Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650

When it comes to multimedia, Toshiba does not mess around. The Qosmio G35-AV650 combines an integrated TV tuner, a DVR, a gorgeous high-resolution screen, and the first-ever HD-DVD drive into one slick package. The question is whether this system is worth $600 more than the standard Qosmio.

 

Like its more affordable cousin, the silver-and-black exterior  of the Qosmio G35-AV650 is designed to fit in your entertainment center with the rest of your A/V gear. Likewise, the interior is all black with a smooth, cool finish. Just keep in mind that slick, black surfaces like this one are fingerprint magnets.
 

Due in part to the unit’s size (16 x 11.6 x 1.8 inches), the keyboard sits at a very comfortable distance from the front edge of the laptop’s base and eases some of the strain and cramping that you might get with other machines. Above the keys rest several multimedia controls: play/pause, stop, record, and track skipping. Surrounding them are buttons for power, TV, screen brightness, instant TV out for viewing images on a television, and a Dolby button for tailoring sound to your particular taste. An easily-accessible, large, silver volume wheel is housed on the right side.

 

A bundled full-sized remote has quick-launch buttons for swiftly accessing folders for TV, music, pictures, and videos and for recording television. You can bypass Windows and go directly to your media with the touch of a button, thanks to the QosmioPlayer instant-on feature.

 

The bright, spacious 17-inch Ultimate TruBrite widescreen display sports a resolution of 1900 x 1200 pixels (compared to the G35-AV600’s 1440 x 900 pixels) and handles 1080p, a high-resolution format for HDTV. That combined with the front-loading HD-DVD drive made for an exceptional movie experience.

 

An HDMI port, which carries high-def audio and video, lets you output movies to an HDTV, but at a slightly lower-quality 1080i setting. Also, for three grand, we think Toshiba should have included this calbe in the box. Another caveat is that you can’t output HD-DVD movies in instant-on mode; you need to be running InterVideo’s WinDVD HD application in Windows.

 

In our tests, an HD-DVD version disc of The Bourne Supremacy looked stellar on the AV-650’s screen, even from wide viewing angles, as well as when outputted to an HDTV. By the time you read this, 30 HD-DVD movies will be available, and more are promised by the end of the summer.
 

Unfortunately, while you can watch HD-DVD discs, this drive is read-only. That means you can’t burn to high-capacity discs as you can with the pricier Sony VAIO AR Series, which sports a Blu-ray drive. With that system, you can back up to 50GB of data or burn high-definition movies you’ve captured with an HD camcorder, albeit at a very slow 1X speed.

 

Twin Harmon Kardon speakers sit to the upper left and right of the keyboard. They pump out surprisingly rich sound, courtesy of a 1-bit digital amplifier and Dolby Home Theatre audio technology. If you want 5.1-channel audio, use the S/PDIF optical audio connector to connect the Qosmio to a set of surround sound speakers. 
 

This Qosmio G35-AV650 boasts several other upgrades versus the AV600, including dual 100GB hard drives, 40 more gigabytes than the AV600. More important, by stepping up from Nividia GeForce Go 7300 graphics to the 7600, the G35-AV650 produced a 3DMark 2003 score of 9,304, nearly three times  the AV600’s score. On the autodetect setting of F.E.A.R. with 1024 x 768-pixel resolution, the AV650 maintained a smooth 43 frames per second, which dipped to 22 fps with the settings maxed out. This is good enough performance for all but the most dedicated fragger.
 

This Qosmio’s bump up in clock speed from 1.83 GHz to 2GHz resulted in a MobileMark 2005 score of 231, ten points higher than the AV600.  Battery life was surprisingly strong for this size of machine, lasting 3 hours and 5 minutes with Wi-Fi off.

 

A dual-mode touchpad switches between the standard Cursor Mode and Button Mode, which lets consumers map frequently-used applications to six Virtual Buttons; this is extremely handy for those with a handful of favorite programs. Among the included software are Intervideo WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum and Sonic Solutions Record Now! Basic.
 

The Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 sets a new standard in multimedia notebooks with its inclusion of an HD-DVD drive. When you consider that Toshiba’s standalone HD-DVD player costs $499, and that the remaining $100 gap between the G35-AV600 and AV650 gets you a higher-res 1080p screen, much faster graphics, and a bigger hard drive, the $2,999 total is much easier to swallow.