MSI G Series GE70 2OE-017US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

This laptop is amazing! Super fast, looks great, solid build. I have been using 17" HD laptops for years and this is the best I have ever used. I bought an miniPCI-E SSD card and used Acronis to move the system image over to it and now it boots SUPER-FAST! The only issues I originally had were figuring out how to scroll with the touch pad. It's like a Macbook, you use two fingers and drag in the reverse direction you want to scroll. Took me forever to figure it out, but it works great. I also couldn't figure out how to force the video card to be the Geforce versus the Intel HD one, so the Windows Experience Index was pretty low (comparatively) until I went in to the Nvidia control panel and changed the 3D default settings. Then, it was zooming (though, no real need for it to always use discrete graphics, so I switched it back).

In the end, everything is great. I love the separate button for the illuminated keyboard and another for the "cooling down mode" which amps up the fans and lowers the laptop temp by 10 or so degrees.

The keyboard feels great. The touchpad is huge and works well (after getting used to it) and there is VERY little bloatware. The MSI utility for creating boot discs also works great (I created a USB key and 4xDVDs).

If you're in the market for a 1200.00-1300.00 performance laptop this is the one.

The screen is beautiful as is the chassis. All around, the best laptop I've ever had.

After several days of getting to know the laptop, I decided to write a review. I apologize for the lengthy review, but there was no way I could just put in a few sentences for a large purchase such as this.

First of all, I'd like to say that the price point for this laptop is amazingly good. Sure, it could have been cheaper, but you'd lose all of the features it had!

Performance wise, it's a great laptop. It dynamically adjusts the clock speeds depending on the load, meaning you'll save a lot of battery. I've seen it run as low as 700 MHz, and I've seen it go all the way up to 3400 MHz The Haswell processor handles it very well, resulting in a very little loss of performance even when you leave it idling and decide to start opening up programs.

When you need the performance, you can expect it with this laptop.

Now moving on to the graphics part The included NVIDIA GTX 765M is nothing to scoff at. Granted, it's a laptop, so you shouldn't expect it to perform as well as a gaming desktop. For all intents and purposes, this card will run everything you need at 1080p in medium to high settings, or sometimes ultra settings! I was able to play several games in 1080p ranging from medium to ultra settings with an absolute minimum of 60 fps.

NVIDIA Optimus is another cool thing on this laptop, it will automatically determine which graphics processor to use. When you want battery life, you can set it so that it'll run on Intel's integrated graphics unit. However, when you want the performance, it'll switch over to the NVIDIA GTX 765M. You can actually see which mode the laptop is running on based on the color of the power button's LED. Blue for integrated, Orange for NVIDIA.

Of course, you can always override this and set it to permanently use integrated graphics or NVIDIA graphics. If needed, you can also configure each program individually to run on integrated graphics or NVIDIA graphics.

I have to comment about the keyboard. When I looked at the pictures, I was concerned that some buttons were cut short (Such as Right Shift, Enter, and Backspace buttons), but after handling the laptop, it proved that it was of no issue. The backlighting, while it didn't look anything like in the pictures, was still decent. It was sufficiently bright, and there was 3 modes. The first 2 modes being on/off, and the third being half lit. Apparently the purpose of this was to illuminate only the keys you'd use during gaming.

The keyboard itself was a pleasure to type on, sharp enough to receive feedback, but soft enough to have that cushioned feel. Also as an added bonus, the wrist area (the space below the keyboard) stays very cool even while playing games!

The display is perfect, there was no dead pixels. Excellent quality and color. The viewing angles are wide enough for me, so I don't have anything to complain here.

The battery life on this laptop is good, but not amazing. I haven't really tested it in different scenarios though. However, at full brightness, I was able to watch a 2 hour long movie before it died. However, I would expect the battery life to dramatically increase when you reduce the brightness and do less intensive tasks.

The temperatures are decent, idling at around 40-45c for the processor and the graphics card. I did run a prime95 stress test, as I wanted to see how hot the processor could get. The CPU did go up to 93c, but did not go beyond that. I don't expect the CPU to get this hot with normal usage or even gaming for that matter. The GPU ran considerably cooler than the CPU though. The hottest temperature I've ever seen it reach was at around 75c.

Now, moving on to the cons:

Even though I know that this is a gaming laptop, the battery life could have been better. I'm really surprised that they only put a 6-Cell battery in this laptop. It was probably to maintain the slim form factor, but still, I feel like this is something they could have improved on.

The USB 3.0 ports are finicky. On the first USB 3.0 port, it would only perform at USB 2.0 speeds, on the other port, it'll perform at USB 3.0 speeds, but disconnect constantly (USB 2.0 devices doesn't disconnect however). A firmware update fixed the USB 2.0 speeds, but it also switched ports I was having issues with, so the first port is now having the disconnections, while the second one works flawlessly. I suspect that this is a firmware issue, and might be fixed at a later date. However, it's not a big issue. It seems like a common problem, not with MSI products, but with USB 3.0 in general.

Also, on Amazon's product description page, it said that there was 3 USB 3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports. This is incorrect, there are only *2* USB 3.0 ports.

The "Cooler Boost" function on this laptop barely did anything. It might have knocked the temperatures down by 1 or 2 degrees, but nothing to be amazed about.

This thing attracts a lot of fingerprints. The area below the keyboard, and on the sides of the keyboard, and the lid all attract fingerprints.

Considering the positive aspects of this laptop, coupled with few (very) minor annoyances, this is a great laptop for the money. I would suggest this notebook to anyone who's looking for a laptop that has the performance of a desktop, and the portability of a laptop.

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This laptop runs WoW on ultra no problem, Skyrim, FarCry3 all on highest, and every other game I have thought to try. Pretty large laptop but beautiful screen. DONT try to uninstall windows 8 however because you'll need to order the recovery disks separately to get your windows 8 key back which is hidden in the bios. I did notice however that this machine is overclocked which they should mention before buying it.

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I noticed these notebooks are selling like hotcakes and since I just received mine today, now I know why. I have never considered myself a technically savvy person but this laptop is extremely user friendly. All I had to do was put the battery in and turn on the machine. The software loaded quickly and I was good to go! It comes with an instruction manual which you can find on the desktop once the machine loads all the apps. It is very informative and easy to read. I purchased a Microsoft Office 2013 package since I will be using this mainly for schoolwork.

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The others reviews must be from MSI because I have had nothing but PROBLEMS with this laptop since the get go.

CONS:

1. The Touchpad is a HEADACHE from the start. BE WARNED! It is so sensitive it will randomly click when you are dragging the mouse

around (VERY ANNOYING) and will always click on the ads or something you don't want to click. I have tried turning down the sensitivity

and every setting does not make it better. You are better off using a wireless mouse..

2. The battery is horribe! It claims it gets 2 hours on a full charge.. but I haven't seen it past 1.5 hours at all the whole 5 months I've had this computer.. If your gaming.. pfft you get maybe 30 minutes if that.

3. The laptop is very slow.. I thought this was a core i7? It is more like a core i3.. It takes FOREVER to do windows updates..

and likes to crash around 15% until you pull the battery out and restart it like 2 times. It will update EVERYTIME you reboot it

and it takes 10 minutes to do system updates.. which is weird because windows 8 still says it hasn't been updated... Really MSI?

Can't you afford some Quality Control?

4. If you don't register the product within 30 days MSI screws you over and doesn't allow you to register it period.. *Wow thanks MSI!!*

What about the new people to computers who don't know your rules??

5. Freezing issues: The laptop likes to FREEZE ALOT! I've had it freeze over 20 times sent i bought it.

6. Wireless Network Aapter: The internet will drop more than a drum beat at a rave!

You have been warned do not buy this laptop. I can't believe a company would even attempt to put this on the market.

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HP Pavilion DV9500T 17" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700, 4 GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive,

You purchase this laptop at risk, there is a lawsuit against NVidia for faulty graphics card Try to purchase a replacement GeForce 8600M graphics, unavailable! In addition HP used cheap solder on the motherboard which causes components to crash between 1 month to over just 2 years! See the attached link, there are over 77 pages of problems with the pavilion DV9500 laptop and HP'S customer service! Best yet, even if HP's fixed the laptop while in warranty the problems will happen again within months! And if you're out of warranty, you're out of luck!

I used this computer for work for almost 3 years and another person at the office used it before me for a while. Absolutely no issues, computer worked great. I ran some image-intensive programs on it for a while (Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop 32bit), and it handled them fine. My main issue long term is I ran out of disk space as there is only about 150GB of disk space. Gets used up when you start filling up your computer with a ton of large image files. If you aren't doing stuff like that you'll be fine. Or you could just buy an external hard drive to store your large files on.

Anyway, I don't get all of the negative reviews. Was not my experience at all. Both of the computer batteries still work great. It's not a top of the line laptop anymore, but it gets the job done and appears to be a long-lasting piece of equipment.

Edit: January 2013-

I gave this to my brother so he could have good personal computer and it's working great for him. He mainly uses it for internet, movies, etc., nothing too crazy.

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In all honesty, I was really excited when I bought this laptop a few years ago, and it worked really well for me (and this is why I'm giving it two stars instead of one), for about two years. I did notice excessive heating and fan noise when I ran games or movies on it, and I had to use a cooling pad at all times.

Then one day, with no warning, the graphics card failed. My computer was left with a common 8 bit VGA graphics adapter. I looked for the fix, did the "blowtorch the graphics card" thing, and it did work. For about a week. Now whenever I try to install NVIDIA drivers for the graphics card, the computer hangs on the windows logo at startup, and I have to go back and restore to pre-NVIDIA driver update.

i found out that there is absolutely nothing I can do about this. My warranty is expired and as far as I know HP refuses to deal with this problem. I think there's a lawsuit going on, but I'm just fed up with not being able to do anything that demands graphics performance on my computer.

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Although my review is for HP dv9500 which is just slightly different these models have the exact same problem.

First my battery completely died after just 9 months but not to worry the warranty covered it. However the new battery is about to go, barely a year old, as well and I use the laptop almost exclusively as a desktop :S Then just May this year HP added this laptop to the battery recall program. Link to the HP battery recall form: Apparently the batteries were deemed unsafe by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Second, a while back there was a huge recall on HP and Dell laptops that used this nVidia chipset. Apparently nVidia used some sort of crappy material in their 86x series GPUs which made them burn out due to high temperatures. You can read all about it here: During that time this laptop (dv9500) was not under the recall and after just 2 months over the 1year standard warranty that my laptop came with my video chip died. HP offered various ridiculous solutions for users on their message boards such as under-clocking the GPU and getting better ventilation for your laptop. I called several times to get this repaired for free but since my warranty was out I initially got refused the free repair. HP denied that the chip was affected which was clearly not true. After demanding to speak to the CEO of HP I finally got through to a case manager of some sorts who got me an extended warranty ($ around) which would be cover the repair as if it was under the warranty in the first place (which is another story I tried to get an extended warranty while going overseas and was refused because apparently they don't cover repair overseas but only give phone support which later turned out to be not true since I got covered although I had to pay the shipping). Unfortunately I live overseas and had to pay around $ extra to get it shipped there and back, but that is way less than what would cost for a new motherboard and installation. Of course I got the exact same brand of GPU chip back so there is no telling when it will die again.

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HP have really messed up with this one I will never buy another HP computer.

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE1513JCXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

Honestly it is hard to be unbiased when reviewing because of windows 8. I find it slower and clunkier than windows 7. I can not tell if the slow processing time is from windows 8 or the laptop. take it for what its worth though, The internet and reaction times in pulling up both internet and desktop windows seem slower than my three year old dell that had less RAM and processing speed. It is sleek looking and I like the feel of the keyboard. The backlit keys option is nice. The touch pad is very frustrating, even after modifying the settings it still wasn't responsive enough not to be inhibiting. I bought an optical mouse straight a way. The comeback from sleep and start up times are good. The resolution, colors and laptop speakers were above par with what I was expecting. The battery life also is good, I had it on for about two hours before needing to plug in. I'll be back for an update as soon as I figure out how to get Windows 7 on here, be warned Its a long tricky route, I've heard everything from it cant be done to it can be done if you complete these 40 steps. So if you're thinking of buying this laptop with the idea, no problem, I'll just downgrade, be warned you are in for a giant headache.

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HP Pavilion DV7-2170US 17.3-Inch Entertainment Laptop

I loved the look of this machine out of the box. It's thin, with a very large screen.

Pros: Huge Screen, designer case, fast cpu(ranked in top 30 for notebooks), graphics card(ati! 1GB of gddr3 ram!), good support from hp, 2 speakers w/sub,

hd audio,hdmi out, good screen resolution(1600x900), full keyboard, 500GB Hard drive, 4GB of ram.

It can run todays computer games very well. Applications open very fast. Very good integrated mic is very sensitive and can pick up anything.

Cons: low battery life, heavy, bloatware, glossy screen and chrome touchpad.

The battery life is way to low to really consider this machine something you would use on trips or flights over 2 hours long without plug

available. I also didnt think that laptops could be heavy untill I carried this laptop around the University of Texas campus. The glossy screen

reflects everything and anything making it hard to see the screen outdoors or near a window with bright light coming through. The chrome touch pad

is not as good as a plain jane plastic touchpad in that when you drag you finger, there is a little too much resistance for my liking( a little less

friction than rubbing your finger across the bottom of a shoe, unless your fingers are free of any residue, ie oils., then its smooth).

Overall this machine is a great laptop allowing me to keep my desktop off now since I purchased it. Even though my desktop is a high end gamming rig, this laptop has essentially replaced it. That being said, there are probably those of you who will not want to lug it around where ever you go. If you do, do purchase a laptop backpack as a brief case design even with one with a strap would tear into your shoulders. The battery life is annoyingly low, but is expected from a laptop with a large screen and discrete graphics card. If you want more battery life choose a laptop that has integrated graphics, but performance will be much lower. The only laptop out there that I have seen with performance and big screen, with an 8 hour battery life is a $3000 mac! Vista is no isssue here as the machine is perfectly capable of running it flawlessly. THERE HAVE BEEN NO ERRORS OR BLUESCREENS!!!!! The user who rated this machine with 1 star messed up his machine him self. He is obviosly a novice user. You only get bluescreens on computers due to user errors 99.999% of the time. I have had no issues at all with this notebook.

I ordered 2 of these laptops for my wife and I. The laptops came packaged very good, with no defects, and were delivered the next day after the order was placed. Both screens had no dead pixels what so ever and were perfect. All extra ports(useb, hdmi, ect) do not get in the way of each other. The laptops came with the hp mini-media remote, ac adapters, user guides, and pollishing cloths. Setup is a breese with HP's setup program. Do note that HP Games from wild tangent is much like a video game arcade, where you purchase tokens to play the games. 500 tokens a month for 6.99 per month. All antivirus software and office software is a trial version. I recommend unistalling the trial versions of office, hp wild tangent games(the games are not free!!!), norton(horrible, bloated, antivirus software), and the sling box software(uselesss without a slingbox for your tv). Free antivirus programs are out there.

I am giving it only 4 out of 5 due to the battery life. Otherwise you will not be disappointed. PC PitStop is a website that benchmarks computers, it ranked my system among laptops in the top 9% in the world, graphics got the top 3%.

Windows Vista Performance Index Ratings:

Processor: 5.2

Memory(RAM): 5.9

Graphics: 5.9

Gaming Graphics: 5.6

Primary Harddisk: 5.6

Any questions just comment on my post.

I researched multiple computers from several brand names and settled on this one. It came loaded up nicely and the price was very reasonable. Overall, I've had it almost a month and I'm really enjoying it. I haven't begun to explore all that it can and will do. No problems and it has been a pleasure to this point. I also took advantage of the Amazon account and got 0% interest... and apparently no payments (until the offer end date).

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The computer itself is good. finger print shows easily. If you are looking to install engineering programs on it it is better off buy the HP Pavilion Dv7-2270us because it got the 7200 rpm HD. As for Amazon Company, it is one of the best to deal with. I sent an e-mail to the customer service and explain the problem with this model # (it has the 5400 rpm HD). Amazon issued a full refund including return shipment fees. Thank you Amazon for your service.

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Great Laptop Performance. Fast for all entertainment needs. Huge and fast hard-drive and good monitor resolution. The webcam's capturing capabilities are not as neat as in other HP's models but still works great with all Instant Messaging and VOIP networks as MSN and Skype.

Great graphic imprint. The downside for the finished materials look is that this plastic is in particular too shiny and has to be cleaned constantly to avoid smudgy appearance.

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First, let me qualify by saying 1) My experience with the HP Pavilion dv7 might be a fluke, and 2) Amazon doesn't seem to sell my exact model number, so I'm injecting the review here, because HP deserves it. My specific laptop is closely related to the one advertised on this page.

Normally, I don't write a review at all, if the product really sucks my experience might be a fluke, or if it's a book I might have misunderstood the intent. But this laptop has been such an inconvenience, that a bad review seems like real justice.

The battery is too heavy & bulky. The laptop had to be sent back several times; the first time, they 'fixed' the motherboard, the third time they had to replace the motherboard. It still has problems if you try to work with only the battery (i.e., the A/C disconnected), you risk the laptop suddenly shutting down even when the battery is fully charged.

There are other problems as well, and frankly the memories of wasted hours are too painful to drudge up.

I can't say great things about HP support, either. Oh sure, they try to resolve things, they aren't impolite or anything (although sometimes the accent gets in the way, so who knows if they are polite or not). But there's just too much back and forth, for many problems that you end up resolving with Google searches in an eighth of the time.

One great benefit this laptop will give you it will train you to backup your computer fairly frequently (I use Acronis for backing up & restoring, and it's a godsend), because you never know when you will have to send it back to the shop.

It was a bad mistake, choosing an HP laptop based on the look and feel of the keyboard, especially when past experiences with Toshiba have always been positive.

Try another HP series; steer clear of the dv7's.

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Hp - Pavilion 17.3" Laptop - 4gb Memory - 640gb Hard Drive - Sparkling Black

I have owned this laptop for nearly a month, using it an average of 5 hours a day. I use it for editing and filing photographs, managing our home network, using that network to do professional and financial and personal management and data handling tasks, emails, internet work, listening to music...everything i do on my larger desktop. I love this computer and I think Windows 8 is a hoot and I don't even own a smart phone or tablet. I love Windows 8's new interface, the apps, the ease of moving back and forth between the Metro screen apps and my usual Windows 7 desktop (which is set up just like my larger PC). Windows 8's way of searching and accessing apps, programs, and data is a wonderful improvement.

In short, I would buy this computer again in a heartbeat. To cap it off, I tried four other laptops via Staples and BestBuy (Toshiba, Samsung, HP) and this one was the clear winner.

Buy it, you won't be sorry.

I am very impressed with the seller. My laptop arrived just a few days after I purchased it and it was packaged very securely. I would highly recommend this seller and purchase from them again.

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ASUS U43F-BBA6 Notebook Intel Core i5 480M 2.66GHz 14" 6GB Memory 640GB DVD±R/RW Deluxe bamboo, Al

Had the laptop for almost nine months.

Performance is generally fine, but occasionally, for no apparent reason, everything freezes and a grinding noise (sic!) can be heard. Obviously there is a hardware malfunction faulty hard drive. Asus support was completely useless. After a few emails, they advised me to back-up my files and send (at my cost) the laptop for servicing would get it back in 6-8 weeks!!! Are they completely stupid? What do they do with the computer for two months? (I still remember the mid-1990s support from Dell shipped without my cost the replacement part overnight, upgraded it, and apologised for the problem...)

After a hard reboot, the computer starts normally and works for another 1-60 days without a problem, until the hardware encounters the same problem again.

Besides that problem, everything works. The laptop is well designed, battery lasts for 2-3 hours, screen is bright, does not overheat.

Bought this computer and really enjoyed it. Noticed the left hinge started to lift and separate the laptop. Called Asus customer support and was told to take it back to Best Buy where I bought it. I paid a deposit, which I lost, and it was sent out from Best Buy only to be told it was not covered under warranty. This laptop is 10 months old!!! They want to charge me $475 to repair what I consider a poorly constructed machine. Contacted Asus again only to be told that they don't know why I was told to take it to Best Buy in the first place! It's been over a month of being given the runaround and my laptop is still not fixed. I had something similar happen with the hinges on another Asus laptop and thought that was a fluke. I've read other reviews and have found that this is a common problem with Asus laptops. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. Poor customer service, poor quality products. Save yourself money and frustration and pass on Asus products.

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Great Asus laptop with i5 processor which made a big difference! I was awed by the impressive speed and the sleek bamboo look. It boots up really fast. I needed something that beats my other computers in speed and this is it.

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Got this in 2011 and just got a hardware failure. Guess I was just renting it for 2 years. Sucks!

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The outstanding for this notebook becomes when you see it.

Wood and brass finished is great.

Very sofisticated.

The technical configuration works great too.

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HP G60-635DX Notebook PC - 15.6" HD Display / Intel Pentium T4300 2.1GHz / 3GB DDR2 / 320GB HD / DV

This is an ok product for the price I paid (529.99 at Best Buy). The built in mic is barely heard, but I use my own so that's not a big deal with me. I've had it since early April 2010 and no major issues, but more like annoyances. When I burn cd's now for some reason it makes a loud noise and it seems as if the cd is spinning too fast. There also seems to be bugs in windows media, which may not have anything to do with the hp g60 itself. Battery life isn't that long(a little over 2 hours) but I keep it plugged in anyway unless I'm doing something really quick. If I just close the laptop without shutting it down and open it at my next location (within an hour) it gets VERY hot. soon as I plug it up, the fan begins to cool it more. The screen and webcame are great pluses. Windows 7 is great too, but I'm not too fond of IE, which is a whole different review lol.

I bought this HP laptop in July, so I've had it for 5 months, and I've got to say that I love it. For the people who seem to have issues with it... perhaps you mistreat it, because I've had absolutely no problems with it.

Pros:

-SPEED: Initially, I was very impressed by the speed of this laptop, and to this day it hasn't slowed a bit.

-SIZE: It seems to be very good at 15.6" screen size, with no troubles about it being either too big or too small.

-SPEAKERS: The Altec-Lansing speakers it comes with are very functional, and were quite a bit louder than I was expecting. Now, are they anything compared to the 300-watt surround sound speaker system that I use for iTunes? No, but they are quite exceptional nonetheless

-CAMERA: Had no complaints from people on Skype about the camera or microphone... really, I don't know what these other people are saying.

Cons: (Though few, they should be addressed)

-BATTERY:... yeahh.. not so good, if I'm honest. However, I almost always have it plugged in, so it's really not a big deal, but off the charger and on power save mode you might get... 3 hours out of it? Then again, they do sell a bigger 12-cell battery (I believe) for it, so if battery's your thing, you could always purchase that.

-BLACK CASING: So, the black plastic finish is very attractive... for about 3 weeks. Finger prints are almost impossible to get off, but I've come to live with it being a little smudge and just moving on from aesthetic appeal.

-BACKLIT KEYBOARD: or rather, lack thereof. I wish the keys were backlit on this, but it's not too difficult overall to get a light somewhere lol.

OVERALL: Quite good. Would but it again if I had to.

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I bought this laptop in early 2010 and to be fair, it's still kind of okay, especially for less than $600. Also, it was the first new laptop I purchased in years so at the time, almost any upgrade seemed kind of awesome. Now, it's probably a 2.5 star machine. ...meh.

CONS after two years:

*I have replaced the battery once and it's due for a second replacement already. The first one crapped out within the original one-year manufacturer's warranty--within months, actually--so it didn't cost anything but it was a pain in the ass. The diagnostics were screwy, couldn't get anyone on the phone in the US. Was told by some people they wouldn't replace it but after sending some screenshots in to customer service a battery just showed up at my house. Not sure whatever happened with that ticket that must've had two different answers on it...?

*Originally, the battery holds about a 2.5 hour charge anyway.

*The AC adapter has needed replacing three times. None covered under warranty. I've used a cheap laptop cord replacement service from online for about $20 each but that means with shipping I've spent an additional $70 on AC adapters.

*Monitor broke last month BUT to be fair I did accidentally drop it on the corner from a couple inches off the ground. The screen didn't crack or anything but a wire was clearly loose. I was able to see the screen but it was green and magenta until I found the sweet spot where it would go back to normal. After some research online, I was able to buy a replacement LDVS cable and install it myself for about $30. The $30 covered the cord, a screwdriver set to open the laptop up, an anti-static wristband, and an extra set of laptop screws. Works like a charm now. Of course, after opening up the bad cable, it revealed at last three tiny wires totally severed. I suspect the constant opening/closing of the lid did the majority of the wear and my wrist slip just sealed the deal.

*I also took the opportunity to totally clean and dust the CPU fan when I had it opened up and that improved noise and performance quite a bit.

*Upgrades are limited: Comes standard with 3GB RAM but hardware only accommodates 4GB RAM and only if you are running a 64 bit operating system. On the other hand, it also comes standard with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS.

*At almost 7lbs, it's pretty heavy to tote back and forth to school.

*Webcam software (YouCam) has to be uninstalled to use the webcam with Skype. The two programs are not compatible and once you uninstall YouCam I think you have to purchase separately. I ditched it in favor of Skyping since I don't upload videos of myself anywhere anyhow.

*Machine comes with a crap-ton of crappy programs installed that are all set to run on startup. Then again, what PC doesn't these days? I had to clean off all kinds of useless HP stuff and adverts and clear away the programs that run on startup. If you're not really savvy about getting rid of these dumb programs you'll be highly annoyed at these settings.

PROS after 2 years:

*I like Windows 7--fewer bugs than Vista and easier to use. Control panel is nice.

*Speed still good after 2 years. I run a bit of software on it--photoshop, dreamweaver, aptana, MS Office suite, gimp, corel, irfan, itunes, etc, etc. but I don't run movie or music editing software and I'm not a gamer. So, if you want to run a normal suite of productivity software, write papers, edit photos, and surf the web, this computer is adequate. I suspect if you're an online gamer or an editor this is a woefully inadequate setup.

*Decent value for a student. I bought this my second year of school and it'll take me to graduation this semester. However, I've had to put about $100 of maintenance into it between the cords and the screen issue. A RAM upgrade from 3GB to 4GB on Crucial will run you about $60 if you find you're ready for it. Plus another battery replacement (especially if you want a 6-9-12 cell (that will add a weird oversized bump to the battery compartment, btw) is going to be another $40 to $60. So, if you pay $550 for it originally, it will end up costing and additional $100/year or more for maintenance, etc, and end up costing you closer to $800.

*Easy to open and clean and fix. Lots of youtube videos on this and similar computer models if you're shy about fixing your own electronics.

*285GB usable hard drive isn't bad if you're the average user, again. For movies, etc, that would probably fill up pretty fast but for average sized photos (as in, not a prosumer or pro photo person, music, or movie person) it's okay.

*Streams video pretty good (depending, of course, on your internet connection) and can simultaneously run a good ten or more programs.

*Never had issues with mouse trackpad, wireless internet, hard drive or motherboard.

In general:

Student? Casual user? Looking for basic computer to surf the net, write a letter, and store some family photos? This laptop is fine. With proper maintenance it will probably last for 5 years or more. Expect to spend an additional $200-$300 in software and hardware upgrades over the life of the laptop; more if you plan on paying someone else to service and fix it for you.

Gamer, editor or photo pro? Invest in better hardware, RAM, graphics, storage, etc, and don't bother with this machine.

Read Best Reviews of HP G60-635DX Notebook PC - 15.6" HD Display / Intel Pentium T4300 2.1GHz / 3GB DDR2 / 320GB HD / DV Here

I've had nothing but issues with this product. The DCD/CD drive won't read discs, the hard drive has crashed twice, and I wasn't able to install Microsoft office on it without taking it to a local shop. I use it for basic home business and finance work and am already looking to replace it.

Want HP G60-635DX Notebook PC - 15.6" HD Display / Intel Pentium T4300 2.1GHz / 3GB DDR2 / 320GB HD / DV Discount?

I've have this product for a little over 4 months. I got it June 4, 2010 and It's now October 11, 2010 so you can do the math. I got this laptop as a graduation present from my parents and it was thrilled. But I soon learned that the mic sucks. I managed to do a few things w/ it and its better now but still barely heard and occasionally flips out and kills the ears of who ever is talking with me on skype. Then in June the DVD player completely busted. The laser was shot and now I can no longer play DVDs or burn any CDs. Thinking perhaps it was just a dirty lens I tried to clean it but no luck it is actually busted. Then last month my internet explorer crashed and is unusable now ad I had to go download firefox. Now my charger has now begun to refuse to work and unless it's positioned just right then my laptop will not charge. I've talked to friends of mine who have had hp's have had the exact same problem. Go spend your money else where b/c you'll be wasting your money here.

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Elitebook 8460P 14.0" I5-2520

I will disclose the obvious, I am biased toward HP products. That said, my company recently swapped out our laptops under contract from a competitive brand to the HP Elitebook 8440p. I was really happy to say the least! After having been around the HP Pavilion product line and the HP Mini 110 lines for quite a while, I was shopping for a new personal laptop and the 8440p really hit the button for me. I called HP small business sales and had a very informative discussion with a salesman and he informed me that the 8460p was the newer replacement and that I would find it might even be affordable compared to the older model.

Now for some details:

Processor is the iCore5 and it can be upgraded in the future because it has the ZIF mount. Also, the specs. were not clear but there are two memory banks and it comes with a 4gb filled in one so you have usable memory if you want to upgrade. (I remember the days of getting your memory in smaller size and populating all banks so that if you wanted to upgrade, you needed to chuck them all and start fresh).

I got looking at my optical drive and since I had a spare new blue ray player / dvd burner slim sata drive, I thought what the heck, wonder if it would work? yup! now if you might like the fact that you do not need tools to pull the cover off to access the memory and hard drive area, and your Windows COA label is now protected under the battery so you won't have them become damaged and worn off like on my previous model.

graphics and sounds are very good for a laptop, especially a business one. very neat features like built in smart card reader, finger print scanner, business card scanner, USB3 ports, express-card expansion slot, ability for docking station and secondary battery attachment. the construction of this laptop is very solid and rugged. I feel like the price I paid was very much of a steal for what I got compared to the normal plastic computers at the box stores. the positive latching lid, multiple wireless options, battery configurations and endless power with the HP super battery (I don't remember their name for it, but they have one) all add up to make one heck of a desktop killer. I can honestly say that with the docking station and the processor and memory options, I am ready to retire the desktop!

too many other good things about this to list, but maybe another owner will pick up the football and run with it.

For those unwilling to read this long, long review, the title of my review sums it up for you. Scroll down to where I explain the Pros & Cons if you like, but I am providing a more detailed explanation of my experience for those interested.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I received this laptop through my school's Campus HP program, and I have to say, it is a very well built laptop all round. Feels sturdy as a rock, lifting the lid is easy with the big release button. There is slight flex in the screen though but this is not a big issue. The rest of the body is very very sturdy. The keyboard is one of the best keyboards I have ever worked on, hands down. I am extremely impressed. That said, I do not like the new format for the arrow/directional keys one bit. Making them half the size of a regular key to save space was a terrible idea and gives rise to quite many unintended key presses. But besides that it is an absolute delight to work on this keyboard. I only wish it was backlit or had a backlit-version as an optional upgrade. The touchpad is very responsive, but the extra multi-touch settings, etc are a headache to work with and I recommend getting a mouse for your work. The touchpad is great but because of the problems I mentioned, only really good for the odd surfing. Scrolling is a pain hence get a mouse.

The Screen though, is one of the most terrible screens I have ever worked with. This particular screen is the 1366x768 screen, and I have worked with the 1600x900 screen as well and there is no marked improvement. It has a matte finish which is excellent, although the only good thing about it sadly. The color range is appalling. I am a graphic design student and have messed up some of my projects on this with the screen displaying one color and the studio's printer giving me something else. I have to resort to the school's iMacs for that, sadly. I am extremely disappointed in this screen, which also has terrible viewing angles you have to have it angled straight at you or it stresses your eyes out really fast. Audio quality of the speakers, too, is extremely, extremely bad. One of the worst speakers ever I feel embarrassed to playback audio/video clips in class using my laptop because of its pathetic sound reproduction as well as low volume output. Highly suggest you get headphones or connect this laptop to proper speakers for any music listening because it will butcher your tracks.

Performance wise, the processor is zippy and extremely fast; at the very last this get your work done for the next 2-3 years with ease. It overclocks marvelously with Turbo boost. The graphics option is really embarrassing though and I wish this came with a better option than the AMD chip it has (Mine does not even have that). For a laptop in the range of (and above) $1100, I expect at least a mid range card considering that competing brands have such options a card like the nvidia GT 540m would have made this laptop an absolute steal. Thus for the aforementioned reasons do not even think about playing any games on this laptop Call of Duty Black Ops stutters at around 25-30fps at best with all settings set at the lowest. Not impressive at all. The reason I recommend a better card is not for gaming, it is because I desire a good performer that can handle anything thrown at it to a somewhat respectable level, not dig its own grave and bury itself in it, like when I ran the music and gaming tests. Tad Imbalanced, huh? Hard drive performance is strictly OKAY for a 7200rpm drive. HP has its bloatware and I highly recommend you get rid of it to avoid the atrociously long boot times. Also, please do not update your BIOS to anything above F.20 (at the time of writing this review) because HP disables SATA III support on later BIOS releases. So if you have an SSD (which is an absolutely recommended upgrade) on this, your speeds will be badly throttled. Kudos, HP.

Upgrading this laptop is not difficult removing the bottom cover is extremely easy and swapping RAM in particular is extremely easy. You can also get an upgrade caddy to replace the optical drive and thus run two hard drives like I am. The layout is clean and very impressive, but this leads me to my next disappointment this laptop runs HOT and can be really loud. Don't even think of playing games, this thing heats up to around 90'C which is TERRIBLE for a non-gaming laptop, because the components are not designed to withstand such temperatures. Consequently, the fans kick and run loud trying as they work hard to cool down. This laptop has a terrible cooling system. A cooler is highly recommended, and repasting the CPU paste with better aftermarket paste is advised if you know how to get that done.

The webcam is of decent quality, the small light meant to light up your keyboard in the dark is almost useless since the screen is actually brighter. The presence of one Powered USB2.0, 2 USB3.0 ports and an eSATA/USB2.0 port is a very commendable attachment since not many laptops have the powered port (useful for charging your stuff even with the laptop off), USB3 ports or the eSATA port. The lack of an HDMI port is extremely disappointing but the DisplayPort is hardly a consolation. There is VGA for connecting to projectors for the businessmen. Also, battery life of this laptop is good, ranging around the 4-hour mark, and about 40-50 minutes more if you turn down the brightness and turn off wireless connections. I expect better from a laptop of this form factor and a lower TDP processor (35W versus 45W), though, but this is still good. Wireless range is good with the Intel 6250 card though nothing to write home about. It works inconsistently. Another strange issue with this laptop is the fact that it sometimes refuses to shut down/hibernate/sleep. It completes any of those actions you picked, but then restarts on itself within a matter of seconds. The only way to stop this is by manually removing the battery. Also, sometimes the multimedia shortcuts (fn + f6/f7/f9/f10) for the brightness and volume refuse to work at all sometimes, and only a restart fixes this. Likewise, the two USB3 ports on the side also just stop working occasionally. This can only be rectified by a hard restart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thus:

Pros: Great processing power and speeds; Good battery life; Excellent keyboard; Good (sometimes inconsistent) wireless connectivity, USB3 + USBpowered ports; Good trackpad (minus multitouch); Wonderful build quality; Good warranty; Open to upgradeability (RAM and CPU);

Cons: Terrible audio and 3d performance; Terrible performance under 32-bit Windows 7 (64bit has no problems); HP bloatware; Horrible, horrible screen (the deal breaker for me); random bugs with multimedia keys and shutting down/hibernating/sleep mode; Terrible cooling system, runs hot, runs loud; Starts-up randomly for no reason sometimes despite being shutdown.

Conclusion: The only reason I have this laptop is because the school requires me to have it for my second major which is business. The school's 4-year complete coverage warranty is also another incentive. I have already bought another laptop for myself and am leaving this for the most basic tasks such as web-surfing, word-processing and running business software. It is a good laptop for businessmen who don't need much but just want good build quality, or the odd college student who needs to do the most basic of work it should thus be priced much lower in my opinion for its rather low usefulness. To anyone else, I cannot recommend this. You would be better off buying a slightly more expensive Macbook 13" or even the Macbook Air, or for less expensive options you could take a look at the Acer Aspire line or a Sony Vaio for a good looking, well built all round laptop. Sticking to HP? Go for the Envy line, they are much better overall although not as well built or with such good battery life. However the terrible speakers which will embarrass you and kill your ears, and the terrible screen which leaves much to be desired are easily the biggest turn offs that, sadly, offset the otherwise great keyboard and build quality to the point where I cannot recommend this to anyone. Hopefully they will do better with the next line of Elitebooks...

OVERALL: 3.5 / 5

Buy Elitebook 8460P 14.0" I5-2520 Now

Love the computer hate the display. Can't work on it for more then 20 minutes without connecting an external display. I'm not a big fan of the touchpad, two finger scrolling is glitchy. The computer is rather heavy as well.

Read Best Reviews of Elitebook 8460P 14.0" I5-2520 Here

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Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

Great things about the Satelite:

+ 16" wide screen display it's beautiful

+ Fast, starts up in a couple of seconds and no waiting on your apps

+ Huge 500GB hard drive.

+ Windows 7, I wasn't expecting much, but no problems, runs without issues

+ Microsoft Office, installed, free for 60 days

+ Huge high quality speakers, this machine is music and movie ready.

+ Attractive

+ A little heavy but not bad for its size.

+ Toshiba is very reliable

+ Motion detector locks the hard drive in place when it detects the laptop is being jostled around.

Could be better:

> Light above track pad too bright

> Keys are LOUD

> Norton installed and bugs you about paying every time you log on

Overall, this is a great laptop. SOme of the display lights are a little bright and the keypad is noisy. I can forgive that though because this laptop is so fast. I'm never waiting anymore. Windows 7 is proving to be very reliable and easy to use.

Initially, the touch pad was "helping" me and this was really annoying. To turn off some of the trackpad features that do things for you: Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound, under the Devices and Printers section click on Mouse. Another dialog pops up, CLick on the Device Settings tab, then on the Settings button. From there you can set up the touch pad the way you want it.

I upgraded my laptop to a 12 cell battery and that battery lasts about 7 or 8 hours. If you can afford the extra battery, it's worth it. THe 12 cell does take about 2 hours to charge though.

My friends who work in computer repair say they get less Toshibas in the shop than any other brand and highly recommend them.

Buy a large laptop case to carry it in. It will not fit in a standard size case.

Norton is slow and a pain, I uninstalled it and installed Vipre.

Review for the A505-S6004

This laptop looks great out of the box and you will be pleasantly surprised by the speed at which windows 7 boots initially. The screen is properly bright and the speakers do a wonderful job for the size that they are. It is not until you start to use it that you will notice the inherent drawbacks that its beauty hides.

First thing you will notice is that this thing attracts fingerprints so quickly its not funny. Just typing this review alone and I am sure the police will get a full set of prints if they needed it. :)

The next problem i noticed while on msn live messenger. As soon as you start up your webcam, you can see where they saved money in putting this thing together. Its aesthetically pleasing to have a webcam that is built "flush" into the lid but they threw all the functionality of it right out the window. I'm not exaggerating here....THE WEBCAM IS THAT BAD; it has so much noise and no colour correctness AT ALL. You will appear like a Vampire to the person who is receiving your webcam feed. My girlfriend has one of the L505D models from toshiba which is cheaper than this model but the webcam in her's is at least 3 times better.

What this model lacks in webcam clarity and resistance to finger prints it makes up for with Battery life. Switching this thing to "eco" mode takes off the LEDs lighting the touch sensitive media control buttons and the "SATELLITE" logo, and also dims the backlight on the screen. In this mode it will achieve roughly 3 1/2 hrs battery life, give or take a couple of minutes depending on the work your doing. The L505D can barely manage past 2 1/2 hrs on battery.

In short

THE Pros:

+ Good Battery Life

+ Good Sound

+ Great Value for the money

+ Bright Glossy Display (its a Pro for me)

+ Piano Black Fusion Finish Looks great

+ 500GB Hard drive (only 426 free initially; that's still alot)

THE Cons:

Bad Webcam (don't even think about this machine for "Social Notworking")

Finger Print Magnet (Piano black finish just shows up every little finger print or scratch)

Buy Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Now

Just picked this up at Best Buy for $679 and got to say my only complaint is that the keyboard is a little too loud and the touch-pad is deafening, but an easy feature on the bottom of the keyboard can disable the touch-pad with a click of a button. No hunting around windows 7 to try and figure out. The webcam is so so, but I never use it so i don't care.

It runs quietly, the i3 processor speed you will notice upon the first boot up and all in all after three days I am very pleased with it.

The battery life is excellent as well and I agree with the other 4 reviews. It is a great computer at now even a better price.

And no warranty for me sir. Biggest waste of money ever to spend anything on an asset that depreciates as fast as a laptop.

4 1/2 stars.

Of course right after my price protection ended this laptop is now on sale for 599. You can't beat that price anywhere for what this computer does.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Here

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6004 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

After several months researching various options available at Amazon.com I decided to stick with Toshiba. A friend of mine had seriously recommended that I should buy an Acer, but the more I researched the more I was impressed with Toshiba, especially in terms of reliability. Since my own experience with Toshiba was so positive once I had decided to stick with the brand I knew, it was a matter of which one. My reason for buying a new one was that I'd had my Toshiba Satellite since 2003 or 2004 -can't remember which and technology had definitely moved on. But that machine is still working, all be it slow.

Well, I have not regretted my decision at all. Many of the negatives reported by other reviews I have found not faults at all. The keyboard, for example is not too loud for me -in fact it is perfect for my touch. One thing that does drive me nuts is the touchpad: when I am surfing it is so sensitive that it keeps scrolling down the page and back up again at what seems like warp speed. (I think somebody in the reviews may have found out how to fix this, so I much look and see if I can find it.)This machine boots up so fast -quite an improvement that the 10 to 15 minutes it took my old machine!

Back to deciding which one to go with. Initially, I planned to go with a 15.6 inch screen -mainly because that was what I was used to and also because there were some really good deals price-wise. However, I couldn't find one in the price range with 4 USB ports and I also wanted an HDMI port. It still amazes me what I can get for around $700 considering I paid $1200 for my old and antiquated machine. The computer looks beautiful, but fingerprints are an annoying problem. Also it's lighter than my old laptop, which is a pleasant surprise.

I've had the machine since April 10th so I am still on a learning curve as how things work and what I can do. But so far it's all worked like magic. I've talked to my son on Skype and he lives in Korea. Some people have complained about the quality of the webcam and my son has told me on one occasion that the picture was not that great and then the next time that it was really clear! My son in Italy said it was great. So what can I tell you -is it the Internet connection or is it the camera. I really like having it and it's worked seamlessly. And it's absolutely true that the wireless connection works right out of the box. I often download tv programs that I've missed and the quality of the picture is as if watching the tv. I should add that I'm American and had the machine delivered to my mother's, but I live in the UK and have been using it here since the end of April. No problems have arisen as a result of being in a different country.

I am going to have to replace a lot of software, which is an expensive negative. I've used Microsoft Office Professional 2000 for years and Adobe 5 and Paint Shop Pro 9 -all will have to be replaced. However, I am experimenting with Open Office software which is free and so far has been great. Having said that I am using the trial version of Office Professional 2007 mostly because I really needed Outlook. So the question is will I just buy Outlook and go with Open Office.

I do like Windows 7, the software that comes with the computer has been adequate so far. I use the movie maker software a lot and was pleased that it could improve the quality of some of my little homemade videos -the kind you can make with either a cell phone or digital camera. Also a nice little scanning/faxing program that has made it very easy for me to scan and email. I was able to make a DVD of some photographs for my husband, but was not able to figure out how to find/use the lable/flash program that I thought was part of the package -the one that is supposed to print directly onto the disc.

Glad to say my old 2179 HP printer was no problem to install and works perfectly. I was sure I would have to get a new one so that was a nice surprise.

All in all, with 6 weeks ownership in hand I am thrilled with this laptop.

Want Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Discount?

Just got it and love it..First time user of Toshiba and its great. Always bought dell with their small hard drives and dumb graphics. I turned to Toshiba mainly because it was a bigger hard drive. I got 640GB and 4GB ram. I didn't even know the keyboard lights up. Its great. The mini touch screen music buttons comes in handy too. I love Windows 7. Another well done job Microsoft. Well the camera is not so good but what the heck.. You dont need it buy an external web cam. Shuts down fast and boots up fast to. Toshiba face recognition is great.

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HP COMPAQ NC6320 LAPTOP CORE DUO 1.66GHz/ 1GB/ 60GB/ WIRELESS **Ships Fast** Warranty**

Outside had certain details, as expected of a used product, the computer is an older model and practical for certain types of work, even so, the seller must serve worry for any details, but the laptop is generally looks great and the software runs perfectly, thank you very much

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Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 1024-AYU 15.6" Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD,

I would recommend it to students because the keyboard is awesome and it can do anything pretty much! My only complaint is it takes awhile to recognize flash drives but overall it is excellent!

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Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB RAM)

Contrary to the Amazon product features description, this particular model does not have bluetooth installed, so keep that in mind if ever bluetooth constitutes an important feature for you. This laptop also has an integrated, non-user replaceable battery, which could be an issue 2 or 3 years from now when the battery dies (following the apple/ultrabook trend). The weight is also a bit heavy for the sleek form factor.

Enough of the cons and on to the pros...

Price Compared with other laptops with comparable specs the price is very competitive

Processor Very capable processor with Passmark score of 2862 can handle anything you care to throw at it (aside from graphics intensive games, though I personally haven't tested it out).

Looks Brushed aluminum lid and metal accents on the faux speaker grill look classy

Sound Dolby home theater works wonders when you connect a set of headphones

Battery life I got 6.5 hours on the first charge, though I'm still conditioning the battery. It's advertised to get 8+ hours.

Power brick Small, light and compact

OS from the feedback I've been reading on Windows 8, I'm glad I stuck with Windows 7 this time around. Maybe I'll consider Windows 9.

In summary, it's a handsome, powerful, affordable laptop.

If this computer had a built-in light, like Lenovo's think light, it would be perfect. Otherwise, I like the design. It really is a pretty computer. Fast. Runs cool. Speaker sound is excellent. Long battery life. Key placement good too. Yeah, I really like this one.

Buy Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB RAM) Now

This laptop is the epitome of an amazing laptop. It NEVER crashes, lags, or breaks down and I've had it for a while now! It's amazing and I'd recommend it over any other laptop the Sonys, the Toshibas, HPs, Asus, and even the Macs. It's reliable and best part is, for $450 you're getting quite a steal of a deal!!!

Read Best Reviews of Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB RAM) Here

I've had great performance on this computer since I bought it last summer. For the price, I would definitely recommend this Laptop!

Want Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB RAM) Discount?

I love everything about it except that it doesn't have a number keypad. Super fast, runs very cool on your lap.

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Dell Alienware M14x R2 2.40-3.40GHz i7-3630QM 6GB 500GB 7200rpm HD+ 1600x900 LED 2GB NVIDIA GT 650M

hallo:

this laptop was very very good,and very very powerful,it can run all the game what i have.

and alienware's light was awesome,specially is Alien FX,it can change with your game.

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ASUS UL50Vt-A1 Thin and Light 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - 11.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home P

I watch the tech market fairly closely. My wife has the 13" Macbook (newer LED aluminium one) and really I love it...the "two finger scrolling" is wonderful, but I need a PC for work.

So, here's what I wanted in a new laptop (not in specific order):

1. 2 finger scrolling or at least dedicated scrolling areas (yes, 1 finger dedicated areas on laptops are nice, but still not quite as nice as 2 finger...plus, w/ the multi-touch pads, you get "right-click" w/ 2 fingers)

2. LONG battery life. And no, I don't mean "3 hours" long...I want 10 hours! (remember, each year a laptop battery will lose 1/3 of its performance, so a new 3 hour battery will only last 2 hours after a year!)

3. Performance

4. LED screen (goes w/ battery life), 15".

5. Quality/Build/Warranty

As odd as it seems, there aren't a "lot" of LED screens out there yet, I was looking at a Lenovo, but only the T400s seemed like what I was looking for, and at the cost and only 14", wasn't a good fit. Dell's have gone LED's on most all models, but not great review's on build quality depending on the model series...plus, compare the price of a similarly equipped Dell to this UL50VT...you'll be spending almost 2x as much.

This UL50VT is a PRO for:

1. Switchable graphics (switch from onboard graphics for long batter life...or when plugged in, switch to the 512mb Nvidia card for performance). Really, the best of BOTH worlds. Want awesome performance when sitting at a desk...but also want long battery life when on the go? Who else can provide this? The dedicated Nvidia obviously helps system performance, allowing graphics to run on the video card, freeing up system RAM etc for other things...or switch to battery mode/onboard graphics and live long & prosper.

2. 8-cell battery quotes 10-12 hours of battery life. I have only had this for 1 week, and still tinkering around with the settings, so haven't confirmed this, but 5-6 hours I've had easy, which is definitely more than you'll get with any other laptop regardless. The "ultra low volt" Intel processor draws less than 10 volts of juice. Its a 1.3ghz Core 2 Duo, but Asus overclocks it by DEFAULT and it arrives to you out of the box running at 1.7ghz. This is key...when you are looking at laptops, you have to remember that the "quad-core" and P9600 Core 2's are high-voltage drains...so you really have to decide "what do I want this laptop for?" If you are very rarely going to be without a power plug, then sure, get some other Asus model with a faster processor & full-time dedicated graphics. For me though, I like to grab the laptop and sit on the couch & not have to move the power cord over to the couch as well...plus I travel quite a bit for business...seriously, after a year or two any standard laptop with 2-3 hours of battery life "new" will only be good for an hour or so before turning off. With this Asus, with the extended 8 cell battery stock, the "ultra low"-volt 1.3ghz overclocked to 1.7ghz, plus the onboard video, you can actually grab this notebook and run to the coffee shop or couch for HOURS without having to worry about the power cord...and isn't that really what a laptop is for? Google "Asus Ul50VT" for other reviews on the processor etc, there are more informative articles if you want more details. The Macbook uses the UL voltage Intel processors as well, albeit a slightly faster one (1.9ghz?). Low volt processor, LED screen are two key ingredients to battery life. If you want a P9600 or quad-core or 3.2ghz processor, don't travel too far w/o your cord:) the 1.7ghz is much faster than my old Toshiba, plus w/ Windows 7 it really is awesome and more than capable of handling the vast majority of any consumer's needs.

3. LED screen looks great...I am apparently not that savvy of a screen consumer as others, so I can't complain about the screen, looks much better than my old LCD Toshiba screen, not that different than the Mac.

4. Windows 7 is AWESOME!!!!! I've long been an apologist for Windows, especially having used the Macbook for awhile, but need not apologize any longer! W7 64bit w/ the 1.7ghz and 4gb DDR3 is simply amazing, by FAR the best Windows product I've ever used...and as other reviews will confirm, this OS is nearly on par w/ Mac. I can LITERALLY go TO sleep, and back FROM sleep to an ACTIVE Outlook or Firefox, in LESS than 5 seconds with this Asus. Remember in the past, you might have wanted to look up something on the computer, but would opt not to, b/c it would take 3-5 minutes for your system to load into a use-able state? Not anymore, W7 is efficient & fast, if you switch the power settings to "sleep" instead of hibernate, it literally turns on & is ready to use in mere seconds, same as Mac's. (plus, drag a window to the left of the screen, it auto-sizes it to the left-half of the screen, drag another window to the right edge of the screen, voila! W7 auto-resizes both windows to share the screen 50/50.)

5. Build & quality: Ask tech's at your local retailer or online retailer, which brand they see back the least for repairs, and you'll hear "Asus" more often than not. Unlike other brands that farm out all the hardware to companies around the world, Asus makes most of the components themselves. Who invented the Netbook? Asus. What brand of motherboard is in many laptops? Asus. Many techies swear by Asus, regardless of the poor review NBR gave the UL80VT.

6. Warranty. Asus is the *ONLY* brand to offer the following standard warranty: 2 year global parts/labor & shipping, PLUS 1 year accidental warranty. Go through the checkout process on any other brand online, and you'll add on $100-200 to your laptop cost to have a similar warranty. Figure that for $800 you are getting 1 year accidental and 2 years parts/labor/shipping, plus Asus' reputation for build, and its close to a no-brainer.

CONS for the UL50VT:

1. NOTE! The UL50VT and the UL50AG ARE NOT THE SAME! This is probably my main pet peeve with the "VT"...when I tried out a UL50AG at Best Buy for $675, I was in love with it! Why? B/c the surface around the keyboard/touch pad is a matte rubber...no finger prints! So I ordered the "VT" for $100 ore and am disappointed...Asus, along w/ Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc figures that 99% of all laptop users must be in high school. I mean, high-school kids like shiny things right? Who doesn't like neat shiny surfaces!? Well Asus (& HP & Toshiba) here's an unknown fact for you...most people that actually "use" a laptop instead of polishing it & placing it on a mantle as a room decoration, *HATE* glossy/shiny surfaces...If the UL50VT came w/ the same matte rubber deck as the "AG" this would be a 5 star notebook, but it is a serious flaw IMO.

2. The mouse left/right buttons are a sure bet to develop repetitive stress injury (RSI). Unlike most right/left buttons, which have two different buttons/pads...this has "one" long button, that has a pivot point in the middle of the button. As such, the button is near impossible to use without pressing on the far edge of either side of the button, and your fingers/thumb will certainly get tired copy & pasting, dragging & scrolling as it requires considerable force to hold the button down.

3. 2 plastic stickers over the screw on the bottom of the screen panel look like they'll come off soon. The DVD tray seems to vibrate against the chassis when in use (loud noise)...I use a CD/DVD like 3 times a year, so this isn't an issue for me, and I'm not sure if this is an issue for all units or just mine.

Solutions:

1. If you can find a skin to put around the keyboard/touchpad, that'll fix the finger-print issue. has one, but they won't sell you the skin unless you buy the Asus from them:( Skinit.com really only sells the "A" surface skin (the back lid)...I might have to buy a generic skin and try & cut it out to fit around the keys/pad, or carry around a lens cleaning cloth!

2. Luckily, the Asus comes with the Elan mouse driver...which supports the multi-touch/multi-touchpad. Asus really just needs to realize PC's are trying to catch up with Macbook's here and not try to re-invent the wheel. The default settings it comes with must be changed for best results. Change the "right-click" to be actioned by "two-finger" tap, instead of three-finger tap by default. Now, you can scroll up & down (& left/right) with two fingers anywhere on the touchpad (not just the right edge as w/ one-finger scrolling). You can left click with one finger tap. You can now right-click with two-finger tap...just like the Macbook glass touchpad. You double tap with one finger then scroll left/right to highlight text, then tap the highlighted selection w/ two fingers to bring up the right-click menu (copy/paste/etc). Once you get used to using the touchpad like a Mac, w/o the left/right button, you'll forget how bad the right/left buttons are (plus its more efficient in the long-run to just use the touchpad I think...two finger scrolling will make you wonder why you wasted years and caused carpel-tunnel on a PC...too bad they wasted space w/ the RSI causing buttons instead of a bigger touchpad).

Summary: If only the UL50VT came in the same material the UL50AG came in and with a right/left mouse button that didn't cause RSI (repetitive stress syndrome), it would be 5 out of 5 stars; a true Macbook killer for 1/2 the cost!!! Long battery life, LED screen, Full size-keyboard (Number Pad), Chicklet keys to keep out dust, ultra-low voltage processor, reliable quality, awesome standard warranty, switchable graphics and DDR3 memory on a 64bit W7 OS. For $823 you can get the UL50VT, or for $100 less (don't forget taxes if buying locally), you can get the UL50AG. Honestly, if you are on a budget, I think the "AG" is a steal of a deal and saves you the glossy/fingerprints. For $100 more w/ the VT, I'll take the upgrade to DDR3 instead of DDR2 memory with the AG, plus switchable graphics (read: increased performance while plugged in). For $800 I'm not worried about extended warranties, although if I were paying $1500 with a Dell or Macbook I would be forced to buy one. In terms of performance/cost/features/value/battery life, the "VT" is almost a true home run. With the glossy cover, and poor right/left buttons, I'll still give it a standing "triple" base hit instead of home-run; for the cost its tough to go wrong with this Asus:) You could certainly spend a lot more and get a lot less.

This is my first computer since my Apple Powerbook G4. I decided to shop around for a new PC because a new Mac simply doesn't exist for the amount of money that I was looking to spend.

I shopped around for a few weeks and once I finally came across this model, I jumped on it.

The laptop arrived in two days thanks to Amazon. After all of the bad press about Vista I was hesitant about coming back to the PC world. Now after using Windows 7 for a week, I am hesitant to ever go back to a Mac.

I was immediately impressed with the look of the brushed aluminum lid and the chiclet style keyboard. The numeric pad is also nice and overall the laptop has a very sleek, impressive look. However, coming from a zero gloss aluminum Powerbook, it took me a while to adjust to the high gloss of the UL50VT. The screen, the plastic surrounding the screen, and everywhere else besides the aluminum lid and underside are all glossy black plastic. The track pad is directly on this glossy plastic which takes a little getting used to. Also the mouse buttons are a little stiff and I wish they were two separate buttons instead of just one. These small gripes almost turned me against my new laptop, but after a week I am used to the look and feel of the laptop and more importantly, I am very happy with its performance.

With an Intel rated 5 star Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, I have no complaints about performance. I use my laptop for movies, music, web browsing, and college. I don't often play games but it is nice to know it's a definite possibility.

The UL50VT boots up fast and lasts for a long time. With brightness maxed out while doing web surfing and homework, I am averaging about 6-8 hours. This is more than enough already and if I lower the performance and brightness the battery lasts for around 10.

The screen is widescreen and bright. I do wish the resolution was higher than 1366 x 768. For a 15 inch laptop I found that to be a little low, but it is not a show stopper.

Overall the Asus UL50VT is a sleek, well performing portable laptop. This laptop is well worth the price and so far has easily handled everything that I have thrown at it. If you don't mind the glossy appearance and can get past the less than great track pad and mouse buttons, the Asus UL50VT is a very solid purchase.

Buy ASUS UL50Vt-A1 Thin and Light 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - 11.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home P Now

This computer replaced a six-year old Toshiba Satellite laptop that served flawlessly, but is clearly in its final, noisy days.

While it's far too soon to know if this Asus product can match that length of service, their motherboards enjoy a good reputation among the build-it-yourself crowd and their netbooks have been well received. After exercising this computer for a short time, I'm very impressed.

This laptop is very strong in four areas that helped me narrow my selection from a dizzying array of laptop choices in its price range:

(1) display size and quality (15.6 inches, crisp and bright, separate video processor with 512 MB of its own memory)

(2) system memory (4 GB DDR3)

(3) battery life (Asus advertises 12 hours; more on how they get to this below); even without the tweaks that get you to the high end, it offers great battery performance.

(4) length and scope of warranty coverage.

About the battery life which other reviewers have criticized as not meeting the marketing hyperbole (Amazon indicated 11+ hours and a sticker in the packaging claims 12+ hours)....

Asus has a power control scheme offering the option to select from two video adapters: a discrete NVIDIA Gforce G210M video processor or the integrated Intel display adapter. Users then have to decide whether they want enhanced video or extended battery life. A small power button above the keyboard lets you make this selection. You can also select an auto mode, which makes the choice for you based on whether using AC power or the battery is being used.

Asus also includes a power management utility offering four power setting scenarios (high performance, entertainment, quiet office or battery saving). Each of these can be further customized (display blanking, screen savers, sleep mode, etc.) as you determine your balance of performance vs. battery life.

So: can you really get 11 or 12 hours of battery time? Maybe.

IF you select the battery saving mode, and IF you accept the diminished video performance, and IF you give up power-hungry goodies (like with Windows sidebar) and if you avoid power-intensive tasks (like CD burning or video rendering)...you might get there. I always figure the marketing figures are make some best-case assumptions...

What I have done it used this machine for six untethered hours while enjoying the enhanced video and writing to multiple DVDs. As an upgrade to an old machine that could barely get to 90 minutes away from an AC outlet: six hours battery time for full-featured operation is excellent.

Their support seems better than many other manufacturers. I registered with the Asus support site, and posted a question about operating the webcam. Within five hours, I had an email response. Very impressive. Although I haven't tried it --or had a need to-they also have a 24/7 toll free number.

Asus offers the following mix of warranties on this computer in the US and Canada:

-30 days for "bright dot" (hot pixels...they don't say anything about about dead ones!) on the display. ANY singe pixel qualifies for this.

-1 year on the the battery

-2 years on the computer

-1 year accidental damage coverage (which they immediately extend to 2 years when you register online)

-two way shipping for any repair/RMA situations.

For the money, this is a superb laptop choice and Asus appears ready to stand behind it.

Why not five stars?

Small issues with the overall package.

Each is minor, a and couple are a matter of personal preference rather than an actual flaw. However, they probably reflect how Asus achieved this combination of price point and computer performance. While they don't detract from the overall value of this machine, they collectively stand between four and five stars. If there were a 4.5 star option, this computer would be there.

Gripes:

(1) No recovery media is included. An automated utility prompts you to run it at setup (or you can do so anytime you'd like to afterward). You will need four DVDs to do this; if you use DVD-RW media, this will take well over an hour). Just like with user manuals in soft copy: this is something that should not be pushed to the consumer, and should have been in the box. Even though the utility interface indicates success (or not), I'm left with less confidence in my self-made recovery media than I would have with media that shipped from the factory.

(2) No speaker volume control wheel. Volume is controlled either with via the task bar (using a mouse or touchpad) or FN keys.

(3) No physical switch to turn the wireless adapter on/off. This is done either through a FN key or a task bar icon (and you may not remember the latter, because it can be hidden under Windows 7 options!).

(4) The webcam software was not easy to identify. This was mostly because of a silly, cartoonish user interface that also makes it hard to use. They could have done better by talking to at least one user.

(5) Others have written about the super glossy wrist-rest area. It's an an absolute fingerprint magnet and skin oil pallate. A matte or brushed finish, similar to this machine's outside cover could have eliminated this. I'm considering fine-grain sandpaper to roughen this area up!

(6) I prefer a power adapter that plugs in at the rear of a laptop. This one plugs in on the left side, which can be in issue depending on the AC outlet location.

(7) One of the three USB ports is at the front right of the machine. If you use this for a mouse (as many right-handers might), you'll have mouse cordage right where you might prefer to place the actual mouse.

None of those are serious enough to diminish a "buy with confidence" bottom line for this computer. It's light, powerful, power-stingy and full-featured.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS UL50Vt-A1 Thin and Light 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - 11.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home P Here

So, maybe you don't get 12 hours? But at least that's a ballpark figure being thrown around... Especially when you consider the smart power management Asus has thrown in this peppy, thin, cool to the multi-touch, 4GB DDR3, 16:9 LED, laptop. The intel core 2 duo + nvidia G210M is a potent combonation.

The system claims EXPRESS GATE boots in 8 secs, and it really is 20 secs to a Hulu video. Windows 7 Premium took my picture instead of a password after an impressive 1:05 and was streaming video in another 12. I easily overclocked the 1.3Ghz duo by 5% using the super customizable Asus bios. I want to tweak the embedded linux, or maybe just run ubuntu on that 500GB hard drive (it came pre-partitioned with two 250GB partitions).

There are two POWER buttons. One controls windows power options; stepping down the processor. It has 4 power modes, that could frankly use some tuning. Too bad I can do a better job customising, but Windows 7 isn't saving my desktop prefrences right now.

Turning off the discrete grapics also turns off Aero. Then this HUGE 15" becomes a netbook, seemingly gaining unplugged longevity by closing the lid. Standby resumes in an impressive sub 5 secs. Maybe I'm the only one who remembers when computers were slow. I haven't had this computer plugged in all day! The touch pad seems a bit off at first, but then you realize that it has to be offset to the left to keep your palms out of the way. This allows for a full keypad to the right and a plethora of FN keys. And did I mention the multi touch trackpad? It does three fingers. Now I'm considering the 2 yr warranty and 1 year accidental damage that is included?!

Best machine for the OPTIONS!

[EDIT]

I have loaded Ubuntu 9 (thus triple booting the laptop). You can enable all CompizFusion desktop effects, including the desktop cube with no jitter (very smooth animations)! Very fast, very impressive. Also, unexpectedly, Ubuntu picked up on the multi-touch trackpad. I haven't played around with it too much to figure out how to change the two finger tap to be right click (it is set to do some desktop effect right now), but knowing it is possible is awesome.

Also, I only plug in this laptop at night, while I am sleeping. I have been using it all day at work (I am an IT systems administrator) and even watched a couple full length movies while working and still never had to plug it in. WOW! Asus has it loaded up with the "Power4Gear Hybrid" program that lets you set your power options (High Performance, Entertainment, Quiet Office, & Battery Saving). The built in defaults are fine for most people, but again the options are what sets this baby apart. You can define the Maximum and Minimum processor state, toggle Turbo mode, adjust display brightness, change sleep / hibernate options, enable disable devices (camera & ODD), and base it all on the plugged in state (thus giving you eight 8! power modes).

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I have been playing around with this laptop for about a week now. I dont know what people are doing to their keyboards. I type very fast using this notebook and do not see the complaint about it flexing.

Now I am not new to computers or notebooks. I have believed the hype and bought an Alienware a few years back. It was probably beautiful on paper and reality it was something else.

This time around though. I was looking for two things. Portability and good graphics. I found this laptop with switchable or hybrid graphics. It is quite impressive to say the least. I enjoy the portability of it. First time I took it out of the house. I had to check the bag to make sure it was in it. It is that light. If you turn off the wireless radio when using it. You can get over 10 hours of battery life and with the wireless radio on. You average about 7-8.

The heat situation in laptops is something else people talk about. I don't think this even generates heat. I have yet to feel any type of discomfort due to the heat issues. You can not say that about the previous laptop. I probably could have cooked an egg on the shell.

I really dont mind the glossy shiny coating. It stands out and says to people walking by "Hey Look at me!" If you want a dull leather wrappings that crack with age. Then go for it. But i prefer the gloss. It serves as a reminder to wipe the laptop down and keep it clean.

The speed is great. Windows 7 is great. Its very responsive and you can hit that power button and be literally working on your computer in less than 30 seconds. Its that fast.

On the warranty, You can apply for it online. You dont have to send that card in. You can register and go about your merry way.

On the graphics on it. I was running high settings in Dalaran on a heavily populated Warcraft server with zero lag. Not even a bit. That is something that i thought was impossible.

Being this is the first generation in a new direction in laptops. I look forward to seeing what ASUS can do with it. I know Nvidia is planning more for Hybrid Graphics and we as laptop users can finally get the best of both worlds. So in two years or more. I am going to look forward into seeing what asus has to offer. They earned a new customer and that loyalty is not misplaced.

So take the chance on this laptop. You will not reget it.

(Update)

Smooth Gameplay when playing Modern Warfare 2 and still no heat issues.

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Sony VAIO SA Series Laptop, VPCSA4MFY/BI, Intel Core i5-2450M Processor (2.50 GHz), 4GB DDR3, 500GB

Excellent display , very sharp . Laptop is very fast , no running never hot , No Noisy . I love the backlit keyboard . Need to be carefull with the panel of the display because is to fragil , but this is essencial part to be lightweight . Excellent to travel ,

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The laptop is excellent.

fast, elegant, perfect quality materials, 2 modes for grapfics, awesome backlight keyboard, Shock Protection

technology for hdd works great!!

but the screen resolution is really bad...for 1600x900 LED screen resolution and the sound system is not good also.

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