35% off Dell's Most Popular Laptops
Entered CNET Catalog: 06/18/2008
SKU: 883974117642
Manufacturer: Toshiba
Manufacturer description
S/P DIF and REGZA Link HDMI ports on the Qosmio X305 laptop PC let you tap into a home theater system to kick your gaming up to the next level and run the show using a single remote control. Not two but four high-fidelity stereo speakers and one very powerful sub-woofer envelop you in sound and put you right in the middle of the action. Get rocked by explosions. Shrink from shattering glass. And feel stirring soundtracks swirl all around you. Enjoy all the in-your-face realism of today's hottest 3D games at a full 1440 x 900 (WXGA+) resolution. The brightness, contrast, color saturation and overall image quality of this screen is hard to believe - till you see it for yourself.Product summary
The good: Inexpensive; unique lid design; amazing stereo sound; decent performance; light-touch media controls; HDMI and eSATA ports; charges USB devices, even when off.
The bad: Bulky; relatively low screen resolution; fixed configuration lacks Bluetooth and Blu-ray; lousy battery life.
The bottom line: We appreciate the 17-inch Qosmio X305-Q701's cool looks, low price, and great stereo sound, but just a little bit more cash can buy a laptop that's better for watching movies or gaming.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 08/21/2008
Editors' note: This review is part of our Back-to-School 2008 roundup, covering specific configurations of popular laptops that can be found in retail stores.
The Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701 marks a new look for the Qosmio brand. Gone are the subdued blacks and silvers of years past; in their place come stylized red flames and glowing red LEDs. Also out the window are the sky-high prices of previous-generation Qosmios; the X305-Q701 costs just $1,399. Fortunately, some things haven't changed: thanks to its four Harman Kardon speakers and built-in subwoofer, the Qosmio X305-Q701 still produces some of the best sound we've heard on a laptop. And its case still comes stocked with the latest generation of components from Intel and Nvidia.
Unfortunately, those components didn't give the Qosmio an advantage on CNET Labs' performance benchmarks, where it couldn't match such competitive systems as the Gateway P-7811FX. In fact, for just a little bit more than the Qosmio X305-Q701, the Pavilion dv7-1025nr provides a better movie-watching experience, while the Gateway P-7811FX provides better framerates for gaming.
| Price | $1,399 |
| Processor | 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 |
| Chipset | Mobile Intel PM45 Express |
| Memory | 4GB at 1066MHz |
| Hard drive | 200GB at 7,200rpm |
| Graphics | 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) |
| Dimensions (wide x deep x thick) | 16.2 x 12 x 1.7 inches |
| Screen size (diagonal) | 17.1 inches |
| System weight / Weight with AC adapter | 9.0 / 11.2 pounds |
| Category | desktop replacement |
The Qosmio X305-Q701's design is anything but subtle. Its red lid is covered with almost abstract, two-tone flames, and the center prominently features "Qosmio" in inch-tall silver letters. Inside, the display bezel is a deeper red, while the shiny black keyboard and deck are bordered with metallic red. The laptop is also quite massive, measuring 2.25 inches thick at the back (a mere 1.7 inches at the front) and 16 inches wide. By contrast, both the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr and Gateway P-7811FX top out at 1.7 inches thick and will take up a little less space on your desk. While the Qosmio's 9-pound weight falls within our expectations for a desktop replacement, its 2.2-pound power brick does not; though the system is still technically portable, there's no way you'll be carrying it around campus with any regularity.
The 1,440x900 resolution on the Qosmio X305-Q701's 17-inch display could be sharper; we've become accustomed to seeing 1,680x1,050 or even 1,920x1,200 on other desktop replacements. The slightly lower resolution on the Qosmio makes text and icons easy to read, but images and movies lack the crispness we've seen on other media-oriented systems, including the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr.
A row of red light-touch controls stretch across the top of the keyboard and include not only the expected media player launch key, playback controls, and mute button, but also a button to turn off the LED case lights, one to turn on the Webcam, and one to launch the included Dolby Home Theater software. As with the company's Satellite models, the Qosmio X305-Q701's keys are made of very glossy plastic that fits the overall aesthetic but is so shiny as to be distracting. Fortunately, the keyboard is comfortable; with your eyes closed it feels like any other full-size board. Because of the laptop's broad case, there's also room for a 10-key numeric keypad.
We do think the Qosmio's wide touch pad could use a bit more height, but it is nevertheless functional for those few times you aren't using an external mouse. We're not fond of the glowing red stripe across the top of the touch pad (which we've seen in white on recent Satellite models), but we do appreciate that it can be disabled with one of the light-touch controls. We wish the laptop also incorporated a hardware touch pad on/off button like the one found on HP's Pavilion line.
The Qosmio's case features some additional small design elements worth noting. First, the tray-loading DVD drive is located on the laptop's front edge, which is either convenient or annoying, depending on where things pile up on your desk. Likewise, the headphone and microphone jacks, along with a handy volume wheel, are unconventionally located on the laptop's right edge. A hardware switch for the Wi-Fi radio is within easy reach on the front edge. And the back two corners of the keyboard deck, next to the speakers, glow red for no particular reason (as with the touch pad stripe, these lights can be turned off).
| Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701 | Average for desktop replacement category | |
| Video | VGA-out, HDMI, Webcam | VGA-out, S-Video, HDMI |
| Audio | Stereo speakers with subwoofer, headphone and microphone jacks, built-in microphone | Stereo speakers with subwoofer, headphone/microphone jacks. |
| Data | 3 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, multiformat memory card reader, eSATA | 4 USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, SD card reader |
| Expansion | ExpressCard | ExpressCard/54 |
| Networking | modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | modem, Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth |
| Optical drive | DVD burner with Labelflash | DVD burner |
With four Harman Kardon speakers and a built-in subwoofer, the Qosmio X305-Q701 is one of the best-sounding laptops around and could easily function as both computer and stereo in a cramped dorm room. Other high-end features around the Qosmio's case include an HDMI port for high-definition video and an eSATA port that's good for hooking up external hard drives. The inclusion of Bluetooth helps us forgive Toshiba for stocking the Qosmio X305-Q701 with just three USB ports (one less than average). All three USB ports feature Toshiba's Sleep-and-Charge technology, which means you can plug in and charge USB devices (iPods, mobile phones, and so on) even if the laptop is powered off, as long as it's plugged into an outlet.
The Qosmio X305-Q701 is a single fixed configuration sold only in retail outlets. Its $1,399 price buys you the entry level of Intel's latest "power optimized" processors, the 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo P7350. The configuration also includes a generous 4GB of fast 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM (with 64-bit Windows Vista to take advantage of it) and a 7,200rpm hard drive with 200GB of capacity. Despite its latest-generation components, the Qosmio fell behind on CNET Labs' Multitasking benchmark, where it trailed behind the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr and Gateway P-7811FX, both of which are equipped with a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor. The Qosmio X305-Q701's RAM allotment helped it stay more on pace with those competing systems during our Photoshop test, but it still trailed the Pavilion.
The Qosmio X305-Q701 was more competitive when it came to our Unreal Tournament 3 gaming test, where its Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS graphics, with 512MB of VRAM, displayed 78.6 frames per second (at 1,280x800 resolution). But while this rate is nearly twice as much as the Pavilion dv7-1025nr, it still can't match the eminently playable 117.9 fps posted by the Gateway P-7811FX, which costs just $50 more.
The Qosmio X305-Q701 lasted just short of an hour and a half on our battery benchmark. We don't usually expect such a monstrous laptop to last long on battery power, but it is worth noting that both other desktop replacements in our roundup of high-end back-to-school laptops--the Pavilion dv7-1025nr and the Gateway P-7811FX--lasted nearly twice as long as the Toshiba.
The Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701 is backed by an industry-standard one-year warranty. Support is accessible through a 24-7, toll-free phone line and an online knowledge base and driver downloads.
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System configurations:
Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS; 200GB Toshiba 7,200rpm
Sony VAIO VGN-FW140 E/H
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit); 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400; 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 4700MHD; 250GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm
HP Pavilion dv5-1015nr
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9200M GS; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
Gateway P-7811FX
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeFOrce 9800M GTS; 200GB Seagate 7,200rpm
HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
HP Pavilion dv5-1004nr
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core ZM-80; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon HD3200; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
Dell XPS M1330-126B
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 User Rating: 
10/10
Sweet gaming laptop for the money
Pros: Great all around laptop,Nice collection of software out of the box(from bestbuy),Enough power and speed to run most newer games,speakers are decent for a laptop,Great customer service,Decent price point
Cons: Big,runs pretty hot in your lap,power consumption
User Rating: 
7/10
Embarrassing to be seen with, fun to use.
Pros: Decent performance, great sound, and opensuse 11.1 installs flawlessly on it. Everything important works, what doesn't I never use anyway.
Cons: It comes with Vista, but that doesn't mean you have to use it. Doesn't have a manual button to shut off the annoying touch pad. A mouse is required to use this machine effectively. It is butt ugly, no one, save for my teenage nephew likes its looks.
The only thing that doesn't work running in Linux are the lighted buttons above the keyboard, and the f9 key, but those don't work in Vista either. Yeah, it has a 10 key number pad, but so what? $500 systems have those these days. Disabling the touchpad, not doing so renders the laptop unusable, requires going into the OS controls.
I mainly use it for programming and penetration testing, so it is great that wireless works flawlessly and has lots of fast RAM. The only game I play on it is world of warcraft. In Vista(which is no longer installed) it got 85 FPS. In Linux under Wine it runs at 120 FPS, with all the settings maxed out. Yes, Vista is that bloated.
Generates a lot of heat, but the vents do very well without additional gear.
For the people who are going to run Vista there is some good news. You have the choice between 32 and 64 bit Vista. With the latter, you gain stability and better driver/application support, but lose a little RAM accessibility. Since I use the PAE Linux kernel I don't have to give up any RAM to gain the stability and compatibility of a 32 bit OS(Yes, 64 bit Linux is as problematic as Windows). You also can change the size of your C partition when you first set it up, which is just awesome. Shoving Windows onto a tiny C partition(well not so tiny for the bloated Vista), makes backups and reinstalls(this is Windows) simpler.
It is tough to get into my bag which used to carry a 17" HP Pavilion, but I have no issues carrying it around campus.
User Rating: 10/10
Qosmio 930$!!!!!
Pros: Awesome gaming graphics card 4GB DDR"3" ram, 17" screen
Cons: i think none
User Rating: 10/10
Price Drop To $830 at Best Buy
Pros: Amazing machine at this clearance price!
Cons: Don't like flames on cover
User Rating: 
8/10
A great buy for the price!
Pros: High specs, for only $989!
Design
Great speaker system - probably the best laptop sound i've heard.
Fairly quiet, considering its meant to be a desktop replacement/gaming PC.
Plays anything you throw at it at medium to high settings.
Cons: Design - its certainly NOT subtle. This could be good or bad depending on where you are.
The shiny keys get greasy no matter how clean your hands are.
Movies look fuzzy
Big and heavy.
First of all you'll be hard pressed to find a laptop with these specs for this price. CNET's price is outdated, it only costs ~$1000 (I got mine for $989) at Best Buy. Toshiba also has great support, unlike HP and Gateway. I do agree with them on the weight though. This macine is a beast, both in power and size. If you're looking for a laptop to carry around an office or campus, this is probably too heavy for you.
This laptop is great as a portable gaming machine. It will handle any mdern game (even Crysis) at medium-high setting or above. The only place it falls flat is with movies, they appear blurry and look surprisingly poor. This can be fixed by using the HDMI port. As to its physical looks, well they can be good or bad. Many people like them many would rather have a more simple design, but either way this thing will stick out.
Overall I'd say you won't be disspointed, especially if it stays at $989. Just a tip use in-store pick up at bestbuy.com and they'll lower the price to $989. For that price you can't go wrong with this.
User Rating: 8/10
Toshiba does it Again
Pros: Awesome styling! Far better sound then I am accustomed to on a laptop. Cost $1,000+ at BestBuy on Oct. 21, 2008. Finally a number pad on a laptop! Gigabit ethernet on laptop.
Cons: Cramped keyboard! Location of "delete" and "end " keys. Vista!
My purchase of the Qosmio was for the wife to surf the Internet and to play Solitaire. <grin> Toshiba's marketing of the Qosmio caught her eye immediately after they came out with the system some time age but the expense was too much at the time. Cudos to their marketing team for the name and to the designers for the system's stats.
Having been less than satisfied with the speakers of the blue monsters, even though they were Harmon/Kardon, on my Satellite systems Toshiba and H/K have finally realized the shortcomings on previous sound quality. My hat is off to getting it right this time. When working in dark, dusty two hundred year old court house basements having music to listen to with a decent sound system is a blessing!
The Cosmio will on occasion be required to travel around the country hooked up to a large format scanner. Yes this laptop is overkill for what it will be doing, but 'tis great to be able to use a sledge hammer to drive a finishing nail. I will comment on gaming as my preferences are for older Dungeons & Dragons genre mostly played single which would not come close to stressing the Cosmio. Not even a blip on the processor or ram.
Now to my wish. Ah to be able to get rid of the hated Vista and install XP Pro. I bet this system would scream holy terror if it could only get the eight hundred pound gorilla off it's back. Of course that would likely void the warranty. Vista just gobbles the resources for wont of it's eye candy!
A history lesson of my experience with Toshiba demonstrates my satisfaction with the company and it's laptop offerings. Having purchased several previous models, the first three model numbers which are lost to history, experience has taught me that their commitment to technical support and their customer base is one of the best in the industry.
The Satellite P25-S520 was purchsed some eight or nine years ago at the unheard of cost of $2,500. Shortly thereafter it went south for the winter. Calling them they had a new one in the mail in short order even before the vagrant had been shipped to them. The replacement has faithfully offered service for many years and worked without a burp.
After having purchased the P25-S526 on eBay (never again!) it went south and has lanquished in a box for several years. Even after a Toshiba authorized service worked on it. After the local computer company heard of it lying dormant they offered to purchase it. Instead I replaced the hard drive (80gig for 160gig) and started loading drivers. Though long out of warranty Toshiba's technical support offered assistance (at not cost!) and had it up and running. Now it sits running a Microtek 9800XL scanner when needed. It does have a licensed copy of XP Pro and is very stable.
A con to the Qosmio was discovered while typing this missive. Being accustomed to typing for hours on a full-sized keyboard the Qosmio has a frustrating habit of the I-beam cursor "jumping" to other lines of text. Likely operator error.th
Extremely satisfied with the machine. Happy with the company's laptops. Would not touch the desktops on a bet! Toshiba has a happy and satisfied customer as long as they keep up the good work!
User Rating: 10/10
what I have been waiting for
Pros: Although a few other machines ran slightly better, this one has the WHOLE package and has some personallity in a world where all other laps look exactly the same.
Cons: The people that wrote the review seem dry and purley basing everything on specs, today image is as important enough to have a few tech flaws, which seem to be minor at best.
User Rating: 10/10
Great gaming laptop, perfect price and wonderful design
Pros: GeForce 9700 GTX Video Card (Plays Crisis, Stalker, WoW, UT3, and Bioshock 60+ FPS @ high settings)
High capacity, decent response time hard drive.
ESATA (USB DUO) ports, charges my IPOD when laptop is off.
Bluetooth, Wireless, HDMI Out, HD Audio etc
Cons: Continued from #3. Pros:
Long battery life (considering the included hardware)
Decent weight and size, compared to Sager and Alienware laptops
Integrated Webcam and Microphone (with hardware noise cancellation)
Cons: The Stock Market
I am currently in IRAQ and have been here for 4 months since I purchased this laptop at Best Buy of Fayetteville North Carolina. This laptop has outperformed my Dell e1705 and XPS in the ?Dust? category (spent 3x8 month deployments in Kandahar Afghanistan with my Dells) and my Toshiba Qosmio X305 has never been dusted off (canned air or otherwise), and it still remains quiet when playing my high end games such as Crisis (+ Warhead), Stalker (+Clear Sky), UT3, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online (beta) at highest settings with impressive frame rates. The fast ram makes day to day operations a breeze and loading times almost painless. Mid ranged games such as Far Cry, WoW (140+ fps completely maxed during a 40 player raid using stock drivers), Bioshock, and HL2 can be played at highest settings totally maxed with no sluggish performance, and no loud fan noise (unlike my hot and noisy XPS).
For those of you who like to turn heads with custom mods and sheer physical appearance, you do NOT have to feel guilty about the STOCK look of this laptop. The red flames actually sparkle in the sun, and give off a DEEP red look, and the silver looks like chrome in comparison to the shiny red. Of all the ?glossy? laptop screens Ive seen in my time, this one was quite standard, although I ripped the HD screen out of my dell, and it was plug and play into this laptop. The mod usually costs around 70 bucks and offers true 1080P graphics, but watch out for clones on ebay. Post mod (3 weeks ago I installed it) all the games I usually played at 1440x900 play at the same frame rates at 1920x1080, which makes me think that with custom drivers this chipset can actually do much more (but is the heat risk worth it?).
Some people hate running laptops on their lap (go figure, I am guilty as charged) but the placement of the heatsink (rear center) and the fans (centrally located for both CPU and GPU) make lap operation a breeze (unless you?re wearing a mini skirt ;) I just keep my left knee directly under the left corner of the laptop, and my right knee directly under the right corner. I feel absolutely no heat at all. No discomfort, and no vibration from fans. The battery life was long enough for me to watch 2 movies both 2 hours in length using 50% screen brightness, and 75% volume using ear-buds. I used a modified version of I8KFan (for dells) to set the threshold for my fans at 90% to keep them from running unless the cpu and gpu were nearing alarm and even then I limited the fan speed to 30% with no problems. The fans would run for about 1 minute then turn off for about 5 or 6 minutes. This was without any underclocking software or the high performance battery.
One of my biggest problems with my Dell XPS was the DVD vibration when playing a DVD that wasn?t 100% balanced. The Qosmio comes pre-installed with a DVD toolkit (that conveniently awaits user input in the taskbar) forces the DVD player to run in ?silent? mode suffering no loss in visual quality or reading speeds (oddly enough). Now I run my DVD in Silent mode 100% of the time. Not only for battery conservation, but because the gain for running in normal mode is not noticeable, for most of my applications.
The built in webcam and microphone (with audio feedback cancellation built into the hardware) makes messaging a breeze as well. Using the latest beta of Yahoo for Vista, I can talk to my wife and son with no problems of feedback, whatsoever (even with 1000+ ms latency!) The webcam also has its own touch sensitive interface button to launch a video recorder / picture application to take snapshots or capture video at multiple resolutions. High quality pictures look quite decent, with minimal distortion, and low bandwidth video works great with the webcam?s auto detection of effective quality.
For those of you keen to the OSX86 scene, this laptop is 100% compatible with the latest release of leo4all v6 (Leo4all v5 Intel Client). Only additional downloads for compatibility was the built in microphone and webcam kexts (google is your friend). The USB Boot compatibility of the BIOS allows me to run BackTrack v2 and v3 from my thumb drive (or any other USB distro).
To sum up my review, I give this product 2 thumbs up, and a swift kick in the nose! This laptop is considerably light, in comparison to every sager laptop on the market today. No one honestly cares about the price of oil, or the weight of their behemoth LAN party killing machine. If nothing else, the sexy red LED glow all around the laptop should keep you warm through the cold winter nights ahead.
?Lead, follow, or get the hell out of my way?
Terrorism Sux
10th MTN DIV MND-C NSC G6 DAMO Senior System Engineer
Camp Victory, IRAQ
User Rating: 10/10
Great gaming pc with great customer support.
Pros: The great performance for the money, the design is nice, it catches every ones attention at work which can be good or bad depending if I'm gaming on the clock or not.
Cons: Finding a carrying case I liked was a pain.
As far as comparing this to the Gateway & HP you should have also compared the support of those two, seeing as that plays a big role in peoples decisions on who to go with. Both of their support teams will do as little as possible to help you actually get the fix you need, while toshiba will either replace the component or replace the full equipment if it sounds like that would be the best plan of action. Getting the other two to replace anything or even acknowledge that it is anything but user error is almost as fun as having teeth pulled. I wouldn't recommend either of the two companies for laptops, desktops I'd recommend HP but I still wouldn't recommend a Gateway.
User Rating: 
9/10
I love the red hot color & the flames for added touch.
Pros: I mainly purchased this laptop to play games. The 200GB hard disk drive is great for the large downloads of games that I play.
I have two other laptops,a Sony Vio and a HP and out of the three I really like the Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701 the best.
Cons: Short battery life, weight,glossy key pads which leaves smudge marks even when your hands are clean.
Updated on Aug 30, 2008I forgot to also comment on the price when I purchased it at Best buy on 08/01/08
at a sale price of $1399.99
Can not beat the price for all the great feautures this little red hottie has!
