6. Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600, Continued

The back of the Toshiba Qosmio, from left to right: RF input jack, power port, ventilation slits, RJ-45 Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports (one above, one below), more ventilation slits, VGA out, HDMI video out, S-Video out.

The right side of the Qosmio is bare: you can access the volume knob from the side, and you'll find composite video in, S-Video in, and a modem port, with a security lock slot at the far lower right.

The Toshiba's left side is pretty crowded. From left to right, you'll find two USB 2.0 ports, a 5-in-1 memory card reader above, ExpressCard slot middle, PC Card slot below, Firewire (iLINK) port, plus microphone, SPDIF port and headphone ports.

Watching TV and DVDs on the Qosmio is kicked up a noticeable notch when viewing HD-DVD material on the unit. This display produces the purest blacks of any multimedia notebook we've reviewed, yet also does a good job with bright colors and bright scenes. Though the screen has a glossy bright surface and shows reflections from local light sources, they're not objectionable. Moving images show no noticeable artifacts. As a personal DVD player, the Qosmio remains our favorite, and it kicks butt with HD-DVD content.

Listening to music or TV/DVD soundtracks, you can't help but notice that this notebook can crank out sufficient volume to bother your ears. Whereas we can easily sit right in front of most other units we've tested indefinitely with the speakers cranked to top volume (25), we had to turn the Qosmio down to 16 or 17 for our CDs and music files. It might be that the vented port design of the speakers permits more sound to emanate from the notebook case, but we suspect that Toshiba also endowed this unit with a more powerful amplifier as well. It was the only unit from which the trademarked THX sound blast sounded anything like a home theater. Unlike all the other notebooks we've auditioned, the Qosmio offers true depth of stereo sound that deserves an old-fashioned but apt designation as "high fidelity audio."

The Qosmio includes a black, boxy remote control with a keypad layout just like the Microsoft MCE remote, but in a boxy format. The Qosmio's IR receiver features a USB type b connector on the box so that the cable can be completely disconnected at both ends. As with most other Media Center notebooks we've reviewed, the remote worked properly right after the receiver was plugged into a USB port, and the mandatory pair of IR blasters is included with the unit as well.

Interesting special features on the Qosmio include a fingerprint scanner below the keyboard to the right. Nearby, a large silver volume knob provides ready control over the Qosmio's sound output. The Qosmio's special-function buttons and indicator lights are all clearly labeled, and easy to use. The VCR-like controls on the top edge of the keyboard deck are especially handy and familiar. While Toshiba now supports HDMI output from this unit, it does not include an HDMI cable with the unit (careful shopping around will produce one for about $35, a must-have for those who want to drive external displays at 1080i). All this said, the Toshiba is remarkably heavy and thick, a brute of a machine that requires real wrestling to manipulate.

In the sections that follow next, we report on benchmark results and brightness levels for the displays of both the HP and Toshiba units. We begin each section by explaining our tests and methods, present relevant charts, then discuss the results and draw some conclusions.