Review: Toshiba Qosmio X500 – Perfectly Average

The Qosmio X500 is one BIG laptop! It’s huge, it’s monstrous, it’s colossal but it just doesn’t pack any punch. This brute without any bite also happens to a bit of an ugly duckling.

The red and black colour scheme is reminiscent of a crazy gaming laptop styling and the in your face with inconspicuous speakers to help that cause. However, that is where the gaming “feel”� comes to an end.

The keyboard, as far as I can tell, is directly off the Portege and Satellite laptops. This just comes across as lazy manufacturing. The screen, even though it is massive, is ridiculously dim. It lacks the depth of colour and brightness of competitors. To round it off it appears that Toshiba has filled the Qosmio with nothing but air, as it just does not feel solid.

The dull, massive 18.4″ screen wobbles with slightest bump to the table the laptop rests on and it has a power supply box that rivals the actual laptop in weight and size. So to be quite honest, this is not a laptop, it is a desktop replacement. It lacks mobility and that for me is or was the whole point.

The Qosmio fails at mobility and good-looks but it is somewhat powerful. Somewhat is the key word, it is fast, no doubt, but for its size I expected more.

Even with a selection of i7 second generation processors, [which are now obsolete] DDR3 ram, a NVIDIA GTX 460M graphics card, a 500gb 7200rpm HDD and the massive screen it does not feel like a performer. Add a Solid State HDD and more ram then the Qosmio could possibly perform with the best. Not to forget that the Qosmio is a quite a bit cheaper than its competition.

Yet without that flash or rather the cabaret that other gaming laptops possess the Qosmio just feels rather sensible.

If you want a gaming laptop that is powerful, flashy, mobile and well, awesome, dig a little deeper into your pocket and get an Alienware M17x or M19x or an Asus G51. If you are ok with paying less and getting less than look no further than the Qosmio X500.

Qosmio X500 Rating: 5/10

Josh “Swift” Sack – Gaming Editor || About Me: Started Writing for TechHuman in July 1946 after an honorable discharge from the Guatemalan National Guard. Call of Duty Guatemalan Rampage, to be launched in 2026, will be based on Josh’s various military campaigns in the Guard.