15 October 2007 11:00 GMT / By Stephen Patrick

Toshiba notebooks have long fallen into two distinct camps: there are those machines for the office worker and then there is the amazing Qosmio line of machines aimed at the high-end multimedia user. However, Toshiba has never played in the gaming end of the notebook market, until now that is.

The Toshiba Satellite X200-20s may be the company’s first gaming machine but it takes its styling more from it’s Qosmio line than the likes of rival gamers, such as Dell or Alienware. For instance, while the unit is rather boxy with plenty of depth for the cooling fans to handle the high-end components inside, the look is more sophisticated than the average game machine. The lacquered lid and the placement of the stereo speakers above the keyboard makes this look more like a multimedia machine for the home rather than a gamer in the bedroom.

The build quality is stunning, as the casing feels tough to the touch and while the keyboard doesn’t initially feel as though its been designed with the gamer in mind, it’s impressively comfortable, which made a long gaming session far more easier to handle.

Toshiba has one again teamed up with harman/kardon for the speakers and you find two bass reflection speakers, two tweeter speakers and a subwoofer rounding out the set. While they’re not as good as using external separates, we found the sound quality acceptable when gaming and when watching a movie.

Weighing in at 4kg, this is a big notebook but it does come with a 17-inch Super-TFT screen that is simply amazing to view. When it comes to gaming, you'll find the nVidia GeForce 8700M GT delivers plenty of performance for the average gamer. With full support for DirectX 10 and 256MB of its own memory, we were able to run Bioshock with no signs of lag at all.

True, you won’t want to take this machine on the move with you too often but we managed to get close to three hours from the battery, so if you need to use it when out and about, the option is there.

It’s not only the graphics that deliver a kick, as the main specification is more than impressive. Powered by the Intel 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and supported by 2048MB of memory, you won’t need to worry about this machine handled every day tasks. With twin 160GB hard drives, there is plenty of storage space. So if you want to use this notebook for editing video, you’ll have the power and the storage to handle it comfortably.

Verdict

The overall quality of the Satellite X200-20s, as this is one of the most appealing heavyweight notebooks we’ve come across in a long time and certainly gives the likes of Alienware and Dell a run for their money.

It even comes with a HD DVD drive.

Score

Review Recap

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Toshiba

Price as reviewed

£1049

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The good

Great look, good screen and comfortable keyboard, HD DVD drive built in

The bad

Not the most powerful gamer

Quick verdict

It looks like a multimedia notebook but it handles like a gaming dream, making this is a real desktop alternative

Score

Winner

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