HP Pavilion dm4-2180us Entertainment PC - Gray

I love this computer. Absolutely head-over-heels love it. It's compact and light enough for me to carry to and from class without breaking my back (can't say this of my old, 7-lb Dell!). They keyboard feels WONDERFUL. Construction feels solid. Beautiful design. Really amazing specssame hardware as a MacBook Pro!for half the price. The trackpad is a tad finicky, but I've adjusted the settings so it works for me. It'll take a tiny bit of getting used to, but there's an adjustment period with any new computer. I'm super happy with my purchase, and with the SquareTrade warranty I bought with the computer, I see us having a long, happy life together!

EDIT: I just realized that the keyboard on this computer has a strange hill in the center, like it's being squeezed or something. It doesn't interfere with typing at all, but a brand new computer shouldn't have this kind of defect. What's more, when researching this computer, this was one of the things someone cited as a flaw in a review on another website, so I guess it happens fairly frequently. I didn't mention in the first draft of my review that this is my second of this model of computer; I bought the first one at Staple's a couple of weeks ago and had to return it because it had a faulty "W" key and a really jumpy track pad. I've noticed that this track pad is kind of inconsistent, and maybe more finicky than I previously thought. These design flaws have me considering returning the machine, but you just can't find this kind of hardware and gorgeous design for the same price point. Maybe I'll just get another one... third time's a charm, right?

If you type reasonbly fast (i.e. 45wpm or above), you want to think twice before you buy any HP DM4-xxxx series of Pavilion laptop.

I had a HP DM4-2070us and it skip letters like crazy after 3 months. Every 5-6 keystrokes you type will have one keystroke that is missed, that is, even though you did type that key, it will not appear on the screen. Or, you would hit the space bar or the Backspace key and it will not respond.

I had to call and deal with HP Technical Support. They wasted my time trying out all kinds of stuff: Windows system restore point, uninstall and re-install keyboard drivers, full system recovery (that's a fancy term for re-formatting your whole hard disc), etc., etc. All these attempts failed to fix the problem.

After struggling with all these for over two weeks, I have to ship it back to HP Warranty Repair Center and that took two weeks back and forth. During those two weeks I was out without a laptop to do my work. The Warranty Repair Center replaced the keyboard and ship it back to me. Unfortunately, that does not fix the problem. HP is kind enough to replace it with HP DM4-2180us but the whole process took another 7 days. I would be happy if that solve the probelm. Unfortunately, when I get the brand new HP DM4-2180us, it has exactly the same problem -as soon as you type fast (over 45 wpm), the problem is obvious.

I am not the only one with this problem. Use the two links below to take you to the HP Support Forum website and you will see different people with DM4-1165DX, DM4-1127 sb, DM4-2015dx, DM4-2070us and most recently, DM4-2180us having the same problem:

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I spent a long time researching computers and this one fit the bill in terms of functionality and price point. I really like almost everything about this machine its cool, quiet (even with the fan running), and fast. I did uninstall a little bloatware when it first arrived, but that was easy and quick. The only issue i'm having is with the keyboard. It is very stiff and significantly slows down my typing speed because I have to hit all of the letters very hard to make sure they all come up on the screen. The shift key in particular is hard to use to the point of severe frustration. Nobody else seems to have this issue, so it may just be my machine.

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I was looking for a computer to replace my 4 year old Dell laptop, and came across this HP in consumer reports. It was recommended by them, so I figured it must be a good one. And it certainly is!!! I have always had Dell laptops, but I thought it would be a good time to try HP and I'm really glad I did. It has wonderful features, and Windows 7 is amazing. I don't do any sort of gaming or anything like that, so I can't speak to the graphics or processor capabilities. I do however, normally have many internet and excel windows open at once, and it has yet to skip a beat. It never hesitates. This is an excellent computer, and I highly recommend it.

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I was very hopeful getting a laptop, having been used to desk top computers for business and home. I must say, that I agree with the reviewer that if you type more than 40wpm or so, the keyboard inputs aren't always correct. The "shift" button seems to me to be too low and to the right and I always end up hitting the "enter" key, changing the paragraph. When I consciously type slow, as when I force myself to look at the keyboard, it's ok. Worse yet, when I type an email, the message often times gets deleted mid-sentence. I'm not sure what key does this all the time, but it's annoying because I have to retype a message, sometimes multiple times, to get it through. I love the computer in every other respect and find the display to be crisp and the navigation and speed excellent. But the small keyboard introduces many mis-keys and errors typing. To me,it seems like a desk version of an ipad. Is it a sub-notebook? I don't know...it's not advertised as such. But for all but the most ardent believers of everything small, this notebook computer should be skipped for one with a full-size keyboard.

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ASUS K50IJ-BNC5 Intel Pentium Dual Core 15.6-Inch HD LED Laptop - Black

I could not be happier with this. It came in the box with all of the plastic wrapping and looked brand new, not like a refurb to me. The backlit keyboard is so nice. I don't know why that is so hard to find. Battery life is amazing. Doing email and MSOffice in the car, we drove from an hour north of Sacramento to the Grapevine and I was working on it the entire way.... at least 5 hours and still had not died when we got to a motel.

It's not the fasted chip, but it runs Adobe CS5 and MS Office and quickbooks just fine, so what more do you want? Oh... I am not a gamer, so doubt it would be great for that. But what a deal!

This is not going to be an extensive review. I simply want to make a quick point that this laptop, at the price paid for the refurbished model, is an incredible value. It's plenty fast for those that just want a laptop for work (connecting to Citrix, Terminal Services, web) and personal (web surfing, email, blogging, etc.). I keep the screen brightness at around 20% and it's plenty bright for use indoors at home. With that brightness level and the power options set to "Power saver" with a few tweaks I'm regularly getting 6 hour run-time (as advertised). Even with it set to power saver the laptop still performs really well for my needs, including watching the occasional video (even 1080p). One last note, I really love having a back-lit keyboard, which I keep at the lowest setting. I wish the back-lit keyboard had an even lower brightness setting because the lowest setting is still quite bright for my needs. But I'm still getting 6 hour run-time so I'm not really complaining. I believe all laptops should have back-lit keyboards. I don't understand why it's such a rare option still. So that wraps it up. Not an extensive review, just my thoughts on nearly a week using my new laptop. The biggest concern for me was battery life and this laptop lives up to my expectations. Great job Asus!

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The laptop arrived just as it was promised after a postal mixup or delay, not sure which. So far has been great!

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The computer works but not as fast as a cheap HP. The refurbishing did not add any good features but it added a few bad features. It works but not very well.

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if you are buying this computer to navigate the internet, office use, and light photography editing, then go for it, but if you are going to be playing videogames, and vide editing, please look at other options.

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Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey)

Hardware wise, the ultrabook is sound. But one of the keyboard keys came off.. it went back on easily .. but it was a slight disappointment..

Mostly, id say its Lenovo that was disappointing.

The seller, shipped an item that runs perfectly :D Thanks

PS.

This product has 4 GB of RAM( not 8GB)

This product has 500GB of Diskspace not (1024 GB), there seems to be some problem with the description of this product

Does not have a backlit keyboard.

Is not super light..

Build quality of this laptop is exceptional. Evenly thin and lightweight. Keyboard is comfortable and trackpad worked smoothly. However, wi-fi connections are a problem. At times, the laptop stayed connected for 3-4 hours at a time. Other times, it disconnected after a few minutes and threw fits like that until it finally decided to maintain the connection again for hours.

I feel like this may be an issue with the laptop and potential wireless routers being used. I feel that's a reason why some people continue to have issues with Lenovo models and others don't. Still, for the price, give it a shot. You'll either love it because it works or hate to dislike it because, again, it's such a quality product in every respect but the wi-fi problems.

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The computer works as advertised, but I thought I was specifically ordering Window 7 installed. Instead I received it with Windows 8.

I'm slowly learning to cope with this turkey of an OS, but I'm not happy with Amazon. Friends suggested I return the computer for credit, but I didn't.

Norm

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I purchased this laptop as a Christmas present for one of my family members. I have always been under the impression that Lenovo made really good laptops, and I think that the hardware on this particular model lives up to that reputation. However, the software side is what really disappointed me to no end Not just because of Lenovo, but also Microsoft.

Before I begin, be fore warned that Lenovo put a whole lot of bloat-ware on this machine. Plus there are like 6 different partitions, which is ridiculous. Just to test it out, I tried using the laptop before making any modifications, but it was really slow and clunky to use. Needless to say, it was a mess and would be a burden to use as is. It makes me wonder how many PC users out there ever experience how smooth and fast a stock Windows 8 machine really is when there is absolutely no bloat-ware getting in the way... It's my opinion that these manufacturers ruin the Windows experience and are primarily responsible for the bad rep that Windows gets...

The first thing that I always do when I buy a new laptop or desktop is to wipe the hard drive and re-install Windows (You will need Windows OEM discs to do this). Since this laptop comes with Windows 8 core installed, I had went ahead and purchased an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro because of the low price (which I had downloaded the install disc from MS). So I went ahead and wiped the HD, and proceeded to install Windows 8 pro... Only, I had encountered an error during the installation that prevented me from completing the install. And this is the part that you should pay attention to When Windows 8 comes pre-installed on a laptop, know that THE SOFTWARE KEY IS EMBEDDED IN THE BIOS. Meaning, if you purchase a laptop with Windows 8 core edition, the only way that you can upgrade the laptop to Pro or Ultimate is through the control panel to the "get more features with a new edition of Windows...". Microsoft's reasoning behind this is to make piracy more difficult. To me, as a system builder, it just adds an annoying step. So no more of the good ole' days when you could just simply wipe out a machine and reinstall whatever version of Windows you like on it, as long as you had a valid key.

Honestly, I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this laptop going. Since I had already wiped out everything on the hard drive, I had to purchase the factory discs from Lenovo to reinstall Windows.

And after two sets, neither worked. Lenovo's tech support is awful, and they weren't any help. Plus, they are obviously located in India (which doesn't bother me because they were nice people, but they really had a hard time with English). Despite my aching wallet at this point, I then went ahead and purchased an OEM Windows 8 core disc. With that, I was able to re-install Windows on the laptop (which, because the product key is embedded in the bios, it was never asked for during the install). Once I got a clean install of Windows 8 core up and running, I tried multiple times to use the Windows 8 Pro key that I had previously purchased, within the "add features..." in control panel. Despite my efforts, I was never able to upgrade the version of Windows 8 from core to pro. I spent may hours on the phone with Microsoft, but they were no help. So finally, I just said screw it. At least it has a clean version of Windows 8 installed...

In the end, the laptop now runs a clean, bloat-free version of Windows 8 and has turned out to be a pretty good laptop. The only problem that I have run into now is that the touchpad driver will sometimes just stop working which will require a reboot to get it working correctly again. I will also note that this laptop comes with a 24GB SSD and a standard HD. The SSD is pretty much useless. However, if you want to upgrade the standard HD to a better SSD, you can do so very easily. The bottom cover comes off pretty easily, and there is a video on youtube on how to do so. You can also upgrade the memory easily.

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Toshiba Satellite A105-S101 Notebook PC (Intel® Celeron® M Processor 380 -Mist Gray) 1.6 GHz, 256

I got this to succeed an HP Pavilion AMD Duron ZE series laptop. I got the HP a few years ago after trying a lot of laptops, because I liked the keyboard feel (I typed without looking on many keyboards and the HP had the fewest keyboard-caused typos) and I found the text sharp. Over time I was held back by: 1) the sound never worked without stuttering, 2) even with a memory upgrade, it was very slow running XP SP2, and 3) the screen was hard to read in a brightly lit room. I could fix none of these, even after removing every memory resident program, uninstalling all unnecessary software, and using a professional defrag program. But the laptop otherwise served me well. One thing I learned about laptops: their performance is influenced largely by the rotational speed of the hard drive and the amount of memory you put in.

The Toshiba, which I got on sale, has been a joy. For a budget laptop, it is one of the few I have found with a 5400 rpm hard drive, and that has made a huge difference! I also added more memory (512 should be your minimum, but adding a 1 gig module is advised). Everything works quickly and I have found no little annoying things! The screen is marvelous: huge and bright. Dvd's are gorgeous, especially when using the Dvd player's widescreen mode. The sound is great. 4 high speed USB ports are wonderful, as they fill up quickly! The wireless not only works very well, but has a conveniently located on/off switch, so you can turn it off to save energy, a feature not available on the wireless card I added to the HP. I also like the fact that the Toshiba's only "extra" buttons are dvd-type controls (play, pause, etc.). I find too many extra buttons goofy. The Toshiba is also lighter than the HP and is thinner. I'm amazed.

On the down side, yes they saved money on the battery. I do not have experience of long battery lives on laptops in the past couple of years anyway, so I wasn't surprised. The battery comes out easily if you want to buy an extra. I'm used to taking my a/c adapter everywhere. Yet another pleasant surprise is that the a/c adapter is smaller and lighter than my HP's. Since I take it wherever I take the laptop, this is actually an important feature!

Overall, I'm thrilled. I've read some complaints about other variations of the Satellite line, but I have read of no problems with the A105 series, and this was a very important consideration for me.

This is a nice computer, the low end of A105 series, the only major problem is you better put aside $144(on sale at Toshiba direct)for a 8cel high capacity battery, the one come with it is a 4cel(2000mah) that run for about 1hr to 1hr and 10min on a good day.

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I got this A105-S101 model on sale in January, 2006, and for the price it has been very satisfactory. Excellent for light office/work use and excellent for surfing the net.

However: 1) The DVD player does not function at all on moderately-worn rented DVD's, sound is distorted on lightto medium-used DVD's, and the DVD player is only satisfactory at best with brand new DVD's that have just been opened.

And: 2) All USB ports have ceased to recognize my Memorex M-Flyer

storage device, as well as all other plug-in storage devices. So what do I do now with the 4 USB port's...?!

And all my new documents I need to transfer to my Laptop...?!

Any suggestions...?!

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I am compelled to echo my felow Satellite owner from NV. I got this laptop on sale at Best Buy for $499 with a free RAM upgrade to 512. I needed to replace my 6-year-old Dell Inspiron 7000 that was just getting too clunky and trouble-prone, the main problem being it took a full 15 minutes to start up. Anyway I want to talk about the Satellite not the Inspiron. The 15.1 inch wide screen is deliciously beautiful. I cannot accent this point enough. Fantastic for web surfing, dvd viewing, digital snapshot sharing, Hauppauge USB TV viewing, anything. The sound is also top-rate, excellent stereo separation, which I was surprised to hear on most commercials when I started using my above-mentioned USB TV tuner, which I will review separately (minireview = excellent).

The weight is perfect for carrying around constantly for whatever use you may think of, this laptop is really an all-around jack of all trades.

Only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is the short battery life. One hour seems to ne the limit, grossly short compared to my Dell Inspiron. Of course that is not a reflection on the laptop as much as it is on the battery just get a better one or a spare one.

Also need to warn buyers that what brings the price down markedly is the fact that it only comes (at least mine did) with a 6-monh trial of MS Word, Excel, & PowerPoint, but I solved this problem by backing up my 6-year-old Dell to a 300 gb Seagate external hard drive, and all those apps seem to run on the Satellite off the Seagate drive. Also, Sun has free beta programs that mimmick them.

So if you see this laptop in the $500 range, grab it you won't be sorry.

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Owned mine for a little over a yearbeen in the shop twice, once for the display failing and another time when the hard drive crashed. The "." button requires a sledge hammer to work at this point ( 1 1/2 years after pruchase), luckily I dont use it for other than surfing and simple games.

Runs pretty hot for the most partrecommend getting a cooling station.

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Dell Inspiron I14Z-8339DBK Ci5-2430M 2.4GHz 6GB 640GB DVDR/RW Win7 14" (Black)

I'll list the things I like:

1. A nice full sized keyboard, surprising for a 14" laptop

2. A fast i5 processor, actually faster than my older desktop

3. Great battery life. I usually can use the machine 6-7 hours without recharging

with a combination of surfing, e-mail and spreadsheet use. Not used for video or music

4. Display is sharp and colors are true. I set the view at 90% and still nicely readable

5. Not an ultra. The weight with the battery is about 5.5 pounds, but fits nicely in a bag

and comfortable to carry

6. Touchpad is adequate. I turn off the tap characteristic to keep programs from

inadvertently opening.

7. Price point great. $468 at my doorstep. Was a refurb but in new condition.

8. Usual Amazon service and delivery, a must for me

9. A true laptop. Does not get over 80 degrees on my lap. My previous machine went over 100

degrees

10.Win 7 and older XP programs installed with no problem. Win 7 is nice on this machine

Things I don't like

1. Total dearth of support manuals included. You must sign up with Dell. Forget that

2. Too much bloatware. I uninstalled most all.

3. Sound only adequate, but what do you expect

4. MS Office 2010 a trial version, forget that. I am still using MS Office 2000 and it

runs really well. You can get freeware conversion programs if you need to generate

DOCX documents. I've used both the 2007 and 2010 versions and in my opinion are not

worth the upgrades.

5. Thirty days of McAfee virus protection included. I like Norton and would not be

without Norton Utilities V15.

6. Never have gotten a clean install of the laptop on my home network. Server is Win XP

which is probably the problem. I mapped network drives for the folders I need to

exchange or work with on the desktop

A great value for work-a-day computing. A 640 GB HD, an i5 processor and Win 7. Also great

service from the Amazon seller, Weekly Closeouts.

December 29, 2012

I installed a new wireless hub, a Cisco E3000 and now all my computers are beautifully networked, including the laptop.

The laptop is still humming right along, with no problems so far. Battery life is the best of any laptop I have ever used and I have had several. I HATE, HATE, HATE being tied to a power cord. Since I got the system, I rarely use my tablet.

I picked up a second unit from Weekly Closeouts as a school computer present for a relative

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Toshiba 14" Satellite L645D-S4030 Turion II 4GB 320GB Laptop Notebook Computer PC

to start with...i like toshiba laptops..... my first laptop was exactly like this one but to my despair.... the battery heats up so bad like i have had it for centuries....... thats not a good start.... but toshiba still the best........................ tiya

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Dell Inspiron 14R Laptop - 2nd generation Intel Core i3-2310M processor 2.10 GHz / 6GB DDR3 Memory

This is a very nice laptop at a good price. I bought this one for a friend and He's delited with it. He's a programmer so in Linux works blazing fast. Also in its original OS works great because the amount of RAM and the processor.

Totally recommended for daily use.

This computer was a great purchase. I love the size, design, and speed of this model. The only thing I would change is the keypad, the buttons seem to have a little blur to them if you look closely, but my other Dell had the same keys.

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I bought this laptop for my then girlfriend (now wife) as an everyday use computer, i.e. internet, photos, etc. Well worth the money, and very dependable.

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I have bought Dells for over 20 years. My last Dell laptop has been in use for 12 years without any problems. The Dell before that is still in the house as a backup for 16 years. So when I broke down and bought my 10th grade daughter her first laptop this year for Christmas the choice was not which brand but which Dell. I decided on the 14R because it was on sale with the i3 processor, the 6GB memory and the large harddrive. She opens it up on Christmas morning and it crashed the first three times she turned it on. I guess Dell has replaced the "blue screen of death" with a black screen of death. Check disk errors, can't find the OS, and the charger sent with the unit is not capable of charging the battery to its full capacity. The unit will slow accordingly. SLOWER because the charger won't charge the battery. Seriously? I was able to salvage Christmas by at least getting it running and I replaced the cover with the pink top, but I was pissed that not only had I blown it for Christmas but Dell had let me down, BIG TIME.

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Bought it on a Sunday and the adapter wouldn't charge. To Dell's credit, they sent a tech out the next day who replaced the motherboard and power supply. About the only original part left was the RAM. Dell even game me another 3 months on the warranty as a consolation.

3 days later the adapter went bad again and back to the store it goes.

Now comes the fun part. How can you literally replace nearly all the guts on a computer and it still doesn't work (and the tech flashed the BIOS to the newest level, too)?

Save 7% Off

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Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5336 15.6-Inch Laptop - Black

I don't think you can get this much bang anywhere else for $350. The only downside is both usb ports are on the same side. It can be annoying when you have usb devices with short cords to have to rearrange the work area to accommodate the laptop

Well this is a very cheap laptop ( price related ), ive been faithful to toshiba this is my 3rd laptop, I always sell them and buy new ones... Gotta love the whole keyboard, the design is simple but kind of roughed which is nice( not scratching )... LCD LED is nice widescreen, very fast i already loaded all my files and still running fast, turn on in less than 2 minutes, other pc's take a while to load up all the starters programs... The only thing im not so happy is that it only has 2 usb ports and no HDMI port... before i forget battery life is good, last around 5 hours may be more if you set it up right, it doesnt get hot ( thanks god ) ...

Bottom line if your on a budget toshiba c655 is the way to go, your not going to regret it, if you have a lil more money try the L55 and let me know :) ... toshiba all the way, cant go wrong with them !!!

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This is my second Toshiba Satellite laptop. I bought my first in early 2007, have used it for several hours most days, and it is still going strong. I needed a separate laptop for a new job and this is just perfect. Nice keyboard layout, and I like the starter office program that you really do not have to upgrade if you just want to do simple documents. Nice and lightweight around 5 pounds to take places, good screen resolution. So far, so good. Price is right!

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i purchased it from Amazon.com and the service was excellent,the computer is more than i expected meaning its a great computer

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for all you "kids" that dont know the half of it, great computer, great price. The first laptop i bought cost me 3K....i know, long time ago. For the bargain basement price of $349 i got myself a lean-mean-fightin machine. Love it..if i had kids i could afford to send them all to college with this bad-boy. Suggest step away from google chrome, ram hog. Best thing about this one, upgrade-able to 8g ram, long time before you need to upgrade on the computer itself. throw another g of ram in....lightening speed. go toshiba and amazon

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Dell XPS XPS13-2501sLV 13-Inch Ultrabook

I have updated the USB drivers and I have no problems with this machine.

My wife who owns a Mac Air, commented that she likes the keyboard better than her Mac!

I would certainly recommend this to anyone looking for a laptop replacement or for an alternative to a tablet. I looked at several but felt that needing to add a keyboard for work was a little too much.

The battery life is excellent and after getting used to the Win 8 operating system.

If you need a light, powerful ultrabook, give this a look and good luck finding these with this type of configuration.

Have no issues with this product outside of the 3.0 USB hub not working on the first OR second ultrabooks.

I received this nice machine as ordered opened the box boot up and so far so good. Win 8 is actually a nice system but.... upon connecting a 16G thumb drive to load some data, no prompt from the computer that a device had been connected.

Contacted Dell support. They attempted to fix the software remotely with did not solve the problem.

I was informed that Dell would send a replacement via overnight shipping. This did come as promised.

Attached my USB devices.........nothing.

USB Hub was not functioning.

Have been informed that I will get a full refund which will show up in two billing cycles (?!).

So far, I have no complaints regarding Dell service. Their hardware? Well, I'm sure you know the answer to that. Don't want to go to Apple, but.........

I gave a three star rating because it is a nice machine but with usb connections not working maybe I should give it a lower rating.

After several months it's time to update my review.

I have had the mother board, daughter board and ubs hubs replaced TWICE!

The ubs hub on the left side still does not work and today the hard drive crashed!!

I have followed Dell's instructions, have had 2 service techs try to resolve the issue to no resolution.

I have spent the better part of two hours speaking to Dell support, getting bumped back and forth and told that my machine cannot be replaced even though I have purchased a 1 yr warranty !

I will tell anyone looking at purchasing this computer DON'T DO IT!!!! No wonder this company is falling apart.

I should have purchased an APPLE!!

My rating would be a negative number if it were possible.

I bought a 13" Dell XPS Ultrabook in February (2013) to replace another, older Dell laptop. From the first day there were problems drops internet, active window loses focus, USB ports don't work, etc.

To date, I've spent +20 hours on the phone with Dell support and with technicians who came to the house, first to replace the touchpad, then the motherboard and touchpad (on the first computer). Finally I found someone in corporate and complained enough to get a replacement. Unfortunately, this one is just as bad... and actually has more problems, including: left side USB port doesn't work, requires multiple reboots to actually start, drops internet connection regularly, back lit keyboard ambient sensor issues (active window loses focus).

I would very strongly urge anyone looking at a Dell product to look elsewhere.

I am a small business owner who has bought a lot of computers from Dell, both desktops and laptops and I have never experienced anything as bad as this. I'm done with Dell support and Dell products. Service is a joke and the hardware simply doesn't work as advertised. They are selling half finished products. I will keep trying to use this one and then I'll replace it with a laptop from another company.

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I purchased my XPS13 in December 2012.

THE GOOD. The size is tterrific, the screen is great, the I7 processor is outstanding.

THS BAD. The keyboard is horrible. Do you see all tthe double spaces and duplicate lettters? That's not poor typing skills that's keyboard bouunce. You better have a greatt editor, otherwise what you write is going to look like tthis. The touchpad is unusable. When youu push the right button, it also acttuates the left button, and yyour screen goes nuts for 5 minutes. I had to buuy a USB mouse to use the lapttop at all.

In short, not the best $2000 I've ever spent. Until Dell figures out what's wrong and fixes it, I'd recommend to buy sometthing else.

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This would be an AWESOME laptop if it would boot up. I was super excited to get this on Christmas morning. Turned it on and went through the typical set up. The dell diagnostic software advised that there were several updates that needed to be done so I let it do its thing. The BIOS update finished and said SUCCESSFUL and it rebooted. It hasn't booted up since then. I just get a black screen. No POST. I called Dell and spent 1 hour and 54 minutes on the phone with a tech support person. In the end, he proceeded in trying to convince me that Windows 8 needed to be reloaded and that he would send out a disk. This laptop doesn't have a disk drive. So then he told me that they would replace the motherboard. This is not a good resolution. It's brand new and cost me over $1400. I don't think I want to have anyone tearing into it and replacing parts already. So the tech took my number and said he'd need to speak to a manager and that he would call me back in 1 to 2 hours. I'm still waiting. No call. I realize it's Christmas day but they too should realize that this was a gift and I feel very badly that it isn't working. Kinda spoils the excitement of Christmas.

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I bought this laptop for my brother, and he loves it because it is incredibly fast. It "thinks" faster than he does. =)

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Asus VivoBook S200E-RHI3T73 Notebook PC With 11.6" Touch-Screen Display & Intel® Core™ i3 Process

I actually got this at staples with a coupon for $100 off the sales price.

This notebook looks amazing! The top cover and inside frame are aluminum with the exception of the bottom being a smooth-rubberdized finished. The one that I got (black) have a very subtle brown appearance when coming in contact with bright light. The 11.6" screen have a very glossy finish which makes it very fingerprint prone. Trying to find a screen protector for the s200e is a little tricky, as Asus doesn't have a Buy option on their website (it's there but you can't buy it). Other sellers carry a wide variety of 11.6" screen protector, however I'm looking for one that covers the frame along with a hole for the camera. I came across a company called Kai (from HK)and ordered it to see if it will fit or not (order hasn't come in yet).

I'm not an advance computer person but I do appreciate the 3rd gen intel processor that came with this notebook. The speed is fast, from the time that I turn it on to the time I shut it down. It loads quickly and perform on the same level if not a little faster than the average notebook. I've ordered a crucial m4 128GB ssd to replace the seagate 500gb hdd. Windows 8 runs great with the touchscreen. Scrolling and zooming through websites, apps, news, is effortless easy and fun! Battery life is phenomenal, I get around 4-5 hours before I have to find the charger and plug it in. However, replacing the battery will be a difficult task as it is internal. With networking, I do noticed that the wifi wasn't that great compared to my other dell notebooks. I don't know if it is the wifi chip or windows 8 that I can't connect to one of my main school's network (I had to use the "guest"). Typing on this thing is rather a challenge. It's not that the keyboard is small, but rather the sleekness of the keys itself. They are slippery and my fingers tend to slide pass the keys that I'm aiming for.

Overall, I would recommend getting this notebook if you're looking for a small ultrabook notebook that has touchscreen capability and good overall performance.

For me:

Pros:

+ touchscreen

+ lightweight

+ very high quality build

+ good processor

+ sleek and very attractive

+ HDMI, 1x USB 3.0

+ battery life (~5 hours)

Cons:

wifi signal/chip?

screen/display is too glossy

slippery keys

I just got my Asus Touchscreen laptop today. I didn't even know they had touchscreen laptops until I saw this one at Office Depot. I have to say I love it!! I needed a smaller laptop to take with me for work. The netbooks were TOO small and the other ones were too large. Like the three little bears. HA! Anyway, this one is just right.

It measures EXACTLY 12 inches from the OUTER edges. Although it's very slim in design, it's a tad heavier than you think it would be. The brushed aluminum has a bronze look to it that I really like. It's made extremely well. No issues there. The only thing is the battery life. You COULD get 5 hours if you were just doing word processing. Playing (I mean) doing work on the internet and other light applications drops it down to 3 1/2 to 4 hours. My advice would be to buy an external battery pack like the Lenmar PowerPort External battery and charger. That will add an extra 4 hours!!

Windows 8 is okay. I'm getting use to it now and the touchscreen is so much fun!! The only thing I don't like is that it keeps asking you to setup a Microsoft online account to 'personalize' your computer. Just another information scam in my humble opinion. Also, the screen itself is sort of small, but it's better than a netbook.

This model is the one in-between the Q200E and the X202E. Don't get the Q200E!!! That one has a slower processor. This model, the S200E is the middle version with the faster processor. The only thing it doesn't have is blue-tooth which I don't really use anyway and the last model, the VIVO X202E apparently has some issues with the hard-drive even though that one has blue tooth. I posted some pictures for everyone. I hope my review is helpful. :P

UPDATE: Not that this is specific for everyone, but the Adobe Reader in Windows 8 with the READ ALOUD function actually sounds like A REAL PERSON!! That's a big deal to me because I use mine for writing. :)

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As other reviewers have said this is a great laptop that doesn't skim on the quality for a budget pricetag. I also purchased this computer with a coupon from Staples for $425 +tax. It weighs as light as a netbook but with a sleek metal casing. There is a learning curve to Windows 8, and it's quite frustrating. I have had this laptop for a week, and several times my keyboard both touchscreen and physical froze up occasionally. At times, while typing my cursor jumped a few lines down. I assumed this was a driver issue, so uninstalled SmartGesture touchpad application and reinstalled the touchpad driver from the ASUS website and everything is resolved so far. I doubt this is a hardware issue so I blame Window 8 for now. The touchscreen is extremely responsive however one must understand the full capability of Windows 8 to utilize it well. It can be tedious to move from the home apps screen to the classic Windows screen. Once I started getting to used to the gestures of the touchpad and the touchscreen I love the versatility although more complex than previous versions of windows. The screen resolution is adequate and bright enough for my viewing purposes (watching DVDs, browsing, word processing, no gaming). Also, this Asus comes with a DVD-RW external drive with a slot to store it's own USB cord, albeit one that is extremely short. Reviewers have complained about the fan being loud. The fan isn't loud but a persistent low hum runs in the background. I have heard of people customizing and switching the HDD to a SSD which may resolve the humming but I am by no means a computer expert. The battery is internal so you cannot upgrade the battery but battery life will get you 4 or so hours with browsing and checking e-mails. I would say if you are looking for a second laptop for traveling, or a light user who doesn't game this is a great laptop for you.

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Update 26-Jun-2013: Hurray! The touchpad issues have been normalized with a driver update from ASUS. I downloaded and installed SmartGesture_Win7_8_VER201 from ASUS website. It fixes the issues with the touchpad. However, I still prefer turning off all features in ASUS Smart Gesture except for single touch "Select" and "Activate". Also, I prefer, in Control Panel->Mouse->Pointer Options, select "Fast" in pointer speed and check "Enhanced pointer precision". These have been a major improvement so I've raised my rating to a full 5 stars.

Update 18-Mar-2013: Wanted to specifically mention that battery endurance is impressive for my usage. I can get up to four hours of web surfing if I needed it. I find that I'm more productive with this computer because the processor and SSD (user upgrade) are quite fast. My morning web surfing episodes are noticeably shorter.

Update 15-Mar-2013: I improved the touchpad by installing ASUS touchpad driver from their website and customizing features. The current driver is named SmartGesture_ASUS_Win7_8_VER1036.zip. Once installed, double click the ASUS SmartGesture icon in the taskbar (usually bottom-right on desktop). My preference, YMMV, was to uncheck all features except Select and Activate. I still don't like the touchpad but now it's more predictable. I also changed Control Panel->Mouse->Pointer Options->select-a-pointer-speed a couple notches faster.

The ASUS X202e (ASUS S200e) is an excellent value despite its flaws. Here's some tweaks to share. Some require hacker-level experience. I use the X202e mainly for web surfing. Your tweaks may vary with use case.

1. Replace the hard drive with an SSD for much faster speed. The processor is quite fast for web surfing but you'll really appreciate the added speed of an SSD. I only need a 60GB+ SSD for my usage. Be sure the SSD is a 7mm height drive such as a Samsung 840.

2. I hate bloatware. I reinstalled Windows 8 from a generic 64-bit Windows 8 DVD. No activation key was needed. The only driver I needed beyond what Windows 8 installed was the audio drivers for the microphone. I downloaded from ASUS support web page. I installed using a generic USB DVD drive.

3. The default screen settings make the display a bit washed out looking. To fix, right click on the desktop->Graphics Properties->Display->Color Enhancements. Change Brightness to -20, Contrast to 51 and Gamma to 0.9.

4. I use Ninite.com to quickly install many often used programs.

5. I swear the touchpad has been improved by an initial cleaning. I used window cleaner.

6. I haven't found a better touchpad driver than the stock Windows 8 driver. I'm open to alternate drivers. Please make recommendations in comments but please, document any non-standard settings.

7. I reset the BIOS to defaults and then chose "Optimal Settings". Don't assume the manufacturer installed with optimal settings selected.

8. I love Windows 8 but only when with the Windows 7 shell, so I installed EX7FORW8 software. Recommended. Touch continues to work.

With these tweaks, you'll get a much better X202E experience. I'm hoping a new driver will improve the too touchy touchpad. Yes, the screen could be a bit better but it's acceptable. Battery life is ample with my usage. I get about 4 hours web surfing -more than expected and more than needed for my usage.

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Maybe we should call it a "LapBook". My 17" laptop runs an i7 first generation processor but I have to say, the i3 third gen. is a pretty fast unit. I run everything on the 11" ASUS, except Photoshop CS5...for obvious reasons, that I run on the i7, 17 inch laptop. A partial list, Office 2010, QuickBooks Pro, Sky 6, a Professional Astronomy program, Acronis, McAfee, Skype and others.

Both Laptops are networked together, (wireless), so I share data between the two and this allows me to work on anything by sharing files. I could use "the cloud" but this is OK as I just update both PC's when I save a new or updated file.

A "touch pen" works very well on this screen. This eliminates the fingerprint smudges and when typing, I use the pen or keyboard as I have big fingers. I wish the lettering on the keyboard was brighter. When typing in my recliner, I angle the unit in my lap in a 90 degree "V" and this gives a great view of the screen but the keys aren't as visible and I need to tip it back down to type. (not really a complaint) I suppose I could use two pens and type on-screen.

In January I updated from W7 to Windows 8 Pro + Media Center on my 17" and Windows 8 (NOT RT) came on the ASUS. When I switch between the two, I find I'm always reaching for the BIG screen to do "stuff". W8 took getting used to but it is designed for a touch screen and it really shines on the ASUS. There's not a significant difference between the two as far as performance, (what's a few seconds) but I enjoy the ASUS for the touch screen. Using the BIG mouse on the 17" is becoming a pain. Tapping with the pen is a snap! If I didn't need the larger screen to render images with PS-CS5, I'd probably just use the ASUS! I'm sure it will run PS but the screen is just too small for image processing. (This wasn't the plan) I could connect this to a monitor but...maybe when the 17" dies.

The DVD-RW "outrigger" is a great inclusion with the ASUS. This allows for a smaller Unit and it isn't used except for running my Acronis backups. I have a 500GB USB3 external HDD I save the backups to. I boot with the DVD-RW and save on the USB 3 HDD. You will need to change the BIOS to boot from the DVD-RW. (very easy) There are two USB-2 and one USB-3 port. Almost forgot the SD Card slot. No slots or jacks in the front or back, everything is accessible on the sides.

I would like to add a 128 GB SSD to this unit and be able to change batteries BUT to open the box voids the warrantee. I'll wait a year and see how it holds out before I jump in. This is a great unit as it performs well for all I need it to do and battery life has been OK, even when giving presentations with Power Point. I haven't used it with Sky 6 and the telescope but will wait for better (warmer) weather to play outdoors.

The ASUS is about a month old now but it "feels" like an old friend. Much easier to transport for presentations and it comes with full size connectors for video and HDMI so you don't need the "micro" connectors on this unit. I was in the market for an iPad but I'm glad I found this. Most of the Apps are shut down to improve boot time and I only use two or three of them, when I have the time. I recommend this "little" unit to anyone looking for a good touch screen for productivity and fun!

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Gateway NV52L23u Notebook Computer, AMD Quad-Core Processor A8-4500M, 1.90GHz, 6GB, 750GB, 15.6", D

Wallmart 478.00 laptop and its screaming fast and plenty powerful for any daily use, and perfect for the typical gamer, may be a little week for the hard core gamers, but I can run DMC and DarkSiders all on High rez (not ultra) with no noticeable lag

Excellent price. Seems to be a good daily worker laptop. Its being run about 8 hours per day, and no problems at all.

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love this computer. very quick whether im using wifi or Ethernet and altogether a flawless, seamless design. would definitely recommend to a friend....

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I just got this as a graduation present. So far it seems to be working fine, no major issues with anything. Not exactly digging Windows 8, but I'll either learn to get used to it or have my friend install Windows 7.

It can run Minecraft with fancy graphics and regular render distance pretty well, although I don't know how it might handle higher-res texture packs. I'll have to try one out.

Be careful not to block the little vent on the bottom.

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Awesome computer I can play bf3,crysis 3,far cry 3,sky rim, grid, dayz, Tomb raider.... basically anything I have thrown at it.

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Dell Inspiron 17 i17RV-6364BLK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Matte with Textured Finish)

As previously stated the volume buttons do not work. Ironically mute works just fine. I called Dell and of course they tried to hit me with a $299.99 fee to fix that problem and others that they found on my day old computer. I'm disappointed to say the least.

I bought this laptop on 14-June-2013. It works very well, and I'm very happy with it. As for the complaints from others:

1) The volume up and down buttons work just fine... if you understand that you must hold down the blue function key while pressing volume up (F11) and volume down (F12). If you don't press the blue function key, you're just pressing the F11 and F12 keys. Also, you do not need to press the function key in order to activate (and deactivate) the mute button.

2) The fan noise can be fixed in (literally) two minutes by going to the Dell website, and in their search box type "Fans spinning High, Excessive Fan Noise A06 Bios Update Fix". You will be directed to Dell Article ID: 597270. Scroll down and click on "Insp 3721 3721A06" to download the executable file which will update your BIOS from A05 to A06. Run the executable file and presto, fan noise fixed forever.

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The buttons (F11 & F12) Volume up and volume down on keyboard doesn't work. If I turn on Windows Media Player the buttons (F8 & F9) rewind and Play/pause on keyboard works like down and up volume. I'm very disappointed with this purchase!!!!!!!!!!!

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I'm writing this review from my moms account because she got it for me for graduation! I love this laptop so much, the screen is huge the keyboard is well placed as is the touch pad. The sound quality is great, i love listening to music while i study. at first I was iffy about Windows 8 but now I am extremely impressed with it. The battery life is not super amazing but honestly I can't complain. The texture makes oily fingerprints show up more than I'd like but it is very easy to clean. Everything runs super fast, the screen resolution is nice and the web cam is clear and not too pixlated. I'm super happy with this product and suggest it for anyone going into college or just having it for entertainment :)

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I bought this machine for my mother, she only uses it to surf facebook, read the newspaper, check your email, view photos and now learned to transfer photos via bluetooth from the photographic camera and phone to the PC and vice versa.

For what it does is excellent for the price and features

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Lenovo 438343U 15.6" AMD E-300 Dual Core Laptop with Windows 7

This model is made by Lenovo specifically for Best Buy's Black Friday 2011 sale. It was sold for $178 and many people thought they got a great deal. After all, a laptop with OK specs from a name brand manufacturer. What they didn't realize is that Lenovo stripped as much as they could off the laptop to meet this price point. That includes replacing the stereo speakers with a cheap monaural speaker. Yes, the sound comes out of only one side of this laptop. This does not affect people who listen through headphones, it's just that this fact was mentioned nowhere in the technical specs nor the Black Friday ad.

For anyone looking to upgrade RAM, this also only has 1 DIMM slot, so the max you can go is 4GB on a single DDR3 stick. If you're fine with the above, go ahead and make the purchase. But buyers must be aware of these facts.

I bought this at Best Buy and think its a pretty decent computer. The standout feature was the price though. Good PC for basic computer users. Good for browsing the web, email, and occasionally creating documents.

Like the other review states this model was specifically manufactured for Best Buy's Black Friday promotion and does have some limitations.

Among the Cons:

Only has 1 speaker (mono sound).

Only has 1 RAM tray, max at 4GB on one ram stick.

No memory card reader

No HDMI

Case feels a little like cheap plastic.

Hard Drive partitioning is kinda weird. There is a Drive 'C' with about 180gb and a Drive 'D' (Lenovo) with 30gb (about 26gb of which are free; applications and drivers can be found here).

The Processor AMD E-300 is both a PRO and CON. It is a very basic processor with low CPU Benchmark results.

The Good:

THE PRICE! $180 @ BB on Black Friday.

Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit (again you can only install 4gb of ram though)

Webcam; with face recognition login software (your webcam will recognize you and automatically log you into Windows).

Microsoft Office 2010 Starter (Functional Word, and Excel with ads included; no PowerPoint, Outlook though... that's what OpenOffice/LibreOffice is for)

Lightweight

Good keyboard and track pad

Good battery life, and battery management software

Very little bloatware (some programs don't come pre-installed; rather you need to install them from the Lenovo Drive, in the 'Apps' folder).

Small and compact AC adapter

Google Chrome pre-installed faster than Internet Explorer

Good HD graphics, because of graphics card

Processor (Con and Pro): It gets the job done!

Overall:

Great computer, for the price, for basic computer users. I got this for my mother who uses the computer pretty much only to surf the internet, and check email. For the price, and what she'll use it for its perfect. Again, for basic everyday computing this laptop will get the job done, but not for those with high resource needs (specially because of RAM/Processor limitations).

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First let me say that this laptop and it's reviews are going to be far more subjective than most other laptop reviews. Mainly due to the E-300 CPU.

One's opinion of it will REALLY depend their usage requirements:

what you plan to use it for

what software you plan to run on it

will this be your first laptop

are you just going to use it for web surfing and/or checking email

do you normally have just a couple windows open when using a laptop OR are you the type of person that must have 25 windows open, with 25 apps running simultaneously

Myself, my only other "personally owned", "portable" computing device has been an emachine netbook, purchased two years ago.

However, I have owned over 10 desktop PCs over the past 15 years.

So when I compare this unit's functionality to my netbook, the experience is the same and/or better than the netbook.

When comparing to one of my quad-core desktop computers, the performance gap widens quite a bit.

[Note: The performance index I got from this Lenovo was 3.4; due to the CPU].

Pros:

the screen is thinner than my netbook (and laptops I use at work). Yet the screen is large enough to view most anything I've looked at while using the unit.

6 cell battery. Longer running time than my netbook with it's measily 3 cell.

built-in optical device (my netbook requires that I carry a slim line external DVD drive).

so far it has been adequate for light usage: surfing and email

Cons:

performance index is lower than other computers I have used.

one memory socket that requires removing the existing So-dimm module and replacing with a larger one.

no HDMI (I knew this going in)

one speaker (as noted by another reviewer).

If you plan to buy one, I'd suggest trying to find a computer on display somewhere which uses the E-300 CPU. That way you can test drive to get some idea of how it might work out for you.

For some people on a budget, they might be able to forgive it's slower speed.

If you currently have an AMD quad core computer and you want this as a new laptop, more than likely you will be quite irritated by the slower speed than what a quad core runs at.

If you just need something to check email and web surf while away from home, it might work out fine.

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I'd love to come upon another offer to purchase one of these Lenovos for the same amount of money. I purchased it as a gift for my husband and he was thrilled with it. So am I, because I no longer have to wait for him to finish using my p.c. to get work done.

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