Toshiba Satellite X205-S9359 Take Two: Displays and Drivers

Final Thoughts

Running more tests hasn't dramatically changed our opinion of the Toshiba Satellite X205. It remains a generally well-equipped laptop, and the price on Toshiba's web site is now $2400 - down $100 since last week, although whether this is a permanent price change or a temporary sale is not clear. Let's recap the noteworthy aspects of this desktop replacement system.

Out of box, the overall gaming experience is pretty good; you can turn up most of the image quality settings, but you'll probably need to stay away from antialiasing in newer titles. As we've seen in the past, graphics drivers can have a pretty dramatic effect on performance. Older games didn't benefit much from the hacked 163.44 drivers, but minor performance boosts and the ability to run Bioshock (and likely other games) make it easy for us to recommend any owners of this notebook look into installing these beta drivers. Even without the updated drivers, though, gaming performance is still acceptable.

While we didn't attempt it, adventurous users could even try to overclock the 8700M GT a bit further. We're not sure how much headroom is available, but the X205 doesn't get nearly as hot as other desktop replacement notebooks we've tested, likely because of the larger chassis. An additional 10% to 20% performance boost on the graphics side might be possible, but considering warranty concerns and the cost of getting a laptop repaired we would probably just stick with stock performance. If the 8700M GT isn't fast enough, a laptop with a GeForce Go 7950 GTX would be faster in gaming performance, but those usually cost a bit more money and a lack other features like the HD DVD drive, full H.264 offload, and of course DirectX 10 support (not that this last really seems to matter right now). Which is more important is going to be an individual choice.

The multimedia aspects are definitely one of the highlights of this notebook. If you want to try out high definition movies on a laptop, this is a good place to start. The inclusion of an HDMI output to go with the HD DVD drive means that you can even take this laptop over to a friend's house to show off the latest high definition movies - provided your friend has the requisite HDTV, of course. The integrated speakers are also much better sounding than what you would expect to find in a notebook, although in most instances you will still be better off using external speakers, headphones, or the audio from the HDMI jack.

Not everything comes up roses, however. While the LCD panel does offer improved contrast ratios compared to many other notebooks, the viewing angles could definitely be improved. We know of several laptop manufacturers that are using LED backlighting as well as some that use IPS LCD panels, and we can't help but wonder what combining both of those into a single laptop would do for overall display quality. It would probably increase the cost a fair amount, but we aren't talking about an inexpensive notebook in the first place so another $100-$200 wouldn't be the end of the world.

Battery life is the only other major concern, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. The inability to watch a full-length movie on a single battery charge is unfortunate, given what we just said about the multimedia capabilities of the X205. Users looking for a truly mobile desktop replacement will be disappointed, regardless. However, if all you really need is a transportable workstation, or something you can plug in a while you sit on the couch instead of at your desk, the X205 fits that usage scenario quite well.

Laptops continue to be one of the fastest growing markets in the computer industry, from ultraportables and UMPCs all the way up to desktop replacement and mobile workstation designs. With actual performance requirements starting to level off in many applications, more and more people are looking at moving to a laptop just for those times when they want to take a computer on the road. There are definitely areas where a laptop can't keep up with a desktop system, and even as one of the fastest DirectX 10 capable notebooks currently available the Satellite X205 remains an order of magnitude slower than many desktops when it comes to gaming performance. With 180W power bricks, however, notebooks like the X205 and Alienware m9750 should easily be able to handle a faster GPU. All we need now is for someone like NVIDIA to step up to the plate with a mobile GeForce 8800 chip - something we're sure they're working on releasing. If you don't want to sit around waiting for the next big thing to come out, however, you could do far worse than the Toshiba Satellite X205 when it comes to getting a reasonably priced gaming notebook.