Best ASUS G75VX-BHI7N09 i7-3940XM 3.9GHz GTX 670MX 16GB RAM 750GB HDD Deals

Customer Ratings:

Considering this is a gaming laptop that is almost 3 grand, it should have a 680m at least, not a 670mx. I understand that a lot of the price comes from the CPU, but considering the target demographic(gamers), it is a waste of an upgrade. A weaker CPU, and better GPU would be a better choice. Also, for this price you could get dual GPUs in SLi or CrossfireX in a laptop.

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Best Dell XPS 13 XPS13R2-1250sLV 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Anodized Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,059.99
Sale Price: $829.00
Today's Bonus: 22% Off

I will give you guys a list of pros and cons of this laptop after using it for about 2 weeks and why I ultimately sold it. Before that though, let me tell you about myself. I am a tech enthusiast, and I have gone through a lot of laptops/ultrabooks including macbook pros and airs, asus zenbook ux31a, and lenovo yoga 13.

Having said, here is the list.

PROS:

1. Thin bezel. I was amazed at how thing the bezel was on the screen. It allowed them to fit a 13" screen onto a body designed for 11" screens.

2. Construction. This machine is beautiful to hold and touch. A mixture of aluminum and carbon fiber equals a satisfyingly premium feel. I daresay it is the best looking and feeling laptop I have ever used.

3. All the bells and whistles. USB3.0, backlit keyboard, WIFI/bluetooth. Everything you expect should be on it is on it.

4. Battery life. It can easily last 7 hours if you're doing basic web browsing, sometimes even more.

CONS:

1. The most important aspect of the laptop...the screen. Dell decided to cheap out on the screen. They used a 768p TFT glossy screen, which is the same type of screen found on the macbook air. HOWEVER, the Air's screen is made of a much higher quality TFT screen, and it shows. The Dell's screen has a very narrow viewing angle, and if you move a little, the colors on the screen will change. Also disliked the glossiness.

2. The 2nd most important aspect...Touchpad. The touchpad was absolutely horrendous. This is not because I am spoiled by the Macbook's touchpad. I loved the new Asus zenbook ux31a's touchpad, and the lenovo yoga's touchpad. They were both great. The XPS 13's however, was just terrible. Updating the drivers didn't help at all. The touchpad oftentimes would not recognize finger movements at all, even if I was pressing with a good amount of pressure. Othertimes, would do something that I didn't want to. Multitouch functions worked fine though.

Overall, I cannot recommend this ultrabook to you. The screen quality and touchpad makes it a terrible experience for the user. If you do get one, you should be ready to use a mouse if the screen quality doesn't bother you.

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But no, they were not. The trackpad is awful. I mean it was failing to register maybe 20 to 40% of my touches. I tried many different versions of the Dell-provided trackpad driver to no avail.

Also, the screen is just gross to look at.

Lastly, Dell has "tweaked" Windows 8 so that you cannot use the built-in wipe/erase functions. I spent hours looking for a way to wipe the drive before sending back to Amazon (since, of course, it came with no reinstallation media). I did not find any instructions ANYWHERE on how to use the restore partition and upon any attempt to create a restore USB drive, the Dell utility failed to even see my USB drive. I eventually gave up and just sent it back with my data still on it.

Stay away.

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the printed logo in the bottom right corner begin to fade away. and the battery could not last for long

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They notify me the details right after I placed the order. In fact, due to suck USPS, my laptop was delayed for half a month. ( the tracking # shows it had been delivered, so we thought it had been stolen. But actually, USPS just simply left it unsent until half a month later )The seller did not stop following up, giving advice, trying to call, doing what they can. Great service. They will be my first choice next time I purchase a computer.

One tip: When purchasing a computer, make sure you notify the seller to add signature confirmation

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Great machine for light on the go computing -very convenient and reliable. I recommend it highly. I had no problems with the touchpad or screen resolution.

Cheap IBM LENOVO IdeaPad Y470p Laptop - i7-2670QM 2.2GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA

Customer Ratings:

I purchased a Lenovo hoping that the quality of their product would be better than previous laptops I've had in the past. I am unfortunately disappointed.

I purchased a brand new Y470P from Lenovo and it gave me consistent freezing issues. I tried reinstalling the OS, I called up tech support and did everything they recommended, and had to send the computer in for them to repair. Not only did they not repair it, but it's in worse condition than it was before. After getting the computer back from them, I noticed that they replaced my graphics card with a different brand card, either hoping I wouldn't notice or doing it by mistake. It still has the 'Radeon Graphics' sticker but now it's NVIDIA on the inside. That in itself isn't a biggie. I went online and found that the one they replaced it with is marginally worse. However, the problems that I'm experiencing now are worse than before. It fails to go into sleep mode or hibernation by itself now, so I have to manually do it and hope that it does it successfully. No more closing the lid and being on my way, I now have to babysit it to make sure it goes to sleep. If I ever leave it unattended and unplugged I come back to find that the battery is entirely drained since it failed to go into sleep mode by itself. The fan speed is always high, making it noisy constantly, unlike how it was quiet before. (and I checked to make sure the cooling settings were the same)

Now I have to wait until the end of the semester to have it 'fixed' again. (I would do it now but I'm a CS major and need to have a computer to do my homework -not having it for two weeks isn't an option)

EDIT (11/01/2012): I'm changing the review from a 1 star to 4 star because Lenovo gave me a new computer to replace the faulty one. The old one started blue screening so I had to have it replaced. The new one isn't refurbished and it's a newer, better version of the one that I had, so I'm happy.

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Everything I hoped this laptop. It's fast, play decent games at high settings and it didnt get hot to the point where you can use it as a heater like the Asus G60vx. The quality is great, the speakers are WOWWWWWW I mean it's sounds like ur in a theater with the srs premium sound. It has fan control which is pretty nifty

and it's also small so it can be portable instead of carrying a 15.6 inch screen or 17. It lagged a few times because I probably installed some kind of software but it went. Overall, it's the best computer I had thus far and it last like a hour and half in gaming and it also last 5 hours if you put it in energy saver (basic browsing, Microsoft office, etc...) The wifi signal is great, the screen is gorgeous and it's also hybrid which means you switch beywen 2 graphic cards (Intel HD 3000 AND Nvidia 550 GT). The graphics are phenomenal and fast. Just make sure you update it and your good to go. Just buy it!!!! You will love it :) don't install or update all drivers all in one session! That's a Noo Noo!!!

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I purchased a Y470 directly off of Lenovo website in July 2011. The config is Intel Core i7 processor, 8Gb of RAM, 750GB HD, NVIDIA GT550M, and Win 7 Home Premium. I paid ~$950+Tax which I was very happy with given the config (you could get a similar laptop from Vaio or Apple for $800 more than that back then). Of course these days computers are much cheaper, but I'm writing this review in hope that those who read it get an idea of a Lenovo product.

I've been using this computer since October 2011 (although I purchased it in July, I didn't get it until then because Lenovo would only ship it within the US and I was in Europe back then). I have done pretty much everything with it (office, internet, gaming, data analysis (MATLAB), CUDA computing, etc) and it never had a problem. I have played Crysis 2 at very acceptable frame rates on Medium and to a lesser degree Maximum (not Ultra) graphics settings. I have also played Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed and NFS: The Run. All run generally smoothly, but of course in computationally intensive scenes the frame rate drops which is what you would expect from a GT550M GPU.

One of the greatest things about this laptop was its battery life: I literally have used it for 13 hours straight on battery power (of course with WiFi off, minimum screen brightness, etc). But the thing with the battery is not its capacity, it's the utility that Lenovo provide you that beautifully takes care of energy consumption. However, the downside of the utility is that it's not available for Linux (they have been upgrading the utility I believe so there might be a version that runs on Linux too these days). So on Linux I would get only like 3 hours of battery power normally. If you use the laptop on battery with maximum demand (like playing Crysis 2 on Maximum graphics settings) you only get like 1-1.5 hours of battery, suggesting that the power management utility is phenomenal (as it can extend the battery life to up to 12-13hrs).

I am very happy with what I have gotten from Lenovo (given the price) so I would get more Lenovo laptops in the future.

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I have had my laptop for about a year now and I still love it. I have since upgraded it to Windows 8 and installed a SSD to run the OS alongside with the provided HD. Runs fast, battery lasts all day for school. Runs everything from adobe products to office without a problem.

ASUS R503U-RH21 Laptop Computer,4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive Reviews

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List Price: $369.00
Sale Price: $343.99
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This computer is really great for the price. It's good on battery life with the extended battery turn on option located on the screen if your battery starts getting low. The clarity of the screen is good for viewing the sites and it's lightweight construction makes carrying easy. I'm well pleased with my purchase and the delivery time was quick. Thank you.

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I decided to give a chance to Asus after Sams didn't have a Dell to sustitute my HP that broke in less than 2 years. The reviews were good, so I bought it. My first impression was how cheap the material look and feel, not like my Dell and the HP. Other problem was that is a finger print magnet, always looks dirty. But what make me change it was the poor almost inaudible sound of the speakers, I need to use headphones to hear. Didn't like neither that the hard disk is in two partitions. It runs well the programs and the screen looks good, is windows 8 fault the software problems, but I expected more for an almost $400.00 computer and that brand. Finally, I found a Dell for $40.00 more, change it and now I'm happy. Not recommended unless it cost you under $300.00.

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At first I was a bit intimidated by this laptop but as I got more familiar with the Windows 8 concept I began to see that it actually made more sense in some areas. The probs I did have were more with getting used to Windows 8 than with the laptop itself. The laptop is great I found the numbers keypad on it to be a great help to me, and surprisingly, it's lighter than than my older one. This is definitely worth it.

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I'm getting over the Windows...but when I tried

adding a printer that has a DVD for installing

I discovered the Asus has No cd/DVD drive.

Just make sure you'll never want to use the one

component this laptop does Not have!!

Review of Samsung NP-Q430-JSB1US notebook: 14 Inch LED, 2.4GHz Intel Core i5

Customer Ratings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

some negatives

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

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

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

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Discount ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,214.99
Sale Price: $899.99
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

I have had this laptop for about 3 days now. I had been wanting the zenbook since the original UX31E had come out, but held back after the reviews about the keyboard and the touchpad.

The new display on the ux31a was an instant sell. Having used nothing but high resolution laptops, i had hung on to my trusty HP 6820p for 4+ years.

The reviews for UX31 are mostly on the mark, but strangely somehow still fail to point the one "true" issue.

Now moving on to something more useful..

1) The display is to die for. I spent an hour with the retina mac pro, while i didn't see both the screens side by side. I'm ecstatic that ASUS is finally pushing laptops to move up from the resolution backsliding going on for the last 5 years. You will not miss the retina display on a mac with this. Half the price is just a bonus.

2) It is _light_.

3) The biggest showstopper is the touchpad out of the box. Yes, i'm referring to the touchpad on ux31, not the older ux31e. Multi touch etc. etc. works well. (have two macs at home for comparison). The thing that just about ruins this little gem is the horrendous behavior of the touchpad when your palm brushes it during typing. There is no way you can really avoid this, and it is impossible to do any typing without the cursor moving and the tap to touch causing irritating behavior. (like prematurely sending an email, closing the email, clicking a background app into focus). How this went past anyone in any QA dept. is beyond me. It's that bad, just typing a 2 line sentence is near impossible. This was entirely preventable with just a bit more diligence by ASUS. This one problem is bad enough to warrant a return if it weren't the fix that later became available.

I upgraded the drivers to the THEN latest on the ux31a page on asus support. They didn't work any better. Update: ASUS has finally put an updated version that addresses the issue much better.

Initially i was concerned that I was out of luck and that this could be a trackpad hardware limitation. Thankfully a bit of investigation digging through the registry in the HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ElanTech revealed a plethora of values that seeemed promising.

Further investigation led to a rather huge thread on this topic on the laptop support forums for the elan trackpads on Samsung laptops. A bit of spelunking revealed an updated driver (10.7.16.1). This one proved to be a winner. Not sure if it was the actual driver update, or the very significantly different configuration settings in the registry that made the difference, but at the end of the day the problem is mitigated nearly completely (and without disabling the trackpad while you are typing).

I think there is still some fine tuning to do with the relatively sensitive trackpad, but am a bit more at ease as I think it's just a matter of tweaking the settings just right. I think the elan folks will get it right with just a bit more time. I wish the control panel utility gave you more tuning options without having to figure it out on a trial and error approach with the registry variables. The newer version samsung is using has an 'advanced' tab which seems to be heading in this direction

This is my first ever review and I am only writing it because I really dig this laptop. I'd hate to have this not succeed due to the egregious trackpad palm detection issue. Asus's strength is clearly not software QA.

A few other observations that I haven't seen mentioned before.

4) The adapter when plugging into socket always seems to spark as it's plugged in. I haven't seen this from any other adapter, so am wondering about the reliability. It also seems to run a bit hot compared the mac one. This is just an observation, not an issue (i had no less than 5 adapters fail with the HP). Update: I was looking for additional adapters so I don't have to keep carrying the one around, they seem to extremely expensive online, ~$120. There are non ASUS brands available all the way down to $15, so will probably try one of those, I wonder what the difference is. I suspect it's to do with the charging logic / led indicator on the OEM one. I thought the charging controller was in the laptop and not the adapter, but not entirely sure about this now.

5) The keyboard is just fine, I saw some posts ranting about ux31 keyboard, and i don't know what they are talking about. It's pretty good, and i type reams.

6) There is bleeding of light at the bottom of the lcd, but it's a non issue and an observation i made only because I read about it on other reviews.

7) The keyboard backlighting is nice to have.. but again, don't think it's as big a deal as it's been made out to be when it was missing in ux31e.

8) The display hinge is just fine, it holds up well. If you suddenly lift it, then there might be a tad amount of sway. I think it's only because this laptop is so thin and light that people apply more g's. (I couldn't do that with my old laptop with both my hands if i wanted to because it was so heavy). It feels pretty sturdy compared to the luddite laptop i am used to.

9) I had tried win 8 for a short period on this laptop, seemed to work about the same. (Reverted to win 7 for work reasons after an hour or so).

10) The battery seems to last 6+ hours with just web browsing / email..

11) The wifi has been working well, no problems so far. The previous HP laptop I had would lose WIFI connection whenever the microwave went on for a minute. This one hasn't exhibited that problem.

12) The USB to Ethernet adapter is unfortunately 10/100, not Gigabit.. and for me it's a big deal. Copying around large VMs is the norm and this limitation is a rather big issue. The limitation seems to be from the PHY ASUS is sourcing from 'asix'? They seem to have a new USB3 to GBE part available, so I'm sure in future models this limitation will be addressed. I wonder why they didn't go with USB 2 to GBE phy as it seems to have been available for a while. It works well, counter intuitively its actually proving to be nicer to use the USB connection than the RJ45 jack.

13) The built in VGA adapter worked great when using a projector. Haven't tried out the HDMI out yet, need to go buy a micro HDMI cable.

14) Headphone out works fine, another reviewer mentioned an issue so tested it just in case.

Rating a 4, due to the trackpad runaround that's now resolved. Folks with trackpad issues should just get the latest version from ASUS or Samsung support site. I prefer the Samsung driver.

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I've owned probably 20 laptops in the past (my wife would probably say that's 17 more than I've needed). But to be honest, I've not loved any one of them. Each has come with some sort of compromise that kept it from fully meeting my expectations. Lightweight machines have been underpowered; small screens have had low resolution--leaving me yearning to plug into a full size LCD panel whenever I could; machines with fast CPUs burned my lap and had horrible battery life....and so on.

The Zenbook UX31A is the first computer I've owned that has everything I want: super light weight, solid build quality, fast performance, beautiful display, decent battery life, high performance SSD and (I am a touch typist) a keyboard with great tactile response. Using the UX31A is like driving a German car: everywhere you look, you notice the level of attention to detail in design, and you just know the designers really cared about the end-user experience and didn't simply set out to meet a specification as cheaply as possible.

Asus may have shot themselves in the foot, though: I'm so satisfied, I may not feel the urge to replace this computer for a long, long time.

What you'll love:

1. The full HD IPS display with matte finish is dreamy. Maybe you think 1920 x 1080 is too high a resolution for a 13" display? It's not! With text set to 125%, text is the "right" size, and the fonts are as smooth as a printed page--I can't see the individual pixels. The IPS makes for a screen that's readable at any angle--a godsend for me when the person in front leans their seat back in coach!

2. The keyboard is much improved from the last version, and has the exact feel of my MacBook (which to me is a good thing). The backlighting on the keyboard is a nice addition as well.

3. Instant on. After opening the lid, the computer is usable in around 1 second. Amazing.

4. The aluminum case is impossibly thin, making it super portable. Everyone who sees this machine can't believe it's a real, full Windows PC.

5. The DC power supply. I'm in love with a DC power supply? If you travel a lot like I do, then you understand. This isn't just a generic $2 item Asus sourced from eBay. It's an impossibly tiny power supply that weighs almost nothing and has an 8 foot cord that will reach from any conference room table all the way to a wall outlet. Yes, it's a small detail, but something I appreciate every time I use it.

6. Build quality. The solid metal case is completely rigid and exudes quality industrial design. A $1,000 product shouldn't feel like you got it in a box of cereal, and this one doesn't! Great job, Asus!

7. Bang & Olufsen audio. Remember when choosing a 13" laptop meant you live with a speaker originally designed for a wristwatch? Those days are over--watching video on this laptop is like watching it on your TV! Audio is loud, clear and has a full range of sound. You'll only use your headphones when you don't want to disturb others.

8. The included fabric envelope to carry the notebook is so good you'll actually use it! It's a heavy fabric envelope that I find superb for taking the notebook on short trips to the coffee shop or to a meeting where I only need to take some notes.

9. Runs Windows 8 (June Preview edition) perfectly. I scratch-loaded Windows 8, and while it takes some patience to get all the Windows 7 drivers and utilities installed on Windows 8, everything works beautifully.

What you may not love as much:

1. There's a downside to making a laptop that's thinner than legacy VGA, Ethernet and HDMI connectors--there's no room for them!! Instead, a Micro-HDMI and Mini-VGA connections are provided along with dongles that adapt to standard sized connectors. For wired Ethernet, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is provided. Some ultrabooks are specifically made thicker expressly to include legacy connectors. For me, that's a little silly...an ultrabook should be as thin as possible! But if you disagree and don't like the idea of a dongle for making VGA connections, then you may want one of the thicker Ultrabooks instead.

2. The Zenbook doesn't have the longest battery life among all Ultrabooks. Maybe the thin case has a smaller battery than others? You'll probably get 5 hours or so of battery life on continuous usage. If you need another hour or two, there are ultrabooks can last longer. For me, I find that with the instant on enabled, I can go all day between charges...I just shut the lid when I'm not using the computer and open it when using it (similar to using an iPad).

3. The UX31A, like most Ultrabooks, has 4GB RAM soldered to the motherboard, and no way to upgrade RAM. I think this is really a shame, since I'd gladly have paid more to get more RAM as an insurance policy against what I might want to use the machine for in the future. However I find 4GB is enough for what I'm doing day-to-day, and I doubt most people using an Ultrabook for business scenarios will find they need more than 4GB RAM with Windows 8. However if you're editing video, this might not be the right machine for you.

Overall, I think Asus took the best Ultrabook and made it even better. The last version (the "E" model) was, in my mind, the best small Windows notebook on the market...but fell just a little short of the elegant design of the MacBook Air. This new model, however, has moved the bar up insanely high for other Ultrabooks, and in my mind eliminated any reason why a Windows user would switch to a Mac to get superior hardware designs. I have a MacBook Pro...and this is the first time I can honestly say I like a Windows laptop more than a MacBook!

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Edit: My second laptop doesn't have any problems. I'm getting about 5 hours of battery life while doing light programming and listening to music on auto-brightness (there's a brightness sensor) which sets the display at about 60 percent brightness indoors.

I received this laptop a few hours ago and I'm going to give my first impressions on the device.

Build Quality and Design:

Apart from the different color on the keyboard and lack of hideous script font above the keyboard that was on the original zenbook, the Prime looks about the same. Since this is the 31A, it has a Aluminum Unibody design, and from messing around with various Macbook Air's this device seems to be just as well built. I like the front panel design over the Air but that's down to personal preference.

Accessories:

Being an $1000+ device I would expect a nice amount of goodies, and included is a VGA and Ethernet adapter. There is no micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, but I find myself using VGA most of the time when giving presentations anyway, so I suppose that's not too bad of a loss. The Air (afaik) does not come with these adapters so that is a small plus. The adapters have their own little pouch to store separately. The combination synthetic leather/canvas sleeve that is included fits fairly snugly, though there is enough space to cram in an adapter if you need to. The AC adapter is about the same size as the Apple counterpart, which is good.

Screen Quality:

Being a UX31A the laptop packs a 1920x1080 Matte IPS panel. In a not-very-scientific test viewing angles (obviously) far exceed that of my desk TN panel, and brightness and contrast all seem to be much better. Granted, I'm comparing to a 23" Hanns LCD I paid $60 for. There was a comment earlier about the screen being dimmer than that of the previous gen, and I haven't tested it outside, but it seems to just fine for my purposes. The matte finish is also a plus. There is a bit of back light bleed on the bottom and right hand sides of the screen, but when watching a sample 1080p movie, it didn't bother me at all. I like the increased resolution on the device and it's a definite step up from traditional 1366x768 panels. Text is sometimes a bit small on the default size in chrome but that is easily remedied.

Performance:

Thankfully, an ADATA XM11 128GB SSD is included. This is a Sandforce drive and I'm getting benchmark scores of 470/150 MB/s RW Sequential, 18/44 MB/s RW 4K random, 113/144 MB/S RW 4k Random 64QD, and access times of .155/.277 ms RW, for a total score of 462 in AS-SSD. This is comparable to my old Vertex 2 in my desktop, so no worries about disk performance here. The system boots boots in about 20 seconds and resumes quickly. It scores a 7.9 WEI in terms of disk performance, though that's not a the best indicator in general.

I haven't done anything intensive with the CPU yet but things seem to be holding up well with little slowdown. I also tried messing around in Diablo III on the integrated HD4000 graphics. I set the game to 1024x768, and everything else to minimum, and from a short session of Act III Inferno, the graphics performed okay, with some stutter and slowdown depending on how many effects were on the screen. If you want to do more than just casual gaming, go for the UX32VD with the GT620M graphics. After playing for a bit the fan kicked on and hot air began coming out of the vent located above the keyboard. The fan was not loud enough to hear over the speakers, which put out a decent amount of volume for the size of the laptop.

Keyboard/Trackpad:

Asus touts the keyboard as being much improved over the previous generation, though I'm not sure if I notice that. I've tried out the original zenbook at stores a few times and this feels similar. I've typed this review on the keyboard without any problems, but it'll be clear to you that you are typing on a scissor-switch laptop keyboard. This also leads to me to the flaw in my item the backlight. Two of the keys in the center refuse to light at all, regardless of the brightness level I set. Hence, it's going back to Amazon for an exchange. Pity. The trackpad is made by Elantech, which may make some people cringe, but for the most part, I haven't had a problem. I like to rest one hand on the left click button and right other to scroll, and there were no glitches I noticed in the last few hours. The only multi-touch feature I really use is two finger scrolling, which works well enough in Chrome. It's not as smooth as OSX is, but I would assume that is because of Windows 7, and will be improved in Windows 8.

If you're trying to decide between this and the Air, it mainly comes down to a few factors OS, Screen Quality, Discrete Graphics, and support. If you have a rabid obsession with one OS over the other your choice should already be clear. If you value screen quality, both are solid choices while the Air has a 1440x900 TN panel, it still looks good, though the viewing angles are likely not as wide, and the resolution obviously lower. Anandtech rates both this laptop and the Air well in screen quality. If you value discrete graphics, only the UX32 line offers you that. If you value support I would go with the Air, as nothing beats being able to go into a store and coming out with a fixed laptop.

If you're set on Windows or want a 1080P IPS Panel, no other ultrabook touches the Zenbook prime right now. Sony has a similarly-specced laptop out, which has a GT640LE and 1600x900 screen, but that is much heavier and thicker. This is an expensive device, no doubt, so if you can give up some screen quality and are okay with slightly slower integrated graphics, you should consider a previous gen ultrabook.

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

I ordered this Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 ultrabook from Amazon and received it promptly and in perfect condition this week. The i5 proc (newer "ivy bridge" model) has plenty of power for my use (and for almost any average use), and for what I'm using this for, I also don't need more than 128GB of storage, so I decided to go with this model instead of the DB72, which has the i7 proc and 256 SSD. I had been waiting for this upgraded Zenbook to come out for a little while, and Amazon was the 1st place I found that had it available, and I have usually had very good experiences purchasing through Amazon, so the negligible difference in price between Amazon's price and the suggested retail price wasn't an issue. So far, this is everything I thought it would be and I absolutely love it. In my opinion, the display is extremely nice, HD 1080p, and the screen is low-glare, so it looks great and is easy on the eyesight. In addition to the newer model proc, the screen is another nice upgrade from the previous Zenbook. The keyboard is perfect and comfortable (and backlit, which the previous Zenbook was lacking). It's very light and portable, fits in my purse with the included envelope-type sleeve, which is a pretty decent cover, at least until I find a sleeve or case I like better.

After researching many different models and manufacturers, the only other "ultrabook" that I considered before purchasing the Zenbook Prime was the Macbook Air. I'm not an Apple product hater, but I honestly just prefer a Windows machine, so this ultrabook was the clear winner for me, and I couldn't be happier with it so far. I could go on and on comparing the two machines, and describing the technical specs of this Zenbook Prime, but there are so many technical reviews out there that already do that very well (and I think Apple/Mac vs. PC/Windows thing that I constantly see on forums everywhere is so boring it's ridiculous!!!!), so I'm just giving my initial personal experience and opinions about this product that I purchased in this review. It is awesome! It's lived up to all the critical acclaim and all of my expectations of it so far.

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So this laptop can apparently come with two different types of hard drives (both 256 gig ssds). If you buy this laptop, you will either get the Sandisk U100 or the ADATA MX11. An uninformed consumer probably wouldn't know or care what the difference between these two drives are, but they should!

The Sandisk U100 has the worst write speeds of current SSDs. The Zenbook prime I ordered was horribly slow at transferring files because of this. When I took the laptop back to the retailer, I requested an exchange for one with the ADATA MX11 hard drive. I was told by the retailer that there is no way to tell which hard drive you will get without opening the retail packaging. Note that opening the retail packaging renders the product used.

I feel Asus should put the hard drive brand on the outside of the box so that consumers can make a proper informed decision. The ADATA MX11 outperforms the Sandisk U100 in every way and this can be seen in performance tests when comparing the two.

I would not recommend anyone purchase this at this time. At least until Asus is more forthcoming about which SSD they are putting in this Zenbook.

Update.

Well I must say this has been a pretty horrible experience, and I'm never buying an Asus product again.

The screws on the laptop keep falling out. I am now missing 2 of them and the only way to get them replaced is to ship it to Asus. I any afford to do that as I need to have a computer for school and work.

The hard drive performance is painfully slow, and of course Asus won't replace the drive.

My best advice to anyone thinking of purchasing this device or any Asus product is to avoid at all costs.

Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon Reviews

Customer Ratings:

like the others i was sold on the low price and considerable amount of ram, both on the graphic end and the computing end. i find it difficult to multitask on this computer that is, until i did a fresh install of win 7. definitely not designed for windows 7. i can imagine this computer being a lot faster running either 32 bit xp or 64 bit xp. whatever. i made negative points due to "factory settings." once i got a little more intimate with this machine. (THATS WHAT SHE SAID JOKE) i found it to be amazing. my daws run well. only exception being the resource intensive plugins BUT HEY. the processor is upgradable! so whatever. no sound card crackles! no lags when i record or play last gen games! four stars for a reason. its a solid machine. me and my band use it for samples/bassdrops live via midi input. it can take a beating. the keys feel a little cheap but thats no biggie. the internal network card is not good for long range. but hey, they arent really meant to be? the display is awesome, the speakers KINDA suck but grab some earbuds and youre good to go. I PERSONALLY LUCKED OUT. a lot of people have complaints with this. its a pos!, it broke, the power input solder is cracked, the usb input is broken, the screen flickers, etc. I USE THIS IN A CONCERT SETTING. IT IS NOT A PIECE OF S***. its a solid computer "for the price." best thing one step up from a netbook.

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This is a great notebook if you're like me and need something where you can do homework, watch YouTube videos and play a few games. Although its not the best of notebooks it does get the job done. Price is the one thing that did get me with this laptop. I recently got rid of my Dell and bought an HP netbook which came to an untimeley demise because of my dog. I was going to get another netbook but then saw this one with a comparable price to a few netbooks out there. Windows 7 runs very smooth, also it is a lightweight laptop so you don't have to worry about lugging around a heavy bulky laptop. One thing I will say is that if you are going to buy this notebook look at your local Best Buy for it, my husband paid $375 for it with tax.

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I purchased this notebook at the beginning of January and have enjoyed it so far. I do have a few suggestions for the folks out there having problems with it lagging or running too slow. First, realize that this does not have the best video card installed, and it is not upgradable, so you may have issues with watching HD videos directly off the internet. Internet speeds vary from house to house and can affect your video watching ability. Videos work quite a bit smoother if you download them first(if you have that option) then view in Windows Media Player.

Additionally, this is only a single core processor, so one of the first things I did was get rid of the McAfee and install the Avast Home Free edition virus software (available to anyone for free at ). Additionally, when I tried to use the Window Media Center, it used up all of my available rom/ram and caused serious slow downs (like taking 3 minutes to shut down). Once again, I uninstalled the Windows Media Center (though kept the Media Player installed) and downloaded the video codex files for Windows 7 Media Player (also from ) so any DVD I watch is through the Media Player. It runs very smooth when I watch videos now! The other program I installed was Advanced System Care (also free from ... and no I do not work for them). This will go through and remove any junk files, registry errors, spyware, etc... Great free program for keeping your system running bug free! After these three simple changes I have not had a single problem with this laptop.

I hope this helps you folks out there considering this laptop, or if you already have this laptop. :-)

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon

Purchased the Acer Aspire 5532 from Best Buy in November. Great value, you get what you pay for. Out of the box, it's attractive dark blue, nice size & the display is vibrant and clear. All I need it for is email, lil surfing, MS Works word processor, works great for those things. The mousepad as one reviewer pointed out is very persnikity, it will drag on you and the pointer will end up where you don't want it. Speedwise it's pretty good, Windows 7 runs really smooth, I like it alot. After approx 2 months on this thing, my ac adapter/power cord went kaput! I can only use it on battery power which of course is now drained, not even enough juice to even make a light glow. Highly disappointed as Acer customer service/tech support is non existant, or so it seems. It looks like I will be returning to Acer at my own expense for possible repair. I think it's a good deal for basic computing only, and be very careful with the power cord/settings once you lose battery power there is no getting it back on!

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Preface-I only paid $329.00 for this machine and I have an iMac for Video editing. If you realize what this machine is and what it is designed for, I don't think there is a better bargain right now.

Win 7 64 bit runs great on this machine, even with a single core processor. BUT....... you can upgrade this processor to a dual core AMD chip for less than $40. Add in the best integrated video card made, 3 GB RAM and an HD 720P Resolution Widescreen, and you have a great deal.

Some little things that I LOVE about this laptop are the physical on/off toggle for WiFi and the touchpad. These are amazingly convenient things that you might not consider looking for when shopping, but they are super useful. Since I use a wireless mouse, I find the AC Adapter location on the left side to be perfect. I had a Lenovo Ideapad that put the plug on the right side and it was a giant pain. It runs cool and is very quiet. I threw a 4GB SD card in the reader for Readyboost and I feel like this is faster than 64 bit Vista was on the aforementioned Lenovo(T5800 Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz and 4GB RAM). I run full screen ripped DVD's with no problem, run off the optical drive no problem(movies look great!) and run Office 2007 without a glitch.

I do wish it had a physical volume rocker at least 1 more USB port, but for $329, I really can't complain.

W510 15.6" 320GB 2GB Reviews

Customer Ratings:

This has been a great laptop. 2 years later I installed 32gb of RAM in it (though the specs list 16gb max)

I will probably hold on to this for another 2-3 years. I'm in the process of using the ultrabay to add another HD.

I use this machine to do scientific computing. It does it well.

The only downside is battery life. I never have my battery installed unless I'm travelling.

For daily use the battery is out, and the laptop is plugged in to the wall. I bought another charger so I have one at home and one at the office (the charger is bulky/heavy)

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Discount Lenovo THINKPAD T420 I5-2520M 2.5G 4GBSYST 500GB DVDRW 14IN BT W7P

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,719.00
Sale Price: $999.99
Today's Bonus: 42% Off

We've purchased about a dozen of these for clients so far this year. Very solid pieces of equipment and the i5 vPro CPU leaves nothing to be desired. The CPU is beefy and does consume some power, so you may want to get an optional 9-cell battery if you can't charge it often. For normal everyday use, you can disable one core in the BIOS and reduce the system to a dual-core (well, one core plus hyper-threading). Never disappointed with a T420.

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I have used this model laptop at work and home and have never had any problems. It's fast and reliable. The ability to change the DVD writer out for a backup hard drive is great! I am using one at home with a docking station that lets me use it as a desktop when docked but I can just remove it and use it in any room also. (I like to have a larger screen when working on photos). If you put a SSD drive in, wow, boot times around 15 secs.

Discount Asus Ultrabook UX31E-RHP5 13.3" Laptop - i5 - 4GB RAM - 128GB SSD

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $699.99
Today's Bonus: 22% Off

This is a laptop that has a lot of great features, but ultimately I had to return it due to the subpar keyboard, hot pink color, and "sticky" pointer. I only need a computer for pretty basic functions (no major gaming or burning or anything), but it still fell short.

The laptop looks great, other than the hot pink, shiny frame around the keyboard, which is so bright it distracts from what is on the screen. It is lightweight, has beautiful HD display, and is quite fast for the things I used it for (schoolwork, streaming, music), and the volume can go pretty high.

The keys on the keyboard had to be hit directly in the center and pressed on harder than with any other laptop I've tried. Typing a paragraph on this computer resulted in many words with missing letters here and there. This issue could probably be fixed by an external keyboard, but that's not what I wanted. Also, less of a problem but still annoying, the pointer often got "stuck" for a second or two before it began responding to movement on the touchpad. It looks like these are common issues: http://www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-zenbook-ux31e-dh53/4505-3121_7-35033684.html

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Best HP ENVY 13-2150nr Spectre XT 13.3" Ultrabook (Silver) Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $899.99
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is my first experience with Ultrabooks. Up to this point I have worked with laptops that are designed to be desktop replacement systems or family entertainment systems, so the journey into the land of Ultrabooks is a new one for me. So far, I have mixed feelings about this system, mostly due to HP's recovery media creation tool, but my overall impression is a good one so far.

In terms of size, this is a very thin and dainty notebook computer, roughly the size of a fat magazine. This gives it a very small footprint and it is relatively lightweight, making it good for stuffing in a briefcase or carry-on bag (though there are better cases for this kind of thing). I set it up on the kitchen table and as soon as my wife saw it she exclaimed "It's so cute!" Indeed, it's an attractive machine.

One of the things that caught my attention when reading the specifications on this machine is that there was no mention at all of a DVD drive. The packing materials even state "no optical drive". Sure enough, there is none so loading up software will require a USB DVD drive or a properly loaded thumb drive. This is not a huge deal but it is something that must be kept in mind not everyone will appreciate having to get an additional drive just to load up software. I am not sure if HP offers a DVD R/W drive as an accessory kit.

There are exactly two USB ports on this notebook one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port. For the traveler working on a plane or a student taking notes in a class, this does not matter. However, when working at a desk and getting synchronized with the office computer having only two USB ports may be problematic. This can be overcome by using a hub, but again this requires extra hardware. It all depends on the usage two ports may be plenty. In my case and for my purposes, two is usually sufficient.

There is also an HDMI port, an Ethernet jack and an audio output jack. As is typical with most laptops, this one has an SD card reader. What this notebook does not have, though, is a VGA or DVI output. This is not necessarily a problem as this is a notebook made for someone on the go, but it does mean that connecting to a projector requires using another method.

This notebook is Bluetooth capable. This is a good thing for a lot of people. For me, though, it is less important as I have no Bluetooth accessories. I do appreciate the availability though so that I can connect accessories to it in the future.

Screen type is important to many people glossy, matte, anti-glare... This particular system has a very bright and clear glossy screen which is fine for me but may disagree with others who dislike the reflections that occur and the glare from lights. Keep this in mind.

Pleasantly, there is not a huge amount of "bloatware" on this system. Looking through the list of installed software, HP has not overly cluttered the drive with extra stuff that you won't need (though there is some stuff that I know I will never, ever use). MS Office is preloaded as is Norton Internet Security these are simple to uninstall if there is no need for them. That said, HP and Symantec have arranged a two-year license on Norton Internet Security which is outstanding for a new system right out of the box every system I have seen up to this point came with only 60-90 days of updates for the bundled internet security suite.

My first order of business when I brought the system up was to launch the recovery media creation tool. I plugged in my DVD drive, kicked off the process, and burned 9 DVDs on the way to making a set of 5 recovery DVDs. The process errored out repeatedly, complaining of errors though the DVD media I have has been reliable. I am not sure if there is a weakness in the creation tool, the DVD drive or the platters, but the process took a lot longer than it should have taken. Regardless, there is something else about the process that is even more troublesome HP allows you to make ONE and only one copy of the recovery media. If one of the five DVDs goes bad, then it's all over. This is specific to HP Sony and Asus both allow you to make multiple copies, and my other HP laptop enforced the same limit of one copy.

I dug into the performance measurement tool and the system reports a Windows Experience number of 5.6, driven by the graphics chipset (and it was the desktop graphics, not the gaming graphics, that was low). The highest number was actually the SS hard drive at 8.1, even outscoring the CPU and memory! This is a snappy little system and while it's not built for heavy gaming it has enough horsepower to handle many games.

Relating to performance because of the solid-state drive, power-on to operational time is less than 10 seconds. I absolutely love how fast this machine boots up!

I am no fan of touchpads and to be honest I find the touchpad on this notebook worse than average. It is raised which makes it too easy to inadvertently tap it while typing, and because of the way it is raised it's too easy to get stuff in the crevices around it.

As far as traveling with this notebook, it should be said that there are smaller, more portable machines out there. This one has a 13.3" screen but I have seen much smaller systems. Then again, these smaller systems usually have less power and are less capable. It comes down to whether you prefer more compactness at the expense of power or more power at the expense of compactness.

This system comes preloaded with Windows 8. In a nutshell I find it to resemble a cross between Windows 7 and MS Zune. I am not going to go into a full review of Windows 8 but I will very briefly summarize though it's best suited for tablets, it actually works nicely on this notebook and though there is a learning curve it's not bad.

Finally, I should mention the speaker system. My very first HP laptop came with Altec Lansing speakers built in to the unit. This system comes with Beats audio, and I have found them to be roughly equivalent. Sound quality is very good, especially coming from such a small machine.

HP has put together a very nice system in this Ultrabook. It is small, fast and powerful. I do not like the way it builds recovery media (and restricts you to a single copy), and I am a little bit concerned by not having more than 2 USB ports, but when considering that this machine is built for the traveler or student, this is a very nice system that's worth a look.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program ...consider this first.

This is my first experience with an ultrabook, and many of my friends will tell you that their first experience with an ultrabook is me coming up to them and saying, "check out this amazing new ultrabook"! The HP Envy Spectre XT is an outstanding choice for your SECOND computer. It is sleek, light, easy to work with, and really fast.

As I said, this is a great choice for your second computer. If you are looking for a primary computer, this is probably not going to work for you. I hate to start describing this wonderful little PC with its drawbacks, but here are the limitations. First, there is no optical drive. No CDs, DVDs, BluRay, etc. If you want to watch the occasional movie on disk, this isn't for you. Second, the hard drive is tiny. How tiny? Well at 128 GB, it is only twice the size of the largest iPhone for storage. While most iOS apps are designed to be under 1GB in size, most PC programs aren't. The OS and pre-installed software leaves you with about 90GB of usable space. That is really small. Again, not a solution for your primary PC. Finally, the GPU is not very powerful, so while the i5 processor is very speedy, the graphics aren't sufficient for most gaming. This is why I compared this to a tablet.

If you're still reading, I'll assume you have another desktop or laptop to use for your main PC, and that you are in the market for a super portable workhorse. If that's the case, look no further!

The HP Envy Spectre XT boots up faster than any other computer I have ever used. About 10 seconds! Nevertheless, you won't be booting this up often, since as an ultrabook with Windows 8, you never have to re-boot. That means it is always ready for you. You hit the power button and it is ready to work in moments. Just like an iPad, but a second or two longer. It is able to do this because Windows 8, combined with a SSD (the "hard drive" is actually flash RAM) allows it to stay suspended using almost zero power, but still be ready to go in no time. Programs load so quickly you don't even notice them loading. I keep comparing this to iOS devices, but this really isn't like any other computer you've ever used.

Once open, you are faced with the Windows 8 Metro screen. This isn't intended to be a Windows 8 review, but some parts of Windows 8 are integral to the ultrabook. For example, the glide pad, with multi-touch, makes navigating Windows 8 so easy. Another nice aspect is that you don't really have to "close" programs like you have done with previous versions of Windows. All you do is hit the Windows key and you're back to Metro. I have had every program on this PC "running" at the same time, and there was zero lag. Apparently, Windows 8 handles app switching much like iOS does. Less for the user to think about, more just getting to work.

As for getting to work, in Windows 8 you have the "App Store," just like you do with iOS. This means that the fact that you do not have an optical drive isn't a huge deal. Many of the programs you will use, you can just download from the Windows store. Netflix, Office, Angry Birds, etc. are all available as downloads. There is a great deal of XBOX integration here too, and XBOX Glass is a cool interface. For comparison (and simply because it is one of my favorite games) I downloaded Zen Pinball FX2. I then re-purchased all the Marvel themed tables. This way, I could compare them with their counterparts on my iPhone and on the XBOX 360. The tables looked exactly like their XBOX counterparts, but this is where the GPU showed its weakness. The ball movement visibly lags here, where it is fluid on the XBOX and iPhone 4S. Nevertheless, the game is very playable and well worth the purchase. Despite the integration of the Windows 8 Store, you can sideload software, but it takes a little know-how. I am able to copy the installation files from my software to another of my PCs, then I can install the software to the ultrabook. Finally, in the case of games, many require the DVD to be inserted whenever you play. Obviously, this is impossible here, but if you can find a "NOCD" patch for you game, you will be up and running. For most people, this won't be an issue, however, because you just don't have the drive space or GPU for the typical game that would require this type of work-around.

On the topic of user interface, the HP Envy Spectre shines. The keyboard is backlit for non-optimal room lighting situations, yet it doesn't appear to hit the battery life too badly for the feature. The glidepad is as good as a glidepad gets, but they are all difficult at best. The surface of the glidepad is smooth and responsive. There aren't separate buttons for right and left click. Instead, the whole glidepad responds to touch and to press. Windows 8 uses these touches differently, so it is a required feature of the glidepad. Unfortunately, due to the nature of a touch/click glidepad, I often find my cursor jumping up or down (mostly up) a half inch when I try to click. It takes a little getting used to, but it is worth it.

Finally, the ultrabook stays cool on your lap. Gone is the exhaust fan and the feeling that your pants are going to catch fire after a half hour of working. There is no need for a lap-desk to use with this ultrabook.

Small, fast, sleek, and light (I know it lists as 3 pounds, but it feels lighter), this is just the solution for portable work. As I began, if you are thinking about a tablet, you should consider this as an alternative. You get full Windows 8, full Microsoft Office (separate purchase), full printing capabilities, full Internet Explorer (or whatever other browser you like), and a full keyboard. The battery life is extraordinary, but still not what you get from an iPad. So, if you just want to surf the web and check your email, get a Chromebook. If you want a large iPhone, get an iPad. If you want a workhorse, get the HP Envy Spectre XT. You won't regret it!

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Actually they have been here for a while, but I get the feeling that this is both a transition away from the desktop and a response to the tablet. The HP Spectre XT 13-2150nr 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black), is my first foray into the world of the ultrabook and I have to say I'm impressed and a little apprehensive at the same time.

I have been using a desktop computer since the Commodore days of the mid 80s. Over the decades I have built up a pretty set collection of procedures for getting things done. The hardware and software change over the years, but the basic idea stays pretty much the same. The Ultrabook, in combination with Windows 8 asks you to change some pretty basic assumptions about computing. If you're ready for the change, you're going to love it. If you're not ready to take that next step, this probably isn't the machine you're looking for.

The Spectre XT comes in a box so small that would not comfortably hold some of the power adaptors for notebook computers I've owned over the years. There is precious little in the box either. The package includes a relatively small power adaptor and the machine itself, along with a few obligatory sheets of "Quick Start" type documentation.

The computer comes in a satin-like sleeve. The documentation says it weighs just a whisper over three pounds, but I swear it feels light as a feather to me. The computer is very sleek looking. It is brushed aluminum with black plastic highlights and a black bezel around the screen. If I were judging it on design style alone, it would get an unqualified thumbs up. It is a good looking, very compact, and light as it could be.

As you face the open machine, you will find the audio, HDMI, SD card, and power ports on the right. The USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and network ports are on the left. The power switch is on the left side of the lower body just above the keyboard. One thing you won't find is an optical drive. There is no DVD or BluRay in this machine.

The screen is glossy, which could create problems for anyone sensitive to reflections. The output is clear and very sharp. I normally work with a large format laptop. My current machine has a 17" screen. So I was a little concerned about how I would adjust to a 13" display. I was very impressed. The output was so crisp the smaller text and graphics were no problem.

The keyboard is very nicely backlit and has a nice responsive feel to it. The "Beats Audio" and four built-in speakers provide sound that is well above average for a notebook. The built-in Web Cam is nicely designed and works well. Battery life is so-so at an estimated five hours per charge.

It takes this machine all of 10 seconds to boot up....amazing! You open onto the Windows 8 Metro screen. If you own an ipod touch, ipad or iphone it will look and act very familiar. The glidepad allows for the same types of manipulation as the Apple IOS.

As you will soon discover, booting will pretty much be a thing of the past. Windows 8 along with the Spectre XT just goes to sleep between sessions. With basically no moving parts, standby power consumption is nearly zero, as is your wait time. Just hit the power button and you are nearly instantly ready to get to work. Loading programs feels more like switching between open applications, it is just that quick.

How you plan to use this machine will, in large part, determine how satisfied you are with it. The Spectre XT 13-2150nr and it's Windows 8 operating system want you to think of them as a mobile device. The tiny hard drive(less than 100GB of usable space) and the lack of an optical drive, mean you will be downloading "apps" from an app store in order to work. The system comes with MS Office 2010 installed, but you will have to buy a license in order to use it. The designers of the computer and Windows 8 obviously intend you to keep most of your storage in the "cloud" and stream most media.

This is not going to work as a desktop replacement for many applications. No video or high detail photo editing. No serious design or coding work. This machine is designed for on-the-go communication, writing, streaming and playing. If that sounds like what you're looking for this little machine is slick, sleek and lightning fast.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY 13-2150nr Spectre XT 13.3" Ultrabook (Silver)

I received this lovely ultrabook by UPS today and the track pad worked well enough for me to register my ultrabook and add my Microsoft Student Teacher with speed and ease I might add; I was a bit scared because I read the mumbo jumbo previous people left about this laptop and I started to second guess my decision. I am just a regular student that owned a previous HP but the hard drive broke and my IT guy at worked told me it would be better just to upgrade my situation. He started to tell me about the SSD hard drive and how this was the new technology that I needed to be up to date in computer technology. So I shopped around and found this one this one with all the features I needed on Amazon. I am in my class now writing this review and I love the touch of the keys the backlighting (although my IT says that its just cosmetic, not a necessity!! But HEY, he's a guy!! lol) It comes with this suede like holder it will not get scratched or smeared. OH and the beats By Dre, the idiot at Best Buy said there is no difference unless I plug it into output speakers, but let me tell you, when you play Pandora, it is just like the headphones, and I say this because you can actually hear words that you can not hear on your phone. WONDERUL!! If you are not from the GEEK Squad, you will be pleased with this purchased and as far as the fan, I do not have that problem but I hope you know you are not suppose to have this on your comforter on your bed, it needs to be on a flat surface like a desk or a portable one. I'm sure the computer geeks were aware but just in case some of us civilians were not!! Happy hunting, this one is a winner winner... you know the rest

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I got this on sale on Amazon for 699.99. Everywhere this thing is selling for 999.99 or so, so I have to thank Amazon for having an ultra cheap price. It is packaged great too, I felt like I was opening something that was built with care and love upon opening.

As you see from the reviews this is a stable 4-star reviewed laptop. It's not the best of it's field, but it excels more than most in it's field. Plus the price is not in the 1000s like a MacBook or other SpectreXT models are.

It's extremely fast, once I got rid of the bloatware I was getting a 4-5 second reboot on high performance. Which is beyond extraordinary for anything 'PC' related. Battery life is great so far, HP site says "up to 5 hours" in battery life, which is low for an "ultra" book. Which probably explains the price a little bit. But for a user like me, I am not too worried and I did my research before buying.

This is not a touch screen laptop, which is what I wanted. It is perfectly optimized for a mouse too, which is nice.

Pros:

+ 120GB SSD*

+ 1600 DDR3 4GB RAM (surprised they used 1600 and not 1333, a big plus in my book)

+ Extremely fast boot time

+ back-lit keyboard

+ perfect keyboard for typing in my opinion, similar to a MacBook

+ it's just plain gorgeous looking

+ sound is great

+ touch-pad is outstanding

+ 3rd gen i5 is quick and responsive with Windows 8

+ screen has an amazing image

Cons:

battery life on high performance can certainly drain the battery (like all laptops)

* the SSD is a 120GB model, but formatted it's around ~113. However, the recovery drive takes ~20GB of space, and the OS and everything you need takes another 30GB. So in reality you are only getting 60-70GB of free space to use; even after bloat ware is gone. Take that with extreme caution.

I am not completely sold on Windows 8 yet with ultrabooks. Luckily you can press the Windows button and it goes into a Windows 7 like OS for easier use. I find Windows 8 is better suited for tablets and phones.

Please all, do your research before buying. Below I attached the official specs page of the 2150-nr. Please read, it's much more informative than the Amazon page.Thanks

Dell Inspiron i15R-2110sLV 15-Inch Laptop Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I just bought this laptop for my personal use for browsing, video chat etc.,. This laptop is really very user friendly and it consists of windows 8 and all applications were doing really great. I would strongly recommend this laptop.

Thanks,

Madhavan

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I bought this laptop in Christmas for my Dad, and e're very happy with it. It comes with Windows 8 pre-installed, 6GB RAM and the Core i3 processor, provides a very good performance in most applications.

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this laptop is quite reasonably priced and operates fast, efficient, and covers a lot of information I like having at my fingertips. Windows 8 is quite like a tablet layout. I like this laptop.

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I receiver the computer, connected it and would not work. I calem the dellservice and, after An. Hour of testing, they concludente the problem was the motherboard. I would need to approach a revive center and want 15 das for repair. I returned it immediately and amazon refunded me in no time. Great amazon!

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Not so sure about Windows 8, jury is still out if the "upgrade" to Windows 8 is worth it.

Over all the laptop is easy to use for day to day computing, surfing the web, looking at pictures etc.

The touch pad does take some getting used to.

Reviews of ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH72 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver

Customer Ratings:

June 7, 2012 Update: As one person pointed out, Asus is about the release the Zen Prime, or the second generation of the Zen Book. The following review pertains ONLY to the first generation. Some of it may still apply (I'm pretty certain Asus will still include a bucket load of crap bloatware) but as I haven't seen one I feel it's important to note it so I don't confuse people.

Also, as part of this update I'd like to say that I still have the Zen Book and I still like it. I've found that the keyboard is a bit touchy but works MUCH better if you put the thing on a hard, flat surface like a desk. Typing in your lap you may miss more keys than typing on a table or desk. In the time since this review first showed up, I've managed to put a couple of scratches in the spun aluminum lid of the machine as well. Obviously scratches make no real impact but they certainly do stand out. Everything else... pretty much still awesome!

Oh yeah, you can see the screen outside on a sunny day!

And now, back to my regularly scheduled (and unedited) review:

By now there are quite a few people reviewing these machines and there are some common themes. But before I get into it, for those that haven't really paid attention there are a number of models and you may wonder "Does THIS review for this model really apply to the one I'm looking at?"

The short answer is pretty much yes. There are really only a few variations and the biggest is how big the screen is. There's an 11 inch and a 13 inch. The other two variables are which processor you have and which hard drive you have. That's it. So for the most part a review for one model of Zenbook applies fairly well to all other models.

So, the common themes you may have seen in order:

1. The track pad sucks. No it doesn't. Per the recommendations I upgraded the driver and it works just fine. By default the cursor speed is slow but that is a simple setting in Windows. Once that was changed I've had no problems other than getting used to it. My old Toshiba had separate buttons so I got used to driving with one hand and clicking with the other. Because the buttons and pad are all one piece, when I try that it confuses the pad. Don't do that and it's fine. Two finger tap works great for a right click. So it does not suck. It's just different. People who are complaining about it either want it to be exactly like what they had or haven't even bothered to use it.

2. The keyboard is hard to type on/uncomfortable. It has taken me some getting used to. I'm a touch typist and can usually hit about 70 words a minute pretty regularly. The keys on this keyboard do take more force than on the Toshiba I'm replacing. But I'm not a featherweight typist so I haven't had much trouble. I do miss keys once in a while but it's not a problem for me. Mostly I miss the keys on the bottom row near the home keys. So cvb and nm, Also the keys are not back lit. Would be nice if they were but the screen is bright enough to see them without.

3. It comes with lots of junk pre-installed. Yes. It does. But so does every other factory computer I've ever purchased. Most I just uninstalled. Honestly there were more programs than I care for and it's a bit of a hassle to remove them but it's not a deal breaker for me. Just make sure you know what you're uninstalling as some are kind of necessary. For the record: HP's come with more junk thank this did.

4. Its wireless doesn't work. I have had ZERO problems. Missed the m) I took it out of the box and it connected to Boise State's wireless network immediately. Granted my office is less than 20 feet from the WAP. I updated the drivers and brought it home to my craptastic Lynksys G band router. It saw that and picked it up right away. It's got about the same signal strength as my Samsung Focus and my old Toshiba laptop. It's picked up every wireless signal I've tried to attach to without a single problem.

5. The edges are kind of sharp. Yes they are. It's not completely uncomfortable but it would be nice if they were rounded over. At least along the front edge where your wrists tend to be. They're not going to cut you but they can dig in a little (missed the l) bit.

Over all it's a great machine. It comes with a nice nylon bag/case to carry it in so before you buy the machine and a case check out what (missed the a) comes along with it.

The screen is nice. BRIGHT. Very bright I found myself turning that down a little as it's brighter than I like. But that's a nice change. Usually you turn screens up full to 10 and wish there was an 11. The fact that I'm down around 2 or 3 in a dark room and 5 or 6 in a lighter (missed the t) bodes well for use outside.

The audio is far nicer than a machine this size deserves. It's a little on the quiet side from what I came (missed the m) from but the sound is great. The Toshiba had larger speakers by Harmon/Kardon. By comparison this is a little quieter and has a slightly hollow sound but is not at all "tinny". The volume isn't as loud as the last laptop but the actual quality is great.

My actual biggest gripe is that on the 256 gig hard drive Asus actually partitioned the into a C: and a D: drive. It's an old school way of thinking which says software gets installed to C: and data gets saved to D:. In practice it doesn't work as well since Windows just likes to save stuff to your user library which by default is located in C:\Users. You can extend that library if you want but I chose to delete the D: partition and extend C: to the whole drive. I find that a better way of working. That's a personal preference and it took all of a minute to fix it.

So, is it a good machine? Absolutely. I got mine from BB because they were in stock. Does it have some faults? Yeah but what machine doesn't? The perfect machine for me may not be the perfect machine for you. Is it better than a MacBook Air? Depends on your preference. That's like asking if Ford is better than Chevy. From a purely objective point of view I'd have to argue that they're pretty much (missed the m) on par with each other. The ZenBook is a little cheaper, has a higher resolution screen and comes with a few extras the Mac doesn't. The Mac is... well it's a Mac and I have no idea why you'd spend extra because of that. I'm not a Mac guy. I can tell you that the two compared side by side have very similar stats so that's simply a matter of preference.

Over all, it's a good, well built machine with a lot of features, a good price point and a few flaws that I consider pretty small. For the record, I do IT work for Boise State so I see a LOT of laptops on my desk ranging from ultra cheap netbooks to the super high end MacBook Pro.

My personal choice said this was the best machine (missed the m) for me. It may not be for you but it's a great machine and I have no problems with 4.5 out of 5 stars. Fix the edges, reduce the needless software and maybe tweak the keyboard a bit and I'd give it a 5.

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I have purchased a UX31E and UX21E for my office with high hopes. If they were good enough, I was going to purchase several more for my staff. I very much wanted to like these ultrabooks. They look nice, the shell has a very solid feel and they were very light (which was very important to me, since I am usually out of my office a lot). The screen is very crisp and bright. I love the fast start-up times from boot and hibernate. I have read many reviews talking about how bad the touchpads were, but I figured it would eventually be fixed with driver updates, so I purchased these laptops anyway. There are two types of touchpads out their for these ultrabooks. Luckily both of the ones I ordered came with Elantech, which everyone seems to say is the better of the two. The first thing I did was go to Asus's web site and download the latest drivers. I had no problems with the touchpad or network connectivity that some have reported but that is probably because I updated the drivers first thing, which is supposed to solve those problems.

The performance of both machines were better than I expected, but I will say the UX21E had the faster hard drive. It came with 128GB SSD and after running some benchmarks, it showed it was much faster than the 256GB SSD in the UX31E. They probably were made by different manufactures, but I did not try to verify that. Battery life wasn't as good as I hoped, but certainly seemed to do a respectable 4-6 hours under constant use and much longer on standby. The variance in how long the battery lasted just dependied on how much of a workload I put on it. For instance, if I was just checking email and editing Office, Powerpoint & Excel files, then it would be closer to 6. But if used it for more intense workloads, then it would last closer to 4 hours.

After my initial testing, I wiped windows off of one of the machines and re-installed it from scratch to get rid of all the bloatware (extra programs that just take up space and slow performance of you machine. You probably don't even want to use most of those programs anyway). By doing so, I certainly saved a lot of hard drive space, which I needed on the 128GB SSD, but did not need on the 256GB SSD. The newly installed Windows 7 also seemed to run faster than the factory install, which I expected from what I said above. If you do reinstall windows, please go to Asus web site and download all the drivers for these laptops first and put them on some type of USB drive or memory stick for later install. Your ultrabook will not work well without installing a few of these Asus drivers (such as touchpad drivers, chipset drivers, USB drivers, wireless and USB ethernet drivers)

With all of that you are probably thinking this is a great laptop. I wish that were the case I wanted it to be so. But it has one major flaw that can not be fixed with a driver update. The keyboard is very sub-par. A keyboard is such a key part of any computer, it just has to work and work well, but this one doesn't which is unacceptable. While typing, I kept noticing that keys that I pressed were not registering. I kept having to back up and re-press the appropriate key. I am a fast typist and this was slowing me down tremendously. I found it very frustrating.

I then started testing to figure out why this was happening. I quickly noticed that if you hit the keys dead center, they all work. But if you press them on the corners, some work all the time and some work some of the time and some hardly ever work. I have never used a keyboard that would not work if you pressed the key off center except for keyboards that were years and years old and were starting to fail. I had this experience on both ultrabooks I bought (UX21E and UX31E). It was more pronounced on the 21E, but that was probably because it isn't a full size keyboard, so I would be more prone to not hitting the exact center on a smaller keyboard.

If you have this laptop, you can test this yourself. Just open up notepad or some other editor; press every key in the center and then in the corners. You will find many don't register the key presses very well in the corners, with some worse than others. When I did this test, I found each of the ultrabooks I bought had a different set of keys that were worse than the others, but both had the problem. Now if you are not a typist and only finger peck, you will probably hit dead center on all of the keys the majority of the time, so this won't effect you as much. If you are a slow typist to where you the exact center of the key 99% of the time or just pound the heck out of the keys when you type, then it will work more often for you than for me. But if you are a moderately fast to very fast typist and your key presses are average in pressure to light, then the keyboard on these laptops are going to be very frustrating to you. Most of the fast typists I know, including myself, press moderate to light on the keys, which helps them move their fingers to the next key faster and hence type faster. Everyone will sometimes not hit the direct center of the keys especially when typing very fast and we shouldn't have to!

I have NEVER typed on any keyboard that so poorly registered keystrokes. And as I said previously, since a keyboard is such a vital part of any computer it just must work and work flawlessly. Unfortunately the keyboards on the UX21 and UX31 are not good, so it is a showstopper for me. It is really disappointing. I really liked these laptops otherwise.

For Linux users, new laptops sometimes take a while to get fully supported under Linux to where they work well and it seems that is the case with these laptops as well. Besides Windows 7, I did also install Linux on these laptops. I installed Linux Mint 12, with kernel 3.0.0.12. The touchpad worked fine for me even two finger scrolling. I know most of the Ubuntu posts I read, said two finger scrolling doesn't work for them, which surprised me, since Mint uses Ubuntu repositories. But I am having no problem with the touchpad on Linux Mint. The only issues I have run into is that battery life is nowhere near as good on Linux Mint as it is on Windows 7 (with the Asus drivers installed) and I have had one sudden and unexplained shutdown on Linux Mint. When I installed the latest Ubuntu kernel, which is supposed to solve the poor battery life issue on Linux, the touchpad stopped working properly. So I decided to deal with the worse battery life and keep using the 3.0.0.12 kernel that came with Linux Mint, because a usable touchpad was more important to me that longer battery life. I know eventually (I expect this year) a new kernel will be released that enables both good touchpad use and long battery life, so I know my 2-3 hour battery life on Linux would improve later this year. I was willing to live with it until then.

Unfortunately, since the keyboard issue is not a driver issue, but just a poorly constructed keyboard, I also had a lot of missed key presses under Linux too. Because of the keyboard issue, I won't be using this laptop as my main laptop. It will go into the pool of laptops my office uses as floaters (a temporary use laptop that staff may borrow usually when they forget their regular one at home or it breaks).

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I won't harp on the appearance of the materials, font's used, etc. Yes the weight may be different then Asus has advertised, there are alot of variants of the machines in each form factor (ux21 or ux31) and this may explain the discrepancy in the specs. Either way the design is impressive and it is a stunning notebook.

Other reviewers have been accurate regarding the poor performance of the atheros 9485 wireless card. I have had a similar experience with my unit running it in it's unboxed condition.

I flashed the BIOS from 204 to 206 (using winflash), updated drivers for the sentellic track-pad, the atheros 9485 WiFi, bluetooth, and etc, removed alot of Asus bloatware, specifically "Power4Gear" & "LiveUpdate".

Now this thing is starting to impress me. Network card is running as fast as the netgear card on my PC. Track-pad is working as it's designed (although I'll admit it takes some practice to get accustomed to it).

It's hard to believe that people overreacted and sent them back before even updating the software. Do realize that you are what's considered an "early adopter" if you purchase the first machines off of the production line. If you don't realize this then you are unworthy of this machine, go get an apple.

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH72 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver

I read a lot of reviews of other models of this laptop while I was waiting for it to arrive in the mail and I began to worry that I had just spent a lot of money on something that was released prematurely and had a lot of design flaws. Let me just say that from my experience this has turned out to be not true. Like any new laptop you have to set it up to work best for you. If you don't want to spend the few seconds customizing it to your tastes then get a Mac. Apple works great out of the box but offers the user little in the way of customization.

1) The keyboard is fine. The keys are not misaligned. Although it does take about 10 minutes of getting used to a different layout, this is no different than any other new laptop. Laptop keyboards vary due to size differences. That is all. They keyboard is nice, comfortable and works well.

2)Bad internet connection: not true. If you are running off the battery the laptop goes into a power saving mode. However, you have the option of putting it back into high performance mode. The power saving mode is fine for word processing but if you want to use the internet and get your normal performance you need to switch it to high performance mode (Fn+Space). And even if you do run it in high performance mode while unplugged you still get 4 or 5 hours out of the battery, which is pretty amazing.

3) Track-pad issues: Better than the one I had on my Dell. Update the drivers and it is fine. In fact, I didn't even update the drivers for about 2 days and it was still fine. The one initial problem I had was that when I tried to scroll up or down (a two-finger swipe gesture) sometimes I would inadvertently zoom in or out on the page. This was corrected by a simple settings adjustment.

The ONLY design flaw I would even mention is that the power button is in the spot where you usually find the delete button. Kind of odd placement, but it hasn't been a problem yet.

All in all, a great machine with a great screen, great sound for a laptop and brilliantly fast.

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Hello everyone, I actually felt obligated to write a review about this Zenbook, it's fantastic!

My wife's netbook was stolen so I bought this one as a xmas gift, I think she'll be realle happy with it.

I'm a really techie guy, I'm constantly reading about technology and I also work on the field, so I know a thing or two about computers. At first, like many others, I had concerns about spending 1300+ on a computer which got many bad reviews, especially about the trackpad, but I can say that none of those are true, at least for me.

Of course it's inevitable to compare this to the Macbook Air, which I've worked on too, but I actually find this one to be a superior offer, so forgive me if I keep comparing the two.

Ok, first things first, the one I got is UX31E-DH72, it has the core i7 and 256GB SSD. From what I've read the difference in performance with the DH53, which has the core i5, is not really noticeable for the price difference, but I haven't used the DH53, so I really cannot make that assesment.

I wish the description of the product would be more detailed, especially about the items included in the box, because at first I didn't know about the adapters and I was actually going to buy a LAN adapter and the miniVGA-VGA adapter. Luckily, on the unboxing videos you can find on youtube, you will see that they are both provided in the box, which seems like a big plus to me. So, in the box you get the carrying bag, which is nice, a cleaning cloth (useful), the USB to LAN adapter, the miniVGA to VGA adapter (as well as a little carrying bag for both of them), the power adapter and the usual papers.

The box is really pretty, and I guess we would all agree that they kind of went Apple on those. Like I said, nice packaging.

The laptop itself is beautiful, made of aluminum, like you have surely read elsewhere, and it is delightfully light. I can really see someone taking this baby around all day with no complaints.

The laptop comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium x64, I went through the usual first startup just to test everything and see for myself if the trackpad had any issues out of the box. I'm glad to report that it worked flawlessly, not jumpy or anything, it actually felt great. My zenbook came with bios version 2.06, I was prepared to update because I read that all the trackpad issues were resolved with the update, but like I said, I had no issues with version 2.06. I still upgraded to bios 2.09, which is the latest available from Asus. I guess I should mention that my Zenbook has the Elantech trackpad, don't know if the Sentelic would be any different.

I had previously donwloaded all drivers and apps from Asus site because I was going to perform a clean install anyway, so I did. I had to do a clean install because I needed the OS in spanish, and I prefer to install the apps I need the way I like them. In my experience Asus laptops usually come with some bloatware, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the Zenbook.

So, all the windows updates, drivers, apps and everything installed smoothly. The laptop is very quick and responsive, and I think the Solid State Drive really makes a difference. The computer starts fast from cold boot in a breeze, and it is AMAZING with the Instant On app. Instant On makes it wake up in under two seconds, and I love it, it saves battery too, so you don't have to carry around the AC adapter everywhere. What you have to do is get in the habit of closing the laptop when you are not using it, and open it when you need it again. With Instant On you are back in your desktop in 2 secs, so there is no need to have the computer running all the time.

The keyboard seems great to me too. I agree that sometimes you miss a key stroke, and you have to press a little more, but it's not something that bothers me, like I said, it's a rare happening.

The screen resolution is great: 1600x900, so it is exactly widescreen (16:9), and I've enjoyed seeing movies, pictures and working on it. Since the screen is 13.3" some might find that using 1600x900 makes the letter too small, but that's not the case for me, I like it a lot.

Sound is fabulous, for a laptop that is, it usually isn't as rich or loud on laptops, it sounds great in this.

The trackpad is awesome. I really cannot stress enough the fact that it is not at all like some descriptions out there. The multi gestures are great, you can pinch to zoom in or out, you can tap to clik or right click, you can go back and forth in a browser or book, you can scroll up and down and sideways, you can tap and drag or click and drag, you can go directly to the desktop or bring up the open windows to change apps; all with finger gestures, and being so responsive as it is I haven't had any issues with it.

And now for the Macbook Air comparisons, I find it that this involves a lot of personal taste. If you are an apple guy then you'd prefer the Mac, and if you are a Windows guy I'm sure you'll prefer the Zenbook. For the sake of comparison I'm gonna compare the DH72 with the equivalent Macbook air, that is with a Mac with a core i7, 256 GB SSD, 4 GB RAM.

They are both really light and thin, and both made of aluminum, so like I said it is a matter of personal preference. The Asus, like I said, is beautiful, but then again also is the Macbook air, I personally think that the Air looks a little better.

The screen is definitely better in the Zenbook, 1600x900 as opposed to 1440x900 in the Air. I find that viewing angles are similar on both.

Sound is better on the Zenbook.

I think the keyboard is about the same, but if you are really picky about it then I guess you would find the Air better.

I prefer the trackpad in the Zenbook, not only it feels good, I'm a Windows guy and I need my right click, it really bothers me that you have to hold CTRL and click on a Mac. Tapping with both fingers in the Zenbook is great for righ clicking.

I think the ports are better on the Zenbook, 1xUSB3, 1xUSB2, miniVGA (adapter included), miniHDMI (buy cable separately), and Mic/Headphones.

The webcam is better in the Mac, this is really a weak point in Asus, they use the 0.3 MP camera in most of their laptops. And also the backlit keyboard is nice on the Mac, Zenbook's keyboard is not backlit.

And regarding performance, I really find it dumb to compare the two because one uses Windows and the other OS X, we all know that apple lovers say the OS is much better, it doesn't have any viruses and blah, blah. I actually think OS X is a great OS but I prefer Windows, again a matter of personal taste.

And finally, most of all, I just wouldn't spend the extra bucks for a Mac, being that I can get something better or equal for a lot less. If you want a Macbook Air similar as the DH72, you would have to buy the adapters for VGA, and LAN and you would pay about USD 1800, those USD 400 make a big difference to me, like I said, I wouldn't pay the extra money for the "Apple" experience.

Ok, just my two cents, hope you find it helpful.