Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV review: Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV

We've seen laptops from the Toshiba Satellite A665 line before (more than once, in fact), and we've also previously seen laptops that incorporate Nvidia's 3D Vision technology. You can probably guess where this is going, as the new Satellite A665-3DV takes that familiar multimedia system and adds support for 3D Vision.

7.6

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV

The Good

Fast components; includes Nvidia's 3D Vision support; Blu-ray drive.

The Bad

Expensive for a midsize laptop; poor battery life, despite a gigantic battery.

The Bottom Line

Unless you're a huge 3D fan, the high price is a bit of a stretch for the 15.6-inch Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV, but we do appreciate the 3D Blu-ray playback.

The A665-3DV is a powerful performer, and solves a big problem with 3D gaming by building in all the required 3D-compatible hardware (the most important being the 120Hz display), requiring only your (included) rechargeable 3D glasses and a small USB IR emitter--the whole thing is much less cumbersome than using Nvidia's 3D Vision on a desktop PC. The Blu-ray drive also works with 3D Blu-ray discs, although the smallish screen doesn't make for a great group viewing experience.

Still, unless you're a real 3D fan, $1,599 is a bit of a stretch for a 15.6-inch laptop (interestingly, the two most recent Satellite A665 models we saw had slightly larger 16-inch displays), even one with an Intel Core i7-740QM CPU and Nvidia GeForce 350M GPU. If we were really into 3D PC gaming, we'd want something with a larger display, and better than the A665's 1,366x768 resolution.

The look and feel of the A665-3DV is nearly identical to other Satellite A665 models we've reviewed. The textured gray plastic that covers most of the body looks and feels like it belongs on a less expensive machine. There's nothing wrong with it, but it certainly doesn't make this a living room or den showpiece. At the same time, the construction feels for the most part very solid and sturdy, and there's no annoying flex under the keyboard--a common problem in laptops of all price ranges. Even better, the lid and wrist rest have a fine-textured pattern that repels fingerprints.

The keyboard is the typical island-style seen on almost every new laptop, with flat-topped, widely spaced keys. The 15.6-inch laptop body gives just enough room for a full number pad to the right of the keyboard, and there's a row of touch-sensitive media control buttons above the Function keys. We've frequently dinged Toshiba's media control buttons for emitting a loud beep, even when hitting mute (which was always counterintuitive, to say the least). Though the volume up/down buttons still beep by default, at least Toshiba removed the beep from the speaker button while muting. (To disable all the beeps, go to the Toshiba utilities folder, click HWSetup, then the Button Setting tab, and disable "Function Button Sound Notification.")

The touch pad is decently large, but offset to the left side because of the number pad, and its surface has a very nice friction-free coating with the large mouse buttons. Toshiba has also added a small button above the touch pad to disable it should you want to connect a mouse.

The system includes a couple of proprietary software utilities. ReelTime displays a row of large thumbnails across the bottom of the display (it's supposed to look like a movie reel) that shows your recently viewed documents and Web pages. The slick-looking Bulletin Board app lets you arrange photos and notes in a single work space. Both are well-made, but require you to take the time to learn them.

The 16-inch display has a 1,366x768-pixel resolution, which is the same resolution as most 11- to 15-inch laptops. The screen has a glossy finish that improves the look of photos and video but does create some glare and reflection. The speakers are same Harman Kardon ones found on other Toshiba Satellite models, although there's no overt branding on the speaker grilles. For a pair of integrated laptop speakers, they deliver excellent sound with surprising depth.

The laptop has a useful collection of data and video connections. You get four USB 2.0 ports (one of which doubles as an eSATA port), HDMI and VGA ports, a media card reader, and an ExpressCard/34 slot. The combo USB/eSATA port has Toshiba's Sleep-and-Charge feature that lets you charge cell phones, MP3 players, and other USB gadgets.

The Satellite A665-3DV packs in an impressive set of components, including a 1.73GHz Intel Core i7-740QM CPU and a high-end Nvidia GeForce 350M GPU (although Nvidia's newer 400-series GPUs are starting to pop up in other systems). The powerful hardware helps cover the overhead required for the 3D processing, and we were able to play games at high settings without killing the frame rate when switching to 3D mode. If you're not familiar with 3D Vision and how it works, this extended look at it should cover the basics.

In our Unreal Tournament III test, the A665-3DV ran at 102.9 frames per second at 1,366x768. That means it should be able to run any current game at high detail levels, especially as the screen resolution tops out at only 1,366x768, which hard-core PC gamers would consider on the low side.

Juice box
Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV	Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent)	1.13
Sleep (10 percent)	0.89
Idle (25 percent)	26.53
Load (5 percent)	70.82
Raw kWh	95.84
Annual energy cost	$10.88

The Satellite A665-3DV ran for 1 hour and 43 minutes in our video playback battery drain test, using the included 12-cell battery. Coming in at under 2 hours is regrettable but sometimes understandable for a high-power gaming PC, but that usually means a 17- or 18-inch laptop, not a midsize 15-inch model. Coupled with the fact that the massive 12-cell battery sticks out of the bottom of the system like a giant kickstand, the weak battery life is just plain sad.

Toshiba includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, and a handy customized support search page can direct you to online documents and driver downloads for this specific model.

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1280x800, 0X AA, 0X AF*

1440x900, 4X AA, 8X AF*

1920x1200, 4X AA, 8X AF*

Origin EON18 @ 16x9 / @19x10

285.6 

249.6 

193.8 

Asus G73JH-A1 @ 1280x768 / @14x10 / @ 19x10

205.4 

141.3 

107.2 

Alienware m15x @ 1280x768 / @ 14x10 / @ 19x10

165.7 

128.9 

99.4 

HP Envy 17-1003 @ 1280x768 / 16x9 / @19x10

166.3 

96.6 

86.2 

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV @ 1280x768 / @ 1366 x 768

109.1 

102.9 

N/A

Find out more about how we test laptops.

HP Envy 17-1003
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,333MHz; 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850; 500GB Hitachi 7,200rpm

Asus G73JH-A1
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm (x2)

Alienware m15x
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-920XM; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M; 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Origin EON18
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-920XM; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; (x2)1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M; 80GB Intel SSD + 500GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.73GHz Intel Core i7-740QM; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 350M; 640GB Toshiba 5,400rpm