MaximumPC 2004 04

Toshiba Satellite P25-S609

Short on gaming performance, a

mobile Media Center makes this

notebook versatile

Living proof that size doesn’t always matter,

Toshiba’s Satellite P25-S609 is a gargantuan

laptop that’s lacking in power.

Slightly updated from last year’s P25-

S607, Toshiba’s new model suffers from

the same inferior graphics and RAM that

plagued its sluggish predecessor. Instead of

using DDR400, Toshiba opted for DDR266.

Tsk, tsk. Similarly disappointing is the pres-

ence of nVidia’s GeForce FX Go 5200, which

is barely adequate for running today’s

games. And while we dig the inclusion of a

DVD burner, one that burns DVD-Rs at 1x

is practically useless. Granted, you can burn

DVD-RAM at 2x, but that’s about as valu-

able as being able to read BetaMax tapes.

In its defense, Toshiba isn’t pitching the

Satellite as the ultimate power notebook,

but rather as a portable do-everything PC.

In fact, it’s the only notebook here that’s

not loaded with Windows XP Pro or Home.

Instead, the Satellite uses Windows XP

Media Center Edition 2004, and comes

with a TV tuner that can be swapped

with either the battery or optical

drive. Unfortunately, instead of using

the integrated IrDA port, the remote

control is powered via a clunky USB

receiver. That’s too bad, because it mars

the notebook’s portability.

The TV tuner and monstrous 17-

inch screen—easily the largest display

in this roundup—almost allow this

oversize laptop to side-step its lacklus-

ter gaming performance. It also helps

that, because of its dual-channel RAM,

the Satellite turns in decent performance

in applications, running four to seven per-

cent faster than the ABS notebook in this

roundup bearing the same CPU, hard drive,

and RAM capacity. In fact, in our Premiere

Pro tests, the Toshiba comes scarily close to

Alienware’s Area 51M, which has a 200MHz

speed advantage and 2MB of L3 cache.

The application performance doesn’t

make up for the gaming performance, but

at least you know you’re set for any heavy-

duty spreadsheet work. With a real graph-

ics processor, the P25 could one day be a

contender. As is, it doesn’t even place in the

top three.

With its 17-inch screen and built-in

Media Center, the Satellite makes for a

great dorm room TV. Too bad it’s so slow.

4 MAXIMUMPC APRIL 2004

Good application performance, beautiful 17-inch

display, and solid feel.

JUPITER

URANUS

Lackluster gaming performance almost makes it

illegal to call this a “multimedia” computer.

$2,800, http://www.toshiba.com

MAXIMUMPC VERDICT 7

With its 17-inch screen and built-in

Sharp Actius RD3D

The world’s first notebook with a

3D screen—no glasses required!

The only 3D notebook in the world,

Sharp’s Actius RD3D truly resides in a

class by itself. And by 3D, we don’t mean

first-person shooters. We mean the third

dimension, the z axis. As in objects that

seem to jump toward you from off the

screen and dance above the keyboard.

Even more amazing, you don’t have to

don some geeky shutter glasses to see

these 3D effects—all you have to do is

press a button to enable 3D mode. Sharp

accomplishes this seemingly magical

feat by using a parallax barrier inside

the screen that separates the light paths

from the display into two parts. Instead

of light arriving at both eyeballs at once,

this technology pumps separate images to

each eye, thereby creating the illusion of

depth. The drivers for the Actius hook into

Direct3D and OpenGL games, transform-

ing any game into a 3D smorgasbord. In

reality, however, the effects work better

with some games than with others.

We have to admit, we originally

thought this to be the wackiest feature

we’d ever seen, but after playing with the

Actius RD3D, we appreciate its potential.

For now, however, the 3D is a bit limited.

Move your head out of what is a fairly

small “sweet spot”—the physical space

where the stereoscopic light paths con-

verge on your eyes—and you see nothing

but headache-inducing gobbledygook.

Sadly, our excitement over the Actius

begins and ends at its screen technology.

Inexplicably, Sharp chose to pair this fancy

new technology with outdated parts: The

included GeForce4 Go 440 doesn’t have

enough pep to run half the new games

coming out. Sharp also cheaped out by

using a 533MHz-bus non-Hyper-Threaded

Pentium 4 instead of an 800MHz-bus chip.

The final nail in the coffin: a 4,200rpm

hard drive. In a notebook this big we just

don’t understand the selection of such a

slow drive, and apparently Sharp didn’t

either. In this six notebook roundup, the

Actius was firmly DAL—dead-ass last—in

almost every benchmark. Why Sharp

didn’t showcase such an interesting new

technology with a little more muscle

under the hood is beyond us.

games, the Actius turns any 3D game

into a screen-popping, nausea-inducing

multidimensional experience.

Amazing 3D screen.

R2D2

R5-D4

Road-kill graphics, second-rate Pentium 4, and

third-rate hard drive.

$3,000, http://www.sharpsystems.com

MAXIMUMPC VERDICT 5

class by itself. And by 3D, we don’t mean

By hooking into D3D or OpenGL

games, the Actius turns any 3D game