Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5085 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

It's okay but does not have a webcam and this to me is not cool as a mention was made about it in the technical details.

The Laptop works great but it have a quite cheap look when opened. Performance beats looks in my case so its fine as long as gets the job done.

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This is not a good Christmas for buying a laptop. Without a web cam and HDMI output this is very entry level and yet it's still in the $400 range. should be $300 or less. I am not impressed.

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For the most part, I am satisfied with the laptop. Had to get used to the keyboard, which is different than most other laptops I've used (has the number pad on the right, like a regular PC keyboard). The touch pad is annoying in that the way it is placed, I end up bumping it unintentionally all the time, but that's minor.

The main grievance I have with this laptop is the terrible quality of the speakers. I need headphones to actually be able to HEAR with headphones it is acceptable. Without headphones, the volume is very very muted.

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The pictures used for this laptop are soooo misleading. If I knew that there was no webcam, I would not have bothered to purchase this. If the description of the laptop included a picture with a webcam, I expect to get one..

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Gateway M275 Tablet Pc

This computer has been my primary artistic device since 2006. It has outlasted four power supplies without a major malfunction. I have bicycled over a thousand miles with this computer in my backpack, hitchhiked all over America, and walked across most of France. She's a bit old now, and she can't really run the most modern programs. But if you want a workhorse computer for a travelling artist, this is my recommendation.

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE14117FXB 14-Inch Laptop (Sharkskin Black)

Have had this for awhile and am just now getting around to writing a review. I got this before the latest Windows disaster came out specifically to upgrade before that. Also, wanted something with a blu-ray player. The blu-ray player feature works great and I was floored by how good the picture quality was when watching movies. The laptop is light enough and small enough that it is easy to travel with. Looking back I'm happy with this purchase and would recommend product if you can still get it with Windows 7.

This is a Win7 version of this laptop, and I love it. The apps that Sony is loading are absolutely cool, and I like the fact that now I can control my other Sony devices via this laptop (PS3 or Sony Media Player). The rest is typical, Intel i5 and BluRay. I don't think I will upgrade this to Win8, but that is another story :)

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Good laptop for the price!!!! So far is working good, low fan noise, and good speed!

Sound quality can use a little help but is not bad!

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This laptop is excellent for multiple use.

Pros:

Excellent performance.

the backlid in the keyboard.

Good Camera.

Cons:

Motion Gesture is very complicate for use.

I have little problem for use the gesture in the Touchpad.

It's little heavy.

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This computer is reliable, compact and lightweight with a backlit keyboard, blu-ray drive and other power house features. I expect to use this quality Sony VAIO product for years to come without having to upgrade.

Great bargain!

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Refurbished Apple iBook Laptop with Microsoft Office 2004, Garage Band and Toast! G4 iBook 1.33GHz

I've been a fan of Apple products since I bought my first imac. This laptop is of similar quality. I bought it mainly to use for music projects but it's proved useful for much more. For the money spent, this has been well worth it, a number of times over.

Very nice computer and works great. Bought this for my daughter to use for her school work and she loves it very much. Despiute being older it is a good solid APPLE product.

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HP 15.6" Pavilion G60-519WM Entertainment Laptop PC

I purchased this laptop about 3 weeks ago. I have been well pleased. I am a light PC user and basically surf and purchase on line. Set up was a breeze. I connected right to my wireless. I downloaded my camera disc and love looking at my vacation pics. So far, so good. Good luck, and I hope this helps. There were no reviews when I purchased, so I was a little nervous.

Bought at Wal-Mart for $298 on Black Friday. Set-up was simple. Works great. I like Windows 7. Boots fast. No card reader or HDMI connection. Still great buy.

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Had this piece of crap for less than a month and it already died on me! Don't get it!

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I purchased two intending to give one as a gift but did not, i'm selling the 2nd one instead. I was amazed at how quick and painless the setup was right out of the box. First time I havent had to call tech support. My wireless internet was recogized immediately, I only had to input the password and it connected, no software needed. Windows 7 works great. The only disappointment so far is no built in card reader. Very thin and lightweight, boots up fast. For basic computing, internet, audio, video, it does the trick.

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I have had this laptop for a little over a year and it is a piece of crap! The keys fall off, the screen has gone black and the part that connects the screen broke. Do not buy this laptop, its not worth it, unless you want to put more money into it than its worth.

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ThinkPad T61 Notebook

A friend bought me a T61 over 3 years ago as a belated birthday present. Mine came directly from the manufacturer though. Mine also has Windows Vista Home Premium. This laptop is my every day laptop. I use it pretty much all day for work, games, music creation, video creation, graphics, etc. It handles everything I throw at it, including virtual machines in VMWare and VirtualBox, and runs the Visual Studio 2008 development system just fine. Despite what many say about Vista, I haven't really had any device driver problems or too many problems in general. It's very stable. And I even develop for a robot which needed a special LibUSB driver on the laptop to recognize the robot when plugged in to get to the robot's linux console.

I've also been able to use wireless keyboard and mice as well.

In the 3+ years I've had the laptop, I've upgraded to a larger (Western Digital) hard drive only because I needed more space. I also had to replace the keyboard last month but that is because my old one was shot. I use it every day for extended periods so naturally the keyboard went on me (some keys didn't work and the matrix was starting to wear off). Found a good used keyboard like new on eBay and it was easy to replace.

The WiFi is a bit weird in that even with latest drivers, it will still go off and on after coming out of sleep mode. I have a ton of things to start up with so it does take awhile to boot. But it's not too bad.

I give this computer 5 stars as I have used it for so long and it just lasts and lasts. It's a great computer and with the way I've used it a lot as my main home computer, I can say it's very sturdy and holds up very well. I highly recommend the ThinkPad line (I have a T23 I got used that also works great as my backup computer).

The laptop isn't overly large but not small either. Mine has a 14" widescreen monitor and it handles watching streaming videos (hulu, iTunes, YouTube, Vimeo, and here on amazon.com) very well and very smoothly. I can even create my own videos, and while I'm waiting for it to process, I can be doing other things without really noticing a slow down.

The laptop does get rather warm when in use so it's not really a great "lap" top. Don't wear shorts if you been using it awhile and want to place it in your lap!

For the small annoyances which are trivial, this is one very good quality, long lasting machine. I highly recommend it.

Best laptops Iv'e owned...I have been a thinkPad junkie for a while now...after a couple cheaper "home" model laptops kicked the bucket, I bought a T31 It lasted through years of constant use. when it was time to buy another one, I chose a different brand to save money, what a mistake! A year later I purchased a T42 from IBM and again, had YEARS of constant use with virtually no problems. I now have a T61p that is still live and kicking, it was "designed" for XP, but were prepping for vista (glad vista was NOT an OEM install) I have now installed 64bit Win7 and threw 4gig of ram in it. Wow, all drivers set right up with NO problems...NONE. I wouldn't look at for this laptop for just "gaming" purposes but, if you have the dock (which I also have) you can install a PCIe graphics card in the dock...now it's a whole different animal I have ALWAYS had great respect for these ThinkPads and the Lenovo transition seems to be right on. No issues, love it!

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This is probably the worst computer I've ever owned. I've had it less than two years, and it's already close to kicking the bucket. The battery life is horrible, and to top it off, the power cord isn't working. I literally need to hold it in my computer to keep it charging (if I let go of the cord, it goes into battery mode). It takes ages to start up and has started to go into standby randomly without warning. I've owned many kinds of computers in my life, and I promise you that I will never own a Lenovo again.

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Sony VAIO T Series SVT13134CXS 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Silver)

I've really got used to having a touchscreen on my phone and Kindle Fire, but as an author I also really appreciate a proper keyboard. So with that in mind, when it came time to choose a new PC, I decided to plump for the new touchscreen Windows 8 ultrabook from Sony.

My experience started off in rather a bad way, with my first ultrabook lasting a mere two hours before it gave out, never to reboot again. However, the Amazon returns and replacement service was excellent and the very next day I had another ultrabook at my door. This one, it seems, is going to last longer than the first. I've now had it a full 5 days and I've run it through its paces and set everything up on it. I'm using it to write my latest book and also to do all those lovely touchy windows 8 things on the wonderfully clear 13.3" 1366 x 768 touchscreen. My first impressions are that this PC is a gem.

Things I like:

1. Speed of restart from sleep no more waiting and waiting to start using it. You simply close the lid when you're done and then reopen it when you want to continue. It takes about 2 seconds to be ready to use.

2. The ability to switch between the touchscreen, touchpad and keyboard (all interchangeable) once you learn all the gestures and shortcuts it's a really quick user experience.

3. The zippiness of it my previous PC was a three year-old desktop. This ultrabook seems about 6 generations faster.

4. Windows 8 apps Netflix, Angry Birds, Skype, CNN News and a plethora of other apps run just like they do on an iPad or Kindle fire.

5. It just works I know, you expect it to work, but sometimes new things can be a little weird.

So far there is nothing I dislike about it (apart from a lack of some Windows 8 apps but more and more are arriving each day).

I could go on about the battery life, the ports, the keyboard and everything else, but you can read all the technical specs above. the bottom line is would I recommend this PC? Wholeheartedly YES!

I got this from work about 4 months ago. I think four months is ample time to be able to give an accurate review of this ultrabook. I really wanted to love this laptop, but I don't. It's very sharp and stylish with its black and silver design but almost laughably clumsy.

Allow me to explain. First and foremost you have to hold the bottom whenever you open it because the hinge mechanism is tight and the bottom isn't weighty enough. Secondly, once you have the laptop open the first thing you'll notice is not the lack of an HD screen but rather the strong glare back into your eyes if there is a light nearby. The screen reflects way too much light and I find myself moving the display back and forth throughout the day just so I can read. Thirdly, the keyboard (although I have to admit that I am getting more used to it) feels carpal tunnel inducing. There is simply very little give to the keys so you feel as if you're tapping away on a flat surface (although touch screen tablets are not uncomfortable). I prefer the feedback you get from other keyboards (such as Dell's XPS line). Additionally, the keys are not smooth but feature a slight rough texture that feels rather cheap.

The touch screen is a cool feature but I must admit that I never use it. It's just not comfortable to hang your arm in front of your screen for an extended period of time. I use a wireless Logitech mouse because the trackpad is annoying as well. It doesn't recognize when you lift one of your fingers off of it unless you take both of them off. This becomes very annoying when you're scrolling (with two fingers) and you take one off so that you can move to cursor to click on something and it continues scrolling down!

I should also mention that about two months after I had it, the touch screen input stopped working. I tried all kinds of troubleshooting, even formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows and all drivers but in the end it was a hardware issue. I must give credit where credit is due and after talking to Sony they instructed me to bring the laptop to any UPS store (I didn't have to wrap it) and they would overnight it to their service center in Texas. I received several calls from Sony informing me of the current repair status while it was gone (very unexpected). Within two weeks I had the laptop back in working condition.

My final gripe is that even though I have Windows set to sleep when I close the lid, about once, sometimes twice a week, I get home after leaving work and find the laptop burning hot because it never went to sleep.

We ordered about 15 of these for the office and the feelings are mutual among all of us.

All in all, for the price it is not a terrible laptop but I do think you can find better. It's doing the job as a work laptop but I would never buy it on my own nor could I recommend it to anyone.

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For me it came down to this Sony T Series and Asus Vivobook. Price point is very similar; I give Sony the slight nod with hardware specifications, the quality of keyboard and the ability to swap out the battery. Upgrading RAM on both laptops is possible, but I am unsure of the added value. If you are running something that needs 8GB RAM, you shouldn't be buying an ultrabook.

For the keyboard, both feel shallow but the Sony's keyboard is a bit more comfortable (at least to me). Since this laptop is fairly new, check out the reviews on the old non-touchscreen T Series. It is exactly the same except for the screen and upgraded hinges. The screen still bounces when touched, but stays in place and feels solid (so far).

The laptop has a quality feel. If you press around the casing you can flex the topcase around the "Tab" and "Caps Lock" keys, everywhere else it feels solid. Also, the screen has a slight flex but does not seem to be a negative, I believe the touch screen design beefed up the sturdiness from the prior years model.

The design has a business type feel, square edges, I think it might keep its style longer than the Vivobook. The Sony is simple and understated.

One concern I had was the placement of the touchpad. I prefer this to be centered below the space bar to avoid activating the mouse cursor with your palm while typing (on this model it is centered on the topcase), but that does not seem to be an issue on this laptop. Even with contact, the touchpad seems to ignore the touch of the palm. Fan noise, yes the fan is audible on start-up and when resources are heavy, but it hasn't bothered me too much. With any ultrabook relying on a fan for cooling you are going to have this issue.

If you are coming from a Windows 7 environment expect a learning curve. I have read reviews of people who hate Windows 8 and at times the multiple gestures can prove frustrating. Give yourself some time; understand the four points of control on the touchscreen to navigate your system. The windows button is your friend if you get lost. The less you use your keyboard, the better the Windows 8 environment becomes.

I see these ultrabooks as the best of both worlds. A computer that can function as a tablet, but still gives you the tools needed for business use. For the cost (under 700) you are not taking that big a gamble, avoid spending too much on higher grade laptops, use this for a year or two and upgrade again. Spending over $700 on an ultrabook seems like a waste of money to me.

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I love this computer. The specs are solid, the price is affordable, and it's a touch screen, which I think is a must have with Windows 8.

I'm a transcriptionist, so I need a full keyboard and for the computer to be lightweight, as I'm regularly on the go. Unfortunately, full keyboarded ultrabooks seem impossible to find. After much research, I found that this computer IS full keyboarded, so I'm very happy about that. It just arrived in the mail and it's a very stylish, attractive computer as well. I'm very satisfied with this purchase.

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It took a while to get everything to sync with Win 8. Best advice is to attach every account (FB, Twitter, etc.) to your Windows Live account on another computer before you set this one up. Gmail is not supported by Win 8 so you will have to do a work around to get it added. I had to allow special permissions to get it to work. It also seems to have an issue with the WiFi losing networks when waking up from sleep. A restart seems to reset everything. Having said those negative things, it looks great. The closest in style to a Macbook IMO. It does not have a DVD drive so if you want one you will have to buy an external. Overall very pleased.

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Apple MacBook - Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz - RAM 1 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVD?RW (+R DL) - GMA 950 - Gigabit Et

No surprises. Everything arrived in time and all together in one box. I swapped out the hard drive with my own and everything booted and is working great!

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ASUS UL50AG-RBBBK05 Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz 4GB 500GB DVD±RW 15.6" LED-Backlit Win7 Home Prem wit

This laptop freezes up if I use the battery. Even when I am using electrical current and the battery is in the unit, it freezes. If I do not have the battery in and use the electrical current only, it works fine.

I hate to return it as I now have all my personal info on the hard drive, including bank accounts, credit card numbers, etc.

Please let me know what I should do.

So far so good..... except for the whole issue with windows not being recognized as genuine. but device works as advertised... just hope it continues to operate.

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It is slim, light, and works very well. The keyboard is comfortable, keeping in mind that I do not use the keypad on a daily basis. If you're an accountant, you'll need an external keyboard for the 10-key. For casual use, it's fine. No complaints at all -except that it's hard to find in-stock.

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Gateway M305crv Pentium 4 or Celeron Black Laptop

I have owned a Gateway M305CRV for nearly 4 years. The processor is a 2.4GHz mobile celeron and I installed 1GB of Ram (system max). I also upgraded the hard drive to 100GB, which the system handles with no issues.

Despite the fact that the processor is the older single core vs. the newer dual core intel and AMD models, the performance is still comparable. I use the sytem for surfing the web, e-mail, photo editing, some video editing, and standard word and spreadsheet processing. I have also used it periodically for database development in Access.

While you cannot use the more demanding programs (such as Access or photoshop elements) simultaneously without bogging the system down somewhat, the performance is still on par with newer processors for working in a single application. I have owned several different models of the Gateway laptops and Dell laptops, and I find in general that the Gateway models seem more efficient that the Dells. The downside of the Gateway's is the customer service. If you don't need tech support and can do your own upgrades for most items you would want to change (such as RAM, hard drive, optical drive, etc.) don't be afraid of a Gateway.

I've owned a Gateway M305CRV for over 3 years with absolutely no issues. And I bought this thing used as a refurbished unit from Gateway via a third-party reseller online. It only came with a 90 day warranty from Gateway, but I was able to contact Gateway and get the warranty extended to a full 3 year deal (I had to pay for the extension of course). But it turned out I didn't need the warranty at all, it expired in March without me using it.

When I first bought this laptop I worked for a University in North Carolina that was a authorized Gateway service center (which is why I bought a Gateway). Of course since I got the laptop, Gateway has gone from being shaky to downright awful. Selling a large part of their core systems to MPC and outsourcing virtually everything.

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Unlike the previous two reviewers I did own this exact model computer. It was a problem from day one. Gateway's customer service was not helpful and outright hostile at times. It crashed everytime it was used and its graphics speed was well below average. It bogged down everytime any game was played. Painfully slow. I determined that I will never own another Gateway computer ever. I have found that Dell's customer service was much easier to deal with. I rated this item at one star because I could not get it to rate lower than that.

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I originally got this laptop from Gateway around 7 years ago, it's been the goto computer on the go for me;

I've upgraded the memory last year to 1GB and since then it's been able to handle any of the day to day stuff that most people would do (word processing, e-mail) without experiencing any slowdowns; I'm running WinXP SP3 with the usual anti-mal, anti virus software

I can work on my digital photos with freeware programs like GIMP, and even play some older 3D games (although, if you push it, it will get hot and lead to a system crash, making a reboot necessary), it handles 2D games without issues

All in all, it's more than paid for itself, i would upgrade it more with a bigger HD if i could find one at a good price

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I had the Gateway M305CRV for about eight years and it still runs fine to this day. Sure the fan is a little loud, but this computer will never die. Mine has even been run over by a car, don't ask, and all i had to do was get the screen replaced and it worked perfectly again. I get mine cleaned out every 2 years or so, which makes it run like new. I dont think I know anyone who has a laptop that is eight years old, been through what mine has and still runs. This laptop rules!

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Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A09US 15.6-Inch Laptop

I guess that I am responding to the person who was disappointed with his/her computers wifi speed, as a rule it is the wifi service itself and not the computer that is to blame for such problemsyou might check there. As for my experience with this computer, I love it, easy to set-up and use and faster than the Gateway I gave to my wife. No problems with Windows 8[I actually like it better than Windows 7] and really am pleased with the quality and design of the Samsung keyboard vs. Gateway. Not a gamer or professional user, just a regular guy type user who is amazed at the speed and ability of these new machines

I bought this laptop for a friend , she loves it. It's a very good computer. Performance is great, and is very lite.

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I purchased this laptop two months ago. Sa far so good! Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A09US 15.6-Inch Laptop is a fantastic item. I like the 15.6 inch screen, it works great, and the price was right. I'm so glad I didn't get a laptop with a small 13 inch screen. Battery charges fast. It's furthermore nicely fine piece regarding the cost. Although general it can supreme merchandise for you and i will be positively recommend it all Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A09US 15.6-Inch Laptop!

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Died at 6 months old, even geek squad couldn't get it going. They sent it back to Samsung, they replaced the entire mother board. Love it but disappointed that has issues after only 6 months of ownership. Samsung not warranting mother board they replaced still only 1 yr warranty

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This was a high school graduation gift for my Grand-daughter. Yes, it comes with Windows 8 and some junk applications. However, Samsung did not includes nearly as many useless apps as most manufacturers.

I will admit that I have become a Windows 8 fan. Just as I had previously done on my ASUS N56VJ, also from Amazon, I modified the interface so that the "Desktop" looks exactly as if you were still running Windows 7. But, you also still have the Windows 8 "Start" interface available making it easy to switch over and use apps more suited for that interface.

Since my PC's are are i7s with 16gb of ram, it did seem a bit slow. However, to most PC users, this machine will probably feel very fast.

As with most Samsung products, the build is excellent and feels very sturdy. Since my Grand-daughter is going away to the University of South Florida, this was an important part of my decision to buy this unit. Obviously, it will be carried to a bunch of places. So, as a precaution, I installed LoJack . . . rather be safe than sorry.

This laptop is also very aesthetically pleasing. It is a cool looking laptop. I almost wanted to keep it. My Grand-daughter loves it and I would recommend to anyone looking for a gift for a young person. Actually, I would recommend it to any one wanting a good buy in a reliable laptop.

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Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey)

In the market for a mobile computing solution, I eschewed the tablet trend and went straight for the ultrabook. I needed a device that met both my productivity needs (i.e., a keyboard) but was also highly portable. For almost a day I was convinced I wanted that new Samsung chromebook, but ultimately I decided a browser-based O.S. was possibly too limiting. I really preferred a Windows 8 machine, and if it had the power to run Guild Wars 2 (my PC game of choice) without costing a lot, that would be optimal. The Lenovo brand spoke to me because of its reputation, and even though I shopped around at Dell, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS, and the rest, the Lenovo kept calling me back. Performance, portability, and price. The Ideapads checked all three boxes.

In the review that follows there will be several mentions of Lenovo's S405. This is because I purchased the S405 first from Amazon for $540. (Less than a month later, it's already down to $480!) But I determined that the S405, attractive as it was, didn't meet my performance expectations. So, I returned that model and got the U410 (version 59351632) from Newegg for $630.

APPEARANCE: At a maximum width of .83" and 4.1 lbs., the U410 is neither the thinnest nor lightest ultrabook on the market. However, laptops offering similar performance at this price point weigh an average of 6 lbs., so put aside the notion that the U410 is somehow an unwieldy beast. It's no MacBook Air, but it isn't HEAVY. (It's also not $1200+.) It does kind of look like a MacBook, though. (Not that the MacBooks have a monopoly on silver chassis with black chiclet keyboards.) The aluminum cover of my U410 is charcoal gray; interior is matte silver. I *loved* the all black interior of the S405, but this design has grown on me. The U410 looks and feels expensive, beautiful in its simplicity. Whereas the S405 was .8" at its thickest point, then became even narrower at the front, the U410 is a uniform thickness on all sides, but the sides are also slightly concave giving it a touch of style. If you purchase the U410 on Lenovo's website you'll have red and blue designs as options (the red looks particularly spiffy) but you'll also pay at least a hundred dollars more than you would at Newegg.

The U410 sheds some of its cost and weight by the exclusion of an optical drive. I used an external DVD burner to make a recovery disc, but Lenovo includes a program called "OneKey Recovery" that backs up your system to a safe partition of your hard disk. I also appreciate how cool and quiet the U410 runs during casual use. Predictably, games cause the fan inside to work harder and the device gets hot on the underside near the ventilation.

Insert: Another review on this site complained of the fan's noise level. Perhaps this person received a defective unit. My U410 runs quiet except when I push the hardware, then the noise increases. But even then, it's not so loud I'm disturbed by it.

KEYBOARD: Lenovo bought IBM's Thinkpad brand back in 2005; Thinkpads being notable for their outstanding keyboards well suited to the business-oriented user. Before I committed to purchasing a Lenovo, I read a bit about how the keyboards in the Ideapad line had finally, or nearly, caught up to the Thinkpads. The keyboard on the U410 is good, but far from great. The keys are sized nicely (except for the Backspace, right Shift, and Enter which are undersized to make room for the Home, End, and Page keys) and are supposedly contoured so your fingers don't slide off, resulting in typing errors. (Lenovo calls this "Accutype.")

What disappoints is the "flex" beneath the keyboard. If you've researched the U410 online, you may have seen the video of the guy pushing his finger into the middle of the keyboard. Now, nobody will be doing this to their brand new ultrabook, but the video demonstrates a lapse in quality. While the U410 looks and feels sturdy overall, the keyboard comes off cheap. You may not notice the flex as you type--since your eyes are glued to the screen--but glance down and you'll see your fingers bounce up and down on the springy underside.

The keyboard on the S405 is much studier with a satisfying, velvety press, but I noticed I tended to make more mistakes using that machine. I decided to take a typing test online to see on which ultrabook I typed the best. On the U410, with no mistakes, I averaged 89 wpm. On the S405, I averaged 81. (On my older Compaq Presario I scored a 92.) So even though the flex in the U410 is distracting, it's actually the swifter keyboard. At least, on this particular day with this particular typing test this proved to be the case.

There's no backlight, but that would inflate the price and it's a luxury feature I personally don't need nor want.

WIFI: The Lenovo U410 is notorious for its sketchy WIFI adapter. The company's official stance is U410s manufactured after July 2012 no longer have issues, but users maintain that problems, such as slow speeds and dropped connections, persist. I was nervous my U410 would suffer these problems, but after running a series of informal tests I have not found any cause for alarm.

My U410 was manufactured September 29, 2012 and the WIFI adapter is Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200. I updated my driver to the latest version (15.5.0.42) immediately and set Transmit Power to 5, Roaming Aggressiveness to 3. Then, I placed my U410 alongside the S405, my HP desktop, iPhone, and an older Compaq Presario laptop about twelve feet from the router, which was on the other side of a wall. I went to speedtest.net and ran the test on each machine six times and averaged the speeds. These are the results... U410: 28.96 down/7.42 up, S405: 29.86/7.40, desktop: 28.98/7.70, iPhone: 25.27/10.13, Compaq: 29.64/7.71.

Although it appears the U410 performed the worst (excluding the iPhone) the difference is negligible, and the numbers were actually improving as the test went on. Users had said the pre-fixed WIFI was delivering speeds 75% slower than their other machines, which in my case would be around 8mbps. Clearly, at nearly 29mbps, my U410 is no worse than my other devices--a huge relief.

However, some disclaimers: I have no idea if every U410 manufactured after July is equal to mine. I also don't know how well the machine would fair in a crowded wireless environment, like a coffee shop or airport. Lastly, I have a less expensive Internet plan through Cox. It's possible if I had the fastest plan the U410's wireless adapter would throttle that connection... but I have no reason to expect it would.

Also be aware some SKUs of the U410 model (there are about a dozen) include Bluetooth. This one does NOT. If you absolutely must have integrated Bluetooth, you should purchase your U410 from Lenovo.com.

PERFORMANCE: With an i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, dedicated GeForce 610M graphics card, and a Solid State hybrid drive the U410 is one of the most powerful ultrabooks on the market at this price point. I don't think you're going to find anything more powerful, and slimmer/lighter, without paying over a grand. The dedicated graphics in particular, while being at the low end of the GeForce 600 series, gives the U410 that extra boost it needs to run more demanding games. I wanted an ultrabook that could run Guild Wars 2, and the U410 succeeds at this task.

These are the results of the Windows Experience Index (For comparison's sake, the Lenovo S405's results are in parenthesis.) Processor 6.9 (6.2) Memory 7.4 (5.9) Graphics 5.5 (4.4) Gaming Graphics 6.3 (6.2) Hard Disk 6.9 (5.9) Overall 5.5 (4.4). One thing about the Windows Experience Index: the gaming graphics are based on the primary adapter, the Intel HD 4000, so this test doesn't account for the GeForce 610M. So, I think these scores are lower than they should be.

I also ran Passmark's benchmarking software and the U410 scored a 1412.8 versus the S405's 1018.4. With power settings set to High Performance, CPU-Z recorded the i5-3317U's core speed as 2396 MHz (thanks to Intel's TurboBoost) versus the S405's A8-4555M processor at 1816 MHz.

Of course, higher numbers in these benchmarking utilities don't tell the full story, so I ran tests in Guild Wars 2. I set the resolution to max (1366x768), all graphics to Low (except for "render sampling" which I set to Native) and ran FRAPS for two minutes to find an average FPS. (Note: I didn't run this test in a heavily congested area. I was just killing moa birds in Frostgorge Sound.) My FPS at this setting was 58. Very solid, especially considering the S405 was half as speedy at 26. With all settings on Medium, the FPS was 30. A custom blend of Low, Medium, and High settings (ignoring water, shadow and particle effects and focusing on environment/character textures) scored 41 FPS. At maximum graphics, the FPS was 15 and pretty much unplayable. For a non-gaming machine, an ultrabook no less, the U410 handles Guild Wars 2 really well and still looks great with the graphics turned down.

Insert: One reviewer mentions that the SSD doesn't have the O.S. installed on it. To clarify, this is because the drive is a hybrid. It stores your most frequently accessed data as you use the machine, increasing your read speed over time. You could install the entire O.S. on the SSD if you wanted to. There's nothing stopping you. But since the computer boots in about twelve seconds and is pretty fast in all respects, I don't see why you'd bother.

DISPLAY: The screen is the U410's other weak link. (The keyboard being the other.) A resolution of 1366x768 is standard for ultrabooks and laptops at this price, so I can't really fault Lenovo for not exceeding the standard. But, my Dell 6000 had a 1680x1050 display and that was six years old. Why hasn't the industry pushed for better resolutions? Why are laptops lagging behind tablets? (Google's new Nexus 10 is 2560x1600!) For whatever reason, you cannot find affordable ultrabooks with nice resolutions. Search on Newegg and you'll see that even if you went to the next highest tier, 1600x900, you're either paying a lot or getting a 17" monster. Lastly, as with most ultrabooks, the screen is glossy. (Not a concern for me, but it might be for some.)

I'm incredibly satisfied with the U410. It's a very strong performer in a light(ish) frame at a decent price. I'm relieved the WIFI problem was solved. I only wish the keyboard didn't feel so cheap. (Although it's by no means horrible.) I would recommend the U410 to anyone who wants a machine capable of playing some high end games, but still values mobility. Meanwhile, anyone looking for a work/casual device with no need of a fast processor and discrete graphics may find value in the U410's cheaper, but lovelier, cousin: the S405.

PROS: Performance-to-Price ratio virtually unmatched in the ultrabook category. Hybrid HDD-SSD. Very attractive design. USB 3.0 (x2) and HDMI ports. Loud speakers. Webcam captures 720p HD.

CONS: Keyboard flexes. Sufficient, but unremarkable display. Battery not removable. Heavier than most ultrabooks. No Bluetooth on this particular SKU. Alternative colors limited to official site.

Lenovo usually makes great products but they really fell short on the U410. The U410's are shipped with a faulty wifi card which makes this laptop an utter disappointment. Do a Google search for U410 wifi issue and you will get pages of problems with this laptop and according to Lenovo, any U410 ,manufactured after 7/30 is fixed but the manufacture date on the bottom of mine is 9/29/12.

At first, the U410 would drop the Wifi signal making it impossible to surf. I then updated to the latest Centrino wifi drivers on Intel's website which helped keep a connection but the download speed on speedtest was less than 1mb! My Lenovo X220 next to the U410 pulled down 35mb.

A nice laptop if you have no plans to use the internet but if you are, look somewhere else

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The wireless connection on this laptop is horrible. There are pages of posts online about customers complaining about the weak wireless connection. The computer will connect, but the signal fluctuates to the point where I was not even able to watch netflix. Lenovo claims to have fixed the problem after a specified manufacture date, but they have NOT! This laptop was manufactured after their stated fix but the problem still persists (this has been reported by many consumers). I would strongly discourage people from purchasing this laptop if they plan to use it on a WiFi network.

Note: Driver updates and other software/firmware fixes do NOT work.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Here

I could not believe how noise is the fan of this computer. It seems like I am beside an engine. After 5 minutes I turned the computer off. The vendor that sold me the computer through Amazon is asking for a 15% return fee. As I don't want to pay that fee, I tried to use the computer, but every time I turn it on I get so disturbed with the noise that I cannot use it. The noise is definitely unbearable. I do not recommend this computer.

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Fast, lightweight, good design, but you have to treat it kindly because it feels fragile. But it's a great value for the price. And don't be afraid with Windows 8. Once you learned to use it, it's very easy.

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HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100 - Pentium M 1 GHz ULV - RAM 512 MB - HDD 40 GB - GF4 420 Go - WLAN : 802

The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is because one part was broken (which the seller described when I purchased it). Other than that, this is the best computer ever. And when I took it to school with me, others (who had purchased more expensive laptops) were going ga-ga over it.

You can write on the outside of the cover when it is closed. You use a stylus pen which pops out of its own little compartment when you gently press down on it. You can detach the keyboard completely if you don't want to use it. There are so many different features that it is just amazing. Sometimes when I take it to class, I will go to the "One Note" program and click "record" and let it record the teacher speaking. I can even write notes on it. Both the voice and the written notes are typed right into a Word document for me.

If you can still find one of these, I would definitely recommend buying it because it is so worth the money. I only paid $220.00 on amazon.com which was a steal deal.

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HP Pavilion DM3-1040US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)

At $649 after rebate I think this laptop hits a real sweet spot in the 13" market! I've had it for a week now and am really enjoying it. I also purchased a Samsung slim DVD writer since this mahcine doesn't include an optical drive.

Pros:

Runs very cool with the Intel processor have never had the fan kick on

No problem streaming video, and has an HDMI for for your HDTV

Best looking notebook for the price

Very fast and quiet hdd

I have to admit I really am enjoying Windows 7 I skipped the whole Vista thing

The back lit LED screen is beautiful

With 4GB RAM the system multi-taks very well

Battery Life I get 5 to 6 hrs with my custom settings, cross country trips on a plane are now a reality

The keyboard is great to type on, although the use of a fn key to use f1-f12 isn't for me

Cons:

Quite a bit of crapware and bloatware to get rid of

The track pad leaves something to be desired buggy in that it sometimes locks up from resume or comes back as a magnifying glass. You can find out how to fix this in the forurms...

The mouse buttons on the track pad are too small and require too much pressure to click.

I used to travel with a back breaking 15.4 Dell M65, this will be a joy to travel with, and I will use it more at home because of how beautiful the screen is, and it is completely quiet. In my option you can't go wrong here.HP Pavilion DM3-1040US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop Up to 10 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

I don't know if you've noticed, but dunking a product on Amazon usually gets you more "No" votes. That said, I am compelled to write this review as I believe that HP did an "evil thing" when they rolled out this product.

Before I start bitching, here are the GOOD:

***Killer looks (five stars are not enough)

***Great screen (never feels like I am looking at a 13.3" screen)

***one of the best keyboards I had used in a long time

***Powerful processor with plenty of RAM (doesn't struggle even when I keep 10 applications simultaneously open)

***Silent

***Four USB's and an HDMI out (on such a small body)

***Solid build.

Then there are the BAD:

***Buggy touch pad. Some quick fix solutions are being discussed on the forums. The issue seem to be a software bug. If so, it's just a matter of time before HP would fix it (I wonder why HP hadn't done it already; I'll grit my teeth and wait).

***Mirror surface touchpad is "sticky" (I'm not a "touch pad" guy anyway).

***A laptop bag supplied by HP screams "aesthetic murder" (I'll budget may be another $100 for a new bag)

***Having to hold function key to access F2 is real pain when working on spreadsheet (but I think I'll get used to it; I'm already warming up to using FN+Arrow to access HOME and END)

Here is the unforgivable UGLY:

***The battery life is typically 4 hours and not the advertised 10 hours (no gaming or video; only standard office work with WiFi on)!!!

This is absolutely unforgivable because

***This is not a software bug and won't get fixed in the future

***The difference between the claimed battery life and actual one is so large that it can't be explained away with fine prints (I can swallow if I get 80% of advertised battery life; not when I get only 40%)

***When the Asian manufacturers (Acer, ASUS and now Sony) claim 10hr, user actually get 10hr or more.

I think HP is having trouble catching up with the "low battery consumption" technologies. Instead of working their butt off, HP took a short cut and made a false "10hr battery" claim. After all, the world is full of suckers like "yours truly". In my part of the world, such practice is called "cheating". If you are from Google Land, you may want to call it "doing Evil".

I bought this laptop because I was tired of carrying my earlier "kitchen sink of a machine" (HP dv9000; beautifully designed). I had this fancy notion that I would carry the notebook to the office, sans the wires, bag and baggage (I've seen my friends do this with Acer and Asus). That's never going to happen till I upgrade some two years down the line.

When I am in the market the next time around, I should remember not to take HP on its face value.

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I understand most of the people taking this unit out of the box have a certain level of expectation, but not all computers have up to date drivers and bios updates installed from the factory. Most if not all of the issues addressed within the reviews for this product are non existent in a fully updated unit with all the current offerings from HPs site. My unit received early 2010 has the very first bios while the update offered is 12 revisions later.

I use this machine as an always on solution that uses low power to keep the power bill down. I use it as a media center, magicjack always on phone system ( throughout my house) and for file transfers. When im lazy I take it to bed to surf before sleep.

Pros

Appearance. Lid and palm rest is brushed aluminum and looks top notch. I have not seen a laptop that looks this good, friends and family LOVE the look of the computer.

-Noise. Near silent. I read reviews with people complaining about the fan. Its nearly undetectable and I consider it a real plus. I got this just for this reason to replace a HTPC that was too loud for my bedroom. Im thrilled with the cooling so far with the majority of the heat being in the thinnest sections of the palmrest area. Heat exhaust is out the back right and does not blow on you in any way.

Weight. Doesnt compare to most full size laptops. This thing can be played with in hand in bed more like a netbook. Freedom of usage is closer to a netbook

-Performance. While lacking dedicated video I can testify to what this little powerhouse can do. Play video files up to 14gb+ mkv format BlueRay files (Star Trek 1008p) with perfect playback. The ONLY place this unit is lacking is HD flash video playback (Hulu HD) Still works fine in non full screen or standard definitions. 720p works but above that starts to see framerate loss that affects experience. This will improve with flash updates and future drivers. This unit will likely never be flawless with 1080 streaming. All 720 streaming seems to be fluid enough to be comfortable. This computer can multitask but its obviously for running one primary application at a time. Background processes and minor apps aside, this isnt a computer for watching streaming videos and doing processor intensive apps. Its just a little light on CPU to really hammer it. If your not clicking like a madman you will have no issues.

-Size. You cant find a full function laptop in a size this small. This is small and light and easy to carry yet it has the power to do full size laptop tasks. Its very thin, impressively so

-Hardware/Software included for price. DDR3 Ram, 7200rpm HDD, Windows 7 Premium. This is the smallest computer I could find that runs a full real version of Windows 7. Win7 basic in netbooks was not an option for me.

-Stereo Microphone. The microphone array in the lid of this unit is the best ive ever heard. Ive interacted with hundreds of computers and laptops and this is as good as they get. PERFECT clarity

-Keyboard. Middle of the road here. Not the best but not bad. Im typing fairly clean with it so no complaints so far. VERY minor flex.

-Soundbar. Altec lansing soundbar built into the lower front. Sounds slightly above average and as long as your expectations arent too high on bass its very good. Some comparable computers sound like an AM radio. This is up there with full size premium notebooks.

-Price. This computer is much lower cost than anything comparable in finish or function.

Cons

-TouchPad. The touchpad is a chrome smooth finish which makes your finger almost stick to it as your moving it around. Buttons are much too hard to press and click. Fingerprints are a constant on the touchpad area. The multi-touch features are a gimmick at best and should be disabled. I have to agree that this is one of the worst touchpads ive ever come across. It seems to be standard for netbooks and small laptops. This should improve with time. Noones happy with the touchpads in most if not all the 10-13" laptops I researched before buying. There is a bright white indicator for the touchpad that is an outrage. It reflects back onto the screen causing an artifact in what your trying to watch. Fixable but unexcusable. Red is off and bright white is on. Are you kidding me?

-Screen. The Screen on this is like most smaller netbooks. Very poor viewing angle. When you hit the sweet spot it looks good. Its not anything spectacular and all the manufacturers have all kinds of names and distinctions for their screens all of which mean nothing. Most leave something to be desired. This is no mac book pro screen. FAR from it.

-Battery Life. The advertised battery life is an absolute lie. To get anywhere in the realm of what they are claiming it would have to be in sleep mode untouched and even then its a reach. Under normal usage, video playback, web surfing etc, the battery life is just like a full frame laptop. 2 2.5 hours tops.

-Plastic Trim. While the unit looks stellar theres a fake crome plastic trim that has poor fitting corner joints and takes away from the total build quality (Minor)

Conclusion: I would buy this laptop again and would recommend it to a friend. Its only real drawback, the touchpad, is a mute issue for those of us that frequent a mouse. The touchpad is not enough of a drawback to not buy this fantastic computer. I did not test the webcam.

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DM3-1040US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Here

Overall, this is a pretty nice laptop.. but there are a few glaring caveats. I'll try to make this as short as possible.

Pros:

Some good design attributes. From the aluminum lid/magnesium chassis (this is unique to the dm3, as in other laptops in this category are not constructed of the magnesium chassis). Keyboard is among the best i've ever used.

Great battery life (i can get 7-8 hours with screen brightness turned down.

Good webcam.

Screen is decent. Can't complain about the brightness, and viewing angles are ok.

Cons:

As some have noted, the touchpad when waking up from sleep/hibernation gets screwy. You can fix this issue with a bios flash (look for it on HP's website).

Truncated up and down keys.

I *believe* the chassis is bigger than the category average. It also weighs about .7 lbs more than the acer 3810, and .5 lbs more than the asus ul30a.

Touchpad takes a while getting used to. If you press too hard, your fingers will smudge against the mirror finish. To correctly use it, try letting your fingers "hover" above the surface.. lightly touching it.

Overall, I think the DM3 is a worthy purchase.. if you can deal with the laptop's imperfections. Out of the Asus UL30A, Acer Timeline 3810, Lenovo U350, and Toshiba T135 (other laptops in the DM3's category), I would rank the HP DM3 as a close 3rd to the Acer Timeline 3810.

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I've had this laptop for a week and I'm loving it.

Pros:

Light and good looking, great keyboard.

Price... I got this for under $ with rebate.

Fast... despite the 1.3GHz processor this machine is faster at image processing than my older 1.6GHz laptop and as fast as my 2.3GHz desktop, both running XP. Probably because 64-bit Windows 7 is able to utilize more RAM (expandable to 8GB). No problems running multiple apps.

All day battery... carrying the cord to work is no more. Runs cool and quiet.

Beautiful display

Feels solid.

No optical drive--let's speed the obsolescence of these bulky, heavy, battery sucking things.

Windows 7 is great, though avoid Live Mail and IE, which seems to get worse every release. Thunderbird and Chrome.

Cons:

Ships with a bug in the Intel power management that causes screen brightness to fluctuate on battery power. This has to be disabled or manually fixed with a download. Scary and inexcusable out of the box problem..

Touch pad sucks miserably--it must have taken months of redesign and engineering to make a simple touch pad suck this much. But I use mainly keyboard shortcuts or a cordless mouse, so no big deal for me.

Battery does not fit in completely snug, causing an annoying click when carrying it, and detracts from the "solid" feel.

MASSIVE HORRIBLE BLOATWARE AND GARBAGE SOFTWARE INSTALLED BY HP. They have installed all these ridiculous things that perform normal Windows functions but with three times the effort and ten times the fanfare, as well as gigabytes of trashy games, useless entertainment software, who knows what else. Tempting to just do a fresh install of Windows from the recovery partition, but I suspect it is rigged to reinstall all the HP crap. This is the only reason I didn't give this 5 stars. The computer must say "HP" on it a dozen times, between all the stickers and logos--no need to vandalize the OS as well.

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Samsung Series 9 NP900X1A-A01US 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I'm coming to this laptop from an 11" Macbook Air. I'm a PC person at heart but I couldn't resist the MBA's form-factor when it was the only thing on the market. Now that Samsung has produced a legitimate competitor, I jumped at the opportunity to return to a Windows environment. I have spent very little time with the laptop so far so I reserve the right to add to or modify this review as I learn more. There are initially more negatives than positives in my review, but the positives I mention are, for me, very important. The negatives I list are mostly nit-picks.

Here are my initial thoughts:

Positive:

[*]Size, weight, build quality feels equal to the MBA. The material is certainly different but it feels just as solid and just as sleek. I find the color of the metal more appealing than the bright aluminum.

[*]Matte screen. I don't know why so few companies still offer matte screens. Everyone I hear talk about them prefers them to the glossy ones. This screen is fantastic. Sharp text, good colors, and excellent (best I've ever seen) brightness.

[*]The keyboard and trackpad are comfortable to use. The position of your wrists is always going to be a challenge on a notebook this small. I had gotten used to it on the MBA and feel no difference here. The keyboard backlight is a plus.

[*]Speed. It's not as fast as my desktop, nor should it be. It's fast enough for everything I want to do on it. The SSD helps a great deal and boot time and wake from sleep time is excellent.

[*] USB 3.0 port

Negative:

[*] No real home, end, page up, and page down keys. I use them a lot and they're functions of the arrows on this keyboard layout.

[*] No two-finger tap to click for right click. You have to physically press the touchpad down with two fingers to get a right click. You only need to tap the touchpad with one finger for a left click.

[*] Very large (3-prong) end cord on the power adapter. It doesn't fit easily in many tight places. Fortunately, it is removable, so I bought a mickey-mouse style cable that's more reasonably sized.

[*] Heat. My MBA never got warm on my legs ever. When this thing is really working it gets quite warm on the bottom. On the MBA you hardly ever (never?) heard a fan running. On this you hear it regularly.

[*] Only two USB ports and they're on opposite sides. Some devices (which want to draw power via USB) need 2 ports on the same side.

[*] No external light indicating charging or battery status. On the MBA you could look right on the end of the A/C adapter to verify that the computer was charging/fully charged. The Samsung has to be opened to make sure the plug is working. How hard would it be to put an LED on the adapter?

Still unknown:

[*] Battery life. It's just too early to tell.

[*] Speed over time. How will it run after having 6 months of "stuff" installed on it?

------UPDATE 5/25----------

I have now taken the bottom cover off just to look around. It seems that you can access the SSD and replace it if you wish. You cannot do anything about the RAM. The SSD, wireless card, and battery seem to be the only parts that can easily be replaced by a user.

------UPDATE 5/25----------

------Update5/27-----------

Some battery recharging statistics. The computer was in use (bright screen, wifi) while charging.

Started at 10% battery remaining.

36 minutes later was at 40% remaining.

30 minutes later was at 90% remaining.

------Update5/27-----------

------Update 5/30----------

I haven't done any really specific battery-life testing I don't have the time. But it seems to last as long as my Macbook Air's battery did. I keep the screen brightness very high, always have wireless on, and even reconfigured the power settings to give me more processing power when on battery than the default allows. In other words: I do everything wrong when it comes to maximizing battery life. Even so I get between 2.5-3 hours. I'm sure that if I used the custom battery settings they suggest I'd be getting double that. As I said, this equals my experience with the MBA.

One thing that this computer does not do as well as the MBA is conserving battery while sleeping. Sometimes I go 2-3 days without using a laptop. When I'd pull the MBA out of my bag after 2-3 days of no use, the battery would be within 10 (often 5) % of where I left it. Both times I've left the 9 in my bag for a couple of days I've found the battery at 10% when I finally turn it on again.

------Update 5/30----------

----------Update 6/10 ------------

I've made a few changes to my initial review:

[*]Removed the port doors from the negative list. I actually like the way these work after using them for a while. They won't break unless you're careless with them.

[*]Removed speed from the negative list. The laptop hasn't felt the slightest bit slower than I'd expect. I'm not going to count the 2GB of RAM against it if it doesn't hinder me from doing what I want to do on the computer.

I'm really, really pleased with the computer at this point.

----------Update 6/10 ------------

----------Update 7/1 -------------

I still love the laptop, but I've had it long enough to figure out the things that bother me the most in common use.

1) Speed when running Adobe Lightroom. Just about everything else I do on the laptop the speed is fine. Not fast, but fine. But in Lightroom it can be terribly slow rendering previews. I had hoped the SSD and i3 processor could handle it, but the 2GB of RAM is the really limiting factor, I think. It's useable, but frustrating.

2) Battery life when the screen brightness is up. Part of the joy of this laptop is the bright, beautiful screen. So it stinks that if you have the brightness all the way up (and are using wi-fi, etc.) the battery only lasts about 2 hours. Yes, I can put it in power-saving mode and get several more hours, but I'm sacrificing processor speed and, more importantly, screen brightness.

-----------Update 7/1 ------------

------------Update 9/15 --------------

This is my last update. As I've started using a laptop more and more for work I need a bigger screen. I upgraded to a 13" and because of the recent refresh to the Macbook Air (Sandy Bridge) and the good price, I went that direction.

All in all, I was still quite satisfied with the Samsung 9. One of the port covers, an early concern for many, did disassemble under heavy use and needed repair. Other than that I found the computer durable, fast enough, and very stylish. The screen will be missed but I needed more real estate.

-update 3/5/2012 --

I had this same error popping up on a new computer I purchased (dell xps 13 ultrabook), and it seemed strange that Windows 7 would not install. It turns out if you plug an external cd/dvd drive into a usb 3.0 port it wont work; this is because Windows 7 and older os's do not ship with a usb 3.0 driver. So while the drive does work it doesnt work sufficiently to install Windows. So while the error says it cant find the cd/dvd drive its more the problem that the usb port the drive is plugged into isnt fully supported with a driver. MS likely will fix this with Windows 8. The solution is to simply plug your cd/dvd drive into the other usb port which is a usb 2.0 port and it works fine! So apologies to samsung for the harsh criticism regarding the missing driver; however I still feel bloatware should not be included on these machines when you are paying that much upfront.

-update 3/5/2012 --

I'm coming from a macbook air 11.6 model using Windows under bootcamp. This series 9 is a little thicker in the front than the macbook air, but the back portion of the laptops are the same size. The backlit keys and the feel of the keys on this machine are excellent! The core i3 is blazing fast and boots up instantly under 7 seconds, whereas windows boots up in about 35 seconds on the macbook air (bootcamp) attributed likely to poor drivers by apple. The screen quality is excellent, bright display and vivid colors. The touchpad is very responsive and is actually one of the best multitouch touchpads I've used on any Windows laptop being able to support gestures perfectly that I havent found on other windows laptops. I found the slide out port panels to be very flimsy, in fact they somewhat stick sometimes and feel like they are about to break if you press on them too hard this is poor design on samsungs part. Samsung should have just let the ports be visible instead of hide them behind poorly made door/panels that likely will break.

Now to the bad part the custom drivers and software samsung includes on this laptop is horrendous. The first problem I encountered was the function keys to toggle wifi, sound, brightness did not work, sometimes they would work sometimes they didnt. The F1 toggle to open the samsung panel is very slow to load (5+ seconds to open), and the wifi toggle on/off when it does work crashes randomly. Then when you can adjust the brightness of the display it never keeps the settings saved, anytime you boot into the laptop (even when plugged in) it goes to the very lowest brightness possible. I tried changing the power profile and that did not change anything, once you reboot it goes back to the dimmest brightness. Top it off when I purchase a $1200 laptop why is samsung putting bloatware like norton, wildtangent and the bing bar on this laptop? samsung if you want to offer a premium product why do you think its okay to trash the laptop on the software side? Some companies simply dont understand all these extra programs are TRASH and should not be put on computers to make a extra few bucks and harm user experience! I've noticed this trend, alot of pc manufacturers will sell a high end product but try to make a few extra dollars bundling these crapware products either sell something premium with no crapware or keep selling low priced garbage computers with as much crapware you want. You cant charge $1000+ for a laptop and have a crappy software experience. Now most of us who can reformat with a fresh stock copy of Windows this isnt an issue, but most people never do that and samsung shouldnt force crap on people who are paying premium prices. This goes onto my second problem with this laptop...

I figured no big deal I'll just wipe the harddrive and use stock windows with a reformat. Tried that with a stock windows 7 disc it wouldnt work (it works on every other computer I have and is a retail copy of Windows 7), also tried with the samsung restore disc; same problem. You get an error message at the beginning of install that says 'a required cd/dvd device driver is missing'. This likely is the driver for the ssd controller. I checked on both of the discs that samsung provides and there is no driver to be found at all, I checked each directory manually to try to locate the driver nothing and Windows install will not continue until you supply the driver. Called samsung support and they had no resolution other than to ship them the laptop and get a replacement. The point was to get rid of samsungs crapware and poor drivers and use stock windows, not get a replacement laptop with the same problems and unable to use stock windows.

So while the hardware on this laptop is very good, the custom firmware samsung wrote is pathetic and makes this laptop a poor choice compared to the macbook air. I really wanted to get rid of the macbook air and move back to a pure windows computer that is properly optimzied for Windows; but samsung let me down. Samsung has issues with trying to write custom software on their mobile phones and it seems on their laptops they simply do not know how to write software and should just leave the operating system alone!

With no way to fix all the problems and no way to reformat with a stock Windows install, I have returned this laptop as it is defective. Don't buy this laptop until Samsung can provide the proper drivers so you can install your own copy of Windows without all the bloatware and crappy drivers that samsung wrote.

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Three obvious problems.

As everyone else says, wifi connection is horrible.

When using Skype, serious noise to the recipient. Disconnecting the power line may help, but not always. (After 5 months, it is getting worse and worse. Disconnecting the power line reduces the noise just a little bit.)

When the power line is connected without ground connection (earth), you could be electrocuted. Of course I am exaggerating, but I am not kidding. Disconnecting the power line always helps.

I bought this pretty laptop in the US and broght it to Samsung headquarters, a newly built beautiful glass-tower at Gangnam District in Seoul Korea for repair. What did I hear from Samsung headquarters?

They knew about the wifi issue. They will find a solution.

They knew about the leaking electricity to the surface of laptop, but they insisted that no one would be killed by such a low voltage. They said that any product with metal outfit would have the same problem. Then, why did they use DURALUMIN from the beginning? Didn't they know that many hotels in the world do not have ground connection?

The noise issue? It was not worth it.

I visited Samsung three times and let their technicians and CS people feel the leaking electric shock. They tested other laptops in their warehouse and felt the same electric shock. They finally admitted that this product has serious defects and said they would consider a worldwide recall. But they still refused refund because I bought it from Amazon. I came back to the States and found out that it was too late for refund.

I am now stuck with this pretty shocker (literally) waiting for a recall. Then today I found out that Samsung reduced the price substantially. Has Samsung decided to get rid of this product from their sight just as HP did? A desperate step before the worldwide recall?

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I love this Samsung Series 9 11.6". The matted screen and build quality are superb, possibly the best screen I have ever witness. The keyboard and trackpad are very easy to use, and the backlight keyboard is a nice touch. I love the fact that it has a modern i3 processor unlike Apple's offering with the 2 years outdated core 2 processor. Restart/reboot/wake-up times are almost instant. For normal use, ie internet and word processing, I have been getting almost 6 hours of battery usage. Wireless speeds have been fast, too bad it doesn't have 5Ghz, only 2.4ghz (planning to upgrade this myself). The fast SSD hard drive could also be larger, but fortunately Samsung placed the recovery on a DVD and not the drive. Highly recommend this laptop if you have the money.

Update 5/28/11

Random notes

With stock Broadcom wifi card, I did not notice any wifi problems as discused with some 13.3". On speedtest.net, I get comparable speeds as my other laptops, maxing the internet speeds of my wifi connection. No drops, so this is a non-issue.

Removing the base is easy, remove the 8 screws under the 8 rubber stubs. Carefully pry open. I start from the area between the screen, easiest for me.

Upgrading to wifi Intel 6230 is easy, just swap. Removed all wifi/bluetooth drivers, then install the wifi and bluetooth drivers from Intel for Windows 7 64-bt. Although the device manager shows 3 bluetooth yellow ticks, both wifi and bluetooth work fine without any issues. Speed on 5Ghz is faster than 2.4ghz, insanly fast.Swapping to 128GB SSD is easy too,As far as I can tell, memory is not upgradable. There are no memory slots visible. It is either onboard or hidden somewhere that you cannot easily get access to. I have opened every scew possible, evening removing the battery.

Battery is easily replaceable. Unscrew, unplug (1 plug), and replace with new battery.

The 64GB SSD does not come with recovery partition. but recovery disc are included as DVDS. I CANNOT GET RECOVERY DISC TO WORK. DVD boots into windows startup fine, then I get these generic Windows 7 errors below. This was tried with USB DVD from both USB ports, and also from an bootable USB with image as an *.iso. BIOS was also reset, and different BIOS settings were changed to to test out. Nothing :-(. I advise to backup your image first thing.

"A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

Note: If the Windows installation media is in the CD/DVD drive, you can safely remove it for this step"

"No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK."

For the time being, I made a Acronis Truge Image of the 64GB and put it on the 128GB. This is the only way I can get Windows running on the 128GB. I love the extra space of the 128GB.

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I'm not going to lie, I could not resist how cool this laptop looked so this was an impulsive purchase for me. I'm giving it 5 stars because it fully met my expectations, not because it is without flaws. For example, yes, the HD is small, but I knew that going in so I'm not going to dock a star because it can't store my entire movie collection.

Positives:

+ It's beautiful. Let's be honest, that's the main reason you're here.

+ Lightweight yet very sturdy. My last 2 laptops were a X60 Thinkpad and Vaio Z-series. With both of those, I feel like if you pressed hard enough on the cover, you'd be pressing the screen into the keyboard. That is not the case here (sorry, I hate puns). You can definitely pick it up easily by the corner and feel like you're not bending anything. I'm constantly on the run between class, coffee shops, group meetings, etc. so this is a big positive for me. Even compared to my X60, I didn't think 1/2 of a pound would be noticeable but it is. I suspect part of this is psychological too because the laptop is physically smaller. Also, the power cord is closer in size to a phone charger, which saves a lot of room in your bag.

+ Awesome battery life. I got almost 6 hours with wifi on and brightness at about 40% (which is still pretty bright on this laptop).

+ Gorgeously bright screen. I saw people complaining about the auto-adjusting brightness setting. I did not have problems, but even if you do, you can turn it off.

+ Even when it's chugging, it runs pretty quietly, but it can get a bit warm (when I was installing large programs).

+ The keyboard and trackpad have a nice rubbery feel to it. The multi-touch trackpad took me a while to get use to, but is pretty convenient now. If you don't like the multi-touch functions, you can always turn it off, too.

+ It's pretty fast and responsive although I admit I'm not a particularly heavy user, mostly just browsing, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.

+ No wi-fi problems as reported with 13.3in version.

Negatives:

The ports are a little different than the 13.3 version. Instead of dropping down, there's a little sliding door that reveals the ports. Someone else pointed this out, but they seem kind of flimsy when they're open.

The hard drive is small. I did a pretty thorough job of cleaning out unnecessary bloatware and was left with about 37GB of hard disk space. With that said, I think if I need it, I will get a bigger microSD card and store some stuff on there.

Arrow keys are kind of small.. about 1/2 the size of a regular key.

Fingerprint magnet.

The screen does not bend all the way back like 13.3 series, not sure if that matters for anyone.

Conclusion:

It's a great laptop if you want something ultra-light and appealing to the eye but don't need a ton of computing power. This is not the greatest value laptop; as in, you can get something with the same specs that's a little bit heavier/thicker for a lot cheaper. At the same time, a souped up Ford Focus can do 0-60 faster than a Porsche 911 and cost 1/4 as much, but driving it just doesn't feel the same.

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Used Aluminum PowerBook G4/1.33 GHz, 1.3 GB of RAM, 60 GB internal drive, internal Combo Drive, int

Got it instead of getting net book. I had to buy another battery for 30$ as the battery does not hold charging also I had to buy another charger as the charger does not fit well for another 12$. The laptop itself works well and in moderate condition

it's my first mac and i just love it it's fast it's cheep and there are so many ways to use it. i love this mac and i all ways will

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ibook G4 12" 1.2 GHZ, 512MB RAM, 30 GB HD, COMBO DRIVE, AIRPORT EXTREME

ibooks are a great student computer. I have purchased one for each of my 4 children and never regretted it. Since it is an Apple I don't have to worry about accidental clicking that could cause viruses and with the Microsoft Office 04, the kids can easily transfer their documents and projects to any pc with Office. The iBooks have been very durable and an economical alternative to the pricey pc laptops. Now with Leopard, I can monitor my kids computer time, set child/computer bedtimes, view/limit and the websites and I don't have to pay extra for this it is built in. The kids like all the games and the ability to control their laptops with voice commands. I like that I can stay in control of my kids computers without being a computer scientist.

I've had a 12" iBook G4 since 2005 and it's still my favorite notebook for browsing the internet, writing letters, and even reading pdf's. It's very lightweight and I consider the screen the perfect size. It's held up very well. One of the keys has a hairline crack and one of the rubber feet on the bottom fell off but I clean it every month or so and it still looks almost new.

My only criticism is that it gets a little warm so I keep it on top of a clipboard when holding it in my lap. No viruses, no crashes, no worries.

When netbooks started becoming popular a couple of years ago, I had to laugh because I already have a lightweight, handy netbook. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Given a choice between a new Asus or Dell netbook or a used iBook G4 for the same price, I would take the G4 without thinking about it for a second.

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I got this computer about a week ago and in the beginning it was not working( error was showing), but i left it for a while and it WORKED~!... about 3 minutes). the laptop has exterior damages but it everything ran fine. its not the fastest computer out there .. but its good for taking notes, chatting (IM), and checking emails. the only problem i had was, when i try to download a programing cd it didnt work.( i didnt know the programming cd was for new computers tho, my fault). everything works! i say buy iT~! if you are only going to chat, take notes, check emails or download something!! but if you want to download parallel on the mac .. i recommend to get something else,( newer~!). BUT GREAT LAPTOP ~!

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All in all it is a efficient product, but it didn't have the correct amount of memomry on the hard drive said to be 30 GB HD but it was a little over 10 GB HD I even tried to delete most of the apps and it came to 11.15 GB HD. Also, the battery drains quickly with in 2hrs I was at like 39% battery health, and finally it came with the old Mac OS X 10.4 you would think it would be updated to full capability. It was a good bargin but I don't feel I got what I paid for.

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So I got the laptop and its a good thing I double checked everything before I gave it to my sis (she needed something she could take to school with her for minor projects and such) because it came with what must have been a different laptops charger. It wasn't even close to being able to plug in.. A laptop isn't much good if you can't charge the battery. Luckily the replacement charger only cost like 7 bucks from a different seller, so problem solved. Buyer beware because you might not get the right parts.

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Toshiba Tecra R840-S8420 14" Notebook PC

I have several different laptops I use for various purposes, including HP, Lenovo and Asus. Unfortunately, I got this Toshiba Tecra foisted on me by my employer. Otherwise, I'd have returned it to the store with all haste. It totally sucks. The keyboard is so unresponsive that you have to literally bang on the keys in order to type. The keys are very flat and slick, making it even more difficult to type with any accuracy. The pointing stick button is so tiny and covered with such a course material that it makes your finger sore to use it for any length of time. The mouse buttons are extremely stiff, it's impossible to just tap like I do with the HP and Lenovo (takes two fingers and press HARD). The touch pad is so squirrely, even after adjustment, that it's difficult to use with any accuracy. Hopefully, sound isn't a requirement for you because the sound on this thing is reminiscent of transistor radio. Don't get me started on the graphics. The only thing positive I can say about this laptop is that it's wicked fast. Starts up in seconds. Performs tasks quickly. I wonder if my employer would believe the dog at my laptop... I'd buy a dog just to get rid of this thing.

Definitely this laptop continues with the traditional prestige of Toshiba, quick your environment is friendly, the design is very good.

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Lenovo ThinkPad T400 Notebook - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz - 14.1" - 2GB DDR3 SDRAM - 160GB HDD - DVD-

BRIEFLY

The T400 improves on its predecessors as far as features and raw power, maintains the same ergonomics, connectivity and quality built that make it a corporate darling and manages to add a few 'fun' capabilities that could make it attractive to the individual shopper.

The best things the T400 has going for it are:

quality build that promises reliable performance

good CPU and business graphics performance

fast memory

impressive and extensive power saving options

docking capabilities

fast 7200 RPM SATA HDD

great keyboard

Centrino 2 WiFi, Bluetooth for wireless

Gigabit Ethernet, modem for wired networking

3 USB ports, FireWire (when docked, 7 USB ports are available)

decent 1280x800 (some models even better) display

very cool running

compatible with previous models' power supplies and docking stations

The few shortcomings worth mentioning would be:

gaming graphics performance average at best

battery life while improved over previous models would barely allow playing a movie

design, while very functional can't be called 'attractive'

lacks a built in camera

Reality is most people looking for a laptop have no idea what a ThinkPad is unless they happen to work for some large to huge corporation. This because ever since its beginnings IBM and now Lenovo designed and marketed the ThinkPads as corporate laptops. They threw in everything that a business user may want and omitted most of the (fun) stuff that regular 'consumers' may be looking for to keep the cost down. But, like everything else, ThinkPads evolve and improve too and the T400 comes a long way toward meeting not only 'big corporate' demands but of those looking for a personal use solution as too. Well... maybe I'm getting carried away here but it's probably fair to say that the newer ThinkPads, the T400 included can be a good choice for small business user as well as for the large corporate client.

BUILD AND DESIGN

The T400 is yet another example of ThinkPads light, solid build. I've only had this one for a little over one month but I've had the T60 it's replacing for almost 3 years of nearly 24/7 utilization.

My laptop typically moves to and from office several times per week, gets docked and undocked thousands of times, may stay on for many days at a time, sometimes it spends weeks between reboots. Within the same day it may be running on 2 different docking stations and running stand-alone, with DC power or on battery, wired to the network or wireless or sometimes both, outputs video to several traditional monitors, sometimes to 2 displays at the same time, its own display or a projector, have numerous USB devices (external hard disks, security tokens, thumb drives) plugged in and out, and so forth. The T60 was able to withstand all this stress for 3 years with only its internal fan being replaced once in 3 years. I don't know if the T400 will be as solidly reliable but, by the way it feels, I am quite confident that it's likely to be the case.

Like all ThinkPads, there's very little flashy or cute in a T400 the expected all-black, titanium (I believe) case, same sharp corners but still light and still built in a way that suggests 'quality' and 'reliability'.

PERFORMANCE

Since our corporate IT imaged Vista Enterprise on my laptop, it's probably worth noting that my T400 scores 4.7 on the Windows Experience Index this means that it supports all Vista features well. The lowest scoring components are 'graphics' at 4.7 which is only average and not suitable for graphics-intensive games but just about everything else is top notch. Here are the scores:

5.3 Processor

5.7 Memory

4.7 Graphics

4.7 Gaming graphics

5.8 Primary hard disk

Microsoft states that "The scale of the Windows Experience Index ranges from 1.0 to 5.9" so everything other than graphics is all the way 'up there'.

This is what I got in my laptop:

Total amount of system memory 2 GB RAM

System type 32-bit operating system (Vista Enterprise as imaged by our IT dept.)

Number of processor cores 2 Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 at 2.40 GHz

64-bit capable Yes

Hard disk(s) 160 GB SATA, 7200 RPM

CD/DVD drive

Display adapter type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series

Total available graphics memory 996 MB

Display resolution 1280x800

Network Adapter Intel(R) 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection

Network Adapter Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN

Those concerned with battery life can switch off the Radeon and use the MobileIntel 4 Series Express chipset for that somewhat lower graphics performance.

I am planning to add 2 extra GB of RAM soon and upgrade to Windows 7 and will update my review if and when that happenes.

When compared to the T60 it replaces, the T400 represents a very significant improvement in raw CPU power, graphics performance and display. In runs a lot cooler and its lasts longer on a battery charge.

RATING

I am very happy with this laptop's compatibility with the older power AC adaptors and even the older docking stations such as the Lenovo ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock Docking station. The Centrino 2 WiFi is an improvement over the Centrino chipset on the T60 I know because, with my WiFi router in the basement, I can now connect reliably from my second floor bedroom while the older laptop couldn't always make the connections. The T400 running so much cooler is not only an indication of improved battery life but it's also a comfort issue when my laptop sits... on my lap, which it occasionally does.

5 stars are well earned because the T400 succeeded in making on of the best business laptops even better.

The Laptop was fine BUT it took forever to arrive and was basically wrapped in bubble wrap like some amateur just used a roll of wrap. It tested fine but presentation and packing was poor.

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