Bought one of these in 2007, it is now 2013 and going strong. It also has a great keyboard, its time for me to upgrade but i half dont want to because this laptop is so great.
Showing posts with label graph paper notebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graph paper notebooks. Show all posts
Remanufactured IBM ThinkPad T21 800 MHz Pentium III Notebook PC with 20 GB Hard Drive
Bought one of these in 2007, it is now 2013 and going strong. It also has a great keyboard, its time for me to upgrade but i half dont want to because this laptop is so great.
Alienware M14X R2 14-Inch Gaming Laptop Black, Intel Core i7-3610QM 2.0GHz, 8GB Memory, 750GB HDD,
There isn't too much to gripe about this laptop. The only downside I can really think of is the screen touches the keyboard when its closed so when you open it there is small smudges. However, there are screen protectors out there or even little rubber dots that can make that stop when closing.Its pretty much all out there. 16 gigs of ram, i7 quad core, and it came with windows 7. Now compared to my desktop Windows 7 is great for gaming, while running Windows 8 I've run across a few issues. Therefore, Windows 7 is ideal since this is a gaming PC and most products like steam tend to run a little better.
I bought the computer mainly so I could take some games with me on deployment and get some college out of the way. One thing I didn't expect but is a great little quirk is that you can customize the colors of nearly every light on the computer. It doesn't affect how it runs, but it is kind of cool.
Over all this PC runs like you'd think it runs and behaves as it should and I do recomend it if you can find one for cheap enough as I had. If you don't want to build a desktop or don't know how to(easy but time consuming) this would be a good purchase for the next few years if you want to play higher end games on a computer.
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Lenovo G585 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Textured)
Windows Experience Index 3.3 (Determined by lowest subscore)Processor: Calculations / sec 3.3
Memory (RAM): Memory operations / sec 5.3
Graphics: Desktop graphics performance 4.0
Gaming Graphics: 3D Gaming performance 5.6
Primary Hard Disc: Disc data txfr rate 5.8
HARDLY a dog for what it went for on Black Friday. I'm very satisfied with the performance thus far. It is also my first experience with Windows 8, but I'm picking up on it pretty quickly. The G585 is working very well with it. Sure, speed could always be increased, but I'm stepping out of an ACER netbook. Anything is going to feel like lightning to me.
Lenovo customer service is also second to none when it comes to hardware support.
I really just wanted a laptop for word processing, browsing the web, and responding to email while I was on the go. I wanted to replace my netbook, which was barely running at that point, but knew that I wanted more screen real estate going forward. Given what I was using it for, anything that cost more than this was absurd. This, however, was agreeable.
To my surprise, though, it's not too shabby for gaming. I installed Steam and have been playing Torchlight II, and even beat Portal and Portal II over Christmas week without any hangups. On the default settings, of course. It's not a gaming rig, after all.
I also love that they included a full 10-key on the right hand side of the keyboard. I can't imagine having a laptop without this now. It's awesome.
I like the multi-touch trackpad overall. I've tried to fine tune the sensitivity, but it still seems to have a few quirks, which are annoying but not a deal breaker. It will often zoom when trying to perform two-finger scrolling. It will also often scroll in the wrong direction if you're trying to scroll a very short distance. There was a problem with it activating app switching when trying to navigate too far to the left of the trackpad. There's an option to reduce the area that will activate app switching (or turn it off completely if you prefer), so now it only switches apps when I start with my finger off of the trackpad and swipe in from the left, just like using a Windows 8 tablet. Two-finger scrolling doesn't work in parts of the Metro UI, which is annoying.
The only thing that really irritated me, and the same thing that irritates me about all laptops, is the bloatware. I expect them to be there, but in this instance, most of the applications that Lenovo pre-installed merely duplicated the features that were already included in Windows 8 by default. Completely useless, and then taking up my hard drive space to boot. For the price, I can't really complain about having to take an hour or so to hunt down all of the junk they installed to remove it, but if I'd paid full price, or the price of most other laptops, I'd have much less to say about this laptop that's positive. It's 2013. People know how to use computers, they know what software they use, and they don't think they're getting a better deal because you're shipping your products with "OMG! So much free stuffs!" It's time for manufacturers to start shipping with clean, unmodified installs of Windows. The hardware is cheap. Most of what I'm paying for is software licenses. Given that, I'd like to get the software I'm paying for.
Buy Lenovo G585 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Textured) Now
Bought this on Black Friday. Good basic computer. Decent speakers and screen. Good value. Would recommend this laptop to others.Read Best Reviews of Lenovo G585 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Textured) Here
I got this for my Son for college. It meets his needs fine. Getting used to Windows 8. My only concern is that it shows as having an HDMI port, but it does not. Otherwise, it works good.Want Lenovo G585 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black Textured) Discount?
After reading a magazine tech review for Lenovo computers I thought I would give one a try.Purchased this model for my daughter who needed one for school. and boy was that a mistake.
At a little over 3 weeks the computer would not start up but instead will only show a black screen with the Lenovo logo.
It will not go into safe mode or anything else. However I Did some research on the net and this is a very common problem with Lenovo laptops(regardless of model).
The problem seems to be a bad motherboard which can be replaced if sent back to the company and as usual you pay to have it sent in. Personally I'm still waiting on the return results.
Note: this is my 5th laptopin the past I've purchased HP/Compaq's & Toshiba brands and all are still running without fail.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from Lenovo
DELL Inspiron 1720 17" Widescreen Notebook, 2.0GHz INTEL CORE 2 DUO, WiFi, 4GB RAM, 320GB, CDRW/DVD
I ordered a Dell Inspiron laptop 1 1/2 years ago and it worked great until recently. The screen went black and the system would not start. Turned out that the video card had failed.I contacted Dell customer support to activate my next business day warranty and after more than a week I have gotten nowhere with them. My claim has been "escalated" twice with the same excuses and refusal to fix the problem. They claim they have no video cards in stock and I will have to wait 2-3 weeks for a replacement card, 2-3 weeks for a loaner system, or 2-3 weeks for a replacement system -basically my NEXT DAY warranty is anything but.
I explained that this is a mission critical system and a 2-3 week delay is unacceptable given the high price I paid for the next day warranty. I offered to take another make or model of graphics card and even offered to go buy the card myself if the agreed to pay
for it.
They refused to help in any way. So, I am left with a useless laptop for 2-3 weeks until it becomes convenient for them to honor the
warranty. I will never buy another Dell product again and recommend that others who are not technically experienced with fixing computers or that need a "mission critical" system that they look elsewhere because Dell cannot be relied upon to fix broken systems in a timely manner.
I have just commited a blunder by getting this trouble home. The Inspiron 1720 has caused me so much anxiety and waste of time for me. The blue screen popsup and keeps restarting. the updates of the VGA drivers dont fix like its mentioned in the dell support site and the support team doesnt have any answers either. The system hasnt been properly tested b4 it was brought out and I have been denied exchange with another model. I bought a new sony vaio and it works fine. rot in hell inspiron 1720.After few months problems with the blue screen. I can not use the notebook because of this issue. I sent it to Dell. Again after some time the same problem occures. It is not worth its price.After paying Dell nearly $600 to fix their problems in May 2010, this computer has now failed again with the same problems. My computer guy told me to call it a lesson learned and stop wasting my money fixing it. I ordered an HP. No more Dells in this house after this piece of trash.I agree with the other reviews. I bought the Dell 1720 laptop online after a bit of research (not enough obviously) and I have had noting but problems. Blue screens, video card crashes, incompatible software. This laptop cannot perform the simplest tasks without struggling. This product should be recalled and blacklisted.
The after-sales support was horrendous no one knew how to fix the laptop after hours & hours on-hold with Indian Call centres. Once elevated, they could do nothing further, not even a refund or exchange. I will be sending them a legal letter shortly, considering the amount I paid and the promises made.
STAY AWAY FROM ANY PRODUCT WHERE YOU CANNOT WALK INTO A STORE, GET FACE-TO-FACE CUSTOMER SERVICES AND GET A REFUND!!!!!
STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING DELL!!!
Asus U56E-BBL5 Refurbished Notebook PC
This laptop is a great buy. Very affordable and very updated. It has the second gen i5 processor and a usb 3.0 port. For the price of this laptop you are definitely getting your moneys worth. This laptop is also very thin and lightweight with a nice screen.Pros: 2nd Gen i5 Processor. USB 3.0 Port, 640GB Hard Drive, Big and nice screen.
Cons: No Blu-Ray Drive.
PROS: What does one expect for this $500 price? It is a great value. The processor in load adjusting meaning it went to at least 2.9 GHz from 2.3 when I was backing up the OEM software OS.
You get an I-5 processor with 6 GB ram 640 GB slow HD and it uses the Intel Video chip on the I5. The 8 cell 7 1/2 hour (as per tests on the net) this will hold you though most airplane flights unless you get delayed. Ample storage for movies.
I am not a big Laptop user as I love my dual screen I7 work station which I use for processing our Wedding Picture Business. I needed a mobile unit that could help show our work that didn't break the bank. I installed LR 3 with Office 2010. I don't like the SD flash memory card reader as my Canon uses CF cards and I haven't seen a LT that has a CF card reader. Did I mention a USB 3.0 port? I couple this with the Blackberry Playbook for $200+ taxes and we get a great picture viewer and book reader for my wife.
I always bought AMD until I started to get baked by the heat coming off our computers. The I5 most likely is a 32 nM chip using only a little power in standby mode. My I7 work station has an apt that shows in standby it uses 3-7 Watts. To me that means the I5 or I7 are green machines. I will for go the warrenty upgrade or we would have bought a similar HP for the extra $100 from costco.
I don't know if there is room for a second HD. The addition of a SSD would help performance if required.
ASUS G55VW-DH71 2.40-3.40GHz i7-3630QM 16GB 1TB 7200RPM 2GB NVIDIA GTX 660M DVD RW
This machine is a great options for any gamer, in my case I requested it with 16 gb ram which could be upgraded till 32 gb. W8 is great just need to spend some time to be familiarized. Its dual and quiet fan cooler system keep it really like an ice, even when you are playing for long time.
HP 2000-2b16NR 15.6" LED Notebook (4GB Ram, 500b hard drive, Windows 8, HDMI, WebCam)
Being a loyal HP consumer for more than a decade, I feel that their 2000-2B16NR model fell short from impressing me in terms of performance. In a one-week period, I have had several blue screens of death after performing critical Windows Updates. Its AMD E1-1200 1.4GHz CPU can barely handle two Firefox Tabs (websites like Facebook, Youtube, and Pandora perform poorly) and the Task Manager without hitting the 100% speed limit. According to the store where I purchased this device, Fingerhut, claimed that the laptop had two RAM sticks of 2GB each. Since I am a PC geek, I discovered that it only had one 4GB RAM @ DDR3/PC3-12800 stick--which explains why the CPU struggles to handle more than one task online.UPDATE (5-5-2013): I can't even watch online HD videos effectively even with high-speed, 15-mbps internet. What's the point of having an HD video card?
Recommendation to HP and those who own this model: to enhance your laptop's performance, get a bang for the buck, and if you're running on 64-bit Windows 8, UPGRADE YOUR RAM (if you have 4GB, boost it to 8GB).
The HD is large enough and 4g ram is really good. CPU works well. You cannot use it as a game device of course, but for daily use, it is really great.
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I bought this laptop from a different seller than amazon. This is my first HP computer I normally buy Toshiba. I wasn't too impressed with the speed, so increase the RAM to 8gb and put in a WD scorpio black hard drive. After that i could tell a big difference in the performance. Now its pretty good for how cheap it was. Im not a big fan of Windows 8. I liked 7 a lot better. But Windows 8 isn't that hard to navigate, its just a big learning curve. All in all the computer is good for everyday use and watching movies. I wouldn't use this for gaming if thats your sort of thing.I have now had this Notebook for about four months and it is pretty awful. I have had a lot of laptops through work and for personal use and this is by far the worst one I have ever had. Many, many blue screens of death, restarts, etc. I had to stop using Mozilla Firefox as my browser because this device could not seem to handle it it would just shut down. Typing is almost impossible because the cursor just seems to move and jump around. You'll be typing a sentence and then it will suddently just start inserting your words somewhere else in the document, e-mail, etc. Very frustrating. Now, the screen has gone completely blank. I can tell that everything is on, but, I can't see anything. I've tried connecting to an external monitor and I only get a quick flash of the screen before it too goes blank. I do not recommend this laptop at all. I have told my kids that if they can somehow fix it, they can have it. I will go buy something else; and, not an HP after this experience.Want HP 2000-2b16NR 15.6" LED Notebook (4GB Ram, 500b hard drive, Windows 8, HDMI, WebCam) Discount?
I need a laptop for my work, and this one does everything I need. The price was right, as well.Save 15% Off
ASUS UX32VD-DH71 13.3-Inch Zenbook ( Silver Aluminum )
This is a great ultrabook if you are willing to upgrade it w/ a SSD (Samsung 830) and some RAM (8GB Mushkin). After that it's the most powerful gaming laptop will you need (for now). I installed Windows 7 on the new SSD and Windows 8 on the built-in 24GB SDD to dual-boot. It's very light and it's one of the very fun ultrabooks that can be upgraded. The pros:i7 ivy bridge processor
Upgradeable memory (2GB + 8GB)
Upgradeable hard drive (SSD). Use the old 500GB with an enclosure for some portable storage
Upgradeable wireless card (maybe later to the 802.11ac standard)
Discrete graphics card Nvidia 620M
3x USB 3.0 ports
Normal sized HDMI port
1920x1080p resolution
Built-in 24GB SSD
Decent sound
**** UPDATE 07/11/2013***
After having this for a while I must say it is quite a good powerhouse after the upgrades. It's still not as powerful as my desktop but for travel it works great. The only gripe about this is that the trackpad isn't as good as what I would like. I would definitely recommend a mouse if you are planning to use it for long periods of time as the trackpad is very sensitive. Sensitive to the point when I want to double click that it moves the mouse ever so slightly and on this high resolution that slight movement will cause you to miss your target at times. Hopefully they will replace a software upgrade to fix that.
Everything else works as expected. :)
First of all here and on BB there are suggestions for user upgrades. I seriously suggest you wait until using the machine for six months. Three weeks in mine suffered some serious failures ending in a catastrophic failure of the display panel which would have left me holding a thousand buck brick if I had done any upgrading. Asus support is bad enough. If I had opened the case I'd have been right in the center of Dante's inferno instead of simply one or two rings in. Don't upgrade until five or six months of burn in -there is a good chance you will need your warranty.
That brings the first thing you will notice after a few days of ownership: even though the specs look good, performance is significantly sub par. That is precisely why there are so many discussions about upgrading. It has an i7 but performs like an i5. It has a screen on paper that looks good but the panels must have been bought off the back of the truck.
Yes, 1080 IPS. Sounds great right? Wrong. You are better off with 768 given the light bleed and failure rate which I learned later on this. I am not finickly about a little light bleed but I promise you have never seen as much light bleed as this. I have hundred buck box 36" store TV's with less light bleed.
Even minor things are glaring and show bad engineering choices. I wanted an back-lit keyboard. The backlighting on this keyboard is so bright at minimum setting, that if you are using it in dark situations where you need it you will be lighting up the room and making the screen experience terrible.
What is up with the track-pad? Was that bought by the same corporate buyer who got the garbage display panels? I can image dozen a pallets of these being bought in some back ally! "30% off" because 30% of the pad a dead zone. Yes I have applied the Asus patches on the trackpad and along with other users see no improvement.
The implementation of the hdd cache boggles. It literally does nothing. It is as if the machine was engineered and built, and someone raised their hand at a final meeting and said "we can't put on the ultra-book logo without a cache" to the dumfounded looks of the rest of team. That must have been a meeting that looked like NASA trying to figure out how to scrub the CO2 from Apollo 13 -"how much duct tape is on board?" Solution? Solder some flash onto the MB, call it a hybrid, and shrug at the fact that it decreases performance from a standard HDD! They may as well scotch tape 24g of flash unconnected to the outside of the case and call it hybrid.
Processor: my precious i7, performs as implemented like an i5
Backlight keyboard: Sounds good, implementation worse than no backlight
Battery life: Average on paper, real life worst in its class
Display Panel: great on paper, poor in reality
Casing: looks good until you touch it and see it is paper thin
Wifi: dual band reads nice on paper, implementation (antenna placement?) poor
HDD: 500GB with cache good on paper, not good in reality
Touchpad: What the heck Asus!?!?
User upgradeable": You read about this so much precisely because it is a DOG out of the box relative to what the specs should deliver. I suspect like me people get it and say: "what is wrong here, let me bump it up." Ask yourself why are their youtubes on replacing wifi cards that are dual band out of the box? Why are people dropping four hundred bones on 500gb ssds when that shoudl only only be a minor real world improvement over a proper cache hybrid? Why are people downgrading to windows 7 (Answer: to try and get around the fact that win8 and proper drivers were an afterthought this model.)
Sorry to be so negative on this unit. But I have never in my 20 years of ownership of dozens of laptops seen a better example of good on paper, terrible in reality -especially at the premium slot.
Buy ASUS UX32VD-DH71 13.3-Inch Zenbook ( Silver Aluminum ) Now
Let me start off by saying if you just want a regular laptop for daily use, do not buy this. There are a plethora of thinner, better build quality, and better supported ultrabooks that don't have discrete graphics (UX31 series, MB Air, Samsung 9, etc... the list goes on and on). Alright all the regular daily users gone? Good.This laptop is meant to be a portable powerhouse for the tech savvy. Do not try upgrading from Win 7 to Win 8 as trying to port over your drivers will result in a horrible array of keyboard, wifi, bluetooth, and graphics headaches. In fact it usually works out better if you do a clean install of Win 8 without the Asus bloat and install only the drivers off the Asus support website or download directly from the manufacturer of each part (Asus support blows, get your drivers from the source when possible at all times) which you're going to do anyways when you replace the junk HDD with an SSD. Then you need to throw in an a thin form factor SSD (a GOOD one, like the Samsung 840 pro) and an 8GB stick of RAM.
Now you might ask why you would ever bother doing this since it sounds like a huge PITA. Well... do you want the fastest, most powerful, highest resolution, best graphics (excluding Acer which is made of plastic and overheats GT640M vs GT620M) ultrabook on the market? If the answer is yes, then do it. This laptop is a tease, it tells you it can be amazing if you put the right stuff in it, but if you don't it will be junk.
Read Best Reviews of ASUS UX32VD-DH71 13.3-Inch Zenbook ( Silver Aluminum ) Here
The laptop works great and is perfect for what I wanted . Which was light as possible and still have enough power to game. The screen is great and all the bleed talk is trash yeah if stare at it looking long enough you can see it. How often does a complete black screen be productive unless your looking for faults? There are a few other laptops out there and each have thier points mine was the the HD screen and for a 13 Inch I havent found another. And dont let those " I have been an IT guy for 20 years" fool you as they are a dime a dozen and all have great opinions and if they knew so much maybe they wouldnt have bought it to start with???Want ASUS UX32VD-DH71 13.3-Inch Zenbook ( Silver Aluminum ) Discount?
I've had this laptop for one month now.I've put in my own Samsung 840 SSD from my previous laptop and an additional 8gigs of ram just in case it went up in price if/when DDR3 is phased out. The negative reviews are right on the hard drive; if used with the original 500gig hybrid drive this computer is beyond disappointing. Perhaps that's because I've had an SSD for a while in my previous laptop and I'm used to it.
I am writing this to rebut some of the other reviews. My laptop doesn't crash, has very fast wireless (consistently ~8MB (bytes, not bits) per second on my university network), wakes up as it should, the touchpad works and I don't get any stray movements when I type, it has an amazing screen with maybe the slightest bit of bleed in dark room with the brightness up (why would you do this anyway? gaming? maybe?). I can actually only ever see the bleed on the boot screen when the screen is full bright with a full black background once in Windows it's hard to reproduce this. Mine came with Windows 8 preloaded and now with the SSD it boots in about 12-13 seconds from totally off which is amazing, the product key is embedded in the BIOS so you can reformat the laptop at will. Some caveats the keyboard is not as good as other laptops (thicker ones especially) I make more mistakes on it, but it's by no means uncomfortable or bad. UPDATE: after one month of lots of typing, the keyboard has loosened up noticeably and is much easier to type on it feels like the keys have a bit more travel. The battery life is kind of short coming from a UL30A which could do 7 hours of actual use. This one does maybe 4.5 of actual use. It also suffers from the same issue as many other thin note books if you carry it in a bag put something between the screen and keyboard before the keys transfer crud and make abrasions on the screen surface. My UL30 had permanent etching on the screen from something getting transferred from the keys. Anyway, if you're thinking you want an ultrabook that has some power and is upgradable, I would recommend this.
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Sony VAIO VPC-EA43FX/WI 14-Inch Laptop (White)
This is a great little laptop. It's very lightweight, doesn't get hot (it's been on for about 6 hours straight now), and the display is gorgeous. The widescreen display is great for watching movies and definitely gives the laptop a more "modern" feel. The speakers are OK..they can get pretty loud, but the sound quality isn't the best (rare for Sony!) -but it is a laptop, after all. The chiclet keyboard is different than what I have had in the past, but it is very easy to get used to and makes for quick and error-free typing. The laptop comes with Microsoft Office starter which includes limited functionality Microsoft Word and Excel..no, it doesn't have all the features of the full version, but it's nothing the average user will miss.Windows 7 is infinitely better than Vista; you can disable a lot of those annoying things Vista didn't allow you to do (such as asking for your password each time upon start-up). When I just got my laptop, I had 261 gigs free of 287; regarding memory: I only have chrome open, and my computer is using up about 40% of its memory.
One qualm against Amazon rather than Sony: the laptop isn't just "white" as the description states -only the keyboard/mouse area is actually white...the cover, the frame around the screen, and the speaker area are actually a very light silvery color (still very pretty). The bottom is, of course, black. I think Sony does have an all-white version (coconut white) but I've only seen it sold directly from their website.
Samsung Series 3 NP350V5C-A01US 15.6" Core i5 750GB HDD Laptop(Titan_sliver)
This laptop is great. It arrived promptly in perfect condition, and when I booted it up it was easy to see I was going to love it. I agree with the critical reviews--Windows 8 is the most impractical operating system for a laptop/desktop...it's a drastic shift from the old ways and makes everything so much more complicated than it has to be. But I won't dock points on the machine that it came installed on for that fact; samsung is just trying to keep with the times. I plan on installing windows 7 sometime soon if I am able. back to the point though...This laptop packs a lot of power for just $500, which was my main concern. I use it to do schoolwork, take notes, and play late-release games and it runs so smooth. If you care about aesthetics, this thing is so sleek and shiny, trimmed down and easy to tote around.
At first I was weary about buying a samsung, because my friend has an i3 samsung and said it overheats frequently. I have not had that problem with this one in the least bit, and it even has fan control settings that control noise/performance.
The speakers leave a little bit to be desired, but it's a laptop--you can't expect much from such a tiny sleek machine. My only other qualm with this computer is the fact that the caps lock button doesn't have a light on it, so you don't know when you're about to type in caps...in my book,however, that's not the worst problem to have.
I especially like the fact that the screen is matte, as opposed to glossy. It's easy on the eyes and has literally no reflection, and works well in direct light as well. Same goes for the trackpad--your finger won't get all sweaty and stuck to it while you're trying to navigate around.
Besides the capslock button and the speakers (which in my book are very minor drawbacks), this thing is a perfect practical laptop. It'll get everything you need done and you cannot beat the price for the system specs it sports. Trust me, I shopped around for a couple weeks before settling on this one.
Hardware power (i5+6RAM+750GB)
Linux works with all HW.
1 GB net. Only 100mb on DELL.
Good screen. TN, w/o PWM.
4 USB.
Price.
Cons:
Samsung software.
Win 8.
Buy Samsung Series 3 NP350V5C-A01US 15.6" Core i5 750GB HDD Laptop(Titan_sliver) Now
Laptop performs well. It was delivered on time in good condition. Only bad thing is it comes with Windows 8. Do not get anything with windows 8 installed. It sucks. If I had known how bad it is I would never have bought a computer with Windows 8. I am looking in to downgrading to Windows 7. It will cost me another hundred dollars, but will probably be worth that to get rid of this crap operating system.Great notebook. Windows 8 is a little different, but once you get used to it, you'll be fine. I had to google how to turn the computer off!Want Samsung Series 3 NP350V5C-A01US 15.6" Core i5 750GB HDD Laptop(Titan_sliver) Discount?
Works great, looks great, and feels great to use. Still getting used to windows 8 though, I wish it had an option to come with windows 7.Save 13% Off
Gateway MC7801u Refurbished Notebook PC
Backlit keyboard is the best feature and makes using this laptop far more versatile. Unfortunately, the keyboard itself is not as effective for everyday use. The center area of the keyboard is not as well supported so you have to punch the keys a lot harder to get them to register on the display. A large HDD (320GB) and 4gigs of user memory, along with Intel Centrino 2.0GHz CPU, make this 64bit Vista PC performance's better than most laptops in the under $600 price range. The WEI is only 3.7 because the integrated graphics support, although "accelerated", is not as good as most full size Desktops with dedicated plug-in video card. The 16" LCD is a true 16x9 widescreen display and looks absolutely stunning. Also built-in to this laptop is 1.3MP webcam, microphone and two speakers. HDMI output connector is a nice bonus. Only thing missing is Bluetooth support and a BluRay DVD player, but at a significantly higher cost. Internet WiFi access is very fast and makes for a seemingly much more reliable connection than my even my two year old high end desktop PC. All in all a very good value and one of the few Notebook PC available at any price with a backlit keyboard.
I'm not a gamer, so I can't speak to that, but it ran every application I threw at it.
Drawbacks: It's heavy.
I never replaced the battery in all that time and it was starting to go bad on me.
And, the power connector was a weak spot. I had to reinforce it to keep the cord from disengaging.
Still, a great laptop. I don't think it locked up once in three years.
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I bought this laptop when it was still in stores. Keyboard is the worst part, you have to hit every key in the center an firmly, the keys started popping off mine in a couple months. The touch controls work when they want and will sometimes flicker on and off.This computer cannot play 1080p or 720p files, it struggled to use itune's visualizer. Games don't run well if ever. WoW gets about 18-22fps on the lowest settings. The battery has a life of about 1 1/2 hours and will stop working after 6 months (I've had 2) whether or not you use it.
Max is 4gb of ram
Does not have a dedicated video card like it says on the box (shared 1024mb)
Not a full sized keyboard
Don't let the gloss screen pull you in you won't be watching anything hi-res on this computer.
The backlit keyboard has never had a problem and the 4 usb ports and hdmi port and the fact that it had an expansion card slot are the only reason I'm giving it 2 stars. IMO this laptop was not worth the 800 I bought it for and is defiantly not worth more than 200-300 in-box much less used. Gateway was once a trusted brand but they've really gone down hill in recent years.
Read Best Reviews of Gateway MC7801u Refurbished Notebook PC Here
Lenovo Ideapad Z570 1024AMU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Gun Metal Grey)
Had this laptop for a few days now and I love it! Its super fast, lightweight and beautiful design. I really like the keyboard. The individual letters are spread out. Only complaint to the keyboard is the enter and backspace button is little small and the left arrow is right next to the 0 which is annoying at times. I couldn't believe the price for 6GB memory 500GB RAM and i5 processor. Comparing price vs. features, Lenovo beats the competition. I've had a HP for 3 years, which broke on me, and switching over to Lenovo was the best decision I've made.
I'll start with the specs I purchased this laptop with:
i5 processor, 8 gig ram, 750 gb hard drive, no dedicated graphics card, windows 7 home
It's a pretty standard build, and for around 600 bucks, I was able to snag it from Costgo.
This is my computer that took place of my mid2009 macbook pro with 4 gb ram and intel core 2 duo + 250 gb hard drive...
I have to say that Lenovo made a solid build with this computer. It trucks through almost everything I've thrown at it! Keep in mind, this is not a gaming laptop, nor is it a heavy duty desktop replacement. Nor is it an ultraportable. It's just a 15.6 inch screen laptop with a bit of heft (but every port you could want/need) and with decent specs, it's just a really solid all-around laptop. You can find out more information on the usage and all that stuff from other reviews.
I simply wrote this to say that the product is pretty solid. One thing I will say though...about 5 months in, my motherboard fried but Lenovo offered to fix it completely for free. So really big kudos to them! Especially since my warranty was due to expire 2-3 days before they fixed it. So I'm really happy that the process went smoothly. I will say that the phone call took an hour, but it helped that I had a really nice guy from Costco keep me company while I was waiting...but that's to be expected since my Macbook Pro took 3 days to fix entirely with a similar problem (and you have to go through hordes of customers at the Genius Bar @ NYC where I'm from). So in that regard, I didn't really mind the 1 hour phone call and the mailing in of my computer.
I think I'll cling to this computer for about another year before I get a better one, but for the price...nothing beats it.
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Should not be writing a review when full of anger and frustration. This laptop was a Christmas present but by Valentine's Day it was dead. It will not boot up. Appears that power supply is fine because the power bar is lighted (amber color)What is infuriating is the type of "customer support" I received. Raja S. (who refused to give me his last name) needs extensive training in customer support and technical troubleshooting.
He mocked me when I could not locate the tiny button he said I needed to hold along with the power button, "You have to hold them for one minute."
After a minute transpired, (I actually thought we were disconnected because of the dead air on his end), I informed him that nothing happened. The laptop is still not booting up.
He said, "You have to hold the buttons for 3-5 minutes."
WHAT?!?!?
Fortunately I had two other family members with me so we took turns holding the buttons while we watched for the 5 minutes to be up.
After that Raja S. said we have to send the laptop back to the Depot and we have to pay for one way shipping. What?? No RMA# he said no.
He also said we would have to pay if they find out the laptop is damaged. Ummm.. We already paid $599. for this paperweight.
When gathering my information, Raja was not very helpful in soliciting my contact information. Again, dead air. I could not tell if he was ready for my information or not or even if he hung up on me.
I finally asked, "Hello Raja are you there?"
He got snippy and said, "I am waiting for your address not just the street where you live."
I finally flipped out at him about this whole experience. I work in customer service and would probably be given a strong reprimand if I treated my customers as I was treated.
He proceeded to put me on hold from 16 minutes.
I will never purchase another Lenovo product again based on both the reliability of the product and the lack of customer support. This is the first time I ever had a computer or laptop die after such a short period of time and this is also the first time I called a "help desk" and spoke with someone so apathetic.
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Worst customer service I have ever received in my life. I bought an Idea pad laptop and it kept crashing on me. After hours on the phone they offered to fix it if I paid for the shipping. I sent the thing in twice and they replaced the hard drive twice. Pretty dumb if you ask me. Each time they claimed they tested it and claimed that it worked but the computer was still crashing. After two months of waiting for a working computer I sent it to a local computer repair shop and they fixed it with a higher voltage power supply. Lenovo refused to pay because they said it was a software issue and software is excluded in the warranty. Lenovo is a company that does not care about their customers or the quality of the product. Someone really should do something because this is just not right.Want Lenovo Ideapad Z570 1024AMU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Gun Metal Grey) Discount?
I see lots of complaints about this laptop, I purchased mine from office max not amazon, but I have had it over two years now with no problems at all. It always boots up fast, it works well with word, it has a been a great cheap laptop. I have never had to deal with customer service, but I can say it's still going strong I'm using it to type up this review. I'm not sure why so many people are having issues with it booting up I have never had this problem.
HP Pavilion DM1-4310nr 11.6" Laptop (T-Mobile 4G)
I read the reviews about this netbook. I paid particular attention to those with driver problems. I decided it was good value and that I'd take the risk of dealing with any potential driver problems. After receiving the netbook and doing the initial sign-on and setup, the first thing that I then did was start the HP Support Assistant, selected 'Updates & tune-ups' and applied all updates before proceeding. Only then did I apply all the windows updates via the normal windows updates. All updates went on fine without any problems. It was only then that I proceeded to install any other software. I've had no driver problems or network issues what-so-ever. All my favorite programs work just fine. This is a nice little netbook and I'd recommend it. The only issues I had any trouble with was setting up the T-Mobile access. I was unable to register online because the online registration process requires a phone number associated with the SIM card. This was fixed by calling T-Mobile and getting a phone number assigned to the SIM. The only other problem was then setting up an online account with T-Mobile. To setup this account requires that a temporary password be sent, via a text message, to the SIM. This process assumes that you're setting up a phone, not a netbook or PC. There was no way to receive this message on the netbook. According to T-Mobile support the only way to get this password was via this text message. They recommended that I remove the SIM and put it in an unlocked phone or take it down to a local T-Mobile store have them do that for me. Fortunately, I had an older unlocked phone that accepted the SIM and I was able to text the password that way. Other than that everything setup just fine. The performance is good for such a little machine. I purchased this mostly for when I travel. Now I'm retired so I only travel for pleasure not business. While actually traveling I mostly use it as an entertainment device, mostly playing games and watching videos. However, I also use it for other functions, like tracking my finances via Quicken, which it also performs very well. Battery life is good, not great, but more than adequate. This netbook performs very well in this capacity. So don't believe all those negative reviews concerning the drivers. You just need to make sure you update everything first, starting with the HP drivers via the Support Assistant.
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I was just about ready to send this one back, but decided to give it one more shot with HP tech support. I normally shun tech support these days because of the severe offshore-ness that has infested support centers these days. However, I liked the cellular broadband capabilities of this unit and nothing else on the current market fits my requirements as this one does. The fellow in India I got connected with turned out to be an extremely knowledgeable chap with fine language skills. What it appears is that HP sent these little buggers out with terribly immature drivers for the cellular broadband networking and the support software loaded on this machine was also seriously deficient. It took the better part of an hour to get these items corrected, but the end result is a laptop that now functions as it should and fits the bill for me superbly. Also, Windows 8 is easily tamed to look and function nearly identical to Windows 7, so don't let all the bad press and whining deter you. I recall the same loud noises when Windows 7 was sent to replace XP.Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DM1-4310nr 11.6" Laptop (T-Mobile 4G) Here
I was looking for something to replace an older 'large' laptop that I use primarily when traveling. After much debate I dismissed the tablets because they really didn't have all of the functionality I require. I chose the DM1-4310nr because of its weight, size, price and the HP reputation (I've owned many HP products).With the exception of Windows 8, which I'm still trying to adapt to, this laptop has performed better than any laptop previously owned. I am very pleased with its rapid wireless connection and the way it zips through files, especially large photos. The one thing that has been a challenge is the lack of disk drive. This has caused work arounds to install software I own that is on disks.
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I've had the product for a week. It does need to be customized and is taking some time to get use to (due to windows 8) but i don't have any complaints. As far as price it was cheaper, quicker and easier then when i tried to order it directly from HP. two thumbs up for amazon. I haven't tried to set up the tmobile wifi get. Also it automatically added the other devices (printer, laptops, xbox) on mynetwork which was great for me, but if you don't want to share these locations there's ways of blocking it. Also it came loaded with ALOT of Microsoft windows programs that are similar to the gmail ones i use so i had to delete them (video chat, calendar, email etc.) as they were set to default and want to sync and i'm happy with my gmail products.Save 25% Off
Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 215126U 15.6-Inch Laptop (Grey Metal)
I bought this during the labor day sale as it had a $100 rebate. Which was mailed 3 weeks ago but still hasn't made it to me.Right after the one month mark, first blue screen happened. I contacted Lenovo support who told me to uninstall McAfee, which i did. Was fine for a week. After that I blue screen at least few times a day, sucks because i use this as my work laptop. Called Lenovo who said they would look into it for a price, asked them if i could return and get a refund, they gave me a ticket number been over 2 weeks haven't heard back. Latest feature on the laptop is it keeps blinking on me as if the blue screen by itself wasn't annoying on its own. I've bought a few laptops this is by far the worst laptop i've ever bought. Wouldn't recommend for free, not worth the annoyance.
I need a laptop for my personal use, and I'll be buying this same laptop. Yeah, I know the computer came out in 2010 sometime, but mine has the I5 quad core, 4 gigs of ram, and is plenty fast for what I need it for.
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I bought this laptop 3 months ago specifically to run a CAD program for a couple of engineering courses I was taking. I've been very pleased in the laptop thus far. It came with a bunch of useless programs (what laptops don't) but I removed most the programs and it's working great. It runs my CAD program, SolidWorks 2011, perfectly. I haven't had any issues with it freezing or running slowly. It stays cool. The graphics are great. I have no complaints about its performance. I work IT and I game, so I know that it's not the best computer out there. It's great quality for the price I paid. I've always been really pleased with Lenovo and this isn't an exception. I'm very satisfied.Pros:
Performance
Sound
Graphics
stays cool
Cons:
The touchpad is a little weird, but I use a wireless mouse so it's not a huge con for me.
Comes with too many useless programs.
Really wish the keyboard had a back light.
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I have searched a lot of reviews for this model laptop. All over they gave very good review, so I bought it. But this is very slow and my old Dell is faster than the new one. I am talking about my Dell 3 years old and it is way faster than this Lenovo. Do not buy this not worth it.Want Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 215126U 15.6-Inch Laptop (Grey Metal) Discount?
ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01 15.6-Inch Laptop
I bought this laptop from Best Buy back in November 2012 and I just love everything about it from the backlit keyboard which makes operation easy in a dark room at night to the ease of Windows 8 Professional. It is definitely a worthy purchase if you are a student or otherwise.
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I bought my ASUS Q series laptop from Micro Center in Chicago, refurbished but felt very much like a brand new machine. I was only looking for an affordable laptop that was up to date and better than my Dell Inspiron 1200, which frankly was good enough for what I needed it for. This ASUS blew me away. Windows 8 is far easier to use than all the reviews I had read, since I was coming from XP PRO and was very used to it. W8 is a total breeze, easy to use OS. The 2 x 3.0 + 1 x 2.0 USB ports plus the HDMI port along with the SUPER DVD drive is a perfect setup. This is an amazing laptop and I definitely recommend one. Also the black ALUMINUM shell is better than all those HP, etc. hard plastic ones. Its lightweight (was shocked at how heavy my Dell was in comparison) and the backlit keyboard is terrific. I got mine at Micro Center in Chicago for about $479.00 i5-750G HD, 6G ram. Also, when I fired it up the laptop was right at home with my ASUS RT-N66U Black Night wireless routerif you're looking for an incredible router, check it out. AMAZING!Read Best Reviews of ASUS Q500A-BHI5N01 15.6-Inch Laptop Here