Laptops Arena

The laptop market is very similar to mobile phone market. You might not believe it, but similarities are not only in divisions but also in marketing. Because some laptop manufacturers are also mobile phone developers the marketing process is not news for them, but for all the other manufacturers knowledge's came with time. Have you discovered the similarities? First of all, similarities are logic and intuitive to exist. Just think that the same people that buy a laptop will also buy a phone eventually. Therefore, it's all about range and lines.

For a better sale number, manufacturers provide solutions for all possible types of clients. This way, for both laptops and mobile phones, manufacturers created an everyday range, ultraportable range, business range and of course the high end range (for laptops this range being the ultimate portable gaming machine, while for mobile phones this range is represented by phones like Samsung Omnia II, Nokia N97, and Apple iPhone 3GS).

Nowadays, all manufacturers try to deliver excellent gaming laptops in response to the extraordinary products released by Alienware.  Toshiba is one of this manufacturers that tries and success to deliver an ultraportable gaming machine. With a good storage memory, excellent graphics and processor delivered in an exquisite design, Toshiba Qosmio X305 is one of the best gaming laptop on the market, which easily can be considered an Alienware competitor. The design is one of the best features of the Qosmio X305. Its body is made out of tough plastic.

However, its basic color is red and has fire flames as a finish. The only part of the Qosmio X305 that it is not fire red is the keyboard and the bottom cover. Unfortunately, the lid is a fingerprint magnet, but the built quality is still exceptional (Toshiba quality) not letting room for any flex or weird noises when you open or close the lid or when you press the lid. The finishes, however, make the design even more attractive. On the lid you get an oversized silver Qosmio logo.

Once you open the laptop, you easily see the black glossy frame around the display, incorporating at the bottom of the display another Qosmio silver logo. Under the keyboard in the bottom left corner you get the metallic Toshiba logo. If you look at the left and right side of the laptop you will see that Qosmio X305 sports a fluid design. The bottom of the Qosmio X305 sports a matte black plastic and includes three additional fans, the hard drive cover and the battery cover. On the back side the Qosmio X305 sports the cooling vent i.LINK IEEE 1394 data port, the power input slot, RBG monitor output port, REGZA LINK HDMI CEC, Display Port, and 1080p support. On the left side you get an eSATA USB 2.0 with sleep and charge combo port, another 2.0 USB port, 5 in 1 Bridge Media Adapter (compatible with xD picture card, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital card). On the other side you get two 2.0 USB ports, microphone input port, headphone output port and volume scroll.

The fixed optical disk drive can be found on the front side of the Qosmio X305. It is a Super Multi DVD drive with Label flash supporting 11 formats, such as DVDRAM, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R double layer, DVD+R single layer, DVD-R single layer, DVD-R double layer, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and others. The overall build quality is good. The laptop doesn't just look stunning (thanks to the Fusion Finish with Rogue pattern) but it also feels solid. The Toshiba gaming laptop has a height from front to rear 1.7 inches to 2.5 inches, wide of 16.2 inches, deep of 12 inches, Qosmio X305 weights about 9 lbs depending on the customizable configuration.

Once opened, the first thing you will see is the full keyboard (104 key US keyboard). Also you get touch control buttons such as media button, mute button, play / pause button, stop button, next track button, previous track button, panel lights, Dolby settings, camera button. The Fn keys are the only small size keys on the Qosmio X305 keyboard. X305 sports a nice keyboard with keys that provide only good feedback and no flex when pressed. Under the keyboard, positioned to the left, you get the touch pad pointing device. The touch pad found on the Qosmio X305 is precise and it has a matte surface providing good grip. The two buttons found under the touch pad feel a little slippery, but they should be easy to use.

Overall, you get a great user experience while using both keyboard and touch pad. Toshiba included in Qosmio X305 a 17 inches TruBrite TFT active matrix LCD display with a WXGA+ resolution (1440 x 900 pixels). The display provides excellent brightness, contrast and color saturation. This display will make all the games feel as real as they can get. The connectivity is ensured by Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 AGN with 802.11 a/g/n profile, 10 / 100 / 1000 Ethernet, 34 mm Express Card, 54 mm Express Card, HDMI, RGB output port, three 2.0 USB, one eSATA / USB combo port, RJ 45 LAN port, Regza Link with 1080p support, and a display port. However, you don't get Bluetooth, because X305 lacks an internal antenna.

Because Qosmio X305 is a gaming laptop, Toshiba included beside (common by now for Toshiba laptops) Mobile Intel PM 45 Express Chipset, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, P7350 model, with 2.0 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB. You also get a total of 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM (2 x 2048 MB). The internal storage capacity is about 320 GB serial ATA hard drive with 7200 rotation per minute. This is a good value, although a 500 GB unit would have been more suitable for this kind of laptop. Probably the most important feature for a gaming machine is the graphic chipset.

Toshiba Qosmio X305 sports a NVIDIA GeForce 9700 GTS, with 512 MB GDDR3 discrete graphics memory. Also you get 1791 MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory using NVIDIA Turbo Cache. A nice detail for the ultimate gaming experience is the four built in harman / Karson speakers with sub woofer. The stereo speakers are offer great audio quality, while the sub woofer is powerful enough to provide the most real experience while playing games or watching horror movies. Toshiba ships the Qosmio X305 with an eight cell Lithium Ion battery with 4000 mAh. The 4000 mAh value will not offer more than two (maximum three) hours of battery life. Qosmio X305 comes with Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1 (either the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version).

Other software preinstalled in the Qosmio X305 are Toshiba Config Free, Toshiba DVD Creator, Toshiba Speech System, Toshiba DVD Player, Toshiba Face Recognition, Toshiba Recovery Disk Creator, Wild Tangent Games Console, Google Desktop, Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Power Cinema for Toshiba. You also get two trial softwares, Norton 360 all in one security and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Overall, Toshiba delivers a good product. However, Qosmio X305 still can't arise at the Alienware laptops value. Even so, Toshiba offers Qosmio X305 for only $1.399,99 price tag, a much smaller price than the price of an Alienware ultraportable gaming laptop.