W510 15.6" 320GB HDD Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I was looking for a laptop with 1080p display and I am happy with my choice. This laptop is a real work horse and yet it stays cool and has good battery life.

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The company I was doing consulting work for bought this laptop for me two years ago at the end of 2010 and it's still going strong. In fact, I checked out the Lenovo website to see if something better was out yet and surprisingly, this laptop is still better than a lot of systems out today. I think it cost about $2,400 when we purchased it because of the various customizations we ordered but it has proven to be well worth it as this laptop has lasted two years and will probably give us another two years before we upgrade.

We did have one issue with the main battery (the 55++ battery) where it started to only hold about 50% of its original charge after about a year. The laptop's battery monitor notified us that it was in "poor health" so we ordered a replacement and it's been fine since then.

I would recommend upgrading to a solid state hard drive because it makes a HUGE difference. Upgrading to 8 GB or RAM would be sufficient for just about everything you'd need to do with this laptop. All in all, this is a great machine and when we finally do upgrade again, it will be to another Lenovo workstation laptop.

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I bought this from Amazon in early May and have used it for over two months now. I have owned VAIO and HP laptops, and the Lenovo outshines them both. This is my second Lenovo. What I like:

comfortable keyboard

great screen

good sound and camera

STURDY it's solid as a truck

fast and reliable

I maxed out the RAM (16Gb), which wasn't very easy to do, but well worth it. My laptop is how I make my living, so productivity is everything for me.

The engineer who swapped the Fn and Ctrl keys in the lower-hand corner should be shamed publicly, but the BIOS key swap resolves that easily.

I ordered the Case Logic sleeve to go with it , and it's a perfect setup.

Honest reviews on W510 15.6" 320GB HDD

With just a few minor annoyances, this is a great laptop. When I set out to find a new laptop, the screen was the most important factor for me, and the screen on this one is spectacular at 1080p. The only issue with it is that text changes color to some degree while dragging windows around. Its default brightness is too bright for normal lighting conditions, but it is just right at 13 of 15.

It also runs very cool compared to my previous Dell laptop (though I guess you expect an XPS to run hot). The trackpad is not as good as the Dell's though. Both support double-click and hold to drag items, but the Lenovo has trouble registering it sometimes. And clicking in general as well as the horizontal/vertical scrolling just worked better on the Dell trackpad. Sound was significantly better on the Dell also.

One minor thing is I keep accidentally hitting the DVD drive eject button. Would be much better if it were on the keyboard panel instead of on the side. They also do not include a Windows installation disc. Your only option is to use their preloaded image on the hard drive or install your own independently purchased copy. Maybe that is the norm for computers these days though.

Overall this is an excellent laptop for the professional user. Aside from the issues I listed, everything else is spectacular as far as professional/business users are concerned. I haven't done a whole lot of gaming with it, but I did try out Starcraft II which played with no problems.

Buy Sony VAIO VPC-EA46FM/W 14.0" Notebook (2.53GHz Intel Core i3-380M

Customer Ratings:

I got this laptop less than two years ago. After less than one year, I was already having problems. When I start the computer, it gets to the home screen, then freezes. I've taken this to several computer repair places, and no one can find the problem. I've put >$400 into trying to repair this problem, when I should have just gotten a new laptop right off the bat. Now, about 6 months ago, the charger stopped working. It has to be at the exact precise spot in order for my computer to charge, and it really is a pain that I can't take it anywhere. I've also had a problem with a few of the keys falling off the keyboard. Now, recently, my right click button on the touchpad has stopped working, and I can't copy/paste or download anything without a wireless mouse. Finally, I've been having trouble downloading files. Overall, this computer is cheap, not worth the $1000 I paid for it, and there are just too many unacceptable problems I've had with it within 2 years. I am getting a new laptop and will never get a Sony again.

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I bought this laptop at BestBuy with the blu ray player included and I can say that is a little bit overpriced due to the 1st generation processor, but I can't complain about performance, the video isn't that great but overall is a nice looking laptop. The power button location might be a pain when holding the laptop in your hands.

Three days after the warranty ended the laptop just went off for no apparent reason, contacted sony and the cheapest way to fix it was dropping about $600.00 to replace a motherboard.

Very disappointed about sony warranty policy, Im gonna stick with dell since they are easier and cheaper to fix,

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this is the worst vaio ever, the fan is very loud never stops running and getting hotter, also dvd player is loud, always needs to be repaired. I hate it, I just wanna put it appart and ship it to sony's CEO, do not buy it.

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Hi I received my laptop with the screen damage the laptop was poorly package and no one seams to want to take responsibility for this Item

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I've had this laptop for a while now. It works very well but occasionally VAIO Gate freezes. Other than that, I'm very happy with it and it's never had any problems!

Dell XPS XPS13-1500sLV 13-Inch Ultrabook Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,210.00
Sale Price: $999.99
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

I am a big fan of Dell laptops and my previous one was the XPS 13 which I like a lot but had issues with it while writing, the cursor will jump to a previous location just like that, and also got the tingling electrical vibration from the keypad while charging it. So I decided to give this one a try. Had problems with it since I got it, the must typical issue with this model seem to nbe the Network card, Dell technicians are very helpful and they do seem know a lot, but the guy they sent to replace the card didn't sseem to knowleable about it. Before changing the network card, it was not reading the network at home or anywhere I went. After changing the card it was better but not perfect, I had to keep loging out and in in order for the darn thing to respond when I click on any icon. After many calls to Dell tech. (Nice guys from India) I had to reset back to the factory settings, reinstalled all the software again and so far so good. Note that not having the DVD drive I had to purchase the external one, It doesn't have HDMI so I purchased an adapter for it. The picture is not as great as the XPS 13, which is beutiful, but it isn't bad. I did purchased the one with 256GB SSD, since I need all the storage space I can have. It does tun on and off very fast, about 5 seconds.

I must admit that my first 12" Dell laptop had been the less problematic one so far. They are not building them like they used to.

Once you fix the network card issues, the laptop works great (at list so far.) Not sure why Dell don't take care of this issue when building them, reading reviews online this looks like a big problem with this model.

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It's not a MacBook Air, but for a windows-based laptop, it does very well. A smidgen under 3 lbs, and with a SSD it's fast to boot. No moving parts means a longer battery life as well. It's a true Ultrabook, so like the Air, there is no optical drive, but with most software and pretty much every driver update you can imagine available online, not having a built-in drive is not an issue. External drives are cheap, assuming you even need one. No ethernet, so you either need a USB/Ethernet dongle, or a docking station such as the Plugable docks with ethernet built in (which I use along with a usb VGA/DVI adapter for multiple monitor support).

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Perfect condition! I love it. XPS 13 is very light and handy. boot so fast. But the screen visual angle is too small.

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Overall this computer is running quite nicely and the battery life is phenomenal, but there are a couple quirks that can be extremely irritating. One is that the touchpad could be a lot better, at times it doesn't do what you tell it to and at others it seems to have a mind of its own. The other quirk is that about once an hour the wifi drops out. It typically reconnects automatically within 10-15 seconds, but if you're in the middle of a download or something it can be really annoying (I plan on contacting Dell about it).

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This is a speedy, tiny, beautiful machine. The only hesitation I had was with Windows 8, which once you turn off the track pad gestures runs beautifully (swiping changes between apps unless you disable gestures). With 8 GB of memory and an Intel i5 quad-core processor, this computer can handle just about any load. Not much unbloating is necessary and just about every productivity program I've run has gone well beyond the benchmarks.

The machine itself is beautiful and solid. Imagine an Apple quality build with a powerful Windows system installed rather than Mac OS. The screen is nice and bright with a flawless glassy design. The keyboard is soft and responsive with a track pad that is easy to customize. The computer is shockingly light and has a beautiful aluminum casing.

Buy Lenovo ThinkPad T430u 33518EU 14' LED Ultrabook - Intel - Core i5

Customer Ratings:

Not too bad for the price. Just 2 USB port, which is inconvenience, and the battery cannot be detach. Good for the price and weight.

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The only thing that i don't like is the little support to free software, such as the brightness control and the bios

Buy Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop (Glossy Brown) Windows 8 Notebook PC

Customer Ratings:

The laptop is very beautiful; the color is subtle. The keyboard is so comfortable to use. The laptop is very lightweight and is very portable ( I attend grad school at night so this is an important factor for me). The battery life is also very good.

I found the Windows 8 operating system to be a lot of fun. I think anyone who is used to using devices with apps will appreciate Windows 8. I was nervous about buying this computer based upon the reviews of Windows 8, but I'm glad I took the chance. There will be a learning curve, but I was able to navigate my home screen, rearrange apps, download apps, etc... within a day or less.

I would recommend this laptop.

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excelente por el precio, aquí en Venezuela funciona muy bien, me llego en perfecto estado, este modelo no lo he encontrado en mi ciudad. hice una buena elección.

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I recommend this laptop for its overall specifications, including weight (mobility), USB3 capabilities, Large RAM, and overall speed. However, it is an entry level model. The chassis is flimsy and made of a generally low grade plastic and does not feel very sturdy in general, although it is not falling apart and has no physical defects out of the box. I got the 2nd Level The system is not a touch screen system (I bought it knowing this that is likely why the 50% discount on retail price), does not come with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled, which is only $35 to $65 US dollars at the time of this posting, and so it is disappointing because this is originally a Windows 7 system that was upgraded by the OEM to Windows 8x, and the processor, although fast and capable of virtualization, is not SLAT compatible and so does not allow for Support of the Microsoft Hypervisor Platform Technology.

It is a 64bit system with dual core 2.40GHz Processor, and 4 GB RAM, and a 300+ GB HDD, and is very light (like 3 lbs or less) with a nice screen size. So as mentioned previously is quick and mobile, but the flimsy chassis give me a little doubt about its durability. Thus, it is a nice system for a Student or a Home User that needs an extra laptop that is easy to carry and capable of running Windows 8 RT and .NET Desktop Applications.

Overall it is a recommendation from me because I still like working primarily on my desktop (I have Windows 8 Phone and Android Tablet for Touch Screen Apps) to do most of my general computing and programming, and because the specs are nice USB3, HDMI, Fast Ethernet Adapter, Broadcom 802.11n Wi-Fi Network Adapter, and other up to date features make this a fast and contemporary system that will be able to run all of the present and near future technologies, and if I don't physically abuse it I don't expect the any issues as a result of the entry level materials used to build the chassis.

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For the price you can't go wrong, yes it does finger print easy get over it it's not a show car. Windows 8 is not a problem if you take some time to navigate around if you don't have time to work through the learning curve go with Windows 7 both are solid operating systems. Only reason I didn't give full 5 stars is the track pad is a bit wide and my palms tend to touch sending pointer wild this will become less of a problem the more I use the notebook. Other reason is I haven't yet put the machine through a true and thorough ringer of daily use so far I don't see any glaring flaws.

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love it so far, as promised in the description. will keep using lenovo product, i have not been dissapointed yet by them

Review of Dell XPS 13 XPS13R2-1050sLV 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Anodized

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,359.99
Sale Price: $1,096.94
Today's Bonus: 19% Off

This seems to be a fine laptop, I've been traveling with it for a couple of months now. It seems a bit finicky with internet (WIFI) connections, but that may just be due to the quality of available connections. However, the track pad is just awful. Sometimes when I don't even touch the touch pad, the mouse pointer jumps around. I don't like the feel of the pad surface, and it's not smooth so it's hard for me to make subtle gestures consistently. I've turned off all the bells and whistles (i.e., two finger gestures) and turned down sensitivity in the hopes it will respond only to deliberate touches on the pad, but it's still overly finicky sometimes and not very responsive other times. I had heard about this problem before buying, and usually use a mouse anyway, but it's still a problem.

The keyboard is a bit stiff for me. I've had many Dells and, in this size category, Dell has done better with both the keyboard and the touch pad.

The startup speed is awesome.

Win8 is a mess...right in line with the usual in-between operating systems (Win ME, Vista, etc.) that Microsoft puts out in alternating cycles. I expect the next OS will be great. There may be benefits 'under the hood' in terms of speed and security, so I'm keeping W8, but I have installed third party software to suppress the Win8 experience, and that's acceptable, but still a step back from Win7 usability.

Overall, I like the laptop for what it does well and tolerate it for what it doesn't.

For the price, I rate it 3. In terms of functionality and performacne, I would rate it a 4. I can't get to five based on the horrible touch pad. The Win8 issue is not Dell's fault.

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I bought mine directly from Dell. Here are the pros--It is extremely light and compact with a large screen for its size. It feels almost like an ipad (which I have) in weight. The carbon fiber back really helps and gives it a bit of a grip on your lap. It also doesn't burn your thighs like a traditional laptop. The USB ports make this a living breathing computer and with windows installed I find myself reaching for this more than my ipad. Then again, I spend most of my time making word documents, powerpoints, spreadsheets, and stats rather than surfing the web and checking email. Although small, the chicklet keypad isn't cramped and feels smooth under your fingers.

The cons: The TN display isn't great. I prefer wider viewing angles than this. I use mine plugged in and the power cord doesn't click into the computer. Mine has a bad habit of falling out if I twitch just a little and then you end up draining your battery and not knowing it. Dell should have thought this through a bit more. An SD card port would have been nice, but that's easy enough to fix with a couple of USB ports. The mouse pad is horrible--I mean terrible. It jumps around whether you touch it or not. The keyboard feels great and the fact that it lights up is another plus, but the space bar sticks and so do several other keys. I expect that after five years of pounding on a computer. I don't expect it when it is brand new. Between the cord issues, the poor tracking on the pad, and the sticky keys, I expect better especially given what I paid for it.

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Product is sleek as others have said. During the first year of use (6-11 mo range) when it was still under warranty I started having mouse pad issues as described by P. Benda below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AMYE1DKY75BRA/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

Dell support, install of fixing it right away started playing delay tactics restoring system to factory settings, updating driver that I've already updated, and many many more for months until the one year warranty expired. Right after that, they told me "sorry, product is no longer under warranty. Would you like to buy/extend your warranty?" YES!

The mouse problem has gotten worse. Flickers so often, repeatedly that the system is essentially useless. At the moment the system will not allow me update ANY of the .NET frameworks which means i cant install any OEM software that I bought (Office 20xx, adobe acrobat, etc). PLEASE let the time I spent writing this be worth something. Don't buy this product!!

Pros: sleek, light weight

Cons: mouse/trackpad makes the system useless after close to a year, USB ports stop working after a year, software install issues. Zero support from dell.

For the money you pay for, this product deserves a 0.5 star

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Incredible laptop. I nuked the OS when I received it and installed Linux Mint and have not one bad thing to say about it. It's incredibly fast, light and durable. It feels very well made yet has some features I wish Apple would consider for their own laptops. For instance, I love aluminum cased laptops, but better for heat dissipation, looks great and durability. However when working with an all aluminum laptop it can get VERY hot and tends to be a bit slippery if on your clothed lap. This XPS is designed perfectly with a textured rubber of sorts on the bottom so it doesn't slide yet maintains the aluminum cover and frame.

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We ordered several of these for my job and everyone loves them, they are great speedy laptops, weight almost nothing and haven't had a single issue in 3 months of ownership.

i would easily recommend this laptop to anyone.

Discount Toshiba Satellite® L655-S5083 15.6" widescreen Laptop

Customer Ratings:

Purchased in 2010,used since then NO PROBLEMS! I use it for minor ms office works, rhapsody, amazon prime, hulu and (until recently) netflix video watching. Again, no problems at all. Just changed the battery for new one, but that I consider to be like breaks in a car maintain and preserve.

I had a poor expereince with Dell before (tried twice) and have had a good experience with Acer (my other pc). Both were inexpensive, both work just fine. Fine in my book is 5/5, god bless toshiba for making my life free of drama and forced calls to India, or other wonderful country of limited interest to me.

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Bought this for my niece, who is off to college, so far she loves it. The only thing we are concerned about is the charging input getting loose or breaking. That seems to be a problem with this brand

Cheap Dell Latitude 6430U 469-3885 14 LED Ultrabook Intel Core i5-3427U

Customer Ratings:

I use this object at work. It does whatever it wants to do. If you try to scroll, it will independently highlight everything on the screen and will not function until you are able to cancel the highlighting, which usually requires multiple efforts. If, when working in a document, you linger too long on any part of your page, it will relocate the cursor to that area without warning. If you hover anywhere on a web page, it will leave the page you're on and go to whatever link is nearby. Frequently little menu screens pop up, completely unbidden, asking if you want to go back or copy a shortcut, etc., and you cannot get rid of the little screens or move forward with your work until they are gone sometimes requiring you to reboot the computer. I have seldom worked with anything as frustrating as this machine is. I dread the days at work when I can't get the desktop and instead am relegated to using this oppositional device. And are you kidding me eleven hundred dollars? You can get a decent laptop for half that. This is a classic example of a machine devised for the workplace, where limitless corporate dollars buy something that a regular Joe would just get at Sam's only the one from Sam's would work and you could get two of them with the same amount of money. Really this thing costs more than my Mac laptop? I'm just stunned. It's awful.

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Small, light and powerful. Have only had them for a few months now but so far so good. There you go.

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This was an excellent choice between a full laptop and tablet. Great look and feel along with a quality case which wasn't make of cheap plastic.

Cheap Dell Inspiron 15R i15RN 5297BK 15-Inch Laptop i7 2670QM 6GB RAM

Customer Ratings:

This is great budget gaming laptop as the reviewer before me mentioned For the money it can't be beat I got mine off of Ebayy for $389 Although the laptop states it may only support 8GB I think it can do 16GB, but do not know for sure -

For $32 I put in a Blu Ray Drive and had a spare Seagate Momentus XT 500GB (with 4GB Flash and 7200rpm, super fast). Honestly, really good looking laptop I have it connected to Samsung 24" LED The only con is it has just 3 USB ports but HDMI is very cool along with the ESATA Port Really love it and it' great looking!

I game on WIFI and it is very capable on COD MW3go get one!

Updated*** Well, about 2 weeks ago I just upgraded the memory to 16GB on this thing I am wondering if down the road, whether or not the system can do 32GB anyway, just a great laptop someone did ask me regarding the blu ray upgrade I did my homework and found a samsung blu ray drive on ebayy, but I did tell them that you need blu ray software like power DVD 12 or something like that Power DVD is what I use it's worth $20 or $30 bucks I spent on it This laptop is pretty much like a little beastie now! 16GB Ram ($65), 500GB Seagate Momentus XT Drive with 4 gig Nand SSD and 7200rpm (I had this HD drive for about 2 years lying around cost about $70 my Dell now boots up in under 22 secs) + Samsung BluRay ($32) wow and installed win 7 pro 64bit (no cost my version) it's like a $1700 laptop The Used Mac equivlant is about $1700 except no blu-ray... and of course Paid $389 off of ebayy that includes shipping!!! tada....... by the way the NVidia Card is very close to a AMD/ATI HD67xx series cards a while back ago I had an HP with a HD6750 great card The GT525M just as good if not better Handles all my games and the supports 1080p out through HDMI Love it!!!

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This laptop is worth every penny! I bought it back in May and have had NO issues since! The laptop is PERFECT for a budget gaming laptop. With its dedicated graphics card, it did just as well as my gaming desktop does with it's ATI Radeon HD 6870 Card (The laptop itself has a Nvidia GeForce GT 525M). I absolutely love this thing. If you are looking for a laptop around this price range, this is THE laptop to get!

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I had to completely disassemble the laptop just to get to the hard Drive to swap it with a SSD. The Hard Drive was buried under the motherboard. The internal design is awful! Whats worse, I damaged the keyboard trying to take this laptop apart. Then later after putting it back together I realized Dell didn't send a Windows 7 restore disk with the laptop. I will never buy a Dell laptop again! I would not recommend this laptop to anyone who would want to upgrade it in the future.

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I like it, took a while to arrive, but it did in certain periods, expected to have less wear marks, but otherwise everything is fine, I'm very satisfied

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Good presentation, It came in its box with all the protection.

I haven't used it for work yet, just for watch movies and internet and this is what I have found so far..

I have to clean up the surface regularly because all the grease from my hands remains on it

Once time I turned it on and it showed some kind of win7 safe mode screen, it said something like a file was missing.. I just rebooted and it did not showed it again so far..

I use bsplayer to watch movies with subtitles files and from time to time the software crashes..

I found the speed of transfer data from the dvd unit or from a usb unit, a little slow.. perhaps its just an impression but I bothers me.

I think these problems are related with the OS and perhaps if I make a clean new install, or just use another OS these details would disappear.

One more thing: When I am in a very quiet room I can hear the reading/writing sound from the HD, its not a problem for me though.

I gave it 4 stars because I think its a good machine but perhaps win7 its not so stable on it..

Buy Sony VAIO VPC-SA21GX/BI Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

I should start by saying that I am a frequent and finicky laptop user. I often scope out good deals online, buy the computer and try it for a month or two, and then resell it on eBay---ideally for what I originally paid. That said, over the past twelve months, I have used the following laptops extensively: the 13" Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo), the Lenovo X201, the Sony Vaio Z (first generation Core i5), the HP Elitebook 2540p, the Toshiba R835, the 11.6" Core i5 Macbook Air, and now this.

After having used the R835 for a few months and enjoyed its performance and portability, I nonetheless realized that I missed two things: (1) a backlit keyboard and (2) a higher resolution display. So, when I came across a deal on this model, I decided to jump on it. Between promotions and student discounts, I was able to snag a VPCSA, with the sheet battery, for just under a grand. Now that I have used it for a few weeks, I have to say that I am really pleased.

Overall, I would say that the build quality is pretty good. I really like the magnesium chassis; it is really light-weight (I think like 3.5 pounds) and seems durable. The brushed finish also means that it's not a fingerprint magnet. While I do think that the barrel hinge on the screen is kind of strange (it's somewhat "springy"---you may have to check one out in the flesh to see what I mean), I concede that I haven't really had any problems with it. The typing experience is fantastic too, just like the Vaio Z, and the backlit keyboard is perfect for working in low lit conditions. There are also ample ports---including USB 3.0---to hook up accessories and external monitors, and memory cards fit flush in the computer's body. (A lack of ports and protruding SD cards were two of my biggest gripes with the MacBook Air.)

Though I generally use a wireless mouse, I also find the large trackpad adequate. It's certainly not as nice as a Mac's (none are), but it is generously sized. Moreover, the native drivers support two-finger swiping, and with a third-party add-on for two-finger right clicks, I hardly miss Apple's click pad.

With a Core i5 (2410M) processor, performance is also good. I have no problems running several media and office applications at once. The unit comes with 4GB of RAM soldered onto the motherboard, so you can upgrade to 8GB with just one 4GB chip. I found this nice. Also, unlike the Macbook Air and Vaio Z, users can easily replace the hard drive. (I really worried about this on those two models, as I have had hard drive failures in the past, and I think if you have a proprietary, non-user-accessible hard drive, it may be a really expensive repair.) Anyway, I was able to drop in a 128 GB SSD in about 5 minutes, and have been all the more impressed by the performance.

I am also pretty happy with the screen. The 1600 x 900 resolution is really handy, particularly if you want to have two windows (say a text editor and a web browser) open side-by-side. As a result, I find myself resorting to an external monitor less frequently. I have read complaints that the screen isn't as nice as that of the Vaio Z. Frankly, I don't recall, and I guess viewing angles aren't spectacular, but I'm generally the only person using the computer, so I can move the LCD as necessary. One thing I really do appreciate, however, is the matte finish. I am typing this review with the sun setting over my shoulder, and I have absolutely no problem reading the screen. Bravo, Sony.

Other merits for this unit include its optical drive, and dedicated graphics card (both lacking on the newest Vaio Z and the Macbook Air). To be honest, I haven't used the Radeon graphics too much; Intel's integrated chip does just fine streaming HD video. Still, gamers especially might appreciate the added horsepower. Similarly, I haven't used the DVD drive a lot, except to perform a clean install of Windows 7. Nonetheless, users can apparently replace the DVD drive with a Blu-Ray drive or a second hard drive. I may install a Blu-Ray drive later on if physical media still exists in the next few years . . . .

As far as gripes with the machine, I have found them few and far between. As I mentioned earlier, the screen hinge seems a little flimsy at first, but I have had few problems with it in normal use. My other complaint is that the power brick is a little chunky. After having had the Macbook, X201, and R835, I really liked the light-weight, two-pronged power adapters. This unit has Sony's standard, three-pronged adapter. While not hefty, I think it could be smaller, which is apparently the case: Sony actually sells a separate "slim line" adapter for $100. Why they can't just make the normal adapter more svelte is beyond me. Finally, battery life, while okay, isn't as long as that of other units I've used. Under standard typing and browsing use, I get about five hours from a full charge. I haven't tried the sheet battery yet because I really am not ever away from an outlet that long. Still, I think it would be nice to know that, were I to take a long flight or car trip, I could count on 8+ hours of use, like with the Macbook or the Lenovo.

Needless to say, my quibbles aside, I am very satisfied with this product. I think it has good performance and several premium amenities, all for a reasonable price. So, unless some miracle computer comes down the pipeline in the next few months, I may hang on to my Vaio SA for longer than usual.

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Pros: Small, light, Great resolution screen, nice back-lit keyboard, has a nice build quality feel, great performance, awesome battery life (even more amazing with the additional sheet battery!). I also really like the manual switch to go from integrated to dedicated graphics.

Cons:

Speakers NEED tweaking within the sound settings. Once you get them setup, they are much better. Although, they could be better.

Webcam......not the best...

Thought the fan was a little annoying/loud at first (while installing all my programs, updates exc.) But it seems to be just fine now. You can always lower the max CPU frequency settings in the Power Options to keep your temps down while loading the CPU. This will always keep the fan nice and quite.

Other:

I have an i7-970 6-core desktop for all my photo editing. I mainly use CS5 and Lightroom 3. This is a great little laptop for doing editing with these programs while on the road. Beats carrying my big ole 17 inch laptop around! :)

Ya, I could have bought a 15-17 inch laptop with the same or better performance for the same price or even less, but I am really digging the 13 inch form factor!

Overall, I am very happy with the purchase.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VPC-SA21GX/BI Laptop (Black)

I'm a grad student and a gamer. I normally use desktop replacement size laptops, but after lugging those heavy things around for a few years I was due for a change. After searching for awhile, this seemed to be one of the best deals available. It appeared to be a highly portable machine that I could take notes and write papers on, and that could play most games using mid-level graphics. The machine lived up to the hype, and I'm completely satisfied with it. I have the black version, and I get compliments on the looks all the time. It's really light for a machine with an optical drive, discrete graphics card, and upgradable ram. The battery life is pretty good too. I haven't done a precise measure of the battery life, but it suffices to say that i can go the entire school day in stamina mode without a charge. I added an SSD and upgraded the ram to 8gb. I can play WoW, SCII, Dragon Age II, and Mass Effect 2 all on high settings on a laptop that weighs roughly 3.5 pounds.

Some of the reviews on here are a bit misleading. The computer really is not that loud. At least it's not louder than any full-sized laptop that I've owned. Moreover, you can always switch to stamina mode which pretty much eliminates any irritating fan noise. One reviewer complained about the size of the power brick. I have no idea what he/she was talking about. The cord is thin and the brick is about the size of my palm. The bloatware wasn't too bad either. My only complaint is that the comp doesn't come with an SSD. There are true ultraportables close to this price range that come with a SSD, but just about none of them come with discrete graphics. If you don't care about the discrete graphics, you may do better going with another option.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VPC-SA21GX/BI Laptop (Black)

I don't know what the other reviewer was talking about, but I have this laptop (though I didn't buy it through Amazon.com). The Home, Pg Up, Pg Dn, and End keys are right below the shift key on the right hand side of the laptop, but you do have to use the FN key. The Backspace, Enter and Shift keys are a bit bigger, but it doesn't keep the laptop from functioning or anything like that.

My only 2 complaints would be the hinge that connects the screen to the rest of the laptop feels a bit flimsy. With this new series, it seems Sony is really trying to be thin & light, so maybe that's why. Sony also does a disservice to their customers by including a 5400rpm HDD!!! Are they for real!?!? In order to get a SSD, you'll have to pay another hundred or so and the price of this laptop is already way too high as is!!!

Those facts aside, I like the laptop enough to keep it for now. It's thin, light and has a built-in HD camera, VAIO, WEB and ASSIST buttons, one (1) 3.0 USB port, 4GB Fixed Onboard + 1 Open Slot (DDR3-SDRAM-1333), backlit keyboard, and a DVD drive along w/ a fingerprint reader (whew!) so I'm pretty satisfied. Most likely I'll turn around and buy a SSD on ebay.

For more info see: [ ... ]

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It's actually a great laptop. Yet the fan could really become as noisy as a jet engine sometimes, even when the computer is not set on speed.

Buy Dell I1545-3232OBK Pentium Dual-Core T4500 2.3GHz 2GB 250GB DVD±RW

Customer Ratings:

Does everything ok but in the first year, hard drive died and fought to get it replaced.

But worsethe cheap top lid /plastic cover cracked at the hinges and it won't stay open and the crack gets progressively worse, making it unusable. Apparently this is a known defect with this model do a search and you'll find all sorts of user boards with complaints.

The 'net is full of ads for replacement parts ( another giveaway of a known problem) The replacement lid cover is $49 and the front bezel around the screen another $30. Plus labor to install.

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I ordered the above laptaop from Amazon and received from Ecom Electronics. This product did not have an I.D. number and I did not receive a certificate of authenticity with the 25 digit number. I was concerned that I did not receive a new laptop and was also unable to complete the set up procedure. I called Ecom Electronics and was referred to Dell to solve the problem. This afternoon I received another call Ecom Electronics assuring me that I did receive a new laptop and he was also checking with me to be sure that the problem was solved and was offering to assist further if needed. All is well and I would recommend this company.

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I bought my first DELL laptop a few months before this one.The first 1 needed a motherboard so the technician advised that its better to purchase another one so i did only to realize that i had to get a new battery within a few months. Its rather heavy to travel with and the speakers play very low. I would definitely not recommend this for music lovers

Honest reviews on Dell I1545-3232OBK Pentium Dual-Core T4500 2.3GHz 2GB 250GB DVD±RW

DO NOT BUY DELL PRODUCTS. They have horrible customer service. They lie to you, you spend countless hours on the phone with them not getting any results, you talk to people who barely speak English. DO NOT BUY DELL PRODUCTS.

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I have had this computer for 1 year 3 months. I just bought another one. Toshiba.

I am hard on my computer, but I do not think that hard. Battery life was horrible and expensive. Do your homework before choosing your next computer.

Review of HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3"

Customer Ratings:

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Once you remove all of the bloatware and unnecessary HP apps, and adjust Windows 8 settings to your liking, this laptop is quite fast and enjoyable to use. But it takes a while to get there.

**Update 8-15-13: I decided to change my rating from 4 to 5 stars because I have enjoyed this laptop so much over the past 9 months.**

===== First, the hardware: =====

Fast boot and resume times, especially after making the software tweaks mentioned below. Windows 8 boots quickly, and after you close the lid and reopen it to resume, it is ready in about 2-3 seconds.

The laptop is a bit on the heavy side, but feels and looks well-built.

The Beats Audio sound is great, as most Beats Audio sound devices are.

The screen is bright and beautiful.

The keys are comfortable, and the configurable multi-touch touchpad works well.

The touchpad recognizes the following multi-touch swipe patterns: two finger scrolling, pinch zoom, rotating, three finger press, three finger flick, and four finger flick.

The function keys also operate things like the brightness, volume, media operation, and turning wi-fi on and off to help conserve battery life.

There are no built-in Bluetooth capabilities. An inexpensive USB Bluetooth dongle fixes the problem, but it would have been nice to have Bluetooth included.

The camera works well, even in low-light.

===== Next, the software: =====

I am not going to include my opinion of Windows 8 as part of the rating on this laptop. I am not a huge fan of Windows 8 on non-touch devices, but when you add a piece of software like the free, open-source program "Classic Shell" that adds back the old start menu as well as the ability to boot directly to the desktop, it makes things a lot more enjoyable.

This laptop comes loaded with lots of games and applications you may not want to use, and there is no option to include or exclude any of these applications from your installation when you first boot up. Here is the list of pre-installed apps and links to online services:

Norton Internet Security 2012 (60-day trial); Windows Live; Beats Audio; Cyberlink Power2Go; CyberLink PowerDVD; CyberLink YouCam DE; eBay; HP CoolSense; HP Games by WildTangent; HP MyRoom; HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection (HP 3D DriveGuard); HP Recovery Manager; HP Support Assistant; Netflix; Skype; Amazon Kindle e-reader; iHeart Radio; HP Connected Photo powered by Snapfish; Solitaire; Mahjong; HP Connected Backup; CyberLink Power Director; CyberLink Photo Director; Windows 8 Store Apps; HP Online User Guide; HP Registration; HP Connected Music powered by Meridia

There is no Microsoft Office license included. I recommend the free alternatives "Open Office" or "LibreOffice".

The first thing I did when I booted this laptop was uninstall the HP-branded version of Norton Internet Security trial, as I already have my own license for it. I installed the regular version and turned off the smart firewall feature so I had full control over every application that wanted to connect to the internet. I was shocked at just how many different HP programs are installed and run at startup and try and connect to various websites for whatever reason. I am sure some of them were just checking for updates, but there were way too many different programs trying to connect to too many different servers for my tastes. This is a major pet peeve of mine. I immediately evaluated which HP apps I absolutely needed (almost none of them) and uninstalled the rest.

I also noticed some other pre-installed apps running at startup, like some of the Cyberlink apps, so I disabled those as well. There were also some HP and other third-party Windows services running that I disabled. After uninstalling and disabling all of the unnecessary apps, the laptop ran much faster and smoother. And as I mentioned earlier, boot and resume times are very fast. The only exception to the nice speed is the opening of Metro apps, but it is not necessarily the fault of this laptop. I have seen many complaints online about Metro apps loading slowly.

The screen brightness was constantly automatically adjusting, making for a horrible experience. I investigated the power options and noticed a setting for "Adaptive Brightness" so I turned that off, but the screen was still constantly changing brightness. I eventually found a way to disable this. Right-click on the desktop, select the AMD Vision Engine Control Center. Go to POWER > POWER PLAY and disable VARI-BRIGHT.

TIP: To possibly improve the WiFi's range and/or performance, especially when running on battery, see my post on page 4 of the comments under my review.

===== Benchmark: =====

If you would like to run the freeware benchmarking program NovaBench on one of your current computers and compare it to this one, here are my average results after I made the changes mentioned above.

Total NovaBench score: 557

5603 MB System RAM (Score: 139)

RAM Speed: 5142 MB/s

CPU Tests (Score: 230)

Floating Point Operations/Second: 62790020

Integer Operations/Second: 174282404

MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 536782

Graphics Tests (Score: 150)

3D Frames Per Second: 454

Hardware Tests (Score: 38)

Primary Partition Capacity: 672 GB

Drive Write Speed: 71 MB/s

===== Windows Experience Score: =====

Here are my scores from the System Control Panel:

Calculations per second: 6.7

Memory: 7.2

Graphics: 6.8

Gaming graphics: 6.8

Primary hard disk and base score: 5.9

===== Summary: =====

I am quite happy with this laptop's looks and performance, but I had to deduct one star because of how many applications were pre-installed and pre-configured to run on startup, and because of how many of these programs try and connect to the Internet before I even open any of them.

If I can answer any specific questions for you, please ask.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Over the years laptops have become lighter faster and thinner. This HP Envy DV7 is no exception. At first glance, you will be impressed by it's sheer size. It seems that laptops that were 17 inches in the past weighed 13 pounds or more. This device is half that weight.

This Hewlett-Packard has a full-sized keyboard for laptop. It also sports a separate numeric keypad so that you can input numbers more easily. The separate numeric keypad is something often found in larger keyboards and comes in handy if you are a person who crunches numbers or enjoys a calculator type of feel.

With its brushed aluminum exterior it has a beautiful aesthetic look. The cover of the laptop seems to be impervious to fingerprints which is a good thing. The laptop is completely black with a lighted HP logo and silver accents. Instead of a slot loading optical drive it has a tray DVD drive which is more typical of PC's. This HP Envy came pre-loaded with Windows 8 and this is a learning process in and of itself. The laptop is loaded with Beats audio and this provides a fantastic audio experience for playing music on CDs or watching DVDs on the computer. With a 17 inch screen the experience is phenomenal.

Using cool sense technology, the HP Envy is able to stay very cool despite running lots of programs and media. With its whisper quiet operation it's difficult to discern that it is even running at times. A new machine always runs more quietly ... dust and age can make them turn a little grumpier and louder. Time will tell how quiet it keeps.

The Beats Audio and DVD playback is to die for. If you are looking for a great, affordable multimedia laptop that allows you to consume media as well as create it, you can have a nice experience with this. Since this is a slightly lower end model (as far as optical drives go) it does not have Blu-Ray built into the player. If that is a big feature for you, you will have to upgrade to another model.

The laptop boasts 6 gigs of RAM and this is a decent amount for some multimedia and gaming applications.

Biometrics are incorporated into this laptop if you choose to use them this means your fingerprint or finger swipe serves to provide login information. It's called HP SimplePass and it's easy to set up and use. Having used finger swiping technology in the past ... I almost invariably go back to the old fashioned way of authenticating via password. Old habits die hard!

I love this sleek laptop. 17" machines have come a long way over the years and things are faster, lighter and a heck of a lot cheaper.

Right now I am using Windows 8 (the Vanilla version not the Pro) and I like it. That will be another review in and of itself.

The laptop has a nice configuration of various ports (including an HDMI) and the incorporation of 3 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port amidst the typical LAN and SD card ports.

The touchpad more resembled a Mac touchpad and can be used with multi-touch gestures that are straightforward once you know them.

Overall, this is a great, economical and powerful 17" laptop. The Fit and Finish is surprisingly nice and solid. A laptop that definitely rivals more expensive Windows laptops.

I am impressed!

Updated 23 November 2012 this laptop comes with 6GB of Ram (not 2GB) like part of the description mentions.

Update 21 December 2012 the picture depicted on the Amazon site shows an optical drive with a BluRay symbol on it. My version of this laptop DOES NOT have this logo and DOES NOT play BluRay discs.

Best Deals for HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3"

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program HP has made desktop mobility a reality with its Envy dv7 laptop. Forget about choosing between a PC and a tablet the Envy lets you to do it all!

Like a tablet, the Envy is lightweight and unlike laptops of old, the machine runs cool and whisper-quiet. The Envy comes loaded with Windows 8 whose bold new startup screen emulates the look-and-feel of tablet-style computing. (Amazon readers note: among the many preloaded music, social networking, photo and other apps is a nifty Kindle app that allows you to read content you may have purchased through Amazon on the laptop.) Although the Envy does not have a touchscreen, HP has ingeniously engineered the touchpad to replicate the controls you might be accustomed to using on a tablet including scrolling, pinching/zooming, swipe, and so on. I found the help videos useful and got the hang of using the touchpad in short order. No doubt people comfortable with using smart phones and tablets will enjoy using the laptop with this input.

Like a desktop, the Envy has a decent-sized, high-resolution screen and keyboard including a number keypad. The Envy has quality web cams, microphones and speakers; as well as a fingerprint reader that can be used for secure access both at the login prompt and when accessing web services. Most importantly, with 6 gigabytes of RAM the Envy can power most of today's memory-intensive applications such as graphics and office programs; for example, I easily installed a copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2010 and successfully ran the software without a hitch. Select the desktop icon from the Windows 8 start screen to get the old school look-and-feel of prior versions of Windows. And of course, the Envy has lots of inputs for connecting peripherals such as larger monitors, keyboards, mouse, external hard drive, printers and etc. for those who prefer to dock the machine when at home.

In my opinon, the Envy represents a breakthrough for the many business people, students and others for whom mobility and power are both important. You can't run serious applications with a tablet and you can't have portability with a PC but you can easily do both with the Envy. To everyone who might be seriously considering a tablet, desktop or laptop: I urge you to give the HP Envy dv-7 a serious look!

Honest reviews on HP Envy DV7-7230US AMD A8-4500M X4 1.9GHz 6GB 750GB DVD+/-RW 17.3"

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Bottom line up front: The Windows 8 start screen is not truly integrated with the desktop. My laptop arrived with no product key for Windows 8. There is no software disk, and it is not affixed to the outside of the laptop, nor stored in a file on the hard drive.

The display, graphics, and sound are marvelous. Better than any I've seen or heard. I did play a game from the app store and was very impressed.

Speaking of the app store, as one might expect, at this time the selection of apps is limited. Windows 8 is brand new, after all. Some apps are impressive, others aren't worth having.

I already own a HP Pavilion dv6 laptop, and I love it except for one thing: the touchpad. It is extremely sensitive, and flush with the area below the keyboard. On the dv6, I've disabled the touchpad because every time I use the keyboard, I brush the touchpad with an arm or finger, and my input is interrupted. Disabling the touchpad on the dv6 was a good workaround. I simply use a mouse instead of the touchpad.

Unfortunately, this is a poor workaround for the Envy 7230-us. Navigating the start screen with a mouse is difficult, at best. None of the apps have a back button, and the app screens fill the entire screen. To get out of an app, one must use either the Windows button on the keyboard, or hover the mouse in the general area of the charms and bring them forward in oroder to click on the start charm. For three weeks, I've tried to work out simple workarounds that make the interface less clunky to use to no avail.

I own Office 2010 Professional, and loaded it on this machine. I assumed if I pinned the icons to the start screen, they would behave as apps, and they almost do. Microsoft does not put them on the desktop. They are on the start screen, and you can start them there. But once you open one, you are on the desktop. If you want to use another piece of software, you have to press the Windows button to get back to the start screen.

If you're planning to purchase a laptop primarily for gaming, streaming video, and/or gaming, you'll be delighted. But if you want to use it to create or edit your own files and photos, you'll find the start screen is a chronic obstacle.

And with no product key, if this happens to you, you won't be able to purchase upgraded version of Windows 8 at discount prices.

I got this laptop free from Vine. I thought I'd be delighted. After all, thought it's reasonably priced, it isn't a cheap item. It's something I'd shop around for. Personally, I don't like it and I'm glad I didn't pay for it. But because of the speakers and graphics, instead of two stars, I rate it three.

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okay , I purchased this laptop for my wife to replace an aging DELL that was starting to lose the harddrive . I"ve purchased Dell laptops and desktops for years but also would buy HP peripherals . The price point for this was right so I pulled the trigger . I am so far very pleased with the pc itself . I like the layout , audio , the screen is bright an clear and once you get it up and running it does a fast job . NOW windows 8 ..... not so much . I find it a bit clumsy and hard to navigate . If you use to touchpad it has a tendency to switch screens and pull up tools and aggrivate the hell out of me , BUT , if you use a mouse it is a lot friendler OS . As with anything new it takes time to learn it ( it's going to take me longer because I can never be mistaken for a pc nerd ) so time will tell . hope this helps GOD bless

Reviews of Acer Aspire 4810TZ-4011 Timeline 14.0-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I have been using the Acer Timeline (14 inch, Aspire 4810TZ-4011) since yesterday evening and so far so good. Here are my first impressions:

1. The delivery was quick and packaging was good.

2. The looks of the laptop are fantastic. Love the isolation-type keyboard. The screen hinges could have been more solid but for a lightweight machine appear ok.

3. The eject button for the CD, various ports, the card reader, are all very suitably positioned.

4. The colours of the screen are beautiful. There are setup options to adjust those to taste, but I did not need to use them.

5. The laptop was easy to set up. I loaded the battery for about an hour before starting, perhaps an overkill, and was rewarded with a blue light coming from beneath the touchpad.

6. Setting up Vista for the first time was much quicker than my last XP setup on a netbook. Feels natural so far.

7. Soon after startup I was prompted to create recovery disks, and made two DVDs with the system and one with software.

8. There is (was) a lot of preloaded software. I spent a good deal of time finding out what it does (on Google) and cleaning most of it up.

9. People who have complained from performance issues maybe should take care to remove the redundant backup software (two or three of those pre-installed?!), the trial antivirus and other FUD nonsense.

10. I registerted for a FREE copy of Windows 7 for Timeline owners, to be shipped in October (woot!).

11. Set up Skype (after combating for a while with the firewall settings of Vista), and made a call -the sound is good, the mic is well positioned, the camera works fine, even better after peeling off the protective plastic sheet :)

12. Tested a youtube video in HD and it did not play smooth, which was a disappointment.

Comparing this to my 4y old FS, the Acer Timeline feels about as solid, a lot more silent, cooler, lighter by more than 2 pounds, with 6 times the RAM, 4 times the battery time, and a newer processor -clearly an upgrade in every aspect.

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I have had my Acer Aspire 4810TZ for all of three days now, and am quite happy with it. Some observations:

The keys are spaced very well for me ... the keyboard has an excellent feel. The glossy black finish is a bit unfortunate, as they instantly show smudging. The trackpad mouse button does indeed require Thumb of Steel, but nicely accomodates leftand right-clicking without being separated into two buttons.

I'm amazed at how happy I am with the screen. I don't like the glassy displays, but as long as the backlighting is intense, it can be used in fairly bright light. That's the case with this screen. The resolution is very crisp. I have not had any need or desire to adjust the color settings.

Speakers are not great in terms of volume, but I just can't imagine docking a review for that quibble. The laptop is thin and light get some headphones!

The battery life is phenomenal, as advertised; the first time I've ever had a laptop that performed within 50% of the advertised battery life.

The CPU is probably a little underpowered for Vista, but not terribly so. I'm sure that I will be happier with Windows 7 when it comes out.

Now for Linux. I shrunk the Vista partition down drastically using GParted from an Ubuntu 9.04 live CD. After that was done and I rebooted, Vista determined that something was wrong and launched a repair process that took a very long time to complete (2 hours+). It then came up into Vista and I have had no problems with it.

I formatted most of the freed space to give over to Ubuntu. I was completely floored by how much worked immediately: sound, wireless, keyboard control of volume, webcam, USB ... wow. After upgrading to a slightly newer Linux kernel (2.6.30), wireless now comes up correctly after being suspended, and keyboard control of screen brightness works. I can't think of anything that doesn't work other than multitouch gestures on the touchpad. Battery life seems to be as good as when running Windows. Speed for the tools of my trade is great when running Linux: emacs, X windows, SSH, Firefox and Flash.

Unlike a previous reviewer, I am in no sense a "casual" user; I do software development and am always a power user of software. But not a gamer or graphics guy who needs PhotoShop. I tend to view my laptop as a window to development servers using X and SSH, and a window to the Web using a browser. For those uses, this little laptop is entirely capable. So both the casual and the geeky can find happiness with the Acer 4810.

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I have owned it for 10 days now.

Just noticed !!! the DVD burner does NOT Burn DVDs... I did a full system recovery, and nope...just can't !!! I would leave three stars if I could change my rating because Acer warranty helpline is toll free, easily reachable and extremely courteous. I have yet to see if international warranty is worth something cause I took it back to France or do I have to mail it in the US...I got a lemon, it happens.

Let's forget this unusual defect, and focus on the rest

The positives :

I like the keyboard a lot (flat keys, well spaced, shiny surface...yes, fingerprints stay, and stays cool)

very silent fan

very bright screen with the led backlight, no prob to work outdoors

computer top, and screen don't get hot at all

two finger operations on the touchpad (zoom in and out with two fingers, keep scrolling with circular motion, backward and forward with right and left swipe)

neat design (overall), looks smart, feels sturdy

audio jack connections on the side

nice specs (320 gb of hd, 3gb ddr3)

great battery life

fast enough

stable system

audio digital output

hdmi and vga video output

it did reboot once on its own (crashed) when fast forwarding a video on vlc, but I cannot make it happen again, I believe it has been fixed by the windows updates (anyway, this would be a vista issue that would get solved by windows 7 upgrade, or did already get solved buy the automatic updates)

free upgrade to windows 7 (the form is in the computer box, whether the reseller tells you about it or not)

The negative

sound quality is nice, but not loud

no firewire port ! come-on, how do you connect your camcorder sure, you can by an adapter

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire 4810TZ-4011 Timeline 14.0-Inch Laptop

Any 4810T made before July has a problem due to thermal instability. When driven hard for a while the machine becomes slower and slower and just stops, showing 100% CPU activity, even with no user activity at all. This is caused by faulty peripheral drivers that cause the CPU to spend all of its time in interrupt service routines. The problem can be cured by downloading and installing the latest BIOS, driver, and application files from Acer's web site. However, if my experience is any guide, you will not find this out by talking to Acer's facetiously named Customer Care Representatives.

I bought a 4810T-8480 from Staples on July 27, 2009, and received a unit that was manufactured on May 8, 2009. Needless to say, the unit had "sleeping sickness". Before I researched this problem on the internet I called Acer's customer-no-service twice, each time giving a detailed explanation of how the machine slowed down and stopped with 100% CPU but no activity: The first time I was advised to clear the internet state (a total non-sequitur, since when the phenomenon occurs one cannot do anything). The second time I was directed to clear out Windows/Temp and /Tasks, another time-waster. It seems impossible that these people have not heard of this problem, so why are they misdirecting customers from the solution? A conscientious company would be pro-actively notifying customers with these machines and providing them fixes.

Anyway, I solved the problem by downloading and installing EVERY driver and application update offered for my machine on Acer's site and especially by flashing the latest BIOS, which as of this writing is ver. 1.23. Acer attempts to discourage BIOS upgrades, and includes a dire warning in red at the top of the BIOS downloads which reads in part: "...Acer recommends that you should only update your firmware/drivers if you have been instructed to do so by an Acer Customer Care Representative." However, since it is clear that Acer has only Customer Don't-Care Representatives, that isn't going to happen, so ignore that warning and forge ahead. After downloading and running the upgrade you may have one brief heart-stopping moment when a pop-up appears that says that the installation may have failed and seems to ask for your input. TOUCH NOTHING and the BIOS flash will end with an automatic reboot.

Be sure to select the correct OS in the not-so-obvious pull-down box when selecting drivers and applications to download and install. In general, it won't hurt to attempt to install the wrong driver, since the install will either fail or just leave a useless driver, but of course you needn't download drivers for peripherals that you don't have, such as in my case Bluetooth. The one exception to that that I found was in selecting the web camera application: There are two, one from Chicony and one from Suyin, and no obvious way to tell which vendor's camera is installed in my machine. I guessed and installed Suyin first; it didn't work, so I installed the Chicony application over it, which did work. It might have been better practice to have removed the first application before installing the second.

I hope that this helps anyone who buys a down-level Timeline Lord knows you won't get any help from Acer!

Once the updates are installed, this is a very nice machine. The battery lifetime, if not quite the advertised 8 hours, is still impressive. It is cool enough to actually use on a lap. No, the slow-down is not inherent in the speed of the processor, which is perfectly adequate for most uses. It will never satisfy a gamer, but that is obviously not its niche. It's a great machine for a student to carry around all day, running Office aps, accessing the web, etc. If it weren't such a do-it-your-self project I would have rated it higher.

If you see any Acer reps or especially Acer execs, give 'em Hell for me!

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This review relates more to the AS4810T-8480, but as it is not sold on Amazon yet, I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of the problems I am experiencing on that model, as this might impact the entire product line.

I received my new laptop 4 days ago. Overall it is great, and I'd love to post a positive review here. It looks great from the outside, the 6-8 hours of battery life is a reality (let's see how long it lasts before the battery worns out), keyboard is nice, etc... Also agree that the built quality is not perfect, but overall it is fine.

My major concern, is the overall system stability. I am not a heavy user, mostly internet surfing.

However, in the past 4 days, I have experienced a tremendous number of crashes, maybe 2 to 3 a day, just using normal programs such as Skype, Internet Explorer 8 and MSN Live Messenger... At somepoint, the CPU goes to 100% utilization and the system becomes very slow or totally unresponsive, so I need to do a forced shut down. I thought this was due to Internet Explorer, but experienced the same with Firefox yesterday...

I just tried to install a USB AT&T 3G key, and despite a successful installation, now I am unable to log into Windows because on the log on screen my cursor and keyboards are none responsive. I have just logged a ticket with their Support Team, let's see what they come up.

I have never had some many problems with a new laptop in the past and am considering returning it for a refund.

Again, I would really like to love this laptop, I think ACER has a great product here, BUT I cannot recommended it at this point, and hope I will be able to update my recommendation very soon.

UPDATE: just over one month after receiving the laptop and as I was about to return it after ACER's customer service proved unable to provide a solution, I updated the Intel VGA driver (as many of you suggested in your comments, thanks a lot my bad for not checking them out earlier!) and the BIOS, both being recommended on [..] and I am happy to confirm the issues have disappeared. The laptop is now fully functional, so I have decided to keep it.

In regards to other features of the computer, I would say that my main complaints are the lack of a hardware switch for the wireless, and the screen is a little too glossy for me. The speakers are a bit weak. Bluetooth could have been included but I knew about it so can't complain.

But overall I'm still happy with the Timeline, and would recommend it to anyone traveling a lot and not requiring high CPU power!