5205-S705 was the best laptop I ever used, wish I still had mine(was stolen, doh).
CASV screen has to be seen to be believed. Some issues with glare under certain conditions. If you're one of those people who conpulsively touches the screen when pointing out certain things, you'll have to clean the fingerprints off on a daily basis. 1600x1200 native rez was a bit tough on my eyes at first, even with increased font sizes in winxp. Problem I had was that while you can increase font size in windows, very few games scale or allow you to scale their interfaces/fonts like that, so I ended up playing many games in non-native rez, and most of them required fullscreen, so I was somewhat screwed. Beautiful for watching DVDs, whenever I fired one up at after hours at work, anybody who walked by invariably would stop walking and start watching.
Sound=superb. Good speakers, ok amplification, and the 'subwoofer' made for significantly better sound, in my limited experience. I'm somewhat of an audio snob, and for me to use the laptop speakers instead of a good pair of fullsize sennheisers says something.
Battery life=poor, though I say that in general, without factoring in the increased performance vs. any other laptops with better battery life. Battery will not charge, or charges very slowly if you're using the notebook on ac power. If I wanted it to recharge reasonably quickly, had to shut it down.
Graphics performance... well, this was the worst part, imho. That geforce part just doesn't cut it for a serious gamer. Serious gamers should find a notebook with an ati m10/m11 solution, even if it means postponing their purchase.
keyboard=fine. No complaints here. I'd like more key-throw, but can't expect it in a laptop.
build quality=mostly good. Couple concerns, there is some flex in the lid hing assembly, which could/can make the display wobble a bit. Never a problem if you're sitting at a desk or similar, but could be annoying for use on train/in car, on lap, etc. Plastic shell is fairly solid, seemed scratch resistant. Some flex to the shell, but that almost seemed like a good thing, since it never showed a dent or scratch.
ergonomics=excellent for me, barring one glaring flaw. The front of the the case, at the base of the keyboard is a sharp angle, instead of rounded and/or padded, as it should be, imho. Long sessions ended up often putting creases in my wrists, if I didn't main perfect posture throughout. I've got a compaq from work where that front edge is both nicely rounded, and covered with a soft surface.
hard drive=adequate. I replaced this with a 7200rpm hitachi shortly after I bought it. Hitachi puts out a bit more heat/noise/vibration over the stock model, but is acceptable.
windows media center/tv tuner/remote=not ready for primetime. The stuff works, and works fairly well once hooked up and configured, but is basically a really dumb Tivo at this point. Media Center cut out tons of possible pc<->tv interaction in an effort to keep the interface simple, imho. Example: You can browse through pics/videos on your computer, but only if you have them in the My Pictures/My Videos folder. If you actually use the laptop as a portable, you'll find that connecting/disconnecting the tv-tuner, ir-receiver, and related cables very annoying after awhile. I'm not a big tv fan, which probably colored my views on this aspect of the laptop.
All things said, a very nice laptop. I almost replaced it with an 8890, but have since backed off and am playing a waiting game for the 'perfect' laptop for me. Curiously enough, I tend to carry around a SFF pc and just use spare peripherals at work nowadays.
I'm kind of concerned with Toshiba's laptop strategy, and am not sure if I'd buy another one from them until their multiple product lines start to make some sort of sense. The 5205-S705 was only sold for what, 3 months? I know we've got very short hardware cycles nowadays, but that still seems pretty short. I'd probably change my tune in a heartbeat if they made a 5205-s705 look-alike that was centrino+m11.
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