Hands-on with Toshiba's 17-Inch Gaming Laptop

I have to admit, when I kick back at the end of the day for a little fast-twitch action, I usually do so on a console (such as my now-repaired Xbox 360) rather than a full-on PC gaming rig. But when a Toshiba rep called and offered to send the company's (relatively) new 17-inch gaming laptop for review, who was I to say no?

First, a little background. (Experienced laptop gamers can just skip ahead to the next paragraph.) The "gaming laptop" category is a relatively new one; only within the last few years have we seen notebook PCs with video cards capable of delivering graphics that approach the level of desktop PCs. Also, you're not going to find any gaming PCs worthy of the name that aren't big, hulking desktop replacements—that's to say, don't expect to play Quake 4 on a three-pound ultraportable. The best gaming laptops typically come at a premium—say, $2,500 and up, and while the latest gamer notebooks come with cutting-edge mobile graphics cards, good luck replacing them once they're (inevitably) out of date. For this reason, if you're really serious about getting a gaming laptop, you're best served by getting the hottest, fastest one out there—it'll cost more, but it'll last you longer.

That said, let's take the case of Toshiba's Satellite P105-S9339, a 15.5 by 10.8 by 1.4-inch laptop that weighs in at a hefty 7.1 pounds—not the biggest gaming notebook out there, but also not something you want to lug along if you're traveling in coach. The S9339's glossy case isn't as arresting as some of the eye-catching designs from gaming machine maker Alienware, but it still looks slick enough. Of course, what's been getting the S9339 the most looks at Circuit City and Best Buy is its $2,000 price tag, a bargain compared to top-of-the-line gaming notebooks that go for $3,500 and higher.

The Core 2 Duo-equipped Toshiba comes with many of the features gamers will be looking for, including a gorgeous 17-inch display, built-in Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g, although lacking the draft "n" standard), a DVD burner, an S/PDIF output for 5.1 surround sound on your home theater, and a DVI-D output for your HDTV. There's also a fingerprint reader to keep evil-doers away from your precious data, as well as a pair of built-in Harman/Kardon speakers (good sound, if not great).

All well and good, but any gamer will tell you that it's all about performance, and the Toshiba serves up...well, the mid-range performance you'd expect from the mid-range price tag. I loaded up both Quake 4 and FEAR on the S9339, and while the graphics (powered by a 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS card) looked good, they clearly fell short of what you'd find on a cutting-edge gaming laptop. In my tests with FEAR, the Toshiba delivered an average of 35 frames per second at a resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels—good, but well short of the 65 frames per second that CNET wrung out of the Core 2 Duo-equipped Dell XPS M1710. I also noticed significant stuttering during gameplay, which made the image jerk every 20 seconds or so. Of course, part of the issue here isn't just the Toshiba's underpowered graphics processor, but also that it's running Windows Vista, which is still struggling to catch up with the older Windows XP in terms of gaming performance (the Dell tested by CNET was running XP).

So, what's the lesson here? In a nutshell, you get what you pay for. I'd say that the Satellite P105-S9339 does an acceptable job of rendering today's games for the price (and it will certainly improve once better Vista drivers become available), but once next-gen PC games start coming down the pike, expect the Toshiba to struggle—at which point, you might find yourself looking for a new laptop.

Related:
Product page [Toshiba]