We check out the new Toshiba Qosmio G55 laptop, featuring a new Cell processor based on Sony PlayStation 3 technology.
Toshiba has come out swinging with their newest Qosmio laptops, both in terms of the hardware design and the internal specs. At the Digital Experience show in New York City, we got another chance to play with these high-end multimedia machines (check out our previews of the new X305 gaming and F55 GPS enabled laptops here), and hear more details about how the granddaddy of the line, the Toshiba Qosmio G55, will put its Cell processor to use. All of the laptops come loaded with some nice standard options, including those deep well Harman Kardon speakers and login software that will recognize the user's face, using the built-in camera.
Is that a Playstation in your laptop?
The most unique feature, though, is definitely the Qosmio G55's use of a multimedia co-processor. Toshiba helped develop the Cell processor with Sony and IBM, the same chip that powers the Sony PlayStation 3, so it's nice to see them take advantage of their own technology in a new way.
The Cell processor will be especially helpful editing video and performing other multimedia tasks. As an interesting example, our rep related an anecdote about editing a video of his daughter. First, he selected his daughter's face from the group being filmed. Then, the laptop scanned through the remaining footage to pull out all the relevant clips where she was present. Sound like an episode of CSI? Sounds pretty cool to us, and from our own lousy experience editing video on subnotebook computers, we're interested in anything that can speed up the process.
The Toshiba Qosmio G55 is a beast to behold. You could practically serve a meal on it's 18.4-inch display, and when we tried to pick it up, it felt quite heavy, as expected. This is definitely a desktop replacement, and you might need a bigger desk.
We also tried out the gesture control features. In this mode, we stood in front of the Qosmio G55, and the laptop's camera actually locked on to our hand. As we gestured up and down, side to side, the computer tracked our movements with a circle on the screen. It was pretty accurate, and very fun to play with, but we recommend making sure you're the only one standing before the big beast, or it might get confused.
Price and availability
The Toshiba Qosmio G55 will start shipping in July 2008. Pricing has yet to be announced.
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