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

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV

Headshot of Dan Ackerman
Headshot of Dan Ackerman
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Dan Ackerman
6 min read

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.

7.6

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 9Performance 8Battery 4Support 7