Dell Latitude E6430 - 14" - Core i7 3520M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD -

I spent some time with this machine when I set it up for a customer we bought it for. The machine I am reviewing is the "s" model, which was custom configured for the customer.

This is the newest variant of the Latitude business-class notebook PC's. The e6430 is designed to have the same footprint as a 13" notebook, but sports a larger 14" display. It's still really compact, although not as thin or light as a competitor's notebook, but that's ok because this isn't designed to be an ultra-lightweight machine. It's still about 4 lbs, which is a couple lbs. lighter than the E6500 or D5500 series Lats. It's pretty thin, not as thin as my MacBook Pro though.

It's made mostly out of plastic, which isn't a bad thing because plastic is lightweight and durable, and if you drop it, it won't dent or deform like an aluminum or aluminum-clad machine. The top of the display cover and some trim pieces are clad in brushed aluminum though, and that makes it look really nice and adds some scratch resistance. You still get the same features as the bigger Lats like the weird pointer button and finger buttons above the trackpad, which is also programmable for multitouch input (pinch to zoom, rotate, etc.). It's a little small, but that's not a problem as I found it really easy to use. The trackpad mouse buttons and palm rests are coated in soft touch rubber, which feels really nice. The keyboard is backlit and has 3 brightness settings. It turns off when you aren't using it though,. The keyboard is sealed underneath to protect the components inside if you splash or spill something on it. The permimeter of the laptop is also reinforced with plastic and the display lid is sealed to the chassis with a rubber seal. The screen lid locks into place with a sturdy latch system. Overall, this machine is very well-built and the build quality is top-notch. It doesn't feel cheap or flimsy, or fragile like some other laptops. I wouldn't feel so bad if I dropped this one as it would probably just scuff the plastic trim whereas with a MacBook or other "unibody" machine, you'd get a big ugly dent.

The OS is Windows 7 Pro 32-bit, which we chose because the RAM is only 4 GB. It will take up to 8 GB, and with only 4 this is still a smoking fast machine.

The 14" display is 1366x768 LED backlit LCD display with the anti glare coating, which for a machine in this price range is just mediocre. There are 2 USB SS 3.0 ports, a VGA, eSATA, mini HDMI, and ethernet ports.It includes a 8x super multi writer drive (DVD R+RW. CD-R R/W) that reads, writes, and re-writes CD's and single or dual layer DVD's. The internal hardware is what makes this machine so great. Inside is Intel's 4000 graphics chip, and one of the most powerful mobile CPU's on the market. The E6430s is configured with Intel's 3rd gen Core i7 3520m quad core CPU 2.9 GHz 4 MB cache, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM, Dell's 1520 802.11 g/n single band mini WiFi card, and the optional Dell Mobility 256 GB SATA 6 gb/s solid state drive (SSD) which was a $600 option and brought the price to this machine up to a hair under $2,100. I also tested this in the less-powerful i5 2.8 GHz CPU and standard hard drive and it's still extremely fast. It performs like a $2,000 laptop should.

The hardware makes this a smoking fast machine. From POST to Windows desktop is a hair under 8 seconds. Apps and large resource-hogging programs like iTunes and Photoshop didn't slow it down at all. Installing things like Windows service packs, updates Office with service packs was very fast. I'm an IT tech, and can honestly say this is the fastest machine I have ever worked on, and I've had my hands on some pretty impressive computers. It will do everything you ask it to and a lot more. It's not an ultra high end entertainment or gaming laptop like the XPS line or Alienware. It doesn't have a super high res screen, super thin chassis, or made of exotic materials. This is designed for a business user as a mobile workstation, and perfect for anyone who needs a fast, portable, rugged, no-nonsense machine with good battery life. I ran this computer without being plugged for over 2 hours and the battery gauge barely moved. I have no doubts this would last for 6 hours on a charge. Plus, it's easy to use. The keyboard isn't cramped and the palm rests are sufficiently large. Dell also doesn't ship their computers with loads of bloatware or unnecessary trial programs that expire, or are just annoying. You can tell that Dell designed this to be a mobile workstation. It also works with the port-replicator dock thanks to the connector port on the bottom, so you can mount extra USB devices, 2 monitors, or other devices when you want to use it like a desktop.

The 14" screen makes viewing documents easy, and is a lot nicer to work on than an ultra book or netbook. However, for a machine costing $2,100, I wished it was thinner, lighter, and had a better display. This is supposed to run with the MacBook Pro 13 and even 15, and I think it does a great job at it, but I think Dell could have done better. The i5 model of this is just as fast and it's about $300 cheaper (minus the SSD).

Pros:

Latest Intel i7 mobile CPU

Fast RAM

SSD

Lightweight

Fantastic build quality

Nice display

Good battery life

Dell quality

2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and eSATA

Able to connect to Dell's port replicator dock

Cons:

Display is just mediocre

Could be thinner and lighter

A little on the expensive side

I have no reservations recommending the Latitude 6430s. It's a no-frills, solid, well-built, and high performance business computer, but will be equally at home in your home as much as the office! Check out the new Latitude E6430 line before you shop elsewhere. They might be more expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

This was a big leap from my refined ultrabook lifestyle. I tried this out and was blown away by the performance. The battery lasted me, quite literally, all day and that was with me running a plethora of tabs and applications.

What I Love:

-Rugged Design, seems like it can withstand anything

-Built to last

-Perfect Size, easy to just pick up and go

-Price on Amazon is much lower then what I have seen at other places

-All the ports I could ever need

-i7 Processor doesn't disappoint

-Battery lasted me all day (approximately 9-10 hours of constant use)

-Screen has superb visibility inside and outside

What I don't Like:

-Over 6 pounds (I really don't mind, but others may)

Overall, 5/5 Stars

Buy Dell Latitude E6430 - 14" - Core i7 3520M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - Now

I have been a loyal Dell customer for over 15 years. The E6430 is about to change that. This laptop is the product of a cost cutting exercise. The screen is the main problem. At 1600x900 it's smaller than that of the E6410. The laptop lid size, however, remains the same. There's now a ridiculous strip of wasted space above the screen, the only purpose of which is to make it hard to open when used in an airplane. The screen contrast is abysmal and has a unpleasant "checked" quality to it. The E6410 has an excellent, sharp screen.

I will be returning mine.

Read Best Reviews of Dell Latitude E6430 - 14" - Core i7 3520M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - Here

I made my purchases directly through Dell.

I have been a loyal Dell customer since 1999.

Prior to the Latitude E Series Lap Top Dell really had a reputation for building a machine that could be a dependable work-horse.

I have purchased several E Series Latitude note books and I have to tell you. THESE MACHINES ARE POORLY MADE and WILL MALFUNCTION all the time.

I have spent 100's of hours on the phone with tech support with the E series note books. I have had technicians perform onsite service and I have had system replacement. None of this is convenient. It has cost me thousands in lost productivity.

I can't say it enough DO NOT BUY A DELL NOTE BOOK!! You will regret it.

A partial list of Issues that I have had -

1. Mother Board Replaced due to Wireless Malfunction;

2. Mother Board Replaced due to Overheating;

3. Mother Board Replaced due to Finger Print Reader Not Working;

4. Complete System Replacement;

5. Returning a machine to their repair depot only to get it sent back to me with a completely malfunctioning hard drive they made no attempt to notify me that the PC was not fixed; and

6. Complete Hard Drive Replacement.

PS. This is only one of several E Series note books that I use on a regular basis. They all have similar issues. Some of the issues are present right out of the box. Dell makes no effort to ensure that the system that you buy is configured the way you ordered it. Here is the kicker if you are willing to spend a day on the phone with them, they will walk you through the configuration that you bought and paid for when you purchased the machine. In other words, you get to work for Dell but don't get paid.

Want Dell Latitude E6430 - 14" - Core i7 3520M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - Discount?

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Alienware M17X 17.3" Black Laptop

Pros: Cool looking exterior. Top of the line video card.

Cons: Overpriced. Easily overheats. Sub par components. Poorly engineered on the inside.

I have owned four Alienware computers, including three laptops and one desktop computer. I was severely disappointed with all of them. My first two laptops all died within one year. And, my last two were replacement computers given to me by Alienware and lasted no more than two years. They have a bunch of power under the hood and therefore have a short shelf life. Although Alienware computers look really cool on the outside, it's what's on the inside that is horrendous. With exception to the graphics card, the rest of the components are poor quality. And, the engineers at Alienware did a poor job in constructing the computers. Placing the hard drive next to an overheating video card is not smart engineering. Furthermore, screws were missing on the inside and the casing is typically made out of cheap plastic. I highly recommend to stay away from Alienware and consider other high-end gaming computer brands.

I have owned this laptop for about 8 months at this point. Let me tell you that is by far the fastest laptop I have ever used. It handles most games with ease at full graphics.

That being said there is a major flaw with this laptop. Within 2 months of owning the laptop, the keys started popping off. Dell does have a picture tutorial on how to put this keys back on, but if you follow the tutorial it will often lead to adjacent keys popping off. And if you push too hard when trying to get the keys to latch, then you are out of luck. Luckily my first experience with Alienware customer service ended in a keyboard replacement in less than 2 days from calling tech support. However when it started happening again tech support was not that helpful. I was told I would need to purchase a replacement keyboard for $110! The laptop is under warranty for 4 more months. I was even considering extending the warranty.

My suggestion is to use the built in keyboard as little as possible. I use a logitech keyboard now, my biggest issue is now the laptop does not really travel easily anymore.

Buy Alienware M17X 17.3" Black Laptop Now

this is awesome. it doesn't lag at all for FPS games including Modern Warfare 3.

you can play at high performances and still no lag :O

All I have to say is that this is the best gaming laptop I've ever got, the 3d features are also really nice but most games

don't have 3d so i don't recommend 3d. Thanks for reading .

MAKE SURE YOU BUY THIS.

#

Read Best Reviews of Alienware M17X 17.3" Black Laptop Here

this computer is awesome for all my games. i can even hook up my xbox 360 and ps3 through the hdmi ports. and i can hook up the computer to the tv through the hdmi port.

Want Alienware M17X 17.3" Black Laptop Discount?

First of all, let me say in plain english, Do Not Buy an M17x or any other Alienware PC.

I remember that once upon a time, dell was a great company. They built quality consoles, they had the warranty that set the industry standard, they cared about their customer support. It is clear to me that these things no longer matter to Dell. A big name and customer loyalty brings us back time after time. Over the past decade, I have given them dozens of referrals and direct purchases, but in the year since I purchased my dell M17x 8GB with dual Nvidia 260M graphics in SLI and an Intel i7 processor, I have actively scuttled just as many purchases by telling all about my personal experience.

Its unstable. Out of the box, brand spanking new, it barely even qualifies as a paper weight. It took me 3 days, and probably 30 hours to get through simply downloading and installing window's updates, firmware mismatches all kinds of errors and stuff that i'll get into later caused me so many problems that its not even funny. If your top of the line(or at least above average) gaming PC can't even run Mcaffee or your own on-board Aliensense programs, then how the hell are you going to run dragon age, fallout, league of legends, even counterstrike or NES Emus?

So, what kinds of problems did I experience? The laptop will power down completely without even attempting to shutdown windows and completely without warning. The screen goes solid white with a streak of random pixels near the bottom. The computer freezes... FREEZES. I haven't seen that since High-school and Pentium 3. and these errors can occur with or without an obnoxiously loud tone blasting me in the face for a minimum of 3 seconds while i try to hard off the PC.

The obvious issues. Well, first of all there was an obvious NVIDIA driver conflict with something on-board. since alien-sense is the only non-standard program that comes pre-installed, i choose to blame that, however it doesn't really matter. after trying 5-6 other Nvidia drivers I find one that doesn't crash my computer every 30 mins like clockwork. Issue two. Poor design. The screen is too far back, the external shell gets too hot, too fast thanks to poor internal cooling, mother-board has no internal sensors on-board, inferior components like the SSD that they charged me to install but has a SLOWER read/write speed than my last HDD. Also the "break me" button at the top right has no tactile response, no toggle and no "oh i didn't mean to break my pc, UNDO" button. see below.

Less obvious problems. the "break me" button also called "stealth mode" instantly insures that you will not have a moment's rest until you figure out what exactly stealth mode is and why you never-ever want to graze that button. Stealth mode is dell's commitment to green in action. when you touch that button, it will instantly shut off all graphics cards except for the one built into the i7(which cant handle much) underclock your CPU, shut down anything that is drawing power from a USB port, kill your wifi, bluetooth, even your keyboard lighting. anything to conserve power, except of course toggle down the brightness on your monitor. you need to use window's settings to do that. and before you ask, no. you can neither disable, nor change the settings of the "break me" button, and no. once "break me" mode is initiated, you can't turn it off. you must unplug the pc, power down the pc restart the pc, go into the Bios for the PC, mess with the settings re-enabling all the stuff that is disabled(like your USB port and hybrid graphics), plug in your pc and restart it. first of all, the creation of such a button on a GAMING PC is just dumb. next everything it does, you can do through settings or by unplugging your externals, windows calls this "power management." third, there is no way to make this setup stable. i need at least one GPU to run windows for more than 5 minutes without it crashing, period. hence the "break me" button.

also if the laptop comes unplugged, perhaps you foolishly wanted to present a project or surf the web while watching TV you must restart your computer in order to re-enable hybrid graphics, i guess the battery just can't provide that much power. I do get an NVIDIA GPU though which is handy if i'm not interested in gaming or doing anything processor intensive. it should be noted that i needed an alienware patch before, under some circumstances, the power supply that came with the PC was recognized as "the proper" power supply. as if i happened to have a compatible low-watt version hanging out at home and i thought "gee, all computer parts are interchangeable" derp.

presently, my alienware pc is more or less stable. but, needless to say, i came very very close to sending it back before everything clicked. i say more or less because it can still glitch out when i push it and every once in a while when i don't. so i say it again. Don't buy an Alienware M17x. I hear good things about ASUS, Lenovo, and even HP if you aren't obsessive about high end graphics.

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HP Envy 4-1130us 14-Inch Ultrabook (Black)

Screen: My last laptop was a late 2011 macbook pro. Other reviews are saying that the screen is bad and some are saying it's good. Compared to the screen on the macbook it's worse. The screen isn't terrible but it isn't going to win any awards.

Keyboard: The keyboard layout is similar to the mac. The keys light up but don't change intensity. The backspace key doesn't quite fit right. Depending on the angle you type at you may notice it when typing.

Processing: I don't know why other reviews say this laptop is only for light workloads. This i5 processor in this laptop is fully capable of heavy workloads. It can run super pi 1 mb faster than an AMD FX-8320 desktop processor. On more realistic tests its about the same as the mobile AMD A10 processors. Power usage however is much lower for the i5 compared to either processor.

Graphics: The integrated graphics in the Ivy-Bridge processors is amazing. Its no graphics card but for the efficiency its perfect.

Sound: The beats audio isn't meant to blow you away. The main benefit is the sound card driver for beats audio is not the speakers itself. With beats audio the sound quality with headphones is great!

Build/Design: This laptop is built really well. HP did a great job on the design. It's small and lightweight while not feeling cheap or sacrificing on battery. (Actually battery life is around 5-6 hours depending on usage and after removing all of HP's bloatware) The black aluminum looks really cool as long as it's clean. This thing attracts shows smudges and lint more than anything I've ever seen.

To help the washed out look of the screen try the following:

1. Right click on the desktop

2. Select "Graphics Properties"

3. Display/Color Enhancement

4. Use the sliders to change:

a. Brightness 10

b. Contrast 45

c. Gamma 0.8

d. Saturation 5

5. Apply

This does reduce overall brightness but you will get much darker blacks and a wider range of color differences. Gradients appear much better and text is much more clear.

The fit/finish of the laptop is amazing. Very solid, reminds me of my Macbook Pro. Has all the ports I was looking for including gigabit Ethernet. (Excluded on the XPS 13 and why I choose HP) Boot times are the fastest I've seen in any laptop thanks to Windows 8 and the hybrid SSD drive. 10 seconds and your ready to launch applications.

So why only 3 stars? The Screen.... After you get over the lovely fit/finish and start the laptop your greeted to a screen with noticeable back-light bleed. Blacks appear grey and the viewing angle is extremely limited. This screen belongs on a $350 Black Friday special not an "Envy". If you can keep your angle just right the screen looks decent but having used far better screens on laptops 3-4 years older I was very disappointed. It's also worth noting the only thing inspired by the "Beats" logo is the paint. Expect below average sound from the built in speakers.

Buy HP Envy 4-1130us 14-Inch Ultrabook (Black) Now

This is a very elegant and very useful for those who don't need a computer that performs heavy tasks and uses heavy programs. Windows 8 is complicated but it's matter of time for you to get used to it. This windows is really fast, actually when you turn it on it takes only 10-11 seconds to get ready for start using the computer. I agree with the other customer that says that there's no problem with the screen; despite it is a glossy screen the colors are so vivid and you can see it perfectly from any angle, it's quality is great not cheap as others said. The price was worth it, I would recommend it highly for students and people who needs it for light tasks. It's weigh is ridiculously light and I like the soft color red base it has. The beats audio is impressive for an audio system of a computer, it also has the option of configurate the audio for a best hearing experience. There's a concern I have is the response of the touch pad because not always senses when you click to open something or when clicking a button but you will get used to click a little more harder for it to response. In the other features I am more than happy with this computer. Also I don't like very much that it catches fingerprints very fast but this doesn't affect the real functionality of a computer.

To conclude, this computer has a great outer design, great beats audio, really light weigh and it's incredibly fast at everything. It has a few flaws but it doesn't affect the computer's performance. I recommend it!

Read Best Reviews of HP Envy 4-1130us 14-Inch Ultrabook (Black) Here

I've searched for a couple of months, to find another slim and light laptop with equivalent power and options as this model, and nothing has equaled or surpassed this Envy 4 1130us. In short, it's the best value machine at this price point.

Just look up the Win 7 version of this model, here on Amazon (Envy 4 1030us), and you'll find that it is an identical machine, only with 2 gigs less ram, and it sells for $100+ more.

So let's get to the important facts about this machine.

POWER & SPEED.

The combination of the Intel i5's power and the SSD and 500 gig hard drive RAID array, along with the much improved Windows 8 mass storage controllers, makes this machine blistering fast. Bear in mind that just like any other brand or model of new laptop, it has to be tweaked to perform as it should (tweaking will have to be covered later or this review will be a mile long).

I repair and tweak computers, day in day out and this is the fastest one I've had my hands on, except a Windows 7, $1,300 Dell XPS laptop that had an Intel i7 and a big SSD. I don't have it next to me to compare, but that would be the only machine that may have equaled or surpassed this one for performance.

SCREEN.

The screen is fine. Those who are complaining about it are expecting more than you can get at this price point. If you'd like the image to be even crisper and sharper, there are a few adjustments that can be made. (I may add those details as a PS at the end)

CONSTRUCTION.

Those who complained about poor construction, must have received defective models. The construction of this model is nothing less than superb. The only complaint is that fingerprints stick to it and it means that you'll have to wipe it down everyday, with a damp cotton cloth. The brushed aluminum build is fantastic and makes for a very solid machine.

KEYBOARD.

Everybody has an opinion as to what constitutes the perfect keyboard, so all I can say is that it is clearly a superior keyboard and that having the backlit feature is huge, for those folks who are not real typists, and need to see the keys to be able to type properly.

TOUCHPAD.

If you understand that this touchpad is set to work as if it were part of a touchscreen, thus scrolling up becomes down and vice versa, then you'll quickly get used to it and will soon agree that it is one of the very best on the market.

WINDOWS 8,

For those who don't already know it, Win 8 can be made to look and function just like 7, by downloading Start Menu 8 from iobit, then disabling all the charms bars and hot corners. It's only natural that I/you/we would want it to work like 7, as this model doesn't have a touchscreen, so why in the world would we want to use Win 8's new touchscreen interface (often known as Metro apps). Other than some graphics differences, it's so identical to Win 7 after the tweak mentioned above, that to the untrained eye, you wouldn't even know that it wasn't a Win 7 machine.

BATTERY LIFE.

It's simply amazing. Right now, I'm at 84% remaining battery power and the time estimate is at 5 hours and 14 minutes. I could turn down the brightness, to squeeze out some more, but it is already good for 6 hours plus, set the way it is (don't forget that this machine is well tweaked, so brand new out of the box, the battery life won't be quite as good).

HEAT.

It can produce a minor amount of heat at the back where the air exhausts. Laying the sides on each one of my legs, is 100% comfortable on battery. If you have it plugged in and it's charging, it will get warmer and may be a wee bit uncomfortable.

This laptop must NOT be used on material like cloth, a bed, a towel, etc, that can block the air intake from the bottom. If you need to use it in such a location, prop it up a bit with something.

WIFI.

I have never seen a laptop with better reception, nor one that can download as fast. If I go to a given website to download a file with any of my other computers, they download at approx. half the speed than this one does. I haven't investigated why this is, but suffice to say that it is better than what is normally included in a laptop.

All the features have been mentioned, so there's no reason to go over them again.

It's a simple mathematical equation. Does this machine give you more than similar ones at this price point? YES!

Is it super fast? Darn right it is!

Is the battery life good? It's superb!

How good is the Wifi? Beyond your expectations!

Is it well built? It's fantastic!

Is it a good looking machine? It's as handsome a laptop as I have ever seen!

Would it satisfy any normal user? Absolutely!

________________________________________________

Here are the settings that make for a sharper image on this laptop.

I found them somewhere on the internet and noted them down, then both my friend and I used them on our Ultrabooks (we both have the same machine) and we both feel that the results are excellent.

You may or may not agree and if they don't suit you, you can reset them back to their default settings.

Right click on the desktop and select "Graphics Properties".

In the subsequent window, select "Advanced Mode" then hit OK.

In the next windows, select "Color Enhancement", then set the Brightness to -20. the Contrast to 51 and the Gamma to 0.9 and leave the other two untouched.

You will find that the brightness is slightly diminished, but that the image is much more "real".

Want HP Envy 4-1130us 14-Inch Ultrabook (Black) Discount?

Everything is good except the screen. I'll not comment on other features because all of them function so far so good.

I have a HP G7 which screen has resolution 1600x900. So comparing with this (1366 x 768) I feel the Ultrabook is not better or even worse than the G7 regarding the screen. This Ultrabook is beautiful but the screen is disappointing. Currently $750 ultrabook is not as cheap as the others with better config but at the same price level.

The previous reviewer said the screen looks bleeding (too much red). It is true but the color can be calibrated (Personalize->Display->Calibrate Color). The color should have been calibrated properly when come out of factory. As he said the view angle is bad. I believe HP chose the cheapest screen on the market.

Update:

Comparing to other same kind of ultrabooks this design is attractive. Very good look&feel on real product.

What I disagree with the previous reviewer is that the beats audio is impressive. It is loud and has deep base although it is not a professional audio system which you cannot expect on a laptop.

The keyboard and touch panel are quite good quiet and responsive.

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Dell Inspiron E1505 15-Inch Laptop (1.67 GHz T2300 Intel Core Duo Processor, 2GB RAM, 60GB Hard Dri

I used to have a lot of notebooks, more than 200, different brands.. everally I can say that Dell has great laptops, I like espessially inspiron series.. processors and cooling sistem are great.. touchpad and keybord are good..and price is not high..I recomend everione to buy dell's laptops

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Dell XPS 15 L502X

Perfect laptop for heavy gamers..

i7 laptop makes best crisp of speed.

Highly recommended for this laptop.

Pros Speed, ram and hard drive.

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Apple MacBook MC516LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

The white Macbook was updated on May 18 2010. There are minor differences between the 2010 Macbook and 2009's model, detailed below.

The UPGRADES are

1) Geforce Nvidia 320M integrated graphics processor with 48 processing cores. This is better than the Geforce 9400M in last years model. Useful for content creation.

2)Mini display port now supports video AND audio with a compatible Mini-DP to HDMI adapter. (Last years model only supported video)

Thats it.

STANDARD FEATURES from last years model (minor changes noted in brackets)

Polycarbonate unibody

Core 2 Duo processor (2.4ghz up from 2.26 ghz)

1280 x 800 resolution Glossy LED backlit screen,

iSight camera,

2 GB Ram 1gb ram sticks x 2

250gb hard drive

8x slot-loading SuperDrive dvd burner

Large multi-touch trackpad ( Intertial scrolling is now enabled ),

2 USB 2.0 ports ,

Wi-Fi 802.11n specification; 802.11a/b/g compatible, Bluetooth 2.1 and Gigabit Ethernet -10/100/1000.

Inbuilt battery (which Apple advertises as capable of lasting between 9 to 10 hours.) Not true. Real world battery life is between 3 to 6 hours depending on what tasks you use your computer for.

Software included is OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and the iLife 09 suite of content creation tools. A 1 year warranty on parts and 90 day telephone technical support is standard.

The Macbook as it is is good for basic computing activities such as browsing the web, typing articles or watching movies. However, if you're planning to buy a Macbook for multimedia work, such as editing high resolution photos or HD videos and plan to use multiple applications at the same time, please ensure that you upgrade the ram from 2gb to 4gb.

Why?

Because using a macbook with 2 gb of ram (such as this one) to multitask is a GREAT way to drive yourself crazy as the computer struggles to keep up. Try editing 10 megapixel RAW images while playing music in iTunes with Safari open. 2gb of ram is not at all adequate for multitasking / using processor intensive applications on a Macbook. I understand that Apple has to differentiate between the Macbook and MBPro to justify the price differences but skimping on the ram and putting 2gb inside a $999 product and thus, affecting the user experience is not the way to do it.

Upgrading the ram yourself from 2gb to 4gb is a great idea. Currently, Crucial CT2KIT25664BC1067 4GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 Memory KIT (2GBx2) costs $39.99. So that brings your total to $1010 ($969 MB + $39.99 Ram) if you upgrade your Macbook's ram

So for only $160 more than your Macbook, (if you take into account the cost of the ram upgrade) a viable alternative is the standard Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop which costs approximately $1160 on Amazon. The MBP 13 comes with the added benefits of a more durable aluminum unibody, a backlit keyboard, an SDXC card slot, a firewire 800 port, a thunderbolt port and most importantly, 4gb of ram. Which allows you to multitask effortlessly.

If you're going to use the Macbook for any computationally demanding activities such as content creation, editing large RAW images or HD videos you should upgrade the ram to 4gb or just buy the standard MBPro 13 inch. The significantly faster i5 processor and 4gb ram in the MBPro 13 make a big difference in the daily usage experience.

However, if you only want to use the Macbook for general tasks like writing articles, browsing websites or watching movies, it will handle those duties adequately. At the same time, also keep in mind that if you only need a laptop for basic duties, many other manufacturers offer less expensive laptops which are just as (if not more) capable.

Hope this helps!

P.S. Update Feb 15 2011 At present, the Macbook is extremely out of date compared to other computer makers current products. C2D processor, 250 GB 5400 rpm hard drive, 2 gb ram, 2 USB ports. In 2011, these are totally unlike a $999 notebook's specs and more like a netbook's specs (excluding the C2D processor)

I'd recommend waiting for a Macbook update by Apple. Another good option would be to buy a notebook by HP,Sony or Toshiba (for $999 you'll get a much more powerful machine with regards to hardware) or buy the updated 2011 Macbook Pro 13 base model.

As a student, I've been trying to find a well-built computer for under $1000. For me, the MacBook is a perfect fit.

Pros:

-The touchpad is incredible for web browsing. I have been using PCs notebooks for years, and I have never liked touchpads, but this has proved to be an exception. I can easily do two-button clicking, scrolling with two fingers, and going back and forth through pages with three fingers. I find I no longer do I have to lug around a USB mouse (except if I want to some gaming).

-The computer starts up in 20 seconds without having to wait for background processes to load up (unlike windows).

-The build quality of the MacBook is unmatched for its price. The unibody does not creak at all when handling it.

-Multi-tasking is surprisingly good for only 2GB RAM. The only hiccups I have had were at the first couple of seconds of playing movies on iTunes with a lot of other programs running.

Cons:

-No HDMI port

-Battery does not last 10 hours (about 4-6 for me with iTunes and Wi-Fi running). Still, it is much longer than the competitors for the price range and size.

Even though the build is solid, you may want to get one of these covers if you worry about scratching:

Speck Products See Thru Satin, Soft Touch Hard Shell Case, for 13-inch MacBook Aluminum Unibody/Black Keyboard (Black) DOES NOT FIT WHITE MACBOOK

They snap on in seconds and look great.

If you are a student who is not looking to do any graphic design I highly recommend getting the MacBook instead of the MacBook Pro if you want to save money. Sure it only has 2 GB RAM, but you can easily upgrade it now for $100 Crucial CT2KIT25664BC1067 4GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 Memory KIT (2GBx2) or wait a year and do it for about $50.

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As a student, I was pretty hesitant to get the MacBook, but after MONTHS of exhaustive research looking for the right laptop (I'm a networking student, and also I am working on my A+ PC Repair certification, so I know a thing or two about PC's and Windows), I decided that I needed a change in my life. I've had an IBM ThinkPad T60 last me four years through school, but after 4 re-install's of XP, I've had enough of the constant attacks of viruses, spyware, etc...and I decided to go with the MacBook.

PROS:

Perfect for web browsing, e-mail, and document creation.

Comes with great features right out of the box: iLife simply rocks; it comes with PhotoBooth, Garageband (where you can create your own music or learn to how play an instrument), Preview, and iMovie (it's basically an easier version of Windows Movie Maker)

Time Machine for backing up documents and pictures, which is FAR SUPERIOR than using the Backup Feature in Windows.

Wi-Fi is SO EASY to set-up using what Apple calls "Airport", just go to the wi-fi antenna at the top of the right-hand corner and set-up right there.

Printing: Coming from a Windows world, and living in a household with a wireless network, setting up a printer was a pain in the butt with Windows, with Mac, it's SO EASY to set-up and begin printing.

BlueTooth: BlueTooth is common in all laptops nowadays, and again, like setting up a printer, it basically connects with the BlueTooth device automatically.

MagSafe Adapter: Apple introduced this idea called MagSafe. If someone got caught on your power cord, it would take the cord and not the computer. I can't tell you how many times my dogs got caught on my IBM power cord and basically almost took the computer with it.

Battery Life: Wow, what a difference. I was coming from a half-hour battery life on my IBM, although Apple says that the battery can last on a 10 hours on a single charge, in the real world, it's falls under 6 hours, but still this is pretty incredible.

CONS:

2GB of RAM. Now coming from a Windows world, Windows is a memory hogger, so the more RAM you have in a Windows system, you are good to go, but with a Mac, it's different. Now if you are compressing 1080p video on a MacBook, the system starts to hick-up trying to catch-up. My advice? Upgrade to 4GB or get the MacBook Pro.

EXPENSIVE: Like all Apple products, it's pretty expensive. I was pretty hesitant to buy a MacBook because it was pretty pricey and being a student i.e. poor, I needed to save up a good chunk of money to buy one of these machines.

So if you are in the market for a new laptop, only need to do some document creating, and web-browsing this Mac is for you. If you want to do some high-end video compression, go with the MacBook Pro since the Pro lines are more aimed at high-end video production. This is definitely a perfect system if all you want is just web-browsing and document creation.

Happy Shopping!

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So your in the market for a new laptop, maybe your a student. You need something portable, no 17 inch screens here. It needs to be light, well built, and easy to slip into a bag, for say, a ten minute walk on campus. But at the same time, you don't want a netbook. You don't want to squint at an 11 inch screen, type on a cramped keyboard, or put up with hardware that was out of date five years ago. In other words, you need something that just works, and doesn't complain about it. Well my friend, the Macbook might be just right for you. To me, it's the perfect "in between" product: its not so small and underpowered that your overall computing experience is compromised, while at the same time, its not so big, hot, and heavy that its only ever at home on a desk.

So what kind of computing is the Macbook built for, exactly? Its absolutely perfect for your day to day tasks, emails, word processing, web browsing (Hats off to Apple, after you get used to the multi-touch touchpad, every other laptop you touch feels sluggish and outdated) I'm sure with a serviceable C2D and a GT320, you could get away with some light content creation (Photo/Video editing, etc), but if you plan on using more intensive applications regularly, you'd probably be better off with a MacbookPro, or any number of higher powered Windows laptops.

Also worth noting are a couple of the Macbooks other superlative features. Exceptional battery life for one, I can easily make it 6 hours on a charge, under moderate use, Wifi, max brightness, everything that drains the battery. Speaking of brightness, the 13 inch LED is spectacular, it's bright without being washed out, colors are vivid and vibrant and despite a relatively low resolution, everything looks sharp. The overall construction and feel of the device, also, is excellent. The key's are well spaced and easy to type on. I also mentioned the touchpad, which combines a glass cover with multitouch to make probably the easiest to use notebook navigation I've ever seen. The laptop itself is very well built, very light, but still very stiff and solid. It doesn't feel fragile, in other words. The bottom can get warm after sustained use, but its also worth mentioning that there are no fan vents, and aside from the HDD spinning up, you won't hear the guts of this machine making a single peep.

To sum up, so far I've loved my experience with the Macbook, its perfect for my needs. Mac OSX fits well on a light processing laptop, and despite modest hardware, for the most part you won't feel it lagging or hanging. It's worth mentioning that I am NOT normally a fan of Apple. I will never buy an Iphone, iMac, or a Mac Tower, and I barely use my iPod. Unlike most Mac users, I am perfectly comfortable using Windows, am a big fan of Windows 7, and i'm no stranger to the unforgiving, enthusiast side of a PC. I've built PC's before, and my main computer right now is a high end, self built gaming PC (PII955/GTX 480). In other words, I'm not the normal Apple customer. But when it comes to a portable laptop that will breeze through every day tasks while providing stability and superb battery life, all wrapped up into that premium hardware/software bundle only Apple can provide, the macbook might just be the only way to go.

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I will keep my review to key points aimed at perspective buyers. There is an excellent summary page for a Macbook and some really in-depth reviews with specifications and cool buzz words.

1-Selecting your vendor

Make sure you are getting the right macbook from a source you trust. The 2009 and 2010 models are quite similar visually. Ensure you are getting the right model with the specs you want.

2-Special Offer

200 dollar discount on ipod touch and 100 dollar discount on printer from apple when you buy a mac product. It usually runs from june to early september, and can compensate the high price of the macbook(you have to be a card carrying educationalist to get it).

3-Pricing

If price still hits you below the belt, consider refurbished models, last year models, open box models. All of them give apple's one year warranty and all can be brought into apple for repairs. All will cost you a few hundred less.

4-what's the difference from macbook pro?

4gb ram ,aluminum case, light up keyboard, extra ports(firewire/memory sticks) is whats usually mentioned. Macbook pro also has a screen protector built in and an ambient light sensor to dim your screen automatically. The latter two are nice, especially if you plan to treat your macbook like garbage and eat while working on it.

And all this for an additional 200 dollars on top of 1000 you are already paying for a notebook.

5-software.

Apple is good about not giving you trials. You get legitimate programs, no fills.

When you get a new mac, especially if you are new, go to apple website an watch some introduction videos. They are all under 5 minutes and give excellent summaries of mac basics and fundamentals of software that you just purchased. All of them are free.

Summary.

Macbook is a cost effective way to get a mac. I hope this review will make your choice a more thorough one.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X120e 11.6" Black Notebook

This little laptop is great. Since I rarely use a disc drive except to load programs and drivers, this is perfect for me, It has an ll.6" screen, weighs about 3 pounds, and Windows 7 profesional 64 bit, so I now have loaded 4 Gb of RAM. It is a very fast laptop, doesn't heat up like my old one, and the battery gives over four hours of use on a single charge.

Thanks,

Richard

This notebook is cute, tiny, and extremely portable. I look forward to using this as my daily development machine, once the new wifi card arrives... (see below)

The graphics performance is what you would expect: slightly better than a modern integrated card. This is not a gaming laptop by any means, but it packs enough power to run less demanding OpenGL games and demos. It is capable of playing 1080p video in Windows (haven't tried in Linux yet).

This laptop may have either a Broadcom or Realtek wireless card. If you plan to use Linux with this laptop and end up with the Realtek card, be ready to replace the card. There is a whitelist, but there are ways around it.

All in all, I would recommend this if you love Thinkpads and low-profile laptops.

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I bought two of these machines-one for work and one for my husband. About 1 year after purchase (right after warranty ended), the keyboard stopped working on my work machine. A quick search found that this is a known problem. This has been a pain for us at work. My husband's keyboard is still working which is why I'm giving it 2 stars.

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This is a very nice little netbook, but it is a little limited with only 2GB of RAM. 2 more fits the bill nicely and is cheap from Crucial!

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Samsung Series 3 NP365E5C-S02US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

For the price, this is an amazing value. The case, while made primarilly of plastic, isn't cheesy at all. The lid is made of aluminum and looks very nice, like units costing much more. The keyboard layout with the 10 key fits the shell well, the bonus is that the keys are separated from each other so there's less chance of getting stuff down between the keys nice! There are 2 USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port. The built in camera is adequate, the memory at 4GB is perfectly sized for this price range. I'm honestly surprised by how quick this AMD processor is, it's almost as fast as my Intel quadcore (non-hyperthreaded) 2.67 Ghz desktop. All nice features for a laptop in this price range. The primary reason for this purchase was to use it to browse the internet and email along with the occasional spreadsheet/word document. It performs beyond expectation in that catagory. Other benefits of this laptop are the bottom stays cool when running, and the battery life is great, about 5+ hours of use without recharging.

As an aside, it comes loaded with Windows 8, which admittedly takes a little getting used to. I can see after working with this OS that it would be beneficial to have a touch screen interface. It works okay without one after you get used to the quirks of Win8 and the "gestures" that you use to open the start screen, like swipe in to the touch pad from the computer shell on the right side, or switch applications by swiping in to the touch pad from the computer shell on the left side. The top down swipe motion in context sensitive. For non-touch screen computers I'd prefer it if Microsoft put the Win7 start menu back on the desktop interface. On touch screen based computers I'm sure I'd rather use the Win8 "start" interface.

At this point although early in the game I'm very happy with the results.

The laptop itself is light and sleek looking. The feel of it is good and solid and the keyboard is similar to a Mac in its spacing and design. They are separated by a bit of space that would make it easier to clean. The battery life is pretty long. I've been using it on a single charge for about 6.5 hrs now and still have 25% remaining. The screen is pretty nice and crisp. Colors are nice and vivid. I haven't watched HD videos yet but so far it seems good.

The laptop comes preinstalled with windows 8. I don't mind it but I believe that Microsoft really intended for windows 8 to be use with a touch screen devise. You can go back to windows 7 if you choose by going to the Samsung website and following their instructions. I just received mine today so I'm going to give W8 a try.

The bad thing I can say about this model is that the mouse pad is not sensitive. I have to tap pretty hard for it to double click or even respond. The mouse pad response time is relatively slow compared to how fast I'm moving my fingers to items I want to click on. The computer also does not have a light or any kind of signal that would tell you whether number lock or caps lock is on. I used to have a Toshiba Satellite and I would say that I prefer Toshiba's mouse pad over this one.

Overall I would say that its a good laptop but it does take some getting used to. If you want a sensitive mouse pad that highly responsive I would advise you not to get this model. Other than that it seems like a good device. I'll post another review in about a month so you can see how it holds up to a Biology major/English Minor college student usage.

One Month Later: I ended up returning the laptop in favor of purchasing an Acer Aspire V5 due to all the problems I was having with the laptop. Some programs that I needed to run for my homework were unable to work. The processor speed scored a 2.2 out of 9 and I was unable to speed it up. Others buyers say that their laptop was great so maybe my unit was just faulty. On the positive side, Samsung customer service is great even though they couldn't help me much whenever I spoke to them.

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Just bought this computer and I am amazed at the build quality compared to my 3 year-old Dell. The processor is great and I just downloaded a Windows 7 shell in order to fix the Windows 8 issue.

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This laptop is fast and quiet. The wifi is ready to work while the start screen appears (very fast)... W8-64bit, the USB3.0 ports are much faster than 2.0 and this is a plus ! ! I was continously working a little more than 4 hours and the battery said 10%. I doubt another laptop with this kind of performance ! ! ! The W8 is completely different to the previous versions, and it is fast ! ! Now, I like it.... So this a new paradigm. We must adapt to do the same things in a different way. The aluminium body is great ! !

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Don't expect it to handle high density graphic games, but for school, programming, and light gaming, nothing could have been better for the money!

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Toshiba Satellite M645-S4118x 14.0" LED Laptop (Black)

This laptop may be up there in price as far as the superior Windows machines are concerned, but I guarantee that the price is worth it. One won't be receiving the Alienware powerhouses if that be what they're looking for, but the Toshiba M-645 S4118x provides one of the best portable all-around laptops. It easily runs any professional software that one might wish to use, and also runs modern video games with nice framerates should that be an alternate goal. Additionally, the Harman/Kardon speakers combined with the blue-ray playing capability make for a nice mini-theatre experience if one doesn't mind the small screen as I don't. I would highly recommend buying the Hi-capacity lithium 12 cell battery for it just because there's really no reason not to. More battery life means more usefulness.

Now, some might prefer a powerhouse machine, but allow me to put a little perspective into it. Alienware is known for having the most powerful computers on the market, but the cheapest one a person find on Amazon is currently the Alienware M14x AM14X-6557STB at $1350 American. This machine has the same specifications as the Toshiba M-645 with the exception of a higher hard drive RPM and storage space, and more memory. These bonuses don't really do much for being $350 worth. In my opinion, a powerhouse searcher is better off buying the Toshiba M645 and spending the extra that might have been spent on the Alienware on Laptop accessories such as the better battery.

I conclusion, I recommend this machine as a casual gamer and college student, because it allows for standard game playing, and superior Windows functionality without being far too expensive.

I have had this Toshiba m645-s4118x for just over 30 days and I love (most of) it. The Nvidia graphics card screams compared to many other non-customized laptops on the market. I have no problem playing Call of Duty's Modern Warfare 1 with the detail turned max. I can see the charicters' eye brows move. I have MW2 but have not tried it yet on this machine but will update this review when I do.

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars for not including the 12-cell li-ion battery; which it desperately needs to truly be portable. I can surf the web and play music for 8-10 hours on a full charge with the 12-cell batt. Although a full charge can take all night. Windows 7 is such a huge improvement to Vista 32bit. Wireless connectivity is a breeze.

Toshiba's proprietary software really does adversly effect this machines performance. I removed almost all of the Toshiba software that was designed to "monitor" the computer; resulting in faster bootup and freed up resources. I do not like that you cannot dim or shut off the lights for the power button and the "Satellite" logo, they do mess with my eyes at night. But I attacked them with a black Sharpie. I reported that to the Toshiba Cust service to include the dim and off for those lights in the next Bois update.

Overall this machine excells at graphics and overall use. You can see a video review on Cnet.com, just search there for Toshiba Satellite M645-S4118X. They only faulted the useless 6-cell stock battery. Although in the $900 range; most comparible models by other brands were in the $1200+ range. But $900+130 for battery= $1,030, so you be the judge. If you don't need a dedicated video card (GPU) for gaming or heavy graphics design, get this one without it. I've seen this same build 14" Toshiba at Best Buy without the video card in the $500-600 range.

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The laptop is quite expensive for casual PC users, but it is worth it for long-term use and anyone who needs a little extra power. It is not an alienware, but for the price, what were you expecting? The Toshiba M-645 S4118x provides one of the best portable all-around laptops. It easily runs any professional software that one might wish to use. I have used Revit Architecture 2012, and it works fairly well, though I might need to add another 2 gb of ram (comes with 6 gb standard with 8 gb capacity).

It includes all sorts of aspects for anyone needing performance: a Blu-ray player, GeForce GT525M, Wireless-N card, Bluetooth,a USB 3.0 port, and Harmon Kardon Speakers. The Blu-ray drive is decent, but when mirroring to a display unit such as your television, I think Blu-ray content can only be supported on one display (so the movie will not show on your laptop LCD and external display simultaneously). There may be a way around this limitation, but I really do not need that feature. Also, I believe the video card can output external content on a 3D display with Nvidia 3D Vision or other software. I am not sure about the limitations on 3D display models as I have not used this feature yet. The wireless networking card works well. I have not used the USB 3.0 port, but I hear it is super fast. I have to admit the Harmon Kardon speakers are amazing. They are not super loud, but the quality for laptop speakers is excellent.

The laptop comes with some bloatware, but some people may find it useful. The only downside to all this power is the meager battery, which has usually lasted me about 3 hours on normal performance operations. There is an optional battery, but it would have been better to include it in the first place. Another downside is the the lack of gigabit ethernet. I really don't need the feature, but it is useful for home network set-ups for high transfer speeds. There are not enough negatives to lower the rating, though.

I conclusion, I recommend this machine as a casual gamer and college student, because it has great performance for the price. No problems so far, and I hope the laptop will last for awhile.

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I did not hesitate to buy this great little machine when I was looking for a 14" laptop.

I have the monster 18.4" Qosmio 505 with the works: BD combo, full HD screen, Harmon-Kardon speakers, i5 CPU, backlit keyboard. It is a fantastic machine: fast, gorgeous screen, great sound system. I love it. So, when I saw this laptopm with pretty much the same features in a smaller machine, I went right for it.

Of course, in a 14" screen I didn't feel full HD was required. I don't believe such a thing exists in a machine with this size screen anyway. But I did want the BD, backlit keyboard, and good sound. I knew the Harmon-Kardon speakers to be beautifully engineered and even the smaller versions on this model do not disappoint. They have a good, full-bodied sound, and plenty of volume. I am tired of weak and tinny speakers on a laptop.

The keyboard has a solid feel and the back-lighting is essential for me. The BD combo works beautifully: the Corel software functions as smoothly as any I have seen (despite some dreadful reviews for the separate software). I am used to the Cyberlink and this is just as good, if not better. I have the Corel on both my Toshiba's and find it easy to use, smooth-operating, jerk-free, and with a good, user-friendly menu.

This is not the cheapest laptop on the market in its size range but, considering its features, speed, and quality build, it is still a great value.

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I bought this Laptop for my brother and he loves it. Of course, it did come with an Xbox so he didn't really get it for gaming; however, that's all he does on it. Between Minecraft, Skyrim, and Fallout: New Vegas, that's all he does on his laptop. Mind you the graphics card can only run the game on Medium settings, he still claims that are better looking than they are on his Xbox. He hasn't had any problems with the laptop other than that the monitor is a little small (14 inches), but I think the smallness is good since he does a lot of moving around.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X200s Notebook - Intel Centrino 2 vPro Core 2 Duo SL9400 1.86 GHz - 12.10" WXGA+ -

The tremendous advantage of this deck over the rest is three Mini-PCI-Express slots.

(See my uploaded pictures for relevant perspective of the following written review / instructions)

WiFIrepower.

Room for three WiFi cards or three dual WiFi/BT cards including the internal BroadCom BT means you can shoulder seven 802.11 adapters. ( Four BT + 3 WiFi Ethernet)

Install SMA connectors and connect to the adapters of your choice and you'll have an infinite number of combination's tunable to any urban and even rural environment.

You have to whitelist the BIOS to avoid the notorious ThinkPad 1802 "non compatible network adapter" block.

You have to execute LINUX or suitable operating system other than Windows to access the other two MiNi PCI slots for WiFi and BT. Lenovo and Microsoft only recognizes those slots for WiMax and the useless Intel Turbo Cache.

Linux inside a VM on Win32 isn't adequate enough to provide unfettered hardware access to the extra MiniPCI slots. Enabling VTxtensions doens't make a difference.

Win32 (XP, Vista, Win7 and Win8 BETA / RTM) recognizes the adapters, installs drivers and even reads their MaC ID's but refuses to TX/RX signal from them. Win32 allows some cards to transmit an announcement frame and keeps the antennas hot and detectable by other WiFi sniffers but doesn't allow your adapters to interactively RX or TX. At the same time, pen tests against the restrained cards failed since all other packets were summarily dropped.

In a suitable version of uBuntu, this three card system dominated the surrounding airspace like a roving wolf claiming new territory.

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Acer AS5742Z-4685 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)

I'm a somewhat advanced computer user and had been looking at laptops for a while before buying the Acer AS5742Z-4685. I dug into all of the specs of about 6 different models and zeroed in on this one as the best value. The price point was above the $300 I spent on our 'family' laptop a year ago, but I'm glad I spent the extra $100 (check out some of the private sellers' prices).

Pros: Crystal-clear LED screen, fast computing, great multi-tasking, not too much crap-ware pre-installed, lightweight, and easy-to-use keyboard

Cons: Battery life is good, but not great; price point is a bit high if you're willing to wait for Black Friday or Gold Box deals... which I obviously wasn't)

Overall, this laptop is a good buy in the $500 range, a great value at the $400 level, and--if it ever goes on sale in the $300 to 350 range--don't miss your chance to buy it!

Bought this laptop for about $450, free expedited shipping from Warehouse Sur+ (Amazon seller). Arrived late due to FedEx, not the fault of Amazon, Warehouse Sur+ or Acer, of course. It was double boxed for shipping, arrived in excellent condition.

Excellent finish which makes smudges hard to see. Screen is nice and big, crystal clear. We have 4 Acer monitors and all work very well. Not a single issue with them and two are several years old, so we were pretty sure Acer would make a good laptop as well.

The laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium but no DVD for it so you can't reinstall easily. The key code for it is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop, so if you get an OEM Windows 7 DVD that key should work to reinstall Windows 7. It also comes with some craplets, but you might be interested in McAfee's antivirus (we weren't, we use Microsofts Security Essentials, free download from MS with an authenticated Windows system).

We reformatted the hard drive into multiple partitions and installed Windows 7 64bit Ultimate (we use BitLocker drive data encryption for data on the laptop and on the USB drives). The reformat and reinstall worked just fine (and no craplets!). Since there is no disk with the system, there were a lot of missing drivers (for the network card, wireless device, several Intel drivers, the camera, etc). All were easy to find at the Acer web site (get them beforehand, unless you have another computer to download with).

Once we added the network driver, we could instantly see the local network computers and printers, and internet. Once that was found, we went to Microsoft Updates and that seemed to find most the other drivers for updating, including the video card drivers. The Acer website for the AS5742Z lists drivers for both AMD video cards and nVidia, although you probably don't want or need both, and they are large files. The Microsoft Update website detected and installed the appropriate video driver, which makes life a lot easier.

If you decide you want to install Windows XP (we tried just to check if it works) it does run fine, although we did have to go into the BIOS at bootup and change the SATA setting to IDE. The default value crashes XP during installation. That's a minor issue, since Windows 7 is so much better anyway. If you use the normal 32 bit XP, you won't use all of the 4GB of ram; you need the 64 bit operating systems to do that, which is why Acer provides the Windows 7 64 bit version.

The laptop has 3 USB ports, two on the right side, one on the left. We put USB thumbnail drives into them all to test them and had no issues. We tried the wireless network, it was fine. We also connected to our 10/100/1000 wired network, and the laptop transferred a large file at the full 1Gbps speed. We then tried a wireless modem from Verizon, and it also worked as expected.

The keyboard is very nice for a laptop. The mouse pad on the laptop is ok, but we prefer a normal mouse. We put in a USB mouse made by Roswell (a cheapo one for $4) and it worked right away. The 4GB of RAM were fully accessible, thanks to the 64 bit operating system (both on the OEM version it came with and our own Win7 64 Ultimate).

The only thing we will get for it is a car charger. We have a standard laptop briefcase, it fits into that fine.

Overall, we are delighted with this laptop and expect to buy another one in a few months.

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This is an amazing laptop. Screen is crystal clear and very bright. The top cover and spots where your wrist sit have a nice texture to them making fingerprints and smudges hard to see. The p6100 is a great budget processor. This beats down the similar price athlon II mobile processors and seems to be ahead of the old core 2's in benchmarks. The Battery life seems to be about 3.2hours while browsing the net and working with outlook and word. Keys have a great feel and the way it is designed, you really cant get food or other small objects caught under them. This laptop does have 3 usb, 1 on the left and 2 on the right.

Highly recommended!

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Two things annoyed me about this laptop once I bought it (new) and started using it. One was that the CD/DVD drive was extremely flimsy, and the other was that the fan for the motherboard was constantly turning on and off, on and off for no reason, and was very loud. The former problem I decided I could live with, the latter I decided I could not. I did some research and found that many others had had the same problem with this laptop and had written that the problem could be solved by flashing the BIOS. Well, of course, I thought a laptop was supposed to work right if it's brand new, but anyway I contacted tech support and they told me which BIOS file to download, which I did, and I flashed the BIOS. It seemed to make the fan better. However, a few days later, I was watching a video on YouTube, and BAM, the computer froze and the motherboard started making a loud, repetitive clicking sound. I restarted it and tried to watch the video again and it did the same thing. I have never seen that happen to any computer, new or old. I cannot recommend buying this laptop. Go for another brand.

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I bought the HP G62-340US last week but returned it when I saw this Acer Aspire with 1 more GB of RAM for only $20 more at an office superstore. I am a typical home user who uses the laptop primarily for photos, web browsing, some word processing and filing taxes. Wow, I am impressed by this laptop. I especially love the number key pad on the right hand side. That's a luxury that I never had with any of my previous laptops. The keyboard is also very nice with full-size keys that did not require too much force to register. Unlike other reviewers, I did not have any ergonomic issues with the off-center touchpad. Installed Internet Explorer worked seamlessly. I was also able to download Google Chrome as an alternative web browser. So far, no complaints with this value-priced Acer Aspire.

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W510 - Intel - Core I7 - 820QM - 1.73 Ghz - DDR3 Sdram - 4 Gb - Serial Ata - 500

I got this with 120GB SSD for business use, but very disappointed compared to previous T61P after a week use:

Pro:

1. Quiet with SSD;

2. USB3 (not useful for me), eSATA i/f.

Con:

1. resolution maximum is ONLY 1600x900, while T61p can reach 2048x1536, almost 25% downgrade;

2. the "Insert/Delete" keys are separated, "Insert" on left, while "Delete" on right with 2-key space. I always had a hard time try to find the insert key, very dumb layout design.

3. no finger scanner (optional);

4. As a high-end laptop, no HDMI

Not recommended for a software business use.

1/7/2011 Update after 2 weeks use:

1. The left "Shift" key is fall off, and got the whole keyboard replaced

2. 2 USB ports on the left side stop working, on a process to replace it.

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Toshiba Satellite® P775-S7100 17.3" widescreen Laptop

Toshiba goes the extra mile, and this computer is no exception.

The speakers, instead of being on the bottom front like other laptops, are right on the top, never covered by your lap or bellyand they are the LOUDEST speakers on any laptop I've tested. Also the best sound (Dolby!).

Longest power cord of any laptop I know of. This is a huge convenience for me.

Doesn't get hot on the bottom, even after being on and used for a LONG time.

BLAZING FAST!

I bought an HP two months ago and it's already in the shop. I bought this Toshiba while the HP was being sent away and now I am going to sell the HP and keep the Toshiba. I LOVE this laptop. Wish I had bought it in the first place.

I'd give this 5 stars, but I've only had 3 days. I love this computer. After having had a Dell, an HP, and a Sony Vaio that died after a year, I chose this based on reviews here, Toshiba and Best Buy and am so glad I did. So far, it's the best computer I've had. The keyboard on the Sony drove my crazy and this one is terrific. Sound is also far superior than what I'm used to. I also like there's a switch above the touch pad to turn off as I never use. I got a better deal at Best Buy, which surprised me. They're a lot more competitive than they used to be.

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Sony Vaio vpcF12AFM/H Core I3-350M 2.26GHz 4GB 500GB HD Blu-ray Disc-enabled DVD±RW/CD-RW drive MO

I've been searching for a few months since my 7-year old, $2,000 HP Pavilion was about ready to give up the ghost. A laptop is also a "nice-to-have" rather than a primary computer. The drop in price of laptops has been stunning. You can now get a brand new Lenovo (formerly IBM) for $300. And HPs are flying for $5-600.

But I wanted performance, a large screen, a full-sized keyboard, good battery life ... and so many folks kept saying "get a Mac." However, an Apple Macbook Pro is very pricey, and used ones (4-6 years old) go for $5-700. Plus, they're not as easy to work on if you're a writer like me. The PC keyboard is simply built for writing. (After all, it is a standard, old qwerty typewriter keyboard.)

I compared lots of laptops, online and hands-on. Sony Vaios were looking better and better, but the new, top-end ones are $1100-1300. I somehow landed on this Amazon page with this refurb high-end Sony Vaio that's called a gaming / entertainment laptop. (Originally $1200.) I'm not a gamer, and not planning on watching movies on my laptop ... just a serious computer user and full-time writer. Guess what -the better graphics and horsepower make a lot of difference.

My old HP Pavilion is a 17" diagonal laptop. This Sony Vaio is a 16.4" diagonal. However, the screen format has changed to an HD look, so it's actually just as wide as my old 17", but not as tall. However, the extra screen size is not missed, and the more compact Sony is far better.

These refurbs are available from Sony directly for $977. But there are several here on Amazon as of this writing for as low as $550. I bought one of those and recommend the seller (USA Laptop Parts) highly. Great communication and product just as described. This is last year's model, and there are lots of things I prefer about it over this year's high-end Sony Vaio, including the touch pad and keyboard.

It's a beautiful PC that stands up very well against the Macbook Pro. It comes with 4MB of RAM and I ordered more to bring it up to the 8MB max.

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Dell Inspiron i15z-2300sLV 15-Inch Ultrabook

I love this laptop! I bought it for grad school, where I'll be running programs like Adobe Creative Suite and CAD. It definitely has the power, and I love windows 8! The only downside is the laptop itself is about 1/2" wider than necessary on either side of the screen. This makes my ~15.5" long laptop even longer, which makes it a little hard to fit into most laptop sleeves for a 15" and anything other than a laptop backpack. It barely fits into my regular laptop bag. It's pretty light, and you won't find anything with upgradable RAM/Hard Drive capacity AND a disk drive that weighs less than this. I just wish there wasn't 1/2" of unnecessary space on each side of the screen :( It would have looked and felt a lot more compact without it!

so far it seems to be working fine no problems i went tru alot of problems trying to order this same laptop directly from dell but i got it slight heavy for an ultra book and the backklit keyborad is a plus but the on problem is the extra heat you can feel if it isnt place on a flat surface but it is quick to boot up and it doesnt have any problems with the harddrives it was a 500gb but i swap it out with my 1tb so it make everything better all in all a good laptop but some improvements can be made hopefully i wont run in to any issues like other people are will give an update in the future

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Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black)

I'm replacing my 2009 model Dell Studio XPS 1640 that died on me with a bad motherboard hard drive connector :/

I'm a consultant for several clients in San Diego and I use my laptop for EVERYTHING, so not having one meant work stoppage for several days and I needed a new one QUICK. I went to best buy, frys electronics and for whatever reason, costco. I needed to try out every model I could to make a quick, but informed decision.

I went with the Samsung Series 9, mostly because the Series 7 they had at Best Buy caught my eye and nothing else I got my hands on really compared.

The Good:

Battery Life The battery isn't nearly broken in yet, I have been downloading and installing software like crazy, and I'm getting about 7 hours with brightness set to the middle setting. (See below). I'm used to about 1 hour and 45 minutes with the XPS, so 7 hours is astonishing, and when the battery is broken in I'm sure it will be a few hours longer.

Matte screen & brightness I can actually use this thing outside! It was absolutely impossible using my XPS outside because of the gloss screen and good-for-indoors brightness. OK so I'm not joking when I say this thing is bright. On full brightness it's actually somewhat painful to look at it if you're in a dark room. It's great if you're outside at high noon on a sunny day, but I don't see myself ever going above 2/3rd brightness indoors.

Weight 3.6 pounds, sounds a little hefty until you look at it with the screen closed and how much real estate it occupies on your desk. It truly is astonishingly light.

Thickness .58" thick. That's with the screen closed. I found that it is only slightly thicker than a BIC lighter laying on it's side. When you open the screen you'll be amazed at how unbelievably thin it is. It actually makes me a little uncomfortable when I open it, thinking that my meat hooks will break it. But not to worry, it's quite strong.

Build quality It's solid. When I un-boxed it I was worried because of how thin it is and my tendency to be rough on things. But the all metal body is very, very strong.

Boot time With the SSD you can expect about 14-16 seconds.

Wake from sleep With Intel Rapid Start Technology you can expect wake time to be around 2 seconds. Yeah...2 seconds. IRST uses a partition on the SSD that is the same size as your memory, (8,192MB for this ultrabook) and caches the memory to the partition when it goes to sleep. So it's ridiculously fast.

Heat I got the chassis of the ultrabook just barely warm, and that's sitting on a pillow on my lap, downloading, installing software and charging the battery. There's a silent setting on the keyboard (FN + F11) that throttles the processors so it doesn't generate enough heat to use the fans. I couldn't get the fans to turn onto a setting high enough to hear it when I was doing regular work so I'd be hard pressed to get this thing hot enough for the fans to be audible. Bottom line, it's nice typing on a keyboard that isn't +90*F, or having sweaty legs when you're using it on your lap.

The OK:

The I5 1.7 Ghz processor & video chip is ample for my needs: I use SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio 2010, remote desktop and of course browsing the web. It's not great for 3d applications, I use Google Sketchup Pro fairly often to design simple wireframe furniture when I'm away from my office and finish off the design on my desktop at home. But it's acceptable, but not as good as my old XPS when it was healthy.

The keyboard. I love, love, love the keyboard on my old XPS. Keys were soft, but firm when you mashed them, always quiet, and thoughtfully placed. The keyboard on this Samsung is just ok. Somewhat noisy, but not that bad, the travel is short and when you reach the limit of it's travel it abruptly stops. Granted, the keyboard needed to be thin because you have to squeeze electronics and a battery below it, so it's not a negative, just something to be aware of if you're a keyboard snob like me.

The connector on the power cord. It's tiny and metal, a little bit smaller than a standard headphone jack, but it's hollow. I have actual fear that someone will tug on the cord (trip over it, or bump into it) and break the connector. Is it possible that there is fault protection built in so that the laptop won't short out? I hope so, but I'll just keep it charged and hope that the battery lasts most of the day so I don't have to worry about it.

The bad:

I really only have two complaints, and they're equally bad.

First off, the track pad is AWFUL. It's quite large for whatever reason. It means that your palm will touch it whenever you're typing and if you're not paying attention you'll be typing somewhere you didn't intend. So it's not only horrible when you're typing, it's awful to use! As far as I can tell from using it so far, there is no pressure sensitivity setting for clicking. If you want to move the cursor around, all of a sudden you'll notice that you're dragging a selection box, or moving icons around for no reason. I probably need more time to get used to it. I have gotten better but it's still an issue. Maybe they'll come up with driver updates...

UPDATE: Been using this for a few weeks now, still not used to it. I'm better at using it, but not great, I use a USB mouse whenever possible.

UPDATE 7/28/2012: There is a driver update out for the track pad! It allows you to turn off some features that cause all the problems (tap to drag, double tap to execute). That means they allow you to take away functionality to fix a problem that shouldn't have existed in the first place. It's now easier to type without causing you to accidentally click the mouse, but you lose some of the features every other laptop on the planet has. I neither added nor removed a star for this.

And next is the screen. Yes, it's bright, yes it's matte. But the contrast ratio is ABYSMAL (I can't find the site that actually told me the value but 175:1 comes to mind). Hard number's aside, you don't need them to realize that EVERYTHING is washed out. Some website backgrounds and text (such as Samsung's drivers page) is so faint that you can barely see them on this screen. It almost looks like a watermark... It is this reason, and this reason alone that I might consider returning this ultrabook. I'm going to give it a few days of use at work and see if I even notice, after all this is a work laptop and I'm only using it to write code.

UPDATE: I just played around with the display settings and got it to look not so horrible: Right click on desktop and go to Screen Resolution > Advanced Settings > Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel > Graphics Properties... Change it to Advanced Mode. General Settings > Color Enhancement Change the Color drop down menu to All Colors, adjust the Contrast and Gamma settings until a photo looks as normal as possible. My settings are:

Brightness: 31

Contrast: 40

Gamma: .7

Hue: 0

Saturation: 5

I'm sure I'll be playing with this as I go on, but for now it doesn't look absolutely awful, just mostly bad.

Dan brought up the keyboard backlight, if you need to look at the keys to type be aware that the backlight is a green color and is ridiculously dim. There are 4 adjustment settings, the first 3 are just about worthless, the 4th (brightest) looks like it should be the 1st or 2nd dimmest setting. It doesn't bother me much since I know the keyboards backwards and forward.

Other thoughts:

I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate almost immediately after it's first boot. The drivers on the samsung website all installed without a hitch if you install them in the proper order: Chipset first, everything else on the Samsung drivers page, but save IRST and HECI for last. Getting IRST to actually work after doing a fresh windows install is actually a pain, and I haven't been successful getting it to work yet. Copy and paste this into a Google search for a guide on notebookreview: "660222-samsung-series-9-np900x3b-np900x4b-guide-intel-rapid-start-technology"

Apparently amazon doesn't allow you to link to external websites so you'll have to search for it.

UPDATE: I got IRST working finally. I enabled UFEI in the BIOS, restarted, opened Easy Software Manager and it actually started working. Installed Rapid Start software automatically, restarted and voila! The 8.3 GB partition created automatically and no more error saying IRST not enabled. So it Is now safe to upgrade to any version of Windows 7 and retain use of all the Samsung software. As such I am upgrading my rating from 2 to 4 stars. (It really should only be 3.5...)

It comes with a 128SSD, but has partitions that you can't see (21.7 GB for recovery, 8.3 GB for IRST) so you're looking at usable disk space of 89.2 GB. I have just about all the software I use installed and it's only occupying ~40 GB. If you want to get that space back you'll have to delete the recovery partition, but you might have trouble returning the laptop if you choose to do so.

Windows Experience Index Ratings:

Processor: 6.9

RAM: 7.6

Graphics: 6.4

Gaming graphics: 6.4

Primary Hard Disk: 7.5

Bottom line: It's no desktop replacement, but it's adequate for my needs. Being unplugged for 7+ hours is ridiculously awesome. I can't wait for taking a day off to sit at a park, cafe or beach and working on both business, and my tan, that sounds sexy enough to keep this thing around. I'll be updating this review as I use it.

It's a gorgeous piece of hardware and I liked the computer a lot but...

I purchased this machine (From ANTOnline don't do that, they have a 30% restocking fee). Only to discover that the 128 GB SSD only has 60GB available after OS install. It's 90GB before OS install as they use 8GB for hibernation partiion and 25GB for recovery partition. 60 GB is utterly unusable for me. So I thought i'd just upgrade it, but Samsung (pulling an Apple) decided that the SSD isn't user accessible so your stuck with the memory and SSD size.

Buy Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Now

First of all, I want to address some common criticisms of the 15 inch Series 9 (NP900X4C-A01US) in other reviews:

Screen. Several have said the screen is "horrible" with very poor contrast and limited viewing angles. Perhaps Samsung has made some improvements but mine is just fine even with the out-of-the-box default settings. Yes it's sensitive to viewing angle in the vertical direction but you just adjust the angle of the screen and it looks quite good. Pictures, movies, and any combination of text and background colors I've yet seen all look reasonably good. The screen is better, overall, than a few Dells I have. Like any mat (vs glossy) screen the blacks are not as black but I prefer that over lots of annoying glare and reflections.

Touchpad. Some have said the touchpad is a problem. Again, I've had no issues with mine. The cursor doesn't randomly jump around, I didn't have to turn off the gestures or upgrade the driver, and it generally does what I want it to do. Again, it works vastly better than the multi-touch pad in my newest Dell. It's made by Elan.

WiFi. A few have complained the WiFi performs poorly. Granted I have a great WiFi router, but the Series 9 has equal or better signal strength anywhere in the house compared to my other laptops and devices. It's always 4 or 5 bars.

Upgrade Options. One negative review here complains the SSD can't be upgraded without voiding the warranty. I'm not sure that person is aware that most Ultrabooks, the Macbooks, etc. have the same issue and often use proprietary OEM SSD boards (as the this one does) rather than regular 2.5" drives. Sometimes the SSD is part of the motherboard. Laptops designed to use only an OEM SSD can be made thinner and lighter. If you want to pop the bottom off and upgrade components, get a regular laptop not an Ultrabook.

STRENGTHS:

Thin & Light. Samsung says it's the thinnest 15 inch laptop made and it's one of the lightest. The charger is also small and light. In a backpack you really notice the difference. It's nearly as powerful as a 15 inch Macbook Pro but far thinner, lighter, and cheaper.

Cool & Quiet. The fan almost never comes on and it has a silent mode if you manage to get it to come on. It also doesn't make any squeels, whines, chirps, or other noises that some laptops (even with an SSD) make.

Amazing Battery Life. I managed over 8 hours of constant use with the screen up fairly bright and heavily using the WiFi even on the first charge of the battery (it should improve further). With a full charge the time remaining estimate is often over 10 hours. For such a thin and light laptop with a fast CPU this is as good as it gets.

15 Inch Screen. A rare Ultrabook feature and Samsung wisely chose not to cram full HD 1920 into only 15 inches.

Well Done Industrial Design. Samsung is really giving Apple lots to worry about. This Ultrabook is every bit as sexy as any Apple laptop. The non-glossy dark charcoal metal finish isn't a fingerprint magnet like so many other laptops these days. The nearly all metal chassis is very rigid and well executed. The indicator LED's are very small, blue, and tastefully dim rather than blindlingly bright. There are many nicely done details.

Fast Boot & Wake Up. The SSD and fast i5 CPU really help here but Samsung has added their own fast wake up technology and it really works. Almost by the time you swing the screen fully open the logon screen is there and even a full "cold boot" is very speedy.

Lighted Keyboard. Many Ultrabooks don't have one including the 15 inch Vizio.

WEAKNESSES:

Sharp-ish Front Edge. There's a large palm rest area, and as long as you use it, the Samsung is comfortable to type on. But if you have big hands and like to rest against the front edge of the laptop, the metal edge there (just like all of Apple's current laptops) is a bit sharp and only slightly beveled.

Keyboard. For an island/chiclet style keyboard it's as good as any I've used and I like it better than the Macbook Air keyboard. The layout is great. But the keys have limited travel and my fingers don't naturally fall into place as readily as with more conventional older style keyboards. It's unfortunate Apple started this fashion trend and nearly all companies, including Samsung, have followed.

Upgradeability. As mentioned above, Ultrabooks are generally difficult or impossible to upgrade as they don't have any extra room in them. This isn't specific to this Samsung, it's true of most Ultrabooks. You should buy the model you need to begin with. At least with 8GB of RAM you shouldn't need to add memory.

SanDisk U100 SSD. Some NP900X4C-A01US laptops apparently ship with a Samsung SSD but mine has a Sandisk U100 128GB drive. So far it's plenty fast but the reviews of the U100 indicate it's a bit slower than a lot of newer SSDs. At least SanDisk knows a lot of about flash memory and it should be reliable.

Display. It's a normal TN LCD which means it has limited viewing angles--especially vertically. If you're doing critical graphics design, photo editing, etc. you may want a laptop with an IPS or otherwise better display. But for everything else, I think the display is fine.

Samsung Branding. The default Samsung-specific screen backgrounds, user icon, etc. are not all that visually pleasing but everything is easily changed. It's kind of odd Samsung did such a great job on the physical design and then made poor choices for the "soft" stuff.

WHY THE 15 INCH SERIES 9?

I did quite a bit of Ultrabook research and ended up with this one because:

15 inch screen with 1600 pixel resolution. Some 15 inch laptops run at 1920 x 1080 (full HD) and you end up with really tiny eye straining text or you have to increase the text size or lower the resolution creating fuzzy re-scaled text. And the 13 and 14 inch Ultrabooks suffer from either not enough screen real estate (i.e. 1366 screens or 1600 jammed into too little area).

Thin and light chassis. Samsung claims this is the thinnest 15 inch laptop made and it's one of the lightest (take that Apple!). The nearly all metal chassis also makes it durable, attractive and solid.

SD multi card reader. You would think this would be in all Ultrabooks but it's not. Even the new 15 inch Vizio leaves it out for anyone with a camera or wanting an easy way to take desktop files with you it's nearly a must have.

Bright screen. Ever tried to use a laptop outdoors even in the shade on a sunny day? You can actually do it with this one.

8 GB of RAM. A lot of Ultrabooks at this price and under only have 4GB of ram and many are not easily upgradeable due to their thin designs. 4 GB isn't enough if you want to run virtual machines or like to have lots of windows/apps open at once.

2nd gen i5 Sandy Bridge CPU. This is an ideal CPU for an Ultrabook. It runs cool and offers amazing (10+ hour!) battery life yet it's plenty fast for anything except hardcore gaming. Faster CPUs just make make more heat which means fan noise and a hot lap. Slower processors don't help battery life much. The i5 is the sweet spot.

No Power Hungry ATI/nVidia Graphics. A few ultra portable laptops use a dedicated graphics controller but, unless you're a gamer, you just don't need one and they seriously shorten battery life, run hot, require noisy fan cooling, etc. The Intel 4000 graphics in the Samsung work great for watching even HD video while not using any unwanted power.

Value. This isn't a cheap laptop but, compared to other Ultrabooks, you get a lot for your money. The 15 inch Vizio is perhaps the closest competition and it doesn't even have an SD card slot to view pics from your camera.

USB 3.0. In my opinion it's a must have for faster USB storage access and future expansion options. Contrary to some specs, it has 2 USB 3 ports.

Gigabit Ethernet. Some Ultrabooks, and the Macbook Air, lack a wired ethernet port. Not everyone needs one, but if you need to move large amounts of data, even the best WiFi is far slower than a gigabit wired connection. A wired connection is also far less prone to glitching HD movie playback.

128GB SSD. Some think 128 GB is too small, but my last ultra portable laptop had only a 40 GB SSD and I made that work just fine with Windows 7. I'd MUCH rather have an SSD than a noisy, fragile, error prone conventional larger drive. If you have huge amounts of video, movies, etc. throw them on a 32 GB or even 64 GB SD card or small USB 3 thumbdrive. If you need even more storage, use a USB 3 external 2.5" portable drive. You can get a terrabyte for around a hundred bucks.

Industrial Design. As mentioned above, Samsung is one of the few companies challenging Apple with their product design. The Asus Zenbook is another but it only comes with much smaller screens and has other drawbacks.

HDMI + VGA. Some Ultrabooks leave off one or the other or even both. A lot of projectors (especially the ones built into meeting rooms) only accept VGA.

Minimal Bloatare. Some manufactures load up their Ultrabooks with so much trialware and other unwanted software they take 4+ times longer boot than this Samsung and you lose a lot of drive space. The companies are paid to put all that junk on there and some of it gets left behind even if you try to uninstall everything. Samsung was far more restrained than most and out of the box the Series 9 boots very quickly. I only removed the games and Norton apps.

CONCLUSION:

Everyone's needs differ, but I'm really happy with the Series 9 so far. And I'm somewhat puzzled by some of the negative comments. Either Samsung has poor quality control (unlikely), they've made running improvements (more likely), or some here have chosen to unfairly critize it as they favor another brand or have unrealistic expectations (perhaps most likely). Mine is an Amazon verified purchased and I can only comment on my Series 9.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Here

I had the np900x3b (2012 non-ivybridge 13.3" series 9) since it was released and have loved it. Loved everything except the 4gB RAM. Being a Chrome user who likes to have 100s of tabs open, I couldn't do much else other than 'browse' the web.

The np900x4c, while significantly heavier-feeling than its younger brother, is still extremely lightweight and sexy (3.5 pounds).

The 8gB of RAM is user-upgradeable//replaceable, and the 10 hours of battery life is awesome (note: I have not tested it yet. Windows reported that I would have about 6+ hours with a full charge while running High Performance mode with maximum brightness).

Pros:

8gB RAM

ivy-bridge processor

graphics are excellent it can play Diablo 3 without a problem

micro-HDMI out so you can watch Netflix on your TV with ease

good number of ports (2xUSB 3.0, micro ethernet, 1xUSB 2.0, micro HDMI, SD slot)

excellent build quality (very sturdy duralumin)

15" screen

touchpad worked well out of the box (very impressed with that :)

Cons:

feels kind of heavy compared to other ultrabooks

the enter key is not the furthest right key (makes it harder to press quickly/easily/at night without a day of getting used to)

128gB SANDISK mSata SSD still 440 mB/s read/write speeds but not as fast or as high quality as the Samsung SSD found in the np900x3b

SD card sticks out thus cannot be left inside the laptop (which would be nice because you can get a 64gB//128gB SD relatively cheap, effectively doubling the storage capacity of the machine)

Want Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C-A01US 15.0-Inch Ultrabook (Ash Black) Discount?

I first heard about the 15" Samsung Series 9 back in early 2012; I wanted it as soon as I saw it but it was $1,500. Definitely not worth it back then. Fast forward to January 2013 and the price dropped to $1,019 on Amazon for the Windows 7 version, i.e. trigger pulling time. (I immediately upgraded to Windows 8 for $15 through the Windows Update Offer when I received the laptop).

I bought the Samsung with the knowledge of the other reviewer's gripes with the screen and trackpad as the main caveats. In general I agree, the screen is not quite up to par. It looks decent from one specific viewing angle, but if you move your head at any variation from the sweet spot the picture will look washed out. Viewing angles are just bad. However, after making adjustments with the Color Enhancement from the Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel, I got a much better looking picture that doesn't look quite so washed out:

Brightness -1

Contrast 48

Gamma 0.8

Hue 0

Saturation 1

The track pad is decent enough though, you just have to be hyper aware to not let your palms rest on it so that the mouse pointer doesn't spaz out. Multi-touch gestures on Windows 8 are quite responsive. Keyboard is so-so, again I'm still getting used to hovering my palms up in the air all the time.

In terms of performance, this thing is plenty quick with the SSD and 8 gbs of Ram. No noticeable slow downs. Memory was extremely tight with only 50gbs or so of usable space, which is ridiculous. I would recommend deleting the 21 gb Samsung Recovery partition in the C: drive and using that as additional storage. This probably would make returning the laptop impossible though.

All in all, comparing the Samsung to the newest generation Macbook Air that I've had for 5 months, i would say the screen, keyboard, and the trackpad are far superior on the Macbook Air. The only advantages the Samsung enjoys over the Macbook Air is that it looks more stylish (in my opinion), is slightly thinner, and has much longer battery life.

In terms of recommending the Samsung, I'm on the fence. 2013 will probably release a slew of Windows 8 convertibles/laptops with 1920 x 1080 screens for about the same $1,000 price point. There's also rumors of the Samsung Series 9 being upgraded to a 1080 screen later on this year, but of course you'd probably be paying around $1,500 when that version comes out. In summary, this laptop is a decent buy at around $1,000, but if you have the patience or don't need a laptop right away you should wait it out and get a newer 2013 laptop with much better specs for the same price point. In your face.

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