HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD

Pros (there are lots of them):

1) blisteringly fast system overall even with just a hybrid hard drive (because of the solid state cache on the drive). With full SSD (Samsung 840 Pro 265 GB in one system, Samsung 830 in the other) boots to welcome screen in UNDER 8 SEC full desktop only another 4 seconds away. With just mSSD (or hybrid) and no full SSD (32 GB cache for conventional hard drive and smaller cache on most hybrid drives) still boots in ~18-20 seconds. (Samsung 840 Pro is fastest current SATA III drive see my Amazon review of this drive.)

2) superb screen anti-glare really makes a difference, with the upgraded 1080p display. Very accurate and bright color with great viewing angles. Poor man's Retina display for half the money? Intel's terrific screen utility allows for adjusting color, gamma and virtually all display parameters to get very accurate color, tone, saturation, gamma, etc. With professional tweaking, capable of extremely accurate color (notably without some of the color problems seen in the 15 inch HP Envy).

3) excellent sound system (in combination with the great display best possible blu-ray experience currently on any computer (rivaling plasma TV).

4) backlit keyboard (finally HP!) with decent feel (but see cons!) with full number keypad (can't get that in smaller laptops).

5) very decent battery life, especially for big laptop because of (switchable) motherboard graphics and other Ivy Bridge efficiencies runs very cool on motherboard graphics esp. compared to old Envy 17s with its full time power-hogging dedicated video card.

6) solid video game performance there are probably better video cards but upgraded Nvidia 650M GT offers very good performance for the money.

7) my one experience with HP service was surprisingly positive got a technically very sophisticated person who helped solve the problem quickly.

8) Relatively light for its size under 7 lbs. Lightest 17+ inch laptop with two drive bays including the overpriced but high quality Apple MBP 17.

9) Second drive bay allows for either huge total storage or drive redundancy (I have extra OS partition which has been life saver after hard drive corrupted by rogue program behavior and blue screen. Can't get that in smaller package

10) Loved the first one so much that I bought a second one for another office, and just cloned the whole system had a fully set up system after just 30 minutes of drive copying (identical hardware so all the drivers and software from one system carried over to the other without a hitch). Second one works as well as the first.

Cons:

1) internal microphone is distinctly poor quality only piece of hardware on the system that is not really first rate makes speech recognition programs unusable without an external microphone I wonder if someone left a piece of tape over it no treble sensitivity at all.

2) HP service is getting better, but still has a ways to go at least according to recent reviews

3) Windows 7 still is not the most reliable operating system particularly when compared to the Mac OS X but it is nice to look at, and much easier to customize.

4) Trackpad is about the jumpiest around must turn it off to do much typing as even brushing against it lightly will cause cursor to go crazy and start selecting and deleting text all over the page. Enabling palm check function in touchpad driver doesn't solve this problem.

5) Wish keyboard lighting could be varied one brightness level only.

6) Not able to get Win 7 much longer may even be closed out of this better debugged OS by end of 2012 (you would be forced to install Win 7 from separately purchased OS install disc.)

7) Placement of the blu-ray burner/player is on the right side of the system, and rather close to the power cord. Minor design hiccup. Also wish that the drive was slot loaded. Another minor issue.

This is the fastest system I've ever used. With the new Ivy Bridge chipset, a Crucial M4 SSD or Samsung 840 Pro (highly recommended) can load large files at over 500MB second, and it boots fully into the desktop in an honest 12 seconds. This makes it really painless to shut the system down instead of having it go into hibernate or suspend which Windows system have never excelled at frankly. Indeed the boot time is far less from a cold boot that it is from hibernate, and it starts up faster than it shuts down (another Win 7 feature of dubious value). HP has also significantly improved the sound system (relative to my previous Envy 17 which itself was pretty decent), with really good volume levels. Superb playback of Blu-rays, and unlike some previous systems, I have yet to find a Blu-ray that won't run on the included software. Even with a subpar internal microphone, I would say this is the finest and most complete laptop I've ever used and that includes the new MacBook Pros which are more than twice as expensive (and good luck trying to get blu-rays to play on Macs unless they are running BootCamp and Windows).

Great job HP!

ADDENDUM JULY 2012:

System is just a joy and a delight to work with. Continues to speed along without any real problems. Updated a bunch of drivers through HP Assistant. Best electronics purchase in a long time.

SEPT 2012 UPDATE:

Still having problems with a jumpy trackpad that moves the cursor all over the place just disable the TP when trying to do much typing. Also, I had first serious problem (hard drive failure due to some kind of malignant program interaction between Flash, Office and Dragon Naturally Speaking). Don't blame HP for this. Fortunately, the second drive bay allows me to back up the system partition regularly to another drive (the original 1 TB mechanical hard drive) and this saved me. Would recommend other users do the same, as system restore won't work if you have a hard drive failure and trashed system files (see my negative review of Naturally Speaking 11 and 12 they are probably the culprit, or at least in the mix with some other misbehaving programs). Still believe that in terms of basic hardware, this is the best large screen laptop out there, including the MBP 17. HP's service looking better and better. They appear to have really made a major effort to clean up their act. Highly, highly recommended.

OCT 2012 UPDATE

Recommend users get DriverMax for driver updates great freebee that beats HP's system, which is better than many, but still not adequate. Superb system, best computer I have ever owned, even with the jumpy trackpad and lousy internal microphone. Screen quality, speed, keyboard, all first-rate. Some blu-rays more enjoyable on this than on big living room plasma. Updated Intel MB graphics drivers allow customizing of gamma, color saturation, hue, so that you can get screen to be very accurate for color in terms of photos and videos. Love the anti-glare coating on the screen also couldn't go back to stock screen. Best computer purchase ever. Will buy a second one for upstairs office before being forced to go Win 8. Not everyone wants a tablet interface and operating system. They really (finally) have the drivers for this running nicely almost no blue screens (outside of Dragon Dictation). Runs like a top. Not just the best computer system I have ever used (have owned several dozen), the best one by a HUGE margin. Buy one before you can't get Win 7 anymore.

DEC 2012 Update

This system continues to blow me away with its reliability and overall excellence. Some of this is just dumb luck frankly if you have a bad device driver, this can make any Win 7 system a nightmare, and right now (knock on wood) there are no bad device drivers on the system. Have used DriverMax to get all updated drivers one at a time, and only one per week, just to make sure that the new driver is not a blue screen waiting to happen. The second cloned system in my other office works flawlessly too.

This is, as I said earlier, not only the best computer I have ever used, but the best by a large margin. Hard to get one from HP with Win 7 anymore with just a few left in their inventory. Don't know about Win 8. Too early to tell but would predict the usual video and sound card driver problems and other teething issues. Buy one now with Win 7 before they are all gone.

JAN 2012 Update

Both systems are just rock solid and never blue screen. As I said earlier, I think that some of this is dumb luck, but some of it is HP finally taking driver support more seriously. I have never had such smooth functioning from a Windows system over the last 20 years (going back to the original buggy mess of Windows 3.1, Win 95, Win 98, Win Millennium, Win XP). Occasional troubles with Flash and its locking up of Firefox (I believe that Abode is just this side of a rogue software outfit, in terms of how seriously buggy Flash and Acrobat Reader both are). But this is really minor stuff, and I have never had a system work this flawlessly for this long and run this smoothly and quickly.

Get Win 7 before it is too late. Win 8 appears to have lots of problems. Can't say enough about the overall excellence of these two systems (identical DV-7 7000 except for the different SSDs in each, and the mSSD in the one I am using now).

I've only had this computer for a few hours, so I'll update this review as necessary.

I spent four months researching the perfect computer via the internet. I had settled on either the HP Envy 17-3270, or the Samsung Chronos 17". Before I made my final decision, I decided to go to Best Buy to get a feel for my two remaining options.

I saw the Samsung, and I was quite impressed. It had great build quality, a wonderful keyboard and was a real pleasure to use. Then came the Envy. Despite its "premium" materials, it felt cheap and flimsy. The keyboard felt kind of mushy. I was very disappointed. But right next to the Envy was the new DV7.

Well when I picked up the DV7-7000, I was pleasantly surprised by its build quality. It simply felt better in my hands than the Envy. That is, it was lighter, the lid felt stiffer, and the keyboard and mouse were quite responsive. Oh, and as a classically trained musician, I can tell you that the speakers narrowly beat the Envy's and Samsung's -both of which have very good speakers, for laptops.

So, I went home and did some research, and I saw that the DV7 can offer the same specs as the Samsung and Envy at a price tag that is over $200 cheaper.

I was sold. I still am sold.

The computer arrived in perfect condition. No dead pixels, no scratches. The only issue with the build quality is a very small wave in the keyboard, between K and L. For me, this is not anywhere close to a deal breaker. But when I was doing my pre-purchase homework, I saw that other users also had this issue.

Well anyway, here are the pros and cons.

Pros

-Fast system.

-Beautiful Screen. Frankly, it seems like the same one used on the Envy, but with an anti-reflective screen (yay).

-Wonderful Audio.

-Highly Responsive Backlit Keyboard, Including Numpad.

-Fingerprint Reader allows you to store passwords for the computer and websites, thus sparing us the trouble of remembering dozens of passwords.

-Blu-ray Player

-Limited Bloatware

-Left and right click buttons on the mouse.

Cons

-The touchpad is a little too sensitive. Nothing that I won't get used to, but I will have to get used to it.

-Small wave in the keyboard.

-VGA port is right next to the HDMI port, so you can only use one of those two ports at a time. For me, this is the only area where the Envy 17-3270 has the DV7-7000 beat.

That's all I have for now. I'll update as needed.

Buy HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD Now

The HP dv7-7000 quad edition is all about what is "under the hood." The prospective buyer will be hard-pressed to find a notebook with these beefed up specs for under $1600 with any other manufacturer. I narrowed my search down to three: The Dell xps 15, Asus N56VM, and the HP dv7. The Dell XPS takes the cake from a build quality perspective (aluminum, magnesium, gorilla glass, and a silicone base) but to get the same specs as the HP, Dell starts you off at $1600. The Asus N56 offers similar specs at around $1000, But appears a bit cheap. The dv7 is the more bang for the buck choice as it lies somewhere in the middle of the other two. Although the outside is mostly plastic, it is supported by an internal aluminum chassis; this gives it a sturdy feel. The monitor lid is extermely stiff to open, but this is a good thing because it stays put. I expect the lid hinges to loosen over time. Windows 7 boot times are significantly reduced due to the "hybrid" ssd cache. This is nice feature if you are accustomed to slower windows boot times. The backlit keyboard is roomy, well-illuminated and comfortable for extended typing. Some have complained about the number pad causing a slight shift in the keys, but this has not bothered me in the least. The touchpad is average at best, but why does anyone use these? Just purchase a wireless mouse. I would never let the the touchpad influence my decision to purchase a notebook. The beats branded audio exhibits good sound quality, with plenty of volume and clarity. The subwoofer on the bottom of the notebook really isn't discernable. After all this is a notebook, so temper your expectations a bit. HP provides an excellent user interface for driver/software updates, customer support, diagnostics, etc. I found the interface to be helpful and user friendly. The notebook recognized my home wireless network instantly and provides good signal strength throughout my home. I have an HP wireless printer, which the wizard failed to install drivers. To remedy this, I went to the HP site and downloaded the driver; works like a charm! the dv7 has 3 usb 3 ports (very nice) and a usb 2 port. I am not a gamer, so this unit will probably never be tested to the limit. That said, the unit stays cool under normal conditions (web browsing, word processing, file downloading). I have not used the BD drive yet, so I can't speak to it's performance or quality. Early on, everything is speedy and performing well. My major complaint with the dv7 is the HEAVY, anchor-like 9 cell battery, which also functions as a stand that elevates the rear of the unit. I understand that this is a desktop feature meant to facilitate ventilation and ease of typing, but it is a nightmare when used on the lap OUCH! I am ordering a flat replacement battery. The 1920x1080 FHD monitor is bright, but lacks sharpness. The colors appear slightly washed out. This judgement is based on the look of internet explorer and Netflix HD streaming. My Dell 22" 1080p desktop monitor blows the dv7 away! Still a nice monitor though. Overall, the dv7 posesses a great deal of value and performance. If you are more concerned with external aesthetics and are willing to take a downgrade in specs to remain in the $1200 price point, the Dell is probably a good choice. However, I believe this has it all for a better value. Another final perk: A two year warranty is included in the purchase price. This will tack on around $250 with a Dell purchase. I easily recommend this unit!

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD Here

This Product is amazing! I love it the core i7 procceser is so amazing great windows experience index and also it stays pretty cool unlike what the other guy said. I was in between this and Samsung series 7 but i decided on this because they are in the same price range but this laptop has way better graphics cards like the intel hd 4000 and the gt650m which uses ddr5 which is about 15% faster than ddr3 version of the same card. But overall this laptop is so good has all the high end stuff in a affordable package.AND the audio is to die for

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There are so many good things i can say about this laptop. The display quality and color accuracy is very similar or slightly better than my other Macbook pro laptop!

It's very fast and battery life is superb.

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Hp - 15.6" Pavilion Laptop - 8gb Memory - 750gb Hard Drive - Natural Silver

I have only had this a couple weeks and I like it a lot.

Things I like about it:

the keyboard is easy to type on

you can turn the mouse off when writing something so it doesn't act erratic if you rub your palm against the touchpad

it has fingerprint password entry

it has the ability to use the touchpad to go forward, back, make pictures bigger and smaller etc.

it is very user friendly

it was easy to set up

The one thing I do not like about it is the screen and that's a big problem: it is very reflective; too reflective.

I don't know much about lap tops so maybe there is a plastic covering or something I can put on this to make it less reflective. If that can be done then I'll adjust this review up to 5 stars assuming I find no other problems over the next few weeks.

Overall it's a good computer and if I can resolve the overly reflective screen issue then I will give this 5 stars.

UPDATE:

I've had this a while now. I fixed the screen reflective problem by buying an anti-reflective plastic layer that fits over the screen. I bought it online and I don't remember the name of the company (it was a private vendor, not amazon; do a search for "view guard").

The only problem I've had with it is the trackpad not responding to tapping to select a link or open a folder etc.

I downloaded a new driver from the hp web site and that SEEMS to have resolved the problem. If it does not and I continue to have problems I will post another update . Meanwhile you can assume I resolved the problem.

This is a superb laptop. HP makes pretty nice machines this is very unique in with most laptops feeling so cheap this one really feels like a lot more then the $750 or so it retails for. It has a very good processor in the i5 and HUGE RAM at 8GBwhat that translates to is a very enjoyable and fast/responsive experience. I would not have felt cheated had this been priced art $1000. Make sure you get this one though as there is a little cheaper one out there that is very similar.

KEYS to why this is such a great machine:

Lightweight and slim design.

Processor i5 with huge RAM = great performance

back-lit keyboardand a really nice one

HDMI A must have these days allows you to connect to TV also has VGA

3 USB 3.0 = everything going the way of the 3.0 USB this has 3 so your covered/also one 2.0

fingerprint reader

"Just very well built = doesn't feel cheap, looks great."

It's one hell of a bargain! Be sure you don't get the wrong one thoughthis one is the BOMB!

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The HP Pavilion m6 adds some high-end details from HP's more expensive laptops, while keeping the price down. This is a highly configurable system, with options for discrete graphics and fast CPUs. This near-ultrabook packs in processing and graphics power, along with an optical drive, at a reasonable price. The only real knock against the Pavilion m6 is that some of HP's higher-end systems hardly cost more but it's not a bad choice. Especially considering the affordable price and not a lot of them offer mid-range to high end specs like the Pavillion M6 does.

Read Best Reviews of Hp - 15.6" Pavilion Laptop - 8gb Memory - 750gb Hard Drive - Natural Silver Here

I have 2 of these, the wife and i both. Mine lasted 3 months before I had to have Best Buy replace my HD. Now the wife's is doing the same thing. Takes 20-30's just to boot, then it wont do anything in less then an hour, web browser, pull up pics or anything. Mine did this same thing until it just wouldn't boot anymore. I could understand one was just bad luck, but to have 2 different ones needing a new hard drive in less then a year. Not a good sign of quality.

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I purchased this HP Pavilion computer (M6-1045DX model)from Best Buy for my daughter to use at college and within one month the screen had cracked when she inadvertently left the headphone plug in the computer when she closed it. Naturally I had to replace the screen with my coin. Six months later our dog stepped on the cover of the closed computer and the screen cracked again.

5 Years ago I purchased my older daughter a dv6000 series Pavilion for college and besides having to replace the CPU fan once the laptop has been running strong to this day.

Frankly the specifications for this unit are pretty impressive but the computer is as fragile as a graham cracker. One just has to do a minor search on the internet/E-Bay to see how many vendors are selling replacement screens for M6 Pavilions as a testament to the number that get broken.

I truly regret purchasing this laptop as now I have to buy my daughter another more reliable/rugged laptop for her second year of school.

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Toshiba Satellite P105-S6114 17" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5200, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Ha

The build quality is top notch. It feels as good as it looks. There is no flex at all, anywhere. I believe that this laptop will last a very long time. Everything seems to fit exactly where it's supposed to, no clicks or clacks whatsoever. Excellent ratio price-to-performance.

Pros:

Great quality build

Excellent 17" screen

Quality HDD with plenty of space

Core 2 Duo processor

Not bad battery life (considering the power and size of the notebook)

Cons:

Keyboard takes some getting used to

HDD could have been 5400rpm

Ram should have been 667 MHz.

At the time of this review, I have used my notebook for close to two weeks. I am very satisfied with the product thus far. The 17" Trubrit screen delivers great contrast and colors (which is important for me as I do quite a bit of graphic design) as well as tons of processing power. Considering it's size, it is rather light weight and not overbearing. The Harmon Kardon speakers in my opinion produce above average sound for a notebook. The large number of available USB and media ports makes it perfect for what I do. As I have come to expect from Toshiba, the build quality is amazing.

All this cannot be said though without noting a few the annoyances with this notebook. As was stated by other reviewers, the keyboard is definitely takes some getting use to especially with the tiny period key and right shift key. But, in my opinion, having a keypad and the right hand side compensates for this.

The finger print scanner, while an excellent time saving function, quite often doesn't work and reads (Bad Quality) when attempting to scan. Because it uses heat spots to map your fingerprint, the accuracy tends to decrease as your laptop heats up from prolonged use.

Finally, by far the most annoying thing with this laptop is the fan. I've read other reviews were people have actually returned there notebooks because of the fan. It's not that it's necessarily loud, it's that it turns on for 1/2 a second then off again only to repeat the process 5 seconds later. So you constantly have a fan turning off and on, off and on, off and on. If you are in a quiet setting, it can drive you insane. I've attempted to see if there is a firmware fix for the MB through Toshiba, but to no avail *UPDATE FIX NOW AVAILABLE SEE BELOW. As long as I have some background noise and am not working in total silence, it's livable.

All in all, if you can find this notebook on sale it is a fantastic bargain if you can get around the few minor annoyances.

*Update 10/12/09*

I felt I should add to this review, seeing that when you search for the firmware/fan problem this page comes up. I wanted to update my review to notify everyone that firmware update was released in 02/09 that fixes the annoying fan issue stated above. The BIOS update is version 4.70 which is available for download off Toshiba's page:

There is also an update to the Fingerprint Utility which also solves the fingerprint reader problems I stated above as well. Now with both of these issues fixed, this laptop continues to serve me well and is very livable with the normal fan speed.

Buy Toshiba Satellite P105-S6114 17" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5200, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Ha Now

I bought this shortly after I went out on my own contract programming. I liked the bigger screen because it was replacing my desktop. So far I've been extremely pleased with it, aside from the keyboard. I use it many hours every day, travel with it regularly, work at home and at various coffee shops, etc.

The screen is excellent and plenty bright even on battery. After a year the battery still gets about the same amount of time as it did originally around two hours under normal use. I am usually on AC.

The only thing I am unhappy with is the keyboard. If you have to type a lot and will be depending on the unit's keyboard, I must recommend that you pick a different machine. I can't understand what they were thinking when they designed this -it is almost like the keyboard was an afterthought. The right shift key, the slash, and the period (not to mention the arrow keys) are so small that you may wear out the backspace key before its time. I can't give you too much information on what else you will run in to I carry a full size USB keyboard in my bag, which I planned to do anyway as I am not much for laptop keyboards anyway. This setup works out great for me. If the keyboard is not an issue for you, I highly recommend this machine.

Some of the other features I don't use as much: the fingerprint reader is a neat gadget and it works well enough once you get used to it, and get the method down, but it was just something to mess with for me. I don't currently use it.

It has plenty of USB ports, a card reader port, which handles SD (I was delighted to discover when I needed it) and some others. An ample hard drive (160GB) and 2 Gig of memory (this was must for me; I wanted it to handle the applications I was running smoothly, and that was about the max you could find in an out-of-the-box machine at the time). The built-in wireless card works great, it has a firewire port, dvd writer/everything drive that works great. And finally the price seems very good for a machine like this with durability that I trust.

WHY TOSHIBA?

about 6 years ago I did some research which gave me the impression that toshibas, though a bit heavier, had outstanding durability. My first one was (still is) fantastic. I am still running it non-stop on my network, but I needed more memory/speed/disk space. In between my wife bought one which as performed exceptionally as well. I have not been disappointed in any of my Toshibas. The keyboards on the other two were fine, by the way. As far as personal experience, I've seen way too many Dells fail first hand (including one of ours). As far as other brands, I don't have first hand experience, but few looked as good as Toshibas when I researched them, and none for the price.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite P105-S6114 17" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5200, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Ha Here

Considering all the planned obsolescence and the fact how fast are the new models brought to the market and then replaced with the "newer better" versions, I was surprised to see this laptop still being sold.

I have owned it almost 3.5 years by now and have sort of mixed feelings about it.

It definitely is powerful unit with plenty of storage and high enough processor speed, and I have used it instead of desktop all this time, and have, of course, grown attached to it and rely on it heavily. Even though the above factors (storage and speed, and reasonable reliability) never were an issue, when there is time for me to go and buy new computer, it will NOT be Toshiba again.

Here are the (3 main) reasons why:

1.

The CD drive has not been working properly for a very long time.

It still plays cds and dvds, and I can use it to import songs in iTunes with no problem.

However I have not been able to burn music CDs and have them come out right.

I have several software programs available, and have tried all (three) of them with the same dismal result.

Each time the CD would not work properly and started skipping and stopping around second or third song, no matter what CD player it was played on (and I tried several CD players to make sure).

Previously I have owned HP laptop, and the CD music burning was never an issue, and it always worked right. Not so with this model.

Frankly, it is not much of a problem now, as I have not been listening to CDs for a while (thanks to iPods :), but back about 3 yrs ago I needed to burn music mixes on the CDs partly for my job and partly for my family, and it was a major problem, that I could not do it on this computer.

2.

The other, lot bigger and infinitely more annoying problem is the fan issue.

From reading the reviews on other Toshiba laptops, this does not by far seem to be limited to just this particular model, but to other Toshibas as well.

What I mean by that is the constant rapid outbursts, when the fan kicks in high gear, runs pretty loud for several seconds and stops... and the whole process repeats over and over till it drives you nuts... almost like a chinese torture, annoying, crazy-making, chipping away at you, and you cannot make it stop or get away from it.

One thing is dealing with noisy fan, but it would be far more tolerable, if it ran constantly for awhile, then stopped, and was done with it.

The only way to avoid this incessant on-and-off is to really put only minimal strain on the CPU and to not run too many programs at a time... which of course could be done, but in the big picture it is completely unacceptable having to deal with something like this in the first place.

3.

Another REALLY big thing are the missing parts of the screen.

Not much more than a year after I bought it, about 1.5 inch wide blank white stripe popped up on the screen, running vertically, covering all the data underneath... it was distracting and unappealing, but it was positioned in a way, that was not interfering with the computer use, and I could work around it.

About six months ago another stripe showed up, right at the START screen, covering all the important essential function needed for the proper computer use, and at that point I was almost ready to throw the laptop away.

I was told, that the repair (as is usually the case with electronics) would be about as costly as getting a new unit, so I almost got a new one then. Finally I just plunked down more money for new screen, that works perfectly fine, however at this point the portability (the main reason for getting the laptop in the first place) is a non-existent advantage and a moot point.

(And also the fan issue got considerably worse, now that I am running external monitor as a part of the setup).

So there it is one star taken off for each issue, remaining two starts given for relatively reliable performance otherwise.

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Having used the `other' Laptop brands at home and at work I have had issues with each...I decided to try something new. I purchased my Toshiba Satellite P105-S6114 during Christmas of 2003 primarily for my personal use consisting of music, photo and video with related editing software tools. Then as now, I have not been disappointed! In fact I actually had to look up when I purchased this unit for it did not seem that long ago that I brought home my Toshiba. I use it daily with heavy multitasking and it still runs great! For someone who can spend a day easily taking 300-700 photo's at a time for download, editing and printing...I needed something that could easily travel with me, a wide screen for close-up detailed graphics, a hefty storage space, a unit capable of handling strong photo editing tools and a keyboard easy on the fingers for building documents. Unlike other Users, I have had no issues with the keys. Now Aug 2009, I still have 'no' regrets. I would recommend this unit to anyone....luv my Toshiba!

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HP Pavilion ze4325us Laptop (1.67-GHz Athlon XP-M 2000+, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Dr

I purchased one of these computers only six weeks ago. On the second time out I detected black spots on the screen, where there should have been pixels. Pressing the screen brought some of them back, but as the day progressed the marks became cracks in the LCD screen itself. I reported the matter to HP the next day and they agreed to collect the unit for warranty repair. Some 10 days later they called me up demanding $650 to replace the screen, saying they were not prepared to honor the warranty for a crack.

The lid is totally too flimsy to take the stress of holding the closed unit and lifting it from a carry bag. There is a connector right where you grasp the case, and this can dig in and crack the screen. For a portable laptop the design is not fit for purpose.

NB the electronics work great but without a screen are of little value!

A refurbished version was given to me as a gift. It works great for me. Only issues:

1) Left touchpad button has become flaky. Maybe overuse on my part.

2) 256MB was insufficient for watching DVD movies. I installed additional 256MB and playback was improved.

BTW, HP Support is excellent. They have an Active Chat support utility that is available online that allows you to 'chat' in real time with support personnel.

Buy HP Pavilion ze4325us Laptop (1.67-GHz Athlon XP-M 2000+, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Dr Now

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Dell Inspiron 15 1564 i3 4GB 320GB DVDRW 15.6" Windows 7

This is one of the best laptops I've ever purchased, and I've gone through plenty. The combo of Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel's i3 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM make for a fast and smooth functioning PC. Battery life is on par with other laptops. The LED display is very nice and for a 15.6" screen, it's lighter than I expected. Looks great, I like the slim form factor makes it similar to a Macbook in that regard! A+ for Dell on this laptop.

Just a caution about purchasing a USED Dell Laptop. Dell has become very demanding about transferring ownership. Probably for several reasons they now require the name, address and purchase order number OF THE ORIGINAL purchaser before they will transfer ownership.

Why should the prospective buyer care? Simply because without transferring ownership, the new owner may not be able to get the computer serviced. Often newer used computers have a warranty remaining. That is a VALUABLE portion of the purchase price.

My suggestion is get a written statement from the person you are buying from that they are the ORIGINAL owner. Ask them to send the service tag number in that e-mail. Ask them to assure you that they will help with the transfer. Ask them to agree to take the computer back for a full refund if Dell refuses to transfer ownership. Then, as soon as the computer arrives, go to the Dell website and attempt to transfer ownership. If Dell will not transfer ownership, you may want to consider returning the item.

If you don't care about being the actual owner of record of the computer, then please ignore the above.

This is not written specifically concerning used laptops listed on Amazon or anywhere else. This is a general statement of caution.

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I own one of these, bought it NEW and after 6 months, I had to warranty it out through Dell because the HD crashed on it and had to be replaced. Mind you, I use this for business only, so I never download anything onto it & use it for E-mail, surfing the web for information and FB. Now my keypad types words in that I did not press & it is overheating so it is again going to Dell for another Warranty Repair. I called Dell and purchased another warranty before mine expired because you can not trust this Laptop. One of my acquaintances has the same Laptop and has had the same exact issues and has also had to have them repaired.

The space by where the mouse is, is silver and gets very hot, my fans are not working right & that is causing overheating according to Dell. This is the biggest pile of junk I have ever owned and as soon as my warranty is up again, I am not paying another $110.00 I am buying a Acer or HP. SAVE THE HEADACHE & BUY ANOTHER BRAND!!!!

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HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx 17.3" Notebook PC - AMD Turion II Ultra Dual-Core M620 2.5GHz / 4GB DDR2 / 5

I purchased this at "best buy" for $800 (Tax included). This is by far the best computer I've ever used. I notice some people complain about the audio, and how the speakers crackle (I haven't had this issue at all), I however don't use the speakers for sound on my laptop, but instead have it hooked up to a 2.1 system that I've had for my old PC, and it works great! Everything is smooth running and fast. would highly recommend buying this system. Only problem that I am have is finding a laptop carrying case that is big enough for it. But I do not really plan on traveling with it much anyway... hope my review is helpful for you...

I actually just bought this computer at a Best Buys for $ 779.99. I only have been exploring it for a couple of hours, but one of the first things I noticed was that the sound was below inferior. It has a touted feature called "SRS Premium", that among other features, provides a virtual, 3d sound effect; the volume being very limited. It includes many parameters, including a graphic EQ with presets, that seem to do little, if nothing to affect the sound. It includes Altec Lansing speakers, which at first glance, you'd think would indeed be superior. Quite the opposite! They crackle and break up constantly, and forget about even a hint of any real bass. I eventually ended up uninstalling this whole driver and reinstalling a basic driver, minus all the fancy features. This VASTLY improved both the volume and sound quality available.

On the plus side, a huge 17.3" screen, a dedicated number pad, a dual-core CPU; both rated at 2.5 GHz, along with 4GBs of installed RAM; expandable to 8GB, and wireless "N" are included. A 500 GB hard drive and accessible DVD drive that also supports BluRay! To complement this, 4 USB ports and an HDMI output are provided.

On the whole, I think I will end up being very happy with this PC, once I completely resolve the sound issues.

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I'm in love with my laptop, it's really awesome. It's true that the sound from the speakers is bad, but who cares, when we almost don't use the speakers in a regular basis to hear its audio (sometimes I use the speakers, but I put them very low and it works fine) and also when this notebook has all these amazing features. Only few laptops in the market has all these funtions with a great price. It only cost me tax in BJ's in a month where this laptop was on sale, so imagine how happy I should be.

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Well I am disappointed that after a year the motherboard gave out so fast. I didn't do a thorough research before purchasing this laptop to have known the effects it had. As to what the other reviewer JT mentioned the heating problem ( it is certainly a major problem). I enjoyed the time I had with the laptop up until that year. I have always taken care of any product that I purchased to last for as long as it can. I read on other forums later on that a lot of people had the same issue with the motherboard crashing just after a year. This is the first HP product I bought that gave me such an issue. I even bought a separate cooling fan thinking that would help, guess what it didn't change a thing. For spending (899+ tax) on it, I felt that I was cheated thinking I would have a laptop that would last longer than a year. I never really did anything major on there except for when I needed to use Microsoft word, watch a movie, browse the internet, small projects. I honestly did enjpy the laptop when it worked but now I am wondering whether to replace the motherboard or simply trash it, since my warranty was over like 4 months before this happened (funny right). I went back to best buy's Geek squad the guy told me it would cost 700-1400 to repair, he himself told me I'm better off buying a new one rather than to spend that kind of money for repairs. So overall if you're looking to purchase this be warned and even check over the internet you'll see a lot of complaints about the motherboard giving out after a year.

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I'll start off by saying it does still work and has never failed to run. However HP update never worked from the beginning and Blu-ray player has never played a single bluray. It has a hard time with normal DVDs at times. I have to use windows media center. Probably the thing that aggravates me the most being i could have paid alot less for one without a bluray drive. Overheats easily just playing movies and not even gaming. Video card is extremely complicated to get to for cleaning and you risk damaging other components (big part of the heat problem). Duster can is not strong enough to clean it so I had to use an air compressor. Frequent hard drive errors that need repair. Also just found out it uses 2x2gb of ddr2 800mhz memory which is terrible even for when i purchased it and will only except specific hp modules successfully(ddr3 greater than 2000mhz is used today and are cheap). Slow outdated dual core processor. No ability to change anything to improve computers performance via bios. msconfig allows enabling all cores on startup tho and works for all computers. Not even worth the effort to put a SSD into it. I will add that i build my own computers now and know how to update anything from software to motherboard bios to firmware updates.

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Lenovo X1 Carbon 34442DU 14-Inch Laptop

Pros:

Fast, Solid build quality,Low fan noise, Low heat, Excellent keyboard,

The only con i could find was the trackpad isn't as slick as some of the newer ultrabooks and feels a bit wobbly when I click it. If you can get past that, it's an amazing laptop.

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Toshiba Satellite C655-S5119 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Certainly this laptop lacks all the bells and whistles (no HDMI, no Webcam, no Mic etc) associated with a typical modern laptop, so what? It sure is built to perform and I am very pleased with its performance. The CPU has 3M cache, great for multitasking, all its components rate very well on the Windows performance index and the screen is nice and bright. I love its keyboard!

I bought Logitech 2 MP Webcam Pro 9000 with Built-in Microphone, which was available for $35 during Thanksgiving weekend and it just resolves the no webcam issue with it and at $365 (330+35) I would say it is a steal!

The rating given is a reflection on amazon's goof up.

The laptop is a decent one with sufficient power for daily use. The bottleneck for performance might be the graphics card. It has a full size keyboard which is attractive. The display is a little sunken compared to a hp laptop making it look smaller.

Now coming to Amazon's part (the seller):

If a product is offered as a part of a lightening deal we at least expect the product description to be reliable. A decision has to be made in a minute or two which will cost hundred's of dollars. One of the main use of a laptop for me is skype. A missing webcam and mic implies I will have to spent more money and also carry an additional thing wherever I take this laptop.

Edit:

I contacted the amazon customer service and they are working for a resolution. The reply was prompt which earns them a star more.

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I am really pleased with this laptop. I needed a machine primarily for internet use but wanted it fast enough to handle additional tasks if needed. I think for this purpose it exceeds my expectations and I think it is a good value. It also interfaces really well with Facebook and games, and is fast.

The screen is more clear and bright than my old Dell, and it has a shiny, not matte, surface. I appreciate that it is not all loaded up with junk programs. It offered Norton at setup (which I decided not to load), and even came with a freebie version of Word and Excel which has ads on the screen but at least its something. The exterior is textured which hides fingerprints, and for the size it is not heavy. Best thing is it doesnt seem to get hot and its very quiet. Its perfectly quiet.

My only complaint when the lid is closed, it goes into sleep mode and as far as I can tell you have to reboot when you open the lid. One minor thing regarding the keyboard, the number pad is on the right side, not on the top, so I feel a little off center when I type. However, I expect to get used to that in no time.

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This is the second time I've ordered a Toshiba laptop and both were terrible and crashed within the first month of use. Do not buy Toshiba. VERy POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE full warranty for the first year, but they make you pay to have it returned to be fixed.

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I could live without the web cam, although I really would have liked and used it.

However, the hard drive spins with a loud whine, which is getting louder. I haven't been able to use it much, because of a hectic week at work, but today it rebooted itself 3 times while I was trying to read email.

Enough is enough it is going back, and I don't want a replacement. I am not sure if I will try another Toshiba or not. My last Gateway was still doing very well after 4 years, until I gave it away because I bought this Toshiba!

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Acer Aspire S7-391-6468 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (White)

This would be a 5-star review if it were not for the manufacturing quality issues. I ordered model 6410 from the Microsoft online store for my wife's b-day at the end of April for $999. It arrived with a 2 inch pixel scratch (subsurface in the screen) and it also had a manufacturing date of Nov 2012, which by computer standards is practically ancient at 6 months old. Microsoft returns are a nightmare but I finally did get a full refund. Fortunately Amazon lowered their price at this time and our 2nd buy was this slightly newer 6468 version manufactured Jan 20, 2013 (whoever names the models must be on crack go to their website if you don't believe me). The Microsoft store in the mall now carries the 6413 which I think might be newer for $999.

Anyway, #2 from Amazon arrived with a bad space key. You had to mash the Space key very hard to get it to work if it worked at all so back it went. Amazon prime shipping and returns are a breeze though which is why I love Amazon so much. The 3rd computer arrived in this time in perfect working condition 3rd time's a charm as they say.

Many oohs and ahs at work meetings on the size and styling. Admittedly the styling is very Mac-like but it's thinner, touch screen and compatible with all of my PC programs for work and home. Honestly though, I find the touch screen pretty useless on a laptop/ultrabook. If it folded back, like a tablet it would be a perfect design.

Sounds like it should be a 2-star review but really this thing is so light and sexy and nothing came close to matching it in May 2013. It's the best 'laptop' I've owned so far ( and I've had HP, Sony, Toshiba, and the worst of the worst my current Dell Aspire 'aka "brick" or "P.o.S" for work that I no longer carry it now stays docked 24-7).

I bought this laptop after doing my research and watching/reading multiple reviews. Most of the reviews were quite accurate. It's a very light, very pretty, very well-built laptop with an ok battery life. When running large processes i.e. games, the fan can get a bit loud and the area just above the keyboard where I presume the battery is can get a bit hot, but otherwise it is more or less silent and cool.

A note about battery life: I'm getting up to 5 hours running internet/documents, and around 2 hours running League of Legends. This is with all settings optimized for power saving and wi-fi turned on. With wi-fi turned off i.e. airplane mode, I can get 6 to 7 hours.

The speakers work quite well, as does the touchscreen. Thanks to the SSD, boot time from completely shut down to the lock screen is slightly less than 5 seconds. This is an excellent laptop for its price. I could not find it for less elsewhere.

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I purchased this laptop since it was very thin and lightweight and enables me to carry it around with me. The problem I've been having is with the Wi-Fi connection which keeps dropping. I read a bunch of forums and it seems this is a problem for many others who have this model or older. I've tried some of the fixes suggested by Acer and users on the forum and the thing that helped a bit was the switch on the power settings to high performance although it kills the battery quicker. It still drops the connection but not as much.

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Great design, really beautiful. I think it is much better than Macbook Air. Touch screen is very smooth and clear. The only problem is the original WIFI driver sucks...But after upgrading the latest driver released on April.2003, everything is perfect now.

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I looked for ultra book for few months and considered macbook air, asus zenbook and sony vaio in addition to the aspire s7.

I didnt buy the mac because I wanted ready to use Windows 8 and touch screen.

eventually I decided to go for the acer, the machine looks great, light, nice, slim, great screen etc.

there are 2 issues:

1. the wifi does not work well it turns out it is a known issue, check acer customers forum.

This is really bad, when I am right next to the wifi router it works fine, if I move 10-15 ft away the speed drops to nothing and it disconnects.

I downloaded the latest driver didnt do much help.

I ended up buying an external wifi usb adapter ... this is not what I got an ultra book for.

2. The other issue is fan noise, I must admit it is not as bad as I thought it may be after reading reviews here.

The wifi issue is way more problematic ....

Acer do something about it...

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Toshiba Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 3rd Gen Intel® Core i5-3230 processor - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard D

Replaced my old Toshiba with this one and was not disappointed. Fairly good speakers for a small laptop. Lighted keyboard is a plus. No issues playing high quality HD video without lag. Shop around, BB smokes this price.

the computer is fast and efficient, plus the backlit keyboard is wonderful.. i will recommend this for anyone. :) windows 8 takes a bit getting used to and i hate that there is no start button but the computer workd fine :)

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Shopped around a lot before buying this laptop. Other laptops may have more features/performance but I felt the $$$ went up faster than the features. Very happy with this purchase, definitely got my moneys worth.

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over all. performance and quality. hope to get as many years service from this one as the old one did.

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Defanatly a very good laptop for the money. I'd recommend you shop around. I picked this up at a local retailer for 629. I don't think you can do high end gaming on this computer though. I have yet to see this computer slow down. I love how you get 4 usb 3.0 ports. the speakers sound awesome and the mic is good as well. I really don't think you will find a computer with this much performance for the money. Plus the expandability to 16 gb ram is awesome. I picked up the coolermaster x2 notebook cooler for this thing and it works perfectly to keep it cool. The battery life is not the best. I'd say 3 hours or so. I do wished it had bluetooth but it's not a deal breaker for me. The keyboard is not all that bad. The best keyboard I ever used on a laptop was on a macbook pro but this keyboard is not bad.

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HP Pavilion DM4-1162US Entertainment Notebook PC Laptop 14.0-Inch Widescreen LED Display, Brushed A

From what i can tell this is the exact same model as the dm4-1160us except with a smaller hard drive. That smaller hard drive should result in a $50 price reduction, but i picked this one up at Office Depot for $ after a $ mail in rebate. Due to the unusually low price i was convinced something must be wrong with this computer, but it's awesome. I've read complaints about the mousepad on the 1160... i'm not sure what they're referring to cause it's been perfectly fine for me, infact its been better than the asus, dell, and compaq laptops i've had in the past.

If you're game player with heavy graphics needs you should pass on this model. But if you're a business users or home user who wants a light, solidly built, good performing laptop with great battery life, then I'm sure you'll love this computer even at a $700 price tag.

Make sure to check the date of the reviews when you review this laptop or buy one. Many of the issues such as the touchpad and power button problem have been worked out and this little puppy is one refined piece of work. its very nice loooking, very light yet very substantial and durable feeling. HP has upgraded many of its parts and such, like the way the hinges are and the use of almost all aluminum with laser engraved detail and this laptop is badass. also, with laptops such as 13 you pay top dollar for lesser specs. the 1160 us comes with the core i5 450, 4 gigs of ram, 500gb hdd at 7200 rpm(pay attention here-most at this price are around 320 hdd running at 5400 rpm. the dm4 1162 is only 320 gb and the 1060us is the i5 430 instead of the 450 like the 1160us has. also the 1160 has widi so you can wirelessly see ur coputer on ur hdtvand you can forget about a fingerprint reader at this price point. this computer comes with one, and a nice little hp light up logo on the lid for a nice little touch.the 1160us also has bluetooth and protectsmart for is hard drive. it has a led backlit screen also. im not sure why the 1160us model seems to be on sale moreso than others bc it has more features than the others too. one model has a wimax card(4g) and u can get this laptop custom with ati graphics if you game which i wish i had bc now im gonna have to get a vidock 2 or something for gaming but at 629 bucks on sale (i got 200 bucks off at staples) you really realy cannot beat this deal. some of you are thinking that this isnt as good a deal as it looks on paper bc of how some of hps older laptops are made but they have seriously upgraded the look and feel of them to aluminum w/ engraving ( brushed aluminum at that) with a light up logo lid sexiness beastly laptop that you will be proud of-take my word for itdont buy the dell 14r or any acer that you will get at this priceget this laptop and email w/ a thank you later.

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I bought a similar model 14 months ago, the HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx. Like this model, it looks great and has many attractive features. But it is missing something critical: reliability. The USB ports stopped working the other day. After trying several remedies suggested on the HP web site, I spoke with an HP rep who said it seemed to be a hardware problem and offered to fix the problem for $255. Then if I wanted to extend the warranty another year, they would do so for an additional $100. This system is suddenly much more expensive than the original purchase price. It's now in the territory of a Mac Powerbook, which is more reliable and comes with better service, especially if an Apple store is nearby.

Compounding the sudden loss of USB ports (essential for laptops these days), this laptop has several other reliability problems including a battery that no longer holds a charge more than an hour, a screen that sometimes flickers (apparently a loose connection somewhere), and sporadic failures to come out of sleep mode (requiring removing the battery and rebooting).

No wonder HP is getting out of the laptop business.

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DM4-1162US Entertainment Notebook PC Laptop 14.0-Inch Widescreen LED Display, Brushed A Here

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Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)

Some of the other reviewers here have had issues with Dell products in the past, as have I from time to time; however, you can't deny you are getting decent hardware for the money. If I were you I'd ignore some of these other reviews which clearly have not actually tried this exact Inspiron model as it was first released in October of 2012 and they are talking like they've had it for a year and a half! I've owned Inspirons in the past and plan on them lasting me 3-4 years. That's exactly what you should expect out of any inexpensive laptop. I bought this particular model because I wanted the new Ivy Bridge processor and SSD included with this model. So far, it works great!

Purchased this for my husband for christmas! He loves it except has to get used to using WIndows 8 !

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Pros: Hybrid drive is well optimized.

The lower end processor actually saves quite a bit of power. Computer lasts 6 hours without a charge.

Quality frame

This is a great computer between home/work

Cons: Most issues with this computer is Win8. Just remove that puppy and put win7 on it. If you prefer to use Win8, I suggest downloading Pokki. It will alleviate the tears at night that you will have from the new start menu.

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If you look around, then you'll see that this is a good overall buy for the money. I've had no problem with Dell laptops in the past and the same is true of this one.

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Me parece un excelente computadora de las mejores portatiles que he tenido, sería bueno incluir el paquete de Office para no tener que comprarlo por separado, por lo demás estoy satisfecho

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PSK3JU-01D001 TOSHIBA PSK3JU-01D001 TOSHIBA PSK3JU-01D001

I purchased this item from another place other than Amazon. It is a replacement for the previous laptop I owned. This is a good student computer, it runs fast, has a good clear picture, holds a charge well for a large screen. It would not be a good gaming computer. The drawback I have with it is that it only has 2 USB ports and I had to purchase an extra USB that will allow me to charge my iPhone, plug in my mouse receiver, and plug in my jump drive all at the same time.

This computer is amazingly lightweight for its size and has a thin profile. Overall it is a good computer that is fairly portable for the student on the go.

11 month old computer stopped working after a shutdown, was told the motherboard was broken. To fix this, I would be in as far as the cost of the computer. The tech told me not to buy a Toshiba next time. He said his research showed this is a common problem.

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I purchased this refurbished for 450 dollars. I already had a borrowed Satellite and loved it while I was using it. This Laptop here though, is great for gaming, video editing, Photoshop, MS Office. Below are the games I play on it just fine.

Doom III

F.E.A.R.

Assassins Creed (All)

Rift

Dungeons & Dragons Online

World of Warcraft

Crysis

Farcry (All)

Formula 1 Racing

Oblivion (All)

Everquest

So as you can see, quite a few nice games. Not only that, it handles 30-45 minutes of video quite nicely in Adobe CS5, which CS5 does just fine on this computer. I'd recommend it over higher end computers because of the price.

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Excellent laptop, But, the keyboard skips letters typed and also inserts double letters of some typed. Typing is very frustrating.

Toshiba hasn't fixed the problem in 6 months... they say they are on the verge of fixing it.

There are a lot of people wishing they had never bought the computer... you may want to hold off until it is fixed or buy from a different brand.

You can check out the forum on Toshiba's website to see what aggrivation they have caused their customers:Think twice before buying...

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This is another great Toshiba laptop, I hear others complaining about broken power cords or internal components. I think for the price this laptop does do what it was priced for, student work or basic computing. It has a wonderful 17.3 inch screen that is 16x9 resolution which is more than enough space to type in Word or view entire spreadsheets. The screen is highly glossy and reflects more than you would enjoy and that is a major downfall. The speakers are nothing to boast about either. Battery life will run you 2 hrs when watching internet videos off WiFi based connection. In the end this laptop is a good one its just too old and outdated to really impress or even keep up with an on the go lifestyle. If anything try out an ASUS or look for a decent priced Toshiba right here on Amazon.com or your local electronics stores. As always this and all computers could have been better.

::Personal Experience::

My laptop still works well for basic non-mobile tasks plus the charger never broke. I use it for Word and Adobe Photoshop and it doesn't lag or die out even when running Chrome, Photoshop, etc at the same time. If you don't get lucky with your purchase then I think just return it if possible if not do a little more careful work on your next purchase. Check where it's coming from, how its going to get there, what have others experienced, maybe don't buy the "latest" computer on the shelves and much more like that.

::Personal Opinion::

This computer is way past its buy mark so I cannot recommend buying this machine as it will not give you what you need anymore.

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Gateway MT3422 14.1" Notebook Computer

The laptop is really nice. Everything as promised. Very quiet. A bit heavy, but I dont't carry it much and if I do it doesn't matter. Windows Vista is not really faster then XP :-( nor is it better.

All in all a good choice.

I had this system for a week now and I am pleased with it. I use it for ViOP and VPN using a wireless network for work and it works great. It is what it is, a mid to low range Laptop. The only thing that I can gripe about is that the pointing device is low grade. The left click button is aready loosing its spring. I knew the pointing device was not an everyday use device and I have heavy fingers. So I am going to a mouse.

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I have enjoyed the laptop so far. Crisp display, ok graphics. Only gripe is it's a touch slow it needs to think about things for a little before they load up. Might be worth the mem upgrade to 2g for vista prem.

Read Best Reviews of Gateway MT3422 14.1" Notebook Computer Here

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Sony VAIO S Series 13.3" Notebook Computer, Intel Core i5-3210M Dual-Core 2.50GHz, 6GB RAM, 750GB H

This laptop is an excellent value and has met all of my expectations. The new Windows 8 is still a little hard to get used to however, I think it should be a good operating system.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 20994KU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dawn Gray)

First off, I want to thank Amazon for their amazing service once again. Ordered this laptop with prime and got it in 2 days. I was going to pull the trigger on the Lenovo website but now I'm glad I didn't. People on the forums are complaining their units kept being delayed... for even months!

Okay, lets get into the computer.

Un-boxed it, first thing I noticed was how nice it looked out the box, build quality was above average and looked great. Much better than the HP DV6T Quad that I returned due to terrible quality control and build quality on that thing was atrocious!

Powered it up and wow the screen is gorgeous. Beautiful glossy display, in FULL HD 1920x1080 of awesomeness. Viewing angles are great, colors pop and blacks are deep making a very rich viewing experience. The screen is very comparable to the DV6T FHD screen which I also loved, viewing angles can't quite match a quality IPS but it's close. This is subjective but one of the main selling points for me would be the gloss screen. Ever wonder why the displays on Macbooks and iMacs ect are so amazing and colors are so rich and vibrant? A big reason for that is the glossy overlay.

Keyboard and mouse feels literally 10x better than the DV6T, the touchpad clicks registered nicely, almost Macbook like. The tracking is great, keyboard travel is just right with just the right amount of feedback for you fast typists. Backlit keys are a great feature to have. No complaints here. Love the input combo.

Make no mistake by it's appearance on the outside, though it may look like any other normal multimedia laptop, inside is the guts of a MONSTER. This baby will run neck and neck with custom Sager's and Alienwares costing twice as much! Which is amazing since it doesn't weigh 15 lbs, isn't 4 inches thick and doesn't look like a fallen piece from the stealth bomber.

This thing rips, it will play literally any new game on High or Ultra settings at full 1080p! With very smooth 30-60fps! It packs a double whammy, Ivy Bridge 3rd Generation Core i7 Quad Processor and a Kepler based GTX660M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory! Throw any project at it, it will churn it up and beg for more.

Toss in an open mSATA slot that operates in SATA III 6GB/s and you can stick a 128/256GB mSATA SSD in there as the main duty drive, then use the mechanical drive for all your storage needs. It's a win/win situation! Lesser mortals who are stuck with computers that don't have an mSATA port need to take drastic measures in order to have the same awesome capabilities. Usually needing to remove the optical drive completely in order to replace it with a hard drive caddy, allowing room for their mechanical drive since the original space would be now occupied with a full size SSD.

Let's wrap up this review with some straight to the point answers.

Does it have USB 3.0? Of course it does!

HDMI out? YES!

Blu-ray burner? YES!

Card reader? YES!

Does it really come with a FHD 1920x1080 display? YES! YES! YES!

This is the swiss army knife of computers, If I had to write down everything I wanted in a computer, this one would have it all. I would pay twice as much for this system if I needed to, it's really that good! Go buy one yourself, dooooo it!

This computer is just awesome. It has very nice specs considering the price. Overall, this computer has handled everything I have thrown at it, which includes: Crysis, Ableton, and Photoshop. Aesthetically speaking, this computer looks very nice with it's gunmetal finish, very classy. The screen on this computer is flawless, especially with 1920x1080p. It looks just like the retina display on the new mac book pro. The JBL speakers do nice work to any music (mind you they have actual sub-woofers.) The webcam is also very nice, with a nice 720p output. The i7 processor can be overclocked, which allows it to multitask with easy. I have had no problems with this computer and is a very good competitor to the new mac book pro. So, if you want performance with a sleek design and at an affordable price, this is the ultimate laptop!

Buy Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 20994KU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dawn Gray) Now

This computer is fast and has amazing speakers. The display, however, started to show deadpixels. I believe this problem is because of the too fragile display, with which i had to play around to 'fix' the problem temporarily. I have returned the item because of this problem only. All other aspects of the computer are very good.

I expected higher quality construction/assembling from lenovo.

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Found there are some reviews grossly off mark when I finally have it in my hand. here is my take:

1) The build quality is solid with anodized rose-golden metal backing and inside. No keyboard reflex while typing.

2) The keyboard layout takes some time to get used to. The keys are a bit too small.

3) Very little heat or noise dissipation while surfing the net, unlike my 3-yr-old mbp.

4) The screen is bright and clear from wide angles, A+.

5) It weighs maybe even lighter than my 15" mbp, which is decent.

6) To my surprise, very few bloatwares installed if any.

7) heard it's lighting fast with mSATA. Can't wait to try it out.

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I purchased this laptop after doing some research for laptops tuned toward gaming. PC Magazine rated this laptop as a top pick and gave it their "Editor's Choice" for it's power and capabilities. I have had this laptop for over 6 months, and I absolutely love it. The screen resolution (1080p) is fantastic and along with the NVIDIA graphics card provides a crisp and clear visual experience. The cooling element is nicely designed, with the heat vent on the left side of the computer, allowing the heat of the machine to escape through one vent, thus making the keyboard always cool (This was unlike my old HP laptop, where the heat escaped through the bottom and sides of the laptop, making the keyboard incredibly hot after long gaming sessions). The keyboard itself is very crispy--my hand freely flows from key to key, and the keys are filled in in-between so no food/dirt/etc. gets underneath the keys, and the keys can be lit up during nighttime. The only real complaint I have is the trackpad. The right and left keys on the track pad are like an Apple laptop, where they are embedded within the trackpad itself (there is a faint visible line that separates the right and left keys, unlike an Apple laptop. However, I wouldn't not buy this laptop because of this (I also personally use an external mouse). On another note, I recently did a complete factory restore (to clear a lot of program clutter I had) and I found it incredibly easy to do. You simply hit the One-Touch Recovery button, hit accept and the laptop takes care of the rest.

If you're looking to purchase a gaming laptop, I would highly recommend this one. I would also recommend buying it here, off Amazon. Lenovo's website store seems to be incredibly slow. When I originally went to place my order with Lenovo, the site said the laptop would SHIP in 3 weeks. Here on Amazon, it shipped the day after I purchased it, and arrived in 2 days.

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Compaq Presario CQ60-215DX Laptop Notebook - AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 Dual-Core 2.0GHz, 2GB DDR2, 250GB

I bought this laptop in april of 2009. I upgraded the RAM from 2 to 4 GB's. I had to replace the screen recently but that was due more to my cat sitting on it. The computer its self is great. I upgraded from Vista to 7 and it runs that flawlessly. I have also booted Ubuntu and it recognized everything. I expect this laptop to last me another 5 years at least. Its a great computer if taken care of properly. I only had to format it once but that was due more to user error. The USB on the left side broke awhile back and i have yet to get it replaced. I would definitely purchase another for my wife.

Paid $300 for this laptop and a year and a half later it's proven to be a good buy. You really can't beat the price. I don't game much but I have run WOW on it and it does fine. A little lag when you go to Daleran but otherwise it's great. Short battery life but it's always plugged in anyway. It tends to get really hot really fast so be sure to ventilate properly as another reviewer suggested.

Buy Compaq Presario CQ60-215DX Laptop Notebook - AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 Dual-Core 2.0GHz, 2GB DDR2, 250GB Now

Bought one at MicroCenter with my severance package when laid off in 2009. Used at my little start-up business, at home, in hotels around the US, in customer offices.

Only two "complaints": Shiny keyboard limits where you want your lighting placed; no built-in webcam.

I have used it with the factory Vista Home Premium, Ubuntu, Mepis, and will soon upgrade to W7...

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I purchased for $300

Pros:

Running Ubuntu Linux 10.04, all devices recognized and work

You can use Vista for light gaming, it has pretty good power with the Nvidia card

No frills, simple essential system

Upgradable to 4 hour battery

Large harddrive

Nice look

Cons:

Default install is Microsoft Vista

No builtin webcam

Can be heavy to carry for extended periods

Default battery life lasts about 1.5 hour with moderate use

Can get very hot without proper ventilation

May scratch easily on top of the polished case (I covered it with laminate film to protect it)

I would buy it again.

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It is fully of bloatware. that nags the heck out of you to buy, buy, buy!!!! Dang nabit, pop ups! So, the stupid OS has become corrupt and i now need to do a system recovery. I have gotten my second set of recovery disk from HP and they still won't do the reinstall. I keep getting Error 1005. Yes, I have called numerous times and they want me to buy additional phone service for $100 to trouble shot and then additional $$$$ to actually fix the dang computer. I should have just bought a better computer. Maybe next time I'll get a Toshiba.

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