ASUS 1015E1015E-DS01-PK 10.1-Inch Laptop (Pink)

I hope this review helps anyone who is in the market for a netbook without the flaws of the earlier generation netbooks. Well I was on a quest for the perfect netbook and have used so many in the past. I think I've tried at least a dozen models only to find that there was some short comings with them. This netbook will be used mainly for traveling since it is a lot easier to carry and not as expensive as other ultrabooks or notebooks.

OK lets get to it. Here are the positives listed below.

Speedy for a netbook (2 to 3 times the speed of standard netbooks)

1366 x 768 resolution.

light weight

comfortable to type

hdmi, can output 1080P Blu Ray no problem

1 x USB 3.0

Was able to swap the HDD from a 320GB to a 1TB 9.5mm

OK now here are the negatives.

Memory not upgradable, onboard and not removable.

Pain in the A to access the hard drive.

No Bluetooth

Not a dual band internal wireless card

No gigabit lan : (

Did not boot from USB/used acronis 2013 to clone drive.

Before this model was released, I was so close to buy the Asus 1025CE model that featured bluetooth and removable ram. However I am glad I waited as the CPU speed and a nice 1366 screen resolution out weighs the other features of the 1025CE model. I am more than happy to sacrifice bluetooth and extra ram for a nicer screen and increase in cpu speed. For the money you cannot go wrong with this model. I would highly recommend this model or the next model 1015E-DS02 which will have 4GB of onboard ram.

Update 5/6/13

I have been using this netbook for a week and it works great. It has exceeded my expectations. At times however it can run a little warm and the battery life is not as advertised. On a full charge it will last me about 5-5:30 hours on the lowest dim screen. To me this is acceptable as many new ultrabooks do not even last that long. This will definitely hold me over for 2 movies during a plane ride.

I got this to replace my wife's Dell Mini 10 netbook. It just arrived today, so I haven't had much time to play around with it yet. Usually I don't buy Amazon products without reviews, but I took a gamble on this recently-released Asus laptop... and I'm glad I did.

The first thing I noticed was keyboard. It's definitely easier to type on compared to the Dell Mini 10. Having the separation between the keys helps a lot. The cursor keys are a little cramped, but what do you expect on such a small laptop.

The second thing I noticed is how much I dislike the touchpad. Seems to be par for the course on many netbooks. I frequently use the tap-to-click feature (quickly tapping to register a left-mouse click) on the touchpad instead of actually pressing down in the bottom-left corner. It would only register my taps about 80% of the time which was really annoying. I figured that this could be solved by trying different touchpad drivers. The laptop came preinstalled with the latest drivers from Asus' website. I tried the generic Synaptics drivers from their website. That helped with the tap-to-click, however, the pointer speed was way too slow, even when set to the highest speed. Also, I lost the Windows 8 gestures with the those Synaptics drivers. Next I tried the Elan drivers (did a Google search for 'elan touchpad driver windows 8', and it's the first link on asus.com). The Elan drivers did the trick. Everything works great... tap-to-click works 99% of the time, pointer speed is good at the default speed setting and the Windows 8 gestures work.

At first, when I read that this had a Celeron CPU, I was a bit wary. However, after using the Atom CPU-equpped Dell Mini 10, I have to say that this Asus is a bit faster even at a lower clock speed, but I'm sure the dual cores helps quite a bit. This machine also came with Windows 8 64-bit which I was surprised to see. I'm used to seeing 32-bit operating systems on netbooks. I'm sure that replacing the HDD with an SSD would make this a lot faster, so I might have to invest in that later.

The only thing I've really tested so far is streaming Youtube videos. This thing doesn't skip a beat, even with HD (all the way up to 1080p) videos running at full screen. The frame rate is smooth. I'm pretty impressed. Screen looks decent too. Speakers can get pretty loud without much distortion.

I'm happy with the build quality as well. There's a nice texture on the plastic surrounding the touchpad below the keyboard and on the bottom of the laptop. There's very little flex to the keyboard... it's pretty solid.

If you're looking for a 10" laptop for basic web browsing & productivity, definitely consider this one.

UPDATE 2013-04-30

After using this laptop for a few days, I'm still impressed. No new issues to report. Once my wife started using it, she would frequently trigger (by accident) the Windows 8 gestures on the touchpad. If you swipe in from the left, top or right sides, it triggers a gesture. I didn't see an easy way to disable these gestures. There are registry keys that you mess around with, but I found an alternative. There is another set of Elan touchpad drivers that work even better than the previous ones that I found. Just do a Google search for 'Elan touchpad drivers', and it's the link for station-drivers(dot)com. The driver version at the top of the list provides a bunch of configuration settings in the Mouse application for disabling gestures as well as many other touchpad settings.

I also read the other review about the difficulty in upgrading the RAM and swapping out for an SSD, which is unfortunate. However, the speed is decent enough as long as you have the proper expectations.

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How to make this notebook run smooth and real fast:

0.(Optional).Search on google for classic shell and install.It will make windows 8 with a classic interface.

1. Search on google for "asus elan drivers" find the site, choose windows 8 64 bit click the link below "touch pad" then download and install from the 2nd link called "global" REMEMBER USE 2 fingers to scroll up and down.

2. Go to control panel > Programs and features and uninstall every single thing from asus everything! Including that hybrid crap that makes the notebook run 20 degrees hotter , don't worry windows 8 and nvidia has everything that you're going to uninstall.You'll have to reboot several times.

3. Go to control panel > Power options it should be set on "Balanced" below there is a link "More options" click on it and choose "High Performance". Close window.

4. Go to control panel and open " Mouse" click on top on the panel "Choose pointer speed" and move the setting to a higher point.

5. You're done. Enjoy the fastest notebook available.

I was skeptical at first about this little thing but I am blown away. I own a few laptops including a last generation vaio. For what you pay here 250 bucks you get a really nice machine. I am running 3ds max with no issues in this thing.I saw some people writing in these reviews stuff like it can be better or whatever. its the perfect machine for this money. Its comparable to the ultrabook I have at speed and that's got a solid drive in it! I thought for sure I was going to replace the hard drive in this one with a solid but it is not necessary at all. Boot time is around 30 seconds . Windows 8 interface sucks but the os itself is way better than anything on the market extremely stable , I install classic shell and run it with a classic interface. As for the people who complain about this product spend a hundred more and get the 350 dollar ultrabook from asus for heaven's sake. the battery is as they say around 7 hours .Screen is excellent I seat outside on the patio and I can see it perfectly. the keyboard very responsive and adequate for your hands. The mouse pad is big enough and responds accordingly as in the instructions. the built is solid with a nice piano finish on top. It is not thick just perfect. The fan blows warm but if you know about computers celeron chips run a little hotter. but nothing weird. if you complain about that get yourself a laptop with an atom processor at less than half the speed. I bought a pink one for the wife today. Overall a fantastic product. Thumbs up to Asus

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You CANNOT add RAM or upgrade the Hard Drive to an SSD in this computer. Amazon description is misleading if you read the specs, it says SODIMM under memory type. But this computer contains no capacity for user upgrades. Even if it did have an SO-DIMM slot as Amazon mistakenly says in their specs, there is no access door on the back.

I purchased this Asus 1015E to replace my Acer A1410 which my wife decided she liked so much she took it away from me to use for herself! The A1410 used an older version of the Celeron chip (SU2300), similar to the one in this Asus.

This 64-bit chip allows you to do everything a more powerful processor can do, and even has the virtualization feature, unlike the Atom processors found in most netbooks this size. This puts this computer on a higher level than most of the other netbooks, with either Atom or AMD processors.

I really like the Asus, but I ended up returning it after I discovered that it cannot be upgraded. My A1410 had come with 2GB of RAM just like this Asus, but I upgraded it to 4GB and put in a faster hard drive.

The Amazon description said the Memory type in this Asus was SODIMM, so I assumed it could be upgraded also. After I received it, I discovered that this Asus did not even have an access door on the back to access the memory and hard drive. More research on the internet revealed that similar Asus models come with RAM soldered onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded.

This does not make it a bad netbook. If I thought that 2GB of RAM and a slow 320GB hard drive were sufficient, I would have been very happy with this choice. But for me, I always like to have more than enough RAM, and 2GB is just barely adequate in my opinion for running Windows. I am a power user and the small size of this unit was the main attraction, but I was planning on having 4GB and an SSD.

I am still giving the 1015E three stars because it is a well designed unit that has a better processor in it than other netbooks comparable in size. If this is what you are looking for and are not doing things that require a lot of RAM, this unit has excellent battery life and instant-on features too.

Asus could be more clear in their literature and specs about upgradability, and of course Amazon could too. At least my review might prevent others from making the same mistake I did.

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Great little computer for on the go! Plenty powerful enough for web browsing and running apps such as Open Office, Adobe Reader, etc. Battery appears to last a minimum of 6 hours. Keyboard and touchpad a little funky, but easy enough to get accustomed to. Works great with Classic Shell. No touch screen but that's OK with me. It runs a little warm so we'll see how long it lasts. For $270, it's well worth the money. Oh, and unlike the tablet convertibles such as the new HP and the new Samsung, it's not top heavy meaning you can easily use it on your lap. Great little screen as well. I got this to replace an old Atom netbook that ran Windows 7. This little bugger blows the old Netbooks away. If you want something on the go, that has a keyboard, and can run full blown Windows programs, then it's a winner. Combine this with a home computer synched to cloud storage and you are good to go!

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ASUS UX UX21E-XH71 11.6-Inch Laptop

I've had the Asus ZenBook 11.6" with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, going on 3 months now. This computer takes a great leap backwards with its terribly designed keyboard. I needed a replacement for my old slow small laptop for a business where time is of the essence. The Zenbook keyboard is a typist's worst nightmare. Feel is horrible, accuracy is shot and worst of all, I'm delayed with most if not all my tasks. When I connect this computer to a monitor and keyboard while at home, it's awesome. I work with several applications in and out of the VPN. But when on the road and without the peripherals, I have to slow down and concentrate. Otherwise, I've moved or deleted text; moved the curser to gosh knows where; switched the screen or webpage; or sometimes I've almost turned the computer off. Who was the genius who put the power button adjacent to both the delete and backspace keys??

The key board and touch pad on this computer are almost unusable. I have disabled the touch pad and use a mouse. Would not buy another ASUS product.

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I am generally pleased with the performance and speed, especially at start-up. It is nearly as fast as it was advertised. However, there are several downfalls to this product:

(1) Opening the lid is rather difficult due to the very small lip available for finger-lifting.

(2) The touch pad mouse is overly sensitive, requiring a lot of "chasing and erasing" time to correct pop-ups, etc created by an inadvertent touch of the finger.

(3) The battery life as received fresh from the supplier was barely 2:30 hrs not what the adverts said...

(4) The hard drive does make a whooshing sound not too annoying, but always there in the background none the less.

(5) There was some sort of incompatibility of the installed Windows 7 with the Outlook 2010 I was already using and when I transferred my Outlook 2010 to this ASUS, Internet Explorer would not work normally, to the point that I was forced to downloading Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. The Windows 7 and Outlook 2010 (with Explorer) combination worked fine without any problems for over 2 years on my former laptop.

(6) The Intel Core i7 processor is satisfactory and seems to perform as expected. My former laptop, a Sony VAIO VPCX11S1E had finally failed me because of the single Intel processor it had.

(7) Finally, despite the fact that the order originated from Europe, the product was shipped with a US type plug, requiring a bulky plug-adapter to be used, whenever the laptop is now plugged in.

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Apple MacBook Pro MD322LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

Let me start with the good:

So awesome. Great OS, fabulous improvements to the existing line bumping up the processor speed and adding the thunderbolt port. This is my second MacBook. The first one I had was a 2006 model, not the Pro. I fell in love with it. This one has had the same effect. I had upgraded my old MacBook to Lion, so I kind of knew what I was getting, but hadn't been able to enjoy some of the awesome new multi-touch features. The improvements to the OS have been relatively gradual, but substantive. The feel of this machine compared to the old MacBook is far superior. The Unibody construction is solid, sleek and beautiful. It is everything I'd hoped it would be from a look and feel standpoint, but somehow a bit more sturdy.

For the not so good, I got the stock screen which is VERY glossy. I mean ... REALLY glossy. It's still beautiful and has better color reproduction than I could ever expect from a notebook. The reflectiveness of the display is only a minor inconvenience if you work in a controlled-lighting environment like me (I prefer it dark) or if you can crank up the brightness.

My real problem with it? The statement of 7 hour battery life is not just mere exaggeration -it's a lie. I challenge anyone to show proof that through anywhere near normal use can get more than 2.5 hrs out of it. I've got the brightness all the way down to just one notch above 'off' and the keyboard backlight off. The first full charge of this battery got me only about 2 full hours. Enabling the battery timer is useless. The "Time remaining" goes from 4 hours plus to less than 2 hours over the span of about 10 minutes. It's a joke. It's so bad that I'm thinking I only got half a battery or something.

I have an extended battery on a Dell notebook that gives me 7.5 hrs of regular use, and had an extra "slice" battery that attached to a Compaq elitebook that gave me 7-8 hrs. I know what 7 hrs of battery looks like. This ain't it.

My only other complaint is that it gets really hot. There's a reason they aren't called laptops. :-)

If you buy this don't go into it expecting 7 hrs of battery life, and you'll be perfectly satisfied.

All that being said, I think I'm done buying Windows PCs.

UPDATE:

With the help of some responders to my original review, I am seeing much better results from the battery close to 5 hrs + of normal use. Leaving the original text of the review intact, but updating the rating to the 5 stars the product deserves. I'm extremely satisfied. Very happy Mac owner. :-D

(This review was typed on this machine).

I researched this purchase EXTENSIVELY via Amazon, Best Buy, other retailers, and my local university (with educational pricing for staff/students/faculty). In the end, I ended up purchasing this machine from Best Buy as the price was the same and I had a line of credit (although I had to pay tax: hey, someone has to help pay for our roads, right?)

In short, I can't say enough positive things about this purchase. This machine is INCREDIBLY fast, the interface is slick (although it takes some getting used to coming from the Windows world especially window minimizing and the function keys), and with an iPhone 4S and iPad 2, iTunes syncing is a DREAM compared to Windows (on purpose, El Steve?).

The screen is plenty big (if you're waffling between 15" and 17", go to a local Best Buy or Apple Store and play around with each the 17" has better resolution, but lift them up and check the weight I prefer the 15" for portability and weight, but you're choice will depend on use), and I ordered the 8GB memory package from Amazon (which should show up any day now). Regarding memory I will say: 4GB is just enough; the OS and apps eat up just about every bit, so I'm looking forward to 8GB.

The backlit keyboard is a dream to type on, the magnetic charger is kid-proof, and the multi-touch trackpad alone is well worth the price (I'm a big fan of the two-finger "reverse scrolling", the back-and-forth swiping in Safari is SO convenient, and the 3/4 finger swiping to bring up LaunchPad and the like is great).

My sole complaint is the lack of USB ports, but only because I'm using a Logitech M305 wireless mouse. If I had a true Mac-compatible Bluetooth mouse this wouldn't be an issue, but in hooking up an external USB drive for Time Machine backups (a Western Digital 2TB) and the Logitech dongle, I'm out of USB ports when I have to sync my iPhone or iPad. But hey, with everything else being incredibly integrated, I'm not complaining THAT much.

Taking and syncing videos and pictures via my iPhone (the local Christmas parade!) is flawless, and iTiVo is a must for those with TiVos.

Regarding apps, take a look at Moom, Alfred, DaisyDisk, AppTrap (for uninstalling apps), and Handbrake.

I may end up getting the Applecare plan (part # MD012LL/A), but if I do, I'll get it elsewhere ($244 from other sites vs. $335 from Amazon, just do a search on Google Shopping for the aforementioned part number).

In summary, this machine is already making my life easier with regard to home pictures and video, expanding my family's use of our iPad, and backups. Good-bye Windows, Hello Mac!

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(Over three years of experience in IT with Mac Products)

-=[750GB Version]=-

I've been maintaining/repairing computers for ten years but the product that has made a huge impact on my life is the Mac. After working with Windows NT, 98, 2000, and XP. I'm glad that I was introduced to the Mac line when the White/Black Macbook was just coming out. Since then, once you go Mac, you can't go back.

Apple is a great company, many people think they've overrated and overcharge for their products. The main product you're paying premium for is their operating system and customer support. The operating system is what makes the Mac run so smoothly and safely. You can see the OS works very well with the right specifications, and worry free in regards to getting a virus. How often do you hear about a Mac user running into a virus issue, rarely.

I've worked with the old Macbook Pro 15" with the i7 Dual Core. This is a huge upgrade from that, it has a performance score twice as much as last years model. This is one of the latest processor in a laptop market today. This is an i7 Quad Processor, and of course I am happy that this is an Intel processor and not AMD. I upgraded to Corsair 8GB 1333mhz Ram. Together with the processor makes this a great buy for multitasking.

The screen is very reflective. When I use this outdoor it proves a problem to see and I end up squinting at times. But if you're majorly using the screen indoor (like I do), you will only see how beautiful this screen lights up. It's really instant on thanks to being LED and you can see how thin that screen is. The resolution on this Macbook is a big improvement over the last years model as well, thanks to the 1GB graphic card.

Now you're probably wondering, why I mention this Macbook is for everything. Three simple reasons, it has the graphics card (1GB) that can make it do the most intensive graphic program, we've reached the time when programs are being made for both Windows and Mac, and lastly it can have Windows 7 installed as well.

The graphics has amazed me. I've played Starcraft 2, Day of Defeat Source, Team Fortress 2, and Grand Theft Auto IV on high settings. I even can play Battlefield 3 as well while on Medium setting and the quality is beautiful (installed on Windows). The graphics card plays an additional role in the speed of the computer. You can have a great processor and a large amount of ram. But when it comes to watching HD videos, video editing, or playing games, the graphic card has to be good a well. 1GB I guarantee you will have plenty and is just on par with a desktop gaming computer. Most games that are graphic intensive recommends 1GB, looks like this Macbook is prepared!

Many people say, "Mac's are not made for gaming". You can definitely prove them wrong now, you have a 1GB card and that saying is old now. There are many games out available for Mac and they work stunningly great on it. I am surprise myself that Battlefield 3 ran so great! You can get AutoCad, Photoshop, and so much more. But if there's a certain window product you need to install, well here's my third reason.

You now can feel like you paid for TWO laptops and operating systems, thanks to Boot Camp.

You can install Windows 7 on this laptop thanks to boot camp. Just hold down the ALT key upon boot up after you install it and choose either Mac or Windows to use. Apple has a built in program that walks you through it just like turning on a computer. It's so simple. you'll have Windows 7 on this laptop in an hour, thats how long it took me. Thanks to having Windows installed, I can install any program I want. This has a 750GB hard drive so there is a large amount of space for both OS. This Macbook is now definitely made for everything.

Sorry to say but the battery life is not the rated seven hours unless you plan to only do word documents, light internet surfing, and brightness all the way down. If you play games, browse the web heavily, socialize, webcam, and brightness all the way up, you'd get most likely 3-4 hours only. This is ok for me because I can adjust accordingly of how much power I need. If I'm in class, I'll be having my brightness level down and the battery can last long just fine. As for gaming, I'll make sure to be at a desk and with my power adapter handy. Battery life doesn't affect me whatsoever, and comparing Mac to other 15.4 inch laptops, the Mac has a great power management built in the OS that makes sure it uses next to no battery usage while on standby.

Overall for the price, you're not paying for just the cool factor of Apple, but for the customer support as well. If you have a problem with the Mac, there's a Genius Bar in the Apple Store there with experts to help you out. Within the first year after purchasing it's free help. Even after the one year they will not mind taking a look to see what the problem is. But with warranty, whatever problems occur they will help you step by step and take the right actions to make sure you leave the Apple Store satisfied in solving your problem.

I do not work for Apple, but if I did I'm sure I'd enjoy sharing my experience with why Mac is far more superior at Windows. I used Windows for years but a Mac is so much easier to use in comparison, I've converted many of my family/friends into using it, and they now feel the same way I do about what their next laptop should always be.

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I got my first MacBook Pro in 2006. It worked like a dream and I could not have had a better computer on which to complete a PhD. At that time there was iLife with iWeb so I could launch a website instantly having created a dot mac (later Me) account. It worked tremendously until about 2010, after which I foolishly decided to trade it in for a souped up second hand model (thought of as a cheap MBP upgrade) that was unfortunately coming from non authorised apple repairers and was faulty. I've learned my lesson. With the new MBP I purchased Apple Care almost as soon as I got the machine extending its authorised warranty service for 3 years.

So now I'm typing this on the new MBP. I have noticed that the battery does not really seem to last 7 hours. In a way, it charges up worryingly fast to seem to retain charge. The sound (I mean videos and multimedia) is simply not as loud as the previous MBP, maybe the loudspeakers are less powerful. My iPhone 4S seems to be louder than this (when not connected to external sound systems). The default screen is glossy though you can get a matte. I just have to say it is too glossy and the default should be a matte screen with the option for gloss. The glossy screen would prevent its adequate use in full sunlight and I have to put up with my reflection. I have since fitted a Moshi iVisor that helps considerably.

Significant improvements to the last MBP include the improved magsafe connector the wires of which do not get frayed and exposed due to stressful kinks between the plug and the power cord; the new design prevents kinking by keeping the cord straight. The unibody feels nice and rigid and keeps itself cool without the loud fan of the previous MBP. It is now very much more solid and silent as it works. You can't even hear the hard disk, so it feels like it has a SSD.

For its price, this computer is not worth it. My old MBP was considerably cheaper and Apple have really jacked up the price. The amount of RAM in the standard model (4GB, 8 would have been better) even with 750GB hard disk does not seem sufficient for the price.

The software is more troubling: The problem is the reduced iLife capability such as killing iWeb and issues with OS Lion. With OS lion, I just don't understand Mission Control, it seems to be a useless gimmick. The updated Safari browser works a lot worse than before, I can never seem to get the window I want (e.g., in the past when I opened Safari naturally it launched on the home screen, then you changed window and if you started a new window it would retain the same window, but the control of these windows is now much diminished). Features like Spaces and Stacks are also gimmicky. Each time I start the computer it reopens the software I took pains to shut down at the end of the last session. Disabling this does not seem to work. It constantly seems to open iCal even though I don't want it to do so. This process of reopening a great deal of software makes the booting up very slow. Ironically, the booting up speed is not faster than my old MBP, it may even be slower.

This MBP, if you want the bells and whistles such as 16GB of RAM (installable yourself), Apple Care warranty protection, leaving aside cosmetic externals like a hard shell or an antireflective screen will set you back an additional $750 approximately. That makes this computer about as expensive as they come. Of course these two features are optional, though perhaps a lower price with an iWeb type capability may have helped.

As for the future, I don't think an MBP without a CD/DVD drive would be very useful in the much anticipated upgrade (as rumoured). The improved IvyBridge chip will excite techies though will really jack up the price even more. I am very pleased with this MBP overall and will just end up spending far more money than is justified.

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I needed a new laptop and got the Mac because of I wanted a Unix based system for programming. I've been dual-booting into Linux for too long and though Linux is outstanding, many softwares do not have a Linux version (don't get me started).

It's been 3 weeks with the new Mac and so far I am very pleased with my purchase. However, there are certain things that the Mac is missing which seem like daily necessities to me. It would seem that Apple purposely left them out in a snobbish attempt to establish "the Mac is different".

Depending on the kind of person you are and your usage type, these may or may not be a deal breaker for you.

1. It does not have a standard uninstaller. Coming from Linux's package managers, this is absolutely disappointing. You may have heard that uninstallation is as easy as trashing the app but I wish that were true. Some apps leave files scattered on your hard disk which are hard to find and trash for even a fairly tech savvy person. There are 3rd party softwares, free and not, which can do the job for you but didn't you already pay a premium for buying the Mac?

2. It does not have built-in read-write (r/w) NTFS support. That means if you have an external NTFS formatted drive or a PC that you are sharing with the Mac, you can't persist anything there. Again, compared with the built-in NTFS r/w support in Linux, this seems to be soooo year 2000. There are 3rd party softwares that do this, of course, for a cost.

3. The laptop keyboard does not have a DEL key, only BACKSPACE (called delete, go figure). You can Fn + delete to delete but I'd think delete is quite a commonplace functionality to be missed out.

4. It does not have HOME or END keys either. You can control + A for home and control + E for end but frankly, do you really want to remember all these shortcuts?

I work on computer programs for a living and have figured out ways to work around the above problems. IMHO, not everyone may be willing or able to do that. The graphics and aesthetic is beyond cool but PCs can boast of that too.

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE14132PXB 14-Inch Laptop (Black)

I did online research lot before buying this. You will find very few good 14" laptops in this price range and also very steep increase in price as one move from 15" to 14" with same configuration. Of course one can get better configuration with 15 inches in this price range. But I didn't liked bulky 15 inches laptops much with my previous experiences. I wanted something smaller. I got this delivered with perfect condition. It works marvelously and flawlessly. Bright screen. Flawlessly fast. I like the look of it. Just the one I wanted. It is so light and slick. Battery lasts longer. Had not much problems since I bought it 8 months before. The only small problem I faced till now is that time to time internet connectivity fails. But may be this is because of my router itself. But overall I am very much satisfied with the product.This is one of the best 14 inch laptops in market in this price range!

I bought this product from Frys and I was told just how great it was by a Sony associate. Now the thing that sold me was the i5 processor and this computer was on sale for the same price as computers w/ only a pentium or i3. This computer sucks, I've had it for a month and immedietly i noticed a loose 4 key. Luckily sony can come to my home and fix it but its still iritating. The case is awful, it gathers fingerprints more than any other computer i have ever seen. It gets dirty really easy and the track pad is a flimsy piece of crap. The "HD" webcam is no better than a damn 1.3 mp camera in a cheap cell phone. My 12 dollar phones camera looks better than this crap. I would not recommend this product to anyone just save your money and go with HP. ALSO WINDOWS 8 SUCKS

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Gateway Md2614u Laptop Notebook Pc, AMD Turion X2 Rm-72 Dual-core 2.1ghz, 3gb Ddr2 Memory, 250gb Hd

I just purchased this laptop from Best Buy yesterday, and I'm pleased so far with the results. I was a little apprehensive about making the switch to Vista 64 bit, but so far, so good. I've only found one HW item so far that I've had trouble with a little $10 USB travel mouse. So far, all other software and hardware has worked fine in Vista 64 (most importantly, my old games).

I haven't run into any issues yet, just the typical bloatware that was installed on the PC by gateway. One other annoyance with the scroll function on the mousepad. The right area is dedicated to the scroll function, and it's not quite as responsive as I'd like, but so far, that's my only complaint about this laptop (one that I'll not have to deal with once I get a compatible USB mouse).

I have played both Titan Quest and Age of Empires 3, with the detail cranked all the way up, and while I had to dial back a couple of the settings, the laptop has performed admirably well. I haven't had a chance to load any FPS games yet, but feel that I'll be able to run those at medium settings.

I've had this laptop for four years and still today, it's quick and meets all my needs. I even got upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 for free from the Gateway/Microsoft deal that occured. One of my favorite features is HDMI, that allows for plugging this into a LCD/Plasma for watching movies in hotel rooms and at home for some streaming movies. The battery now has a little trouble making it through a full Dvd movie, but does well if the movie is on the Hard Drive -the fact that it still lasts longer than an hour on battery power amazes me considering most four year old batteries wouldn't survive longer than a few minutes (besides, when I'm using it I'm usually near a power source these days).

Best laptop I have ever owned.

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This thing heated up fast within minutes. Within a couple of months after purchase, it couldn't be turned on. I sent it back for repair under warranty. It was returned with a new motherboard as I was told. Same problems persisted. It finally stopped working after 2 years. Meanwhile my second hand (6 years old) Lenova T61(T7300)is still kicking.

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I have had this laptop for almost 3 years. I had updated the memory and nothing else has been done.

I had lost the charger and got myself ebay replacement which destroyed the port by expanding. Gateway fixed the port for free and sent me a replacement charger.

I did get lot of viruses which made the laptop overheat so linux or replacing the windows every two month will help you last this computer for very long time.

only complaint is speakers and wifi card (not as good as other laptops but if you have excellent router this will not be a issue).

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It's an Okay laptop. A little slow running (thanks in partially to how much of a resource hog vista is). If you can get one with windows 7 I would. I personally received this laptop from my mother so it's little on the old side (maybe a year or two). I suppose it's not horrible for the price.

The looks are nice except for the fact that the outside attracts finger smudges like there's no tomorrow.

Does the job as far as running various programs. I personally am a Graphic Design/ Computer Animation student in college. This computer can run programs such as photoshop, indesign, and lightwave fairly decently without any freezing.

The battery on this pretty much sucks.... It stopped charging to full charge within only a few months of use. however I think this may also have been an issue with vista itself not recognizing the charge? As since installing linux it seems to be charging right.

Also my charge cord broke after not to long. But this may have just been how my mother was using it before she gave it to me.

I recently have had a problem with it where the computers shell (vista) began to have issues....for some reason I didn't get the disc or anything with this to reinstall it. I had to install linux (ubuntu 10.04lts for the curious) on it. seems to have made the laptop run much faster so far. The built in camera is not automatically detected...still trying to see if its compatible with linux. Really not an issue unless you want linux...which most users won't. The fact that windows went wonky on my laptop is more a bad luck issue then anything else so It's not something to worry about to much when purchasing just make sure you have windows instillation cds or the company is willing to telly you how to reinstall windows when you buy it is all.

The only true bad thing I can say about this laptop is that the keyboard is crappy. you really have to slam the keys down to get the laptop to recognize all the letters you type. Which is annoying as it will occasionally not even accept some letters and so yo'll have typos where you'll be missing only one letter in the word (and in the entire sentence as shown by my awesome you'll typo..... -_-;)

What the kid said above is true...it's a little heavy though certainly not the heaviest computer.

okay graphics card...not amazing. will play some games like call of duty and the sims...but nothing to graphic heavy.

Soooo the breakdown.

Cons:

Crap keyboard (have to press really hard to get all your letters typed)

Sloooooow internet (with vista...don't know about xp or 7)

Possible bad battery (though not sure since it now charges fine under linux)

Webcam not auto detected wit linux (not suprising...and probably not useful info to most people)

possible delicate cord

didn't get shell backup

Pros:

fairly nice looking

works for everyday use

can run programs that use a lot of ram and not crash (like photoshop, lightwave)

runs well speed wise under linux (probably with windows7 to)

Fairly good for the price (especially if you generally have better luck with computer then me and my family. lol)

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Hewlett Packard - HP Pavilion dv7t dv7tqe Quad Edition, 2nd Gen. Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2 GHz

I'm in my early 50's and not a computer guy. If you need specifics, read the specs on the seller page. I have owned several desktops and laptops and what I can tell you is this product is everything you ever wanted in a laptop. I have had mine for over two years now and never a problem. This notebook is lightening fast and is loaded with everything you would want a laptop to be. It has beats audio, lightscribe, cd/dvd/mp3 burners and my favorite feature is the biometric fingerprint scanner. It is impossible for anyone but me to access my notebook. My fingerprint can take me to any saved login screen, type in my user/password, and select login for me. It's so cool and well worth the bucks. Every click is instant. The turbo quad is the way to go.

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ASUS G55VW-DS71 15.6-Inch Gaming Notebook (Black)

This is simply my first impression of this notebook, i will update later to make sure no problems have arised. This beast has everything you need to take on everyday work, photoshop, gaming, AutoCAD, and it does it flawlessly. The matte black ruberized material used throughout the notebook feels nice and gives you some extra grip and is cool to the touch. The dual fan system keeps everything cool even when you're gaming with it on your lap! My previous laptop practically gave me 3rd degree burns when i used it on my lap. The backlit keyboard is very nice and looks beautiful in a dark room. The notebook does come with a software that limits CPU/GPU clock speeds for when you're simply browsing the internet or using word, which you can switch back to gaming mode for 100% power! I have had no problems with this product and highly recommend it.

Pros:

For me, the best thing about this laptop is that it stays quiet and cool under heavy load, including while playing games.

I can play Skyrim or Diablo3 on ultra settings without burning my lap. The grills on the exhaust vents on the back can get hot, but never dangerously so in my experience. This is in contrast to my previous laptop, where the exhaust vent was hot enough to cause burns.

Rear exhaust vents are also much nicer than side vents; you can sit next to someone without blowing hot air at them the whole time.

Screen quality is good. It's a matte screen (not glossy). The matte coating is not excessive though; pixels are still clearly defined. The screen is also very bright; I usually keep it towards the dimmest settings at night.

I was originally planning to replace the HDD with an SSD, but honestly the laptop is so snappy that I cannot imagine it going any faster. Having a full 750GB is nice too.

Keyboard feel is nice. Having a numpad is extra nice (especially for games). The keyboard backlight supports 4 levels (off, dim, medium, bright).

Overall the build and materials have a high quality feeling to them. The construction is also solid; no flex when you lift it one-handed from one corner (assuming you have the wrist strength).

Cons:

As many others reviews have mentioned, this laptop is uncharacteristically heavy for a 15" laptop -so be prepared.

The other problem that I (and many others) experienced is that the sound level is too high! To keep it in a quiet regime, you must set the global sound volume to somewhere between 1-8 (out of 100) on the speaker volume tray icon. On the flip side, the audio level is very good when watching movies with high dynamic range, since you can actually hear the quiet parts.

Another minor annoyance is that I tend to jostle the power cable out of the socket when moving the laptop too far left on my lap.

A final complaint is that unless you are Shaq, you will need two hands to adjust the volume with the keyboard, since you need to press Fn+F11 and Fn+F12 for volume-up and volume-down.

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But on a more objective perspective, I have had numerous ASUS products and they have proven to be built to live and are of very good quality. Not to forget the great software support that they offer.

To start with, and clear any questions you may have, this version of the notebook does NOT have the 3D transmitter built in and does not have the Blu-Ray drive. That model would have the 3D designation in the model number (G55VW ...... 3D). Not sure how effective 3D gaming would be on a 15" screen, the screen has amazing colors and no noticeable dead/always on pixels on the unit I have (unlike all my previous notebooks Dell and HP, Dell died HP still is ticking. Hence Alienware was not an option when I was looking to get this).

With a 15" the full HD pixel density and LED it makes everything look much nicer than my 23" desktop full HD screen. However, I am not yet sure if the notebook screen supports 3D gaming with an external NVidia Nvision2 transmitter and glasses but the HDMI 1.4 should be able to on an external supporting display.

The NVidia card GT660M has the umph to run WoW on full settings on DX11, and that's mainly what I bought this notebook for. Running WoWish games should be no problem for the i7 3610 and the NVidia card although there is some slowdown where there are more players to render, the more taxing games like BF3, Future Solder, etc. level of games would need to be toned down a bit in the setting department (i.e. antialiasing and anisotropic filtering down or off).

The power management is spot on, Asus did well on that, but you'll miss the switch of graphics between the i7 integrated graphics and the GT660M maybe it is a software feature that will be available later who knows. You'll get an ROG button that chooses the operation mode from battery saver to full on performance with parameters you set, even the windows theme changes on battery saver.

The battery is OK, the GT660M burns through it though in a just around an hour when gaming and a few on normal usage (including normal brightness), however, you get almost a week of standby for the notebook on battery saver, and the included "always on" (I think) software tells you when it will no longer turn on. I forgot mine for a few days after it shutdown and once I plugged it in it resumed windows normally so you don't get that "windows was shutdown incorrectly" message, it remains standby mode.

However, the power brick is big and bulky and the short "unplugged" gaming life hinders the portability of the G55,,, the weight also factors in as it is not very light... but you knew that, right,,, when you thought about this notebook as a purchase option,,, right,,, anyone... unfortunately, and somewhat expectedly, you're getting a powerful gaming almost desktop-replacement notebook. So, make sure to choose "near the wall" seating in coffee shops and such because you'll need a power source for any decent gaming session.

There is absolutely no flex to the keyboard, and it is nicely backlit and not too bright. You get the usual Fn keys that control the volume (would have preferred the normal physical control, not a problem though) and other standard features. The notebook runs cool, quiet and comfortable, you may notice in some pictures that they show it with a full heat fins on the back, but that is only a showcase model. The back fins are almost three quarters (give or take a few) of the back, the battery has to take a part of it.

All in all I do recommend this product, if you want a really good gaming notebook you're at the right place for the right price. You also have the power for graphic and media processing, but not sure if there are other notebooks better suited for that specific application in terms of weight and battery life. Because the G55 is a powerhouse of gaming features and is built specific with a gamer in mind as the target customer.

Five out of five

Cheers,

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The G55VW is a great 15-inch laptop. Received on 7 August, 2012.

After arrival, I unboxed it and set up was relatively painless. This specific package ships with a nice-ish green colored backpack, supplying ample padding in the case of computer transport. The power-brick was a small surprise, being almost twice as large/heavy as my brother's Alienware M14X's 'brick. The computer itself is slick and a little more mature looking than an Alienware, without all of the premium lighting options. The computer's matte finish and matte 1920x1080 display really come together well.

I proceeded to load up the G55 with Adobe CS6, and Steam (with a large complement of games). Photoshop runs well, and I have to be actually trying in order to make it think a bit on the filter processing and amount of layers I have up. With Steam, I loaded up Crysis 2, Red Faction: Armageddon and Tribes: Ascend to test out overall graphics processing, physics-handling and reaction speed of the computer, respectively. In all three aspects, the 2.0 GB graphics card held up well, allowing me to run the games in full 1080p with high quality settings and the AA turned off. Turning AA on was a bit of a different story, so don't expect to be able to crank out the smooth pixels on this baby. Don't even worry about noise or heat with this thing, they're almost no factor at all.

After 2 solid days of use, I can say that none of the bundled software (except of course the McAfee antivirus) made me want to remove it, and seems to function well with the computer. The exception to this rule is that I needed an update for the audio drivers in order to make the on-screen-display (OSD) function correctly. Other than that, it's been smooth sailing.

Buy with confidence and know that if anything goes wrong, I'll be back to update my review.

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So far this computer has handled everything I've thrown at it game wise that would have killed my last computer. The sound is on this computer is amazing to me, its extremley loud I have to keep it on the lowest volume setting and it works great. It boots up extremley fast and shuts down just as quick. I usually have a 4 hour battery life, which I can't complain because its a gaming laptop so you can't expect much out of the battery. The free mouse and bag are a good throw in for how much you spend on it. To be honest my only complaint about it so far is it is by far the heaviest laptop I've ever owned but again it can't be a negative, because when your buy a powerful gaming computer its going to have a shorter battery life and be quite heavy. But if you want my opinion, this computer is a great buy and has a lot better specs then other computers I saw at this price.

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Dell Gaming Laptop 17" XPS M1730

This notebook is more like a desktop that folds, let's just lead with that. It is HEAVY, and designed more for gamers than for people who will be on the go for most of the time. That said, it was (and is) a powerful machine, with enough processing power and memory to get even fairly heavy-duty programs running well. I have installed Windows 7 on my model, and would recommend both the OS and the computer to anyone looking for a gaming laptop. In addition to the impressive hardware specs, I have to say that mine was durable as well; even though I dropped it twice, and once it got pulled off a couch because my brother tripped on the power cord, it survived without a problem and Dell replaced the cosmetically damaged components for me. To sum up, I think this is a great computer at what it does; powerful, cool-looking, and durable.

I signed in just because someone might buy this garbage. Nothing about this pc is worth 2 grand. I would pay 150-200 tops. The specs are completely outdated. You can go to walmart and buy a 300 dollar laptop with better specs than this. Unbelievable.

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This laptop is amazing, its a 2007 computer that is able to run 2013 games at lowish specs. I got mine for around 300 dollars. The seller that is asking for that ridicules price should be ashamed.

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Just to inform any buyers of this laptop, this is not a gaming laptop. Dell has two branches of other computers. There gaming laptops are Alien ware and their high performance is XPS. XPS will not have as good graphics cards or Ram. The Alienwares will be faster for gaming and most likely be a better all around computer, but this laptop will be perfect for advanced computing and will run most games fine. If you are looking for a computer to play games on, turn to specific gaming computers.

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This laptop needs to be reviewed in a certain different ways before it is automatically judged, first off, this laptop was made years ago, so if your looking to play games that were made yesterday you will likely be disappointed, laptops in general are usually not able to play future games over 2 years or so, if you like to play games like CoD4 or less restrictive games like LoL or Combat Arms then this laptop will do nicely. Its also worth considering that if you upgrade the ram from 2 gb to 4gb and also upgrade the video card to a GeForce 9800 2gb G.R.A.M then you should have no problem playing modern games, think about this, if you go to the battlefield 3 website and look at the minimum system requirements you will see that this laptop meets them all, even years later it can play a game like battlefield 3, the only thing that would be necessary to change is the operating system because it doesn't support windows XP. so including the laptop price, you would likely spend about $750 on this laptop with upgrades to the ram and graphics card, you tell me if you can find a laptop for that much with these specs anywhere else, its especially good if you cant afford to pay that amount right now, because the ram and graphics card can be purchased later.

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HP G60-445DX - Turion X2 RM-75 / 2.2 GHz - RAM 3 GB - HDD 320 GB - DVD?RW (?R DL) / DVD-RAM - GF 82

I purchased this laptop in late 2009 for $500.00 brand new. For all its flaws, I could look past them knowing I'd never buy a then new computer that cheap. Not once have I had to take it in for maintenance! It's spared me the grief that a 2 year warranty would otherwise cover. I don't expect to have any serious problems with it. It is highly recommended that you upgrade to Windows 7 home premium, and ditch Vista. Mine came with a free upgrade, and it loads much faster.

Pros:

-10-Key pad! (This was what ultimately sold me.)

-Fast loading at startup and online.

-"Classic" desktop theme makes the computer compatible with older games and programs that required Windows XP to run.

-"Energy mode" makes the battery life much last for about 6 hours.

Cons:

-The shell is plastic. Try not to be careless with it.

-Portable, but not lightweight. (6.5 lbs)

-Unplugged, the battery life while internet surfing can barely make it two hours.

-Low end video card. (Nvidia 8200M) Will run "heavy" games like the sims 2, but this is not a gaming computer.

If you get this laptop at a reasonable price I would not deter you from buying it, otherwise choose another laptop. I am not against HP's cause I've experienced others that do not suffer from the same 'defects' as this.

1)Don't put this laptop on your lap, you will get 2nd or 3rd degree burns

2)Do not expect exceptional battery life (although the same can be said about half the pc's on the market today) but expect to be connected to the power cable for the most part

3)It may run slowly at times but to be fair be sure the cause of that is not user based

All in all it is not a bad machine but HP definitely needed to iron out these issues before releasing this product

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This is an amazing labtop. Got it for a great price and I really love it! This should have been at least 600.00 when I bought it and I got it for less than 500.00.

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For the price, I thought this would be a decent buy. The specs looked amazing on paper with a good processor, enough ram and memory. The big screen is nice too. It was nice having the HDMI and also SD/XD/etc card slot. Make sure you get the windows 7 upgrade too, it was well worth it.

Cons: As already mentioned,the battery is poor. I couldn't make it through a 2 hour class without it being plugged in. The battery was shot after a year. The computer itself heated up really fast... faster than any other laptop I have used; a friend told me that HP used cheap hardware for a couple of years, and that is why this model gets really hot. I also noticed early on, that the power supply connection was never secure, it seemed to wiggle easily. I also noticed that the CD drive was really loud, but that is understandable being it is a laptop.

My biggest complaint with this computer is its poor recording capability. This computer wasn't able to record anything of notable quality, from webcam videos to audio from lectures I attended (using one note). It always turned out bad, after multiple calls to customer support, re-installing drivers and updating them again, the problem was never solved. There are also multiple forums about users experiencing the same problems... just look up HP G60 recording issues.

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Sony VAIO VPCSA23GX/SI 13.3" LED Notebook - Intel Core i5 i5-2410M 2.30 GHz - Silver

Unavailable on Amazon, purchased directly from Sony website for less than $1400 for the fastest dual-core i7 laptop from reliable manufacturer is a true bargain. Once upgraded to 8GB RAM for less than $30 and 2nd generation 512GB SSD for less than $800 it outperforms most of machines in its class. I use it mostly for off-line video processing where it superseded my old Lenovo T61 notebook (T7500) showing quadrupled performance. USB 3.0 works flawlessly finally allowing me to use new high-tech video converters, editing decks and HD camcorders. Do not bother with customizing machines which cost enormous leg. This is best buy for the buck, period. Highly recommended.

I bought this from an Amazon affiliate. It is light weight and has very high resolution (1600x900). The hardware spec also looks decent(i5, SSD, backlite keyboard). But there are a lot of issues. First, the touch pad is very poor. It is not sensitive and responsive. I have to use a mouse or it is very frustraing. It does not have multi-touch features like HP/Lenovo. Second, the performance is very poor even though it has the SSD and has a 2.4MHz i5. Just web browsing can observe lag from time to time. Third, the spec said 120GB capacity for SSD. But 20GB is reserved for recovery. And you will notice that 100GB is used up very quickly by Window and Office. The storage is not enough. Fourth, the battery life is very poor even though it uses SSD. The web site said 15 hours if you combine with a sheet battery. Without the sheet battery, it barely reaches 4 hours with best power saving configuration and light activity in my experiment. Fifth, it can switch between external graphics chip and internal graphics chip to choose between performance and battery life. It sounds good. but in many cases, it does not let you switch because "some applications are using the old graphics configuration". To close all the applications may not fix that issue. I have to reboot the machine in order to switch to another graphics mode. This defeats the purpose of dual graphics modes. Sixth the system is loaded with a lot of VAIO software. 4GB memory is not enough. I have to buy additional memory. Some of the VAIO software may run out of control in the background and use 100% of CPU. I have to manually kill those ill processes. Seventh, in one case I upgrade the software via their VAIO Care. It ends up that I cannot boot the machine anymore and I need to restore the machine. Eighth, the fan can be turned on very often and it is very noisy. I expect a $1000 laptop doing better than that. It is much worse than my Lenovo Thinkpad T/X series and HP DV4. I won't buy another VAIO. It sucks.

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Toshiba A215-S5837 Satellite 15.4" Widescreen Laptop, AMD Athlon

Pros: Built sturdy, good size screen, Windows Vista OS, great price, great speakers

Cons: "O" key sticks a little, top collects and shows fingerprints

I love my new laptop. After about 6 months of just checking out different laptops, I was looking at the Sony Vaio CR series and did like it, but I also was looking at Toshiba. After collecting my graduation money, I started scanning the weekly ads for deals on laptops and found this one for only $500! The Vaio was going for $1100, so it was a no brainer which one I was going to get. I've been using it for close to three weeks now, and the only thing I have notice about the laptop is that the "O" key occasionally won't strike while you're typing, but pushing a little harder will fix the problem for a good while. Also, the "Onyx Blue Metallic" top does collect finger prints and smudges, but it's not really that bad.

I've had my laptop for nearly a month. I got it through Best Buy because of the customer service (and Amazon's lack thereof when it comes to their laptops)

Toshiba is a great brand and if I ever need to replace this laptop, I will definitely buy from them again.

I have had A215 for a little over a year now, and it has definitely been a great laptop. I upgraded the to 4 Gb and put Windows 7 on it, and I couldn't been happier. It runs very fast, and I have never had to restore it. My only issue with it is that it gets way too hot. I have had other Toshibas and HP laptops that never got this hot. This one will turn off if it gets too hot and does several times a day, so you definitely need a laptop fan for this computer. Other than that, I totally recommend it.

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I've had this laptop for several months now and I can honestly say that I am happy with it. The processor is quick usually running several programs without any slowing at all. Movie playback is great either watching from a dvd or streaming from the net. Nice bright and glossy screen, reminds me of a smaller plasma tv screen. Overall, a great laptop for any user.

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This is a great laptop for people who just surf the internet, watch videos, all that simple stuff. It performs great for that.

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This is the perfect laptop for a first computer. This was my very first laptop, and it really isn't anything special. I always disliked how it didn't have a web cam and it wasn't all that great. This computer gets heated up VERY easily. The temperature will be super hot at most times, and the fan is always on, which can be annoying. The hard drive is very low, at 160 GB. I've had it for almost three years and I only have about 60 GB left. Which is decent I guess, because I'm the only one who uses it. My favorite part about this laptop is the keyboard. It's very easy to type on here, and the mouse pad works great. It also has a nicely sized screen at 15.6" and the quality is standard. The screen could definitely be brighter, but its just fine. My model is older, so it doesnt have Windows 7, like I desire. All together this is a very simple computer, perfect for a younger age group and beginners.

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HP G62-340us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Charcoal)

I'm really pleased with the purchase of this laptop. One thing to realize is that it's not the fastest or thinnest/lightest laptop out there. It's pretty much a standard laptop, with modest specs, but it does all many of the functions that a basic computer user out there is looking for.

Pros:

Nice keyboard chicklet style, easy to type on

Touchpad response is smooth and easy to use (note: see con on touchpad below)

Good screen clarity

Speedy enough for most tasks (internet, word processing)

Wireless connection was strong, fast

Fan is quiet and unobtrusive

Doesn't get very hot when on your lap

Cons:

Case design very basic (rubberized?) and not all that attractive

Touchpad button is stiff Hard to push

Too much HP software installed Some of this will appeal to the novice user who may like all the toolbars, picture managers, dvd players, and software update programs installed.

At first it seemed as if the screen was a bit blurry, but then I realized it was the opening HP setup window that looked bad. It's not designed for the optimal screen resolution of the LCD panel. I don't know why HP doesn't fix this, as it's the 2nd time that I've noticed this on HP laptops. The screen looks nice in Windows 7.

I'll try and update this review a bit more once I have more time with the laptop, including battery life.

Overall, a nice machine in this price range. You can find similar specs across the board with the different manufactures of laptops, but this would be a quality choice.

You need to understand where I'm coming from my most recent computer was running a Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. That being said this computer is a significant step up, and I think it's great. I think it's also important to know what I'm using this computer for....I work in a hospital and use this to log on to the hospital system, use Microsoft Office, and surf the internet. For these applications this computer is perfect. I've had it for about 1 month and have had no issues. It does come loaded with a bunch of HP software which can be uninstalled so that's not a problem.

The battery is listed as 4 hrs...it probably doesn't last that long I haven't officially timed the battery life but it's probably closer to 3 hrs. The case is plastic, the cold startup time is fast

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ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01 15.6-Inch Laptop

I bought this laptop from Best Buy back in November 2012 and I just love everything about it from the backlit keyboard which makes operation easy in a dark room at night to the ease of Windows 8 Professional. It is definitely a worthy purchase if you are a student or otherwise.

Its a 750Gb laptop not a 500GB I owned and it says 677GB free space on hard drive. LOL XD

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I bought my ASUS Q series laptop from Micro Center in Chicago, refurbished but felt very much like a brand new machine. I was only looking for an affordable laptop that was up to date and better than my Dell Inspiron 1200, which frankly was good enough for what I needed it for. This ASUS blew me away. Windows 8 is far easier to use than all the reviews I had read, since I was coming from XP PRO and was very used to it. W8 is a total breeze, easy to use OS. The 2 x 3.0 + 1 x 2.0 USB ports plus the HDMI port along with the SUPER DVD drive is a perfect setup. This is an amazing laptop and I definitely recommend one. Also the black ALUMINUM shell is better than all those HP, etc. hard plastic ones. Its lightweight (was shocked at how heavy my Dell was in comparison) and the backlit keyboard is terrific. I got mine at Micro Center in Chicago for about $479.00 i5-750G HD, 6G ram. Also, when I fired it up the laptop was right at home with my ASUS RT-N66U Black Night wireless routerif you're looking for an incredible router, check it out. AMAZING!

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HP 2000-2a10nr 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Like I've said this is the first actual laptop I've ever owned just for me! Of course I've used a few in my day but this one's all mine. Now I will quickly go into pros and cons and then sum it up with what I thought overall from the 3 or so days I've owned it.

PROS**

~Decent speed for surfing the internet and overall meets my needs

~Quick for downloading things (I haven't tried very huge files yet)

~Attractive laptop that looks more expensive than it was

~Plays movies with no fuss

~Easy set up

~Beautiful screen that's pleasant to look at when surfing and wonderful to experience while watching a movie in WMP. Ex: I was watching Spider-Man 3 yesterday and things look excellent.

~Youcam is simple AND addictive to use.

~Can use Skype (haven't yet but will when my aunt wants to)

~For you music heads like me the laptop has play/stop, skip forward, skip back, volume up, volume down and mute buttons so you don't need to go into iTunes or Spotify to adjust things.

~Comes with 2 months worth of Norton Anti-virus program free of charge (after it expires you can register with them for a price). Some say this is far from the best Anti-virus program though so maybe it's a con and when you get the computer you can uninstall it.

CONS**

-Strong glare on screen from certain angles when there is any amount of light coming in through the window

-The computer itself is a smudge-magnet. Fingerprints abound.

-While the computer is pretty fast there are occasions when the loading isn't as fast as you think it should be

-The max sound when watching movies/listening to music is slightly inadequate and you will require speakers to get a better volume. The reason for this is probably because the speakers are located at the bottom of the laptop which I found strange.

-Takes *up to* around a minute before the Wi-Fi connection is found. Most of the time it takes a bit less though.

-Webcam takes just OK pictures that are sorta grainy at times. What can you expect from most laptop computers though?

-The option to adjust the lighting sometimes does not work whether the power supply is plugged in or not. I don't know what that's all about.

Overall, this is a pretty good computer and made for a fine purchase. We got it for just over 400 bones (with everything like tax included) and it fulfills all my basic needs. My old Dell desktop (while good while it lasted over the past 9 years) has been slow as crap for the past few years and using it was complete torture. This one has much improved speed in every way and lets me use all the basic apps like Spotify and Last.fm for my music needs. iTunes loads quickly and applying my own cover art for each album happens in 2-3 seconds if it doesn't happen instantly! At worst my old computer could take up to a minute or so to load this stuff. If you haven't noticed I'm a music head so if these things matter to you then by all means get this. It was easy to set up and is just fun to play around with. May I mention again that it's such a beautiful laptop? It has a nice coat and a shine like no other. This computer makes me feel like a professional! The buttons are very light to the touch. It has a 15.6 inch screen so it has a nice, big view. But it's also very light. I used it without the power two or three times and I must say that it definitely doesn't last 5 hours without the power cord connected. I usually have the brightness on nearly as high as it goes (who actually uses this with the light extremely dim?) so I'm sure it would last longer with less power being used. But I still don't think that it will last a full 5 hours.

(10/20/12) Just now I noticed it said it was going to last 7 hours and some odd minutes. About 15-20 minutes later it says 5 hours and some minutes. So yeah. Not gonna happen.

(10/28/12) After almost 3 weeks of owning it I can't believe by having 2 or 3 programs open that the CPU slows things down and stuff. The absolute no go here and reason I'm knocking its score down from a 4 to a 3.75 is because when I type on Internet Explorer sometimes the computer has to play catch up. On other occasions I type a letter and it doesn't even compute. In that sense it's a big waste of time and no one should go through this with a new computer!!

(11/1/12) It's a new month and I just want to say overall if I had the chance to buy a computer all over again, I wouldn't pick this one. About an hour ago Norton said that Internet Explorer was using too much of the CPU and pretty much ever since, typing successfully has become somewhat of a chore. I have to keep backspacing because not all the button presses are going through. :/ I type like 60 wpm. Shouldn't be too hard to compute. I deducted the score from a 3.75 to a 3.5 and I think that's where it will stay unless the computer blows up or something.

(11/17/12) The slowdown problem has been completely cured now that I don't use Internet Explorer anymore. I'm getting rid of the icon in a minute and now will only use Safari or Google Chrome. I swear IE was causing me hell when I typed most of the time. All the problems vanished though and I'm elated/relieved! =) I'm upping the score a little beyond what it was to begin with (from a 4.3 to a 4.4).

Thanks for reading. =) And long story short: DON'T USE INTERNET EXPLORER WITH THIS! You MIGHT have PROBLEMS! So basically I recommend using Internet Explorer to get Safari, Google Chrome or your favorite web browser and then not even using IE. It sucks!

4.4 stars.

Sure there are better laptops out there, but not at this price. I'm your average laptop user and was looking for a product that is both reliable without a lot of "bells and whistles", HP offers this and more. Only down side is the high gloss case. While the case is beautiful, it is a finger print magnet. Aside from that, which is really no big deal, I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for quality from a reputable manufacturer without breaking the bank.

Buy HP 2000-2a10nr 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

Well knowing all the specs on this laptop i decide to buy it!! Surprise even when has a small processor is very fast, and the video is stunning!! Can reproduce a video from a MKV File at 1080p smoothly via HDMI in a 42" LED TV!! Has a 5+ hours battery that enhance time without energy connected!!

Pros: Almost every thing.

Cons: Medium Hard Drive and Glossy housing. This is a fingerprint magnet. Cpu is dual-core but sometimes barely speed like mono-core!

However i will buy another one for a family gift!!

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I bought this for myself and I really enjoy this computer. I have not had any issues with it and it was a great price. If you want/need a computer and don't want to spend too much money, I would suggest this product.

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After much deliberation, I finally decided which laptop to buy, and this HP was a great choice, as soon as i turned it on it connected to the internet which was fantastic! I didn't like that Norton was already installed though, I found it a bit annoying and deleted it and installed ESET virus protection instead. Windows 7 is so cool :-) I love it! The laptop is sturdy and everything it said it would be, and pretty!

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Samsung Series 3 NP350E7C-A01US Intel 3rd generation Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz ~ 1TB ~ 8GB ~ 17.3" HD+

This is truly an excellent bargain for the price. An i7 processor, 1TB hard-drive, and 17" HD screen? Whats not to love? Well, a few things but first:....

The good.

As stated, an I7 processor which is very impressive especially at this price. If you bounce on over to you can see how this processor stacks up to others.

huge 1TB hard-drive to hold your entire movie/game/music collection

8GB ram which i believe (unconfirmed yet) is expandable to 16gb

4USB ports(not 2) 2 are 3.0, located on the left which are not shown in product pics or in description.

Full keyboard with numeric pad. A big plus as some laptops even giant ones like this refuse to include a numeric pad.

Great heat distribution, powerful processor fan. However i always recommend investing in a good laptop chill pad to help protect your investment and prolong life.

Good battery life(2-4hrs) for such a powerful PC. This is not a traveling laptop, it doesn't have an ultra 8-12hr battery life, don't expect to go all day long not plugged in. This is a powerhouse and needs to be plugged in.(also recommend turning on the feature where the battery doesn't charge beyond 80% to prolong life. its in there somewhere)

The bad:

CD rom drive. It works, well even but the button is so easy to hit it almost always pops out when moving it around. I know most laptops suffer from the cd rom button occasionally getting bumped and knocked out but on this one its ridiculous. Maybe if there was a recessed wall around it or something. its a complete pain.

Sound. This is a big one for me. Your speakers are slightly above worthless on this. They are tiny. tiny tiny. maybe 1inX0.5in on each side. that is it. its like having tweeters for your main sound. The speakers were the reason i removed a star. Do not expect any rich high-def sound with this laptop and there is plenty of wasted space they could have put bigger or more speakers. Headphones are better for sound quality but its not super rich sound due to sub-par sound card but with headphones the sound is much better, good enough for gaming

Graphics card. Your processor will outperform the graphics card. The card is of lower quality as well, so while your machine will handle all the superb graphics cranked to ultra high, your card will not display much change between the ulta high and around medium. So while your monitor is highdef, its not going to look super ultra pretty like you would see on today's common high-def TV. Its not a bad graphics card, just...average for budget laptop. This is a graphics card i would expect to find in a 300-500 laptop

Webcam. If this was the 2000-2010's it would be great but in today's technology my android has a better camera in it. Its good enough for say skype and things like that. Possibly for shooting medium-quality youtube movies but its nothing highdef(as claimed). 1.2MP is not much in today's world.

Hard drive is kinda slow at 5200 RPM but that doesnt matter too much, just takes longer to write bigger files to the drive. no real big thing only pointing it out

The ugly:

Of course, win8! Its horrible when you first get it, then tolerable when you learn how to deal with it. Its not good, boo on microsoft but im not holding this against samsung. You can tweak in a start bar to get the win7 feel back. Like i said...tolerable, nothing against the PC however since good luck finding any other new PC without win8.

Very minimalistic, stocky design. Its for lack of better words, dull. Quite featureless. No extra buttons for say hot-keying it does have a function keylock which is nice but no hot buttons for web-browser, or turning sound on/off. that sorta thing. As said earlier, a lot of wasted space that could of been filled with goodies but its not a big concern and shouldn't be yours.

No lights for lock keys. If you turn cap-locks on/off. or num or function there is no indicator light anywhere telling you its on. Which is really bad for say passwords where the keys are hidden and you cant figure out why Passw0rd isn't working when you are really typing pASSWRD. stupidity....and i just accidentally knocked open my cd-rom again, the new bane of my existence....ahh white people problems...

The pad can be a bit troublesome to learn its features at first but once you get it down its fine (like using 2 fingers for scroll and its inverted scroll) Im still working on that one.

Summary:

Im sure my review sounded much more harsh and critical than it is but really this is an awesome laptop, most of it was only to make people aware of some of the quirks ive encountered to help them understand what they receive. For me this is perfect. I wanted "the best bang for my buck" and i believe i got just that. for $700 this is an EXCELLENT laptop. Almost a gaming laptop. I truly do recommend this product for anyone seeking for a new laptop that wants a powerhouse on a budget because this product does deliver and samsung does have excellent customer service.

bought this laptop to help me edit photos I take as I am learning photography. I needed a laptop that could handle a photo editing program, such as PhotoShop, and lots of storage for saved photos. So far, it's working great for this purpose, with one exception: Windows 8 does not recognize .dat files of online photo editors such as Pixlr or Picmonkey, so that's a negative. Since I am use to Windows Vista, I was a little worried about getting a laptop with the new Windows 8 system, but once you get used to the vastly different arrangement of everything, it's pretty cool and easy to use. Overall, I am very satisfied.

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Early 2013 I searched for exactly this configuration: 17", 8gb, core i7. The general starting price was $900. Not only is the Samsung 3 a bargain at $700, the remaining stats are almost to good to be true, 2.4ghz, 1tb, and so on.

My first impression usng the laptop was how fast it booted and how quiet it was. So far I haven't seen any issues installing the programs I usually use. It's exactly the laptop I wanted.

Then there's Windows 8: at first I hated it, but after delving deeper into it, the new possibilities are definitely intriguing. There are two "realms" in the new windows, the desktop which is the old interface and the app world, which is the new interface. Switching back and forth is cumbersome at first, and the default configuration has you falling out of desktop and into the metro interface quite often. But you can work pretty much the way you used to in Windows 7 by 1) learning the shortcuts, e.g.windows key+d returns you to desktop mode. 2) select desktop applications as default programs for common filetypes (pdf, jpg, mp3, avi, etc) if a metro app is the default you leave desktop mode when opening the object and don't return to desktop when closing. 3) I haven't done this yet, but you can also install one of a number of programs that reinstates the start menu and disables the charms menu. Though the start window is different than the old start menu, the search available there appears to me to do the job, so I will try it out some more before making this move.

What some people might miss: this dvd drive does not support blu ray, and the touch pad does not have an external switch to enable/disable.

All in all, a dream configuration at this price. I'm beginning to like Samsung.

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I tried many other models of laptops but this one works so great.

The graphics are very vivid, programs run fast, and very silent!

I was really surprised with this laptop since it is not expensive but has so many strength.

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The laptop works well for a variety of different tasks. I've used it to watch sporting events via the HDMI port and my tv. I also do all of my office work on it as well. Good buy.

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HP ENVY Sleekbook 6t-1000 Laptop PC

This product has unbelievable build quality, it feels extremely solid and is well manufactured. The specs are amazing and has everything any reasonable person could want. I got mine yesterday and am very, very satisfied with the product. Highly recommended alternative to an ultrabook better price and who can tell the difference anyway?

This computer has a fatal flaw and this flaw killed my Envy.

The lid on this laptop sticks and weight is poorly distributed (it's designed that way). It's necessary to carefully pry this thing open with both hands. Most new Ultra-books are designed to open smoothly with one hand. NOPE, NOT THIS ONE.

Try to open it with one hand at your own peril, the entire laptop lifts up and flips over.

Mine fell off the counter this way, smashed the corner and broke off a piece of the case.

OK, it's only cosmetic, but here's the other issue. Since it was delivered, I had been getting the blue screen of death (BSOD) from a failing SSD card. I was getting ready to send it into HP before "the fall." Now that it was "dropped", HP refused to fix the SSD under warranty (obviously, dropping it didn't break the SSD).

So, I spent the $60, bought an SSD card and fixed it myself everything was working great.

Then it happened...

My sister asked to borrow my new HP Envy OK Sis, no problem.

I began to demonstrate what NOT TO DO so this thing doesn't break.

The stupid piece of junk slipped off my finger about 4 inches from the counter.

Guess what, it died! From a 3-4 inch slip. Dead at 6 months old. Give me a break!

Call me an idiot for not knowing how to open a laptop, but this is just simply bad design.

In the past I bought a new HP laptop every two years.

NOT ANYMORE! I will NEVER buy another HP.

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The worst laptop ever. Three times back to service center and they can't fix it. Now they want a technician to come to my house as though that will make a difference. Now we learn that all available technicians are off for the holidays so its now Dec 27 and we wait until Jan 2 to schedule an appointment. Have asked for a refund several times but that is just not in the cards. I will never buy from HP again (and we buy alot around here as we both work through our computers). Bad job HP, very bad job.

12/28/2012...after Peter (see his post below) emailed regarding this issue the representative that we've been dealing with all along called again. His purpose was to confirm (again) that we have an appointment to see a technician in our home to review the issue. So after several weeks of back and forth with the service center now we can wait another 10 days for a technician (they are all off for the holidays I am told). We said to Jamie again that what we want is a refund.

The best companies to deal with would have long ago taken this lemon back...companies such as Amazon and Costco would immediately end our dissatisfaction...but in this case we purchased directly from HP who only seems to care about their own internal metrics. Next step after the technician visits I will be posting the positive outcome or the videos of this Lemon Laptop will be posted on YouTube and every other social media I can find. Yes, we are upset. This was a birthday gift from my wife and she is way more upset then I am.

01/04/13...the technician invested 2 hours of his time and could not get the laptop to act up. He watched a couple of my videos but in the end determined there was nothing wrong with it. Within hours after he left the screen froze up again. i made another video and called customer support. Now we wait for a call back.

January 9, 2013 update...we have filed complaints with the BBB and Attorney Generals Office because HP cannot fix the problem and will not offer a refund or an exchange.

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A large display with a 1366 resolution too bad. This laptop should be offered with 1080p resolution and more people would buy it. Too bad that HP missed the boat again... But the good thing is, sometimes they listen to basic observations like this one and adapt we'll see...

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