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Showing posts with label best gaming notebooks. Show all posts

Gateway NV4402u Laptop / Intel® Pentium Processor / 14" Display / 3GB Memory / 320GB Hard Drive -

I've had this laptop for half a year now, after buying from a relative who upgraded his laptop. It is very good! I watch movies here always in great clarity. Very fast and easy to use. My needs are basic, as most of us probably do: surf the net, watch movies and word/spreadsheet processing, and I'm glad I didn't shell out too much money to get these jobs done. If you're not a heavy gamer or a video editor, this one should be right for you.

Great laptop for the money, lots of power packed into a small package. No problems with this laptop whatsoever. I would have given 5 stars but I have one complaint and that is that the "fit and finish" of this laptop isn't as good as it should be. The battery doesn't fit tightly in place, it is a bit loose... also the main cover seems a bit flimsy and thin. But even so, I haven't had a problem with it.

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I absolutely love my new laptop!!!!! You can't see it well from these pics but it has a cool pattern on the case and it works excellent.

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I purchased this laptop last May and have had problems with it from the start. I have had it repaired two times, and customer service says the same thing over and over. I contacted the corporate center in Irvine, CA and they seem to think that I only have the choice to have it repaired. I told them that this was not acceptable and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. I was then told that supervisors do not take phone calls. Really?!??!? This company is a joke how can you run a business and not stand behind your products. If you are considering buying this laptop DON'T BUY IT! It is a piece of junk and if you look at any gateway complaint sites you will see hundreds of complaints. Gateway says they have customer care, well they have forgotten to care for their customers.

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HP 615443-001 BASE ENCLOSURE ALUM

What do you want me say about it?

awesome~~~oh my god~~~It is incredible fit my laptop~~

Of course, it would fits my laptop HP Pavilion dv7-4191nr . it made by HP and for this model.

HP sold it too expensive over USD $100; especially, on a faded out model.

If anyone who worked in a Injection molding company, he/she would know the material cost per piece......under USD $10.

Anyway, they cost down after I purchased it. This is really suck.

Searched everywhere to find a replacement base for a HP DV7-4165dx that had a broken hinge and couldn't find anything. Until i came around this. Mike was very helpful with the purchase and would definitely do business with him again. The part is an OEM replacement part so the quality is perfect.

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I bought this for my dv7-4280us which also had the broken hinge issue. I haven't yet installed it (waiting on a replacement video cable), but it's the correct part and quite a bit cheaper than directly from HP.

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The original bottom plate for my daughter's HP laptop broke, due to excessive stress caused by the hinge tension being too tight. This is an exact replacement, and I had no trouble installing it. Excellent!

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ASUS K53E-BBR5 Core i3-2310M 2.1GHz 3GB 320GB DVD±RW 15.6" LED Notebook Windows 7 Home Premium w/W

OTher than it being quite big this computer is a work horse. I bought it almost a year ago and never had a single problem with it. Has lots of power. Highly recomend

been using it now for 8 months and it has worked flawlessly for me. and the best part is, i bought this on sale at bestbuy for only $349. yep, that's pretty much a steal for a 15.6" laptop with an intel i3 processor.

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Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332 17-Inch Notebook Laptop

I actually purchased this laptop a week ag from Staples for about $100 less than the Amazon price. I love it! I agree, Windows 8 takes some getting used to, but the more I use it the more comfortable I am with it. I simply use the Windows 7 desktop that I can easily access from the "Metro" desktop that comes up when I first log on. Also, the Metro desktop shows all the files and program shortcuts that I have on my Windows 7 desktop. They are located over on the extreme right side of the display, and so its only takes a second to get to the programs I use...without even having to go to the Windows 7 desktop.

I love the nice, crisp display. The keyboard is like silk and it's size makes it, at least for me, very easy to use. The Fn keys are useful, and having a separate number pad is terrific. This laptop also has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 outlets, which is a real plus. The only thing that is a very slight disappointment is that the battery only last 4 hours, but considering that the battery on the 7 year old Toshiba I had been struggling with (as a second computer just for email and writing)only lasted 15 minutes, 4 hours is a breath of fresh air.

I would buy this computer over and over again. It seems to be a fantastic machine.

Additional comments two weeks later:

I still really like this machine, with just one complaint...the display has a blue cast that is impossible to get rid of, no matter how many color corrections I try. I've been able to reduce the blue cast significantly, but if I go try to reduce it further in the color cast setting or in the processor settings, the cast starts turning green or red. Since I use this computer to do some photo editing, I'll just have to make the color cast corrections (which are usually only white balance changes) with my desktop that has a 22" ViewSonic LED and is connected directly to the printer. I have tried three HP G7 laptops, two with AMD processors and one with the Intel i3 processor, and they all have the same cast, so it's the display and not the processor. If anybody has any success correcting this, let me know.

Incidentally, I LOVE Windows 8. Nearly all the low ratings for this computer are because of Windows 8 and not the computer itself. I've been through XP, Windows 7, and now Windows 8, and I think 8 is far better than the other two. Here's what I like so far:

The charms provide easy and quick access to all those files, folders, programs, and system tools that were so darn hard to find, particularly if they're in the control panel. Just type in the name of what you are looking for and the links to the item show up instantly. Very cool.

I can switch back and forth between the media window and the traditional Windows 7 desktop with a simple push of the windows button on the lower left side of the keyboard. And get this every program I install has a shortcut on the traditional desktop AND the media desktop. Since they open at least three times faster when I access them on the media desktop, I always start there. And...with some patience, I've been able to move all the programs I use to the left side of the media desktop so they are front and center on my display at startup; a piece of cake.

One aggravation is that I have not figured out how to make a shortcut to the system tools I use "create a restore point" and "computer management" to put on the desktop. If anybody knows how, please let me know because I use these tools a lot.

first time with windows 8 and ie 10. a wee bit confusing in the beginning. after the first couple days, it is great. Toshiba has a great product fast, reliable and cost efficient.

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This Toshiba is a great laptop for the price and it has a decent amount of memory and disk space, although you can find it cheaper elsewhere. The display is slightly larger and movies look good on it. I personally dislike Windows 8, but that's a minor problem once you get used to it. I also purchased a Toshiba 3TB external hard drive for all my movies and both work excellently.

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THIS WAS OUR FIRST LAPTOP AND WE WERE INFORMED THAT TOSHIBA WAS ONE OF THE BETTER QUALITY LAPTOPS THAT DOES NOT HAVE ALOT OF EXTRA STUFF ON IT THAT IS NOT NEEDED. WE ARE VERY PLEASE WITH THIS EVEN THOUGH WINDOWS 8 IS A LITTLE TOUGH TO GET USED TO. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT FOR ANYONE AND THE PRICE IS FANTASTIC.

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my first laptop which i bought in 2001 was toshiba. When my daughter was very young she smeared the keyboard with her food yet the laptop worked. This old one with XP still works. I bought a new Toshiba because I am big fan of Windows 8 and it couldn't go better with a sturdy hardware. My Toshiba 17" does what I need it to do efficiently. It is quiet, fast to boot and has plenty of disk space. If anyone wanted me to recommend a hardware platform for choice in laptops, I'd say get Toshiba!

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HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition Notebook PC w/Blu-ray & DVD burner, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 2nd gen. Quad Co

Fast computer, no problems at all and very easy set-up... Great price along with a 2nd Generation Quad Core, Blu Ray & DVD burner. Also working great with gameplay, all web browsing and any school programs or software I needed installed without a problem.

Just frustrated that I had to spend $900 plus to avoid Windows 8. Windows 8 is so much cheaper right now if your willing to deal with it. Also, the computer touchpad seems to have a cheap toy click to it. Anyways....I was in a hurry to complete a project and my other computer had crashed. So, I only have myself to blame for not shopping around, which I recommend. The seller was great at a quick delivery, which I really appreciated!

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The specs and the price of this notebook is gr8 it has everything you need except for a backlight keyboard and a built in 3g/4g modem wich is not a big deal. the real problem with notebook is that the gpu will not run opengl software like all adobe software, most profesional graphics software and some games. instead it will run on intel gpu and there is no option to manually set use amd/ati card. a complete waist if you need opengl other wise a great machine.

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition Notebook PC w/Blu-ray & DVD burner, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 2nd gen. Quad Co Here

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

I have had this laptop for about 3 days now. I had been wanting the zenbook since the original UX31E had come out, but held back after the reviews about the keyboard and the touchpad.

The new display on the ux31a was an instant sell. Having used nothing but high resolution laptops, i had hung on to my trusty HP 6820p for 4+ years.

The reviews for UX31 are mostly on the mark, but strangely somehow still fail to point the one "true" issue.

Now moving on to something more useful..

1) The display is to die for. I spent an hour with the retina mac pro, while i didn't see both the screens side by side. I'm ecstatic that ASUS is finally pushing laptops to move up from the resolution backsliding going on for the last 5 years. You will not miss the retina display on a mac with this. Half the price is just a bonus.

2) It is _light_.

3) The biggest showstopper is the touchpad out of the box. Yes, i'm referring to the touchpad on ux31, not the older ux31e. Multi touch etc. etc. works well. (have two macs at home for comparison). The thing that just about ruins this little gem is the horrendous behavior of the touchpad when your palm brushes it during typing. There is no way you can really avoid this, and it is impossible to do any typing without the cursor moving and the tap to touch causing irritating behavior. (like prematurely sending an email, closing the email, clicking a background app into focus). How this went past anyone in any QA dept. is beyond me. It's that bad, just typing a 2 line sentence is near impossible. This was entirely preventable with just a bit more diligence by ASUS. This one problem is bad enough to warrant a return if it weren't the fix that later became available.

I upgraded the drivers to the THEN latest on the ux31a page on asus support. They didn't work any better. Update: ASUS has finally put an updated version that addresses the issue much better.

Initially i was concerned that I was out of luck and that this could be a trackpad hardware limitation. Thankfully a bit of investigation digging through the registry in the HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ElanTech revealed a plethora of values that seeemed promising.

Further investigation led to a rather huge thread on this topic on the laptop support forums for the elan trackpads on Samsung laptops. A bit of spelunking revealed an updated driver (10.7.16.1). This one proved to be a winner. Not sure if it was the actual driver update, or the very significantly different configuration settings in the registry that made the difference, but at the end of the day the problem is mitigated nearly completely (and without disabling the trackpad while you are typing).

I think there is still some fine tuning to do with the relatively sensitive trackpad, but am a bit more at ease as I think it's just a matter of tweaking the settings just right. I think the elan folks will get it right with just a bit more time. I wish the control panel utility gave you more tuning options without having to figure it out on a trial and error approach with the registry variables. The newer version samsung is using has an 'advanced' tab which seems to be heading in this direction

This is my first ever review and I am only writing it because I really dig this laptop. I'd hate to have this not succeed due to the egregious trackpad palm detection issue. Asus's strength is clearly not software QA.

A few other observations that I haven't seen mentioned before.

4) The adapter when plugging into socket always seems to spark as it's plugged in. I haven't seen this from any other adapter, so am wondering about the reliability. It also seems to run a bit hot compared the mac one. This is just an observation, not an issue (i had no less than 5 adapters fail with the HP). Update: I was looking for additional adapters so I don't have to keep carrying the one around, they seem to extremely expensive online, ~$120. There are non ASUS brands available all the way down to $15, so will probably try one of those, I wonder what the difference is. I suspect it's to do with the charging logic / led indicator on the OEM one. I thought the charging controller was in the laptop and not the adapter, but not entirely sure about this now.

5) The keyboard is just fine, I saw some posts ranting about ux31 keyboard, and i don't know what they are talking about. It's pretty good, and i type reams.

6) There is bleeding of light at the bottom of the lcd, but it's a non issue and an observation i made only because I read about it on other reviews.

7) The keyboard backlighting is nice to have.. but again, don't think it's as big a deal as it's been made out to be when it was missing in ux31e.

8) The display hinge is just fine, it holds up well. If you suddenly lift it, then there might be a tad amount of sway. I think it's only because this laptop is so thin and light that people apply more g's. (I couldn't do that with my old laptop with both my hands if i wanted to because it was so heavy). It feels pretty sturdy compared to the luddite laptop i am used to.

9) I had tried win 8 for a short period on this laptop, seemed to work about the same. (Reverted to win 7 for work reasons after an hour or so).

10) The battery seems to last 6+ hours with just web browsing / email..

11) The wifi has been working well, no problems so far. The previous HP laptop I had would lose WIFI connection whenever the microwave went on for a minute. This one hasn't exhibited that problem.

12) The USB to Ethernet adapter is unfortunately 10/100, not Gigabit.. and for me it's a big deal. Copying around large VMs is the norm and this limitation is a rather big issue. The limitation seems to be from the PHY ASUS is sourcing from 'asix'? They seem to have a new USB3 to GBE part available, so I'm sure in future models this limitation will be addressed. I wonder why they didn't go with USB 2 to GBE phy as it seems to have been available for a while. It works well, counter intuitively its actually proving to be nicer to use the USB connection than the RJ45 jack.

13) The built in VGA adapter worked great when using a projector. Haven't tried out the HDMI out yet, need to go buy a micro HDMI cable.

14) Headphone out works fine, another reviewer mentioned an issue so tested it just in case.

Rating a 4, due to the trackpad runaround that's now resolved. Folks with trackpad issues should just get the latest version from ASUS or Samsung support site. I prefer the Samsung driver.

I've owned probably 20 laptops in the past (my wife would probably say that's 17 more than I've needed). But to be honest, I've not loved any one of them. Each has come with some sort of compromise that kept it from fully meeting my expectations. Lightweight machines have been underpowered; small screens have had low resolution--leaving me yearning to plug into a full size LCD panel whenever I could; machines with fast CPUs burned my lap and had horrible battery life....and so on.

The Zenbook UX31A is the first computer I've owned that has everything I want: super light weight, solid build quality, fast performance, beautiful display, decent battery life, high performance SSD and (I am a touch typist) a keyboard with great tactile response. Using the UX31A is like driving a German car: everywhere you look, you notice the level of attention to detail in design, and you just know the designers really cared about the end-user experience and didn't simply set out to meet a specification as cheaply as possible.

Asus may have shot themselves in the foot, though: I'm so satisfied, I may not feel the urge to replace this computer for a long, long time.

What you'll love:

1. The full HD IPS display with matte finish is dreamy. Maybe you think 1920 x 1080 is too high a resolution for a 13" display? It's not! With text set to 125%, text is the "right" size, and the fonts are as smooth as a printed page--I can't see the individual pixels. The IPS makes for a screen that's readable at any angle--a godsend for me when the person in front leans their seat back in coach!

2. The keyboard is much improved from the last version, and has the exact feel of my MacBook (which to me is a good thing). The backlighting on the keyboard is a nice addition as well.

3. Instant on. After opening the lid, the computer is usable in around 1 second. Amazing.

4. The aluminum case is impossibly thin, making it super portable. Everyone who sees this machine can't believe it's a real, full Windows PC.

5. The DC power supply. I'm in love with a DC power supply? If you travel a lot like I do, then you understand. This isn't just a generic $2 item Asus sourced from eBay. It's an impossibly tiny power supply that weighs almost nothing and has an 8 foot cord that will reach from any conference room table all the way to a wall outlet. Yes, it's a small detail, but something I appreciate every time I use it.

6. Build quality. The solid metal case is completely rigid and exudes quality industrial design. A $1,000 product shouldn't feel like you got it in a box of cereal, and this one doesn't! Great job, Asus!

7. Bang & Olufsen audio. Remember when choosing a 13" laptop meant you live with a speaker originally designed for a wristwatch? Those days are over--watching video on this laptop is like watching it on your TV! Audio is loud, clear and has a full range of sound. You'll only use your headphones when you don't want to disturb others.

8. The included fabric envelope to carry the notebook is so good you'll actually use it! It's a heavy fabric envelope that I find superb for taking the notebook on short trips to the coffee shop or to a meeting where I only need to take some notes.

9. Runs Windows 8 (June Preview edition) perfectly. I scratch-loaded Windows 8, and while it takes some patience to get all the Windows 7 drivers and utilities installed on Windows 8, everything works beautifully.

What you may not love as much:

1. There's a downside to making a laptop that's thinner than legacy VGA, Ethernet and HDMI connectors--there's no room for them!! Instead, a Micro-HDMI and Mini-VGA connections are provided along with dongles that adapt to standard sized connectors. For wired Ethernet, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is provided. Some ultrabooks are specifically made thicker expressly to include legacy connectors. For me, that's a little silly...an ultrabook should be as thin as possible! But if you disagree and don't like the idea of a dongle for making VGA connections, then you may want one of the thicker Ultrabooks instead.

2. The Zenbook doesn't have the longest battery life among all Ultrabooks. Maybe the thin case has a smaller battery than others? You'll probably get 5 hours or so of battery life on continuous usage. If you need another hour or two, there are ultrabooks can last longer. For me, I find that with the instant on enabled, I can go all day between charges...I just shut the lid when I'm not using the computer and open it when using it (similar to using an iPad).

3. The UX31A, like most Ultrabooks, has 4GB RAM soldered to the motherboard, and no way to upgrade RAM. I think this is really a shame, since I'd gladly have paid more to get more RAM as an insurance policy against what I might want to use the machine for in the future. However I find 4GB is enough for what I'm doing day-to-day, and I doubt most people using an Ultrabook for business scenarios will find they need more than 4GB RAM with Windows 8. However if you're editing video, this might not be the right machine for you.

Overall, I think Asus took the best Ultrabook and made it even better. The last version (the "E" model) was, in my mind, the best small Windows notebook on the market...but fell just a little short of the elegant design of the MacBook Air. This new model, however, has moved the bar up insanely high for other Ultrabooks, and in my mind eliminated any reason why a Windows user would switch to a Mac to get superior hardware designs. I have a MacBook Pro...and this is the first time I can honestly say I like a Windows laptop more than a MacBook!

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Edit: My second laptop doesn't have any problems. I'm getting about 5 hours of battery life while doing light programming and listening to music on auto-brightness (there's a brightness sensor) which sets the display at about 60 percent brightness indoors.

I received this laptop a few hours ago and I'm going to give my first impressions on the device.

Build Quality and Design:

Apart from the different color on the keyboard and lack of hideous script font above the keyboard that was on the original zenbook, the Prime looks about the same. Since this is the 31A, it has a Aluminum Unibody design, and from messing around with various Macbook Air's this device seems to be just as well built. I like the front panel design over the Air but that's down to personal preference.

Accessories:

Being an $1000+ device I would expect a nice amount of goodies, and included is a VGA and Ethernet adapter. There is no micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, but I find myself using VGA most of the time when giving presentations anyway, so I suppose that's not too bad of a loss. The Air (afaik) does not come with these adapters so that is a small plus. The adapters have their own little pouch to store separately. The combination synthetic leather/canvas sleeve that is included fits fairly snugly, though there is enough space to cram in an adapter if you need to. The AC adapter is about the same size as the Apple counterpart, which is good.

Screen Quality:

Being a UX31A the laptop packs a 1920x1080 Matte IPS panel. In a not-very-scientific test viewing angles (obviously) far exceed that of my desk TN panel, and brightness and contrast all seem to be much better. Granted, I'm comparing to a 23" Hanns LCD I paid $60 for. There was a comment earlier about the screen being dimmer than that of the previous gen, and I haven't tested it outside, but it seems to just fine for my purposes. The matte finish is also a plus. There is a bit of back light bleed on the bottom and right hand sides of the screen, but when watching a sample 1080p movie, it didn't bother me at all. I like the increased resolution on the device and it's a definite step up from traditional 1366x768 panels. Text is sometimes a bit small on the default size in chrome but that is easily remedied.

Performance:

Thankfully, an ADATA XM11 128GB SSD is included. This is a Sandforce drive and I'm getting benchmark scores of 470/150 MB/s RW Sequential, 18/44 MB/s RW 4K random, 113/144 MB/S RW 4k Random 64QD, and access times of .155/.277 ms RW, for a total score of 462 in AS-SSD. This is comparable to my old Vertex 2 in my desktop, so no worries about disk performance here. The system boots boots in about 20 seconds and resumes quickly. It scores a 7.9 WEI in terms of disk performance, though that's not a the best indicator in general.

I haven't done anything intensive with the CPU yet but things seem to be holding up well with little slowdown. I also tried messing around in Diablo III on the integrated HD4000 graphics. I set the game to 1024x768, and everything else to minimum, and from a short session of Act III Inferno, the graphics performed okay, with some stutter and slowdown depending on how many effects were on the screen. If you want to do more than just casual gaming, go for the UX32VD with the GT620M graphics. After playing for a bit the fan kicked on and hot air began coming out of the vent located above the keyboard. The fan was not loud enough to hear over the speakers, which put out a decent amount of volume for the size of the laptop.

Keyboard/Trackpad:

Asus touts the keyboard as being much improved over the previous generation, though I'm not sure if I notice that. I've tried out the original zenbook at stores a few times and this feels similar. I've typed this review on the keyboard without any problems, but it'll be clear to you that you are typing on a scissor-switch laptop keyboard. This also leads to me to the flaw in my item the backlight. Two of the keys in the center refuse to light at all, regardless of the brightness level I set. Hence, it's going back to Amazon for an exchange. Pity. The trackpad is made by Elantech, which may make some people cringe, but for the most part, I haven't had a problem. I like to rest one hand on the left click button and right other to scroll, and there were no glitches I noticed in the last few hours. The only multi-touch feature I really use is two finger scrolling, which works well enough in Chrome. It's not as smooth as OSX is, but I would assume that is because of Windows 7, and will be improved in Windows 8.

If you're trying to decide between this and the Air, it mainly comes down to a few factors OS, Screen Quality, Discrete Graphics, and support. If you have a rabid obsession with one OS over the other your choice should already be clear. If you value screen quality, both are solid choices while the Air has a 1440x900 TN panel, it still looks good, though the viewing angles are likely not as wide, and the resolution obviously lower. Anandtech rates both this laptop and the Air well in screen quality. If you value discrete graphics, only the UX32 line offers you that. If you value support I would go with the Air, as nothing beats being able to go into a store and coming out with a fixed laptop.

If you're set on Windows or want a 1080P IPS Panel, no other ultrabook touches the Zenbook prime right now. Sony has a similarly-specced laptop out, which has a GT640LE and 1600x900 screen, but that is much heavier and thicker. This is an expensive device, no doubt, so if you can give up some screen quality and are okay with slightly slower integrated graphics, you should consider a previous gen ultrabook.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook Here

I ordered this Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 ultrabook from Amazon and received it promptly and in perfect condition this week. The i5 proc (newer "ivy bridge" model) has plenty of power for my use (and for almost any average use), and for what I'm using this for, I also don't need more than 128GB of storage, so I decided to go with this model instead of the DB72, which has the i7 proc and 256 SSD. I had been waiting for this upgraded Zenbook to come out for a little while, and Amazon was the 1st place I found that had it available, and I have usually had very good experiences purchasing through Amazon, so the negligible difference in price between Amazon's price and the suggested retail price wasn't an issue. So far, this is everything I thought it would be and I absolutely love it. In my opinion, the display is extremely nice, HD 1080p, and the screen is low-glare, so it looks great and is easy on the eyesight. In addition to the newer model proc, the screen is another nice upgrade from the previous Zenbook. The keyboard is perfect and comfortable (and backlit, which the previous Zenbook was lacking). It's very light and portable, fits in my purse with the included envelope-type sleeve, which is a pretty decent cover, at least until I find a sleeve or case I like better.

After researching many different models and manufacturers, the only other "ultrabook" that I considered before purchasing the Zenbook Prime was the Macbook Air. I'm not an Apple product hater, but I honestly just prefer a Windows machine, so this ultrabook was the clear winner for me, and I couldn't be happier with it so far. I could go on and on comparing the two machines, and describing the technical specs of this Zenbook Prime, but there are so many technical reviews out there that already do that very well (and I think Apple/Mac vs. PC/Windows thing that I constantly see on forums everywhere is so boring it's ridiculous!!!!), so I'm just giving my initial personal experience and opinions about this product that I purchased in this review. It is awesome! It's lived up to all the critical acclaim and all of my expectations of it so far.

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So this laptop can apparently come with two different types of hard drives (both 256 gig ssds). If you buy this laptop, you will either get the Sandisk U100 or the ADATA MX11. An uninformed consumer probably wouldn't know or care what the difference between these two drives are, but they should!

The Sandisk U100 has the worst write speeds of current SSDs. The Zenbook prime I ordered was horribly slow at transferring files because of this. When I took the laptop back to the retailer, I requested an exchange for one with the ADATA MX11 hard drive. I was told by the retailer that there is no way to tell which hard drive you will get without opening the retail packaging. Note that opening the retail packaging renders the product used.

I feel Asus should put the hard drive brand on the outside of the box so that consumers can make a proper informed decision. The ADATA MX11 outperforms the Sandisk U100 in every way and this can be seen in performance tests when comparing the two.

I would not recommend anyone purchase this at this time. At least until Asus is more forthcoming about which SSD they are putting in this Zenbook.

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Apple Ibook G4 1 Ghz 512mb 30gb Dvd/cdrw 12" LCD with Airport Extreme Os X 10.5.5 Leopard Office 20

the used i book we purchased was a great bargain. we are VERY satisfied with our purchase.

The laptop is not half bad. It's the first mac I've ever used, so it took a couple of days to get the hang out it. It's relatively easy to use and I can see why mac user prefer it over Windows. It does get a little hot though. The memory is small so flash videos don't play smoothly, but I hear you can upgrade the memory somehow.

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I've had a 12" iBook G4 since 2005 and it's still my favorite notebook for browsing the internet, writing letters, and even reading pdf's. It's very lightweight and I consider the screen the perfect size. It's held up very well. One of the keys has a hairline crack and one of the rubber feet on the bottom fell off but I clean it every month or so and it still looks almost new.

My only criticism is that it gets a little warm so I keep it on top of a clipboard when holding it in my lap. No viruses, no crashes, no worries.

When netbooks started becoming popular a couple of years ago, I had to laugh because I already have a lightweight, handy netbook. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Given a choice between a new Asus or Dell netbook or a used iBook G4 for the same price, I would take the G4 without thinking about it for a second.

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This computer is my new best friend. You don't even understand :o I've always been a Mac person but thought they'd be too expensive. When I learned about the iBook I thought it'd be old and obsolete, but it is not whatsoever.

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I needed a notebook for college this semester that wasn't too expensive and can last a long time. What really sold me about this thing was the fact macs last years longer than PCs and they don't get pc viruses. I have had this for months and it works great!

HP G56-122US

For the TLDR types skip to the last paragraph.

Just days before black friday my old laptop elected to die. Given the timing and my available fundage at the time, a good deal outweighed a top-end machine.

At $379.99 with a $50 mail-in this was the bargain I was looking for.

I can't comment on reliability given the brief time-frame, but in terms of the rest:

Aesthetic-The case is a nice unit that looks/feels a bit more solid than my Toshiba Satellite, and the matte blue (black in Amazon's version) rather than glossier finish makes it less prone to things like smudges/fingerprints.

Keyboard-Lacking a 10-key allows the rest of the keyboard to feel less cramped, with good sized keys that have good feel to them without feeling like they will jam or take too much pressure to hit.

The one complaint I do have is the column of hotkeys along the left edge of the keyboard. The concept is good, but I'll take keeping ctrl in corner as it's always been over bringing up the calculator at the push of a button for example.

Display-Thus far the display has a good picture and is nice quality, while 15.6'' is for most purposes the perfect happy medium between size and portability.

Temperature-Thus far even with the computer being on for long stretches temperature has never appeared to be an issue, never feeling more than a little warm to the touch with fairly quiet fan-noise. My one concern is that the vents on this machine are a bit smaller than most, but so far it hasn't seemed to have any impact.

RAM-3 gigs of DDR3 is the norm for a machine in this bracket, with upgrade ability should you so desire. Memory usage tends to run around 50% with normal usage (i.e. antivirus active but not scanning, a couple small background items, and web browser with a few open tabs).

Processor-AMD Athlon II dual-core 2.2 ghz. Given that many sub $500 laptops are still using Celeron or Sempron processors this is again a great value. No it won't keep up with that >$1,000 machine with a Phenom/i7 chip, but is quite nice at this price bracket.

Graphics-Finding a dedicated graphics card instead of integrated is virtually impossible on the budget end of laptops, that said the Radeon 4250 chipset has been able to handle fairly new graphics-intensive games (such as Dawn of War 2) with no issue (albeit on lower settings).

Touchpad-Compared to offputting texture of my last laptop this one has a good size and feel while having an on/off integrated into the touchpad is a nice feature to avoid palm-dragging text while typing.

Software-Given that this machine caps out at 8 gigs of RAM it really isn't built to take advantage of what 64 bit has to offer, I would have preferred 32 bit for my needs. The HP advisor dock is a nice tidbit I haven't really put to use, but could be handy for some users, and while the heavy-handed push towards Norton is a bit offputting all new computers have their list of trial programs they try to push on you.

Peripherals-A little bit lacking here the only thing notable would be 3 USB slots instead of 2, coupled with the standard heaphone/mic jacks, ethernet, and vga out. The lack of HDMI is expected in this price range but items like comboing one USB with esata, the lack of a SD card reader, and all controls for things like volume, wifi on/off, and brightness integrated into the keyboard are notably lacking. The lack of a wifi card slot is not an immediate concern, but if the internal wifi malfunctions you'll be using up a less efficient USB receiver.

Other-Remember battery life usually describes the ideal situation (dvd drive not spinning, screen brightness low, etc.)-realistic battery life is probably closer to 3 hours in an average situation. Also the speakers boast 'hd' sound but in reality are tinny and underwhelming.

Bottom Line:

For a sub $500 laptop this is a solid machine with good under-the-hood specs and a nice feel. It lacks some of the peripheral niceties like a memory card-reader but is otherwise a great value machine that packs a little more punch than the 2 gig of RAM sempron/celeron single-core foes common in the 'bargain' bracket.

While the specs for the price are nice, felt I had to add in my less than satisfactory personal experience with the product a little over a month later, for that see added comment:

Conservative I am. I want reliable function. My 3 Dell D510s are now about 8 years old and starting to faulter. My nephew said HP is the way to go. Researching reliability was conflicting but thought I would give HP a shot.

This is a lower level notebook which is fine. I am not a gamer, I dont skipe. And it bothers me when a good computer like this is called a starter. I am on my 12 computer..I am no beginner or rookie. Windows 7 messed me up, I have no outlook express anymore nor is it available. The only other problem other then the software is the clicker. below the touch pad. it is single.

I am use to two pads to click left or click right. This has a mono tab that takes excessive pressure to click.

One last gripe is there are no window disks for back up, once I had an HP hard drive go bad and had to buy windows.

I read the first thing to do is make back up CD's. My 1st 4 attempts have failed at this necessary task.

Over all glad I bought it. Screen, appearance, keyboard, battery life, as expected.

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Great product exceded my expectations .I recommend to all how want a loptop for a novice great starter laptop ...Two thumbs up

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Trackpad works on and off. Ended up getting a USB mouse. Battery lasts 2 hours max out of the box, and loses battery capacity quickly. iTunes and a web page open at the same time? Only if you want it to sound like a skipping CD. It's a buggy computer, but it's cheap. The black finish scratches VERY easily. Replaced the HP with a MacBook Pro, it's 4 times the price but it certainly feels like it will last a lot longer.

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The hp g56 122us is a good computer. Sometimes its slow, I like the design of the laptop. The battery life is ok 4 hours. I like how the ac adapter plug is on the side. There is no camera card port overall It is a good laptop.

Toshiba Satellite L745-S4110 14" LED Core i3-2350M 2.3 GHz 4GB DDR3 500GB DVD Drive 64bit Windows H

This is a very nice laptop ive had it over a year now and its been great in our home we have teenagers who use it for gaming and it never slows down it has many features too many to write need a good laptop toshiba satellite l745 s4310

Have not had any problems with it in a year of use. Looked around a lot and still think I paid a lot for what it is, but I got tired of checking every computer add for the best deal and just ordered this one. Fair price but not a great deal.

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just as described it was perfect did the job now i can rest easy knowing my car will be safer

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I HAVE THIS LAPTOP AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTIME I TURN AROUND I FIND ANOTHER COOL THING IT DOES, ITS NOT MY FIRST LAPTOP BUT ITS DEFINETLY MY FAVORITE. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Acer M5-481PT-6488 14-Inch Ultrabook (1.70 GHz Core i5, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 500GB Hard Drive, 20GB SSD

Got this for my wife whose old laptop died. The combination of Windows 8 and a very quick touch sensitive screen sent her into computer heaven. Add the sexy, super thin look, backlit keys and very fast processor and she was very happy.

I really like this laptop. It was very reasonably priced and came with a touch screen which makes Windows 8 shine. Here is a brief rundown of the things I like.

1) Screen size is very usable

2) Backlit keyboard is very handy when sitting on the couch in low light... I love this feature.

3) Battery life is 5+ hours, plenty for my needs.

4) Laptop feels thin and light. Its not an ultrabook light but it has a good weight and feel.

5) Sleep and wake times are very fast.

6) Has been very reliable.

7) It comes with a DVD drive. Many laptops are omitting DVD drives these days.

8) The primary surfaces are aluminum. Though the back appears to be a foe aluminum actually made from plastic.

9) Although the laptop hard drive is 90% full, the thing still runs like a champ.

Windows 8 on a touch screen laptop is quite nice. On a non-touchscreen laptop it is quite crippled. If you buy a new computer, make sure it has a touch screen. Otherwise, you'll find a program that uses touch and quickly wish you had the capability.

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I thought it was a good idea to buy this refurbished computer thinking the reseller would have replaced parts, updated drivers/firmware etc and fixed it better than before (and I would save a $100). But as soon as I got it and installed chrome and a couple of known and stable programs I began to get 'blue screen of death' failures every 10 minutes (which means the computer shuts down in the middle of your work to reboot... and you loose everything). I spent several hours trying to fix these problems but in the end realized that this computer was very likely returned for the same reason that I'm returning it now. Either this reseller did nothing but wipe the hard drive clean and put it back out on the market or a brand new Acer M5-481PT has the same issues (and this unsuspecting reseller is helpless to fix anything). Either way, this has been a colossal waste of my time and I would stay very far away from thinking it's a good idea to put your money into this product.

UPDATE: I contacted the reseller, they assured me they just get these refurbished items directly from Asus and my situation is rare. So they are promising to exchange it with a newer model...at no charge. My wife recycled the box so I thought I was screwed but they're taking it back anyway. I was shocked at this kind of service. If you still want a refurb I highly recommend going with bestdigitalbuy. I have to say that I love the Windows 8 + touchscreen + normal keyboard. IMO this computer combines the best features of a tablet and laptop and the form factor is quite sexy.

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This would be many firsts for me: first refurbished laptop, first time using windows 8, first time using a touch screen...

But so far it all been pretty good. The pad is a little tricky to scroll with and the touch screen does take care of that but it's kind of annoying going back and forth between the two. There was some screen malfunction about a month after I first got this laptop, but the ol' "turn it of, then turn it on" method seemed to do the trick... hopefully...

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Got a great deal

Came within a few days of ordering it

Touchscreen and overall a good laptop .would surely love it

HP - Pavilion DV6-6B27NR - Intel Quad Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz - 8GB RAM - 750GB HDD - Blu-Ray - 15.6-

When I found out I could buy this for $700 I questioned why this listing even existed. So why does this exist?!?!?!?!?

WHY?!?!?!

I've had a lot of laptops, and this have never happens to me. When it was one month old it just stopped working, it did nothing!, I contacted the seller and they told there was nothing to do, but to all HP because the return time was up, I called and they told me: "It is not software but hardware, and I although I had an international warranty, there wasn't the pieces in my country so there was nothing to do until I return to the US (because it was a new product)". All this money for these, it was suppose to be one of the best laptops!!. I had a Dell and when I needed the international warranty, they were in my house in three days. Don't buy HP products if you are going to travel. This is the worst experience ever with a customer service and with a laptop.

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This computer is awesome! And for the low price of only $9999 its a bargain! I was going to buys a car but then when this amazing computer worth $600 came out I was sold! best computer Ive ever bought! A steal at $9999 worth $600!!!

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Sony VAIO T Series SVT13134CXS 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Silver)

I've really got used to having a touchscreen on my phone and Kindle Fire, but as an author I also really appreciate a proper keyboard. So with that in mind, when it came time to choose a new PC, I decided to plump for the new touchscreen Windows 8 ultrabook from Sony.

My experience started off in rather a bad way, with my first ultrabook lasting a mere two hours before it gave out, never to reboot again. However, the Amazon returns and replacement service was excellent and the very next day I had another ultrabook at my door. This one, it seems, is going to last longer than the first. I've now had it a full 5 days and I've run it through its paces and set everything up on it. I'm using it to write my latest book and also to do all those lovely touchy windows 8 things on the wonderfully clear 13.3" 1366 x 768 touchscreen. My first impressions are that this PC is a gem.

Things I like:

1. Speed of restart from sleep no more waiting and waiting to start using it. You simply close the lid when you're done and then reopen it when you want to continue. It takes about 2 seconds to be ready to use.

2. The ability to switch between the touchscreen, touchpad and keyboard (all interchangeable) once you learn all the gestures and shortcuts it's a really quick user experience.

3. The zippiness of it my previous PC was a three year-old desktop. This ultrabook seems about 6 generations faster.

4. Windows 8 apps Netflix, Angry Birds, Skype, CNN News and a plethora of other apps run just like they do on an iPad or Kindle fire.

5. It just works I know, you expect it to work, but sometimes new things can be a little weird.

So far there is nothing I dislike about it (apart from a lack of some Windows 8 apps but more and more are arriving each day).

I could go on about the battery life, the ports, the keyboard and everything else, but you can read all the technical specs above. the bottom line is would I recommend this PC? Wholeheartedly YES!

I got this from work about 4 months ago. I think four months is ample time to be able to give an accurate review of this ultrabook. I really wanted to love this laptop, but I don't. It's very sharp and stylish with its black and silver design but almost laughably clumsy.

Allow me to explain. First and foremost you have to hold the bottom whenever you open it because the hinge mechanism is tight and the bottom isn't weighty enough. Secondly, once you have the laptop open the first thing you'll notice is not the lack of an HD screen but rather the strong glare back into your eyes if there is a light nearby. The screen reflects way too much light and I find myself moving the display back and forth throughout the day just so I can read. Thirdly, the keyboard (although I have to admit that I am getting more used to it) feels carpal tunnel inducing. There is simply very little give to the keys so you feel as if you're tapping away on a flat surface (although touch screen tablets are not uncomfortable). I prefer the feedback you get from other keyboards (such as Dell's XPS line). Additionally, the keys are not smooth but feature a slight rough texture that feels rather cheap.

The touch screen is a cool feature but I must admit that I never use it. It's just not comfortable to hang your arm in front of your screen for an extended period of time. I use a wireless Logitech mouse because the trackpad is annoying as well. It doesn't recognize when you lift one of your fingers off of it unless you take both of them off. This becomes very annoying when you're scrolling (with two fingers) and you take one off so that you can move to cursor to click on something and it continues scrolling down!

I should also mention that about two months after I had it, the touch screen input stopped working. I tried all kinds of troubleshooting, even formatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows and all drivers but in the end it was a hardware issue. I must give credit where credit is due and after talking to Sony they instructed me to bring the laptop to any UPS store (I didn't have to wrap it) and they would overnight it to their service center in Texas. I received several calls from Sony informing me of the current repair status while it was gone (very unexpected). Within two weeks I had the laptop back in working condition.

My final gripe is that even though I have Windows set to sleep when I close the lid, about once, sometimes twice a week, I get home after leaving work and find the laptop burning hot because it never went to sleep.

We ordered about 15 of these for the office and the feelings are mutual among all of us.

All in all, for the price it is not a terrible laptop but I do think you can find better. It's doing the job as a work laptop but I would never buy it on my own nor could I recommend it to anyone.

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For me it came down to this Sony T Series and Asus Vivobook. Price point is very similar; I give Sony the slight nod with hardware specifications, the quality of keyboard and the ability to swap out the battery. Upgrading RAM on both laptops is possible, but I am unsure of the added value. If you are running something that needs 8GB RAM, you shouldn't be buying an ultrabook.

For the keyboard, both feel shallow but the Sony's keyboard is a bit more comfortable (at least to me). Since this laptop is fairly new, check out the reviews on the old non-touchscreen T Series. It is exactly the same except for the screen and upgraded hinges. The screen still bounces when touched, but stays in place and feels solid (so far).

The laptop has a quality feel. If you press around the casing you can flex the topcase around the "Tab" and "Caps Lock" keys, everywhere else it feels solid. Also, the screen has a slight flex but does not seem to be a negative, I believe the touch screen design beefed up the sturdiness from the prior years model.

The design has a business type feel, square edges, I think it might keep its style longer than the Vivobook. The Sony is simple and understated.

One concern I had was the placement of the touchpad. I prefer this to be centered below the space bar to avoid activating the mouse cursor with your palm while typing (on this model it is centered on the topcase), but that does not seem to be an issue on this laptop. Even with contact, the touchpad seems to ignore the touch of the palm. Fan noise, yes the fan is audible on start-up and when resources are heavy, but it hasn't bothered me too much. With any ultrabook relying on a fan for cooling you are going to have this issue.

If you are coming from a Windows 7 environment expect a learning curve. I have read reviews of people who hate Windows 8 and at times the multiple gestures can prove frustrating. Give yourself some time; understand the four points of control on the touchscreen to navigate your system. The windows button is your friend if you get lost. The less you use your keyboard, the better the Windows 8 environment becomes.

I see these ultrabooks as the best of both worlds. A computer that can function as a tablet, but still gives you the tools needed for business use. For the cost (under 700) you are not taking that big a gamble, avoid spending too much on higher grade laptops, use this for a year or two and upgrade again. Spending over $700 on an ultrabook seems like a waste of money to me.

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO T Series SVT13134CXS 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Silver) Here

I love this computer. The specs are solid, the price is affordable, and it's a touch screen, which I think is a must have with Windows 8.

I'm a transcriptionist, so I need a full keyboard and for the computer to be lightweight, as I'm regularly on the go. Unfortunately, full keyboarded ultrabooks seem impossible to find. After much research, I found that this computer IS full keyboarded, so I'm very happy about that. It just arrived in the mail and it's a very stylish, attractive computer as well. I'm very satisfied with this purchase.

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It took a while to get everything to sync with Win 8. Best advice is to attach every account (FB, Twitter, etc.) to your Windows Live account on another computer before you set this one up. Gmail is not supported by Win 8 so you will have to do a work around to get it added. I had to allow special permissions to get it to work. It also seems to have an issue with the WiFi losing networks when waking up from sleep. A restart seems to reset everything. Having said those negative things, it looks great. The closest in style to a Macbook IMO. It does not have a DVD drive so if you want one you will have to buy an external. Overall very pleased.

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Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey)

In the market for a mobile computing solution, I eschewed the tablet trend and went straight for the ultrabook. I needed a device that met both my productivity needs (i.e., a keyboard) but was also highly portable. For almost a day I was convinced I wanted that new Samsung chromebook, but ultimately I decided a browser-based O.S. was possibly too limiting. I really preferred a Windows 8 machine, and if it had the power to run Guild Wars 2 (my PC game of choice) without costing a lot, that would be optimal. The Lenovo brand spoke to me because of its reputation, and even though I shopped around at Dell, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS, and the rest, the Lenovo kept calling me back. Performance, portability, and price. The Ideapads checked all three boxes.

In the review that follows there will be several mentions of Lenovo's S405. This is because I purchased the S405 first from Amazon for $540. (Less than a month later, it's already down to $480!) But I determined that the S405, attractive as it was, didn't meet my performance expectations. So, I returned that model and got the U410 (version 59351632) from Newegg for $630.

APPEARANCE: At a maximum width of .83" and 4.1 lbs., the U410 is neither the thinnest nor lightest ultrabook on the market. However, laptops offering similar performance at this price point weigh an average of 6 lbs., so put aside the notion that the U410 is somehow an unwieldy beast. It's no MacBook Air, but it isn't HEAVY. (It's also not $1200+.) It does kind of look like a MacBook, though. (Not that the MacBooks have a monopoly on silver chassis with black chiclet keyboards.) The aluminum cover of my U410 is charcoal gray; interior is matte silver. I *loved* the all black interior of the S405, but this design has grown on me. The U410 looks and feels expensive, beautiful in its simplicity. Whereas the S405 was .8" at its thickest point, then became even narrower at the front, the U410 is a uniform thickness on all sides, but the sides are also slightly concave giving it a touch of style. If you purchase the U410 on Lenovo's website you'll have red and blue designs as options (the red looks particularly spiffy) but you'll also pay at least a hundred dollars more than you would at Newegg.

The U410 sheds some of its cost and weight by the exclusion of an optical drive. I used an external DVD burner to make a recovery disc, but Lenovo includes a program called "OneKey Recovery" that backs up your system to a safe partition of your hard disk. I also appreciate how cool and quiet the U410 runs during casual use. Predictably, games cause the fan inside to work harder and the device gets hot on the underside near the ventilation.

Insert: Another review on this site complained of the fan's noise level. Perhaps this person received a defective unit. My U410 runs quiet except when I push the hardware, then the noise increases. But even then, it's not so loud I'm disturbed by it.

KEYBOARD: Lenovo bought IBM's Thinkpad brand back in 2005; Thinkpads being notable for their outstanding keyboards well suited to the business-oriented user. Before I committed to purchasing a Lenovo, I read a bit about how the keyboards in the Ideapad line had finally, or nearly, caught up to the Thinkpads. The keyboard on the U410 is good, but far from great. The keys are sized nicely (except for the Backspace, right Shift, and Enter which are undersized to make room for the Home, End, and Page keys) and are supposedly contoured so your fingers don't slide off, resulting in typing errors. (Lenovo calls this "Accutype.")

What disappoints is the "flex" beneath the keyboard. If you've researched the U410 online, you may have seen the video of the guy pushing his finger into the middle of the keyboard. Now, nobody will be doing this to their brand new ultrabook, but the video demonstrates a lapse in quality. While the U410 looks and feels sturdy overall, the keyboard comes off cheap. You may not notice the flex as you type--since your eyes are glued to the screen--but glance down and you'll see your fingers bounce up and down on the springy underside.

The keyboard on the S405 is much studier with a satisfying, velvety press, but I noticed I tended to make more mistakes using that machine. I decided to take a typing test online to see on which ultrabook I typed the best. On the U410, with no mistakes, I averaged 89 wpm. On the S405, I averaged 81. (On my older Compaq Presario I scored a 92.) So even though the flex in the U410 is distracting, it's actually the swifter keyboard. At least, on this particular day with this particular typing test this proved to be the case.

There's no backlight, but that would inflate the price and it's a luxury feature I personally don't need nor want.

WIFI: The Lenovo U410 is notorious for its sketchy WIFI adapter. The company's official stance is U410s manufactured after July 2012 no longer have issues, but users maintain that problems, such as slow speeds and dropped connections, persist. I was nervous my U410 would suffer these problems, but after running a series of informal tests I have not found any cause for alarm.

My U410 was manufactured September 29, 2012 and the WIFI adapter is Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200. I updated my driver to the latest version (15.5.0.42) immediately and set Transmit Power to 5, Roaming Aggressiveness to 3. Then, I placed my U410 alongside the S405, my HP desktop, iPhone, and an older Compaq Presario laptop about twelve feet from the router, which was on the other side of a wall. I went to speedtest.net and ran the test on each machine six times and averaged the speeds. These are the results... U410: 28.96 down/7.42 up, S405: 29.86/7.40, desktop: 28.98/7.70, iPhone: 25.27/10.13, Compaq: 29.64/7.71.

Although it appears the U410 performed the worst (excluding the iPhone) the difference is negligible, and the numbers were actually improving as the test went on. Users had said the pre-fixed WIFI was delivering speeds 75% slower than their other machines, which in my case would be around 8mbps. Clearly, at nearly 29mbps, my U410 is no worse than my other devices--a huge relief.

However, some disclaimers: I have no idea if every U410 manufactured after July is equal to mine. I also don't know how well the machine would fair in a crowded wireless environment, like a coffee shop or airport. Lastly, I have a less expensive Internet plan through Cox. It's possible if I had the fastest plan the U410's wireless adapter would throttle that connection... but I have no reason to expect it would.

Also be aware some SKUs of the U410 model (there are about a dozen) include Bluetooth. This one does NOT. If you absolutely must have integrated Bluetooth, you should purchase your U410 from Lenovo.com.

PERFORMANCE: With an i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, dedicated GeForce 610M graphics card, and a Solid State hybrid drive the U410 is one of the most powerful ultrabooks on the market at this price point. I don't think you're going to find anything more powerful, and slimmer/lighter, without paying over a grand. The dedicated graphics in particular, while being at the low end of the GeForce 600 series, gives the U410 that extra boost it needs to run more demanding games. I wanted an ultrabook that could run Guild Wars 2, and the U410 succeeds at this task.

These are the results of the Windows Experience Index (For comparison's sake, the Lenovo S405's results are in parenthesis.) Processor 6.9 (6.2) Memory 7.4 (5.9) Graphics 5.5 (4.4) Gaming Graphics 6.3 (6.2) Hard Disk 6.9 (5.9) Overall 5.5 (4.4). One thing about the Windows Experience Index: the gaming graphics are based on the primary adapter, the Intel HD 4000, so this test doesn't account for the GeForce 610M. So, I think these scores are lower than they should be.

I also ran Passmark's benchmarking software and the U410 scored a 1412.8 versus the S405's 1018.4. With power settings set to High Performance, CPU-Z recorded the i5-3317U's core speed as 2396 MHz (thanks to Intel's TurboBoost) versus the S405's A8-4555M processor at 1816 MHz.

Of course, higher numbers in these benchmarking utilities don't tell the full story, so I ran tests in Guild Wars 2. I set the resolution to max (1366x768), all graphics to Low (except for "render sampling" which I set to Native) and ran FRAPS for two minutes to find an average FPS. (Note: I didn't run this test in a heavily congested area. I was just killing moa birds in Frostgorge Sound.) My FPS at this setting was 58. Very solid, especially considering the S405 was half as speedy at 26. With all settings on Medium, the FPS was 30. A custom blend of Low, Medium, and High settings (ignoring water, shadow and particle effects and focusing on environment/character textures) scored 41 FPS. At maximum graphics, the FPS was 15 and pretty much unplayable. For a non-gaming machine, an ultrabook no less, the U410 handles Guild Wars 2 really well and still looks great with the graphics turned down.

Insert: One reviewer mentions that the SSD doesn't have the O.S. installed on it. To clarify, this is because the drive is a hybrid. It stores your most frequently accessed data as you use the machine, increasing your read speed over time. You could install the entire O.S. on the SSD if you wanted to. There's nothing stopping you. But since the computer boots in about twelve seconds and is pretty fast in all respects, I don't see why you'd bother.

DISPLAY: The screen is the U410's other weak link. (The keyboard being the other.) A resolution of 1366x768 is standard for ultrabooks and laptops at this price, so I can't really fault Lenovo for not exceeding the standard. But, my Dell 6000 had a 1680x1050 display and that was six years old. Why hasn't the industry pushed for better resolutions? Why are laptops lagging behind tablets? (Google's new Nexus 10 is 2560x1600!) For whatever reason, you cannot find affordable ultrabooks with nice resolutions. Search on Newegg and you'll see that even if you went to the next highest tier, 1600x900, you're either paying a lot or getting a 17" monster. Lastly, as with most ultrabooks, the screen is glossy. (Not a concern for me, but it might be for some.)

I'm incredibly satisfied with the U410. It's a very strong performer in a light(ish) frame at a decent price. I'm relieved the WIFI problem was solved. I only wish the keyboard didn't feel so cheap. (Although it's by no means horrible.) I would recommend the U410 to anyone who wants a machine capable of playing some high end games, but still values mobility. Meanwhile, anyone looking for a work/casual device with no need of a fast processor and discrete graphics may find value in the U410's cheaper, but lovelier, cousin: the S405.

PROS: Performance-to-Price ratio virtually unmatched in the ultrabook category. Hybrid HDD-SSD. Very attractive design. USB 3.0 (x2) and HDMI ports. Loud speakers. Webcam captures 720p HD.

CONS: Keyboard flexes. Sufficient, but unremarkable display. Battery not removable. Heavier than most ultrabooks. No Bluetooth on this particular SKU. Alternative colors limited to official site.

Lenovo usually makes great products but they really fell short on the U410. The U410's are shipped with a faulty wifi card which makes this laptop an utter disappointment. Do a Google search for U410 wifi issue and you will get pages of problems with this laptop and according to Lenovo, any U410 ,manufactured after 7/30 is fixed but the manufacture date on the bottom of mine is 9/29/12.

At first, the U410 would drop the Wifi signal making it impossible to surf. I then updated to the latest Centrino wifi drivers on Intel's website which helped keep a connection but the download speed on speedtest was less than 1mb! My Lenovo X220 next to the U410 pulled down 35mb.

A nice laptop if you have no plans to use the internet but if you are, look somewhere else

Buy Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Now

The wireless connection on this laptop is horrible. There are pages of posts online about customers complaining about the weak wireless connection. The computer will connect, but the signal fluctuates to the point where I was not even able to watch netflix. Lenovo claims to have fixed the problem after a specified manufacture date, but they have NOT! This laptop was manufactured after their stated fix but the problem still persists (this has been reported by many consumers). I would strongly discourage people from purchasing this laptop if they plan to use it on a WiFi network.

Note: Driver updates and other software/firmware fixes do NOT work.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Here

I could not believe how noise is the fan of this computer. It seems like I am beside an engine. After 5 minutes I turned the computer off. The vendor that sold me the computer through Amazon is asking for a 15% return fee. As I don't want to pay that fee, I tried to use the computer, but every time I turn it on I get so disturbed with the noise that I cannot use it. The noise is definitely unbearable. I do not recommend this computer.

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Fast, lightweight, good design, but you have to treat it kindly because it feels fragile. But it's a great value for the price. And don't be afraid with Windows 8. Once you learned to use it, it's very easy.

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Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S02UB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Titan Silver)

Couldnt want better a laptop....... Highlight: backlit keyboard, sloat load DVDROM, quiet fan. etc,,........ Shipment from this particular seller was exceptional; fast and the machine was wrapped so well...it took me good 10 min to get to the laptop. Good job there.

I purchased one of these as a gift to myself and replacement for a 2006 Macbook that finally gave up the ghost last year. I was leery of the Windows 8 OS but the fact that it had a dedicated NVidia graphics card, 8 GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive made it look like a pretty good deal. After all, I can always downgrade the OS if I want.

So far I haven't been disappointed (much). Pros:

1) Runs games up to Bioshock Infinite like a boss, framerate drops a little when it gets really busy but otherwise it's practically a desktop gaming rig away from home.

2) Same thing for video (like Netflix and HD movie files).

3) Windows 8 isn't bad on this thing once you install something like Classic Shell to get back to a Win7 look and do a little tweaking your mileage may vary on whether that's acceptable or not. Haven't run into any incompatibility issues yet even on some of my old software favorites.

4) Plenty of storage space, even after installing a pile of multi-GB games.

5) Auto-loading optical drive and multi-touch keyboard give it a Macbook feel. I just wish it had a similar breakaway power cord.

6) Looks pretty. Not usually a consideration, but hey, gotta give it props for not looking like (or being) a cheap piece of plastic.

Now for the cons (the reason I don't give it a full five stars):

1) No VGA port. Yes, HDMI is great, but if you're plugging it to a 720p tv, it's going to overscan no matter how much you plead with it. There's adapters but c'mon, this isn't some tablet or netbook you need to conserve space on.

2) Network port has a weird flipdown partial cover. Looks like it's just begging to break off.

3) The mic is on the keyboard section to the left of the touchpad. The hole and the mic icon look like a blemish and if you're trying to use a voice app like Skype and typing at the same time it's hard to keep from putting your hand down on it. Very awkward.

4) The power cord is on the side and sticks straight out. Also awkward. Everything else I can understand putting on the left or right, but they should have at least made it one of those right-angle plugs so it doesn't feel like it's going to break the plug or yank the laptop out of your hands if someone trips over it.

5) Windows 8. Yes, as I said above, not so bad once you've tweaked it. But this thing is not a tablet or touchscreen and doesn't really benefit from having an OS that defaults to a touch interface.

6) No Blu Ray. C'mon, guys, you're going to build this with everything else cutting edge, making the optical drive a Blu Ray wouldn't have killed you.

Most of these cons are minor quibbles compared to the pros, so overall I'm very satisfied considering the price was under 1K.

Buy Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S02UB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Titan Silver) Now

I've had this laptop for about a month now. I'm going to be brutally honest about it.

Here is what I like

-I LOVE the lighted keyboard Probably my favorite feature

-I love the light weight

-I love how it looks

-I love the heavy hitting ram and great processor

-I love how it turns on when I open it up. Simple feature, yes. Still, who cares its mad cool!

-I love the improved battery life over my old laptop

-The speakers, they are VERY good. I promise you, as a person who produces music, for a latpo you cannot really get all that much better

Things that I do not like

-The charger. My old Sony charger had a way better design and was longer

-The trackpad. I get it, one big trackpad is what's in. If it works like a Mac, that would be great. But it does not quite work that good

-The charger, I know, I know. I already said this but I think its a HUGE deal for people who carry their laptop all over. Samsung could have done better.

For the over all deal though, GET THIS PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY!!

I think its great for the price. No kidding. I love opening it up every morning.

If I had to redo my my buying experiences all over again for the same price, I would buy the SAME thing.

Cheers

Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S02UB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Titan Silver) Here

First of all, I bought this laptop, but not from Amazon. I wanted the option of getting in some ones face IF there was a problem. I am happy to say this has not happened, and I am very impressed with this computer. I am still adjusting to Windows 8, but this is the OS windows offers, so may as well get use to it. The boot time is incredibly fast, battery life is great. All around, I am a happy camper.

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Very solid build, very mature design. The 8Gb flash drive gives the 1Tb hard drive a zippy response that makes it a real pleasure to use. The keyboard layout is sensible and feels right. The keystroke is a little shallow but that's a small quibble. I'm sure there's more to know but so far so good. And with Samsung's recent re-branding of their entire laptop line, prices on these models have fallen to a level that should change your buying strategy.

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