GadGets

^*If I could I would give it 3 1/2 stars. I really couldn’t decide between the two, so please get as much as you can out of the context.*^

Quick Pros and Cons–

Pros:

Packed with cutting edge hardware

Decent display

3D BLU RAY!!

Great looks

Decent speakers for portable

Pretty justifiable for gaming but not perfect

Nvidia 3d package and software is impressive

Cons:

Runs extremely hot

Short battery life

3d can be a gimmick depending on the content

SLOW boot times can be up to 2 minutes from complete shutdown state

3d Glasses are very uncomfortable and don’t have great coverage

Performance is not always solid and framerate drops do occur

The Toshiba A665 3DV Laptop: One of three (competing with Asus and Acer) brand new 3D capable notebooks to enter the market. Personally this was a budget-wise entrance into the much hyped recent 3d technology. I can honestly say that the 3d hype eventually got to me in and I decided to narrow my search for a 3d capable laptop instead of just a standard notebook.

**Overview**:

I caught wind somehow of a new PC/X360 game called ‘Sniper Ghost Warrior’. It looked like a ton of fun and I really wanted to get back in touch with my earlier PC gaming days. Being a diehard playstation gamer myself, I figured this to be the opportune point to buy my first laptop. More importantly however, this is a much cheaper solution to get into the world of 3d without spending a fortune because 3D TVs as of now are upwards of 2000 dollars, include that with the limited 3d-capable software of consoles and you have a real pocket gouge.

**Review**

Let me make this very clear: The Tiding factor in my decision between this model and the Asus g51j 3d model was the capability of 3D BLU RAY! This is HUGE. Not only is a blu ray player a very nice bonus, but the implementation of a software patch later this year will allow you to watch whatever blu rays are available in 3d. Once again, this comes down to the price point: being an efficient machine that does it all without having to go buy a 3d capable BD player and TV. Whether you would rather watch your movies on the big screen is an entirely different story.

Let me just say, the blu ray playback(no 3d) on this display has been fairly disappointing. I am so peculiar with my displays, I like my pixels very tight and my image razor sharp but not overblown. I hate a soft and dull image. This screen isn’t that, but it’s not what I expected. I used ‘Crank’ on Blu Ray as demo material(one of the most pixel popping blu rays out) and I was not extremely impressed. I used one great reference scene where the camera is following Jason Statham down a brick alley, the white artisan style bricks usually have so much depth and crystal clear pixels. They just didn’t seem to pop as much with this display. However further viewing proved the display and BD Drive to be ample for viewing, however it doesn’t match up to a great small-medium 720p TV in my opinion, which doesn’t seem possible: Generally the smaller the screen, the higher the pixel count(more pixels “built in) to the LCD screen and the sharper the picture(take the super sharp display of the apple iPad. The screen is so tiny but the resolution is virtually double because there are so many pixels on such a little screen). But then again this is a computer, not a TV, and I guess with the 3d capability it almost makes up for it.

–Gaming is a much different and extremely complex situation as far as graphics. All games are developed differently, have different settings, and you can tune settings in game and in windows providing a hugely complex situation which I can’t firmly give a good answer as to how it looks. All I will say is that coming from console gaming (where graphics generally aren’t pushed to the limits) this display is more than enough to fit my graphics tastes.

–Onto the hardware for gaming: I think in general terms, this computer packs more than enough hardware to get the job done… by the books and on paper, HOWEVER: On my first playthrough of sniper ghost warrior (a very pleasing game visually, but no crysis) I quickly ran into some framerate issues on the first mission(not even with 3d on). Not huge at all, but at a certain point in the map things would start to slow down/lag and if I jumped or looked in a certain direction things would get jaggy but not unplayable at all. It was hard at first to get over that tiny little hiccup however, seeing that I just dropped $1600 for a top notch, technologically supreme piece of hardware(this thing was built for gaming and media). Just playing Left 4 Dead 2 (in 3d) last night I ran into some huge framerate issues, but mostly at the very end of the mission.

–Early Problems/Performance issues:

I ran into some very frustrating issues early on, but it seems to be working itself out fairly decently now.

**PLEASE HERE ME LOUD AND CLEAR ON THIS: I suspect that these framerate issues may be a result of the hard drive, even though it is a 7200rpm, I’m not sure what other specs it has(cache etc.), however I can’t imagine that it’s too sophisticated due to it being a laptop drive. The main reason I suspect that it is the hard drive is because in general use, this thing has terrible seek times. The One thing that really got to me was that from a shutdown state, this laptop takes a SOLID Minute to 2 minutes JUST TO BOOT UP. I mean I’m talking you can’t do a single thing, not even open the task manager(ctrl-alt-delete) while it’s booting up. All you can due is stare at the time glass. For some reason though it doesn’t always take this long to boot up. It seems like it’s getting a lot better, I think I just booted up last time in about 30 seconds or less. The only thing I can figure is that it has really arranged things and prioritized allowing the most important things to be processed first. I’ve also run into slow multitasking and program running a few times. I have a feeling that the frame rate drops in L4D2 were a result of something else happening, possibly even a BS automatic windows update that starts without notification or permission(though you can turn them off).

I also ran into problems with the 3d glasses losing sync, flashing, flickering all the time, until I realized that the transmitter works best pointed directly at the glasses, unlike most bluetooth/wireless hardware.

–Aesthetics:

The laptop itself looks very savvy, has great innovative looks and seems to be durable and solid. The lid and main chassis(under the keyboard) has a matted, thin linked chain pattern finish. It’s pretty eye catching and helps minimize fingerprints. The mouse pad melts right into the rest of the the base, without being recessed which I liked. Overall it’s a pretty good looking piece. The keys are smooth plastic and feel great. They have a great, thin, lightweight feel to them without being flimsy or cheap feeling. The only thing I didn’t really like was that the lid doesn’t lock, it just closes flush with the base. Not really a big deal but I was just used to that with my brother’s laptop. I should also note that the keyboard is not backlit. Some of the manufacturers misleadingly label a whole series as having a “backlit keyboard”, when in fact only some models have a fully lit keyboard. This model has a thin lit bar at the top of the mouse pad along with a LED under the logo in the corner and the media controls at the top being lit. One of the media controls themselves is the button to which you turn the lighting on or off. They lay flat/flush with the chassis and are touch sensitive, no actual button mashing.

One thing I hate: LITTERED WITH STICKERS!!! Most noticeably is a MASSIVE sticker with the model and different features all with logos and a 25th toshiba anniversary graphic in the bottom right covering more than half the distance from the right side to mouse pad. Combined with, oh, a half dozen other stickers and the smooth aesthetics are immediately killed, but you won’t be bothered by that for long.

–Inputs/outputs:

This laptop has pretty basic I/Os. 3 USB ports, power cord, standard computer monitor out, ethernet, a hard drive connection, HDMI out, and headphone and microphone jacks.

++ This is somewhat of a disappointment for audiophiles as there are no audio outs( optical would be nice but I don’t even know if any laptops utilize that). You’re basically left with an 1/8 jack which you could buy various cables and adapters. Of course you could use HDMI, but as a fairly new format not all stereo receivers and audio devices are going to have that. The only reason I really criticize is because I’m into music production which relies on tons of higher end cable formats that you simply aren’t going to get to communicate with a PC without lots of trouble. For everyone else these I/Os should be fine. Oh, there’s a SD memory card slot on the front side. Also the harmon kardon speakers are quite impressive for their tiny size. They have okay bass and they don’t sound cheap. Any type of surround is represented poorly however and gamers and audiophiles will quickly be turning over to their favorite headset.

–Battery Life:

I haven’t adequately tested it but I estimate it at about an hour to two hours, gaming or just general OS usage. I guess it’s really a given considering the hardware, this isn’t a netbook designed to last, but more of a desktop replacement if you want to see it that way. I should note that this estimate is based on full out, bright screen, hardware pushing settings. Toshiba provides this laptop with an “eco mode” which can be turned on by a touch sensitive button under the screen. It surely increases the life but at the cost of reduced processing and much darker screen, which you obviously aren’t going to be doing while gaming.

One other note: THIS. THING. RUNS. HOT!! This thing gets to scorching temperatures in no time. Not uncomfortable for lap-top use, but the fan on the side gets so hot, that if you put your hand in front of it, it literally feels like you would when you encounter boiling hot steam. It’s pretty extreme. The keyboard and base get very warm too, not the most comfortable conditions for gaming.

And finally, most importantly

–3D

The laptop comes with the nvidia 3d vision kit, which retails alone for $200. The kit includes the glasses, USB IR transmitter for the glasses, 2 different nose pieces for different fits, and a very nice soft microfiber pouch and cloth.

I was very impressed with the kit in general. The installed Nvidia software is great, allowing you to setup, and most importantly fine tune your settings not only for the 3d but for general gaming (for instance the anti-aliasing, but there are tons more settings). I was NOT however too excited about the glasses. The number one issue is the comfort: these things hurt. The frame is made of hard plastic with rubber only on the very tips of the frame, which in my case goes past my ears, so the plastic rests right on top and they flat out hurt. They aren’t adjustable in any way and I find my self constantly moving them to get a correct angle. Another huge problem is that the lenses are very out-forward and thus they don’t even cover but about 80-90% of your viewing area, almost like looking at the black bars on a wide screen movie; so you’ll be very distracted at first trying to get the whole screen to “fit” into what your eyes see, if you can get what I’m saying. The last thing is that the glasses make the picture darker, which is starting to cause problems in gaming, while turning up brightness fades the detail and contrast, however you’ll generally find yourself paying attention to the 3d effect and not the graphics themselves. I must say that they also give the screen a warmer tone, (which also seemed to give a better contrast and richer picture) so I had to do some adjusting of the display(color/contrast/vibrancy/gamma etc.) within windows which seemed to help a great deal.

****Now to the actual 3d effect in gaming(wow I’m really stretching this review). At first I was very disappointed and felt like I had wasted my investment completely. My first play was call of duty world at War (one of my favorite all time games from PS3..I had heard the 3d in it was quite something) and it just seemed very ..meh. To put it blunt, it seemed just like a gimmick, like the same 3d you have known all your life. However I was playing on 4:3 ( the default in game setting, for some reason) and having mouse sensitivity/aiming issues so I quickly became frustrated and lost focus of the 3d all together. However after going on a mad hunt for demos for the best 3d games, I came across a few keepers. Notably Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.(Also one of my favs from PS3). It’s a military flight/fighter pilot game for those that don’t know; flying over much of a “3d google earthed” set of cities. I was immediately impressed. Just swooping down to skyscraper level before was satisfying enough, but the 3d just adds so much more, you really do feel like something is happening. And BOY, The jet trail/ missile smoke is something to be seen. When an enemy missile that you just managed to dodge comes flying into the screen and over the wing of your plane, you get an Incredible sense of depth and it is amazingly fun.

All in all with ‘Left 4 Dead 2 being decent, and a whole plethora of games to explore in 3d (and new game support only to get better and much more detailed), I definitely think it’s a worthy investment if you’re willing to spend the extra cash. Before you put this on order make sure you get a great deal of content lined up. Search the Nvidia list for games that you would like to see in 3d and check their rating on it, and load that shopping cart up. You might be disappointed if you don’t research and try to get some really great recommended 3d games first.

Here’s Nvidia’s list of supported 3d games along with the ratings(not recommended, poor, fair, good, excellent, and “nvidia 3d ready”[apparently developed alongside nvidia to get the most out of the hardware])

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The best thing is that when each game boots up, the software displays in plain text in the corner of the screen, the rating of the game and any settings you should change, also little notes like “sky rendered at wrong depth” etc. which I found very pleased that nvidia would take the time to do all of this, it shows they really care about the support of this product and they are going to keep pushing it.

To wrap it up:

If you’re the type to invest in all that new cutting edge technology then you’re probably looking at this laptop. It’s primary goal is to provide not only 3d gaming but also blu ray movies in 3D. If you don’t think 3d is a huge factor then look elsewhere for a cheaper or more powerful notebook.(I recommend the Asus J73 series for powerhouse gaming just based on reviews; or the Toshiba qosmio series for serious horsepower and 1080p displays; or the Asus G51j 3d if you don’t need the blu ray.. the Asus G series seems to be really tailor-made for gaming).

Hope this all helped.
Rating: 3 / 5