyboards. Has to have a low travel, slight concave keys, etc. Whereas some are audiophiles (not I, 1/2 deaf in 1 ear) or look for extreme perfect screens, (again, not I, I have to use my glasses to read the text on the screen now), I care about my keyboard and how it feels to me. I also can't stand touchpads (mine's disabled on purpose). hahahahaha.

So you take every owner which has their own personal 'quirks', read everyone's comments to see what they like and dislike and if there's not obvious hardware issues you cannot overcome, then see how you feel on their comments and try it for yourself. I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect machine for everyone.

If you're going to be traveling tons and are looking for light weight.... ah, hope you have back support. It's a heavy machine.

 

Ha!

Compusmurf, right now I am lugging around a cinderblock with a screen in the form of an old 17 inch Dell XPS Gen 2. So weight is not an issue to me! Actually isn't the Qosmio one of the lighter of the solid-rock-gaming-rigs? Not that I care, to be honest. I am over 40 as well, and I have my native resolution on the XPS set to 1900 X 1200 and I love it. The icons are perfect size, the text is readable, and it is great for gaming...OOOOOLD GAMING! lol

GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas run awesome on it, fully maxed! Ha, yes, I am a total GTA fanboy!

I have my 20 inch CRT monitor set even higher, 1920 X 1440!

Anywho, Comp, you told us how avid a touch-typer you were in your last post, but never finished the thought. In other words, how do you feel about the Qosmio keyboard?

 

So they do on X505, even with 250M, no big deal.

 

Regarding the keyboard on the x505, does anyone think something like this might help?

Keyboard Cover Skin Toshiba Qosmio® X500 X505 Series - eBay (item 260649147623 end time Sep-09-10 19:21:08 PDT)

Never seen one of these in use before.

 

I tried this, it it was completely useless.
Due to keyboard construction (no gaps between keys) it would not even stay in place, and also will smudge the screen if you try to close the lid. Overall, with this skin it was even worse than without it, so it went to bin an hour after unpacking.

 

What does that have to do with the rice in China? I was making a joke about my laptop being old. I might as well have said that Pac Man or Tetris runs smooth and perfect on my XPS! Would you have come back with "OMG like Pac Man runs perfect on the X505, too, dude!" if I did? *eyeroll>

A4500435, I doubt it. If anything, I would guess that would make it worse because it would add more resistance to keys with already very short "throw" or movement and it would even further reduce the feedback to your fingers as you type. There is simply nothing that is going to make up for the fact that each key has a very short distance to travel when pressed. This is either a great design that we have to get used to or it is a terrible design that people will complain about until laptop manufacturers go back to the old style keyboard.

From what I have been hearing, however, it is probably going to be the former and not the latter, because many people are saying that once they get used to the chicklet style keyboard that it is great.

 

"Anywho, Comp, you told us how avid a touch-typer you were in your last post, but never finished the thought. In other words, how do you feel about the Qosmio keyboard?"

Actually, if you scroll back a few posts, I said the keyboard sucked. probably could get used to it if I tried hard enough. Humans are pretty adaptive....

But I use a BT Logitech Dinovo keyboard for everything..... Without going back to the old IBM "clacker" keyboards which I've always loved, I find my DiNovo to be the next best thing. Tho, it wouldn't double as a bludgeoning weapon like the old IBM monster would. You could hurt someone with them!

 

Is it possible to boot x505 from USB(enternal HDD)? I dont see any options in BIOS

 

Hey guys!

I have been posting in this forum and the Asus forum basically because I am waffling between one of the iterations of the G73 and the Qosmio. I am going to be buying the laptop sometime in september, and would love to hear from all the Qosmio X505 owners about their experiences with their machines

Before you start posting a litany of G73JH issues and problems, I am very familiar with them, and they seem to have been resolved with the newer units and a ton of driver and bios updates, though like many, I am skeptical that all the issues have truly been dealt with. So I am already well aware of the issues with the G73, and am absolutely factoring potential problems into mu decision.

What I would like from you kind folks is not a bashing of Asus and the G73 but what your opinions about what makes the Qosmio a potentially better choice for me, your experiences with your Qosmio laptops, and any advantages that you think the Qosmio has in this arena.

Thanks!

 

hello guys.

my friend has problem with adjusting the screen brightness . i think there is a bug with the toshiba eco utility.

have you expencienced something like that?

 

Have he installed non-Toshiba (NVidia) video driver by any chance?

 

yes. he has the latest drivers from nvidia website.

i know in the inf file there is a command to force the driver to let the user adjust the screen brightness but i dont know how to do it

 

Well I just ordered the Qosmio Q893 off of Amazon last night, and I should have it by tomorrow or friday, so I guess I should now post in the Official Owner's Lounge.

 

I want to send this to front so we can keep it updated

BUMP

 

Any good cleaners or cleaning tips for keeping fingerprints and smudges off laptop?

 

I almost always have a soft papertowel handy and either Windex or some water if there is no Windex where I am. To be honest, this is an extremely hard laptop to keep clean, but in a way that is working for me. My old Dell XPS Gen 2 was silver lol it looked like a giant alien machine from Star Trek, but it never looked dirty. As a result, I almost NEVER cleaned it until cleaning it would take a huge effort. With my Qosmio, because I am constantly at it with a moist and "windexed" papertowel, the machine is almost always sparkling clean.

 

Update and Questions.

1. I bought a microfiber towel that was designed for cleaning windows (bought at Walmart). It does a FANTASTIC job at wiping fingerprints off my machine WITHOUT using cleaners (good dry alternative). No scratches and no smears, it's great!

2. If I were to switch my Hard Drive to a SSD, would the chance of a failed drive be diminished ? (since drive not spinning w/ head)

Thanks