Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

I purchased this laptop 6/30. I received and un-boxed it 7/5. It is well-equipped for the price.

Positives

-The 2nd Gen Core-i5 has excellent benchmarks, comparable and even better than some 1st Gen Core-i7. (See Passmark Benchmark ratings)

-The video card puts out 1080p video without issue. It is not really capable of doing any gaming but that is to be expected at this price from the Intel HD 3000.

-For the price point the theoretical specs are fabulous, hence my purchase and excitement upon arrival.

-It comes with a full size keyboard built in which I enjoy. The sizing and spacing is all acceptable although the backspace is a touch smaller than I would like.

As far as negatives are concerned,

-The webcam is horrendous, I mean, it works, but the resolution and video quality is pretty shameful. I knew this going into the purchase and was willing to accept it, but if you are hoping for a decent integrated webcam this is not a computer for you. Of course you can always get a very high quality external webcam which will best any internal.

-Toshiba Bloatware, I haven't fully investigated them, but a lot of them are redundant to services that windows provides, or just excessive little power hungry toys. Thus far I do actually like the extra power settings, but that is the only one among many.

-Other Bloatware (Extra links to install trial programs...etc)

Now, the reason for 1-star.

The laptop I received on 7/5 was defective. The audio card integrated on the motherboard was deemed defective by Toshiba. Of course Toshiba customer support made me re-install the driver, and "revert to factory settings". I found this excessively annoying as I has just opened the box and reverting to factory settings wouldn't do anything. Regardless the problem remained and they agreed it was defective and told me I could send it to a repair facility (a brand new laptop? and wait a few weeks, i think not). Or Amazon could send me a new one. I have had better dealings with Amazon than Toshiba so I opted for a replacement. Props to Amazon for the prompt replacement (it arrived within 24 hours). Now, believe it or not, the 2nd laptop is also defective. I then had to call Toshiba again to inform them of this. They didn't seem to find it odd that two of the exact same computers are both defective. Anyway Amazon is refunding me the money and I intend to get something else. Preferably not Toshiba despite my previously high impressions of them.

I would be interested to know if anyone else is having these issues. For anyone who may be skeptical as to the fact that two computers are both defective let me assure you sound was tested with several samples of audio from the HD, and the internet. It was also tested on both computers using the laptop speakers, Sennheiser Headphones, and a high quality system with Polk Audio speakers.

Bottom Line:

The specs are great, but I cannot recommend a computer that has come defective 2/2 times. Once is acceptable, it happens, but twice is not acceptable and both Amazon and Toshiba should be ashamed to be selling faulty merchandise repeatedly.

[UPDATE]

After receiving a third defective laptop I have ordered a Lenovo from Best Buy. I cannot fathom that nobody else is having this issue. This has been tested on numerous receivers, numerous cords, numerous speakers. I have had friends with me to verify that I am in fact not going insane, and Toshiba has verified they are all defective. The error occurs upon setup without changing factory settings at all.

Stay away.

In other news the touchpad is definitely a little far to the left and while typing I often touch it with my left palm. Minor issue though.

Bear with me here folks, I'm still trying to pull together my thoughts on my brand new laptop here, consider my review a "first draft". :)

Received this laptop early this morning. My first impression is pretty good, but I've only been with it for a few hours thus far. I've surfed around online some, streamed some HD video, played a couple games, and removed a ton of bloatware.

Was a little worried at first, because the first boot-up took quite awhile, but once I removed some bloatware, shut down, and booted up again, it's ready to go within 20-30 seconds. After running it for 2 hours straight, mostly surfing around online, it's not hot enough to even call it warm, so it should be good about keeping cool. The fan seems to come on pretty often, but it's not very loud, it's mostly just the sound of air moving in and out. Wireless internet seems to work perfectly, and I easily connected to my network.

I actually quite like the touchpad on it, which is strange for me to say, because I'm picky about touchpads. I think it works well, and it's slightly textured, but not overly so. The keyboard seems nicely built for a laptop too.

I don't own much in the name of games, but I've played some Sim City 4 and The Sims 2 on high settings without any hiccups. HD video streamed smoothly as well.

Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase. I'll be updating this review once I spend more time with it and finish getting my thoughts together.

Edit: Okay, so I never updated my review, too lazy to do it. However, it is now February 3rd 2012, and this computer is still up and running like new. I've owned it for 7 months and I have had no problems, even though I run it about 7 hours everyday. It continues to run cool, fast, and with no issues at all.

Buy Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black) Now

This is my first laptop, and even though I've only had it for 9 days, I believe I've drawn a conclusion already.

Pros: 6gb ram and huge 640gb hard drive

Extremely smooth Youtube video playback

USB 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, HDMI and VGA out

Quiet

Great battery life (in my opinion?)

The "chiclet" style keyboard is incredibly easy and satisfying to type on. The keys give off a satisfying light click, and they're far enough away from eachother so I rarely hit another key.

I have never seen an HD Youtube video play back so smooth before, not even on my desktop with an Nvidia Geforce GTS 250.

Speaking of video performance, Minecraft plays as smooth as my desktop plays it. I have not played other games, but DO NOT buy this laptop for gaming; you'll likely regret it.

It takes 22 seconds from power on (with the BIOS option "Load BIOS onto harddisk" checked), until you get a usable Windows 7 login screen.

The laptop has quite a few ports and features including: USB 2 and 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, and HDMI and VGA out. Very handy to have and use all of them.

Internet browsing is far from slow, it feels much faster than my desktop.

You can only hear the fan occasionally speed up, if you strain to hear it in a quiet room.

Battery life is awesome, I was able to type an entire 725 word essay from start to finish with 10% left.(3 hours at least, maybe 4. I lost track of time)

Speedfan claims both cores are idling at 109f, but you can hardly feel any warmth from the laptop even after several hours of use.

Display is glossy, vivid and bright. Some may see it being glossy as a con; it's fine indoors, but tough to use outside (I never use it outside).

The numpad is an awesome feature to include, it was one of my main requirements in a laptop.

Windows 7 makes everything feel instant and responsive.

I've never run out of ram with the included 6gb.

Now onto the bad stuff (Minor whining on my part)

Cons: Keyboard is not backlit

Off center touchpad location interferes with typing

Dust magnet

Bloatware madness

Speakers suck(ish)

This laptop has doesn't have backlit keys, not a con if you know how to type; I just always thought they looked cool at night.

Regularly while typing, my hand rests on the touchpad and jumps the mouse around as another reviewer also mentioned. Annoying at times, just reposition your left hand slightly.

Needs to be wiped off daily or it grows a beard of dust. (Or maybe I just need to vacuum my room more than once a year)

Copious amounts of bloatware -some bundled with drivers. Google a program before deleting to make sure you don't inadvertently kill flashcards or the touchpad.(Happened to me)

Extremely slow until you kill off bloatware and stuff you don't plan on using.

As another reviewer stated, I have had the laptop claim it had an hour of battery life left, then 5 minutes later, it shut off. I remember reading through the Toshiba manual, and apparently it has to kind of "calibrate" the battery meter and run itself down once in a while to be accurate; I am guessing this applies to the first cycle especially. It has not done this since.

Speakers are clear, but severely lack bass. Using skullcandy earphones remedies that problem.

The bright Satellite letters and line above the touchpad can be turned off in the BIOS. I believe another reviewer said that already.

I am not a picky person, so these cons don't annoy me enough to be worth subtracting a star. The bottom line is that this is an awesome laptop for everything except gaming. (After you get over the minor quirks.)

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black) Here

I've had this laptop for about two weeks and I love it. It's fast and loaded with a lot of useful features. Multi-tasking, installing programs, removing crapware and transferring data onto this machine have been a quick breeze.

I love the keyboard and number pad. They both have a normal set-up so you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where a certain button has been misplaced (an issue I've had previous laptops/netbooks I've owned and other models I've tried out in stores). Keys are pretty easy on the fingers and feel nice to the touch. Keyboard is NOT backlit as far as I can tell but it wasn't an important feature for me so no minus marks there.

Screen is crisp and has good contrast; it's not washed out like a lot of laptop screens I've come across in my research. It's viewable from almost any angle so it doesn't need to be at an exact precise angle for you to see the screen well-lit.

Speakers can go pretty loud for laptop speakers. They aren't the best speaker quality but pretty darn good for a laptop.

Unlike previous laptops I've had, this one runs pretty cool. Haven't had an issue with heat at all (even when I've absentmindedly left it running on top of the bed or on carpet). I do feel heat being pushed out by the fan but the system itself remains pretty cool to the touch (ie you won't burn your lap if it's resting on your leg and you'll probably have no need for a laptop cooler fan).

Other people have commented on the placement of the touchpad. This was a concern for me before I purchased it but it turns out that I rarely have an issue with it. Once in a while the touchpad does act up while I'm typing but in comparison to a lot of other models I've tried out it's a pretty minor problem. The touchpad on/off key is conveniently located near the touchpad so it can be switched off right away if you need to do some heavy-duty typing.

Laptop has a high-quality plastic feel (yes, it's plastic). No flexing in the keyboard or case; feels very sturdy. The grooved design all over the laptop is a nice touch that prevents fingerprint smudges.

An added bonus is the free Xbox for students. I haven't received the xbox credit yet. I'v contacted Amazon and they swiftly replied that the xbox credit is on it's way so we'll see how that goes.

It took me a while to decide on buying this laptop since I couldn't find the exact model in any brick and mortar store to try out personally. You can't go wrong with the specs but I would recommend going to an electronic store and trying out similar Toshiba models to see if you like the configuration of the keyboard, touchpad, etc since those are all based on personal preference. I think I tried out P755-S5215 at Best Buy; it has nearly an identical appearance. For the price the specs on this machine are great. No regrets so far, very happy customer.

Want Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black) Discount?

I replaced an 8 year old Satellite with this computer. This new computer is very quick, keyboard keys have a nice touch. Fairly quite, lightweight and solid feeling. Windows 7 seems to be pretty good.

I find that the dolby advanced audio is not good and distorts music, try turning it off to make your music sound good. Also when you plug your speaker line into the headphone jack, select the headphone option, otherwise the line-in option also takes away from the music.

I was afraid that off center keyboard would be awkward and it is. Maybe I will get used to it. There is very little room for the left palm to rest on the computer and frequently inadvertently touches the mouse pad causing the mouse to do things I don't want it to do.

I chose toshiba again because my previous satellite served me near flawlessly (replaced hard drive once)for 8 years.

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Apple MacBook Pro MB604LL/A 17-Inch Laptop (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB H

I'm not a gamer so this review may not be helpful to those who want a computer to play games.

I have worked as a professional software developer/architect for 17 years. I started with MSDOS 2.0 and have ridden the Microsoft wave all the way through Vista 64 and I had a few years with UNIX. I have personally owned or worked with computers from Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM. I have heard of Apple products but for the most part dismissed them as more toy than tool. (I was not alone in this perspective.) I like Microsoft but after working with it for the better part of 20 year I decided to look at something different.

I never thought I would purchase an Apple yet here it is. I am impressed to say the least and I see Apple as a serious tool that also makes a cool toy.

Pros:

Lightweight Probably the lightest laptop I've ever worked with or owned

Solid Normally when you get laptops at 15.4 or larger, chassis flex becomes evident as you can see them bend and they creak. Yet because of its single piece construction and light weight aluminum the MacBook feels good when you need to move it. I doesn't creak and there is no noticeable bend when lifted.

Battery Life It just keeps going, and going, and going... Actually I am seeing up to 4 hours life on the fully charged battery. My previous computer never surpassed 1.75 hours.

Size It is very thin and carrying it around is very comfortable. I had a 17" and while I like the large display its uncomfortable to carry like a book.

Magnetic Clasp When closing the lid the owner is rewarded with a very solid thump instead of a "creak" "clack" that you hear from so many other laptops that use a plastic display and mechanical clasp. Opening the monitor is equally a pleasing. You place you thumb under the lip and lift. The laptop may slide a little on smooth surfaces but the lid comes up smooth and controlled.

Keyboard This is a great piece of work. Does it have "Home", "Page Up", "Page Down", the legendary "Any" key? No. Doesn't need it. A little research and practice and you will find that these "missing" keys are functions of the keyboard and I don't miss them at all. Secondly the keyboard "key-float" (that rattle you hear when you lightly stroke your finger back and forth over a laptop keyboard) is almost completely non-existent. So when you're typing it doesn't sound like your wadding up crinkly plastic and you don't annoy your neighbors. The key throw is short but very pleasant. Another thing I like about the keyboard is that you don't feel like you will break the keyboard if your touch is a little heavy.

Display The display is a work of art. No only does it look good, but flex has been reduced to almost nothing. It feels very solid and you don't feel you need to worry about tilting the screen from the corner. The glass cover over the LED lit LCD display is awesome. You can actually clean the screen without LCD screen colors distorting. Not to mention that is automatically dims in low light and the key board lights up in the same low light conditions. that's a nice touch. The display brightness is every bit as bright as my desktop LCD display in strong light.

Touch Pad Any who has tried to use the touch pads on other computers (I hate them generally) will love this touch pad. It works like the iPhone (except scrolling is reversed for obvious reasons you're not actually touching the screen). The touch is light and very smooth. Making the entire touch pad the button is brilliant, it took me almost no time to get use to it and now I nearly push a hole through the Dell touch pad before I realize I have to click the buttons. I have no trouble with inadvertent touch that moves my cursor away from where I'm typing.

Quiet I have yet to hear the fans. It makes me wonder if they ever work.

DVD Superdrive Finally! No cup holder comes sliding out of the side of my laptop. Just simply slide the disc in and your done. It operates like the CD player in a car. It is easy to eject from the screen or a key on the keyboard.

Fit and Finish The best I've ever seen. The only thing I've seen is a very slight misalignment of the Express Card/34 slot door. But you really have to look close to see it.

Operating System WOW. Fast, no anti-virus, stable: it just works. I won't get too much into the OS but I will say that once I understood how Apple likes things done OS X is very appealing. Not to mention that it sleeps and wakes up faster than anything I have ever worked with. Open the monitor and it's sitting there saying "come on, I'm tired of waiting for you".

Built-in Accelerometers Not sure what they're good for, but they're cool. Like the iPhone the MacBook Pro has three accelerometers. There is an Stanford Laptop Orchestra uses MacBook Pros to make music using these accelerometers.

No Fresh Air Openings I really dislike fresh air ports on the bottom of laptops. They are easily plugged and they suck fuzz and dust into the heat sinks. With my previous computers the fresh air ports were placed underneath the computer right where it sets on your legs. The result was you ran a big risk overheating the computer. The MacBook Pro pulls the cooling air through the keyboard and therefore has a smooth bottom making it far better to place on you lap.

CONS:

Chassis While it is a brilliant piece of engineering there are a couple very minor issues.

One: Always pick the computer up with both hands. While this is true of all laptops you want to last, it's a little more important with this one. The metal around the ethernet port has been machined very thin which was necessary to fit the large jack in the rather narrow side of the laptop. So if you have the monitor open and grab the laptop with you left hand and your thumb over that jack you could dent the metal around it. It doesn't warp or twist the whole chassis, it's too strong but you could see a small indention in a otherwise straight piece of metal.

Two: The metal in the Battery/Hard Drive Cover is very thin and sometime appears to hang below lip of the chassis. You really have to look to see it and it isn't all the time. I don't think is is warped or bent, but just the natural flexibility of aluminum.

Touch Pad Click While I absolutely love the touch pad (in fact I only use a mouse anymore when I am programming on it because of the nature of the software). If you try to click at the top of the pad (nearest the screen) the force required to click goes up quite a bit.

Price? Not really a Con. Some have complained about the price. Three and half years ago I paid $5700 for a Dell 9100 laptop (All the bells and whistles, Window XP Pro, Office Pro, the works). It has been a great computer that has been put to pasture and my family uses it. I've only had two problems with it. The dreaded mexican jumping keys (a key flies off the keyboard after you press it down while typing; AKA broken key) Dell replaced the keyboard without any trouble and the hard drive crashed and needed to be replaced. The Dell computer when new cost more than twice the MacBook Pro does today and the only thing it has over the Mac (old age and technology not withstanding) is it's 1920 x 1200 pixel display compared to the Mac's 1440 x 900 display. If I were to order the most power 15.4 laptop Apple sells today, I would still pay half the price of the Dell and the Apple does much more and has better quality overall.

To summarize this is an accomplishment that the engineers, designers, and developers should feel proud. There is some room for improvement but these improvements are at a level that other laptops have to improve a great deal just to achieve Apple's shortcomings.

I could go on further but I think this is enough. Apple has truly developed a great product in both hardware and software and I recommend it highly.

Apple's site and other reviews provide the essential information on what was upgraded in this new MacBook Pro (two graphics systems; machined from solid aluminum; new industry-standard DisplayPort video out; new trackpad; other minor changes/upgrades).

But why get this computer rather than the much less expensive MacBook that appears almost identical?

1. The MacBook LCD display is poor. It is not just a smaller version of the MacBook Pro LCD display. It has washed-out blacks, poor contrast, limited viewing angles, and less vibrant colors. This is a huge difference. I confirmed this with a side by side comparison in the Apple Store (and the store staff member agreed), and you can find further discussion at gizmodo dot com (gizmodo.com/5063492/macbook-and-macbook-pro-dual-review).

2. The MacBook Pro's excellent new graphics chip (NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT) can be used to speed up all operations (not just graphics) when the new Apple operating system (Snow Leopard) is released in January. This is not confirmed, but there is substantial discussion online suggesting this is the case. The 9600M is essentially a 32 processor computer (running at 120 gigaflops). So, a MacBook Pro will actually gain in speed over time. The MacBook does not have a separate graphics card that can work this way.

3. MacBook Pro graphics are twice as fast as MacBook graphics, so if you do anything visual with your computer (digital photography, video, games, etc.) then everything will run much more quickly and smoothly. Some games that are just barely playable on the MacBook become fun and seemless on the MacBook Pro.

4. The MacBook Pro has a firewire port (omitted from the new MacBook).

5. The MacBook Pro has an expansion card slot (really handy for adding a memory card reader or 3G roaming internet).

So, for the extra $400 (MacBook 2.4 GHz vs. MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz) you get a lot of extras that you will notice and use. And you will avoid the poor LCD on the MacBook. You are still stuck with the highly-reflective glass screen (if my eyeglasses can get anti-reflective coating, then why not this computer screen?), however, so it's only four stars until they solve that problem.

Buy Apple MacBook Pro MB604LL/A 17-Inch Laptop (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB H Now

Apple is notorious for constantly updating their products, more or less to keep up the status quo on their products. The new Macbook Pro is no exception. This beautifully constructed laptop is a work of art in many ways in which i will detail.

SCREEN

The MBP has had a beautiful screen for as long as i can remember and this new model is no exception. LED lit means that it is "instant on". when you open the lid, there is no warm up time like there is with other screens like LCD ect. The colors pop and are extremely vibrant and true. If you have seen an older MBP screen, you've seen them both, kind of. The new screen is all glass. The glass extends to the very outer edge of the lid, leaving no empty space. Simply put, you can't find a better screen, not even on a Sony machine (and i love sony also).

KEYBOARD

The new MBP has an updated keyboard. The first thing you will notice is that the keys are black as apposed to the old silver. The black adds a nice touch because it accents the silver case. If you ask me, the old MBP had too much silver. EVERYTHING on the machine was silver aluminum. Don't get me wrong, i loved the old MBP, but this is just one step up. The Keyboard is also backlit so when you are in a darker environment, the keys light up, helping you see anything and everything on the keyboard. The Keyboard is absolutely beautiful on the machine and adds a nice touch overall to the look.

TRACKPAD

I find it weird that i can put an entire section on a review about a laptops trackpad, but this is undoubtedly necessary. The new trackpad is ALL glass and there is no button---per say. In reality the entire trackpad is the button. They took off the button on the bottom and extended the trackpad down to give you more real estate. Apple spent months designing this trackpad and i have to give them major credit for that. recently me and my friend were looking at laptops at Circuit City, and one thing we did was go through every single laptop and look at it's trackpad. It is absolutely amazing how much time and effort company's DON'T put into designing their trackpad, when in my book, it is a HUGE factor. The coefficient of friction on this trackpad is exactly what it needs to be. not too rough, not too smooth, just right. I absolutely love the MBP trackpad and think it is something apple needs to be commended for.

GRAPHICS

Apple and NVIDIA joined up and came up with a new video card for this MBP. The MBP actually has 2 graphics cards in it. One that is integrated, and one that is dedicated. The integrated graphics is NVIDIA instead of the old intel, so it is immensely better. The dedicated card (which can be easily switched on) is a powerhouse and almost puts a MBP in line with other gaming machines, almost. Needless to say, this notebook will do just about whatever you want it to do graphics wise, gaming, video editing, photo editing, you name it, it will do it pretty easily. no worries here.

OVERALL

overall this laptop is at the top of it's class and you might be wondering why i gave it 4 stars and not 5.....first and foremost, money. I have to say that this is still overpriced. You are paying for a collection of things like the operating system, graphics card, high end components and things like that, but come on apple, 2000 dollars is a lot to drop on any laptop, no matter what it is. Is it worth it? without a doubt yes, and that is why apple can jack up their prices, but at the same time, it seems like they are kind of taking advantage of us, especially in the economic slum we're in right now. Maybe i am just cheap (which i don't think most people would classify me as that) but that seems a little high to me. And another thing. what is up with the new display port? i have a 46 inch samsung tv and i will be hooking it up to my MBP but the cable is 100 dollars!!!! and that is just to dual link dvi----i still have to buy a dual link dvi to HDMI adapter after that. Ugh. apple (along with other company's...cough cough monster cables) is completely ripping us off on their cables and that makes a difference in my outlook on the big picture.

CONCLUSION

The new MBP is absolutely stunning in every aspect of its design. Apple continues to wow us, and they will also continue to prosper and grow. I will be enjoying my new Macbook pro and i hope this review helped you in any questions you might have had. It is an investment that will live for a long time and will be greatly enjoyed every day. good job apple.

Read Best Reviews of Apple MacBook Pro MB604LL/A 17-Inch Laptop (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB H Here

The new MacBook Pro has some significant advantages over the old one. The new case design is attractive and solid. The keyboard is crisp and responsive. The hard drive is as easy to access as on every other notebook on the market (as opposed to requiring complete disassembly of the machine with the old model). The new NVIDIA 9600 graphics adds a lot of 3D horsepower.

There are some significant drawbacks as well. The video output for connecting an external monitor is only compatible with one monitor at the moment. Connecting to the kinds of monitor that people actually own will require the purchase (and carrying) of an additional $30 adapter. Or two, if you need to connect to both VGA and DVI monitors.

The new MacBook Pro actually has two video adapters; the NVIDIA 9400 and 9600. The system uses the 9400 by default, which is less powerful than the 9600 but uses less power. The 9400 is an integrated adapter without its own memory; it uses 256MB of the system RAM. The problem is that it uses that 256MB RAM even when the system is using the 9600 adapter. In other words, these laptops effectively have 256MB less RAM than the previous generation.

The new display is very clear and sharp, at least as good as the previous generation's screen. It is also covered with a pane of glass and is very, very shiny; much shinier and more reflective even than the previous generation's 'glossy' screen. If the lighting conditions in your work environment are exactly right, the screen looks wonderful. If there is any light behind or above you, the screen acts as a mirror and the glare and reflections can be very annoying.

The new MacBook Pro is a wonderful computer, but it is not a clear upgrade from the previous version and the mirror finish of the new screen means that no one should buy this computer without actually trying it first.

Want Apple MacBook Pro MB604LL/A 17-Inch Laptop (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB H Discount?

I am a long-time IT professional with enough certifications (mostly Microsoft) to make a large can of alphabet soup, and this is my first Mac. I had played with a few of them here and there years ago, and never saw what people liked about them. The closest I ever came was back in the late '90s when I was tempted to run Windows on a PPC, but just about the time I was going to do that, Microsoft pulled their support for it from Windows, and that ended that.

So, I was anti-Mac for quite a few years. All that has changed. I began to believe in the OS when Apple began to base it on Unix. A solid, time proven technology that I trust. The big thing that changed it all for me is VMWare. For 70 dollars, I have the ability to run Vista Ultimate, XP, and Ubuntu Linux on OSX. My Vista Ultimate is my previous Dell (not a slouchy box, either). It's a complete clone of my old computer. Windows still shows it being a Dell! Spooky. Windows had it a 3.6 rating, and a retest of the VM on my Mac shows a 3.6 rating. That alone earns 4 of the stars I give this machine.

Now, here's another reason why I'm so happy. I put Office 2008 on the MBP, and I seldom have any reason to even start the Vista VM anymore. The last two times I did, it was only because I miss the great Vista solitaire game. That earns the fifth star -I'm not "homesick" in the least. I think I'll be staying right here on planet Mac. As a matter of fact, I got a MacBook for my wife, I liked this MBPro MB471LL/A so much! Bought her the MB403LL/A.

I use it with an external monitor about 90 percent of the time, so the glare of the glossy screen hasn't been an issue for me. The built in screen is gorgeous, and I've not been in a situation where glare became an issue.

This machine is truly desktop horsepower in a gorgeous carved aluminum notebook chassis. I'm a very happy camper.

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Sony VAIO VPCEH15FX/W 15.5" White Laptop

I've had this VAIO for more than a year now and i can say that i'm really satisfied with the product. Only last summer i was getting BSOD many times but it may have been due to some app i had running on it. It's been fine ever since. I would definitely recommend it

Excellent product.Highy recommended .I have bought 2 of these n im really happy with the performance.Ofcourse i got it at a very cheap rate at amazon.

Buy Sony VAIO VPCEH15FX/W 15.5" White Laptop Now

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Asus G60JX-RBBX05 Intel i5-430M, 4 GB, 500 GB, NVIDIA GTS360M, Webcam, 16-Inch LED, Windows 7 Noteb

I've been using an old Toshiba laptop for a long time, and it was time I upgraded. I'll start with what I was looking for: a powerful gaming laptop that I could still use for school. I certainly got what I asked for.

It's positives are obvious at the very start. Its i5 processor and 4gb of ram make it lightning fast, this is in comparison to my friend's desktop that has several thousand dollars piled into it. I tested a multitude of games on it, Mass Effect 2 ran without a hitch at max settings, Left4Dead2 runs at max, even Starcraft2 on Ultra settings ran cleanly when playing normally (note custom maps are a different story, and if you've ever played a custom you know what I mean...). This of course is only possible because of the lower resolution. Since it's not at full 1080p, it can handle the amount of graphic intensity of high settings. In all honesty I love full hd, and am quite used to it, but the sacrifice of resolution for quality was well worth it. I can easily run any program without any issues, word, photoshop, et. Often enough I'll have a few things running and play starcraft2 at the same time without any slow down, which says a lot. All three ran without any frame rate issues. In terms of the actual look of the laptop, it's sleek and clean, it had no scratches or dings, and everything was intact. the keyboard and the wrist rests are textured, which I really like because it gives me some feeling to when I'm typing et. The extra touch buttons that allow you to turbo boost the cpu (possible since it's an i5) and turn the touchpad on and off are very helpful when you already have a mouse. The size of this laptop allows for a numpad, which I absolutely love because I HATE typing with the 10 button numbers. Also, the fact the keyboard has back light is quite nice in a dark environment. The webcam is good quality as well. For a refurb (after hearing the horror stories), mine is in perfect condition.

Now the negatives do exist, this laptop isn't perfect. The chiclet keyboard might be an issue for some, I know it's not much for me but since I'm so used to the responsiveness of a normal keyboard I have to adjust to the change. The speakers are a little low on volume, but all you have to change is the volume equalizer to on in Creative's audio driver. The laptop itself didn't come as I expected, it's black with a small streak of silver instead of the blue. I actually wanted blue as it matches my mouse and I love the color but why be picky, it still looks good. When the laptop came I had some fears instilled in me thanks to my paranoid friend, who told me that some refurbs come with no charger or battery, but I got this from Amazon and my fears were just that. However, even if it came with the charger and battery, what you do not get is the driver dvd, or a Windows disc. Now, this isn't too much of a problem as you can download all the drivers, but if you don't have a Windows disc redoing the system is impossible. Your Windows key is on the bottom of the laptop, but it's useless without the install disc. This issue became relevant as I redid the system because I didn't need or want the extra things installed on it (like roxio burn or some crappy antivirus trial et.). The only actual problem that I have with this laptop is the top edges of the laptop wrap around the screen for a few pixels... thought it was strange design, but it's not noticeable after a day.

As for the other negative reviews that I read, they're a bit dumb. The shipping speed is explained when you buy it, they have to build the computer before they send it. The fan is NOT loud, if you're not playing a graphic intensive game there's virtually no noise at all. When you are, the fan does make a bit of noise but seeing as this laptop is built for power it needs to get rid of the heat, but even then it's easily ignorable.

Ignore the shipping speed issues, it's a refurb they have to build the computer before they send it hence the "usually ships from 2-3 weeks". Also, who complains about the weight of the laptop when they have it listed under specifications? These complaints wouldn't exist if people could read.

Overall, this laptop is one badass puppy for the price (I mean cmon, $800 for a top quality gaming laptop?!?! Other $800 laptops are crap in comparison.). For what it is, I give it a 4.5. It's powerful, practical, and looks good. Well worth the price.

I bought this lap top after a VERY long search online for the best computer for how much I was willing to spend. My budget was $850, and I was willing to buy either a laptop OR a desktop. I wanted something that was portable because I play games at my friends house's all the time. I also wanted something that can play the games I like to play

Games.

World of Warcraft

Star Craft (1-2)

warcraft 3

Call of duty 4

Portal

Half life 2 +(Episode 1-2)

Team Fortress 2

Left 4 Dead (1-2)

Civ 5 (2-4)

and a few others.

I have been able to play all these games on ALL HIGH SETTINGS. I get about 45-60 Fps while playing. Even during intense battles where I'm really using the GPU and CPU pretty harshly, It plays cool, and still maintains AT LEAST 45 fps.

Pros VERY good buy, it is the best laptop for this price. I have been looking for a LONG time for something that had a least a tri core CPU running at least 2.2ghz, and a dedicated graphics with at least 512mb dedicated to the GPU. After benchmarking the parts inside this laptop I found that the GPU(graphics processing unit) was in the top tier. There are 3 tiers, tier 1 is the best out there were tier 3 is low end crappy. The CPU, and GPU both scored well on the benchmarks in tier 1. Other people have said that they want more FPS(frames Per Second) out of this laptop. The only way for that to happen is for it to have 2 graphics cards. believe me, 60fps is good, and that's about the most you will get with almost ALL single graphics cards. the processor is very good as well. Its a duel core, running 2.27ghz, but can easily be overclocked to 2.54ghz from inside windows. Asus made a program that you can launch from within windows that makes it easy to overclock your CPU, just as easy as setting the battery to high performance. The other thing is that the CPU also has 4 threads, witch makes it run like a quad core, ex. That's like partitioning your hard drive into 4 partitions! its one hard drive but you have 4 storage areas now. It is a true LED wide screen display, so the rez might not be 1080p but it still looks GREAT. The key board is a chiclet style, all that means is that they buttons are a little smaller and have more space in between them. If you have ever used a mac book pro, its just like that. NOT HARD to get used to at all. within minutes I was typing at normal speeds with it. 4g's of DDR3(GOOD, but can be upgrade to 8g's, witch is GREAT). Hard drive isn't bad, 7200rpm means quick launching and WAY less time in loading screens, plus 500gb of storage isn't bad either. would like 1t but ehhh, now I'm just being picky. (cough) 500gb SSHD/Flash Storage would be nice (cough). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I already know that would jack up the price a grand or two though. . . . any way

CONS HEAT. . . This thing tends to get a little hot while playing these games with all HIGH setting. I invested $32. on a laptop cooling tray. BELIEVE me, it is worth the investment. It keeps the laptop from overheating and the one i got sits it at an angle witch makes it just that much easier to use. BUY a MICROFIBER CLOTH rag, this thing doesn't attract much dust but the oil from your hands and fingers dose stand out and creates smudges. Plus its always good to keep your com clean ;)

other then that this thing has had NO PROBLEMS, Ive had it for 1month and a week. so far so good. not to much bloat ware, wasn't damaged at all when it arrived and runs like a CHAMP. It replaced my desktop as my main computer and like I said is the BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. I looked at Newegg.com for the same laptop, and a few other places, It cost a little more els where, and the ones they had were NOT factory refurbished. Believe me that is a big enough deal, You don't want something sent back to the retailer who just wants it sold. the factory/company that sells it will take the time to make sure that it is fully functional and is LIKE new, they will even replace parts with BRAND NEW ones because they already have them.

In short. . best laptop at this price. really good CPU/GPU. Runs like a Champ. CAN replace your desktop. HEATS up, buy a cooling tray. you will not be disappointed with your purchase.

Buy Asus G60JX-RBBX05 Intel i5-430M, 4 GB, 500 GB, NVIDIA GTS360M, Webcam, 16-Inch LED, Windows 7 Noteb Now

I have owned my ASUS G60 for about 10 months, prior to that I owned the previous model (G51) for several months. Overall, my experience has been mostly positive and I would strongly recommend ASUS gaming notebooks for their great features and tremendous value.

What I use this computer for:

I have used this particular notebook for as a complete desktop replacement system, it is my one and only PC. I do some moderate gaming, namely Call of Duty Black Ops and Modern Warfare II. Additionally, I do a bit of light video editing and audio production (Adobe Premier Elements, Adobe Audition) along with day-to-day internet browsing and word processing. For my purposes, most folks would agree the specs are total overkill but when I feel like playing a new PC game I don't want to have to suffer. The system is a power hog, so don't expect record-breaking battery life (2-3 hours with some power using features disabled, 45 minutes on full blast.) Also, the monitor's max resolution is a little low (1366 x 768) given the size of the screen (16" widescreen.) Below I'll break down some of the pros and cons.

Some of my favorite things about this system:

The case is extremely sturdy and has a very substantial feel on the desk. The keyboard feels like a real desktop keyboard and doesn't cause the screen or case to shake or flop around on your desk when you type heavily. This is a huge plus for me, given that I use this as a desktop computer.

The keyboard is backlit with several brightness settings, adjustable using the function keys.

The screen is extremely bright and crisp on its highest lamp setting, but you can also adjust the screen brightness quickly using the function keys. This is a great feature for both battery life and avoiding eye strain.

The video card offers HDMI output to a television or monitor. It also has VGA for older analog monitors and automatically switches to dual monitor output when either port is used.

There is a large heat sink with side case exhaust (not on the underside of the case) which eliminates the need for a laptop cooling pad for most users.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB graphics card is in fact a discrete, PCI-Express graphics card (x16 bus speed) not an "integrated" or "on-board" graphics card. This, of course, is the prime selling point for any laptop marketed as a "gaming machine."

The Ethernet port is on the back of the machine (thank goodness!) as is the power cord input.

Some of my least favorite things about this system:

There are 4 USB 2.0 ports, two located on each side of the case proximal to the user. For right handed users, this means that your USB ports will get directly in the way of your mouse hand if you are using an external mouse (and of course you would be considering this is a gaming laptop) Bad case design, ASUS!

The audio jacks are located (of course) on the right side of the case, proximal to the user. So, if you plug in your headset/mic you'll be cluttering your mouse pad with unruly wires which conveniently get in the way of everything. Bad case design, ASUS!

The audio jacks are *very* poorly constructed. The headphone jack microswitch is extremely likely to become "stuck" rendering your built-in speakers useless (more on this below.)

Major issues/complaints:

I only have one major issue or complaint with this laptop (and all the other ASUS laptops for that matter, since this issue is not limited to just this model.) The headphone jack microswitch has a strong tendency to become "stuck." What I mean by this is that when you plug in headphones or external speakers to the headphone jack, two pins (the microswitch) are suppressed which tell the motherboard to direct sound into the device you've plugged in. When you remove the headphone/speakers, the two pins should "pop" back out to an unsuppressed position which tell the motherboard to direct sound to the laptop's built in speakers. In this ASUS model (and most other ASUS models) this microswitch is faulty and easily damaged. In other words, when you unplug your headphones/speakers the switch remains suppressed and the built-in speakers never get "told" to turn back on. The end result: you have to use headphones or external speakers to hear any sound. This is a common, widespread and known defect with the Realtek on-board sound card in these systems and cannot be easily fixed or replaced, since a full motherboard replacement would be needed. So, it's something you should just be prepared to live with. Overall, it's merely a nuisance and not a terribly debilitating defect.

Summary and Rating:

To wrap things up, this is a great mid-range gaming system at a great price. You get a high end graphics card, a great sturdy case with a bright screen and some great little features. There are some cons with the layout of ports and such, and of course, that unruly headphone jack. But overall, I think you'd be quite pleased with the performance vs. price of this system.

Read Best Reviews of Asus G60JX-RBBX05 Intel i5-430M, 4 GB, 500 GB, NVIDIA GTS360M, Webcam, 16-Inch LED, Windows 7 Noteb Here

The machine is great. Big screen, really good to either play videogames trough the HDMI Cable or watch movies. The configurations provide a excellent gameplay, all the games I tried worked perfectly and this is very important. The battery don't last too long, but I already was aware of this and I always carry the charger, so this is not a problem for me.

I only have a little problem, that is sometimes when I unplug the charger the computer freeze and I need to turn off and start everything again, and I lost school work because of this. But Overall is a great computer and for me, it worth the price.

Want Asus G60JX-RBBX05 Intel i5-430M, 4 GB, 500 GB, NVIDIA GTS360M, Webcam, 16-Inch LED, Windows 7 Noteb Discount?

I'm a college student and this computer allows me to work fast and yet still enjoy games. Battery life is okay with me, but i plan on getting a 9 cell for it. The graphics card is great. I can edit movies and pictures at great speeds. my old laptop used to try and keep up with me, but now i can barely keep up with this baby. 4 gigs of ram allows me to run many programs at once and i haven't seen any lag or slowing. Great hard drive space and speed 7200 rmp. I was able to dual-boot windows 7 and ubuntu. WOrks excellent with ubuntu after you install the graphics driver which are available at Nvidia. Overall i am happy with this purchase. I got a great product for a Awesome Price. One of the most confusing things though was that it has a bluetooth led that lights up in ubuntu even though it physically doesn't have bluetooth built it.

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Sony VAIO T Series SVT13127CXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver)

Very nice-looking ultrabook with some decent power.

Positives:

for people who want something similar to the looks of MacBook Air 13"

for people who need more storage space than the typical SSD provides (32 GB SSD+500 HD)

fast 8GB RAM

nice screen but with somewhat restrictive view angles

for people who don't need a touchscreen (model w/Touchscreen is some $300+ more expensive)

solid construction, well-made, good materials, good feel in your hands

solid, no flex keyboard

battery is about average to better than average

battery is replaceable (instructions come in the package on how to replace battery) which is great

ports are spaced enough

Negatives:

Windows 8 -this is either a seriously misunderstood OS or it's simply completely unintuitive. Hard to get to the actual work from all the distracting tiles on the Start screen. People who are more into creating/working with their computers rather than consuming content usually turn Win 8 into a Win 7-look-alike with Start button and bypass the Win 8 Start screen.

all necessary ports are there but an additional USB port would be great.

Overall, a solid and quality product from Sony.

This product came out defective, on the fifteenth day turned off the computer for no reason, they said it was the hard drive, examined and corrected something making a scandisk, but now definitely hurt, wanted to know if any warranty applies as the disc damage hard

Buy Sony VAIO T Series SVT13127CXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) Now

Love my new computer. It came in a timely manner with instructions to set it up. Windows 8 kind of sucks, but once you figure it out, it's ok. The machine itself is wonderful. I can't tell by looking at it that it's refurbished or a factory return or whatever. I'm just happy that I found it at a reasonable price.

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO T Series SVT13127CXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) Here

This Sony Vaio T Series Ultrabook has fine design and speed. Not handling very well Windows 8, but find me it interesting.

Best regards

Want Sony VAIO T Series SVT13127CXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver) Discount?

This item was purchased for my daughter, who was under the impression that it was the Touch-screen model, and was disappointed that it was not. That said, she is overall happy with this machine, which is a considerable improvement on her old notepad. Many thanks.

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IBM ThinkPad R40 (27232FU) Laptop (1.30-GHz Pentium-M (Centrino), 256 MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Drive, DVD

Can you believe it, a laptop that looks just like a phone. Easy to hide, to avoid potential theft. Amazon should be checking their photos of products.

Update, over a year later and the still haven't fixed the picture of the product.

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Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black)

I was deciding between this (Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black)) and the ASUS 14 in bamboo (ASUS U43JC-X1 14-Inch Bamboo Laptop (10 Hours of Battery Life)) which was the same price, but the ASUS was on pre-order forever it seemed and this one was out of stock or available elsewhere for more $$. I happened to catch it back in stock one night 8/5/10. I needed to replace a 5+ yr old HP laptop and a 2 yr old HP desktop, so I wanted the power of a desktop (or near) with the portability of a laptop, and I really like the size/weight of the 14 in. This Toshiba and the ASUS were pretty even on many specs hard drive, 1 gb graphics, RAM, keyboard style, OS, i5 processor, etc so at the time it came down to availability and features. I say at the time because now that the ASUS is available, it also comes with a 150 GC which I can always use. That would've probably made me wait on the ASUS had that been made known when it was still on pre-order.

ASUS over Toshiba:

Longer battery life, 8 cell vs 6 cell on the Toshiba

USB 3.0 currently don't have a use but good for the future

WiDi I currently don't have a use for it

Bamboo finish very nice looking, would look great just sitting on the end table!

And for a limited time, that it comes with a 150 gift card, making it the cheaper option

Toshiba over ASUS:

Graphics card (both 1 gb NVIDIA plus integrated, but Toshiba's is 330 vs ASUS 310)

RAM 8 gb max both come with 4 gb but that's where ASUS maxes out

Sound reportedly better on the Toshiba but I can't say for sure, I know it sounds good and full to me

Keyboard backlit

Sleep & Charge USB port bonus but not essential for me

Sleep & Music bonus but again not essential

Labelflash printing pretty cool and might use this, so far haven't tried it

Have also seen on a couple of reviews that even though the ASUS has a 2.0 mp webcam, the quality isn't good. I don't use a webcam much so this wouldn't have been a dealbreaker either.

Trackpad buttons two instead of one like the ASUS. I've used the ASUS on a 14 in thin & light I got for my nephew and it's awkward, though I'm sure one can get used to it in time.

Bluetooth you have to get the ASUS U43JC-A1 to get bluetooth for more money.

At the same price, I think the Toshiba is probably the better deal, however the ASUS with the 150 GC would've been the better deal of the two.

Now that I have the Toshiba, what do I think? It's great so far, though nothing's perfect! The fusion finish is pretty neat and I wasn't sure what to expect based on the pictures.

Keyboard, Trackpad, mouse buttons I like the slight pattern on the trackpad, have a better feel of where I am on it without feeling like it's friction. As expected, the backlit keyboard is nice. The keyboard itself is good, the spacing, not soft, haven't noticed any flex. The keys are "slick" at first it felt odd but getting used to it. There's a row of "buttons" at the top that are touch buttons they control sound level, play/pause, wifi, and eco mode. These stay lit for easy access, as does a small light bar above the trackpad. The trackpad also has an easy on/off button above it.

DVD Playback I've burned DVD's with no problem. I went to play back a dvd I had just burned to check it, and playback was stuttering, I was worried. However, the laptop had been on for days I rebooted and all was well, playback was fine. Playing a movie was great, smooth, and the sound was full (the movie 2012). The slot loading dvd drive made a little more noise than I expected at times like during software installation but maybe that's normal? Something I'm going to monitor to make sure there's not a problem. I plan to do some home movie type editing, the reason I wanted the 1 gb VRAM and a decent processor, so have to make sure the noise doesn't indicate an impending problem.

Battery Life I'm averaging about 4 hrs when I run it all the way down. Though longer battery life would've been nice, I don't travel much at all and it would be rare that I'd need to run off of battery any longer than that. I believe a higher capacity battery is available though (12 cell) if I decide I need it. I looked into that before purchasing.

Windows 7 I had only had brief experience with Win7, while working on others' computers so this was my first real taste of it. Was still using XP except had Vista on a desktop (that is being sold now!). So far I like it, and def better than Vista. There's a slight learning curve but there are some things I have set so that things like the task bar at the bottom are more like I'm used to. I was also able to install a 32-bit software that I wasn't sure would install and run, much to my surprise. The software is several years old but it's a title I like and am used to, and was sad to think I couldn't use it. Installation however was smooth and it is running just like it did on my old XP laptop (just faster!).

WiFi I have a Cradlepoint router with N (verizon mobile internet), and had no problems connecting to it. Also have a WiFi printer (Epson Artisan 810) went to the Epson site first to get the right Win7 64 bit drivers and am able to print and scan via WiFi as well.

Noise For the most part it's quiet. My old HP laptop and desktop were deafening at times. It's not as quiet as the Dell I use for work, but close.

Heat Warm (just near the back) but bearable Though they never recommend it, I can sit it on my lap without feeling like I'll need burn cream after. Keyboard, trackpad, etc have all stayed cool.

Software/Bloatware Not bad, not as much as I thought there would be and is usually on new machines. I uninstalled Norton AV since I already have a multi-user license for McAfee Total Protection. McAfee downloaded, installed and is running with no problems. I have not tried the Toshiba online backup and don't plan to. It keeps reminding me which is annoying so I've got to see how to stop that. If I need online backup the McAfee I have actually comes with it. I transferred all my email over to Windows Live Mail from another computer. Comes with IE but I installed and use Firefox.

Office 2007 Trial Mentioning this specifically because I saw a review of another M645 model that they had problems with the trial. I didn't use it, I already had Office 2007 Enterprise, so I uninstalled the trial and installed my version.

Update 8/27/10 Picture posted. Finally stuck a SD card in, and you know how most laptops (at least my last 3) you have to push the card in til it clicks and sometimes it doesn't want to? Don't on this one. It slides in smoothly right up front (under the indicator lights, right of touchpad) and it sticks out just slightly, even less because of the angled front.

I've used this laptop for over two months now, and it does good at what I need it for: sitting in class typing down notes, web browsing, HDMI out to my big screen tv at home watching HD videos. I also needed something that could hold its own when I finally get Starcraft 2 (yes I know it's out). A cross between portability and power, and not too far off from my HP desktop performance (Intel Core2 Quad @ 2.5 GHz; 8 GB ram; Nvidia Geforce GT 240). My graphical processing needs aren't that high, much of the software I use is from the Windows XP era, so this Toshiba's Geforce GT 330m (which performs slightly worse than the desktop Geforce GT 220, and any gamer will tell you, is *NOT* a gaming card) does its job nicely.

That said, I ran 3dMark06 on this, and got a score of around 5000 or so, can't remember exactly (~14-34 FPS at Proxycon, ~12-22 at Firefly, ~7-32 at Canyon, ~15-25 at Frost, something like that).

Final Fantasy IVX's official benchmarking program gave this a ~760 out of 8000 at 1280x720 resolution. Comparatively my PC got around ~1800 at same resolution. Those are both really poor scores, but then again I don't really have time to play much PC games these days.

Previous reviews have been comparing this laptop to the Asus' new Bamboo ASUS U43JC-X1 14-Inch Bamboo Laptop (10 Hours of Battery Life), but I'll compare to what I considered while still browsing for laptops ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JX-X3 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Blue), This was 1,100 two months ago, but has dropped their price to as low as 1,000 every now and then.

Going by pure functionality, the Asus gaming one wins out in multiple areas:

-500 GB HDD @ 7200 RPM (Faster load times)

-15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 LED LCD Display; Nvidia GTS 360M Graphics Engine with 1GB DDR5 dedicated VRAM

^ This is where the Asus shines. The GTS 360M is slightly more powerful than the desktop GT 240, not exactly a pure gaming card either but over twice the power of the GT 330M!. 15.6" may be a tiny screen, but to be able to support 1920x1080 means watching Blu-ray quality videos at dot-by-dot pixel accuracy: crisp sharp images. The Toshiba plays 720p videos well but scrunches up 1080p videos making it look a bit fuzzy.

-2.0 MegaPixel web camera; I don't know too much about cameras, but my old Sony Ericsson S500i phone has a 2.0 MP camera and takes better pictures than the Toshiba's web camera. Watching myself in the web cam application, there was a lot of noise and it wasn't too clear. The webcam isn't that big of a deal as I don't really use it, but a 2.0 MP resolution web camera should be standard by now.

-10-key Numberpad: Frankly, some things are just easier with a numberpad.

So how does this Toshiba laptop hold up compared to that Asus?

-It's smaller and lighter, it may be a 14" screen but it's pretty thick itself. Granted it's stuffed with lots of integrated goodies like Bluetooth (which the Asus also has). Bluetooth actually inteferes with Wifi frequencies so I normally have it off, but to be able to have the convenience of connecting supporting peripherals is nice.

-Toshiba's processor is slightly faster; meaning its max Turbo-boost frequency is also higher; higher cpu clock frequencies means less battery life. Wait a minute...

Actually Asus also has an ability (Power4 Gear) to overclock the CPU to at least match the i5 450M frequencies, but again, not something you want to do while away from the power outlet.

Luckily with dynamic frequency clocks and Windows 7's automatic (and adjustable) power management you can underclock to save power.

Continuing on about power consumption, this Toshiba laptop incorporates the fairly new Nvidia Optimus technology. From what I understand about it, the integrated Intel HD Graphics solutions offered by the built-in GPU on the i5 chip is the primary display driver. The Geforce GT 330M takes a backseat and is only supplemental, offering processing power when deemed necessary. "Deemed necessary", that's the problem right there. Occasionally there will be a program out there that is slightly incompatible with Optimus technology because all it sees is the Intel HD Graphic's 64 MB of video memory, and not the 1 GB attached to the GT 330M. This may either cause the program to crash, or run poorly because it doesn't know about the extra GT 330M, therefore cannot utilize it. Other times the program initially runs under the Integrated graphics solution, but crashes when suddenly the Optimus technology realizes it should switch up to the High Performance.

Optimus technology isn't bad, I really like the seemless transition that I didn't see when trying out laptops with AMD Vision technology. When switching between ATI and Intel's integrated solutions, they warn of flashing and blackening of the screen, which in that case is normal during switch. This isn't the case with Optimus, everything works in the background, because rather than two seperate entities like ATI/Intel, it's Intel + Nvidia. Eventually (and hopefully) they'll have it all sorted out.

Examples of Optimus Technology flops:

-Running Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 under High Performance Nvidia GPU: Program stalls and eats up 25% (one "core") of the i5's total processing power. Had to run under Integrated Graphics in order to use the program.

-Running the PS2 Emulator PCSX2 0.9.7 under Integrated Graphics will crash as soon as it overflows the 64 MB of video memory (At least that's what I think, or it could be the attempt to switch up, because starting off with the GT 330M I was able to run stable past the crashing point. Final Fantasy X After the initial Square-Enix logo + Final Fantasy X Project, crashed entering the opening Zanarkand scene, Error message referenced the Intel HD Driver)

-I can't run Portal, even with the latest Nvidia drivers + Optimus updates. Launching from Steam hl2.exe*32 will appear in task manager for a split second then apparently crash. SAD THERE IS NO CAKE. I will try and try again, some people have managed to get Portal running with Optimus but depended on their integrated hardware.

Other things to talk about in this long review:

-The Toshiba laptop BIOS has an option to disable multi-core processing. THIS IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH DISABLING HYPER-THREADING. I did not find an option to disable HT, but disabling Multi-core processing will disable both HT, *AND* the one of the logical Cores. Congratulations, this option sends us back to the 2003 era. A single core can easily gets stressed out, disabling HT but keeping dual-cores would only be 2 years backwards, except rather than a 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo, you have a 32nm Intel "Core 2 Duo", which uses up less power and generates less heat. HT may have changed since the days Pentium 4s were using them, but back then they generated more heat and requires additional power and hardware resources. Basically two physical cores is better than a single core with HT.

-The plastic encasing for the screen is a bit flimsy, it's strong enough that you can grab hold of the laptop with one hand to walk around with, fingers clamped on the side, but the plastic encasing will bend. Don't think the screen itself is bending with it, but I wouldn't want to stress the center "Toshiba" part of the screen too much to find out.

-The slot loading drive is nice, but no matter what design they make, a DVD disc will always take up the same amount of space going in and out.

-Both the Toshiba and Asus have the backlit keyboard, not sure which one is brighter, but Toshiba's is bright and normally I find myself turning off the keyboard illumination. One review I read says the Asus' logo on the outward side of the screen lights up too, making is really apparent you're using a high-end laptop. Same with the Toshiba, there's no way to just illuminate the keyboard, have not have the "Satellite" on the lower left hand corner light up.

-Battery Life: I was able to get little over 3 hours of usage with a full charge while in classes doing very little, 2-3 hours worth of "normal" usage. Full stress of CPU + GPU will have power usage of over 55 Watts/Hour. Since the 6-cell battery they give is rated 48 Wh/Hour, the battery will be depleted before a hour is over. 5 hours is completely "realistic" only if you turn on the laptop, open notepad, set to Eco mode, and do nothing but type one letter every 3 minutes or so. They're practically screaming for you to buy their ~61 Wh/Hour 6-cell battery on their Toshibadirect website. Currently there's a deal going on where you can get ~30% off with two coupons, but it's expiring soon, if not already (This review written Sept 14 2010).

In conclusion, if you're looking for a decent laptop with plenty of features and portability, this is one to check out. Competition is fierce and there's plenty of other laptops that may have just what you need (that Asus Bamboo other reviews are talking about for maximum portability beyond a netbook for one, and like I said before I compared it with the Asus gaming laptop because of its specs + price). Other things you'd need to consider is laptop size, this Toshiba one is a bit on the thick side for a 14", given its internal components. I do admit the Asus Bamboo for $850 after $150 Gift Card is awesome. The comparable Asus' gaming laptop for the around the same $1000 price however has nearly all matching or better specifications but is around 2 pounts heavier, bigger, but its screen is best in its class for 15.6".

Just need portability and no need for any games? Get the Asus Bamboo!

Something inbetween? Get this one!

High performance graphical processing needed? Get the Asus Gaming models!

Want to spend rediculous amounts of money on inferior specifications? Get a MacBook Pro!

Thanks for anyone who took the time to read this; I don't regret getting this particular laptop too much, it's basically perfect for what I need. It's just once I start comparing purely from specs rather than what I need.. well you read it!

Buy Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

Bottomline: Laptops are difficult to upgrade as technology improves and computer programs demand more RAM or graphics power, I felt the RAM upgradeable feature and the better graphics card put this Toshiba over the top. That along with the higher build quality means that this Toshiba offers good value at this price.

Best features: i5-450M processor, Nvidia 1gb GT330M, 4gb RAM (8gb expandable), Harman/Kardon Speakers, and Backlit Keyboard!

Like other reviewers I wanted a good quality, powerful, and lightweight laptop. This Toshiba M645-S4055 really had the best bang for the buck when compared to the competition.

Sure you pay a bit more for the Toshiba, but really having owned HP's in the past, I can say thatToshiba is the best PC maker, they are probably the only PC maker that can compete with Apple for build quality.

I compared this 14" to the ASUS bamboo 14" and although now Amazon gives your the $150 gift card with the ASUS, I still think this Laptop will be better in the long run. I checked out the ASUS at bestbuy to visually get a hand on the Bamboo covering, for sure its nice and I almost purchased it. But the bamboo finish felt cheaper and shows finger prints easily.

The Toshiba is better in these select but important categories:

Quality Build: The Laptop feels solid and high quality, the Fusion finish is cool and solid.

Keyboard: Backlit LED lighting (now that I have this, I can't be without it)

Graphics: Nvidia 1gb discrete and switchable graphics (GT 330M vs. 310M, the Toshiba graphics are faster).

RAM: 4gb, but most importantly expandable to 8gb (ASUS is 4gb max)

CD/DVD: The load drive is a slot not a carrier you have to pull out, this design is much better.

Speakers: Sound is probably the best laptop at this price, clear room filling.

Touchpad: has pinch to zoom and hand swipe recognition.

Ultimately the price of the ASUS with the $150 GC is a good deal, but I feel like I can get more life and years out of the Toshiba, which in the end will justify the price. Also the keyboard and touchpad on the ASUS with Bamboo does not feel solid and pressing on the mouse buttons is hard and without much feedback.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Satellite M645-S4055 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

I use my M645 daily as my main computer, as I don't have a desktop computer. I am enjoying using it quite a bit.

Pros:

1)Great speakers. The best speakers I've ever had on a laptop. My girlfriend bought an external add-on speaker bar for her laptop because her laptop speakers suck. The M645's are just as good as her externals.

2)Keyboard. My previous laptop was a Macbook Pro from 2007. I liked that keyboard quite a bit, but I like this one more. The keys are "clickier" which lets me know for sure whether I've pressed a key completely or not. I didn't think I'd be a fan of where the FN key is (between CTRL and "Windows" keys), but it turns out that it's not a problem at all.

3)Game playing. It rocks at games. I admit I haven't played anything super new, but the games I've played haven't had any problems at max settings. These include Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Bioshock, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Just make sure to have the latest drivers from nVidia because I had problems with Fallout 3. Some games have a problem recognizing the discreet graphics chip and the latest drivers help with that.

4)"Chain link" texture. Almost the entire body is covered in a chain link texture. It's very nice. It's grippy, prevents glare, and keeps fingerprints from showing up. Two thumbs up!

Now the CONS:

1) I don't care for the touch strip above the keyboard. All the functions (and more) are replicated with the FN key.

2)Bloatware. It comes with a lot of Toshiba crapware. All of which can be uninstalled and I recommend it. Some of it's kind of cool, but ultimately useless for most people.

3)The keyboard lighting is nice, but it can't be dimmed or controlled in any way, short of turning it off. I came from a Mac, and that keyboard automatically dimmed based on lighting conditions. I'm unimpressed with Toshiba on this.

4)Screen dimming is not very useful. It's the same complaint as my last one. My Mac would automatically dim or brighten based on lighting conditions. At least Toshiba implemented a crappy dimming feature versus none at all. It has 8 brightness levels. Which sounds like a lot, but the difference between them isn't enough. I basically only use the lowest and highest settings.

5)Battery. I know it's got a lot more power than my old Mac, but the battery drains really quickly while not doing much at all.

That's about it. I hope this helps anyone reading this to make a more informed decision! Overall I would definitely buy it again.

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Toshiba manufactures the M645-S4050 exclusively for Best Buy, the everyday price is $720. It is identical to this laptop in every respect except for 3 items. The M645-S4055 comes with Bluetooth, a slightly more powerful graphics card, and a backlit keyboard. If these features are not that important to you, you could save at least a couple hundred after tax on the M645-S4050. I own one and for the price it is quite a bargain.

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Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeFor

I got the latest XPS 17 aka L702x last month to replace an HP Pavilion dv6. The specifications are,

CPU: i7-2630QM

DRAM: 6GB DDR3-1333

Screen: 17.3in FHD 3D

GPU: GeForce GT555M 1GB

Hard Drive: 640GB

Optical Drive: Blu-ray burner

Battery: 9-cell

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium.

My first impression is that the XPS is huge compared to the HP, even though the screen is just 1 inch bigger. The weight is also substantially greater. The 9-cell battery protrudes from the bottom, making it even harder to fit into tight space. Although the 9-cell is supposed to extend the battery life, I get just under 3 hours in mixed usage. So, the XPS is a desk-top replacement through and through. If mobility is an important consideration, the XPS 15 can be had with the same CPU and screen resolution, and will be a much better choice.

In terms of computing power, the XPS does not disappoint. The i7-2630QM is capable of 8 threads simultaneously, and I have not experienced any slow-down so far due to CPU overload. The GT555M can run all the latest 3D games if the graphics is set to low quality, but it gets really hot and loud, not to mention the quick battery drain. For gaming, a good desk-top remains the best option. The XPS comes with a pair of 3D glass, but I have not had the urge to try it out either for movie, because of the lack of interesting media, or for games, due to the heat and noise the GPU generates. I intend to use the computer for numerical work, and the CPU, the memory system and the hard drives are the key components.

6GB of memory and a 5400-rpm drive do not match well with the high-performing 2630QM, and I had planned to upgrade them right after the purchase. Once the machine arrives and gets its belly opened up, however, I am shocked to find just 2 SODIMM slots. Dell is advertising "up to 16GB RAM" in 4GBx4 configuration, and this is clearly not the case. After some exhaustive research, I finally find the explanation in an obscure Dell customer forum. It turns out that, to save literally a few pennies, Dell has used two different motherboards in the same model: one with 4 SODIMM slots and 3GB of GDDR RAM, the other with 2 SODIMM slots and 1GB of GDDR RAM. I had noticed and got puzzled by the $170 price difference when one stepped up from the GT555M 1GB to the GT555M 3GB. This kind of explains Dell's thought process in the pricing hierarchy. Still, I am upset that Dell fails to explain any of this on its website because there are customers like myself who do not care about the graphic RAM but do want to have the potential to upgrade to 16GB of system memory. I had paid $300 extra compared to HP dv7 for Dell exactly because XPS was supposed to be a premium brand without too much corner-cutting, but I under-estimated Dell's capacity for taking advantage of their customers. In the end, I can only replace the 2GB SODIMM with a 4GB module. The swap costs me $30 after the old SODIMM is sold on ebay, still much less than what Dell would have charged me to upgrade to 8GB memory in the factory.

Upgrading the hard drives, on the other hand, is something that the designers of XPS obviously take into account. The XPS comes with 2 drive bays, with the 640GB drive occupying the first one only. I have a new Crucial RealSSD C300 Solid state drive 64 GB internal 2.5" SATA-600 ready and just have to move the 640GB drive to the second slot before replacing the SSD in the primary drive bay. Unfortunately, these drive bays are covered with aluminum shields that are attached to the motherboard with tiny screws. I strip one of the screw heads by using a driver a little too large. This necessitates some drilling followed by the application of a screw extractor. The whole process is extremely scary because of the danger of breaking the motherboard, and should be avoided if at all possible. In the end, I have to say that installing the SSD is quite straightforward if I had not had the accident with the screw. Once the hardware is in place, I reinstall the OS with the DVD which had cost me $19 extra, and wipe the 640GB drive to use for data. All the drivers are either included in a free DVD or can be downloaded from Dell's support site easily. The applications such as PowerDVD, however, are nowhere to be found. I have to call Dell support line and have the DVDs shipped to me, but they are at least free of charge. All together, the pre-installed softwares including the OS take up 30GB, leaving 29GB of usable space ("64GB" drives really have only 59GB of usable space in another case of misleading vendor advertisement.) on the SSD for other applications.

Once the upgrades are done, I am very happy with the performance of the machine. The SSD really makes a big difference. Windows 7 boots up at under 15 seconds and shuts down in 10. For this alone, I am willing to endure the bulk of the XPS 17 for the dual drive bays. Overall, however, I am somewhat less happy with Dell than HP for three reasons:

1. The HP dv6 just seemed more tightly put together;

2. I did not experienced misleading feature descriptions with HP;

3. I miss the fingerprint scanner on the HP notebook.

========================== Added 9/2/2011 ==========================

I replaced the boot drive on another PC with an SSD recently. This was an older computer and the drive had been cluttered with various files and programs. Reinstalling everything seemed impractical, so I went looking in download.com for a drive-cloning software. I tried Acronis first, but it was extremely buggy and the trial version did not allow downsized cloning. Eventually, I found EaseUs Todo Backup Free 3.0. It worked very well and, as the name suggested, was totally free. If I have to do it again, EaseUs is the way to go.

========================== Added 3/20/2012 ==========================

Although Intel does not officially support 8GB SODIMM modules with the HM67 chipset used in this Dell, intrepid users have tried them and generally found the new denser format to work just fine. As the price for these new SODIMM comes down, I give it a try as well and it works! Now this XPS sports 16GB of DRAM even though Dell has seen fit to equip it with only two SODIMM slots.

I bought a Dell XPS 17 directly from Dell. It came with a defective screen. So I called Dell. The screen replacement was on back order, but they said they could ship me a replacement computer with identical specs immediately. I received the replacement computer just two days later. Unfortunately the replacement computer had severely downgraded specifications. 900p screen instead of the 1080p screen, i7-2630 processor instead of i7-2720, gt550m graphics instead of gt555m.

In every way possible they replaced my computer with inferior components.

I immediately called Dell and proceeded to be put on hold and bounced around for over 6 hours trying to get the issue resolved.

As I write this I am on hold yet again with a Dell representative who is completely unable or unwilling to assist me.

I cannot speak to anyone in the United States for support without paying an additional $250 for some support package

Buy Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeFor Now

I bought this computer in 2011 and have had nothing but trouble with it. Almost every piece of it has been replaced at least once. I have had three keyboards, and I still have trouble with typing. I have had to reformat the hard drive three times, because Dell techs couldn't figure out what was wrong. I decided recently that I wanted to upgrade the hard drive from 500gb to 750gb, and I thought I would be getting a faster hard drive. Dell gave me the specs on one made by Samsung that they said would fit. I ordered it from Amazon, and it didn't fit into the laptop. So I ordered one from Dell and was told it would be delivered on June 5. It wasn't. The email they sent said to check for a tracking number, so I tried that and couldn't retrieve one. I called Dell and got two different answers: one, it must be in stock or we wouldn't have sold it to you; two, it isn't in stock, and we don't know if or when it will be, but we will find out. Today I get a third answer; it isn't in stock, but the expected delivery date is June 12; since it isn't in stock we don't know when it will ship, but you have to wait until June 12. One suggestion a customer service rep offered today is to buy a hard drive from Walmart or Staples who he assured me would know which brand and model would fit this computer. I don't trust either place to have the right answer. One option is to just buy a new computer, but this one was too expensive to discard after little more than two years. Besides the OS is Windows 7, and I've read too many negative things about Windows 8 to even try it.

Read Best Reviews of Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeFor Here

PROS: Display is nice, weight not too bad, keyboard is good, speakers are awesome

CONS: Extremely unreliable, battery not great, track pad not good, and some serious hardware issues

OVERALL: This product is not worth your money.

When I bought it, it wouldn't play dvd's. Had to waste hours of my time dealing with completely lame customer service to get it fixed. Even after that, problems continued to pile up, conveniently right after the warranty ran out. USB ports will stop working randomly. The track pad, which isn't good to start with, sometimes will turn permanently on, making typing difficult, or not work at all. Last of all, using Photoshop makes the graphics card (which is supposedly good) crash my computer on a daily basis.

CONCLUSION: I will never buy a Dell again after how I was treated as a consumer.

Want Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeFor Discount?

The Specs Listed in the title aren't the Specs being sold by Hayley. The laptop Hayley is selling is a Dell XPS 17 but more beefed up then what the product name says it is. Its listed as "Dell XPS 17 Laptop, i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3 Memory, 17.3in FHD WLED AG (1920x1080) Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus, 500GB 7200 RPM HD, Tray Load CD/DVD Burner, Windows 7 Home Premium".

The seller Hayley is is offer the Dell XPS 17 with in the following condition and specs, "From Dell, never used or opened" with specs that include: " Genuine Windows® Home Premium 64-Bit English, 2nd generation Intel® Core(tm) i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz, Memory 8GHz Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory, Standard Keyboard English, "17.3" HD+ (900p) LED Display with 2.0MP HD Webcam, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus and TV Tuner, 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2, Color Elemental Silver Aluminum,Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9, CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs), JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3, Wireless Plus Bluetooth and Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000, Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed), Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook, Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 30-Day Trial

Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, Hardware Support Services, and very importantly 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty (Mail-in repair in 10-14 business days Shipping not included), Data Safe DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year.

When I clicked on the link to the XPS 17 to check it out I was skeptic because it didn't seem to be much from what i could see from the specs listed on the site. When I did click on the link I was wasn't let down by the specs listed because I knew this was a laptop that that had the potential to be beefed up. If it wasn't for the good things I've herd about the XPS 17 I would have never clicked the link, and after I did I saw the specs listed in the title weren't even as good as I hoped, but when I checked the other new XPS 17's by other users, which was Hayley's because she was the only person that had some listed for sale, The specs blew me away and came with a Dell one year warranty, I was shocked. The equivalent XPS on the Dell site was selling for more but the specs listed for the XPS Hayley is selling here on Ebay, but the specs reflected what I thought a High Performance Dell XPS 17 should be.

I highly recommend this laptop if your looking for a great overall high performance laptop and the warranty it comes with can be renewed.

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Sony VAIO VPCF136FM/B 16.4" Notebook (1.73 GHz Intel Core i7 - 740QM Processor, 6 GB RAM, 640 GB Ha

I did quite a bit of research for a new laptop. This Sony Vaio is excellent for the price. I wanted to make my own laptop on dell and sony website and everything was way above this price with all these features. For excellent performance and added features I didnt mind spending this much. I play games with no problem and multi task with amazing speed. The fan noise is a little loud at times of long gaming but I expected that. Overall I recommend this laptop.

I just purchased my Sony laptop to replace a 2 year old HP pavillion series that had many overheating problems. This laptop is does not have much lag time and does not seem to have the same over heating issues. I know I could feel different long term, but this last month I have been very pleased with how it runs my applications/games. I was even pleased that it did not seem to be burdened with a lot of extra programs. I definately would recommend this laptop for someone who need a little faster processing laptop. I know there are a few cons, but I have not run into the problem of accidently turning it off because the turn off is on the side where the mouse may be.

Buy Sony VAIO VPCF136FM/B 16.4" Notebook (1.73 GHz Intel Core i7 - 740QM Processor, 6 GB RAM, 640 GB Ha Now

I've owned this laptop since Jan 2011 and its been great. Great hardware and all-around performance. I bought it at a brick and mortar store for $1300 after taxes, so $1800 strikes me as pricey (maybe I just got lucky?) but it was a great value buy for me.

Battery life is short(90-100min) if you're using wi-fi or running the bluray drive, however if you have the wi-fi off it jumps up to almost 3hrs on power saver mode. I haven't had issues since I plan around those things. In addition the 5400rpm harddrive seems rather laggy if you're running large programs, not annoying but noticeable when loading sometimes.

I'm currently looking into a RAM upgrade and getting an SSD drive to replace the stock hdd to help with "laggy" feeling.

All in all, this is a great laptop if you can find it at the right price point. I highly recommend it!

Read Best Reviews of Sony VAIO VPCF136FM/B 16.4" Notebook (1.73 GHz Intel Core i7 - 740QM Processor, 6 GB RAM, 640 GB Ha Here

Great cinouter, however, updates and light programs cause the keyboard to heat up and its noisey as hell. Research Sony Vaios as a whole on youtube. The fans are riduclous.

Want Sony VAIO VPCF136FM/B 16.4" Notebook (1.73 GHz Intel Core i7 - 740QM Processor, 6 GB RAM, 640 GB Ha Discount?

I find this laptop to be super fast and efficient for video editing, etc. so have to give it 5 stars. Using CS5 Creative Suite Pro Premiere Pro and it's a breeze working on this Vaio model. Left it at the standard 6G of RAM but upgraded the OS to Windows Ultimate (actually, dual-booted so I can continue to have Sony coverage).

Minor down-side is battery life (to be expected for i7 CPU) and also the fan nice (again, loaded machines tend to generate more heat). Bought it from the Sony outlet Center for a cut-throat price so am super-happy.

Bought my keyboard skin on eBay (from China because Sony didn't make em). Got my protector case and adapter case from Amazon (zero tax) so I'm all good.

Don't forget to email yourself the Serial Number for this and other gadgets you may have in case it's lost or stolen ;)

Good luck!

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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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