Customer Reviews

Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Cosmetically, the Qosmio looks like a technological piece of art; under the hood, it gets even better. Every time I lay my hands on it, I'm thrilled I made this purchase.

I originally got the TOSHIBA QOSMIO X505-Q850 and am posting that review here as well since the 890 is essentially the same laptop and I thought this review would be helpful to people....

I'd been hoping to put off buying a new laptop but the screen on my old HP was failing and I just can't justify sinking money into obsolete tech. I convinced myself I was willing to live with the funky lines running through my screen in favor of being frugal, but with each malfunctioning pixel, it was clear I had to buy a replacement soon.

If you're like me, a new laptop isn't something to be taken lightly. It's a decision I'll have to live with a good many years, so selecting the right model is important since I'll be using it on a daily basis. Well, I'd like to say I did exhaustive research comparison shopping every new laptop, but that simply wasn't the case. I had two basic criteria that eliminated 99% of the laptops on the market: I wanted the largest screen possible and a lighted keyboard.

Enter Qosmio...
(Insert angelic harps here)

Thankfully, Amazon makes it easy to search laptops by attribute like screen size, and the first laptop that came up on my search was the Qosmio x505-Q850 -- the pictures were more reminiscent of an elegant sports car than laptop -- it was love at first sight. The screen was a whopping 18.4 inches, which is huge for a laptop, and much to my surprise, it even had a lighted keyboard!!!

(Angelic choir join the harps and crescendo for dramatic effect...)

Could finding my perfect laptop be this easy? "Calm down," I tell myself, "looks aren't everything." The price isn't cheap, yet it's nearly half the cost of Alienware, it's nearest rival in specs and looks. Excitedly reading the product info, I was thrilled to see the Qosmio's feature set is just as brilliant on the inside as it is on the outside. With the latest quad core processor, a blazing fast solid state drive for the OS, a 2nd SATA drive, 6gb of memory, the latest NVIDIA graphics card, Bluetooth, HDMI output and Blu-Ray drive, this Qosmio is a powerhouse indeed.

Delving deeper, I learned this new Qosmio had just been released and was in limited supply. Even buying direct from Toshiba was a 2 month wait. Amazon had a few in stock but quickly sold out. With more pixels disappearing on my old HP, I kept a keen lookout hoping someone would get the Qosmio in stock soon. I was hoping to buy at Amazon and get triple points on their credit card (every 2500 points gets me a $25 gift card and triple points on a laptop would be near 6000!!) but alas, a different retailer got in a small quantity, and much as I hated to do it, I cheated on Amazon and made my purchase elsewhere.

When my Qosmio arrived, it was a euphoric experience. The box is red and black with a huge red Q on it and the same detailed design that's on the laptop itself. As I peeled back the box tab to open it, the inside flap had little red letters that said "Enjoy your laptop." My heart fluttered, "I will," I thought to myself, "Don't you worry."

Angelic harps reach their apex as I open the Qosmio box. And there it was -- emerging through light beams -- with its high gloss black finish glistening, and points of light sparkling off red metallic accents. I challenge anyone to find a more stunning looking laptop.

Okay, so literary embellishments aside, this really is a great laptop. And Windows 7 is pretty awesome too. Boot up time is lightening fast; 45 seconds tops from the moment I hit the power button and I can click on anything and get going instantly. And this new processor is a total beast too. Photoshop CS4 opens near instantly. A 100gb backup took barely over an hour. And rendering video editing is blazing fast too. I'm not a gamer, so I have nothing to report there, but judging by everything else, it ought to be equally fast in that department.


"Gaming Laptop" is just a euphemism for Fast!

If you see a computer that's touted for "gamers" don't assume that's all it's good for. "Gaming computer" just means fast, and who doesn't want a fast computer?? I've seen several reviews that did speed tests pitting this new Qosmio against its rivals and it outperformed them with ease. Granted, it was the only one with this new processor and as others follow suit, the speed comparisons will level off.


Blu-Ray Rom vs Burner

ROM basically means this drive plays Blu-Ray disks but doesn't burn them. (It does, of course, burn DVD+-RW and CDs.) At first, I was disappointed Qosmio didn't have a Blu-Ray burner. But then I realized I'd rather archive all my video to MPEG4 or WMV and watch it directly off Media Share. I already use Media Share to listen to all my music, so why not do the same with video too? It's way more convenient to access MP3 files digitally than it is to load a CD into a player, just like it's easier to do backups with external hard drives as opposed to disks. Digital files are just faster and more convenient, so a Blu-Ray burner may already be meaningless for my purposes.


HDMI Output

One of my favorite features of the Qosmio is the ease with which it can be connected to my 50" plasma! Just run an HDMI cable from your computer to your plasma and it's good to go! Audio is automatically cut from the laptop and plays out the TV instead. And the picture is full 1080p HD! Play any video clip, surf the web or watch a Blu-Ray movie all on your plasma!! Very cool!! Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Qosmio uses a standard HDMI cable, not the mini size seen on camcorders. And Qosmio automatically detects the HDMI signal and turns on an off the external display automatically. You can have both screens active at the same time, or choose between the two. Combined with my Philips Wireless HDMI transmitter and it all couldn't be easier to use.


Lighted Keyboard

I've read some forums where people were upset the keyboard doesn't stay lit all the time and turns off after so many seconds. NOT TRUE -- the keyboard CAN be set to stay on all the time. On your Qosmio, just go to: >Start >Toshiba >Utilities >HWSetup >Illumination >then under "Keyboard Backlight," click the radio button "FN" then check the box "On." After you reboot, you'll be able to turn the keyboard on and off by using the "FN" + "Z" keys. Personally, I have my keyboard set to stay on all the time, and naturally, it turns off automatically when the computer is shut down. It's also worth mentioning that the keyboard itself is very smooth and QUIET! I don't know about you, but clackety-clack keyboards drive me nuts! No reason why they can't all be virtually silent like this Qosmio's. I have to strain just to hear a sound -- perfect!


No Crapware

I hate it when I buy a new computer and it's loaded with garbage programs that basically amount to advertisers littering all over my new hard drive. Thankfully, Qosmio comes with very little corporate garbage under the hood -- a Microsoft Office trial, Quickbooks, Toshiba Online Backup -- oh, and that crappy Norton I got rid of on my first bootup. Aside from that, it's pretty much a clean install with only the necessities, and I'm thankful for that. I'll install my own programs, thank you very much! Incidentally, Toshiba did a good job of including some helpful utilities and a decent DVD/CD burning program, so kudos there.


Harman / Kardon Speakers

No, these aren't going to fill a room or blow anyone's hair back, but compared to other laptops I've encountered, these speakers are great! If I'm out on the go, they're just fine and plenty powerful. But when I'm home, I do plug in a set of Altec Lansings for a fuller, dynamic sound. But truth be told, I don't listen to music off my laptop. But I do have it connected to my DirecTV receiver and listen to music on my home theater system via Media Share. There's nothing like it!


Eco-Mode

I applaud Toshiba for including this feature but it's nothing I'll ever use. Basically, you can setup this feature so that at a push of a button, your the Qosmio will conserve energy and you can feel good about reducing your carbon footprint. That's all well and good but I didn't spend 2 grand for a sluggish computer. I paid for speed and I want speed, I'll deal with my carbon footprint elsewhere. I take the bus most places, so I have most people beat right there. I'll burn my laptop as fast as I please; thanks much.


Face Recognition Login

Yes, you heard me -- this Qosmio has a built in web cam that's good for video calls via Skype, but it also does one better -- the built in web cam also enables the use of face recognition software in lieu of a password for login! Cool!


Fingerprints

The high gloss finish of this Qosmio is stunning but it also picks up fingerprints with ease. Personally, I don't mind. I wouldn't want to sacrifice the Qosmio's lux look and don't mind wiping it down to keep it shiny and clean. Besides, we've all seen the reports that say people's keyboards have more germs on them than a public toilet, so it's a good thing to wipe your laptop down frequently no matter what.


Solid State Drive

I credit Qosmio for wanting to be on the cutting edge but the solid state drive on this thing is way too small -- only 64gb. It does have a 2nd 320gb SATA which beats most competitors since it spins at 7200rpm. But the SSD is still small for my taste. To make matters worse, the partitions only give 47gb of usable space. The rest is allocated to a Recovery partition and a hidden partition that contains a backup image that can restore your computer to its out of box state. This could be helpful if you're on the go and something happens but I did make my DVD backup disks as well just for good measure. I don't mind how the partitions are laid out, I just need a bigger SSD and plan to upgrade as soon as the price drops from the stratosphere to something reasonable. But having said that, the speed of this drive is amazing so I'll gladly make do in the meantime. I installed my most taxing programs on the SSD and moved all my documents to the secondary SATA. Thankfully, Toshiba included an easy utility that helps migrate the user files to the secondary drive so as to help conserve space on the SSD.


Windows 7 64bit - NOT 32bit

The description says 32bit but this is actually 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium. I upgraded with ease to Ultimate and it did take less than 10 min just as advertised.


Helpful Hint #1:

check my other reviews for the perfect laptop cooler: NZXT ACC-NT-CRYO LX Aluminum Notebook Cooler 120MM Adjustable Fans (Black) It's the perfect fit for this Qosmio!


Helpful Hint #2:

check my other reviews for a great 25' HDMI cable: GTMax Premium High Speed Gold Plated HDMI Cable


Helpful Hint #3:

check my reviews for a great remote control for your new Qosmio - watch blu-ray movies and surf the web on your plasma TV: Gyration GYR4101CKUS Air Music Remote with Compact Keyboard


***NEW*** Helpful Hint #4:

The best backlit HTPC keyboard currently available! Once you get used to Qosmio's backlit keys, you hate to do without since Qos is the ultimate HTPC in both ease and function. So when I don't have my paws on the Qos, here's the wireless HTPC keyboard I like: Eclipse Wireless Litetouch Keyboard


Bottom Line:

There are far too many features to go through them all, but suffice to say, this Qosmio x505-Q850 is truly on the cutting edge. I give it my highest recommendation and am totally satisfied with it in every way. If you want a fast laptop that's on the cutting edge and looks great too, this Qosmio is your WINNER!!!

This review was originally posted in my blog. You can read it there by googling "Mine is bigger than yours- Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q890 Laptop Review". I have uploaded the images to this review and included "see uploaded images" for reading it here.

I recently had to buy a new laptop. I'd love to buy a MacBook Pro, but can't come to terms with the amount of cash you have to lay down.

I needed something fast since mine completely died, so I decided to try to get something prebuilt. I ended up finding this power house on Amazon. I did a comparison of price for the same options on Dell and IBM and the cost was nearly twice the price.

I used to be an HP fan. I could always count on getting good stuff cheap from them, but after two computers completely died on me in the past year I have left HP behind. Both had hard drives go bad and cost me a ton of time getting back on track. Below is the short list of what I had to install and configure.

Microsoft Office 2010
Microsoft Project 2010
Microsoft Visio 2010
Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 Developer
Visual studio 2010
Expression Studio
Sparx EA
MDG Sparx EA add-ons - Zachman Framework, TOGAF, DoDAF-MODAF, and SysML.
VirtualBox
VMware Player
Windows Virtual PC
Paint.net
iTunes / sync phone

Data wise I am usually pretty good at backing up, so I didn't lose much there. This new laptop is a monster. I had no idea it would be so big. It will not be traveling to the islands with me. Like I said above I purchased it pre-built so I could get it faster, and actually just ordered it off Amazon. Below are some of the specs and picture of the laptop compared to my old one.

See uploaded images

The Intel Core i7-740QM processor rocks.

See uploaded images

I also needed a new bag since this behemoth would only fit in one of my back packs.
The laptop has a solid state drive as the primary. It is smoking fast. I installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition in 23 minutes. A two hour chore on most systems. One thing to note is that Toshiba uses 10GB of the primary to create restore disks. After you create them you can claim the space. Below is the hard drive configuration out of the box.

See uploaded images

The power cord is also crazy large.
See uploaded images

Some of my favorite features are:
-- The speakers kick butt.
-- Has a Blu-ray player
-- Runs quiet and cool
-- I can run 2 Virtual PCs at the same time
-- The keyboard lights up. At first I thought that was corny, but now I love it. My wife comes into my office late at night to read and hates having the over head light on so she uses a reading lamp and I use a desk lamp. I am not the best typer, especially on a new keyboard, so the lighting up keyboard rocks.
-- The big clear screen. It is great for design diagrams and coding.

The only downside is that this behemoth won't be going on vacation with me. It will be fine for occasional business travel, but we lug so much other equipment on vacation, another 15 pounds won't cut it.

All in all if you want a power house for a great price this is a great option.

I currently am a Systems Administrator for a fairly large corporation, I have been a Network Administrator, an IT Manager and IT Project Manager. I have dealt with hundreds of Desktop and Laptop products ranging in brands from HP to Dell to Lenovo(IBM) and from Intel to AMD. I have to say that I am extremely impressed with this product.

The processor literally screams it's so fast, the screen is incredibly, I watched a blu-ray on it already and was quite impressed. It is large, and it is quite heavy, but I knew that going into the purchase. The reason I chose such a large and heavy system is because I did need something portable, but I also needed something that would serve in the desktop capacity as well. It has thoroughly met my expectations and exceeded them.

My only honest complaint is that it is a fingerprint magnet...if that's my only complaint what am I complaining about again....?????

I think everyone has made excellent points about this computer that is why I purchased it. What I liked best was the following:
- Excellent Sound! Those two speakers are amazing and produce a really rich sound - surprisingly good.
- Media Controls - I liked them (and you can turn off the beep easily BTW)
- Backlit keyboard
- The machine starts up FAST! Well under a minute. Just flies...
- Not too much bloatware.
- File Migration utility (to remove user files from SSD to HDD)

A few things that were not great, but not deal breakers:
- It is Heavy!
- The power supply is HUGE and heavy
- The screen does have a yellowish cast as some noted, but that can be adjusted somewhat by using the `Display Color Calibration' tool in Windows 7. Note that it has a Rich Color TFT, true 1080p HD
- Fingerprint magnet
- Having the OS on the SSD there was only about 30 Gbs left for use, but worth it in my opinion!

Now the bad news and deal breaker, for me: There is a production defect that I could not live with!

** There is a shadow that runs the entire length of the screen towards the bottom**

I did not notice it at first - I thought it was a shading effect on the taskbar (being new to Windows 7), but when watching a video full screen, that is when I noticed it. Found out (using search engines) that it is a production issue caused by the bottom lamp. Thus I am returning it (and this is why I buy from Amazon.com folks!)

Toshiba makes great machines, I am surprised they let this pass.

I got my Toshiba X505-Q880 in April and love it (as per my previous review). My wife used it and fell in love too, so we bought the newest iteration, the X505-Q890! The processor is a minor upgrade, but the rest of the computer is the same.

For the 5 hours it ran, it was her dream machine. Then, with a flash, the LCD's lights went out. Either the cables came loose, the lights for the display went out or the power board for the lights went bad, but the result was the same: No video. The Toshiba help desk was thorough and worked with me and her, providing appropriate interaction for each of us based on our individual technical knowledge.

As the computer was so new, the technician decided a whole new computer was in order. He transferred us to a sales representative who got us a return label via email for an overnight return, with an overnight return shipment. Mind you, I originally selected UPS ground, so the FedEx overnight service was a welcome upgrade.

While I was disappointed that we got a computer with a bad LCD, it gave us an opportunity to see Toshiba's service first hand. If you have your model number, serial number, and provide detail of the symptoms of your problem, Toshiba will take very good care of you.

And yes, when it's running, the X505-X890 is every bit of a powerhouse gaming/graphics computer you would ever want, overpowering machines from Alienware and iBUYPOWER that are twice the price. Again, if you could have factory installed upgrades to the processor and Solid-State hard drive, it would be nice, but you simply can't get a better deal at this price.

Pros: i7 processor, 6 GB of memory, true HD, Bluray, SSD, the list of features is phenomenal on this machine. I was originally looking at a Sony that was a little smaller, had 2 GB less memory, wasn't true HD, didn't have an SSD, and didn't have as powerful a processor. To jump down to the Sony, I was only realizing a $200 savings in price. That made this Toshiba the obvious choice. For the money, you can't buy better performance right now. The orange/red color scheme was initially a turn-off for me, but I've grown to admire the bright red trim, so much in fact that I bought a pair of earphones that had similar red-metallic trim.


Cons: I'm using this notebook for school, and lugging it around is definitely proving to be a chore. I'd get home with red marks on my shoulders from lugging this behemoth around. It's not the friendliest notebook for lugging around campus, but it definitely gets the job done, and gets the occasional jealous stare. Also, the Toshiba software could use some revisions and updating. I am constantly getting error messages that indicate the Toshiba software can not access one of the harddrives to monitor the statistics. I'm thinking it is the SSD that is causing an issue.


Conclusion: Great notebook for the price, and while it's not recommended as a travel companion, it more than makes up for the effort of lugging it around with all the features it packs.

This is my first laptop, so I shopped around quite a bit for one that would do what I need. I must say that this amazing laptop more than meets my expectations! It's super fast, and as a multi-tasker I really needed that. I ordered it on July 29, and got it on August 4, and I did not pay for expedited shipping, either. Thus far, I have been unable to slow this laptop down. My only complaint is that it's pretty heavy, and I had a hard time finding a sleeve and bag to accomodate this juggernaut of a laptop. Luckily I found a sleeve through Amazon that will fit, and went to Sports Authority and found a pretty gym bag that will fit a yoga mat, thus fitting my laptop in its sleeve.

Toshiba thought of everything when they built this laptop, and I am thoroughly pleased. I'll update my review as I learn more about my new laptop.

This baby is faaassssssttttt! But...I hate the touchpad. It is smooth and integrated so smoothly into the palm rest that sometimes I am moving my finger around and nothing happens. Then I discover that my finger is not even on the touchpad! Also, it is very sensitive to my palm and that prevents the pointer from moving. I rest my palm close to the mouse pad and because there is no slight indent for the pad, my palm slightly touches the pad. I have the palm adjust set to minimum sensitivity and it still keeps the pointer from moving. This is really an irritation since I don't use an actual mouse much. The touchpad also needs to be bigger! Also, whoever came up with the cool, red-lit media buttons on the left hand side ought to have their head examined! Every time you pick up the laptop when it is on, the buttons light up and do whatever they are supposed to do. This means the "green" setting will start or media player will pop up, etc. This is very annoying. I finally figured how to turn all of those buttons off so the red lights are always off now unless I press a button and also the media buttons only work now if I'm in media player. Big pain in the butt! You have to really get used to the small solid state drive. Many programs will default to the C drive for installation. You can simply change that to the E: drive. The problem is that some software has to be installed on the C: drive or it won't work properly. I found that out upgrading a mapping program. I had a useless 1.6gb map update sitting on my C drive and the program on the E drive. The install utility could not decompress the map file no matter what I did including moving it to the E drive. Finally customer support told me I needed to download the map file again but in a zip format and manually install it. That meant another 1.6gb file which for my internet connection, takes a LONG time. I finally uninstalled the program and reinstalled it on the C drive. It then saw the compressed map file and installed the map flawlessly. The power cord tends to come out since my AC is on the left side and the power cord is all the way on the right side of the laptop. I would have preferred it to be in the back like every other laptop I've ever owned.

Now for the good stuff. It is really fast! I can run Photoshop CS5 and do anything including content aware fill with no problems. From off to ready, Windows takes about 35 seconds to load. My Dell takes about 2 minutes! It is very quiet and not any hotter than my Dell. I think the keypad is dumb but I guess they have to put something there because of the large screen. By the way, the screen is beautiful! I've played movies on this machine and they run flawlessly. I haven't tried any BluRay movies yet but I'm sure they'd play just as well. I don't play games so I can't rate it at all in that area. The speakers sound very nice for a laptop. Very rich in sound with good bass.

All in all, it is a killer desktop replacement. I am disabled now and can't get up the stairs easily to my desktop so I wanted a laptop that was close to what my desktop is. It is all that and more! I think if Toshiba changes the location of the left side multimedia buttons, does some work on the touchpad and moves the power cord back to the rear of the laptop, they would have a total winner with me!

When I was shopping for a big-screen laptop to replace my desktop, I first went to review sites, which inevitably recommended what I consider "off brands" like Asis, Acer,and Alienware. What I discovered when looking at consumer reviews of these on amazon.com and [...], many consumers were ver disappointed in these "recommended" brands. So, I starting ignoring "the experts" and just read consumer reviews, and the ones I read for this laptop were pretty stellar. I should note I have NEVER bought a computer at anything but a brick-and-mortar store before, so I was doubly anxious about "blind buying".

But this laptop worked GREAT right out of the box. Beautiful to look at, ridiculously easy to set up, and a pleasure to use. Minimum "bloat-ware" for you to dispose of later. I would personally ignore the cool-0but-annoying facial recogntion feature and use a plain old password instead.

Only two minor complaints, but not enough to kill a five-star review:

1. The touchpad is a little TOO sensitive and kept selecting things when I was just hovering; all you have to do is disable the touch-to-select feature. No big deal.
2. I did have to call Toshiba support once. I had shut down the laptop (for the first time), and when I brought it back out, the power button would not work. (Yikes!) According to the service rep (who was wrong but would not admit it), I must have shut down the laptop the wrong way (unless going to Start / Shut Down is "the wrong way"). He also told me NEVER to use hibernate or sleep (which does beg a question, doesn't it?). The solution was to pull the battery and unplug, press the power button for 10 seconds to drain power (?), then plug in with no battery. Voila, it started, and I have had no problems since. But truly odd, no?

Anyway, great product -- highly recommended.

This Toshiba X505-Q890 laptop computer boots up into a functioning Windows 7 desktop in 38 seconds from the time you press the power switch for a cold start. When an external drive is plugged in, it is almost instantly available for access. Very little trial software to uninstall. Note that while the red trim in the photographs looks like red matte plastic, it is actually bright shining red chrome! I bought a Logitech V450 Nano 3-Button Wireless Laser Scroll Mouse w/Tilt Wheel Technology (Red/Black) to match.

Now for some nit-picking. The media control buttons (play, mute etc) emit a beep whenever you touch them, I would prefer they work silently, since you may touch them by mistake when typing. This can be fixed easily though, using the hardware options under the Toshiba program menu. The display screen is not really white, it is a little yellowish compared to stand alone LCD monitors.

To summarize, the superb performance of this computer is excellent value at this price.