Glossy Ibm Lenovo
Glossy Ibm Lenovo
Toshiba Qosmio X505 Review Article Contents
Aimed at both media enthusiasts and gamers, the Qosmio X505 is Toshiba's largest and most powerful desktop replacement machine featuring a quad core processor and a mid-range nVidia GPU. Does the X505 live up to expectations? Read our review to find out.
Build and Design Our first impression of the Toshiba Qosmio X505 is that it is big, heavy and is a champion when it comes to build quality. When it comes to design, the X505 has a very sophisticated look. The piano black finish with metallic red highlights could appeal to people who never would have considered a "flashy" notebook. The glossy surface is a fingerprint magnet though. Even the LEDs on the notebook match with the black and red theme.
Despite the X505's all-plastic design, build quality is superb. The base of the notebook uses high quality plastic that should brush off bumps and bruises easily. The palm rest and other areas of the notebook are satisfyingly firm and gives us the impression that the internal design and structure of the notebook was carefully planned. The LCD housing does a good job of protecting the screen as well. We were not able to produce distortions on the screen with poking or prodding on the back side of the LCD housing, and it also resisted twisting motions well.
A notebook this large has to have a solid screen hinge to support the weight of the LCD, and Toshiba delivers in that respect. The hinge is firm enough to keep the notebook closed and open when needed, but the screen wobbles a little when bumped and the hinge occasionally squeaks. It also takes some effort to open the notebook.
Screen and Speakers The Toshiba Qosmio X505 comes with a glossy 18.4-inch CCFL backlit screen with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 (the 16:9 equivalent of WUXGA). Colors are bright and vibrant, text is crisp and sharp and videos are smooth and clear. With a maximum measured brightness of about 141 nits, it is a little dim compared to LED backlit screens and will be unsuitable for outdoor use, but indoors (like on the desk that this notebook will rarely leave) the screen is stunning.
The X505 has eight distinct levels of screen brightness that can be adjusted by using Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 key combinations. The brightest settings on the notebook won't wash out colors or strain the eyes, and the dimmer settings for the screen are great for darkroom entertainment. During normal use, we would usually have to leave the screen at one of the four highest brightness levels for comfortable use.
Notebook screens tend to have poor vertical viewing angles, and the X505 is no exception. Colors and text fade fast when viewing the notebook screen from above or below. Horizontal viewing angles are much better and are quite impressive. Even at the far left or right field, the screen is still easily readable and the visual quality of text, images and videos were consistent throughout.
When we typically see that a notebook with Harman/Kardon speakers,there are high hopes that we are going to have a great listening experience. The two very large front speakers live up to our expectations with excellent audio in the treble range, but the bass range is non-existent. Music fades when there is low volume in the treble range. For a notebook this large, the lack of perceptible bass is a big disappointment.
Keyboard and Touchpad The X505 has a comfortable keyboard that easily outperforms many other notebooks. The LED backlit keyboard uses a fairly standard layout and design that has a great amount of feedback but is just a hair too springy. The spacing and feel of the keyboard is just about right and we think many people will like it.
At first, the glossy finish on the keyboard was a drawback; the keys seemed to grab our fingers a little bit. After a day or two, with a sufficient amount of oil building up on the keys, that problem was resolved. The only unresolved problem that is that we cannot find a way to turn the LED backlight off on the keyboard...
The large amount of palm rest real estate on an 18.4-inch notebook means that the X505 has a full size keyboard, a number pad and a few inches to spare. Toshiba uses that space by including eight capacitive touch special function buttons to control media playback, volume and power settings on the notebook. It's a nice feature but there are two big problems with these buttons: they are easy to accidentally trigger and they always beep at you when you hit them. Even the mute button beeps at you when you hit it.
Like the keyboard, the touchpad requires a little bit of oil to build up for optimal use. At first we found ourselves running off of the flush touchpad, but we adapted quickly. The tactile feedback provided by the touchpad was excellent and its responsiveness was equally satisfying after we updated the touchpad drivers. The touchpad also has an on/off button (and a giant red LED indicating if that the pad is on or off) that you can deactivate if needed. The two large touchpad buttons are red and hard to miss, but they are also difficult to work with since they require a lot of force to get them to register a click.
The Synaptics touchpad on the X505 also has a few other productivity features like circular scrolling, multi-touch zoom and multi-touch rotation motions, and even two-finger scrolling, which required us to space our fingers uncomfortably far apart for the touchpad to acknowledge the gesture. The rest of the features worked well.
Ports and Features
Let us be real – this is an 18.4-inch desktop replacement machine.Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad T60 Toshiba has the room to put any type of port on this computer that they want, and they did a good job of including the essentials. With three USB ports, one combo eSATA/USB port, audio ports, a Firewire 400 port, SD card slot, Ethernet port, VGA out and HDMI outputs, the notebook has almost everything a user needs. The X505 also has an ExpressCard/54 slot above the optical drive so you can expand upon the notebook as you see fit. There is even space for a DisplayPort connector on the notebook, but we are unsure why Toshiba chose to omit that feature. Our only complaint is that we wish there were more USB ports. The VGA port might baffle you a little, but Toshiba smartly figured that a lot of HDTVs have VGA ports dedicated for computer connections (and not all HDTVs have enough HDMI inputs). Let's have a quick look around the notebook.
About the Author
|
|
IBM Lenovo Dell Touch Screen 23" Glossy LCD LTM230HT05 9tw8h Factory SEALED $149.99 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO THINKPAD EDGE E420 14.0" GLOSSY LAPTOP LED LCD SCREEN $96.44 |
|
|
New 15.6" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen For IBM Lenovo G555 $141.79 |
|
|
New 15.6" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo G550 $71.09 |
|
|
New 15.6" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo G560 $73.08 |
|
|
New 10.1" WSVGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo S10-3 $57.48 |
|
|
New 11.6" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo X121E $66.49 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO Y410 CLAA141WB05A Glossy 14.1" WXGA LCD Chunghwa Laptop Screen $89.00 |
|
|
NEW IBM Lenovo ThinkPad T Series 14.1" Glossy LCD WXGA $83.43 |
|
|
15.6" LED LAPTOP LCD SCREEN FOR IBM LENOVO G550 GLOSSY $63.95 |
|
|
LAPTOP SCREEN 15.6" LED HD GLOSSY IBM LENOVO 42T0672 S6 $78.38 |
|
|
NEW 42T0652 IBM Lenovo 15.6" WXGA HD GLOSSY LED SCREEN $78.39 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO V560 15.6 HD GLOSSY LED SCREEN S60 $78.39 |
|
|
NEW IBM/lenovo T510 15.6" LED 42T0761 GLOSSY SCREEN S60 $78.38 |
|
|
A+ NEW IBM LENOVO 42T0741 15.6" WXGA GLOSSY LED SCREEN S60 $78.38 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO T520 T520i 15.6" HD LED B156XW02 AU OPTRONICS 0A66613 04W0424 GLOSSY $78.39 |
|
|
New 14" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo E420 $59.87 |
|
|
New 14" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo E425 $59.50 |
|
|
New 14" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo G450 $59.94 |
|
|
New 14" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo G470 $60.80 |
|
|
New 14" WXGA Glossy LED Screen For IBM Lenovo L420 $60.57 |
|
|
New 17.0 Inch Laptop LCD Screen for IBM Lenovo Thinkpad W700 42T0514 Glossy $79.99 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO 3000 G400 14.1" WXGA LCD SCREEN GLOSSY $84.29 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO 3000 Y410 14.1" WXGA LCD SCREEN GLOSSY $84.29 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo 15" WGA LCD Laptop Screen Non glossy. $29.99 |
|
|
New 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen For IBM Lenovo 3000 G400 $81.88 |
|
|
New 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen For IBM Lenovo 3000 G410 $81.95 |
|
|
New 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen For IBM Lenovo 3000 N100 $83.10 |
|
|
New 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen For IBM Lenovo 3000 N200 $81.58 |
|
|
New 17.0 Inch Laptop LCD Screen for IBM Lenovo Thinkpad W700 Glossy $79.99 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO 3000 Y410 14.1" WXGA LCD SCREEN GLOSSY $71.45 |
|
|
LAPTOP SCREEN 15.6" LED HD GLOSSY IBM LENOVO 42T0672 $79.12 |
|
|
NEW LG LP156WH2 (TL) (AA) FOR LAPTOP SCREEN 15.6" LED LCD GLOSSY IBM LENOVO 42T $70.55 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo Thinkpad R61E LCD Screen Glossy 15.4" LP154WX4 (TL) (A6) $94.97 |
|
|
★LAPTOP SCREEN 15.6" LED LCD GLOSSY IBM LENOVO 42T0686★ $70.55 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo G550 Power / Media Button Hinge Cover with Board & Ribbon Grey Glossy $9.85 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7100 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0377 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7155 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7161 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7162 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7156 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0378 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7101 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7157 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0424 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7158 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0452 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7103 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7163 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0456 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7104 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo THINKPAD R61i 14.1" WXGA LCD Screen Glossy $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7159 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7164 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 11P8283 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7160 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0466 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0496 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0311 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7099 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0339 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7154 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0524 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO 42T0579 14.1" WXGA LCD SCREEN GLOSSY $77.98 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO 3000 G410 14.1" WXGA LCD SCREEN GLOSSY $111.33 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo 3000 N100 15.4 WXGA Glossy LTN154X3-L06 LCD Display - 42T0315 42T0314 $69.99 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo LP154W01 (TL) (D5) Glossy LCD Screen Display Panel - 42T0319 42T0318 $69.99 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo Thinkpad R61 LCD Screen Glossy 14.1" CLAA141WBA5 $105.95 |
|
|
NEW IBM Lenovo G530 15.4 WXGA Laptop LCD Screen Glossy $124.67 |
|
|
★11.6" IBM LENOVO THINKPAD X100 LCD LED SCREEN GLOSSY★ $83.11 |
|
|
★IBM LENOVO W510 LAPTOP TFT SCREEN 15.6" HD LED GLOSSY★ $70.55 |
|
|
42T0617 IBM Lenovo LCD Screen Dp 10.1" Wsvga Glossy Led $115.95 |
|
|
NEW IBM LENOVO THINKPAD EDGE E420 14.0 GLOSSY LAPTOP LED LCD SCREEN $96.00 |
|
|
BRAND NEW IBM LENOVO B550 0880 15.6" TFT LED GLOSSY SCREEN★ $70.55 |
|
|
New IBM LENOVO FRU 45N4977 14.1" WXGA Glossy LCD CCFL Screen $111.33 |
|
|
NEW 11.6" HD IBM LENOVO FRU 04W0402 LAPTOP LED SCREEN GLOSSY $91.74 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7160 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7161 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7162 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7163 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 11P8283 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7099 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7101 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7103 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7154 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7155 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7156 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7157 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7158 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0424 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 13N7164 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0452 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0456 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0311 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0466 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0339 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0524 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM LENOVO 42T0377 LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.1" WXGA GLOSSY $72.96 |
|
|
IBM Lenovo THINKPAD R61i 14.1" WXGA LCD Screen Glossy $72.96 |
Thanks for visiting!