HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD

Pros (there are lots of them):

1) blisteringly fast system overall even with just a hybrid hard drive (because of the solid state cache on the drive). With full SSD (Samsung 840 Pro 265 GB in one system, Samsung 830 in the other) boots to welcome screen in UNDER 8 SEC full desktop only another 4 seconds away. With just mSSD (or hybrid) and no full SSD (32 GB cache for conventional hard drive and smaller cache on most hybrid drives) still boots in ~18-20 seconds. (Samsung 840 Pro is fastest current SATA III drive see my Amazon review of this drive.)

2) superb screen anti-glare really makes a difference, with the upgraded 1080p display. Very accurate and bright color with great viewing angles. Poor man's Retina display for half the money? Intel's terrific screen utility allows for adjusting color, gamma and virtually all display parameters to get very accurate color, tone, saturation, gamma, etc. With professional tweaking, capable of extremely accurate color (notably without some of the color problems seen in the 15 inch HP Envy).

3) excellent sound system (in combination with the great display best possible blu-ray experience currently on any computer (rivaling plasma TV).

4) backlit keyboard (finally HP!) with decent feel (but see cons!) with full number keypad (can't get that in smaller laptops).

5) very decent battery life, especially for big laptop because of (switchable) motherboard graphics and other Ivy Bridge efficiencies runs very cool on motherboard graphics esp. compared to old Envy 17s with its full time power-hogging dedicated video card.

6) solid video game performance there are probably better video cards but upgraded Nvidia 650M GT offers very good performance for the money.

7) my one experience with HP service was surprisingly positive got a technically very sophisticated person who helped solve the problem quickly.

8) Relatively light for its size under 7 lbs. Lightest 17+ inch laptop with two drive bays including the overpriced but high quality Apple MBP 17.

9) Second drive bay allows for either huge total storage or drive redundancy (I have extra OS partition which has been life saver after hard drive corrupted by rogue program behavior and blue screen. Can't get that in smaller package

10) Loved the first one so much that I bought a second one for another office, and just cloned the whole system had a fully set up system after just 30 minutes of drive copying (identical hardware so all the drivers and software from one system carried over to the other without a hitch). Second one works as well as the first.

Cons:

1) internal microphone is distinctly poor quality only piece of hardware on the system that is not really first rate makes speech recognition programs unusable without an external microphone I wonder if someone left a piece of tape over it no treble sensitivity at all.

2) HP service is getting better, but still has a ways to go at least according to recent reviews

3) Windows 7 still is not the most reliable operating system particularly when compared to the Mac OS X but it is nice to look at, and much easier to customize.

4) Trackpad is about the jumpiest around must turn it off to do much typing as even brushing against it lightly will cause cursor to go crazy and start selecting and deleting text all over the page. Enabling palm check function in touchpad driver doesn't solve this problem.

5) Wish keyboard lighting could be varied one brightness level only.

6) Not able to get Win 7 much longer may even be closed out of this better debugged OS by end of 2012 (you would be forced to install Win 7 from separately purchased OS install disc.)

7) Placement of the blu-ray burner/player is on the right side of the system, and rather close to the power cord. Minor design hiccup. Also wish that the drive was slot loaded. Another minor issue.

This is the fastest system I've ever used. With the new Ivy Bridge chipset, a Crucial M4 SSD or Samsung 840 Pro (highly recommended) can load large files at over 500MB second, and it boots fully into the desktop in an honest 12 seconds. This makes it really painless to shut the system down instead of having it go into hibernate or suspend which Windows system have never excelled at frankly. Indeed the boot time is far less from a cold boot that it is from hibernate, and it starts up faster than it shuts down (another Win 7 feature of dubious value). HP has also significantly improved the sound system (relative to my previous Envy 17 which itself was pretty decent), with really good volume levels. Superb playback of Blu-rays, and unlike some previous systems, I have yet to find a Blu-ray that won't run on the included software. Even with a subpar internal microphone, I would say this is the finest and most complete laptop I've ever used and that includes the new MacBook Pros which are more than twice as expensive (and good luck trying to get blu-rays to play on Macs unless they are running BootCamp and Windows).

Great job HP!

ADDENDUM JULY 2012:

System is just a joy and a delight to work with. Continues to speed along without any real problems. Updated a bunch of drivers through HP Assistant. Best electronics purchase in a long time.

SEPT 2012 UPDATE:

Still having problems with a jumpy trackpad that moves the cursor all over the place just disable the TP when trying to do much typing. Also, I had first serious problem (hard drive failure due to some kind of malignant program interaction between Flash, Office and Dragon Naturally Speaking). Don't blame HP for this. Fortunately, the second drive bay allows me to back up the system partition regularly to another drive (the original 1 TB mechanical hard drive) and this saved me. Would recommend other users do the same, as system restore won't work if you have a hard drive failure and trashed system files (see my negative review of Naturally Speaking 11 and 12 they are probably the culprit, or at least in the mix with some other misbehaving programs). Still believe that in terms of basic hardware, this is the best large screen laptop out there, including the MBP 17. HP's service looking better and better. They appear to have really made a major effort to clean up their act. Highly, highly recommended.

OCT 2012 UPDATE

Recommend users get DriverMax for driver updates great freebee that beats HP's system, which is better than many, but still not adequate. Superb system, best computer I have ever owned, even with the jumpy trackpad and lousy internal microphone. Screen quality, speed, keyboard, all first-rate. Some blu-rays more enjoyable on this than on big living room plasma. Updated Intel MB graphics drivers allow customizing of gamma, color saturation, hue, so that you can get screen to be very accurate for color in terms of photos and videos. Love the anti-glare coating on the screen also couldn't go back to stock screen. Best computer purchase ever. Will buy a second one for upstairs office before being forced to go Win 8. Not everyone wants a tablet interface and operating system. They really (finally) have the drivers for this running nicely almost no blue screens (outside of Dragon Dictation). Runs like a top. Not just the best computer system I have ever used (have owned several dozen), the best one by a HUGE margin. Buy one before you can't get Win 7 anymore.

DEC 2012 Update

This system continues to blow me away with its reliability and overall excellence. Some of this is just dumb luck frankly if you have a bad device driver, this can make any Win 7 system a nightmare, and right now (knock on wood) there are no bad device drivers on the system. Have used DriverMax to get all updated drivers one at a time, and only one per week, just to make sure that the new driver is not a blue screen waiting to happen. The second cloned system in my other office works flawlessly too.

This is, as I said earlier, not only the best computer I have ever used, but the best by a large margin. Hard to get one from HP with Win 7 anymore with just a few left in their inventory. Don't know about Win 8. Too early to tell but would predict the usual video and sound card driver problems and other teething issues. Buy one now with Win 7 before they are all gone.

JAN 2012 Update

Both systems are just rock solid and never blue screen. As I said earlier, I think that some of this is dumb luck, but some of it is HP finally taking driver support more seriously. I have never had such smooth functioning from a Windows system over the last 20 years (going back to the original buggy mess of Windows 3.1, Win 95, Win 98, Win Millennium, Win XP). Occasional troubles with Flash and its locking up of Firefox (I believe that Abode is just this side of a rogue software outfit, in terms of how seriously buggy Flash and Acrobat Reader both are). But this is really minor stuff, and I have never had a system work this flawlessly for this long and run this smoothly and quickly.

Get Win 7 before it is too late. Win 8 appears to have lots of problems. Can't say enough about the overall excellence of these two systems (identical DV-7 7000 except for the different SSDs in each, and the mSSD in the one I am using now).

I've only had this computer for a few hours, so I'll update this review as necessary.

I spent four months researching the perfect computer via the internet. I had settled on either the HP Envy 17-3270, or the Samsung Chronos 17". Before I made my final decision, I decided to go to Best Buy to get a feel for my two remaining options.

I saw the Samsung, and I was quite impressed. It had great build quality, a wonderful keyboard and was a real pleasure to use. Then came the Envy. Despite its "premium" materials, it felt cheap and flimsy. The keyboard felt kind of mushy. I was very disappointed. But right next to the Envy was the new DV7.

Well when I picked up the DV7-7000, I was pleasantly surprised by its build quality. It simply felt better in my hands than the Envy. That is, it was lighter, the lid felt stiffer, and the keyboard and mouse were quite responsive. Oh, and as a classically trained musician, I can tell you that the speakers narrowly beat the Envy's and Samsung's -both of which have very good speakers, for laptops.

So, I went home and did some research, and I saw that the DV7 can offer the same specs as the Samsung and Envy at a price tag that is over $200 cheaper.

I was sold. I still am sold.

The computer arrived in perfect condition. No dead pixels, no scratches. The only issue with the build quality is a very small wave in the keyboard, between K and L. For me, this is not anywhere close to a deal breaker. But when I was doing my pre-purchase homework, I saw that other users also had this issue.

Well anyway, here are the pros and cons.

Pros

-Fast system.

-Beautiful Screen. Frankly, it seems like the same one used on the Envy, but with an anti-reflective screen (yay).

-Wonderful Audio.

-Highly Responsive Backlit Keyboard, Including Numpad.

-Fingerprint Reader allows you to store passwords for the computer and websites, thus sparing us the trouble of remembering dozens of passwords.

-Blu-ray Player

-Limited Bloatware

-Left and right click buttons on the mouse.

Cons

-The touchpad is a little too sensitive. Nothing that I won't get used to, but I will have to get used to it.

-Small wave in the keyboard.

-VGA port is right next to the HDMI port, so you can only use one of those two ports at a time. For me, this is the only area where the Envy 17-3270 has the DV7-7000 beat.

That's all I have for now. I'll update as needed.

Buy HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD Now

The HP dv7-7000 quad edition is all about what is "under the hood." The prospective buyer will be hard-pressed to find a notebook with these beefed up specs for under $1600 with any other manufacturer. I narrowed my search down to three: The Dell xps 15, Asus N56VM, and the HP dv7. The Dell XPS takes the cake from a build quality perspective (aluminum, magnesium, gorilla glass, and a silicone base) but to get the same specs as the HP, Dell starts you off at $1600. The Asus N56 offers similar specs at around $1000, But appears a bit cheap. The dv7 is the more bang for the buck choice as it lies somewhere in the middle of the other two. Although the outside is mostly plastic, it is supported by an internal aluminum chassis; this gives it a sturdy feel. The monitor lid is extermely stiff to open, but this is a good thing because it stays put. I expect the lid hinges to loosen over time. Windows 7 boot times are significantly reduced due to the "hybrid" ssd cache. This is nice feature if you are accustomed to slower windows boot times. The backlit keyboard is roomy, well-illuminated and comfortable for extended typing. Some have complained about the number pad causing a slight shift in the keys, but this has not bothered me in the least. The touchpad is average at best, but why does anyone use these? Just purchase a wireless mouse. I would never let the the touchpad influence my decision to purchase a notebook. The beats branded audio exhibits good sound quality, with plenty of volume and clarity. The subwoofer on the bottom of the notebook really isn't discernable. After all this is a notebook, so temper your expectations a bit. HP provides an excellent user interface for driver/software updates, customer support, diagnostics, etc. I found the interface to be helpful and user friendly. The notebook recognized my home wireless network instantly and provides good signal strength throughout my home. I have an HP wireless printer, which the wizard failed to install drivers. To remedy this, I went to the HP site and downloaded the driver; works like a charm! the dv7 has 3 usb 3 ports (very nice) and a usb 2 port. I am not a gamer, so this unit will probably never be tested to the limit. That said, the unit stays cool under normal conditions (web browsing, word processing, file downloading). I have not used the BD drive yet, so I can't speak to it's performance or quality. Early on, everything is speedy and performing well. My major complaint with the dv7 is the HEAVY, anchor-like 9 cell battery, which also functions as a stand that elevates the rear of the unit. I understand that this is a desktop feature meant to facilitate ventilation and ease of typing, but it is a nightmare when used on the lap OUCH! I am ordering a flat replacement battery. The 1920x1080 FHD monitor is bright, but lacks sharpness. The colors appear slightly washed out. This judgement is based on the look of internet explorer and Netflix HD streaming. My Dell 22" 1080p desktop monitor blows the dv7 away! Still a nice monitor though. Overall, the dv7 posesses a great deal of value and performance. If you are more concerned with external aesthetics and are willing to take a downgrade in specs to remain in the $1200 price point, the Dell is probably a good choice. However, I believe this has it all for a better value. Another final perk: A two year warranty is included in the purchase price. This will tack on around $250 with a Dell purchase. I easily recommend this unit!

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion DV7-7000 17.3" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd Gen Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge GD Here

This Product is amazing! I love it the core i7 procceser is so amazing great windows experience index and also it stays pretty cool unlike what the other guy said. I was in between this and Samsung series 7 but i decided on this because they are in the same price range but this laptop has way better graphics cards like the intel hd 4000 and the gt650m which uses ddr5 which is about 15% faster than ddr3 version of the same card. But overall this laptop is so good has all the high end stuff in a affordable package.AND the audio is to die for

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There are so many good things i can say about this laptop. The display quality and color accuracy is very similar or slightly better than my other Macbook pro laptop!

It's very fast and battery life is superb.

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Dell Inspiron i17R-1713 17.3-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

I've had the Dell Inspiron 17R (500 gig hard drive; 4 gigs RAM; i5-2410m processor) for about a month. I upgraded it to 6 gigs of RAM.

The Inspiron is a pretty good value. You get a lot of machine for the money. The i5-2410m processor is fast. Combined with the large amount of RAM, it'll handle with ease any normal, everyday task, such as watching movies, browsing, word processing, home video editing, and so on. I can't speak to whether it'd be suitable for gaming, because I don't use it for that. However, it is quite a powerful laptop for routine computer stuff.

I have seen the screen criticized elsewhere, for not being super-high resolution, but I disagree. The 17.3" screen is one of the high points of this laptop. It is bright, sharp, and easy to read. I've always been a fan of "desktop replacement" laptops, and have several over the years, always with a 17" screen. I think this is one of the better screens out there. It's 1600x900, which is not 1920x1080, but it's still very sharp, and the Inspiron 17R is half the price of a 1920x1080 laptop.

It comes with a nice mix of ports. Two USB 3.0, a USB 2.0, and an extremely useful eSATAe. The USB3.0 ports are not providing the kind of performance I was hoping for. I think that either the laptop or my external drives are not configured properly to take advantage of USB3.0. I'm getting USB3.0 speeds that are little better than USB2.0. On the other hand, the eSATAe port is blazin' fast. I plan just to use the eSATAe port and not bother with the 3.0 ports.

My main complaint with this laptop is the mouse pad. There are some laptops out there that have a mouse which jumps around too much. This is one of them. Many other laptops do not have this problem anymore; it was a design problem that was fixed over the years. So, what does this problem entail? When you're typing, the cursor will occasionally jump elsewhere on the screen, and if you're not careful, you can end up deleting important text. And, as another reviewer noted, there's the occasional related problem of the mouse-pointer sort of pinning itself to the right side of the screen; when this happens, nothing you do on the mousepad will unstick it, and you just have to fuss with it and, ultimately, wait for it to decide to start working again. Experimenting with the mouse pad controls (sensitivity and speed, in Control Panel) helps a little, but not a lot. Fundamentally, it is just a bad mouse pad, something that should have been addressed by Dell and put to rest a long, long time ago. The cursor-jumpiness around the screen is just unacceptable on a modern laptop. The keyboard itself is mediocre; it has nice chicklet-style keys that are easy to type on, but they occasionally miss a letter when they shouldn't. I spilled just a couple of drops of Diet Coke on one key, and now that key and six surrounding keys have permanent pop-and-crackle noises when I touch them. Many (in fact, "most" or "all") other laptop keyboards are more mishap-tolerant than the one in the 17R. I want to love this laptop, but I have to say that laptops from other brands such as Toshiba have much better keyboards and mouse pads.

The battery life is poor. It is the shortest battery life I have ever experienced on a laptop. You can get about 90 minutes if you are doing light browsing. Any sort of heavy usage, like movie-watching, will put you down in the 60 to 75 minute range. I really don't get that. I've had other 17" monitor laptops that ran for 2.5 to 3.5 hours between charges. It doesn't bother me much, because I use it at home, where it's plugged in. If I was in more of a road-warrior mode, I would've already returned it. This laptop basically needs to be plugged in when you're using it. It is also very heavy substantially heavier than my last couple of 17" laptops. It really is not designed for road use, either in battery usage or weight; it's truly an old-school desktop replacement laptop.

In summary: for the price, you get a lot of laptop with Dell. The Inspiron 17R has a beautiful screen, a very fast processor, and ample storage and RAM for normal business or personal use. I don't think for the $600 to $700 (depending on configuration) you can get much more laptop elsewhere. However, the mouse, and specifically the jumpiness of the mouse, truly sucks. The keyboard is very low-end -so low-end it's hard to believe Dell thought this was an acceptable component to put on a modern, $600 machine. All in all, I give this laptop 3 stars. I would like to see Dell really drill down on why their mousepads and keyboards are not up to the competition, and replace them with better parts. I have a feeling this one will last about a year or two, and then I will probably replace it with a different brand.

Overall, I love this product, though considering the last computer I had was a 12.5"

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HP Pavilion dv6-3160us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Argento)

The specs on this laptop are really good. 4 Core AMD Processor will keep things moving at a pretty fast pace, although it ranks below Intel I7's, it still performs very well. Also a large hard drive and the light up keyboard is especially nice when working on things at night. However the best part about the laptop is the video card. The ATI Mobility Radeon(tm) HD 5650 was really the selling point for me. Standard video cards that come with lower end laptops are often the bare minimums and all too often hold the performance of a laptop back. Such is not the case with this laptop. The video card is phenomenal for the price of the laptop. Overall great laptop performance wise. It looks really sweet too. However there is one drawback with HP's and its the preloaded software. I don't know if other company's do it, but this one came loaded with stuff and really hinders the performance. I have a Windows 7 Ult disc purchased previously so I installed my own version after I played with the preloaded OS and software for a bit. Most of the drivers are on the HP website so there really wasn't any trouble finding them(if you choose to do this, make a recovery disc first!). But i know someone else said that if you press F11 on the start up and do the recovery option you can choose to reinstall windows with a minimal installation which will get rid of the preloaded software but still install all the drivers. Highly recommend though if your looking for an above average laptop with an excellent video card.

So far its been a great laptop. it has too many HP programs that i dont know if the are actually helpful but besides that... great keyboard very smooth and silent... the monitor its great and the fongerprint reader works fine... it runs a little bit hot in the bottom left side i think where the processor is, but only when the ventilation is reduced. i have a special table for laptops with ventilation in that area and i work in multiple projects at a time and the computer remains cold... (sorry if my english wasnt very good, im from venezuela)... i will make another review in 1 month to see if something change... i hope not... buy this laptop if you are looking for one of the best laptops for this price...

Buy HP Pavilion dv6-3160us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Argento) Now

I bought the dv6-3052nr and HP replace another notebook with the dv6-3160us and here is what I discovered, first the comparison of systems:

The dv6-3052nr has the following technical details:

Intel Core i7-720QM processor 1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.80 GHz; 6 GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM) Max supported = 8 GB; 500 GB (7200 RPM) Hard Drive; Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

15.6 Inch HD HP Brightview LED Display (1366x766); ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Graphics with up to 4091 MB total graphics memory with 1 GB dedicated; SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support and Lightscribe

Brushed aluminum finish with the stream design in argento (silver); HP TrueVision HD Webcam with integrated digital microphone; 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader

Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector); Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n WLAN

3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0; 1 HDMI; 1 eSATA + USB 2.0; 1 VGA (15-pin); 1 RJ -45 (LAN); 1 Headphone-out/Microphone-in combo jack

The dv6-3160us has the following technical details:

AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor N950 (2.10GHz, 2MB Cache); 4GB DDR3 SDRAM memory (2 x 2GB) (expandable to 8GB); 640GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive; Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

15.6 Inch diagonal High-Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366 x 768), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics with 1GB dedicated DDR3 memory up to 2685MB total graphics memory

External Ports: 5-in-1 memory card reader; 4 USB 2.0 (4th port shared with eSATA); 1 HDMI; 1 VGA (15-pin); 1 RJ -45 (LAN); 1 Headphone-out; 1 Microphone-in

LightScribe Technology SuperMulti DVD Burner; Dolby Advanced Audio with Altec Lansing speakers; Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN; Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth

Brushed aluminum finish; 101-key compatible with island-style full-size backlit keyboard; HP Clickpad with On/Off button; HP TrueVision Webcam with integrated digital microphone; HP SimplePass with integrated fingerprint reader

IMO PRO's:

3160 has a backlit keyboard and and that has helpful in where I can do work. I have been getting about 3.5 hours of use for the battery in the power-saving 4250 gpu and I only game when i have it plugged in (I only play wow so this is not a game review).

Other thoughts:

When using the better processor of the i7 over the Quad-AMD I did not see enough of a performance boost to warrant keeping the system over returning the 3052ns to Fry's when HP replaced another notebook I had with the 3160us. I had replaced the HDD with a 7200 RPM and upgraded the RAM to 6GB to make the processor the only difference. If you have a Quad but want to save money then get this model because all the other specs are the same except for the backlit keyboard and Ralink Wifi-BT adapter, also if you run UBUNTU Linux or Fedora 14 Linux then get the driver zip file from Ralink and follow the makefile commands to compile the driver from source code. I dual boot the 3160us and that was the only hiccup in Fedora but I did both for distro testing.

Now here on Amazon there is only a $100 difference but the invoice from HP showed the 3160us system as $741 and with tax at Fry's the 3052nr came to $1,092. You do the math and regardless of what the spec testing software says when you use both with clean installs and 1.5 seconds was the biggest time difference I could measure then I went AMD and never looked back.

Hope this helps

Upgrades I would recommend

9-cell battey becauses it raises the system up for better airflow and longer life unplugged.

Read Best Reviews of HP Pavilion dv6-3160us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4 Hours of Battery Life (Argento) Here

After decided that my office would be the new baby room I had to find an acceptable laptop that I could use as a replacement desktop. I work as an IT network admin so I had lots of resources and staff to give me some information. Originally I really wanted something with a 17" screen but in order to get a laptop with a GPU that I wanted within my budget I settled for the smaller screen and less resolution. The overall feel of the laptop is high quality and I really like the aluminum panels. Another feature that I really like is the backlit keyboard. I wasn't expecting to get this feature on a less expensive laptop and it makes working with the laptop in the dark easy and can be turned off with one button. I've read I can't remember how many reviews and the negative comments about the mouse pad. Being that I would use my Razor gaming mouse I wasn't concerned about the pad. But, I found the pad to be very easy to use regardless of the other complaints. It's large and sensitive and can easily be adjusted. One of the features that is missing off my wish list was a blue ray drive. But hey, what do you want for 700 bucks! If it becomes a real issue for me there are inexpensive external drives that are super small and would fit in my travel bag. There are plenty of outputs for just about everything and the laptop is substantially lighter than my wife's two year old HP that's the same size.

The Windows 7 64 bit OS has been great with our workstations at work so no surprises with the laptop there. The quad core AMD processor has yet to even blink when asked to do anything. Preloaded software was minimal (I hate saying bloat ware, it just sounds juvenile) and I removed most of it. I probably will max out the memory but I've only had the laptop a few days so I'll make sure that everything is ok before spending the money to do the upgrade. Connecting to either a wireless or wired network was no problem and speed was great. The bio scanner is cool for password authentication and makes login into everything that much quicker. OK, now onto the important part, games. The dual GPUs work awesome! The Radeon HD 5650 is more than capable of some serious gaming. Connecting it to a larger monitor was also easy and the graphic didn't suffer any.

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase and don't regret settling for a smaller monitor. I feel that the quality of the materials and construction will help this unit last a very long time. I don't know about battery life being that this will be used primarily at a desktop but it will be nice to be able to take it with me when I travel. One con that I will list is the keys to the left side of the keyboard. People who are used to typing on a standard keyboard with tab, caps and so on that are the end keys will be a bit confused at first and hit these keys. I will get use to it over time but the keys were not really necessary or could have been placed somewhere else (minus 1 star). I would make the purchase again and will also recommend this laptop to family and friends.

*UPDATE*

The laptop HD has failed and will need to be replaced. Its my fault but I lost picture of my baby that I can never get back. Laptop continues to get hotter each time I play a game. I got a coller pad for it but its still runs very hot! Im starting to think that I made the wrong choice. There was also an issue with the sound ports for head phones on the side and was shipped back to be repaired. Its only a few months old!

I have purchased a RAID external backup for my wife and my laptops. Well see how HPs services is.....

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I've been meaning to buy a Quad-Core Phenom II mobile for some time now, and there isn't much out there. There are upcoming BE (Black Edition) mobile CPUs but those have not hit the market yet. I have a desktop Phenom II X4 940 BE and it just blows my builds away so I'd figure gotta have those mobile versions. I did a lot of research and this laptop is prolly the best at the time of this writing ;-)

PROs:

1) Quad-Core Phenom II N950 2.1GHz CPU. There is an N970 CPU on HP's site but I'd figure a 100MHz difference wouldn't really matter.

2) 4Gb DDR3 1333 MHz RAM. I thought it was only 1066 MHz but when I got to the BIOS lo and behold it was using DDR3-1333!!!

3) ATI HD 5650 / HD 4250 switchable graphics. Plays most modern games. Also supported by Xorg (on non-Windows OS), was able to dual-boot w/ FreeBSD/Xorg using the ati or radeonhd driver!!!

4) HDMI and VGA when you want to extend your monitor

5) eSATA port, if you have external storage you carry around and you want to use SATA speeds instead of USB

6) 15.6" LED screen, instead of LCD

7) Brushed aluminum finish, doesn't leave pesky fingerprints

8) Back-lit keyboard, when you're working in the dark

9) GigE LAN

10) WLAN b/g/n

11) Bluetooth, if you're on the road and need to tether to your ISP

12) SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW w/ Double Layer Support and Lightscribe

CONs:

1) There's some extra keys (calc, printer etc) at the leftmost of the keyboard w/c, might interfere w/ your typing, but you'd get used to it.

2) The left side kinda heats

Hardware upgrades I made:

1) Samsung MV-3T4G4 4GB DDR3 Laptop SDRAM (1333MHz PC3-10600) just to up it to 6GB

2) Western Digital Scorpio 750 GB 2.5-Inch SATA 3GB/s 7200rpm 16 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM Hard Drive WD7500BPKT (Black)

3) Also bought Notebook Cooler . to cool things down

I'm always monitoring the CPU/Core temperature using CoreTemp and I've noticed I've not passed 76C when doing heavy intensive stuff. The notebook cooler brought it down to 72C. On normal usage (browsing et al) it's just around 45-52C. So while the left-side kinda heats, I'm not worried about it. I had an Asus K52 (Core i3 350M) w/c went up to 86C doing heavy intensive stuff! If you get past 90C then that's the time you worry ;-)

Over-all, extremely satisfied !!! HP/AMD FTW ;-)

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Toshiba Satellite L305-S5944 Notebook Laptop

So far, this has been a good laptop for me, except for a few failures. After about 7 months of use, it repeatedly crashed, and I had to send it back to Toshiba's repair facilities in Kentucky. They found that it had a faulty hard drive, replaced it, and I had it back in my possession within a week. About a month later, the modem went out, and I again had to send it in and have that replaced.

All in all, I found their customer support was mediocre at best, but it was obviously foreign, so that's pretty much a given. For the most part, they were polite, though I had a few who were rather patronizing.

Its speed is quite sufficient for your every-day computing needs. Downsides would be its lack of an internal mic, and I'm not that fond of the volume wheel on the front, as it is bumped quite easily, and there is no way (that I know of) to disable it and use solely the screen controls. It is not capable of running screen recording software without freezing up and getting quite choppy. The speakers are average; don't expect anything too spectacular. It also does not come with the Vista installation discs. I've found that the keys on this computer have worn away much more quickly then they do on my others. The letters themselves do not rub off the key caps, but the tabs on the home keys were worn away quite quickly. Perhaps that's just an oddity, though. Battery life averages about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

All in all, it's been a good laptop, though not the best. Since its hard ware issues, it has done well.

The laptop is great, good size (I use it at home for my business, carry from room to room) and not too heavy. I love the screen display and size, and the keyboard is big. I use a Logitech wireless mouse via USB port. My only criticism is with the slider opener latch -what a pain. Needs to extend just a little bit more from the case, and it would be fine. This laptop came loaded with Vista Home Basic -I tried everywhere to find one with Windows XP, to no avail. Be aware that you are very restricted in options for upgrading Vista on this laptop. As far as my research tells me, I can't upgrade to Windows 7 without messing with the BIOS, and I don't want to do that. So I'm stuck with Vista and MS Office 7, both of which I do not like. (If anyone has thoughts on this I'd like to hear them.)

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This product was purchased as a high school graduation gift for a grandddaughter who will enter college in the fall. So far, it has been just fine for general use. Unable to evaluate as a college tool at this time.

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I have had Toshiba Satellite lap-tops before with mixed results....very heavy. This had a big screen and was just what I needed.

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ASUS N55SL-ES71 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

This laptop comes with a Nvidia 635M card, which has NO OFFICIAL drivers from Nvidia yet. The graphics card will not work out of the box, and despite multiple calls to Asus, replacement, contacting Nvidia support, and tons of "fixes" looking around online forums, I could not get it to work. I really like Asus and was very disappointed by the fact I had to use Intel HD 3000 despite being charged for a graphics card.

Besides that, this laptop is simply okay. For the price tag, you could get just as good specs. I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad y580 with a better graphics card for just $100 more (this laptop was $1,150 before being marked down, though).

Pros:

The audio is pretty great. The subwoofer works, but is very finicky about being recognized while plugged in and feels very cheap.

The build is solid, except for the hinges. The bottom of the top lid will scratch on your legs, and is sharp, though.

Good price for an i7 quad-core processor.

The support at least tried, and I had a pleasant time talking with some workers (US).

Cons:

Tons of bloatware to remove (Lenovo did not have nearly this much)

Graphics card issues said above.

Still 5400 rpm, so a slowish hard drive.

Overall, I would never recommend this laptop. I would recommend some cheaper Asus laptops, but for this price you could get a nice Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, anything (but HP).

I had an Asus Lamborghini laptop (which cost 4 thousand at the time) for several years until the video finally went. Looked at the reviews here and saw a couple of people with problems, but went with my instinct and got it anyway. So glad. It booted up nicely, connected via Wifi immediately, and I tested the HDMI by connecting it to my fifty inch HD tv set. The drivers were already updated, and what I was especially impressed with is how QUIET this computer is! A top-notch purchase.

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But a gorgeous screen and the best speakers! But I sent it back. It had issues with shutting down randomly and I could not stand the touch or feel of the keyboard and trackpad. A bulky laptop with a great screen and speakers is what this is.

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This is a great laptop, loved the extra bass loudspeaker. The graphic is amazing so is the HD webcam. I also liked the fact that USB ports are on both sides of the laptop. If you are into multimedia and gaming, this could be a great deal at a low price.

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I had my old Dell XPS and wanted to buy a new laptop since some of my friends gave me some got reviews of Asus i decided to buy this laptop 3 months ago, now it seems that there is a problem with the mainboard then it does not turn on anymore. I try to reach customer service (since I live abroad) but I got no response. I am really disappinted of Asus and I regret to buy this laptop becuase they dont have enough customer service arround the world.

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Dell Inspiron 17R 17.3" Core i7 1TB HDD Notebook

I was looking for a laptop computer preferably with windows 7 operating system.the price was reasonable the packaging was adequate,the shipping was a little slow do to the storm flooding in New Jersey.This is my first Dell computer. all previous were HP computers.my last was windows x-p operating system.i like the operating speed and the large hard drive storage,but the down side of this item is all the junk programs that Microsoft put on the desktop for an additional fee.not many freebee such as office software, antivirus.they are pushing cloud in the sky storage ,reg edit,file optimizer,advance protector,online backup,online vault backup that keep popping up on the screen. very annoying.

I use a DELL Latitude at work and I have a DELL Inspiton 17R for my home computer.

They both have a problem with the touch pad. It will enter keystrokes, mouse moves and mouse clicks by itself. It seems to favor selecting large amounts of text and then deleting it. That is very, very annoying if you're writing in an application that doesn't have an "undo" function.

I got the DELL service group to fix my work computer the replaced a daughter board for the touch-pad. That eliminated MOST of the problems. I'm not so lucky with my home computer. Be sure to save all the paperwork you get with your DELL computer or DELL won't help you. I mean, it's obviously one of their computers.

Other than the fact that it goes wacky, I like the large hard drive and the big screen.

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Lenovo G570 4334DDU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Got the Lenovo mostly because it was time to change laptops. Lenovo has some interesting software like the energy management that always keep the battery below 50% making the life of the cells go the extra mile and last longer, after all , what kills the battery sooner (Like the HP batteries that last like 8 months before they die completely) is having them charged at 100% with continous charge.

When I purchase the laptop I was hoping against all hope that it would run Diablo 3. When I asked around when the Beta came out nearly everyone said "Meh, it is an integrated graphic card, you won't be able to run it" or the "Maybe in the lowest spec you might run it with unplayable FPS" I took the risk anyhow and bought the game and I just turn off the shadows in game and everything else I left it in HIGH resolution and it runs smooth, just a milisecond hickup from time to time when the game gets too crowded of finds.

So yeah, the laptop, for thye price and what it offers, it way too good to be true!

Cons: Keyboard kinda cramped. Super small shift key is annoying. The computer shows smudges very easily. Screen sucks not made for watching blue ray. Only one stick of ram it should have two really.

Pros: Super fast i5 sandy bridge processor. Price is very low for the hardware you are getting. Even thought it is plastic it is very well built and doesn't feel cheap. Stays cool... I even overclocked it :3... BUT I AM A RISK TAKER YOU MAY NOT WANT TO DO THAT! :)

I put a 2gig stick I had laying around in it to bump it up to 6gigs of ram. Swapped out the slow HHD and put in a SSD I had laying around. Boot time is under 7 seconds now. If you add more ram and put in a SSD this is a super fast laptop. It beats my MacBook Pro (With HHD) in boot time and compile/run time for programs I have written in c++ and java. (Both with up to date Eclipse IDE). I am really happy with it.. Also no problems with throwing linux on it (Dual booting with Ubuntu and BackTrack).

If you are going to buy this for just watching movies, writing papers, surfing the webbernets and sending emails it is fine out of the box. If you are going to use it as your main computer I suggest you get another ram stick (They are really cheap)and if you have another 80-100$ buy an SSD instillation is super easy even for newbies.

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I replaced a 5-year old Toshiba running Vista with the Lenovo. I chose Lenovo primarily because of the ratings on Amazon and Consumer Reports. It was an easy set up and the Lenovo is very fast. The reason I gave it 4-stars instead of 5, is because the keyboard includes a number key pad to the right and it makes the keyboard rather compact and difficult to find the delete/page up/page down keys, without looking at the keyboard. If you do a lot of number entries, it would be handy to have the separate number pad. I have only had the laptop for a month, so cannot rate it on reliability at this time.

Update 7/10/2012: The Lenovo continues to run well, no issues with performance. I changed the rating to 3-stars. After using the keyboard more I have found I keep hitting the arrow up key when trying to hit the right shift key, so the cursor moves up. I really don't need the number pad, so if I had it to do again, I would not choose this model.

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The laptop performed great, then by month 7, the screw on the left corner beneath the left hinge and fan fell out at some point, and the left hinge is binding, and opens up the laptop and now is off centered. Lenovo support advised sending in the laptop and for me (even though its under warranty) to pay for shipping and repairs for a total of $247! Will not get another Lenovo due to this poor design flaw.

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Its worth every cent.

The reviews were on the button so I knew exactly what i was getting.

I would recommend this product to everyone.

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Dell Computer I15N-3001BK Dell Inspiron I15n-3001 I3-2350m Dual-core 2.3ghz 6gb 500gb Dvd+/-rw 15.6

I have had the laptop for 6 months now and I haven't had one problem with it. It has an extremely fast processor and great battery life. This is a great deal for $500 or less.

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HP Pavilion dv4t 14.1" Laptop

I bought a HP dv4t a bit over a year ago and it has already started to fall apart. the software runs fine, but this laptop tends to get really hot, even if i am just watching a movie. i cannot even play any games on it due to this overheating issue. i even bought a laptop cooler and it still gets too hot. Also, this laptop remains at my home and i am really careful about it. But something is already loose inside and the keyboard is dipping on the right side. When i open the screen, it gives this crackle and this worries me. For this price, i recommend getting some other brand that is more sturdy and wont fall apart after a year.

I bought the laptop 13 months ago and after 2 months, the battery was unable to hold a charge anymore so it was no longer portable. HP claims that the 1 year warranty covers everything EXCEPT batteries and it will cost $150 to replace. Now, 13 months later, the screen is DEAD and wont project. HP claims my warranty expired 2 weeks ago and it will cost $482 to replace (which 80% what I payed for the laptop to begin with...not including replacing the battery for $150). Did I mention that the replacement battery no longer holds a charge anymore? when I unplug it, it only lasts 6 minutes!! Avoid at ALL costs!! It is a money pit and HP won't stand by their products at ALL unless you pay crazy amounts of money. Please learn from my mistake!

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Excellent and capable laptop. Had to install XP as vista Home was a bit sluggish out of the box. This was a gift for my wife. It's heavy but the 17" screen is worth it. It fell on the floor few time (kids !!!) and still functions like a work horse. I think it will run great on windows 7.

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It came to our home 3days before commitment date. Fast and reliable... Great Job!

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Dell Inspiron 14" i14RN-1364DBK Laptop with Inter Core i3-2330M 2.2Ghz, 4GB DDR3 Memory, 640GB Hard

The interface selection is decent, Dell didn't cut corners here, even though more than just 3 USB ports would be nice.

For ~$600, an i3 was ok in Summer, but with the Year drawing to its end and Intel's new Ivy Bridge CPU's showing up in a couple of months, it would have been nice if a discounted i5 with its HD3000 could have made it into this model.

There's no dedicated GPU at all, so you're stuck with the i3's anemic integrated graphics... e

As for the screen, I find the 1366x768 pixel resolution poor, no matter what fancy names they give it. But Dell isn't alone with this, everything from 11" to 15" comes with this atrocious resolution these days.

To me, this resolution would be effective in an entry level gaming machine with a lower mid-range GPU like the HD6630M or GT540M, since those GPUs do a lot better with low resolutions.

This notebook however has no GPU, so you won't be playing any games with it leaving it for people who only do office work and maybe watch an occasional video. For office work, 1366x768 is extremely poor, especially if you're stuck with Microsoft's latest version of Office with those big ribbons... there is very little screen space left for Excel and Word to display what you're actually trying to work on. You can forget about legibly displaying a whole page of a document. In Excel, you'll be in a hell of scrolling-up-and-down-and-back-and-forth.

So, I consider this display a mismatch for the only role this laptop can fulfill. (if you want nothing more than browse the web, you could of course buy a much lighter weight netbook, or, god forbid, a tablet)

Lastly, its not exactly light weight for the screen size, there are 15.6" notebooks that weigh less.

You are probably able to configure this model differently on Dell's website, but there can be drastic price differences in either direction, even for a unit with identical spec, cause Dell's own quoted prices never include tax, so on Dells site your bill jumps when you reach checkout, on Amazon it doesn't. At other times, Dell may have cut its prices, while the sales channel is still full of product with the old price. So do yourself a favor and double check :)

the only complaint is that the speakers are on the bottom, and are not the best. I would recommend a good set of ear/head phones

Speed, power, all great.

Battery life is exceptional for me. I play a lot of music, so it is understandably a shorter battery life.

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Half my life is on the computer. So I really needed one that is easy to use, reliable, good quality. (This thing is solid as a rock!) I shopped and shopped for several months, looked closely at other brands, reviews, ratings, etc, and decided this was the one for me!

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I bought this computer and it broke after two months of using it. It makes an awful noise and smells like something is burning. I sent it back to Dell, and when they sent it back to me, it persisted on having the same problem. They didn't even fix it!!! Don't buy Dell! Dealing with Dell manufacturer is a nightmare! The quality of technical support and the quality of this product is simply below any human standard!

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Love the dell. I use it all the time and had no problems. great price. just wish it came with software

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Samsung NP-Q430-JSB1US notebook: 14 Inch LED, 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 450M, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Driv

I purchased a refurbished unit from Best Buy $540 back in February. Overall, I really don't have any complaints and think this is a very nice computer.

My original price range was about $600 but at some point I figured I was going to end up paying about $800 for a 14 inch Samsung QX410. The week I decided I needed to just 'buy it' I found the Q430 for this great price.

*14 inch screen The 14 inch screens tend to be more expensive than the 15.6 inch that predominate. If you are looking for more portability the 14 inch screen is a good size.

*trackpad buttons this laptop has what I would call traditional 'touch pad' buttons which is what I was used to. I don't use an external mouse since I like to keep my hands on the keyboard.

*keyboard keyboard has a good feel, chiclet style, the screen is nice. aluminum

*aluminum finish the outside cover is a nice understated black aluminum, and the gray aluminum on the keyboard is nice. My wife has a Macbook Pro and they look similar. I am not a big fan of those shiny finishes of other models and this one has a nice professional non-flashy finish.

*LCD the LCD is advertised as glass. It looks nice. Some reviews I have read mention a glossy finish. I cannot really say that I have noticed it to be a distraction. I am a software developer and use the computer in different places and outside and I have not had a problem with seeing the screen.

some negatives

battery life I usually use the computer plugged into the AC so I don't have an accurate estimation of battery life. However, my best guess is somewhere between 2 and 2.5 hours. The other day I was working in a restaurant and got about 2 hour and 15 minutes. From what I gather it seems like the nVidia video uses a lot of power. Some of the newer laptops in the the $800 (like the QX-410) use nVidia Optimus which somehow increases the battery life to something like 5 hours +. Also, there is some type of app on the system that only recharges the battery to 80% so that the battery will last longer over time. You can configure the charging to full strength if you wanted although I have not.

software On the QX-410 that I was going to buy there was a version of Microsoft Office 2010 starter other laptops of different manufacturers also come with this version as well. On this Q430 it did not come with this version. It only came with 60 day trial of 2007.

other software no CD/DVDs came with the system. No recovery CDs. I tried using the recovery software and it seemed somewhat of a pain.

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Acer Aspire V5 15.6 in. Core i3 500GB Notebook

Nice machine. I'm not a heavy user and don't it for games. For my needs, this machine is great. I had to get use to Windows 8 it took about 2-3 days. I messed up the machine by changing settings and then had to reload the software but it has worked great ever since. I love the touch of the keyboard on this laptop (had HP Pavilion and didn't like the keyboard). I would never know it was refurbished, no problems at all. I have no problem recommending it. You do have to purchase software such as Microsoft Office. I found a free download of a similar program called Libre. If you know how to use MS Office you will know how to use this free software. It saved me $140. You can give them a donation to support the program but it is not required for it to download and operate. This product was a good choice and I like it.

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Dell I17R-2368SLV 17.3" laptop CoreTM i5-3210M processor/ 8GB Memory/ 1TB Hard Drive/ DVD±RW/CD-RW

It is very difficult to find a 17" laptop that uses windows 7. We tried to adjust to a windows 8 laptop, but we're old and have certain health issues which made operating it difficult. So we were delighted to be able to find this product online. We returned the other laptop which we had purchased locally at a store that had removed ALL windows 7 computers from its inventory a month earlier.

This is my first Dell and I constantly get the following error message "Service Tag in DSOE Does Not Match the Current System". Here's what Dell has to say about it.

"Download the Asset.com file using the below link. Boot to DOS, by press F8 at the Dell Logo, and selecting safe mode with networking. Once in DOS type the following Command. ASSET /S xxxxx (where xxxxx is the customers service tag)

ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/utility/asset.com

If this does not work, try this.

Turn on the power to the system and press the key to enter the BIOS. Move down to Service Tag and press Enter, if there is no service tag listed there, try the following steps.

Turn on the power to the system and press the key to enter the BIOS. Use the arrow keys to enter the Correct service tag. When the service tag has been entered correctly, press the key. Press the key again to save. Press the key. Use the arrow keys to highlight the Save/Exit button, then press the key.

Hope this helps."

It does not help. When I link to the FTP site it tells me "The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you are running..." When I go to the BIOS my correct Service Tag number is already entered.

Additionally the Quotes (") key does not work properly.

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first, i'm embarrassed i bought a dell. they used to make good machines. i used to recommend them for corp purchase. then the execs embraced the bonus structure so cherished by the technology sector.

-hdmi port work? nix to that (nix to working on 2 out of my 3 dell laptops did i say embarrassed?)

-the wireless .... well, something happened to it ...doesn't work any more. i'll call dell. no wait, that's torture. the broadcom wifi card (Broadcom bcm943142hm) is defective on a whole bunch of these machines (but dell will have u do a lot of things -you have nothing but time to spare, right?)

-i went to their online support, asking if they have sufficient trouble reports with Broadcom bcm943142hm to do anything about it the responder provided instructions on how to identify the wifi card (which i had identified not once, but twice, in my trouble ticket -but who reads those things?? )

-i tried running the diagnostics dell website says "oops, error, no can do"

some one else will try to upsell me. but it's ok. because, according to the powerpoint the dell execs received, it's all sunny in heaven. the only thing wrong is outsourcing. yeah, that's it. outsourcing.

buy 3 machines and send two back

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My office operating environment is Windows with Vista and Windows 7 and although I use an iPad and an iPhone in field I was not ready to jump to Macs or move to Windows 8 as I have too much $ invested Windows software. This laptop was just the ticket. It's a Dell so I know it will be reliable. I've had several HP laptops, and while I loved all their features and great graphics, their motherboards have all crapped out. This core i5 17.3 laptop with 8GB of memory, 1TB of data *and* Windows 7, is everything I was looking for. I am very happy.

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brand new laptop should not shut off by itself all the time and keep frozen all the time, bad bad computer.

Save $0.99 Off

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Asus K55A-BBL4 Intel Core i5-3210m 4GB DDR3 15.6" Laptop

Even though it was not brand new I expected that the seller would have sold me an item of acceptable quality and in working order. I started off working well then suddenly after one week the laptop refused to boot up and was not recognizing the hard drive. I took it to a technician who opened it up and said that the hard drive had slid out of its position because the screws that should have been holding it in position were missing. He quickly replaced them and inserted a device to keep it from moving again. It cost me a bit and the embarrassment was even harder to bear because I had boasted to my friends about my 'new' laptop. I plan never to purchase a used item online ever again.

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HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Prem

This is a beautiful machine. Check it out -4.2 lbs, 1" thick, Magnesium case, 7200 rpm HDD, spectacular HD display, 4 GB memory, 320 GB Hard Drive, Iconic keyboard Windows 7, 4 USB ports, HDMI port, great WiFi,etc. etc. All for under $600! It's astonishing. One begins to wonder what truck they steal these off of. Yes, my title is correct, "Macbook Killer." Look at the two machines side by side -they are pretty much the same thing. Yes, the Macbook Pro has a backlit keyboard, ok. But the DM3 has an HDMI port, which means I can attach it to my HDTV and play Neflix or Itunes movies, or youtube, etc. in High Definition. Sure, it has no optical drive, but folks, cd's and dvd's are becoming old technology, and being replaced by thumb/jump drives. Even software will be coming on these. Actually, the DM3 weighs almsot a pound less than a Macbook by eliminating the optical drive, and the advantages of using an external drive are many. Keyboards are almost identical, case is a toss up, display's are similar, windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard has its plusses and minuses going both ways. Yes, the Macbook is more powerful for high intensity graphics, but if you are using your computer as most people do, you will not notice the difference. But the knockout comes at checkout: It is less than 1/2 the price of a similarly configured 13" Macbook Pro!

It is so far superior to any netbook that there is no comparison there. Yes, it's not perfect. It does re-charge slowly, and the trackpad takes some getting used to. But it has so many fantastic features, when you factor in the price, it is the best value out there in ultraportable computing.

I have been using portable computers since the mid-eighties when they were 25 pounds with tiny monochrome screens floppy drives and cost $3000. Now for under $600, they are 1/6th the weight, yet 100 times as fast with 3000 times the storage and much more functionality. Think about how amazing this is! You will love this little machine.

This laptop is a winner! I'd rather have a fully functioning laptop than a Netbook that can't keep up. I've had it for a week and don't regret buying it.

Pros:

HDMI works well for watching Hulu on my HDTV.

Brushed metal case means fingerprints aren't a problem.

Quiet fan and hard-drive.

Wi-Fi is easy to set up (Windows 7 is rock solid).

Light-weight and easy to carry or stick into a travel bag.

13.3 screen size is a happy medium between a Netbook and a Laptop.

Keyboard is easy to use.

4 Gig of RAM is snappy.

13.3 screen size is a happy medium between a Netbook and a Laptop.

Cons:

Battery slowly drains if not plugged in.

Mouse pad wants to start Sticky Keys at times. Fixed by disabling Sticky Keys. Occasionally the mouse pad is briefly unresponsive.

Notes:

Although the battery lost 10% of its charge in 30 minutes while surfing the Web in normal mode, it recharged to 100% very quickly.

A CD drive would sap energy, which is why it's not included (you can buy an external one if you need it).

Overall, this is a great buy for the price. I really enjoy using it.

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I've only had this machine for a couple days but it's very nice so far.

Pros: sleek, widows 7, plenty powerful, lots of ram and drive space, battery life, graphics card is decent, weight

Cons: power plug sticks out pretty far when plugged in, but not a big deal. Updated the track pad driver after one freeze and it hasn't locked up again since. No gigabit lan. Memory card reader won't read MS Duo without an adapter, not a deal breaker. Small up/down arrows, again not a killer, I'm already used to it. Track pad is a little sticky.

The biggest problem I've had so far isn't a ding against this computer, it's a windows 7 issue. Games for Windows Live wouldn't update, couldn't uninstall, couldn't reinstall. Finally got it working, but don't ask me to repeat the process.

I saw a guy on the interwebs frantically searching about how to change the DM3 Function Keys back to the standard F1, F2, F3 etc. It's in the bios. Hit Esc during startup, then F10 to enter the bios, configure from there, it's on the third tab or thereabouts. I may keep them as the media keys, don't know yet.

Games: Runs Halo 1 very well, runs Team Fortress 2 pretty decently, Dawn of War II is playable with everything turned way down. So that's a pass for the graphics and processor as far as I'm concerned.

My favorite thing about windows 7: You can select a group of files, right click and change their meta data! So awesome! Updating mp3 tags is a breeze!

I didn't want a desktop replacement, I wanted a laptop replacement and this fits the bill. I'm coming from an old Sony PCG-SRX99 so I'm used to not having an optical drive. Windows 7 lets you mount one on the network anyway.

Very good overall. I'll update if anything changes.

EDIT 11/29/2009

The touchpad is still unresponsive after coming out of sleep. It's turning into a major issue. Hopefully a firmware update comes out.

EDIT 12/14/2009

Now I have a bad pixel, right in the middle of the screen. Always on green. I've knocked down the rating to 3 stars, and thinking about sending it back.

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What comes in the box?

User manual

AC Adapter

6 cell rechargeable battery

Notebook

Construction

The notebook is compact and light which makes this highly portable for traveling. This is a compact device that fits nicely on my lap or an airplane tray table. The screen is a glossy 13.3" Widescreen and reflects glare in areas of bright light. There is no wrist pad flex but quite a bit of screen flex. The lid is a brushed Magnesium alloy that easy to wipe clean. The integrated camera is positioned above the screen.

The keyboard layout is well positioned and intuitive. No dedicated keys are present, except for the power switch and WiFi Radio button. Function key allows control of volume, brightness, sleep, lock, fast forward, reverse and play. The function key allows you to use the keys as a numeric keypad.

The touchpad is metallic in color and uses gestures to scroll, zoom and rotate. The mouse buttons take a touch too much pressure to depress and there is no integrated mouse stick, like you see on IBMs or other business machines.

Indicator lights in the front right edge are present for charging status and when the hard drive is being accessed.

This laptop is very quiet and I barely hear the fan. The bottom of the notebook (right where the Windows License sticker is located) is warm but not hot/uncomfortable.

In addition to WiFi, this has Bluetooth capability.

The left side of this notebook has the power Jack, network port, HDMI, 2 USB ports, headphone and microphone jacks. A card reader accepts SD, Memory stick pro, Multimedia cards and XD Cards. The right side of the notebook has lighted power buttons for the WiFi radio and Power for the notebook. 2 additional USB ports and a port for a laptop lock are also present.

This laptop is supplied with Windows 7. There is an MS Office 60 Day Trial and a trial of Norton Internet Security.

Operation

Use of this notebook, given the size and very good battery life make this a practical company for someone always on the go. The keyboard is comfortable and the features make this a great multimedia machine for traveler.

Screen quality is good but a touch too dim for my personal preference. The maximum screen resolution us 1366x768.

Sound quality is average but not powerful. Speakers are in the front edge of the notebook made by Altec Lansing. Dynamic range is limited and has high and midrange frequencies with a weak base.

Battery life in real time applications (WiFi, Bluetooth off, screen brightness on high, and running the Internet is about 4.5 to 5 hours. Only with Bluetooth and WiFi off, and screen brightness to 75%, Power Saver mode, can you approach the 6 hour mark. High Performance mode cuts battery life by about 20%.

Pros

Cost

Quiet

Lightweight

HDMI

Card reader

4 USB ports

Bluetooth

Fit, Finish and construction

Cons

No optical drive

Weak speakers

Slightly dim display

Conclusion

Given the size, cost and capabilities, this notebook rivals the larger laptops for its more than capable processing power and rivals netbooks for the size and price point. This laptop is worthy of consideration!

Want HP Pavilion DM3-1030US 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop - Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Prem Discount?

I bought this item to replace a three year old 14 inch eMachines laptop that I spilled coffee on (yeah yeah I know). I looked at netbooks for a while because I liked the portability and lower price but realized that for $100-$150 more I could get this nice 13 inch laptop which fell right where I was looking to be. Netbooks are restricted with processor speed, ram, size (if you're looking for something slightly larger) and functionality (you can only get it with Windows Starter Edition).

So when compared to a typical laptop, is this a great machine? Well that depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a small laptop with very reasonable performance all around that won't break the bank, then yes this is a great machine. On sale this unit can be found for around $500-$550 right now (if you are patient and keep an eye on prices) making it a steal in my book. I won't go into all the details since the other reviews pretty much addresses them all but here are a few others and thoughts:

Yes the track-pad is awful. It is fairly slow even with the settings set as fast as they can go. The clicking of the mouse button requires a "click" which I personally like over ones that seem to click every time I brush up against it but once again this may frustrate some people. I use a mouse 90% of the time so the track-pad hasn't been a deterring factor (although it does leave crazy amounts of fingerprints).

The keyboard is great if you ask me but if you use many shortcuts like some people tend to do, you'll find having to use the function key a bit of a hassle. I've read in another review that for example the F keys can be programmed in the bios to be just that without the use of the function key, so that may be an option worth changing for some. I am a bit surprised though that the keyboard does tend to imprint fingerprints too, but once again not a deal-breaker.

The fan is not very loud (at least not mine although I read a couple people complain about it) but I found the bottom of the computer does tend to get a bit hot and sometimes the top where you rest on the keyboard. This isn't unlike many computers and this thing is very slim yet fairly powerful so I suppose it's to be expected. If you're the type that feels any heat is bad, then you may want to look elsewhere.

The lack of a CD drive is worth noting. Through the use of things like Nero to burn images of programs you only have on CD, Daemon Tools to read them, and Bit Torrent to get programs in digital form this is fairly easy to deal with but if you have limited knowledge of computers you may find that just installing your old version of MS Office that is on CD will be a challenge. On a netbook the lack of a CD drive wouldn't even be worth mentioning but because this unit falls under the laptop category in every way then it's worth noting as a negative.

Lastly, the battery life while I haven't extensively tested seems to be a bit poorer than I thought it would be. I however don't give it much of a chance since I always have the brightness as high as it goes, wireless on, etc etc. Using the item in lo-fi to gain some extra battery life isn't worth it to me but should I be without the accessibility of an outlet it's good to know that I can get by when changing the settings.

So if you can get over these setbacks (like I have) and can get this laptop for the $500-$550 range, then I highly recommend it. If paying more, then the ASUS UL30A should seriously be considered. It's got very similar specs except double the battery life plus some of the cons of this laptop such as the track-pad and such seems to not be present with the ASUS. Choosing between the two basically boiled down to price for me and I've been very happy so far. As far as choosing between a small laptop like this or a netbook, all I can say is that current netbooks don't have the processor speed, included and expandable ram, and video playback capabilities that this laptop has. I can run multiple programs, including my accounting software, along with antivirus software, all at once without it skipping a beat.

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