Toshiba Qosmio G50-10H review

Toshiba's Qosmio range has often impressed us, but it's been a long time since the range was refreshed.

The Qosmio G50-10H (£1399 inc. VAT) now brings a new design and outstanding power and features that set a new standard for mobile media centres.

The large black and silver chassis looks great, but at 5kg is very heavy. The 229-minute battery laptop is stunning for such a large laptop and provides fantastic mobility.

Well-made laptop

Build quality is generally impressive, but the chassis uses more plastic than we'd have liked.

The keyboard is well made and comfortable to use. All keys are extremely glossy, however, and it can be hard to see the lettering in bright conditions.

The 18.4-inch screen is stunning. Brightness, colour and contrast are all outstanding, and movies and photos look great. Dedicated Harman Kardon speakers are also fitted and deliver fantastic sound, making this a true all-in-one media centre.

Speedy machine

Home and office performance is also among the best we've seen. The powerful 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor is backed by an impressive 3072MB of memory. We found it easily sped through all tasks and made light work of even our most demanding tests.

3D performance is surprisingly poor in comparison. The nVidia graphics card provides enough power for photo and video editing, but is bettered by many rivals. Where the Qosmio ably compensates, however, is in the many unique multimedia features it provides.

Using a built-in Quad-Core HD video processor, you can upscale standard DVDs to replicate the clarity of high-definition (HD) video. The effect is impressive, but can't replace true HD content. The Qosmio isn't Blu-ray compatible, however, so HD video must be played from the hard drive.

Gesture Control

In conjunction with the built-in camera, the Quad-Core processor also allows so-called Gesture Control. This monitors your hand movements, so you can literally control media files and volume with a wave of your hand. We found it tricky to use, but it's a unique selling point.

Storage is also excellent. Two 320GB hard drives provide comprehensive space for storing huge collections of videos, music and photos. As mentioned, there is no Blu-ray compatibility, but the DVD rewriter lets you save data to standard DVDs and CDs.

With such outstanding style, performance and features, the Toshiba Qosmio G50-10H is very easy to recommend. While the lack of true HD-compatibility is unfortunate, this is still possibly the best multimedia laptop you can buy.