Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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)

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.

This is not the exact model but nearly the same. 8 mos. Ago I purchased what I thought was the most advanced laptop on the market. It was the Toshiba Satellite p25-676. After 6 mos. Of opening and closing the lid it began to come loose. This didn't worry me because I had purchased the 3yr. extended warranty. When I called tech support they told that it wouldn't be covered under the warranty because I had misused it. I was shock almost to the point of being speechless. How could someone in Turkey or Pakistan tell from a phone conversation that my computer was abused or misused? When I told him it was not misused and there wasn't a scratch on it anywhere he informed me that it wouldn't be covered anyway because the hinge was fastened to the plastic lid and plastic parts are excluded from the warranty. I was dumbfounded. Almost everything is either plastic or attached to plastic. What's the use of having a warranty if it's going to be denied before even looking at it in person. I spent over $3000.00 dollars for this unit and under normal use they deny the warranty.

The next week I spent hours upon hours trying to contact someone other than tech support but couldn't find a phone number for anything else. I even called Tiger Direct, were I bought it and they were at loss to come up with any help. Finally I wrote a letter to Toshiba in California. Last week I got an email saying I should call customer service and discuss my problem with them. I called them and was told a supervisor would call me right back. That was a week ago and no call back. After all the run around I was tired of waiting so, I'm pretty handy with tools, I took it apart myself. The hinge screws had indeed come loose and the threaded inserts in the plastic lid were broken out. I used epoxy to reset them in the lid. It seems to be holding fine so far. The right way to fix it would have been to replace the lid.

Well now my only option is to pass along my experience to prospective buyers of Toshiba laptops. Beware the customer service and warranty may not be what you expect.

i purchased this machine in march 2008, its working fine without any major problem
its big screen machine is good for movies and other multimedia activities.
fan is noisy. its good machine i recomend it.

Since I bought this laptop, I have had the Blue Screen of Death over and over again. At first it was only when the kids played a game like The Sims and then was only when it got too warm (or so it seemed). I took the battery out completely to see if that helped. It finally got so bad, I just can't even turn it on any more. I have made NO hardware changes, I have downloaded all the recommended updates from Toshiba. I finally decided it must be software related, so I used the "recovery CD's" that came with the unit. What a joke that turned out to be! Not only is it totally NOT recovered - it is worse. It just gets a blue screen every time it boots up and then of course auto reboots itself (over and over and over) never fixing anything. It even tries to do chkdsk on its own and finds tons of errors to correct, but still nothing fixed. Moral of the story - don't think just because you are spending a ton of $$ gets you the best. I would Never buy a Toshiba laptop again. A MACbook is looking better and better!

Few weeks ago, I tried to purchase this model from Tiger Direct. They charged me twice of the price and later I found they didn't even has the model in stock. And to call them, each time you have to wait at least 30 minutes, and just imagine if the phone got lost when they try to direct you to someone else...

This is our first laptop and so far we are enjoying exploring and playing with the various features this laptop offers. We have only had it a couple of days. Setting it up was a little tricky, especially for novice people like us, but Toshiba support helped us with this. We had expected to find the user guide in the box but it is now loaded on the computer, not in the box like in the past. It is a pricy computer but so far seems to be worth it.

This machine is worth every cent. Great with movies, Adobe Photoshop and games. (Need for speed 2, splinter cell). Bought it to replace desktop unit as i am attending University abroad. It was not my intention to lug around on campus and its a good thing cause this thing is heavy.
When ordering make sure if you're getting the C6 or C8 type plug. Important if you're getting an in-line surge protector at the same time. The downloadable pdf from Toshiba indicated a three pin type, but it was delivered with the two pin type.

Hi,
I am writing about 17" screens in general for Toshiba. I have had bad experience with hinges becoming loose on one and breaking on another. I think the problem is that the hinges are not strong enough to hold the massive screen. It would be worth your while to compare how the screen in held in various brands (both 15 and 17 in.) you will be able to see the difference for yourself. Customer service is definitely lousy. They will never call you back (called them 3-4 times ans asked to call back).

Toshiba might be a great laptop, but we have not reached the age of "defect-less" manufacturing, and we will need customer service and replacements. Given this, lousy customer support is a drawback.