Customer Reviews

Toshiba Qosmio F15-AV201 15.4" Laptop (Mobile Intel Pentium M Processor 745 (Centrino), 512MB, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've had a qosimo F15 for only a few weeks, but so far it has amazed me - I have the US version as the European one is not as hi-spec. So far - screen quality amazing, sounds excellent (better than any other I've heard), and the way the ports are arranged are very user friendly as mentioned by the other reviewer. I've not tried the gaming on it yet but sounds and visison on everything else seem great so I am sure it will fine. The only complaint I might have is that the laptop does not last that long on battery power alone - I think just a couple of hours - which may be a problem for some.

It hasn't been a month yet since I received the PC, but I like it so far. It's the software that I have to get use to. Usually, it's the software and/or the operator that is the problem and not the electronics. The display is clear and sharp. The color is great. For the size of the speakers, the sound is outstanding. I like the USB ports on three sides. I watched someone trying to give a presentation with a laptop with ill placed USB ports. He had a difficult time getting prepared. I would recommend the purchase of this model.

Had this for several months now and overall I am happy with the product from Toshiba.

Biggest letdowns
Fan is REALLY noisy - It's truely awful because you "Should" be able to use this as an Uber-Media hub for your house considering the WMC capabilities of the product. But no one would want to hear this beast of a fan through an entier movie... unless it's a movie about loud wind like Twister or something.. then I suppose it wouldn't matter.

Windows Start button - Huh top right? Who puts it top right?? Every other Windows keepboard has it lower left between CTRL and ALT. IT DRIVES ME NUTS!!!!! If the fan wasn't so darn loud this would be my biggest gripe.

Internal Speakers - I think they come with rocks inside. They sound good except for with the bass and they crackle even at low volumes. Ok it's laptop speakers, but it a MEDIA CENTER Laptop! Hello. Anyway, headphone it and enjoy.

Hot - Very Hot. The fan runs constantly(see above) and the undercarrage cooks your lap - or table - or probably your grilled cheeze if you put one under there.

Toshiba Software for H*ll! - to quote C.Bing - "Could they load ANY more useless Toshiba software at start-up?"

Software Extras - all crud... Enjoy deleting for the first day you own.

Now some positives.
Stable - No shutdowns for me. It recovers from hibernate fast and with little problem. In fact I keep mine in hibernate most of the time re-boot sometimes only every couple of days.

Display - Great, REALLY great display screen. I love it. I had a friend comment that they thought it was Plasma not LCD. Yeah they're not so smart, but the screen is pretty sweet for a LCD. As soon as I saw it I knew I should have upped for the 17".

Battery life. - Short battery life is a problem out of the box. If you want to extend you battery life learn your laptop and how to set up a Roaming profile to turn off all the extra's your not using when you travel like the wireless or bluetooth. Although it's not great Toshiba does provide a utility to help you tweak your laptop for battery. Test some different configs or buy the extra battery.

Overall a solid laptop. Hey as laptops go, even with the letdowns, it's a good one and I am happy with it. I would recogmend this for a laptop user who wants reliable yet with the extras. BUT! If you thought it would double as a media player for the TV. Ummm.. No. If you thought it was good for LOTS of travel. Ummm.. Why would you think that? It's big, it's heavy and with all the extras of COURSE the battery won't last hours and hours. To close if you want a good entertainment laptop to take with you now and then... baby you gots it.

Cau

Purchased one of these American Qosmio's, and imported it to New Zealand. The Qosmio lasted just one month longer than its one year international warranty and then the motherboard died. I have always liked Toshiba but after wasting so much money on one I will never get another.
Pro's- Very nice looking machine loaded with features, nice sound (for a laptop), and very clear and bright screen.
Cons- noisy fan, runs hot which probably contributed to the short lifespan .Power supply also gets very hot.
Toshiba mobile services NZ wanted to charge me $1500.00 for a replacement motherboard and provide just a three month warranty on the repair. Toshiba eventually repaired the laptop free of charge, but by this time I had replaced it with another laptop (not as flashy but hopefully much more reliable). As much as I loved the Toshiba following the "system enhancement", I decided to sell it on because of my negative experience.

I've had the computer for about 3 month now with nothing but trouble. Here's a run down:

- Very Noisy Fan
- Laptop runs HOT HOT HOT! even in a A/C room
- Periodically shuts down without warning due to overheating(They are currently being sued by class action on several laptop models, with more coming!)
- The batter life is abysmal (less than 60 minutes)
- Very weighty & big
- Poor placement of cooling fan; if you try to use the laptop on your lap, you often block the cooling fan causing a crash due to heat
- Screen: if you have something really bright or really dark on the screen, you can sometimes see dark lines running up the screen from the light/dark area.
- Awful power managment; 90% of the time the battery dies w/out any warning to plug in
- WORST TECH SUPPORT EVER!!! We bought the 36 hour guaranteed turn around support. First time we sent it in for support, they "lost" the computer for a week. When they finally found it, but returned it untouched saying there weren't any problems (even though it regularly dies).

Do yourself a favor... buy Dell. This is the LAST Toshiba I'll ever buy.

> I have had the Qosmio F15 for two years and getting ready to start my thrid year. Overall I haven't had too many problems, but I have had problems that everyone else has had it sounds like. Mainly with the cooling system, the fan is extremely loud, and I have had to send it back twice due to the cooling system. I would get a error message saying I needed my cooling system repaired and then it would shut off. Apprently it was an easy fix, because it was only gone a couple of weeks but it was just a huge hassle trying to get it sent off.

> Really about the only other complaint I have is the battery life, which I knew would be terrible when I bought it, but the other features that came with it mainly the WMC has come in very handy. I keep cable hooked up to my machine and it acts as my own DVR system, even though the built in TV tuner isn't that great it still gets the job done. And the S-Video in's and out's have come in handy when traveling. I upgraded the ram to 1 gig when I bought it and overall the machine runs and loads relatively quick even after two years.

My experience:
- Noisy Fan <--- TRUE, but it is not too bad.
- Laptop runs HOT HOT HOT! <--- NOT TOO HOT
- Periodically shuts down without warning due to overheating <--- NEVER HAPPENED TO ME
- The batter life is abysmal <--- NOT IN MY CASE
- Very weighty & big <--- TRUE
- Poor placement of cooling fan; if you try to use the laptop on your lap, you often block the cooling fan causing a crash due to heat <--- NOT TRUE, the colling fan is on the left side.
- Screen: if you have something really bright or really dark on the screen, you can sometimes see dark lines running up the screen from the light/dark area. <--- NEVER HAPPENED TO ME
- Awful power managment; 90% of the time the battery dies w/out any warning to plug in <--- NOT TRUE
- WORST TECH SUPPORT EVER!!! We bought the 36 hour guaranteed turn around support. First time we sent it in for support, they "lost" the computer for a week. When they finally found it, but returned it untouched saying there weren't any problems (even though it regularly dies). <--- NOT TRUE AT ALL


OVERALL IS A GREAT COMPUTER for $1300.

Dedicated video memory 128MB
Great Screen
Nice style
Video IN/Out
DVD Recorder/ CDR
Up to 2MB Ram
Windows Media center
Remote control
Card Reader
Very good speed,

My recomendation is 9 out of 10.