10. Summary And Conclusions

The most interesting thing about these machines comes from the subjective experience of 1080 interlaced (1080i) output from the Toshiba HD-DVD player. Among other things, we used an HD-DVD version of Swordfish for viewing material and compared it to the output from a conventional DVD. Although first-generation HD-DVD units don't support 1080p - according to sources on AVS Forum and elsewhere - the actual playback material is recorded in 1080p format, and the player simply plays back every other line of that material in interlaced 1080i output. Nevertheless, the picture quality on our highest resolution display (a Sony Bravia LKC40U100M 40" using HDMI input) was noticeably sharper and clearer when playing back the HD-DVD material than when playing back conventional DVD material, even when we used progressive scan at the lower resolution.

That said, we also observed that more memory makes a significant difference at higher resolutions. This comes thanks to the Nvidia GeForce 7600 Go graphics chipset, which "borrows" additional memory when displaying higher-resolution material for video buffer space. Although the Toshiba could indeed display the HD-DVD material on its screen, we weren't able to get a steady picture on that unit at high-res playback settings, either on the built-in display or our external high-def TV sets. The HP, of course, couldn't play back the HD-DVD material at 1080i (the monitor lacks sufficient resolution) on its own display, but it did well with scaled down material there. The HP also did a stellar job of sending 1080i signals for display on our Sony HDTV through its HDMI output, without any obvious jumps or stutters in playback. We believe this is indeed one case where a second gigabyte of RAM actually makes a difference in your viewing experience. Thus, if you plan to buy either of these units for viewing HD-DVDs, you'll want to make sure it's equipped with 2 GB of RAM for best results.

As you might expect, the HP takes a slight edge in performance across the board, thanks to its more powerful Core 2 Duo T7200 processor (the Qosmio comes with a Core Duo T2500 instead) with its larger L2 cache. The extra RAM probably didn't hurt either, though it also probably explains the somewhat longer battery life that the Toshiba delivers compared to the HP (though that difference is seldom more than 10%, except on the DVD Playback Benchmark). The only exceptions to this general trend occurred in the SYSmark 2004 SE figures for the Office Productivity Scenario in the Communications and Document Creation benchmarks, and in the Internet Content Creation Scenario for the 3D content creation benchmark, but those differences were also 10% or less. As you might also predict, the HP comes out ahead on the DHCAT results as well, with a difference of 20% (125 versus 103) between the two.

On the other hand, our display measurements tilt the balance strongly in the Qosmio's favor. This vindicates our previous reviews, in which our measurements didn't exactly match our perception that the Qosmio was the best looking display by far. Here, both our perceptions and our measurements finally square up, and the Qosmio takes a clear and commanding edge over the HP dv9296xx when it comes to maximum brightness and contrast. The spatial uniformity of brightness plot for the HP isn't half-bad, but the Qosmio's is higher overall. The same holds true for the display contrast distribution, where the HP shows a remarkable degree of consistency across the whole display, but where display levels are consistently under what we measured with the Qosmio.

Things get even more interesting when you factor in pricing. MSRP for the HP is $2,589.99 as configured (but rebates of up to $250 are available as we write this story); MSRP is likewise $2,499.99 for the Qosmio. That means if you square up the memory on the Qosmio and the Bluetooth on the HP, prices are pretty evenly matched (but rebates give the HP an edge). Thus, we must rate both units as tied for top honors, unless you plan to watch your HD-DVDs on the unit itself. In that case, the Qosmio is the clear favorite - but please, configure it with at least 2 GB of RAM. It might also be a good idea to examine the default setup, and think about disabling unneeded background tasks while playing HD-DVDs (we use a scrubbed configuration for our testing, but have seen reports of improved playback when background tasks were stopped while viewing). Finally, if you take the Toshiba track, be prepared to wrestle with an ungainly brute of a notebook when you must pick it up and schlep it around. The HP is much more sleek and manageable, and gets high marks for its power and good looks.

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