Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q892 - New users Review

There are netbooks. 10" in size lightweight.
Then come the "smart laptops" anywhere from 12"-14" in size.
For the conformist there is the 15.6", or 16" pretty much considered the "de facto" laptop size.
And then come the gamers, and multimedia freaks, who need a big screen, and want mobility too.
They take the 17" inchers. Sure the laptop weighs around 3-4kgs but its still mobile and yet can almost replace a desktop
Almost....

Apart from all this, there is another laptop out there. No its not 9", and it will not fit in the palm of your lap. It will not even fit in your lap, unless you have a very big lap. And it does not weigh 3-4kgs

Its the Qosmio. The screen Size... 18.4" . IT will put many desktops to shame. Just the laptop weighs over 5kgs(10lb approx), with the power "brick" another 1lbs

So half of you must be eager for more, and other half must be wondering if I am crazy or something. Well without further ado, lets start my personal review of Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q892

Buying Decision
A trip to the US usually means some shopping. And this time the agenda was clear. A sub 1000$ gaming laptop.
So what do you find for 1000$ or less. Well nothing much. The fastest card you get is a ATI 5730(overlocked 5650) with a 5200rpm 500GB HDD and probably a core i7-740

Now from an "India" POV, the 5730 is quite a nice card. Even the 5650 is considered very nice, and laptops with these cost 45K or more, and if you get an i7 the cost goes up a lot more.

Thats when I realized the I will have to push my budget up by 50-100$
That 50$ opened up a world of gaming laptops.
I basically had MSI in my crosshairs. But then the 5870, though the top end ATI card, is known to get a little "cranky" and all "tantrumy"
Moreover, in my budget I was getting a 320GB HDD

Asus Republic of gamers looked nice too, but then price went up.

So then there was the Qosmio.
Holiday season brought in lot of deals, and soon I was looking at this baby at 1050$
And guess what, it has the top end NVIDIA graphics card with a core i5.
This means when I do not need the card, optimus(no relation to our friend from space), can just switch off the card.
A user review by Chiro on this forum of the 893 convinced me that these specs were for me.

I had two choiced PAy 1050 get the 892, or pay 50$ more, and get the 893 with backlit keyboard.
And guess what, I decided to save.
Purchase was made at buydig, and then murphy stuck just as the laptop got out for delivery. Amazon brought the 893 at a lightning deal for 899$

Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q893 for 899$ - But no use crying over split milk.
Beginning this week, I had the the Qosmio with me, and I am using it for everything its designed for

Looks and Design
The Laptop looks extremely sleek and smart, with red and black combo. As you look at it you drool. That is until it is sitting on your desk, and you are actually looking at it, and not the pictures on the web.
I know many of you must be searching for pictures on the web, but believe me, you have to see it in "correct perspective"
Like this






Does not look too big? ITs because I took the pics with an ultra wide lens. Look at the 77mm lens cap lying next to it. I looks tiny, right

So as I said, its big. Really really big

Another big surprise. They keybord. It actually has a tactile feel. Sure the 1500$ laptops will beat it, but in this price space, nothing comes close. And due to the large real estate available, it actually has a num pad and large keys.
I find the spacebar a little small, but nothing I can live with.

The trackpad is also very nice. Infact its among the nicest I have ever used. There is good feedback, and pinch and grab works without any glitch. There is a dedicated button to switch off the trackpad so that you do not accidentally press any buttons or move the mouse while typing and using an external mouse.

The battery is also huge, and the bottom has room for a spare hdd. Yes, you can fit in 2HDDs without removing your DVD drive. How cool is that...!

So thats on the looks front. Its big, it will grab eyeballs, and its glossy, very glossy. But whatever good looks it has the extra large size makes it look weird. And do not bother carrying it much, unless you are a body builder, or like to have neck and back ache

Features and Specs
So what lurks under the hood. Well pretty much near top of the line
I am copy pasting the spec sheet!

Two features worthy of special mention are the Toshiba Eco utitlity. With ECO mode on, and normal web surfing going on, this baby consumes just 35W of power, leading to 3 hours of battery life!

Second are the speakers. Though they won't make me retire my home theater system, they are quite something for a laptop. Probably only MSI can beat this baby due to the chasis subwoofer, but I am not sure I want a subwoofer in the chasis, making things loose!

On the annoyance front, you have the Toshiba HDD vibration protection which parks the head to the safe location if you sneeze too loudly. I reduced the sensitivity from the control panel.

Performance and Usability
Now we come to the meat of this post.
So how does this really perform. It it all hot air and size with no substance.
Well no. If you ask me how does it perform, and how much resolution it can bring out in the benchamrk tests 3dMark11 etc., I am not too sure because it shows me 8fps in 3DMark11.
Pretty bad eh? It scared me too. What if the 460M Nvidia card is a paper tiger? Well it isnt. Its the top end card from Nvidia land you can buy in laptops(except for SLI)

So I ran it through some real world tests.
MY older machine did not even have a graphics card. So I do not have anything to compare with.
But I downloaded steam, and to my surprise found out that I remembered my 7 year old account password, and that account has "Half life 2 and Counterstrike Source!"

So after years I played half life, and guess what, I can set everything to max and the GPU temp does not cross 70 C. Heck CPU usage is below 50% and GPU isn't even maxxed out.

But then HL2 is not really a current game. So it was time to find the latest game I have. Guess what. Its Far Cry 2
Again, everything at 1680x945 resolution with all details and shadows set to high.

This laptop takes it without a sweat

The screen is also bright, though I do not like the glossy screen trend much as it reflects light too much. Its not full HD, but I checked out a few full HD laptops at a store, and guess I rediscovered what scientists have been saying. On a screen smaller than 32" you won't be able to tell any difference between full HD and 720p. Of course you can fit so much into the page, but getting a 1920X1080 resolution on an 18" will mean a lot of squinting. So its not an issue for me at all.

Other than that this laptop has the built in webcam and mic, which have very nice voice and video quality.

So is anything missing? Well yes. Blue tooth. This baby does not have bluetooth. Guess I will need to spend a $ and get myself those tiny dongles. Dealextreme sells them for 1$ or so, and I have one for my old inspiron. Maybe I will use that!

Other than that it as the "Sleep charge" eSATA USB port, firewire, HDMI, VGA blah blah.
With so much space available I was expecting around 6 USB ports, but I guess I will be satisfied with 4.


On the non game front, I have tried HD movies, RAW image processing, and a bunch of other CPU eating tasks, and guess what, it does it well, and without breaking a sweat. RAM usage hovers around 40%, and bootup time is less than 25 seconds, with few seconds more after logging in(I start a lot of monitors at startup). Suprisingly when making skype video calls, CPU usage goes to 20%. At first I wondered and wondered, and then saw GMAIL voice also taking CPU. Guess what, the realtime encryption consumes CPU. ITs probably here an I7 will shine. If you have a 10Mbps internet connection, and want to video chat with 10 buddies simultaneously I guess you will overwork the processor.

Only grouse, there is lot of bloatware, and I cannot figure out what to keep and what to junk.

Other thoughts
1. Buying a laptop backpack for this one was tough. In the end I got a Toshiba 18" Extreme backpack, and its on its way on the FEDEX truck. Will have it by next week Monday.
2. Flying with this thing is going to be a pain
3. Its too glossy, so a finger print magnet. I hate cleaning up regularly
4. The power adapter is huge, and the pin which goes into the laptop looks like its for some evil scientists heavy machinery or something, rather than for a laptop

MY Enhancements
I have modded it a bit. If you call the second HDD a mod. Some stripes of cardboard intelligently cut negated the need for a bracket. Infact, its better without a bracket as the cardboard will be shock absorbant.
So now I have 1TB of space, with 500GB on 7200rpm disk which has the OS, and the 5400rpm secondary WD HDD.
On software front, norton has been removed, and I am running MS essentials coupled with Avast. Malwarebytes is also sitting, and I intend to scan with it once every 15 days or so.
Video viewing is done by VLC or WM player. Somehow VLC cannot use the GPU for HD video processing as well as the WM Player. For Music collection I use the WM player. I was using songbird, but they have lost the plot. I will go with evil here.
Browser is Firefox and Chrome.
As for games its HL-Episode 1, Episode 2, HL2, HL-Lost coast. I am trying to get a UL 2007(Unreal Tournament 3), will buy it when I can get the 9.99$ in store deal. Till then I will try not to be defeated by the combine.

Lastly for Office, its libreoffice all the way.
Conclusion
So who should buy this?
Well the answer is, anyboy with a 1000$ budget who wants a desktop replacement.
And quess what, the Qosmio line goes all the way to 1700$, and you get the 1920X1080 full HD screen with a Blue ray drive and Core i7-740QM processor, and a secondry solid state drive

But if you want some battery life, its better to stick to an i5 due to inbuilt graphics available.

As far as gaming laptops go, it will stand side by side with the 5870 equipped machines costing 1500$+. Well the 5870 may edge it out on some games, but then this thing will eat such a laptop when it comes to battery life.
Video watching(SD) with eco mode on and wireless off takes 25W.

Only thing really beating it will be the crossfire equipped twin graphics machines, but if you have that kind of budget, this review is not for you.

Moreover, a second HDD bay means you can fit in a 640GB HDD (70$) and have a 1TB + system. Who needs a desktop anyways!

So am I happy?
Well yes and no,

I know I got a swell machine for 1050$
But then Amazon had this lightning deal for 899$ which I missed by a whisker.
I am crying over spilt milk, even though I know there is no use!

So thats all folks. Fire away your questions.

 

Great Review!!!!

I knew something seemed familiar about this read

I'll be reviewing my Q894 when I get it next week.

 

Great review. Love the fact that you reviewed it with a different perspective than mine so between us, we are giving a more complete picture than either of our reviews alone. Nice job, and use your laptop well!

 

Thanks for posting the review. You do a great job of reflecting why this is such an exciting laptop. By the way, I love the pics. Way better than Chiro's.

Honestly, I would have preferred the full HD screen. I haven't seen it in person, but I am pretty sure the reported dimness wouldn't bother me, as I would use it mostly in my house, and I find most screens too bright anyway. As you know, the real state of a screen is determined both by its physical size and by its resolution. Those who bought a FHD screen bought a screen bigger than ours. I know that wouldn't make a difference when watching movies and it would actually hurt the performance while gaming, but I am also going to work on my Qosmio and I need to compare several documents quite often. I was initially planning to buy the Q896 for $1400, but I immediately changed my mind when I saw the Q893 for $900. (I hope I am not bringing up painful memories.) Maybe because my expectations were low after reading Chiro's and other reviews, I am pleasantly surprised by the screen. It's very bright but at the same time my eyes don't get tired reading text on it. Also, I think movement reproduction is fantastic. In my old laptops, I could notice some ghosting or tear when a camera would scroll laterally all of a sudden. (Maybe that problem is still there and I'll notice it when I spend more time gaming or watching movies, as I've been frantically busy these days.) If the vertical viewing angles were a bit better... All in all, I am very happy I bought this model.

By the way, most of my games are rather old too, so I am waiting for the Steam Christmas sale to get lots of new titles. I can't wait.

Thanks again for sharing your impressions.

Please do. We love reading about Qosmios here.

 

Nice review! I also love my X505 Q892 has been great so far, except for not being able to game unplugged. Anyway reading the review makes me appreciate my laptop more. Thanks.

 

LOL at least I seized the oppurtunity! I don't think a sweet deal for the x505 Qosmios will come around anytime soon until it's already old news and the next models are out. Bwahahahahaha! you snooze, you lose...

 

goddamnit, sonofa....

 

What next models are out? While I am not going to likely be in the market for a new lappy anytime soon, it's nice to drool a little lol.

 

There's not much to look forward to if they keep the same chassis, other than Sandy Bridge and maybe USB3.0. Even if they upgrade to a 5xxM GTX GPU, the bump won't be that much.

 

oh @ tsk1979 take of the stickers from the laptop already and put em on the power brick instead.

 

Will the stickers come off without leaving residue?

 

The surface is glossy, so you should be able to clean if any residue if there is.

 

well i believe the intel inside and I think Norton stickers, hmm I think, I forget, but 2 actually left residue, all I did was just to keep on rubbing the rest of the residue with my fingers and it would roll into tiny little balls like mochi, then I just used some eyeglass cleaner spray mist to shine it up. It's not that difficult to get rid of and then you see it in all it's glory, although to me the X305 is still wins hands down in looks not on the exterior but interior, especially with the red lcd lights turn on.

 

The Toshiba Extreme 18" Gaming backpack got delivered today. I will post pics of it in the evening with the laptop inside.

 

usea little cooking oil on a q-tip to get the sticker residue off

 

The Large Qosmio is a very snug fit inside


There are pockets galore


Another one


Found this contraption inside. I have absolutely no idea what to do with it


A top image



Overall, there is plenty of room for other stuff too, and laptop is pretty well padded from all sides.

At 61$ inclusive of shipping from Provantage, it was actually a great deal!

 

is there also room for the power brick?

 

There is room for power brick and a lot more.

 

I started playing crisis.
At high settings, it runs pretty great.
At the highest settings, most scenes are okay, but when things start blowing up, esp tank battles, things go south a bit, but I think I still manage 20-25FPS with the max highest settings.,
CPU temp goes upto 75 degrees and GPU goes to 78 degrees.
Ambient temp in the room is around 15-20 degree C