Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q725 Gaming Notebook

Like most desktop replacements, the Qosmio X305-Q725 is a sizeable notebook to tote around. With its 16.2" x 12" footprint and thickness ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 inches, this notebook takes up a chunk of desk space. And it weighs nearly nine pounds, so it’s far from a lightweight.  The laptop’s 180W power adapter is also quite bulky measuring approximately 6.5 x 3.25 x 1.5 inches and weighing nearly two pounds. 

The Qosmio X305-Q725’s full-size keyboard and number pad take full advantage of the notebook’s 17-inch frame. The keyboard was comfortable to use, though any user who tends to rest his hands while typing may notice that his left hand may accidentally tap the touchpad (which is located left-of-center) and move the mouse/cursor to a different position. This was annoying to us, but anyone who uses proper typing form and doesn’t rest his or her hands should not have a problem.

The spacebar on the keyboard is narrower than some because it was shortened to make way for the arrow keys located below the right Shift key. The smaller spacebar never affected our typing. Overall, the keyboard was on par with other laptop keyboards we have used.

The touchpad is responsive and has a slightly textured surface to help provide a bit of traction. The touchpad buttons were easy to press and provide shallow feedback. Like the keyboard, these buttons tend to fingerprint very easily.

As far as ports are concerned, we appreciated the fact that Toshiba spread out the unit’s four USB ports on different sides of the laptop to allow for different peripherals to be connected without interfering with one another. All sides except for the front have a USB port.

The system’s VGA port is on the back of the machine while the LAN port is on the side near the back. These ports are well placed and allow for cords to be routed easily behind a desk. Because there’s a lip on the front spine of the device, you won’t be able to see the DVD SuperMulti drive unless you’re looking at it from eye level. Once you know where the open/close button for the drive is, however, it’s easy to feel for it so you don’t have to strain to see it.

The Qosmio X305-Q725 has four speakers and a subwoofer. Sound quality was very good, especially for laptop speakers. The laptop’s headphone jack and volume controls are conveniently located on the right side of the device.

Certainly heat and noise are a concern with any laptop. The Qosmio X305-Q725 does a remarkable job at staying cool without a lot of fan noise. The hard drives and optical drive were also very quiet. We could definitely hear the optical drive spinning up, but it wasn’t any louder than other notebooks we’ve seen. For cooling, the system has two fans on the underside and one on its backside.  Toshiba was smart to position the exhaust vent on the backside and not on the left or right side of the laptop since it puts out a decent amount of heat and using a mouse could have been uncomfortable if the vent were on the side of the machine. Even after hours of use, the laptop remained fairly cool. The laptop’s power brick consistently got warm, but not so warm that you can’t pick it up.

BIOS Details
The Qosmio X305-Q725 uses a Phoenix BIOS that is pretty basic with Main, Advanced, Security, Boot, and Exit tabs. Here’s a closer look at what you can expect to see from each of the BIOS menus: