Dell Latitude D630 Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz 2GB 80GB CDRW/DVD 14.1" Laptop XP Professional w/6-Cell
Dell Mini 9 Inspiron 910 Laptop Notebook (Black) - Intel® Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2, 8GB HD, 8.9"
I was loathe to give up saddlebag space to a full-size laptop and worried that the heat, dust and vibration of motorcycle travel would kill a laptop with a conventional hard disk drive.
So I started out with travel journals, but I had to wait until I got home to blog my trip stories.
Then, five years ago, I tried blogging from the road with a Palm Treo 300. It was barely adequate. I stepped up to a Treo 600, and then the 700p, but even with the accessory fold-out keyboards, it was still a chore to write blog entries and manage my e-mail. And while the cameras have improved, they're still pretty bad.
I miss the 3G connectivity with the Mini 9, but Wifi hotspots are becoming more plentiful and it's getting easier to find them, especially if you have the AT&T deal with Starbucks or McDonald's.
The SSD (solid state drive) seems perfect for motorcycle travel, since it has no moving parts and is, therefore, less vulnerable to damage from vibration.
The 1GB of RAM and 8GB of SSD capacity are plenty, assuming you don't junk the Mini 9 up with lots of software. And there isn't any reason to do that, considering that you can do all of your email, word processing, spreadsheets, calendars, and other office-type functions up in "the cloud" with Google Apps.
I found the Internet Explorer browser's menu bars took up too much screen real estate, so I installed Google's streamlined Chrome browser that lets me see more of the web pages at a glance. I also avoid loading up the SSD by using an 8GB SanDisk thumb drive as a D: drive.
I'm not much for touchpads the Mini 9's touchpad works fine, I'm just not a touchpad guy so I use a wireless optical mouse.
The built-in webcam is surprisingly good. I have yet to use it for a live conversation, but it shoots quite acceptable still photos. The SD card reader is perfect for importing images from a higher-quality digital camera.
The smaller keyboard takes a little getting used to. The apostrophe and quote marks and dash/underscore are not where my fingers expected to find them, but it doesn't take long to make the synaptic adjustment.
The Mini 9 is intelligently designed when it comes to upgrades. You can access its guts by removing two screws and a cover plate on the underside. As I said, it comes with 1GB of RAM. You can double that for about $30 and the conversion takes about 5 minutes.
Computer development being what it is, there are sure to be subsequent generations of netbooks with more speed, power and versatility. But for now, I think the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is one of the best buys out there.i have had my dell mini 9 for almost a year now and still LOVE it. I do a lot of writing and it is excellent fr that. I have Windows XP but did not get the office software. I downloaded openoffice.org software and the programs I use (writer and presentation are they are compatible with word and powerpoint thus far).
I purchased additional SD cards which I use for storing my info...
Using a mouse is best for me, and the keyboard takes a little to get used to, but for its purpose, the Dell mini 9 is wonderful...I had an ASUS, which was fine, but I prefer the Dell mini.Same problem as others have mentioned here, died and can't reload operating system. Of course, two years out of warranty. Main purpose for buying was the SSD and my motorcycle travels. Felt without a regular HD, I'd be safe. Was for two years, and it worked great during that time, but now it's useless, unless I want to spend big $$ to get it fixed, and it's probably not the hard drive giving the problem. Anybody know of a sturdy netbook that can withstand the vibrations of a bike on the road??I've had the Mini 9 3 years, I use it for travel, vacations, not business, I love it. I can do stuff on the internet, stream my chicago classical music station on the road and upload travel videos to youtube with the multi-card slot. It boots up fast with the 16GB SSD and is quiet as a tomb. I hope this little bugger lasts forever! It's small, cute and smart, just need a mouse, i hate touch pads! A year ago I bought a Mini 10, just because it had a webcam, TV tuner and a 250GB hard drive, I switch off on the two, depending on my travel needs. I love them both, good, solid little machines. I currently own 4 Dells and I'm writing this review on a 5 year old Dell Vostro 200, which runs at home 24/7. I get 5 weeks paid vacation a year plus 10 paid holidays, I sorta string them together, so I travel a lot, and I need a computer (addicted). It's not a "gamer", but a nice basic computer.got this in the mail for my brother, for his graduation. Had a free case, was nice, works well and in good condition as advertised.
Lenovo G570 43347PU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
The external switch to turn wireless off is a nice touch and I'm pleased with boot times and internet performance. Out of the 4 USB 2.0 ports, one is a combo eSATA/USB. The i3-2330M is only a dual-core running at 2.2GHZ, but it does have hyperthreading and shows up as 4 virtual processors in the Device Manager however, it lacks Turbo Boost. By comparison an i5 has 4 cores, Turbo Boost, but no hyperthreading. I'm currently testing various games to see what this level of hardware is capable of playing so far Left 4 Dead 2 is the only one I've tried, and it was acceptable.
With computer manufacturers releasing & discontinuing so many minute variations of their products, it was extremely hard to find an accurate specification list (as well as the correct images) of this item and I would mention that even after realizing there was no HDMI-out it was not enough for me to return it. It was simply too good of a price and a very limited time window for me to make my decision.
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Great computer. I just start college for accounting and this computer has a great number key pad that has been extremely useful. I have had this computer for about 3 months and I love it.Read Best Reviews of Lenovo G570 43347PU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here
solid purchase. I would have liked the speakers to be a little louder but find it just as easy to put on a headset and stream music. Fast and the battery life is solid. also the plug in receptacle is way more solid than my last hp product. 5 years later and two adapters it quit on me.I love the keyboard and had my doubts that it would be as nice as my last hp, but the display is crisp and the unit seems to be just what I needed.
I would rate it at 4 stars. I hate the google chrome browser, so I downloaded mozilla and off we go. Not bad for the $399 price.I purchased this laptop in November of 2011 and in June of 2012, the LED display went out. I returned the laptop to Lenovo since it was under warranty. Lenovo informed me that the LED display is not part of the warranty and it would cost $300 to repair. I am guessing that anything they do not want to repair is not "under warranty". I bought an LED replacement myself and was able to fix the PC for under $50. This laptop was a rip-off and of poor quality. Service and warranty is no better.
Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)
I turned it on and the matte screen was very clear and detailed and Bright. I was a little leary about it being a matte screen as I never had one and hoped the screen wouldn't look too dark or unclear. Not an issue! Two things I Love about it is that it is full HD with a 1920x1080 screen rez/size. And secondly it has a lit keypad with an option on how bright you want it to be. Excellent! Full HD and a lit keyboard are two important options to me. The JBL sound with sub woofer is the Best sound I ever heard on a laptop.
One thing I wish it had was a simple switch on it to turn off the intergrated graphics forever as to use the GT650M all the time. I had a lenovo laptop that had that. However there is still a way to do this if desired (I believe?)using the Nividia settings.(manage 3d-> "high performance" on drop down). I read from a few that the keybooard on left side will get very warm? I will say that may be true for some. I can only say that I set it up, adjusted settings and played around with it for about 2 1/2 hours straight and the keyboard on mine remained cool and not even an issue at all. Of course I didn't do anything very demanding yet. Noise level was extremely quiet on mine. It wasn't until I turned it off almost 3 hours later that I realized ..."Hey, I didn't even notice fan noise" there but very quiet for me.
The three things that annoyed me, I do NOT like are as follows:
#1. The hard drive is Large at 1 TB. Great! but is very slow and holds it back. Samsung should have put a SSD in it. Guess they chose not to to save money. I suggest swapping out the HD and replacing it with an SSD.
#2. Pricey. The price is more then I was hoping to spend. But well worth it. You get a superior product with many features.
#3. This issue has bothered me on every amazon purchase I make. This has to deal with amazon shipping. I really wish amazon would offer an option to us buyers prior to placing an order to use FedEx instead of UPS only. I always pick 2 dsy shipping and always my purchase shows up very late (6:30pm for this laptop)or even 3 days later instead of two. But again this is not related to the laptop itself and no fault to amazon.
My conclusion: In a nutshell. I am Extremely pleased thus far with this laptop. I would buy it again and would highly recommend it if you are looking for a top of the line very nice and fast laptop. Of course all of the above is strictly my opinion and of this specific laptop I received.So, I just picked this bad boy up from B3st BVY. Couldn't wait for shipping as I'm on a military assignment. Going to jot down a review of the things that I like and a few things that stuck out to me. These will be in thought bubble format:
Painful to upgrade. Rather harrowing experience but there are guides online for the previous gen 17" that work well.
SSD upgrade a must. 1tb very slow.
Ivy Bridge + Keplar have lived up to their names. Very powerful, very energy efficient.
No room for RAM upgrade. Wish it had 4 slots.
Keplar GPU + intel 4000 make a really neat combo.
GPU does all modern games i've seen at med to high ( 1080p ) with some tweaking.
Very light for a 17".
Long battery life for a 17" ( 2 3 hours with med to heay use roughly )
Nice keyboard and backlight.
Very attractive case. Well put together.
Minimal flex in Display, considering it's a 17"
Very, Very sharp and crisp LED display. Looks amazing.
Very generous touchpad.
4 USB ports 2@ 3.0 and 2@ 2.0. USB 3.0 is amazing ( I use an external SSD for system backups )
Meh DVD drive. Slot loaded. makes noise.
Only 1 hard drive slot.
Built in 8gb SSD cache is interesting. Not useful, just interesting.
Nice, clear sound.
Overall I am very pleased with this laptop. It delivers the almost-mac experience without the mac-esque price. A very sleek, attractive, useful laptop that is intended to be portable power for anyone who needs it. For the price range there are very few competitors, and most of them have design flaws. That being said, if you're looking at doing mostly gaming and don't mind something about 3x thicker the ASUS G75VW is also a very good buy and delivers better gaming performance (and has 4 RAM slots and two hard drive slots).
But if you're an adult who doesn't want a computer that looks like a spaceship, and also don't want to tear open a shoulder joint carrying your laptop this is the way to go.
Buy Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Now
Purchased this machine expecting Samsung quality, fell short due to FATAL flaws. The biggest deal breaker is the absolutely atrocious wireless N performance and stability. Since this is a laptop/notebook, wireless N is crucial to the machine; I cannot be expected to carry around an external wireless adapter or a very long Ethernet cord. The Wi-Fi would have random latency spikes and packet drops (can be seen if you run continuous ping test) when any continuous streaming activity was initiated (such as video streaming, and gaming). This would happen as soon as you are one wall or more away from the router (ASUS RT-N56U). The other devices in my household on Wireless N do not have this issue and are connected to the same router on the same band. In fact, the HP Envy 17 I purchased to replace the Samsung machine has the same Wireless card (Intel 6235) as the Samsung and it does not have this problem. Wireless G on the Samsung machine seems okay, but I paid for a Wireless N laptop.Aside from Wireless N issues, this machine has many other problems (as listed below in the Cons section). For one, Battlefield 3 at Medium-low settings is enough to push this machine to its thermal and power limits and the GPU/CPU aren't even at absolute full load yet. Some people may argue that this machine isn't "designed for games" and "excessive load applications" etc, but I expect to be able to use what I paid for, otherwise, why bother putting in high-end components (CPU, GPU powerhouse) into this machine which would be like putting a Jet engine in a compact-sized car only for showing off?
Pros:
+17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) screen
+Powerful 3rd gen i7 quad-core (Core i7 3615QM)
+Decently powered mobile graphics (NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M w/ GDDR5)
+8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM
+Heat sources are towards the center-right of the machine, away from WASD keys
+Decent speakers for a laptop
+Trackpad is reasonably responsive
+Sleek look, better than Macbook Pro
+6.3 lbs, very lightweight for a 17" notebook
Cons:
-Poor wireless N performance and stability (guessing due to the full aluminum lid and palm rest creating a partial Faraday cage)
-Only above average TN panel LCD screen
-Bevelled screen appearance near / above the Samsung logo (maybe I just got a bad one?)
-Runs at near thermal limits of the machine's components
-Hot air exhausts upwards, directly onto the lower edge screen (can't be good for longevity of the screen or the material holding the screen to the chassis)
-90W power adapter is not enough to run the machine at full speed (CPU is 45W, GPU is also 45W, rest of the system ~20W, that means 110W minimum), results in power throttling on CPU and GPU
-Very slow hard drive (5200 RPM 1 TB)
-8 GB ExpressCache has little to no effect on improving system performance
-Painful to upgrade anything other than the one stick of RAM exposed (have to open the back cover which is made entirely of flimsy plastic, held by 10+ screws, and numerous fragile plastic tabs)
-The other 4 GB of RAM is soldered directly onto the board, cannot be upgraded
Other thoughts:
Samsung might have put a 90W power brick in the machine on purpose; they probably knew the beautiful chassis and cooling system could not handle the two power-hungry components (CPU and GPU) so they intentionally did this to keep the machine's full potential from being unleashed.
I am very disappointed by this Samsung notebook because of these fatal flaws that simply cannot be overlooked especially when purchasing a high-end product; the laptop deserves 2 stars because of its sleek look, weight, and specs. Amazon's great service convinced me to give another star.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Here
I made this purchase about two weeks ago and really wanted to test drive it before writing a review. I will be brief.First off the look and feel of this machine is truly awesome. The keyboard (backlit) is responsive and quiet, though a some rare occasions, I have noted what others have where a very occasional keystroke is not registered. The Touchpad is great though I confess I still prefer a mouse so that is what I generally use. The screen is bright and adjusts to ambient light. The speakers are awesome there is actually some real bass (a subwoofer is located underneath it). My last laptop was a Gateway P-7805u, three years old but is still kicking but these speakers are like a night and day difference, these JBL's really sound nice. Granted the Gateway has a higher Def screen than this one (1920x1200), but this is enough for my work (which is how this will be primarily used). Windows 7's Scores are very high, all except the Hard Drive (the weakest link in the Notebook) Though is packs a 1tb HD, it spins and only 5400RPM slowing some things up considerably. From what I read the next versions will have a 750gb HD but will run at 7200RPM. The good news is that it also has an 8gb SSD drive on the motherboard that makes boot times and 'everyday programs' launch very quickly. The Laptop is light for a 17 inch and of course the i7 Processor and Nvidia Video Card are truly awesome. While you can switch the Video Card to remain permanently on the Nvidia Chip (from the Nvidia Control Panel), power consumption will lag if you do. For most tasks, the onboard Intel Video is just fine.
Gripes: Yes I do not some. First off upgrading this thing is going to be difficult as the entire bottom of the Chassis has to come off no small compartments for HD or wireless replacements or upgrades. Second the Battery is not replaceable at (this time). Samsung Claims this battery will last 1500 cycles and still go strong. Me, I am rather skeptical but have employed the special Samsung Battery Life Extender Which sets the full charge at 80%. I still get a good 4+ hours of life with light to moderate usage. So until the battery croaks, I have no complaints. My hope is that they will eventually sell a replacement battery online in a couple of years as I plan on keeping this notebook until it dies on me. FYI I still have an old Dell Inspiron I bought in 2005, so Yes, I do hang on to my old computers and don't have a problem plopping down a hundred bucks every three years or so to get a new battery. BTW, I did query Samsung via email about a replacement battery on their site about this but never got an answer back.
Second gripe, I understand that there is only one HD bay (though I have not opened up the Chassis to find out). That kind of sucks because a second bay could easily make the HD speed issue moot. Just add another drive. The good news with this PC is that unlike many others, they actually put in a Real Live complete recovery DVD. I am glad because I know I will need it one day.
Third Gripe. For many this may not seem important but it is for me. Samsung does not support Linux. I have run the Live CD with Ubuntu 11.04, 12.04 and the latest version of Bridge Linux (based on Arch). The Ubuntu flavors gave me grief whereas the Arch Linux version ran smooth and was most responsive. However in none of the Linux versions did the backlight on the keyboard work. I have yet to take some time out and actually install it for real and probably won't for some time. Frankly I purchased this because I wanted to get one before Windows 8 comes and Linux versions get locked out because of UEFI secure boot. It was the primary reason I bought it now.
Overall, I am most happy with the purchase. I am not a Windows fan but will 'suffer' under it until I have a couple of days to spend setting up A good stable Linux partition to run along side Windows.
Five Weeks Later
Still in love with this machine. I have finally made the system Dual boot and am now using Linux Mint. Most things work. What does not work with Mint are
1) The Keyboard backlit does work, but appears to have settings in the bios that allow the lights to come on only if they were left on when you booted out of windows.
2) Wireless networking works until you put it to sleep, then it will not reconnect no matter how hard you try. This is a common problem with the New Intel systems and Linux. Workaround I have a small USB wireless card that works fine, unplug and then replug it in and all is well.
3) The Subwoofer: It does not work in Linux; two main speakers are fine... but no bass.
4) Some of the hot keys (alongside of the Function keys) do not work.
5) Nvidia does not support Optiums in LInux so you are stuck with Intel integrated graphics. Unless you are gaming or doing some heavy video editing, you will not notice a difference.
6) The 8GB internal SSD drive is for Windows only. Linux does not recognize it and its features are not available.
But you can still do most things. Clearly this box was made to be primarily a windows machine. The the disappointing support for Linux is starting to be a trend with many hardware makers.
If there is any other gripe I can level at this is the lack of multi-media keys. With a machine this nice it would be nice to have play/pause/back/forward keys. There is certainly plenty of room around the keyboard and palm-rest for them.
I can say that I have had no issues with it, it is fast, no lockups and no issues with the video card (as was reported with earlier ATI models) and when our power went out during the recent DC storm, I had about 8 hours of 'play time' with the battery.
Again, you cannot go wrong with this. It is a very fine system. The newer ones appear to have a smaller but faster spinning hard drive (750gb). I just don't think anyone looking for a Macbook like system can go wrong with this computer.
Want Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Discount?
There are many 17" laptops out there, but few that pack the specs of this Samsung Series 7 without gaudy "gamer" looks. The new Chronos 17" features the latest 3rd gen Core i7 processor, the new Geforce GT 650M (2GB), 8GB ram, and a slow 1TB HDD (5400 RPM). The price is higher than an Asus or Toshiba (and those have slightly better specs), but you are getting a beautiful, well designed machine that rivals Apple's product offering.The laptop comes minimally packed, with little more than a manual, AC plug, and restore disc, but Samsung loads their machines with easy to use software that guides you through updating drivers and configurating your machine with ease. There is minimal bloatwarea games suite and some annoying Norton popups, but for the most part you're ready to go.
Performance is great. The laptop has a quick-wake feature which boots virtually instantly from sleep mode. If you prefer to shut your machine down, the startup times are incredibleliterally 1/4 of the time compared to my old machine and my work laptop (running Windows 7/Vista). The keyboard is chiclet styled, and I find myself making some mistakes on it because I am too fast for the keys, but it is well spaced and includes a number pad. The backlight is tastefully done, and allows you to pick how bright it is. The machine is not silent, but the JBL speakers will overpower the fans, and they sound awesomea huge leap over any other laptop I've owned.
Although the laptop is powerful, I am not sure it's right for gamers. I have put about 15 hours into Diablo 3 on this machine with great results (the game runs with max settings minus shadows and hits around 40-60 FPS), but the center of the unit gets very warm and the fans don't seem to do a very good job keeping it cool. I purchased a Cooler Master notebook cooler to help out, since I am nervous about the long term with this unit overheating. There are not a lot of vents on the machine and it is very thin, maybe I'm just worrying but I don't know what long term effects heavy gaming would have on the internals.
The screen is mind blowingit's matte, so initially it will not look as vivid as a glossy screen, but the colors are beautiful and it's bright and very sharp. Samsung has different video profiles that will shift color temps according to what programs you are running. The screen opens and closes with little flex, and the rest of the laptop feels very well made and durable.
Overall it's a great machine, you're paying a little more for the style, but you're not paying $1000+ more like you would be with a Macbook. I like how they included a restore disc, but do not like that they only put in a 5400 RPM HDD and a CD/DVD burner instead of a BD ROM drive.
Lenovo Thinkpad T430s 23539KU i5-3210M 4GB 500GB 7200rpm 14" Laptop
Until now, I already have several issues, you can check in the lenovo forum and will found many people complaining the same problems
(1) wifi card has a problem and may randomly drop the connection. I tried installing the latest firmware, drive, and they did not help!
(2) When work with battery, the computer will suddenly shut down (without any warning) when the battery level is low (~10% in my case). You loss all the work!
(3) Two of my Logitech wireless mice does not work reliably. The left-click and hold release randomly. Both mice worked in my old computers.First use Amazon, Chinese comments about the next, I hope you can understand, then the baby is very good, authentic, everything you know how to
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The screen sucks big time its brigthness is not correct and adjustableI have installed extra 16 gb rams now this thing flys fast 4 real
Read Best Reviews of Lenovo Thinkpad T430s 23539KU i5-3210M 4GB 500GB 7200rpm 14" Laptop Here
Dell XPS XPS15-9062sLV 15-Inch Laptop
The range as the story goes on this unit is terrible. I have tested it out in a few different areas in my house and it drops connections in areas that a 12 year old Dell beater I took from work stays connected in.
Currently, I have this positioned right next to my 2008 Inspiron ten feet from my router and am running tests at speedtest.net on both of them..The Inpsiron is pulling down 25 Mbps whereas the XPS no lie is pulling down 1 Mbps.
I should just return the unit but I am going to hold out hope that they resolve this problem because I do really like the form factor of the XPS.
I will update as I get more info.In case Dell wants to create a top-of-the-line laptop, the XPS15 is decent start. My suggestions for for further refinement:
1. The keyboard is about a 7.5 on the scale of 1 – 10 (10 being the best).
As far as available space goes on a 15 inch laptop, this keyboard could have easily been made larger.
Just a little more key responsiveness would also help.
The biggest drawback from my personal point of view is combining the arrow keys with PageUp/PageDown and the Home/End keys. Unless one is a real good typist, pressing Fn in order to do PageUp or End is not at all user friendly.
Another example: Shift+End or Shift+Home is a very efficient way to select text while editing (MS Word or otherwise). With this keyboard layout, one needs to press 3 buttons to do it. … why ?? there is tons of space for 4 more keys ….!
2. The wireless receiver is the worst I have ever experienced. I have photos to prove that my XPS15 is unable to ‘see' / connect to Wi-Fi networks in various locations (even counties) where my age-old Sony or new Samsung Series 7 Slate Tablet gets over 7 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload speed.
I sincerely that this is a curable, short term problem, otherwise the portability of this device becomes a big problem. More and more places around the world only offer Wi-Fi connection, cable is no longer available.
Having said all of the above, this is a beautiful, very well made case. I sincerely hope Dell will be able to cure problem 2 above and we will just learn to live problem 1.
Buy Dell XPS XPS15-9062sLV 15-Inch Laptop Now
I want to like this laptop, I really do. The build quality is overall good, it looks and feels like a premium machine. But it has some serious hardware issues that have been plaguing the XPS line for many years now.PROS:
-The best looking laptop I have ever used. Everything from the gorilla-glass coated FHD screen, to the machined aluminum body and carbon fiber base oozes quality.
-Keyboard has excellent travel and adjustable levels of back-lighting, ambient light sensor detects when keyboard should be illuminated.
-Excellent port selection, gotta love the slot-loading blu-ray drive.
-Thinner than a Macbook Pro, and more powerful too.
CONS:
-One fan disperses heat from both the i7 processor and dedicated graphics cardpoorly. Throttling IS present in this model.
-Heat dispersed by the fan is directed towards the display panel, over time this causes discoloration in the screen (ESP. visible in dark scenes in games and movies)
-Wireless card is improved over the previous version of the l521x, range is improved, but the card still under-performs.
Throttling and heat dispersion issues have plagued the XPS line for years and while a simple cooling fan remedies most cooling concerns, I beg to question why Dell is incapable of developing an adequate cooling mechanism for their top tier consumer systems. I am waiting for Amazon to send a replacement so I can confirm if these issues are as widespread as the support community says they are.
**03/23/2013 UPDATE**
Replacement came with scratches on the bottom lid. Replacement is exhibiting same throttling issues, with even worse WiFi connectivity than the model it is replacing. Extremely disappointed. Dell needs to fire the idiot engineer in charge of designing the thermal systems for these laptops.
How can something look so promising yet have such issues with basic functionality? This model has been out for over a year now, how is it these problems have not been ironed out yet? Is it any wonder Dell is losing so much money? It really is beyond me at this point. Both are going back.
Read Best Reviews of Dell XPS XPS15-9062sLV 15-Inch Laptop Here
everything works good so far.WiFi dual band work fine
some old router speed test its no the same as those new dual band routers
i notice some light bleed on the screen but i can live with that
i recommend this laptop
Want Dell XPS XPS15-9062sLV 15-Inch Laptop Discount?
So I am selling one of these in my web store so I might be a little biased, but I really do use one of these on a day to day basis and love it. I am also a Web developer / Designer and have multiple resource intensive programs open at the same time like Photoshop, Visual Studio, Illustrator, SQL server, and IIS.I upgraded to 8GB of Ram, but have never had any problem running all those programs at once due to processor issues. This thing is just a beast and it looks slick to.
HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15-b120us 15.6-Inch Laptop
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When you purchase a computer, you buy a whole package. The tech support is an important part of the package. In my experience, the HP support was a big disappointment.My new laptop was sleek and beautiful indeed, but the touchpad didn't work. So I googled and read the forum and tried to fix it myself. I reset the machine, re-configured touchpad driver, updated Bios, but nothing worked. Based on my research, it seems the touchpad problem is common (then why didn't HP fix it?).
So I contacted the HP support assistant for help. The first technician (his name is Azhar) closed my case while I was still typing and left me flabbergasted. I still remembered the last sentence I typed was, "Wait, what about the mouse app you just asked me to open?" I lost the chat with the second technician after he (or she) instructed me to restart the laptop. He said he would wait for me for 5-7 minutes and I should come back to continue the chat with him. The restart process took more than 5 minutes. So I lost him. The third technician was nice and told me he would definitely help me to fix the problem. But I lost the communication with him too after a hard reset and problem was still not fixed.
I went through three technicians in three hours. I politely greeted and answered the same questions over and over again. I told them what the previous tech asked me to do and the tasks that were unfinished. Each one of them ignored what I said and asked me to do different things. The first technician didn't even have an idea on how the touchpad supposed to work.
I liked the look and price of the laptop, so I ordered a replacement. The new one arrived in just two days, but the touchpad didn't work either. I knew this is a minor issue and I just needed to do some minor adjustment to get it going. Since the HP support assistant was non-responsive on the replacement. I download the software from HP and got their phone number and called them this time. It took me about 10-15 minutes to finally talk to a real person. He asked me to keep tapping the touchpad on/off switch until it worked. I tried multiple times but it didn't work. Then the reception got terrible and I lost the communication, AGAIN. I have never had a bad reception in my house, but I guess I do if the call was routed to India.
I decided to return the replacement and I will never buy another HP product again due to its poor support.
Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15-b120us 15.6-Inch Laptop Here
I have been looking for a touch screen laptop for a while now. Saw this one and the same day I went and bought it. I am very pleased with it. I wasn't sure if I would like the windows 8 but I actually really enjoy it. It is very easy to understand and use. Especially with the touch screen. The touch screen makes all difference as I don't think I would have liked Windows 8 otherwise. The touch screen and the touch pad both respond really well. This computer is also very fast. From what I have noticed also the sound is also pretty good. Don't really have any complaints about this computer. Possibly the only complaint is that it doesn't have a cd drive but I can always get an external drive so that isn't such a big issue. I would definitely recommend this computer if someone is on a budget and wants a touch screen.About the keyboard, another reviewer mention he didn't keyboard's enter and arrow keys layout, I disagree. The keys feel and look great. What I like about the arrows keys is the right and left arrow keys are as big as standard size keys. I have another laptop and all the arrow keys are small.
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Would Highly recommend getting one of these to my friends. Easy to use and easy to connect. Packaging was very good as well. TWO THUMBS UP! Michael Smith TNHP Pavilion DV6700T Entertainment 15.4" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 at 2.4GHz, 3
Price
Processor is ok
NVIDIA graphics
Con:
Battery goes bad quickly
Various software bugs crash computer often
This an affordable option if you don't mind buying a battery. I ended up giving this to my son who seems happy with his experience (16yrs). The processor is fast enough to run the internet and other mass software packages. Multitasking isn't painful with the 3gb of ram. If you are storing lots of pictures and stuff like that, then pass for something that has a larger hard drive.Ive had this laptop for little over a year and used it for two semesters in college, it fits the bill perfectly haven't had a single problem with it. The remote feature is HP's gift to college students because i can be across my dorm, turn it on and select music and videos from netflix from my bed.
Pros:
Light Weight
Media Remote
Extra headphone port
Card reader
Cons:
Haven't Noticed any yetI've had this laptop for a little over a year and I wish I had saved my $1500. I've never written a review on Amazon, but after it finally croaked completely I felt obligated to.
When I first received this computer, it didn't work. I had to contact HP to order recovery disks. After running the disks the computer did run.
About a month ago, the screen would begin to go black and freeze periodically. Again, this laptop is a little over a year old. The screen issue began to be more frequent. I took it to an HP service provider. He told me the hard drive may need to be replaced ($200 parts & labor) or the mother-board would need to be replaced (approx $800 parts & labor). I went the cheaper route and guess what it didn't fix the issue. So, since I am not forking over another $800, the laptop is junked.
EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTINGBUENAS TARDES, PUES LE COMENTO QUE AUN NO HE RECIBIDO MI PRODUCTO.... ASI QUE NECESITO INFORMACION EN CUANTO A ESTE GRAVE PROBLEMA
HP Pavilion dv6-6120us 15.6-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver)
I'm not impressed with the keyboard and mouse. I find them much more difficult to use than my previous Dell Inspirion, which I liked much better than this laptop.
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I didn't buy it from Amazon but I wanted to share my experience anyway. I was happy with this computer for the first 6 months that I owned it. Until...I went to start it and it would not start up. Since it was within the year warranty, I called HP's 800 number. I could barely understand him because of his accent. He lived in INDIA! So, it took over an hour on the phone before he could "diagnose" the problem. When it was finally "diagnosed", I was informed that I needed a new hard drive and he would ship that out free of charge. However, he asked for my credit card information because I needed to send the defective hard drive back. When asked why, he stated that if I did not send the defective hard drive back to them, they (HP) would charge me $150! WHAT?! The other alternative was that I ship my entire computer to them and they would take care of it, which would take aprox. 6-8 weeks! I opted for the former and gave my credit card info. Then, he asked if I wanted a tech to come and install the part or if I wanted to do it. The tech, by the way, would cost me $49! SO, I did it and installed all the programs they shipped to me as well, which took me over 5 hours. Then, I went to reinstall the printer (HP printer) and it wouldn't install. I called the 800 number again and was told, after 45 minuter, that it's the software that's the issue, which is not covered with the warranty. If I wanted them to help me, it would cost me $169 for 1 year, $299 for 2 years, etc. I simply hung up, took it back to the store I bought it from and THEY got it to work for me, free of charge. Now, it works but I will NEVER buy another HP computer again because their customer service is SO AWFUL AND FRUSTERATING!!! BUYER BEWARE!!!Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion dv6-6120us 15.6-Inch Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver) Here
HP sent me a defective screen on my new HP Pavilion. I requested them to replace the computer and they asked me to take a quick-ship at a higher price. In addition, I have to pay for it first at a higher price with lower specs!! I asked for the manager and they rejected me saying they are busy. I have bought 4 HP Pavilions over the last 10 years and this is how they repay you. If there is no problems, I am sure HP is fine. The real problem is if there is something wrong and you are stuck with their customer support. After 10 years, I am going with another brand. They cannot stand when things are not right. I have also spent 80 minutes on the phone with no avail. Buyers beware!!After 10 years of loyalty with HP, the customer support cannot even give me the manager. After 80 min, they cannot even provide an in-kind replacement.
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I purchase this pc 20 days ago,for my daughter for school. and the hard drive has fail already.after 3 hours on the phone with 3 different hp techs,all three concluded that the hard drive is defective,and that they would send me a new hard drive that i could install,or i could fedex the unit to them and they would install it. this is the first review that i have ever written,and i wrote because,had i read the previous reviews on this pc before i purchase it i never would have bought it. october 2012Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5087 15.6-Inch Laptop (Trax Texture in Black)
I have had a few virus problems but that was MY FAULT for not having it properly secured.
The cord works great, and The battery life on this is pretty good too.
All the connections work and it is great for everyday usage.The connection on the side where you plug the AC charger is BAD!! Have to wiggle the plug to get it to charge and be careful that you don't bump it or you have to wiggle the cord again. This should not be happening, the laptop is only about 6 months old. This laptop comes with no web-cam. I would not reccomend this laptop to anyone.
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Very cheap lost hard drive got a new one(hard drive) and it will not boot. stay far away from this oneRead Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5087 15.6-Inch Laptop (Trax Texture in Black) Here
Hewlett Packard XZ028UARABA Hp Dv7-4269wm Ci5-480m 2.6ghz 4gb 750gb 17.3 Win7
Buy Hewlett Packard XZ028UARABA Hp Dv7-4269wm Ci5-480m 2.6ghz 4gb 750gb 17.3 Win7 Now
Thinkpad X200 Tablet - Intel - Core 2 Duo - SL9600 - 2.13 Ghz - DDR3 Sdram - 4 G
HP Pavilion dv6-3013nr 15.6-Inch Laptop - Argento
Now, after using the PC for a few days, I m happy to see that the touch pad buttons are getting easier to press. Finger print reader and Hp Simple Pass application that allows you to use your fingerprint instead of entering usernames and passwords works very well. Swipe your finger once and all the websites you enrolled in fingerprint system shows up. Swipe it once more, you are logged on in seconds. No Username No Password..I looked at many of the reviews and most complained about the amount of bloatWare on the computer and this is true. I removed many including Norton. Try AVG free for anti-virus, search google you will find it.
Also, some want just the Windows 7 OS! This is easily done by pressing the F11 key during boot up. You will then go into the Recovery console and choose the one on the left that says "Minimal Install". After you reboot the only thing on the laptop will be the Windows 7 premium (64bit) OS and I checked in device manager and everything is working!
As noted above the F11 key that kicks off the HP recovery console is a very nice feature but another is the one built into Windows 7 called "Backup" (type in Backup in the search when in Windows). Choose to create a "System Image" and have a portable USB/eSata hdd ready. You can then save the image to that drive in case of disaster. At the end of the System Image creation make sure you create the System Repair CD. The System Repair CD will be used to restore the "System Image" if you ever need to. This is very usefull after you get the laptop loaded and customized with all the software that you want.
The touch pad, don't be so quick to judge. Look in the control panel for the touchpad control and try a few different options. The all-in-one touchpad works fine for me.
Buy HP Pavilion dv6-3013nr 15.6-Inch Laptop - Argento Now
Buyer Beware. I purchased a HP Pavilion laptop with a Windows 7 Professional operating system in March 2010. The hard drive crashed while the system was under warranty in September 2010. I discovered the external Seagate backup drive performed a selective backup instead of a complete backup, backing up only 18 GB out of 200 GB of data. According to one computer repair technician, many of the files were still readable on the defective HP drive. I then decided to replace the hard drive myself at my cost and reload the OS, only to learn that HP "tatoos" their drives preventing anyone from replacing the drive with anything other than the exact same drive from HP. Without the tatoo, I could not reload my operating system which came from HP. HP quoted me a price over $300 for the HP replacement "tatooed? hard drive. Identical drives without the tatoo cost approximately 1/3 the price of the HP drive. As I had already purchased a hard drive from a local "big chain" computer repair shop, I decided to obtain a new copy of Windows 7 Professional and just reload the operating system. Again, I learned that this also does not work. HP informed me that they would give me a replacement hard drive only after I gave them my original hard drive. Since I first needed a computer with the Windows 7 operating system installed to transfer the recoverable data files from the bad drive to a good drive and then to securely erase data on the the old drive, this was not an acceptable option. HP tech support failed miserably during this process since the HP technician (who had a heavy India English accent) told me that I had to go back to the computer store where I purchased the hard drive and have them fix the system. It took four weeks for me to discover that ONLY HP could fix the laptop. I did take the laptop back to the place of purchase. They experienced the same problem in attempting to get HP to fix the laptop. The computer has been broken now for seven weeks. While the HP laptop operated okay (not great, just OK) when it worked, I discovered that HP laptops are simply no longer repairable unless you bite the bullet and allow HP to make the repairs at an incredibly high price. In reviewing prior laptop purchases, I realized that ALL of my prior HP laptops had broken after a year or so and that the other brands of laptops I purchased while old and banged up from use continued to operate. It does not make sense: why would a company (HP) which brags that it is a "green" company produce disposable laptops whose users will throw them away into the dumpster when they break and when they learn they are not economical to upgrade or repair.Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion dv6-3013nr 15.6-Inch Laptop - Argento Here
You be the judge:Bought an HP Pavilion dv6 series notebook new from Best Buy on 11/01/09.
Repair history:
HD died and was replaced on 03/22/10.
HD died and was replaced on 05/24/10.
Integrated mouse broke 08/22/10
HD died 11/12/10 parts and laptop are out of warranty
Replacement parts have a 90 days warranty.
Tech support in India is not allowed to connect me to a manager
or refer me back to a customer support department in the US.
They do want me to sign up for extended care for another $200/year
but even if it were free who would want to go through this type of
ordeal. Every support call takes between 60 and 90mns.
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I just got this laptop as a gift. It looks very cool and it is very thin. I so want to keep it but the track pad is driving me crazy. It is very hard to use and it's already causing me finger pain on my second day. The cursor jumps around as I am typing on the keyboard, but when I do need to use the track pad to scroll up and down, it is half dead. Very very frustrating to use. Another thing I hate about this laptop is the monitor. The colors appear strangely purplish and it is nearly impossible to see details if the colors are light. For example, it is impossible to see a lace pattern on the screen. I went through color calibration but it didn't help. It hurts my eyes to stare at the screen.Asus Matte Deep Blue Square 14" X401U-EBL4 Laptop PC with AMD E1 1200 Processor, 4GB, 320GB HD, Web
In terms of external features, this laptop seems to offer a good bit, sporting an HDMI and VGA port, USB 3.0 port, multitouch track pad and a Webcam. Overall, the features are very good for the price you pay for it.
Internal's on this laptop are on par with other budget laptops. Intel Pentium processor, 2-4GB of RAM and Intel integrated graphics wont hold up running AutoCAD or Photoshop very well but handle essential business apps like Outlook, Word and internet browsing just fine. Some apps like VLC can take up to 20 seconds to load but after loading, they run without issue.
Overall construction isn't the best ive ever seen but its certainly not the worst. Laptop manufacturers these days have moved away from making laptops out of tough matte casing that lasts for years to shiny casing that looks good in-store but holds up poorly in day-to-day use. The casing on this laptop skips the gloss but still attracts some fingerprints and the screen is also glossy though a screen protector should fix that. Overall I've found the casing to be better than other budget laptops but still nothing compared to the casing found on proper business laptops (think Dell Precision and HP EliteBook). However you get what you pay for and for the money its not that bad.
The laptop ships with Windows 7 Home Premium and there isn't too much to be said here in terms of features. The laptop is slowed somewhat by bloatware and the 64bit flavor of Windows 7. However if you're willing to get your hands dirty, re-installing Windows in the 32bit flavor and leaving out the bloatware should speed things up considerably.
Overall you get what you pay for. For the money this laptop is one of the best deals on the market and with a few tweaks on the software side, this laptop will be a perfect companion for basic computing tasks.I love this lap top. I wanted Windows 7 & this is it. Others said the mouse is too touchy, but there are adjustments built in for the preferred touch. The speakers underneath does hinder the sound. I'm going to purchase an extra speaker, tho.I got mines from my local Walmart and it's working good!
It plays both 720p and 1080p Youtube videos FLAWLESSLY. Maybe it's my good connection.
My touchpad is working good so far and if indeed gets damage I have a tiny mouse for backup.
I don't need a cd drive as I have always used Usb hard drives.
The HDMI is wonderful , I play a movie and connect this baby to my tv and its awesome!!!
WARNING: IT COMES WITH A LOT OF BLOATWARE , BUT YOU CAN JUST UNINSTALL BUT LEAVE THE ONE THAT SAYS ASUS RECOVERY ALONE.
UPDATE Please read all
Things you need:
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Flash-Drive-SDCZ36-004G-AFFP/dp/B007JR531I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351680984&sr=8-2&keywords=4+gb+usb+sandiskYour Windows OEM key which is located on the sticker on the back of you're Laptop
OKAY now to what I want to say
.....I've been starting to get a few problems with this laptop to the point that I wanted to sell it back, But I found out that the OS *operating system* has been modified for some unknown reason and this causes bugs from the keyboard, to the touchpad..AND I found a way to fix it, which is a simple solution. ALSO this makes your Laptop MUCH FASTER...
If you're planning to get this laptop I recommend to buy a 4 gb usb drive and download Windows 7 usb/dvd download tool and burn a Windows 7 Home premium 32/64 bit, ((depending on your Laptop)) ISO file to the Usb drive with the program.
After burning the ISO file to the USB, disconnect it and connect it again.. Start up the Windows Installer and install the new fresh copy and follow instruction
This removes EVERYTHING from your current OS from files to programs BUT DO NOT FEAR..
After installing the OS FORMAT the USB drive and Use another computer or the library to download necessary files from the Asus support website...
and download Atheros Wireless Lan Driver and Application ... and also Foxconn Wireless Lan Driver and Application.. COPY it to the USB drive and put it on your Laptop....
Install these to put Wifi back on your laptop...after you put Wifi back , Use the laptop to download more files, like the bluetooth one or the mouse / touchpad settings one..
Download every file that looks necessary and install them on your Laptop... ALSO do a Windows Update.. BUT you can't do an Update unless you verify that you have a legit copy of windows By going to Start Control Panel System and Security System Scroll down to where it says Windows activation and Activate Now! , use the key on the sticker on the back of your Laptop
DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN ALSO INSTALL UBUNTU ON THIS
Samsung RC512-S02 Core i7-2630QM 2GHz 6GB 750GB Blu-ray BD-ROM/DVDRW NVIDIA Optimus 15.3in LED Note
The processor is fast and I have had a few issues with screen freezes, but I too believe that is a windows fault not the computer itself. I think this dropped down to the low price due to a new series of Samsung laptops being released... bu i expect this to last me a minimum of 5 years. Im very happy with it.When I first received this laptop, I was expecting a very heavy-duty, powerhouse machine that would likely never leave my desk. To my suprise, this machine has ended up being amazingly portable, sleek, and nice to use. The features are great, and the amount of fully-licensed included software is incredible. I can encode and burn DVD's within a couple hours, watch movies from my hard drive in 1080p on my TV using the inbuilt HDMI port, and even get WiFi anywhere in my city using the inbuilt WiMax adapter (if you pay for a 4g service, that is). Sometimes my PC still does freeze though, but I'm going to blame that on Windows and the sheer number of applications that I keep running at all times. Speedboot is a real blessing for me on the go, but be aware that it causes many sensitive applications to crash while using it. Gaming wasn't as nearly as great as expected, but I barely play any gpu-intensive games anyways so it's pretty good for the basics. I had some problems playing MineCraft :D but once again I'm going to blame it on Windows.
Overall, I'm really happy I bought this machine, and would definitely recommend it to others. When I bought it, it was for $900 and I thought I got a great deal...so at $600, it's definitely a steal!!We are on our second laptop of this model (RC512-S02) The first one was returned after two days of it crashing and shocking us when touched. It was apparent the power connection was loose and causing the problem. The second identical one worked well for several months and now this one is shocking and crashing as well. It is a random thing and it will now go back for a laptop from a different manufacturer . It is a shame as this is a fast computer and appears well made but it is not reliable. The original model S01 wss recalled by Samsung over the problem with the Intel CPU error. We have all Samsung appliances in our kitchen and love them but this is not up to Samsung's standards. After talking with Samsung tech support their advice was to return it.This is really a one-compromise (I'll get to that in a minute) value; and the one compromise is quite small if you really want to get around it. In short, this is a really rounded out quality laptop. Here are a few things I like about it:
-Build Quality: This thing is a tank! I've test-dropped it once on a well-carpeted area and accidentally dropped mine on a hard-wood floor, and not even a chip has come off of the plastic. The shell is a combo aluminum-plastic assembly and holds up quite well to damage. No damage to the optical drive as well. There's also a bit of shock absorption around the hard drive. MacBook owners will know that aluminum is a strong metal, and the plastic on the shell is thick, weighty, and quality plastic. Great build.
-Hardware: You can read the list. All quality, all fast, all powerful. The only thing I have a tiny bit of concern about is the Intel Wifi chip inside. This will make running Linux harder for a first timer, but Googling around will assist you in finding a driver. Optimus won't work with Linux from what I hear anyway; this really is a laptop designed for Windows. Feel free to comment in case I'm wrong however!
-Software: Believe it or not, the amount of crud is actually pretty low on this machine. However, I'm a big fan of a clean Windows installation, so I wiped the hard drive and ran a clean installation. This gave me a speed boost of about 10%. Be sure to use the recovery software to burn a driver disk before doing this though, or download the drivers to an external disk.
-Recovery: Recovery is made simple through the self-booting recovery partition. Since I bought it, I cloned the recovery partition and moved it to another drive; and hammering the "Boot Recovery Partition" key during boot still works, even on an external hard drive. A nice touch. Don't worry if you mess something up, it can be easily restored. Restoration takes a bit of time though.
The two minor things I don't like about this machine:
-Display: The display on this thing, when things are set to defaults, is garbage. 1600x900 would have been a bit more preferable, but even worse than resolution; this thing has very little contrast right out of the box. Using Intel's graphics hardware control panel, you can adjust contrast and gamma to your liking; but initial impressions were quite low for me. Also, there is a HDMI port, so you can hook up an external monitor.
-Optical Drive: Yeah, it's a Blu-Ray drive; which is great for reading huge swaths of data (and the games are inevitably going either Blu-Ray or direct download). However, this drive is really slow. I read into this and found out it's just an issue with Blu-Ray drives in general. Again, feel free to correct me in the comments. I don't consider this to be a "point off" the rating, it's just a minor nit-pick.
Personal usage/experience:
-"Daily" Stuff: Web browsing, watching videos, listening to music, all pretty decent on this machine. The lower resolution makes it tough to multitask (as in, putting windows by windows), but I'm generally not in the mood to multitask on a smaller screen anyway. The speakers are pretty good for built-in laptop speakers; and as noted before, watching videos works well after changing the color settings. The Core i7/Intel integrated graphics actually give pretty good battery life too, I get roughly 3 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours and 30 minutes.
-Gaming: Here's where low resolution actually comes in handy. You can maximize all settings on your games and chances are, your framerates will be very good! The only slowdowns I have encountered were DirectX 9 games designed to push the technology and the very latest games. However, turning stuff down from "very high" to "high" does not have that much of a visual effect on games today, and this is good news.
-Media Rendering: This thing is also beastly when it comes to media and content creation. The chipset inside allows programs to tap into the integrated graphics processing built into the CPU as well as use the dedicated Nvidia chipset to assist in rendering. It competes favorably with my year-old desktop, which is a Core i5 setup with a GTX 275 graphics card. No complaints here.
All in all, if you can get this thing for under $800, it's a great value.
Toshiba Satellite A35-S159 Laptop (2.30-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive)
I also went out and dropped 20 dollars on an extrernal antec laptop fan. It's the kind of fan that you sit your computer on and it operates more silently than the toshiba fan. Together with a regular vaccuming of the actual laptop fan to suck out any dust I haven't had a problem since then. I'm going to take it in again in a month or two to get the dust cleared out BEFORE I start having problems again.
So I know what you're thinking...why the 4 stars? I paid less than 1200 bucks for this machine. A dell machine of similar price would be falling apart in many, many, more critical ways (I should know I used to work in a computer lab), and compaq's/hps are infinitely worse machines. It's speedy, I've had absolutely no connectivity problems with the wifi (I've used over a dozen different wifi connections and I often have a stronger connection than my friends), ditto with the LAN...I've used the modem precisely once so I can't comment on that.
I've put a total of 70 dollars worth of service into this machine. You put way more money into a car to maintain it. A computer is a complicated piece of machinery...I don't understand people who think that they can buy it and not have to do anything to allow it to keep operating in peak condition.
Does this computer have it's flaws? Yes. But for it's price it's a good value. I wouldn't buy a Honda and expect a Mercedes.i have had this laptop for 3 years now, and during the 1 year company warranty and 3 year with compusa, i had the WORST cooling problem...like the other users on this review forum, I had to ice the heat sinc in order to keep my laptop from shutting off abruptly (note folks that this is a security for your computer, if it continues to increase in temperature while it remains on, your hardware may be destroyed due to intense heat)...thus i had compusa replace the whole cooling system...it was a breeze and on a couple occasion had it it abruptly shut down on its own with the new cooling plates (for the new users without a warranty, the best way to maintain the cooling system is to blow straight into the exhaust while holding a damp cloth up to the fan screen, thus you will catch all the dust build-up)...also while i had my laptop hanging from my shoulder, my mustang door came swinging back at me knocking my laptop to the ground causing the hard driv to fail....this is typcial once excessive shock has been encountered...i simply had this replaced...for the next year and a half i had no problems and with all the things filed such as my library of 1500+ songs and music videos i still havnt filled up the lovely 60GB HDD...it is however as we call it today, a good desktop replacement according to its weight...its weight is on the rim btwn laptops that stay at home and laptops you can lug around at school...lately however iv been using a 3rd party ac adaptor and my ground needle snapped off...eventually i believe the temporary solder work i did to charge the unit caused the lcd backlight to short...after much research NOTE* even though your power jack supply is fused to the motherboard, you can have someone professionally un-solder that jack and replace it with another one at (which is about $25)...and if you can spot what has caused your backlight to go out like mine, (connections, lcd, bulb, etc) generailly it is bound to be the whole screen...all you need to do is go to a site like and they will provide you a brand new screen (with available extra options like XBRITE in sync with the tech today)for roughly around $250 $300 brand new... USERS if u made the investment already, take care of it because regardless of TOSHIBA having great technology the only downer is that their parts and durabilty are not necessarily the strongest...in comparison to the new line of Sony Vaio Laptops my A35 is just one big peice of powerful plastic...if u refuse to do repairs there are companies wherein you can sell your computer and they will buy it off you for the good parts...I FOR ONE AM IN NO FINANCIAL POSITION TO GET UP AND REPLACE THE WHOLE THING ESPECIALLY WITH THE NEW COOLING SYSTEM AND HARD DRIVE...it has served me strong for the past 3 YEARS in MOVIE MAKING for school, music promotion, web-design, church-sermon audio recording/digital and many work and school related tasks, so far everything else is good for another couple years...thnx
Buy Toshiba Satellite A35-S159 Laptop (2.30-GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive) Now
I've had my AS35-S159 for close to 8 years with almost no problems. I did encounter the overheating issue at some point and all it required was vacuuming off some of the dust and cat hair trapped in the cooling unit. My wife went through 2 laptops (HP, DELL) during the same time.What sets this laptop apart is stability, I can have 3-4 programs running at once and it never crashes. I will definitely stick with Toshiba for my next laptop whenever that may be.I bought this computer about a year ago and like one of the previous owners, I had a problem with it shutting down for no reason. I found after sending it out to get serviced that the CPU fan went bad and when it overheated, it shut down. I like the keyboard feel and the display is good in comparision to my older Toshiba laptop. I wish that it had more USB ports and expansion, but the ability to load it up with 2 gig of ram is a plus. The battery life is good too.
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Bought mine through a major computer retailer (now selling on-line only)over 5 years ago and couldn't be any happier with my Toshiba A-35.Not a speed demon, but solid and dependible.
The overheating issues have been grossly over stated by a few noisy users. A little care and proper handling/storage and use of this little box and it is happy to perform.
I'm writing this as a testament to Toshiba's quality and reliability. The A-35 is no longer available but Toshiba still continues to make the soundest, best built and nost dependible laptops. Period.
I worked at Microsoft for 4 years, and when I was ready to buy a laptop, I asked around. Engineers, technicians, developers, Program Managers unanimously told me to 'Buy a Toshiba!'. So I did. Good advice.
Toshiba has listened to the marketplace and added more USB ports to subsequent models. The touchpad has improved.
Buy on price point if you dare, but you can't go wrong forking over a few more bones to buy Toshiba's solid dependibility.
Sony VAIO VPCSA41FX/BI 13.3 Inch Laptop (Jet Black)
2. When typing you touch very often the mouse pad and make changes with
out you intent to.
3. cover of the Screen is plastic, ease get scratches
4. finger print sensor is on the midle of the two butons of the mouse pad
5. Video card is .4 quality and performanceThe 13.3" VAIO S-Series is a strong performer, extremely portable, and about the best value around. Sony still pushes its proprietary software and magicgate memory, but these nuisances are not as bad as in previous generations. Having owned another S-Series from 2005, I can also attest to the outstanding warranty support that Sony offers.
Buy Sony VAIO VPCSA41FX/BI 13.3 Inch Laptop (Jet Black) Now
I have used this one for a while, everything is pefect, low noise, no heating problem, i can keep it on my lap all the time. Performance is also good, high screen resolution, fast USB 3.0, stereo speakers. Overall, I am very satisfied with this laptop!!Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO VPCSA41FX/BI 13.3 Inch Laptop (Jet Black) Here
This is the first one-star review I have ever written. I have been living with this laptop for awhile now with increasing disappointment in this product. I do not recommend this product to any one looking to purchase a laptop.The Good: Good size and weight (bezel could be thinner though). Nice keyboard with backlight. The optional sheet battery works well and extends the running time a lot vs. the added weight. 1200X1600 internal display is relatively sharp. Like the mechanical switch for turning on / off the WIFI / Bluetooth.
The Bad: Our office has two identical Sony laptops and the following issues are the same on both: The biometric reader stopped working shortly after purchase. The biometric software regularly crashes any Internet browser. The discrete graphics require the noisy fan to run most of the time. I've given up and run the laptop exclusively on the integrated graphics setting. Any external display connected to the laptop is not clear, and in addition what looks like RF interference occurs for the first 30 minutes even with RF shielding precautions. Two external displays cannot be driven with this laptop even with the discrete graphics. Plugging in a speaker interferes with the CD player tray depending on the type of jack used. Using the page up / page down / home / end keys require two hands since the FN key is 'way across the keyboard (to be fair, some other laptops have this problem.)Don't know if this is a Windows 7 issue or a Sony issue, but opening many files, the default window top is past the display requiring me to resize windows manually to access the window menu bar. Lastly the built-in speakers are crap. My cheap mono Dell laptop internal speakers blows away this laptop's speaker quality.
We both got the overpriced ($199) port replicator which does not drive two external monitors (!), does not have DVI (!!), does not have a audio pass through plug (!!!) and the USB 3.0 port is blocked by the port replicator (!!!!) What a waste of money!
BTW, the office just purchased a Toshiba DynaDock for me and it has allowed me to drive sharp DVI and HDMI displays, allows two external monitors to be driven at the same time, has stereo and 5.1 audio jacks, Ethernet jack, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and plugs through the USB 3.0 port on the laptop. Pretty compact. Costs $140 on Amazon. Has made life with the Sony laptop a little more tolerable.
Update: It's 3 months later and I've learned to live with my Sony laptop. It's tolerable mostly because of the DynaDock. What a great product that Dynadock is! As for the laptop, the Sony's light weight and decently-sized AC power supply is great when I travel helps. On the other hand, the display's very small viewing angle gets frustrating....
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Well built, nice high res. screen though back-lighting shows through from the bottom, great keyboard.But that's about it.
Horrible lagging touch pad, incredibly slow giving the specs Macbook Pro feels 5 times faster though has slower processor.
Windows 7 just feels a century old, clunky, unintuitive, slow comparing to Mac OSX.
My advice try a Mac first, you will never want to come back to this PC junk.

