Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV660

CPU 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200

RAM 2GB DDR2 667

Hard Drive 240GB SATA (120GBx2 RAID-0)

Graphics Card(s) NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (256MB)

Optical Drive HD DVD

Screen Size and Resolution 17" / 1920x1200

Dimensions 16.0" W x 11.6" D x 1.79" H

Weight 10.1 lbs

Approximate Price $3,499.99

Here we have another HD DVD capable laptop, this time brought to you by the good people over at Toshiba. With a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, 240GB of RAID-0 goodness, and a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, Toshiba provides a nice supporting cast of components to complement the HD DVD player. They also throw in a biometric fingerprint scanner for good measure.

If you look really closely, you will see that the Qosmio G35-AV660's specs are very close to the Acer Aspire 9810 reviewed earlier, albeit with some slight differences. That being said, Toshiba is going to have a hard act to follow considering that the Qosmio costs roughly $900 more than the comparable Acer.

Toshiba offers 240GB of hard drive space (RAID-0) in the Qosmio, which differentiates it slightly, but RAID-0 just offers more space, without any data protection benefit, rendering it near-useless as a selling point or justification for a higher price. One area that some users may find it worth shelling out the extra dough for the Toshiba is that it offers full HD resolution, instead of being limited to 720p like the Acer is. Unfortunately, the Qosmio's screen is only 17', so some users may be willing to tradeoff 1080p on a 17' screen for 720p on a 20' screen.

I'm not going to completely rehash why buying a HD DVD laptop may not be a good idea at this junction in time, except to say it may not really be a viable reason to spend money on a brand new technology that might not be around in a few years. Like the Acer before it, I'm going to put a better video card on my short wish list of things to fix about the Qosmio G35-AV660.

Is the Qosmio worth the asking price? It depends on your needs, I suppose. If you really need a high definition portable video player with 1920x1200 resolution, this may be the system for you. If you don't see the immediate need for something like this right now, you may consider the laptop slightly not worth it.