Toshiba Qosmio F755-S5219

Look ma, no glasses! The Toshiba Qosmio F755-S5219 is the company's first glasses-free 3D laptop. Sold exclusively at Best Buy, this 15.6-inch entertainment notebook lets you enjoy movies and photos in 3D without wearing geeky specs. The machine also packs a fast Core i7 processor, Nvidia graphics, and harman/kardon speakers--all wrapped in an eye-catching chassis. But should you shell out $1,699 for the first generation of this new technology?

Design

A bold red plastic lid adorned with a geometric wave pattern makes the Toshiba Qosmio F755 look more like a futuristic sports car than a laptop. While the textured pattern doesn't do much to prevent fingerprints and smudges, we found ourselves constantly rubbing our fingers over the lid. A chrome Qosmio logo rests in the center as an elegant, eye-catching accent. The slick design is a big improvement over the Toshiba's Qosmio X775's garish black-and-red color scheme.

The interior deck is split between a glossy black plastic surrounding the keyboard deck and a glossy plastic palm rest with a gray-and-black pattern reminiscent of herringbone. A wide speaker bar sits above the keyboard surrounding the power button, while a media bar with touch-sensitive buttons for ecoUtility, Wi-Fi, 3D, play/pause, mute, and volume sits directly above the keyboard.
Weighing in at 7 pounds, the 15.3 x 10.5 x 1.5-inch Toshiba Qosmio F755 is hefty compared to some 15.6-inch notebooks but fairly portable given all the high-tech components packed into its chassis. Other entertainment laptops are heftier, including the 8.2-pound ASUS G53SW-A1 and the 7.6-pound MSI GT680R-008US. The F755 can easily slip into a medium-size messenger bag or backpack.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The F755's full-size keyboard has large flat black keys and a full number pad that provided firm feedback. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for a thin film to develop on the keys, making them somewhat slippery. Another knock against the keyboard is the small space bar. Despite a lack of spacing between keys, we were able to achieve our usual 48 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test with a one-percent error rate.
While the 3.5 x 1.75-inch Synaptics touchpad is a bit smaller than we'd like, the slightly gritty surface made navigation a cinch. Pinch-to-zoom and rotate worked smoothly, as did three-finger flicking through photos. You can also press three fingers to launch an application, such as Internet Explorer. The F755's chrome-colored mouse buttons were firm without being too loud.

Display and Audio

Watching movies and playing games on the 15.6-inch HD TruBrite 1920 x 1080p display was a blast. Explosions were big, bright, and satisfying with red and orange mushroom clouds. Cameron Diaz's vibrant blue eyes and ruby red lipstick popped on The Green Hornet Blu-Ray DVD, as did enemies and eminent threats in Kato Vision.
The Qosmio's F755 harman/kardon speakers delivered loud, rich audio with a satisfying amount of bass that easily filled a small room. We heard clear, distinct dialogue while we watched The Green Hornet. We jammed to Kevin Rudoff and Lil Wayne's catchy hip-pop vocals on "Let It Rock." We were able to give the guitar and the bass an extra boost using the Dolby Advanced Audio Enhancer. There was a noticeable amount of low-end distortion at full volume, but that went away once we turned the audio down to 75 percent.

Ports and Webcam

The right side of the Qosmio F755 houses two USB 2.0 ports, a Blu-Ray burner, a Sleep-and-Music headphone jack (which allows you to play tunes through the laptop's speakers even when the system is off), and a microphone jack. A USB 3.0 Sleep-and-Charge port with another USB 2.0 port, HDMI, and a VGA port sit on the left. A 7-in-1 card reader is on the front, while a secure lock, Ethernet, and the power jack line the back.

The 1.3-megapixel webcam can capture stills and video up to 1280 x 800p resolution. In our office, images came out somewhat dark but had clear detail. Images were brighter under natural light. Our Skype caller reported loud, clear audio with an equally clear image, making it easy for him to read the lettering on our jacket.

Heat

After running a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes, the touchpad on the Qosmio F755 registered a balmy 88 degrees Fahrenheit. The space between the G and H keys was slightly cooler at 83 degrees, while the underside was a comfortable 80 degrees. We were able to use the notebook on our lap for more than an hour without any discomfort.
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