Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV5 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Fusion X2 Finish in Charcoal) (Personal Computers)
I absolutely love this laptop! I have owned it for about a month now, and never looked back or questioned my decision.
Let me start off by saying that I am an IT professional, so I not only buy equipment for myself and my family, I also influence purchasing decisions of hundreds at work, and work with equipment of every brand.
I researched laptops for about 2 months before I bought this item, but I had made my mind up after the first month - I was just shopping around for different versions after that. This is an absolutely GREAT value for the money. This laptop retails for 1299.00, and every other store I checked locally (Dallas, TX area), as well as several different online stores, were all more expensive. Amazon was (when I purchased this) about 150 dollars cheaper than average, and 50 dollars cheaper than the next cheapest.
On to the features... I am an avid gamer, and primarly settled on this laptop because of the nVidia 3D Vision. I also use this laptop as a work computer, for when I am not going to be in the office, or simply don't want to be tied to my desk that day. This laptop not only has the discrete graphics, but also has a screen that supports 3D Vision. It also comes with a pair of nVidia shutter glasses. I couldn't really determine ahead of time, but this laptop has the IR transmitter built-in. This is both good and bad. It's good that you don't have to have a USB cable attached to a little pyramid just to use the 3D, but there is a down-side: Those external IR emitters have a little wheel on them to adjust the 3d effect. From what I've read, some laptops with intergrated 3d have a key combination to do the same 3d adjustments, but there is nothing in the Toshiba documentation about it. This adjustment is important, because (if you haven't played games in true 3D yet) you will notice that not all games render 3d correctly. There is an information popup whenever you start a 3d game, telling you the nVidia rating for the game, as well as any issues that particular game has. Some of them will render objects either too close or too far away. If you have an external emitter, this is no big deal - just move the wheel, and you are good to go. If you have a Toshiba laptop, you are out of luck. Now, this isn't a big deal, as it doesn't happen that often (doesn't happen much at all with brand-new games), and even if you are playing an older game that is a little off, it doesn't ruin the effect, it's just not a totally perfect effect.
I called Toshiba about this. The agents are in India. I'm not a big fan of outsourcing, but I know that it's not the agent's fault that companies want to oursource, and it's also not their fault that they get crappy training. Anyway, she didn't have any idea what I was talking about - I'm not even 100% sure she knew that this laptop supports 3d, and was quick to tell me that they only support the hardware - not games themselves. I assured her that I only wanted the shortcut keys - not help with games. She gave me a link to a URL, that was just a list of all the shortcuts, and there is nothing there for 3d adjustments. So, I'm still in limbo to see if this adjustment is even possible on this laptop, and if so, how it is done.
Now, to the other equipment... The hard drive is massive. This model has a BluRay ROM (not burner) and a DVD Burner. There are other versions that include a BD burner, but they are much more expensive. The laptop is really speedy. Game performance was really horrible when I first got it. I updated the video drivers to the latest version, and everything started working perfectly. I can play any game I have tried with all the settings totally maxed out, in 3d, except sometimes I have to turn Anti-Alising down to 2x or 4x to get good framerates.
The model of video card included in this laptop (when purchased) was one of the few mobile video cards that supported 3D BluRay. It also comes with (along with all the usual bloatware) Corel WinDVD BD. Don't let the name fool you - this app supports 3D BluRay. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, though - mostly due to the fact that Netflix doesn't offer 3D BluRays yet. The wireless is Wireless-N, and is really fast. The keyboard has a keypad, and that's a good touch. The keys are little chicklet-style keys, but the placement and size of them are normal, so it doesn't really take any getting used to. The screen is glossy, and can produce a ton of glare, so that's the second negative thing. Battery life is horrible, but you should be expecting that if you are looking to get this much power in such a little package. On the same note, the laptop is really heavy - you could easily kill someone with it. One thing you might not expect, is that this laptop doesn't really get very hot on the bottom, so you can actually use it in your laptop - even gaming. It does a great job of routing the heat out with the fan.
Overall, the only 2 negative items I have are the lack of 3d effect adjustment, and the glare. Neither of these even come close to taking away from the 5 star rating I am giving this product.
If you are a gamer, like I, you will absolutely LOVE this laptop..
Let me start off by saying that I am an IT professional, so I not only buy equipment for myself and my family, I also influence purchasing decisions of hundreds at work, and work with equipment of every brand.
I researched laptops for about 2 months before I bought this item, but I had made my mind up after the first month - I was just shopping around for different versions after that. This is an absolutely GREAT value for the money. This laptop retails for 1299.00, and every other store I checked locally (Dallas, TX area), as well as several different online stores, were all more expensive. Amazon was (when I purchased this) about 150 dollars cheaper than average, and 50 dollars cheaper than the next cheapest.
On to the features... I am an avid gamer, and primarly settled on this laptop because of the nVidia 3D Vision. I also use this laptop as a work computer, for when I am not going to be in the office, or simply don't want to be tied to my desk that day. This laptop not only has the discrete graphics, but also has a screen that supports 3D Vision. It also comes with a pair of nVidia shutter glasses. I couldn't really determine ahead of time, but this laptop has the IR transmitter built-in. This is both good and bad. It's good that you don't have to have a USB cable attached to a little pyramid just to use the 3D, but there is a down-side: Those external IR emitters have a little wheel on them to adjust the 3d effect. From what I've read, some laptops with intergrated 3d have a key combination to do the same 3d adjustments, but there is nothing in the Toshiba documentation about it. This adjustment is important, because (if you haven't played games in true 3D yet) you will notice that not all games render 3d correctly. There is an information popup whenever you start a 3d game, telling you the nVidia rating for the game, as well as any issues that particular game has. Some of them will render objects either too close or too far away. If you have an external emitter, this is no big deal - just move the wheel, and you are good to go. If you have a Toshiba laptop, you are out of luck. Now, this isn't a big deal, as it doesn't happen that often (doesn't happen much at all with brand-new games), and even if you are playing an older game that is a little off, it doesn't ruin the effect, it's just not a totally perfect effect.
I called Toshiba about this. The agents are in India. I'm not a big fan of outsourcing, but I know that it's not the agent's fault that companies want to oursource, and it's also not their fault that they get crappy training. Anyway, she didn't have any idea what I was talking about - I'm not even 100% sure she knew that this laptop supports 3d, and was quick to tell me that they only support the hardware - not games themselves. I assured her that I only wanted the shortcut keys - not help with games. She gave me a link to a URL, that was just a list of all the shortcuts, and there is nothing there for 3d adjustments. So, I'm still in limbo to see if this adjustment is even possible on this laptop, and if so, how it is done.
Now, to the other equipment... The hard drive is massive. This model has a BluRay ROM (not burner) and a DVD Burner. There are other versions that include a BD burner, but they are much more expensive. The laptop is really speedy. Game performance was really horrible when I first got it. I updated the video drivers to the latest version, and everything started working perfectly. I can play any game I have tried with all the settings totally maxed out, in 3d, except sometimes I have to turn Anti-Alising down to 2x or 4x to get good framerates.
The model of video card included in this laptop (when purchased) was one of the few mobile video cards that supported 3D BluRay. It also comes with (along with all the usual bloatware) Corel WinDVD BD. Don't let the name fool you - this app supports 3D BluRay. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, though - mostly due to the fact that Netflix doesn't offer 3D BluRays yet. The wireless is Wireless-N, and is really fast. The keyboard has a keypad, and that's a good touch. The keys are little chicklet-style keys, but the placement and size of them are normal, so it doesn't really take any getting used to. The screen is glossy, and can produce a ton of glare, so that's the second negative thing. Battery life is horrible, but you should be expecting that if you are looking to get this much power in such a little package. On the same note, the laptop is really heavy - you could easily kill someone with it. One thing you might not expect, is that this laptop doesn't really get very hot on the bottom, so you can actually use it in your laptop - even gaming. It does a great job of routing the heat out with the fan.
Overall, the only 2 negative items I have are the lack of 3d effect adjustment, and the glare. Neither of these even come close to taking away from the 5 star rating I am giving this product.
If you are a gamer, like I, you will absolutely LOVE this laptop..
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