Toshiba Qosmio X775: Toshiba's Gamer Grows Up
by Dustin Sklavos on August 17, 2011 12:25 AM ESTConclusion: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
The Toshiba Qosmio line has always been kind of an anomaly in the marketplace. These notebooks were the biggest of the big, and plenty powerful to boot. With the X775 Toshiba has reevaluated some of their design points and the result is a leaner, meaner gaming machine. The Qosmio has gone from being a gloss-infested blinged-out curiosity into a real competitor, its price having dropped as much as its weight.
Taken on its own, the X775 is a perfectly reasonable option that I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for picking up. While the screen quality still leaves a lot to be desired and Toshiba still has some way to go to catch up with the rest of the market where aesthetics are concerned, all the performance is there, and I do like the evil red backlighting.
Toshiba's $1,449 MSRP for our review model is too high, but thankfully NewEgg is willing to sell it to you for a far more reasonable $1,299, and they even sell the souped up 3D model at $200 off of Toshiba's asking price. As far as gaming notebooks are concerned, that lower $1,299 price point helps take Alienware's superior M17x R3 out of contention with the X775. In fact, visiting NewEgg, our Qosmio ranks among the most affordable gaming notebooks and it's tough to really argue in favor of any of the like-priced alternatives. HP's Envy 17 sports a superior 1080p screen and arguably more attractive build, but the Radeon HD 6850M is going to be slower than the GTX 560M in the Qosmio and won't benefit from technology like Optimus. Likewise, out in retail ASUS is happy to sell you a G74 with a GTX 560M and 900p screen for $1,199, even bumping up the RAM to 8GB...but you'll sacrifice the Blu-ray drive and worse, ASUS hasn't enabled Optimus on the G74 series, negating one of the major benefits of the GTX 560M. The G74 is also nearly three pounds heavier.
Ultimately there are two major compromises you'll have to make with the Qosmio X775: you'll have to decide how you feel about the notebook's aesthetics, and you'll have to decide if you're willing to live with the mediocre 900p screen. If these are sacrifices you can make, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better deal on a 17.3" gaming notebook...just don't pay what Toshiba's asking.
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SlyNine1 - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
"...the clock has gone up 100MHz to 775MHz..."You mean 675 to 775.
Just trying to help out my favorit review site. Thanks for the great reviews and keep up the good work!
SlyNine1 - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Never mind. My bad lol.danjw - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
No SSD option, plus an extra pound to get a decent resolution display. 2 hard drives? What a waste. My question is are the hard drives user replaceable? So I could pull out the dead wait and install an SSD?danjw - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
err, dead weight.JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Yes, you can swap the HDD out. Also, since the HM65 doesn't support RAID, that at least means you don't need to worry about doing a RAID0 to non-RAID downgrade first (a problem I've encountered on some MSI models).rallstarz - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Any word when your review of the Mythlogic laptops is coming out? Thanks!JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Writing as we speak... hope to be up by Friday.rallstarz - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Great! Thanks! Looking forward to it.Solidstate89 - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - link
Although it's not a gaming laptop, is there any chance of you guys doing a review of the new Dell Precision notebooks? Especially with the option of the IPS panel on the 15" M4600.Heck, I've got the TN panel version and its black levels are at least as good as the E-IPS monitor I use for my desktop. I figure it's a perfect way for you to get over all these disappointing screens Dustin, by reviewing a laptop with a good one ;)
Hrel - Thursday, August 18, 2011 - link
I can't even start to consider this with that screen. I kind of understand skimping on lower end laptops, under 700 bucks. Even under 1000 to a certain degree. But this is among the worste 900p screen I've ever seen. Most of the time I consider 900p to be "good enough". On a 1300+ 17" laptop though... Whatever screen Clevo is using, is the minimum I expect.GTX560M is fine for a 15.6" laptop, I get it, heat constraints. But I expect more in a 17" laptop. From my perspective 17" is too big to be something you carry around everywhere anyway. So it's probably acting as a desktop replacement. Which means it needs to be able to play every current game at 1080p at max settings at over 60fps. Idk, maybe that can't be done for 1500 or less yet on laptops; but I'd never consider getting a desktop replacement if it can't be.
The other thing I consider required is 2+ hdd bays and 4 RAM slots. Again, it can be done in 15" models, 17" should be a piece of cake.
Fuck Blu Ray; that is all.