Toshiba Qosmio F50-10Z review

Toshiba's Qosmio laptops have always been the flashy, high-performance models, offering the latest technology with blisteringly fast performance, all wrapped up in a gorgeous shiny chassis.

This new F50 is no different, including a brand new processor to try and make watching movies even better.

The part in question is the Quad Core HD. It's a smaller chip that sits alongside the laptop's main processor (CPU) and is specifically designed to handle video. To this end, it's constructed from Cell processors similar to the ones that power the PlayStation 3. Toshiba claims it can 'upconvert' existing DVD footage to improve its appearance - although not quite to HD levels - as well as letting you use gestures, via the in-built 1.3 megapixel webcam, to control media functions from across the room by waving at your Qosmio.

You'll be somewhat less than gobsmacked to learn that these innovations turned out to be more gimmicky than genuinely useful. The Quad Core HD processor actually made our DVDs look a bit worse close up: the edges that had been sharpened looked too jagged for our liking, and the pixellation was too distracting.

When we sat further away (who sits far away from a laptop?), colours did seem a little punchier and detail slightly sharper, but the effect was distinctly underwhelming - not the revolution we were hoping for. It's also disappointing that the Quad Core HD doesn't work at all while the Qosmio is running on battery power, so there'll be no upconverting when you're away from the mains.

In theory, the HD chip recognises three hand gestures: a closed fist that you hover in the air for mouse control, a swift thumbs-up to make the cursor click, and an open palm to pause or play footage or engage other context-specific actions. However, the webcam couldn't consistently recognise our gestures, often confusing our hands with our faces, so it was much easier to use the touch-sensitive media controls that sit above the keyboard. So much for our dreams of controlling our laptop from across the room with a languid flourish, like they would have done in Brideshead Revisited, if they'd had laptops.

Socket to me

Fortunately, there are more practical features packed into the Qosmio. On the outside are a dedicated volume control, a wireless Internet switch, an HDMI port for connecting the Toshiba to an HDTV set, plenty of USB sockets scattered around the chassis, and a memory card reader. The rest of the usual ports - Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire and VGA outputs - are all here, too.

While the chassis itself does have a liberal coating of chrome - it's around the keyboard, the corners, the volume controls and even the memory card reader - it's a sturdy case that should be able to handle being tossed in a bag and carted about day-to-day. The screen doesn't flex much or distort when it's tugged and bumped, and the wrist rest seems particularly strong.

The keyboard is slightly spongy, but supremely comfortable to use, and makes extended typing sessions easier than with, say, the tougher keys on the majority of Dell's XPS laptops. The trackpad and mouse buttons feel good, too: easy to click, and not offering the excessive resistance that plagues other laptops and becomes intensely annoying.

The 15.4 inch screen offers superb colour reproduction and accurate detail, and our sample DVDs and games looked suitably punchy and lifelike. Casino Royale was as gritty and in-your-face as you'd hope, while the jungles of action games like Crysis were full of life and verdant vistas. A minor issue could be the resolution, which at 1280x800 is smaller than the 1440x900 we've sometimes seen on recent 15.4 inch machines. It's fine for entertainment, but if you like to work with two windows side-by-side - such as a word processor and web browser - it could get a little cramped.