15.6IN 3GB/160/WIN 7 64BIT

Three weeks after I received this laptop, it suddenly displayed the "blue screen of death" one night while I was surfing the internet. It never would re-start, even in Safe Mode; nor would it boot from the restore disc that I had burned. The only option Acer offered was for me to ship the computer to their repair facility in Texas, at my expense ($30). I did ship it, two and a half weeks ago, and still haven't gotten it back. If this is indicative of the kind of service and reliability a person can expect from Acer, I would recommend not buying one. There's a reason the price is low-you get what you pay for. At least with a company like HP, you can take your computer to a local authorized repair facility if something happens to it, and have it back in a short time. I wish I would have spent a little more money and gotten a better-quality machine.

As for the performance of the computer itself, the speakers are of poor quality (very quiet), so watching DVD's without headphones or external speakers is not enjoyable at all. Also, the DVD player lags/skips at least a few times with every DVD I've viewed; sometimes more often than that.

I'm not even sure why they call this a laptop because with less than a 1 hour battery life it certainly isn't portable by any means. Also if you have it on standby and not plugged in it will be completely dead by the time you go back to it, even if it was fully charged when you closed the top. The ac adapter pretty much just falls out with any little motion. It also doesn't have enough video card to play small flip videos either and it really struggles with streaming video as well. By the time you get a spare battery, new video card, louder speakers, etc.. you might as well have spent the money up front.

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I bought one of these new in 2009, and am typing on it right now. I love this machine and am currently looking for another one for when this one does start to have problems. The thing with this model is that it was released with 2 major variants. the single core TF-20 1.6ghz and the dual core TK-42 1.6ghz. the single core one is crap stock, but you can buy the best processor for the socket for about $35 bucks now. these things were $450 or so new in 2009. be careful when looking for one. if your battery dies fast it is because it's worn out or it's used and someone screwed up the memory in it.

You can get new batteries and CPUs etc no problem. The motherboards and some of the other parts are starting to run out, and it's getting harder to find an actual new one of these now. If it doesn't come in it's box with clear plastic film covering the whole thing it is not new. If you can get a new one, upgrade the cpu, max out the ram, and throw an ssd in it, you will have a very decent laptop. The biggest bottleneck in this machine is the integrated graphics. the Radeon hd 3200 is not going to let you play new games, but the system is definately powerful enough for anything that is not too graphics intensive.

I like the asthetic appeal and overall design of the laptop. I have a sick gaming desktop and this does everything else. The bottom line though, even if you did get one new in box and spent another $150 bucks to max it out... that's like $600-$700. My newest phone is almost as powerful as this laptop, and $700 will buy something decent even if it's from the low end of a newer upgradable line with a decent parts pool. I'm only here because I have grown attachemd to mine lol. It's going to be sad when it dies, probably miss it more than my first dog. (knocked a star off because it is getting hard to find parts)

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Hardware is great, really small but deilevers a punch. However the mouse pad is exceedingly annoying. I carry my laptop everywhere and don't use a mouse, so this is aggravating. The mouse pad is maybe 1.5 inches by 4 inches and insensitive to touch. Don't expect much noise out of the speakers either.

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I actually won this laptop in raffle, but for what the price is on Amazon, it's well worth it. You can't expect a power house of a computer under $500 even from Acer.

The graphics card is the ATI Radeon HD 3200, and it's an onboard shared memory card. Usually those cards are "pieces of crap" but I was surprised with what I could do with it. But don't think you will be maxing out many games.

The processor is AMD Athlon 64 Processor TF-20 which is a lowly single core 1.66 ghz processor. Yes, that's very little but again I was surprised with what it can do.

Games I've played and have ran smoothly have been

-Guild Wars (Maxed out)

-League of Legends (Minimum Settings)

-Forsaken World (Medium)

-Starcraft 2 (Minimum settings) Note here: Single Player ran like a breeze, no lag at all. Multiplayer was differnt, it lagged some. I had to overclock the processor in order for it to play smoothly (and this isn't a processor that is meant to be overclocked so I don't recommend doing it).

-Dragon Age (Minimum Settings) This surprisingly ran pretty smoothly, some lag when in battles.

-Fallout 3 (Semi Minimum Settings) I only had terrain on medium here and it ran somewhat smoothly, it probably would have ran better if it was on low.

I also ran other programs such as Auto-CAD and Pro/E perfectly fine on this machine.

As for streaming videos this computer is finicky about it. Sometimes I can watch Starcraft 2 games in 720p on Youtube smoothly and sometimes I can't. The wireless works perfectly fine, no complaints here, except at my college where the wireless is horrendous.

TL;DR: This is a good computer for anyone if they don't expect to do anything too strenuous on it, just simple everyday task such as going on facebook or playing simple flash games. Like I said before I was surprised with what I could do with this computer. The website says 160gb HDD but it's really about 140 (but that's pretty much the same with all HDD's). If I'm browsing the web not watching videos with the brightness down I get about 1 hour 30 minutes of battery time. But that's also because I just keep my computer plugged in (about 40-50 minutes of life if playing a simple game such as Dungeon Fighter Online). It can multi task to an extent but this Laptop is severely limited by it's processor.

I don't know why the price is $450 now, I remember looking at this before and it was $400.

Also, I kinda wish this laptop was able to output HDMI, as it doesn't have the HDMI port.

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Dell Studio XPS 16 (x1647-533OBK), Intel i5-430M (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) Turbo Boost to 2.53 GHz, G

Dell Studio XPS 16 (x1647-533OBK), Intel i5-430M (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) Turbo Boost to 2.53 GHz, Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 15.6" HD Widescreen LED (1600 x 900), 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz, 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM, 1 GB ATI Radeon HD 4670 Graphics, 8X DVD+/-...I purchased this laptop after much deliberation in Jan 2010 from Best Buy and it is the best machine (desktop or laptop) that I've ever owned. The graphics are very sharp, processor performs multiple functions with ease and there haven't been any issues with it! Keyboard is backlit, built-in mic and speakers are adequate for Skyping or Google Talk. I loaded Chrome which works well on it. Win 7 is a much better op sys than Vista or XP. There are multiple slots for USB, HDMI, SIM cards, VGA, etc and a DVD R/W. 4GB of RAM is definitely the way to go on an i5 laptop using Win 7. If you are looking to do more intense graphic design work, you could use an upgrade.

I bought this laptop for $999 and 2 years on, Best Buy is selling it for $829 so you know it was a good machine to have kept its resale value. It is a little bulkier than other machines being wide screen but definitely not too heavy to carry around. I take it with me for business presentations, etc.

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Alienware M17X 17.3" Black Laptop

Pros: Cool looking exterior. Top of the line video card.

Cons: Overpriced. Easily overheats. Sub par components. Poorly engineered on the inside.

I have owned four Alienware computers, including three laptops and one desktop computer. I was severely disappointed with all of them. My first two laptops all died within one year. And, my last two were replacement computers given to me by Alienware and lasted no more than two years. They have a bunch of power under the hood and therefore have a short shelf life. Although Alienware computers look really cool on the outside, it's what's on the inside that is horrendous. With exception to the graphics card, the rest of the components are poor quality. And, the engineers at Alienware did a poor job in constructing the computers. Placing the hard drive next to an overheating video card is not smart engineering. Furthermore, screws were missing on the inside and the casing is typically made out of cheap plastic. I highly recommend to stay away from Alienware and consider other high-end gaming computer brands.

I have owned this laptop for about 8 months at this point. Let me tell you that is by far the fastest laptop I have ever used. It handles most games with ease at full graphics.

That being said there is a major flaw with this laptop. Within 2 months of owning the laptop, the keys started popping off. Dell does have a picture tutorial on how to put this keys back on, but if you follow the tutorial it will often lead to adjacent keys popping off. And if you push too hard when trying to get the keys to latch, then you are out of luck. Luckily my first experience with Alienware customer service ended in a keyboard replacement in less than 2 days from calling tech support. However when it started happening again tech support was not that helpful. I was told I would need to purchase a replacement keyboard for $110! The laptop is under warranty for 4 more months. I was even considering extending the warranty.

My suggestion is to use the built in keyboard as little as possible. I use a logitech keyboard now, my biggest issue is now the laptop does not really travel easily anymore.

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this is awesome. it doesn't lag at all for FPS games including Modern Warfare 3.

you can play at high performances and still no lag :O

All I have to say is that this is the best gaming laptop I've ever got, the 3d features are also really nice but most games

don't have 3d so i don't recommend 3d. Thanks for reading .

MAKE SURE YOU BUY THIS.

#

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this computer is awesome for all my games. i can even hook up my xbox 360 and ps3 through the hdmi ports. and i can hook up the computer to the tv through the hdmi port.

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First of all, let me say in plain english, Do Not Buy an M17x or any other Alienware PC.

I remember that once upon a time, dell was a great company. They built quality consoles, they had the warranty that set the industry standard, they cared about their customer support. It is clear to me that these things no longer matter to Dell. A big name and customer loyalty brings us back time after time. Over the past decade, I have given them dozens of referrals and direct purchases, but in the year since I purchased my dell M17x 8GB with dual Nvidia 260M graphics in SLI and an Intel i7 processor, I have actively scuttled just as many purchases by telling all about my personal experience.

Its unstable. Out of the box, brand spanking new, it barely even qualifies as a paper weight. It took me 3 days, and probably 30 hours to get through simply downloading and installing window's updates, firmware mismatches all kinds of errors and stuff that i'll get into later caused me so many problems that its not even funny. If your top of the line(or at least above average) gaming PC can't even run Mcaffee or your own on-board Aliensense programs, then how the hell are you going to run dragon age, fallout, league of legends, even counterstrike or NES Emus?

So, what kinds of problems did I experience? The laptop will power down completely without even attempting to shutdown windows and completely without warning. The screen goes solid white with a streak of random pixels near the bottom. The computer freezes... FREEZES. I haven't seen that since High-school and Pentium 3. and these errors can occur with or without an obnoxiously loud tone blasting me in the face for a minimum of 3 seconds while i try to hard off the PC.

The obvious issues. Well, first of all there was an obvious NVIDIA driver conflict with something on-board. since alien-sense is the only non-standard program that comes pre-installed, i choose to blame that, however it doesn't really matter. after trying 5-6 other Nvidia drivers I find one that doesn't crash my computer every 30 mins like clockwork. Issue two. Poor design. The screen is too far back, the external shell gets too hot, too fast thanks to poor internal cooling, mother-board has no internal sensors on-board, inferior components like the SSD that they charged me to install but has a SLOWER read/write speed than my last HDD. Also the "break me" button at the top right has no tactile response, no toggle and no "oh i didn't mean to break my pc, UNDO" button. see below.

Less obvious problems. the "break me" button also called "stealth mode" instantly insures that you will not have a moment's rest until you figure out what exactly stealth mode is and why you never-ever want to graze that button. Stealth mode is dell's commitment to green in action. when you touch that button, it will instantly shut off all graphics cards except for the one built into the i7(which cant handle much) underclock your CPU, shut down anything that is drawing power from a USB port, kill your wifi, bluetooth, even your keyboard lighting. anything to conserve power, except of course toggle down the brightness on your monitor. you need to use window's settings to do that. and before you ask, no. you can neither disable, nor change the settings of the "break me" button, and no. once "break me" mode is initiated, you can't turn it off. you must unplug the pc, power down the pc restart the pc, go into the Bios for the PC, mess with the settings re-enabling all the stuff that is disabled(like your USB port and hybrid graphics), plug in your pc and restart it. first of all, the creation of such a button on a GAMING PC is just dumb. next everything it does, you can do through settings or by unplugging your externals, windows calls this "power management." third, there is no way to make this setup stable. i need at least one GPU to run windows for more than 5 minutes without it crashing, period. hence the "break me" button.

also if the laptop comes unplugged, perhaps you foolishly wanted to present a project or surf the web while watching TV you must restart your computer in order to re-enable hybrid graphics, i guess the battery just can't provide that much power. I do get an NVIDIA GPU though which is handy if i'm not interested in gaming or doing anything processor intensive. it should be noted that i needed an alienware patch before, under some circumstances, the power supply that came with the PC was recognized as "the proper" power supply. as if i happened to have a compatible low-watt version hanging out at home and i thought "gee, all computer parts are interchangeable" derp.

presently, my alienware pc is more or less stable. but, needless to say, i came very very close to sending it back before everything clicked. i say more or less because it can still glitch out when i push it and every once in a while when i don't. so i say it again. Don't buy an Alienware M17x. I hear good things about ASUS, Lenovo, and even HP if you aren't obsessive about high end graphics.

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Sony - VAIO 14" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel 3rd Gen. Core i7, 2.2GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz

I don't know why the other 2 reviewers had problems, but this is the best touch screen laptop for the $$$ bar none. I rate it above my MacBook pro due to the superior ports and power and the high resolution touch screen. If you want a great deal on a powerful touchscreen laptop, get this one before someone at SONY or BB wakes up and raises the price!

The laptop is very nice and powerful..I like it.

The touch screen is nice, the battery is up to 4 hours actual time...overall is really nice laptop

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Really good laptop. My last laptop that I purchased was also a Sony Vaio. After about 4 years of service, it finally gave out on me. I bought this one this year, and I must say I love it. The programs that come with it are awesome. I love the touchscreen. Very intuitive. The processor doesn't skip a beat, and the graphics are handled very well. I haven't used it for much other than mundane internet practices yet, but playing movies looks great on it, and I love the connectivity to my Xbox with the smartglass app.

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I was really excited to buy this, but am so disappointed because the touchpad/mouse malfunctioned on me within 30 days of buying it. It started acting up a few days prior (the cursor would get stuck for a few seconds, then catch up with where I had wanted to move it). Then it got worse and worse. I tried turning off the touchpad function completely a few times, but the only thing that would cure it was to restart or shut down altogether. Then, the left-click function stopped working completely. No matter where I placed my finger, it would result in bringing up the menu when you right-click. I could not select, highlight, or click on anything without resorting to the touchscreen. It was very frustrating and although I could remedy the situation by just using a real mouse, I did not intend to spend over $1000 on a laptop that has parts breaking within 30 days of buying it. Who knows what else would break down in the future. Definitely returned this and would not recommend to anyone.

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Review: It works.

The touch screen works out of the box, xubuntu 13.4.

working :

touch screen

touch pad

bluetooth

wireless

kvm should work but I will report back.

Do you want me to post my install notes?

Note: I purchased this laptop at best buy. They helped me find the bios key for sony vaio SVE14A27CXH / sve14ae13l.

F2 not working. ( turn off. press the red assist key to boot)

Please note: I do not run windows and I did not make the recovery disk. The uefi bios is on the hard disk and should be saved. Make your recovery disks before you play.

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Sony VAIO VPC-EE31FX/BJ 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

I just got this laptop for $448 at Walmart and I love it. It looks a lot more expensive than it is, has more than enough power for everyday use and is loaded with features wireless Wi-Fi, webcam, 4 USB ports, HDMI, Sony assist feature for troubleshooting and maintaining the laptop and more. Coming from a 12 inch screen, the 15.6 inch screen is like looking at a flat screen TV. The speaker volume is nice and loud. It is realatively light weight, but at 5.9 lbs heavier than many. I do wish the battery life was longer. But so far, I'm lovin it.

I purchased an Hp almost 2yrs ago. The motherboard went out on me twice, all though I was happy with my turion 64 dual core, I needed something more stable and I was done with HP at that point. After doing some research, I read that Athlons are actually best in desktop computers because they use more power but are faster than turions. When I compared the specs they seemed pretty equivalent to my old HP laptop which ran great with Windows 7. I guess the big seller with the turions was the 1mb cach, which I took note that this computer has as well. This computer however uses DDR3 which is faster than DDR2. I had 3gb in my old laptop with ddr2 and this has 3gb of ddr3... I want to say this is faster but it really is not.

I almost feel my turion had more of a zing when doing a lot of multi-processing. But all in all for the price you can't beat it. I mean I purchased this exact computer over the summer at walmart for 590 and ended up taking it back because I wasn't ready to spend that much yet again on a laptop when I just spent 700 on my hp 2 yrs ago..

As most store bought computers the manufacturer tends to load it up with their garbage "helpful" software, which really only slows the machine down more. I would recommend removing that useless stuff, but hey, if it doesn't effect you than no need.

Final thoughts, if you can get this computer for $449 it's a great deal. Jump on it, if I had one big complaint vs my hp it'd be the sound. The speaker quality could be better but hey for $449 can't have it all..

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Do not be dissuaded by the reviews giving this laptop only one or two stars. Most of those complain about characteristics common to almost all new laptops, like the position of the keypad; or they are based on comparisons between apples and oranges.

I like the full keyboard including a separate numerical keypad. But, that means everything is shifted to the left. Most new laptops are configured this way. But, it is hard to rest the computer on my lap and use it without cramping my wrists to one side. In addition, the vent slots on the bottom of the computer are placed so that there is no place I can rest the computer on my left knee without covering some of the vents. I have resolved both of these problems by placing a piece of Plexiglass on my lap and resting the computer on it. The computer felt hot on the bottom near the vents when I rested it on my lap, but when I rest it on the Plexiglass, it still feels cool, even after hours of use. The Plexiglass support also allows me to shift the placement of the computer so that I do not need to cramp my wrists to one side. I usually have this piece of Plexiglas with me to use as a writing board, anyway.

I am trying to restrict my comments to an evaluation of this computer without drifting into a review of Windows 7. Having said that, I used a computer with Vista on it and did not like Vista. Somehow, I am finding Windows 7 to be very nice, even though there are strong similarities between them. Already I have found some things easier to find and do than on Windows XP, like add a second keyboard configuration.

The keyboard is nicely responsive. The display is crisp and clear, even on battery. My old HP laptop went to a less bright display on battery. I have allowed the battery to go down until the low battery warning appeared, but did not time how long battery life is. I am guessing it is around three hours.

I am pleased that the larger, wider "letter box" format still allows the computer to fit into the bag I used earlier to carry my old laptop.

The touchpad can be programmed so that a tap to the upper left corner functions just like a right mouse button. It has taken a while, but I have finally learned how to find the right spot quickly. I let my finger slide over the corner around the touchpad and then lightly onto the touchpad. Then I simply raise my finger and the menus prompted by the right mouse button appear. I have also found the touchpad responds to the padded area below the tip of my index finger better than to the tip of my finger. There is no need to tap hard on the touchpad. It responds to electrical capacitance between it and your finger.

I know there are problems for synchronizing Palm Handhelds with Windows 7, since Palm handhelds ceased to be available well before Windows 7 was introduced. I was able to download a free copy of Palm Desktop Software, version 6.2 and it runs well on this laptop. My handheld is a Sony Clie' and I have a Sony Memory Stick card for backing up all of its data. My Sony Vaio computer has slots for memory cards, but neither of them accepts a Sony Memory Stick. My Clie' does not synchronize with the Palm desktop software, but I can export my Palm files to a thumb drive and load them onto my Sony laptop. To update calendar items without making duplicate entries, I delete the user name which deletes all entries. Then I can enter my user name again and load updated Palm files.

I do not play games, but surf the Internet and do word processing. The keyboard is very comfortable for continuous touch typing. This computer has plenty of power for what I do.

I know some have had difficulty installing a printer on computers using Windows 7, but I had no trouble at all. I am finding this is a great laptop. Surfing the 'Net is faster on the same wireless connection I have been using now for a couple of years.

I had some problems a few days after I got this computer. SONY's support people were very polite and helpful. I documented everything with e-mails to technical support. After a while it became clear to them that my hard drive was failing. They told me a local technician would contact me and replace the hard drive. He came to my house within the specified time frame promised by the technical service people. He also left the software installation discs. Those are a $40 item if purchased on-line. Hard drives are like water pumps on automobiles. They can last a long time, or they can fail shortly after installation. (I once had a new water pump fail within its first 100 miles.)

Overall, I am pleased with this computer. I have been using it for more than a year since the installation of the new hard drive. Not only has it been flawless, but it is a delight to use.

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With a $400.00 budget I compared two laptops from W-mart, an Acer Aspire 7714Z-4643 with an Intel Pentium P6100 for $358.20 and the Sony VAIO VPCEE31FX/BJ AMD Athlon P340 for $403.20 both with 3GB of RAM. The Acer is a great deal and spec-wise is superior of the two with L3 cache and an excellent 17.3" screen in a very slim design.

I am not a gamer although I wanted something responsive and the Pentium 6100 with the L3 cache clearly benchmarks faster than the Athlon P340 but the VAIO uses ATI Radeon 4250 graphics. After using both laptops the Acer booted up noticeably faster although the VAIO appeared to perform more smoothly overall. They were both very responsive for my needs which are mainly to browse the web, use MS Word and Excel (The Starter Edition that does not expire is included), watch videos and listen to music from MS Media Center with the ability to multitask well.

I ended up keeping the VAIO because of the build quality, excellent island style keyboard with 10-key, great touchpad, and the included Sony software which I found very useful and enjoyable to use. One feature I like is Sony's VAIO Gate that conveniently places your favorite icons easily available from a neat drop down menu at the top of the screen.

The numeric keypad is great to have even though the touchpad will be off-centered, there's no way around it unless you want your left index finger at the [J] key and the right one at the [ ;] key on the home row. The VAIO 10-key configuration for a laptop is easy to adjust to and very efficient after just a short period of use.

Having installed Norton 360 internet security the VAIO still performs very well with no noticeable slowdown.

PROS:

+ Athlon P340 is plenty fast and responsive even without L3 cache.

+ Excellent build quality and feel.

+ Great screen with ATI Catalyst control center software for adjustments.

+ Comfortably responsive keyboard and touchpad.

+ I personally like Sony's software.

CONS:

Weak speakers. (bought a Logitech Z-305 sound bar which is amazing)

Only 3GB of RAM.

Glossy palm rest shows smudges and finger prints.

Textured touchpad has good feel but bumps may wear out over time.

Price is higher than the competition for relative specs although VAIO build quality is better.

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I have had this computer for about 16 months. It has been buggy from day 1, but I assumed it was a Windows 7 thing since it was relatively new when I bought the computer. I have finally decided it must be this computer. It won't shut down unless you force it to due to some Sony program running in the background. I have tried to figure out how to shut it off to no avail. The DVD drive has gone bad, the power cord has gone bad, and it randomly shuts down periodically. What a $500 lemon! Stay AWAY! I'm going back to Dell

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ASUS B43S-XH51 (14.1-Inch Screen) Laptop

I had been looking for a medium priced laptop that also had lots of features. Being patient, I knew eventually I would find what I wanted for the right price. I located this Asus B43S-XH51 laptop on Amazon by accident. I was looking through the ASUS website and saw this Business laptop that was made extremely well and offered everything I wanted and more. The price was a really good deal. Then I noticed their website mentioned Amazon was one of the retailers offering this laptop, so I clicked on it.

I like ASUS products because I have owned several of their products, including two Netbooks that have served me very well. This system came equipped with

a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5-2520M, 4 GB DIMM (I also purchased 8gb upgrade separately) 500 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive (I wanted a 256gb SSD, but couldn't beat this price), a 14.1-Inch Screen (which is the perfect size for traveling) and Windows 7 Professional (which I have on my Home PC and my wife's Laptop, so I am completely familiar and happy with Win 7 Pro. This system fit my need perfectly.

Once I received it, I fell in love with this laptop. Its very attractive, super well designed and constructed and operates flawlessly. The screen has several adjustments and is very clear and bright. Battery life is typical for a laptop, about 2.5 3 hours with continuous use. I thought I would look for a bigger battery, but when using this in my travels, I seldom use it where there is no outlets and when I do, I have never totally exhausted the battery. Its not the lightest laptop out there, but I prefer heavy constructed aluminum case and the very durable overall construction of this laptop over saving weight. What's an extra pound anyway, its not like you're going jogging while carrying it anyway.

I give this laptop 5-stars and with my history using ASUS products, I fully expect trouble free years of use from it also. And I want to add that the battery comes with a full 3-year warranty.

Bought for my wife's telework this because I have had great reliability and performance with ASUS products before--router, netbook, desktop mother boards, etc. We bought the business laptop because we thought it would be more reliable and rugged. We have had to send to California ($20 each time for shipping, and minimum two weeks) for service twice within the first three months as the network adapter failed within a few day of use. I finally just bought a $20 USB network adapter. Will not buy ASUS again, which is disappointing! Otherwise, a great laptop.

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I purchased this laptop as a birthday gift for a college software major. it is outstanding! Very fast very durable and the person who received it love the laptop. I've always like ASUS products and I will continue to purchase them. Additionally with the second day shipping with my Amazon prime I received it fast.

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I don't like this computer because doesnot have good internet connection when is on battery, yo can not use this laptop on battery for searching the web has to be conected to power suply, I most of the time use laptop on battery because in the place I live we don't have alway power, so to me this computer is useless. I am trying to return it but there is no answere from the seller just from Amazon hope to solve this problem soon so I can get different laptop. the another thing in baterry saving also does not have internet signal. minor dislikes: speaker sound quality is poor, and the fun is noise too, I never had computer like that loud is anoying, battry last 3.5 hours.

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It's just new model but it good one. It light weight. It have one 4GB memory so I can easy add another 4GB memory. It's very nice outside.

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Toshiba Satellite C855-S5118 15.6-Inch Laptop (Satin Black Trax) / 4GB DDR3 RAM Memory / 320GB Hard

I'm enjoying this computer and so far, after a couple of weeks, I'm having no problems with it. Windows 8 takes some getting used to but it's easier than I expected. When I go into normal programs I use the desk top which is readily available in the start menu. I don't use all of the programs in the start menu by choice. Some of them are great. Others I just have no interest in. The display is beautiful and sharp. As of now I am very happy with this purchase. I would give it a 5 star rating but it's to new.

Our daughter's 10-yr old computer died so we sent her a Toshiba laptop which was just like the one we have. She is as thrilled with hers as we are with ours !

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For $400 bucks it's about what you'd expect. It's got Windows 8 on it, and the apps often run, making the computer slow at times. The keyboard is awful for me at least. I have typed worse on this keyboard than on any other. But your mileage may vary on that point. Otherwise, it's decent. Screen is a good size, it's light-weight, and it does what I need it to do. If it had Windows XP on it, I would like it better, but the laptop itself is decent for the price.

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Good day, I am very happy with my new laptop, it made ​​me lack. I recommend it!! I have been very useful. thanks again! up soon

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It was a birthday present and she need a new laptop. She is still setting it up for her needs and she loves the wide variety of uses it provides her in both her work and recreation.

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Sony VAIO VPCS137GX/B 13.3" Silver Laptop

this laptop is compact and pretty fast. A businessman look laptop. A must have laptop for the people who are not into gaming and want to use the laptop for its real use.

I got this laptop about a year ago and it's still going strong. Only way I could see myself upgrading is for a newer Vaio, Alienware, or a Mac at some point.

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Sleek and more than enough power for the normal Joe. This is a Grade A laptop. The keyboard is what got me. Love the quite key taps.

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I am a bit disappointed that the laptop is very slow and sluggish. I have owned a Vaio laptop before even though the RAM was only 2GB, and 6 years older its performance was a lot much better than this one. I am afraid to load new applications for fear that it might slow it down even more. It comes with a single drive unlike my older Vaio which had factory partitioned drives. The only positive on this laptop is the battery, a standard battery which can go up to 6 hours and a bit! And I love the silver colour it appears rich and expensive.

Sony VAIO VPCS137GX/B 13.3" Silver Laptop

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How could Sony come out with a serie of laptops that people are complaining about their low volume for years, and still not fix it. You have to raise all the dials to 100% in order to hardly hear it. You can use earphones but that is why they invented MP3 players for. If one had to attach external speakers to it, then what is the benefit of buying a small and light laptop.

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HP Compaq Mobile Workstation 8510w Notebook

I got this laptop last year and was worried that I'd paid too much. My worries were put to rest right away! Not only is the screen amazing but the graphics capability is as well. It really did what it was supposed to do.. Get me away from my desktop. Mine is the Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz model but with the ATI Fire GL graphics card. It has everything you could ask for in any computer, laptop or desktop. The design still looks like something that would be out this year too (2012). I upgraded to Windows 7 on mine (not a fan of Vista) and it runs even smoother and quicker than before. I definitely recommend this to anyone. My friend is even able to game on his (I've never tried but I know the graphics are pretty state of the artplus I found out that it's one of the only laptops out that actually has a removable Graphics card. That means you can upgrade or replace it if it goes bad. Almost all laptops have integrated graphics so this is a pretty big deal).

The power adapter failed within a month. And the hard drive failed after about a year and half.

It has also developed a strange problem: sometimes it runs very slow when on AC power and as soon as the AC power adapter is unplugged it runs fine. It is very repeatable; the cpu usage goes up and down as the power adapter is plugged and unplugged. There are discussions on the web by other HP notebook PC users with similar experience. The cause appears to be the power low condition from the adapter is incorrectly detected by the PC and the PC reduces the clock rate to save power. It corroborates with the fact that the CPU clock rate stays at 777MHz (instead of 2.6GHz) regardless the power scheme setting when on AC. Other people have corrected the problem by replacing the power adapter.

Given the many problems that I experienced with the HP notebook PC 8510w and also HP PhotoSmart 2575 printer, I don't think I'll buy another HP product.

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the laptop runs like jet plane all the time. The fan noise never stops and much loader than my desktop sitting of the floor.

I would consider this as a defect product.

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Lenovo E530 32597AU 15.6-Inch Laptop

I shopped around quite a bit for laptops, before choosing this Lenovo. It is a classy computer, with a non-glare screen, which is large enough to make you forget you're on a laptop...though you can certainly get larger ones. You might also get a cheaper computer, but this one is one I'd recommend for the money. Tech support with Lenovo is supposed to be good, but I haven't needed it...so I guess that is even better. You might want to also invest in a Lenovo wireless mouse, if you don't care for the finger pad. The computer comes loaded with software, but even so, you'll need to purchase an office program extra if you want one. I bought WordPerfect Suite X5, & found it much cheaper & in some ways easier to use than MS Office. But take your choice!

You know they call these laptops...& they are....but put this computer on a hard flat surface, even in your lap, so you won't block any of the cooling air intakes, some of which are on the bottom.

My ThinkPad Edge E530 was the display at Office Depot. I specifically did NOT want a windows 8 machine, and this seemed to be the last laptop left on planet earth without Windows 8 preloaded. Since it was the display, I got a deal. ($450). You can order this machine from Lenovo with the processor and features you wish, and windows 7 instead of 8.

It is heavier than most of the new models, and it would not be a great 'travel' laptop. My machine has an i5 3d gen processor, 750G hard drive, fingerprint scanner, and upgraded sound. The screen resolution? Very average, but I do not really care about this feature. The sound is fine, and the mics are better than the average laptop. Like all machines, it does come loaded with some bloatware, but some of it (Thinkpad utilities) is good, some (Norton) I decrapified right away. It is a bit early to sing the praises of this machine, but so far it seems to me to be a zippy, solid little machine. I own some older Thinkpads that I got off Craigslist for a song, and while they are basic (small HD's, no webcam etc.) they have been dropped, kicked around etc., and they keep on ticking.

Pros: Microphone placement allows for great VOIP/Google voice calls. Network adapter seems to be fantastic (picks up half the neighborhood) Nice speed, and I love the fingerprint scanner

Cons: Heavier than most laptops, so-so screen resolution, and does not boot as fast as a Windows8 machine. (For $15 I can upgrade, but I do not want to do this, I'm happy with Windows 7).

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I love this computer! Runs fast, light, thin, and comes wrapped up in bubble rap and its original which shows me that blinq took the extra time to take care off my package and make me feel like I am important. I will be buying from them in the future;)

Side note the track pad takes time getting used to (be sure to download latest drivers for best experience)

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Working great still right out of box. Fast delivery with Prime. This was for sons college laptop and he's quite happy with speed. I upgraded memory but thats all I had to do.

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Just love it! this is my third ThinkPad and they have all been great performers. This is not an entertainment computer, it is the best general business laptop I have ever used. I have had many other brands.

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Toshiba Satellite E305-S1995 14" Laptop (Intel Core i5-2410M Processor, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive

I have had this laptop for almost two years now, and I can tell you that it was worth every penny.

I bought this as a Black Friday deal for only $600, which was a steal considering the feature set of this laptop. I heard of a lot of reviewers complaining of keyboard malfunctions and the sort, but I have not experienced anything so far.

PERFORMANCE:

The i5 processor is great and fast. 1080p video is streamed flawlessly for the most part. I have tons of third-party software on this laptop and the 6GB RAM helps in maintaining the speed. Compared to a year ago, I have noticed that start-up is significantly slower, but that is normal with any laptop.

The laptop does heat up, especially when you are doing graphic-intensive work, or downloading a large, high quality video file. And the fan is somewhat noisy too.

KEYBOARD:

I love the keyboard. It has a back-lit functionality which is useful and I use it often. The keys are spaced out well and I don't need to press too hard to get a response. The keys are swift and responsive. It is a glossy keyboard, however, so, after some time, the oil from your fingers will make some impressions on the keys, but you can easily clean this with a slightly damp napkin.

TOUCHPAD:

It's not multi-touch, which is one of the few drawbacks of this laptop, but the touchpad is still responsive and sturdy. It feels a bit rough at first, but I got used to it quickly.

SPEAKERS:

The biggest flaw. The speakers are at the front, bottom portion of the laptop, so most of the noise is directed downwards, instead of upwards. This is frustrating sometimes, with certain low-volume videos. I was particularly annoyed at Toshiba for missing something that could have been an easy fix. If the speakers were placed above the keyboard and retained the quality they have now, I would have definitely have given this laptop five stars.

BLURAY:

A great feature. I used it once with no issues. The quality was great and the player streamed the video flawlessly. The drive, however, does become rather noisy and warm, but not loud enough to really disrupt the movie.

Some reviewers say the laptop is fragile, but I have dropped this laptop from about 3 feet onto a hard floor, which only caused a minor dent on lower right hand side and a minor dent on the screen. This happened several months ago and the computer is still working fine. I was surprised that the laptop took so little damage!

Overall, I would recommend this laptop. It works great for students who want more than just an academic laptop. You can do your homework but at the same time watch high quality videos. This laptop can handle all of it.

UPDATE JULY 2013:

Well, it has been almost two years since I purchased this laptop. For the first time, I am seeing some "wear and tear". The touchpad can be scratched off to reveal its undercoat. Not a big deal, really, because the damage is minimal.

It works well and is reasonably priced, buut the screen broke twice in 10 month and isn't covered by warranty.

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Lots of nice extras, good battery life. This computer has a Blu-ray player, back-lit keyboard, a Hybrid Drive (part ssd part standard 7200 rpm HDD), great sounding Dolby speakers, WiMax, push2TV, and the Toshiba Eco Utility is really nice. With the click of a button I can go into a power efficient mode without having to sift through menus.

and oh yeah...

WINDOWS 7 FOR LIFE!!!!

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This is a very fragile laptop. The keyboard is marginally responsive. The touchpad is extremely buggy. Even when three feet away the WiDi loses the connection. Worst of all, it comes with a two year warranty, but when you call Toshiba they say your one year phone service has come to an end. I'm not sure how to use the remainder of the warranty. I will never purchase a Toshiba again.

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The keypad was non-responsive on arrival (twice), called Toshiba, after 4 hours on the phone for an out of the box product they said they will not honor warranty. Returned both products which were defective out of box, and bought HP. Will never touch Toshiba computers gain.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y560P 43972AU 15.6" Notebook (2.0 GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500

While I didn't purchase this item from Amazon, I would like to say that as someone who relies on Amazon quite a bit for reviews I wanted to share my experience.

Unboxing:

The unboxing process was pretty straight forward, very minimalist packaging. The machine is fairly well protected in styrofoam blocks on either end of the laptop. The AC adapter and cord was stored in 2 little cardboard boxes and the user guide was also included (about the size of a CD jewel case). Just a note, there were no drivers or OS discs included, these are on the Lenovo recovery partition.

First Startup:

Usual Windows 7 experience. My one gripe was that it was bloatware galore. Many of these programs are kind of interesting (face recognition for login), various other "feel good" kind of apps that I can just imagine are sucking all of the performance out of this machine. The initial impressions are that the keyboard feels outstanding, not very much flex, good responsiveness and comfortable to type on. The control button on the bottom left is actually to the right of the function button which has taken a lot of getting used to. There are a lot of soft-keys that serve various purposes (quick launch of favorite programs, etc.), but I don't use those too much. This thing has LED's galore for anything and everything you can possibly think of, reminds me of those movies with machines with a ton of blinky lights that don't really do anything.

The touchpad is exceptional for a PC laptop. Macs have the market cornered with their glass touchpads that are a dream to navigate on, but this has to be a good alternative. The touchpad is textured so the tactile feedback is nice when you're moving the cursor around. There are 2 touchpad buttons, and they are a little bit on the smooshy side but not too bad.

The screen is 1366x768 (yes I know everyone is going to complain that it's not 1080p, but to me this wasn't a big deal). For laptop gaming, lower resolutions will probably get you better framerates anyway (if that's your purpose for buying this machine). I found the screen to be very clear, decent horizontal viewing angles but the vertical viewing angles weren't that great.

The power cord hooks in to the right side of the machine, but it's far enough back that it shouldn't be too big a deal. Plus, they were smart enough to make the power plug a right angle so that when you plug it in the cord goes backwards parallel with the case. The last notebook I tried had a cord on the right, but the plug wasn't a right angle so the cord went straight into the space where your mouse will probably be if you're a righty.

The DVD drive sounds like a jet engine, but most of them do anyway. The machine is very quiet, when gaming some fan noise can be heard but it isn't too bad. If you're looking for a quiet gaming machine, take a look at the G53/G73 Asus (Asi?). Those also have the added advantage of making you invisible to enemy radar.

Ports: On the right you have a USB and USB/eSata combo port along with an ExpressCard slot, power port and Kensington slot. On the left you have VGA, HDMI, LAN, 2 USB ports and Mic/Headphone ports.

Gaming: I'm not going to throw framerates / settings at you because those will be very subjective based on your specific configuration and whether or not you know what you're doing. I will just say I've played Rift, Mafia 2, BFBC2, L4D2, Supreme Commander 2 and TF2 on this machine so far and they played very well at respectable settings. I wouldn't categorize this machine as a desktop replacement, I still use my desktop for primary gaming, but the Lenovo will take very good care of you when you're away from home or if you are on a budget.

Upgrading RAM / Hard Drive So incredibly easy that it's not even worth talking about. Make sure you have a good set of computer / precision screwdrivers and you're set. This isn't surgery like removing an appendix or anything-1 panel and you're pretty much done.

If you have a Windows 7 HP disk or if you know how to download a clean one from Microsoft, I highly recommend doing a fresh install. If you don't overwrite the Lenovo partition you can use it as the source for all of the drivers you need, and if you need to put it back to "factory" settings you can easily do that as well.

So, to summarize:

Pros:

Keyboard/Touchpad, great action and feel.

Decent performance

Sandy bridge

Cons:

Why Lenovo had to put the function key in the bottom left instead of control, we'll never know.

5400RPM Hard drive, easily upgraded

Fingerprint magnet, get a good microfiber cloth

UPDATE:

Make sure you have latest drivers. Dithering effect on screen was driving me bonkers, but the right driver goes a long way. Also, I've noticed that dithering effect comes back if you put the machine in standby and then wake it up (sometimes). If you experience dithering, do a full reboot and make sure you have latest drivers.

This computer has some good parts on paper but they're stuffed inside a flimsy plastic box. After just over a year of use, I'm on my third motherboard. This computer is costing Lenovo a fortune to fix with shipping alone. I think that both times, the computer was overheating and shutting off, especially when gaming (even java games). I'm not convinced that laptops should have desktop parts in them. This computer is certainly an example. The screen resolution is not good. With specs like this, they should be utilizing more screen real estate. Battery life? You guessed it, abysmal. The speakers and keyboard are nice. That's the best I can say about it. If you want to play graphically intensive games, seriously, get a desktop. It's a lot cheaper than one of those expensive Alienware/MSI rigs. If you need to make the desktop mobile, build a micro atx rig and install a carrying handle on top. Cheap computers with hot parts is not a good mix.

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Pros:

I just received this laptop today. This PC runs very fast, which matches its high tech specs, i7+4g ddr3+ati 6570. Therefore, it basically can handle everything I need to run on it.

I tested two games on it, WOW and SC2. Both of them run very smoothly on this machine at high settings. Temperature does go up a bit when gaming, but its quite tolerable.

Speakers quality is good.

Not heavy as a 15.6 laptop.

Price is competitive for a i7+dedicated video cards.

Cons:

Poor build quality, totally like a plastic toy. It's like you can break it quite easily.

Comes with only one partition that is C: and I can't resize it in Windows. Though I handled it with a small partition software I don't like the producer's attitude that put all disk space into one partition.

Power cable is on the right side, if you're using mouse on a small table, it would annoy you.

5400 rpm hard disk.

Some bloatware.

Overall, it's a good laptop with good specs. I hope the poor build quality can last long enough because I carry laptop to school almost everyday.

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I've had my ideapad y560p for about 14 months now. The machine is great. People talk about the bloatware in some of the reviews but these must be people who've only dealt with home built or business grade machines. Trust me, the amount of extra software on this thing is minimal and doesn't slow the machine down at all. (Curses to you HP & Dell in this regard!) The extra software bits that are on the machine are useful like a program to create split screens for programs, one to create full backups of your system and software, etc. And instead of hundreds of bloatware programs the machine only comes twenty or so. Their removal is easy enough if you chose. It won't take you hours like a commercial HP or Dell machine will.

First thing though you'll probably want to remove is the installed anti-spyware. It comes with McAfee, a notoriously bad software bundle. Microsoft's firewall and spyware protection is free and doesn't cause you any issues. You'll probably want to remove the facial recognition/log-in program too. After playing with it for a few weeks you'll notice that even though it's cute, it will not recognize you easily in low light conditions and it delays the boot-up.

The keyboard is solid, which is why I went with the machine. The Thinkpad line is sturdier built but are costlier. It was the keyboard that brought me to this machine. Most consumer grade PCs outside of the Apple realm have horrid keyboards. You will notice that this machine's keyboard has switched the spots for the 'ctrl' and 'alt' keys. If you're used to an Apple keyboard, or so I'm told, this won't be a bother. It is something I've learned to overcome in time.

The machine produces excellent video quality and runs like a dream. The speakers are fantastic, producing better sound than the small HD TV I have in my son's room.

The track pad is decent & responsive. A little too responsive. When I type I will rest my hand on the track pad and accidently move the mouse & my cursor when I least want to. It also uses a scrolling method where your two fingers are to be slightly spread and not together. This is annoying and the only thing I've not learned to do consistently. In the end I use a wireless mouse for most of my activities and have the track pad turned off.

In the end it is a solid machine. I would have given it a perfect 5 stars, except for the track pad weirdness. Yes, the track pad is great but its quirks are more of a headache for someone who uses their laptop 90% of the time for typing.

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I believe it deserves 4 stars (for non-gaming), but 2 stars if you need the external monitor connected.

I don't write reviews as often as I should, but the problems that this machine has prompted me to write a review.

I don't use this laptop for gaming (no time).

I use it for programming, scripture research, listening to music and browsing the Internet, and other things.

PROS:

Works when used for non-gaming tasks.

Plays music well WITHOUT monitor attachment.

CONS:

* Plays music / sound close to horrible when external monitor is attached.

The monitor as well as the music consume the first CPU core, and so when it gets busy, the music gets ruined.

So forget about playing movies or music on this machine while it's VGA-output is connected.

* Rendering w/ Maya 5.0 fails. It worked on my older PC. Perhaps a more latest Maya would render correctly. But I just can't render with this machine. So no Maya work on this machine! This is indicative of possible other rendering issues, which are unknown.

* Minor: if you have an audio plug inserted, while listening to music, and then you unplug, the audio won't transfer to the internal speakers. However, a work around is to put the PC to sleep and then wake up, and then audio will play into the internal speakers.

So the biggest problem for me really is not being able to use the VGA output, as I like to use the big monitor to do work more efficiently while listening to music. Also, I can't watch movies with a projector or big screen TV.

*I don't know about HDMI-out however! Maybe it won't ruin the sound stream. *

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Acer LX.PY902.035 7741z-4643 Intel Pentium Dual-core 2.0ghz 3gb 250gb Dvd/rw 17.3 Windows7

The design and huge screen of this Acer laptop is fantastic. However, there was a major flaw in the process by which Acer installed software on this laptop model that causes it to randomly freeze--at least that is the cause that I read online at some point in researching this laptop's glitches. Sometimes a couple of weeks will go by with no mishap, other times the laptop will freeze 3 times in one day. I have wasted countless hours online looking for a solution (working with the battery removed, flashing the BIOS with an update) and nothing has worked. It's an attractive machine but if Acer can't even get software installation right to avoid its products having such a fatal flaw, then I'm afraid this is the first and only Acer product I will buy. The mousepad is also infuriatingly hard to control, worse than any laptop mousepad I've ever used. Sometimes the mouse will get stuck on the right side of the screen for a couple of minutes and no movement whatsoever will free it until it just fixes itself after a minute or two. Avoid.

This product was not new. It had some issues out of the box, which has been resolved, one of the keys has already came off and looks as if it has been glued on before. After the tech issues were resolved the computer its self is great.

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Acer Aspire V3-571-6698 15.6-Inch Laptop (Midnight Black)

I'm going to preface my review with the caveat that I bought this laptop to replace my 10+ years old(!) laptop. So basically, I'd be impressed with anything made in this decade.

In any event, I bought this after much online comparison between this and a Toshiba laptop. The Toshiba laptop had slightly better specs (one more additional USB 3.0 port and higher RAM) but the Acer laptop just looks better. And sure enough, once I brought it out of the box, I was impressed by how sleek and sexy it looks in person. Yes, it's a sexy laptop!

So, pros (asides from sexy appearance):

I'm most impressed so far with how fast it handled iTunes. Even on my husband's newer (but still old) desktop computer, iTunes take forever to load. This probably loaded iTunes in a few seconds.

USB 3.0 is fast. An album pretty much transfers instantly from my portable harddrive. If I selected 20 or so albums at a time, it probably takes less than a minute. It used to take at least two days to transfer some 5,000 songs to my iPod on my old laptop. On this computer, it took about two hours.

Sound and video both play well on this laptop. I don't need my laptop to be an entertainment center so my expectations aren't high in either regards. But from what I've used of the audio and video components, the laptop more than meets my expectations in terms of having a good sound when playing back audio and video looking crisp.

It's extremely quiet, even when the fans come on. Along with the quiet, it hasn't had issues with overheating. I've ran it for 2-3 hour periods and it's never felt slightly warmer than room temperature. It's advertised to have up to 4.5 hours of battery life and so far, that's been correct. Running a game lowers the battery life but it's to be expected and not a major issue. It's light (again, compared to my ancient laptop). I had to run up and down the stairs a couple of time with it and I barely know it's there.

Recently, I've tried accessing my work computer from home with this laptop in an attempt to debug whatever was wrong with my work computer. The laptop handled really well with running that task while installing a game and surfing the internet at the same time. I didn't notice any lags or slowdowns at all.

The only game I ran on it so far is Sims 3 and I haven't had a chance to play too much of it yet. So far, the graphics handled well and the game played smoothly for the most part. There were two times while in the game that I was kicked out to the desktop. The first time, I just pulled up the program again and the game continued right where it left off with no issues. The second time was the battery low warning. I don't know what the reason for the first glitch (maybe also battery?) was but it was no huge deal since it didn't affect the game much at all.

The cons:

I was initially put off by the Windows 8 interface. To be honest, I still hate it. But after some tinkering, I was able to make the Start screen somewhat less offensive to me by uninstalling and unpinning a lot of the useless apps. Still, I think the Windows 8 interface is a big downgrade. But I can't really blame the Acer laptop for running whatever is the newest Microsoft product and so I'm not letting stupid Windows 8 affect the product rating. Maybe one day I'll downgrade it to Windows 7.

The Charm Bar. Ugh! Another useless Windows 8 invention. I used Windows registry to suppress it but it still comes up occasionally when I hover in the lower right corner too long

I think the touchpad is a bit too sensitive sometimes. I had to turn off the one touch drag feature because it was too difficult to navigate with it inadvertently dragging a lot of the windows and icons about. Even after it has been turned off, I still get inadvertent clicks. I've already changed the sensitivity of the touchpad in the settings but I'm still getting inadvertent clicks. But I guess I'll just have to continue fiddling with the settings until I get something I'm satisfied with.

In conclusion, the only real con against the laptop would be the too-sensitive touchpad, which I'm sure is fixable with some tinkering of its settings. The Windows 8 one of the most terrible OS ever hoisted upon consumers can't really count against the laptop's rating. It's a really great computer for work, internet, entertainment (for the non-discerning audience) and light gaming. I'm really glad I got this over the other laptops I was looking through.

Even though it was a gift given I heard that it is amazing. When he connected it to his network it transferred all his desktop files easily. He is very happy with it.

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I love it love it love it, not to fond of windows 8 yet but learning. This is my second Acer computer and I have found they are one of the best out there. Great sound, great graphics, beautiful styling, clear screen FAST FAST FAST Great gaming computer as well as everyday use. An A++++++ recommendation

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My son loves it! He got if for Christmas and loves it. It is very fast, does not crash, and does not over heat.

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a lot of adjusting to be familiar with windows 8 but after you get the hang of it...everything is fast and smooth and great. for a low price laptop i find it very helpful

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HP ProBook 4730s Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-2630QM, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, Blu-ray Burner, ATI Mobil

I bought this laptop in December 2012 and took it on an overseas trip. It regularly and predictably crashed with the blue screen of death after about 30 minutes. With reboot I got 30 more minutes of work done. When I came back I wasted hours with HP tech support. Finally I sent it in for repair. It came back with a new disk, motherboard, battery and a new video card with no drivers. After installing the drivers the video card works. But now the screen "flickers" and allows keyboard input only randomly. Windows update does not work. I sent it back for repairs yesterday. Will keep you posted on this saga.

I bought this computer in March 2012. It baked itself into non-boot-ability by March 2013, 10 days out of warranty.

HP reps laughed at me and suggested I solder the computer back together.

Look it up, HP has lost AT LEAST THREE LAWSUITS for premature failure due to video card heat. They have not changed their ways. HP reps thought it was funny that the public doesn't know this yet.

If you buy a decent video card, your HP laptop WILL CRASH IN 20 MINUTES of video, with loss of data, singeing and property damage to the tabletop.

Mine sat on a 1" thick oak table, which it cracked twice due to extreme heat cycling. Plastic on the bottom softened into the singed cracks.

Buying a $60 cooling tray extends video runtime before data-loss and crash to almost 30 minutes, but God help you if you take it off the cradle, or put it on your lap. 150 degrees F, second-degree burns, furniture damage, battery explosion risk, all due to completely unmanaged heat.

Educate yourself about this company's lawsuit history and -80% recent stock price trajectory before buying anything HP! Used to be a great institution, but has been looted.

Buy HP ProBook 4730s Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-2630QM, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, Blu-ray Burner, ATI Mobil Now

I bought this for my wife to use for her schooling and she loves it. I wish it had a little better screen resolution, but other than that its pretty fast and can handle everything she uses it for at school.

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I loved this for what I needed. The packaging worked well for us and our company. We appreciate it Too few words still

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HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3" Win8 (Black)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Once you remove all of the bloatware and unnecessary HP apps, and adjust Windows 8 settings to your liking, this laptop is quite fast and enjoyable to use. But it takes a while to get there.

===== First, the hardware: =====

Fast boot and resume times, especially after making the software tweaks mentioned below. Windows 8 boots quickly, and after you close the lid and reopen it to resume, it is ready in about 2-3 seconds.

The laptop is a bit on the heavy side, but feels and looks well-built.

The Beats Audio sound is great, as most Beats Audio sound devices are.

The screen is bright and beautiful.

The keys are comfortable, and the configurable multi-touch touchpad works well.

The touchpad recognizes the following multi-touch swipe patterns: two finger scrolling, pinch zoom, rotating, three finger press, three finger flick, and four finger flick.

The function keys also operate things like the brightness, volume, media operation, and turning wi-fi on and off to help conserve battery life.

There are no built-in Bluetooth capabilities. An inexpensive USB Bluetooth dongle fixes the problem, but it would have been nice to have Bluetooth included.

The camera works well, even in low-light.

===== Next, the software: =====

I am not going to include my opinion of Windows 8 as part of the rating on this laptop. I am not a huge fan of Windows 8 on non-touch devices, but when you add a piece of software like the free, open-source program "Classic Shell" that adds back the old start menu as well as the ability to boot directly to the desktop, it makes things a lot more enjoyable.

This laptop comes loaded with lots of games and applications you may not want to use, and there is no option to include or exclude any of these applications from your installation when you first boot up. Here is the list of pre-installed apps and links to online services:

Norton Internet Security 2012 (60-day trial); Windows Live; Beats Audio; Cyberlink Power2Go; CyberLink PowerDVD; CyberLink YouCam DE; eBay; HP CoolSense; HP Games by WildTangent; HP MyRoom; HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection (HP 3D DriveGuard); HP Recovery Manager; HP Support Assistant; Netflix; Skype; Amazon Kindle e-reader; iHeart Radio; HP Connected Photo powered by Snapfish; Solitaire; Mahjong; HP Connected Backup; CyberLink Power Director; CyberLink Photo Director; Windows 8 Store Apps; HP Online User Guide; HP Registration; HP Connected Music powered by Meridia

There is no Microsoft Office license included. I recommend the free alternatives "Open Office" or "LibreOffice".

The first thing I did when I booted this laptop was uninstall the HP-branded version of Norton Internet Security trial, as I already have my own license for it. I installed the regular version and turned off the smart firewall feature so I had full control over every application that wanted to connect to the internet. I was shocked at just how many different HP programs are installed and run at startup and try and connect to various websites for whatever reason. I am sure some of them were just checking for updates, but there were way too many different programs trying to connect to too many different servers for my tastes. This is a major pet peeve of mine. I immediately evaluated which HP apps I absolutely needed (almost none of them) and uninstalled the rest.

I also noticed some other pre-installed apps running at startup, like some of the Cyberlink apps, so I disabled those as well. There were also some HP and other third-party Windows services running that I disabled. After uninstalling and disabling all of the unnecessary apps, the laptop ran much faster and smoother. And as I mentioned earlier, boot and resume times are very fast. The only exception to the nice speed is the opening of Metro apps, but it is not necessarily the fault of this laptop. I have seen many complaints online about Metro apps loading slowly.

The screen brightness was constantly automatically adjusting, making for a horrible experience. I investigated the power options and noticed a setting for "Adaptive Brightness" so I turned that off, but the screen was still constantly changing brightness. I eventually found a way to disable this. Right-click on the desktop, select the AMD Vision Engine Control Center. Go to POWER > POWER PLAY and disable VARI-BRIGHT.

TIP: To possibly improve the WiFi's range and/or performance, especially when running on battery, see my post on page 4 of the comments under my review.

===== Benchmark: =====

If you would like to run the freeware benchmarking program NovaBench on one of your current computers and compare it to this one, here are my average results after I made the changes mentioned above.

Total NovaBench score: 557

5603 MB System RAM (Score: 139)

RAM Speed: 5142 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 230)

Floating Point Operations/Second: 62790020

Integer Operations/Second: 174282404

MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 536782

Graphics Tests (Score: 150)

3D Frames Per Second: 454

Hardware Tests (Score: 38)

Primary Partition Capacity: 672 GB

Drive Write Speed: 71 MB/s

===== Windows Experience Score: =====

Here are my scores from the System Control Panel:

Calculations per second: 6.7

Memory: 7.2

Graphics: 6.8

Gaming graphics: 6.8

Primary hard disk and base score: 5.9

===== Summary: =====

I am quite happy with this laptop's looks and performance, but I had to deduct one star because of how many applications were pre-installed and pre-configured to run on startup, and because of how many of these programs try and connect to the Internet before I even open any of them.

If I can answer any specific questions for you, please ask.

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Over the years laptops have become lighter faster and thinner. This HP Envy DV7 is no exception. At first glance, you will be impressed by it's sheer size. It seems that laptops that were 17 inches in the past weighed 13 pounds or more. This device is half that weight.

This Hewlett-Packard has a full-sized keyboard for laptop. It also sports a separate numeric keypad so that you can input numbers more easily. The separate numeric keypad is something often found in larger keyboards and comes in handy if you are a person who crunches numbers or enjoys a calculator type of feel.

With its brushed aluminum exterior it has a beautiful aesthetic look. The cover of the laptop seems to be impervious to fingerprints which is a good thing. The laptop is completely black with a lighted HP logo and silver accents. Instead of a slot loading optical drive it has a tray DVD drive which is more typical of PC's. This HP Envy came pre-loaded with Windows 8 and this is a learning process in and of itself. The laptop is loaded with Beats audio and this provides a fantastic audio experience for playing music on CDs or watching DVDs on the computer. With a 17 inch screen the experience is phenomenal.

Using cool sense technology, the HP Envy is able to stay very cool despite running lots of programs and media. With its whisper quiet operation it's difficult to discern that it is even running at times. A new machine always runs more quietly ... dust and age can make them turn a little grumpier and louder. Time will tell how quiet it keeps.

The Beats Audio and DVD playback is to die for. If you are looking for a great, affordable multimedia laptop that allows you to consume media as well as create it, you can have a nice experience with this. Since this is a slightly lower end model (as far as optical drives go) it does not have Blu-Ray built into the player. If that is a big feature for you, you will have to upgrade to another model.

The laptop boasts 6 gigs of RAM and this is a decent amount for some multimedia and gaming applications.

Biometrics are incorporated into this laptop if you choose to use them this means your fingerprint or finger swipe serves to provide login information. It's called HP SimplePass and it's easy to set up and use. Having used finger swiping technology in the past ... I almost invariably go back to the old fashioned way of authenticating via password. Old habits die hard!

I love this sleek laptop. 17" machines have come a long way over the years and things are faster, lighter and a heck of a lot cheaper.

Right now I am using Windows 8 (the Vanilla version not the Pro) and I like it. That will be another review in and of itself.

The laptop has a nice configuration of various ports (including an HDMI) and the incorporation of 3 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port amidst the typical LAN and SD card ports.

The touchpad more resembled a Mac touchpad and can be used with multi-touch gestures that are straightforward once you know them.

Overall, this is a great, economical and powerful 17" laptop. The Fit and Finish is surprisingly nice and solid. A laptop that definitely rivals more expensive Windows laptops.

I am impressed!

Updated 23 November 2012 this laptop comes with 6GB of Ram (not 2GB) like part of the description mentions.

Update 21 December 2012 the picture depicted on the Amazon site shows an optical drive with a BluRay symbol on it. My version of this laptop DOES NOT have this logo and DOES NOT play BluRay discs.

Buy HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3" Win8 (Black) Now

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program HP has made desktop mobility a reality with its Envy dv7 laptop. Forget about choosing between a PC and a tablet the Envy lets you to do it all!

Like a tablet, the Envy is lightweight and unlike laptops of old, the machine runs cool and whisper-quiet. The Envy comes loaded with Windows 8 whose bold new startup screen emulates the look-and-feel of tablet-style computing. (Amazon readers note: among the many preloaded music, social networking, photo and other apps is a nifty Kindle app that allows you to read content you may have purchased through Amazon on the laptop.) Although the Envy does not have a touchscreen, HP has ingeniously engineered the touchpad to replicate the controls you might be accustomed to using on a tablet including scrolling, pinching/zooming, swipe, and so on. I found the help videos useful and got the hang of using the touchpad in short order. No doubt people comfortable with using smart phones and tablets will enjoy using the laptop with this input.

Like a desktop, the Envy has a decent-sized, high-resolution screen and keyboard including a number keypad. The Envy has quality web cams, microphones and speakers; as well as a fingerprint reader that can be used for secure access both at the login prompt and when accessing web services. Most importantly, with 6 gigabytes of RAM the Envy can power most of today's memory-intensive applications such as graphics and office programs; for example, I easily installed a copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2010 and successfully ran the software without a hitch. Select the desktop icon from the Windows 8 start screen to get the old school look-and-feel of prior versions of Windows. And of course, the Envy has lots of inputs for connecting peripherals such as larger monitors, keyboards, mouse, external hard drive, printers and etc. for those who prefer to dock the machine when at home.

In my opinon, the Envy represents a breakthrough for the many business people, students and others for whom mobility and power are both important. You can't run serious applications with a tablet and you can't have portability with a PC but you can easily do both with the Envy. To everyone who might be seriously considering a tablet, desktop or laptop: I urge you to give the HP Envy dv-7 a serious look!

Read Best Reviews of HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3" Win8 (Black) Here

So far it runs well, and the sound is pretty good. There's, like, no bass with the subwoofer, though. At least, not the kind you'd expect from a good set of headphones or your "pimped out" car.

The touchpad on mine started to life up on the bottom right corner. It's sticky, so it seems that the glue just wasn't good enough. I had a similar problem on the last few smartphones I had. :P It doesn't ruin the functionality at all. It works perfectly. The corner just catches my thumb from time to time. It's more annoying if anything.

The graphics processor seems like it's lacking, but there's settings in the software for that. Just run the CCC (Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center) and go to: Power > Power Play > Change the options to Maximize Performance > Apply. That actually allowed me to play some games on higher settings without lag.

This laptop does run hot, but HP CoolSense keeps the keyboard and palm rests cool to the touch. I was seeing it idle at about 95C on High Performance. While playing a game, it will go up to 110~111C. Your typical PC shouldn't really go over 90C under load, and it should idle around 65~70C.

Overall, I'd say it's worth around $500 (the price I paid refurbished). You get some USB 3.0 ports so it's semi-future proof. Quad-core processor at 1.9GHz is quick, but not blazingly fast. 6GB of RAM stock is more than enough any normal person would really need. The screen is really nice, and the graphics processor can play most games (on low~medium settings). I'm planning on upgrading to 8GB in the future, though, since I like to limit my SWAP file as much as possible (helps with limiting fragmentation).

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Superb computer. Graphics are excellent; the best monitor I have seen on a laptop so far. Absolutely exceeded my expectations.

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Lenovo Z580 15.6-Inch Laptop

I did research before choosing a laptop, and this one seemed to have the features I was looking for: 15" or larger screen, good processor and plenty of RAM, and a brand that consistently gets good customer reviews.

Positives first: The LED screen is very vibrant. It is not one of the top-of-the-line screens that is equally vibrant from any angle, but this is an excellent screen for the price range. The laptop itself is sharp-looking and light-weight.

Negatives: The touchpad is infuriating. I appreciate that it is set up like a Mac so you can use two fingers to scroll or zoom in or out, but it is very spotty in its sensitivity. I found that I have to click two or three times before it recognizes what I'm doing as a click. This in spite of the fact that the pad actually moves and makes an audible clicking noise when you click. I have read some other online reviews that mention the touchpad specifically, and it seems that this is just the way this model works. A driver can be downloaded to improve the touchpad function, but even after that I still had problems.

The shift and arrows keys also have an untraditional placement on the keyboard. The shift key is significantly smaller than normal, and the up arrow is to the right, leading me to occasionally hit the up arrow instead of the shift key.

I am typing this review on a different Lonovo laptop, a ThinkPad Edge, and the touchpad on it is great. The primary physical difference is that the ThinkPad has two distinct bars for left and right clicking, where on the Z580 it is one large pad.

I am returning the Z580 for a different laptop, because even after updating the driver for the touchpad, I find it less frustrating to use an older computer with a lower grade processor than to put up with a zig-zagging cursor that rarely detects when I'm clicking.

I have only recently received this laptop. I am intermediate when it comes to being tech savvy. I have been building my own for a few years now and bought this for the capabilities that I saw it would have. I ran several stress test and it did wonderful. I would highly suggest this laptop for those who don't just want a middle of the run computers. It will do what I want and not really stress.

Buy Lenovo Z580 15.6-Inch Laptop Now

I have been shopping around for a new laptop for a while, and based upon reviews across the web I decided to buy this product. I must say I am most impressed with the performance capability and sleek design of the Lenovo series of laptops.

Overall I have encountered no issues with regard to general performance and usability of the device, Windows 8 takes some getting used to though. Most of the software apps that came with Lenovo's install were not considered useful though so I uninstalled them.

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The best surprise came after receiving it and discovering it is fully equipped for BlueTooth using the very capable Broadcom software. Rest assured, this Z580 has all the basics.

This Z580 offers some high end components in this low budget introductory unit that allows all the abilities that people love about traversing the web, and there is no lag or interruption while streaming video or music. Doubling the RAM memory is possible but not really beneficial since a step upward to a Y Series Lenovo will net better results for the gamers. I'm gaining a real appreciation for the sturdiness built into Lenovo products and for the wide availability of Lenovo product data sheets. This Z-PC is ready for just about everything from the get-go, and it has an attractive platinum plum tint on its outer shell that shows an amazing resemblance to brushed aluminum.

One cautionary note is that after purchasing your new Lenovo, create all the factory backups before making any adjustments to the hard drive. If just getting familiar with Lenovo products, one discovers quickly there is a new level of intricacy sitting in front of them, and a step taken too far may have no return path. Possibly more sophisticated than most people care to delve into, Lenovo is loaded with innovation, and a wide assortment of possibilities are readily available.

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I need to dual boot my laptop and I've never had issues doing so before. Then Windows 8 comes along with UEFI and screws things up royally. Installing ubuntu on this machine took me back to the 90s when installing linux used to feel like touch and go. This laptop in particular has a BIOS that doesn't allow it to boot anything but Windows and RHEL in UEFI mode. I tried legacy booting, but the install got so royally screwed up that I had to factory reset everything. I lost a couple of days worth of work done to install the software I needed. I'm considering using my old laptop which has issues but still lets me work.

Aside from the UEFI, the trackpad is very annoying and the keyboard key placement is off. I haven't used a unified trackpad before, but this must definitely be one of the worse off executions out there. Like another reviewer noted, the sensitivity is wrong. The pointer stops dead in it's tracks when I'm trying to get across the screen. Right/Left clicking while moving the cursor is very clumsy and difficult. I have an old T61 that's a joy to use because of it's excellent keyboard , trackpad and physical buttons. I wish Lenovo didn't try to change what's not broken.

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