Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q725

Build and Design
The Toshiba X305 gaming notebook is one of the larger models we've seen in the office, with the rear of the notebook peaking at 2.5” thick including the feet. Its wedge shape amplifies the height at the rear, making the notebook look twice as thick going from front to back. The X305 is designed to handle a quad-core processor and dual graphics cards which need extra room to get proper cooling ... not to mention fitting the components themselves. To put its size into context, the dual-screen Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds is only 2.1” thick.Build quality is average, and perhaps should have been better in certain areas. The back cover of the display shows a significant amount of flex due to a large empty space between the lid and screen panel.
Display

The 17” glossy display faired very well throughout my testing; which happened to include quite a bit of gaming. The display was bright enough to be clearly visible in a bright office setting while still showing dark shadow detail in games. Colors were vivid and saturated; something you really want on a gaming display. I didn’t notice much lag with the LCD refreshing, but that can be very subjective depending on who is looking at it.
Keyboard and TouchpadThe X305 uses a full-size keyboard with a number pad to take advantage of all of the real estate on its large 17” gaming notebook frame. The keyboard was comfortable to type on with little pressure required to activate each key. Key action is smooth with a mild metallic rattle when fully pressed, ranking average in terms of noise. Some keys towards the bottom left corner would make a louder popping sound, as mentioned in the build section, due to limited support in that area.
Performance

System performance was well above average, given the Intel Q9000 quad core processor and NVIDIA 9800M GTX graphics card. The system handled every mainstream game we threw at it, acting more like a desktop than a notebook. The dual hard drives helped map load times considerably, putting all of the system files on the SSD for quick access and the program information on the 7200RPM storage disk. Day-to-day applications didn’t even make the system break a sweat and mundane tasks like startup and shutdown were some of the quickest we have seen.
Battery
With the display brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Vista set to the "Balanced" power profile the Toshiba X305 worked for 1 hour and 59 minutes before going into system standby mode at 4% remaining.
Heat and Noise
Compared to the standard non-gaming rig the X305 has fans that run louder and more often. While gaming the fans run at a constant low speed and ramp up at various times as the load on the CPU and GPU increases. During normal activity the noise level is pretty mundane and easily blends into the background if you were in a classroom setting.
Conclusion
The Toshiba Qosmio X305 gaming notebook proved to be very capable in our testing but its steep price does raise a few eyebrows now that notebooks like the Gateway P-7811 FX are on the market for a fraction of the price. The overall size of the X305 also comes into play when you realize it is almost twice as thick as other gaming notebooks (even thicker than the dual-screen Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds). If you can get past the price and size it does offer the best sound system I have heard on a notebook and dual graphics card support on certain configurations. Build quality could be improved in some areas but it held up well in our testing ... if not for a few plastic squeaks and pops. If you have the backpack or shoulders to carry around this gaming rig then you should check out the Qosmio X305-Q725.