The rumors have been confirmed, Toshiba has announced
it will be introducing the Toshiba Qosmio X305, a high-end
gaming laptop sporting some unique features that will
turn a few heads, if not cause a revolution. Do we even
have revolutions anymore?

Now the Qosmio brand was always a top-rated line within
Toshiba - very popular with critics and users alike. If
you can look beyond all the Toshiba & Third Party software
they load these machines up with at the factory, Toshiba
makes some half decent laptops.

However, in recent years, Qosmio which means "my personal
universe" seems to have been slipping into a Black Hole
with just one model listed on Toshiba's main product
page. Not only is Toshiba releasing the Qosmio X305 but
also the 15.4-inch screen Qosmio F50 and the 18.4-inch
Qosmio G50 which will be the world's first to carry the
Cell-based SpursEngine, re-christened by Toshiba as the
Quad Core HD processor. The 18.4-inch diagonal widescreen
with TruBrite® high-definition display will sport a
true 16:9 aspect ratio - serious filmmakers take note.

Will these laptops and their new specs introduce a
whole new level to gaming laptops? The jury is still
out but Toshiba is introducing a few new things with
these laptops, especially with the X305. This monster of a
machine will sport a whopping 1 Gig of graphics processing
power via the new dual-GPU card NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2.

(Side Note: some experts argue this is the wrong way
to go - instead of a multi-GPU, they argue for keeping
the single GPU since it can have advantages for faster
applications and better power consumption with less heat
release. This 1GB GPU is the same as putting two 512MB
cards together thru SLI technology, isn't it?)

The Qosmio X305 will also come equipped with a 3GHz dual-core
Intel processor and dual 200GB, 7200rpm hard drives, as well as
4 Gigs of cutting-edge DDR3 RAM. This machine will also sport
a 17-inch display, HDMI-out and S/PDIF audio - running HD
quality films from a dedicated processor which should rival
Blu-ray. In addition, it will carry four Harmon Kardon
speakers with a built-in sub-woofer.

What will be interesting to watch is the whole "Blu-ray vs
HD-DVD" debate that seemed to have been settled. Beta
anyone? However, if Toshiba can turn/upgrade existing DVDs
into a higher quality by this new transcoding/upscaling
technology, the fall-out could be worth watching.

Another thing to watch is the "gesture-based controls with
your hands" which is enabled by the chip found in PS3s. Look
what Wii did to gaming? And the GPS Chipset adds another
twist for a laptop, doesn't it?

Compare "Apples to Apples"

Impressive as those Qosmio X305's specs are, the high end
gaming laptop market is becoming a little crowded. You
have to compare "apples to apples" when buying a gaming
rig. It will have to be compared with such high end gaming
laptops as the Rock's Xtreme SL8 which sports mind numbing
graphics powered by twin NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX 512MB
(DX10) running SLi and Quad core Intel processors with
up to 4GB DDR2 RAM (up to 800MHz). Which also comes
equipped with Hi-res 17" WUXGA X-Glass (1920x1200) and
the option of a Blu-ray or HD DVD Optical Drive.

And you can't talk about gaming laptops without mentioning
Alienware. One of their newest machines Area-51 m17x has
similar specs by offering two NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX,
(dual GPU SLI configuration) which gives you the 1GB of
dedicated memory and DirectX 10 graphics. The Area-51 m17x
is powered by Intel Core 2 Extreme @2.8GHz and with up to
4GB of 667MHz DDR2 Memory.

Remember The Clevo!


Plus, you can't really compare gaming laptops without
mentioning Clevo which is the well-respected if not
well-known OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
of some pretty good high-end gaming laptops. Brand-name
laptop vendors like the ones mentioned above...
Alienware, Rock, Hypersonic, Voodoo... all use Clevo
components.

This Taiwanese company has just released some new machines -
the 15-inch M860TU and 17-inch M570TU the which offer WUXGA
(1920 x 1200) resolutions. The M570TU also sports the "Montevina"
Centrino 2 mobile platform. This model also has a 2 megapixel
webcam, Blu-ray drive, TV Tuner, Fingerprint reader, e-SATA
and HDMI ports. Sound familiar?

All of these models and laptop manufacturers will no doubt
give Toshiba some competition. Keep in mind, the competition
is stiff when you consider Dell has Alienware, HP has Voodoo...
so you really have some marketing power as well as gaming
power behind these high-end gaming laptops.

The Qosmio X305 will probably bring all these nice features
up a notch and offer a superior gaming laptop. The release
date for this gaming monster is said to be around July 14
of this year. No word on the price yet but this one could
be worth waiting for.

Since gaming laptops are usually overpriced for what you get;
will Toshiba introduce these new laptops at a reasonable price
so that the ordinary person, not necessarily die-hard gamers,
can also enjoy all this new mobile technology.

Now that would be truly revolutionary.



...

The author, a former art teacher, has a keen interest
in gaming laptops. This interest has nothing to do
with gaming, but was sparked by the need for a mobile
machine with high quality graphics processing and
manipulation. Gaming laptops fit that bill perfectly.
For more on gaming laptos try here:
Best Gaming Notebooks
or try here: The Notebook Guide
Copyright © 2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be
freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.