ZENS Wireless Single Charger review

I've been looking at Qi wireless chargers here lately, and every time the subject comes up someone wants to know more about the ZENS charger. We've all heard good things, and often enough that it was evident I needed to get one and have a look. I've used plenty of them, had some varying results, but I had never heard anything bad about the ZENS unit. At ShopAndroid.com, it has a solid five star rating after 26 reviews.

I think I understand why, after using one for a few days.

There's no secret, it's a Qi compatible coil housed in a casing that rests quietly on your desk or nightstand. As long as the Qi standard is followed faithfully (looking at you, first-run Nexus 4 and your weird issues in this area), setting a Qi compatible device on top of the coil should charge it. The Zens charger does just that, but someone put a little thought behind the rest of the unit.

The three popular choices for Qi charging your Nexus 7 or Droid DNA or Nexus 4 each have what's a pretty big flaw to contend with. The cheapest to use option, the Nokia wireless charger (my current choice), doesn't seem to work for a lot of phones out there unless you have it in the tiny sweet spot. Blame it on the phone or tablet, or blame it on the charger, but it's that way. If you have that lucky combo, it works great — but there's a good chance you don't. 

The little puck from LG is easy to use, works pretty well for just about everyone, but it has a pair of ultra-brite LED lamps that can get really annoying if you want to charge your phone or tablet overnight in a dark room. You can tape over them, or tear the unit open and disconnect them, or you can just not buy it because it's designed with a silly bright ass blinking light. I swear to God that thing is evil.

The official charging orb for the Nexus 4 works really well, is chock full of HOLO, but everyone knows that getting a phone to stay on it through a charging cycle is a crap shoot. Nobody knows why, and we've heard theories from humidity to the friction coefficient of the material at certain temperatures and conditions, but the fact is a lot of glass-backed nexus 4 phones won't stay on it. The Nexus 7, with it's soft-touch plastic coating holds pretty well, but who know if your next device will?

None of those problems exist in the Zens charger. It's flat, it does have a light (but it's off by default), glows yellow when it senses a Qi compatible device, and glows green while actively charging. And it does all of this at a normal brightness that won't burn your eyes out in your sleep. The unit also senses when a device is fully charged and shuts off the coil to save energy and shut that light off. It's also coated with a nice grippy finish, that combined with it's big charging sweet spot makes it easy to place your device. 

It's not 100-percent perfect. It uses a barrel plug and jack for the input instead of a more standard 5v USB input, and that big sweet spot is slightly off center, which is something you have to get used to. But that's it. There's nothing else about this one that I can complain about, and after trying at least a half-dozen of them I'm looking hard for things to complain about. 

ZENS Wireless Single Charger Buy Now $48.95

The unit as-is will charge your Nexus 4, Nexus 7 or Droid DNA right out of the box. There's also a kit with a replacment battery cover for both the Samsung Galaxy S4, and a stand-alone battery cover for the Galaxy S3 by the same manufacturer.

If you're going to invest in a Qi charger, it looks like the ZENS unit is the one to buy.

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Samsung Unpacked event set for September 4 - Galaxy Note 3 inbound

It's been rumored, and now we now for sure. Samsung is hosting an Unpacked event in Berlin, Germany on September 4 just before the annual IFA show begins in the city. The star of the show? Looking at this we're certainly looking at a new Galaxy Note device, possibly the Note 3. On the same day too, Samsung will be hosting an experience in New York City, for those not able to get to Berlin.

Samsung has used a pre-IFA event for the past two years to unveil the first two Galaxy Note smartphones, so the third generation model has long been expected for the same treatment. Whatever happens though, we'll be on the ground in Berlin next month to bring you the whole thing.

Check out the invite after the break.

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Microsoft bumps up GPU speed on Xbox One

The graphics on the upcoming Xbox One console are about to get even better. Ars Technica notes that Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten revealed this week that Microsoft has bumped up the speed on Xbox One developer kits to 853MHz, a boost from the 800MHz that developer kits’ GPUs previously ran at. Ars says that while a 7% increase in GPU speed “isn’t massive in the scheme of things,” it’s still a good sign that Microsoft “feels comfortable boosting clock speed like this” because it may mean that “things are going well with the console’s semi-custom AMD processor.” Microsoft plans to release the Xbox One sometime in November, just in time for the holidays.

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Samsung’s tablet army helps Android march past iOS as top tablet platform

All this has happened before and all this will happen again. The latest numbers from Canalys show that Android has now overtaken iOS as the world’s most-used tablet operating system, thanks largely to a flood of smaller devices put on the market by Samsung. Overall Canalys found that Samsung’s tablet shipments nearly quadrupled between the second quarter of 2012 and the second quarter of 2013, going from just 1.9 million last year to 7.4 million this year. Samsung wasn’t the only manufacturer to show a big increase in tablet shipments, however, as Amazon’s shipments grew from 425,000 in Q2 2012 to 1.55 million in Q2 2013 while Lenovo’s tablet shipments grew from 354,000 in Q2 2012 to 1.5 million in Q2 2013. Canalys also says that Apple’s tablet shipments have actually declined year-over-year, going from more than 17 million in the second quarter last year to 14.6 million in the second quarter this year.

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Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U sales seen falling short of previous-gen consoles

While the Wii U continues to flounder, the video game industry is looking to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 to boost the market as sales continue to slide. A forecast released recently by ABI Research paints a somewhat disheartening picture though, as it estimates that combined Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U sales over their first five years of availability will fall short of Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 sales over the same period of time.

In a report issued recently, ABI estimated that cumulative Wii U, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sales will total 133 million units during the consoles’ first five years on the market. During that same period of time, however, combined sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 totaled 140 million units.

“With many of the casual gaming segment embracing mobile devices for gaming, without a shift in strategy and pricing the Wii U will likely fail to match the success of the Wii which will impact future console shipments,” ABI analyst Michael Inouye said. ”If China decides to lift its ban on consoles, however, in the short term this could boost future shipments of 7th generation game consoles while minimally altering the 8th generation.”

Inouye’s colleague Sam Rosen added, “The future prospects of gaming platforms depends in equal measure on compelling games and pricing falling within household reach for discretionary/gift spending. Without solid titles and first party franchises platforms will have a difficult time finding traction – streaming media is not enough when low-cost smart STBs are readily available. While we don’t anticipate a drop-off in game console households, barring significant changes to less developed console markets in Asia and Latin America there isn’t a great deal of growth opportunity beyond the current installed base.”

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OLPC XO Tablet retail availability expands

The OLPC XO Tablet arrived for sale back in mid-July. The tablet arrived with a price point of $149.99 and the initial launch had availability exclusively with Walmart. Specifically, that initial availability was limited to the Walmart website. In-store availability began yesterday, on August 1st, however it looks like the tablet has also come available with some additional retailers.

Those others look to include Target and Amazon. The tablet is $149.99 with Target and $140.00 with Amazon. And as a small bonus for Amazon Prime members, the OLPC XO Tablet is Prime-eligible. That being said, aside from the expanded availability, the tablet remains the same as we saw back in July.

Basically, that is to say those making the purchase will be getting a 7-inch kid-friendly tablet with a display resolution of 1024 x 600. The XO Tablet is powered by a dual-core 1.64GHz processor and has 8GB of internal storage with WiFi connectivity. The tablet is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and features a handful of educational related software items.

To begin with this tablet is touted as being bilingual. Or in other words, it has all content available in English and Spanish. There are also various dashboard setups to highlight the different types of content as well as an e-book reader, Oxford Dictionary, Discovery Communication app and many others.

While a good amount of the apps are focused on children and education, the tablet also has some items for the parents. In this case the XO is sporting parental controls that track usage and learning styles. The tablet also has a Journal app that details and breaks all this down for the parents. Finally, while the tablet has arrived with Target and Amazon, it also looks to be sold-out with Walmart (at least for the time being).

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OpenGlass project shows Google Glass for the visually impaired

We have seen some interesting use cases for Google Glass, but it seems to safe to think that we have yet to see them live up to what they are truly capable of doing. That true capability can be a variety of things and will likely vary from person to person. But with that in mind, the folks at OpenGlass have recently shown what Google Glass can mean for the visually impaired.

As we have seen from the OpenGlass team in the past, this means a video demonstration. In this case the video is roughly 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Perhaps more important though, it gives solid examples using a Twitter-based question and answer as well as a tour using Memento. The Twitter question and answer is maybe the simpler of the two. With this the Glass user would take a picture of an item and in return they are told what they are holding/looking at.

The answer comes back by way of an audio reply that is sent through the bone-conducting speaker on Glass. The process is just about the same as any Glass process would be and begins with the “Share with OpenGlass” command. From here the user asks their question, which in this case refers to what is on the box (and in the can). And in return, they get the answer. Simple and seemingly rather useful.

The other side here comes with Memento. In this case the details would need to be set up in advance. The video offers a look at the sighted person creating and describing the scene. Once that has been competed the visually impaired person tours the room and is able to know what items are in front of them. Plus, there is also the option to give additional information about any items or objects shown. Overall the process seems rather smooth, though it does say the recognition process takes about two seconds.

Bottom line here, while this video demo offered a brief tour around the workshop, this could prove to be useful in a wide variety of locations. Otherwise, aside from this video offering the question and answer demos, this is actually a follow up to a “Glass Applications for Visually Impaired Users” video that was released by OpenGlass a few weeks earlier.

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Vivo X3 “world’s thinnest smartphone” tipped to launch later this month

You probably have never heard of the smartphone manufacturer BBK, but they’re a popular Chinese company that has been delivering some top-tier and cutting edge smartphones for quite some time. And coming this month they look to dethroneHuawei and their record-holding Ascend P6 smartphone of the “world’s thinnest smartphone” title. BBK is aiming to launch their new Vivo X3 soon, and it makes phones like the Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5 look fat.

As you can see above, it certainly is one extremely thin phone. There’s no question about that. However, unlike the Ascend P6 the Vivo X3 still has a slight hump for that camera, which takes away some of the appeal. That aside, it’s the thinnest smartphone in the world coming in at 6mm flat.

As a comparison, the Huawei Ascend P6 (see our hands-on) comes in around 6.18mm thin, rocks an 8 megapixel camera, and dropped the battery down to 2,000 mAh just to make everything fit. So while we don’t have any exact specs at this time on the BBK Vivo X3, it’ll likely have to sacrifice similar specs. That camera might end up being 13 megapixel, based on the size of it. Here’s a comparison next to the iPhone 5, just to give you an idea on how sleek this phone is.

There’s no other details on this ultra-thin device at the moment, as far as specs, but a few tipsters have claimed that the company is aiming to host a launch party and announce the device on August 22nd. At least according to the popular site Weibo. The X3 will likely come with Android 4.2.2 out of the box as well, but we’ll confirm the details once it launches later this month.

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Nexus 4 users pestered by Android 4.3 upgrade issues

Sometimes, getting the latest, though not always the greatest, does have its price, a lesson that some Nexus 4 users are now learning. Google announced Android 4.3 last month and its eventual availability for Nexus devices, and indeed the upgrades did arrive as promised. But Nexus 4 users are discovering that upgrading to the latest iteration of Android might be more trouble than it’s worth.

Reports are coming in from Google’s forums about various issues across the board. Some are annoyances like slower performance, missing apps, or reception problems. Others are functional problems like missing multi-touch functionality or disappearing content. Some have also reported overheating when using the upgraded handset.

But these are the issues that plague only those who are able to actually get into their phones. There are more serious reports of being locked out of their phones because it isn’t possible to enter their pass phrase. But even worse, there some who can’t even get their units to boot properly, being stuck in an endless loop at the Google and boot splash screens.

Not everyone have had problems with their upgrade and the process has been smooth for some. Those who did experience issues will be able to do a factory reset to get their phones working again. Still, the amount of users reporting such major problems and Google’s silence on the issue is worrying, leaving users no proper way to fix the issue. For now, it would be best to hold off from upgrading. And always do a backup before performing an upgrade.

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Sol Republic DECK wireless speakers “M4DE for Motorola” launched

Motorola is really pulling out all the stops in launching its latest darling, the Moto X. Motorola’s new flagship is quite impressive, as we ourselves have experienced. But what brand new phone would be without some fancy accessories to go along with it? Introducing the DECK wireless speakers from Sol Republic, the first such accessory certified to be “M4DE for Motorola”.

One area where Apple trumps even the combined strength of different Android device manufacturers is in accessories. It helps that accessory makers only have to focus on one model or version of the iPhone or iPad at a time. To address this gap, Motorola launched its “M4DE for Motorola” program, gathering partners to create certified accessories for its devices, particularly the Moto X. And Sol Republic’s DECK speakers is the first of such accessories.

The DECK Bluetooth speakers supports a range of 300 feet. It utilizes NFC technology for easy pairing of devices. The DECK boasts of large R2 Sound Engine speakers and a bass port to give it a bigger sound than normal portable speakers. It blasts out sounds in a full 360 degree angle, ensuring that sound is delivered equally in all directions.

The DECK features a unique “Heist Mode”, allowing up to five devices to be paired with it to play their own tunes. There is no queueing, so any one of the five devices can just “hijack” the currently playing music to start their own. Sol Republic envisions the DECK to be used as such in party situations and even provides a 3.5mm audio in jack which allows a couple of DECKs to be daisy chained together.

The DECK comes in four color choices of Gunmetal, Lemon Lime, Electro Blue HD, and Vivid Red, with the latter two marked as coming soon. Sol Republic is accepting online pre-orders priced at $199.99. There is no date as to when it will be released but it is expected to come out together with the Moto X, probably sometime in September.

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HTC One in Blue possibly coming to Verizon

After a period of phones in white, black, or gray tones, it seems that colors are in vogue again. There was an earlier leak of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 mini getting a paint job. Now it seems that HTC’s current flagship, the HTC One, will also be landing in a new color exclusive to Verizon. And this isn’t exactly its first makeover.

Just months after its launch, HTC announced that the HTC One will be made available in a new color, Glamour Red. The shiny red variant was made available initially to UK markets. It added a sharp and distinct look to a phone that we have so far liked. And it looks like HTC will be trying to make a repeat performance.

An insider leak tells of an addition to Verizon’s inventory with a Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) of HTC6500LVWBLU, simply described as “HTC One in Blue”. Other than that, there has been no additional information or photos. It seems, though, that Verizon won’t be offering the Glamour Red variant.

Whether the information pans out, we’ll just have to wait and see. And wait we will, as the earlier anticipated August 1 launch has seemingly been pushed back by Verizon to mid-August. In the meantime, you can read about our impressions of the HTC One to decide whether you’ll want to grab this phone in whatever coating it comes in.

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Motorola Moto X to also get “Google Play” version soon

There seems to be a new trend of new flaghship phones getting unlocked and pure “Google Play” versions that can be purchased directly from Google. Since such was the case with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and HTC’s HTC One, people have wondered whether the Moto X, which Motorola just launched today, will be getting a similar treatment, especially considering it is the first Motorola phone created under Google’s supervision. And so it will be that one will be able to buy a Google Play version of the Moto X “soon”.

There are some benefits to purchasing such a version of the phone. For one, units sold from stores of carriers like Verizon come preloaded with tons of apps, a good number of which do not really provide additional value to users and have been derisively called “bloatware”. Secondly, carriers are notoriously slow for providing Android updates, sometimes taking months, or even never. The technical reason for this is that manufacturers and carriers make so much modifications on top of a pure Android system that it takes them a significant amount of time to apply and test those changes on top of new Android releases.

That’s where Google Play versions come in. Same hardware, no bloatware, no modifications. Just pure Android. Of course, if there are features specific to a certain manufacturer that you’ve come to love, you might end up having to give up on those, too. In the case of the Moto X, however, there might not be much to take out as it doesn’t deviate too much from Google’s pure Android experience unlike HTC’s Sense or Samsung’s TouchWiz. Moto X does have some software customizations, and it is unknown whether they will survive in the Google Play edition.

There are also other unknowns, such when the Moto X Google Play edition will be available from the Google Play store and how much it would cost. If prices of other Google Play editions are to go by, we could expect that it would cost a lot more than a unit on contract but slightly less than one off-contract. So far, only AT&T has announced its pricing, offering on-contract prices of $199 for the 16GB version and $249 for the 32GB variant. Off-contract units will be available for $575 and $629 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. It is also unknown whether the Google Play edition will be able to customize color options, something that is so far exclusive to AT&T customers.

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ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7 available for pre-order

Budget tablets have come a long way, evolving from cheap knockoffs to decent and affordable alternatives, with manufacturers like ASUS continually raising the bar. The latest such device to come from the company’s line up is the MeMo Pad HD 7 which has now become available online for pre-orders for a very low price.

We reported on the launch of the ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7, along with its bigger sibling, the MeMo Pad FHD 10, early last June. We detailed the specs of the device: an ARM Cortex A7 quad-core processor, 1280×800 pixels resolution on a 7-inch display, 5 megapixel rear camera paired with a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, and a choice of 8 GB or 16 GB for storage. Not entirely earth-shattering, but not too shabby either.

It seems that the tablet is now available for pre-order from various online retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, Newegg, and TigerDirect for a price tag of $149. Only the 16 GB model seems to be available at the moment. It comes in different color options such as white, black, pink, blue, and green. Unfortunately, it has Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich only, which might be a deal breaker for some.

The ASUS MeMo Pad HD 7 isn’t really a revolutionary device coming from the makers of the Nexus 7 tablets. But with the specs and choice of colors, it might just be perfect for someone who needs a decent tablet from a reputable manufacturer and doesn’t need the horsepower of a Nexus 7 nor its price.

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Samsung GEAR smartwatch, Galaxy Note III tipped for September 4 reveal

Sources revealed that Samsung is planning to hold an event on September 4 in Berlin to unveil not only the Galaxy Note III but also the rumored smartwatch that is currently called Samsung GEAR. This event would coincide with with the start of the IFA trade show also in Berlin.

The Samsung Galaxy Note III has been steeped in rumors as it gets closer to the anticipated launch date. Recently, we were treated to some leaked photos showing the internals of Samsung’s next S Pen-powered phablet. Rumored hardware included a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, 13 megapixel camera with Xenon flash, and a dedicated camera button.

Samsung has also been rumored to be working on a smartwatch, partially confirmed by trademark filings made last month. The filings were filled with keywords related to watches as well as the name “GEAR”. If the launch information pans out, we will be seeing this mysterious device for the first time next month.

There has been very few details regarding the rumored Samsung GEAR, but if it will be launched together with the Galaxy Note III, it is probable that there will be some special mode of interaction between the two devices. It could mean that the GEAR will be something like Pebble which acts as a secondary device to provide quick and easy access to the smartphone without having to pull it out of a pocket or a bag

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USB 3.1 spec finalized with speeds up to 10 Gbps

USB is due to get a lot more oomph now that the latest specification for version 3.1 has been approved.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group revealed Wednesday that it's completed its specification for USB 3.1. The new spec will be able to push SuperSpeed USB to data transfer rates of up to 10 gigabits per second. In contrast, USB 3.0 SuperSpeed can deliver speeds of up to 5Gbps.

"SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data through-put performance of existing SuperSpeed USB over enhanced, fully backward compatible USB connectors and cables," the group said in its press release.

Like its predecessor, USB 3.1 will be backward-compatible with older USB devices.

The action by the Promoter Group paves the way for manufacturers such as Intel and AMD to start building chips to support the new spec. Once the necessary chipsets and other hardware are in place, other companies can create devices to take advantage of the faster format.

But don't expect USB 3.1 devices to start popping up right away. In January, the Promoter Group said that initial products will begin to appear in late 2014 with a wider range available in 2015.

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Microsoft debuts Office Mobile app for Android smartphones

Microsoft appears to be spreading the reach of Office on mobile devices. The tech company announced Wednesday that it's now bringing the Office Mobile app to Android.

While Office fans will likely welcome this app addition to the Google Play store, there's a slight catch: the app is free to download but will only work for subscribers to Microsoft's Office 365 Home Premium and ProPlus service.

The release of this app shows that we're committed to keep providing additional value for Office 365 subscribers," Microsoft senior product manager Guy Gilbert wrote in a blog post.

Office Mobile for Android includes access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The programs aren't meant for document, spreadsheet, and presentation creation. Rather, they're aimed at helping Office users make quick fixes to existing work, and share those files.

The app includes several features that let Office 365 subscribers pick up files on their phones where they left off on their PCs. The files, like all Office 365 documents, will sync with Microsoft's SkyDrive Web storage service.

Office 365 costs $100 a year and offers subscribers the ability to install Office apps on up to five devices such as PCs, Macs, and smartphones. There is still no support forAndroid tablets or Apple iPads.

Microsoft has tried to leverage the widely used Office, which is preinstalled on mobile phones running its Windows Phone operating system, to eke out market share in the smartphone business that's dominated by devices running Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems.

News of the Office Android app comes on the heels of Microsoft also bringing Office to iOS. The tech giant debuted Office for iOS in June and much like the Android app it only is available to Office 365 subscribers.

The Office app is immediately available in the Google Play store in the U.S. and will become available in more countries within the next few weeks. The app only works on Android devices running the 4.0 operating system or greater.

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Great performance proves looks aren't everything

Some things in the PC universe can change a lot in a short period of time. We're now living in a world of touch screens, detachable keyboards, and 12-plus hours of battery life. Other things remain stubbornly the same, much like the Toshiba Qosmio X75, a thick throwback of a laptop packed with high-end CPU and GPU parts, a flashy red-accented body, and a lack of modern concessions (no touch screen here).

But, that's not to say sticking to your guns is necessarily a bad thing. Instead of a throwback, we might call the X75 a stoically traditional desktop replacement laptop. Sure, the design may get a tweak or two, and the last couple of Qosmio generations are a little thinner and lighter than the models from a few years ago, but this is still a classic anchored-to-the-desk 17-inch -- a category with fewer players right now than any time in recent memory.

The main difference in the new X75 versus the X875, which was itself only launched at the beginning of 2013, is the move to the latest generation of Intel and Nvidia parts. This system has a fourth-gen quad-core Core i7 CPU, plus Nvidia's new GeForce 770M GPU, putting it fairly close to the top of the heap, performance-wise. You could spec out a more expensive systems with more bells and whistles from Alienware, Origin PC, and others, but the Qosmio is more interested in riding the line between gaming rig and multimedia machine (hence the recordable Blu-ray drive in our configuration).

This specific config, the X75-A7298, is $1,799, and includes the Intel Core i7 4700, Nvidia GeForce 770M, a Blu-ray burner, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB HDD/256BG SSD storage combo. If you can skip a few frills, the exact same CPU/GPU combo is available for $1,199, but without the Blu-ray, SSD, and so on. In terms of performance, I've got no complaints about the value here. On the other hand, especially for $1,799, but even at $1,199, this is essentially a big aluminum-and-plastic box that feels budget-like in the hand. Everything, from the clacky keyboard to the shiny red highlights, feels a bit subpremium. At least these don't have painted-on flames anymore. And don't get me started on a 2013 Windows 8 laptop, even one intended for gaming, not having a touch screen.

If I could insert the components inside the Qosmio X75 into a nicer body, with a touch screen and silent keyboard, I'd buy one today. Instead, what we have is the guts of a great 2013 laptop at reasonable price, stuck in a body that feels a few years out of date.

	Toshiba Qosmio X75-A9278	Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch w/Retina Display (June 2012)	Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390	Razor Blade 14
Price	$1,799	$1,299	$1,749	$1,799
Display size/resolution	17.3-inch 1,920 x 1,080 screen	15.4 -inch, 2880 x 1,800 screen	17.3-inch,1920 x 1080 screen	14-inch, 1,600 x 900 screen
PC CPU	2.4GHz Intel Core i7 4700MQ	2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM	2.4GHz Intel Core i7 3630QM	2.2GHz Intel Core i7 4702HQ
PC memory	16GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	16GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 770	1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M	3,072MB Nvidia GeForce GTX 670	2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
Storage	256GB SSD + 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive	256GB SSD	1TB 5,400rpm hard drive	128GB SSD
Optical drive	Blu-ray\DVD writer	None	Blu-ray optical	None
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8 (64-bit)	OS X Lion 10.7.4	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)

Design and features 

The look and feel of the X75 is close to, but not exactly the same as, the recent X875 model we reviewed back in April 2013. It still features a diamond-textured aluminum shell, but the light-up Qosmio logo on the lid has been moved from the center to the lower left corner. The metallic red accents have been toned down a tiny bit (no more red hinges), but you'd have to compare the X875 and newer X75 side by side to really tell them apart.

Thin and minimalist, this is not. Nor is it the wild abandon of, say, an Alienware gaming laptop with its crazy multicolor light show. Instead we're stuck in the aesthetic middle ground, or at least what the middle ground looked like pre-ultrabook.

Of course, a big part of the advantage of getting a giant laptop is that there's plenty of room for a large keyboard and big touch pad, with few concessions to space requirements. In this case, we get Toshiba's generous flat-topped keyboard -- a style that has not noticeably changed in a couple of years -- plus a full-size separate number pad. The typing experience is good, but the keys are little on the clacky side. Toshiba laptops also have oddly short space bars, which I always find adds to typing mistakes. The keys themselves are backlit -- in Toshiba red, of course, and the function keys are reversed, which means you don't have to hold down the Fn key to access the volume, brightness and other controls on the F1-F12 keys.

The large touch pad is a clickpad-style one, without separate left and right mouse buttons. There's plenty of room for multitouch gestures, but at the same time, I found myself frequently accidentally triggering Windows 8 swipes when my fingers wandered too close to the edges of the pad. Hopefully, as a gamer, you'll have a mouse plugged in full time.

The 17.3-inch display, which runs at 1,920x1,080 pixels, is not a touch screen, a serious omission because Windows 8, especially in its tile-based UI view, is much easier to navigate with a few strategic finger swipes directly on the screen. To be fair, none of the gamer-targeted laptops we've seen this year have had touch screens, and there seems to be a real reluctance to marry discrete GPUs with touch screens so far.

That said, the screen itself looks great playing HD video, games, and displaying Web content, even from off-axis views, although it's very glossy and you may have to shift it a bit to avoid glare.

The Harmon Kardon speakers -- a Toshiba mainstay, are excellent for a laptop, with good volume and punch. Laptop speakers will never push all that much bass, but for gaming and movie watching, it'll fill a small room.

	Toshiba Qosmio X75
Video	HDMI, VGA
Audio	Quad speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	4 USB 3.0, SD card reader
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	Blu-ray writer

Connections, performance, and battery

Thanks to its large body, the X75 has plenty of room for ports and connections. It has dual video outputs, four USB 3.0 ports (two include a sleep-and-charge function for powering external devices using the laptop's battery), and both headphone and mic jacks, at a time when many laptops are going to a single audio port. This configuration also includes a Blu-ray recordable drive, which you can ditch to save money on a less-expensive configuration.

While I'm being a bit tough on the X75's design and lack of a touch screen, no one will have any problem with the system's performance. With a 2.4-GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-4700MQ Haswell-generation processor, plus 16GB of RAM, the new Qosmio gave us a nice performance boost over the previous X875 model. Even heavy-duty Photoshop, video editing, or gaming won't give the X75 much of a problem.

Speaking of gaming, with a current-gen Nvidia GeForce 770M graphics card, this is a better pure gaming rig than, for example, the even-more-expensive Razer Blade 14, although that ambitious 14-inch laptop is much thinner and lighter. A massive gaming desktop, such as the Falcon Northwest Fragbox will mop the floor with it, but in terms of laptops, it's hard to do better, and we ran BioShock Infinite at 1,920x1,080 and very high detail settings at 29.9 frames per second.

The nice thing is, even if you trade down to the $1,199 version of the X75, you still get the same CPU/GPU combo, although the smaller amount of RAM and slower HDD can affect performance.

One of the biggest advantages of Intel's new Haswell-generation chips in laptops has been amazing battery life. But apparently, not always. The X75 barely benefited over the previous non-Haswell model, running for 1 hour and 45 minutes in our video playback battery drain test, only a few minutes longer than the older X875. The Razer Blade ran for more than seven hours on the same test.

Conclusion 

Toshiba offers a very compelling set of components in the new Qosmio X75, and even better, gives you configurations from $1,199 to $1,999 that should fit any reasonable gaming laptop budget.

The design is still stuck in the past, painfully so, and the lack of a touch screen will have you reaching for your old Windows 7 install discs. But even with all these annoyances, if I had to pick up a serious gaming laptop without breaking the bank, the X75 would be high on my list.

System configurations

Toshiba Qosimio X75-A7298
Windows 8 (64-bit); Intel Core i7 4700MQ; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 770; 256GB SSD+ 1TB 7200 HD

Razor Blade 14
Windows 8 (64-bit); 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 4702HQ; 8192MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 2GB (Dedicated) Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M; 256GB SSD

Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390
Windows 8 (64-bit); 2.4GHz Intel Core i7 3630QM; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 3,072MB (Dedicated) HDD No.1: 1TB Hybrid Toshiba 5,400rpm, HDD No. 2: 1TB 5,400rpm Toshiba

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch w/Retina Display (June 2012)
OS X 10.7.4 Lion; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 650M + 512MB Intel HD 4000; 256GB Apple SSD

Falcon Northwest Fragbox v3 (Overclocked)
Windows 8 (64-bit); 4.5GHz Intel Core i7 4770K; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,800MHz; 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 780; (2) 960GB SSD RAID 0

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