Toshiba Satellite X205 and Friends to Have HD-DVD and Dolby Surround

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Toshiba today announced the new 17&quot; screen Satellite X205 / X200 notebook that will have the NVidia 8700m graphics card, an HD-DVD optical drive, Dolby Surround Theater sound, 1080i resolution output and will incorporate the new Intel Santa Rosa platform.

Toshiba Satellite X205 (view large image)

The Satellite X205 / X200 will be a gaming notebook and have the following basic specs:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0 GHz, FSB 800MHz, 4MB cache L2)
• Chipset: Intel Mobile PM965 Express
• Memory: 4GB DDR2-667 + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory
• Screen: 17.1 WSXGA+ (1680x1050) glossy screen
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT with 256MB
• HD: SATA 120GB, 5400RPM
• Optical Drive: HD-DVD
• Networking: modem, 1000Base-T/100Base-TX/10Base-T Ethernet LAN, Wireless 802.11 a,b,g
• Ports: 6 USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (4 pin) / FireWire, ExpressCard/54 slot, S-Video, headphone S/PDIF, HDMI, LAN, Modem
• Slots: ExpressCard
• Weight: 8.6lbs
• OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

Satellite X205 keyboard (view large image)

Satellite X205 speaker (view large image)

There's no availability date set for the Satellite X205, but it is expected to be available by the end of this month or July.

Toshiba also announced that the new Satellite U305 and Satellite A215 will be released and have Dolby Sound Room technology. The Satellite U305 will be a 13.3&quot; portable notebook while the Satellite A215 will be the same as the existing 15.4&quot; Satellite A205 mainstream notebook but include an AMD processor instead of Intel. In total, Toshiba announced today the following notebooks will have Dolby Sound Room incorporated:

• Satellite U305
• Satellite A215
• Satellite A205
• Satellite P205
• Satellite M205

And the following notebooks will have both HD-DVD and Dolby Surround Theater integrated:

• Satellite P205
• Satellite X205
• Qosmio F45

 

HDDVD is looking more and more like the wrong format, esspecially with the BlockBuster thing.

 

I agree, but Toshiba has to do something to at least try and push their technology, they're late to the game incorporating it though. Blu-Ray was being incorporated months ago.

 

Hopefully this dolby thing make laptop speakers sound less like headphones at max volume.

And the X205 is a really nice looking laptop, if a bit bulky looking. Great specs too, can't wait to see the benchmark scores of the 8700GT!

As for HD-DVD vs. Bluray...I think that HD DVD is better, but neither is going to get anywhere. Maybe after all TV's go digital and the prices of the players falls below $200 (cheapest hd dvd is like $300, way more for the bluray player).

 

4GB of memory on the basic speced machine? Something tells me this is going to be expensive. I wonder what the M205 is going to be.

Also, when is the A200 going ot get Santa Rosa?

 

Where's the NB8E-SE(rumored 8800M GS)?

 

Andrew, there is a typo on post 1. You mean to say U305 instead of U205.

 

I think Toshiba needs to seriously fix the bulkiness on their laptops. Or at least change the styling so they dont look so huge. You look at all the other laptops out there - even GATEWAY has thinner 17's (I actually think they make the thinnest 17s other than the macbook pros, so that may be a wrong comparison to make)

 

Somebody has an eye for detail, nice catch, and fixed. thanks!

 

I've always thought the HP 17" were pretty nice.

 

The Satellites are getting more stylish. Four speakers, huh? Is Toshiba trying to Qosmio their Satellites?

 

That looks like a very nice system. I'll probably start recommending it as a 17" if it has a good price.

 

Toshiba notebooks have been a little below par. Most of their new range has stunnning power, and an extensive set of features, but the exterior still needs to be much improved, as does their build quality. I agree with the others, in that the notebook looks a bit chunky and fat.

 

Yeah. It has some great components but seems rather unbalanced. Nice addition of SR, HD-DVD and the 8700 (now you could play direct x 10 games ) but the Hard Drive and chassis are not so hot.

 

Wow, that's an insanely small space bar.

 

I dont know if you go and break down the pros/cons of hddvd and bluray I much prefer hddvd.

1.) its cheaper to produce and buy - see hddvds at walmart for 20$ the same price as regular ones while the bluray are all 30$ the quality is the same.

2.) they are more durable, they have a thick layer to protect them like dvds do so they can be cured of scratches, bluray is so data dense that a light scratch can damage it. Thats because the outside layer on it is very thin as to not distort the laser.

the only big +1 bluray has is the storage amount, now if you take care of you disks and dont have kids or anything you get more storage but currently no moives are taking up that full amount thus all movies can be on hddvd or bluray equally.

Thats all from the movie perspective, however what I am far more instrested in is the PC aspect:

meaning burning them to backup data I have 4 cases full of burned dvds and it would be a life saver to have a difrent format that holds more data.

This is when hddvd really takes a clear lead in my opinion.

Why? the same two factors as above.

A blank HDDVD is like 30% cheaper than blu-ray when you divide its cost by its storage amount. So its much cheaper on your walllet, then when you backup somthing the reason your doing it is for safe keeping, you would definitly want it on a safer and more durable format like hddvd that can uphold some abuse rather than an easy to damage blu-ray disk.

You dont even have to scratch the disks or anything, they wear over time so uventully you may have to re-burn a blu-ray disk just so you dont lose the data.


So my take on it is:

If your in it for the movies: you want a dual player because its too early to tell what format will win and also they are not much more expensive than a single format type. You gain the versitialy of being able to buy wich ever format is cheaper if there is a sale and have good peice of mind.

But for the computer world I am much on the side of HD-DVD i think its a great evolution to the ever so popular DVD with alot more space but all the same qualities and given some time HDDVDS will probably be really cheap like DVD's and they are already much cheaper than Blu-ray.

 

YOu are probably right, but alot of times it just comes down to what you can get. If you can't find any titles of something, you're kinda forced to get the other. And from that list, yeah the HDDVD does look better.

 

It also totally comes down to who the movie head (like Disney) choose. We wont make much of the difference..

 

Its going to be nasty reguardless because you have Sonly behind Blu-ray and Microsoft behind HDDVD... both are big companies.

They even have both of there respective game consoles running on those formats. In reality unlike previous format wars where one beats the other in the end I am 90% sure that in this case both of them will co-exsist just like dvd+r and dvd-r do now. Because there is too much already on one or the other for the format to die out.

PC's and Mircosoft need HDDVD, but PS3 games need to stay on market, and the manufactures that paid the large cost to change over to the equipment to produce bluray wont want to die out.

Thats one reason they are more expensive aswell, any dvd maker can pretty easily upgrade into hddvd the process is the same but with some new equipment, but due to the sensitivity of bluray a whole new manufacturing process is required to make them, so who new facilities were needed, and thus the cost comes down to the consumer in the price of the products.

 

I think if MS really wanted to push the HDDVD they could just not allow vista to read it some how lol

I think with VHS and betamax, there were giants backing it up too. But yeah, it's very possible that they will coexists, seeing as how there are already players that will read both format.

 

Yeah its the same tech, a blue laser with a more focused wave length than the old traditional red. The diffrence is merly the disks. The bluray is much more data dense and because of that its harder to read so it requires less plastic between the magnetic track where the data is stored and the laser and thus why they are also harder to make and more prone to failure/damage.

So dual players are easy to make.

With bluray being so presise tho and hard to make, when it comes to home burners... Im afraid that it will be prone to failure alot. Know how many "coasters" I have burned with dvds? Quite a few.... And yes while it sucks to waist a good dvd and turn into a beverage holder or a frisbee you only lost a dollar or so. but imagine the pain and anger if you burn a 50$ coaster wich is the going rate for a single high capacity blank bluray disk???

Im guessing you better burn it on a slow speed and hope you have a relitivily dust free house (wich I dont) and hope somthing doesnt interupt a hour long burn session.

 

yeah that is quite a TINY spacebar there lol imagine that a spacebar with little space

blu-ray is the more advanced technology here, with the highest capacity. But due to the lack of adequate protection like your DVD and HD-DVD has, it's questionable just how long the discs can last with usage. since the tecnology is new, no one can say how things will be in several years. We all thought that CDs last forever back in its infancy, we know better now. Same will go for these two formats. I think HD-DVD should win cuz it is more practical, blu-ray still needs to perfect the manufacturing process to ensure they will last through the years, but the more sensible and practical format doesn't always end up with the crown.

 

I think these are pictures of the Japanese unit (The WXW). They look like the same pictures I saw last week.

- Trip

 

I was so sure that the next generation of formats would be smaller. That's what all the movies were telling us. LIke a 1 inch disc that held more info than a hardrive.

 

Wow... The X205 has 4GBs of RAM??? Must be expensive then... So does that mean you need to get a 64-bit Vista OS in order to use all 4GBs of RAM? Or can you still use the 4GBs of RAM with a 86-bit OS? Also, in the first post I only see "Wireless 802.11 a,b,g". So the new 802.11n is not available in the X205???

 

To have all 4gb usualbe by windows and have it viewable you do need a x64 OS. It doesnt HAVE to be vista, there are x64 versions of older windows.

On an x86 OS tho you will be limited to about 3.2-3.5gb of ram depending on your mobo.


I wouldnt worry about the "n" just yet its not a big deal, its still in draft stages so nowhere you go is going to have a "n" type access point, and if you wanted to set one up at home you need new hardware and there really is no advantage to be had by it right now.

 

Alright. The specs look promising to me... Hopefully the price will be around $2500USD when it comes out.

 

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-x205-s9349-toshiba-satellite-x205-s9349/q/loc/101/204765147.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-x205-s9359-toshiba-satellite-x205-s9359/q/loc/101/204765148.html

There you go.

- Trip

 

Sweet... It even has 2 hard drives together for 320GBs? Sounds like it is going to be very thick. The 8700M GT has 512 discrete memory too.

 

That second one is nice, probably will out preform alot of high end notebooks and the price seems very reasonable.

 

http://www.notebook.de/toshiba-satellite-x200-serie-g-650/
2199euros but comes with a 8800M which notebook.de double confirm with me but still i m not that sure.