HP 15.6" Athlon II P340 2.2GHz Notebook | G62-347NR

This laptop tends to be one of the least expensive ones available, but seems to have all the capacity of many much more expensive computers.

It's main fault is its touch pad. The touch pad is not defined and so made for an unsatisfactory experience from the beginning. The control bar was also difficult to depress left/right. It was very unresponsive. Then, about a week after I bought the unit, the touch pad failed altogether. I was unable to use it to move the cursor. I was glad I had taken the vendor's advice and bought a wireless mouse which I immediately switched over to using. I suggest you automatically get a separate mouse with this unit.

This is a bit of an annoyance because the laptop only has three USB ports. With my printer in one and the add-on wireless mouse in another, I'm left with only one available port. But that's OK. You can always buy expansion ports if you have more devices you want to plug in.

The standard KWERTY keyboard keys are themselves responsive though, and it's generally a pleasure to type and compose on this machine. My only criticism the shift key and the "enter" key are juxtaposed so that it's easy to hit one when you want the other. The keyboard layout could have been designed a little better.

This Hewlett-Packard comes with a fair amount of bundled software in it, including a very serviceable version of Microsoft Word. The vendor tried to convince me that I would need to buy an extra, up-dated version of Microsoft Word for this computer, but that is not the case. I was also told that no software published prior to 2000 would work on this computer. Well, some will. So before you go to the expense of buying any new software for this Windows 7 unit, I suggest you thoroughly explore what is already included with it and what you can run on it from your old collection. You might be pleasantly surprised to find most of your favorite old programs from Windows '98 through Windows XP WILL run on this laptop.

The unit gets me onto the Internet speedily, without any need for upgrades to my equipment. It is also fairly quick and intuitive when it comes to setting it up and transferring files to. I was able to unpack it and get going with it on-line in less than an hour.

So overall, this model laptop seems to be an excellent value.

PROS:

-Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit runs flawlessly on the dual core processor.

-Graphics card is excellent and watching YouTube/DVD videos on full screen is smoothe, even with high definition.

-It's 3GB RAM is more than enough for normal use. The usage is usually in the 40% range with normal use, definitely a good thing.

-Has a stylish cover to it. (mine is blue, I'm not sure if that's standard or not).

CONS:

-THE KEYBOARD LAYOUT IS HORRIBLE! I repeat, HORRIBLE. I type at an average rate of 70-80WPM and this is by far the worst keyboard layout.

-Does not have a numeric keypad as on the side as most notebooks do.

-The shortcut keys available on the keyboard aren't significant and really should not have been placed there to begin with (i.e., quick launch to calculator, email, internet, etc.)

-Because of the keyboard, it's comfort rating is "pathetic" on my scale.

OVERALL:

Excellent choice, given the price and performance. The keyboard will take a LOT of getting used to, but eventually it won't be an issue. I'd highly recommend this product (G62-347NR).

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I got this from Amazon under a clearance sale where it was apparently known that this PC was defective. It freezes up constantly as many other unhappy customers will testify. Took me too long to figure out it wasn't my software, so now I'm stuck with this piece of junk.

NEVER BUY ANY COMPUTER EQUIPMENT FROM HP, and since Amazon apparently knew they were pushing junk, I would also avoid that merchant as well.

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I highly recommend you do NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy this laptop. If you look around at forums and such, you will find many issues with it being a low quality laptop. Ahead are just a few examples of customers complaining about freezing problems and crashing problems. Other customers complain about blue screens and mouse pad freezes. I have one myself, and I am extremely frustrated as this is my only computer to work with. Every minute or so, the computer will freeze for about 30 seconds and then come back. I have tried many things to fix it, all of them you may find in the following forum posts, but none have worked. Do NOT buy.

Any hope for a g62-340us fix? HP Support ForumNew HP G62 freezing!!! HP Support Forumg62-340us crashing repeatedly HP Support ForumBrand New G62-B12SA Keeps freezing!!!!! HP Support ForumG62 not responding Page 3 HP Support Forum

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Lenovo B575-1450A5U - IdeaPad Laptop / AMD E-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 320GB

I picked up this laptop at my local Best Buy for $299. I read the reviews on the Best Buy site before purchasing this laptop, and the majority of them that had complaints had complaints of encountering blue screens of death within a short amount of time of purchasing the laptop. Others had issues with the sensitivity of the touch pad, but overall there were positive reviews.

While I was removing some of the unwanted software like the Best Buy app, I encountered a blue screen of death. This was because when I restarted to complete the uninstall of some of the programs, it did NOT install the windows updates. Once these were installed, I haven't had a problem since. So once you get your computer, make sure you shut down to install updates, and then commence removing the bloatware.

Pros: Nice screen size, has good enough specs to run several mildly heavy programs at the same time, HDMI port, excellent keyboard (it doesn't have the traditional bracketed keys, but the more embedded buttons like the Mac Books, plus a num pad), solid design, runs very quiet and cool (extremely cool. With it sitting on my lap it does not even get warm.), good battery life if you use the energy management for it, fingerprint reader, facial recognition, and built in webcam.

Cons: Touch pad is a little sensitive, but I came from using a Thinkpad where I used the touch point mouse. It may just be because I need to get used to it. External mouses are always a compromise.

Overall a very good computer for the price.

I bought this because my wife and I are both in school, and one laptop is not enough. I was looking for something to run MS Office and a web browser. This was by far the most feature laden machine in its price range. It has fingerprint lock, webcam, 4GB RAM, and a dual-core processor. Once I got it home, I was pleasantly surprised to see there was no bloatware other than the BestBuy app, so I did not have near as many programs to uninstall as usual. They advertise fast boot ups, and mine boots in about 45 seconds, much faster than my Toshiba. I picked this up from BestBuy for $299 and would gladly make the purchase again.

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I bought this laptop back in August for $299.00. WOW! I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am with it. The screen is clear and vibrant, the processor is fast and it's amazing what 4gig of ram can do. I love the restore feature and the fingerprint scanner. It's light and easily portable, the chicklet keys give it that updated modern feel. It's just so much computer for the money. I'm thrilled.

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bought on budget and the laptop surprised.

it is sturdy and feels more expensive. Is not the fastest machine, but it is definitely the one to buy right now.

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I recently had to buy 2 budget laptops for business use (see also my review for the

Gateway NV51B15U) and decided on the Lenovo because it's dirt cheap AND has decent specs.

Windows Experience Index: Processor (3.8), Memory (4.9), Graphics (4.1), Gaming Graphics (5.5-faster than my i3 Toshiba!), Hard disk (6.9)

Pros:

-AMD E-processor is fast enough even for basic 3-D gaming;

-Has HDMI and 4GB RAM, which many budget laptops lack;

-Build quality is solid for a budget notebook;

-Lenovo has above average customer service.

Cons:

-This is a generic rant My 2001 Powerbook was 1-inch thin and 5.5 lbs. Ten years later and PC makers still can't give me a skinny 15-inch laptop for under $1,000?!!

-No other cons.

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HP ENVY DV6-7214NR i7-3630QM 2.4GHz 15.6" Gaming Laptop

I have owned the 7214 for three weeks. It is quick and has top-of-the-line features. Including the latest Intel Ivy Bridge I7 3630QM chips. The biggest problem is using W8. A hybrid piece of software that ruins the computer desktop and is a half-ass tablet. However, leave it to American ingenuity to develop an add-on that transforms the W8 experience. Search for START 8, download for $5. It enables the 7214 to bypass W8 tile menu and brings up a Windows 7 desktop. Now W8 is workable. The official Start Menu/Tiles is worthless for the PC user since it does nothing of value. The apps have limited functionality, not even a navigation/tools menu at the top. Buy this powerful laptop, but also get Start 8.

I have owned this computer for over a month and i have had no problems running any programs. If you're looking to buy this computer for gaming it is a fairly good choice, the GT650M plays most games at high settings(Tested Far Cry 3 at high and got around 45-50fps). As for windows 8, it can be a little annoying until you learn the work arounds. two things i found that help are downloading START 8 and adding some hotkeys to quicken things up. I could not be happier with this computer in terms of looks, weight, and features. One thing that seems trivial, but is actually really nice for people like me who always lock their computer when they leave it. Is the fingerprint scanner, instead of typing in my usual 12-15 letter password i just slide my finger across the scanner and it reads it and lets me in.

What was my final reason for going with this computer over the others i was looking at was the screen. Damn am i glad i shelled out the extra $150 dollars for the 1080p screen, it looks absolutely amazing, no glare, and rich colors.

The only thing i was slightly disappointed with on this computer was the mouse pad, more specifically, it's button. The left click has no resistance in it and the right one does. it gets kind of annoying.

Overall i highly recommend this computer to anyone who wants a good looking, high-quality, and powerful computer that they can carry around with them.

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I received this laptop yesterday and am very happy with the performance. Everything meets or exceeds my expectations prior to getting it. The screen and keyboard meet my standards. Also, Windows 8 takes some getting used to, but after 15 minutes use, I like it better than Windows 7, although you still have the Windows 7 layout as an option. I would recommend this computer to any gamer, businessman, student, or just an everyday user. Overall, it's a great performing laptop.

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I purchased this for my girlfriend. She uses it mostly for surfing the web and light gaming but she occasionally plays starcraft 2 and the laptop runs it fine as long as its plugged in. For the price this thing is an absolute beast. Beautiful 1080p screen and blazing fast processor. The gt 650m is not going to play the newest high end games at maxed out settings but for the price you will get medium setting at 1080p resolution with smooth fps. The only cons are the heat where you lay your palm when typing get hot when gaming. Its noticible but not uncomfortable. Overall i highly recommend this for the price.

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I really love this laptop. It has great hardware, which is the reason I bought it. It has a powerful processor, great graphics card, blu ray player, and a full HD 1080p screen. I don't give it five stars because of the build quality. I have had to order three separate laptops from Amazon because of problems with the laptop.

First was the keyboard, which wasn't installed properly and was kind of popping out of the laptop. I tried popping it back in, but ended up just ordering a replacement from Amazon to be safe. Then with the other laptop there was some backlight bleeding on the screen. When watching a dark movie or when on a dark screen there was some light emitting from the bottom of the screen, bleeding through from the backlight. Maybe not that big of a deal for most people, but if I am paying $1000 for a laptop I want it to be pretty much perfect. It's not the seller's fault, since the laptops are sealed new and they are not able to check them before selling them.

So, now I'm on my third laptop. Hopefully I don't discover anymore problems with it. Like I said, I love the components in the laptop itself, but the people putting them together don't seem to try too hard to make it perfect.

You can now get this laptop a little cheaper on HP's website with coupons than you can on Amazon right now (7/1/13), due to the fact that 4th generation processors will be put in HP's laptops soon so they are trying to get rid of last years models.

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HP Pavilion DV4-1430US 14.1-Inch Entertainment Laptop

Before buying this laptop I had bought one from Gateway and it gave me so many problems that I couldn't stand it. I returned it to the store and my only other option for the same price was this laptop. I absolutely love it! Its 100x sturdier than the Gateway and much better looking with its lightup "HP" symbol and cool design. Also, the performance is just as good.

PROS

-durability

-style

-speed

-price

-hardware

-audio quality(high definition)

-ports (HDMI, eSATA, VGA, USB)

-comes with a remote

-battery life (over 2 hours of heavy use)

CONS

-runs hot

-seems to be a little buggy (video card driver crashes every once in a while but recovers itself after a few seconds. Reinstalling driver didn't fix the problem)

-there is no program that comes with the computer or from HP that allows the webcam settings to be changed (resolution, quality, etc)

Overall I LOVE this laptop though and I'm glad that I bought it regardless of its flaws. The value is amazing!

-

It seems like I have get a new laptop every two years, I've gone with Acer, Fujitsu ultraportable (and ultra expensive), Compaq, Toshiba, and now HP. Honestly, the HP wasn't my first choice, I wanted smaller and lighter, namely the dell latitude e4300 which is about 2 pounds lighter, 13" and $900 more. The dv3 wasn't light enough for me to justify the extra hundred and fifty dollars I would have had to spend for a 13" HP. When the dell failed to appear at my price range I knew I needed to make a new choice. Having previously had a nearly indestructible Compaq, I settled for this model when I was able to get it for $50 less than the going rate (about 150 off of the initial manufacturer's recommended price)about 5 months ago; so far I haven't been disappointed. Battery life is about 3:45, about what I expected based on reviews and the always inflated advertised life. There's always a 12 cell battery available if I wanted to upgrade. On the other hand I will use it mostly plugged in since I don't see this as a "light" or "portable" laptop, IMO to qualify for that category you can't top 3.5 lbs.

First the good stuff:

Mine doesn't run hot at all (apparently it was a problem with some dv4 models then fixed by HP) This is HUGE as I exclusively use my laptop in my lap; my compaq ran hot, the acer was unbearable, the fujitsu was so so.

I have recently taken to using a lap desk with it, and with a hard surface underneath I rarely hear the fan, even after hours of use.

The biggest plus though, it has more than enough power to do anything I want it to (I am currently running 29 tabs in Firefox, something that alone would have killed my last computer, MS Word, a remote desktop connection). The Adobe CS4 tests seemed solid for this class of laptop which went a long way in selling me on this model. In the end I switched from CS4 to Lightroom so I don't need as much processor power, but it is nice to know that it is more than enough machine to handle my hobby usage.

I don't expect instant boot but it is fast enough for me to turn on and pull up a document without becoming a painful wait for my client on the other end of the phone.

I like the fact that the DVD is removable and an insert is provided for travel/etc to get the weight lower. My Fujitsu had this and it made a huge difference when I used the insert (I took that laptop with me everywhere, every day, so it had to be super light) I have yet to use this feature on the HP but I have yet to travel with it either.

I am not a big video on PC person, but the few netflix streamed movies I've watched have been sharp and pretty with decent sound. The screen and keyboard are both comfortably sized without being huge. I love the HDMI option and the fact that the usb ports are on both the left and the right.

Finally the cons:

I seem to have problems with the touchpad when working in remote desktop, if a review of the dv4-1433 is correct, the pad is sensing the heat from my hands and the cursor ends up jumping around. Oddly I don't have this issue as frequently when not working remotely. The ability to turn the touchpad off adequately compensates for and solves this issue when necessary.

The shiny surface of the brown version of this machine (slightly different model number) can be a major fingerprint magnet. I happened to like the white better and luckily it hides fingerprints somewhat (not as much as a matte surface machine, but way better than the brown one)

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I bought this laptop right before my first semester (Fall 2009)of college for school stuff. And eventually I wanted it to replace my main computer (running Linux I was tired of the hassle). Its had its problems: the screen went out within the first year and the charger stopped charging are the big ones I can think of. But HP has a warranty for the 1st year to the screen was fixed quickly and freely! As for the charger, that was my fault this laptop has been dropped sooo many times, and a few on the charging plug while it was charging. But this problem was also fixed quickly and freely due the the extended warranty I bought. So its been almost 3 years, I'm still running vista because I didn't want to upgrade. As far as wear and tear the left/right buttons are starting to lose their metallic finish, but after 3 years of heavy daily use I think that's excusable.

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My sister needed a basic laptop to run Powerpoint and use web based apps like gmail, google docs, etc. And take it on the road while making presentations to customers. A netbook was tempting but she needed the DVD unit so we chose this one instead. It is slow, but that was fixed by turning off many unnecessary Windows Vista services that just consume too much CPU power. After tweaking Vista (it took about 2 hours, you can google the term "Tweak Windows Vista" and get to a great site with the proper info) we manage to run it very fast. We also did a clean install of Windows XP and it works even better. At that point we got what we wanted: a Netbook with god battery life and a DVD unit all for less that $499 after rebates. For $499 a good value. For $700 it is a bit overpriced as at that price point the basic Macbook at $999 is a better option hardware wise.

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I had high hopes for this computer, but it has given me nothing but trouble. I've had it for a year and a half now. During the first year, the computer went through a phase where it would just shut down for no reason. The sound card would also turn off intermittently, as would the sound control. The battery died the day the warranty expired. I'd been having trouble with the CD player for a while, but it would play some CD/DVD if I got lucky. I didn't use it that often. Now the CD drive is not working at all, and none of the fixes suggested in the support pages work.

The cover also gets very easily scratched.

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Toshiba Satellite P755-s5198 15.6" Laptop (Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor, 6 GB RAM, 750 GB Hard Dr

I've had this laptop for 1 month and I am satisfied but not so impressed as I expected. I will mention the pros and cons.

Pros:

It's fast, you can open multiple web pages, play music or videos, open multiple programs at the same time with no delay.

Stylish design

Keyboard backlit is great and easy to control (Dim off, Dim on, or timer)

Keyboard buttons feels good at touch

It's not full of useless preinstalled programs, only the toshiba utilities which are good to monitor the laptop performance.

The laptop in spite of being 15.6" feels light to carry.

WIDI integrated is a good option to get rid of cables, but you have to buy an additional device (reciever) to connect to your Tv.

The nvidia graphics 1 Gb will allow you to play any graphic program or computer game.

Cons:

The screen color is not the best, I had to spend 30 min to reach the best color looking but doesn't convince me at all

The battery charger is bigger than older toshiba laptops I had, and the cable is as thin as always so you will have to take extra care to avoid that the heavyness of the charger does'nt brake the cable.

The touchpad is almost at the same level of the laptop surface so sometimes you slide the finger out of it without noticing

The integrated webcam is awfull, it is not too sharp even configuring contrast, brigtness, etc, a webcam not worthy of this laptop.

The battery only lat 3 hours

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Compaq Presario CQ62-410US 15.6-Inch Notebook

This is indeed one of the better computers i have owned laptop wise.

the design is sleek and pleasant, coupled with it being lightweight it is quite the looker.

The hard-were is upscale, the keyboard is responsive and sharp, no 'mooshy keys', the clicker buttons seem to die rather fast however, but a wireless mouse easily remedies this. The touch pad is centered, leaving no room for 'wrist scrolling' that seems to be a BIG problem (for me anyway, when i'm trying to type) with other models. Battery life seems low at first, but if you play with the settings enough, it will last a few hours longer then even the label on the battery itself says. the HDMI and basic computer monitor outputs are nice to have, and if set up properly, can lead to three scrolled screens which the processor can handle with no speed reduction. All other basic ports are also standard, CD drive, USB ports, headphone / microphone, even SD card slot (which i was surprised by at how quickly the system reads the cards). The fact that a webcam is optional, but the microphone is always included, is a bit of a let-down. a webcam seems like a standard with any laptop nowadays.

The screen is smooth, large, and pleasant, everything from basic programs to HD movies look superb.

The system itself is nice, widows 7 cranks things out in a flash, IF your not doing too much. The thing about this laptop is, that its a good work computer. it works well for school, or business, as well as running basic programs and browsing. but it should not be used as a gaming laptop by any stretch of the imagination, even mad amounts of upgrades would quickly put both your wallet and the laptop under deep water. It does a good job of playing old games however, something for early XP, but the memory it needs might suck up a lot of your space.

The filler and demo products are easily removed, unlike old systems where you had to install the full program, THEN uninstall it. Even programs like internet explorer, (on my old laptop) you could not uninstall at all because it was a 'necessary program'. But every program I have is non-stock, smaller file sized, and the laptop runs just the same, even faster in some cases.

It is highly customizable, as it should be, but even things that were 'un-changeable', like the logon screen, can be changed very easily.

All in all, a wonderful machine for a wonderful price (even though I got mine for $350 from a local store, and yes, its exactly the same, it was a sale), provided you get it for the right reason, and don't overload it.

A great school computer that is reliable, strong, and fast.

A definite buy.

This is the best computer I have ever used. I have used Mac's, I have used Dell's and just about any computer you can think of. This is by far the fastest, best computer I have used. I have pulled up 8 tabes in 2 windows online and downloaded dvd's and it still runs at full speed. The only thing I would do if I bought this computer is uninstall all of the HP software. It slows the computer down and it's not needed. I thought I was going to buy the computer and it would be slower because it only has one opperating system, but I was wrong. I would tell anyone to buy this computer. Cheap and very durable as well.

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Excellent value for the money. The LED screen and picture is excellent. Keyboard is very responsive. Mouse and scroll functions are a little touchy but can be easily rectified by buying a mouse. I got one that attaches to USB slot for about $5.

Sound is good and it operates very fast. I can't find anything wrong with it yet. So far, I love it.

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This is a great workstation computer. Although, I have watched movies on it and it performed really well. HP is a reliable company, I have two other laptops and a desktop all Compaq brand and don't have any complaints. Had one Vista compatibility issue months after purchase that HP Support was able to solve, searched for the error description and a simply firmware update took care of it. With computer parts like optical drives and even motherboards being common to many manufacturers breakdown issues are not dependent on brand names. Paying hundreds more doesn't guarantee reliability.

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Went to Anythingideal. Com and got a promo for shipping. 4 year old twins at home and thought

they would make a great bday gift. This pc is faster and easier to use than the $900 HP and Dell pc's I already have at

home. I now take it on business with me instead of the others it's that nice !

Got free shipping and had it in 3 days. Best deal I've made in years ! You won't be sorry

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Apple PowerBook G4 - PPC G4 1.67 GHz - RAM 512 MB - HDD 80 GB - DVD?RW - Mobility Radeon 9700 - Gig

I have used my wonderful G4 17 inch screen for several years; upgraded the RAM to 2GB and run Photoshop, Lightroom, etc, with no problems. This is a cheap way to get a great computer with a huge, beautiful screen.

Beta Mac has an a+ rating with better business bureau and I am pleased with their customer service. They put a new hard drive on the machine after and fixed a broken key. excellent company to work with

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It's a bit old, but it's a good bang for your buck! The only thing missing was a built in iSight camera, but apart from that it's pretty good :)

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its an okay comp for fun and music,, but if youre into youtube or looking for some good speed on the web this is not the one

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The Power book came poorly packed it was dented and broken the power cord would not connect to the power book, I would ask for my money back, but I think all buyers should be aware of this store and I chalk it up to lessons learned.

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Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/B 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB

I have always had very good luck with Sony equipment so I decided on a Sony notebook this time. So far after about one week I am not disappointed. This is a fast, beautiful, well-made notebook with an awesome screen. Amazon's delivery was very fast, and the product is as described. Right now I am dealing with a steep learning curve with the Windows Vista 64 bit that came with the notebook and it's compatibility issues with software and printers, but that is another story.....

Excellent and beautifully screen, I love the full keyboard and the software packages is fantastic. The start-up, customization and data transfer was easy, the start-up and support software are well design. The only minor thing I can say is the batteries are actually a haft one and last only an hour in normal setting and also there a problem with the sleep mode and the screen saver... not a big deal for me. Also to take a grate advantage of the multi-media they should add an HD TV tuner.

But after all it is fast, beautifull and I'm very happy with it.

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The backlight on the VGN-AW230J is poorly designed, resulting in an area approximately 0.5 cm high at the bottom of the panel that is evenly and significantly brighter than the rest of the panel. This same effect can be seen to a lesser extent along the sides of the panel. The opposite effect occurs at the bottom corners of the panel, where the backlight appears pinched and at times completely black.

Sony initially told me this was a defect and sent a technician to repair the laptop. After the technician replaced the LCD panel (and broke the bezel in the process), the problem remained. Sony then requested that I send the laptop to their repair center. The repair center has since notified me that the strip of light is "normal," and that despite multiple unnecessary repairs made at their suggestion, they will not provide me a with new, unmodified laptop.

Sony has also added a vaguely worded article to their knowledgebase describing the problem as normal. While they refer to the problem as a "glow," which can in fact be normal for some backlights, this is not how the problem presents itself. ®ion=UMRE_UNITEDSTATES_2_5&sonyregion=US&searchString=lcd%20bright&product=SG_VGNAW230J_1_5&sonytemplate=1&sonymodel=VGNAW230J

I was quite surprised with Sony's response given the marketing behind this particular laptop's display and their direct support of Adobe's color profiles. If you're looking for a laptop with a clear, even, and professional display, look elsewhere.

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This is my 3rd sony vaio laptop. I love almost everything about it.

The screen is very nice, bright and clear, blu-ray player, full keyboard, nice looking, speakers and etc....

It is like you have a portable desktop.

The down side is the weight, battery life and hard to find the bag but I got one from Amazon.com that is perfectly fit this laptop, it is Targus TLE400.

I have been using this laptop for about 2 weeks and haven't had any problem yet.

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PROS:

This laptop is great! At first, I could not get used to the size of the screen, but that quickly grew on me. The full keyboard is absolutely a plus for me. The picture is very clear, the sound is great (not party loud though.) Recording videos and chatting through the webcam is great also. I love watching DVD's on here, downloading music, writing papers, browsing the internet, checking e-mails, etc. If you're a traveler, I would recommend purchasing the Neoprene laptop case for the AW series which was only $24.99!! I also bought the Linksys Ultra Rangeplus Wireless-N Broadband Router (the best price found on Amazon of course).

CONS:

The laptop is only 8 lbs. However, I was unaware of how heavy that actually is. Not really a downside, but it would be nicer if it were a bit lighter. The standard capacity battery that the laptop comes with has a very short life. That battery will last you just over one hour, which is not a lot of time if you're typing a paper, dl songs, or watching a movie. You can leave it plugged in, but I highly recommend purchasing the Large Capacity battery as well.

Hope this helps!!!! =)

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Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5994 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - 2 Hours 20 Minutes of Battery Life

I bought this just before Christmas for almost $200 less than it is going for right now ($), and for that price it is awesome. For $800 it is excellent, but maybe a little pricey. It's fast, Windows 7 is excellent, has a large HDD, plenty of RAM, dual core Processor, and a very nice screen. The person I gave it to as a gift LOVES the shiny shell, and the keyboard, but I don't like either of those features. I do love that it is a Toshiba since I am writing this review on a 4 year old Toshiba Satellite, and it is still running flawlessly after 4 hard years of (ab)use.

The only actual flaw this laptop has is that the speakers are HORRENDOUS! I mean absolutely horrible! Pointless even. I had to buy a separate set to plug into the headphone jack in order to hear anything. And I thought the speakers on my old Toshiba were bad!

I have even contacted Toshiba about the uselessness of these speakers; but they have yet to respond.

It does everything it needs to do for the price. It's powerful enough to run programs like Photoshop/Flash efficiently and do just about anything even the above-averaged user would need. It's not a great gaming laptop, but it will run games fine, just not the latest and greatest with high framerates.

It looks beautiful and the number pad next to the qwerty keyboard is absolutely awesome. The touchpad is flush with the surface of the laptop's casing, but it's actually better that way once you get used to it.

All in all, for the price, it's a damn good and pretty looking computer.

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Great computer. Does everything you could want. Four gigs ram, fast and beautiful picture. Unless you're into gaming, it can't be beat.

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Samsung NP700Z5B-S01UB Intel Core i7-2675QM 2.2GHz 8GB 1TB DVD+/-RW 15.6" Win7 (Silver)

I bought this laptop from Best Buy last week after initially going into the store for an HP. After seeing the specs on this computer, they came off to be very impressive. I decided to purchase this laptop before reading into reviews. I brought it home, unboxed it and started setting up Windows. The computer didn't even make it through the initial process before freezing and shutting down. I took it back to Best Buy and the Geek Squad told me the motherboard fried. I made a complete exchange and got a working one.

After installing and setting up this laptop, I can tell you that there are some quirks that can be extremely irritating but there are ways around them.

#1 The touchpad is very finicky out of the box. Samsung has a driver update for the touchpad that gives you ample options to fix it by turning off some of it's features and being able to adjust others.

#2 Streaming video/YouTube full screen pixelation. Because of the odd resolution this computer displays, YouTube videos have an odd pixelation when in full screen mode. This issue is fixed with the installation of the JW Player scripts available from userscripts.org.

#3 Switchable graphics. In my experience so far, the AMD dedicated graphics card is basically worthless. The computer runs tasks faster and with no issues off the Intel chipset. Switch your graphics to "power saving" for best results in applications.

Other than those issues which I've stated, I love the computer. It's extremely fast for what I've used it for so far, I can run Adobe Photoshop CS5.1, Lightroom 4, and Audition 5.5 with no issues or lag at all. The computer is COMPLETELY silent compared to anything else i've used, I haven't even had the fans kick on at all yet. It runs quiet and cool. The backlit keyboard is very nice, and the computer's casing is very attractive. It feels very well built. The speakers are loud and clear. The display is very clear and bright.

In addition to the 1TB 5400rpm (A little slow on paper, I think i'm going to replace it with a full SSD drive), it has an 8gb SSD for faster start up times and let me tell you, it's quick!

I would recommend this laptop for someone who has patience, as it can be finicky at times but all in all, it's an impressive machine to me.

This laptop is basically Samsung doing their best impression of a Mac Book Pro. However the MAC book Pro with the same spec (and the Retina display) will

run you $2100.00 I bought this laptop for $959.

I am completely impressed by the performance and styling of this laptop and very satisfied by the performance of this machine. I use this PC for some demanding applications. The i7 quad core processer coupled with a dedicated GPU in a ultra-thin portable machine with 8 gb of ram... you cannot go wrong.

First question is what do I use the laptop for?

I use Photoshop CS4, Visual Studio 2010 (IDE for software development/programming), SQL server 2008 for development purposes, Video editing in various programs, lightroom, running Office 2010 etc.... I also do quite a bit of gaming in Skyrim and Diablo III. I do travel for work so this any laptop I use must be very portable.

Most of these software applications are extremely demanding.

So the question is can you do all of this effectively with a 5 lbs laptop that is ultra thin? The answer is yes.

Here are some notes about my experiences and thoughts about this machine.

THE GOOD:

> Great style, clean lines and unbelieveably quiet.

> Full keyboard that is well designed and very similiar to a regular plug in keyboard.

> In power saving mode I have gotten 7 hours on the battery. I can get 3 hours on the battery while gaming... still very pretty impressive.

> The multi-tasking is quite incredible, I can run Skyrim, Vs 2010 and photoshop at the same time with little to no issues.

> The dedicated graphics card is impressive. If you look at notebook check for gaming this dedicated GPU rates quite high.

> The quick start up is awesome, this machines goes from sleeping to running in about 5-10 seconds. This is an awesome feature.

> The most demanding application I run are Skyrim. It is completely playable at medium details. It can manage 30-50 fps (frames per second) with the setting turned up for character definition. This is quite amazing if you think about the size of this laptop. I have run it with the detail settings on high, but the game is unplayable the fps drop below 30 for scenes that have large rendering demands like scenes with water etc.

> For Visual Studio 2010 (which is a processor killer) the machines handles it amazing well.

> The touchpad is really great. Many reviewers have indicated that it does not work well. I have worked on MACs and this works as well if not better than the mac touchpad.

> Matte screen = no glare... love it.

THE BAD:

> There is occasional screen flicker when switching between demanding applications or coming in and out of a gaming session. This is a very minor annoyance but it is present. The laptop is designed to switch between

> The temp while gaming... The machine has a very streamlined appearance with little to no venting. While this looks good it is a bit unpractical.

According to my speed fan tests at 2 hours the CPU gets to around 70C while gaming and the GPU gets to 65C. To the touch the laptop is not hot but this is less than ideal from my perspective.

My geek squad friends say laptops are designed to run hotter, the CPU I have is rated to 100c before you begin having problems. The solution is to use it with Cooler Master NotePal X2 Laptop Cooling Pad. This laptop is so small that you can easily fit a cooling pad and laptop in a laptop backpack without issue. So you will have to be mindful of the heat if you are going to buy this machine, keep the vent clean.

> Function keys are slow to respond.... The shortcut function keys for adjusting brightness, touchpad, volume, fan, wifi etc are super cool but they are slow to respond. This is annoying and could be improved.

> One more USB port would be nice.

> The screen seems mediocre to me... So I should preface this by saying that I am bit picky about screens. I work typically on very high quality dual monitors. When I switch to this laptop the contrast and brightness under perform... but what do you want in such a small screen.

> The built in speakers leave alot to be desired in my opinion, this is typical of laptops but I have seen better performance from laptop speakers.

All in all when you consider the fe

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Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5A-S0AUS 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver)

It comes down to what do you want out of a laptop. The Samsung 700Z5B provided what I needed at a fair price. Went shopping for a good laptop with Intel i7, 6 to 8 GB of memory, and internal DVD. I became disappointed with the other brands. This laptop is fast, light weight, does not get hot like some HP laptops do. Love the backlit keyboard for early morning work. I don't mind the touchpad since I always use an external mouse. Adjusted monitor brightness and was good to go.

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Well, it acts like a smart laptop with the auto dimming and an overly sensitive touch pad that grabs everything on the screen. I attempted to adjust the touch pad sensitivity unsuccessfully so I decided to buy a wireless mouse and disabled the crappy touch pad when I use this laptop. The speakers on this laptop is less than adequate. If your daily life isn't frustrating enough, get this laptop and it will keep you busy adjusting the LCD brightness just so you can see what you're doing. A few simple words I have for this laptop is: WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP! I bought it for the simple fact that it is a slim design but I guess I will have to put up with other bulkier brand of notebooks from now on.

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Don't know why another reviewer hated the touchpad. I'll admit that there was a learning curve there, but worth it! Great display, great specs, cool and quiet operation. Not sure there is a better combination of utility and style in the Windows world when it comes to laptops, especially at this price. Hopefully stability and durability will live up to this early assessment.

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Dell Inspiron i15N-4092BK 15-Inch Laptop (Black)

I have been buying Dell computers for years. This is my fourth Dell laptop and I've had 3 of their desktop models. I know this is not their top of the line or even mid line, but I'm currently a student and, well, you probably know about a student budget.

Anyway, it came with tons of Dell programs installed which I don't need because the hog the memory and take forever to boot. But my real issue is that it keeps dropping the wireless internet connection. I bring up a site and surf around conducting my studies and then i click a link and it loads and loads and loads and never finishes loading. I have a feeling it is McAfee, preloaded of course (how else would these companies make money), which I will remove as a test. The point is that I should not have to tweak a brand new computer to make it work at all.

My mom and my sister each bought the less expensive Acer from Wal-Mart and they have had no issues, even on my network. The outside of the computer is better quality on the Acer as well. I have always loved Dell, but maybe its time to try something else.

My parents were in the market for new computers because they really needed new ones. They were still using HP desktops from 2001... They purchased two of these through my account here on Amazon for the free two-day shipping. Neither of them are tech savvy, so I helped them set up their new computers, transfer their photos, etc. This is a simple process with a USB flash drive or other external storage device. Considering what they were coming from, they are very happy with how fast their new laptops are. (I have a custom PC I built with Corsair SSD's in RAID 1 so....it is hard to get any better than that. These are a lot slower than that, but decent for the 600 dollar price tag in my mind).

For being in the $600 range, this laptop is pretty good. The boot up is a little slow, but that is normal considering the 5400 RPM drive. The machine will slow down when multiple programs are trying to queue the HDD simultaneously, however there is more than enough storage for whatever they want and need to put on their computers. The battery life is about average; 3-4 hours depending on how you have the machine configured.

Both computers had no defects from the factory and Amazon had them packaged pretty well as usual. The Core i5 is more than enough processing power for what they are doing with the computer(s). I mean, common, a Core 2 Duo would be more than sufficient for word processing and checking email. My dad runs Quick Books along with a few other business programs for helping him manage his business, and the i5 has absolutely no problems running those programs either.

They wanted a model with a somewhat large amount of RAM from the factory so I would not have to open it up for upgrades very soon. Six GB of RAM is not the largest amount, but it is enough for the run-of-the-mill, everyday tasks. For some reason they do not want to trust me with opening up their computers....yet. I am in school getting an IT degree at the moment, so maybe they'll change their mind when I am certified; I don't know...

There was one difficulty with these laptops; both machines had this issue. This laptop comes with a 30 day free trial for McAfee's software. I decided to start from scratch and uninstalled the trial version. My mother still insisted on using McAfee Security Center where I recommended Norton, and while I was attempting to download and install McAfee's software (which I did several times), neither machine would accept the download and install attempts. She had just spent the $100 for a two year subscription too. I ended up having to call the McAfee customer service department, and they said Dell has a firewall on these machines that will not let you install third party security software unless it is through Dell. I have never heard of this before, and seemed like a false explanation from their end. In any case, I had to let them take control of the computers remotely to get McAfee's software installed. It took an hour and a half on the phone with a guy who spoke rough English to get them both up to speed with security software. Not terribly bad on McAfee's end, I think.

Anyway, without that minor hiccup trying to get McAfee installed there were no issues; not a single dead pixel on either machine, etc. I have only bought and worked with these new laptops from Dell, and an ASUS laptop which is for my personal use, and like my ASUS, there were several useless programs pre-installed. I hope this is not becoming the norm, but getting rid of the pre-installed stuff you do not want is easily taken care of through the Programs and Features in the Control Panel. The sound is not that great, but that is normal for laptops in my experience. A nice pair of headphones that can fix that. Ultimately, this is a pretty good machine that will serve any general purpose needs. But if you can afford it, I would still recommend an Ultrabook.

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I'm not sure what all of these other people on here are complaining about. This laptop is outstaning! It's been flawless and lightning fast for me ever since I got it! You won't find a better laptop for the money. In response to one of the previous reviews, there really isn't any bloated software on here from Dell at all. I highly recommend this laptop.

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Bought instead the 15R with 6GB mem and 1T hard drive for $499.99. This one also has the same body structure. Notice the plastic around the keyboard squeaks and has hollow feeling. This is unacceptable for this price. I returned mine and also at the store noticed that the ones at display do have the same problem. I then search online and found this:

Build quality is generally pretty strong for a mostly plastic notebook, but you'll notice some minor flexing in the plastics if you firmly squeeze the notebook in your hands or press hard on the keyboard while typing. The main chassis, while reasonably strong, has a "hollow" feeling which makes you think there is some unused space inside this black box.Please note that the body construction is the same in 15N

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Laptop configuration was good(good cpu, good hdd, good memory, etc), but the keyboard was so bad, looked like it was made for $2 in some teenager's garage...returned it...!!

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HP Pavilion DM3-3012NR Notebook Pc

Purchased this laptop during black friday from Microsoft Store. Comes with Windows Ultimate Premium Home, very light, stays cool and the battery lasts for about 4 hours. Boots up fast, is mostly setup and ready to go. I hooked up an external drive using both eSata and USB and they both performed well, with eSata being faster for file transfers. The internal 320gb hard drive spins well and the 4gb of memory is enough to run multiple applications simultaneously. The screen though, is small, so you can't have too many windows opened at the same time due to the small screen real estate.

The unit does not come with built in optical drive, but has SD slots, so you can use your MS, SD by simply plugging it in. The keyboard is very easy to use, for a small laptop and the keys are nice and big, so you don't really have to get used to it, its just like typing on a regular keyboard.

One of the best parts of this laptop is the built in camera, which comes with a little light next to it for Skyping or other video based calling. The light brightens up your face even in low light conditions and works really well, I was very happy with it. I hooked up my Sony TV using the HDMI and the system automatically detected the television type and set the resolution to 1920x1200 (HD) and played a movie off my laptop very well, here I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the video card and the HDMI output.

Surfing shouldn't be a problem as the interal wireless antenna performs well and picks up and maintains a signal for reliable web browsing. Audio output is also excellent and very good for a small unit.

All in all, great little laptop for the money, highly recommended.

I bought the laptop for 400$+14$ shipping. Its got EVERYTHING I need. Its LED 13-inch screen is crystal clear, and with Atlec Lansing speakers built right into this bad boy, its perfect for movies, music and what not. Gaming? Its CPU is bit weak(Dual Core 1.2 ghz) which wouldn't be expected to run any games. But this processor is a new one, with it's architecture the same as the i3, i5 and i7. With the 1695 MB of built in graphics memory, its runs games real smooth. Plus, its got a webcam built in. When you connect in a monitor/projector, it auto-detects the size of it and adjusts accordingly. The keyboard is just.......ordinary. You don't need to get used to it. If you know how to type, you'll be fine.

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I had purchased an Acer and had problems right away, fortunately I was able to return it for a full refund and decided to go back to an HP and am very pleased with its performance. The only downside, which hasn't really impacted me thus far, is the is no CD drive, but with downloads, etc this is probably not a big deal.

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This was a first time lap top for my son .. I paid almost twice as much for a top of the line sony.. for myself..This computer has every feature mine has as well as being able to do anything the sony can ...great choice for a great price other brands wanted 200-550 dollars more for the same features..it pays to shop around and the HPs that all the guys in my squad have are all great computers...

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HP Pavilion G6-2239DX Quad Core 2.7Ghz 640GB 4GB Windows 8 15.6" Webcam HDMI

I was skeptical about buying an HP after some of the recent downtrends with the company but they made some major structural changes in the last year and decided to give HP another shot! Let me tell you, they did not disappoint. I love this laptop and at the price Amazon has it for, it cannot be beat. I paid $449 and got it within a few days! Beautiful piece of equipment and it runs very fast! Anyone looking to give HP another shot I recommend to try out this laptop, great specs for the price!

I have owned two HP Pavilions, and been happy with both. My 8 year old one (which had Vista) is starting to get glitchy, so I decided to buy a new one.

I bought one elsewhere, and after going through the wizard that came with it, it would not load Windows, so I returned it.

This one loaded okay, but I absolutely hate the new Windows 8, so I am still using my old computer while I try to figure out how to use the new one.

Windows 8 seems like it was designed for a touch screen rather than a regular mouse, and I guess if you have endless time to mess with it and try to figure out where they hid all the controls, you might enjoy it. I dont.

There is no start button any more, just a start page with tiles constantly flashing things I don't need to know, and most of the controls are hidden around the edges, where you have to hunt for them.

I have used Windows XP and Vista, have an Android tablet and an old Apple laptop, and never had a problem with any of them. I can usually figure out new systems fairly easy, but not this one. I don't know who thought Windows 8 was a good idea, but if I can figure out a way to get rid of it, I will.

*****

Update... I was lucky enough to sit next to a computer programmer on a plane, and he told me about a download that puts a traditional start page on Windows 8 (apparently a lot of people hate the new format). It's called classic shell, and can be found here: http://classicshell.com/ With it the computer is much more usable.

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I got the refurbished model of this, saves you money and doesn't really make a difference from my experience. My only complaint with the laptop is that there is a lot of bloatware, but that's easily solvable. One important thing to mention is that the title says it's a quad core processor, but it is only dual core. Not that it's that big of a deal, but the A6-4400M is a dual core 2.7GHz processor. It's still pretty solid for the price, and you can always go to eBay to upgrade the processor to an A8 or an A10, both of which are quad core, for about 100 bucks or so. The chiclet-style keyboard is nice, and the speakers are good for a laptop, the battery lasts about 4 hours of continuous, light use, about half that if you're playing games or something more intensive. Windows 8, love it or hate it, runs perfectly fine on this machine. If you can find it, buy the refurbished one from Best Buy though, it costs around 255 bucks after tax and shipping and handling, considerably less than the refurbished one on here, although I was unable to find it on there to review. Anyways, good laptop!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray)

I thought I give me first impressions of this new Windows 8 Convertible.

First off the device is very slick, its light weight, looks great. It not the easiest thing to open but once its opened it works well.

As excited as I was to get this, there were several blaring quirks that I wouldn't expect from a $1500 device.

1. The wifi intermittently cuts out. This seems to be a known issue you can read about everyone complaining here. To save you some time reading the thread there are three things I did

a.Update the driver

b.Change the power settings -Set the Wireless Adapter Settings to Maximum Performance (both battery and wired

c.Update the driver properties

1. Bring up the device manager by searching "device manager" from the charms menu under settings.

2. Click on network adapters in the device manager.

3. Right click on "Realtek RTL8723A wireless ..." under network adapters. Click on properties.

4. In the properties box click on the advanced pane.

5. Inside the advanced pane set the following values to these parameters:

selective suspend: disabled (I think this is the only change necessary but I did the other 2 parameter changes as well, you can experiment with different choices)

selective suspend timeout: 60

WiFi config: WiFi

Click OK to save settings

2. There is no keyboard light, which have been on all my Lenovo work computer, so it's hard to see the keyboard in the dark.

3. When you flip the Yoga and try watching a movie, you'll notice the speakers are now pointed away from you! Even still the speakers are louder than the iPad.

Ok about Windows 8

The biggest problem with Windows 8 is that it comes preloaded with Junk! The start bar is full on things I will never use and there is a ton of Trial Wear already installed. I was particularly disappointed that MacAfee (part of the company that gave me this Ultrabook) was continuously popping up messages that were very hard to close with tiny buttons and dropdowns asking me to buy a subscription or register when as far as I can tell it comes with a subscription.

Once you remove all this and get things set up its actually pretty nice, however moving tiles around is hard work (not nearly as easy as a ipad).

There is no Official Facebook App, after some research you can integrate facebook with the People App but when I did this the news feed is different and nearly all the businesses I liked are featured and it is missing a ton of features such as unliking the businesses I don't want to see as full page adds.

Also the App are more expensive. Why is Star Wars Angry Birds $5?

User profiles are very nice and this is something iPads don't have. I am pretty happy with this feature and you can add picture passwords that work okish.

Overall once you get it set up I think it is pretty nice, I don't think the average user wants to spend the time I did to set this up though and I really think it could have been done better.

I got the Yoga 13 in support of my photography it allows me to have a fairly high-end computer in a very lightweight package, fully capable of running Lightroom and Photoshop and being able to process 18-21 megapixel images efficiently. I also like the touch screen and tablet mode for watching movies, viewing slideshows or just surfing. I have two issues though, that have made me sometimes wonder if I should have waited until there were competing models out there. (This was without a doubt, the most capable touchscreen laptop available at the time.)

First, the fan runs continuously, even when the computer is just idling. It can get quite loud when the system is working even modestly hard. This is apparently a well-known issue and there is no fix at the present time.

Second, the trackpad is absolutely awful. I'm in IT myself and have seen many many laptops over the years, and this compares with the worst, trackpad-wise. It alternates rapidly between being hyper-sensitive and not responding at all, it skips, it causes random effects... I've sent emails prematurely, deleted blocks of text, moved things around, etc. After a fair bit of fiddling with the mouse and synaptics settings it's gotten slightly better, but it's still much more effective to use a real mouse with this computer.

One other, relatively small item: the right shift and Enter keys are unusually small, leading to some mistyping.

On the flip side the screen and video are magnificent, the tablet mode works very well, sound is great, and all in a remarkably compact package.

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I've had this laptop for about 2 weeks. (Mine has all the same specs save for 8GB RAM I have 4.) I love it! Getting my programs and files transferred from my old laptop was a breeze and took very little time. I had an issue upgrading Windows 8 to the PRO edition with Media Center. Microsoft Tech support was outstanding (I know?) at getting me up and running in 20 minutes.

I have to imagine you've read all the professional reviews, and now you want to know if it lives up to it on the consumer end. I haven't used it much as a tablet yet because I plan to do that more in the summer. Also one of the first things I did was install Start8 to replace the start menu on the desktop. Very good software that is well worth 5 dollars. I move this thing around frequently. Battery life with heavy use is about 4-5 hours. If I am going back and forth to the machine, then it will last much longer. Every works really well out of the box, and it's speedy.

So here is the one thing I think everyone buying this machine needs to know. For me, it's not a deal breaker, but it was disappointing, and annoying. In my opinion, Lenovo needs to redesign the keyboard. I tried and tried to get used to the cramped shift key, backspace, and enter. I'm telling you, I missed them every time. So now, at my workstation, I use a high quality external keyboard and mouse and keep the laptop in tent mode. I LOVE this setup. The keyboard on the machine is above average for on the go stuff. It's outstanding in fact. It's just not something I want to use for long periods of work. So really, I have the best of both worlds. And for the record, I have read reviews that directly contradict mine. However, I think anyone buying this machine needs to know they might have an issue here. The keyboard issue seems to improve if you approach the keyboard off center moving your hands slightly to the left. This is hard to get used to doing. The other thing is, it would be nice for the keyboard to be illuminated.

Compared to my old laptop, this is a revolution. I am extremely happy with my purchase and would not hesitate, despite the keyboard annoyance, to repeat the purchase.

One more item. I tried using a bluetooth mouse with this machine. It performed very poorly. In my research, this seems to be an issue with Yoga and Microsoft Mice. I switched to a mouse with a receiver. perfect.

You will not regret this purchase unless you are planning on writing a novel in a coffee shop on this thing. And even then, maybe you will adapt easier than I did.

My guess is, Lenovo nailed the future of the laptop.

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I bought this so I could have one light weight machine that operates like a tablet when I'm just having fun on the computer, and operates like a powerful laptop when I need to do serious work such as software development. This device achieves my goals! I fold it back and use the touch screen when I just reading, browsing the internet, shopping or playing games. If I'm watching internet based movies, I plug my TV into the HDMI port and watch the movie in 1080p on the big screen. When I need to get serious, I fold it differently and start using the keyboard. When I want to work, I switch from metro view to desktop view and it looks pretty much like a Windows 7 environment. ( I did buy StartIsBack for $3.00 so I could have a desktop Wind 7 Start icon, but that's a Windows issue, not device issue)

The touch screen works great. It responds quickly and accurately. It is very bright and crisp when viewing. The keyboard feels pretty good under my fingers and I don't have a problem with typing letters. Finding the arrow, shift or delete key is always a problem for laptops and me. Sometimes I plug in an external monitor for more screen real estate using the HDMI port. The USB 3.0 connection supports an external BluRay or harddrive device. Another USB port provides for thumb drive plug in, or external mouse/keyboard when I'm at my desk and working.

A weird thing about this device is the multi-touch pad. I'm not sure why they have multi-touch pad along with multi-touch screen but it's there. This caused me a few problems with the pad's buttons before I realized that I had other fingers on the pad also! Once I figured out how to manipulate it, I discovered I could do things like zoom in on web pages when using Chrome when in desktop mode.

Things that could improve: The small right-shift key is a problem. I keep missing and hitting the up arrow. It's hard to get into the BIOS until you read up the solution online. The reason this lost a star in my review was the non standard power cord. I wanted to buy a second power supply for home only to find that this device uses a different power connection than the other Ultrabooks resulting in higher cost for a second power supply.

Bottom line: I would buy this again and recommend it to anyone needing serious computer and touch screen.

Geek info: As I said, I development software. That means I install a lot of non standard stuff on this machine including Microsoft Development Environments, SQL server Express, IIS server, Virtual PC, and a bunch other things. So far, this has all worked on this Windows 8 environment. This box comes installed with Windows 8 (Not RT and NOT Windows 8 PRO). Windows 8 has a few missing things, such as the ability to remote desktop into the the Win 8 device.

Want Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) Discount?

I've been looking for a windows 8 tablet/touchscreen laptop for development work, i needed a i7 or i5 processer with a SSD as the primary boot drive. I purchased the Acer W700 first but returned it, it was very fast and well made but the high screen resolution made it unusable in desktop mode.

I had originally overlooked the Yoga 13 because of the exposed keyboard in tablet mode, but later after reading a review talking about about a second unused hard drive slot in the Yoga 13 (yes a tablet / ultrabook with 2 drive slots !!!) i decided to give it a try.

Lets get the bad out of way first so we can talk about the good in more detail:

My Yoga is going back it has a stuck/bad pixel, But i am going to get another Yoga 13 to replace it.

Windows 8 enough said.

Screen can bounce back at ya if you jab it to hard.

Single band WIFI in 2013?

Single channel RAM holds down performance a bit.

Difficult to to a do a clean install no OS disks or option to buy them.

To many partitions from the factory WTFO?

touch-pad tries to be jack of all trades but ends up being master of none.

The good:

The hardware is superb build quality is a 10. This alone makes up for all of the negatives.

The screen size/resolution is a good trade off for desktop mode.

Display quality and brightness are both excellent (even with a bad pixel).

Actually usable in all of its 'advertised positions' and you will find it will adapt and be usable in almost any environment.

If feels so good in your hands you will find it hard to keep from touching it whenever you walk by.

Very slim and light (for a laptop).

No issues with WIFI as other posters have said.

Room for a SECOND HARD DRIVE (very well kept secret).

Tips:

Make your icons on the desktop 'small' gives the desktop a roomy feel.

Turn off edge swiping on the touch-pad otherwise it will drive you crazy.

Learn and use the keyboard shortcuts in place of some touch functions (like F4 to close an app/window).

In tablet mode hold it 'hinge up' this places your hands on the palm rest area on the keyboard (feels good) not in the keyboard (feels bad).

In laptop mode angle the screen slightly back towards you this prevents some 'bounce back'. This also helps illuminate the keyboard.

While lack of a lighted keyboard is a negative the keys have a very bold white lettering that makes it easy to see by the screen light.

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Acer Aspire V5-571-6605 LED Notebook (6GB Ram, 500Gb hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64, HDMI, W

I love this computer.. it's light and fast and I love how the keyboard is set up.. very sleek.. it's perfect for what I need it for!

I have nothing but praise for the Laptop; great price, fantastic screen, fast and nowhere near as much heat given off as with my HP relic.

I just wish I didn't have to use Windows. As soon as it's out of warranty, I'll probably load Linux.

Buy Acer Aspire V5-571-6605 LED Notebook (6GB Ram, 500Gb hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64, HDMI, W Now

Slim, sleek, lightweight and fast. Great screen. Keyboard is good, and the overall fit and finish is good silver body better than my dark blue laptop, which is a fingerprint magnet. W7 working well. I actually bought this for my wife she loves it. I may get one for me.

Larry H50

Read Best Reviews of Acer Aspire V5-571-6605 LED Notebook (6GB Ram, 500Gb hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64, HDMI, W Here

This is the first computer/laptop that was not an H. P. I was out of my comfort zone when I purchased this one. For a short while I had a Samsung Series 3. I like the Acer laptop better than the Samsung laptop. The other thing was the Acers Windows 7 is more user friendly than Samsung Windows 8. This Acer laptop speaker has a really poor sound quality compared to the other computers. This is the only complaint I have. Good Luck.

Want Acer Aspire V5-571-6605 LED Notebook (6GB Ram, 500Gb hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium 64, HDMI, W Discount?

this is my second acer laptop and it's doing me well. getting this much RAM for the price made it worth the purchase. the screen is large and overall quite light. and it didn't come with windows 8, so that was a plus

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MSI Barebone 937-16GA22-009 15.6-Inch Laptop

This laptop does not come with ram, hard drive, or cpu. It uses a G2 socket cpu and sandy bridge seems to work just fine. If your WIFI doesn't seem to work i recommend switching the two wires. Mine came with the wifi already installed but the cables were backwards.

Cons:

Some of the materials seem to be cheap

It does not come with ram, hhd, OS, or cpu

Computer gets hot when pushing the graphics card

Pros:

The computer is very cheap

The Graphics card is amazing

The screen is 1080p resolution.

Overall the laptop is a bargain considering the powerful graphics card it comes with. I recommend this laptop to anyone who has opened up their laptop in the past and knows the parts. Very easy installation getting the missing parts would be the hard part. I used a preowned Intel Mobile Core i7 i7-2630QM for cpu.

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