Toshiba Qosmio X500 Gaming Notebook

The X500 debuted in 2009 and over the years it went through the typical cycle of refreshes to keep up with the latest trends. The version we’ll be reviewing today is their 2011 refreshed model with newer components. Presented as a gaming notebook, the Qosmio will take on the likes of the Asus G74SX, but can it do enough damage to warrant a recommend over the veteran? Let’s find out.

Reviewed on video: Toshiba Qosmio X500

The quality of plastic feels flimsy and weak

There’s no shortage of connectivity. We have four USB 2.0 ports in total (one ESATA combo) with sleep and charge function. Sadly, Toshiba hasn’t included a USB 3.0 port. Other ports include HDMI, FireWire, Blu-ray writer, Express card slot, headphone and microphone jack and a VGA port. There is a physical Wi-Fi toggle switch in the front, alongwith the memory card reader. One thing we noticed was that the fit and finish of the chassis wasn’t very good. There were plenty of gaps around the optical drive and the ports didn’t fit well in the cut-outs of the frame. Overall, the build and finish wasn’t up to the mark, certainly not something you’d expect from a high-end gaming notebook.

The X500 comes with a full-sized backlit keyboard along with the numpad.

Blacklighting is even across the keys

The speakers are from Harman Kardon and are placed top facing. The size of the driver is quite large for a notebook speaker and can be clearly seen through the grill. A bunch of touch sensitive media keys are placed on the left, which is really annoying since you accidently hit them every time you start to type. Finally, the fingerprint reader is placed between the two buttons of the trackpad. Toshiba have used a similar ventilation design as Asus, and have placed both the exhaust vents at the back. This ensures the area you normally use doesn’t get hot while gaming. 

Features
The X500 is powered by the latest Intel Core i7-2630QM, which runs at a stock speed of 2.0GHz, which can Turbo up to 2.9GHz. We also have 4GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive and Nvidia GTX 460M graphics card. The X500 is pretty well-equipped for a gaming notebook other than the fact that the graphics card is slightly old.

The screen is very bright and vivid

Toshiba also bundles a host of their own software programs like Media Controller, which lets you stream content to another device. Bulletin Board groups a bunch of apps, mini-games together in one application. The hard drive also has vibration sensor, so if you move the notebook too fast the disk head is moved to a place where it cannot damage the disk.