Toshiba Qosmio G45 Penryn Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The Toshiba Qosmio G45 is a full entertainment system packed into one slightly over-sized 17” widescreen notebook. It combines a 1080P high-resolution display, HD-DVD Player, surround sound system, ATI Cable-Card HDTV Tuner, and gaming machine into one device that can be carried to different locations inside your backpack.

The Penryn version of the Qosmio G45 under review is only offered in one configuration, with the part number of G45-AV690. It has the following specifications:

• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.50GHz, 6MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
• Chipset: Mobile Intel P965 Express Chipset
• Wireless: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n), Bluetooth version 2.0 plus Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)
• Memory: 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 4GB)
• Hard Drive: 320GB Total Space (160GB x 2)
• Optical Drive: HD DVD-R/DVD SuperMulti (+/- double layer) drive (in one optical drive), supporting 13 formats
• Screen: 17.0" diagonal widescreen TrueLife TFT LCD display at 1920x1200 (WUXGA, Glossy)
• Graphics: 512MB nVidia GeForce Go 8600m GT
• Webcam: 2.0 megapixel webcam
• Slots: ExpressCard slot (ExpressCard/34 and Express Card/54) and PC-Card Slot, 5-in-1 media card reader
• Ports: VGA, HDMI, and S-Video out, Mic, 2 Headphone, line out, 2 IR out, IEEE-1394 (FireWire), Five USB 2.0 ports
• Dimensions (WxDxH Front/H Rear): 17.25" x 11.75" x 1.759"
• Weight: 10.6 Advertised, 9lbs 15oz actual w/ battery
• 120W (15V x 8A) 100-240V AC adapter
• 9-cell (70.5Ah) Lithium Ion battery
• 1-Year Standard Limited Warranty

(view large image)

Build and Design

Compared to other high-end notebooks the Qosmio is an extremely flashy computer. The display cover is glossy black with the Qosmio brand name embossed over it; proudly announcing its name to those around you. Opening the laptop reveals its glossy white palm rest and keyboard surround, nicely contrasting the top cover, with chrome dials and touch-sensitive selection buttons to control various functions. Bright blue LEDs illuminate all soft media buttons, as well as the volume dial and power switch when the unit is powered up. The LED’s can be disabled if the user so wishes, by pressing a soft-key above the keyboard.

(view large image)

(view large image)

Underneath the glossy plastic shell, bright blue LEDs, and chrome knobs is an alloy frame that supports the entire laptop. Many laptops these days have a metal alloy frame and it usually results in a very durable case having little flex. However, even though the Qosmio has this alloy frame, it seems the frame isn't thick enough as there is plentiful flex to be found. The palm rest, the keyboard, and bezel around the keyboard all bow in with moderate pressure. The flexing becomes most apparent when the laptop is not on a flat surface. With one corner hanging off of a desk surface, weight from your wrist and arm while typing will bend the corner down a quarter inch or more. For such a high price tag you would expect better build quality when other Toshiba models costing a third less feel more durable.

Screen

Being a multimedia oriented machine, this laptop revolves around a high quality display. Coming in at 17”, with a WUXGA resolution, and a glossy finish it is something to behold. Wide horizontal viewing angles let you share movies with friends next to you, but limited vertical angles had the screen dim sharply as you moved to steeper vantage points. Colors were vibrant, whites were pure, and backlighting was even across the screen. Backlight bleed could be noticed on dark screens, with some showing through on the bottom edge of the screen, as well as the top.

(view large image)	(view large image)
(view large image)	(view large image)

Speakers

The 4.1 speaker setup on the laptop is one of the best setups I have heard to date. Bass was clear and defined, midrange and highs were both pretty accurate. I was able to get the volume quite loud before any distortion was heard, although with particularly loud bass you will get the plastic case to rattle.

(view large image)

The main speakers are located right above the keyboard, with the two smaller speakers located on either side of the LCD. The subwoofer is on the bottom side of the laptop near the left side.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Qosimo felt large enough for comfortable typing, but could have had a dedicated number pad if the designers had relocated the volume dial and media controls. With its current layout there is plenty of extra whitespace around the entire typing surface to keep things uncluttered. The typing surface felt very solid and supported, and flexed much less than the rest of the body. Keystrokes required minimal pressure to recognize a key press, keeping my wrists stress free while writing. Typing was also quiet compared to some keyboards, so clacking away in a quiet room is not a concern.

(view large image)

The touchpad surface is large (3”x1.8&rdquo allowing plenty of control in games and other mouse intensive activities. The two mouse control buttons provide a positive click when pressed, although I do prefer touchpad buttons with more travel. The fingerprint reader on this notebook was located between the buttons, staying out of the way during normal use.

(view large image)

Performance and Benchmarks

The Toshiba G45 still only sells with one model configuration, so benchmarks represented here should be the same if you bought this model yourself. The Intel Penryn T9300 performed very well, showing a 30% jump in performance in wPrime, as well as impressive gains in both PCMark05 and 3dMark06 compared to the previous T7300.

WPrime 32M comparison results

WPrime is a benchmark similar to Super Pi in that it forces the processor to do intense mathematical calculations, but the difference is this application is multi-threaded and represents dual core processors better.

Notebook	Time
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, Windows Vista)	31.108s
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Windows Vista)	42.085s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7400@ 2.16GHz, Windows XP)	41.40s
HP dv6000z (AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.00GHz, Windows Vista)	38.913s
Sager 9260 (Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E6700@ 2.66GHz, Windows XP )	33.718s
Dell Precision M70 (Intel Pentium-M 780 @ 2.26GHz, Windows XP)	78.992s

PCMark05 comparison results:

PCMark05 represents the overall system performance of a notebook.

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	5,865 PCMarks
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	5,261 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	5,377 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,925 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,377 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results:

3DMark06 represents the overall graphics performance of a notebook.

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	3,775 3DMarks
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	2,934 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	2,930 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks

Heat and Noise

Heat and noise with the Qosmio G45 were never overwhelming, even when the laptop was running benchmarks. With its massive size, it had a large surface to warm up gracefully, like a huge passive heatsink. Fan noise stayed within reasonable levels, usually being drowned out by other office noises. During normal uses (web browsing) the laptop would warm up to a nice level, leaving most touchable surfaces 6-10 degrees warmer than room temperature. Shown below are IR temperature readouts of the upper and lower surface of the notebook as it was cooling down from a benchmark that ran 2-3 minutes earlier.

(view large image)

(view large image)

Battery

Mobile life on the laptop comes in short at 2 hours and 40 minutes, on the balanced profile and the screen brightness one notch down from top. If you want to watch a HD-DVD movie on a plane, your battery drops even lower to 60 minutes. With a machine of this size, if you are planning on doing much work away from an AC outlet I would suggest getting a spare battery.

Additional Features

The Qosmio G45 includes both an external ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner, and a HD-DVD Burner. The burner, being the most expensive item, probably drove its price up quite a bit. Both of these included items worked without issue when tested. The HD DVD burner was tested using the included Toshiba software, and burning 14GB of data to a 15GB disc took 55 minutes and 30 seconds. Not quite the fastest process compared to CD’s or DVD’s, but our single included HD-DVD burned successfully without making a coaster.

(view large image)

(view large image)

The ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner included with this updated G45 is a much nicer tuner than the previous freebie. This model supports the CableCARD standard for tuning not only over the air HD stations, but your full digital cable lineup with premium channels.

External Connections and Features

Let's take a visual tour around the ports of the Qosmio G45.

(view large image)

Front: Optical Drive, Indicator light panel, IR reciever

(view large image)

Back:AC Power, IR output, S-Video, 2 USB, VGA, HDMI, LAN

(view large image)

Left: Kensington Lock Slot, 2 USB, SD-Card Reader, Wireless ON/OFF, Expresscard/54, PC-Card, FireWire

(view large image)

Right: 2 Headphone, Microphone, Line-out, Modem

Software

Included software has been updated since the last G45; with a much improved dropdown function menu. In the past it was not uncommon to have a 5-10 second delay trying to activate it, and now it’s a split second before the bar drops down. That difference by itself was enough to change my thoughts on making it the first program to uninstall. Along with this dropdown menu, users will find plenty of other applications installed out of the box, many of which you will want to remove before normal operation.

Conclusion

Going at the same price point of the previous G45 notebook, this version offers a heck of a value. You get the new Penryn processor that increases performance substantially, the ATI HDTV Tuner with CableCARD support, and none of the problems I had with the previous review unit. Even with these enhancements the G45 is still at a price point where you would be shopping alongside much faster gaming notebooks (which may in fact be less pricey). As such it’s hard to recommend this notebook over Toshiba’s own X205, which offers much higher gaming performance for $1,000 less.

Pros

• Great HD screen with only a bit of backlight bleed
• Speakers that make other notebooks run for their mommas’

Cons

• Gaming performance lackluster compared to others in the same price bracket

 

Definately overpriced since HD-DVD will be defunct in a year or so. I think most have come to this realization.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6832088-1.html?tag=bubbl_3

 

Yeah, HD-DVD is practically dead format.

But great review and very nice laptop. o_o
Kinda low 3D06, but most likely custom driver/oc will fix that.

 

Nice review. I agree hd-dvd is done.

 

Can you check the processor specs again. The T7300 runs at 2.5Ghz.

 

Excellent review and whoa..6MB cache is amazing. I also really like bright blue LEDs illuminate on media buttons..very cool
Toshiba should give us the 8700GT instead.

 

Penryn has new numbering system.

Nice review by the way. Blu-ray FTW!

 

Thanks for the nice review. Design wise it is not my cup of tea, but nice set of speakers. I like the included tuner and HD DVD burner as well.

 

The processors is great, but overall I find the value questionable at best. Investing that much in HD-DVD right now doesn't make sense. Maybe with an 8800M this would still be a viable deal, but I'd just as soon say take out HD-DVD and have a much lower price or switch it to Blu-Ray and probably still upgrade to 8700M graphics.

 

Nice review but how desperate does Toshiba have to be to advertise upcoming hd-dvd releases on its high-end laptops?

Also how much ram does this laptop have? In the specs it says 2GB but the sticker on the laptop says 3072MB.

 

Bit of a mixup with the model number change. That sticker was ripped off quickly after pictures

 

wow dats a bomb!!!good review..

 

Well, I just ordered the 690.... I get a big corporate discount so the price was quite a bit better. I held off on the 680 due to the lower end hardware, but now with the new 690's upgrades, it seemed better to me.

I returned 2 different Dell systems in the interim since the sound was horribly tinny and unacceptable.

Sound is the #1 criteria. The wife says no wires, so the built in speakers are all I am allowed.

The Dell Inspiron 8600 that I am replacing actually had good sound. Not tinny and you could hear bass. That was all I wanted. Equal or better......

I'll post my findings when it arrives.

Scott

 

Nice Review,thx!!!

 

I don't really see the value in these notebooks. $3000 is a lot of cash. I think there are better values. I reviewed the first generation of this notebook on NBR and I felt pretty bad giving a failing grade to Toshiba's flagship. It looks like they refined it quite a bit since then, but it is at least $1000 over priced.

Recently, Future Shop in Canada ran an Acer 5920 with similar specs (T5450 socketed, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, HD DVD, 15" LCD) for $799 CDN. The Acer was a cheaper design with an inferior screen, put $2200 is a big difference.

Strange to see an ATI tuner coupled with a 8600GT too.

 

i'd be really pissed off if i saw my new laptop has an ad for an upcoming dvd on my palmrest, even if it is removable.

 

Yeah, I agree. It's unacceptable to have to advertising like this included with a high end notebook. It would definitly lower my first impression of this brand.

 

Why it costs over $3000? I don't see anything special in this laptop for such a price. Sorry. Great machine though...should cost about $2000.

 

I have bought automobiles that cost less than $3000. (Yeah I'm getting old). Honestly I'm hard-pressed to think of a way to get a laptop computer to cost that much. If you really must play games a $1200 desktop will blow this laptop away.

Still though, it looks pretty cool and I'd kinda like to own one.

 

I've owned the AV650 since release and my general word of warning would be to steer clear. Driver support for the Qosmio line has been very poor. I still can't get a HD-DVD to play on this thing under Vista. And yes, mine cost $3,000 too.

 

I loved this review, I found out everything I need to know about this laptop on this review. In fact I bought the G45-AV690 the next day after I read this review back in July 4th, 2008, and it arrived ten days later...

 

What a nice laptop ruined by a really, REALLY crappy sticker.
I presume you will be removing this, yes?

 

I saw this laptop at Best Buy and it was ugly. Easily the ugliest laptop I've seen. Outside of that, the resolution was a no-no for me.

 

Yes! The sticker was removed the day it arrived...