My personal universe. Qosmio, derived from the words “the cosmos” and “mine”, is the name behind which all Toshiba multimedia notebook PCs are branded. Not only does Qosmio have a “deeper meaning”, it is also an acronym that represents the main characteristics of all Toshiba portable multimedia systems offered by them:

-Qosmio Core Technologies: QosmioEngine and QosmioPlayer
-Outstanding TV and entertainment on the TruBrite LCD
-Superlative audio
-Mobile computing platform
-Intuitive User Interface
-Optical playback/recording and HDD recording capabilities

As can be expected, this ambitious philosophy employs many of the latest technologies available to notebooks, and so it naturally cannot skip over the possibility of high definition. When combining Toshiba and high-definition, we get the result of HD-DVD.

The Toshiba Qosmio G30 is a desktop replacement notebook PC that we will be analyzing in the course of this article. Although HD-DVD has been on the market for a little while, the Qosmio G30 is the first notebook PC that we are reviewing that is available for retail. The Toshiba Qosmio G30 is also called "a portable lounge". The notebook’s 17 inch widescreen display and weight that exceeds 4kg can attest to that name.

The Toshiba Qosmio is a portable computer that is rich with features. The 17 inch widescreen display characterizes much of the system. It weights in at 4.8kg (10.58lb) and has dimensions of 406 x 295 x 44.7 (50.5 including feet) mm. Obviously, the Toshiba Qosmio G30 is a notebook PC that is meant to be a desktop replacement. Its TrueBrite screen, HD-DVD drive, and its Harman/Kardon integrated stereo speakers all make it a very ideal multimedia PC.

Because of the notebook’s primary function as a multimedia PC, Toshiba has adopted a solution that is by now pretty common among all notebook manufacturers. Under the display, you will be able to find a number of push-buttons that are able to control the main functions of pretty much any multimedia player as long as it is a simple MP3 or DVD player. There is, moreover, even a push-button that is solely dedicated for activating external video.

The use of Harman/Kardon speakers for their portable multimedia products is nothing new to Toshiba. In this specific model of the Qosmio G30, our stereo system is paired with an impressive 1-bit digital amplifier. It also supports Toshiba Bass Enhanced Sound System technology along with being Dolby Home Theater certified. The small wheel in the photograph above is used to control the volume level of the speakers.

Because the Toshiba Qosmio was designed in order to accommodate a 17 inch widescreen display and thus was given generous dimensions, the keyboard has more than enough space to be comfortably fit into the laptop. The layout of the keyboard is a bit unusual, with the “Windows” key positioned in the upright corner and the “Ins” and “Del” keys right next to the space bar. The touchpad’s level of sensitivity seemed a bit lacking to us and its constrained dimensions left us wishing that it was a bit larger

The front accommodates LEDs characterized by easily comprehensible symbols. Underneath the LEDs, we find small switches which are to be slid in order to enable/disable Bluetooth and WiFi.

The laptop has four USB 2.0 ports, two PC Card slots, slots for SD, MS, and XD cards, one i.Link port, minijack connectors, microphone and S/PDIF, an S-Video connector, and finally an HDMI connector.

The Qosmio G30 comes with a number of accessories meant for a multimedia environment. It includes a Windows Media-Center remote control, an infrared receiver that uses the USB interface, a small antenna for the integrated TV tuner, and finally an HDMI cable.

The display that Toshiba has chosen for the Qosmio G30 is a widescreen 17 inch panel that comes equipped with TruBrite technology. The native resolution of the display is 1920x1200 pixels.

In order to give you, our readers, a better idea of the amount of glare that the panel generates in presence of external light sources, we took some photos of the monitor while the laptop was turned at an angle of 40 degrees. As can be seen in the second photo, glare gets greatly reduced when the display is set at maximum brightness.

Native Resolution- 1920x1200

1600x1200

1440x900

1280x1024

The relative tests show the panel’s quality of scaling. Going down to the resolution of 1600x1200, it is still possible to obtain convincing image quality. Decidedly, the worse image quality is offered by the resolution of 1280x1024. That resolution is still usable and doesn’t compromise too much image quality, however, we advise not to use such low resolutions.

The Toshiba Qosmio G30 is a system based on the Intel Centrino Duo platform. This particular notebook comes with an Intel Core Duo T2500 processor. Based on the Yonah core, this CPU has two processing cores along with an operating frequency of 2.0GHz. The Front Side Bus operates at a frequency of 667MHz, while the second level cache, shared between the two cores, is 2MB.

The adopted chipset for this platform is the Intel 945PM Express which supports Intel High Definition Audio along with Matrix Storage Technology. It is also a good idea to remember that the chipset supports 4GB of DDR2 667 memory running in dual-channel mode.

In regards to the system memory, the Qosmio G30 is equipped with 2GB of RAM installed using two SoDIMM 1GB modules running in dual-channel mode. The memory type is PC2-4300(DDR2 533).

The video subsystem is handled by a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GS that comes with 256MB of dedicated video memory. The Go 7600 GS is derived from the desktop GeForce 7600 GT and therefore it comes with 12 rendering pipelines and a bus width of 128-bits. The core runs at 450MHz and the memory at 900MHz. The video card also supports Pure Video Technology for H.264 decoding.

For storage, the notebook uses two Toshiba hard drives that run at 5400rpm and hold 100GB each. The hard drives support Intel Matrix Technology, and so you can set the drives to run in RAID 0 or RAID 1. The notebook doesn’t come configured in RAID, allowing the customer the ability to choose which mode they are most comfortable with.

Since the notebook is based on the Centrino platform, it naturally comes with a wireless Intel Pro Wireless WM3945, which works with 802.11a/b/g and is in a position to support the emerging technologies of WPA and WPA2.

The installed optical unit on the notebook is a multi-standard drive that supports CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-R(DL), DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R(DL), DVD+RW, DVD-RAM and HD-DVD-ROM.

- 16x: CD-R;
- 10x: HS CD-RW, US CD-RW;
- 4x: CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW;
- 3x: DVD-RAM;
- 2.4x: DVD+R (Double Layer);
- 2x: DVD-R (Double Layer).

The battery that comes with the Toshiba Qosmio G30 is a Li-ion battery pack that can produce up to 10.8 volts and a current of 7050mAh.

In order to test the performance of the Toshiba Qosmio G30, we have compared it against two ASUS notebooks based on Intel and AMD architectures. The Intel solution we are benchmarking against is the Asus F3JA, which uses a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor. The AMD solution is the Asus A7TC, which is based on the Turion 64 X2 TL-60 CPU. For the video subsystem, the Asus A7TC uses an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, the same video card that the Toshiba Qosmio G30 utilizes.

The multimedia application tests show the Turion 64 X2 TL-60 notebook performing similar to the Toshiba Qosmio G30.

In terms of pure calculation, the Qosmio G30 turns out to be faster than the Turion 64 X2 Tl-60 notebook. The newer Core 2 Duo T2700 solution, in spite of having the same clock, is able to pull ahead of all other competing solutions. The success of the T2700 is most likely a result of having an improved architecture from Intel.

Time in minutes

The G30 performed reasonably in the Business Winstone 2004 productivity tests. In Mobile Mark 2005, thanks to its 7050mAh battery, the Qosmio G30 was able to stay alive the longest with a DVD playing.

The 3D benchmarks show that the Qosmio G30 has a general margin of advantage over the ASUS A7TC, both of which are based on the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 chip. Toshiba, however, is rewarded for choosing a higher operating frequency for their video card. The above tests reveal that the Asus F3JA, which is equipped with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 video chip, ends up having altogether inferior performance compared to the NVIDIA solutions.

The Toshiba Qosmio G30 places itself in the same category of Sony’s Blu-Ray notebook the VAIO AR11S. Indeed, the Toshiba Qosmio G30 is a main competitor to Sony’s Blu-Ray notebook, and is also the notebook’s nemesis in terms of High Definition format. As we have discussed already in this article, the main focus of this system is not on portability, but instead on being an all-in-one multimedia solution. This focus places the Toshiba G30 in a position to being able to find a place in many atmospheres and not just being cooped up in a living room.

In terms of construction, the notebook impressed us with its tough and high quality plastic assembly. The keyboard region was also firmly built and had minimal bending when we placed pressure on it. The LCD panel was also high quality and had excellent color saturation and a good level of brightness and contrast.

From the aesthetics point of view, we honestly cannot say that the design made us scream “innovation” or “what a beauty.” Toshiba did add a number of unique and cool looking design features, and although the result wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t specifically a winner.

Our performance analyses have shown the Qosmio G30 as an excellent platform. For a system with a 17 inch screen, the battery life strangely, moreover impressively, came in to be beyond two hours.

The point that hurts this system the most, ironically, is what should actually have been its strongest point. We are ofcourse talking about HD-DVD. We conducted a number of tests using a number of popular HD-DVD titles, in particular “The Bourne Supremacy” and “Training Day.” During playback of the movies, as the pictures above are evidence to, usage of both cores shot up significantly. In more complex scenes, we experienced very noticeable drops in frame rates that could be plainly seen. During these complex scenes, image quality was still perfect, however, because of this FPS was compromised.

The main cause of this problem was that the preinstalled ForceWare drivers on the Qosmio G30 were out of date, and so naturally we tried to install the most recent drivers. Although these drivers were recognized and installed correctly, we had trouble playing HD-DVD movies using the program “WinDVD HD.” Currently, there are no updates for WinDVD HD, and at the moment it is the only official HD playback program that comes with Toshiba systems.

The Toshiba Qosmio G30 is available for around $2,999. We find it hard to actually suggest buying the Qosmio G30. The notebook is a strong performer and is packed with features, however, to us the main reason we would buy this laptop is for High Definition content, and from our tests, we believe that the performance the laptop offers for HD content just does not justify the price.