Lenovo - Thinkpad Twist S230u Convertible Ultrabook Tablet - Intel i5-3317U 1.70GHz - 4GB RAM - 500

Mostly the computer is a good buy. The problem is Windows 8. There is no media player in Windows 8. There are only a few close buttons available within the app. The START BUTTON is missing. The return to last page button does not work most of the time. You have to create a shutdown button on the desktop. So I would say that WINDOWS7 is superior to Windows8 and that is why I cannot recommend the purchase of this computer.

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Apple iBook G3 800mhz 256MB 30GB CDROM 12.1'' w/ Original Airport (WIFI)

Yes right, it's not a most powerful laptop(obviously it's older model)out there but this machine is very reliable and great for somebody who try out Apple brand for first time. This great looking (white) laptop never crashes or freeze. And remember when it comes to Apple laptop, they don't get virus somehow. Just for these reason it's worth to own a apple ibook to me. Great machine!!

i brought it used from amazon, the screen broke within 3 weeks, i spoke to others, theirs had the same problem, the screens are old now and if buying used be careful.

Buy Apple iBook G3 800mhz 256MB 30GB CDROM 12.1'' w/ Original Airport (WIFI) Now

First, I love Macs, and when this iBook G3 800 works, it's a fine machine.

BUT... this series of G3 iBooks suffers from a very common and notorious soldering defect on the motherboard that affects about 90% of the systems.

In fact, for 3 years after they were made, Apple was replacing them for free because the problem was so rampant, but that offer is long expired.

Symptoms? The system won't boot, or will boot and immediately freeze, or will freeze after a few minutes. Many times, the machine will boot, but the display will be all black, all white, covered in stripes, or any of a zillion other display problems. Some people "live with" the problem by

actually clamping a C clamp onto the case in just the right spot to put

pressure on the chip inside, which keeps it in contact with the board.

Some people open the case and wedge pieces of paper on top of the chip, so that when the case is closed, they press on the chip to keep all the pins in contact. But this is pretty dicey.

The problem was faulty soldering on a ball grid array (BGA) chip on the motherboard. In my case, I knew this going in, and sent the machine out to

a repair services that specializes in this repair. They disassemble the machine, and re-solder the BGA. It's been trouble-free for 2 years and still going strong since I had that repair done.

Search the web for "iBook G3 BGA defect" and you'll find all you need to know about this issue. You can find many places that can fix this for $50 $75, plus shipping. Just expect to have to do this, and build that into your total cost if you buy one of these.

ALSO these machines are now far too slow to play YouTube videos (or most on-line video of any kind). Just be aware of that, if that is important to you. When I bought it 2 years ago, it played YouTube fine, but YouTube and most on-line video continues to get more and more processor-intensive, so now a processor this slow cannot handle it.

Read Best Reviews of Apple iBook G3 800mhz 256MB 30GB CDROM 12.1'' w/ Original Airport (WIFI) Here

I bought this item in January. Worked fine till May. Now all it can do is power up. Won't even get past the first screen. If I knew who sold this to me, I would contact them and demand my money back. Don't buy computers from internet, you never know what they have been through and you can't trust an invisible seller!

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My son loves his first lapbook and I am so grateful for the outstanding customer service and the low price and awesome clean computer

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HP ENVY dv7-7223cl 17.3" Notebook - Refurbished

This laptop is one helluva workhorse! It can play pretty much any new game you throw at it from GTA IV, to Grid 2, and everything in between... I even managed to get a steady playable framerate out of Microsoft FSX on max!

Windows 8 is different, but after you use it for a day or two you become used to it.

All in all this computer is an awesome value fast, big, looks great, Beats Audio sounds great (I use the built-in speakers more than my $100 Logitech speakers now). Whether you're a gamer or a student, this is a great choice.

Save 37% Off

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE1511RFXB 15.5-Inch Laptop (Sharkskin Black, Intel Core i3-2370M, 4GB Memory,

I bought this pc for my wife as a replacement for her old Dell. She really is getting a lot of use out of it. She likes the separate number keypad and the backlit keys. One thing she hasn't gotten used to is the hidden buttons on the touchpad, which has made her start using a wireless mouse. I would definitely recommend this pc for someone who needs to satisfy their basic computing needs.

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Gateway NV57H54u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I became scared when I read the 3 negative reviews that appeared the day after I purchased this computer, but I decided not to cancel the order. I am glad I did not, because it has turned out to be a very nice computer. I have had very good experiences with Gateway computers in the past; this is why I opted for a Gateway computer again.

One of the negative reviews mentioned a "cursor jumping" problem with this computer. Even though I am not aware of this problem in this particular model (at least so far), I know that this issue can be solved by disabling the "tapping" option on the mouse touchpad (I found out about this because I bought a netbook that had this same problem); this implies having to use the buttons below the touchpad to click and double-click, but this is something you can get used to very quickly. This computer did have an issue with the touchpad being too sensitive, but that was fixed by going to the Windows Control Panel and reducing the touchpad's tapping sensitivity.

All in all, I am very happy with the purchase, and I would more than likely purchase another Gateway if I had to buy another computer in the near future.

My first laptop was a Gateway that I bought in 2006, so after serving me well for almost 6 years, it was time to get a new laptop. After comparing many brands, I decided to go with what's familiar to meGateway. Granted, the company was purchased by Acer a few years ago (no wonder I couldn't find many "Gateway" branded laptops), so I was worried that there might be a loss in quality. Once I received it, I can say that it is on par with the other laptops in this price point.

I've had this laptop for a month now and I am very satisfied with it. The case is made with the typical shiny, smooth, plastic you'd find on many laptops these days. I have to warn people to be careful sliding their fingers or hands around the edge of the screen because it might be sharp enough to give you a nice little cut if you run your hand across it fast enough (think papercut). The case seems rather thin to me in comparison to my old laptop, but I'm pretty careful so I'm not too worried about damaging it. Also, the case is prone to fingerprints. Be prepared to wipe it down a lot if you don't like that sort of thing.

I was worried when others said they had problems with the keyboard because I'm a blogger, but I adjusted to the layout and chiclet keys quickly. I'm typing with the same speed and accuracy as I did on my old laptop. The only gripe I have is that the spacebar doesn't always work when tapped. I will admit that is kind of annoying, but it doesn't happen often enough for me to dislike this laptop. Also, I had the adjust the touchpad settings right out of the box, so you may have to adjust it too before you begin to use it. Haven't had any problems with the cursor jumping aroundand hopefully I never will!

The screen is fine but shiny, so you will experience glare under bright lights. I read a review elsewhere about the poor speakers on this system, but it's not as bad as they make it seem. I watch TV on my laptop and the sound is just fine in a quiet room. If you have other things going on in the background, for instance, if you're in a public establishment, then the sound will be inadequate. Most laptops don't come with booming speakers anyway.

The bootup time on this is pretty fast. I use my laptop daily for editing images (simple edits, nothing major), uploading media to my site, surfing the net with dozens of browser tabs open at the same time, watching videos, playing music, and creating documents with MS Word. I can do all of those tasks simultaneously with no problems. The core i3 processor and 4 gigs of RAM are perfect for my needs. Hopefully it will behave when I install Adobe Illustrator. And the battery really does last for 5 hours when fully charged! This is a huge plus for me. It doesn't take that long to get fully charged either, so that's another plus. As others have mentioned, the laptop runs extremely cool. I've only felt it get warm maybe 2 or 3 times, and it was just lukewarm, not hot like my old laptop.

This system does not come with a recovery disc. I bought some DVD-Rs and made recovery discs with the wizard, which was a simple process (and only took 4 discs). You can also make a backup of your Gateway drivers on a separate disc using the same wizard. The power adapter port is featured on the left side of the laptop, which is an improvement from my old Gateway that had the port located in the backa location I always found annoying. I don't care too much for the new way the laptop screens open and close...it's like a snapping action and I always cringe when I close my laptop and the screen snaps down rather hard. I try to open and close it as gently as possible to prevent possibly damaging the bezel or the hinges.

As another reviewer mentioned, there is no built-in Bluetooth. It's odd because even my old Gateway had Bluetooth, but when researching laptops, I noticed many new systems are built without it. I don't know if Bluetooth is going to be phased out eventually, but I don't think the lack of Bluetooth should stop someone from purchasing this laptop. Just buy a USB Bluetooth adapter. I haven't tried the Wi-Di yet, but I'm planning to as I find a wifi adapter for my TV. I also haven't used the webcam yet. I will eventually install Tango and give it a try. There is a cute little useless dedicated key on the keyboard for social networking. I've never used it, so I don't have anything to say about it except that it is there if you need it. Haha.

I am happy with my choice thus far. I will update if I run into any failures.

Buy Gateway NV57H54u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

I had an Acer mini laptop which I sold before buying this computer. I had been searching for months for a brand that people don't complaint too much about. I decided to buy a Gateway Laptop because my dad has one and it have been working pretty well for a year now. I liked it so I bought this one for myself. Very good Laptop, The only problem is that it has poor speakers. Everything sounds too low for my taste! I first graded it 5 stars but now just 3! I'm gonna keep reviewing!

July/4/2012:

I totally now recommend this computer! It is almost a month a not a single bad thing has happened. The problem with the sound is over because I found out a way to resolve it. The keyboard is not as bad as people said in past reviews, you just have to get used to it as with everything in life! 5 stars back for it!

Something I love of this computer is the touchpad that makes you feel like you are dealing with a Mac touchpad.

Here are the tips for the sound in case you decide to buy it:

I right-clicked the sound icon on the task bar and choose the sound option. Then in the playback option selected speakers (Realtek High Def audio) and clicked on properties and chose the Enhacements option. There I clicked on the disable sound effects option and Whalaaa! Super high volume!

Read Best Reviews of Gateway NV57H54u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

Maybe its because I bought mine new or something, but I've had this computer for 5 months and I've had no problems. Good graphics, spacious hard drive, and works fast. Not a ton of bloatware though I'd recommend getting rid of Norton Security after the 30 day trial is done. All in all this is a great laptop.

P.S: I'll update the review after another 3 months or so.

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K ... had this laptop for 3 months so far. Changed the HHD to SSD so the warranty is now officially bleeped. The screen is great & at the time I purchased mine it was the cheapest i5 I could possibly find course now it's $50 cheaper here on Amazon. Oh Well. Not sure how long it's gonna last since Acer bought Gateway awhile back. Gateway use to make rock solid PC's my wife & I still have 8 year old P4's. I cranked up the power supply in mine to a 500 watter & natural upgrades 500gig HD, 3rd party Video card, max ram, replaced the CPU cooler on both PC's years back but consider both beasts run 24x7x365 never had a issue. It'll be interesting to see just how long this little beastie lasts.

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Sony VAIO VGN-FW465J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black

I got this laptop as a birthday present for myself. Before getting this, I browsed different computers and considered Dell XPS 16, Mac Pro 15 inch and Lenovo Y650 as well. After all the comparisons that I made according to the design & features of all the laptops, Vaio FW won over a lot of mile.

Price: The price is very reasonable having jam-packed features. If you customized all the features that Vaio FW has to the other aformentioned units, i bet it will cost a lot lot more. See below prices comparison according to specs that Vaio FW465 offers with certain differences:

a.) Sony FW From the main Sony site it is Less than 1,200 (including the mail-in-rebate) plus free 100 music downloads while from amazon.com it will be 1,029 (including rebate)

b.) Mac Pro 15 Around 2k! The difference in specs with the Vaio FW are the following: backlit keyboard and battery life are the pros for Apple as I can see it. Apple have Mac OS but Sony offers free Windows 7 upgrade, sooo I still stick to that. The graphic card of Mac is Nvidia 9400m while Vaio have the astonishing HD4650. Vaio have bigger and brighter screen not to mention the Dolby sounds and Blu-ray capability Mac Pro? .... NOT!

Disclaimer:Mac fan boys might read this and may say that I am just poor or anything (like they always do to people who didn't choose Mac) ---you're wrong. I can afford Mac but the features they offer doesn't meet my standards. So chill and understand that people have different options in choosing computers.. peace!

c.) Dell XPS 16 From its site Around 1,650 having the same specs as the Vaio FW. I am also alright with this, but I have been reading so much negative reviews about the heat and the death blue screen for Dell lately. Soooo, that actually makes me a little bit cautious about recent Dell products.

d.) Lenovo Y650 Around USD1,300 without the blu-ray capability, only 5400 rpm HD, having NVIDIA GeForce G 105M 256MB Graphic card and Screen LED 1366x76. This is still ok, knowing that Lenovo's are really durable.

Main Features: I like how they customized it to have 2.53ghz of processor speed with 320gb of memory having 7200rpm. That feature itself is already a plus compared to any other laptops out there. The blu-ray capability makes your HD experience of watching movies really great combined with High Definition Audio with Dolby Digital Live and the brightness of the screen. Nobody else (as of now) does great Blu-ray experience the same way Sony does it, for me. The graphic card was also upgraded to Ati Radeon HD4650 with 1gb dedicate dvideo RAM making your gaming experience really great. I also like the classy look of Vaio FW with the hinge and just seeing the Vaio logo makes people WOW already. Also, almost all my gadgets (PSP, my cellphone, camera and music player) are sony, so I find this convenient having the magic gate card slot. The motion eye camera, the pebble black key panels and the multimedia dedicated buttons are awesome as well. One more thing, if you guys are concerned about the heat being produced by this laptop don't worry because it has a great cooling system and dock design. The heat is common to all laptops but this one is a lot cooler than others (compared to my old gateway, dell, macbook and my dad's toshiba).

I just wish it has a backlit keyboard to make it a complete package already (though the screen is too bright that you can see the keyboard panel as well, during night). Also, the bloatwares should be lessen -I don't find this an issue but I know it's a hassle for some. You can delete them anyway but you have to allot some of your time in doing so. One more thing, you have to do a lot of things to maximize the performance of the laptop during the setup.

I don't need to make this really long. Overall, the unit is very nice and it has totally awesome features with it. This is a great buy and you can never go wrong with Vaio FW. I bet you can make use of this laptop for many years without being out-dated. I am a meticulous person when choosing my gadgets --and this unit meets my expectation!

I ordered the Vaio FW neoprene together with this unit and it fits quite well.

Some perspective here;

I've been using an exceptionally-well equipped Dell Latitude D620 for the past 3 years. This computer was just an all around workhorse. Very reliable, consistent performer and pretty decent speed for it's generation.

But you know, that love fest could not last forever. The screen is now politely giving me hints that it's about to kick the bucket. So, anyways, that's where I'm coming from. Need a new laptop, up to the task.

And this is when the Sony VAIO FW came into my life. Love it ! I'm a sucker for the hinge-mounted power button and charger plug. Absolute convenience. The flashing light is pretty cool too.

But at this price tag, that is obviously not near enough to cut the cheese. I need a powerhouse multimedia Dell-D620-killer to make the switch. Also I needed something well rounded enough to justify spending an additional $100-200 more than a comparably well equipped dell/HP and at the same time be good enough to talk me out of buying a mac. Enter the Vaio FW-465J.

I bought the Vaio FW-351J first from the Sonystyle website, but was not impressed at all. But between the 351j/h and the 465j, there is a big leap in configuration specs. I already knew I liked the 351j/h looks and styling, but was really just disappointed with it's performance. Having windows Vista didn;t help much either. I'm running Windows 7 on my Dell, and have never had to deal with Windows Vista before. What a terrible OS. I can't wait until I get the official Windows 7 release version. Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got my new VAIO, was install Windows 7 right away. Total bliss ...

Alright, so now down to what you need to know ...

Sony VAIO VGN-FW465J/H

Pros:

-Blazing processor. Yes, the Pentium P processor (versus T processor) and the upped 3MB L2 cache do make for significant differences. Quieter, faster and less heating up = smiley face.

-7200 RPM hard drive. When I upgraded my dell hard drive to 7,200 RPM (Toshiba), from 5,400 RPM (Seagate), there was a noticeable increase in cooling needs and heating up without noticing much difference in the speed and performance. It may have been that the old processor was not up to par, but I felt like it was a bad upgrade. I have not found this to be the case with the Sony-installed hard drive (whoever makes it). It does the job of a 7,200 RPM but acts like a 5,400 RPM (less heating, less power consumption = longer battery life).

-The 16.4 widescreen is p-e-r-f-e-c-t. Sony found it's niche. It's not good, it's not better, it's just perfect. The 16:9 ratio (reflected in the 1600x900 resolution) is just what widescreen movies beg to be played on. Add bluray playback capabilities, and you've got a home run. Seamless Sony bluray playback makes for an even better experience. I'm loving the dedicated A/V controls too.

-1GB dedicated video RAM coupled with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650. Says it all.

-HDMI outlet for hooking up movies to HD tv's for a full 1080p experience (I don't know who uses firewire -not mebut it's there also if you need it).

-4 GB ram is nothing to brag about anymore. It's actually become quite mainstream, but they're all at your disposal with the 64-bit processor.

-Bluetooth connectivity big plus !

-Although resolution could be improved, webcam and mic do a pretty decent job for great skyping.

Cons:

-I miss the white keys on the FW351J. The black keys are alright, but the white ones were more easy on the eyes for me. They look more Sony than the black ones.

-Most (if not all) shortcut keys do not work with the Windows 7, but I am confident that will be resolved with the updated Sony 7 drivers included in the upgrade kit. No biggie.

-Spaced out pebbled keys on keyboard take some time to get use to, but are oddly comfortable.

-I would like bigger mouse clickers. I think these are a tad too narrow for my taste. It's probably just a matter of getting used to them.

-Not exactly a nimble, light and portable laptop. That's the price you pay for a 16.4 screen. If you're always on the go, or have to move your PC around a lot for work or school, this may not be for you. If you move around only occasionally, and would like a portable multimedia powerhouse of a desktop replacement, then look no further.

-Even with the "better" LCD on this configuration, it is still not a true 1080p resolution you would get on a flat screen TV. I can't tell much of difference between 720p and 1080p on a 16.4 screen, but if I am burning to see a movie in 1080p, I'll just output it to my TV via HDMI cable. If you're on a train, and you just ABSOLUTELY NEED to watch Narnia bluray in 1080p HD resolution, then you may be disappointed (brat!).

-No fingerprint recognition

-Keyboard not backlit

-Speakers are just OK. Nothing sensational. Would expect a bit more for this price range, and a "multimedia minded" laptop. Laptop mounted BOSE speakers ... that's what I'm talking about !

-1.3MP webcam, opposed to 2.0MP.

Overall:

Would I buy this Vaio all over again ? 8/10

Would I recommend it ? 9/10

Am I satisfied with my purchase ? 8/10 (I feel I'm paying $100 more just because it's a Sony, which I'm fine with, but not 10/10).

*** 3 year update: Works great! Have not had a single incident where this thing has let me down. The battery has been pretty lousy lately, but come on ... 3 years isn't a bad run at all.

Great purchase, solid quality build and a fantastic product so far.

.

Buy Sony VAIO VGN-FW465J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black Now

I just got this laptop on Saturday. Upgraded to Windows 7 RC the same day. This computer is phenomenal. Great, and I mean great for watching blue ray movies. I dont know how time will influence my opinion of this computer but my first impressions are it is a power house of fun. Performance is great in all areas tested so far, have yet to do any gaming though. Oh by the way yes the AW series is designed for "Photographers" but this is a perfectly capable computer, the 18" screen on the AW series is a bit to big to lug around in any photographers gear bag, this computer is superior performance wise then athe VGN-AW310J (which is priced higher) it just has a 2 inch smaller screen, which to some may find important. I am happy with better performance than a bigger screen since I have a 22" samsung anyway.

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Gorgeous wide screen notebook that is ideal for graphics editing. It lacks useful features found in less expensive notebooks of comparable size (e.g. 16" HP notebooks), such as fingerprint security and hard drive auto-lock, but the faster hard drive (7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm), faster CPU and front-side bus, and additional RAM, make this Sony much more ideal for Photoshop and Lightroom use. The keyboard and touchpad are excellent. On the minus side, it is a little pricey, it gets warmer than I would like, and its battery loses power much more quickly than I would like. All things considered, however, it is a high quality notebook and is great-looking in chocolate brown.

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I have owned several Sonys before and they have always been good computers. I don't think this one is any different. Problem is computers have operating systems and tons of other programs that the computer manufacturer doesn't make. Well whether you pay $500 or $1500 for your computer you can still get OS and software issues. This computer came with a CORRUPTED OS FROM THE FACTORY. Normally you would think customer service would help you figure it out and fix it no problem. Well that's where Sony has proven to be light years behind everyone else. I have never had a worse experience with a customer service department EVER, computers or other products. I have already talked to 4 people who all keep handing me off to the next person who then claims to read the transcript yet then asks me the exact same questions and attempts the same repair procedures as the previous agent. Personally I hate the way the computer manufactures don't send out physical OS/Driver back up discs. Sony installs a "secret" backup partition on your hard drive instead that eats up 10gb of precious space. In my case we tried to create the discs but just like the OS that feature was also corrupt and could not be performed. You would think they would immediately say okay lets just send you some discs. No, after it failed the tech said he was sending me to a tier 2 support. The "tier 2" agent claimed to read the transcript but then asked all the same questions and same recovery procedures. I was literally pleading with him "wait stop we already did this I need discs" and yet they completely ignored me and kept reading their scripted responses as if I didn't exist. Finally the 4TH AGENT, after of course asking all the same questions, told me that tech support cannot order recovery discs and that I needed to contact a department called "Customer's Information Service Center" whom I will need to BUY a recovery disc from, not to mention that number isn't even a 1-800 number. So basically I have to pay to call a department to pay to get a disc to a computer I just bought that came messed up out of the box? Well needless to say I seriously hope you never have a problem with you Sony because if you do you're basically screwed. I would recommend saving the extra money you would pay for a Sony and buy a Dell. I have one at work and they have great customer service, not to mention they give you with your computer actual backup discs. Maybe this is a good computer, I wouldn't know, but based on their customer service, which is supposed to be the justification for Sony's premium price, I would STAY FAR AWAY FROM VAIOS and probably any Sony products since they probably all use the same support system. I hope this helps save some of you a lot of time and hassle. Good luck.

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Acer Aspire Laptop 5349-2592 Intel Celeron B800 1.5GHz 2GB 250GB DVDR/RW 15.6'' Win7

I want to personally thank you to the sellers the laptop is more than I expected it is very fast convenient and has a longer battery life. It was a great investment.

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Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver)

The Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 is Toshiba's latest entry in a very competitive ultrabook market. Toshiba's aim here was to produce the lightest ultraportable laptop while maintaining some functionality and they've done a very nice job. The laptop weighs in at a hair over 2.5 pounds (which is about 3 slim magazines). This is a welcomed replacement to my eight pound 10 year old Apple Powerbook.

Structurally, the laptop is sound. You can pick up the laptop by one corner and the chassis will not flex nor bend. This is surprising considering how thin the laptop is. Conversely, the screen is very flexible and bends easily. I've read reports that the screen wobbles when you are typing with the laptop on your lap but I haven't experienced that at all. While the hinges are stiff enough, you wouldn't want to open the laptop screen with the corner of the screen. You would hold the screen from the center to open it.

The SSD is zippy and loading takes only 4-5 seconds from cold start and almost instantaneous from sleep mode. The i5 processor is very capable of handling the demands of most business users and casual gamers. The laptop never hiccuped when running Microsoft Office products with multiple documents or spread sheets open. While the laptop is not intended for gaming, I was able to play Star Craft 2 on the lowest settings without any lag at all. However, turning up the graphics settings slowed the game down quite a bit.

The only complaints I have so far:

spacing of the keyboard keys. The keys are spaced out in such a way that I tend to miss keys sometimes. It may be a good idea to go to a retail store and play with the keyboard for a bit to see if you like it.

built in webcam picture quality is slightly grainy not what I expected out of a laptop this expensive

fan noise in a quiet room, there is an audible hum coming from underneath the laptop, do anything processor/graphics intensive and the fan kicks into overdrive and can be annoying

Despite some shortcomings, my initial impressions have been very good thus far. This was my first laptop purchase online and I was a little hesitant that I wouldn't be happy but I have been nothing but pleased so far in the week that I've owned it. I'll be back in a few weeks to update my review after I've had a chance top play with it some more, but so far, I'd have to give it two thumbs up.

I'm giving this a Fiver. What a great little machine. At 2.5 pounds it's like the Jenny Craig of laptops. I did my due diligence research before I purchased and the Toshiba Ultras were rated highly on many different sites. Also I happen to work in the same lab as the Emerging Technologies group for my company and they had ordered 5 evaluation units from 5 different mfgs so I was able to compare them all straight up before purchasing. The Toshiba was definitely the winner and the Samsung Series 9 was very good also. The ACER, ASUS and HP were definitely trailing with the HP coming in last (sorry HP guys). The processor and ram specs were all very similar so I based a lot of my opinion on asthectics, keyboard layout, design and weight. I'm not going to go into so called "cons" like the size of the hard drive or lack of CD-ROM since the buyer knows these things up front anyway and if that won't work for you then look at another machine. A con to me is more like claimed performance not living up to expectations or a hardware component that is flakey. As far as the "heavy lifting" goes, you can do all the heavy lifting you want with the I5 processor as long as it's within the contraints of the capacity of the hard drive. I love the instant on feature and it truly does work as advertised. Along with Amazons usual kick butt fast shipping I'm very pleased with this purchase.

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After reviewing the Macbook Air 13, the Zenbook UX31 and the Toshiba Z835, I selected the Toshiba. In my opinion an ultra-book should include as many features of a standard size notebook as possible into the lightest, most compact form factor possible. The Z835 wins on the most ports and expansion options. The Z835 wins on being the lightest weight. The Z835 wins with having the most reasonable price. The MSRP is $1049.99, however OfficeMax had a sales promotion and the device was $949.00. On top of that, the Z835 also had all of the features I wanted including the i5 quad core processor, 6 gigabytes of ram, Bluetooth and HDMI out. I also like the sleep and charge USB port which allows me to charge my Clear hotspot, a huge plus because I don't have yet another ac adaptor to carry around. The subdued styling works for me being as I'm not crazy about shiny / polished gadgets. The keyboard is great with the key spacing and key travel just fine for me being as I'm a touch typist. The keyboard backlighting also works well for me. The multi touch touchpad is one of the best I've ever used. The response is extremely fluid and smooth. I've stopped using my arc touch mouse, it's that good. For such a small device, the sound system puts out high quality sound. Between the speakers and the audio enhancement software, the sound is excellent. The sound is also great on Bluetooth when I stream to my Plantronics BackBeat earphones. I normally stream music from jazzradio.com, digitally imported or audio galaxy so I've always got access to great tunes. When out taking pictures, I either use the included sd card slot or use my Eye-Fi 4 gig wi-fi card to transfer photos. Everything has worked without a hitch. With the i5 processor, 6 gigs of ram and the SSD, the Z835 is extremely fast and has handled everything I've given it with absolutely no performance issues. Being as I have not been on battery power that often, I can't accurately discuss battery life. However all of the reviews I read give it very high marks for battery life. About the only complaint I have is the small SSD. I hope when larger SSD's come available I can swap them out on my own. For now I carry my 1TB WD USB 3.0 drive, which contains all of my music, pictures, data and movies. For my school and personal files I use on a daily basis, I sync with my cloud based DropBox account. The Z835, along with my Apollo 4G hot spot have become my complete mobile solution, it is that versatile. No more tablet or smart phone and the associated data access plans that come with them. In my opinion the Z835-370 represents the best overall value of all of the ultra-books currently available. The Z835-370 comes highly recommended.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Portege Z835-P370 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) Here

I debated buying a Thrive or this and chose the laptop.

What's great:

+ Weighs very little and I can easily stow it in my leather padfolio case with expandable file.

I have gotten positive feedback on both. Be careful of making your executive team jealous!

Many a project manager and business analyst just want a lightweight PC for taking notes, recording a meeting,

processing email or surfing the web. Ideal match.

+ Thin! My LG phone is thicker than this notebook.

+ The Solid State Drive (SSD) is sweet. Instant on. No long boot times. Spoil me baby!

+ Includes 1 USB3.0 port and 2 USB2.0 ports, one of which is on the side, the rest on the back.

+ The Ethernet off the back is wonderful, being out of the way, though I had to get used to it being mounted upside down.

+ Anecdotal battery review: I unplugged at 10am this morning to use it in meetings all day and a working lunch and near 5pm

it was low and finally hibernated. 7 hours work without complaint? OK for my purposes.

What's not:

At 128GB, you start the Windows experience half-full. I upgraded from the Home version of Win 7 to Professional.

Now, I have 67 GB free. The formatted 128 GB is actually only 102 GB capacity, 67 GB now free.

Why oh why won't Toshiba make this product with 256 GB drives?

So, how do you get a little more space to buzz around with this tiny dancer laptop?

Well, while I bought a SanDisk Extreme Pro (45 mb/sec) SDHC card, I was wondering how it would play with the Portege.

Answer: Toshiba has a crappy 15 SDHC unit built in and all I could get out of it was 15 mb/sec.

Nevertheless, I am planning to pickup a slow (15 mb/sec) 64 GB SDXC card and check that for compatability.

Watch out for cooling. My first unit arrived and booted with an OS complaint the cooling system was not working. Exchanged!

The new unit arrived working fine, but I quickly learned the laptop is silent only when doing little or nothing.

If you dare to install something that requires CPU power, like a game, you will hear the fan ROAR as it tries to keep up

with the heat generation of the CPU. I dumped the games I installed immediately. Back to work I guess.

The screen is 1366x768, which is OK, but not great. This low res vertical is still one of the day-to-day

most annoying feature of laptops, when we live on the web and screen real-estate is king. 1024 would have made this an

awesome design, but it is only OK.

Last caution is that the thin screen is a handling risk. If it seems fragile (and it does) then it probably is fragile.

Get insurance.

Personally, I would have rounded the corners if I were on the engineering team, but the squareness fits in with the Microsoft

world. Haha, sorry MSFT.

So, am I happy with it? You bet I am!

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I had the computer for one month and the screen malfunctioned. I sent it to Toshiba for them to repair it under warranty. Then about two to three weeks later I receive it back, with a copy of the warranty and a note saying the repairs are not covered but without stating the reason. What they did with it for three weeks is anyone's guess as I heard nothing from the company. After more hours on the phone with the company, it appears that any issues with the screen are assumed to be the customer's fault and Toshiba calls you a liar if you try to convince them otherwise. For comparison, I had an Asus whose screen malfunctioned after 11 months and they replaced it no questions asked. The computer itself is a fine machine but if you happen to get a lemon, you will get no love from Toshiba. So thanks to their policies, I will not look to purchase any Toshiba products in the future.

Update: After receiving it back from their repair facility, the computer would not charge or turn on when plugged in. Weeks more with the Toshiba repair facility await. What a horrible product

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HP ENVY DV7-7212nr Quad Edition mSSD Windows 8 Notebook PC; 16GB RAM Upgrade

I agonized for weeks before finally purchasing this laptop. In the end I decided what I really needed was a desktop replacement. A powerful, capable machine that could replace my aging tower and still be a laptop. In that I was not disappointed.

The good

This machine is quick! Video plays flawlessly, I am able to convert movies from one format to another averaging 10 minutes per 1.5 hour movie. My old tower would take 2 hours.

The screen is bright and clear. The keyboard lights up nicely and the sound is pretty darned good. Build quality is good, no flex to it even if you're Mr. Universe and manage to heft it by a single corner.

I like the fast wireless built in to the laptop and its easy to switch between wireless connections.

The so so

This notebook does heat up and grows uncomfortably warm on the legs if you are lounging around with it. The fan is on most of the time and you can hear it humming away although I wouldn't call it annoying.

Windows 8 takes some getting used to. The touch pad is only partially effective at gesture recognition and will leave you disappointed half the time. I guess I don't really get the purpose of the live tiles.. I have reverted to using the desktop mode almost exclusively. I probably won't bother with the hassle of downgrading to windows 7.

The bad

I really, really dislike the battery pack that came with this machine. In order to fit more oomph into it, there is a 1-inch tall ridge that runs for most of its length, functioning as a bit of a kickstand for the laptop so its tilted a bit towards you. While this is fine when its on a table, try putting it on your lap and that ridge quickly digs in and becomes uncomfortable. I am forced to keep my legs well apart so I catch the edges where the bottom is still flat which is also uncomfortable.

I also experienced a weird power pop up that kept coming up every 15 seconds warning me about my power supply. In the end I had to find the utility responsible and delete it from the HD before this warning would go away.

Fnally, perhaps due to some software I have on the laptop, perhaps due to something else, when I display and file open/save dialog, the machine frequently pauses for 10-15 seconds during which time the dialog is frozen. Very annoying for something this fast to be doing this so frequently.

I consider this is a nice buy. It has all you want from a high performance laptop for a reasonable price compared for a Macbook Pro or something else.

At the first time i was wondering if this machine has softbuttons to have quick access to volume, wifi, bluetooth and others, I searched over the internet with no luck. So I had to wait to receive the laptop and finding this out by myself. For my surprise I found the F keys has this option as primary option and if you want to use the keys as F's you have to press Alt+F* as a very nice found.

The laptop is very quiet, materials are good considering I hate black laptops with easy finger printing. For 16mb you have to challenge yourself and the computer to use that much of memory. I bought this one to edit photos in Lightroom and Photoshop, while I listen music and stream movies. I can consider I have all these services run with no issues. So happy for that.

Windows 8? no issues found at this moment.

Buy HP ENVY DV7-7212nr Quad Edition mSSD Windows 8 Notebook PC; 16GB RAM Upgrade Now

If you are seeking for a laptop to play computer games or enjoying movies and music. This DV7-7212nr will match your need very well.

The only reason may let you hesitate to buy this laptop is not easy to find a 17.3 laptop bag & backpack (I returned three backpack because this machine is a monster!!! Most of laptop backpack can't hold it.Fortunately swissgear IBEX 17 and targus citygear 17 will fit this monster.)

I will add more details later and I'm glad to talk with you if you want to know more about this amazing laptop.

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This thing dose the job, I'm a photographer and need a lot of ram and good graphics for a affordable price. This is the ticket. I can run my programs without the slow lag time I was getting from my previous laptop. Haven't had it that long, so I will give a follow up in maybe month, but so far I'm impressed. Just what I hoped I was buying.

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Everything I expected and more--fast, beautiful screen, good keyboard (love backlighting) and generally good feel. Can't ask for more. Can't even suggest improvement.

Save 37% Off

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Lenovo IdeaPad G780 21823VU 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

= Update #1 2012-12-28 =

After installing a fresh OEM copy of Windows 7 x64, I thought my problems would have gone away. For the most part, they did the Windows Update continues to work fine, the system boots up a bit quicker, etc. But... (you knew this was coming).

The wireless card or driver seems to stop responding to the system at random times. Sometimes the system will stay connected just fine for hours at a time (through multiple sleep/restore cycles, reboots, etc), other times it can be powered up fresh and stop working after only a few minutes.

The "Lenovo BGN Wireless" drivers are the latest the Lenovo site, and Broadcom (the maker of the WiFi card) don't have anything for this card (I assume it's a Lenovo special/custom chipset). It's getting to the point that I'm going to re-install the Lenovo Windows OS (without any personalization) and see if the problem returns. I don't want to put them through this troubleshooting step so if someone has an idea on how to confirm the hardware or a driver, I'm all ears.

I'll leave my 4/5 stars for now, but if I track this down to a hardware or Lenovo/Windows issue I'll adjust accordingly. And to be fair, if the Lenovo support team assists in a positive way, I'll note that too.

= Initial review =

I purchased this laptop for some friends of ours. They are retirement age and do a bit of traveling and sitting on their deck, so their old tower system wasn't working for them anymore. The IdeaPad G780 came in at the right price with the specs they wanted so I can help them get quite a few years out of this one (their old tower system was 9 years old).

I tried to get the system updated with the latest Microsoft Updates and related driver updates three times. Each time I started with the "factory fresh" image on the hard-drive, and it would get through most of the updates before the OS (Windows 7) would stop taking more updates. In researching the errors, the Microsoft TechNet solutions always ended up with "if everything else fails, boot with the install CD and run the System Recovery". Sadly, this system didn't come with a regular Windows 7 OS media, nor did the media the system did create boot into a regular Microsoft recovery screen.

In the end, I installed a fresh OEM copy of Windows 7 I had purchased but never activated. This turned out to be the least problematic of all. The few Lenovo drivers/features I did keep (power control is a decent utility) re-installed fine, and the Windows Update and assorted hardware driver updates all installed without a hitch.

One word of warning to those who are new to Lenovo and their "OneKey Rescue" button. When I was trying to boot into the System Recovery, I tried the Rescue button. I pressed it (click #1), it booted into a minimal screen and I chose option #2 (click #2), pressed return (click #3) and it rebooted and went into a Windows-looking boot screen. I let it sit for about 45 minutes, and when I came back....IT HAD TOTALLY REFORMATTED AND WIPED THE SYSTEM CLEAN! I couldn't believe that three key presses and it nuked the drive. I never saw a warning of any-sort that hinted at what was about to happen. This will be good when they finally decide to part with the system, but it's way too easy to have an inquisitive youngster hit the wrong "power button" and erase the entire system.

In the end, the hardware seems rock solid and is acting fine for them. I just wish Lenovo would break the trend and provide a "real" Windows OS install image for those of us who need them.

Dan

This one is very stable in running multi-program.

no blue screen. no fail. about 2 min boot. less noise. monitor quality is great.

MOA, the price is reasonable ($5xx).

AH... Me? a normal user who have used a dozen laptops before.

n now I'm using this as a main computer connecting two external monitors.

(the third monitor runs by externam graphic stuff)

For entertainment & business this is recommendable.

For gaming, I don't know because I'm not a gamer.

One weakness...

SSD upgrade means losing the one-year mfr's warranty.

I will upgrd next yr.

Overall, no regret! surely.

-----------------------------------

a week later...

the fan sound is often noizy. Lenovo could do better.

Buy Lenovo IdeaPad G780 21823VU 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

This is a very nicely equipped system that performs well. The price was very reasonable and the standard features met my needs. The setup was very simple. I liked the fact that it came with the 3.0 USB ports. I'm very pleased with the quickness of the delivery. I recommend this system to anyone needing a fast system that inexpensive.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo IdeaPad G780 21823VU 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

I've been using this laptop for a little more than a month now, and I'm very happy with it. One, it has really good specs, and as a result, it's fast! I've installed Windows 8 on it, and there are times when it boots in 20 seconds (Windows 8 also deserves some credit for this). And all apps, like Word, PowerPoint, Firefox, and Winamp load almost instantly. Love it! Two, the keyboard and trackpad are very comfortable to use. And three, it cost me less than $600. You can't go wrong with it. The only issue is battery life. I had to return the first version of the laptop I received because of that. But the replacement is satisfactory. The battery now lasts about 4 hours on a full charge, which is acceptable for a Windows PC.

Want Lenovo IdeaPad G780 21823VU 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Discount?

Bought this item and the description says it has a NVIDIA GT630M 2GB DDR3 Graphics card however after receiving and gifting the item I discovered that the grapics card is actually an Intel HD 4000. This was due to the optimus technology that basically switches to the lesser graphics card to conserve memory so, you buy this just be aware of that. The only problem we had was that the bezel on the side was coming apart but, I think a little glue would fix that issue. Overall, pretty satisfied with the machine.

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Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3927 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Here is my review on the much anticipated new notebook from Acer, the Timeline 1830T-3927. This machine is a 11.6" ultraportable notebook equipped with the new Intel processor, the core i3-330um CPU, which is maufactured especially for smaller notebooks, 3 GB RAM and a 320 GB Hard Drive running on Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit

This notebook just arrived from Amazon the other day and I have only been using it for a couple of days but since there are very few reviews thus far on the 1830T, I thought I'd write one.

The overall build quality of this notebook seems to be very good, it is made of very tough light weight plastic and has a black matte finish on the outside which is very sharp. The HD screen is designed for 720p viewing and seems to have a very sharp and bright display, this resolution is of course ther best you can expect on a smaller 11.6 ultraportable. I have seen many displays on 11.6 models and I believe the 1830T has the best screen that I have seen. The keyboard on the 1830T does not seem to be full size as the typing experience is comfortable but somewhat cramped. The keys have a very nice feel and good feedback but I was disaapointed to discover that the keyboard has allot of flex and seems a bit flimsy, something I did not expect on a $599 notebook.( This is why I am giving the 1830T 4 stars instead of five.)In addition, the trackpad, although comfortable seems very small. The mouse buttons are excellent.

The ports on this machine are very good with a nice selection, certainly all you will need on an ultraportable, of course there is not optical drive as Gateway is the only manufacturer I know of that is equipping an 11.6 notebook with a DVD drive.

In addition to the excellent screen, the real strength of this notebook is the new and powerful Core i3-330um CPU. ( Note that there is an even more powerful model equipped with the Core i5 but it retails on Amazon for $699,a bit much to pay for an 11.6 ultraportable in my opinion.). The Core i3 on this machine seems very fast and responsive and seems to handle just about anything you throw at it. This CPU is noticably faster than the other Intel ultra low voltage processors currently on the market and certainly much faster than earlier Acer models like the 1410. With the new Core i3 CPU, you will lose a bit in battery time but the speed more than compensates for this. I expect the 1830T-3927 to last about 5 hours on a charge.

Overall , this is one of the best, if not the best 11.6 ultraportables out there but you will have to pay a premium for it, mostly because of the new Intel processor. As I said, if not for the average keyboard, this notebook would be easily 5 stars.

Pros:

Thin, light, screen is bright and has good color, screen's high resolution makes up for its small size, processor is powerful enough for general use, doesn't get too hot, great battery life (6+ hours), great port selection, good keyboard

Cons:

Touch-pad isn't well demarcated from the wrist rest making it too easy to drift into no man's land, the screen's vertical viewing angles could be better

Overall I really like this laptop. It boots quickly and has generally snappy performance. It isn't the fastest at some processor intensive tasks like compressing audio and video, but that's to be expected for a low voltage processor. For general use like web browsing and watching videos it is perfectly adequate. I'll gladly accept some reduced performance given that this laptop doesn't get nearly as hot as other laptops I have used and it has fantastic battery life. I can get over 6 hours with the wifi on and the screen set to half brightness.

The screen looks nice, has a good resolution, and isn't too reflective. The vertical viewing angles, however, aren't the best but they are hardly prohibitive to use. Probably the most annoying thing about this laptop is the touch-pad. It's not terrible; I just wish it was easier to tell by feel when you have left the touch sensitive area. Not a deal breaker, but annoying nonetheless. Fortunately the keyboard is great. It isn't missing any important keys and is comfortable to use. I also really like the large port selection for such a small laptop. I've had larger laptops that had only two USB ports.

The thing I like most about this laptop is its portability. After owning a couple of big and bulky laptops over the years, it's fantastic to carry around this little machine. If you are looking for a solid ultra-portable laptop, you won't be disappointed with this one.

Buy Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3927 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

To me this ACER ASPIRE laptop is the perfect computer for travel. It offers a great compromise between the need to carry it around on one hand and the speed/CPU power on the other. The laptop is only slightly larger and heavier than the 10" netbooks with the Intel Atom processor. In return it offers the new core-i processor which puts it on a different planet in terms of computing power. I have been using it for a couple of days now, and I am generally very pleased with it performance.

What I like:

Small dimensions and weight make it easy to carry.

Very powerful given the size.

Sturdy built, seems solid and durable.

Responsive keyboard with very large keys.

What I do NOT like:

The mouse touchpad. It has a rather rough and sticky surface which makes it rather challenging to use. This compounds the problem that the touchpad is quite small. I would have preferred to have the keyboard downsized to generate more space for the mouse.

The HOME and END keys can only be reached through the FN key. Not a big deal, but I happen to use them quite frequently, and there would obviously been enough space for two extra keys (and a larger tochpad).

I cannot help closing with a bit of a rant: I absolutely HATE WIDESCREENS. I would certainly not have bought this computer if there had been a suitable alternative with a 4:3 ratio screen, even for a considerably higher price. Unless the computer is used exclusively for watching movies, a widescreen of this size has only disadvantages. When browsing the web or editing documents, it makes me feel like standing in a room with a ceiling 4 inches below my height (this last point is not included in my ranking as all competing models would have the same problem).

Read Best Reviews of Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T-3927 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

Well, i had a Toshiba Mini NB205 that was an excellent netbook, very portable, resistent and had a beautiful appearance, I really liked this computer the internet and word worked razoably nice in this PC, but sometimes the internet conexion was a little too slow for me, and another sites, like and that are very heavy sites, were extremly slow to download and that irritated me a lot. So, I decided to change for a new netbook, and when I discover this ACER ASPIRE 1830T with the new intel core i3 inside I got crazy. And now I am really happy with this little PC!!!

Pros: the 11.6 inch lcd screen is a lot better than the 10.1 inch ones, it makes lot more easier to see the internet or work with the Office. Using for long periods the 10.1 inch screen is very tiring for the eyes, and the 11.6 is the perfect size for a ultraportable notebook.

The computer is very fast, you can see any page in the internet with no problem. And the Windons 7 64 bits works like a breeze, it's sensational.

The built quality is very good, it really is a superior computer very beautiful and resistent.

The keyboard is very good, the letters have a really nice size and you can type on this for hours and hours. I really loved the full size left SHIFT button, what is extremelly annoing in others netbooks. The keyboard don't have problem of flex, maybe just a little bit but that's will not be notice or be a problem when typing. The Toshiba Mini NB205, that is one of the best netbook in the market has a lot more flex than this one that almost don't have flex at all.

The duration of battery is fantastic and even more for a i3 processor. I thought that just the processors n450 could have the capacity of lasting so much. Fortunatly I was wrong, and I discover that this machine can last longer than 6 hours of solid internet conexion.

The computer is very very thin, and light, and the best thing is that the battery don't come out of the machine, it just stay where it should be, with any part out from behind or down the netbook like the N205 da toshiba.

Cons: it could come with a minimum of 128 MB of dedicated Video Ram, But that's not a big deal because I will not play games in this little computer.

Another problem is that this don't come with 4 GB of RAM, it could be included because this computer is expensive, but the 3 GB works more than perferctly for me.

Well, finally I highly recommend this computer for ANYBODY, who wants portability, fast internet conexion, and long battery life.

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Pros: This is a nice notebook (not a netbook). Well built, but light. Fast enough for everyday use and light gaming. The 11.6" screen is bright and crisp. It will run 1080P flash without any problems. Keyboard is great, and has nice feel. Great battery life. Windows 7 Home Premium a definite plus over lesser models that come with Windows 7 Starter installed. Swapping out the wi-fi card, memory and hard drive is easy via the bottom panel.

Cons: Acer puts these really crappy Broadcom 802.11n Single band 2.4GHz Wi-Fi cards in their portables. I had a spare antenna lying around, so I upgraded the Wi-Fi card to an Intel 6300 PCI Express Half Mini Card. If you don't want to mess with adding a additional antenna, an Intel 6100 or 5100 (which only need two antennas rather than three) should work fine. Swapping out the Wi-Fi card is easy (if you can swap out memory, you can swap out the Wi-Fi card), and very much worth the additional $30 cost.

The Alps Touchpad is also a bit difficult to get used to. It was much better after I played with the settings.

Other: Mine came with 3GB of mismatched memory. 1-1GB 1066MHz Samsung memory module, and 1-2GB 1333MHz Elpida memory module. The combination works fine, but seems odd. Notebook does not come with Bluetooth.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the crappy Broadcom Wi-Fi card. I'll probably upgrade the memory and drop an SSD in it in the near future to make it really fly.

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Sony VAIO YB Series VPCYB35KX/S 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program So in this market of not-quite laptop/more-than-a netbook, it's easy to get bogged down and flustered, trying to figure out which system is the one for you. Sony has tried to bring its own netbook/notebook to the market with the Vaio YB series, but hasn't really succeeded. It hasn't altogether failed though either, but let's break it down and figure things out.

Pros:

1.) Incredibly easy out-of-box experience. Connect battery, turn on. Run through a very simple Windows 7 setup, and you're done.

2.) Not an altogether awful amount of pre-installed software (though still far too many Vaio entries in Programs/Features). The 500GB hard drive (456GB after formatting) has 437GB available, which is pretty reasonable after a Windows 7 installation.

3.) The system itself feels fairly solid, despite its platicky nature, with little to no flex anywhere.

4.) A nice array of ports for an 11.6" laptop, with 3x USB, 1x HDMI, Ethernet, VGA, headphone/microphone, SD Card/Memory Stick.

5.) Nice resolution for the screen size, at 1366x768, and very bright.

6.) Decent battery life (4-5 hours).

7.) Raised palm rests that are quite comfortable, solid, and not smudge-magnets like many other systems.

However, the cons have to come in here, and there's a lot of them...

Cons:

1.) The screen, while featuring a lovely resolution, is desperately (and I mean desperately) lacking in contrast. Viewing angles are atrocious, vertically and horizontally, and I'm just not happy with the way text is displayed due to the lack of contrast. Black text just looks faded and grey.

2.) There's one fan in the system, and that's on the left side of the system. It's always blowing, and makes a noticeable whining in a quiet room. I wouldn't classify it as obnoxious, even under full power, but it's definitely present, and runs 100% of the time.

3.) There's 4GB of DDR3 in the system, but with Windows 7 32bit installed, only 3.5GB is actually usable. Even more bizarrely, after opening up the panel on the underside, I found my system is equipped with one stick of 4GB RAM. But despite having two slots total in the computer, it's only capable of 4GB max (even with Windows 7 64bit tested)! So one slot will always stay empty...

4.) The trackpad, despite being very responsive, is very, very small. Curiously, it supports multitouch (but not for scrolling that's taken care of on one side of the trackpad with one finger, and is adjustable). Pinch to zoom and rotate is present, but good luck doing that with one hand. I found I had to use the index fingers of two hands to make it work. A bigger trackpad would help.

5.) The physical trackpad buttons are very loud and click-y. Definitely not conveying a high-end system here (which of course, it's not).

6.) The E-series dual-core AMD processor in the system just seems to struggle doing the most menial tasks. Watching HD YouTube videos pretty much means not doing anything else, and there's just a general sense of "slow" surrounding the entire computer. This isn't helped by the pedestrian 500GB 5400rpm Hitachi hard drive inside. Thankfully the drive is easily swapped out for something faster (7200rpm drive or SSD, please!). The unfortunate thing is this computer feels slightly less netbook-y, but altogether not enough notebook-y.

7.) The keyboard's keys are not full size. You get used to this for the most part, except for two absolutely obnoxious keys: The right shift key and the question mark key. The right shift is the same size as every other normal letter, and I just can't get used to it. Any time I use this key (which is all the time), I have to look down at it to see where I'm pressing. And entering a question mark is even more difficult, since that key is even smaller than the right shift and they're both next to each other! Ohh the pain!

8.) While the keyboard has a nice, chiclet-style feel to it, the higher rows of keys (the numbers especially) have a noticeably "tinny" sound to them, which once again doesn't convey quality...

9.) The power LEDs (yes, there are two of them, side and top, for no good reason), are astonishingly bright. These things light up a pitch-black bedroom. Good luck to your wife/husband/partner sleeping with you using your Vaio. Bright green fills the darkness. Oh, and you can't cover the larger of the two LEDs (the one on the side) with some felt or duct tape, because the LED houses the actual power button!

10.) Extremely tinny/thin sound, but this isn't altogether unexpected. Use earphones.

11.) Last and definitely least, there are 5 individual stickers on the laptop out of the box. While easily removed, it feels like an advertisement for everything about your new computer. Windows 7 sticker, AMD E sticker, Dual Core Graphics sticker, Energy Star sticker, and the Sony goodness-this-thing-has-HDMI-and-weighs-only-3.2lbs sticker. So many stickers!

Overall, this isn't a horrible system. If you have big hands look elsewhere as the keyboard (and to a lesser degree trackpad) will drive you mental, but if you can get past the cons, it's quite a nice, solid computer. It's hard to recommend, but not exactly easy to dismiss. For the money, though, be sure it's what you want.

3 stars out of 5.

I ordered this laptop for my wife as a replacement for her aging MSI Wind netbook which has server her very well for almost 3 years but has become quite sluggish...

The screen on the Sony is gorgeous (although it has glare issues and a rigid viewing angle), and altogether it is a beautiful machine. It also comes with 4GB of ram which is high for a netbook and compensates for the netbook-grade processor inside the hood. Windows Home Premium is also a welcome upgrade from Starter, and loads up quite quickly.

However, in retrospect the laptop does not justify it's very high price, for 2 main reasons:

1. Build quality is OK but not magnificient, it looks great but up-close and personal you feel the plastic. I actually had to superglue the top part of the display, as it came shipped with a small gap.

2. Battery life is absolutely unacceptable less than 3 hours on a charge, simply browsing the web with WiFi. Come on Sony, this isn't 2008 anymore...

In hindsight the TimelineX series is probably a much better buy. It looks less good IMO (which was actually a decisive factor for my wife), but in terms of battery life, CPU, etc, it probably beats the Sony for about the same price (I have no first hand experience with it, but was debating between the two before the purchase).

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This is a great product. Sturdy construction, great screen resolution, super lightweight, boots up reasonably fast (it's Windows 7), 4GB of memory value wise, it's hard to beat. Battery life is not staggering compared to some of the Apple products I own, but I needed a windows based machine for a specific application and this one did the trick.

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Popup keeps coming up saying.

"Caution.

The installed battery may not be properly connected to the computer or may not be compatible with the computer.

Click "OK" to enter Hibernate mode, and remove and reinsert the battery.

See the eletronic VAIO(R) User Guide for more information about using the battery."

I would have given one star but Sony warned me of the pending lithium fire.

Thank you for not burning my house down :-)

And thanks to Amazon for having a good return policy!

PS When I say loose battery, I mean moves freely to the point you can hear it when you set the laptop down.

If someone had given me this as a gift, I would carry it in a bag so the battery wouldn't be able to slip out and go skipping across the floor.

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I am not easily pleased with electronics, and I have been searching for a decent lightweight (portable) laptop/netbook for months. I am not into purchasing overpriced anything (including laptops), but with this one I was willing to pay a little extra for a decent product. My basic requirement to the laptop/netbook was portability, but 10" was somewhat too small for me. I am also very easily annoyed by a slow computer (ie slow switching between the windows), so I wanted bigger RAM. I have been considering Acer one initially, but after seeing it in the store, I decided against it (mainly based on the looks and the screen). After quite a bit of hesitation, Sony Vaio 11.6" was selected.

I have been using this laptop/netbook for about 2 weeks, and so far I have been very happy. It looks awesome and is lightweight enough for a frequent traveler. The battery life is about 5 hours using wifi but this works for me. The screen is awesome, so bright and crisp! The overall look is very good, it does not feel cheap (as other similar less expensive models). Performance has been good as well. I am not using any memory-demanding games or software, but this computer is never slow. This is exactly what I wanted as I absolutely CANNOT stand a slow computer! The touchpad is extremely responsive as well. Wifi works just fine and is quite fast.

To sum it up, the purchase seems to be very well worth a few extra bucks, compared to what you will pay for similar cheaper models. So far, I like this product a lot. The only drawback I can see is a very bright LED light on the side, but considering everything else I am willing to live with this. Overall, a 5-star product.

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Dell Inspiron 15z i15z-1400sLV 15.6-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)

I bought this directly from Dell about a month ago. The performance and battery life seem fine, but I had a recurring issue where the laptop would hang at start-up. I would force a shutdown and most times it would restart properly after the recovery steps, but sometimes it took more than once.

Checking the web I found some folks thought it was the video driver which I downloaded from the Dell site, but I also found the current BIOS level was A03 and my unit was only A01. So I upgraded that too and have had zero problems with start-up. Good news for folks who are comfortable going to the website and downloading software upgrades, not so good if you expect Dell support.

Another issue on the horizon is the battery which is now inside the laptop. Here is a youtube instructional video on how to do it . Not a big deal if you are comfortable opening the laptop up, big deal if you are going to have to go to someone down the line (probably 3-4 years). Not sure other ultrabooks are any better, but I wish it was simpler. There are settings to extend the life of the battery under the power settings controls and I suggest you use them.

Otherwise, as I noted at the top, laptop works well. My first time with a touch screen and it works well too.

I like the back-lit keyboard. However I miss my number pad. Now to see how it works Processor wise. Fine

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Acer eMachines E525-2200 Notebook PC - 15.6" LCD / Intel Celeron 900 2.2GHz / 3GB DDR2 / 250GB HD /

I was looking for a fairly inexpensive laptop and came across this one. Originally I had seen it on ebay, but it was more expensive, so I checked Amazon. The laptop has an older processor, but I don't see any difference in the speed compared to a much more expensive and newer laptop that my husband just bought that has the newest processor out. The only con to this laptop is that there is no built in webcam, but its an easy fix. Just would have been nice if it was built in. Other than that, I love it. It works great and the design is awesome. I would highly recommend this to any person looking to purchase it for enjoyment. (I.E. surfing the web, downloading music, print pictures, etc.)

I purchased this computer a couple of weeks ago and I have to honestly say that I love the hell out of this thing ! It was a great deal, perfect size ( larger than your normal notebooks) and has everything you need on it ! I also purchased a nice router to go along with it. It is fast, clear, nice size screen, great resolution, battery life is about five hours.. I am very, very pleased with this computer !!!

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Not a ton of features, but has a fast enough processor for web surfing and MS Office. Goes to sleep and comes back to life quickly with Windows 7. Good alternative to a netbook that has a micro-sized screen. I also have the Acer version (straight Acer brand, not Acer eMachines) and it is almost identical to this laptop, but has an AMD processor. I think this processor feels a little faster. Just wish the processor was a dual-core. Also beware that the screen resolution only has a height of 768, which by today's standards is a little short. But for the money, you can't beat it.

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I bought mine for about $300 and so far its been a great laptop. My 4 year old watches DVDs on it and cartoons off youtube and its great for surfing the web. It has done everything I have asked it to do and is actually faster than my desktop with a dual core processor. Ive pretty much put away the desktop. It starts right up and shuts down in the blink of an eye as well. My only problem is with the touch pad which seems finicky but I hear theres a fix for that...Im just too lazy to try. This was an excellent value, it does more than a netbook will and at about the same cost. If you just need a basic setup then this is it.

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Just got this today. As a test for the processor and ram I downloaded Wow. It runs at about 23 fps. Which is better than the desktop I had that had an AMD processor. It is a new experience working on Windows 7. It is pretty nice, but will take a little bit to get used too. Over all very satified at the moment.

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HP 2133 8.9" WXGA 1GB 120GB Mini Notebook PC KS174UT

This computer does just what it is advertised to do. When I opened the box and turned it on there were no surprises. Tiger direct shipped as promised and I actually received the machine earlier than Tiger direct estimated. The screen is small and if you need big print you will have to play with the display settings. Fortunately, HP put an icon on the task bar called S3 which allows you to adjust the screen resolution on the fly without having to go to control panel etc. The user manuals are on the hard drive and easy to access and read. The wireless card works on the wireless networks I have tried. The machine recognized the cd/dvd drive I plugged in. All in all it will be a great machine to take on vacation, ride on a plane, etc. I haven't tried bluetooth yet, but I would bet it works well also. The machine seems solid and reliable.

I was looking for a small computer to take overseas that will allow to keep up with email, connect to and run my GPS, etc and not take a lot of space and not be hard to lug around. The HP2133 Mini is very small, fully wireless; and with the refurb model being less than $300, it was a STEAL. Took me two days to get everything loaded. HINT: Get a copy of Virtual Clone Drive and put ISO's of your install CD/DVD's on the unit's hard drive... Then install your add-on products. Only complaint: single core is slower than what I am used to. Biggest plus: connectivity and high res screen (1280x768) (takes some tweaking to be readable). Keyboard has a nice feel.

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First, I want to forewarn you, this is a confusing review. Do I like the HP2133 or not? Let's talk about the price that I purchased it for: $299.99 (+$27.69 S&H; I live in Alaska. Your S&H may be less) from TigerDirect. Why does the title say, "WAS amazing?" The day after I purchased this, TigerDirect took that sale price off their website and the Amazon market. I don't think you can get a NEW one from TigerDirect at ANY price. There is a refurb. for $279... If you trust refurbs it is still a GREAT deal.

Now here's what I got for $300 (there are about 5 different versions of the HP Mini 2133):

VIA C7-M, 1.2 GHz processor

1GB RAM

120GB HD

Windows XP Home (SP2)

60 Day trial of MS Office 2007 *Professional*

HP extra software (not all bloatware)

1.3M Pixel webcam

3 Cell battery (about 2 hours on a charge)

8.9" (22.7 cm) 1280 x 768 screen

All the rest that you expect on a 2133.

Here's what I like about the HP 2133: The keyboard may be the best, compared to any netbook I have placed my hands on, and I've played with an Acer Aspire One, Asus eee, MSI Wind, and a Dell Mini Note 9. The speakers are very good for a netbook; the webcam seems bright and of very good quality; the weight of 2.8 lbs. (1.3 kg) is just about perfect, even with the optional 6 cell battery; of course the netbook's size is what draws you to the netbook in the first place; the screen resolution at 1280 x 768 is beautiful; and did I mention the keyboard is great?

Okay, why did I rate this four stars (not five stars)? Don't I think that $300 for this netbook is a good price? No, it is not a good price, it is an AMAZING price... but you can't get it for this price anymore, unless you want a refurb. But that's not why I rated it four stars. The HP 2133 is almost perfect, except for three things: processor, battery life, and screen size.

Processor: The VIA C7-M, 1.2 GHz is decent, but I can tell that my daughter's Intel Atom 270 is just a tad bit snappier on some things. The VIA does fine with YouTube pages and a couple of test DVD's, but I've upgraded to 2GB of RAM and I think that has helped. It balks a bit with an external DVD, but it is not unusable. My guess is that you would not want to watch Blu-Ray disks on this, but since I don't have an external Blu-Ray player, I can't tell you for sure.

Battery life: 2 hours on the 3 cell battery is okay, but I felt I needed to purchase a 6 cell battery Super-Capacity Li-ion Battery For HP 2133 Mini-Note series replace KE948UT KX868AT KR922UT HSTNN-DB63 KX869AT KR939UT KR922UT series Ac Laptop Notebook Main Battery [ 4800mAh 6 Cells] for my occasional multi-stop trips to other parts of Alaska, or California. I think, though I haven't tested it, that I'll get about 4 hours on the 6 cell battery, for a combined 6 hours with the two batteries. But even at that, the battery life seems puny compared to the ASUS 1000HE at 9.5 hours on a single charge or even most new netbooks that last about 6 hours on one battery charge.

Screen size: Now don't get me wrong: I purchased the 2133 BECAUSE of the screen *resolution.* 1280 x 768 is about the highest resolution available in a netbook (most are 1024 x 600 these days), but why didn't HP put 10.1" (25.5 cm) screen on the lid? There definitely is enough space to put a 10 inch screen on the 2133; just shrink the speaker area a little bit. Compared to my daughter's 10.1" MSI Wind the icons are really small.

Actually, I can't figure out why any of the netbook makers are not making a 10 inch WXGA (1280x768 resolution) screens. The Gigabyte M912 (8.9" as well), Inventec SX3 (8.9" screen), Samsung NC20 (12" screen), and Dell Mini 12 (duh, 12" screen) all have WXGA resolution (in some cases 1280 x 800). But none have a 10" screen. Do I sound like Goldilocks testing the three bears netbooks? The 12" screen is too large (for a netbook), the 8.9" screen is too small (the icons are dinky), but the 10" screen is just right. According to some accounts, the HP 2140 is supposed to have 1366 x 768 resolution on a 10.1" screen model, but as I write this, I know of no one who has seen or reviewed this mystic beast. To make matters worse, the available resolution on the HP 2140 is 1024 x 576 (less than the standard 1024 x 600). Perhaps I should have waited, and purchased the HP 2140 with a higher resolution, but here's the bottom line: for $300 the HP 2133 is a steal! I am quite happy with what I have!

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Great little notebook. I use it on vacations. It comes in handy for making reservations, checking road conditions, doing e-mails, ect. I did buy a wireless mouse to use with it. For me it makes scrolling MUCH easier.

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It's not very fast but it gets the job done. I use it mainly to grab pictures as shot with my Canon 5D and 5D MK2 when in the field. It has built-in wireless so I can connect in my hotel for emailing and internet. Plenty of storage for even a 2 or 3 day shooting assignment. I loaded the Canon software and Gimp for some quick image adjusting. It has plenty of connectivity and comes with Windows XP so no Vista mysteries.

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HP 655 - 15.6" - E1-1200 - Windows 7 Home Premium

the product does what I need it to do. I do not have extreme demands for a computer. I am enjoying it so far.

I am very pleased. However, if I had known how long it would take to get it I would have opted to send more money.

Also the laptop was not wiped when I got it and had all the previous owners Facebook etc on it. So, I had to learn how to set it back to original condition myself.

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My husband puchased a laptop that was loaded with Windows 8. Needless to say it didn't function like previous version of Windows. After listening to him complain and seeing how frustrated he was, I decided to buy a laptop with Windows 7 on it.

He has not stopped raving about how much he likes it. He especially likes the way it handles slide shows. If you have stills mixed with videos, when it gets to the video, it plays it. Pretty cool !

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I really enjoy my computer. I find it easier to use with windows 7 than my desktop with windows 8.

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Acer AS4830T-6678 14" Laptop (Intel i3-2370 Processor, 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB RAM)

Contrary to the Amazon product features description, this particular model does not have bluetooth installed, so keep that in mind if ever bluetooth constitutes an important feature for you. This laptop also has an integrated, non-user replaceable battery, which could be an issue 2 or 3 years from now when the battery dies (following the apple/ultrabook trend). The weight is also a bit heavy for the sleek form factor.

Enough of the cons and on to the pros...

Price Compared with other laptops with comparable specs the price is very competitive

Processor Very capable processor with Passmark score of 2862 can handle anything you care to throw at it (aside from graphics intensive games, though I personally haven't tested it out).

Looks Brushed aluminum lid and metal accents on the faux speaker grill look classy

Sound Dolby home theater works wonders when you connect a set of headphones

Battery life I got 6.5 hours on the first charge, though I'm still conditioning the battery. It's advertised to get 8+ hours.

Power brick Small, light and compact

OS from the feedback I've been reading on Windows 8, I'm glad I stuck with Windows 7 this time around. Maybe I'll consider Windows 9.

In summary, it's a handsome, powerful, affordable laptop.

If this computer had a built-in light, like Lenovo's think light, it would be perfect. Otherwise, I like the design. It really is a pretty computer. Fast. Runs cool. Speaker sound is excellent. Long battery life. Key placement good too. Yeah, I really like this one.

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This laptop is the epitome of an amazing laptop. It NEVER crashes, lags, or breaks down and I've had it for a while now! It's amazing and I'd recommend it over any other laptop the Sonys, the Toshibas, HPs, Asus, and even the Macs. It's reliable and best part is, for $450 you're getting quite a steal of a deal!!!

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I've had great performance on this computer since I bought it last summer. For the price, I would definitely recommend this Laptop!

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I love everything about it except that it doesn't have a number keypad. Super fast, runs very cool on your lap.

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