2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
6 GB DDR3 System Memory, 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection, 15.6" diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768) - steel gray
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life, Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth with Wireless Display Support, Standard Keyboard
2GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6770M Graphics [HDMI, VGA], Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Webcam and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
Gone are the days when people's judgements over which phone to choose were based on whether it played Snake and had interchangeable fascias. The new breed of elite handsets that are getting people excited are all about big screens and burly processors.
The LG Optimus 4X HD is no exception and comes packing a 720p resolution screen and a quad-core processor.
The 4X went on sale in the UK last week but hasn't yet made it onto any operators' shelves. If you want to bag this blower you'll (currently at least) have to shell out for SIM free. And as you'd expect for a high-end slab, the 4X ain't cheap.
Clove has it up for grabs for £456, while Expansys wants to relieve you of £480. That's around same price as HTC's quad-core beast, the One X. Samsung's own four-to-the-floor behemoth, the Galaxy S3, is even more pricey -- typically costing over £500 SIM free.
Should I buy the LG Optimus 4X HD?
The 4X's Tegra chip will be music to the ears of lovers of 3D gaming. If you're after a portable games console-cum-phone in one large -- but still just about pocketable -- gadget, then the 4X could get your pulse racing. Just don't expect great feats from it's battery when you're hammering it hard.
If you like to ogle big and beefy phones then the LG Optimus 4X HD wants to grab your eyeballs and shake them in their sockets.
If you want an Android powerhouse that can go the distance, Samsung's Galaxy S3 also packs a quad-core chip but its battery proved more capable than the Tegra 3 chipset in our battery tests. The S3 is a tad more expensive though. If you want quad-core power at aslightly less bank-breaking price, the 4X is worth considering.
It may also appeal if you're a fan of vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich -- because it's only got a relatively lightweight Android interface topper. LG's software additions aren't super-slick or stylish but they don't clog Android's arteries too much by larding it with loads of unnecessary flourishes.
Another benefit of having less on top of Android -- at least in theory -- is that the 4X should be well placed to get future Android updates in a timely fashion.
Alternative powerhouse Androids in the quad-core club are the aforementioned S3 and the HTC One X. Huawei has also lined up a quad-core blower -- the Ascend D Quad -- though it's yet to land in the UK.
Quad-core processor
Under the 4X's plastic bonnet is Nvidia's latest Tegra 3 processor, offering four main 1.5GHz processing cores, plus a fifth for battery-saving purposes. This same chip can be found lurking inside the Asus Transformer Prime tablet -- so it's a serious amount of welly for a pocket rocket.
The chip's fifth core is used for less demanding tasks, such as when the phone is idling in standby but still running live widgets in the background. The idea behind it is that the phone can switch to this lower-powered core to make more economical use of battery life, turning to the main cores when you fire up more demanding apps.
Full-fat desktop websites look a treat on the 4X's big pane of glass.
Overall operation on the 4X wasn't as blisteringly quick as I'd been expecting. Apps open and download nice and fast and web browsing is smooth and quick, but I was surprised to see a brief loading screen sporadically popping up between menu swipes and switches (even when there was little going on in the background). It's likely LG's Android software skin is the laggard here, rather than the 4X's engine).
There is a bigger question mark over whether quad-core phones are overkill. Certainly at present, most apps have not been optimised to take advantage of the four-way chip split. Multi-core chips don't add much to basic apps or operation, they're a help with more demanding activities like multi-tasking. This means most people's mobile needs are amply served by a fast dual-core device such as the lightning-quickHTC One S for Android fans, or Apple's iPhone 4S for iOS lovers.
Samsung's latest top-of-the-range Galaxy S3 includes a feature called Pop Up Play, which makes good use of its super-powered engine by letting you multi-task by playing video in a smaller window on the screen, while doing something else on the device. As more apps are built to take advantage of quad-core power, quad-core mobiles will become more useful. In the 4X's case, LG hasn't included any dedicated software features to take advantage of its power. It's up to you to find ways to use it.
The processor is designed to handle 3D gaming better than regular mobile processors. If you're a fan of titles such as Blood & Glory, or any of the high-definition racing titles on Google's Play Store, the 4X should deliver a smoother gaming experience than single-core blowers. One thing to note is it can get quite warm when you're taxing its engines.
In GL Benchmark's Standard Egypt test, which probes 3D graphics capabilities, the 4X ran the demo at 45 frames per second. This is certainly better than the mobile average -- but it does lag behind the S3 (which ran this test at a whopping 59fps). The HTC One X also managed a faster frame rate of 52fps.
There's no doubting the 4X has serious clout -- but it's not the beefiest quad-core of all.
In other benchmark tests, the 4X delivered an undeniably strong -- but never quite chart-topping -- performance. In the SunSpider JavaScript test, which evaluates browser speed, the 4X scored 1,623.7ms (lower is better in this test as it's a measure of time) -- beating Apple's iPhone 4S (2,181.6ms), and the HTC One X (2293.2ms), but not the S3 (1,498.9ms).
In Vellamo's browser test, the 4X scored a very good 1,644 -- just beating the HTC One X. Once again, it was pipped to the post by the S3's 2,077.
On Antutu's test of memory, CPU speed and graphics, the 4X scored an impressive 10,956, just besting the HTC One X (10,827), but again left to eat the S3's dust (12,112). While on Quadrant's benchmark, the 4X totalled a pretty stellar 3,022, it was beaten by both the One X (4,904) and the S3 (5,289).
If you're not a fan of 3D gaming, there's less to recommend getting a quad-core device such as the 4X over and above one of the many highly capable dual-core smart phones out there. The 4X is certainly a powerful device for web browsing and can tackle graphically intensive, full HTML5 websites without stuttering or slowing to a crawl. But this power is not paired with a slick enough software interface to make the phone an out-and-out joy to use. Having this quad-core phone also means compromising on battery performance.
Under this plastic bonnet, the 4X has a large battery -- but not large enough to sustain a full day's play of Blood & Glory.
Battery
With a quad-core chip and a giant 4.7-inch screen, it's no surprise the 4X's battery life is not something to shout about. If you're using the phone carefully and modestly, you should just be able to eke out a day before having to juice it up. But what's the point of having a big engine if you're too afraid to use it?
According to LG, the 4X has a 2,150mAh battery. This is actually a smidge larger than the S3's cell -- which performed well in our battery tests. The 4X's battery size is also roomier than the HTC One X's 1,800mAh tank.
LG's official battery stats for the 4X promise up to 14.9 hours of talk time, 9 hours of browsing or 4 hours of video recording on a single charge. You can listen to music on it for as long as 52 hours and standby time -- when you're not using the phone at all -- is up to 527 hours.
In an attempt to see how long the 4X can last when it's being used a lot, I set it playing an HD nyan cat video over Wi-Fi, with the screen at max brightness. In this psychedelic state, the phone took just under 3 hours to exhaust a fully charged battery. In a similar test, the S3's battery had dropped from 100 per cent to around 70 per cent after 3 hours of video streaming -- suggesting the S3 has superior power management skills and/or a more power-efficient chipset.
Of course, you can extend the 4X's battery life by dialling down the screen brightness and using other preservation techniques such as closing open apps you're no longer using and avoiding running power-draining live wallpapers. But if you forget to charge the phone overnight, don't expect to get much joy out of it the next day.
I also did a battery test with the 4X running a graphically taxing 3D game. In this test I set the screen brightness to half. Even so, it took only 1 hour of continuous play for the battery to drop from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. You can probably only expect 2 hours of high-end gaming on a single charge.
Battery life is not the 4X's strong point so if you want a phone that lasts and lasts, this is the last phone you should choose.
Ice Cream Sandwich and software
The 4X is blessed with the latest version of Android, known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). A lot of new phones -- including LG's ownOptimus 3D Max -- have launched with the older 2.3 Gingerbreadsoftware on board, pledging only that they will update to the newer software soon.
It's therefore nice to see LG has had the good sense to launch its top-of-the-range blower with ICS on board. It's pretty galling to spend a small fortune on the latest kit, only to find its software is out of date.
As standard, ICS offers Android's multiple home screens that you can fill up with all kinds of apps and live widgets. They can be resized to be as prominent as you want -- a feature that has been pulled over from the tablet-specific version of Android called Honeycomb.
You also get full access to the Google Play app store to take advantage of the hundreds of thousands of apps, games, widgets and wallpapers on offer.
Pretty much every company applies its own skin over the stock Android experience and LG is no exception, skinning ICS with its Optimus 3.0 interface. LG's software skin is nothing to write home about. You get the basic multiple home screens of Android to swoop between and add apps and widgets to, but don't expect super-attractive widgets or supremely intuitive interfaces. LG has taken a leaf out of HTC's book with its widget preview menu though, which is nicer to navigate than more rudimentary Android skins that just give you a text list to pick from.
There's a handy widget preview panel that makes it super-easy to load up your home screens with nifty shortcuts.
The best you can say of LG's skin is that it doesn't add too much clutter on top of ICS. Android purists may even prefer it to HTC's slicker Sense interface. For example, LG gives you the stock ICS stack of thumbnails to scroll back through your recently used apps. The stock browser also has a straightforward stack of scrollable thumbnails for switching between your various browser windows. And there's a handy toolbar at the top of the notification tray so you can easily toggle Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a few other functions on and off.
All of this is solid, if not especially slick Android fare. The keyboard layout and word predictive engine on the 4X did annoy me though -- resulting in strings of irritating typos. There's also no Swype or Swype-style keyboard option to switch to for a slicker typing experience. You can, of course, download alternative keyboards from Google Play such as SwiftKey.
Doing basic stuff like cutting and pasting a block of text was far more fiddly than it should have been. And I also experienced glitches -- with some sites causing the phone's screen to go dark for no reason. At one point, as I tried to edit a draft Gmail email, the phone refused to let me type anything. These niggles were more irritating than major deal-breakers but they would annoy me if I'd shelled out for the phone.
As well as access to Google's Play Store for downloading apps, LG has pre-loaded some of its own software onto the 4X. There's nothing too special here but some apps could be handy. Task Manager is a useful way to see which apps are currently running, stopping any you're not using and viewing installed apps to see how much of the phone's 16GB of storage is used up. Application Manager displays the apps you've installed in a list and offers an easy way to remove them.
Other pre-loaded apps include LG's SmartShare for playing and sharing films and files between DLNA certified devices, a RemoteCallService for remotely diagnosing problems with the phone, and LG's SmartWorld app store -- in case you can't find what you're after on Google Play.
The 4X could be described as bland but if you hated the Galaxy S3's rounded pebble design, you might prefer these cleaner lines.
Design and build quality
With a screen size of 4.7 inches on the diagonal, the 4X is banging on the doors of the enormo-phone club, demanding to be let in. It's not pushing the gargantuan proportions of the Samsung Galaxy Note'swhopping 5.3 inches though. Or even its ludicrously large sibling, theLG Optimus Vu -- which has a 5-inch screen that feels even bigger than the Galaxy Note (thanks to its book-like 4:3 aspect ratio).
The 4X is undeniably a big phone but stack it up against the Samsung Galaxy S2 and it's not actually that much bigger. Most of the extra screen real estate on the 4X is at the bottom, meaning the screen is longer but not much wider than the S2. The 4X is also about the same thickness as the S2. If you're comfortable with the size of an S2, you'll have no trouble handling the 4X.
The benefit of a screen of this size is that it means you can happily browse full versions of websites, rather than have to snack on mobile sites. Watching your favourite YouTube clips -- or even eyeballing full-length HD films -- is also enjoyable rather than an exercise in squinting.
On the downside, owning a larger blower means more gadget to lug around and cram into your pocket. Those of you with teeny-tiny hands may find it annoying to stretch your digits to reach everything on the screen.
The display is bright and colourful but don't expect it to burn your retinas to a crisp.
The screen itself is an IPS LCD affair, which offers an excellent resolution of 1,280x720 pixels. That equates to 312 pixels per inch. It's the same resolution and screen size as the HTC One. Look at both panes side by side and the 4X's screen doesn't look quite as vibrant and colourful as the One X, which has a Super LCD pane. Whites do look whiter on the 4X though.
From a hardware point of view, the 4X's display is also less fancy looking than the One X, which has a curvaceous 'waterfall' design that wraps the screen over the phone's two sides. LG has opted for a basic flat rectangle for the 4X's screen. It's pretty vanilla to look at but is easier to hold, thanks to straight chrome-edged sides. The sides are also rigid so there's no risk of phantom selections just because you're holding the phone (something I encountered on the One X).
While there's no shortage of screen real estate to eyeball full websites on the 4X, the resolution isn't as pin sharp and refined as some very high-end screens -- such as the retina display found on Apple's iPhones. Sony's Xperia S also has a sharper panel.
The viewing angle of the 4X, while good, could be better as the screen is set a noticeable few millimetres below the surface. Overall though, the display is bright, clear and colourful. The touchscreen is nice and responsive, although there's a fractional lag before it registers your fingertip and starts shifting pixels where you want them.
Looks wise, the 4X doesn't push any boundaries with its industry-standard-rectangle-with-slightly-rounded-corners design, available in black or white. It's best described as slightly bland. LG says the 4X has a 'prism-edged' design -- which presumably refers to the dual chrome banding running all the way around the edge.
If you look really closely at the 4X's sides you'll find a teeny textured pyramid pattern. It's so subtle you wonder why they bothered.
In the middle of this chrome sandwich is a very thin strip of plastic which, on the phone's two long sides, has a textured pyramid pattern stippling it -- much like the chocolate that falls off patterned wafers. It's not really a tactile addition since the bands of chrome are slightly higher, although at one point the mini pyramids do carry on up and over the raised volume rocker.
There are no physical buttons on the front of the 4X. Instead, you get three touch-sensitive controls to navigate the Android interface -- back, home and menu. These keys spend most of their life being entirely invisible. Indeed, you have to touch them to make them light up -- not much help if you've forgotten which is which.
There's a physical power key on the top of the phone sandwiched between the chrome. I found this a little stiff because it's quite low lying and is located between slightly raised chrome strips.
On the back of the phone, there's more of LG's trademark textured plastic. Here it has what looks almost like a bark imprint. It certainly makes a change from hyper-shiny smart phone surfaces but it does highlight the phone's plasticky character.
Here, you'll also find a rather tinny rear speaker. Crack open the back of the phone and you'll find a removeable battery, a SIM slot and a microSD card slot for expanding the 16GB of board storage.
The 4X's camera has a lazy eye -- its lens keeps drifting in and out of focus.
Also on the back of the device is an 8-megapixel camera -- set ever so slightly back into the casing but surrounded by a protective, grooved metal collar. This lens has a back-illuminated sensor that's designed to offer better results in low-light conditions. Together with the LED flash, this should make it a good snapper for parties in grimy underground pubs -- although I found the single LED could dazzle subjects if you got too close, resulting in washed-out colours.
There's also a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling using services like Skype, and for Android ICS's Face Unlock feature.
The 4X also includes a near field communication (NFC) chip. This contactless technology can be used in conjunction with NFC tags as a quick way to fire up apps or change preferences on the phone, simply by tapping your handset to a tag (LG has included a car mode NFC sticker in the box).
NFC can also be used to support contactless payments. Here in the UK, we're still waiting for the banking apps to come along to enable this.
Call quality was average with people sounding slightly muffled. I didn't experience any dropped calls during testing.
Camera
The 4X's camera is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde creature. When it's good, it's very, very good but when it's bad it's blurrily out of focus. Indeed, staying focused was the big problem it had during testing. It shifts in and out of focus seemingly at random so half the test shots I took were blurred -- such as this shot of a Southwark jogger with the Shard in the background.
The 4X's lens artfully dodges being in focus -- so all too often your snap will be an impressionist blur.
However, when you can get the camera to stay focused, it can turn out some truly excellent shots with artful depth of field.
The 4X demonstrating how its lens loves nothing more than a depth-of-field shot (click image to enlarge).
In general, 4X shots have a soft appearance, rather than the super-sharp clarity and levels of detail of a camera-phone lens such as theSony Xperia S.
The flowers look detailed and their colours have been captured correctly (click image to enlarge).
It's up to you whether you prefer this slightly softer look, or the sharpness of the Xperia S. The 4X's lens is superior in lower light conditions, with much less noise speckling photos.
Donald has turned the attitude up to 11 in this excellent close up (click image to enlarge).
The camera interface also includes a neat time-shifting feature -- if you snap a photo with this turned on, it will actually capture a sequence of shots starting from before you press the shutter to a few seconds after. You can then scroll through the snaps and pick the best one (or, all too often, the non-blurred one).
One particular annoyance is the 4X's shutter sound -- I couldn't find a way to turn this off. The only options offered were to alter the tone from a shutter click to a slightly weirder shutter click, including one which sounds like a female android saying "you lick".
Video capture wasn't great as the 4X's oscillating eye causes footage to rove in and out of focus. Test footage also produced a lot of artefacting during these out-of-focus episodes.
So although you can record 1080p HD video, nobody will be marvelling at the detail. They'll just be asking you whether you were drunk when you shot it.
Conclusion
The LG Optimus 4X HD is a phone for hardcore gadget junkies who demand top-drawer specs and don't mind paying a serious wack of cash to get them. These guys are also happy to carry a few spare batteries to keep their pocket rocket juiced up. The Samsung Galaxy S3 offers more impressive benchmark results -- so if you want to own the Ferrari of the Android world, rather than a more workaday supercar, you'll need to save up a few more pounds.
Potential buyers should be aware the 4X isn't perfect. The camera can be great but it also has a focus glitch, while LG's software skin isn't the most elegant Android topper around and can be finicky.
If your mobile needs are more modest than hardcore 3D gaming then there's no shortage of supremely capable dual-core phones to take home instead -- which are lighter on the wallet and less likely to conk out before the day is done. Android fans could consider the super-nippyHTC One S or even the perennially popular Samsung Galaxy S2 -- which has now had an Ice Cream Sandwich update.
Laptops that can tackle games are traditionally huge beasts slathered in glowing lights and angry-looking vents. The Toshiba Satellite P755 will happily take on your games without making such a fuss about it.
Our model, the P755-113, came with an Intel Core i5 processor, 6GB of RAM and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 3410M graphics card.
It's available from £1,000.
Design and build quality
The P755 is pretty much the little brother of the P770. Instead of packing a massive 17-inch screen, it offers a more modest 15.6-inch display, giving the laptop a more compact size.
At 380mm wide and 254mm deep, it's not the most portable of machines, but it's much easier to slide into a bag than the 17-inch sibling. With a weight of 2.6kg, you won't be too knackered when you take it across town to your friend's place.
It's not as portable as the ultra-light elites such as the Asus Zenbook UX31, but it's not designed to be. The P755 is better suited to being plonked down on a desk for some video and gaming action and only occasionally taken somewhere. If travel is on your mind, you probably shouldn't be looking too closely at this machine.
Made from fake plastic trees, the lid has an unusual wood grain effect.
It has the same casing as the P770, which is bad news if you like bright colours, but great news if you're into plain black plastic with an odd wood grain effect. The plastic at first seems pretty strong, but a few minutes of prodding and poking uncovers some weak spots in the build -- most notably in the large amount of flex in the keyboard tray and in the plastic that runs beneath the trackpad, which comes away from the body.
It's pretty disappointing to find these weaknesses in any machine, especially one that costs you a cool grand. If we're paying that sort of cash, we'd really want to feel satisfied with a premium build quality and the P755 just doesn't deliver.
The keyboard provides further disappointment. It uses square, isolated keys that are spread a good distance apart, but it's sadly not particularly responsive. We often found that it missed letters during typing. This resulted in considerably more errors than we normally make. We found the arrow keys were similarly unresponsive in gaming -- we had to make a conscious effort to be firm in our pressing to ensure that it would register.
The trackpad is big and responsive but for some reason doesn't support multi-touch gestures so there's no two-fingered scrolling. Instead, you'll have to scroll manually with the classic 'click and hold, swipe' method, which we thought we'd left behind in 2006, along with phones without app stores.
The speakers come courtesy of audio specialist Harman Kardon and provide a decent level of din for watching videos or playing games. They're above average for laptop speakers, but they're still far from ideal. Hook a good set of speakers up or whack in some powerful headphones for a really immersive experience.
The keyboard, trackpad and speakers aren't perfect and the build quality is lacking.
Screen
The 15.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which isn't quite pushing the boundaries of full HD. Normally, we wouldn't argue about this, but the P755 comes with a Blu-ray drive to show off movies in HD so it's annoying that the screen isn't capable of properly displaying your discs. If you want to enjoy your high-def movies, you can hook the laptop up to a TV via the HDMI port.
The screen is pretty bright and sharp so it'll suit you if you read a lot of text on web pages. When the brightness is cranked up to the max, the colours can seem a little washed out, but if you're playing games in a darkened room, you can turn it down and enjoy a more rich, natural colour tone.
The P755 comes with Nvidia 3D Vision so you can enjoy a whole extra dimension on the screen. Setting up the 3D system involves you running through a simple Nvidia programme to configure the glasses before you fire up your own content.
We found the 3D effect to be acceptable, but not great. There was quite a lot of ghosting and double images, which was pretty unpleasant, so we quickly went back to 2D. That also meant we could take off those daft glasses. The 3D effect is a novelty and doesn't really add much to the overall viewing experience. We wouldn't suggest you buy this laptop purely for the 3D feature.
Performance
Inside you'll find an Intel Core i5-2410M processor clocked at 2.3GHz, holding hands with 6GB of RAM. That's a pretty good lineup of numbers, so we were hoping for some decent power.
While the keyboard might not be up to quick-fingered in-game tapping, gameplay is smooth, thanks to the impressive specs.
We fired up the PCMark05 benchmark test and were given an admirable score of 8,145. It beat its 17-inch brother, which only managed 7,292, even though it's running on the same internal components. It also easily beat the Asus U36JC, which achieved 5,973 on the same test.
In practice, we found that performance was very swift, with programs booting up quickly and multi-tasking handled with aplomb. It will certainly tackle all your office tasks and you can even ask it to edit photos and videos without it squealing in protest. It may not be quite so chuffed with you if you try and render a lot of high-definition video.
The P755 is packing a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT540M graphics card to help it take on the latest games. We ran the 3DMark06 benchmark test -- which checks how well a computer handles the polygons -- and were given a very pleasing score of 8,772. That's not quite up there with dedicated gaming machines like Toshiba's ownQosmio X770; that achieved 15,548 on the same test. But it's a great score for an all-round machine.
To see how it really tackles demanding games, we loaded up Dirt 3and sent our car on a jaunt around the woods. The frame rate hovered around 42 frames per second, which made gameplay very smooth. You'll really want to plug in a dedicated gamepad though as the keyboard buttons are pretty poor for quick-fingered gaming.
Battery test
The P755 is more portable than its big brother, so we'd hope for it to have enough of a battery to be able to survive between plug sockets.
The battery's not up to much so you'll have to keep your power pack close to hand if you're out and about.
We ran our battery test and it managed to hold out for 1 hour and 8 minutes before giving up the ghost. It's a really brutal test and you can always get a better performance with more cautious usage, but it's still not great. If you're planning on doing some gaming on the go, don't expect to get much more than that time and always keep the power pack with you.
Conclusion
The build quality and keyboard on the Toshiba Satellite P755 don't impress, but there's a powerful processor at its heart and the graphics card will tackle all but the most demanding games.
If you're looking for a gaming machine that you can feasibly carry around -- and can ignore the above issues -- the P755 might be worth a look.
Some laptops are designed to be super-thin portable machines that you can carry anywhere, while others are enormous things that belong at home. The Toshiba Satellite L875-10G is one of the latter.
It's a 17.3-inch machine packing an Intel Core i5 processor, an impressive 8GB of RAM and a dedicated AMD Radeon graphics card. It's just begging to be your bedroom media pal, and with a very reasonable price of only £680, it might not be a bad idea to take it up on that offer.
Design and build quality
Need a laptop for carrying around and working on the go? Move along, chum, this isn't the machine for you. With its 17.3-inch screen, the L875 stretches the definitions of portable. It measures a not inconsiderable 413mm across and 268mm deep so you'll struggle to find a shoulder bag big enough to accommodate it.
The steel-blue styling is a welcome change from the legions of grey-clad laptops out there.
That's fine because at around 2.7kg, you're unlikely to want to carry it anywhere. Rather than attempt to use it as a portable work machine, the L875 is better sat on your desk as a replacement for a desktop computer. Anchored there, the 17-inch screen can be put to good use playing back all your films and music.
The lid is clad in a brushed aluminium shell that's been given an attractive steel-blue colour. That may or may not appeal, but it's certainly nice to see something other than the usual shades of grey.
The metal offers the benefit of making the laptop seem more premium than if it were simply made of plastic. There's quite a lot of flex in the lid though, so don't think that the metal acts as a suit of armour -- it'll still succumb to a terrible fate if you happen to drop it from a decent height.
Despite being made from aluminium, the lid shows signs of flex if you give it a good wrestle.
Of course, if it's going to spend 95 per cent of its time on your desk or lap while reclining on the sofa, then hardcore durability really isn't a concern. For the job it's designed for, it's built perfectly well.
Around the sides you'll find one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 slots, Ethernet and HDMI sockets, VGA-out and headphone and microphone jacks.
Keyboard and trackpad
Under the lid you'll find more of that blue brushed metal on the large wrist rest. The keyboard is a standard black plastic affair with square, isolated keys that are well spaced. They're easy to press, which results in a comfortable typing experience with few mistakes.
One annoying aspect though is the half-sized arrow keys. Considering the vast amount of room Toshiba has to play with on the keyboard tray, there's absolutely no excuse for using space-saving arrow keys. If you often use these to scroll through documents or web pages, it's likely you'll find these as irritating as I did.
Ample space means there's plenty of room to spread out the keyboard, so why the annoying mini arrow keys?
The trackpad is particularly big and wide, which is good to see, considering the enormous size of the machine. If it were too small, I would most certainly have complained. It's got a rough texture that makes sliding your finger around very easy. It's responsive too, and the large buttons beneath offer a comfortable click, making for a pleasing experience overall. Of course, plugging in a USB mouse would make scrolling easier.
Screen
The 17.3-inch screen offers a resolution of 1,600x900 pixels. That's not as much as I'd like to see -- I'd typically want a screen of this size to push for the full 1080p resolution. The L875 arrives with a lower price than many 17-inch models such as Toshiba's own Qosmio X770, which comes in at around £1,500, so it's difficult to judge it too harshly for not pushing the pixel count.
The resolution means that you won't be able to appreciate Full HD YouTube clips in all their glory but it's at least fine with 720p clips. It's bright and bold, so whatever you decide to watch should look pretty good. There's a DVD drive on the side too so you'll be able to make your way through your film collection or spend a weekend watching box-sets.
Pretty standard viewing angles are served up by the display so don't expect to get the best look at Ryan Gosling's lovely face if you're lying on the floor with the laptop on your desk. You probably shouldn't be down there anyway -- get a nice lounger chair or at least recline on your bed.
I'll forgive the L875 for not maxing out the screen resolution because the price is affordable.
Performance
Inside that blue shell is an Intel Core i5-2450M processor clocked at 2.5GHz, backed by a very healthy 8GB of RAM. That's a nice set of specs so I was hoping for good benchmark results to match.
I booted up the PCMark05 test that looks at a computer's general processor performance and was given a score of 8,921, which I was pretty pleased with. By comparison, the Toshiba Satellite P775achieved a similar score and costs around £1,000.
I found a similarly good score on the Geekbench test, on which the L875 notched up 7,669. That's comparable to the considerably more expensive MSI GT680 gaming laptop, so it really looks like you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.
During use, I found it to be extremely responsive and the 8GB of RAM makes it excellent for multi-tasking. Indeed, I found that even when I ran numerous programs at once and loaded a whole host of web browser tabs, it was still able to open new windows and browse around the Windows 7 operating system without any signs of lag.
The processor is perfectly capable of handling all office tasks and you'll be able to squeeze some light photo and video editing out of it. Tweaking your holiday snaps in programs like Adobe Lightroom 4 will be no trouble, but don't expect it to be too happy if you try and edit enormous raw image files in Photoshop CS6 -- you'll still need to leave that to the ultra-powered editing rigs.
The good specs within produced an all-round decent performance, matching more expensive machines.
The L875 also comes with an AMD Radeon HD 7670M graphics card to help you munch through games. To see what it was capable of I ran the 3DMark06 benchmark test and found a score of 8,433, which is very pleasing for a machine of this price. The Toshiba Qosmio X770achieved over 15,000 on the same test but it costs more than twice as much.
Scores aren't everything though so I installed Batman: Arkham Cityand sent the caped crusader on his missions, beating up baddies left, right and centre. The L875 reached a rate of around 30 frames per second with an average of around 25fps. That's not enough to keep the truly hardcore gamers happy but it's at least playable, and you can get a slightly better score if you knock the settings down.
Conclusion
The Toshiba Satellite L875 combines excellent performance inside a large and attractive body and doesn't charge the Earth for it. Its lack of a full HD screen is a little disappointing, but considering the price, that's not too surprising. If you're in the market for a desktop replacement laptop to tackle your DVD collection, then the L875 is an excellent model that's worth considering.
