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"Big, bad, beautiful, and ready for multitasking/media management."
on by IndyxtypePros Powerful machine, only high end parts, long feature list, beautiful design.
Cons Gobbs of preloaded software, no option for raid configuration despite twin HDD's, large size makes it not ideal for travel.
Summary While this machine may be far from the ultra portable category, this should be expected with all of the hardware under the hood. Packing a 1080p capable display that is without doubt, the finest laptop display I have ever seen; big, bright, crisp, and nice wide viewing angles. With Harmon Kardon 4.1 speakers built right into the machine (yes there is a subwoofer built into the bottom) this thing bumps better than many external speaker systems. While the keyboard does not take advantage of all of the real estate offered by such a large chassis, it makes very clean and crisp key strokes that I find better than many desktop keyboards.
There is a plethora of input devises including a physical volume dial (so much better than hitting the same button repeatedly, or even worse; software only controls) a fingerprint reader that makes passwords a thing of the past once they are registered, a set of media controls above the keyboard and a second set of Media Center controls opposite the volume dial (while, it looks nice, keeps the machine more symetrical and is fun to play with, most users will probably find this second set of controls redundant). In addition to the above, it comes with a Media Center remote control and of course all the in-software buttons, which all together offers more ways to control media than you'll know what to do with. It has a webcam, external TV tuner (which I only wish was internal like on the last Qosmio seeing as it’s primary design purpose is for entertainment), HD DVD burner, express card, PCMCIA, firewire, multi-format memory card reader, and more USB 2.0’s than most people will ever need.
In addition to all of the abovementioned features, the standard hardware is nothing to laugh at either. With a Santa Rosa 2.0Ghz pumping through the data fed by 2gigs of 677Mhz DDR2 memory and 1 gig of Intel turbo memory, the machine is more than fast enough for the casual user. As far as graphics/gaming goes, it is built with the, just under, top of the line mobile video card available and part of the first group capable of running DX10.
With that said however, I was a little disappointed when attempting to play Bioshock and see what the DX10 hype is about. While the specs of the machine are even above the “recommended requirements”, I had to cut the resolution in half and turn off every visual option (including DX10) to get any playable framerate out of it. After doing a little investigation into the possible reasons for this, I noticed in the task meter, that nearly half of the system memory is consumed by preloaded software from both Microsoft and Toshiba. While much of this is fodder and can be erased immediately, a lot of this is software is required to manage the system and all of the cool features mentioned in the second paragraph. Weeding out some of this and maxing out the memory at 4 gigs might help the problem, however I don’t think that it should be necessary to tweak/tune a machine marketed at a media/gaming notebook in order for it to run games released the same month as the machine it’s self. Another letdown is that while the machine comes preconfigured with twin hard drives, it does not allow for a raid configuration leaving you bound to the relatively slow 5400 RPM speed instead of a ripping raid 0 format.
With all of this said, unless you are looking to do some serious gaming (in which case you should probably get a desktop anyway) this machine should be more than enough for some time to come. The feature list alone is impressive and while the price tag is high, building a machine with a similar configuration (and still neglecting much of the first two paragraphs) at almost any other company will cost you just as much if not more. The fit and finish of the machine is top of the line and it is honestly beautiful to look at. In summary, even though the specs are not earth shakingly powerful and Toshiba dropped the ball by not building the TV tuner into the cassis or allowing for a raid configuration, the machine is very impressive and powerful enough for almost anything you can throw at it. I’m very impressed by it and smile every time I boot her up. -
"not that great as expect"
on by sweetazngirl248Pros nice, pretty, awesome sound, sleek
Cons really heavy, keeps freezing, not much different than my old laptop.
Summary ok, so i got when i first moved to new city and a harder school. my dad took me to buy a laptop, still prefer laptops over desktops, for school. when i first got it i was so happy, everything was like....AWESOME!!! at first when i had it didn't notice it was heavy until i had to lug it around when i went to California. then not long after, the laptop started getting slower and slower and completely stopped working. so yeah, i spend my birthday/Christmas present on this laptop, ad in return i only got a prettier/heavier version of my mom's suckish laptop.
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"Beautiful but does not perform to specifications."
on by YetibikerPros Sleek, look great, boots quickly, and has great sound.
Cons Can only use 3 gigs of the 4 giigs of memory. Waste of money. Mchince will slow to a crawl using MS 2007. Very dissapointing. Toshiba acks the memory problem but has no solution except shut down some programs....what on a $2k machine!
Summary When you sepnd $2k-$3k on a laptop you expect the best. Not so with this one. this is my second Qosmio and the Q25 was better. MS 2007 does not play well with this machine and the time it takes to process a word docx or an excell spread sheet is rediculous. I purchased this machine as I am a professional speaker and imagine to my dismay when PP slows down on a machine of this caliber. Whats worse is my audience notices the stuttering of the slides. Pathetic. Toshiba tells me I need to shut down some applications that normally run on every other machine I own, in order for the Q45 tom perform well. What kind of silly answer is that? One that tells me they do not know what to do. They built a defective machine by design. It cannot access all 4 gigs of ram and Toshiba admits this but they advertise that you can buy 4 gigs as if it sounds the machine will run like a Ferarri. Nothing could be further from the truth. This machine runs like peanut butter most of the time in heavy applications. I own a small $ 900 laptop, running vista that outperfroms this one...and its a Toshiba as well. Enough said and I hope you get the point that all the feature rich components are not working in concert. Oh and I had 2 machines arrive DOA! Should have told me something then but I always give people a second and sometimes a 3rd chance. Never again. I am still trying to get Toshiba to do something like trade this in for soemthing as it is only 6 months old and I have called them ever month and they keep delaying. I know they are trying to make it a year so they can tell me its out of warranty and there is nothing I can do. A billion dollar company that behaves like this makes me wonder if they really are the company they say they are.
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"Maybe not capable of 4GB's as they say!?!"
on by jason.zebellPros Great Laptop
Cons Horrible Customer Service
Summary Do not believe the 4Gb's RAM Maximum, it may not be tested and true!
I would never ever buy a laptop from Toshiba again. They are great little powerhouses that get the job done, that is for sure. But Toshiba as a company just wants to be "seen" as a great company and not actually hold up the service end of the purchasing agreement.
Take a very close look at all of the specs that are listed before you buy. I bought one of their u305 13.3″ laptops 4 1/2 months ago. The specifications on their website very clearly and proudly state that the laptop is capable of utilizing 4Gb’s of RAM. It is not! And it is not because of the chipset or board being used (others use the same and are capable of 4Gb's). It is because they could not program the bios properly to handle it.
Toshiba has since my purchase changed the manual and the online specifications for this laptop line to an upper limit of 2Gb’s RAM. After many hours on the phone with their “customer service” handlers, I am at a loss for what to do. It is at the point now that I am considering suing them. They have made absolutely no effort to rectify the situation.
It is apparently my burden to bear that the laptops specifications changed. They are not willing to allow me to return it and pay the difference for another model. They will not compensate me in any way for their mistake. I now have 2 2Gb sticks of top end OCZ sitting at home gathering dust. I cannot return them because it is past the 14 day limit. Although to OCZ’s customer service I send thanks! They are willing to send me out new (in exchange) ones if the future laptop I do buy needs differently spec’d RAM.
Stay away from Toshiba as a laptop manufacturer, they do not hold up their end of the purchase agreement and feel perfectly okay doing so.
Jake Z
Toshiba Qosmio G45-AV680 user reviews (Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Vista Ultimate)
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Quick Specifications
- Release date07/28/07
- Processor Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 / 2.0 GHz ( Dual-Core )
- Memory 2.0 GB / 4.0 GB (max)
- Hard Drive 160.0 GB - Serial ATA-150
- Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
- Display Type 17.0 in TFT active matrix
- Max Resolution 1920 x 1200 ( WUXGA )
- Graphics Processor PCI Express x16 - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT TurboCache
- Optical Drive HD DVD-R - Integrated
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