MSI G Series GT70 2OC-065US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Windows 8 takes some getting used to but I'm not sure why everyone complains so much about it. Machine is built well. It get's very finger printy and the display takes some getting used to but for the money it's a great machine. Tons of features and usability is fantastic.

Save $0.99 Off

Read More >>

Acer Aspire AS5750Z-4877 15.6" Notebook (2 GHz Intel Pentium B940 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard

I bought this for my wife. She was shocked at first to the point of doubting the package. It was so well packaged that she had a hard time gettng the Acer out. It was exactly what she needed. We plan on getting an HDMI cord and use it to watch movies on the big screen. It's still new to her and she is adjusting to it. I don't have any negatives about this product.

i was very displease with this purchase , with in the first 4 months the computer crashed and the coputer did not came with a reboot disk. displeased with it very much.

Buy Acer Aspire AS5750Z-4877 15.6" Notebook (2 GHz Intel Pentium B940 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Now

the computer is by far the best deal i have ever gotten from amazon n ive been with amazon for a few years now, i updated all outdated drivers, the sound is killer, the processing could handle everything i through at it, it crash once on initial setup but that was expected, i tamed my computer within half hour now shes locked up tight no breaks no code error and dont get me wrong im not a huge fan of win7 im an xp man but shes holding up nice, so if ur looking for a "notebook" at a great price look into it really, im a huge doubter but i was surprised being a bit of a nerd i can say this is worth all the time and money you the buyer put into it, just remember to update drivers right away or ull be looking at a so-so machin, just get a program called "Driver Identifier" itll take u where u need to be automaticlly, have fun:p

Read Best Reviews of Acer Aspire AS5750Z-4877 15.6" Notebook (2 GHz Intel Pentium B940 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Here

Too many problems with LED displays. Had to change it twice. Bad screen angle you cannot use it from standard position like on your lap.

Loosing too much of its black when tilted even a bit from perpendicular

Want Acer Aspire AS5750Z-4877 15.6" Notebook (2 GHz Intel Pentium B940 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Discount?

They call this computer a notebook and it is bigger then my Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop????? which is what I will use

as a comparison.

The screen is wider by a couple of inches.

The keyboard has a number pad, so it takes a little getting used to (or back into) the right hand number pad and

having to set up a bit to the left.

It comes with windows 7 which I have never used before as I am a die hard XP user due to the various disasters Mr. Gates has produced since the XP days.

I was a bit surprised with 7, as it is very intuitive, and much like XP (it is probably built on XP software like everything else they produce which is built on DOS, but I regress). So the old codger got into 7 without any ranting and raving; that's a good thing.

As stated, the footprint is wider than the Dell so it takes up more desk space, but not so much that your elbow will slip off the end of the table.

The only bitch I have about the computer is the touch pad; it does not work as well as the Del, so I have ordered a cordless mouse so that I don't throw it against the wall.

The computer is much faster than the Del and 1/3 the price. It will mostly be used for music files and earphoned out to amplified speakers. Oh yea, the speakers are not as good as the Del, so if you want great sound, do as I do.

Read More >>

Sony VAIO VPC-Z216GX/L 13.1-Inch Laptop (Blue)

I was getting tired of having a desktop and a notebook and wanted something powerful and light. Even though many options are available nowadays, none come close to Z2 in performing all jobs well.

At the office I have the dock, USB hub, and 3 monitors (2 connected to the dock and for the 3rd one I need to connect a HDMI cable). All I need to do is to connect 2 cables and I am set.

Pros:

Fast: The machine is fast to boot and to resume (my previous Dell Lattitude was a nightmare), handles all my programs as fast as my quadcore desktop (including video and photoshop). Disclaimer: I do not play games. The noise cancelling headphones are great (light and it works).

Light: My arthrits thank me daily.

Battery: I got the slice battery, but I have not needed yet. I am getting at least 5-6 hours from the main battery.

Backlight: is much less intrusive than Dell.

Display: reflections are very well controlled.

Attention: it calls much less attention than other thin & lights (it does not "look" as thin or light)

Cons:

Noise: I was afraid of the reviews stating that the fan makes the sound of an airplane taking off. It is true, but in my use it never happened with my usual work, including watching/streaming movies. It did happen once while I was making/burning a movie using an USB 3.0 BluRay burner (not the dock). The dock fan/drive is somewhat noticeable.

Speakers: Useless. My Ipad have better speakers. I carry a mini usb soundbar.

Graphics: I have not been able to convince the laptop to recognize my touchscreens as separate units yet (if I touch the 2nd or the 3rd monitor, it thinks I touched the first monitor). I think is fixable, I just haven't had the time (took me while to convince the Dell also)

Price: I am sure Sony is making a hefty profit at my expense. ASUS UX31 is a proof it did not have to be that expensive. I only bought this as it was the most painless 3 monitor option at work.

Overall I am much happier than expected. I hope this helps.

Daniel

Update: A year later...

I stand for almost everything above except for the following problems:

1) Drivers: for some reason, time to time one of the drivers stop working and I have reinstall the driver. Usually the problem is the driver for the SD card reader, touchpad or USB ports.

2) Keyboard Backlight is too weak and too slow to turn on

3) The USB 3.0 port stop working and I can't get it to work again. It still works to connect to the dock and I can still get USB 3.0 from the docking station but when I am on the road I am down to 1 USB 2.0 port and no usb 3.0.

4) When disconnecting the docking station, it is important to OK the message on the center of the screen first then the on the left top otherwise it will crash on next boot and it takes several reboots to start working again.

5) the built-in speakers are horrible. As my portable clip-on speakers use USB, I run out of ports on the road.

6) the volume out to the headphones are also weak depending on your source (like Amazon prime) and headphones. I use a small (chocolate mint size) amplifier but then the noise cancelation is gone.

Would I buy again? Yes, as I like to have 3 monitors to work, Vaio Z2 is still the best solution to use just 1 machine as desktop and laptop. But I am downgrading it to 4 stars.

I hope yours work better than mine .

Daniel

The Sony Vaio Z2 is easily the best laptop I have ever owned and purchased. I have owned various laptops in the past 12 years (Dell, Asus, Alienware, Samsung, Apple, toshiba, NEC, Sony TX), and the Vaio Z2 blows everything away. Having a good grasp of current hardware and an enthusiast in building custom computers (Liquid cooling to subzero cooling included), I was looking for a laptop that would fit what I was looking for. Giving up last year, I ended up buying and trying the asus bamboo which I felt was at best a mediocre machine.

However, when I first saw the Vaio Z2 in ads in Hong Kong, the design immediately caught my attention. I quickly researched the specs when I got back to my hotel room and found it to be the exact laptop I was looking for Light and slim, powerful, adaptable, strong battery (14hours with the sheet battery), tough design, USB3. I quickly purchased one in Singapore and have not looked back since. I simply loved the laptop.

There are however cons as well. The Keyboard keys are very responsive but feels low (this is unavoidable from a design perspective). The trackpad and mouse was at first originally horrible, however with the latest vaio update, it is now responsive and easier to use. The exorbitant price is painful. I believe for the price we should have received the sheet battery, bluray burner, more SSD space, and windows ultimate instead of premium.

The powerdock is a good and bad thing for me. On one hand having to carry another brick is annoying when I travel. On the other hand, if you think of it as an ultra portable laptop with a high end mobile GPU, it sits far better than any other laptop out there. Also the powerdock allows for great future possibilities. Being able to upgrade the powerdock in the future is very viable. However it is unknown yet as to whether sony will use this feature or not.

With all that said. I still believe that the Sony Vaio Z2 has brought the laptop technology up another notch and will be the high end laptop manufacturers will have to contend with in my books. The only reason I took 1 star off this laptop is due to the uncertainty of whether sony will continue to support the powerdock in the future. If they do so by coming up with better powerdock and GPUs for the Z2, I will correct this review and give it a full 5 star.

I hope this review has helped. In conclusion, grabbing a Sony Vaio Z2 is a great choice if you have the cash to spare.

Summary -

Pros+:

Amazing HD screen

RAID0 SSD

Vaio update support is up to date for now

Fast CPU (not under volted like the most laptops)

Design

Powerdock

lightweight

Battery (4hours 14hours w/ sheet battery)

Noise canceling in-ear phones

Portability and adaptability

Cons-:

low level Keyboard

Original trackpad firmware

Fan can be loud on full load

Speakers

powerdock (if not supported in future)

Buy Sony VAIO VPC-Z216GX/L 13.1-Inch Laptop (Blue) Now

I'll keep this short.

Pros:

VERY light chassis that almost feels "hollow"

Incredibly powerful enough to drive GTA4 at 1080p and high res

PMD highly useful, and looks great on desk

Screen with beautiful colors and great resolution

Battery life enough to support more than 5 hours of normal usage under a balanced scheme and 7 under power saver mode

Altogether nice-looking

Cons:

Overall build quality is fine but sort of fragile, doesn't seem like it could withstand a fall

Keyboard far too shallow to provide enough travel for intense typing or gaming

Trackpad too small and the response is sort of awkward.

Speaker quality is plain bad.

PMD makes configurations and driver installation far more difficult than it needs to be.

Overall:

Great for business, rips through most any software you'll ever need portable, decodes tak files at an impossibly fast speed, but if you want this for gaming I would advise a separate mouse and keyboard.

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO VPC-Z216GX/L 13.1-Inch Laptop (Blue) Here

The laptop is beautiful, it's a Z and it shows, you wouldn't have to be a genius to notice it's quality, it really is a sight. Let me also say the resolution & clarity of the screen at an astounding 1920x1080 on a 13.1 inch screen is amazing all by itself. Some people say they can't read the small print. Well, you can always adjust the zoom. However, if you get the lower resolution you can't adjust up, so if you want the capability of watching a full 1080p video on your blu-ray than this can do it. The peformance of the processor is quite good for a dual core processor, you won't find a competitor that utilizes a quad core in a notebook that weighs only 2.5 pounds and is only a 1/2 thick. It's just to much chip to allow for cooling, so the dual core i7 is mainstream, but if you look close, this one has a much faster i7 than many. That's because this is not an ultra low voltage processor. Somehow they found a way to cool this upgrade even in it's ultra thin chasis. Now, you may have heard that many reviews complain of the fan running loud and sometimes to constant, well, I personally don't see what the big fuss is about a small fan running inside of your laptop, first of all I didn't find it annoying or overly loud. Second, I'd rather have it this way than the alternative, what I don't like is a machine that seems as though the fan isn't working or maybe set on the wrong calibration. The look and feel of this laptop is second to none, it's awesome in every aspect.

Now, the flip side, the portability comes at a price. The speakers are almost non tolerable, easy fix, I recommend a $30 single capsule speaker, Amazon carries the x-mini which works just fine. The next sacrifice you'll make by choosing this machine is the shortage of USB ports, for some this is not a deal breaker. You must utilize the included power media dock to have 3 USB ports, otherwise you'll only have 2. Next, you'll need to plug in the power media dock via one of your USB ports and one other dedicated port to plug in the power media dock. Next you'll have to plug in the power media dock to the wall to power it on. Now you have as many wires as a full blown desktop. The power media dock houses both the blu-ray player and the upgraded Radeon 1 gig graphics card. This means that when the power media dock is not plugged in, your only using the standard Intel 3000 graphics which is onboard your laptop. If you need to load a program off of a dvd/cd, you have to plug in the power media dock. I don't think this is much of an issue since the macbook air is the same way. However the graphics I think may be a little bigger issue. When you open the box the new Z comes in, you'll find an a/c adapter for the laptop, then as you dig more, you'll find even a larger a/c adapter for the power media dock, it's quite large. Now, the biggest issue in my opinion, the keyboard. To say it's a minor adjustment would be an understatement. The keyboard has only a 1mm keystroke as opposed to the Sony Vaio S model which has a 2mm keystroke. The first thing is the backlit keyboard, don't expect the keys to light up as much on the Z as it does on the S model, the reason? Well, the keys are so short of space underneath on the Z that there was simply no room to allow light under the key, the S model on the other hand does. So, this means you'll only be getting light from the letter character itself, not the lower edge of each key. For some, not a big deal, for me, I want the extra light. The oil from your fingers will eventually wear the keys and soil them, before you know it the most commonly used keys are barely visible at night.

In summary, I would like to see a new Z model that is a little thicker, with longer keystrokes, built in high performance switchable graphics and blu ray slot loading as well. Keep the material and workmanship the same, same 1920x1080 display, drastically improve the speakers and provide full backlit keyboard including the bottom edge just like the S model and throw in 2 year warranty instead of one for the Z model, and last but certainly not least, Sony needs to realize the value of promoting a warranty that is openly & honestly as well as easily transferable to multiple owners for the duration of the warranty. Dell does this and it makes a big difference. If I decide to sell, which I have a habit of doing, I want the easy warranty transfer which protects my investment when I sell. It's a win win for all. Now, back to the good again, this laptop looks great on your desk, it's a conversation piece for sure, you'll be the envy of the office. The laptop is truly a piece of art, nice. It's so thin and well made. Just needs a few tweaks. If Sony improved their customer support and listened to their customers, this may have already been changed, remember, there are often more important things in life besides making your scheduled tee time.

Want Sony VAIO VPC-Z216GX/L 13.1-Inch Laptop (Blue) Discount?

This machine is great. It is everything I want. Great resolution, it is 1920x1080 (VPC-Z216). So the res. is better than Amazon says.

Boots up at 15 seconds. Good keyboard layout. Feels like a premium computer.

The machine is amazingly thin and light weighted. Also you got extreme power from the processor and SSDs. Go for it, I truly recommend it.

Amazon has written wrong specs. Check them out at:

Read More >>

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black)

First of all let me say that I've only had this laptop for a few days of heavy use, so I'm sure my opinion of it will change over time. I will update this review if it does change.

First impressions:This laptop is very impressive, especially for the price.

Look and feel: this laptop is big and sexy. The brushed metal case, the red backlit keyboard, and the sleek angular profile of the back of the display and the speakers all contribute to a good looking piece of equipment. The brushed metal surface, however, is really a fingerprint magnet. No matter how many times you wash your hands, this laptop will still pick up fingerprints if you even touch the outer case. If you're one of those people who is obsessed with keeping your technology spotless, don't buy this laptop. Personally, the fingerprints don't really bother me, and the brushed metal looks great from a distance, fingerprints or not. The keyboard is very solid, and does not give, even if you're a hard typer like me. The keyboard feels very nice, with good tactility and key spacing. The backlight isn't blindingly bright, but provides plenty of light to type with no ambient light and with the screen brightness all the way down. It has 3 settings: off, low, and high, which can be changed using the function key and the space bar. It doesn't have an ambient light sensor, so you'll have to manually adjust the backlight. personally, I don't mind this at all.

Weight: this laptop is heavy, clocking in around 6.5 pounds. for a 15" form factor, this is significant, and if you're looking for ultra-portability, this laptop isn't the right choice for you. The fact that you're looking at a laptop with two graphics cards means mobility isn't your highest priority.

Battery life: as you can see from the specifications, the battery life on this thing is pretty bad. It has no integrated graphics cards, so it's always powering the two GT650M cards that it has. this obviously consumes quite a bit of battery. Early tests (3 full charges/discharges) have the battery giving about 3.5 hours on normal usage (low screen brightness, taking notes, nothing intensive) and about 2 while doing intensive browsing (youtube videos, streaming music, running a compiler, etc). Once again, this is a non issue for me, because I use this for mobile performance, not for mobility.

now, for the best part: the Graphics!

This laptop has AWESOME graphics capabilities. As of now, it is the only laptop available that has the GT650M SLI setup. With 4GB of dedicated video memory between the two cards, this thing can really churn out the FPS. So far, I've only tested two games: League of Legends and Trine 2. On maximum settings, during a normal match, I got a max of 190FPS on League of legends and averaged about 80-120 during fights. wow. League isn't the most graphics intensive game out there, but still, I think it's impressive. On trine 2, with the settings maxed out and with anti-aliasing on maximum (8x) It looked amazing and didn't lag.

As you may have read elsewhere, the SLI setup can cause micro-stutter if your FPS drop below 30. It isn't the end of the world, and is definitely still playable even with the stutter. obviously, you'd hope to be above 30fps for most games anyway.

note: there is a downside to this being the only device with a gt650m SLI as driver updates may be scarce. Nvidia (as of right now) does not provide the drivers on their website, and they must be obtained from lenovo. There is a built in update utility included. I have experienced some driver issues (display driver stopped responding and recovered). I'm not sure what caused these issues, and I'm hoping for an update (this setup is still very new) but even then it's not the end of the world. The graphics were fine during gaming, and they glitched out while I was installing software, so I may have caused the issue for all I know.

Trackpad: there have been a lot of complaints about this trackpad, I haven't experienced any of the issue mentioned. It seems fine to me, with the multi touch functions working correctly and the feel is fine. Trackpads are all slightly annoying, and this one isn't special. It's middle of the road. I like the texture (a matte feel), but its still a trackpad. I'll be using a mouse the majority of the time anyways.

Speakers: the included JBL audio is decently loud, and sounds a little muddled and missing treble. Obviously i'm not surprised, and these speakers are better than I expected for laptop audio. Again, nothing special, they're fine.

Processor: the 3rd gen i5 included is plenty at least for me, and is decently future proof.

Hard Drive: probably the weakest element of this laptop, it's a 5400rpm, which is going to be slow. If you want faster boot up times, just upgrade to a SSD. this laptop does have an mSATA port which would be used to add a system SSD.

Heat: this laptop does get warm, not hot. It has very effective cooling, and even while maxing out the GPUs it didn't get that toasty, nothing that was uncomfortable. better than I expected, but still pretty average. the bottom of it isn't awfully bad, so it would probably be fine sitting on your lap for a while.

Display: this is one of the only 15" laptops I could find that had a 1920x1080 native resolution. It looks fantastic! my only complaints here are that text and other elements can get a little small, and that the bezel of the screen is surprisingly large. Its not huge, but it's bigger than I expected, and there is a significant bezel. The colors are fantastic and the pixels are invisible.

Overall, This is an awesome laptop. It's very high end, and I still feel like I got a fantastic amount of hardware for the price I paid. Again, it is best equipped for gaming or other graphics intensive tasks, but It can definitely hold its own with much pricier options.

I know this is a wall of text, but thanks for reading it (if you got this far). I hope this helps you in your decision. Feel free to comment and ask me questions, I will try to answer them. I will provide updates as my opinion of this laptop changes over time.

Edit 1: Had a hard time disabling the automatic screen lock after 1 minute of inactivity. had to reset local security policies to fix. Annoying, but was able to solve with some googling. Still no video driver update that I have found. Everything else is still awesome!

Edit 2: DRIVERS! so it turns out, if you go to nvidia's geforce graphics driver site, and you turn off SLI in the control panel, it allows you to download and install the most recent package from nvidia. this is awesome! currently running on 314.21 (beta) and testing it out, it seems there was actually fewer SLI profiles supported on the previous version than 314.10.... the important part is... graphics update from nvidia, awesome.

I have had the Y500 for just over a week and overall I am very happy with my purchase. I opted for this i5 version since the i7 doesn't really add any value for gaming and I'd rather spend the money on other upgrades own the road when I need it. This model has the SLI dual graphics, and at the current price, this is a steal!

The laptop arrived safely no thanks to Amazon. I order a ton of stuff through Prime and even cheap kids toys have at least some bubble wrapping and are placed in a standard shipping box. This was shipped in the original (and small) laptop box from Lenovo and with no additional packaging materials. Why???

Now onto the hardware….

All of the built-in hardware seems great with the exception of the slow but ample 5400 RPM 1TB hard drive. It's by far the biggest bottleneck of the system, but it's not a deal breaker. Most people will appreciate the huge capacity for storing large game libraries. Apparently you can toss in a compatible mSATA SSD and boot from this or set it up as a cache. I would set it as boot drive and keep the 1TB drive for data if given the option.

The screen is VERY nice and clear. Colors look great and overall I can't find any flaws with the screen. This is true HD running at 1080p. Most other gaming notebooks in this price range only provide 720p (do not want). I updated the Nvidia drivers from Lenovo's site and they do seem to perform better than what was included. SLI is awesome to have in a notebook and I'm super impressed with how all of my games are performing so far. Steam Big Picture mode works well on this when connected via HDMI to my Panasonic plasma TV.

The case is very basic and to be honest, does have a somewhat cheap feel to it. However, I have no concerns of it breaking or coming loose. It's also a grease magnet, but I knew that before from other reviews. I'm surprised that the laptop feels so light for the size. The PSU is huge, but I've seen bigger. There is a minimal amount of external ports on this laptop, which is a bit of a surprise for a laptop of this size and intended use. There is nothing truly lacking for gaming, although, I would have loved to have an eSATA port included as well.

Opening the case for the first time was a bit scary. Some of the hinges come off easily and others do not. It took me around 10 minutes before I finally had carefully opened this up. Once opened up, it's easy to replace the internal components (RAM, HDD, mSATA, etc.,).

The keyboard is good. I'd give it a solid B. I would prefer a slightly stiffer response as I find the keys a bit spongy for my liking. Not a deal breaker by any means though. The backlit keys look cool and be turned down to a lower setting or turned off completely using the function keys.

I was very concerned about the track pad due to all of the noise online about this. Take a deep breath it is fine, but far from perfect. I'm not crazy about the texture and I would have preferred physical mouse buttons, but these are unfortunately getting harder to come by and only seem to be found on much more expensive gaming laptops and/or models geared for business use. The detection of the right and left mouse buttons is good and basic tracking is also fine. The gestures, however, don't always work but I hear that you can disable this.

The battery seems OK and matches the 3 hour advertised average when used for non-gaming use. I will keep it plugged in to AC power when gaming. Apparently the GPU's throttle down when not on AC power, but I can't imagine ever gaming without it since you would maybe get 1 hour tops of playing time before having to plug it in back to charge.

Onto the included OS and build from Lenovo…

Like all OEM consumer PC's, there is a fair amount of crapware/trailware included, which I immediately uninstalled before attempting to do anything else. McAfee was the first to go. Just use the included Microsoft Security Essentials and be done with it. All you need to keep on this system is the drivers and some of the Lenovo utilities. The rest can be removed.

For those who don't like the new Metro interface (and I assume this is the root cause for the hatred of Windows 8) should download and install Classic Shell for free. Windows 8 performs great and is a bit faster than Windows 7. This will give you the best of both worlds (a great interface and great performance). You can get this from ninite.com (an awesome site for downloading a bunch of apps at once).

Final Verdict: This system provides a lot of value for the money and you will not find a better gaming laptop for the price at the moment. If money is not a factor and/or if you don't want to upgrade any parts yourself down the road, you may instead want to check out an Asus ROG model. Of course, if you are not going to use this for gaming, there are better laptops to be found in the same price range.

Buy Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black) Now

Solidly built and hefty. Bought it as an occasional gaming laptop (WoW, BF3, SCII), and it plays the part well. i won't rehash what's already been covered, but will mention the trackpad issue. It was fixed in y500 built December 2012 onward (don't remember the date). i just received mine, and it was built late February 2013. The trackpad's fine. No random wandering or anything. that's it. enjoy.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black) Here

I am still tinkering with my laptop trying to change specs on the dual graphics so I can get the gaming experience I originally wanted out of it. At the moment I cannot for the life of me find out how to run Napoleon Total War smoothly on the laptop yet it runs smoothly on my desktop with noticeably worse specs (if you have any suggestions feel free to message/comment.)

Now for my only problem. I know this laptop came with dual graphics, and that is fine. However, I can not find a reliable site/store willing to sell me the removable ultrabay DVD burner/writer. I would gladly spend $70 for it but was forced to instead purchase a USB dvd writer because of the fact that the ones I do find hold low retailer ratings complaining about horrible customer service.

I basically wrote this review to point out a few flaws in this device but don't let that scare you away. I have come across WORSE laptops that are sold at twice or more than twice the amount this one is. 4/5 (for the graphics control and the dvd writer)

Want Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black) Discount?

First thing's first. After over a month with this laptop and doing what I assume everyone else has been doing to try to deal with the touchpad by lowering the sensitivity, I've finally discovered that the fix for the touchpad is to move the sensitivity all the way to the left. Sounds backwards to increase the sensitivity when it's jumpier than a cat using a jackhammer, but apparently the touchpad is not sensitive enough and loses track which causes it to jump. It's way better at the highest sensitivity (left side). In fact it only works at the highest sensitivity.

Oh by the way I'm talking about the "touch sensitivity" slider in the touchpad driver. Not your windows mouse sensitivity in the regular control panel. Now since this is supposed to be a review of a laptop. You'll also have a better experience with the touchpad if your palm isn't right next to it throwing off its readings.

Obviously the killer feature in this laptop is the SLI. It makes this laptop a better value than anything that has been on the market. Ever. Yeah the cooling, the specs, the build, the screen, the speakers, the camera, the mic, all great. You can read about them on the spec sheet and other reviews talk about them in detail. I bought this laptop because short of $2000, there is no better laptop. And I don't have $2000. Seriously. I don't even know why I spent all my money on a laptop.

But I'm not giving it 5 stars because Lenovo dropped the ball on the keyboard and touchpad. Yes I tried all the keyboards and touchpads in store and everyone has the same rubber keyboard and hinge touchpad. Even the boutiques. But if everyone jumped off a bridge, I'm still not giving you 5 stars for jumping off a bridge.

As said, I fixed the sensitivity problem with the touchpad. But that's not the only problem. The hinge is horrible. It drops the bottom of the pad into the laptop body. Which is absolutely the most loving way of pushing dust into your system since the sledgehammer. And only the bottom half goes down because it's on a hinge, so you can't click on the top half. A step backwards from having mouse buttons is an understatement. It's square wheels on a wheelbarrow bad. No, it's triangle wheels bad.

The keyboard is bad. You've heard the writers like this keyboard, you've read reviewers like this keyboard. You might have tried this keyboard and liked it. But it is bad. It's a piece of rubber with some Christmas lights except they are all the same color and don't do fancy patterns. Sorry I'm not a fan of typing on a piece of rubber. I could type on a washable keyboard if I wanted a piece of rubber but I don't. Because it sucks. Laptops used to come with scissor keyboards, in other words rubber membrane keyboards with a bit of plastic to hold it and control its movement. But oh what a world of difference a bit of plastic makes compared to this. No, you can't find a laptop with scissor keyboards anymore. But that doesn't excuse you from failing to do it. You can't rate a laptop 5 stars for failure. I'm not asking for capacitive here, just a bit of plastic. Yeah make the laptop a bit thicker so I can actually type on it! Oh the arrow and numpad keys are substandard size. I mean really now.

Oh yeah no matter what you do, don't use the recalibrate battery function. It will cause an unfixable problem with your battery management.

Since this is a laptop review I will update it as long as there is something worth updating. Especially the touchpad sensitivity.

Read More >>

Sony VAIO(R) VPCSA2SGX/T Signature SA2 Series 13.3" Notebook PC

First let me start out by saying the color pattern will not be for everyone, for me it was not a problem, I'm not a spring chicken anymore and I'm definitely not trying to compete at the local coffee shop for the coolest looking fold away workstation. Sony doesn't do a very good job showing closeup photos in great detail on many of their machines, I suppose you want to keep suspense until you do your unboxing maybe. That being said, I can tell you this Signature Series is a little different. The top is kind of like the paint on a car, you'll actually be tempted to even put a wax protector finish on it to help prevent micro scratching. It looks much like an enamel based finish as opposed to most laptops that have some sort of artificial texture and material. The color on the top is a nice dark brown metallic finish. The bottom is plastic and painted dark brown which I like the color. The inside of the laptop surrounding the display is a nice looking copper bronze shade depending on the lighting. It's solid in color. Now, the main chasis color and material. The color seems to differ with lighting, sometimes it appears bright or light gold and other lighting makes it look dark gold or copper/bronze at times. The material here again, it's plastic. The fit and finish of this area is a bit different than your typical new S model that is molded out of one piece of milled aluminum, for starters is not one piece at all, it's actually a tub on the bottom of the chasis with one flat piece of what I will also call plastic that seems to snap over the bottom tub. This is a signature model so they can do whatever they want, but that is different than the typical S model design, unless this model was maybe released just before the new S model was released, I don't know for sure. At any rate, the appearance of the color and pattern on the keyboard area is a pattern of small squares or blocks that are 3 dimensional, they are not stick on designs or painted designs. The keyboard works rather well as most S models do, the keyboard lights up not only the character itself but around the entire key. Performance wise, it has a 256 gig SSD split into two "128x2" to make a raid 0 "zero" configuration which is much better than a stand alone 256. The machine boots very quickly, less than 30 seconds. It has all of the nice features on this laptop, it's loaded. The switchable graphics make it easy to dial in your demands.

In summary, this is not your fathers Oldsmobile! The performance is very high end and is an equal threat to it's bigger brother the Z. If you are comparing the Z to an S like many are, I have had both. The problem I have with the Z model is the short 1mm keystroke vs. the S model's 2mm keystroke. It makes a huge difference when your a speed typist like me. What I mean is if your trying to type proficiently like every second counts, I would say your going to have a huge adjustment on the Z model compared to the beautiful keyboard this S model has. The other reason I prefer the S model here is the lack of the separate power media block that the Z requires to utilize the speed graphics card and the blu-ray player. Also the Z doesn't have enough USB ports on the laptop itself, their are only 2 compared to 3 on the S model. I need a USB slot when I'm at home relaxing in front of the tv and I have my laptop sprawled out out my wife's favorite coffee table and I don't feel like sitting at my desk. I'll have my mouse plugged into one USB slot, USB powered speakers plugged into another and my laptop cooler in the third. I realize this is drastic, most wouldn't have that many plugged in, but I rather have that option since there are more devices that might also require a plug. By the way, the speakers on the S are way better than the Z model, however, I still recommend maybe a single capsule speaker if you like to watch a lot of video's since the S model speakers are still not that great. When I bought the Z before this one, I just wanted the Z for the quality build and the beautiful appearance, I thought I could live with the 2 shortcomings I just described, I was wrong. It wasn't worth the sacrifice. The reason I found it necessary to point out the difference between the two models is that you can have all the same equipment and spend just as much on the S model as the Z, so you have to at least consider both for that big of an investment. Now, getting down to the nuts and bolts of this Signature Series, the question is the difference in this signature series vs. your typical S model milled from one piece of aluminum. The one advantage for this signature is that the material doesn't make your hands feel cold when your sitting in an air conditioned room like the aluminum would. The aluminum models have kind of an anodized paint characteristic to them which can soil from your fingers, maybe just the oil in your skin or something to that affect, however the finish on this signature series should be quite easy to keep looking the same as when you first got it. This may be small to some people, but not me. I hate when my laptop doesn't look as good as the day I got it. The other benefit to this material is that it's light, I don't know if it shows on paper, but it just seems light for whatever reason. The other thing is I really like the unique colors and even though it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it suited me just perfectly. It's kind of like combining antique colors and textures with the best technology we are privileged to use. It's a real nice change away from the same old black & silver.

So Far I'm pretty satisfied with this machine, she scared me at first, because I took her to Best Buy in order to install an extra memory module. I looked at the bottom of the thing, and as I was doing that the geek squad guy came over and decided to help me. Well he took the bottom off and was like there is no space for an extra memory module plus the installed memory is soldiered onto the motherboard (which it appears to be anyway). Then he took the thing further apart by disassembling the keyboard and other components. Well he put the thing back together and walla the thing would not reboot, and after disassembling and reassembling the thing at least 4 times I decided to buy a Toshiba when the thing kept failing to reboot. Well following day I went back to best buy and lo and behold another geek squad technician not only got my Baby to reboot he successfully installed the 4 extra gigs of memory now this thing runs like a brand new Maserati. Then on top of that she survived the trip with me from Texas to Afghanistan, and before I left I ended giving the Toshiba to my girlfriend. So moral of the story never give up on your VAIO, because I was gonna mail thing to Sony and tell them to keep it, but now I'm in Love with my Baby (Sony VAIO VPCSA2SGX/T) :)

Buy Sony VAIO(R) VPCSA2SGX/T Signature SA2 Series 13.3" Notebook PC Now

Read More >>

Toshiba 15.6" Laptop 3GB 320GB | C655D-S5518

I have owned expensive computers before(ie Macbook pro) when I bought this computer I was impressed by its price and usefulness. It is very capable of doing everything other big name laptops do, the screen resolution is impressive, and it is easy to use. I enjoyed owning this computer and think it is great for casual and even intensive use(I used it to code C++ for a while). The price makes it a no brainer.

Line and double image developed in screen after only 3 months. I called Toshiba and they basically stated that all screen problems were assumed to be because of mishandeling. This computer set on a counter and was never moved anywhere. I am ordering a replacement screen,Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5515 Laptop Computer / 15.6-inch HD Display Screen / AMD Dual-Core E-300 1.3 GHz Processor / 2GB DDR3 RAM Memory / 320GB Hard Drive / Double-layer DVD±RW / 6-cell Battery / Webcam / Windows 7 Home Premium / Black but I will never buy another Toshiba product.

Buy Toshiba 15.6" Laptop 3GB 320GB | C655D-S5518 Now

Read More >>

ASUS 1225B-SU17-BK 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Asus has made a fantastic product at a great price. I previously owned an Eeepc 900 and loved it for about five years. I learned to use linux with it, I fell in love with Ubuntu using it and really got hooked on having a computer smaller than a pad of paper. I was worried that the Tablet would end Netbooks for good and hated the idea of a crummy throw away operating system made for cell phones, and incapatibility with windows. Then I heard Asus was coming out with this next-Gen netbook and I was excited. I have had it for a while now and feel it deserves a review. I Love It! It is so fast for its size and has tons of space. I run my website off of it and use it for writing papers, editing photos,watching movies and basic email/internet use.

Looking for a small PC..? If you have money I would suggest you get a Mac book, If not... maybe consider this one under $440. Happy with my purchased! So far.. One of the top netbooks that you can get under 12 inches for 2012. 4G Ram and 320 Hard Drive, pretty good for the size. This is perfect to people who loves to travel..like me. I don't want to bring my heavy laptop with me when I travel. Thin and light 3.2 lbs and faster than other netbooks who only have 1G or 2G RAM. So far my only complaint is the battery, it said on the box up to 7 hrs.. mine only last 4 1/2 or 5hrs at times on hybrid mode. Well no biggie...that's good enough for me thats a lot. I mean, battery consumption also depends on the task you are doing on the computer. Well if you are comparing this to Acer aspire one 722, Just to let you know, I bought the acer aspire one 722 before this one which has exactly the same specs but lasted only 15days, Gladly returned it..the power just did not turn on again. Lemon.. Do not get acer. This one is better.

Buy ASUS 1225B-SU17-BK 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

Before I begin I will provide a little more information about the product that should be given in the description.

The Windows Experience Index is 3.7. The individual ratings are as follows.

Processor 3.7

RAM 5.6

Graphics 4.3

Gaming Graphics 5.8

Primary hard Disk 5.6

The 320 GB HDD is partitioned into two partitions. One 99.9GB and the other 183GB. Not really sure why they did that but not really a negative.

The Netbook also comes with a TON of bloatware. Tons of ASUS apps such as a top dock, a special media sharing app, a BIOS updater, E-CAM (adding effects to the webcam) and a trial of TrendMicro AntiVirus. There might of been more that I forgot because I uninstalled most of them as soon as the device booted up.

Interestingly it also has a built in OS that you can quickly boot into by pushing the button next to the WiFi button. Good for quickly checking something on the internet.

The Netbook as a whole is very solid. The Keyboard is a little cramped but not bad seeing as it is a 11" screen. The backlight is very bright and crisp. The tracpad is a little over sensitive out of the box for my liking and the uni-button on the tracpad takes time getting used to.

The webcam is the usual low quality webcam but has a physical switch that blocks the camera and also a digital zoom button along with a on light for the paranoid.

Under the tracpad there is a on light, charging light, HDD light, WiFi light, and a caps lock light.

It has a app for sending media over WiFi to other devices but I don't have a device that supports it to test it out on.

Summery:

Good Excelent battery life (5+ hours of actual use), Decent keyboard, great performance for the price, built in operating system

Bad Amount of bloatware

Weird Partitioning of HDD.

I will update this review is anything breaks or goes wrong.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS 1225B-SU17-BK 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

I wanted hardware that was this small cheap and packed. I needed high specs like 4Gig ram and decent processor. I didn't want to have to pay for windows since it gets flushed when I get it anyway but the general public hasn't accepted that M$ is on its was to being phased out anyway. Other that that all the hardware works great with Ubuntu and my requirements. Free shipping was fast and reliable. First week but running strong and looks slick too. I respect ASUS for kicking my ACER habit. I will be buying ASUS for my work horse Desktop now. I recommend this to anyone looking for a portable mobile with good specs and especially to open source computer nerds who could appreciate this piece of machinery. :D

Want ASUS 1225B-SU17-BK 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Discount?

We got this for my wife to use while we travel, paid a little under $500 with software and a padded sleeve included. It was the only computer we could find that had decent speed & 4 gigs of RAM, was ultra portable that cost less than $800. We could have gotten a tablet but she felt the storage and ports of a real computer would be more useful. It's very compact and is surprisingly fast -with the 1.6 dual-core AMD chip it runs 64-bit Windows 7 no problem. The display screen is nicer (although much smaller) than the one on my $1100 Thinkpad. I thought the smaller 11.6" screen would bother me but it's not bad at all. It remains to be seen how well it will hold up while traveling throughout SE Asia for months on end, but I'm hopeful.

Save 11% Off

Read More >>

Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop (Silver/Black)

I got mine last week..paid under $1000 from Amazon.

I love this. I am 47 so I need to use my magnifying glasses to view the screen but I expected that. The touch is very responsive. I have no trouble clicking links in internet explorer or scrolling by swiping the screen. The keyboard is pretty responsive although you have to be in a different position directly over the keys..unlike a 3d keyboard where you type more at an angle.

I did buy a stylus but havent needed to use it. I bought one of those tiny usb mouses and that has really helped to speed navigation. I have perfected a combo of the mouse the keyboard and touch that makes this device a productivity whiz.

The screen is amazing. the processor very speedy. Programs download and install quickly. Web surfing is fast.

As far as the dual screen, it is nice to open windows and split them. I have used the accelerometer when I have enarged windows using the pinch technique too large to view a whole window.. turning the device lets me see the bottom or viewing the page over the two windows does also. One tip maximizing with the keyboard open..the page goes under the keyboard so close it to see it! I didnt realize this right away.

Yes the fan is louder than expected but it is not on all the time and sounds almost like light static mroe than a fan.

If you are used to using an ipod touch you will love using windows in the same manner. If you are looking for a mini laptop this isnt really how it functions.

Bravo toshiba..this is the future of mobile computing!

Update Oct 6,2010.

Now that I have had a chance to play with this thing I absolutely love it! My favorite thing is reading kindle books..in full screen.. i open it like a tablet and it divides the page into an upper and lower screen. I find my reading is much more focused because I am not scanning an entire page..the hinge makes a great partition for brain concentration. It surfs the web amazingly fast.. I have grown to love Toshiba's bulletin board which I thought was hokey at first. Now that I am used to the finger mechanics i rarely use the usb mouse.

I took this to the car dealer today during my service and the car was done too fast lol! Much better than my ipo touch.. i just wish windows gadgets were more like apple apps. I updated my rating to 5 star!

Who am I?

Ordered it via 2 day shipping, delivered today via UPS next day. It was defective out of the box. Called Toshiba tech support, spoke to Tier 1 (twice) and Tier 2. Toshiba USA DOESN'T support this product and at this time they don't know who will. The dual screen would not work.

Level 1 support gave me a number. It was a toll number and when I called it was "local computer store" in CA. (Did not to post the number to protect the poor store owner)

Called again and got Level 2, he too was not helpful.Said he would get Level 3 to call me. He "spoke to the higher ups in Toshiba" and has no answer or help at this time.

My case may be unique so here is my short summary (Based on 6 hours of use) .

PROS:

1. Looks Cool, great concept, dual screen

2. Small form factor

3. USB Port

4. External battery can be replaced

5. Inbuilt camera

6. Flash compatible.

CONS:

1. No tech support for now

2. Not sure if the defective machine is a software or hardware issue and if it limited to just this one computer.

3. No replacements in stock any where, if you have defective machine.

4. Expensive, for $1300 can get a lot of computer if you can live without the "Dual screen" and form factor

5. Touch screen has no stylus, if you have thick fingers you are out of luck, can't make it work, will keep hitting the wrong icon or text.

6. Noisy fan, (placed in the top screen), runs almost the minute you turn it on.

7. Speakers have a very weak output.

COMPARISON TO OTHER MACHINES

None to do so. Small form factor, dual touch screen. It would be a stretch to compare to iPad, but the iPad is cheaper, easy to use and in stock every where, but it has no dual screen, limited os, no USB, No flash

SUMMARY: I think I am going to return it to Amazon, defective product. Would suggest that buyers hold off this laptop. Save your money and buy something else.

UPDATE:

Trying to restore the device to make it work. No help from Tech Support.

UPDATE 2:

Toshiba has a utility that restores the device to the "out of box state"

Went ahead and did it as a last resort and finally after about a 15 minute process the the OS was reinstalled and that finally made the dual screen work.

Have now used it and seems to be working fine and have decided to hold on to it, and changed the rating to 2 stars.

Still no support from Toshiba. (They took down my numbers and never called me, apparently this is how Level 3 responds to you).

So for now NO SUPPORT.

In case somebody need's it like I did, here are steps: (are also in the manual). Prior to doing this please back up any info.

A)Turn off the computer.

B) Ensure that the power cord is plugged in

C) While holding down the Keyboard button (left side if the bottom screen, when using as a standard laptop configuration), turn on the computer.

D) Will turn on as a safe mode type screen.

E) Choose restore and then restore out of box and will ask that confirmation twice.

F) Need to choose "out of box restore"

The whole process will take about 15 min, is faster due to the SSD drive. It worked for me.

Buy Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop (Silver/Black) Now

The Toshiba Libretto W100 (the W100 is the Japanese version with a WiMax radio and the W105 is the practically the same hardware sans WiMax sold in the US) is most exotic computer form factor to be released in years, Toshiba after all branded it a "concept" device. Whatever it is called or compared to (Nintendo DS, Courier, iPad) the W100 is a mix of the tried and true spiced with uniqueness while delivering a compelling product. For most people it is probably too expensive but there isn't any other device on the market this size that has this level of functionality, in essence it is a pound and a half miniature laptop with virtual input devices.

Build & Design

The most striking characteristic of the W100 is unquestionably its two 7" 1024x600 touchscreens housed in a diminutive clamshell package measuring 7.95" x 4.84" x 1.2", weighing 1.55 lbs. with the 4 cell battery and about 1.8 lbs. with the 8 cell power source. It's much smaller and lighter than the average 10" netbook and it'll easily fit in a woman's purse and even fits in some of my pants pockets. After reading other comments about the new Libretto I don't think enough emphasis is put on just how small and portable it truly is, arguably the coolest things about this device.

One design aspect to note is that the CPU and motherboard comprise the top of the unit, the reverse of practically all other clamshell computers. As a result the top does get warm, not scalding but not comfortable to hold for long periods of time especially if the unit is running hard. This issue is part of the reason why I don't think the Libretto's portrait mode is particularly useful, and the fact that the portrait orientation of 600x1024 simply doesn't work well for many things as the horizontal width is simply too narrow. I've read a lot of discussion about fan noise and while the fan is audible much of the time almost any amount of ambient sound will practically drown it out and when it's on my beside table it doesn't keep me awake at night while on. It's definitely a matter of individuality but the fan noise hasn't in any way impacted where or the way I use the W100.

Screen(s)

The W100's screens are centerpiece of the device since there's literally nothing else and they do the job well. They are based on Toshiba's TrueBright technology and have good brightness, color accuracy, viewing angles and text is laser sharp. In standard clamshell laptop mode the bottom screen can appear a little dark compared to the top screen but fortunately screen brightness can be set independently for each screen so it's possible to make the bottom screen brighter than the top and thus evening out the brightness. The screens are glossy so the W100 isn't good for outdoor use but it works as well as any laptop in shade.

Keyboard & Mouse

The virtual keyboard and mouse are most impressive and are controlled manually via the button on the left of the bottom screen; press it once to toggle the keyboard and quickly twice to toggle the mouse. Both work on either screen even simultaneously and they provide haptic feedback on both screens as well. The keyboard has six different layouts that allows it to be configured for optimum size and features based on the task at hand. I find typing on this keyboard MUCH better than any other touch screen keyboard I've tried and even with pretty big hands (I wear extra-large men's gloves) I can get 40+ WPM out of it. I typed this review on it and while it's not something I'd do normally writing large amounts of text on this device is practical if not entirely efficient but it's awesome for on the go and walking around typing.

The virtual track pad while virtual is very much like any physical track pad found in netbooks and laptops, many are just smooth surfaces these days anyway. Ironically the W100's track pad isn't multi-touch enabled and it is not quite as effective as the keyboard but it helps immensely by adding increased precision and comes in particularly handy in situations where apps are a little difficult to work with in Windows 7 given the small screens, the old argument that Windows doesn't work well on small screen devices is largely mitigated by the track pad.

Ports and Integrated Hardware

There aren't a lot expansion ports or integrated hardware in the W100 understandably but the necessities are here, one USB 2.0 port, a micro-SD slot, one 3.5mm headphone jack, two internal microphones and a decent one megapixel web cam good for video calls and conferencing. Perhaps the biggest thing not here is a video output but it should be possible to hook up an external monitor or projector via the USB port.

Performance

For a device of this size and the less than mighty 1.2 Ghz U5400 Pentium Ultra-Low Voltage processor and on-chip Intel HD graphics the W100 is rather speedy. The performance overall equals a modern entry level laptop and is much better than the typical Atom-based netbook. The 62GB SSD helps to boost disk I/O tasks significantly in many cases and as a result the Libretto boots, shuts down and goes in and comes out of sleep quickly. My informal tests show the W100 cold booting and becoming responsive in about 40 seconds and that's with a few startup apps loading. I've been running Office 2010 for the last three weeks, primarily Word, Excel and OneNote with zero performance issues.

Entertainment

The W100's strengths are geared towards productivity but it's not just all work, it serves well as a media player imbued with all the power of Windows so just about anything you could want in the world of media will be possible. I found 1080P playback to be spotty but everything 720P and below played well, including regular DVDs using an external DVD drive. And while the W100 doesn't afford the ability to play the latest high-end blockbuster PC games there are thousands of casual and Flash games that will work great including the touchscreen classic Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ). You may have to disable one of the screens however as in the case of PvZ, I'd recommend turning off the top as the bottom stays cooler and that's now easily accomplished in Windows 7 using the Win+P keys. The internal speaker is VERY weak however, even in a quiet room there's just not much volume coming from it so for most media playback headphones will be needed.

For the avid reader, Windows supports all of the major eBook sources including Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook which both have basic touch support in Windows 7 and will sync up and share content with other reading devices such as standalone Kindles and Nooks. None of the readers I've tried work well in portrait mode as they are not dual screen aware but they do work well in landscape mode using both screens. Any type of document that breaks naturally like a web page should work fine spanning both screens.

The W100 really shines as a mobile web browser especially if you have the Japanese W100 with a WiMax radio. Any browser, any plug in (Flash, Silverlight, etc.) and at PC speeds compared to mobile device speeds. A nice development in the browser world is the inclusion of Windows 7 features in Firefox 4 including multi-touch.

Productivity

The W100 runs Windows so its uses as a productivity tool are limited only by imagination and I won't go into much detail but it's all here, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc., any application that will run well on an entry level laptop with Intel integrated graphics. If you find working on a netbook (a very fast netbook) a productive experience then the W100 should work as well as long as the virtual input devices agree with you and of course there's always Bluetooth keyboard and mice.

Wireless

The W100 includes both a WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR radio but the W100 proper, the Japanese version includes a WiMax radio. If you're lucky to live in a 4G area like me and have a W100 you'll at least want to try it out, it's amazing how much faster Sprint's 4G compared to Verizon's 3G which I have had on my Tablet PCs for four years. 4G coupled with the Libretto's portability make it a fantastic device for mobile web browsing and other on the go network action. If you have a good signal you may find WiMax preferable to WiFi because it can often be faster.

Conclusion

If the Libretto W100 were in the $500 to $700 range I don't believe Toshiba would be able to make enough of them, it's unique design and its full Windows 7 OS put a lot functionality in a little package. At its current price it's hard to recommend and it certainly won't win any value product awards but its FAR more than an overpriced toy, it's a full function computer that can go anywhere and do most anything. If the battery life isn't an issue for you there's simply nothing currently that will match the W100's mobile productivity.

I love this device and I can't put it down.

Cons

Mediocre battery life

Doesn't work well in portrait mode

Fan noise will bother some

VERY weak internal speaker

Pros

Great overall performance

Good virtual keyboard and track pad

Exceptionally mobile

Integrated 4G provides fantastic network speeds for great on the go web browsing and streaming video

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop (Silver/Black) Here

This is an amazing item, i'm glad i didnt get anything defective. Mt libretto runs amazingly, the features are magnificent, and i love the sleek style of it!

I noticed they go for way more on here though....

I typically buy everything on amazon because i can find it cheaper, but this product turned out to be the opposite.

Toshiba's website sells this products for only 1,099.99 where as on here its going for 1,699.99.

Want Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop (Silver/Black) Discount?

Look I'm not going to sit here and say the Libretto isn't flawless because it is. But what device isn't? They all have issues it is up to you to decide if you can deal with it or not. Clearly the Libretto is pricey and not everyone will be able to justify purchasing it and that's fine you have no arguments from me that is totally understandable.

The biggest complaint I have seen people talking about is the noise the fan makes. It is loud you can't dismiss that but me personally it doesn't bother me. The funny thing is my computer fan makes more noise and irritates me more compared to what the fan on the Libretto does. Unless you have super sensitive ears I don't think you will notice it much though unless you are in a super quiet room in my opinion maybe other Libretto's are different and thus it is hard to judge for sure just how loud the fan noise is.

The battery life is clearly a concern as well but I'm not sure what else they could have done to make it better. I think with technology as it is today and the punch they put in this little portable computer they did a fine job doing so. I'm sure as other models are developed they will learn and be able to do more but this is the result of a first run model.

The internal speaker is weak no doubt about that but it's made to be a portable device so just use some headphones and you should have no problems.

I also can see how people may have issues with Windows 7 and being a touchscreen yes it can be a struggle at first navigating the "start" menu and what not but I think the more you use it the better you will get it doesn't happen overnight just play around with it and learn to adjust to it.

Read More >>

Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

Great things about the Satelite:

+ 16" wide screen display it's beautiful

+ Fast, starts up in a couple of seconds and no waiting on your apps

+ Huge 500GB hard drive.

+ Windows 7, I wasn't expecting much, but no problems, runs without issues

+ Microsoft Office, installed, free for 60 days

+ Huge high quality speakers, this machine is music and movie ready.

+ Attractive

+ A little heavy but not bad for its size.

+ Toshiba is very reliable

+ Motion detector locks the hard drive in place when it detects the laptop is being jostled around.

Could be better:

> Light above track pad too bright

> Keys are LOUD

> Norton installed and bugs you about paying every time you log on

Overall, this is a great laptop. SOme of the display lights are a little bright and the keypad is noisy. I can forgive that though because this laptop is so fast. I'm never waiting anymore. Windows 7 is proving to be very reliable and easy to use.

Initially, the touch pad was "helping" me and this was really annoying. To turn off some of the trackpad features that do things for you: Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound, under the Devices and Printers section click on Mouse. Another dialog pops up, CLick on the Device Settings tab, then on the Settings button. From there you can set up the touch pad the way you want it.

I upgraded my laptop to a 12 cell battery and that battery lasts about 7 or 8 hours. If you can afford the extra battery, it's worth it. THe 12 cell does take about 2 hours to charge though.

My friends who work in computer repair say they get less Toshibas in the shop than any other brand and highly recommend them.

Buy a large laptop case to carry it in. It will not fit in a standard size case.

Norton is slow and a pain, I uninstalled it and installed Vipre.

Review for the A505-S6004

This laptop looks great out of the box and you will be pleasantly surprised by the speed at which windows 7 boots initially. The screen is properly bright and the speakers do a wonderful job for the size that they are. It is not until you start to use it that you will notice the inherent drawbacks that its beauty hides.

First thing you will notice is that this thing attracts fingerprints so quickly its not funny. Just typing this review alone and I am sure the police will get a full set of prints if they needed it. :)

The next problem i noticed while on msn live messenger. As soon as you start up your webcam, you can see where they saved money in putting this thing together. Its aesthetically pleasing to have a webcam that is built "flush" into the lid but they threw all the functionality of it right out the window. I'm not exaggerating here....THE WEBCAM IS THAT BAD; it has so much noise and no colour correctness AT ALL. You will appear like a Vampire to the person who is receiving your webcam feed. My girlfriend has one of the L505D models from toshiba which is cheaper than this model but the webcam in her's is at least 3 times better.

What this model lacks in webcam clarity and resistance to finger prints it makes up for with Battery life. Switching this thing to "eco" mode takes off the LEDs lighting the touch sensitive media control buttons and the "SATELLITE" logo, and also dims the backlight on the screen. In this mode it will achieve roughly 3 1/2 hrs battery life, give or take a couple of minutes depending on the work your doing. The L505D can barely manage past 2 1/2 hrs on battery.

In short

THE Pros:

+ Good Battery Life

+ Good Sound

+ Great Value for the money

+ Bright Glossy Display (its a Pro for me)

+ Piano Black Fusion Finish Looks great

+ 500GB Hard drive (only 426 free initially; that's still alot)

THE Cons:

Bad Webcam (don't even think about this machine for "Social Notworking")

Finger Print Magnet (Piano black finish just shows up every little finger print or scratch)

Buy Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Now

Just picked this up at Best Buy for $679 and got to say my only complaint is that the keyboard is a little too loud and the touch-pad is deafening, but an easy feature on the bottom of the keyboard can disable the touch-pad with a click of a button. No hunting around windows 7 to try and figure out. The webcam is so so, but I never use it so i don't care.

It runs quietly, the i3 processor speed you will notice upon the first boot up and all in all after three days I am very pleased with it.

The battery life is excellent as well and I agree with the other 4 reviews. It is a great computer at now even a better price.

And no warranty for me sir. Biggest waste of money ever to spend anything on an asset that depreciates as fast as a laptop.

4 1/2 stars.

Of course right after my price protection ended this laptop is now on sale for 599. You can't beat that price anywhere for what this computer does.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Here

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6004 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

After several months researching various options available at Amazon.com I decided to stick with Toshiba. A friend of mine had seriously recommended that I should buy an Acer, but the more I researched the more I was impressed with Toshiba, especially in terms of reliability. Since my own experience with Toshiba was so positive once I had decided to stick with the brand I knew, it was a matter of which one. My reason for buying a new one was that I'd had my Toshiba Satellite since 2003 or 2004 -can't remember which and technology had definitely moved on. But that machine is still working, all be it slow.

Well, I have not regretted my decision at all. Many of the negatives reported by other reviews I have found not faults at all. The keyboard, for example is not too loud for me -in fact it is perfect for my touch. One thing that does drive me nuts is the touchpad: when I am surfing it is so sensitive that it keeps scrolling down the page and back up again at what seems like warp speed. (I think somebody in the reviews may have found out how to fix this, so I much look and see if I can find it.)This machine boots up so fast -quite an improvement that the 10 to 15 minutes it took my old machine!

Back to deciding which one to go with. Initially, I planned to go with a 15.6 inch screen -mainly because that was what I was used to and also because there were some really good deals price-wise. However, I couldn't find one in the price range with 4 USB ports and I also wanted an HDMI port. It still amazes me what I can get for around $700 considering I paid $1200 for my old and antiquated machine. The computer looks beautiful, but fingerprints are an annoying problem. Also it's lighter than my old laptop, which is a pleasant surprise.

I've had the machine since April 10th so I am still on a learning curve as how things work and what I can do. But so far it's all worked like magic. I've talked to my son on Skype and he lives in Korea. Some people have complained about the quality of the webcam and my son has told me on one occasion that the picture was not that great and then the next time that it was really clear! My son in Italy said it was great. So what can I tell you -is it the Internet connection or is it the camera. I really like having it and it's worked seamlessly. And it's absolutely true that the wireless connection works right out of the box. I often download tv programs that I've missed and the quality of the picture is as if watching the tv. I should add that I'm American and had the machine delivered to my mother's, but I live in the UK and have been using it here since the end of April. No problems have arisen as a result of being in a different country.

I am going to have to replace a lot of software, which is an expensive negative. I've used Microsoft Office Professional 2000 for years and Adobe 5 and Paint Shop Pro 9 -all will have to be replaced. However, I am experimenting with Open Office software which is free and so far has been great. Having said that I am using the trial version of Office Professional 2007 mostly because I really needed Outlook. So the question is will I just buy Outlook and go with Open Office.

I do like Windows 7, the software that comes with the computer has been adequate so far. I use the movie maker software a lot and was pleased that it could improve the quality of some of my little homemade videos -the kind you can make with either a cell phone or digital camera. Also a nice little scanning/faxing program that has made it very easy for me to scan and email. I was able to make a DVD of some photographs for my husband, but was not able to figure out how to find/use the lable/flash program that I thought was part of the package -the one that is supposed to print directly onto the disc.

Glad to say my old 2179 HP printer was no problem to install and works perfectly. I was sure I would have to get a new one so that was a nice surprise.

All in all, with 6 weeks ownership in hand I am thrilled with this laptop.

Want Toshiba Satellite A505D-S6008 TruBrite 16.0-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Discount?

Just got it and love it..First time user of Toshiba and its great. Always bought dell with their small hard drives and dumb graphics. I turned to Toshiba mainly because it was a bigger hard drive. I got 640GB and 4GB ram. I didn't even know the keyboard lights up. Its great. The mini touch screen music buttons comes in handy too. I love Windows 7. Another well done job Microsoft. Well the camera is not so good but what the heck.. You dont need it buy an external web cam. Shuts down fast and boots up fast to. Toshiba face recognition is great.

Read More >>

Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)

Some of the other reviewers here have had issues with Dell products in the past, as have I from time to time; however, you can't deny you are getting decent hardware for the money. If I were you I'd ignore some of these other reviews which clearly have not actually tried this exact Inspiron model as it was first released in October of 2012 and they are talking like they've had it for a year and a half! I've owned Inspirons in the past and plan on them lasting me 3-4 years. That's exactly what you should expect out of any inexpensive laptop. I bought this particular model because I wanted the new Ivy Bridge processor and SSD included with this model. So far, it works great!

Purchased this for my husband for christmas! He loves it except has to get used to using WIndows 8 !

Buy Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver) Now

Pros: Hybrid drive is well optimized.

The lower end processor actually saves quite a bit of power. Computer lasts 6 hours without a charge.

Quality frame

This is a great computer between home/work

Cons: Most issues with this computer is Win8. Just remove that puppy and put win7 on it. If you prefer to use Win8, I suggest downloading Pokki. It will alleviate the tears at night that you will have from the new start menu.

Read Best Reviews of Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver) Here

If you look around, then you'll see that this is a good overall buy for the money. I've had no problem with Dell laptops in the past and the same is true of this one.

Want Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver) Discount?

Me parece un excelente computadora de las mejores portatiles que he tenido, sería bueno incluir el paquete de Office para no tener que comprarlo por separado, por lo demás estoy satisfecho

Save 28% Off

Read More >>

ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver)

It took me a long time to find a laptop that met all of my criterion; good battery life, screen smaller than 14", discrete video, no optical drive, small form factor, but the U31SD fits the bill. The only other laptop that comes close that I can find is the Macbook Air, but until that gets refreshed, you are spending hundreds more on a laptop that is still using a core2duo, albeit in a much smaller case. Under light use I have easily hit 10 hrs of battery, and have even come close to five with intermittent gaming. I replaced the stock hard drive with an intel ssd, so it screams through boot-up and most applications. Despite somewhat negative reviews on Notebookcheck, the GT 520m has had no problem playing one or two year old games such as Left4Dead2 and Burnout Paradise at the native resolution with medium detail. The only knock against this laptop thus far is the case which, while by no means bad, is not as sleek as an 800 dollar laptop could be--the aluminum plates are just tacked on to a plastic body and have a rough edge in some areas. Also, Asus' naming scheme is a nightmare, and navigating their laptop section if you don't know the exact model you are looking for is laughably bad. Otherwise, a great laptop that suits my needs perfectly.

I spent around two or three weeks searching for specs and reading reviews in order to find a perfect laptop. My very first laptop was a Acer Extensa 5220 with Vista and only 2 GBs of RAM a nightmare in terms of portability and a terrible performer. So I really needed something I could rely on. In particular I was looking for a laptop ...

* that was portable (~ 2 kg).

* that was silent and cool.

* with a second generation i3 processor (for efficiency and power savings).

* with a discrete graphics card so I could run some of the newer games at least at medium settings.

* with a good looking case.

* ... with a great battery life! (7 hours or more)

Overall I have been very pleased. I found what I was looking for and maybe because I had an extremely crappy laptop I am more pleased than I should be, but for my needs it has been perfect. I have been especially happy with the battery life. It's really nice to have that kind of mobility, and it charges quite fast (expect 2½ hours to fully charge). It performs well enough though I haven't played any games newer than BF2 and Medieval 2.

The reason I give it 4 out of 5 is that it doesn't have a USB 3.0 port (though I understand the XA-1 has 3.0, but it's not available Denmark, yet) and the keyboard while excellent for typing shorter messages and navigating the system, fails utterly to support genuine typing comfortability. This has mostly to do with the vague-but-okay feedback, the slight flex in the keyboard and the sometimes associated strenuousness of typing input. Expect an error rate beyond average. It's not horrible, but I know could be much better and this is (the) one area where my previous vacuum cleaner... erh, laptop actually did a good job.

In all other respects it's just a really nice laptop. In retrospect I might have preferred to get the U36SD to get USB 3.0 and a slightly more powerful machine, but that would have meant another $200 or so.

Buy ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver) Now

I purchased this as a lightweight alternative to my current notebook. The battery life is 7+ hours consistently, and that is while watching video, or doing 3d modeling with in Maya or Max.

The GPU performance is on par with what you'd expect. It's an entry level card, but manages to handle all of my modeling needs. It plays games well too, but don't expect to have max settings on titles like BFBC2, or Mass Effect 2.

Overall, I'd highly recommend it if you are looking for a lightweight, powerful machine.

Read Best Reviews of ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver) Here

Ever since I got this laptop I've been having so much problems with it. I really enjoy the lightness of this 13.3" Asus laptop but every time I turn it on, the screen flickers. The speakers are really bad because It lets out this really loud high pitch noise. In order to stop the noise, I have to keep shifting my laptop and the screen. If it really doesn't stop then I have to mute my laptop. Also, the speakers would often echo. I bought it four months ago and I was hoping for these problems to stop but it ended up getting worst. The quality of this laptop is not worth the price.

Want ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver) Discount?

I wanted a good (I mean, with good specs), Light and with a long battery life. This babe has everything. It`s well worth it, I use it at college at all times and it`s even lighter than most of my books that I need to carry.

Save 13% Off

Read More >>

Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop (Silver Grey)

Please let me add another perspective if I may. I set up a dual boot with W8 and Ubuntu 12.10, and this was my experience:

PRO: Keyboard is excellent for typing relative to other laptops.

Build quality is good, not dazzling.

It has horsepower. The price/performance ratio is superb.

It's quiet and light.

W8 is quick and responsive, 'a nice fit with the laptop.

CON: Battery life is under three hours.

********UBUNTU Installation:********

1. Beginner level One can easily replace W8 with Ubuntu doing a USB install. Everything except the screen brightness control works right out of the box.

2. Intermediate level You can do a standard dual boot install but will have to change back and forth between W8 and Ubuntu each time by going to the BIOS and selecting the respective boot loaders. Google to find how to add a line that will let you adjust the brightness.

3. Advanced level To completely solve the brightness issue, upgrade to the Linux 3.7 kernel. (It takes 5 minutes, 'simple instructions using a script. Google it for instructions.) You can also get the dual boot to work well by working with grub a little.

Bottom line: this is a relatively powerful product at a very good price. W8 and Ubuntu both work well on it. Don't expect an ultrabook and do expect to play with it a little to set it up like you want.

'Enjoy.

Structural build quality: Poor. The design of the system is quite portable; its as thin as most other ultrabooks, and feels like the perfect size for a 14" laptop. However, it lacks the structural integrity of more expensive ultrabooks. The entire body is very poor quality plastic, not comparable to even the lowest-end Thinkpads like the x120. The hinges scare me quite a bit; it has a good opening and closing action, but they just don't feel secure.

IO: Good. The keyboard is very nice, easily the best feature of the product. Full size and great key placement (I compare this to the x120, which switches the position of the CTRL and FN keys; not good). One minor key on mine tends to stick down every once in a while. The mousepad is okay. Its very spacious, but lacks distinct physical buttons, instead opting for the full pad clicking action found on other models. The selection of ports is great; the addition of an ethernet port is a very welcome addition considering how few ultrabooks have one these days. The machine also has a very small physical button on the left of the machine which will cause it to boot straight into the BIOS/boot menu; a *very* cool feature for those who tinker a lot.

Screen: Average. The resolution is mediocre, at 720p. Brightness is not overly impressive. The brightness keys have the capability of turning the screen off, like MacBooks, a feature I quite like. Every once in a while my screen will "flash". I have not been able to conclude if its a hardware problem or a problem with Ubuntu, but it is so rare that I haven't had the opportunity to see it but out of the corner of my eye.

Battery: Ten lightyears beyond abysmal. In Windows 8, I was averaging around 2 hours. When I installed Ubuntu, that number dropped to 1 hour 10 minutes average. This is on medium brightness, and very low load levels. I could squeeze out another 20 minutes if I disable WiFi. The battery is exposed and user replaceable; another welcome feature compared to other ultrabooks. However, I can't find *anyone* that sells a replacement, let alone a unit with upgraded capacity. Not even Lenovo; the S405 is not even listed on their available model list, with the closest model being the incompatible S300.

Performance: Average. Again, for the price, I was pleasantly surprised. Day-to-day usage, such as internet browsing, is perfectly fast. I was capable of loading World of Warcraft on the machine, and managed to log between 20-35 FPS on low/medium settings. Boot time is acceptable on both Windows 8 and Ubuntu. For those who care: The Ubuntu install process was very painless, with no EFI or driver problems to report.

Overall: Do not buy. I was able to obtain this machine during a sale for much less than what it is currently priced. However, even at that lower price, I cannot recommend this machine. I have not experienced any of the unique issues which plague some other users on Amazon, so my experience and conclusion was formed with a fully operational unit. Even then, I would be scared to recommend it even at half its current price. Purchase with caution.

Buy Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop (Silver Grey) Now

This is by no means a fancy Apple product or similar. It's a very basic (for 2013) laptop that will serve the average laptop user's needs perfectly.

It's lightweight, the sound system is excellent (note there appear to be speakers underneath laptop. Can still hear very well), and the design is very sleek and attractive. In fact it looks so much like my roommates MacBook that I occasionally confuse the two, until I pick hers up and realize it's so much heavier.

I primarily use my computers for basic Internet stuff, as well as watching Netflix, Hulu, etc. The screen resolution (that's the right word, right?) is perfectly adequate and a darn sight better than my last laptop (4 years old now). I am sure you could get something better on a pricier computer, but everything is still clear, crisp, and very watchable. There's very little issue with images becoming too dark when you tilt the screen slightly, which is nice because you don't constantly have to adjust either your angle or the laptop's.

The ergonomic keyboard actually does help with my carpal tunnel in that I don't notice an increase in pain level after hours of use. The Intelligent Touchpad is decent. I know it has to walk the line on touch sensitivity, so I can't fault it too much for not always responding when I "tap" to get it to click on a link etc.

The battery life is fine. I've not tested it to full potential yet but I've gone a good 3+ hours watching Netflix/Hulu on it without it needing to be charged. It does, however, eat up battery if you just close it and leave it unplugged. You have to put it on Sleep if you don't want to wake up the next morning and have less than an hour of battery left.

Windows 8 took a bit of getting used to and frankly I'm still not convinced I like it. Not the laptop's fault.

I wouldn't recommend this laptop for anything outside of the basic stuff. If you need a laptop to play games, to install a lot of programs, and whatever else people do on computers these days (I'm far too young to sound this old), then move on up the line and spend the money to get what you need.

I got this on sale when I just really needed to replace my old (and nearly dead) Dell. I am happy with it. It does what I need it to do, while also being light, attractive, and easy to transport.

Read Best Reviews of Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop (Silver Grey) Here

Directly out of the shipping box I received the following message "Unable to install windows, please restart your installation. . .," but this was easier said than done, due to no onboard DVD drive, much less a Windows installation disk or product key. To Lenovo's credit, however, I was able to quickly reach a live technician via their support number, who steered me to a "hard reset" button just beside the power button but on the side of the case. This commenced a relatively problem free Windows 8 installation. This was the 3rd one I had done on three different laptops. It apparently restored from files stored (along with drivers, digital manual, etc) under a hard drive partition marked "Lenovo." The next problem was inability to link to WiFi due to an IP configuration error. Lenovo tech support did not do so well this time, promising me a call back Christmas Eve morning, which has not been received roughly 36 hours later. Luckily, however, the next WiFi site I tried (with an ATT U-verse rather than a cable modem) connected just fine. The machine worked well, once I figured out how to disable the silly Windows 8 "Tile" startup screen and get back to a classic style windows desktop. The only remaining problem as I am writing this is that the onboard webcam is not being recognized, no luck in re=installing the drivers. The machine gives an error message regarding an "unrecognized USB device, which I am guessing is the camera. More to follow as this situation unfolds. Despite all this, I actually like the machine, since it is both light but big enough to have a 14 inch screen and boots very quickly.

UPDATE: Factory repair replaced the motherboard and it worked great, but this was way more work than a brand new machine out of the box should require. I am still also curious whether or not this is a quad core chip, as advertised.

Want Lenovo S405 14.0-Inch Laptop (Silver Grey) Discount?

Pros: Great Price ($329!), Solid Construction / No Flex Keyboard, Handy OneKey Lenovo Rescue System, Surprisingly Peppy A6/HD 7500g Processors, .83in Thick & Looks Great.

Cons: No VGA port (HDMI), Battery Life.

Summary:

I bought this laptop primarily for running accounting and desk top publishing software....to work on the go and to start getting used to Windows 8.

Although I was already familiar with this AMD chip series, I was surprised at how well the peppy A6 handled the programs I through at it. I even went as far to install MW3 on it just to see how it would handle games. MW3 looks and plays great without hick-ups or stuttering. I didn't buy it for gaming but it's nice to know it can handle a graphic intense game like MW3 if you want it to.

It doesn't have an optical drive but at this weight and thickness, you wouldn't expect it to. And although you can't call it an Ultrabook since it's powered by AMD and running an old school hard drive, it looks and in many cases performs better than many Ultrabooks.

Many users have complained about the battery life and certainly, it's not very good. But keep in mind Windows 8 is a pretty big power draw since it's constantly pulling data to keep your Start screen populated. Toss it in airplane mode and adjust the screen brightness and you'll see a noticeable increase in battery life. Or go even further and slow down the processor when you don't need it at full performance.

My only real complaint is that it's missing a VGA port so I'll need to pick up an HDMI to VGA converter to use any of the monitors I currently have.

Bottom Line: At around $329 it'll make most people very happy.

Save 17% Off

Read More >>