Toshiba Gets Serious With New Gaming Laptop

Written by Adam Gosling

Thursday, 28 June 2007

A new Toshiba Satellite with a starting price tag of US$1999.99 is the flagship of Toshiba's extreme gaming portfolio.The X205 Series is DirectX 10 compatible and relies on old AMD compatriot NVIDIA for the GeForce 8700M GT graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than AMD's own ATI gear. With up to 512MB of graphics memory and an HD DVD-ROM drive for the ultimate gaming and high-definition experience, the new Satellite X205 is the company's first notebook to feature the striking new Flare Carmine high-gloss lid and a built-in Webcam. The NVIDIA's GeForce 8700M GT GPU is the highest performance DirectX 10 GPU in NVIDIA's stable and should make this new Satellite a serious alternative to better known gaming notebooks. The notebooks are powered by a Centrino Core 2 Duo T7000 Processor and Intel 965 chipset. Draft N compatiblity is in the form of the new Intel 4965AGN WiFi. The high-end connectivity options continue with the addition of an HDMI output for connecting to an HDTV, a S/P DIF output port for connecting to a 5.1 surround sound stereo and Bluetooth v.2.0+EDR for gaming controls and other accessories. A large-format 17-inch widescreen TruBrite display promises great display of the definition digital content accessible via the laptop's HD DVD-ROM drive. Or, alternatively, the device has an external (USB) HDTV tuner for playing live HIgh Def digital TV from an antenna or set-top box. The Satellite X205 notebook has four built-in Harman Kardon stereo speakers with subwoofer and for home cinema audio it incorporates Dolby technology. "Whether it's control, sound or graphics, gamers want to be fully immersed in the elaborate worlds their games create," said Jeff Barney, vice president of marketing, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. "The Satellite X205 incorporates the power of NVIDIA's GeForce 8700M GT GPU to provide gamers with an advanced feature-set and tools to submerge themselves within a complete gaming experience." Toshiba has put in 1024MB of Turbo Memory a new flash-based storage technology from Intel that leverages Vista's ability ot boot from silicon memory. This reduces the time it takes the Satellite X205 to boot, launch games and multimedia applications as well as return from hibernation mode. Also included is a full-size Windows Vista compliant keyboard with 10-key pad for easy navigation through today's most challenging games. As you would expect the X205 has plenty of room inside, but you might be pleasantly surprised that hard Disk space expands to as high as 320GB thanks to a pair of 160GB disk drives under the hood. An alternatively lower spec offering incorporates only 240GB of dual hard disk drive space. Just take a look at the two specification options. Satellite X205-S9349 Unique Specifications (US$1,999.99) Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit version) Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7100 1.80GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB with 64-bit 2048MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory Maximum capacity 4096MB Intel Turbo Memory - 1024MB 240GB (5400 RPM) using two Serial-ATA hard disk drives Primary: 120GB + Secondary: 120GB HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive supporting 12 formats 17-inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display 1440x900 native resolution (WXGA+) NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT with 256MB DDR3 discrete graphics memory 4 Built-in Harman Kardon stereo speakers with subwoofer Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n) Bluetooth version 2.0 plus Enhanced Data Rate Embedded Webcam and microphone Fingerprint reader Satellite X205-S9359 Unique Specifications (US$2,499.99) Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit version) Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 2.00GHz, 4MB L2, 800MHz FSB with 64-bit 2048MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM memory Maximum capacity 4096MB Intel Turbo Memory - 1024MB 320GB (5400 RPM) using two Serial-ATA hard disk drives Primary: 160GB + Secondary: 160GB HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive supporting 12 formats Toshiba USB HDTV Tuner (External) 17-inch diagonal widescreen TruBrite display 1680x1050 native resolution (WSXGA+) NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT with 512MB DDR3 discrete graphics memory 4 Built-in Harman Kardon stereo speakers with subwoofer Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n) Bluetooth version 2.0 plus Enhanced Data Rate Embedded Webcam and microphone Fingerprint reader Complete product specifications for both of the Satellite X205 models are available at www.toshibadirect.com. 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