Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650

Toshiba’s latest luxury notebook, the Qosmio G35-AV650, is the first notebook available with an HD DVD drive for playing high-definition content. Initial impressions are great - even phenomenal. For a 17" notebook, I have no complaints. Performance is blazing fast... I think this only gives up gaming video performance to the Inspiron XPS from Dell, otherwise it's more or less on par with the fastest portable PCs you can buy today. The screen stands out. It's the best 1920x1200 screen I've ever used. I'm typing this on it now. Blacks are black, whites are white, nary a dead pixel, great uniformity and color appears to be very good. This is an amazing display. Ergonomics are a little less spectacular - the keyboard is OK but could be a bit bigger given the size of this thing. And it is a 10lb beast, not terribly portable. It gets warm, too. Be warned. On-board sound is great, perhaps the best I've heard in a laptop. (Just like the screen.)

The $2999 G35-AV650 uses Toshiba’s own HD DVD tray-drive, the HD TS-L802A. This combo drive serves as a 4X multiformat, double-layer DVD burner as well as an HD DVD-ROM reader. To enable HD DVD playback, the G35-AV650’s 17-inch wide-screen display has a native resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels, more than enough to support the 1080p HD format. The display also features a glossy coating to increase the viewable angle, and it gets power from two lamps instead of one for greater brightness.

Toshiba delivers the first laptop to feature an HD-DVD ROM drive with an updated version of the Qosmio G35-AV600 we honored with an Editors' Choice in March. The new model, called the Qosmio G35-AV650, also has a faster processor (the 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo T2500), greater hard drive capacity (2 x 100GB, 5,400rpm), and a higher-end graphics card (the Nvidia GeForce Go 7600). The move to the midrange GeForce Go 7600 could prove to be a key upgrade, as the original Qosmio G35-AV600, which included the entry-level GeForce Go 7300, embarrassed itself in our gaming tests. The Qosmio just keeps getting heavier. This iteration weighs 10.2 pounds, up from the AV600's 9.9 pounds, so it will likely be basically confined to desk duty or maybe sitting in an A/V rack.

Of course, to hear Toshiba tell it, the big story here is the Qosmio G35-A650's next-generation optical drive, which can play HD-DVDs, as well as play and burn all types of CDs and DVDs. To go along with the drive, Toshiba has included an HDMI output capable of delivering 1080i resolution, and a 1,920x1,200 (WUXGA) display that supports 1080p. Frankly, this is another critical improvement; I loved the Qosmio G35-AV600's superbright display but found the 1,440x900 resolution too low.

Serenity. When putting the disk in the drive, it takes about 20-30 seconds to load before video starts playing. Not too bad, and I gather it to be a little faster than perhaps the A1 player? The software is "WinDVD HD for Toshiba" - I know little about it except that it appears to be a separate executable from the standard WinDVD that's also included. Video quality... well, it's what you would expect! Ridiculously good. I feel like I'm seeing every piece of detail I'd ever want to see in a movie. The format makes good use of the panel. I don't know if I'm seeing 1080i or 1080p or what. Not sure how to tell. CPU on both cores runs around 90% according to task manager, during playback. We watched Serenity end-to-end and there maybe was a stutter or two, not noticable at all. Hopefully future refinements to the software will bring down CPU consumption a bit & give the notebook a little more headroom to work with.. (We then watched the same movie in standard definition, and found it lacking in comparison.) The Qosmio’s sound is superb as well, thanks to an integrated 1-bit digital amplifier, Harman/Kardon speakers, and Dolby Home Theater enhancements that together simulate easily discernible multichannel surround sound.

Toshiba has bumped the AV650's processor up to an Intel Core Duo T2500 (2.0 GHz) from the 1.83-GHz T2400 in the AV600, but you get the same 1GB of memory. Another complaint is that the memory modules, two 512MB sticks, occupy both memory slots. Toshiba doesn't let you configure the memory, so if you want to upgrade to 2GB of RAM, you'll have to swap out the 512MB sticks and purchase the entire 2GB of RAM. The graphics subsystem has also gotten a boost, moving from the nVidia Go GeForce 7300 to a mightier Go GeForce 7600—though if you're looking for a true gaming machine, you'll want to check out the Toshiba Satellite P105-S921. The AV650's battery is a little heavier than its predecessor's, as it's been beefed up from 51-Wh to a 76-Wh unit, but it also churned out better MobileMark 2005 scores, lasting nearly 3 hours on a charge.

Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 Connect to an HDTV

Another unique feature of the G35-AV650: It includes an external HDMI port with HDCP support. This lets you connect the unit directly to an HDMI-equipped HDTV for use as a high-priced HD DVD player. If your TV lacks HDMI, though, you’re out of luck in regard to an HD signal; the G35-AV650’s other outputs are for analog S-Video and a VGA monitor, neither of which will facilitate an HD DVD signal. If you’ve hooked the notebook up to an HDTV, you can close the screen and still play content inserted into the HD DVD drive, once you’ve used Toshiba’s power-management tools to prevent the notebook from hibernating. An instant TV-out button sends the display signal to the television. Alternatively, you can use the Fn and F5 keys to toggle through output options.

Using this method we were quickly able to send an HD DVD signal to our test HDMI-equipped HDTV. However, despite HDMI’s ability to carry both video and audio, in our tests the audio emitted from the Qosmio’s built-in speakers rather than the television. (Toshiba reps said this shouldn’t happen; we’re still working with the company to resolve the issue.) Another drawback: Like Toshiba’s HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players, this notebook outputs video over HDMI only at 1080i, a disappointment considering that Hollywood studios are starting to encode their discs at 1080p resolution.

The G35-AV650 is bundled with a coaxial adapter cable (for use with its coaxial antenna input), as well as a composite video/audio adapter cable (for connection to the composite input, which also doubles as a stereo audio input). The notebook has an S-Video input port, too, but as with the HDMI, no cable is supplied in the box. Like previous Qosmio notebooks from Toshiba, the G35-AV650 runs Windows XP Media Center and comes with a TV tuner and a remote control. Though using the remote control is easy, we also like the numerous media playback buttons located just above the keyboard, some of which have multiple uses.

For instance, if the notebook is on, the dedicated TV and record (DVR) buttons will initiate the Media Center interface. But if you press the TV button when the unit is turned off, you can watch TV via Toshiba’s QosmioPlayer interface without having to boot up Windows. Unfortunately that ability to play media without booting Windows doesn’t extend to playing HD content. We were able to play HD DVD movies only through the preinstalled InterVideo WinDVD HD application. Toshiba intends to have “instant on” playback for HD DVD movies in the future. The ability to play content such as MP3s and video files without having to boot up Windows would be an added bonus.