Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q893 User Review

Ok, I analyzed this latest Lightning Deal and here's the info:

The deal started at 10:20 AM PST: It was first posted on SlickDeals at 11:20 AM (I'm guessing CST):
Amazon Lightning Deal: Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q893 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black) for $899+fs - Slickdeals.net
I believe the deal lasted for 2 hours until 12:20 PM PST. Amazon's Gold Box page shows the deal is 40% claimed, which may mean that there're 3 more rounds of Lightning Deals to come.



As such, I've created a Google Alert whenever the terms "x505-q893 $899" show up on Twitter (where the SlickDeals link was posted). Hopefully, this'll catch it in time for the next Lightning Deal. If anyone sees this deal, I'd also appreciate it if you PM'd me.

 

Jeeze, what the hell was that all about, Jacob? I wish I had waited and paid $900.00 instead of $1,150.00 as well, but life has it's share of disapppointments. You don't see me taking it out on the good people of this forum because I didn't want to wait, do you? The difference between me and you is I am HAPPY for anyone who got a great deal! What a turd.

You're welcome. Glad I could help!

 

well excuse me Mr. Nerd, but can you explain to me how I can game on high performance using just battery power on an X505 without dropping framerates? Can you tell me how I can install the latest Nvidia verde graphics driver onto the X505? Maybe with your technical expertise you can give me a solution to this.

 

@ a4500435 and Chirovette, you guys are waaaaaay to serious. Anyway Chirovette, does your x505 lose performance while gaming on battery? Oh and yeah, I'm glad those guys also got a good deal on the x505....

 

Not that I have noticed. The only issue I have with the battery power so far (and this may have to do with the settings and something I can change) is that when the bettery power got too low while I was gaming once, the PC just powered off, no warning, no going into suspend mode or hibernation while I plugged it in and then resumed. It just shut the hell down, which is not very good for Windows, not to mention any progress I lost in the game. But I noticed no appreciable loss of performance.

And is that your only comeback to a4500435, to call him a nerd? You were the one acting like a raging hole to the guy. He is a regular member of this forum and goes out of his way to help people. So naturally, you aren't going to win any friends around here by calling him names.

 

Really? When I play Call of Duty 4 and run fraps, with it plugged in I get 60+ frames per second, when I unplug it drops to 20-30 fps. I tried changing the power option to high performance on battery yet the problem still persists. Can you try playing a first person shooter and observe the framerate with fraps with your laptop plug in and unplugged to see if this is also an issue with yours?

 

Chiro, don't feed the trolls...

I have no idea about his battery problem, but I am looking at the Nvidia driver issue. It is a bit of a PITA not to be able to directly update from Nvidia, however, this problem is not isolated to Toshiba; G73JW users are having the same problems. I'm hopeful that there's a solution...

 

Well no use crying over spilt milk. I got mine from buydig at 1050. It was in Sacramento yesterday at 4pm. I am in San Jose, so I was kind of expecting it today. Well I gotta wait a day more I guess.
I am buying this hdd to be used as second hdd
Amazon.com: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD5000BEVT: Electronics
For laptop bags, I am confused between
Amazon.com: Targus XL Backpack Designed for 17 Inch Notebooks TXL617 (Black with Blue Accents): Electronics
Or the Toshiba gaming backpack
Amazon.com: Toshiba PA1453U-1BG8 18.4 inches Gaming Backpack: Electronics

The Toshiba gaming backpack costs 60$, and the Targus XL is 48$ at BH with 0.75 3 day air shipping from UPS.
Now I am wondering which one to get.
Any suggestions please?

 

Jacob, I am not aqn FPS player, but I just tried your test on a graphics intensive game, Just Cause 2. I was getting between 30 and 50 FPS with Fraps running, and the second I pulled out the power cord it dropped down to between 10 and 15, making it unplayable. Not sure what the problem is, as I have the laptop set to run on high performance at all times. Very odd, to be honest. I am going to call Toshiba Tech Support.

 

Hey

Could you tell me what settings you used in JC2 and resolution and what GPU\CPU you have plz

Thanks in advance

 

I set everything up on HIGH, the highest settings possible, and I am running the laptop at its native resolution of 1680 X 945. My Qosmio has the i5 460m CPU and the GeForce 460m GPU.

 

Could it be because of Toshiba's Eco Utility?

To be honest, this doesn't really concern me. There's really no good reason to game unplugged on a laptop, especially a ginormous 18.4" incher. There's not a gaming laptop in existence that can really game on HIGH for over an hour, and the Qosmio's battery is bigger than most all of them.

 

Many thanks for your reply

It seems the GTX460 does a pretty good job then

I have ordered this version of the Qosmio

Komplett.no - Toshiba Qosmio X500-147 18.4" Full HD

but i am very unsecure if i want to keep it or not after the last days reading about bad screenquality and overheatings problems. I would contact my dealer and ask if i can power up and look at the screen and juge the quality myself without the risk of not could sending it back

PS ardon my (bad)English

 

Yes I don't like that it can't game without being by an outlet. I have the previous generation Qosmio the X305 and with the original Toshiba drivers I could game unplugged with the same framerate as I did plugged in. Only when I updated and started to use laptopvideo2go and certain versions of Nvidia official drivers, did I get the same result with the X305 which is not being able to game unplugged. So I feel it might have to do with graphics drivers or the "eco" energy saving feature toshiba implemented. I'm hoping there's a work around this.

Besides this new x505, I also have the Toshiba X305 q701 and it's awesome being able to game for an hour in your local starbucks when everyone else is hogging the electrical outlets. And 1 hour is plenty of time for gaming till your butt gets numb and someone finally opens up an outlet to let you plug into. There's alot of benefit to being able to use your 17+ inch gaming laptop without it being plugged in to a wall outlet. There's a freedom that makes a HUGE difference, and since I had the problem with the x305 of being able to play unplugged and not, because of the different graphic drivers, I can tell you from experience that there is very good reason to game unplugged even on a "ginormous" portable system. So stop hating and you take that previous post of mine to seriously even though it was a joke and not even adressed toward you.

 

I bought the Targus XL backpack along with my Qosmio and it's large enough to fit the Qosmio, an HP530, both power packs (or power brick in the case of the qosmio) as well as a notebook cooler. Haven't seen or used the toshiba backpack so i can't form an opinion on it but you definately can't go wrong with the targus

 

I have to disagree with you on that. I am of the absolute belief that the portability of a laptop demands that the battery be able to supply FULL and constant power for anyone who wants to use it unplugged. The very idea that you are forced into a power-cut and performance degradation by a manufacturer, all in the name of squeezing more "hours" of life from a single charge is absolutely F**king ludicrous! I expect...no, make that I demand, that a laptop be able to provide full power unplugged even if it is for just around an hour. I have yet to try to do anything on this laptop unplugged for any length of time, and I know that supposedly the battery can last up to 2.8 hours. Now I think I know why.

I was on the phone with Toshiba's tech support for an hour last night, and I was told a senior level tech would call me back about this issue, but there had seriously better be a workaround for this stupidity. It is absolutely unacceptable to have a huge, juggernaut of a gaming laptop that ONLY supplies a fraction of the power to function while unplugged. This should have been something that Toshiba WARNED their customers about in their ads. You may not care about gaming without an outlet for an hour, a4500435, but I can assure you that I certainly do! I do a lot of traveling, and am in a position where I can only use battery power for short stints of time, such as an hour or less. I don't see how anyone can consider this an acceptable situation if it turns out that Toshiba either did this on purpose or through their neglect.

 

Thanks! But I saw a reviewers comment about the targus that there is not much padding at the bottom of the Targus. So when kept vertical(standing up) you need to put it on the ground very softly.
Also the laptop is bigger than the "foam sleeve" so at the top though the zippers are not tight, there is not much padding available from bumps at top.
Can you post a picture of the laptop in the XL backpack with the zippers open so that I can see where the foam and all is, and how does it all look size wise. I will also let me figure out how big actually is the bag.
I plan to use it for airline travel.
Thanks again!

 

No biggie! One can accept certain limitations in a $900 laptop. Anyway, I bought it with the famous ChiroVette Warranty. If I don't like my machine or if I find the review inaccurate or misleading, he'll give me my money back. That's what good writers do. They stand by their words.

Seriously, once you buy a laptop, you should stop reading about new deals. That's what I am going to do. Especially when Sandy Bridge arrives and probably the new Qosmios X600 with it.

Wow, you sure are a sophisticated guy. But what if it drops to $849?

Good luck with the next deal. I'll PM you if I see it again.

There used to be websites that allowed you to set price alerts for Amazon products. I don't know if there are still operational.

 

The padding on the bottom is satisfactory for me. As to dropping it on the floor gently, even if the padding was 5 inches thick i don't think i just drop my laptop backpack heavily.

Yes the laptop is larger than the foam sleeve but i'm yet to use any laptop backpack that has padding on the top. Anyway i use a sleeve so that addresses that issue for me. I'll post some pictures when i have a chance

 

I shall jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Seriously, I'm already amazed that they're not losing money at $899, I can't believe it would ever go lower than that. The deal only lasts for a few hours, so price tracking sites always miss it.

Thanks for your PMs, I very much appreciate it.

 

pm me too , please

 

right on Chirovette, I'll do the same and call Toshiba tech support also, so they know that this is unacceptable and alot of us x505 notebook owners want to be able to use their laptop with the benefit of being mobile/portable, especially since it was designed for gaming. Can you update us on what the senior tech advised you on the situation?

 

Yeah, if this moron ever actually calls me like the level I tech said he/she would. <eyeroll>

 

I know the thread I'm posting below is for improving read/write speeds on SSDs but it makes visible some settings for battery performance that are not normally visible. I'm wondering if someone sets the battery performance settings in the JJB tweak to 100 percent if it will help take care of the problems you guys are experiencing:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-intel-series-4-5-965-chipsets-jjb-tweak.html

Just a thought when I read this thread...

 

haha, yeah I just spoke to a rep of tech support he didn't know what to do and also told me that he'd refer me to a level 2 tech support and that they'd give me a call back within the hour, well 2 hours have gone by now and still no call. Anyway I tried going into Nvidia control panel and changing the settings for power management to "prefer maximum power" or something like that and still no luck.

@ dlai, I don't think my x505 q892 is SSD, or is it? I haven't tried your advice yet cause I'm washing clothes and playing Cod4 on the X505. I'm typing this on my X305

 

Yes, I know that but what I'm saying is that if you do the tweaks, some battery settings become available that you might be able to change/adjust which MIGHT fix the problems you folks are having while gaming on battery.

These settings are NOT available otherwise. I think it's worth a try and I would do them to see if I had a X505 to see if it fixes the gaming while on battery problem.

 

ok I'll read through the link and try it.

 

Cool. Hopefully playing with the new battery settings solves the problems. Let us know how it goes or doesn't go...

 

Well I tried the registry fix that dlai suggested and it did open up other options in the advanced power management settings, although it did nothing to help low framerates on battery power while gaming. I think if there was a way to open up more hidden options in the "TOSHIBA Power Saver Settings V8.8.1.64" using these kinds of registry tweaks, it might allow for gaming on full power using just battery. Thanks for the suggestion dlai, but it didn't solve the problem. Anyone else?

 

Thanks for trying. If it worked, it would have been a nice quick fix. I gotta get my X505 soon so I can try and help figure this out...

 

could you paste a screenshot from hwmonitor after 3damrk06 or a game.

 

I am worried about the laptop being larger than the foam sleep. So any impact near the top of the laptop can go directly on the laptop does to no sleeve to protect it(sleeve is shorter)
Thats why I wanted to see a pic
How about the zippers. They close tight, or is there room to spare? I would also like to know what sleeve you suggest with this lappy

 

Tsk, I use this sleeve for my Q893:

Amazon.com: DURAGADGET 18 inch Reversible Ultra shock water restistance Neoprene Laptop notebook Sleeve /Case/ bag/ Cover for Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G 18.4", Acer Aspire 8942 18.4", Acer Aspire 8940G 18.4", Acer Aspire 8530G 18", Acer Aspire 8735G 18.

It fits the Qosmio perfectly. You can change the color, black or red, by turning it inside out, by the way.

 

2 question about the X500(x505)

Then i listen to music the volume is very low...even on almost max. Then i switch song the volume drops after a few sec. Driver issue????

I also wounder how i change contrast and colour then i use Toshiba DVD player?

Thanks in advance

 

I have not used my machine to listen to music other than in-game soundtracks. I should try this to see if I am afflicted with the same issue as many of you have with this.

 

I am so happy right now!

(These are the first words I am typing with my Qosmio. What a beautiful beast.)

 

How I found out that the deal is avaiable. Do I have to add it to the cart or it will be shown on the main page
Amazon.com: Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q893 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black): Computer & Accessories

 

Congrats, Andanzas. Glad you not only got it but managed to get an awesome deal on the machine!

 

It'll show up on the Lightning Deals page. The link changes location sometimes, but it is usually on the top right corner of the home page. Check the image. Once you are there, choose to browse Electronics.



If you have the Q893 page open, the icon that usually says "Add to Cart" will say "View Special Deal" or something like that.

Thanks so much! All I've done so far is installing, updating and restarting, but I've been smiling all morning long, I tell you.

 

Update

Watched the DVD movie "Der Untergang", and noticed that the volume was much higher than playing CDs...even if i used max volume in the mediaplayer.

I also had some crackling noise from one of the speakers...or both, then the music starts playing before and after "Der Untergang", (heavey piano playing) at moderate volume, but i have not noticed crackling or distort sound then playing CDs.

Faulty speakers or cant the speakers deal with piano playing?

 

Andanzas
Thanks

Could you make some banchmarks (3dmark06) or games, and it'd be useful if you show hwmonitor scrennshots idle and stress.

 

I think I might've figured out the issue with decreased gaming performance while unplugged. And it'd explain why nothing in the power settings will work.

Could the problem be related to Nvidia Optimus? The whole point of Optimus was to save power by turning off the GPU and using the IGP of the i5. Confirmation would be from someone with an i7-Qosmio who doesn't have the same issue.

 

q893 has Optimus?

 

Yes, the i5 has an IGP, and Nvidia's 400M series has Optimus.

 

Hey, a4500435, have you been able to get a Lightning Deal Qosmio? It seems, from what I am seeing, that these deals crop up around 10:00AM to 12:00 PM EST on Amazon, so perhaps you should make sure to check into Amazon every single day in and around those times to get yours before they run out.

 

This is exactly what I've been thinking! Is there a way to disable the IGP and keep on using the dedicated GPU?

 

There's been no Lightning Deal on the Q893 since Monday, I'm certain of that. I finally figured out where the deals are shown, and have been checking every day. They are actually listed here every morning, which is how people have advanced knowledge of them. If only I'd known earlier!

Amazon.com: Top Holiday Deals in Computers & Office Products

Dunno, I'm pretty sure I'm right about Optimus causing the problem, but without the computer in front of me, there's no way I can fix that issue. Open up the Nvidia Control Panel and look around; based on this post from Nvidia, there should be some Optimus settings you can change:

Take a Look: New Optimus Interface NVIDIA

 

yeah I did some researching and I came upon this too. There is no option to choose between the discrete and integrated gpus with the current nvidia control panel on the X505 with the OEM graphic drivers and it's incompatible with the newer verde driver 260.99 so I can't install those. I've also tried installing Nvidia system monitor 6.06 to see if it'll open up that option, but besides giving me the overclock option, no luck. Finally I thought about using nhancer, but I can't seem to get it to run. I really think it has to do with optimus since the Alienware M11x also has that new optimus user interface to choose between the integrated or discrete gpu or I bet it also won't be able to game unplugged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U874jC2blJQ

Shoot! Toshiba or Nvidia needs to give us this optimus interface by making the next verde driver compatible with these hybrid notebooks.

 

Sorry, but yesterday I basically took the day off because of the Qosmio, so today I'll be really busy. I've never done benchmarks (I don't care about benchmarks). I am sure it must be easy, but I don't have the time to learn right now.

 

I have the luxury of a constant Internet connection at work, so every few hours I am checking the lightning deal for you starting yesterday. If I see one come up for the Qosmio, I will post it immediately in this thread, or if you prefer I can email/PM you with it so you can act on it if you are around.