Toshiba Qosmio X505-1800X First Impressions

Okay, here is my review of the Qosmio X505-1800X which is a Sandy Bridge i5, GTX460. I must say that I haven't played any games on it yet so this is just a general informative and I'll post about gaming later. I have downloaded Crysis 2, Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2 and Origins. Today I'll get the rest of my steam downloads done while I'm out shopping.

The bad:

1) Stickers everywhere. I hate stickers on laptops. The minute I get the laptop I remove them and it was a royal pain and took me almost 30 minutes to get the intel icore sticker off since the sticker came off but the glue remained. Thankfully, no harm done to the laptop.

2) Bloatware: Uggh, I hate bloatware and wish companies did not put it on the computer. I'm not talking Toshiba utilities. I use those. I'm talking about the crap I won't use like Google Chrome, Norton trial, Office trial, etc. It's unnecessary. I'm already paying for the laptop.

3)Glossy everywhere. I'm not a fan of glossy, but as my son said, it is sharp looking. He really likes the look of it and so do I. Just need to keep plenty of clean wipes around. Love that it is black but has red accents. Very nice.

4)Have to find a laptop bag that it will fit in.

The good:

1)The lcd is very nice, natural colors and large enough so these older eyes don't have to squint to see the text on my steam account. My Alienware the was 1200p but I don't plan to watch dvds on this so I'm not even going to notice in game. The lcd is bright and clear and my son said he could see the lcd from the side pretty clearly. He's always looking over my shoulder, thought I should put him to work.

2)Yes, yes, yes, the dvd drive is on the left side. Thank you Toshiba and it's not slot loaded. I know everyone wants slot loaded drives but trust me they are a lot more difficult to change than a regular sliding door drive. Alienware tech had to take my entire laptop apart just to get the drive off and then he had to get the disk that was stuck in it out.

3)The chicklet keyboard is very nice. No flex, nice number pad and I don't see how dust can get inside it though for the most part I'll have it covered with a shaggymac cloth that I ordered.

4)Love the size. 18.4" is just a bit larger than our Alienware M17X but the Qosmio is a lot thinner and way lighter.

5) It has plenty of usb and other ports, that wasn't a main concern of mine since this is a gaming rig.

6) Performance wise, I have EA Dowloader working, installed Office 2007 and had the internet open all at the same time. In fact EA Downloader was downloading several games. The laptop installed Office faster than I've ever seen. I was impressed. Once the games are downloaded they install blazingly fast even for an i5. It is impressive. I haven't tried building a book cover on it (I'm a self publishing author). I have yet to install my Photoshop CS3 and I want to put 8 gigs of ram in it. But I am very happy so far with performance. I'll try a game later and update this thread.

Overall first impression is impressed. Toshiba did a good job with the Qosmio as I knew they would since I *heart* my Satellite A665 3DV.

 

Great writeup tldoney

I'm glad your happy with your Qosmio thus far. Can't wait for you to put it to the test and play some games and etc.. on it. Don't forget to make your Recovery Discs.

It's big huhh!? I do like the size of it, and really like the huge screen it has; makes seeing things easier. As far as the bag goes, I was able to find a "Kenneth Cole Reaction" bag at Office depot for $60. It's made for 18.4" laptops.
Here's the link: Kenneth Cole Reaction 184 PortfolioComputer Case 135 H x 19 W x 35 D Black by Office Depot


Good luck and keep us updated with your progress.

 

I have Acronis. I'll be putting in a 750gig hard drive on Monday after it's cloned so I'll have the 500 gig put away just in case.

Add On To The Review:

The only game that I've tried so far is Mass Effect. I have it on max settings and it plays perfectly and it's just gorgeous. 60FPS (vsynch on). I haven't played Crysis 2 or Dead Space yet. I'll get to those when I have Mass Effect out of my system, lol.

I think I'm going to ask hubby to get me the Alice game and Deux Ex Human Revolution for Christmas that way he has something to buy me, lol.

As far as a bag goes, that portfolio definitely looks good. I'm also ordering 8 gigs of ram for it. Since I create the covers for my novels, I need enough to have several layers of photoshop open at the same time.

I'm very pleased with the performance. I'm also adding a 3 yr warranty for it from Square Trade.

 

I broke down and bought Brink yesterday on the recomendations of a store employee. I frikkin hate the game. It read it was a First person shooter, but even in single player its totally team based which I dont remember reading on the cover. I am willing to sell it cheap if anyone wants it. Paid like $50.00 will sell for $25.oo plus shipping. SO then I bought Crysis 2 as I found it on EA website for $43.00, download version. Graphics are really good but I just have a hard time with the suite controls. Oh well I will keep plugging along.

 

I just watched Brink and it was awful looking. You may want to try to sell it on the buy, sell and trade forum or on ebay.