HP ElitePad 900 64GB 10.1" Tablet PC - D3H85UT

I bought this tablet on its first availability because working around the limitations of iOS has been frustrating for me. I'm very pleased with it nearly 1 week in. The battery life is wonderfully 10hrs plus of normal usage for me. It's as thin and as light as an iPad, well-built and solid with a premium feel, no glitches or quibbles with the tablet hardware. The connector dock looks eerily familiar. Screen resolution is okay, but not dazzling. But I understand HP's very logical choices to go with Intel Atom CPU for much longer battery life than Surface Pro. I love that this is a full windows PC in a thin, light tablet format. I predict this type of tablet will do very well with people who need MS Office and the full unrestricted internet to work.

This is a very beautiful tablet, it is very light and battery life is very long (9 10 hours). It runs full Windows 8 Pro and Microsoft office. This is the ideal tablet for traveling business people.

This tablet is also the only Intel Atom Z2760 (Clover Trail) based tablet that has 2x2 MIMO WiFi solution. All other Intel Atom Z2760 based tablets, i.e. Acer W510, Dell Latitude 10, Lenovo ThinkPad 2, HP Envy X2 ... have only 1x1 WiFi solution. 2x2 MIMO WiFi achieves twice the speed of 1x1 WiFi solution and has a much longer range and much better signal reliability.

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(PROS)

8-10 hour battery life of normal usage (i.e. Web browsing, Netflix)

Windows 8 Pro 32-bit OS (Full PC experience)

Solid State Drive (Virtually boots up in zero seconds)

2.0 MP front Camera and 8.0 MP rear camera with flash

3.5 mm headphone jack

Near field communication (e.g. transfer data between devices with just a tap)

Up to 64 GB storage capacity with the option to expand it with a MicroSD

Thin and light weight design (Approx. 9.2 mm thin at 1.5 lb)

Ergonomically friendly (Premium feel and comfort)

Gorilla Glass 2 and machined aluminum brushed unibody

[Optional] Offers accessories uniquely designed to enhance hardware performance, protection, and user's experience with Elitepad 900. (Sold separately)

Internal MicroSD card slot (Access to slots requires pinhole push e.g. inhibits instant user card insertion/removal)

Equipped with substantial security software protection (i.e. HP BIOS Protection, Microsoft Defender, HP Client Security, etc.)

Designed to withstand 3 feet drops (Features military-grade durability; Passed all MilSpecs)

(CONS)

No USB port (USB adapter included)

No Snap feature; unable to display two screens simultaneously (Docking station accessory enables this feature on a separate monitor)

No Full HD screen resolution (The trade off is fantastic battery life)

Notes:

The Elitepad 900 is an Atom-based machine. It sacrifices performance for longer battery life. In other words, this tablet can't run demanding programs smoothly (i.e. game applications)

(Highly recommended)

If you're in the market for a tablet, but can't find the right one for you, then look no further. Your problems are solved with the Elitepad 900.

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It looks like a lot of effort has been put into this tablet. It has the best industrial design among all the Windows 8 tablets; it has a very wide selection of accessories; it has many enterprise software and hardware features that others don't have; it has a 2x2 WiFi solution to provide the best WiFi connection experience whether at home, at work, at airport, or at Starbucks; and it has a very long battery life. This is a very impressive tablet.

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Apple ipad like and elegant and powerful devise.

I would recommend it to all consumers not only business users. Hope to see this product fully supported across the globe

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Alienware AM18X-8636BK 18-Inch Laptop (Space Black)

I thought you might want to know about a customer service nightmare I'm having with the Alienware Solution Station. My son is 13 and saved up to buy his Alienware M18x. He had a problem and tried to resent to factory settings and made a mistake. His bad...should have looked on line for instructions first. Still, we called Alienware and asked for help. For a fee, they said they would take care of it.

That was five weeks ago. Fourteen phone calls later. Four technician appointments three of which had NO technician show up. First, they did the basic re-install. However, they couldn't get the wireless card to work and came to the obviously incorrect conclusion there was something wrong with the wireless card (it was working fine before we called them). I waited for a technician a few days later. He showed up, replaced the wireless card and it still didn't work. I called back. They worked on the software some more (remotely) and still couldn't fix the wireless. So, they decided that the replacement wireless card was bad and needed to be replaced again.

I received two confirmation calls from Dell but the technician never showed. When I called, I was told it was because the part was backordered. Nobody ever called to tell me (these are three hour time windows I'm waiting).

Then, two more confirmation calls for a couple days later. The technician never showed and lied about calling me and waiting 20 minutes. At that point I said that I wasn't going to wait again for a wireless card that was unnecessary in the first place. The Alienware support person asked what I wanted him to do so I said I wanted him to fix the software. After about an hour, he did. He discovered that the technician who did the initial work (a month had passed at this point and about 10 calls) did it incorrectly and nobody ever went back to check it. Then, however, it turns out we had a problem with graphics that we didn't have before.

He couldn't solve it and instead said that we needed a new graphics card. So, today, I waited again. I got two confirmation calls from Dell and the technician didn't show up. Again, because the part is on backorder, but nobody told me. So now, I've spent countless hours working with my son at times (of course, he has to go to school at some point), taking up time in my working day, and most of it wasted because the support people did the job incorrectly the first time, told me I needed parts I didn't need, and have on-site technicians who lie and don't call customers to tell them they aren't coming.

Today, I asked to talk to someone who might be interested in hearing about this. Tech support transferred me to customer service. They wanted to transfer me to tech support. Finally, I got the woman to understand that I thought they might want to know that their tech support has been terrible and their on-site technicians don't show up. She told me her manager would call me. Who is good for a bet that I don't hear a word?

So...I wait...with my frustrated kid...for the part that is on backorder and the technician who doesn't call and there's nothing I can do, except let other Alienware users know, just as a heads up. It may be a great notebook, but it's useless if my son can't use it.

The m18x is an awesome machine. But the biggest reason people choose the m18x over the m17x is the ability to have dual GPU (and 1" inch extra screen). This model does not offer a dual GPU, so keep that in mind. Another thing to keep in mind, this thing is HUGE. Literally you won't be able to lift it with one hand. You can carry it with one, but it's big and heavy. Heat dissipation is excellent on it. Thing never got hot. In the end I ended up returning this for a m17x. Btw, Amazon rocks!

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Feels great, very solid.

Put in a 2nd hd ssd.

Unit runs great.

Item plays all games great. I have a 2 560m sli version and had a great amount of fun. Took my unit apart to replace all the grease with arctic silver 5. Since i did that, the fans almost never go at full speed.

My config is i7 2860, 2 sli 560m, 256 gb ssd, 128 gb ssd.

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I ordered this laptop about a week ago and got it this sunday, i took the risk of buying a laptop from the US since we had different voltages since i live in kuwait but my fear was taken away and this laptop blew me away, In my opinion it had no cons up until now and it doesnt heat up quickly battery life is around 2 hours 30 mins fully charged, it comes with the quaser blue color when u power it up, the sound and graphics are really nice and i dont regret 1 bit of buying this amazing laptop, there is one thing wrong in the specifications when i ordered it, it turned out to be the intel i7-2670 but on the specifications it was the intel i7-2657 which is a minor mistake but the rest is all good ! you will not regret making this purchase trust me :)

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I got this for gaming purposes.

Weight wise, it is hardly practical to take around as a laptop.

It was great for gaming etc. until one night, smoke started coming out of it!

We did get good service, but the smoke was off putting.

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HEWLETT PACKARD - HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Espresso Black - Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Mic

Had it for 5 months. Was not sure to buy at first, but decided to give it a shot, especially when got a deal at $1150. Its fast. Very fast. It takes 15 seconds to start this machine. I tried to play 10 videos simultaneously in 10 windows, no problem here. The buttons on the board are nice, however sound button might be tricky.

About 10 month after the purchase battery started to heat up. I have sent it for battery replacement, which was replaced 2 month ago under HP's warranty. Works Great. Very satisfied.

It's fast and has a large memory. It DOESN'T have a Bluetooth transceiver so you need to plug in a separate device for devices. Sometimes the video driver crashes and flickers. The physical plastic covering cracks easily and the softkeys (the lit up buttons just below the screen are stuck).

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MSI X460DX-008US: 14Inch HD (1366x768) Laptop, 2.1Ghz Core i3-2310M, NVIDIA GeForce GT540M, 4GB DDR

I have been using this laptop for about a month now, and have really enjoyed it. The performance is great, even with just the i3 processor. I have been able to run some fairly intensive games on it, running Witcher 2 at medium settings yields about 30 fps, which while not great, is playable and still looks nice. One annoyance on this front is the aggressive throttling that occurs when running off battery power, making it impossible to play anything that uses the dedicated graphics card when not plugged in to a wall outlet. For instance, I was playing an older game (Railroad Tycoon 3) off the integrated Intel graphics on battery fine, but if I switched it to the Nvidia graphics, the gameplay stutters.

Another issue I have come across is the placement of some of the keys on the keyboard. The right shift key is smaller than on a full size keyboard, with the up arrow right next to it. Many times while typing, I will accidentally hit the up key instead of shift. This also occurs with the small backspace key, where I will often hit the home key instead. Otherwise, the keyboard performs well. It has a nice action without a lot of noise.

The touchpad works well, especially with the included drivers. It enables multitouch much like a Macbook does (I bought this after selling my Macbook Pro). Not quite as smooth as the Macbook, but things like three finger left swipe takes you back in the browser. Pinch to zoom also works, although again not as smooth as what a Macbook has. Two finger scrolling also works well. An issue I have come across is the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the touchpad will sometimes activate when I don't want it to, scrolling me over instead of selecting what I want. It took some getting used to.

Otherwise, the screen looks great and has good brightness when turned all the way up. Seat-of-the-pants feeling places battery life on par with the MBP. I can get a good 6-7 hours out of word processing and web browsing.

Finally, the fit and finish of this are good, better than what I have seen from other manufacturers. The weight is not too heavy. It feels lighter than the MBP, but not as well built. The body is thin, and overall it is easy to carry around.

I took one star off because of the throttling on battery without a way to turn it off, as well as the keyboard design. Without those two things, it would have been five stars.

Note: This is actually about the MSI X460DX-216US which has apparently been discontinued http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WPUNU0/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00 but MSI has done such an awful job with customer service that I wanted to write a review on the closest model I could find.

1/20/12: Purchased MSI laptop. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. Plus it was less expensive than a comparable Dell, and it ran computer drafting programs and 3D graphics games pretty well! Especially for the cost.

6/25/12: Laptop suddenly developed a problem where, if picked up or if resting my wrists on the empty space on either side of the touchpad, the laptop turns itself off. Tried this with and without the battery while plugged in and not plugged in and it happens consistently under all conditions. Since I was out of town at the time, I just used my laptop very delicately while placing it on a desk instead of my lap.

8/15/12: Finally home. Tested a theory where I hooked up the laptop to an external monitor and used a wireless keyboard and mouse. Laptop ran without any shutdowns for well over a week (never powered off). This confirms to me that it is something within the laptop that has a loose connection.

9/3/12: Went to MSI customer support and arranged an RMA online. It was quick and painless. Things are looking up!

9/17/12: On the MSI RMA status website, my laptop is indicated as "Your RMA has been received and is now in replacement, testing, or repair process."

9/21/12: MSI called me to tell me that they can't replicate the problem. I told them that they're insane because the problem occurred for me every time I would pick up the laptop. I told them so and they said they would look into it.

10/3/12: The MSI RMA status website has not changed. Called MSI to ask where my laptop is. After being on the phone for a half hour, I was told I would be emailed with more information. Apparently they have been waiting for a replacement motherboard and my laptop will be shipped out on 10/17/12.

10/24/12: The MSI RMA status website has not changed. I do not have a laptop. Called MSI to ask where my laptop is. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes, a recording told me to leave a voicemail. I left a very irritated voicemail. Then I sent an irritated email as a reply to the email that told me the laptop would be shipped out a week ago. Then I went to Amazon.com to write an angry review.

TL;DR version:

MSI Customer service is a joke. They have had my laptop for over a month and a half for what seems to me to be a very obvious diagnosis. This was my first MSI laptop I usually buy Dell. Dell had amazing customer service and they would promptly fix my problems whenever they arose. Dell would have shipped me a brand new laptop by now. One time I sent in my Dell (desktop) computer for repair and since that model was discontinued, they sent me the newer model, which was a thorough upgrade that I got entirely free of charge. THAT is customer service. Dell, I am sorry for abandoning you. MSI, words cannot fully express my disappointment. You have failed me for the last time.

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This laptop delivers good performance for the price however it does not last at all. From opening and closing the lid the hinge magically breaks and eventually the monitor backing separates like it was cheaply glued together. Seeing that I am currently outside of the US I can't simply return it. I was trying to cope with the broken hinge until the webcam seems to have stopped working and now two out of my three USB ports seem to be gone as well. And this is after owning it for about 4-5 months.

Great looking laptop but S***TY QUALITY

WASTE OF MONEY, WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING MSI AGAIN -_-

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Bought the laptop for a friend who needed a gaming laptop. The laptop was a great deal, pretty much half price to other comparable laptops. Runs D3 on high and runs smoothly.

I liked the layout of the laptop, I liked the functional buttons, very well thought out.

The glossy surface of the keypad shows some fingerprints but it didn't really bother me.

Great value, well designed gaming laptop.

Would 100% recommend.

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Dell Vostro 1510 Notebook Computer

Working as expected from the advertising. Shipping was prompt and punctual and I'm glad to have made the purchase. Thanks from the bottom of my attick.

First the machine was advertised as a Vostro 1510 and in reality it is a 1520... Different animal... But it works for me. The touch pad is beat so using a mouse is a necessity which is OK too because I usually carry a mini mouse... all in all it's a good machine, I did upgrade it to WIN 7 Pro

I would use this vendor again...

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Dell Inspiron 14Z i14z-2026DBK 14-Inch Laptop (Black)

I have been having a nightmare with this computer and Dell Company. Computer freezes almost once a day, yet Dell tells me it is a software issue. We have tried restoring etc. But does not work. Tried for a refund but they repeatedly told me they had fixed the problem. No, it still has problems. Now they say the time period has expired. It has been 23 days since they shipped it, but only 15 days I have owned the computer. I spent over 5 hours on the phone with Dell today, and been hung up on 4 times. I will not ever buy from Dell again.

I'm a student, and I was debating between getting a Dell or an Asus EeePC. I went ahead and got this one, because a friend of mine owned the 15z for a bit more.

Here are some pros and cons.

Pros:

-good performance, actually just fine for a laptop this size and price

-relatively long battery life (six hours and 35 minutes)

-I got the black one, I liked the design

-Nice keyboard feel I type a lot during the day, so the cushy keyboard was nice

Cons:

-The trackpad and buttons are a bit stiff, but not much of a problem unless you use it when gaming

-Lots of dell bloatware. I.e., mcafee security, roxio, and a few others that flood you with popups when you first open the 14z.

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Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz 6.5

Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB 7.3

Graphics Intel(R) HD Graphics Family 6.3

Gaming graphics 1696 MB Total available graphics memory 6.3

Primary hard disk 26GB Free (92GB Total) 7.6

Great Laptop

Pros:

Nice bright screen.

Great price (50 dollar gift card for a total of 499.99.)

Lightweight.

Great battery.

No flex in keyboard.

Easy access to hard drive.

Aluminum cover (top and around keyboard.)

Cons:

Plastic Bottom.

Second memory module location is located under the keyboard.

No back-lit keyboard (this really isnt a con considering I knew this laptop would not come with one given its lower price.)

Great computer for what is paid. I installed a SSD and eight gigabytes of memory. It is now lightning fast.

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This machine has a solid, all metal construction, with the only plastic being the keys and the bezel surrounding the screen. It is quite fast with a 2nd gen core i5 CPU. Keyboard is one of the best I've ever used, compared with Lenovo thinkpad T420. Very satisfied with the screen is bright and clear. Highly recommended!

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Bought one of these for someone who is in the IT field and is mobile he absolutely loves it. I paid $659.99 when I bought it (felt a bit high) but knowing that it does what it needs to do, I have NO remorse.

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HP 655 - 15.6" - E2-1800 - Windows 7 Professional

Print too pale ----difficult for seniors to read

No instructions included for setup or use; no manual. Didn't like it.

I have this laptop with Windows 8. Every 2 minutes it crashes and restarts. My daughter has a Lenovo with Windows 8 and it never crashes so I have to say the problem is with the laptop instead of the operating system. Just in case I am going to install Windows 7 to see if it gets any better.

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HP Compaq nc6400 Business Notebook

I've been an Amazon customer for nearly a decade and haven't had any issues with Amazon or any sellers. With all of the items and thousands of dollars spent on this website, this is the very first "review" I am writing. I was very hesitant about purchasing this refurbished laptop. You don't really know what you are actually buying with transactions like these.

I purchased my laptop from GothamCityMall. We received the package via USPS a day earlier than expected, was not expecting that! So I really didn't know what to expect when I opened the box. And boy was I surprised! After removing the various layers of bubble wrap and tape, I unwrapped a pretty cool-looking piece of machinery. It is definitely an old model, but it still looks just as sexy as the new guys out there on the market today. Also, the laptop may have been refurbished, but it looks far from used! Cosmetically, it was almost perfect except for one tiny scratch on the cover. The keyboard, screen, battery/cords were also in new condition. If I didn't know any better, I would think this machine was brand new. I really got lucky with this one!

Before purchasing this refurbished laptop, we had the pleasuring of using a relative's brand new Inspiron Notebook for almost 2yrs. Although my nc6400 isn't quite as sleek in the looks department, it does pretty much everything that the Inspiron did. I'm pleasantly surprised!

It handles multiple windows of web browsing, creates documents w/ease, plays Netflix videos (sound is great), and whatever else you can throw at it, all at the same time...without any problems with performance. The physical size and weight of this laptop is perfect! I hated lugging around the huge and incredibly heavy 15" Inspiron. This thing is a baby in comparison! The layout of the keyboard and the feel of the keys is wonderful. I also like the matte screen compared to the high-gloss screen of the Inspiron. Fingerprints from my 2 1/2 year old are much less noticeable. My most favorite feature on the keyboard itself is the handy row of buttons at the top, volume included. The Inspiron didn't have volume buttons, making it quite an inconvenience to make adjustments.

I'm not sure if I will be using this laptop to play games, but I'm sure it can handle it without a problem. We'll have to see though. I haven't watched DVD's or listened to music on it yet either, but I do love that I can burn DVD's or CD's as well. The 3 USB ports are handy; I'm only using about 2 at a time for my flash drive and wireless mouse. The smart/memory card slots are also handy for a family like ours that takes a lot of pictures.

Because this machine was built for the office (I use it for Home), it has many features that I don't have the need for. They are great tools to have when and if I decide to use this machine in an office setting. The one "office" feature I do use is the Fingerprint Scanner. It's pretty cool and easy to set up.

If you are debating between buying a new/newer laptop or even a used version of this laptop, stop fighting with yourself. It is risky buying used/refurbished electronics online, but it's a risk I'm so happy I decided to take. I spent less than $200 (shipping included) on a quality piece of machinery that does everything that I need it to do, and is comparable performance-wise, to the newer and MUCH MORE expensive laptops that are selling now.

No long review here just wanted to say that I am very happy with the product! It is used so a few bumps and bruises are expected, but it's in great condition and works wonderful.

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i bought this refurb pc and i really like it.it has great sound and is pretty fast

the graphics are great for the average person.

the seller was really good about the warranty and responded to my questions promptly.

i would buy another one of these

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This computer is a wonderful laptop computer with a nice screen size. I like the speed of the laptop which contains a centrino processor. It also came equipped with plenty of disk space and memory. I think they are a great buy for the price, I bought mine used.

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A great price for a great laptop. I have a new laptop with Windows 8 and I like this one much better. I will sell the new one now. Great comunacation with the seller too. BIG plus.

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Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Satin Black

it works great. windows 8 takes some getting used to but it works good. it doesn't have backlit keys so if you compute in the dark you need a light. its a beast of a computer in the price range its in.

Incredible! I have owned several quality laptops and after heavy debate I decided to see what this Toshiba could do. I am pleased beyond compare.... twice, no, three times the machine I expected. great design, keyboard, mouse, features etc etc. I had a machine that I paid twice the price for and I lived with the glitches, poor design and battery life for 3 years before purchasing this laptop. Fortunately, my older machine was dropped breaking the display and now I get to enjoy this new laptop. If looking for a quality computer at a very affordable price you will not be disappointed.

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I purchased the Toshiba brand after having an HP for several years. This laptop has a terrific connection to the internet. Windows 8 takes some time getting used to it but it's not as difficult as some people say. The computer is very lightweight and portable. The speakers could be better but, all in all, it's a pretty good computer for the money.

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love this laptop it is a great computer to use in my college classes and a great price for a college budget.

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windows 8 bites the big one stick with windows 7 to remain stress free

i dont know what else to say

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Dell Studio XPS 13 (1340) Laptop

We purchased one of these for our son to take to college. It has been nothing but trouble with overheating, hinges and other things. Three times Dell replaced the hard drive, which of course resulted in the loss of the software, files, etc. and required rebuilding. After the third time, I started insisting they replace it and the agreed. But now we're 5 weeks into this as the end of a semester approaches and the replacement Laptop still hasn't shippped. This has required many hours on the line with Dell over the year and the three rebuilds of the hard disk and other things. This seems to be a systemic problem with this product that Dell should have been aware of through the design and testing process and through it QA processes once the product was in the field. It kept overheating and they kept insisting that a BIOS update and things were going to fix it.

We've been long-time Dell users and have a number of Dell Systems. it's going to be easier in the future just to switch back over to HP or Toshibia or some other manufacturer with better product reliability, because Dell as failed with this. And now trying to get it replaced is something started in Oct, and yet here in Mid-Nov we can't get an estimated shipping date. Totally uancceptable.

I was also about ready to get a new powerhouse Dell desktop, but I'll buy that from a manufacturer with more reliable products too.

I have had nothing but problems with this computer. My frustration with the computer is surpassed only by my frustration with abbysmal support from Dell. It took them THREE tries just to get me a computer that had a functioning "hybrid" video card. After all that (literally tens of hours of run around from customer support), it turned out that the problem was a one-line glitch in the Dell drivers that could have been solved in about 30 seconds if anyone at Dell support had known what they were talking about. All the support people seem capable of is reading from an obviously prepared script.

Eventually they substituted a refurbished unit for the new one I ordered and would not offer me any discount (go figure). Just "sorry." Gee, thanks. They made no attempt whatsoever to even make a gesture of compensation for the many, many hours of time I wasted trying to get their $1000+ computer to work. Even though I ended up with a refurbished unit.

On that unit the DVD drive never worked and I had to have it replaced. The video card still malfunctions frequently but they can not come up with a fix other than a replacement. I am so tired of dealing with their support, that I am just sucking it up and dealing with a very sub-par performance.

Very glitchy computer, awful support. Very, very sorry I bought a Dell.

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This is an excellent system, great graphics, speed and performance. However there is a slight heating issue with this model. After a few months of regular use, the base warped. When I sat it on a flat surface one corner did not sit flat and the whole thing bounced when I typed.. very annoying! It was under warranty so Dell replaced it (the whole unit, couldn't just replace a part) and now a few months later, the replacement is having the same issue and the whole system is being replaced again... even though I used a cooling pad on this one! I'd look at a different model, no telling what other damage the heating problem will cause after more than 3 months.

This is my first Dell, before this I've had HP for the last 10 years with no issues. My next system will be an HP.

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This machine overheats. Not just a little bit, scorching hot. Then crashes. Some may escape this affliction, but Dell should have recalled this laptop as it is more often than not defective.

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Pros: Very lightweight, decent speed, decent hard drive memory (500GB), decent ram (4GB). Overall, there's nothing that sticks out or is exceptional especially compared to what computers and laptops have to offer today.

Cons: Runs VERY HOT even when just browsing the internet or watching videos. A cooler is a must have. Even with updated bios, and drivers, the laptop runs very hot primarily due to the inefficient GPU(s) terrible frame design (the vent for the fan is on the back of the screen and is blocked when you put the screen upright in viewing position). The GPU is pathetic, and if you're looking to run modern games such as sc2, cod, bf, don't even bother with this laptop. Needing to update the bios and vbios in the first place is risky and annoying. Also in terms of aesthetics, this laptop has an uncanny attraction to grime on the keyboard, and is a fingerprint magnet. Also, battery power was found to be very poor as well, and will only get worse as time goes on w/ only about 2-3 hrs w/ low power settings. Also, had issues with the DVD drive freezing while playing DVDs, and being unable to play CDs at all.

Conclusion: For anyone looking for a light, transportable laptop that looks pretty, with some relatively mediocre specs, but enough juice to be somewhat of an entertainment machine, than this might be what you're looking for. HOWEVER, you can get another laptop with the same and/or better specs for about 400-500$ if you look well. I suggest you look elsewhere and save your money for a better investment in a laptop.

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HP Pavilion DV7-3180US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Anyone unhappy with this unit is nuts or spoiled as hell. Can't really find a complaint. Fast. Been using for over a month now problem free. Took it out of the box, turned it on, set it up, and started working, and remember saying out loud "I can't beleive I own this". Most computer hardware wise for the money I could find. Solid. Only thing that disappointed was that the HP Media Bundle has issues but the Windows programs are reliable. I like to install my own media software anyway so I still give this machine 5 stars.

I have used the HP Pavilion DV7 for the 17 months now. It was purchased by my company as I would never have considered purchasing such a "cheap" laptop. I only preface with this bit of nerd snobbery so you can know this review is written by someone who hasn't touched a notebook under $2K for over a decade and has rather high PC performance standards:

In short, this is an AMAZING steal for the price. The technical specs are superior to what you'll find in the more "elite" market and the performance of this PC is really impressive. In fact, I'm leaving my company and am only on Amazon writing this review as I prepare to purchase another of these models for my personal use...

PROS:

I originally thought I'd only use it for work (aka spreadsheets, etc) but started using it for video watching, gaming, movie burning, etc because it was working so smoothly. I'm a very hard PC user. I don't like to close applications and am always multi-tasking as in: several Microsoft Excel spreadsheets; a few Word documents; at least one Project file; iTunes playing in the background; Outlook running and checking mail every 15 seconds; Google Chrome open with 7 tabs; and Mozilla Firefox open with 7 more tabs. This PC has performed expertly for a year and never even paused despite my harsh use. As in, no crashes, no hesitation to respond to a click despite aforementioned heavy (ab)use and because it's worth repeating--no crashes.

CONS:

The only thing I have to report, is after 17 months of solid use, I've worn the "E" off (key/hardware works fine) and the "R" is on her way out too!

Although I had no issue with mine, I feel compelled to report that of the 4 PCS my company purchased, one did end up with a fried motherboard. To be fair, that particular employee was prone to visiting...websites of ill-repute...and could have caught himself a virus (ironic) that turned the fans off.

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Research the documented motherboard issue on the HP Pavilions before you buy!!!! I thought for many years that HP was a trusted reliable brand. I spent $1200 on this HP just to find out 13 months in that there is a motherboard issue. This unit overheats easily (often without you being aware) and you will lose your motherboard (and your investment will be lost). The dv7 has the same overheating/motherboard problem that the other pavilion dv series exhibits. If you buy the unit anyway (or have already purchased) watch carefully for signs of problems BEFORE the 1 year warranty expires. Motherboard problems can present initially as odd issues such as power problem (powering off, turning off while booting up, etc). ALWAYS use laptops on a hard surface. In this case using a cooling surface didn't prevent the problem but often this can help you avoid issues. Good luck!

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I know that for the price your paying for this computer it isen't that bad. It only has one fluck that I have experenced and that is that the dislay drive stops responding and immediantly recovers after the screen gos black for a few seconds. It has something to do with the kernel drive 184.66 and I can't fix it because hp and nvidia haven't come up with a solution too the problem yet and yes I did a system recovery several times also uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. Other than that I really can't complain other then that little problem with the display drive. I really dont like the fact that they took out the 500GB (7200RPM) hard drive and replaced it with a 640GB (5400RPM). Overall I give this computer a 4 out of 5.

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This is a powerful laptop, it has a decent video card and a lot of memory for todays standards. Blu-ray works fine and the power of the processor is kind of equal as a Desktop Core 2 Duo @ 2.6 Ghz. Graphics runs faster, I can play some games @ 1600*900 resolution, but others that need more graphics I play them @ 1280*720, which is not an issue for me.

The only problems I have is that when you render MPEG4 video the CPU heats a lot, it goes from the 60 degrees celcius to 90 degrees celcius and that is something dangerous because the CPU can only resist 100 degrees celcius.

Other thing I want to mention is that the sound quality is bad if you let it at default, you need to install the audio drivers and try to adjust them with a lot of diferent combinations for a decent audio quality.

And the last thing about this PC is that battery doesn't help that much. If you spend your time going through the internet, etc. the battery will last about maximum 2 and half hours, and if you play games or edit video, it will only last about 1 hour.

Overall, if you want something for games and video editing this computer is fast for that but heats a lot, but if you want a computer just for navigate though the internet, this is not for you.

P.S. I recomend buying a good heat sink for this laptop.

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Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 01965FU Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300(1.30GHz), 13.3" LED, 2GB, 250GB, Webcam, 6 cel

Pros: I bought one of these about a week ago for $399.00 and $12 shipping. For the money, I have not seen anything else that can compare in terms of build-quality and performance. Not too much bloat-ware (thanks Lenovo!). Decent performance from the ultra low voltage processor. Much better than the earlier single core versions and yet, only 10 watts used by the cpu. Awesome battery life, up to 8 hours. The Intel 4500 integrated graphics is adequate for my purposes. In ubuntu 10.10, I was able to enable desktop effects for some cool esthetics with no problem. Not enough graphics power for any demanding 3-D stuff. All the functions I have used in Ubuntu so far have worked without issue. I love the feel of the keyboard. The large multi-touch enabled track-pad is awesome. Despite some errors on Amazon, this unit actually weighs in at only 3.8 lbs, very light on the lap. Build quality is very good. I detect no flex in the body at all. I like the mat-black finish (no finger-prints) and the simplicity of design. It is quite thin, but does not feel fragile. I really like the red L-E-D's on the palm rest and on top of the lid where the "i" in ThinkPad is dotted. It's the little things. :)

Cons: The built-in web-cam is only a .3 mega-pixel. Most budget laptops these days are at least 1.3 mega-pixel. I have not yet used the webcam, so cant speak to how well it works at this point. Windows 7 can be a bit sluggish if you are running a virus scan, but otherwise works just fine. There is no CD/DVD drive in this model. I know this in advance, so hesitate to list it as a con. These days, you can use a flash drive to do anything you used to with a CD ROM anyway.

Other thougts: My wife has borrowed this thing from me once and already wants one for herself to replace the Dell Latitude D830 she has been using. I have no complaints at all and would recommend to anyone who needs a lightweight notebook and does not play a lot of 3-D games.

I bought my Lenovo ThinkPad Edge last Christmas, for about $440. It has the exact same specs as the one on this page, so I was quite surprised to see how stable the market value has been for this machine... amazed really. I expected to see a much lower price by now, and was thinking I might buy a second one. That itself should tell you something about how I feel about this notebook.

Overall it's great. I do math research and having twin processors is key because I can run some programs for my reseach and it will crunch away in the background on one processor, while I work with other software apps with absolutely no noticable performance hit. (Currently, as I write this, I'm even running two separate jobs -both cpus showing 100% capacity -and yet I can type away in my webbrowser with no time lag between when I hit the keys and the letters appear on the screen.)

I have only one fairly significant complaint about the ergonomics of this laptop. While the "chicklet" style keys are nice and big, the trackpad is TOO big. I never imagined that a large trackpad could cause problems, but it was killing me (before I learned how to disable it completely). I would be typing an email and my palm would inadvertantly hit the track pad and select a bunch of text of the message, and the next letter I typed would replace everything that I had accidentally selected! (Thanks to the web browser's Undo function, I can usually get it all back, but what a nuisance!) I thought maybe I just needed to get used to the large trackpad, and I also tried setting the sensitivity to the lowest possible setting, but it kept causing problems for me. My current solution: I made an alias called "padoff" which I invoke every time I log in. It completely disables the trackpad and I use the pointer instead. I don't really like pointers, but hopefully when I become more skilled at using it, I won't mind so much...

Overall, this is a great, high-quality laptop, and the trackpad issue seems minor when I compare it to my old Asus laptop (the flimsy keyboard of which stopped working after only 3 months!) Finally, I should mention I get great battery life -probably about 3 to 4 hours depending on what I'm using it for. (I just unplugged about a half hour ago and, with two compute-intensive tasks running in the background, the battery meter says I have about 2.5 hours left. That's with the standard battery -not the extended life battery, which I believe is available for this machine at a higher cost.)

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The Chrome Book

Google is on to something here, but without a little luck, I would not have known about it. I now own 2 chrome books (one for my wife and one for me) and find the experience delightful. In trying to learn and become more productive with it, I have searched the web for how-to articles, etc. Quite by accident, I came across "The Chrome Book." It is well written, very informative, and a real good overview of the "operating system." It also treats some of the higher level uses.This was my best find yet, and one that I am buying as a reference book. I just hope Google keeps going with this concept with enhancements, improvements, and more advertising. Again, well written book and on target!

This is a great intro. to the subject of Chromebooks!

It's helping me decide if I want to take the plunge(I probably will).

Update(7/16/12): I took the plunge! I like my Samsung Chromebook(see my review) & this book was a big help to me!

After a month of owning my Chromebook, I still refer back to this book.

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not just a how to book but more about: 1. where Google Chromebook fits into the computing universe and 2. strategies for using it productively.

author is very knowledgeable and writes clearly and well. Wish he was my tutor.

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I have experience with almost every OS out there. I purchased Andriod and iPad, looking for the perfect flexible, easy to use PC replacement. No luck. Even a Bluetooth keyboard its not enough to replace the PC as a heavy typing/real work tool.

So I purchased a Samsung 5 550. I already used Google Apps extensively, and this was a natural extension.

CH Rome's book gave me a fantastic look into the concepts and methods of using ChromeOS, as well as a detailed step-by-step method for using it. It actually changed how I use computers. My 'My Documents" folder is now my Google Drive folder and I have file access from my PC, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, and any PC I log into.

I use the Chromebook as the heavy typing tool now, as its so fast and easy to start and stop, and stay where I was. I use a wireless mouse with it, and it feels so comfortable! I could not have known all these capabilities were there without the book. I can honestly say that less than $6 and a few hours of reading changed a huge aspect of my life. Not many books can boast that claim.

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I had just purchased a Samsung Chorme Book and need some idea just how it worked with the web. The Chrome Book was just the right thing at the right time.

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