Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Double Layer Drive)

by Toshiba

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 16 x 11.2 x 1.7 inches ; 9.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009PHH2K
• Item model number: PQG20U-10K00E
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 14, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Featuring a sleek, streamlined design, the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 notebook PC provides you a powerful media center that you can take anywhere. It runs the powerful Windows XP Media Center operating system, which enables you to save TV programming from the built-in TV tuner and save shows to the hard drive or burn to DVD via the dual-layer, multi-format DVD burner. It features a wide-screen 17-inch display, two 60 GB hard drives (for a 120 GB total), a power-saving 2.0 GHz Pentium M (Centrino) processor, 1 GB of installed RAM (2 GB maximum), integrated 54g wireless connectivity, and Media Center remote control.

The Basics

• Hard Drive: The G25-AV513 has a unique hard drive array for a notebook--two separate 60 GB (5400 RPM) hard drives for a total storage capacity of 120 GB. They can work together to boost performance, particularly when handling large files, and you can use one as an exclusive media drive for saved TV programming and an MP3 library.
• Processor: The 2.0 GHz Pentium M 760 (Centrino) processor is near the top of the speed spectrum for this processor class (June 2005). It is well equipped for office productivity software tasks, from complex spreadsheets to databases. The Pentium M processor is designed specifically for low-power mobile usage, and it features the latest in power-saving technologies--ensuring you push your battery and productivity to the max. It also has a large 2 MB L2 cache--which will help speed up your system's performance--and a 533 MHz front-side bus (FSB).
• Memory: The 1 GB of installed RAM (2 x 512 MB, 400 MHz) is a good start for such a multimedia-centric notebook. But you'll want to max out the 2 GB (2 x 1024 MB) of available memory capability from the the two slots.
• CD/DVD Drive: The double-layer DVD drive is compatible with a wide range of formats, including both DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, CD-RW discs, and dual-layer DVD+R discs, which can hold up to 8.5 GB of data--great for backing up your MP3 collection. It features the following speeds: 2.4x DVD+R-DL, 8x/4x for both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW, and 24x/10x for CD-R/RW.
• Keyboard & Mouse: This notebook has a standard 84-key keyboard and electro-static two-button touchpad.

Screen, Graphics and Sound
The G25-AV513 has a 17-inch XGA display w with a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio, making it perfect for viewing widescreen format movies. It also provides TruBrite technology, which makes images brighter and more vivid thanks to its anti-glare feature and 500 cd/m2 brightness rating when plugged into the AC adapter (220 cd/m2 rating when in battery mode). Video and graphics are powered by Nvidia's midrange GeForce Go 6600 GPU with 128 MB of dedicated memory. It features an integrated audio card that provides 16-bit stereo sound via the built-in Harman Kardon speakers as well as SRS TruSurround XT virtual surround sound.

Connectivity and Expansion Slots
The G25-AV513 has an integrated Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2915ABG 802.11b/g wireless-LAN. You get a good offering of connectivity options, including both super-fast USB 2.0 and Firewire options:

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals
• 1 VGA monitor port
• 1 S-Video out
• 1 Component video out
• 1 Composite video in
• 1 S-Video in
• 1 RF in
• 1 PCMCIA (or PC Card) slot (Type I/II, 32-bit)
• 1 headphone jack
• 1 microphone jack

The TV tuner is configured for US/NTSC broadcast, and it features parental control (V-Chip), closed captioning, and digital noise reduction. This notebook also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Fast Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems).

Preloaded System and Software
The pre-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is essentially Windows XP Professional Edition with a variety of tools to help you to create, organize, and enjoy digital media ranging from music to home movies to photo slide shows. Additionally, it enables you to control your television with the included remote and record and pause programs (much like a DVR--or digital video recorder--such as Tivo or ReplayTV). It's compatible with cable, digital cable, satellite TV and antenna inputs, and it includes an FM tuner. It also comes preloaded with InterVideo WinDVD 5, Microsoft Works 8.0, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, InterVideo WinDVD Creator Platinum 2, and Norton AntiVirus 2005 (with 3-month subscription).

Dimensions and Weight
This notebook measures 16 x 11.5 x 1.9 inches and weighs 9.5 pounds.

Power
It's powered by a 6-cell rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which has a battery life of up to 3 hours (depending on usage).

What's in the Box
This package contains the G25-AV513 notebook PC, remote control, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a one-year limiited hardware warranty.

Product Description

Includes: lithim-ion battery, AC adapter, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Office OneNote 2003, Works 8.0, WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum, RecordNow!, Norton AntiVirus 2005 (w/ 3 month subscription), Quicken New User Edition 2005, & more. Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 Notebook Computer - This portable media center handles many of your entertainment needs. The built-in TV tuner, and large 120GB hard drive, allows you to watch and record live television programming. The large 17" LCD and DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive, gives you an amazing DVD movie experience, while letting you burn to nearly every type of media. All of this is managed easily with the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system, and included remote control. This OS features a TV-like interface that also organizes and plays your digital audio, video and picture files! Supports Bluetooth Version 2.0 120GB SATA HDD - Two 60GB hard drives that can be configured as RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring), via included TOSHIBA RAID software Slot-Loading DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive - (write speeds) up to 2.4x Double Layer DVD+R, 8x DVD+R, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 4x DVD+RW, 5x DVD-RAM, 24x CD-R, & 10x CD-RW Slot-Loading DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive - (read speeds) up to 8x DVD-ROM & 24x CD-ROM Built-in TV Tuner - parental control & closed caption 17 Diagonal WXGA+ TFT Display Native Resolution - 1440x900 NVIDIA GeForce 6 GO 6600 with 128MB of DDR SDRAM (PCI Express x16 Interface) 1 PCMCIA PC Card Slot - supports 1 Type II PC Card Bridge Media Adapter - supports Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Multi Media Card, & xD Picture Cards 52k v.92 Fax Modem Ports - 10/100 Ethernet, 1 VGA, 4 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, 1 S-Video Out, 1 Component Out, & S/PDIF (shared with headphone jack)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'll take the good over the bad on this one., May 31, 2006

By 

jermy man "jerm" (West Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Double Layer Drive) (Personal Computers)

After selling two computers, yes two, to my parents i decided to get something that was gonna last for many years, and something that i could do anything on that i could do on a desktop. Also something that was portable was what i wanted most. After searching and searching and countless computers, i realized i was gonna have to pay the BIG bucks to achieve what i wanted. I had saw the Qosmio but had always hated how "finger printed" up the interior looked when i saw them in stores, from people using them. Its a pet peave that i don't like prints or smudges for that matter. So after a lot of thought i went for the F25 from a website called Clearance Club for 1349 plus tax, i didnt think it was a bad deal till i saw the F25 on the Toshiba Direct site for 1099$, so i thought i just got ripped. After careful consideration i looked at the G25 which was only a few hundred dollars more, 1349!! to be exact, they didnt have any in stock until a few days later so i said what the hell and went for it, even though i wasnt to fond of the gargantuen 17" screen. Well having gotten the G25 when i still had the F25 i decided why not test them side by side, being that it was a weekend and couldnt ship the other back yet. Here's the Pro's and Con's i found.

F25-Sharp Clean Picture

G25-A Bit Brighter, although maybe to bright?

F25-Great Harman Kardon speakers, very loud and bassy

G25-Same speakers although not as loud,(i must point out both of these were refurbished for one reason or another, so the speakers or sound card may have been the issue here)

F25-Basic 100gig hard drive, seems like a lot until you record live TV.

G25-Serial ATA 120 gig, double hard drives, 20 gigs makes a difference.

F25-Nvidia Geforce 6600 Go Graphics Card-64mb-Doom 3 1024x768 low quality.

G25-Nvidia Geforce 6600 Go Graphics Card-128mb-Doom 3 1024x800 High Quality-Its noticeble side by side. No hesitation. Also 1440x900 Max screen resolution.

F25-WiFi b/g Wireless

G25-Same

F25-15.4 inch wide screen,Very Light, Good for toating around.

G25-17.4 inch wide screen, Very Heavy, Not good for toating around. Although better for movies at home.

F25-Darker Black Interior-Smudges aren't AS noticeble, but still bad.

G25-The thing i hate most,terrible at fingerprints and smudges, has a slightly glossier black face.

F25-Good DVD-R-RW multi burner, basic pop-out from the side.

G25-Very cool DVD-R-RW multi Burner, inserts from the front, slide in compartment. Burns a little quicker than the F25 i think. Loads loud though, minor issue.

F25-1.86 pentium 750M processor, centrino.

G25-2.01 Pentium 760M Processor, Centrino.

F25-1024 gig of RAM

G25-1 gig

F25-Refurbished-Cheapist anywhere, Toshiba Direct-1099$, New on other sites, anywhere from 1600, to 2000$.

G25-Refurbished-Cheapest anywhere, Toshiba Direct-1349, New on other sites anywhere from, 1549$ to 3000$.

So with all these side by side the differences are very minor between the F25 and the G25, there were certain things i liked better abuot each but when it came to mas-multi tasking and just over all ability i had to go for the G25 even though its not perfect its the best your gonna get for a laptop, multimedia center. All others definately fall short when it comes to the specs this thing has. Basic laptops even HP's higher series most come with an ATI Radeon 200M which u can't even put on medium resolution 800x600 for Doom 3 or Farcry. Even some of the higher end Hp's come with a Nvidia Geforce 7300 go, which is a low end 7 series, not even as good as the 6600. So though its pricey and huge and shows ugly smudges(though easy to clean), i must say this is the pinaccle of laptops on the market now.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great media management + computing, October 24, 2005

By 

Kris S - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Double Layer Drive) (Personal Computers)

This is a beautifully designed system. Nice blend of a high powered computer together with a fabulous display and extra controls (remote as well as on-board volume control dial, etc.) TV Tuner, DVD and CD player can be used without booting system or boot up and use it as a Tivo with Window Media. Sweet! This is the direction the world is going. :o)

31 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WARNING - Movie Maker does NOT support video inputs, November 12, 2005

By 

Mike Koss (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 17" Laptop (Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (Centrino), 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Double Layer Drive) (Personal Computers)

I recently purchased the Qosmio laptop because it had a really high-end video, display, and processor. I also wanted to use it as a semi-portable video editing station. Since the product is advertised as having (two) AV inputs, I assumed I could use these in Windows Movie Maker to capture video and edit it. WRONG! The "TV Tuner" inputs are ONLY COMPATIBLE WITH THE MEDIA CENTER software. So, in other words, you can connect the Qosmio to a set-top box (or other video source), and you can use the Media Center software to record video in Media Center's proprietary video format. But these files cannot be loaded into Movie Maker (you get an "unsupported file type" error). Neither can you run the Movie Maker software to record directly from the AV input devivce (you get a "device is in use error"). I find it quite deceptive of Toshiba to not make it clear that the video input devices, while compatible with Media Center, are not compatible with Movie Maker (which is also included standard in the operating system).

Product Support calls to Toshiba confirm the above - they claim that Movie Maker's use of the video inputs is "unsupported". I think most consumers will be surprised by this basic incompatability.

I found Microsoft Support articles which also aknowledge that some Media Center tuners are not compatible with Movie Maker (becuase they use MPEG format encoding, which is not supported by Movie Maker).

Hopefully, Microsoft will address this issue in a software update to Movie Maker, but for now, you will have to use an external video capture device to augment this hefty laptop to perform the same function that the integrated video capture device should be doing.