Can you believe it, a laptop that looks just like a phone. Easy to hide, to avoid potential theft. Amazon should be checking their photos of products.Update, over a year later and the still haven't fixed the picture of the product.
Showing posts with label hp 15.6 notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hp 15.6 notebook. Show all posts
IBM ThinkPad R40 (27232FU) Laptop (1.30-GHz Pentium-M (Centrino), 256 MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Drive, DVD
Can you believe it, a laptop that looks just like a phone. Easy to hide, to avoid potential theft. Amazon should be checking their photos of products.Update, over a year later and the still haven't fixed the picture of the product.
Toshiba Satellite U945-S4380 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ice Blue with Fusion Lattice)
I'm a computer nerd of old, but lately I just like to use them and not try to fix them or set them up. Back in the days of early laptops, in the 90s, I was not a big fan of Toshiba. This time around I figured why not, because it has better than the average specifications compared to the Sony, HP, Dell, etc. More memory, faster processor, equals faster computer.This thing has full size keyboard, large screen, but still super light. For the price, I really don't think that there is a way to beat it.
We have only had it for a month, but in that time I think I have figured out that this will do just fine.
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Great ultrabook for the price. I not get a chance to do too much comparison before I bought this. This is extremely fast and reliable. However can't say the same thing about Windows 8... Pretty annoying almost "android" wannabe features.The keyboard on this laptop requires a bit getting used as it is pretty slim but you'll get used to it within a few days use.
The sound on this is not great but that is not surprising on an ultrabook. You'd need external speakers if you want to listen to music on this. I use Skype frequently so feedback I get from the other side is very clear voice and picture.
Really light and I find myself using this versus my tablet these days because of the keyboard. Hope this helps!What I had in mind for a laptop was something lightweight but with a full-sized keyboard, with a fair amount of storage space and a good battery life (as my old laptop no longer lasted through a class period of note-taking). I didn't particularly care that it be fast, as the 6-year-old, lower-end laptop it was replacing was performing just fine for my needs. Even so, I think I can tell that this one runs faster (although it's also configured differently).
As far as hardware is concerned:
I like the look and feel of the laptop, and it is light-weight without feeling at all flimsy. It is blue (as advertised), but the color is very subtle. In fact, I only notice that it's blue when I compare it to an actually gray laptop, and otherwise my mind is perfectly willing to believe that it's the gray I wanted.
Also as advertised, it has no CD drive. Just a heads-up reminder.
The keyboard is slightly too spring-loaded for my taste, so that it's hard to tell by feel whether you've pressed a key down all the way.
The screen only tilts back about 45 degrees past vertical (rather than the 90 that my last laptop had, so that it could lie open flat on a table).
The power cord sticks straight out the side, which makes me feel like I'm going to wear it out very quickly by bending it back. If I do wear it out, I'm sure it's possible to get a replacement one with a bend in it (for instance, the power cord from my old laptop has a bend and seems to be compatible, despite their different manufacturers).
The speakers are underneath the laptop on the sides, which makes the sound a little muffled if you've got the laptop on a soft surface. The sound quality isn't as good as I might have hoped, but it's fine for most of my purposes. If you want high-quality sound, use external speakers or headphones.
The battery lasts about 4.5 hours of low-key use (wireless and word-processing, but no games or media).
I, like one of the reviewers above, installed Linux. Again, UEFI makes it not obvious how to boot and install from a live USB, but turning it off helps. The Linux installer didn't recognize the Windows installation to set up dual-boot using grub (possibly because it was looking on the wrong hard drive?), but I've got it set up with Linux booting from the SSD and Windows booting from the main hard drive, so I can tell it which one to use by telling the BIOS which hard drive to boot from. The goal was to have my main OS running from the SSD so as to optimize boot time and performance, and things seem to open at a pretty peppy pace, but I can't say whether that's why.
I've mostly been using Linux Mint, but Windows 8 works fine, as far as I can tell. As in the previous review, the Mint installation basically worked out-of-the-box, with a few fairly minor exceptions:
I turned off the function-key-swapping mentioned in the previous Linux review (because as mentioned there they don't all work correctly in Linux), and just set Linux to recognize the F-keys as shortcuts for the things they're supposed to do.
I find that the mouse is a somewhat bigger issue in Linux. The mouse buttons are part of the trackpad (in the configuration Linux refers to as a 'clickpad'), although they are subtly delineated on the trackpad itself. Almost everything (including multitouch and multiclick) works as intended by default, but if you rest your thumb on the mouse button (as if ready to click) and then try to move the mouse the driver interprets it as some sort of multitouch gesture and either scrolls or doesn't do anything at all. If the button is actually held down, it ignores the finger holding it down, as it should, so it is possible to click and drag. Resting a finger on the mouse button doesn't interfere with mouse movement in Windows, so I figure it's something the Linux driver-makers haven't quite figured out yet. I've got tap-to-click turned on, so I don't actually need to use the mouse buttons much, but an actual mouse button is useful for dragging cross-screen, where it's nice to be able to pick up your finger in order to continue moving the pointer when you get to the edge of the track pad. If you can't rest your thumb on the trackpad and use the mouse, it's annoying to have to move your thumb onto the pad just to click and drag, and then off again (and it also makes it hard to position the mouse for a click). Turning on locked drags makes dragging without mouse buttons less of a pain, but I'd still like to be able to use the mouse button more easily.
It's not clear to me whether sleep/hibernate/whatever-you-want-to-call-it works correctly from Linux. It certainly blanks the screen, but sometimes the battery runs down anyway, and sometimes the laptop turns off while it's supposed to be asleep even if the battery still has juice. I haven't figured out why.
I know I've mentioned more negatives than positives so far, but I'm actually quite pleased with this laptop. At $570 it was a little more expensive than some other things I saw listed with similar specs, but those all turned out not to be actually available for purchase anywhere I could find.
--Edit--
After about two months of use, the LCD display backlight stopped working (apparently an issue with the connecting cable). With the laptop still under warranty, I was able to get the hardware issue fixed free of charge (except for $25 to ship to the repair depot), but dealing with the Toshiba warranty process was a pain, to say the least, and was an experience I would not want to repeat.
On the other hand, switching back to my old laptop for a month really helped me to see how much faster this one runs.
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Maybe this is just bad luck. But we ordered a new model. It didn't turn on. Two hours with Toshiba troubleshooting. Not very helpful, despite that the serial # HAD ALREADY BEEN REGISTERED. Amazon, however, seemed genuinely embarrassed and sent us a new one within 24 hours.The new one lasted about three hours. Windows 8 problem? Toshiba problem? Frankly, don't give a damn at this moment. After four days of frustration, we are out $30 in shipping fees after returning two defective (supposedly) brand new Toshiba U-945 series laptops.
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Toshiba Satellite Notebook Computer A135-S4527
I got this computer to replace my PC and I'm glad I chose this particular one.This notebook comes with Windows Vista Home Premium. I wasn't too sure about having Vista, but after using it I do like it. I use this notebook at home and the PC I use at work has XP. I like Vista better than XP. The biggest problem I had with Vista is that I could no longer use my very old inkjet printer. I checked the printer manufacturer's website for a Vista driver and it was not providing a driver for that printer. I can print from Vista with my somewhat newer laser printer. I would suggest that before buying any computer with Vista, it would be wise to be sure your printer will run with Vista.
The speed of this notebook is excellent. My husband decided to double the RAM and it is now beyond excellent.
This computer is great. I need to explore more of it to find out everything it can do, but it has more than met my needs so far. I would highly recommend this computer.
In response to another review, I have not had ANY of the problems mentioned. In fact, when we replaced computers at work a few months ago, I insisted on a Toshiba notebook for me (however it wasn't this particular model). I do not hesitate to recommend Toshiba.
The internal wireless card quickly connects to the network and is very fast.
I'm really glad I bought this notebook computer.
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I bought this Toshiba about a year ago and it is the best laptop I have had. After you have used it for a while you will know what I'm talking about. The speed for the amount of memory amazed me. My roommate has a laptop with 3GB Ram and it is no faster. She was upset because she paid more and has better stats but my laptop is better. Her DVD drive also went out after 6 months of use. This Toshiba is quality. I have never had a problem with it and even though its a little older it runs like new. Decent screen display for a older computer but still not what you will get on a new $800 dollar laptop. Sound quality is decent and gets pretty loud. It just feels sturdy when you use it. It stays much cooler than most laptops under heavy use as well which may have a lot to do with its longevity. I think for the money you couldn't ask for more. If you are looking for a good day to day laptop look no further.Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite Notebook Computer A135-S4527 Here
The computer stopped working a couple of weeks after I received it. I already sent a complaint to you and supposedly you are working on it.It is, according to a computer technician who checked it, a severe electrical problem, probably due to an accident. The computer has rough marks and a glued track on the bottom!!!
I hope you would be able to take care of the problem. Thanks.
Best wishes,
Jose L. Martin, M. D.
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I got my Toshiba satellite A135 S4527 in April 2007, its worked great for me almost 3 years now. No problems at all to report, except that Vista sucks compared to XP. But, that isn't Toshiba's fault and I could always buy XP to replace it. The laptop was a good deal at the time, I paid $599 I think and have no regrets about it. One of my better purchases, I might stick to Toshiba since I had a good experience with this one. A friend of mine has a really high-end Toshiba and its also 3 years old, and very nice, lots of extra stuff on it.
Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830TG-6450 14-Inch Aluminum Laptop (Cobalt Blue)
This laptop met and exceeded all of my standards.I'm a grad student and my computer needs are admittedly pretty basic (Internet, Word/Excel, the occasional game, etc.); however, I wanted a computer with specs that weren't going to be completely obsolete in the next four years. I move around a lot and I'm constantly whipping my laptop out, so I needed something light and easily transportable. Also, seeing as how I am a grad student, I couldn't break the bank.
PROS
Battery life. The 8-9 hour figure is not an exaggeration. This is by far one of the nicest features. I go out all day without bothering to bring my power cord along. It's about 6PM as I write this; I've been on my laptop repeatedly throughout the day since 8AM, and I still have 2.5 hours of battery life to go. Love it.
Performance. With an i5 Sandy Bridge processor and 4GB of memory, the speed is definitely noticeable. I regularly have 20-30 tabs and windows open at any given time and I've never noticed a drag. I realize that that isn't saying much for those who really like to milk the performance out of their computer -so you probably want to refer to other reviewers on this factor -but as an average user I'm very satisfied with the speed. I should also note that this laptop doesn't run hot. Ever.
General design. Everything is very well laid out. The chiclet keys are great, the trackpad isn't annoyingly off to one side, the click of the mouse isn't loud (a personal pet peeve), and there are no unnecessary buttons cluttering up the keyboard. I wasn't sure about the cobalt blue at first but now I rather like it; it's toned down enough that the laptop still looks professional, if that's a concern.
Portability. I'm constantly moving from place to place throughout the day, and it's so nice to be able to pull my computer out whenever I need it. It starts up very quickly upon re-opening so I can jump back on it right away.
Price. $699 honestly feels like a steal for the quality of this laptop. I did a lot of research before buying it and I think this laptop is the best value out of all the comparable computers in its price range.
Other minor perks: The webcam resolution is surprisingly good, and there's a little programmable button on the keyboard that you can use for whatever you like.
I'll let other reviewers comment on the speakers because I'm honestly not enough of an audiophile to properly assess the quality. For the basic stuff I use them for (Grooveshark playlists, YouTube cat videos, etc.) I have no complaints.
Also, it should be noted: This laptop DOES have an optical drive. I don't believe that it's mentioned in the specs above.
CONS (read: minor annoyances)
It comes preloaded with crapware so be prepared to do a clean install of Windows 7 if you feel so inclined.
I sometimes hit the Fn button when I'm trying to hit Ctrl. They're both pretty small keys and right next to each other.
It's probably a matter of adjusting a setting, but I'll occasionally brush the trackpad in such a way that I zoom in and out of whatever window I'm working in, which is a little annoying.
Bottom line:
This is a fantastic little machine, perfect for students and people who are on the go a lot.
I just began as per the quick start instructions. I put the machine on charge, turned it on, completed initial configuration and set up. Battery was showing 73%. I wanted it to be 100% before I could actually test the battery life. While it was on charge, I got rid of most crapwares. I let Windows install all the updates. Activated and updated AV (It comes with 60 days trial of McAfee will switch to AVG soon :) ). Got rid of all Start-up programs those are not useful.
It took 12-14 sec to shut down and 30-35 sec to boot. Data transfer with USB 3.0 was amazing. It took approx 12 sec to transfer 1 GB of data from my portable hdd (3.0) to laptop hdd. At point I had 15-16 tabs opened in IE, WMP running, Canon utility programs running, MS word running at the same time and there was no lag in performance of this machine. It works at pretty good speed.
Chiclet Keyboard is good. Every key stroke is recognized. Track pad is smooth and good. Keys are set up in bit different positions than my earlier Dell and HP. But, it's not a trouble. Camera is average, but i am not bothered with it. It works fine for me on Skype :)
Heard horn liked tone from in-bulit speakers when used on Skype (But only once). Sound quality looks good otherwise. Would try it connecting to external speakers.
Screen resolution is very good. It looks bright. Core I5, 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 650GB hdd, 14" LED/LCD display is not a unique combination and there are many machines available in market with this combination. But, there are few things which makes this purchase worth -
1) NVIDIA with 1GB of VRAM is a plus. Haven't tried it though for gaming!
2) When it was charged to 100 %, I restarted the machine and let it run without AC power. I am using it since 5 hours now and it is still showing me 4 hours of charge left. Well, battery may will discharge faster if I pull more out of hardware (run/burn DVDs or continuously transfer data). But for an user like me, who spends most of the time on internet, looks 8-9 hours of battery life very much achievable with this machine.
3) It does not get hot. This is outstanding.
4) $699 is a steal for a machine of this quality.
This is my first Acer and I am very much satisfied with my purchase.
Buy Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830TG-6450 14-Inch Aluminum Laptop (Cobalt Blue) Now
I love this computer super fast , long battery life, great speaker of any laptop I ever touched except of course the HP's but connected to speaker its really good especially via HDMI if you looking for a super light and thin aluminum laptop with DVD-rom of course 640GB and 3.0 USB what else can you ask for this price.:-DRead Best Reviews of Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830TG-6450 14-Inch Aluminum Laptop (Cobalt Blue) Here
Very nice laptop with amazing performance. 4 cons but not deal breakers for the price.I was skeptical about the combination of colors but the blue and silver design of the body of the laptop are very eye catching, it looks professional and has a very solid build (The screen frame material is annoying though, see cons below).
14" screen size is just perfect with 1366 x 768 resolution, it's the same resolution as the 15.6" but in a smaller package.
Performance is excellent, very very fast. Laptop came with 4gb (2gb x 2gb) of ram, it was very fast but still upgraded it to 6gb (2gb x 4gb) for even faster multitasking. Don't really need 8gb.
Windows Experience Scores: Processor: 7.0, Memory (6GB RAM): 7.4, Graphics: 5.9, Game graphics: 6.7, Primary hard disk: 5.8
The NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM graphics card did an excellent job for a laptop and a big difference if your going heavy on video usage like playing mid-high graphics games. Played Starcraft II and WOW it was awesome no hiccups, video was flawless and very clear at ultra performance. Make sure you purchase an external cooling system though cause like all laptops it will really heat up when playing games (I got the Cooler Master NotePal U1 Notebook Cooler with 1 Fan R9-NBC-8PAK-GP. It's small, fits nicely underneath and does an excellent job keeping it cool! It also inclines the laptop for easier typing and places screen higher so you don't have to hunch your back and look down).
Laptop fans are on the quiet side and don't really heat up unless your playing games, running power hungry programs or seriously multitasking. I would still purchase the extra cooling noted above.
Battery ran for 5 hours working on normal day to day stuff on integrated graphics, highest screen brightness and @ 2.40GHz full power no turbo boost.
640 GB @ 5400 RPM hard drive, space and speed are more than enough. Would not upgrade to 7200 RPM because of prior bad experience, it will make accessing info faster but this laptop is fast enough! I stay away from faster drives anyway, after a few months they get annoyingly noisy and heat up to the point that it literally burns your laptop. So leave it as is! Never tried solid state drives though, so I can't really say anything about those.
8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive is all I need, no Blu-ray is ok for me.
Speakers are of pretty good quality for a laptop. Like it says, it's professionally tuned not very loud but you get a well balanced sound. The speakers are not at the back top like it seems, they are placed at the front bottom part of the laptop...not an issue really.
HDMI is priceless for connecting to TV or a bigger screen, always a must have in any laptop now a days.
3 usbs are enough for a portable to move around.
Bluetooth is a nice extra but I don't really use it.
Chiclet keyboard is extremely comfortable to type on. Not had any problem with keys.
Cons
Screen quality looks good but not as neat and bright when compared to my Sony laptop. If you're not picky then you won't even notice it. I gave it 4 stars because of this minor issue for me but may be a big issue for others.
Why or why do they keep using the smudge magnet reflective material for the screen frame, I just don't get it. Nice and shiny but put your fingers on it and it looks dirty.
A little heavy for the size.
Battery is built-in so you won't be able to remove it easily. Not a problem really but if you ever spill liquid on it you won't be able to rapidly cut all power so no circuits get fried. Battery power is cut though when you remove the back lid to add extra memory.
It was a very good purchase @ $699. Exceeded my expectations! I did my research and nothing comes close to this price performance wise. So, if you don't want to spend much on an excellent 14" laptop with great looks and the cons won't be a problem for you then this is the one. Enjoy!
*Updated on 12/02/2011 Added a few things...some more pros and 1 con. I've had it for like a month now and I'm extremely happy with this little monster. Fastest laptop I have ever had!
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I discovered the CostCo version (4830T-6841) of this PC on the way to Bestbuy and ended up buying it, despite its lack of a separate number pad, after quick comparison shopping at Bestbuy. It was listed for $599 and came with all the specs above, but with 6G RAM, no Bluetooth, and *no crapware*! After I finished initial setup, there was precisely 1 icon on my desktop, the Recycle Bin. But it also included Office Starter (Word & Excel) and MS Signature security. The latter was new to me, but far preferable to Norton or McAfee trial versions, not least because it promised no annual renewal requirements.Both the keyboard and the trackpad feel solid and big enough for my hands. I solved the number pad problem at BestBuy by getting a $65 Logitech solar-powered wireless keyboard (with num pad) that will work with either my laptop or my netbook (an Acer AspireOne 722 with a spongy keyboard and jumpy trackpad), as will my earlier-bought Logitech mouse. So I can leave one tiny USB unifying receiver plugged into each PC that works for both input devices. But they will only work if one or the other PC is asleep or out of wireless range. (Otherwise they get confused about which control tower they're talking to.)
During setup, I kept marveling at how little heat the new processor generated. When I finally turned the PC off after 8 hours of constant usage, it was only as hot as my little Acer netbook gets after 1 hour of minimal activity. The speed was less of a surprise because I was replacing a 4-year-old HP dv4 laptop with a 32-bit processor.
After the battery was fully charged, I unplugged it and got exactly 4 full hours of very heavy I/O usage from it: (1) downloading and installing files from the web and across our local wireless network; (2) copying massive files from my Seagate external HDD (which took 15 min to load all my photos on the USB 3.0 port, after taking about 2 hours to copy them off the old HP with its USB 2.0 ports); and (3) all the while playing music CDs at full volume (sharp, but not very loud, and not very bassy on the new PC) and keeping the screen fully lit. The next day, I got about 8-9 hours of battery life, leaving it unplugged on my desktop and using it intermittently throughout the day in more typical fashion, allowing it to sleep from time to time.
The most annoying feature for me is the placement of all the connectors in the front half off the base (to make room for the vent on the left and optical drive on the right), where any USB 2.0 device on the right side risks getting repeatedly bumped by my mouse hand. And the wires from any video, HDMI, and USB 3.0 devices on the left leave little room for reference materials or coffee cups close by.
Lenovo ThinkPad W530 24382LU 2.60-3.60GHz i7-3720QM 4GB 500GB 7200RPM HDD 2GB Quadro K2000M 15.6" F
I researched for some time which workstation class 15" laptop could replace my desktop as a portable workstation. After looking at Dells, Sangar, Toshiba, etc. I chose the Lenovo W530. I had a very good experience with a Lenovo G570 I purchased earlier for another employee and it gave me good expectations for this unit. The price and feature ratio on the W530 was very hard to beat. I really wanted the Nvidia Quadro 2K card for CAD work and few offered it or something similar as most are focused on gaming. I'm not gamer, I wanted this for my work/home computer as 75% of my work entails CAD/CAM along with IT support.The one feature I REALLY wish it had was a 10 keypad and the Ctrl & Fn keys reversed in position. The G570 has a 10 key in a nice chicklet style keyboard with the Ctrl & Fn keys in the correct position. Why Lenovo can't give this keyboard style in a high end laptop is beyond me. At least the included keyboard is very nice to type on, except for occasionally hitting the little red navigation nub above the B key. I could get along without that nav button just fine. It works, but I don't make great use of it and it interferes with typing more than it helps with navigation. Luckily I mostly use the unit with a USB full sized keyboard and mouse.
The other aspect of the W530 I am not very fond of is the Intel LAN/WiFi cards. This is for 2 reasons. First, I have found the Intel WiFi cards to be the least compatible with routers of all the WiFi cards I've used in laptops. I have had the same experience with Sony VAIO laptops using the Centrino cards, they are very finicky to connect. I had to reconfigure my FiOS router at home to get it to connect and most of the time you need to turn off the Ivp6 feature in the card settings or it won't connect. I have never had this problem with Atheros, Nvidia, or other WiFi cards. It is also not readily recognized by many Linux Distros, a fair sized negative in my book. Second, I do NOT like Intel's PXE boot agent which interferes with accessing the BIOS menu. After the Lenovo Tech support agent failed to help me get around it, and much trial and error on my part, I found out if you simply hold down the F1 key for an extended period it will eventually go past the irritating PXE boot agent menu and into the BIOS settings. I cannot find a way to turn this feature off and I have zero need for it. Since it's built into the on-board BIOS Intel's bootutil program won't control it, I tried that option and it doesn't work with on-board PXE. My beef is more with Intel than Lenovo.
The Webcam is pathetic, seriously. For a high end laptop the Webcam is not even in in the ball park for this decade, it's nearly useless. I tried to skype with it twice, gave up, installed my Logitech 9000, and things rocked, super clear, no lag etc., the way it should be. Do not plan to use the Webcam, just forget it's there. The built-in microphone isn't much better. It works but the audio quality is poor, my skype recipients told me I sounded like I was in a barrel. I just switched to the microphone on the Logitech and bingo, audio quality was right there.
The Speakers are pretty decent for audio playback, movies etc.
Other than the above issues I have been quite happy with the unit. I bought it with the 4GB of RAM option with the plan to upgrade it to 16GB. I was stoked to find out they ship it with the 4GB in the hard to access primary RAM position under the keyboard and the 2 slots for extra RAM on the bottom empty. I was able to plug in the 2 x 8GB sticks I bought and end up with 20GB on board in a matter of minutes, very nice. I have no complaints on the speed of the unit.
The Nvidia Quadro 2K (2GB) card has been so so. It's compatible with my CAM/CAM software but not nearly as fast as I'd hoped it would be running packages that use surfaces. You can use Nvidia's software to configure which GPU runs your applications, either the Intel HD 4000 or the Quadro, or let it choose automatically. You can also configure details of the Quadro. In many instances I find the HD 4000 GPU just as fast which doesn't speak highly for the Quadro card. This isn't a reflection on Lenovo but rather Nvidia. After some research on the card I found they really choked it in terms of the RAM R/W speed. If this feature is a big part of the buying decision (as it was with me) do some research on the card's performance first. This is my one disappointment.
I have been using the system with Lenovo's MiniDock Plus Series 3 and it works great, love it. I run a twin screen setup off the docking station plus the built in screen for a total of 3 screens and it works very smoothly. I have also used the VGA out port for a single extra monitor which works fine. The Win 7 Pro OS is very good about remembering your settings for different monitor setups. I think the docking station approach is completely worth the extra couple hundred dollars, plus you get a second power supply, that's hard to beat. Speaking of power supplies, the 170w supply is a beast. It pumps out the power but sure is a brick to carry around. I'm thinking of getting the smaller 90w unit just to keep in my carrying case and leave the other two 170w bricks at home and work.
I have the 9 cell battery and the life is pretty good if you set it up to optimize battery life. I've gotten 4-5 hrs of run time from it which is pretty dang good for a high powered laptop. The 9 cell battery does stick out the back an extra inch or so. If you want a flush fitting battery you need the 6 cell which would also make it slightly lighter to carry. If you carry it around a lot I'd suggest the 6 cell and 90w power supply, the two would shave off more than a pound from the combo I think.
I have not had any problems with the unit and it's been rock solid in operation. I'm pleased with the 1920 x 1080 HD display. I recently replaced the 500GB HDD with a Seagate 750GB hybrid drive to improve speed and capacity. I cloned the new drive using the Apricorn USB 3.0 SATA kit and it worked flawlessly. The new drive booted up like it had been in there the whole time. I was able to resize the primary partition during the cloning to give me a sizable second partition for my data files. I set the fully configured OEM drive aside as a backup. The HDD bay is easy to access but be careful of the screws holding the caddy on the drive, they are ultra tight and I think have some thread lock compound on them. The first time you remove them have a good fitting screw driver and be very careful or you'll strip the heads of the screws. Once you get them out it's no longer an issue.
To recap, overall I'm very pleased with the laptop and would recommend it. It has a VERY solid build feel and an excellent array of ports. The ultrabay is nice for swapping in other drive options. I had to buy a mini display port to HDMI adapter cable to connect to a big screen TV but it works fine. You'll most likely find that cable in the MAC stuff, it's common for them. If I had a choice I would not get the Intel net cards but you may not have the option. They do work once you tweak the settings. If you can't connect to WiFi try turning off the Ivp6 option first. If you come face to face with the stupid PXE boot agent menu hold down the F1 key for a long time, it will get you past it and into the BIOS setup.
Final note to Lenovo, offer an updated keyboard with a 10 keypad and the Ctrl & Fn keys reversed, ie just like the keyboard in your G570, you know how to do it. And PUT IN A REAL WEBCAM!!!! Professionals use WebEx, Skype, etc for business video calls more and more, it's an essential tool for remote communications. My wife's $350 ASUS netbook has a far superior webcam in it.
If Lenovo fixed the keyboard layout and gave it a state of the art webcam/microphone I'd rate it 5 stars.
I hope this helps somebody considering this laptop.
I was excited to get my new ThinkPad W530, but it was nonfunctional out of the box--something wrong with the communications sequence, from the motherboard to the antenna which makes any kind of internet connection not an option. Lenovo tech support had me reload the OS, replace the hard drive, re-reload the OS (from media this time), use an ethernet connection (luckily I have one!) to run the dreaded Windows updates, run hardware diagnostics, and more. All to no effect. A decent company (and you know they're out there!) would have had me ship them the machine for repair and shipped a new one for me the same day and fixed up the defective one for sale later on.
A month later, I'm finally in the queue for a repair which will take a week or so. I have to deal with the repair process, evaluate the repaired machine, and had to argue with staff to ensure that I was still eligible to return the thing if I don't like the way it works when I get it back.
Lenovo Customer Support, particularly on the sales side, is grossly inefficient. None of the people you talk to when calling them with issues has real authority to help you. This can be very frustrating if you are an individual or a small business. Tech support is competent but not well linked to sales side in the event you need to return product, so techs lean to having customer make repairs on their end instead of asking you to send them the unit to repair at their leisure while providing the customer with a functioning machine.
Do not purchase from Lenovo unless you have strong internal hardware support staff and a dedicated person to manage communications with Lenovo...or just really need a particular feature on their machines. If you have issues with CS, press to speak with supervising staff and express concern with their process. Currently, staff are reluctant to let you go to supervisors, probably due to internal regulations that penalize sales staff for putting customers first. Perhaps they can improve.I recently made this purchase via the official Lenovo store due to my old laptop's battery giving out and have had nothing but grief throughout the entire process.
First of all, I was deciding between this and the M6400, but decided to go with Lenovo due to talking to a sales agent and getting assurance that it would ship before would. What he failed to mention was the delay that would be caused by customs, and the fact that it also ended up shipping 2 days after the stipulated date that he assured me of. 48 hours is a long time when you have deadlines every day in the actual working world.
But that's just overeager sales people, right? So secondly, when I finally checked my order status, I was shocked to discover that the configuration I had listed no RAID whatsoever. I had to look up the product manual to discover that there were some W530 models that actually did not have the RAID mboards in them, and after going back and forth between Lenovo sales/tech phone support (thanks for redirecting me everywhere and not actually answering my question, by the way Lenovo), I ended up getting a solid answer from the user forums: that there ARE no RAID models available at the moment, and not for a few months at least.
I'd like to point out that at NO POINT in the ordering process was this mentioned, anywhere. And on the main product page, it mentions that it supports RAID. If not for the fact that I needed it urgently and had no time to go through the process of cancelling the order and going with a instead, I would never have gone through with this purchase.
So anyway, I finally get the laptop, set about stripping out all the existing software and going with a fresh install of Win 7. And then I get BSODs whenever the AC is unplugged, which took me yet another 4 hours to diagnose before I discovered that the BIOS wasn't updated. After flashing it, now the ExpressCard slot no longer works (thankfully that's not a critical problem, since it just means I lose one USB port). The customer support tech I contacted had the gall to tell me that I had too much RAM that was causing the problem!
Additionally, if you do end up choosing to go with a W530, do yourself a favour, and get the full HD screen (I got the 1600x900 because I hate having screens with anything higher than 90DPI). The lower-end screens have absolutely b ad colour gamut and viewing angles (completely out of whack white point and blue gamma). It's worth mentioning that this is the first ever screen I have actually had to use a colour calibrator to correct gamma, instead of eyeballing it like I usually do. It's that b ad. And I've calibrated Phillips screens before.
Build quality, despite what most people think, is actually not-so-good. The keyboard panel sags, the general material used (with the exception of the screen housing, which is actually quite well-built) is crappy plastic all over and the new keyboard rubber dome feel is not as crisp as other manufacturers' (Acer/Asus actually has better feel)
Also, the lack of a numpad. I knew I was already going to miss it, but it boggles the mind as to why Lenovo chose this new layout, presumably to fit in larger drivers for the speakers, which are massive. Unfortunately, I think it's a poor compromise (who the hell mixes on laptop speakers anyway?) since the speakers don't sound that good at higher levels, and have b ad response through the mid-range of tones. I always use an external sound card and monitors for my audio, anyway, so it's not a huge issue for me. No Caps Lock/Num Lock indicators, however, which means you have to rely on a OSD display, which takes up RAM and CPU, along with GPU draws to screen. So, pretty annoying.
So...the good points. The general aesthetic is actually alright, the matte finish is welcome, and the arrangement of ports (with the exception of zero USB ports on the right side) is alright. The RAM slot positioning and HDD slots are well thought-out, making upgrades accessible and less frustrating (but to be fair, almost every manufacturer has caught onto this these days)
In summary, however, with all these problems of reliability, fraudulent sales, and absolutely useless tech support, there is no way I could recommend this to anyone, or any Lenovo product for that matter, considering this is the way a professional product is being marketed and supported. I am terribly disappointed that in a already small market for workstations, Lenovo has chosen to blatantly disregard its offering, I suspect, in favour of its probably more profitable consumer lines.
Just remember: we're the ones making the actual entertainment media for those products.The hardware is great, everything you would expect from Lenovo in a workstation grade laptop. However, you may spend an entire day chasing drivers and loading the color calibration software yourself. When mine arrived, it barely functioned and had no wireless, discrete graphics, optical drive, or wireless monitor capabilities and the device manager was full of exclamation points. I had to load the X-rite software myself and run the first color calibration routine, something Lenovo claimed they would do at the factory. Once you actually get the laptop up and running with the right drivers, it works great, but I wouldn't recommend this to someone who need a machine that works right out of the box.
ASUS S56CA-WH31 15.6-Inch Ultrabook
Overall, this is a decent to good Ultrabook, providing fantastic value at the price point the i3 version is being offered for ($500 at time of purchase). I'd rate it at 3.5 stars. It's a handsome looking notebook and I bought this to replace a tiny netbook my wife had been using; the price of this Ultrabook is only a couple hundred more than a difficult to use small, brand new netbook, while having good functionality (good luck typing on a fancy, more expensive tablet, or sub 11" notebook), more processing grunt than tablets and most netbooks, all within a slim, relatively lightweight profile that is suitable for travel.There are a lot of pros and cons to this ultrabook, but some of are non issues to casual users, while others make this ultrabook better suited to advanced users (or advanced users who set it up for a casual user).
OUT OF THE BOX:
The quality and appearance is great. The aluminum body and top lid are very sleek looking. The darker brushed aluminum on the top does tend to discolor and pick up fingerprints with ease. It's not terribly heavy and while the base is very sturdily built, the screen lid feels a bit flimsy. The top lid appears to be a combination of flimsier plastic, with a very thin brushed aluminum overlay. Lightly pressing on parts of the lid causes the LCD screen to have fluctuations. Despite the notebook being light, you'll want to resist picking up the notebook by the lid/screen, as it may risk damaging the LCD.
LCD QUALITY:
The glossy screen is clear, but has very poor viewing angles. 1366 x 768 resolution is merely adequate. Minor backlight bleeding on right and left edges. Colors are bright, vibrant, with a lot of contrast, but actual gamut (range of natural colors it can reproduce) is only average. This isn't a graphics workstation replacement nor intended for photographers/graphic artists who will be using this notebook for producing color perfect prints, so it's mostly a non issue.
TOUCHPAD:
The large touchpad seems to have fairly high dpi sensitivity, which is a very good thing. Swiping and navigating with the touchpad is fairly smooth, although I did experience an occasional stutters. Two and Three finger multitouch work as advertised. There is an easy to understand short manual showing users how to take advantage of the touchpad features. One of the nicer ones is to swipe in from the right edge to bring up the Windows 8 "Charms" bar.
KEYBOARD:
I'm a big fan of island style keyboards and having a full numpad. Keyboard feels very good to use and will have no problems for users who need to do a lot of typing and numerical input with it.
SPEAKERS:
The speakers are pretty unique and are actually integrated into the laptop's battery and produce a fantastic range of sound for a laptop. Among the best I've heard. UPDATE: Apparently, they're in the laptop. The battery has a faux speaker cover looking applique.
CPU+GRAPHICS:
The i3 provides a nice balance between power consumption and speed. The i3 is not slow by any means and the Intel integrated graphics aren't either. While you won't be able to play the newest games on high settings on this, many games are completely playable at low-mid settings. 1080p videos play flawlessly (when output to a higher resolution screen). The Intel integrated graphics share graphics memory with the computer-if you add another 4GB of RAM (~$25), you can, through the BIOS settings, increase total graphics memory allocation to 512MB. I was able to play Shogun 2: Total War on decent quality settings after a small memory upgrade. The graphics power is around that of the Nvidia GT 610M or GT 630M (with max 512mb memory allocation).
HARD DRIVE:
This ultrabook has an integrated 24GB mSATA SSD (short type) on the motherboard and a 500GB 5400 rpm secondary hard drive, where both operate in tandem as a hybrid HDD (via Intel IRST). This provides relatively quick boot up and loading of most programs, but the 5400rpm hard drive a big crutch and despite any marketing, these 5400rpm drives are always a crutch and I've had a bit of slowdown on this notebook solely due to the 5400rpm drive. I swapped it out for an SSD, but it was a lot of work, which I'll get into later. This Ultrabook operates much faster and more reliably with an SSD in place of the 5400rpm mechanical drive.
INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS:
A nice amount of ports, USB 2.0 and 3.0 work at advertised speeds, HDMI and VGA out is nice, although I do wish it had an eSATA port. The camera is not very good and produced a very grainy picture. It's a typical low end webcam. Bluetooth, which was included in my model, has adequate range. I am surprised that a DVD drive can fit in this form factor, squeezing one in might have resulted in some QC issues with mine-the eject DVD button works strangely, requiring a abnormally hard button press to get the DVD tray to eject. The DVD drive motor is also incredibly loud. DC Power jack seems pretty reinforced and feels like it won't be the first thing to go, as opposed to some of the other laptops I've owned.
BATTERY:
I get close to 5 hours with regular use which is more than adequate, considering how slim the battery is. Not as high as other ultrabooks, but this ultrabook is also less expensive.
BLOATWARE:
Not too heavy on bloatware, as compared with other manufacturers. Only had about 6 unnecessary programs to remove, albeit some of the Asus apps may be useful for the casual user (as they can provide easy file swapping options for connecting smartphones, working with the webcam, and setting up power options).
ADVANCED USERS/UPGRADES:
RAM is pretty easy to add another 4 GB. I also do like that it is just one single panel to remove (2 screws) to access both the HDD and the extra RAM slot. If you want to remove both sticks, you will need to remove the entire bottom cover/enclosure (about 16 screws). The BIOS is very lacking in options, which is unusual for Asus. There are no options to remove the Asus boot logo, nor are there options to select which boot device to use. It doesn't appear that this ultrabook allows booting from a USB thumbdrive, as I tried several bootable thumbdrives when I was trying a clean install, each time met with failure. It does allow booting from DVD, but I would feel better knowing I could boot from USB in case of DVD drive failure. Additionally, regarding the BIOS, this uses Secure Boot and an SLIC BIOS, which for the layman, automatically loads licensing data and prevents "unsigned" bootable DVDs and thumbdrives from loading/booting. This is why the laptop has no Windows License sticker. This was a big issue for me as I tried doing a clean install of Windows 8 Pro, but the SLIC BIOS automatically kept loading up the manufacturer keys for Win 8 Standard OEM during install, preventing me from using my own Windows 8 license. I was ultimately able to do a clean install Win 8 Pro, but it required some very hacky methods and backwards logic that I'll detail in the comments.
Replacing the slow 500GB HDD with an SSD and installing an OS on it is a little tricky due to the integrated onboard mSATA SSD. If you're doing a clean install you'll have to reinitialize the mSATA SSD to restore the Intel IRST functions (Fast Boot, Fast Resume, Instant On, etc). You can also liberate and get full use of the onboard 24GB mSATA SSD as a conventional drive, alongside your own drive by deleting the GPT partitions and creating new volumes...but I recommend making a backup of all factory partitions+data from the 24GB mSATA SSD so you can return the laptop to factory settings, if necessary. The 24GB mSATA SSD is removeable, but it uses a short card; the longer, larger capacity standard size mSATA SSD cards, while they will fit, have no screw standoff to secure it. I'll be adding a laptop screw standoff so I can swap the 24GB integrated mSATA SSD with a 128GB mSATA SSD. Or you can completely remove the mSATA SSD and just have a single drive notebook. The wireless network card can be removed, but there may be a hardware lock that prevents other wireless network cards from working on the motherboard. For now, I'm happy with the Atheros card that's in there, as it's compatible with some penetration testing software I have. There's a limited amount of tinkering that can be done on this Ultrabook, and I do feel some is necessary to get the most out of this notebook (replace HDD with SSD).
Despite some of its flaws, the underlying common denominator that makes this worthy of a purchase is it's price. You get a lot of Ultrabook for not too much money. With some tweaks, such as replacing the HDD, and maybe reintigrating the Start button via the $4.99 Stardock Start 8 program, it can be a great Ultrabook for casual and advanced users alike.
The overall construction is very good except for one issue the DVD tray extends out from the side of the laptop by about 1 mm. One on-line reviewer noticed that the fit of the DVD tray was off in his review model also, but I am surprised that this got through into the production models. It is not a big issue, but it definitely detracts from the look of the aluminum body.
The screen is bright and clear and has good viewing angles. The keyboard is nice and big and works well with my hunt and peck. The large scroll pad is nice, and I am liking the imbedded buttons more than I thought I would.
The operating system is Windows 8 core (not pro). There is an ASUS-branded software DVD player, so I didn't have to upgrade to pro to get the windows media pack for DVD play as I feared I might have to. There is no utility to create recovery DVD's even though the paper manual refers to one called AI recovery. There is a Bluetooth module, so the "reviewer" who says that there isn't one is wrong.
The 500 GB hard drive is partitioned into a number of system and recovery partitions and a C: system partition of about 186 GB along with a D: data "drive" of about 258 GB. I used the Windows 8 disk manager to first remove the D: partition, expand the system "drive" to around 400 GB, and then used the rest of the space for a 39 GB D: drive just in case the recovery software expects to find the D: drive there.
I installed Start8 from Stardock to get a start menu back on the desktop, and have ordered a 4GB SODIMM to expand the memory up to 8 GB ($25) I figured more memory would be useful especially with the imbedded HD-4000 graphics.
I don't know what the reviewer who was complaining that this was a "slow" computer was talking about. It has a windows experience score of 4.8, which is not bad for an I-3 without turbo-boost and with imbedded graphics. It won't play highly graphics intensive games, but that's not what I bought it for, not should you expect it from the online specs.
Hope this is good enough for an initial review.
Buy ASUS S56CA-WH31 15.6-Inch Ultrabook Now
*UPDATE AFTER SSD PURCHASE*Upgrading the internal HDD to a 240GB SSD has fixed all of the problems I mentioned in my previous update. The computer now runs incredibly fast.
I will add, however, that trying to reinstall Windows 8 with the same product key was impossible except by using an unmodified x64 iso of Windows 8. For some reason, I could not download the iso from Microsoft and had to find it elsewhere. After finally getting the proper iso, the reinstall was a breeze, and the OEM product key was entered in automatically (make sure you have secure boot enabled). I also formatted the internal 24GB SSD and now use it to store my internet browser's cache to extend the life of my 2.5" SSD. Not having the Intel Rapid Start or Asus Instant On features has not created any noticeable affect on performance or resume speeds.
*UPDATE AFTER 2 WEEKS OF USE*
Do NOT buy this laptop if you don't intend to upgrade the internal Hard Drive to an SSD. The performance of the internal HDD bottlenecks the entire computer. I cannot listen to a 320kbps mp3 while browsing the internet without it skipping/stuttering, and I cannot listen to a FLAC file doing nothing else without it skipping. I also cannot watch an SD .avi file without it skipping/stuttering at least 10 times during a 40 minute TV show, and I cannot play Worms: Reloaded (a very simple game that this computer should be able to handle) without it locking up for a second or two EVERY 3 SECONDS. Either the internal HDD is EXTREMELY slow (my guess because my RAM and CPU usage are always well below 100%, and it's not just video but also audio that skips) or my unit is defective in some other way. The HDD indicator light is pretty much constantly on when I try to do any of the previously mentioned tasks as well. I will be ordering a 240GB SSD within the next month to see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise I will be sending the unit in to Asus. If you need a working laptop for under $500, don't get this. I'm going to be spending at least $200 on this laptop within the next few months (SSD and 8GB more RAM).
If the SSD upgrade fixes the problems, I would rate this at 4 stars again, but these issues bring it down to 2 for now.
----------------
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
This is a review for the Core i3 with 4GB of RAM.
PROS:
-Great keyboard w/ numpad, touchpad, and overall build quality with ample ports.
-Large, glossy screen and great audio quality on built in speakers.
-Snappy performance with Windows 8 on the internal SSD
-Laptop stays cool under load.
-Instant On resumes the OS very quickly.
-Latest 22nm version of the Intel CPU/GPU chipset (a lot of Ultrabooks in this price range are using the older 32nm architecture)
-ASUS Gesture makes Windows 8 a breeze on a non-touchscreen device.
CONS:
-Battery life is a bit lacking with the 4-cell battery (around 5 hours) BUT it also charges insanely fast (faster than my cell phone)
-LCD quality could be better; although it is perfectly adequate for a student or casual user. The viewing angles are limited and the color range is not the greatest. Tweaking the graphics settings helps quite a bit, but if the screen quality is the most important thing in a laptop to you, you probably won't be happy.
-The back is a fingerprint magnet, but that's nothing a little Windex can't help.
-DVD drive sticks out a NEGLIGENT amount on the backside. It's less than 1mm for me, and the front is flush. I've seen people complaining about it, but don't see it as being a huge deal.
-The speakers are on the bottom, so when the laptop is sitting on a bed, sound is a bit muffled but still loud enough.
-Grainy webcam
As a student, this laptop suits me very well. It's got enough battery life to make it through a day of classes without charging, and it's extremely light due to the stylish and thin aluminum design. Sound quality is great, and the display is adequate for mobile use (I'll do my Photoshopping at home on my desktop though). The processor is very fast as well. I've always been an AMD user except for an eeePC that had an Intel Atom. I'm very happy with the speeds of the i3; in comparison to my desktop's Phenom II X3 2.8Ghz the i3 transcoded an album from FLAC to V0 in 160% of the time it took the Phenom. Not bad at all. I've yet to do any gaming yet on this laptop, but I have a feeling with a total 6-8GB of RAM the Ultrabook would have no problem playing many recent games on low-medium settings. As far as video, the HD 4000 graphics provide a perfect HD media streaming experience. The webcam, however, is mediocre at best with a grainy, but decently high resolution image.
As far as future modifications, I intend to purchase a 128GB SSD to replace the internal HDD as well as pick up another 4GB of RAM. A freshly booted system configured to my liking (Rocketdock & Rainmeter) uses 66% of the internal 4GB due to the onboard GPU. I also would consider buying a larger battery if offered and if it's the same dimensions as the stock one. These are all things that are unnecessary due to the incredible price of this Ultrabook ($439.99 after rebate for me), but they will unlock this device's full potential.
In the end, I am very happy with my purchase; although I could have gotten a more expensive Ultrabook with more power, this packs a great punch for the price. It will be more than adequate for my internet browsing, mobile music production, word processing, media streaming, and casual gaming. Plus it makes a great fashion statement because it looks even sexier than a Mac ;)
Read Best Reviews of ASUS S56CA-WH31 15.6-Inch Ultrabook Here
I wanted a laptop that's attractive, reliable, at least i3 processor and under $500. Amazon had a gold box deal on the Dell 15N and, while it met my minimum qualifications, it was somewhat of a dud. The thick plastic body and the cheap feel of the keyboard was disappointing but I would have kept it for just over $300 I paid if it weren't for the wi-fi connection issues. I returned to Amazon and was credited fully right away. Personally I feel that there's no better retailer than Amazon right now.As soon as I got my credit for the Dell return, this laptop goes on gold box deal. Talk about good fortune. This laptop that qualifies as an ultrabook (barely) is easily 5 stars for the price I paid. Not many people can say that they paid just over $400 for an ultrabook.
Performance is commendable. Even though I'm a casual user and don't do much that is graphics or processor intensive, I have yet to see any slowness of my applications and, with the hybrid HD setup, is the fastest booting computer I ever owned.
Reliability is top notch. Not a single hiccup detected at nearly a month's use. You also get the Asus warranty including accidental drop/spill damage protection.
Full of features including Bluetooth, HDMI out, USB 3.0 and an optical drive that not all ultrabooks have. Drive tray does stick out by a sliver when closed and isn't completely flush as some other reviewers noted but I wouldn't even have noticed if I hadn't read that on others' posts.
Sounds great. Best sounding laptop I ever owned. The speakers are down firing so having this on a flat surface is best for listening.
Excellent design. At .83" and 4.6 lbs, it is thin and light and I am a big fan of the brushed metal look of the aluminum body. Yes, it does leave finger prints but what laptop doesn't?
Decent battery life. Was able to squeeze 5hrs. Not the best but good for having 4 cell battery.
The keyboard, while not backlit, is nice and feels well built. Touchpad is responsive but is big, bigger than other laptops I owned so it took a little getting use to.
The screen is average. Like most mid level laptop screens it has good color and contrast with a little backlight bleed at the corners and short viewing angles. It definitely is not an Apple Retina Display.
Win8. Some hate, some like and some get use to. I got use to it. Works fine for my needs. Just glad that it came with minimal bloatware.
The 500gb HDD is 5400 rpm not 7200 as stated in some places but it fits my needs. Swapping it out for a SSD would improve performance no doubt but I really don't have the need to invest in that. I did put a $25 4gb RAM in the open slot and that will be the extent of my hardware upgrades.
Some states that the cooling fan is very loud. I have yet to notice after 3+ weeks of use and is quiet as a whisper. Will update post if it starts doing so.
This computer looks, feels and sounds great. While not the ultra of the ultrabooks, its performance is excellent for a casual user.
Want ASUS S56CA-WH31 15.6-Inch Ultrabook Discount?
Incredible for Price.I bought the -dh51 model that has an i5 mobile processor and 6gb of RAM as opposed to an i3 and 4gb of RAM. This upgrade is essential on this model! There is NO dedicated video card onboard. This system uses Intel integrated graphics HD 4000. Asus should not even make the -wh31.
These 1 and 2 star reviews really cheese me off.
First, This is a laptop that Asus has put in their Ultrabook category. There is no standard definition for such word. Look at the dimensions before you buy if you're going to complain about the size...
Secondly, I got 4 hours and 10 minutes off a single charge of active use (typing, games, movies) with dimmed screen and airplane mode on. This is one of the BEST value of i5 laptop computers out there right now. You get quite a bit of hardware for
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HP 15.6" Pavilion dv6-3122us Turion II Entertainment 4GB Laptop 500GB Notebook PC
For a laptop with a 500gb hard drive and 4 gigabytes of RAM and a fast processor(2.4ghz), I would recommend the DV6 to anyone who wants a stylish computer with great specs for the price
All in all, it is a decent computer that will last for a while, but is prone to overheating and will only last 18-24 months before needed to be replaced.
Buy HP 15.6" Pavilion dv6-3122us Turion II Entertainment 4GB Laptop 500GB Notebook PC Now
I have this laptop for over a year now. It does a decent work and the performance is good for the price range. Unfortunately, it broke down recently and won't turn on anymore. It's one month out of warranty and HP wants a hefty repair cost for a burned motherboard. Can't justify to throw more money at a bad product.
HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC
I very much liked this computer when I got it. Then about 1.5 years after using it only for school and barley travled out the house with it the hinge on the left side broke. It got to the point where I couldn't close it properly. I needed it deperatly so I bought a replacement part and had the entire screen replaced (the only way to fix the problem) Now its six months later and the same left hinge broke. This time I decided to look up if anyone experinced this. To my suprise this happens a lot. For hp to know of this problem and ignore it is terrible. I am annoyed at hp for this. This take 700-800 dollars out of my pocket. Being a student I can not afford for a computer to last only 2 years. I don't think I will ever buy a hp again.I have never written a bad review because I know no product is perfect but hp straight up took my money for this junk of a computer!!
I have found the customer service to be pretty helpful when my laptop wasn't working properly for a minor issue connecting to the internet. They are contracted from India somewhere, but they did solve my issue which seemed pretty abstract to solve in the first place; so that is a good sign. I actually ended up taking out the battery and holding the power button for 45 seconds to discharge any static built up in the laptop.
All in all, I would give this laptop on a scale of a 100 an 85. If I had to grade it on marginal dollar value, I would grade it a little higher, maybe 90 out of 100. Hope this helps.
Buy HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC Now
I also have been having problem with its left hinge. After googling, I have concluded that this is a design flaw of the Pavilion dm4 series -there are too many people experiencing problems regarding to the left hinge, repeatedly. And bad reviews of the hinge problem are everywhere -quite a few topics on HP forum, people mentioning the left hinge problem on other Amazon reviews, and, there's even a youtube video regarding fixing the left hinge of Pavilion dm4! As a customer, I feel raged, being told by the HP Customer Service people that the hinge broke because I dropped it -NO, I didn't. You simply cannot deny the design flaw by blaming your customer. I am sorry, HP, if you think that this is the right way to treat your customers, then you probably deserve to be bankrupted.On a side note, the Customer Service people were also extremely not helpful -I was describing the problem to them trying to find replacement parts, but they basically told me that I just need a hinge cover, which is definitely not true. After a lot of research, I found that the main problem comes from the hinge and the cracked plastic anchor on the back cover. I have done my homework, and it shouldn't be this way -forcing your customers to become computer experts?! Ridiculous.
My roommate, who also had a Pavilion dm4 (she bought it 2 weeks after I did), is now back to IBM since that her dm4's system board and memory broke. It would have costed her more to fix it than to get a new one, so she got a new one, from IBM... And she also agreed that she would never go back to HP again.
This is my first time writing a bad review. I have just send in a complaint to HP, hopefully they will come up with a solution. Will update when they solve the problem.
Update 1:
HP contacted me back (which is quick and efficient of them), saying that they don't have any records of it being a designed flaw. Based on the information I have gathered, I requested HP a further investigation on this issue. They did offer me half off repair, which considering how they have offered other out of warranty Pavilion dm4 customers free repair, I am starting to feel raged again.
Read Best Reviews of HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC Here
I had this computer for a few years and absolutely love it! For the dude with the sensitive mouse pad you can adjust the sensitivity in the control panel. I don't know why someone would call it a cheap design. I'm not sure what the charging light is all about,but I don't think it should get a one star just for that. Like I said, I have had this computer a couple years with no issues I love it and am writing a review because I saw the low star rating and was completely perplexed. I think the low reviews are nit picky. I understand a bad review if your hinges broke, but the rest appear to me to just be written by cranky people and are baseless.Want HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC Discount?
I bought this laptop a few weeks ago. Frankly, it is really light, fast and portable, easily fits in your backpack and has a long-lasting battery life.You can use it for hours while enjoying a coffee at Starbucks or when doing a homework in a library.Its shape is pretty thin and helps you grab it with confidence. I also like the screen resolution, gives out perfect pictures and makes video watching so enjoyable.
The only think that would make it deserve an A+++ would be a back-lit keyboard, but this can still be put on afterwards, right?
Anyway, I think it still gets a 5* from me, not that I am very generous, but let's render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's...
Lenovo IdeaPad G580 (59348969) Notebook {Intel Celeron B830 1.8GHz / 15.6" / 4GB RAM / 320GB HDD /
So far, I have truly enjoyed this laptop. I've had it since mid-December. The battery life is great (I might be biased, my previous laptop only lasted 45 seconds on battery) it runs fast (I might be biased, my last one had 1gigabyte of ram) and the speakers are really clear and loud too. The keyboard has a great feel to it; you can tell which key you're pressing just by the space between keys. Every now and then it doesn't recognize a key press, typically the ones below homerow, but that's not frequent enough to be a real concern. The backspace key takes some getting used to since it's a tad smaller than your fingers want it to be. I found myself hitting num lock a lot by accident. And unless you can reach an octave +3 on a piano, you won't be able to adjust the volume with one hand. (You have to press the function key and the left or right arrow keys at the same time. Volume adjustments in programs or on the desktop would still work fine, but it takes longer.)Windows 8 is smooth and speedy, and makes it quick to start programs if you've pinned them to the start menu. The swiping to switch programs is a little bit hypersensitive sometimes, so you have to be careful not to drag your fingers too close to the edges or rest your left hand on the pad while navigating. The scrollbar on the right of the touchpad is a little hard to find sometimes, since the touchpad is flush with the frame of the laptop, but I've found that the two-finger touch scrolling option is easy enough.
Also, it is an incredibly glossy computer, so you will definitely have dust visible on it almost all the time. But really, it's what's inside that counts, right?
Aside from that, it's a fine machine, and very fun to use. I heartily recommend it.
IS AT THIS POINT, AT LEAST, VERY, VERY DIFFICULT AND LOADED WITH TONS OF WILD GOOSE CHASES.
BUT I'M CERTAIN THAT ONCE WE MASTER THIS INCREDIBLY STEEP LEARNING CURVE, ALL WILL BE WELL.I bought this in mid December and by mid January the hard disk crashed! The disk just started making clicking sounds the just crashed. Very dissapointed.
Apple MacBook 13", White Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 1GB, 120 Gb Hard Drive, Wi-fi, DVD-Burner, Camera
The computer is great, has tons of great programs already on it, and had less cosmetic damage than the description warranted. I was pleased except for the trackpad's issues-it clicks around and selects stuff when I'm not even touching the computer, which can be really frustrating, especially when I'm trying to type. But I got a really great deal on this computer. However, my main complaint was my communication with the seller; they didn't respond to my questions promptly and I didn't like doing business with them. All in all I'm glad to have the computer, but am irritated at the sellers and not very happy about the issues with the trackpad that I didn't know about before I bought it.
Lenovo Y580 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dawn Grey)
Aesthetics: I think it's a beautiful laptop. Metal all around the keyboard area. The lid is entirely metal on the outside. It's a sleek design that is minimalist which I love.Function: The 1080P screen is gorgeous. Watching movies and high quality YouTube videos is great. The JBL speakers sound better than any laptop speakers I have heard. One of my favorite features is the keyboard the feedback you get from the keys and the solid build quality makes it enjoyable to type on. Also, for you gamers, I get a solid 40-50 FPS on medium to high settings playing Battlefield 3.
I looked at about 5 different models from a variety of companies and this beat them in almost every category. My one gripe so far is Windows 8. The touchpad gestures can be quite annoying but I'm sure I will adjust to it in time. Of course, that is not the fault of the laptop, just an observation.
Also DO NOT ORDER THROUGH LENOVO. I had a lot of issues ordering through them and their customer service has been less than helpful (that is putting it very nicely). I don't know why I made the mistake of ordering through them initially. Ordered through Amazon and it was easy and they delivered on time, as always.
All in all, if this laptop fits in your price range, you will not find a better product. Highly recommend.
On top of that it comes with Windows 8 which believe me is simply fantastic and easy to use with your current mouse.
I can see now everything in just one single dynamic tiles based home screen. My mail (all accounts), my messages, sports news, whats going on in Facebook, twitter etc.
If you are considering buying a computer in this price range, this is by far the best choice.
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I bought this laptop and it works great. I can play good games at highest quality. Now I can work with it and sometimes play what I want.Read Best Reviews of Lenovo Y580 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dawn Grey) Here
Laptop does everything I wanted. 1920x1080 screen is amazing. Very fast, runs any software I can throw at it. would recommend to anyone.Want Lenovo Y580 15.6-Inch Laptop (Dawn Grey) Discount?
Great computer for its price. Top specs for an affordable and practical laptop. Lots of great components inside that do not sacrifice size or weight.
HP 630 15.6" Core i3 500GB Notebook PC
Good laptop for the price. No complaints so far. Looks good. Works. I dont' know what else to say about it.
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excellent, good condition, i recommend this pc get a great processor very powerfull and very low price i get this pcRead Best Reviews of HP 630 15.6" Core i3 500GB Notebook PC Here
Meet my expectations. Item came as described. No complaints. Perfect size and features, best laptop at a good price! Worth it!
HP DV6-7200 15.6" i7-3630qm Quad Core Extreme Performance Gaming Laptop with 256GB SSD Hard Drive &
After days researching laptop computers, I had a list of components I knew I would need to make my next laptop lightening fast when running and switching between multiple photo and video editing software. When researching laptops, components and price, I looked at benchmark results, offerings from the big PC chains, newegg and various custom-built laptop websites. This system won outright.First and foremost was the Solid State Drive and this rig delivers a nice 256GB SSD. Second, it needed to have a powerful CPU and after hours of serious research, I concluded the CPU in this rig was one of the most powerful available. Yes you can get more powerful CPU's, but the cost increased disproportionately to the real-world results, therefore I happily settled on the 3630qm. Furthermore, the CPU in this rig is more powerful than the top-line MacBook Pro (see below). Next, I wanted at least 8GB RAM running at a fast 1600MHz this laptop doubles that with 16GB. I also wanted it to have 1920x1080 full HD so the display when editing photo's or previewing movie edits would be sharp and flawless. Finally, an often overlooked component on laptops is the graphics/video card. The GT 650M on this laptop is probably its weakest component, but it has 2GB of GDDR5 (note the $2,100 MacBook Pro also employs the same GT 650M but with only 1GB GDDR5 RAM, instead of 2GB GDDR5 RAM found on this laptop). Having said that, the video card is still excellent but would not allow you to play demanding games like Battlefield 3 at maximum settings in 1080p (expect to pay 2 grand if you want that on a laptop).
Geeky stats aside, this is a very nice laptop. It has a beautiful slim design, nice brushed industrial-metallic look. The finger-print reader with HP SimplePass is wonderful quick and easy to set up and allows you to log in to the PC and any website with a swipe of your fingerprint. The display is a beautiful matte non-glare style which can be seen from various angles and choosing a laptop with anti-glare (matte) displays is essential if you ever think you'll use the laptop outside or in a bright room. Its slim, lightweight and operates at an amazingly low temperature. The SSD means no moving parts and no vibration and also extends battery life. The keyboard feels really good and the off-center touchpad which I've heard some reviewers criticize is not, I repeat not a problem. The USB 3.0 ports make it easy to add a fast external hard drive if you need more hard drive space. Start-up and shut-down is hideously fast 11 seconds from dead to fully-on (try to honestly count your current laptop). Again, you can thank the SSD for that (a hybrid drive is not as fast).
Finally, a word on why this laptop is only available from one company (Eluktronics). I was initially a bit skeptical, but I went to HP's website and began to custom-build the same laptop. I noticed these components in their 'menu' and saw how the seller had obviously gone through a similar process picking components from arguably the best PC builder in the industry (HP). Therefore, you're not getting 3rd party components thrown into a HP shell, but the same quality components HP would put into their own custom-built laptops. Best of all, the seller prices them a couple of hundred bucks less than HP and is able to ship them asap. All other boutique laptop builders I looked at wanted a lot more money AND 3-4 weeks to build your PC before they even ship it. Result is I knew I was getting a bargain, quality components and a brand I can trust. (One final word: HP's website stopped offering the SSD and instead only provides the 'hybrid' 750GB drives on this laptop. I got the opportunity to try out this exact same laptop with the hybrid drive and it is way slower than the SSD.)
Finally, I confess this laptop is more than what I need right now. My wife wanted a MacBook Pro (the $2,100 model) and I knew this would compete. When you stack this up to a MacBook Pro, you have the following:
.................HP Envy DV6-7200.....................MacBook Air MD103LL/A..........MacBook Air Pro MC975LL
Processor....i7-3630QM Processor 2.4 GHz.......i7-2620M Processor 2.3 GHz....i7-3615QM 2.3GHz
PassMark....7628.........................................4164...................................7533
.................(can boost to 3.4 GHz)...............(can boost to 3.3 GHz)...........(can boost to 3.7 GHz)
Display........1080x1920 (2.07 million pixels).....1400 x 900 (1.29 million).........2880 x 1800 (5 million IPS)
RAM...........16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz.................4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz..............8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Video Card...2GB GT 650M............................512MB GT 650M....................1GB GT 650M
Hard Drive...256 GB SSD...............................512 GB mechanical drive.........256 GB SSD
Optical........Blu-Ray / DVD...........................DVD....................................?
USB 3..........3 ports...................................2 ports
Cost.........$1,400......................................$1,600.................................$2,068
Conclusion: The best MacBook has the better display with its IPS 5-million pixel retina display, BUT the CPU is slower, it has half the RAM, half the video RAM, and costs 50% more. The mid-range MacBook Pro shown above which costs two hundreds dollars more is pathetic when lined next to this HP model. Its CPU is almost half as fast, has a quarter of the RAM and a terrible graphics card. Winner HP Envy.
Sniper Elite V2Ultra settings, 20-30 fps (this game goes no higher than 31? even on lowest settings.)
Battlefield 3 Ultra settings, 18-27 fps (low settings 40-50 fps)
Trackmania Canyons highest settings 18-22 fps (low settings stays pinned on 31 fps)
So far nothing has been unplayable on the highest settings. SO im very impressed with the performance of this laptop. However if you are a fps stickler, it might not be for you for the super high end games. You will spend another 800 bucks to get anything much better than this one.
I like the design, the keyboard is great with little to no flex, its backlit so you can type in the dark, which is a huge plus for me. The only things that im not a big fan of is the trackpad buttons, kinda mushy, you cant tell if you have clicked or not. And the up and down arrow keys are tiny, so that will take some getting used to.
Overall 9/10 would buy again.and I broke that promise. When HP sold me a Netbook that had an obvious flaw and burned out the mother board (reported on by numerous parties) and HP acknoledged the problem but would do nothing about it, I swore off of them. I went back on my word however and purchased this PC. I have had nothing but issues with it, culminating in a "BIOS UPDATE" from within windows 8 that black screened my computer upon reboot and now I have to send back the entire system to HP for "repair". Nice machine, unfortunately built by HP who feels that they can put all sorts of stuff on their machine to make it "better" yet does nothing but cause problems.
Lenovo Edge E430c 14" Core i3 320GB Notebook
Purchased the Lenovo Edge E430c for light duty in sales. Size and weight are well suited to be mobile. Unit isa bit underpowered and upon start-up, takes an extreme amount of time to load. Recommend getting additional ram to speed up booting.
Toshiba Satellite L855-S5240 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mercury Silver)
The computer has met our needs, for daily home activities such as e-mail, MS office tasks, I have also used it to process pictures and that has worked well. USB3 connection is really nice. So far the only issue is that the SD card sticks out when it is in the reader and could get damaged if the computer is set down without using much care. However the real test comes with time, how will it hold up?
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Wonderful purchase and I was happy to get it when it was on a temporary sale for less than $600.Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite L855-S5240 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mercury Silver) Here
Perfect for the price I paid, but to say it's perfect in general would unfortunately be a lie.I'll start with the positives. The laptop is still running with virtually no damage aside from HDD issue that I'll get to later. I bought it last year in August for school, so it's impressive to see no real issue from then to now. The computer is still fast, has a brilliantly fast start up time, has not blue screened once, and only overheated one time when I accidentally was laying on my side with the computer tilted and blocked the vents. (stupid mistake but it turned back on quickly enough)
The battery is a little on the weak side, only lasting an hour on high, and ~3-4 hours on eco mode. This is after a year, however, so I'm perfectly fine with these stats as I normally have access to an outlet and the charger is pretty small if you coil the cords around the box.
The screen is still perfect with virtually no pixel issues. There's not even a random red dot on the screen which after all my gaming I'm glad to see.
A few screws have fallen out, and I can tell the case is a little loose because of it, but I don't run while I use it so I really have no issue. It hasn't fallen apart and it doesn't feel like it's ever going to.
Touchpad is fine for a casual user, and it gets the job done for me, but any gaming requires a mouse.
The RAM is a GREAT features of this, truly a plus in my eyes. 6gb of RAM is plenty for a much more expensive computer, yet I got this one on sale for 550, so to say I'm content is an understatement. The CPU could be better but this is on a gaming point of view. It runs smoothly, quietly, and in a cool fashion on virtually anything else. I can rest the thing on my lap without it getting hot (though this wasn't the case with the old HDD)
That leads me to that issue. The HDD failed out after 9 months of use. I noticed issues with the laptop getting very warm, and basic games from the 90's being a little sluggish. I took it to my uncle who examined it and said the HDD was probably going to fail the next day. He tried to transfer my data out of it but most of it was lost due to failure (But I maintained my music thankfully)
A week later the laptop has a nice SSD. I would have liked to have used the HDD as an external source for all my movies and music, but you never know when an HDD will fail. Could last 10 years, or 10 minutes.
I enjoyed the 750 gb of room it had, but my SSD is truly better. With it, I almost never have to use the fan to cool down the system in the winter, and turning my fan on and pointing it where I'm sitting is enough in the Summer unless I'm doing something extensive like a game or Microsoft Visual.
That leads me to the GPU which is below average for games as it's integrated and intel. But it runs everything perfectly fine outside of games. It can even run Skyrim on low (most likely due to the rest of the computer being much better in comparison and having 6 gigs of RAM to leech off of) so I don't have to go without games entirely. It even runs Minecraft on Normal Draw Distance, which isn't exactly an easy feat. For the budget gamer, this definitely is a valid choice.
To say I'm satisfied with the $500 computer is an understatement. It has lasted a year without any parts except the HDD failing. Even so, Hard drives can be sketchy even in high end laptops and I doubt many will have similar scenarios. The SSD I got was only 180 so all in all I spent 700 on a laptop that does everything I want it to, starts up fast, can do everything I need in school, and can even game a little. I really love the Satellite line of laptops, and if you have to buy Toshiba, I'd recommend this laptop.
It isn't perfect, but compared to other $500 laptops it's top tier.
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This was purchased new and it lasted all of 9 Months. Out $700.00 in less than One year the mother board is gone.Junk, Avoid this lap top Don't Buy.