Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S02US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

It is a great product and gives quality gaming experience. The GTX 675m isn't the best card around anymore but still it holds great power and it is powerful enough to run all games that were released during 2011 at their max settings, It does seem like the graphics card is starting to get left behind as games such as Far Cry 3, Crysis etc. keep pushing the limits of pc gaming, but I can say that this graphics card will also be able to give you a great experience through those graphically intense games.

But enough about graphics, a laptop offers more than just that and I can say that this laptop delivers. The Dolby Home Theater sound system is great and it gives clear quality sound, great for gaming if you do not like using headphones, the system itself is pretty fast thanks to Intel i7 and the keyboard is one of the most comfortable ones I've ever used.

The screen is excellent, it is large and gives great color and brightness, I can say that it is one of the best screens out there for laptops, it even could be the best, the 1080p display does not disappoint especially the 120Hz support gives us beautiful fluent visuals. 4 USB inputs and all sorts of other ones such as VGA, HDMI etc. give great support for multimedia needs. Like that was't enough it also comes with a Blueray disc reader. The laptop also presents us with different modes with different situations, library, reading, balanced and gaming. All modes have their own different settings and work great.

The only problem I had with this laptop was that it has windows 8. Now, I am aware of the hate against the OS but after you get used to it, it is obvious that under the hood it's very similar to the other windows OS's and it even provides us with more variety since it supports apps. I have a Kobo account for books and it's great that I can use it with my computer to read books along with other apps such as Comixology and Tunein Radio. It can be confusing at first sight but once you get used to it Windows 8 won't be causing you much trouble anymore and you may even start liking it. But there are still some glitches here and there which I'm sure will be taken care of in time. It is a fast OS and with patience to learn, it can be satisfying.

This laptop for it's price gives more to it's buyers than other laptops do. I was actually torn between this and the Alienware M17x and decided to go with this since it had more features for the price. But it is still a fact that the Alienware M17x presents a more capable graphics card, yet like I said, the GTX 675m is still pretty capable, combined with the 16 gigs of RAM and the Core i7 this laptop is ready for gaming. If you know how to Overclock and also use the Razer Game Booster application you'll get even greater results. At the moment I tried out a few games such as Saints Row The 3rd and Crysis 2 and I am pleased with the performance. Saints Row the 3rd can be played at max settings on 1080p like butter and Crysis 2 with Vsync turned off never dips under 40.

If you are looking for the absolute graphics beast laptop, than you should try out an Alienware which will probably breakdown fast on you and won't be presenting other features than just graphics. But if you are looking for a laptop that is strong on all the fields, speed, ram, graphics, sound, memory, picture etc. than I'd say give this one a chance because it deserves attention. Plus if you are not satisfied you can always do a return and than get yourself another laptop. I hope this review has been helpful.

Games I've tried so far:

Crysis 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off.

Assassin's Creed 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice Anti-Aliasing on normal.

Saints Row The 3rd: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.

Just Cause 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Anti-Aliasing around Off to 4X.

Hitman Absolution: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, keep Anti-Aliasing and Vsync turned off.

Rage: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed.

Alan Wake: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Anti-Aliasing off.

The Amazing Spider-man: Can be Played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off and Anti-Aliasing on low.

Farcry 3: It is slow on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice playing on High settings with Anti-Aliasing and Vsync turned off or playing using Dx9. Otherwise you can experiment with the settings to see wether you can get 30+ FPS by lowering specific settings.

Max Payne 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, keep MSAA turned off.

Serious Sam 3: Can be played well on 1080p with all settings maxed, I advice keeping Vsync turned off.

So far so good, no game gave me issues except for Farcry 3 and I believe that is mostly due to the games' bad optimization for mobile Gpu's. I advice keeping AA and Vsync off as much as you can on 1080p since AA does not make much difference on such resolution and if a game supports it play using 120Hz refresh rate because it's definitely much better than the average 60Hz refresh rate.

Just received my Samsung Series 7 Gamer today which arrived on time with satisfactory packaging. Laptop looks very nice from an aesthetic standpoint and boots/ runs faster than my desktop does. The dial feature on the side to change between modes feels a little unnecessary but fun so no point in taking off points for that. WASD keys lighting up red from the normal blue of the keys in gaming mode is a nice feature as I've sometimes had difficulty locating my home keys at night ! Also purchased a cooling pad for my laptop, running World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and League of Legends on maximum settings without difficulty, staying cool easily. Whereas my desktop would get start skipping on max settings in WoW: MoP the Samsung Series 7 Gamer seems not to have any trouble, only minor skip when changing zones etc. where there is a mass overhaul of environment but lasts no longer than a moment. Top of case tends to attract fingerprints rather quickly, just pulling it out of the packaging I already had several fingerprints from where I gripped it ! But then again, fingerprints scuff everything so no complaints there. A nice price-tag but I wanted to treat myself to a nice laptop for gaming (which I spend a lot of time doing) and it does not disappoint! Also, I did a lot of research prior to my purchase and to get similar builds I could not find a lower price !

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UPDATE: after about three weeks of not too heavy use, the backspace key fell off. Samsung wanted me to mail it to a repair station in Texas. Still within the return period, so I'm sending it back to Amazon to get another one. Despite the problem, willing to try another one of these; otherwise, it's a great piece of kit. Worst part of it, honestly, are the HDDs, but they seem to be easily changeable.

--------------

I've had this laptop for about a day, and so this is by necessity a first impression; I'll update it later once I've had it longer.

The build quality is superb. I'm not sure if there's any metal in this, but it's high-quality plastic with an attractive finish. The images don't really show that the visible surfaces when the lid is open are a shiny brushed gunmetal gray. It looks and feels good. The shiny closed lid is also good-looking, but picks up fingerprints like crazy. Not really a big deal for me.

The keyboard is perhaps the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. The keys are dished and fairly long-travel, and are probably as close to the feel of a separate, desktop keyboard as is possible to get on a laptop. The keyboard layout is reasonably full, though there doesn't appear to be any way to send a BREAK without remapping. This is only really a concern for software developers using the standard keybindings in debuggers.

The screen, as others have said, is beautiful. Samsung's a big maker of laptop displays as well as monitors and flat-screen TVs, and this laptop is a great advertisement for their quality. It's bright, desktop-like, with great color and clarity.

The graphics chipset is capable of running World of Warcraft on 'Ultra' graphics settings at 60fps+, even in 40-per-side battlegrounds and 25-man raids. That's about as demanding as I get with graphics, and it's wholly up to the task. There are more expensive laptops with the more powerful NVIDIA GeForce GFX 675MX or 680M chipsets out there, but none of them are this affordable, and most of them make worse compromises in terms of weight, size, heat and looks.

Don't mistake, this is a big laptop. However, its styling hides its bulk quite effectively, and the wedge shape means it's comfortable to type on. It's also substantially smaller and lighter than the Alienware 17" offerings, let alone the 18" behemoth.

I thought before getting it that the rotary mode switch on the side was a gimmick, but it's actually quite useful. The settings for each mode are very customizable, and the modes are well-chosen to match common laptop usages. Certainly a lot easier than digging in Control Panel to switch between power modes!

When not in Game mode, this laptop is also admirably subtle. It doesn't scream 'Gamer Laptop!' unless you want it to, unlike most alternatives. You could take this into a sober business meeting and not draw too much attention.

If I had to carry this around every day, it'd probably be too heavy, but my personal laptop usage is as a movable desktop replacement, and this fits the bill. It can be easily packed up and moved, but it needs a substantial backpack and you certainly feel the weight.

For my needs, this is the perfect machine. The only real criticism I could lay on it is that it would be majorly improved by having SSD options, but I suspect the next revision of the hardware will. It does have a small caching SSD onboard, however.

Strongly recommended for the demanding user seeking a desktop replacement with no compromises on computing power and wanting something a bit more subtle than an Alienware.

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It's about a year now since I've used this laptop and guess what. It's still amazing as ever.

I get to play all the awesome games like heart of the swarm, bioshock, call of duty, dead island riptide etc, and they all run smooth, and laptop is very silent and never gets hot.

But by the way, the reason why I'm updating this review is because mostly people talk about the specs, but I wanted to talk more about how comforting physically it is to use this laptop. The laptop has a keyboard that almost feels like typical desktop keyboard with an actual satisfying feeling of press and guys with big hands like me can use it. Most thin form factor laptops use pebble style like macbook. There's no problem using such keyboards, but this samsung gamer laptop has one super comfortable keyboard. Hours of usage and your wrists arent tired compared to flat style laptops. I just hope Samsung comes up with a new gaming laptop and I would definitely up for that one as well.

---------------------------

So I've used the laptop since last August, and here's my opinion so far.

1. Hardware

pros

-fantastic screen clarity and brightness, size

-keyboard not cut down to fit laptop, but feels just like typical desktop keyboards (very comfortable)

-Dual cooler. it sometimes got slightly warm, but you'd never feel hot. great cooling system. but it does get hot when you play in a warm, hot environment. just play far away from the heater (obviously).

-speaker is fairly great and decent with light bass. it's at a decent level that unless you got a nice subwoofer speaker from bose, laptop's own speaker would suffice your usage.

cons

-heavy. even though I knew it was going to be heavy and big, I thought I could carry it around for work to other states. turns out it's better not to attempt that. can be considered as thick and heavy. power bar is the size of a brick.

-there's lighted up turbo icon above the keyboard. it has no use but doesn't really look cool either. different design or something cooler on next version.

final thoughts on hardware

-very sturdy and greatly designed laptop that can be used for a long period of time without discomfort that only downside is its thickness and size, but pros cover cons.

2. Features

-they got those four modes using dials. you will never use it. at least I didn't. always put them on game mode because I play games, but didn't really feel much difference and feels fussy switching whenever you're word typing and then play crysis, etc etc.

3. Power

-After 6 months of heavy, very heavy usage, everything still boots up instant, and loading is fast. I can still easily run Farcry3 on high and that applies to basically any games. there are no limits to this machine in current era. whatever you want to play will be playable on midhigh to very high.

Conclusion

-After several months, the laptop still greatly satisfies me, and always feels very comfortable to use.

who is this for: heavy gamers, or IT employees requiring processing power. or if you want something really cool at a decent and cheaper price from Amazon

who should stay way: people who want to travel with it often.

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I was kinda hesitant about buying a laptop to replace my 4 year old media/gaming pc. I wanted something that I could connect to my tv in the living room for my main source of entertainment since I play a reasonable amount of games and use Hulu for shows. Also I wanted something that I could take with me and have the same great experience on the road. As of right now I have my gaming mouse and keyboard connected to the device. When setting up Windows, the keyboard on the laptop felt really well positioned and very east to type on. The screen on this looks amazing and a lot of my friends that see it can vouch for that. Being that its a Samsung screen i'm not surprised on how great it looks. What I'm more shocked about is that Samsung makes a great laptop. Ive owned a few Samsung devices in the past such as tvs, phones, and tablets and loved them all. When it came to computing I always stayed with my "goto" brands HP or Asus. Its only been about a week of owning this and I've thrown Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, Torchlight 2, and Deus Ex Human Revolution at it and it seems to run everything on high really well with a high frame rate. I was kind of amazed on how good Guild Wars 2 ran because for some reason that game benchmarks a bit low on other systems. I was getting a reasonable 50-60 fps in major hubs so no complaints there. All in all I know for $1500 I could have built a pretty monster PC but I wanted the mobility and I believe I made the right choice. If your looking for a great laptop this is hands down the best price I've seen and I'm glad that Samsung is stepping up to the plate in gaming mobility.

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Sylvania SYNET7WIC 7" ARM 11 1GHz Smartbook

I bought this for my 9 year old who wanted it to play games on the net. I wanted something small and cheap for him and the price was right. It looked nice enough, but it was tough just getting on the net, wouldn't stay connected and was so slow it wouldn't load any of the games, videos, etc he wanted to play. I couldn't even access facebook on it. I could google on it well, so if you just want to be able to seach for this, maybe it's useable, but I doubt it since once you try to click on the links, it will probably lock up from lack of speed and memory. I got frustrated and sent it back. I think it's time to retire this model!

I love it. It was exactly as described. I will admit that it is slow but you get what you pay for.

Likes: it's portable,it's also light, it has a windows ce based os.

dislikes: slow, screen is small,obselete, and keyboard is small

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does not support most video playback. will reformat hard drive with out notice. only thing it is useful for is internet at shops

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ASUS 1015E-DS03 10.1-Inch Laptop ( Black )

Amazing notebook for under $250, fast shipping from Amazon. I've had it for a week and it has performed flawlessly for what my wife and I use it for. We wanted a

small notebook that can be easily carried around the house, as well as taking on trips. It's great for web browsing, watching youtube videos(search ubuntu-restricted-extras), typing documents using libreoffice, etc. Battery lasts 4.5-6 hours or so, depending on usage.

It comes with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit, which is supported through April 2017. The initial configuration takes approximately 10 minutes before booting into the OS,

which then required 430 MB of updates. The notebook uses efi boot with gpt partitioning. Here's the partitioning:

1. 100 MB fat32 boot-efi

2. 4 GB fat32 PQServices restore

3. 179 GB ext4 Ubuntu OS

4. 7.5 GB swap

5. 108 GB ntfs data

You can boot from usb flash by pressing the "Esc" key at the Asus screen during boot. According to a reviewer of the Asus X201E-DH01, the recovery partition can be

accessed by pressing "shift" at boot. It comes with bios ver. 3.2, the latest is 3.4, which can be downloaded from Asus support. I wouldn't recommend updating the

bios unless you know what you're doing.

I'm an experienced Ubuntu user, so didn't have any problems setting everything up. For someone with little or no experience, there's tons of online help, especially

ubuntuforums.org. The unity launcher takes a little getting used to, and I recommend going into System Settings--->Appearance--->Behaviour and setting the launcher

to auto-hide and moving the sensitivity to high. This will free up much needed screen space. I've installed cairo dock, which really isn't needed, but some might

prefer it over unity's launcher.

Ubuntu isn't for everyone, but the good thing is it can be tested by downloading the Ubuntu 12.04.2 iso, burning it as an image to cd or dvd. The live cd(which is

much slower than an install) will give you the Ubuntu experience, without actually installing it on your present computer.

Once Ubuntu is set up & personalized on the notebook, there should be little or no configuring required. I would highly recommend the ASUS 1015E-DS03 to anyone who is familiar with Ubuntu or is willing to put in a little effort to learn a new OS(Windows was new at one time).

I'm an old timer(65 year old "cooter") so anyone can learn to use Ubuntu, it's been a rewarding experience for me(and my wife).

Just wanted to add that everything worked out-of-the-box; however I haven't tried ethernet, but wireless is fast & reliable. The notebook quickly suspends when

the lid is closed and immediately resumes when opened. I did have one time that it didn't suspend(you'll know this if the wireless light remains on), only the

power light blinks if it suspends properly. The battery discharged completely when it didn't suspend, so I later went into System Settings--->Power--->Turn off

power when battery is critically low, to prevent this.

I don't want this to be an Ubuntu help review, but here's a few other tweaks that I did. In Firefox, to enable click to select all in the address bar: Type "about-config"(without quotes) into the address bar, type "browser.urlbar.ClickSelectsAll", toggle from false to true.

To adjust fonts & various other tweaks, search for "ubuntu-tweak" online, the directions will require using the command line or terminal(press the "Windows" key,type

"terminal" in the search box, copy & paste one line at a time, press "enter" after each line. In ubuntu-tweak, you might also want to change to a more traditional

scrollbar by disabling overlay scrollbar. Don't let using the terminal(it's easy) deter you from using Ubuntu, this should be the last time you'll use it.

Note, pressing the "Windows" key opens the Dash menu, where you can find all the programs installed on the computer. This paragraph isn't an actual review of the

notebook, but maybe it'll help get anyone started who is unfamiliar with Ubuntu Linux.

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Lenovo Thinkpad T430s 23539KU i5-3210M 4GB 500GB 7200rpm 14" Laptop

I brought this laptop and thought it is solid business class laptop. Totally wrong!

Until now, I already have several issues, you can check in the lenovo forum and will found many people complaining the same problems

(1) wifi card has a problem and may randomly drop the connection. I tried installing the latest firmware, drive, and they did not help!

(2) When work with battery, the computer will suddenly shut down (without any warning) when the battery level is low (~10% in my case). You loss all the work!

(3) Two of my Logitech wireless mice does not work reliably. The left-click and hold release randomly. Both mice worked in my old computers.

First use Amazon, Chinese comments about the next, I hope you can understand, then the baby is very good, authentic, everything you know how to

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The screen sucks big time its brigthness is not correct and adjustable

I have installed extra 16 gb rams now this thing flys fast 4 real

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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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Toshiba Satellite S855-S5170 15.6-Inch Laptop (Ice Blue Brushed Aluminum)

I've had this for about a month and so far, I don't have many complaints. I've owned 17" laptops the past few years and while the larger screen is nice, they're just a little too bulky to be taking it everywhere. The 15.6" size is perfect for my needs and is considerably lighter.

The Intel i7-3630QM processor is incredibly fast. Everything loads instantly (Photoshop, databases, ect). The screen looks great but it seems a little muted compared to my Dell laptop. The touchpad tracks much better than others I've used but nothing compares to a regular mouse.

Windows 8 is not as bad as I thought. I didn't have an issue installing/running software from my Windows 7 laptop but the big issue is the new "Start Menu" which appears to be designed for touch screen devices. Installing Classic Shell gave me back the familiar Start Menu that I've grown accustomed to since Windows 95.

The S855-S5170 comes with a dedicated graphics card. If the dedicated graphics card is not a must, save $50 by going with the nearly identical S855-S5168 which uses the integrated Intel HD Graphics Card.

CONS:

-Speakers compared to my Dell laptop, they're terrible. I'm not an audiophile by any means but I like to understand what I'm listening to. The Logitech Z305 Laptop speaker solved this issue.

-Bulky battery charger. Almost twice the size & weight of my Dell charger.

-Side charging port.

I owned a Toshiba and an HP laptop in recent years (my son adopted my HP). The performance of this Toshiba is good, the style is fine, the touchpad is smooth although I use an extra monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse, and the price was great. I also added Office 2013 and a 3 year Toshiba service/accidental damage contract. I use it for both home and work tasks.

What I really find odd is Windows 8. I learned how to navigate pretty quickly using the icon-based navigation (if you have a smart phone, you'll pick it up). Switching back and forth between the Windows 8 app screen to the traditional desktop is odd. The app screen replaced the Ribbon from Windows 7. It make more sense if you get a touch-screen laptop, but I've grown accustomed to it. I didn't buy a touchscreen laptop because I couldn't find one with the processor speed, RAM, and hard drive space I needed at a reasonable price.

It's also weird because if I use the Netflix App, I can't "exit" out of it it just stays there in the background. Some other apps do the same. I just ignore them and move on. There are plenty of video tutorials to walk you through Windows 8.

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I am very pleased with with the computer. I like the size, weight, etc. I don't care for the glare the screen produces, but there are a number of fixes for that. It's too bad that I did not order it with Windows 7. I have used Windows for years and find Windows 8 to be very disappointing.

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The Toshiba Satellite S855-S5170 boasts an impressive feature set for a laptop under $1000 quad-core i7 @ 2.4 Ghz (automatically overclocks itself to as much as 3.4 Ghz on demand), 8GB RAM, 2 GB Radeon video (outstanding gaming performance!!), 1 TB HDD (plenty of storage, but the drive is a bit slow), bigger 15.6" screen, full size keyboard with separate num-pad, and the list goes on. It runs Windows 8 very solidly (first thing I did was install a Windows 7 style start-menu shell however), and includes the typical pre-installed bloat ware, all of which I uninstalled in order to use free-ware of similar functionality.

On the downside, I was disappointed to find the Ice Blue Brushed Aluminum areas only included the palm rest and lid-cover. The rest is covered in black plastic or an Ice Blue plastic speaker grill. A full aluminum enclosure (ala a MacBook Pro) would have been much nicer, but I'm sure that would have blown the price point by quite a bit. Unfortunately, the black plastic backing plate feels a bit "squishy", as does the entire keyboard surface (which is not back lit boohoo). The black plastic bezel around the screen glass also feels like it could come off if snagged on something by accident. Two other small gripes the power button doesn't illuminate to show whether the system is on, asleep, or off (there is an LED on the front for that), and the button to open the DVD drive is recessed quite a bit and hard to press. Also, on occasion when waking from sleep mode with the lid closed, the video screen will either flicker, or be off-set, or both, as if the cable going from the GPU to the LCD unit was a bit loose. Closing and re-opening the lid seems to fix this, but I'm surprised to find this type of problem in a brand new laptop.

I give it 4/5 stars because the system is powerful and fast enough for gaming and video editing (my two priorities), has oodles of storage space, plenty of RAM to get going (I'll max it to 16GB next Christmas probably), battery life is about 4.5 hours before drained, the screen is bright and large and the separate num-pad is great. Fit and finish is a bit chintzy, so I'm taking 1 star off for that. For the price, it's a very strong Windows Laptop, and I would buy again.

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Good gaming pc with the new windows 8 with nice blue paint overall awsomes so I am glad I purchased this computer it is an affordable gaming computer and worth it

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Gateway ID49C12u 14 Inch Laptop - Arctic Silver

This is almost a perfect laptop. Excellent size +/14 inches. Very light +/5 pounds. The Intel i5 cpu is a fantastic chip and runs applications like a breeze, 4.6 on the Windows 7 user experience index. I've had absolutely no issues with the product, in fact, the touch pad is better than most other laptops I've used. The specs vs price seemed just right for what I needed this laptop for and the item delivered in all aspects.

I receive my laptop last Oct 21, 2010 because I work on the ship. Im very impressed with the look of the laptop. It doesn't look cheap and the design was elegant. The only problem that I encountered is sometimes when I press the touchpad button (the one on the left), its not responding... Sometimes i need to tap the center touchpad before it response... it is hassle when i want to drag a file...i cant drag it because the left button is not responding... and I used this laptop for Deejaying so dragging files is common in my command... Sometimes I need to try it several times before it rsponse... I am not sure if i need to upgrade the driver for touchpad or not but its giving me hard time... I haven't complaint yet to Amazon because I'm still testing it.

The rest of the specification is good and fast. I will recommend this laptop...

Please put comment if you have the same problem like mine... So that I wont waste my time testing it...

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I bought this for my daughter in college. 4 days after she got it the mouse pad did not work right. After spending MANY hours with Gateway Tech Service, updating programs, system restores over many many calls I had to spend $18 to ship it to them for repair. They "fixed" it and sent it back. STILL DOES NOT WORK and I CAN'T RETURN IT!!! Gateway is TERRIBLE If you buy one you will be sorry!

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This laptop is very good for the price. The touch pad takes a little getting used to, especially after sharing a macbook pro with my wife. But I've been using this computer for a week now, and I'm starting to like the touch pad a little better. Right click remains an issue (have to click more than once sometimes), but again, it's always a matter of getting used to something new. The keyboard is awesome. I'd say it's better than my wife's macbook pro and she reluctantly agreed. The computer is fast, looks great, and is the perfect size.

The sound quality and surround sound is great. But the computer lacks volume and doesn't get very loud. With headphones it sounds great. The new Windows 7 is pretty stable. However, beware that if you don't set it to go into sleep mode when you close the lid it will lock up -just one of those things with windows. I don't think it has anything to so with the computer itself.

It's also very light and the battery life is what gateway says it is (5 hours or so depending on what you're running).

For the price, look no further...it's a keeper.

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I originally purchased the HP Pavilion dm3-3110us 13.3-Inch Notebook PC Silver but ended up returning it due to the processor was just not fast enough for my needs. Both have a similar silver design and are lightweight. I actually prefer the overall looks on the HP but this Gateway is much faster for my needs.

I upgraded the ram to 8gb using Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9 and noticed a huge difference in overall performance. Windows Performance score is 4.7.

I am not having any problems with the touchpad like others have mentioned, in fact I really like this type of pad. Has a solid feel and 'click' when pushed. The glowing touchpad is ok but would have preferred a backlit keyboard. Speaking of keyboard this design is really nice with open space between the keys making it easy to clean with some canned air.

Didn't come with a ton of software installed like the HP mentioned above...which is a good thing

CD rom is ok but these days it is something I really don't need anymore but may appeal to others

Weighs just a tad over 5 pounds

Speakers are nothing great and do not get that loud. Quality is great with headphones

Has a dedicated social network key but prefer to view it all in a browser instead of using the app

My last desktop was a Gateway and it lasted over 5 years with absolutely no issues before I sold it.

Very happy with this laptop and is priced right.

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HP Elitebook 6930p Intel Centrino 2 Core 2 Duo P8600 2.40GHz Notebook 2GB 800MHz DDR2, 160GB SATA,

The company from which I purchased is not currently listing/offering this laptop. My order did not include Vista Business, but came with Vista Home Premium. It also had a bad/incomplete Installation Partition. However, the O/S did install enough to allow me to get onto the Internet, and download all the necessary drivers from the HP web site.

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Lenovo Y480 20934FU 14-Inch Laptop (Dawn Grey)

I bought this from Lenovo's site about 6 months ago. It's worked out of the box, and has worked since. The package was shipped from China and took 2 weeks to come. One thing that was difficult was the drivers for adjusting the brightness. This did not come with an OS DVD on it. I'm not sure if it had one on the hidden partition as I formatted my drive with a fresh install of win7. I did backup my laptop into an image file before that. Make sure you download the network drivers on Lenovo's site and copy it on a usb flash drive or somewhere where you can get it after if formatting your harddisk. This laptop came with other software installed and I wanted to make sure nothing was on my system. I saw another post about not working when ordering from Lenovo. If your system does not work when you first get it, return it right away.

Got it after going trough a lot of other brands. After a partner show me his, I wanted one. Awesome screen, awesome processor, nice video card, I use a lot of ilustrator and photoshop. This machine runs it really well, no complains with the factory specs. The most impressive thing is the battery, 5 hours in the lowest brightness level. Cooling is quite good too, no heat trough the palm rest, and its quite light too. All in all, good purchase. Cons, well not many really,maybe the charger gets a little hot, buy is quite small too.

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I was looking for a cheaper alternative to replace my aging MacBook Pro. Fully understanding that I wouldn't be getting as high a build quality as an MBP (and hoping to save a bundle of money in the process), I pulled the trigger and ordered one of these. It arrived dead, complaining there was no bootable device. This probably happens a lot, because the packaging LeNovo uses is absolutely pathetic. The laptop was shipped in a very flimsy box with the computer wedged in between a couple small pieces of styrofoam on either side of the notbook. That's it. I'm pretty surprised that the computer didn't arrive with a few dents the way it was packaged. Anyways, I called Lenovo support, and spoke with a gentleman who took my details, provided me a case number, and then attempted to transfer me over to another department for an exchange. I was then bombarded by advertisements for a free $25 supermarket card and a free gas gift card by an automated system, then disconnected. Confused by what had just happened, I called back the number I was given in case of disconnect and got the same advertisements. It appears the LeNovo rep not only gave me the wrong number to call, but also transferred me over to the wrong number. I called back the main support number, and spoke with a different guy. He gave me a different number, and then transferred me. While trying to enter in my number to the irritating automated system I was disconnected again. I tried calling back the new number I was given, and it just rang forever with no answer. So for the third time I called the main support number and actually ended up talking with the same person again. He apologized and tried to transfer me in directly to the correct department, but was unable to do so. Instead I was given yet another number to try. By this point I had received a dead computer and wasted an hour just trying to talk to the right person. Maybe the dead computer was a fluke, but there is just no excuse for the joke that LeNovo calls customer service. Anyways, after an hour of a half of my life being hung up on on and waiting on hold, I had completely lost faith in Lenovo. If this is the level of support offered to someone who was shipped a brand new dead computer, what is a regular warranty service call like? When I finally spoke to someone who could help me, I said if you cannot ship me a replacement overnight then I would like to return the computer. She said they do not ship replacements overnight. I got an RMA number, sent the dead laptop back, and will be taking my business elsewhere. Hopefully they Lenovo won't botch the return like they have everything else.

Update #1 7/1/12: Yep, they botched it, why am I not surprised? I ordered a bluetooth mouse with the computer, and it was set to ship a week or two after the laptop shipped. When I told customer service that I wanted a refund on the defective laptop, the rep assured me that the mouse order would be canceled. Well, I just received shipping confirmation on the canceled mouse order, and my credit card has been charged. I'm still waiting for my refund on the laptop as well.

Update #2 7/9/12: For those who are wondering, the computer was purchased through LeNovo's website, not Amazon. I really, truly wish I had bought this through Amazon, because I would have had my refund and been done with this weeks ago. If you must buy a Lenovo, go through Amazon or a retailer who has a reasonable returns process. I am just posting this review on Amazon for the benefit of others. As of today I still have not received my refund from LeNovo for either the laptop or the mouse. Last week I filed a complaint with the BBB. I received an email from the "Customer Advocate and Complaint Resolutions" department about 3 days later, but when I try calling the guy who emailed me he is never there. Going though Lenvo "support" is a hopeless endeavor. I sure hope Lenovo is enjoying the interest free loan they took out on my credit card. What a racket!

Final Update: Things got much better once the BBB was involved. I finally got my money back after a month of waiting.

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unfortunately I did not get to test this computer at some local store and got an idea about the screen quality.

on paper this computer has excellent specs for its size!!!! but the moment I turned the computer on, I noticed that the screen is very dark, and the colors off :( I played with the settings for hours and it did not help. I connected the computer to a monitor to see if it is the screen or the graphics card etc. In a nutshell I concluded that it is the screen. I called the lenovo customer service, and after an hour of connecting to the computer and running tests remotely, I was told that "it is a new computer, with a new screen. it just comes with that (strange) coloring and brightness, and there is nothing they can do about it" . I sent it back to the seller, and lost $200 in the transaction for shipping and restocking fees etc.

1the screen that all y480 series come with, it is the cheapest screen I have ever seen

2if it was a faulty screen, then it was the lamest customer service I have ever experienced

other than the cheap screen it is a good computer ... if the customer service was helpful or if they could replace the screen I would have kept this computer. it has excellent specs for its size, but cheap screen coupled with cheap customer service made me change my mind about lenovo.

It seems like PC companies are lowering their standards and competing with each other to produce the flimsiest disposable computers ever ... Unless you want a disposable computer, I would not recommend lenovo (except thinkpad series), hp, dell, compaq, asus, and even sony!!!

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I bought this laptop, and at the same time purchased an SSD with the intent of upgrading the hard drive.

Despite many attempts I could not install windows 8 with a clean install on the SSD. I contacted Microsoft support and their team spent no less than 4 days attempting to install Windows onto the SSD with the brand new Y480 Ideapad. After 2 days, the call center assigned me the best technician available at a tier 2 level of support. The tier 2 technicians routinely perform about 10 Windows installations per day. They usually take the most difficult install cases. Using remote applications, they virtually monitored the entire install until boot. They ultimately could not install Windows 8. They concluded that the issue was my Lenovo laptop.

I contacted Lenovo support. I was continually disconnected from calls after waiting on hold for long periods of time (this happened 3 times). Despite taking my phone number, none of the employees that I worked with called me back. I escalated support to two supervisors and to the manager of the customer support literally the person that sets procedures for receiving calls.

During my calls, I discovered that there was a known issue with the Lenovo BIOS preventing users from making Windows 8 installs. Despite acknowledging this, I was not offered any support or suggestions as to how I could solve the issue with the BIOS. I was told that to receive any more assistance, I would have to pay for premium support from the software team. The hardware staff was rude and not at all interested in actually supporting the Lenovo product.

While this was going on, I read online forums and discovered a 'whitelist' maintained by the BIOS that only allows certain system configurations. Based on my readings on the internet, I believe the whitelist limits upgrades to the wireless chip for example, to only a few manufacturers / products with a particular serial number. Any other upgrade will not be integrated correctly by the system. A forum even posted a non-whitelist version of the BIOS though this is out of date and crashed someone else's computer.

I speculate that the whitelist also has Windows activation codes that prevents clean installs of windows on the machine.

Overall, this was a very frustrating experience. Though I was never able to install Windows 8 on the SSD, I was able to use imaging software to backup and restore the HDD onto the SSD and essentially clone the hard drive (Not at all a straightforward process, I think due to particular configurations of this laptop).

If I had to do this again, I would not have purchased this laptop, though it is very reasonably priced, and has great hardware... The reason to buy from a large brand name like Lenovo (or anyone else Dell , Toshiba , Apple, etc) is that when things go wrong, they support the product.

Well the support is lousy.

In the future, I would go with a small business laptop builder based on the internet. Though these companies are smaller and don't have name recognition, I am certain that customer support would be MUCH better, there would be no weird proprietary black lists on the BIOS I faced a similar issue with a Dell workstation I bought a couple years back related to a CPU upgrade, and I ignored my own advice from back then... Generally small custom builders companies tend to be priced reasonably as they don't have a name brand to back them up they may sell 'Sager' notebooks for example. The name brands are irrelevant though, because all the internals are literally commodities. And I would rather use a Sager motherboard without any tampering of the BIOS than a Lenovo / Dell computer with proprietary crap added to 'differentiate' their product.

In the end, since I got the darn thing to work, I kept the laptop with my SSD, but definitely not dealing with this hassle again.

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ASUS N51Vn-A1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop - Silver Blue

REVISION: I've now had this computer for 5 months and I'd like to revise my earlier review. The notebook was fantastic until the power supply issues began. I've RMA'd the product back to Asus. However, they've had it for more than 3 weeks and are still waiting for parts. I can't imagine why they don't have parts on hand for a computer this recently manufactured. When I looked for a way to contact the company about my frustration at how long it's taking to get my computer returned, I realize that no addresses or "contact us" types of information is supplied on their unbelievably BAD website. When I call the customer service number given me with my RMA information, I am assured that they'll fix it as fast as they can, but the customer service reps won't give me an address, or connect me to a higher up so I can figure out what the hold-up is or how to get a replacement. I'm deeply disappointed in Asus--they were reputed to have the highest quality laptops () and very high customer service. Yet I'm reduced to venting about my unhappiness with them and their lousy product at Amazon!

First impression review: Having very limited funds and a need for a solid laptop to last a few years, I did a lot of research into the best laptop for the money. I needed something quick and nimble to run various programs for animating and design work, and something utterly reliable, because I'm taking distance classes right now. I needed something that would still be versatile and functional 3 years from now, because I don't buy these things like potato chips. This computer fulfills all of those requirements beautifully. Perhaps anything would have been better than my 3 year old HP laptop, but the Asus seems especially quick--.pdf files open so fast I have to wonder about the laws of physics. It stays pretty cool. Vista wasn't even as bad as expected--though I appreciate the free Windows 7 trade-in.

Only one real problem: If you ever want to listen to anything without using headphones, forget it. I didn't take the warnings about lousy speakers seriously, and then I tried to watch a DVD with my kid on this thing. Simply COULD NOT be done--neither of us could hear, even with no background noise. Get external speakers! The only other problem I have had is that Vista installed funky at first and kept saying it was an unverified copy. I couldn't access the wireless network. After a websearch using a different computer, I found a quick fix and have had no other problems, crashes or freezes.

I purchased my Asus from the the Amazon seller J&R Music & Computer World, where it was dramatically discounted. It was actually so discounted that I was a little worried that they would send me the wrong model--that they must have made a mistake! No mistake, everything is correct. Moreover, they did a FANTASTIC job of packing and shipping. It think the computer itself was packed in something like 6 nested boxes, which may concern one on an environmental level, but I believe nuclear waste would have come through the mail safely in their packaging.

Update, 6/17/2010

The repaired computer continues to work great. My wife is very happy with it.

####

It turned out that the Nvidia 240M was bad on my unit. Used ASUS support to send my laptop in for service. ASUS sent me a FedEx label, so shipping was free. They repaired my unit and sent it back to me. Took a little over a week to get it back.

With Windows Vista 32 bit, it got a windows experience rating of 5.6. I installed a 500 GB hard disk, and installed Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit. It now gets a Windows experience rating of 6.4, better than my wife's AMD Athlon 64 6000+ based desktop machine.

Very happy with the laptop now.

Chris

> I cannot complete the 'Windows Experience Rating' without having the Nvidia display driver crap out and be restarted. I end up with a Windows Experience rating of two, > because of the lousy display driver. I've tried the version of the drivers supplied on the install disk, the versions of the graphics and sound drivers from the ASUS support > website, and the latest drivers from the NVidia website.

>

> Is this just another Nvidia driver bug? Or, is my hardware flaky?

>

> I just installed a new disk, and installed Windows 7 64 bit on the machine, clean install. Updated with all available updates from Microsoft, and I get the same error

> under Windows 7. In fact, I got the blue screen of death after the Windows Experience rating quit attempting to run.

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Dell Inspiron 1300 Laptop Computer

You pretty much get what you pay for. In the case of this laptop, you don't even get that.

It is powerful enough for just about anything(other than gaming) that most people do, with its Celeron M processor.

The screen quality is bad. The bottom part of it leaks a lot.

It is entirely out of plastic, so definitely not sturdy. Mine bends, etc.

Quite heavy, not for carrying around, yet not powerful enough to be a desktop replacement.

My DVD player no longer plays dvd's without major skipping. This is probably party due to the 150 CD's I have burnt with it.

So if you want a budget laptop, and find a good deal(ie. around ~$200) then get it. It can take a beating, with a few minor things going wrong.

There are better laptops out now for cheaper than this, with Dual-Core processors, etc. If you can, get them, as this is now an 'old' laptop.

First I'd like to say my unit is the 14.1" Wxga model, but it has the Celeron M 1.6Ghz processor, 512mb ram, and a 5400rpm 80gb HDD. I'm also running WinXP SP3. So, it is slightly better spec wise. The laptop also supports 3 USB ports, built-in 56k modem, Ethernet, VGA out, headphone and mic jacks, and what I believe is an express card slot.

The laptop is all plastic. This might sound like a bad thing, but most low to mid-range laptops are plastic. The plastic on this laptop doesn't feel that cheap, and is fairly solid. If you trying twisting the laptop there is very little flex. As far as typing goes, there is no keyboard flex at all, even when purposely pressing with a great deal of force on the keys.

The 14.1" size of the laptop would make it ideal for portability. It's not too big to be thrown into a backpack to bring to work/school. However, the laptop weighs roughly 13lbs, which is quite heavy compared to laptops on the market today. The one nice thing about the 14.1" screen is that it's not a glossy display. A matte screen is almost unheard of in the market today, everything is gloss. The one bad thing about the screen, however, is it does leak like around the bezel. My unit also had the two bottom bezel screws fall out, which allows the bottom of the screen bezel to separate. This also causes it to pop and creak when opening/closing the laptop.

I can't comment on the battery life. When I got this laptop the battery was near the end of its usable life, and I would be lucky to get 2 hours on a charge. Now, the laptop won't run at all without being plugged into the wall. The AC Adapter had to be replaced because it stopped working as well.

Obviously this laptop is really outdated in all aspects, but it still remains a good laptop for internet/email/word processing. It also works well watching DVDs, and online videos. However, anything more than standard definition will cause the video to lag a good bit making it unwatchable.

I've been using this as my primary computer for school/home use, and it gets the job done. If I were to buy a new battery, and get two replacement screws for the bezel I would have few complaints about the laptop other than its weight. Overall, it's a good laptop for its age.

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Brought this laptop from affordable deals it works great! It came WIFI ready & I was able to use it imediately. It arrived with the wrong charger but the seller shipped the right one as soon as I emailed them. The seller also told me to keep both chargers. Great customer service! Great deal on a laptop! SWEEEEET!

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ASUS U47A-BGR4 Notebook, 14" 8GB RAM 750GB HDD

I was not sure of the condition of the laptop while ordering. But when it arrived, I was happy to see the laptop. It was brand new as I ordered refurbished. It also came preloaded with Windows 7, which was not mentioned on the web. I think it should have been mentioned. Thank you

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ASUS U57A-BBL4 15.6" Laptop, Intel Core i5-2450M CPU, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB Hard Drive, Bluetooth, 80

I bought this product about 2 months ago, strictly for school. I needed a laptop that had the storage room to hold all of my pictures, music, videos, and school files. All in all I've wasted about 150GB in just that, and to still have about 580GB to use, is GREAT. I also needed a laptop that could run editing programs, because of the i5 processor I could run multiple internet windows, iTunes, Photoshop CS5 Extended without it even slowing down a bit.

I don't mind that the keyboard is NOT back lit, like the previous review I also misunderstood and read that it WAS back lit. But at the end of the day it really makes no difference, yeah it would be a lot nicer but if you know how to type (which I'm assuming a majority of buyers know how to) it won't make a difference. It has a full keyboard so when I'm inputting numbers I don't have to go to the top row and input them horizontally. I personally, prefer inputting numbers vertically, I don't know with cellphones being that way, calculators and a heap of other devices to me this keyboards number pad feels great.

Don't get me wrong, not all of this laptop was shimmering gold to me. Let me begin by saying that none of these things I'm about to point out make me change how I feel about this laptop, the mouse pad is a little TOO sensitive. The first few days you find yourself being frustrated because you might close your windows because you grazed the mouse pad, or realize that you're no longer typing where you intended to. The good thing about this oh so sensitive touch pad is the fact that because it's so smooth and sensitive it responds EXTREMELY well.

The sound on this laptop can be a 9 to me, it handles all of my music well ranging from death metal to Chopin, or whatever I feel like listening to. The reason why I say it CAN BE a 9 is due to the fact that the speakers are, wait for it.....on the bottom. What? Yes, the speakers are on the bottom. As a student at first it really really pissed me off because what do students love to do? Do their homework comfortably on their bed. And if you don't have those little laptop stands like I don't, your sound becomes muffled and sounds like it's underwater. If the speakers weren't on the bottom it'd be a 9 but because of this I will give the sound a 6.5-9.

I want to touch one LAST thing before I conclude my review, the day I went to go purchase this laptop at Best Buy there was a disgruntled buyer returning this EXACT Laptop. He was complaining that the product description was false and that it did NOT have a memory card reader. It does, don't fret, it's a little hard to find but it's RIGHT BENEATH where the little stickers of INTEL and HDMI are. Just lift a little bit and you can see it there.

In conclusion, don't let the little flaws of this laptop stop you from buying it, I am actually considering purchasing another one for my Mom. You get your moneys worth and it will handle everything you do well. Oh and I know that there will be people looking for reviews on how well it handles games, the best it could handle (that I tested) was BF3 on normal settings.

I like it, it's pretty fast w/ lots of room for storage

for under $500. was a great buy

one disappointment, but, was my misunderstanding

I read back-lit..........I taught it was ,,the keypad was back-lighted....NO BIGGIE..

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This product is a piece of junk, doesnt do anything i want it too. too bad i cant take it back to the store or else i would. it sucks.

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Asus Zenbook UX31E-XH71 13-Inch Ultrabook (Intel Core i7-2677M, 4GB Ram, 128 GB SSD, 900x1600p LE

This laptop is super thin, super light, and super fast. Great start up speed, good looking--I recommend this laptop to anyone on the go or stay-at-home!

Ultrabook manufactures are scratching their perverbial heads asking the consumers why they are not buying up the new Ultrabooks that are suppose to be the latest computing craze today? Simple. Pricing is way too high!! Their marketing teams evidently don't know how to do math and their research teams don't know what 'latest generation hardware' means. In this particular example, the ASUS ZENBOOK UX31E-XH71 is way overpriced and underpowered for having such an exhorbant sticker price. $1199 for what?? This model does NOT have dedicated graphics, comes with an out-of-date older 2nd generation Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU and only a 128GB SSD? How about put an 2nd generation Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge quad core CPU in there (3610QM or 3740QM), put dedicated graphics in there (Nvidia GT650M), and a 256GB SSD. Then I would pay $1199 for it.

NUFF SAID! If you are looking for the best bang for your hard earned money, DO NOT BUY AN ULTRABOOK AT RETAIL PRICES!! Wait for Black Friday to roll around, and then pay $300-$500 less for the same notebook (as equipped in this amazon listing)...which is about what they are really worth anyway.

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HP ENVY 17-3090NR 17.3 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

My 2 1/2 yr old AMD dual core HP was not working very well anymore, I am a power user and it just can't keep up with having two screens running, outlook open with 4000 e-mails, 10 word documents, 2 spreadsheets, 20 chrome tabs, 20 internet explorer tabs, skype, and ringcentral running phone calls over a usb headset. The old laptop was overheating and locking up constantly.

I wanted to get a laptop that could keep up, so I considered everything from Asus ROG to MSI and Alienware, before settling my choice on this laptop. For the bang for the buck it's a winner. and it's a triditional size macbook clone looking laptop so it's light and portable unlike the true gaming laptops.

It reboots FAST 10 open programs, closed and completely rebooted and all startup programs done in approx 1 minute. This took approx 10 minutes on my old laptop. It also has 8 usable cores, so even when pushing it HARD (2 screens at 1080p) with similar usage as expressed above, it's generally running 2 cores at 5% and 6 at almost nothing, with an occasional spike on one or two cores up to about 20%. Office 2010 professional programs start INSTANTLY as does everything else that is installed on the SSD drive.

ONE NOTE it comes pre-configured to store all of the my documents, my videos, my pictures, etc... on the SSD which will fill it up very quickly. I had to go on the Microsoft help site to figure out how to re-map the "library" folders to work on the larger traditional drive. Once I did that it fixes that problem.

The only other complaint is that I wish the recovery partitions, etc... were on the larger drive. This thing ships with only about 20-30GB of usable space on the SSD drive because of the extra partitions using up space.

Pros

Blazing FAST Quad core, with an SSD primary drive. Programs open instantly

Attractive Macbook type looks means that it's appropriate for a business meeting, a trip to the coffe shop, etc... and it fits into my old 17" laptop bag.

Display is excellent. Very bright very good viewing angles, best I've ever seen.

-Excellent battery life I'm getting 3 4 hours of battery use (browsing and file transfers) old laptop was done in 30 minutes to an hour even when new.

RUNS COOOOOOOOOOL --I can't stress this enough. Compared to the frying pan that was my old laptop (Could not be used on a lap even for casual browsing and often overheated and shut off) this one ran half a million files over 20gb of data over ethernet for 6 hours while running all needed applications, and playing around with the 3d video, etc... and was literally cool to the touch the entire time.

Cons

1gb video memory on a high end machine seems a bit light, but it's more than I'll need as a business user (non gamer) but in a high end machine 2-3 would have been nice.

Placement of recovery partitions and document video and picture librarys kills most usable space on SSD.

NO VGA OUTPUT I had to buy a special displayport adapter to tie in to my external monitor, then the monitor wouldn't detect any signal. Ended up buying a new monitor with an HDMI input and an hdmi cord problem solved.

---THIN THIN THIN ALUMINUM Laptop less than an hour old and already aluminum bent around a usb port. My old laptop with the plastic shell was ABUSED for 2 1/2 years and not a scratch on it.

Overall excellent laptop with a few minor flaws, would recommend.

I bought this direct from HP with a discount at about $1400 with a SSD and 750 GB extra HD. I only got the 8GB of RAM. This is a media beast and does cause Envy from Mac users.

One thing of caution. I think there may be a design flaw with the heat vents in the back as they blow right onto the screen. I returned it once to HP to fix a burnt out key and a ding on the case by the USB port. I am NOW sending it back again for a flickering screen. At first I thought it was a software issue, but after updating almost everything from HP and even trying video drivers from the manufacturers, it has to be a hardware issue.

I think HP is onto something with this series and has great potential, but their QA/QI and engineers have their work cut out for them. Maybe they're taking plays out of the MS X-Box 360 play book. Create an awesome product, that fails periodically. I don't mind sending back a video game machine, but a laptop could be crippling to productivity. Help us out here HP!

Update 8/2012

So they sent me a 3200 after six months of issues. It is long past due. I hope the China manufacturing issues have been resolved. It seems to be blazing fast with 64 bit programs so far.

Update 9/2012

I think the 3200 version has solved a lot of issues I was having. No trackpad problems, no reving of the fan endlessly and using heavy Adobe software has not caused overheating. My screen works fine now. So now I can say the second time was worth it and am happy to not have gone over to a Mac. I can now move it to 5 stars. It only took 7 months though...

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I've had my HP Envy for about 6 weeks now. Overall happy w/ it. I upgraded the RAM and CPU and have been doing some HD video editing; so far, so good. Nice screen, nice audio, easy to use volume control, and has desktop power.

The one serious irritation I have with it is the keyboard/touchpad--and that can be fairly annoying. Often when I am typing, the cursor will jump to some random place in a document and by the time I look at the screen, i have no idea where or how it got there. Takes time to cut/paste to correct the error. There also seem to be some keyboard shortcuts that perhaps I am unaware of and accidentally hitting--have had to do a bit of research to correct some of the changes that seem to happen out of nowhere. It may be that the thumbs, even though not physically touching the pad, are close enough to reposition the cursor in some cases.

Keys also seem to vary in terms of pressure needed--another annoyance. OFten they will respond well, but sometimes, even after hearing the key hit, nothing appears on the screen and I have to go back and hit it a few more times before the character appears. All of this tends to disrupt the flow of typing and work and diminish efficiency, hence the three stars.

Before you chalk it up to "user error"--I've used laptops and touchpads exclusively for the last 15 years, everything from Dell to Lenovo to Gateway, and never, ever had this problem before.

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I recently tried ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop.

I returned it and got this instead.

The D/L speed MIGHT just be one tenth of a second slower, BUT:

The color is greatly superior, with more subtle adjustability.

(light pink, pale blue, orange, lemon yellow, if one prefers that for certain projects over

Hot pink, Burnt sienna, indigo, or lime green yellows).

But even though there is a little more subtlety...

The LED screens will NEVER have the mellow tone of LCD,

(hoping that LED monitors go the way of the 8 track tape...soon

LED is like a cold polar sun,as opposed to the south of France ambience).

The sound is FAR better, with overtones rather than a hollow echo.

The half size up/down arrows do not bother me at all.

The keyboard layout is very pleasing, and the track pad is not overly slick.

The mouse buttons are wider than the ASUS so i do not keep hitting the frame by mistake.

I bought it direct from HP compaq (who have always provided excellent phone support.

This was considerably LESS $ than the ASUS.

And was packed with great care in 3 separate boxes.

Delivered lightening fast bt FEDEX on a Saturday.

Want HP ENVY 17-3090NR 17.3 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Discount?

I bought this laptop for a friend and they seem happy with the product. I had a difficult time acquiring the product through Amazon, but otherwise I was happy with the product.

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