5. Qosmio G25 As Conventional Windows Machine

In taking this laptop through its paces, we were nearly immediately reminded about how unhandy touchpads are for serious Windows work. A USB mouse made short work of this problem; the Qosmio immediately recognized and enabled a Microsoft Optical mouse as soon as it was plugged in. When it came to launching and working with typical productivity applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so forth, the unit started to illustrate why the cognomen "desktop replacement" is indeed appropriate. Even when playing music in the background, the Qosmio G25 opened applications, handled multiple documents, and supported a regimen of "surf a little, write a little" so familiar to those who tickle keyboards for a living.

Toshiba documents how end-users can add more memory to this computer. A quick lookup of add-in SODIMM prices showed that for between $75 and $130, users can add either 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM to the 1 GB already installed (the unit maxes out at 2 GB).

Working on the desktop, the keyboard offers a nice feel. The full-size keys have a relatively soft but still positive touch. The ergonomics aren't bad, either - there's a large (4.5" / 11.5 cm) platform in front of the keys that provides pretty good support for both hands while typing. But the keys do maintain a traditional horizontal run, which isn't as hand friendly as more ergonomic layouts like those on the Kinesis, SafeType, or even the Microsoft Natural keyboards. Those who spend a lot of time in front of a Qosmio twiddling keys might therefore consider sacrificing another of its 4 USB slots for an external keyboard, just as we found it worthwhile to plug in a real mouse after only a short time fooling with the touchpad.

With both wireless and wired networking interfaces built in, the Qosmio certainly offers a great mix of stationary and mobile networking capabilities. Because network cables don't always naturally snake their ways into entertainment centers, either, this feature is actually as much a boon for the Qosmio as Media Center PC as it is for its conventional Windows use. The unit also offers plenty of ports for other inputs and attachments as well (Firewire, RJ-11 modem, PC Card, and a multi-function memory card slot).

The left side of the Toshiba Qosmio G25 includes (from left to right, top to bottom): volume control, multi-memory card socket, ExpressCard (next generation PCMCIA standard) slot, PC Card slot and IEEE-1394 (Firewire) connection.

Features on the right side of the Toshiba Qosmio G25 include: modem port, 2 USB ports, wireless antenna on-off switch, microphone jack and SP/DIF-Headphone jack.

On the back of the Toshiba Qosmio G25 are: security lock, coax antenna in, DC in, S-video out, component video out, RGB monitor out, 2 USB ports, wired Ethernet jack, S-video in and composite video in.

A surprisingly large collection of Toshiba and third party software is included with the unit. Toshiba's offerings total 20, and include numerous setup and diagnostic tools, as well as a CD/DVD drive acoustic silencer, RAID software, power saver software, and more. Third-party offerings are likewise numerous and generous, including Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 and Works 8.0, InterVideo's WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum, Sonic Solutions RecordNow Basic, Quicken New User Edition 2005, plus a bunch of trial or short-term subscriptions for Napster, Norton AntiVirus 2005, Easy Firewall, AOL, AT&T Worldnet, and more. Most of what's needed to get a home or small office system up and running is already on this machine when it's unpacked. We did have to download and install CPU Wizard 2005 to get any temperature readings out of the Qosmio G25 (the program reported CPU temps of 65?C / 149?F, pretty typical for a passively-cooled Pentium M in our observation).