Toshiba Satellite 15.6" Core i7 640GB HDD Notebook

Best you can get for the price. Great product regardless of the price. Bought it on a Saturday and receive it on a Tuesday. This was specially important since I bought it as a gift for Christmas. My only complain is that I bought it and the next day it was on sale for $50 cheaper!!! I'm still rating it with 5 stars. Recommend to anyone.

The computer is nice, but they temperature are high. Windows 8 is not very funny but visualy is nice too,.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X230 Convertible Tablet (X230T, newer model of X220T) (Premium)

I custom-ordered from the Lenovo/Thinkpad site. My configuration:

Thinkpad X230 Tablet

+ Core i7 2.90 GHz Ivy Bridge processor

+ 8 GM RAM

+ 128 GB Solid-State Drive

+ 1366x768 Matte Multi-Touch Screen with Active Stylus

+ 9-cell extended battery (sticks out the back and adds a bulge at the bottom; the 6-cell battery just sticks out the back)

+ Windows 7 Pro

+ Ultra-Base 3 with DVD/RW optical drive

No discrete graphics card option

I've been a long-time Thinkpad fan--including 600E (late 1990s), R40 (early 2000s), T42 (mid 2000s), T420 (late 2000s)--for the rock-solid dependability, non-nonsense styling, and in particular the king-of-them-all keyboard. I mistakely tried a Dell Latitude E6400 for a couple of years, and I truly hated it, despite its own pointer stick and solid construction. When I decided to get this X230 Tablet, the only thing I was worried about was how the new keyboard was going to feel. Well, have no fear. I am a big fan of the new keyboard. It's got deep travel, its motion is the perfect blend between smooth travel and pleasing resistance, and the contoured surface actually feels comforable. This new keyboard is a winner. Other than that, there really isn't anything that needs to be said about this machine that the prospective buyer wouldn't already know. I loaded it up to the gills with the fastest and best of everything, except a 3G cellular card--totalled over $3000 MSRP before a the Ultrabase 3 and extra power adapters. On paper, the only thing the X230T lacks is discrete graphics, but the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics that comes with the Ivy Bridge chipset is good enough for my occasional Engineering analysis and 3D modeling work--just make sure to get a least 8 GB RAM to share with the inegrated graphics. Plus, the Ultrabase 3 is able to support dual monitors via its dual VGA+DisplayPort ports. Just one final tip--get the Multitouch screen; you'll be ready for Windows 8 Pro when it's released.

2012-11-24 UPDATE: I installed Windows 8 Pro upgrade on this computer the week Windows 8 was released. On the first boot-up, everything worked. I the installed all the Lenovo-provided Windows 8 drivers for this machine, and everything continued to work fine. Windows 8 works very well on this machine, as if it was designed for it.

This is a review of both (1) The Amazon Seller, "GW Store" and (2) Lenovo build quality and warranty service.

(1) Good

(2) Really BAD

That's it in a nutshell. Interested in details? Read on.

To be fair, I should be clear that the Amazon Seller, "GW Store" made available to me every option they could offer in helping me deal with the problems. They sell a Lenovo X230 Tablet that is well spec'd and was just what I needed for an extended trip abroad. That was the "Good". It was a "3434-CTO" unit and came with just a 1 year depot warranty.

Lenovo? The feature set looked to be exactly what was necessary for my needs. When the unit arrived, however, it died just a few hours out of the box. I contacted Lenovo support, and we agreed it was a dead main board. I contacted GW Store about a replacement. and they were out of stock and could not say they would have a new shipment in time to meet my fast approaching departure date. So, I sent it to Lenovo for warranty repair. I had about 3 weeks and surely it would be OK.

After a few days I checked the status online and found that it was on "Hold" for parts. Lenovo Memphis TN warranty facility did not have a main board? Wow. They must have been using a lot of them. I know the drill, so I called to escalate this to a manager. After a week, the board evidently came in, but then the online status screen indicated another "Hold". I quickly contacted the manager and learned it was on hold now for a cable! I explained my time constraints again and he told me that he had found 50 cables available but Memphis had been waiting on a cable to come through as usual.

Altogether, the unit was at Memphis for more than two weeks.

When it arrived, I began to set it up and quickly discovered that the ONLY working feature of the upper (display) assembly was the LCD and backlight. No touch, no speakers, no LED indicators (both front and back) no power-on button in tablet mode etc... Nada.

At that point, I checked GW Store and they had received a shipment. I ordered a replacement overnighted and sent the first unit back. In wrapping this up with GW Store, I learned that their tech was finding Lenovo uncooperative as well.

I am now traveling, and it has been 10 days with the second unit. So far, so good. If a new device works this long, it's probably OK. 90 days from now if it's still good I will feel better.

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it is a good product in thinkpad series, the only drawback is lack of bluetooth. In a word, it is the high-end product in X series of thinkpad.

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Bottom line, if you want to develop phone / tablet apps, this is a great computer for it.

Specs were for programming Visual Studio 2012 and Eclipse Juno (and occasionally Force.com IDE / Salesforce.com and WordPress). I also occasionally use Adobe CS suite and Microsoft SQL Server for developers 2012 as well as The VS tools and Office 2013...

Intel i7 CPU @ 2.90

16 GB ram

Windows 8 64 bit (upgraded from Windows 7)

Hard Disk: 500 gig no SSD

Docking station

Why Selected:

I selected it because it seemed the best/ easiest way to write mobile apps and easily debug in using the virtual hardware, touch screen and it is GREAT for this.

What's Wrong:

Firstthe computer was incomplete out of the box, Wi-Fi did not work and camera did not work. Two visits from support and this was fixed. I have come to expect this from many vendors, not just computer vendors. So no stars taken. Initially talking with Lenovo, support was REALLY BAD. I expected "Business Customer" support not "Consumer Level"

Summary:

As a software development machine, it's perfect, fast, and easy to test touch screen capabilities of virtual phones. With the docking station I can attach 6 phones and tablets for easy testing and debugging.

I don't use the touchpad, I had significant problems with my laser mouse, but found the right driver (system could not determine the correct driver) and solved the problem.

The tools with Lenovo to maintain updates is very easy to use and I appreciate it, I had to download all the Windows 8 updates, took a long time (why no single package I don't know), most functionality is supported in Windows 8, I had low expectations, so was pleasantly surprised. The utilities of Lenovo are really nice, I don't worry about maintaining my environment.

What I miss:

I wish it had a great on board video card (I knew it did not) because I would like to drive multiple IPS 27 inch monitors and play the occasional leading edge computer game. Games, I have another machine, multiple 27 inch monitors, there is no work around.

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Esse notebook é muito bom, mas não compre se quiser ter um tablet pra levar para cima e pra baixo, pois ele é pesado e esquenta muito. Deve-se ter cuidado com a tela que parece ser bem frágil no encaixe que é apenas no meio, o que as vezes faz a tela ficar meio bamba a qualquer toque na lateral da tela. O touch é muito bom, preciso e nem uso a caneta. Com o windows 8 ele ficou perfeito, a inicialização é muito rápida, poucos segundos. No mais, gosto dos Lenovo pela qualidade dos materiais e esse não é diferente. Só faltou um HDMI nessa joça. O custo benefício é muito real se comprado no exterior, no Brasil esse notebook sairá lá pelos seis mil reais, um absurdo. Nem valeria esse valor se já viesse com a base. Aqui está bem barato pelos benefícios.

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Acer 14" i5-480M 2.66 GHz Laptop | AS4743-6481

Love it so far -

Fast boot up 14" screen is what I wanted. i5 1st Gen seems faster than expected. Built in Intel HD graphics are average. Not recommended for gameplay but for everyday apps its great. Speakers are below average but speaker jack sound is great which works for me.

500 GB HD is 5400 speed. 1.3M camera & Under 5 pounds Perfect.

I received the notebook, in less then two weeks. For a college student, and has not had any problems with it. We have had it for approximatley 1 month now.

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I just received my Notebook today, which was very quick, but bummed because the webcam hasn't worked at all, "device not found." Acer is going to fix the problem which is great. Just not happy that I have to send my "new" notebook (I've had it for one day) for service which will take at least two weeks!

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ASUS UL80Vt- A2 14-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver)

I needed to get a laptop to take with me before going on an out-of-state summer internship. I did not want a "desktop replacement" type laptop since I already have a very powerful gaming desktop here at home.

After much searching and deliberation, I decided to get the Asus UL80VT. My reasons were:

1) Asus reliability and reputation: I've always had good luck with Asus motherboards for the PCs Ive build for friends and several family members; plus Asus laptops are consistantly more reliable than other brands ([Amazon deleted the link I had here, go to your search engine of choice and look for "Asus laptop reliability" and see what I'm talking about])

2) Battery Life: claimed to be 11.5 hours. Real-world resutls are about 7-9 hours unplugged. This time is for light surfing and word processing, and allowing the Asus "Battery Saver" power profile to dim the screen, etc. You'll get much less times using discrete graphics, bright screen, DVD drive, etc.

3) Powerful, battery-sipping Intel Core2Duo U7300 1.3 GHz processor: this low-voltage processor is plenty powerful enough for everyday tasks, light gaming, watching HD online videos, etc. Asus is even kind enough to include a feature which automatically overclocks the processor when on AC power and your games demand extra "oomph"!

4) Came with Windows 7 pre-installed: Windows 7 is simply the best operating system Microsoft has ever made, period.

5) Size/weight perfect for me: I carry this laptop to class every day in a Case Logic ENS-14 14.1-Inch Neoprene Laptop Sleeve (Black) in my backpack. At 4.8 lbs (plus 0.8 lbs for the AC adapter = 5.6 lbs total), this is about the same weight as one of my textbooks, and infinitely more useful!

6)Chiclet keyboard: I love the spaced-out keys, great for typing, easy to adapt to from a full-size keyboard. (No full-size number pad, but that's to be expected in laptops this size. Get a 15.6" screen laptop if you need that)

7) Fit/Finish good for the price: I love the aluminum top of this laptop, much less smudgy than the black one. The screen bezel is still black on the inside, which does show fingerprints, but that area doesn't get touched very often.

7) Has an optical drive: I looked into 13.3" laptops, but they typically don't have DVD drives, which is a nice feature to have for watching movies on a plane trip, installing software, etc.

Drawbacks:

1) Glossy screen is very shiny, I have a custom screen protector for this I bought online at which cuts down on most of the glare too.

2) Right wrist rest sqeaks/clicks a little when you put your wrist on it. This is not very loud and I don't anticipate being a problem. I knew this was an issue with this model beforehand. Don't be surprised if it happens to you, although yours could be louder/squeak more, etc.

Other thoughts:

* Some people have complained about the track pad buttons being under one solid piece of plastic. This doesn't really bother me at all. It is not difficult to press the left or right side. The left 1/3 is the left click, the right 1/3 is the right click. Only the middle 1/3 of the plastic is unresponsive as it is solid underneath. I should note that I am using the Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging], so to be honest, I am not using the trackpad very often.

*People have also complained about the stickers present on the inside of the laptop. These peel off easily and leave no residue, in my experience. Those are mostly put there so people who don't know any better can know what's inside their laptop.

*Finally, people have complained about the bloatware/junk software present installed on this computer. True, these programs are very annoying. But one could understand why a manufacturer would agree to install these trial programs and come-ons: higher profits. If you're so inclined, take 5 minutes to uninstall the stuff you don't want, this is not a difficult process.

* People ask what kind of computer this is all the time! Classmates/coworkers/friends who haven't seen Asus laptops (too many Dells and HP's out there!) will ask where you got this laptop :)

* I have installed Microsoft Security Essentials as my anti-virus program, and have had 0 issues so far. I highly recommend it. (Free download)

Summary: Overall I would say the build quality of this Asus is about an 8.5/10. I still rate this as 5 stars though because the minor build quality issues are not enough to detract from the overall value of this fast, efficient, and powerful laptop.

Had this laptop for a week now and I am thoroughly impressed. I've installed a couple ASUS motherboards on desktops and was always really happy with their performance. This is the first ASUS laptop I've owned/used, and so far it has lived up to the standards I come to expect from them.

I love the 14" screen size/overall laptop size, fast CPU/RAM speed, switchable graphics (very cool, helps conserve quite a bit of battery when unplugged, but still has some muscle to game when needed.) Battery life is amazing for this computer's size and power, I'm getting 8-9 hours with average surfing. Also, I am so far liking Windows 7, after trying Vista and absolutely hating it, it seems like they got it right this time.

Cons seriously take these with a grain of salt, I didn't rate the laptop 5 stars for nothing. The touchpad takes a little getting used to, it's a bit sticky at first but once you get some skin oil on there it works fine. I have had no trouble with the multitouch features others have complained about, in fact it's a pretty cool feature of this touchpad. The mouse button on the touch pad does suck, it's a one-piece, rocker button and it squeaks when I press it (BTW other than that squeak issue on the touchpad, it seems that ASUS has really improved their build quality from previous reviews, I have noticed no other poor build quality-related issues with this laptop.) The LCD screen quality is definitely lacking, the reflections can get bad when you've got a backlight behind you and the poor black contrast makes it look a bit washed out when compared to other LCDs. Finally, the speakers are pretty terrible, but hey, they work which is an infinite improvement from my old laptop...

Overall, excellent laptop. If you are looking for the perfect mix of power and portability, you've found it.

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I based my purchase off all the good reviews I read about the system. Now, I've had it for 8 months, and have had problems for at least 6 months. Many of the ASUS start-up files crash at system start up. Creating a recovery CD will cause a crash too. Also, system restore attempts often fail. I wish I'd read about all this 8 months ago.

The best part about this laptop is that there is dual operating system built-in where there's a Windows based system button and a Linux based button, so when the windows system crashed (daily) I could still check my email in the reliable Linux system. There was a period of time when I just didn't power down at all to avoid the startup issues.

Another good thing is if you call customer service you won't wait 30 minutes to talk to a person. They're good about that. Now, whether they actually fix your problem is an issue that remains to be seen in my case.

The touchpad and keyboard design has been a big problem as well. Even when I'm typing very carefully the mouse will jump around to other text boxes. This is a big problem when filling out any kind of form on the internet as well as typing a Word document. I've opted for a external mouse and have disabled the touchpad altogether.

I don't believe today's laptops are made to last, but I do think you can find a better one that will work as expected for a reasonable amount of time. I would not choose this model/brand again.

****UPDATE*****

I sent this laptop back within the 1-year warranty to be repaired by ASUS. It worked normally for 1/2 a day, and went right back to the previous issues of crashing. I truly believe their fix was merely to re-format the computer only. I could have done that myself. I declined to send it back again because I do not believe they'll resolve the issue nor do I have the time. ASUS has not updated ANY of the drivers the computer needs to function properly. I guess ASUS ripped me off. $700 out of my pockets for a bad product.

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This is the third ASUS we've added to our stable and am very happy with what we've received from the company. You get a very high quality laptop without paying the premium that others charge.

a) Build Quality 10/10 -was very nervous about the build quality given some of the previous reviews. ASUS LISTENED. This is better than the Sony VAIO (bought less than a year ago) that we just recycled, the Dell I have from work and the HP that we bought a few months ago. Everything is tight.

b) Keyboard 9/10 -I actually care about how the keyboard feels when typing as I learned how to type of a manual, then selectric many years ago. This keyboard is almost on par with what you can get from Lenovo. And, no, there is no flex that I can feel at this point. I save 10/10 for Lenovo

c) Screen 10/10 -One of the most clear screens that I've seen. Have watched HD movies and also have manipulated images using Adobe Photoshop. Cannot be beat.

d) Video Card 9/10 -Hybrid Nvidia/Intel MHD is awesome. Cutting to the intel chip with battery is seamless and you really cannot tell that you're in powersaving mode. Only reason why not a 10/10 is because the Nvidia chip only has 512Meg on the GBU... Should be 1 Gig.

e) Case -10/10 -as stated in build quality... this looks awesome. Had to really work to figure out which panel was aluminum and which was plastic.

f) Hard Drive -5/10. I was a bit surprised that the HDD was only a 5400 rpm drive. I immediately created an image, replaced with a 7200 rpm drive and reloaded. I have found the 7200 doesn't seem to hurt battery life and does improve performance a bit. Given the prices of HDD's today, there should be no reason for not having a 7200 rpm.

g) RAM -DDR3. Need I say more?

h) CPU -Intel. Need I say more?

i) Battery life 10/10. I have done quite a bit with numerous laptops to try to extend battery life. I don't like having to drag around power cords when visiting clients. I am able to get almost 8 hours in battery saving mode.

j) Bloatware -ASUS seems to be increasing the amount of bloatware they install on their laptops. I just unloaded everything that said ASUS and the laptop still works very well... Some of the 'smart keys' don't work, but that doesn't bother me. The trade off between quick boots and flicking keys to change power modes is worth it to me.

I wouldn't look much further if you're looking for a laptop that can be lugged around all day. The secret for a 14" screen is the laptop isn't much bigger than a 13.3" case, but feels as if you're looking at a much larger screen.

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I received my silver asus ul80vt laptop today, and I absolutely love it! This is my first review, but I thought it was necessary because it was such a great deal! In the price range, (I bought it for around $750) this was top of the line. The battery life is incredible, it was delivered in excellent condition, and best of all it's lightweight! The screen is, in my opinion, of great quality. The viewing angles are not nearly as bad as some of the reviews I read, and the color is awesome! Also, it's the perfect size. It's small, but big enough so that you don't have to squint! It's about the size of a hard back textbook, but much thinner. The processor is great, and the hard drive is adequate. Internet connection works great, and the camera is a lot better quality than I was expecting. I was expecting to have trouble with the trackpad, but so far it seems normal to me. The only thing I noticed is that I tend to move the mouse with the base of my hand while typing on occasion, but that's nothing major. I have heard that asus makes the motherboards for mac computers, and while I considered splurging for a macbook pro, I couldn't justify the cost difference. I could buy TWO of these for the price of a mac and it has more features!

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Lenovo IdeaPad U110 11.1-Inch (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Driv

I've had the Lenovo U110 now for 1 year. It is light and portable. However, the plastic casing is very flimsy and breaks easily. Recently, I turned it on, but does not stay on. Support is non-existence. Searching forum on the internet for possible solutions is impossible. It seems like nobody owns one. Other than that, the lap top works fine.

I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad U110 through Amazon about a year ago, paying about $1,000 for it. It was pre-loaded with Windows Vista, software so bloated and heavy that it couldn't get out of its own way, sometimes taking 3 minutes to boot and over a minute to shutdown. I dumped Vista and loaded XP, and now it comes out of standby in less than 5 seconds and is conneced to my wireless network. At the current price of in excess of $2,000 I would not recommend it. But, if you can score one for around $1,000 and have the means to load XP, it is the incredible.

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I bought this laptop just over a year ago. Its been great other then I noticed the hard drive occasional skipping. Noticeable during video playback and slightly moving the laptop. The hard drive finally died just after one year. (Just past the warranty period). Lenovo wanted $305 for a replacement 120gb 1.8in hard drive plus $49 processing and a mandatory $10 for the recovery disk (that I don't need) $365 for a 120gig hard drive. After hours on the phone with them and several diff customer service areas They had no alternatives. Im just going to junk the thing and buy a diff laptop...... Im never buying Lenovo ever again... bad company experience

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Apple MacBook Pro ME665LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (NEWEST VERSION)

I purchased the newest version (Early 2013) which had the upgrade to 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD.

The notebook is extremely fast. Computer seems solid, boots in 10-15 seconds from off, sleep to ready in 4-5 seconds. It opens programs in no time flat. It is not light as an air book, but still defiantly lighter than previous models. The screen is great, bright, and responsive. With heavy use I get about 5-5 1/2 hours of use on the battery.

Some peoples complaints are the new power adapter, I will agree with them, the new adapter sticks out further and gets knocked off a lot. Not having a dvd drive, not a big deal...I dont think i've used a dvd or cd in a computer in a few years! If I need to I will just have to purchase the external.

This is by far the best laptop I've ever owned. A 2.7GHz quad-core processor, 16GB RAM and (I opted cheap) 256GB flash storage makes for the fastest, smoothest computing experience I've ever seen! The design is superb, materials are by far the best in any computer, and the overall package blew me away. I've had powerbooks and macbook pros, but this is a whole new level. I love all the trackpad gestures, it makes operating the laptop very intuitive and easy. The display is incredible I can't wait to get photoshop and final cut up and running! No, it doesn't come with a CD/DVD drive and I'm glad it doesn't! Besides, you can get a usb one for pennies on the dollar now if you really need to have a physical disc (I have one lying around that I haven't used in ages). Yes, it's expensive, but I honestly don't foresee ever having to buy another laptop! I'm sure at some point I'll replace the flash memory, but maybe 6-7 years down the road, and 16GB RAM will hold me over forever!

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I ordered this computer on may 21st, received it on may 23rd. The shrink wrap on the box was intact, but when I opened it I found the charger missing. So I called customer support and they were willing to refund the amount for the charger so that I can I pick one up at the apples store, since I was leaving out of the country. I took the computer along with me to the apple store, bought the charger and I also asked them to check it out. They input the serial number on the Mac and guess what showed up.. The name of the owner of the computer and already 20 days of the warranty has lapsed. So I come home call the support and they agreed to refund it. I don't know if the apple store or Amazon is responsible for this. On the whole it was a bitter experience, I never expected this from amazon.

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I bought this computer a year ago and guess how many viruses and problems I've had with it? ZERO!!! This is bar none the BEST computer I've EVER had!!! My step-father and my husband are both in the computer industry. For YEARS, I struggled with PC's and they were always fixing my computer. After my laptop of only 6 months started acting up terribly, I bit the bullet and bought the macbook pro. I got it directly through Apple. They were WONDERFUL!!! They were AMERICANS and spoke ENGLISH that I could understand. With the infinite patience of Job, they helped me choose the right computer for me, as there are many options on the Macbook pro. I wound up with a middle of the road 15" which is PERFECT for my school, professional and personal needs. I invested in the Apple Care extended warranty and the year of lessons (One to One membership). The screen is beautiful and the images are crisp and clear. I LOVE the keyboard that lights up in the dark. I was able to set it up and install software MYSELF, which is something I've NEVER been able to do with the old PC's. It's a very fast machine with a battery that lasts a long time and is just wonderful. I waited a year to write the review because I wanted to see how many problems I would have. I'm happy to report NONE. Not ONCE have I hollered for my husband or called my step-father out of frustration. In fact, my biological father was so impressed, he got one for himself to use at his office and for personal use! He loves his as well! I also have gotten an ipad, which syncs with this computer, and will be completing the "trilogy" soon with an iphone. All I can say is, this computer just works, and it works wonderfully! If you're reading this, contemplating the price, etc... GO FOR IT!!! You will NEVER regret it! It's worth the extra money to have a product that holds up and works flawlessly. I will NEVER go back to a PC. In fact, when I have to use one, it is frustrating. Windows runs better on my macbook pro than it did on my old PC!!!! Go for it!!! I did and I am a happy and satisfied customer.

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Here I am at day 10 of ownership trying to decide if I should take advantage of Apple's 14-day return policy and reclaim the better part of my retirement fund back from what until recently was one of the world's richest kingdoms (or companies or whatever).

I'm mostly a PC guy, but I use Mac's enough to appreciate them and perhaps even enough to take them for granted. This is not a device you will take for granted. The refinements in the latest version of Mac OS X (mine came with Mountain Lion) are truly elegant. I giggle a little every time I use it. The retina display defies belief. (Just hope you are lucky enough, as was I, to get one manufactured by Samsung and not an LG display where there is talk of a class action suit for screen burn-in.) It boots almost instantaneously (and I'm grateful for that because mine is rebooting ALL THE TIME). And it's put together in typical gem-like fashion, though I also think the design is starting to appear dated. But I don't need to describe it. People you know who have one can't wait to show it off. And you can just go down to the Apple Store or the Amazon showroom (err, your local Best Buy) and check it out yourself.

I gave up on Macs the first time in 1997 when I had a Power PC and System 7.6 and the stock was trading at $4.00 per share. (Yes, the decimal place is correct.) System 7.6 was also rather elegant (remember, the competition was Windows 95, ugh) but it crashed at least twice a day. The bitter memory of tears shed when I realized I lost forever my precious work that I thought I had saved to disk but really only was just cached took more than a decade to wear off. Only recently have Macs wormed their way back into my cold little heart.

Or so I thought. Not since System 7.6 or Windows ME (which is a repressed memory for probably even Melinda Gates) have I dealt with such a flakey OS. Oy, where do I begin?

Apple indeed does have a Blue Screen of Death. Only it's gray and looks stylish. But it emerges unexpectedly in the middle of doing something or not really much of anything at all, unpredictably, two or three times a day. Kernal Panic is I guess what their calling it nowadays. Get used to it.

Time machine for backups is a model of simplicity. It has two modes. In one mode, with a brilliant and erudite nod to Charles Simonyi's Hungarian code, it flashes nothing but, "The Backup disk image #^&!##!&.sparsebundle is already in use." In the other mode it runs eternally and seemingly won't stop until it backs you up all the way to the Big Bang, or at least until before you existed and hence find yourself pondering existential questions about killing your grandfather and not having to worry about finding the file you were never born to delete.

Then there's the amazing solid state drive. Not only is it fast, but defying the laws of physics, whenever I check the hard drive's "get info" I astonishingly learn that I have more available space than the disk capacity itself, and it grows every day. Here again, Apple has figured out how to magically warp my little scrap of the fabric of the space-time continuum.

When you close that lid to fill up at Starbucks, you'll be glad to know that you'll have plenty of time to drink that cup of Joe. The dang thing takes so long to wake up from sleep, at least when it hasn't fatally OD'd, that you'll be tempted to wonder if coffee is what this machine need. That or Narcan.

One other thing you should know. Apps, like the OS, that are made for the Retina Display are indescribable. There is nothing you will ever see as sharp, not on paper, film, or a screen. Unfortunately, everything else looks like a$$. Want to run Office? How about a year-old version of Photoshop? It's worse than Mr. Magoo without his glasses. Inexplicably, apps that are sharp on lesser Macs and even on cheapo netbooks are so fuzzzy you won't even be able to tell if there is an extra Z or two.

Well, if you've read this far you probably can tell not only do I love this machine, but I love to hate it, or hate to love it. I'm not sure. How can a product this good be so bad? How can I pay so much and be so disappointed but so hesitant to return it to get my money back? You'll just have to own one to understand.

UPDATE:

I decided to keep it. Apple has since introduced an update (10.8.3), which has greatly improved the stability of the system. In the two weeks since updating I've only :( had just 4 crashes/freezes requiring reboots, and it no longer reliably freezes when the lid is closed overnight. In contrast, I can't remember when either of the couple-year old Windows 7 systems I use last crashed (if ever)--yet I still prefer to work on this machine. The update to 10.8.3 does completely fix the fan issue; previously, even while idle, the fan would go on at full blast (actually loud enough to interfere with conversation) seemingly for no reason and the only way to stop it was to reboot.

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ASUS N81Vp-D2 14-Inch Brown Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)

While searching for the ideal laptop for myself, I found that all laptops seem to have huge trade-offs. This one is no exception. I chose it because it packed a relatively fast CPU and a decent graphics card into a very portable PC. Every other laptop I found with discrete graphics was a lot heavier, and most were pricier. The trade-off here (as with all laptops that have fast CPU's and discrete graphics) is that battery life is far from impressive. Unfortunately, there is no 9-cell (more powerful) battery available. Based on the location of the battery on the bottom of the laptop, I don't think there ever will a more powerful (and larger) option.

Performance on this is great. Windows 7 is extremely responsive, audio production software runs smoothly, and game performance is even better than I expected Dragon Age Origins looks beautiful at the screen's max resolution with most graphics settings somewhere between medium and high. I haven't tried editing video yet, but based on what I've seen so far, I don't expect any performance issues. If you're just planning to browse the web and work on spreadsheets, documents, etc. this may be overkill for you. You would probably have no problems on a cheaper machine with a slower CPU, without discrete graphics, and with longer battery life.

Speaking of battery life, it is pretty short, but I find it to be usable. Asus added a dedicated button for switching power profiles. Switching to battery-saving mode gives a significant boost over high-performance and entertainment modes. I haven't done extensive testing, but it seems that battery-saving mode will get you 4-5 hours of web browsing and other light work, while entertainment mode might let you watch one movie before you need to search for an outlet. Depending on how and where you expect to use your laptop, this may or may not be a problem. In high-performance mode, hot air blows out of the right side, but the bottom doesn't get hot enough to burn laps.

In response to other feedback I've seen:

It's been said that the touch-pad buttons are stiff. I don't find this to be the case at all. They seem quite comfortable to me, my girlfriend, and my mother.

Another reviewer mentioned having issues using the touch-pad scroll. The part about scrolling not stopping without an extra touch is a non-issue. This an intentional behavior that can be changed or turned off in settings. However, the part about having to hit the line is a very real issue. The problem is that the outer edges (maybe 1/4") of the pad do not respond to touch. You don't need to hit the line exactly, but you do need to make sure you're not right at the edge, which frequently requires a look. This is the most annoying problem I have with the n81vp.

Keyboard quality and noise is fine. It's comfortable to type on. It's not silent, but not noticeably loud either.

The function key is where most people would expect 'control' to be, but after a few weeks with the laptop, I find myself getting used to this.

In summary, the Asus N81VP-D2 is great for audio production, multimedia work, gaming, and most other demanding tasks.

It's a waste of money for more casual users and no good if you need long battery life.

I have to agree with the previous reviewer that this is one superb notebook. I was also looking for a notebook that is not too large (15" and above) nor too small and underpowered (12" and less). In the 13" and 14" range, I pretty much narrowed it down to ASUS and Dell Studio XPS 13". I own a two-year old Dell XPS 13", which had its motherboard replaced twice in two years due to heat issues (this seems to be a very common problem with Dell XPS 13" line and Dell doesn't seem to acknowledge it or actively try to find a solution). Bestbuy has Dell Studio XPS 13" at about the same price as this ASUS, but with only one-year warranty. As can be expected, I am hesitant to make a purchase due to my past experience.

ASUS is fast and stable with Windows 7. The machine looks and feels well built. Furthermore, the machine stays cool even under heavy use. The small complaints I have are that it doesn't come with dedicated media keys/buttons, and the keyboard definitely feels different from that of Dell and takes some getting used to. Certainly, I am not faulting ASUS for these. A good thing is that you are getting a bargain buying from Amazon. I was in Taiwan last December the same ASUS model sold there for roughly US$1,300 when you would expect a lower price because ASUS is a Taiwanese brand. I guess Amazon's trade volume must entitle it to a huge discount.

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I regret purchasing this computer; it really is not worth the price compared to others on the market now. I have also had some issues with the computer itself. If you Google "ASUS N81 crash" you will find that many people are experiencing random system crashes, especially when trying to do any gaming at all on this computer. There is a possible hardware issue that causes the crash, which many assume to be from the ATI Mobility card, but ASUS has not acknowledged it.

I sent my machine back to ASUS for repairs due to all the random system crashes I experienced; it was updated as "Repaired" and assigned a tracking number the day after received. I called and they said no issues were found with my computer. I called several times and left my number several times, but they would never let me speak with a supervisor, and a supervisor would not call me back. I got my computer back and found that they had removed all the AMD/ATI software from the machine, but didn't make any mention of this on their notes. There is a problem with either the graphics card and/or its software. I did a full reformat and fresh install and got rid of all the ATI and AMD software except for the driver, and my system no longer crashes. The WLAN card included is also really weak. I replaced mine with a Gigabyte GN-WI07HT-RH that I had in an older machine, and it gets much better connection. The hard drive is a Seagate Momentus 7200.4. Just google the name of the hard drive and you see what a piece of crap it is. It's a noisy, clunky hard drive; I guess I will replace it with a Hitachi drive on my own dime. No real reason to RMA it for the loud Seagate because it seems like it's the product itself that is a joke, not just mine.

This computer has had issues with multi-tasking. It locks up and requires a full reboot. When I watch stream feeds, I have to reboot 3-4 times in a 2 hour period. I have a netbook that performs better than this computer. It's pretty much a piece of crap.

I experienced terrible customer service, a poor warranty/repair department, and unaddressed shutdown issues make this a computer to avoid, in my opinion. I have purchased three ASUS laptops in the past three years, but after the experience with this one, it will be my last.

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When I purchased this laptop I had several criteria

1) Powerful enough to last my family 3 years at least

2) Enough gaming power to do light gaming

3) Portable I didn't want a 17", I wanted 14-15"

4) A maximum of around $1000

5) A quality name/warranty this is a laptop afterall

1) Power The "windows experience" rating is 5.8 but that is due to the replaceable hard drive. The Processor got 6.4, the graphics 6.7. While the stated max of the motherboard is 4gb RAM, its reported to handle up to 8gb. No this isn't one of the lasted i7 or i5 processors but its a very powerful dual-core and if you aren't doing media editing this will last a long time.

2) Gaming I have Dragon Age running at max details and it doesn't even skip a beat. The specs call the graphics chip a HD4650, the sticker says HD4670. The only difference between the two is clock speed, and this is clocked as a 4650. You could over clock it but I don't see the need yet. This isn't a laptop for hardcore gamers but it can play hardcore games.

3) Portable this is a 14" laptop with desktop replacement hardware! Of course the downside is the tiny battery can't keep up. I'd suggest buying a spare battery or staying near an outlet.

4) When I got this laptop it was 1000 w/ a 100 dollar rebate, its gone up a bit but its still a steal!

5) Most laptop companies give a 1 year hardware failure warranty. Asus gives a 2 year hardware and 1 year accidental damage. Oh and Asus laptops are much more reliable than HP/Dell/Gateway ones.

Cons:

1) Battery

2) No DVI output

3) Battery

4) Typical bloatware

5) Battery

Bottomline: Get it while you can!

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Like others have mentioned, I experienced random crashes and keyboard won't register all keystrokes. Customer service is very rude and not much help.

I will never purchase products from ASUS again.

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Toshiba Satellite C655-S5549 15.6" Notebook, Intel Core i3-2350M (2.30GHz), 3GB DDR3 Memory, 320GB

I've had my laptop nearly 3 years and have been satisfied. It does what I exspected for the price. Only drawbackwhen you hover over something too long, it picks it automatically. Horrible feature and I can't figre out how to turn it off.

Sent it back. Didn't meet expectations. Windows 7 not up to Vista. Touch pad very sensitive. Things moved around to much unexpectedly

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HP EliteBook 8530p Notebook Intel Centrino 2 vPro Core 2 Duo T9600 2.80 GHz - 15.40

I bought this laptop 2 years ago to use for my Graduate School and as my main home/entertainment/gaming computer. It came with the following specs:

* Intel P8600 2.4GHz Processor,

* 4 GB of Ram,

* 320 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive,

* ATI Radeon HD 3650 Graphics,

* Widescreen 1280x800 anti-glare display,

* LightScribe DVD+/-RW

The body of the laptop is made of aluminum and hard plastic with a very rigid magnesium alloy inner frame. This thing is built like a tank and looks like it can stop a bullet. It is absolutely unbendable and practically unscratchable. At the same time it is not too heavy a little over 6 lb. It also looks very cool very like a Macbook Pro. There are no reflective or glossy parts anywhere, so it is easy to keep the laptop clean.

I installed Windows 7 Pro x64, MS Office Pro 2010, Firefox 4, Adobe CS5, Becker CPA Review Software, Avast Antivirus, and several other productivity programs. The system is very stable I have never had any problem.

I usually keep a dozen Firefox tabs and Office documents open, Windows Media Player playing music, and also work with Adobe or Becker. No sweat. The application performance is very good thanks to the fast processor and speedy 7k HDD. Adobe Suit of course is a resource hog but still works reasonably fast on this computer.

I also installed Crysis, Left 4 Dead, SC2, Bishock, and several other games. All the games (except Crysis) run smoothly on medium settings at the native screen resolution. Crysis is playable on low settings only. Older games like Warcraft 3 run on the highest settings. The laptop does not get too hot and the fan is quiet.

The battery easily lasts 4 hrs when browsing Internet and working with the Office and/or Becker with Wi-Fi on and the screen on medium brightness. So, I think that performance of ATI Radeon HD 3650 is a good compromise between the power and mobility.

The screen is perfect for office/school work and gaming. It is bright, non-reflective and has good contrast. The resolution of 1280x800 is also very suitable for these tasks. The higher resolution would make text appear too small and would not let newer games to be playable in the native resolution. However, as an avid photographer, I would like to have more resolution to work with my pictures.

There is a high resolution (2mp) Web camera and a very good built-in microphone. So, Skype is pleasure to use. The built-in speakers are good and clear, though I usually use external speakers or headphones.

The illuminated keyboard (there is a very cool built-in light) is very comfortable and quiet one of the best I have ever used. I like the touchpad too it is very responsive with the soft and quiet buttons. There is an amazingly accurate pointstick IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad style with its own dedicated buttons. There are several touch-sensitive media buttons above the keyboard: Info, WiFi Toggle, Presentation Mode, Sound Volume and Mute. Very sleek. The fingerprint reader adds security.

There are lots of connectivity options here:

* Docking port on the bottom extremely convenient, I use it every day to connect the laptop to a docking station.

* A/B/G/N Wireless LAN which works flawlessly with my campus network,

* 10/100/1000 NIC port use it to connect to a DSL modem at home

* Bluetooth 2.0 EDR often use it to connect the computer to my cell phone,

* 56k modem used once when I took the laptop to Ukraine,

* 4x USB 2.0 ports,

* Very fast ESATA port use it for back-ups with my external HDD,

* 1394 Firewire port never used it,

* 1x Headphone out + 1x Microphone in

* HDMI port connect it to my big HDTV

* VGA out used it several times to connect the laptop to a projector during presentations

* SD/MS/Pro-MMC Card Reader use it a lot to transfer pictures from my DSLR

* Express card slot + Smart Card slot never used them

All the ports are located very conveniently with the Power Socket and the VGA on the back, 2 USB and Network on the far left edge, and the rest in the middle of the sides. So, the cables that are most likely to be connected (and the thickest ones) are on the back and do not get in the way. But I use the docking port on the bottom (unique to business laptops) to connect all wires to the dock (and move them all back at the same time) and then connect/disconnect the laptop with a single push on a button. Priceless!

Long story short I am very satisfied.

I bought this laptop used for audio production because the hardware I utilize is expresscard. Also let it be known that I am not some average crackpot home studio enthusiast. I also work directly with one of the named DAW manufacturers. This laptop has it all and isn't even remotely new. This core2duo on win7 running protools 10 / cubase / nuendo gets near the same dsp performance as a quad core i7 macbook. I will run the same sessions side by side and I can keep up no problem with an os x quad core i7. I also plan to run this laptop with a magma chassis HD rig.

as for the seller, they were responsive inquiries and got the laptop here quickly. It was in great condition considering its age.

Swapped out the drive for two 256gb SSDs and a 750gb black drive. Running 128 channels of audio and this laptop used cost less than $240.00. Ridiculously happy.

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Works great & no problems! Easy to use & operate! Bought for my 60 year old mom and she loves it!

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These laptops have what looks like good hardware with a Core 2 Duo processor, ATI graphics, and 2GB of RAM. That said, I work in a library system that ordered 20 of them for use at the branches about 5-6 years ago and ALL OF THEM are now getting memory errors. It's rare enough for RAM to go bad, but for it to go bad on 20 computers that are all the same model, using the same RAM, can NOT be a coincidence. Clearly HP cheaped out on memory and must have just slapped an HP sticker on generic RAM before shoving it into these laptops.

The following info will be more beneficial to IT professionals like myself.

For those who are curious, I ran memtest on all the machines when staff at various branches were complaining about blue screens and freezing. 18 of the 20 machines failed to even make 2 passes in Memtest.

Aside from that, the BIOS are terrible. I think they were trying to cater to people who wanted BIOS that were mouse compatible, but they really screwed up on this. Boot devices are difficult to manage. Even if you enable every boot device imaginable, when you start the computer, and go to the boot menu, you will only have two options: Internal Hard drive and "upgrade bay" which is what they put for ANY other boot device including CDs, flash drives, etc. If you are booting from an external hard drive or flash drive, you will NOT have the option to select which device to boot from if you have more than one attached. That means, if you are booting from a flash drive, and also have an external hard drive attached, you have to hope that when you choose something other than the internal hard drive, that the computer randomly chooses the correct device.

These laptops have horrible compatibility issues with Ghost 11 and 15 and likely other versions as well. If you believe you will EVER have to use Norton Ghost to backup or reimage your laptop, do NOT buy this model.

I would also recommend people avoid HP/Compaq laptops in general, as they are known to have poor reliability. Do your research and purchase from a more reliable manufacturer.

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Very Attractive Fast PC, This Computer can make your life more easier. Solid wireless connectivity so you can do your work on the move without worrying signal drop, Very Fast Processors so you could do your work and tasks quickly means you have more extra time for something else you love to do.

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Gateway NE56R41u 15.6" Intel B960 Pentium Processor 2.2GHz 4GB DDR3 SDRam 500GB Hard Drive Windows

I purchased this laptop from Wal-Mart -but had exactly the same issues as rjhouse describes in his review. After a half hour or so of useless troubleshooting with Gateway support, I resolved to return it to the store and get a roughly-equivalent laptop from HP for $20 more.

But before doing so, I used Device Manager to "Update Driver" on the "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter." which swapped out the Broadcom driver for one supplied by Microsoft. I have not had a problem since -it has been working 100% great, not a single drop, and network performance has been fine.

I kept the laptop and haven't looked back. This laptop is pretty decent for the money. Performs well, good amount of storage, reasonably low price. Knowing what I know now about how to get the networking to work properly, I'd buy one again if I were in the market again.

I won't give it 5 stars though -it's not all roses -there are a few things I find annoying or unsatisfactory:

Audio isn't loud enough

The touchpad button is one long bar that acts as 2 buttons, depending on which end of it you press -but this renders the center of the button unusable and the button is progressively harder to press the closer to the center you get. So you pretty much have to press the very ends of the bar.

The touchpad is offset to the left. I guess this makes sense as it's more like a full-size keyboard since they fit a full numeric pad onto this one -but since it isn't centered with the screen, it takes some getting used to.

No caps-lock/numlock/scroll-lock lights (somewhat resolved using keyboard-leds.com app). But I think many laptops are like this nowadays.

First of all, what happened to the cow boxes....?

This is my first gateway computer and a replacement for a Toshiba satellite that i purchased with no research whatsoever bedsides being inexpensive and having a number keypad.

First impressionsNot a bad computer at all! 3 USB slots and a HDMI so thats an upgrade for me. Windows 8 is kind of funky and I don't like it one bit but that has nothing to do with the computer itself. the screen is clear and large enough and the camera works good enough for video chat

bad stuffspeakers suck,

great buy for the price!

edit*** a few weeks later

speakers are stil low quality but you get used to it. I wish there was a caps lock and number lock indicator light but I guess I can use my eyes as i type.

I am happy with the battery life and I think this computer s a keeper.

No as far as Microsoft goes..........grrrrrr making Office super expensive and a horrible interface.

But the computer is good once chrome takes over :)

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I know this is a cheap laptop, but it would have been nice to use it for more than three months (light business and very little web use) before it crapped out. Just a few weeks after I bought it, I had to restore it. Then it worked decent for a month or so before I started getting hard drive failure warnings, and now it's kaput. Luckily, they're replacing the hard drive and all I have to pay is shipping, but I shouldn't be sending off this item so soon.

I don't recommend buying this.

UPDATE: I spent twenty-five bucks for shipping with insurance to have the hard drive replaced. The laptop arrived in the mail today, and after spending hours moving my files back to the laptop & reinstalling programs, I'm getting a blue screen telling me the PC ran into a problem and has to restart. I've contacted Gateway support and requested a refund.

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Bought this in a store, not from Amazon, but feel obligated to warn others about this laptop. First of all I was really bothered that this didn't come with Microsoft Office or the like, as did the last laptop I bought. I guess that is the way now, making you pay for the additional software...lame. Upon attempting to use the disk drive for the first time it was not properly installed....spent a good chunk of time with tech support, which we were able to fix it, but not off to a good start. Now after only a couple months, the mouse is freezing up all the time; I've had at least one occasion where it wouldn't start without removing the battery and returning it before it would power up. Couple times it's frozen completely and I need to manually shut down. Also, as most people find, Windows 8 is a disaster to navigate, so confusing, impossible to find basic stuff, open two folders at the same time, etc... not a good operating system.

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This is a very nice laptop. Still learning windows 8 so not able to give 5 stars.. Laptop does get hot fast but this has not been a problem with the workings of the computer. nice job

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HP Pavilion DM3-1035DX Notebook PC - AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual-Core L335 / 13.3" LED / 3GB DDR2 / 320G

I have this notebook for about 2 months now. Although I only use HP DM-3 for mobile surfing, I have been able to perform heavy jobs from time to time.

This notebook weigh only 4.25lb and it is pretty light to carry around. I put it in my swiss gear bag and I barley notice the weigh. It doesn't have any CDROMS drive but it doesn't bother me a bit because I only needed only once during these two months and I think I can live with it because it is so light without CD-Drive.

The pros of the this Notebook is that

1. Light (as I mention only 4.2 lb)

2. Window 7 (better than linux and window vista)

3. 3 GB of memory in window 64 bit (window uses about 1GB), It is easily accessible in the back for upgrade. (although I never tried it before)

4. Wireless draft N, faster if you could get draft N signal.

5. Storage 340 with HP protect smart, you could get bigger space for this much money but not at this weigh.

6.Built webcam and mic is descent enough to hold video conference.

7. Keyboard and the metal cover is such a charm, many people think I paid a lot more than what I really pay for this.

8.4 USB, typical,one mic port and audio out. Nothing fancy but I am really sold for the one HDMI port. I can instantly hook up with my sharp 46" through HDMI cable and browse the web or watch online movie (I watch more movies and browsing the web).

Now the cons

1. Battery life is no where they claim it to be, they said nearly 6 hours in HP sites, I barely get past 4 with minimum power usage.

2.Track pad is difficult to operate.

3. Over heat quickly when watching movies or doing heavy tasks, otherwise, it is fine.

4. Hibernation does not resume window quickly.

As you can see, there are more pros than cons and I am one of those people who hate Netbook because it is too damn small. This worth the extra money.

This is the perfect size for school, as my classrooms all have small desks. I bought it for the HDMI port, and installed webcam. It is pretty fast until a lot of stuff is on it requiring a file purge every now and again. You WILL need a fan as it gets hot, and battery life isn't near what it should be. Had mine a year and the external edges show cracks and wear. I am deathly afraid of the pin in the electrical out breaking as they put the straight out plug in it. I do plan on upgrading the RAM because 3g isn't enough to run Adobe Suite.

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Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop

I've had this laptop since Feb of last year, have the ruby red and that's rather daring when you're straight but seriously it has quite a decent finish (if not the best)

I have a 9 cell battery which makes the laptop a little heavier and I do regret getting it and that's not because I paid extra but it's because laptops are plugged in all the time. I've traveled many places with my laptop.

I strongly advise getting this laptop with a 2 year warranty. The adapter has died on me once. (Dell sent a new adapter out in 2 days)

The brightness on my LCD became really dim and I didn't bother because I was using it on the HDMI port but I asked for an engineer to come out. He replaced the LCD and now it's bright. He also managed to remove a memory stick I somehow managed to get stuck in the slot with a lot of ease.

The customer service is friendly, polite, professional and they're always on time. I would give Dell an 8 as far as Customer experience is concerned. However, there is a lot of problem getting your service tag recognized in America because they'll keep transferring you from department to department until you end up at a department which is closed *Warranty* I got the laptop in India and getting service in NEW YORK requires a bit of pedaling.

The touch pad is not the best in the world. I've connected my laptop to a giant TV and sit on my couch with a blue tooth keyboard and mouse and use it so I don't have to use the touch pad which likes to become all hot. A slight trickle sometimes sends the mouse into a frenzy.

If my laptop is on Hibernate and I bring it back to life, the touchpad used to go bonkers during the first few weeks. I never use Dell Media Direct because I have something we call the VLC Media player. Running DVDs is just fine. The wireless has given me some problems, often refusing to recognize the available network and often dropping the service. I don't know if the operating system is to blame for it but I have had some tussles.

The speakers are some of the worst I have ever heard. I have Harman Kardon SoundSticks which produce boombastic sound. The video/photo camera is above satisfactory and takes some really good photos. The software is easy and has enough options for fiddlers. The in built mic is effective but could be better.

A good thing about the Inspiron 1525 is how the front has two headphone jacks and one mic jack. A big plus here if you're two watching a film.

Some good things about the laptop is the stuff it comes with. PC restore is a convenient option if your laptop has gone bonkers or if you have been hit with malware/spyware/virus. You get very good Creative earphones. You get this cloth to wipe your laptop which you lose. The operating system cds, the restore dvd and some Roxio I would never bother with. My laptop had 160GB hard drive and I got it with 2GB ram.

I have installed an extra gig of RAM but it has only elevated my problems and I have a lot of blue screens now. I get a blue screen once every three days. It is quite annoying. The build quality is mediocre considering it sometimes acts funny if you lift it from the bed and place it on your lap.

Windows Vista is a good experience. I use all four usb ports at most times. One for my ipod, two for my external hard drives and the fourth for my wireless keyboard/mouse.

Overall, this laptop was a fun experience at first but I'm the kind of guy who uses his laptop every day for many hours. Is it for a power enthusiast like me? Maybe not. Am I still overall happy with it? It gets the job done. I should maybe not place it on the carpet all the time but seriously it's a blessing because the HDMI port works so well after the video driver software update.

I like Dell because of quality, they're far from perfect but for how much I paid I don't think it was a bad deal.

This Dell computer has a big problem. Dell knows about it and has done nothing to own up to it. The plug in that is connected to the main board easily cracks making it impossible to charge your computer. It is poor engineering from the get go and quite costly to repair($145 to install a $5 part). When my computer stopped charging I bought a new adapter, then a new battery, then downloaded the most recent BIOS. When I went up on the net to see if anyone else was having this problem I found 100's of people with the same problem. Some of them were banging the logo and getting some results, most of them as frustrated as I am.

Again: DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!! YOU WILL BE SORRY

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Horrible, just horrible. Itd take half the page to explain all the problems ive had with this. I got this computer for free through a scholarship, but honestly, I wish I had just spent the money on a better computer. Now, the area where my charger plugs into is broken and I cant even turn the comp on, so I lost all of my documents. I recently bought a Mac Book and LOVE IT. Definitely recommend going for a Macskip the Dell!

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I've had two Dell laptops. On both of them the mousepad stopped working within months. (Why I bought the second laptop I dont know.) On the 1525, everything seems to have fallen apart. Even worse, it didn't come with driver disks or any of the oem software on disks. Funny thing is, Dell advertises this as a benefit. Huh? Now it's impossible to reinstall the os system because you can't get it online anymore. I will not buy a Dell again.

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I have owned this computer for 3 years with nothing but problems. Dell has a terrible support team that tries to rip you off by selling you warranties you don't need and have a huge communication problem. This is today, June 27, 2011, no matter how hard they wish to say they have solved this problem. I have been a Dell customer for 19 years and I am going to buy a new laptop but never again from Dell.

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Dell XPS 15z X15z-1461ELS 15.6" Laptop (2.30 GHz Intel Core i5-2410M, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive,

I wanted 1920x1080 resolution in a thin and light with Sata III, USB 3.0 and HDMI 1.4. The choices were this, this and this. It's a very good system all in all. I highly recommend using an SSD such as an OCZ Vertex 3. The computer boots 3x faster with an SSD. I deducted a star because of the difficulty of upgrading parts (memory, hard drive, etc). It is not as simple as removing a few screws. You can easily damage the unit in doing so.

I purchased a Dell laptop for my son from Amazon and this seller filled the order. A few weeks later the laptop died, either a bad power supply or motherboard. I called Dell to initiate a warranty claim, and they told me this machine was registered to someone else. The seller claims that was impossible and send it back to them. I did, and they replaced it with another unit. (Which was a long drawn out process with a lot of broken english involved)

So I receive the replacement and a few weeks later it dies as well, Dell accepts the registration but says it will not warranty because it is a USED LAPTOP. At this point I've paid for the item plus shipping it for repair twice and the seller will not cover anything.

SUMMARY: They sell used faulty equipment and represent it as new. Amazon's "A-Z" claim has done the Z part on this one ZERO, They have not even so much as given me a status update. Save yourself the aggravation and buy locally. These guys are scamming people.

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Dell Inspiron N5030 iN5030-1723OBK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Obsidian Black)

I had tried to order this laptop with the 10 key layout version, but was told it had been sold out. We opted for this one and it is a good laptop for our needs. We had a copy of windows office that we installed, because it only comes with a bare bones trial version, hence the price.

I can have Excel, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media player all working at same time without problems. Or my daughter can play games online and it works fine. Not great, but fine.

It burns DVDs and has a webcam for Skyping. So it has almost all the stuff, just not the 10 keypad. Battery life is good. For a regular user this is a solid laptop for the price.

I like the new laptop. Always had good service from the Dell desktop we had. Had a Toshiba laptop but it was junk from the get-go. The Dell is plenty fast for my needs web surfing, e-mail, a few spreadsheets, etc. A couple of complaints I adjusted the touchpad but it still seems way too sensitive. Also could do without McAfee popping up every little while warning me of how much danger I'll be in once the 30 days of protection expire.

Overall I'm very satisfied. It was an easy set-up out of the box and so far does everything I need it to do and very well.

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i will have to say this is the worst laptop i have ever owned. i had a problem with it after about a month of owning it. some of the keys would stop operating at random times. the two buttons used to navigate the mouse totally quit working. so, i have to double click the touch pad to be able to do anything, which is a pain because it calls for 3 or 4 clicks. i had to buy a wireless mouse to be able to navigate effectively on the computer. my main complaint i have is about a week after owning the laptop it wouldn't charge at all. it would say the electrical current is low and it would operate slow if i plugged it in. come to find out, i have to have it in the same place every time i plug it in and the laptop to charge. which is about a 20 minute task each time i want to charge my laptop. the charger is a circular one so i had to spend about 3 hours finding the location that it will charge in order for me to mark the location. all in all, a really awful buy and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone ever.

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We have had many brands of computer laptops in our home, and this one, so far, has been one of the best. I have not had a single problem with it, unlike the numerous problems with our HP's. It's a great computer.

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I bought this laptop because it was cheap and it did all the basics that I needed it to do for school. However, a cheap price got me a cheap quality laptop. Within a year, the battery completely died and I can no longer be mobile with my laptop. For a $300 laptop, the battery is $60 some dollars. I wasn't happy about that. The mouse is also tricky. It's extremely sensitive. It will also randomly stop working completely and I have to get a secondary mouse to plug in until it works again (usually within a minute). This laptop is fine for someone that needs it until they can afford something better. It is fairly fast, at least it is in my opinion. Also the design is neat, but it's too cumbersome for someone who wants to be very mobile. It's heavy and thick, especially for its time. The webcam is not very good either. In fact, it changes the colors in the picture to something completely different. I'm not sure why. I've messed with the settings, but nothing helped. Mine is almost two years old and I'm already searching for a new one.

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Toshiba Satellite M115-S3094 14.1" Widescreen Laptop (Intel Core Duo Processor T2050, 512 MB RAM, 8

Once again Toshiba re-defines the marketplace with this incredibly powerful lightweight laptop. How can you beat this? It's only around five pounds and packs incredible power at an amazing price. It's a great deal by the best laptop maker out there. The positives totally outweigh the negatives, but I will mention the few problems. The system makes more fan noise than most other models. If the system were more expensive this would be a deal breaker, but again, this powerful laptop is cheap! The other problem is how the system performs out of the box. As usual the system comes with a ton of pre-installed garbage. It took me 4-8 hours to wipe the hard drive, re-image it with a clean OS, and install the Toshiba drivers. Once this was complete the system worked to my satisfaction. This would be a five star review if the system worked well out of the box. All things considered, Toshiba strikes again!

Being a college student, I am always looking for ways to save money. After a semester of living without a laptop and constantly having to go over to the computer lab which was anything but conducive to studying and writing, I finally realized it was time to buy my own laptop. With so many options on the market, I spent much of my winter vacation trying to figure out which model I would finally decide on. The driving factor in my decision was price. I knew that I wanted to spend under one-thousand bucks for the laptop and any needed accessories. I called up my brother, the computer whiz, and asked for his opinion. He told me to look into Toshiba, and that started my two week long search that ultimately led me to this laptop.

I went to Best Buy, WalMart, Target, etc to test out many different models of many different laptops. The first thing I noticed with this Toshiba is the screen. For being only 14.1 inches, you barely notice that it is inferior in size to the bigger 17 inch models. The colors are vivid, the pictures are as clear as can be, and while testing watching DVDs on it, I felt like I was watching High Def. TV. I decided after that point to research the model farther, and eventually ended up buying it.

I ordered my M115 from CompUSA and it arrived within two short days. I opened the box and started set-up. I was amazed at how few annoyances I had with a laptop that cost me so little. Usually you are going to sacrifice SOMETHING if you're buying a cheaper product, no matter what that product may be. Of course, as I delved deeper into testing this laptop, I figured out several reasons why it is in the budget category.

Now that the laptop was home, it was time to start other tests. I had already tested the screen at the store, and like I said, it passed with flying colors. Next I tested the battery life. I put in my extended version of "The Return of the King" and let the battery run down. I kept the laptop at full brightness and did NOT use power saver mode. It took two hours and fifty-five minutes before the laptop shut off. This is EXCELLENT for a six-cell battery under the conditions I put it in.

Next, I tested the laptop battery for word processing on the lowest brightness possible with power saver mode. The battery was empty after four hours and five minutes. I was extremely pleased with these results because I use this laptop for word processing in class where I can't charge it up if it runs out of battery, and over four hours is more than enough for me. However, if you are truly concerned about battery life, you can always buy a spare and keep it charged.

After the battery had taken a good beating from all the testing, I started testing sound quality. I popped in my "Best of the Classics" CD and started messing around with the sound settings. On lower settings, the sound quality is not the best. However, the higher you put the volume, the better quality you will get from the speakers. I finally found the perfect spot on the volume adjuster for listening to CDs. However, I need to adjust when watching DVDs and Videos...generally you need to turn the volume up a bit for that. All in all, I was happy with the speakers and sound quality, but not blown away.

After taking my CD out, I started opening every application on the laptop. This way, I could see approximately how many applications I could have open before the laptop either seized up or got horrendously slow. I opened the internet, my word processor, photoshop, my digital photography suite that is connected to my printer, my website editor and finally, I started running the virus-scan. This is a lot to ask of any computer, but especially of one that only runs on 512MB. I found that it ran the applications well up until I opened the website editor. It was just too much for the little M115 to handle. This was expected from a machine that only runs on 512MB, and I decided at that point that an upgrade to 1GB would be needed. I ordered another 512MB the next day, and can now run all the applications I want. From time to time they will slow up a bit, but the fact that it can even handle that work load is awesome and a definite must, since I'm a multi-tasker.

This laptop comes with an 80GB HD, and some today say the new standard is at least 100GB. To be honest, I think that's a complete crock of sh**. I have an old Compaq (from 1999) that still works, and it has a 15GB HD, with only 11GB usable. If I can operate that machine (and I can), then 80GB is luxury. I have all the programs I need installed on this machine and I still have 55GB free. Will I use it? Probably not. Would I need 100GB? No way! Unless you are someone who is using cr**loads of programs that require installation on the computer, then there is NO need for anything bigger than 80GB while operating on a Windows XP machine. Maybe when it's time to upgrade to Vista, but for now, it is just not necessary. Besides, you will not be upgrading to Vista on this laptop. I know several Microsoft developers and they all have Vista already...and some of them can't even run it on machines with 100GB HDs and 2GB memory. So yeah, stick with XP and you will be fine with 80GB HD and 1GB memory (RAM).

One annoyance I had after setting up this laptop is finding the amount of bloatware that came with it. It can be easily removed, but the fact that so much of it was even on my little M115 was a serious gripe for me. This is probably one of the reasons why it was so cheap--lots of manufacturers being advertised from start-up. I now have altered it to my liking, but it takes some time and patience.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this laptop is not for extreme gamers. I do a lot of graphic design with digital photography and I can work from this laptop, but it isn't the best home-base for my work. This is more of a laptop that you would use for typical programs like the internet, word-processing, light gaming, light photo-editing, movie-watching, music listening and chatting. It's great for the TYPICAL user...but don't buy this laptop and then complain that you can't run your huge graphic-demanding games on it without giving up some quality...if you're in that boat, you should go with an Alienware.

Some annoyances that have been listed with this laptop, other than battery life which I have already covered, are the keyboard and some complaints of overheating or loud fan noise. The keyboard is cramped. No two ways about it. This is a small laptop, and the keyboard is spread nicely on it, but it is still cramped. I have small hands so this is not a problem, but a someone with huge piano fingers would probably have a hard time with typing. A very hard time. Test the laptop out at a store before buying it, because if you don't you could be sorely disappointed. I did not notice ANY overheating...it gets warm, but in no way does it "overheat." There is some fan noise, but very little. It turns on every 5-10 minutes for about two seconds when using the laptop under normal use.

My last note on this laptop is that I wish it had come with a faster processor. I have altered it so that it is up to what I want as far as performance goes, but come on, Intel Core 2 Duo is the standard now. Not Intel Core Duo. Hopefully Toshiba will change this on future M115 models, because I would love to get a younger sibling of this laptop at some point.

For what I paid, I could not have gotten better. This laptop gets the job done and is the best of the best in budget laptops. Buy another 512MB of RAM, and you will be good to go.

RATINGS:

Screen Quality: 10/10

Sound Quality: 7/10

Operation Speed: 8/10 (after upgrade) or 6.5/10 (before upgrade)

Battery life: 7.5/10 (excellent for a six-cell battery!!!)

Out-of-box quality: 6/10

Price: 10/10

Design: 8/10

Why not 10/10?

Screen Qualiy deductions: -0. Probably one of the best screens I've ever seen.

Sound Quality deductions: -3 for some tinniness in the sound when playing music or videos on a lower level of sound.

Operation Speed deductions: -2 for a slower processor (after upgrade) and -3.5 for a slower processor and not enough RAM out of the box (before upgrade).

Battery Life deductions: -2.5 for the hardy six-cell, because every modern laptop should come with AT LEAST a nine-cell. Again, good for what it is, but it's time to upgrade, Toshiba.

Out-of-Box Quality deductions: -4 for annoying bloatware, slower processor and not enough RAM.

Price deductions: -0...this is the BEST OF THE BEST in it's price range.

Design: -2 for a cramped keyboard.

OVERALL: 8/10

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This is second laptop that I have owned. Compared to my old E-machines N10, this is a much better laptop. Some of the significant differences that I see between these two laptops are: I have no problem with wireless network using my Toshiba M115, I like the keyboard layout and the sound system on it.

Another great future is that it allows you to watch DVD's without starting up the whole system, plus, it has S-video if you want to hook it up to your TV.

Toshiba is an established brand in the market and if you want to sell it after using it a while, you will have anough buyers and your laptop will not depreciate in price that much. This is another reason why I bought this laptop.

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I bought this laptop about 3 weeks ago, and so far everything has been great. The size is nice, with the LCD wide screen making it very enjoyable to watch movies on. It's a pretty light laptop, at 5.something pounds and is very mobile for its size. I really like the keyboard, with the regular sized 'Shift' button on the right hand side. The battery life can last up to (and possibly a little over) 4 hours, depending on your chosen power settings. It's got the built-in wireless card, that you can switch on and off whenever you want to use it. The graphics for this computer are pretty good, and pretty much everything else is well over satisfactory.

The only cons about this computer is the 512mb memory, but that can easily be upgraded, and all you need is another 512mb memory upgrade and you're set. Also, the computer comes with a lot of unnecessary software and junk, but that problem can be solved by simply uninstalling whatever you don't want on there. It can take a bit of time, though, depending on how much stuff you want to uninstall, but I didn't really mind it.

Overall, I'd have to say this is a great laptop at a great price.

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Ok so my review will focus on how the laptop preformed before I broke the screen. To start out the laptop worked fine for basic activities like surfing the web, looking at pictures, or listening to your music library. But with the entry level amount of ram, and the cpu only being a single core, it lags with basic games like Sim City, and The Sims, and forget graphic intensive games like Flight Simulator's. It always got hot when doing basic stuff, thus the fan kicks into overtime to cool it down causing noticeable noise. The screen (before I cracked it)was very hazy, and the glare in the sun was terrible. Now moving on from the bad, the good things included a roomy keyboard with a very nicely located shift key (its great for fast typing). The battery was good with a two hour life span maybe two and a half if you're doing the basics. It came pre installed with a lot of useful software, that was a plus. All in all it fit my basic needs, but its limited hardware can set you back. I suggest a ram upgrade before you even set foot into the level of games, and streaming movies from Netflix, or Hulu.

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HP ENVY 17-3090NR 17.3 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

My 2 1/2 yr old AMD dual core HP was not working very well anymore, I am a power user and it just can't keep up with having two screens running, outlook open with 4000 e-mails, 10 word documents, 2 spreadsheets, 20 chrome tabs, 20 internet explorer tabs, skype, and ringcentral running phone calls over a usb headset. The old laptop was overheating and locking up constantly.

I wanted to get a laptop that could keep up, so I considered everything from Asus ROG to MSI and Alienware, before settling my choice on this laptop. For the bang for the buck it's a winner. and it's a triditional size macbook clone looking laptop so it's light and portable unlike the true gaming laptops.

It reboots FAST 10 open programs, closed and completely rebooted and all startup programs done in approx 1 minute. This took approx 10 minutes on my old laptop. It also has 8 usable cores, so even when pushing it HARD (2 screens at 1080p) with similar usage as expressed above, it's generally running 2 cores at 5% and 6 at almost nothing, with an occasional spike on one or two cores up to about 20%. Office 2010 professional programs start INSTANTLY as does everything else that is installed on the SSD drive.

ONE NOTE it comes pre-configured to store all of the my documents, my videos, my pictures, etc... on the SSD which will fill it up very quickly. I had to go on the Microsoft help site to figure out how to re-map the "library" folders to work on the larger traditional drive. Once I did that it fixes that problem.

The only other complaint is that I wish the recovery partitions, etc... were on the larger drive. This thing ships with only about 20-30GB of usable space on the SSD drive because of the extra partitions using up space.

Pros

Blazing FAST Quad core, with an SSD primary drive. Programs open instantly

Attractive Macbook type looks means that it's appropriate for a business meeting, a trip to the coffe shop, etc... and it fits into my old 17" laptop bag.

Display is excellent. Very bright very good viewing angles, best I've ever seen.

-Excellent battery life I'm getting 3 4 hours of battery use (browsing and file transfers) old laptop was done in 30 minutes to an hour even when new.

RUNS COOOOOOOOOOL --I can't stress this enough. Compared to the frying pan that was my old laptop (Could not be used on a lap even for casual browsing and often overheated and shut off) this one ran half a million files over 20gb of data over ethernet for 6 hours while running all needed applications, and playing around with the 3d video, etc... and was literally cool to the touch the entire time.

Cons

1gb video memory on a high end machine seems a bit light, but it's more than I'll need as a business user (non gamer) but in a high end machine 2-3 would have been nice.

Placement of recovery partitions and document video and picture librarys kills most usable space on SSD.

NO VGA OUTPUT I had to buy a special displayport adapter to tie in to my external monitor, then the monitor wouldn't detect any signal. Ended up buying a new monitor with an HDMI input and an hdmi cord problem solved.

---THIN THIN THIN ALUMINUM Laptop less than an hour old and already aluminum bent around a usb port. My old laptop with the plastic shell was ABUSED for 2 1/2 years and not a scratch on it.

Overall excellent laptop with a few minor flaws, would recommend.

I bought this direct from HP with a discount at about $1400 with a SSD and 750 GB extra HD. I only got the 8GB of RAM. This is a media beast and does cause Envy from Mac users.

One thing of caution. I think there may be a design flaw with the heat vents in the back as they blow right onto the screen. I returned it once to HP to fix a burnt out key and a ding on the case by the USB port. I am NOW sending it back again for a flickering screen. At first I thought it was a software issue, but after updating almost everything from HP and even trying video drivers from the manufacturers, it has to be a hardware issue.

I think HP is onto something with this series and has great potential, but their QA/QI and engineers have their work cut out for them. Maybe they're taking plays out of the MS X-Box 360 play book. Create an awesome product, that fails periodically. I don't mind sending back a video game machine, but a laptop could be crippling to productivity. Help us out here HP!

Update 8/2012

So they sent me a 3200 after six months of issues. It is long past due. I hope the China manufacturing issues have been resolved. It seems to be blazing fast with 64 bit programs so far.

Update 9/2012

I think the 3200 version has solved a lot of issues I was having. No trackpad problems, no reving of the fan endlessly and using heavy Adobe software has not caused overheating. My screen works fine now. So now I can say the second time was worth it and am happy to not have gone over to a Mac. I can now move it to 5 stars. It only took 7 months though...

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I've had my HP Envy for about 6 weeks now. Overall happy w/ it. I upgraded the RAM and CPU and have been doing some HD video editing; so far, so good. Nice screen, nice audio, easy to use volume control, and has desktop power.

The one serious irritation I have with it is the keyboard/touchpad--and that can be fairly annoying. Often when I am typing, the cursor will jump to some random place in a document and by the time I look at the screen, i have no idea where or how it got there. Takes time to cut/paste to correct the error. There also seem to be some keyboard shortcuts that perhaps I am unaware of and accidentally hitting--have had to do a bit of research to correct some of the changes that seem to happen out of nowhere. It may be that the thumbs, even though not physically touching the pad, are close enough to reposition the cursor in some cases.

Keys also seem to vary in terms of pressure needed--another annoyance. OFten they will respond well, but sometimes, even after hearing the key hit, nothing appears on the screen and I have to go back and hit it a few more times before the character appears. All of this tends to disrupt the flow of typing and work and diminish efficiency, hence the three stars.

Before you chalk it up to "user error"--I've used laptops and touchpads exclusively for the last 15 years, everything from Dell to Lenovo to Gateway, and never, ever had this problem before.

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I recently tried ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop.

I returned it and got this instead.

The D/L speed MIGHT just be one tenth of a second slower, BUT:

The color is greatly superior, with more subtle adjustability.

(light pink, pale blue, orange, lemon yellow, if one prefers that for certain projects over

Hot pink, Burnt sienna, indigo, or lime green yellows).

But even though there is a little more subtlety...

The LED screens will NEVER have the mellow tone of LCD,

(hoping that LED monitors go the way of the 8 track tape...soon

LED is like a cold polar sun,as opposed to the south of France ambience).

The sound is FAR better, with overtones rather than a hollow echo.

The half size up/down arrows do not bother me at all.

The keyboard layout is very pleasing, and the track pad is not overly slick.

The mouse buttons are wider than the ASUS so i do not keep hitting the frame by mistake.

I bought it direct from HP compaq (who have always provided excellent phone support.

This was considerably LESS $ than the ASUS.

And was packed with great care in 3 separate boxes.

Delivered lightening fast bt FEDEX on a Saturday.

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I bought this laptop for a friend and they seem happy with the product. I had a difficult time acquiring the product through Amazon, but otherwise I was happy with the product.

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