Even if Toshiba was never thought of as the best laptop manufacturer in the world, it managed to produce some decent models (like the ones from the Satellite series) which sold quite a huge number of machines worldwide. However, I think it’s fair to say that Toshiba has struck gold when it launched the Qosmio series of laptops. This series is composed by some of the best gaming laptops.

The X505-Q850 is probably the best Toshiba gaming laptop simply because it offers performance without having to pay $4000 for the unit, like you do for an Alienware laptop. The starting price for this Toshiba Qosmio laptop is $1499 but if you want a unit similar to the one configured here, you have to pay $1899 to get one. The unit delivers speed and multitasking capabilities with the help of the 1.6 GHz Intel Core i7 720 QM processor and 6 GB of DDR3 RAM. We have seen lots of laptop models with processors and RAM far below the ones we are dealing with here and which can work and run applications at an incredible speed so you can only imagine what this Toshiba gaming laptop can do. The total storage capacity of the hard drive is 320 GB and the graphics card is the nVidia GeForce GTS 250M worth 1 GB of video memory. It may not be the best GPU on the market but it can definitely handle some serious gaming.

The 18 inch display is a beauty and it is also one of the first signs that this is a desktop replacement. The other signs of this obvious fact are the dimensions (11.7 x 11.5 x 1.8 inches) and the weight (11.8 pounds). All in all, this laptop may be huge and bulky, but it offers performance for a very decent price. The unit comes with the preinstalled version of the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. When it comes to the selection of ports and features, the Toshiba Qosmio is above what others call “the category average”. The unit comes with 4 USB ports (one of them is actually an USB and eSATA combo port), an SD card reader, a mini FireWire port, an Express Card slot, a HDMI port, a VGA out, an Ethernet port and the regular headphones out and microphone in jacks. You will love the HDMI port especially since it comes with a Blu-ray optical drive which allows you to watch full HD movies straight from your laptop.



Since Toshiba is the name and gaming is the… game, this beauty can handle some top of the line games at acceptable frame rates. It can handle Unreal Tournament III at a 1900 x 1050 pixels resolution and with 60 FPS which is not bad at all. You must never expect great performance levels from a 18 inch desktop replacement which is also a gaming unit. The Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 has managed to stay on for 1 hour and 55 minutes on that severe video test that drains the battery. Even if it sound terrible, 2 hours on a gaming laptop is not bad at all.