Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 15.6-Inch Laptop (Grey Metal) - Windows 8 - 500 GB Hard Drive - 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM

I've been using a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge for the last two years for work and love it. So I bought my wife the Ideapad z580 the other day. For the money you can't get better specs. Intel core i5 processor, 8gb Ram, 750gb hardrive were included in a $499 deal at Staples. The other laptops of similar spec were at least $100 more and then some. The feel and handle of the z580 are great. But there are some key problems with this computer that have caused us to return it in favor of something else.

1. The track pad doesn't have separate buttons, they are integrated. I don't care one way or the other, but they have to work. The buttons seemed to work only half of the time. I soon just started to tap on the pad to select things because the buttons wouldn't do it. I even tried to adjust the sensitivity of them to no avail. It's also super sensitive. If you even remotely touch anything other than your finger to it, the pointer jumps all over. It also seemed to select things when our fingers hovered over the track pad. For me, the track pad has to work well since you use it for everything. If it doesn't it'll make your computer experience a disaster.

2. The network card would lose signal and we would have to reset the connection. This is unacceptable as well.

3. The computer, if left open goes into sleep mode, which is fine, but the problem is that it won't wake up. The only way to wake up the z580 if it goes to sleep with the screen open is to push the power button and restart the computer. There is no fix for this per the user forums about this laptop.

Between the poor track pad, poor internet network card, and a computer that you can't wake up; it made our decision to return it and look for something else pretty easy. those things just make the laptop experience miserable.

Good system for openSuSE Linux, which is a lot faster than 'Bloze 7 or 8. The wifi antenna could stand to be better, and of course, an Intel chipset is "mandatory" IMHO.

Fred

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The screen looks good and it runs well. The keys on keyboard are nice too.

Overall a good computer, especially for the money. I bought this computer for my son. I use a Apple Macbook Air with Windows 7 in boot camp and it is a bit nicer, but not by much. I would enjoy this computer for myself. The Apple is 5 stars, so this is 4 stars. The Apple is tighter feeling and a bit nicer in screen.

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Needed a laptop for school and this laptop did not disappoint!

Pros: Good keyboard layout even for people with big fingers like myself. Great sound from the built-in speakers. Quick boot up times and plenty of RAM for any student and the occasional video game. HDMI-out port for playing movies and Karaoke on the TV. Windows 8 is awesome in my opinion. Just watch an instructional video or two on youtube!

Cons: None that I've found yet!

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Excellent team with good performance and good looks in their finishes. The operating system is very intuitive with a nice home screen.

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE1513JCXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

Honestly it is hard to be unbiased when reviewing because of windows 8. I find it slower and clunkier than windows 7. I can not tell if the slow processing time is from windows 8 or the laptop. take it for what its worth though, The internet and reaction times in pulling up both internet and desktop windows seem slower than my three year old dell that had less RAM and processing speed. It is sleek looking and I like the feel of the keyboard. The backlit keys option is nice. The touch pad is very frustrating, even after modifying the settings it still wasn't responsive enough not to be inhibiting. I bought an optical mouse straight a way. The comeback from sleep and start up times are good. The resolution, colors and laptop speakers were above par with what I was expecting. The battery life also is good, I had it on for about two hours before needing to plug in. I'll be back for an update as soon as I figure out how to get Windows 7 on here, be warned Its a long tricky route, I've heard everything from it cant be done to it can be done if you complete these 40 steps. So if you're thinking of buying this laptop with the idea, no problem, I'll just downgrade, be warned you are in for a giant headache.

Save 11% Off

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Rain Computers Livebook A2 LA2-02 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

I bought this laptop because I needed a powerful yet inexpensive laptop to use with software for creating music. This is a powerful computer that is consistently fast, does not overheat due to the top of the line cooling fans that are installed inside. It hooks up to my HDTV through the HDMI port using an HDMI cable and the picture is top quality HD! I can use this feature to turn my 50" TV into a computer monitor! I watch movies, play games, and I use it for both of my jobs. I use it to create music and you really can't beat the price for the performance that you get. The RAIN support team is knowledgeable, positive and friendly. I have decided to always buy RAIN computers from this point forward based on my experience with this RAIN livebook laptop! I HIGHLY recommend this!

I found this machine through the Warehouse Deals section of Amazon. Not sure why it was there, as the machine was perfectly fine. Only thing wrong with it is that the glidepoint design could be better it's hard to type without inadvertent cursor jumps happening. I've had to resort to using a mouse and just turning off the glidepoint altogether. Annoying if you're ever on the go with this machine (it cancels out the value add of having a glidepoint).

Other than that, runs like the champ I expected. There was a problem with the battery not charging all the way, but I submitted a ticket to Rain, got a couple things to try in response, and before long, the issue was resolved the battery now fully charges to 100%. (Whoever decided to return this A2 back to Amazon so I could pick it up for more than half off, THANK YOU!!)

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Samsung R Series R530-11 15.6-Inch Notebook (Red/Black)

I purchased it to use with TV.

It has dedicated Graphic memory from Nvidia & HDMI port, so I choosed it.

Samsung is not famous for Laptp , but it is much better than DELL/HP/Acer in performance per price .

Setup was very simple. Just passoerd/location/language selection only.

Neflix connection is very good, Internet connection is very fast , and speaker was very good.

I purchased PC speakers from Logitek, but no additional speakers are OK .(I returned speakers from Logitek)

Also, it looks gorgeous , and my wife also loves it.

No heat , so do not need additional cooling system.

I purchased below $600 , so it is one of the best choice at that price range.

Strongly recommed it.

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ASUS VivoBook S400CA-DH51T 14-Inch Touch Ultrabook

I have been using this laptop for the last few days and my initial impressions are highly positive. I bought it as a gift for my wife but I had to take some time with it before giving it up. She was using an older 17" Dell and was tired of carrying around an 8 pound laptop so I started my search. With Windows 8 coming out I knew I wanted a touch screen and the only model in my price range was this Asus. I have had plenty of experience with Asus motherboards and video cards and they have always been great products so I decided to take the plunge. So far it has been a wise decision.

When I opened the box I was impressed with how thin and light the laptop is. Compared to my Dell XPS 15 this thing is tiny but packs a screen just 1.3" smaller. While it is light weight it still feels very solid in your hands. The laptop weighs about 4.0lbs by my scale. Surprisingly the power brick is tiny as well, measuring about 3"x3"x1" and weighing 1.2lbs. My wife wanted something smaller to carry around and this fits the bill perfectly.

Opening the lid reveals a 14" touch screen with 1366x768 resolution and the keyboard/touchpad combination. The screen is bright and clear and the viewing angles are very good. Love it or hate it Windows 8 is included and having a touchscreen makes it even better. The screen responds well to your touch and the only time I see fingerprints on it is when the screen is off. The top of the laptop however shows more fingerprints than the screen. I was initially concerned with the lower resolution but on this size of screen it works well and my wife actually prefers it over the HD resolution of my Dell as it makes text easier to read.

The laptop has a Chiclet style keyboard that is not backlit. I have read about people having issues with the space bar on other Asus models but it appears to have been resolved because every key has been very responsive. The touchpad works well and supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom and two finger scrolling. After some use I like the touchpad and buttons. The touchpad and buttons are all one piece with the buttons slightly elevated to provide a click when you press them. You do not have to press very hard on the buttons and they do not feel stiff or mushy. In the center of the buttons is a line to show you left and right. I prefer the touchpad on the Asus over my XPS.

On the left side of the laptop are two USB 2.0 ports, a memory card reader and the microphone/headset jack. On the right side there is 1 USB 3.0 port, a full size HDMI port, a VGA port, an Ethernet jack and the AC jack. There is no optical drive but with high speed memory sticks and the internet I don't see this as a problem. If you really need it there are plenty of small, cheap external drives available.

We have had the laptop for a few days day now and the battery life is very good. Over the first few days we used it quite a bit and only charged it once a day. Tonight I unplugged the laptop from the charger (it was at 93%) and watched Netflix for the next 3 and a half hours and the battery meter says it still has 1 hour or 21% of the battery left. The brightness was set to about 30% for my test. I would guess 4 to 5 hours of battery life will be average.

Sound on this laptop is good but not to the level of my XPS 15. There are two speakers on the bottom of the laptop to the left and right sides, angled to bounce the sound off whatever surface the laptop is sitting on. I cranked up some music and the sound is clear at any volume with no distortion but lacked a little fullness in the low and mid-end. I listen to a lot of music while at work and I certainly would not complain if I had to use this laptop to do it.

The included wireless N adapter has good performance with speeds up to 7 MB/s when transferring files to and from my HTPC in the living room over 40 feet away. It connected to my wireless network right away and reconnects almost instantly when resuming from sleep. The wireless radio only operates on the 2.4mhz band and while Asus' webpage says that Bluetooth is included, I don't believe it is. I can't find anything in Device Manager for Bluetooth Devices.

Performance has been very snappy thanks to the dual core I5 processor and 24gb SSD caching drive. Applications launch quickly and boot times are minimal. Even my wife has noticed how much speedier the computer is than her old one. I have not done any gaming on it yet but will amend my review when I get a chance. I will note that there is some bloatware installed on the machine such as McAfee that you should get rid of as soon as you can. Windows 8 includes Defender by default so why Asus loads McAfee is beyond me. Asus Updater was also showing an error in the desktop when I booted but that cleared up after Windows 8 installed some updates.

Overall this is a fun little computer and using the touchscreen with Windows 8 has proved to be a great experience. This review has been my opinion so far but after finally giving the computer to my wife it doesn't look like I will get it back any time soon. Now that she can play Bingo Blitz with the touchscreen it looks like I will have to get one of my own! She summed it up to me in two enthusiastic words, "It's Fun!" And here I thought this was a work PC...

I'll keep this short, and just put what I consider relevant. My first computer had a cassette drive, and my first laptop wasn't much more advanced, so I've had a lot of experience with this type of technology.

My opinion of this product is that it's the finest built laptop I've ever handled, with one exception the wi-fi. To be fair, it might be a Windows 8 thing, a driver thing, or a hardware thing, but the wi-fi goes out randomly every hour or two. Disabling the wireless and re-enabling brings it back.

Other than this, and again I don't know it's the laptops fault this is perfect. If you like the feel of a Macbook, but not the price, this will make your day. Aluminum chassis, excellent touchscreen (which brings Windows 8 to life, without it, Windows 8 is garbage), the weight, and the thickness (under an inch) are matched only by the quality feel and operation of the product as a whole.

In short this thing rocks, buy it.

UPDATE: I contacted Asus, and although I can't explain why, their fix worked. Uninstall the wireless adapter from device manager, restart, reinstall, and bam I no longer randomly disconnect. 5/5 now

Update #2: Asus website, and support, insist this product is not sold without bluetooth. The amazon page does not list yes or no for bluetooth. Long and short somehow the system I received from Amazon has no bluetooth. Asus support insists that's defective hardware, as they only sell it with the Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth. They (Asus) gave me an RMA number to ship it back, and they will send me one with Bluetooth correctly functioning. Big hassle and for this I took off a star.

Update #3: So I got my Vivobook back, after only 6 days, which was impressive, with a note which read "This product does not come with Bluetooth"...

That after 2 techs told me (pre-rma) that it did, the specifications page on their website still says it has Integrated Bluetooth 4.0. Removing a star.

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This is one of the cheapest 14" touch screen laptops available (

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Sony VAIO E Series SVE1413BCXP 14-Inch Laptop (Pink)

I bought this machine in a retail store after doing some research and checking different machines. I bought because Sony allow you to swicth to Windows 7 X64 if you want to. In the Sony support website is located all the drivers for Windows 7/8 x64 bits. I like this machine because it is small, fit my backpack,was on budget, it has dvd and usbs which others did not have. It does not weight that much, not light do like a netbook but it wont break you back. The battery really is amazing last almost the 6 hours. It can be on almost the whole day. I was using for hours and did not realize I was not connect to a power source.

The only thing for which I do not give 5 stars is the mouse pad. Here it was where Sony make the saving. The mouse sometimes you do not know where the left and right side begin, kind of annoying at the beginning but after a while you get use to.

It comes with some bottoms that allow you to use hot keys, like the FN key

I love the led keyboard that came with it.

I would improve this review in the future. Let see if it last.http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=SVE1413BCXW&template_id=1®ion_id=1&tab=download#/downloadTab.

I just received this laptop today, and I am blown away at how amazing it truly is. This computer runs very quickly and the keyboard and trackpad are great. I'm not the biggest fan of windows 8, but after playing around with it for a few minutes, you get used to it. This laptop is just the right for a college student or someone who wants another portable computer for everyday use. The backlit keyboard is great if you want to use this computer late at night but don't want to turn on another light in the room to see. Overall, this computer runs smoothly and seems to be great quality for a low price. I would highly, highly recommend this computer for regular tasks!

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On time, New Windows is great, My wife love the pink computer and the new windows. I will sugest you to buy it

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The HD read/write operations are slow, which compromises the performance of the whole computer. Perhaps the computer needs more RAm memory

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This is a very low quality product, it even feels cheep. The track pad is all over the place. You can not stream a video without pauses. I really expected more from SONY. I have returned this product.

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