Toshiba Qosmio F15-AV201 review

One of two new installments in Toshiba's Qosmio line of mobile entertainment laptops, the $2,599 F15-AV201 offers a few modest improvements over the inaugural model, the Qosmio E15. With slightly more powerful components and all of the added benefits of Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the Qosmio F15-AV201 looks to play the part of laptop, TV, DVD player, personal video recorder, and gaming machine, all at once. Also check out the brand-new, 17-inch wide-screen Qosmio G15-AV501.

Upside: At $2,599, the F15-AV201 comes in at the same price as the previous Qosmio E15 model, but the new F15 features a 15-inch wide-aspect panel--a welcome improvement over the E15's 15-inch standard-aspect screen. Another major improvement is the step up to Nvidia's GeForce FX Go 5700 graphics chip, with 128MB of dedicated video memory; that's enough to make this laptop a prime-time gaming contender. Also featured are a slightly faster, 1.8GHz Intel Pentium M 745 processor and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, which gives you greater freedom in capturing, editing, managing, and playing your digital content.

Downside: We're psyched that Toshiba got wise and gave the Qosmio F15-AV201 a wide-aspect screen, but we would've preferred to see a higher native resolution, which would afford considerably more screen real estate.

Outlook: Priced the same as the lesser Qosmio E15, Toshiba's F15-AV201 offers more screen space and better components. Still, battery life and computing performance will ultimately determine whether this laptop is a true digital Swiss Army Knife or another four-in-one product that offers four times the mediocrity. Check back soon for a full review of the Qosmio line.