Toshiba intros new Qosmio gaming, media notebooks
updated 01:00 pm EST, Fri December 12, 2008
Toshiba Qosmio FX, GX
Toshiba on Friday introduced three new Dynabook Qosmio-series notebooks for its home territory of Japan, with the multimedia-focused G50 and GX and FX pair meant for gamers with nearly identical specifications. All three feature a dual-core 2.4GHz Intel CPU set into Intel's PM45 Express mainboard and an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics card with a dedicated 512MB of memory, along with 4GB of RAM. The two gaming notebooks get 320GB hard disk drives and an integrated draft-N 2.0 Wi-Fi module. The key difference between the two is the GX notebook's 18.4-inch, 1680x945 LCD screen and the FX notebook's 15.4-inch, 1280x800 display.
Connections on the notebooks include four USB ports, with one being shared as an eSATA port, along with an HDMI and mini VGA output and Gigabit Ethernet jack. Simple audio inputs and outputs are likewise present. An ExpressCard slot is accounted for, and the optical drive is a dual-layer DVD burner. For security, Toshiba included a fingerprint sensor. Video chats are made possible thanks to a 1.3-megapixel camera.
The larger GX notebook weighs about 10.4lbs, while the smaller FX tips the scales at about 7.3lbs. The former's lithium ion battery will power it for 4 hours, while the latter's is rated at 2.4 hours.
The Qosmio G50 features the SpursEngine Graphic card, which is based on the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor that runs the PlayStation 3 but has half the processing cores, at four, to play back aHD videos for its 18.4-inch, 1920x1080 LCD screen or to encode them. Users can option up as much as 570GB of hard drive space, thanks to two bays that will encompass a 320GB and a 250GB HDD. Otherwise, it shares specs with the gaming notebooks.
The 15.4-inch FX notebook will launch first in early January in Japan, with the 18.4-inch GX following by the end of the month. Equivalent prices will range from about $2,330 to $2,670. The media-focused G50 will start out at nearly $2,900 and top out at about $3,780 and is expected to ship in Japan before the year is out. All three introductions point to possible upgrades to Toshiba's American lineup in the future. [via Impress]
Toshiba 15.4-inch Qosmio GX gaming notebook
Toshiba 18.4-inch Qosmio FX gaming notebook
Toshiba 18.4-inch Qosmio G50 media notebook
