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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Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini: No midrange slouch (hands-on)

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If Samsung's Galaxy S4 is more phone than you think you need, the electronics giant has just offered up the smaller, more midrange -- and surely cheaper -- Galaxy S4 Mini.

Like a decaffeinated beverage, Samsung is hoping to give its lighter smartphone much of the same S4 taste with just a little less oomph. Although the Mini has stepped-down specs compared with its flagship family, like a lower-resolution screen and an 8-megapixel camera instead of a 13-megapixel shooter, it's no slouch when it comes to the Galaxy S4's core features, like a built-in TV remote control.

As with the Galaxy S3 Mini that came before, this version is aimed more toward the mass market than the high-end sector. Here in the middle, the Mini plays the role of the lower price option compared with the marquee Galaxy S4, without sacrificing too many of the superphone's more-defining features.

 hands-on time with the smaller smartphone in London at the June 20 launch event, and at Samsung's simultaneous shindig in New York. Here's how it stacks up against the original Galaxy S4.

Design and build

Samsung's modest Mini is a wee bit shorter, thicker, and wider than the svelte Galaxy S4 but clearly cut from the same cloth. Like the round-shouldered original, the Mini retains its curved perimeter, metallic rim, and rectangular Home button, and also comes in black and white versions.

Specifically, the global S4 Mini stands 124.6 millimeters tall (4.9 inches) by 61.3 millimeters wide (2.4 inches) by 8.9 millimeters thick (0.35 inch) and weighs a lighter 107 grams (3.7 ounces, compared with the S4's 4.6-ounce weight). A 3G-only, dual-SIM version will weigh a hair more at 108 grams.

In our hands we can definitely say that the Mini feels much more compact than the S4. Indeed it's something we couldn't really appreciate until physically in the presence of the tiny device. Compared with the Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy S4 Mini looks almost as small as a BlackBerry Q10. In fact it's dwarfed by the larger handset to the point of being comical.

The S4 Mini has an 8-megapixel main camera.

The phone's screen quality is perhaps the first place you'll really notice the hardware differences between the Galaxy S4 and its little cousin. Don't expect the S4 Mini's 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display to look as sharp at 960x540 pixels as does the Galaxy S4's 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution on its 5-inch screen. For all you pixel-hounds, that's a 441 pixel density on the Galaxy S4 compared with 256ppi for the S4 Mini. Indeed the Mini's screen had noticeably less impact than the Galaxy S4's when we viewed it in person.

Both Galaxy screens support the same color gamut and OLED display technology, though the Mini won't have the Galaxy S4's ultrasensitive, glove-friendly capabilities.

From the looks of it, the S4 Mini shares most of the S4 family's other physical attributes, including the location and shape of the camera, flash, sensors, buttons, and ports. It seems that the Mini sports the same subtle patterning as the S4's finish.

OS and features

Importantly, the Galaxy S4 Mini runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean underneath its TouchWiz layer. Custom interfaces like TouchWiz are notorious for stalling Android update efforts, so starting at such a current OS build is crucial for keeping a phone like the S4 Mini from falling behind the times.

Samsung hasn't told us exactly which extras will take root in the Mini, but it's safe to assume that it's an almost identical software build as the Galaxy S4's. Transporting its signature Galaxy-only abilities across devices is absolutely Samsung's style.With TouchWiz comes a mountain of software embellishments, like more one-touch system settings in the notifications pull-down and options like Air View, which produces an onscreen cursor when you wag your finger close to the screen.

If software enhancements are your thing, the presence of these bonus features is one reason to pick the Mini over any other midtier device: you won't have the most powerful hardware, but you'll still hold onto features like Group Play, and Samsung's built-in apps. (For more on all these, check out this full Samsung Galaxy S4 review.)

We're most gratified to see the S4's IR blaster make its way onto the Mini. This little hardware bauble turns your phone into a TV remote control when paired with the WatchOn app. Top phones like the HTC One and LG Optimus G Pro share this soon-to-be living room staple, but the Galaxy S4 Mini will be the first of its class to also bail you out when your TV remote falls behind the couch.

As for connections and communications, Bluetooth 4.0 keeps the Mini current. NFC, which makes content-sharing possible with a tap, will make it onto LTE-enabled versions of the Mini. We're not sure why Samsung isn't including NFC in non-LTE Mini handsets, but it likely has something to do with cost control for different markets worldwide.

Cameras and video

Although the Galaxy S4 Mini may not deliver quite the rich detail of the S4's 13-megapixel camera, Samsung is still gifting the "decaf" device with an 8-megapixel shooter, which is no resolution to sneeze at, especially the way Samsung typically outfits its camera modules. Expect high-fidelity images and smooth 1080p HD video.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini's ports and fixtures show up in the same place as on the original S4.

The 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera should also pull its weight for casual self-portraits and video chats.

Shutterbugs will get a nice, large helping of Samsung's photo software, including Panorama and HDR modes (that's high-dynamic range), Night mode, burst shot, and several others that help pick the best of the bunch.

While the new Sound & Shot mode makes an appearance (that records an audio clip to narrate the still, but plays back only on S4 phones,) the new dual-shot mode -- which uses both front and rear camera captures in a single picture -- does not.

Performance

While it's tough to guess how well the Galaxy S4 Mini will perform all around the world, the specs do tell a promising story. First up, there are up to six bands for global LTE support, plus HSPA+ 42 speeds, and 3G and 2G fail-safes.

LTE-ready builds of the Mini won't come to every market, but if you've got LTE phones where you live, that's the version you should expect to see when and if the handset lands in a store near you. Otherwise, you'll get a 3G version of the phone, and, in some markets, even a dual-SIM device. The double-barrel configuration has its benefits, but don't hold your breath for a dual-SIM Mini to hit every country (sorry, U.S.).

Now what about raw computing power? Unlike the superpowered quad-core or octa-core Galaxy S4, the S4 Mini will pack a 1.7GHz dual-core processor under its hood. That's completely respectable, depending on the chipset's make and model, and I'll guess that most people won't miss the Galaxy S4's high-octane gaming speeds.

Smaller than the original Galaxy S4, the Mini crops the screen from 5 inches down to 4.3.

The phone's smaller screen size is one explanation for the Mini's 1,900mAh battery, which should still keep the phone charged during the peak hours of the day. Unsurprisingly, there's a smaller bank of storage on this lighter device -- 8GB, with closer to 5GB for the phone owner's content. However, a microSD slot holds up to 64GB extra.

In terms of RAM, the Galaxy S4 Mini splits the difference between the S4's 2GB quotient and midrange device's 1GB capacity with 1.5GB RAM.

Which to buy: Galaxy S4 or Galaxy S4 Mini?

Without pricing or availability details from Samsung and its global partners, it's hard to make a value judgment about which is the better deal. (We'll update this Galaxy S4 Mini First Take with that information as soon as Samsung loosens its lips.)

From the looks of it, the Galaxy S4 Mini has the ingredients to deliver a very solid smartphone experience at a more affordable price, though the screen quality and battery life could flag compared with the real S4 deal. More-serious mobile gamers and camera snobs should stick with the fully loaded Galaxy S4.

That advice also goes for anyone who consumes a large amount of reading and viewing material from the phone screen. The S4's, while fairly reflective, will still trump the Mini's lower-res display.

Still, if you like the sound of a surely less expensive device that keeps most of its key features, and you don't mind some toned-down specs, hold off for the moment until more information about the Mini pours in.

This handy chart lines up the S4 and S4 Mini specs to help you decide whether to wait.

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