Buy Dell Inspiron Special Edition i15Rse-1667ALU 15-Inch FHD 1080P

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $825.00
Sale Price: $749.99
Today's Bonus: 9% Off

Received my Dell 15R special edition in a fast time. It came in its dell box and also a Amazon box for shipping. The computer is pretty fast, nice graphics, still getting a hand on Windows 8 but overall computer is more that what i expected. Graphics card is switchable from Intel to AMD Radeon. This computer can change from playing a game (ex: Vegas 2 ) to skype or its desktop as if it was changing normal windows. Multitasking on it is incredible.

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I can play games what I like, though is not whatever games. I enjoy this computer but it is a little hot when you play games, but I just know that on software, I cannot feel it. It is ok! I love it! And it is really clear on screen.

Sony VAIO VPC-EE31FX/BJ 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black) Review

Customer Ratings:

I just got this laptop for $448 at Walmart and I love it. It looks a lot more expensive than it is, has more than enough power for everyday use and is loaded with features wireless Wi-Fi, webcam, 4 USB ports, HDMI, Sony assist feature for troubleshooting and maintaining the laptop and more. Coming from a 12 inch screen, the 15.6 inch screen is like looking at a flat screen TV. The speaker volume is nice and loud. It is realatively light weight, but at 5.9 lbs heavier than many. I do wish the battery life was longer. But so far, I'm lovin it.

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I purchased an Hp almost 2yrs ago. The motherboard went out on me twice, all though I was happy with my turion 64 dual core, I needed something more stable and I was done with HP at that point. After doing some research, I read that Athlons are actually best in desktop computers because they use more power but are faster than turions. When I compared the specs they seemed pretty equivalent to my old HP laptop which ran great with Windows 7. I guess the big seller with the turions was the 1mb cach, which I took note that this computer has as well. This computer however uses DDR3 which is faster than DDR2. I had 3gb in my old laptop with ddr2 and this has 3gb of ddr3... I want to say this is faster but it really is not.

I almost feel my turion had more of a zing when doing a lot of multi-processing. But all in all for the price you can't beat it. I mean I purchased this exact computer over the summer at walmart for 590 and ended up taking it back because I wasn't ready to spend that much yet again on a laptop when I just spent 700 on my hp 2 yrs ago..

As most store bought computers the manufacturer tends to load it up with their garbage "helpful" software, which really only slows the machine down more. I would recommend removing that useless stuff, but hey, if it doesn't effect you than no need.

Final thoughts, if you can get this computer for $449 it's a great deal. Jump on it, if I had one big complaint vs my hp it'd be the sound. The speaker quality could be better but hey for $449 can't have it all..

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VPC-EE31FX/BJ 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

Do not be dissuaded by the reviews giving this laptop only one or two stars. Most of those complain about characteristics common to almost all new laptops, like the position of the keypad; or they are based on comparisons between apples and oranges.

I like the full keyboard including a separate numerical keypad. But, that means everything is shifted to the left. Most new laptops are configured this way. But, it is hard to rest the computer on my lap and use it without cramping my wrists to one side. In addition, the vent slots on the bottom of the computer are placed so that there is no place I can rest the computer on my left knee without covering some of the vents. I have resolved both of these problems by placing a piece of Plexiglass on my lap and resting the computer on it. The computer felt hot on the bottom near the vents when I rested it on my lap, but when I rest it on the Plexiglass, it still feels cool, even after hours of use. The Plexiglass support also allows me to shift the placement of the computer so that I do not need to cramp my wrists to one side. I usually have this piece of Plexiglas with me to use as a writing board, anyway.

I am trying to restrict my comments to an evaluation of this computer without drifting into a review of Windows 7. Having said that, I used a computer with Vista on it and did not like Vista. Somehow, I am finding Windows 7 to be very nice, even though there are strong similarities between them. Already I have found some things easier to find and do than on Windows XP, like add a second keyboard configuration.

The keyboard is nicely responsive. The display is crisp and clear, even on battery. My old HP laptop went to a less bright display on battery. I have allowed the battery to go down until the low battery warning appeared, but did not time how long battery life is. I am guessing it is around three hours.

I am pleased that the larger, wider "letter box" format still allows the computer to fit into the bag I used earlier to carry my old laptop.

The touchpad can be programmed so that a tap to the upper left corner functions just like a right mouse button. It has taken a while, but I have finally learned how to find the right spot quickly. I let my finger slide over the corner around the touchpad and then lightly onto the touchpad. Then I simply raise my finger and the menus prompted by the right mouse button appear. I have also found the touchpad responds to the padded area below the tip of my index finger better than to the tip of my finger. There is no need to tap hard on the touchpad. It responds to electrical capacitance between it and your finger.

I know there are problems for synchronizing Palm Handhelds with Windows 7, since Palm handhelds ceased to be available well before Windows 7 was introduced. I was able to download a free copy of Palm Desktop Software, version 6.2 and it runs well on this laptop. My handheld is a Sony Clie' and I have a Sony Memory Stick card for backing up all of its data. My Sony Vaio computer has slots for memory cards, but neither of them accepts a Sony Memory Stick. My Clie' does not synchronize with the Palm desktop software, but I can export my Palm files to a thumb drive and load them onto my Sony laptop. To update calendar items without making duplicate entries, I delete the user name which deletes all entries. Then I can enter my user name again and load updated Palm files.

I do not play games, but surf the Internet and do word processing. The keyboard is very comfortable for continuous touch typing. This computer has plenty of power for what I do.

I know some have had difficulty installing a printer on computers using Windows 7, but I had no trouble at all. I am finding this is a great laptop. Surfing the 'Net is faster on the same wireless connection I have been using now for a couple of years.

I had some problems a few days after I got this computer. SONY's support people were very polite and helpful. I documented everything with e-mails to technical support. After a while it became clear to them that my hard drive was failing. They told me a local technician would contact me and replace the hard drive. He came to my house within the specified time frame promised by the technical service people. He also left the software installation discs. Those are a $40 item if purchased on-line. Hard drives are like water pumps on automobiles. They can last a long time, or they can fail shortly after installation. (I once had a new water pump fail within its first 100 miles.)

Overall, I am pleased with this computer. I have been using it for more than a year since the installation of the new hard drive. Not only has it been flawless, but it is a delight to use.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VPC-EE31FX/BJ 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

With a $400.00 budget I compared two laptops from W-mart, an Acer Aspire 7714Z-4643 with an Intel Pentium P6100 for $358.20 and the Sony VAIO VPCEE31FX/BJ AMD Athlon P340 for $403.20 both with 3GB of RAM. The Acer is a great deal and spec-wise is superior of the two with L3 cache and an excellent 17.3" screen in a very slim design.

I am not a gamer although I wanted something responsive and the Pentium 6100 with the L3 cache clearly benchmarks faster than the Athlon P340 but the VAIO uses ATI Radeon 4250 graphics. After using both laptops the Acer booted up noticeably faster although the VAIO appeared to perform more smoothly overall. They were both very responsive for my needs which are mainly to browse the web, use MS Word and Excel (The Starter Edition that does not expire is included), watch videos and listen to music from MS Media Center with the ability to multitask well.

I ended up keeping the VAIO because of the build quality, excellent island style keyboard with 10-key, great touchpad, and the included Sony software which I found very useful and enjoyable to use. One feature I like is Sony's VAIO Gate that conveniently places your favorite icons easily available from a neat drop down menu at the top of the screen.

The numeric keypad is great to have even though the touchpad will be off-centered, there's no way around it unless you want your left index finger at the [J] key and the right one at the [ ;] key on the home row. The VAIO 10-key configuration for a laptop is easy to adjust to and very efficient after just a short period of use.

Having installed Norton 360 internet security the VAIO still performs very well with no noticeable slowdown.

PROS:

+ Athlon P340 is plenty fast and responsive even without L3 cache.

+ Excellent build quality and feel.

+ Great screen with ATI Catalyst control center software for adjustments.

+ Comfortably responsive keyboard and touchpad.

+ I personally like Sony's software.

CONS:

Weak speakers. (bought a Logitech Z-305 sound bar which is amazing)

Only 3GB of RAM.

Glossy palm rest shows smudges and finger prints.

Textured touchpad has good feel but bumps may wear out over time.

Price is higher than the competition for relative specs although VAIO build quality is better.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO VPC-EE31FX/BJ 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

I have had this computer for about 16 months. It has been buggy from day 1, but I assumed it was a Windows 7 thing since it was relatively new when I bought the computer. I have finally decided it must be this computer. It won't shut down unless you force it to due to some Sony program running in the background. I have tried to figure out how to shut it off to no avail. The DVD drive has gone bad, the power cord has gone bad, and it randomly shuts down periodically. What a $500 lemon! Stay AWAY! I'm going back to Dell

Reviews of HP ENVY 15-j059nr Quad Edition 15" i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB W8

Customer Ratings:

Pros:

Great built quallity

Great specs

Amazing sound!!

Great screen (in despite you may find in youtube reviews)

Slim, actually it looks slimmer than it actually is)

Light (considering is a 15" model)

Cheap

Cons:

A little bit of flex on the keyboard. Not too much.. but..

A bit noisy... fan is always on (although you may deactivate this in bios)

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this is a great laptop, fast and HP!

HP has lots of software support, but 8 is a problem for those of us trained on

windows 3 through 7 (even 6 or Vista).

8.1 made it worse my VPN still works on 7, but not on 8??

light, fast and a large and fast hard drive

would have been nicer if HP had allowed me to design it on their site,

but I wasnot in the US to do that just then.

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Came dead on arrival. nothing on screen, no beeps... called HP.. spent three hours with tech support. No luck. Really nice laptop. design and build quality is great. Just that HP seems to be a bit low end compared to apple or even dell.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY 15-j059nr Quad Edition 15" i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB W8

I returned this computer without turning it on or activating it in any way. It had a scratch on the side of the case that was apparently there when it was packaged at the manufacturer. The packaging was adequate and undamaged. The seller was in no way responsible as this was drop-shipped to me directly from the manufacturer distributing center.

Reviews of Lenovo 15.6" Core i3 320GB HDD Notebook

Customer Ratings:

This computer worth the price. Easy to use,and the battery lasts long enough for more than 4 hours.I like it!

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We now have five notebooks, all have preformed as expected and no problems. We will purchase more when our company grows.

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At first, I thought it was a really good buy for a Thinkpad. Three months later, this thing is literally falling apart at the seams. Even the cheap Acer I had before lasted longer than this thing. Maybe I got one from a bad batch, but I will probably not buy from Lenovo or the seller(antonline) ever again.

Reviews of LENOVO EDGE SU7300 1.3G 3GB 320GB 13.3IN BT W7P GLOSS BLK (01964YU)

Customer Ratings:

I'll start with a quick synopsis behind the thought process that led me to buy this laptop. I've been using a 10" MSI Wind for the last two years to run Powerpoint presentations at work, connecting to the internet while traveling, and casual browsing while around the house (e.g. sitting on the balcony). However I found that after an hour or two of use, my eyes would feel tired and my hands would cramp from the small screen and keyboard. Not sure if it's a blessing or a curse, but my netbook was stolen in Ecuador this past summer while I was volunteering at a rural hospital. Thus I had a bulletproof reason to buy another notebook. From previous experience with a 14" Fujitsu Lifebook, I knew I wanted a 13" notebook. 13" is the perfect travel/business size in my opiniona screen and keyboard that is actually useful and doesn't strain your eyes/hands, and yet thin and light enough to be carried everywhere. I wanted Windows 7 because I have it on my desktop and love it (no ancient XP or bloated Vista, thank you very much). I didn't care about an optical drive since I download all my software directly. Lastly, I could only budget $500.

For a few months, I couldn't find anything less than $600-700. Then I stumbled upon this model by sequentially filtering Amazon's entire notebook catalog according to my criteria. At first I thought it was too good to be true for $480Amazon has it listed by the specs in the title (as opposed to a colloquial description), and then had no detailed specs on the product page itselfso I wasn't exactly sure what I would be getting. Since Amazon was selling it directly (i.e. not a 3rd party), and CNET's review of this model was very favorable, I decided to order it anyways. If it didn't meet the specs in the title I'd just return it. It took a month to arrive. To be fair, Amazon did state that the product would ship in 3-4 weeks. I imagine Amazon, like many other retailers that sell Lenovo, doesn't keep a large stock on hand and only reorders models as necessary. Unboxing was uneventful. Lenovo uses IKEA-style, 100% recyclable packagingkudos to them. Most importantly, the specs did indeed match the titlewhew!

Setting up the laptop was fairly easy. The Lenovo setup utility downloads both Windows and Thinkpad updates at once, a handy time-saver. The BIOS is also updated directly in Windows without having to create a flash boot disk or restarting the computervery cool. Also coolminimal bloatware! Just trial versions of Office 2010 and Norton Antivirus, which were uninstalled easy enough and replaced with OpenOffice and Avira. The hard drive is partitioned, with about 10GB devoted to the factory image. However, clicking the partition (or using the Thinkpad toolbox) opens a utility that lets you recover the partition entirely (assuming you've actually created the bootable recovery CD)again, a nice touch. With every other PC brand I've used, you have to install a partition manager to wrestle back your hard drive space. Of note, the recovery "CD" can be created on a DVD, external hard drive, or USB key, so don't panic if you don't have access to a portable optical drive. I'd recommend leaving the partition alone though10GB out of 320GB is nothing, and in case you lose/forget your recovery CD somewhere, you can restore the factory image directly from the Thinkpad BIOS. The screen looks fantastic with good color saturation. I would have preferred a matte screen instead of glossy, but if you view a lot of pictures and movies you'll appreciate the extra vibrancy. There is an HDMI port, which was a nice surprise, so you can play your digital media on your home monitor or TV. VGA, 3 USB, and a SDHC slot round out the ports. The chiclet keyboard is also fantastic. The keys feel solid and have a good throw, with no keyboard flex. You have a choice of using the TrackPoint or the touchpad, so everyone should be happy in this regard. Like another review here, I found the touchpad occasionally erratic; it sometimes doesn't register my movements and needs a few seconds to "wake-up" and move the mouse pointer. I'll have to double check the settings and driver and see if there's something that can be fixed. Speaker quality is typical for a laptopok for music and YouTube in an average room, but sounds tinny when cranked up all the way. Haven't really tested the battery extensively yet, but unplugging the AC adapter with a full battery shows about 6 hours remaining with Wi-Fi onmore than enough for a day's worth of computing (at least for me). For you battery fanatics, the Thinkpad toolbox lets you monitor the battery's inner workings (condition, current charge, cycles charged, etc). The build quality overall is top-notch and what you would expect from a Thinkpadno creaking parts, minimal seams, nice thick plastic, and good solid hinges on the lid.

Windows 7 Professional is installed. Probably overkill for a budget orientated laptop, but I suppose this is still a ThinkPad and marketed to business users. At least Lenovo managed to keep the price under $500. The Core 2 Duo processor and 3GB RAM run the OS very smoothly, I haven't run into any hiccups while multitasking. Some people might scoff at a non i3, i5, or Sandy Bridge processor, but it's hardly fair to compare a laptop that came out last year (and originally for $800 at that) to models that are being released now. For everyday computing like web browsing, email, Facebook, Skype, word processing, Netflix, etc, the C2D is more than adequate and runs circles around any Atom netbook processor.

So what don't I like? Very little, and I'm nitpicking at this point. I mentioned the sometimes erratic touchpad. The lid doesn't lock closed. "Classic" Thinkpad features such as the keyboard light and physical Toolbox button are omitted from the Edge models. I would have preferred Windows 7HP to save the extra premium of Professional. There are a lot of messages (and ads) from Lenovo to sift though in the toolbox. The included AC adapter is the old 'plain' model and not the new one with built-in USB charger ports.

Overall, I'm very happy with this laptop and will definitely be sticking with Thinkpads in the future. The combination of solid hardware and thoughtful software is just awesome and puts HP, Toshiba, Sony, etc to shame.

Some closing notes...If you're looking for a good case, I'm using this Case Logic VNA214 14.1-Inch Laptop Attache (Brown) It fits the notebook perfectly and has enough pockets for your usual accessories, but is still very slim and lightweight. You can find it for less than $20 if you shop around. Be sure to create the recovery "CD" before messing around with the 2nd partition. The picture on Amazon is NOT correct; the picture shown is the 15" model. The 13" Edge is much narrower and thinner than its bigger brothers. The keyboard nearly extends to the edges, and the keyboard and palm rest are all black, not black/silver as pictured here. Check Lenovo's website for actual photos, Amazon doesn't seem to grasp the difference even after I contacted them. Lastly, make sure the laptop you buy meets your actual needs. There's no point buying a laptop that doesn't include a feature you are looking for e.g. WWAN, and then complaining afterwards that the laptop doesn't meet your needsthat's chutzpah!

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I just received my Edge 13.3 and I'm impressed about how fast it is considering it has a low consumption (10 watt) processor. The first thing this laptop asked me to do right after the initial Windows setup was to update Lenovo tools and then update BIOS. I had to do it with a cable connection because the wireless radio coundn't be turned on. After the lenovo updates everything seems to be working fine. Will update after few days of use.

UPDATE: I think it is a matter of getting used to, but sometimes the touchpad feels too sensitive and some other times it seems to need more pressure from my fingertips. I'm using other laptop too, so maybe it is just me. Other than that, this small laptop works flawless and its quality is remarkable.

Best Deals for LENOVO EDGE SU7300 1.3G 3GB 320GB 13.3IN BT W7P GLOSS BLK (01964YU)

Just received my Thinkpad edge 13.3 my first impression was more than what i expected lenovo has kept their quality on this one the dual core processor and the battery life is excellent i actually charged the laptop 100% and checked the battery life it gave me close to 6 1/2 hours which is pretty good. The only drawback which is not a big concern is the glossy top is one of the reason i removed a 1 star in the ratings as your fingers can easily smudge it. Secondly i always wondered as to how come a laptop of this specifications for only $490 IT SOUNDED TOO GOOD OF A DEAL Well i did some inspection and noticed that it has a SIM card slot behind the battery for WIMAX & Mobile broadband but in fact the laptop does not have a WWAN card as this card costs approx $150 so there you go these were the 2 reasons i removed 1 star but overall the speed performance is great let me give you individual ratings below,

Speed : 4 Stars

Camera Quality : 4 Stars

Boot Up Time: 3 stars

Quality: 5 Stars

Hope this review helped i shall update further after i have reviewed it a little more.

Discount Hp Consumer 17 3 I3 2370m 750gb 6gb Win8 (c2m31ua#aba) -

Customer Ratings:

The wifi on mine works when it wants to, I've tried reinstalling the drivers etc. and it will go for awhile and then no internet connection. After checking online I found others having the same problem, so beware, and that it could be a Windows 8 compatibility issue, but there are no fixes at this time. So I'm left with an unreliable system as far as internet connections. HP products and support has declined dramatically over the years and as usual Windows has put out an operating system for the public to beta test. This will be the last one I buy.

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Cheap HP Pavilion dv7-4165dx AMD Phenom II Triple-Core N850(2.2GHz) 17.3"

Customer Ratings:

I got this from another vendor as 'refurbished' for a similar price to amazon's.

Screen: huge, glossy, lovely. 1600x900 17.3"

Keyboard: interestingly different than most. I don't know the name of what this tech is called. The keys are not butted up against each other but separated, flatter, straight/individual. I like it a lot and I bet it's great for people with big fingers (or poor typing) who might normally hit more than one key. I'm not fond of the arrow key approach (it shrinks up/down to fit together between left/right) but I'll adapt. Has number pad. Bummer though, the numlock key has no light on it nor on the dash so you have no idea if it's on or not. However, the wireless and the 'mute' alt-function buttons have tiny lights as does the left caps lock. Black keys, typical of nearly all laptops nowdays, which since I use my laptop at night in the dark--and use a diff keyboard during my job hours so my brain-patterns are always 'adapting'--drives me crazy. There are little glow in the dark stickers you can get for keyboards to help with this.

Dash controls: nothing but power button and touch pad, however, media controls are built into function keys with ALT usage.

Touch pad: upside: large, smooth, defined edge. downside: pain in the butt to try and click. Not reasonable for constant use. The alternate 'tap' function so far is incredibly inconsistent. I may need more time/practice. A whole lot of it apparently. That is quite bothersome. Previous reviews I read elsewhere griped about this also. I don't think it's enough to weigh against the merits of the machine which are many--I'd still buy it--but if you don't mind mice (USB) because you mostly use it on a flat surface, you might want to get one. Definitely be sure you go into control panel and mess with your settings. It does have the various options for scroll, zoom in, zoom out, and 3-finger launch which is neat.

Ports: all the standards, USB on both sides, multi-option media card reader. Power cord on right side, sticks out the normal amount for laptops (alas). Standard wireless for this day and age. 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN

Guts: has a pretty decent processor, 4G RAM (the main reason I got this). If you do advanced gaming or 3D animation you'd want something with a lot more speed and RAM, but I do basic graphics and database work and it's fine for all that. Hard drive is large (640G). Go get 'minitool partition wizard' from cnet (free) and you can split it into a few drive letters for more practical storage/scanning/searching/defragging. (Note: if MPW it won't let you create a partition due to 'no MBR keys', change the non-C 'primary' drives this HP has in place to 'logical' (right-click to do that), then it will.)

Peripherals: has mic, internal speakers, webcam. These don't seem special to me but I'm no expert on that. The optical drive is CD/DVD, Blue-Ray and Light-Scribe which is about as much as you can ask.

The case is actually lovely, metallic silver with fine lines of engraving. The back of the lid has the round HP logo that is lit up. I guess so either you can tell it's on when it's closed or just because it looks neat.

Power: typical AC plus a battery said to be much longer life than normal -and this despite the huge bright screen. I have not yet had cause to test this to verify it though. 9-Cell 93WHr Lithium-Ion Battery

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Other software: well it's a typical fairly low-end laptop. So you mostly have a bunch of crappy bloatware that wants registration and you should uninstall it and use quality open source based software instead, if clicking a link to uninstall (control panel is where you do that) or install something (once you download an install file to your hard drive) doesn't seem too challenging. Use MS IE to go get free Firefox and Chrome then close IE. Use one of those to go to CNet and get free Avast (an Anti Viral program). Reboot. Uninstall the junk you don't want. Install all the windows updates critically needed. Install the various free software you might want. (I recommend: OpenOffice suite for all the microsoft-like programs, free. 7Zip or WinZip utility. Music Monkey or Jet Audio free jukebox. FileZilla free FTP. When possible stick to download dotcom and cnet dotcom for s/w because they will make sure it is 'clean'.) Textpad is not a free editor but is 'nagware' and is a good customizable colorcode editor if you write code or do much in text. This PC does however come with some decent software free such as two Corel graphic/video programs and Roxio. (I prefer PhotoShop but I can't afford it so I only have it if I steal it. PSP is a good program though. I haven't seen the photo version but the graphics version actually has a photoshop-style interface option.) The microsoft office stuff this machine says it comes with is just to suck you into $. So try OpenOffice which is just as good. Or just use google docs if you're not too demanding and like the idea of being able to get to your stuff from any computer anywhere.

Warranty: mine came with 90 days and I bought an extra year, I'm not sure what amazon's options are.

I think this is a really good computer for the price. I have had every brand of basic laptop (the

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Pre-Owned iBook G4/1.33 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, 40 GB internal drive Review

Customer Ratings:

I've had a 12" iBook G4 since 2005 and it's still my favorite notebook for browsing the internet, writing letters, and even reading pdf's. It's very lightweight and I consider the screen the perfect size. It's held up very well. One of the keys has a hairline crack and one of the rubber feet on the bottom fell off but I clean it every month or so and it still looks almost new.

My only criticism is that it gets a little warm so I keep it on top of a clipboard when holding it in my lap. No viruses, no crashes, no worries.

When netbooks started becoming popular a couple of years ago, I had to laugh because I already have a lightweight, handy netbook. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Given a choice between a new Asus or Dell netbook or a used iBook G4 for the same price, I would take the G4 without thinking about it for a second.

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The service I recieved was grade A! The repesentatives were nice and to the point. All notification emails reflected no delay and did not include any attidue. It was a pleasure to do business.

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I purchased/ordered a laptop exactly like this one from discount mac depot, and after it arrived i was disappointed in the fact that it didnt work.....The unit would not boot up at all, would just show the ''gearwheel'' then would shut down. I emailed discount mac depot about the problem and was told to ''unplug it and plug it back in''......REALLY????? After that they simply refused to reply to any further emails from me about the problem

Honest reviews on Pre-Owned iBook G4/1.33 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, 40 GB internal drive

I was getting this for an employee since she needs it for work...just to read and send emails and calendar use so I wasnt looking for a magnificent machine. It showed up FILTHY and I couldnt get it to connect to the internet. I took it into Apple and they told me it was put together with random parts and paying to have it operational wouldnt be worth it because it would go awry somewhere else in the machine and never work properly. It was also password secured so some important areas couldnt be reached to change settings (like the date from 1962)which wouldve affected any updates in th future

The seller refunded most of the cost (sans 24 dollars or so for mailing it), which they requested I dont send it back

HP EliteBook 8770w C6Y85UT 17.3' LED Notebook - Intel - Core i7 Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $3,539.00
Sale Price: $2,690.25
Today's Bonus: 24% Off

This machine is built to withstand almost anything you through at it. The build quality and materials are exceptional. From a industrial design and manufacturing perspective, it is even nicer than a MacBook Pro.

I really like this machine, except for one issue, screen resolution. Apple has proven how beautiful and productive higher resolution displays can make even a laptop. Spending the extra money, weight, and bulk to get a 17.3 inch display should result in more room to work. Because the resolution on this machine is no higher than it is on 15 inch machines, you get a display that isn't as attractive and doesn't fit nearly as much content on it as it could with a higher resolution. This is especially important for content creators and for people that work in spreadsheets, but really it is an issue for all professional users. Apple gets this with their Retina displays, Google gets it with their Pixel laptop, and Dell gets it with their Ultra high resolution series of displays. Hopefully HP will make a higher resolution display available soon on their workstation class laptops.

The only excuse for the screen resolution on this machine is that most people are going to use it in a docking station with external monitors. I have mine attached to 2 Dell U2713HM Ultra High resolution displays. The screen resolution only bothers me when I am using this machine on the road, but then again, that is the whole reason I bought the 17.3 inch workstation.

When you are deciding on which machine to buy, I recommend you consider the screen resolution issue. A 15 inch or even 13 inch machine with similar specs and the same resolution display might save your back and shoulder some pain from lugging this heavy machine around.

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I've had my HP EliteBook 8770w 17.3 for almost 6 months now. I ordered it as a customized unit directly from HP they shipped it from the plant in China right to my door (which made FedEx tracker watching pretty interesting). I bought this as a backup to my home-office tower primarily because of Superstorm Sandy that knocked out power and cable internet for 10 days and I had no way of working. For that reason, I did include of couple of options that the off-the-shelf versions don't have, such as a 56K modem since I still have a copper POTS line that usually works in power failures, and in addition to the longer-life battery directly installed, I also ordered a pair of HP BB09 Notebook BatterySmart Buy (QK640UT) - these batteries are rated at up to 10 hours each when fully charged. This gives me a total of up to 25 hours of battery life... three 8-hour workdays... before a recharge is necessary.

As for the laptop itself, it's built to the same MIL-STD 810G that rugged cell phones meet, and is certified to remain functional after a 30-inch drop from a table/desk to a hard floor. The screen is matte-finish non-glare, and the keyboard (with a full numpad) is almost the size of a normal desktop keyboard, making it very comfortable to use. I don't need excessive disk space, so I went with a 120GB SSD, and 8GB of PC3-1600 RAM, along with a quad-core Intel i7-3720QM processor and AMD FirePro M4000 GDDR5 video. I ordered it with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit, same as my tower, and have the two units configured as identically as possible. I sync the key folders several times each month and keep the laptop updated, but thankfully haven't had the need to use it as a frontline unit much at all... just for a 2-week period of time earlier this year while I was waiting for a new tower that allowed me to get used to the laptop and Windows 8.

In addition to the regular AC charger, I purchased the HP 90W Smart Auto/truck Adapte so I can charge in my vehicle when needed. I also have the Kensington K62567US SP17 17-Inch Classic Sleeve Notebook Case (Black) which holds this laptop, all the batteries and chargers, a mouse, and a spare Cat5 cable with no stress.

To be fair, this is a large heavy-duty laptop that weighs a lot and is expected to see business use. It's not what you want for only occasional home use, or hardcore gaming. But it will most certainly fit the bill as a tower replacement or tower backup, and properly configured, can handle just about any business use you can dish out.

Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop Review

Customer Ratings:

I got mine last week..paid under $1000 from Amazon.

I love this. I am 47 so I need to use my magnifying glasses to view the screen but I expected that. The touch is very responsive. I have no trouble clicking links in internet explorer or scrolling by swiping the screen. The keyboard is pretty responsive although you have to be in a different position directly over the keys..unlike a 3d keyboard where you type more at an angle.

I did buy a stylus but havent needed to use it. I bought one of those tiny usb mouses and that has really helped to speed navigation. I have perfected a combo of the mouse the keyboard and touch that makes this device a productivity whiz.

The screen is amazing. the processor very speedy. Programs download and install quickly. Web surfing is fast.

As far as the dual screen, it is nice to open windows and split them. I have used the accelerometer when I have enarged windows using the pinch technique too large to view a whole window.. turning the device lets me see the bottom or viewing the page over the two windows does also. One tip maximizing with the keyboard open..the page goes under the keyboard so close it to see it! I didnt realize this right away.

Yes the fan is louder than expected but it is not on all the time and sounds almost like light static mroe than a fan.

If you are used to using an ipod touch you will love using windows in the same manner. If you are looking for a mini laptop this isnt really how it functions.

Bravo toshiba..this is the future of mobile computing!

Update Oct 6,2010.

Now that I have had a chance to play with this thing I absolutely love it! My favorite thing is reading kindle books..in full screen.. i open it like a tablet and it divides the page into an upper and lower screen. I find my reading is much more focused because I am not scanning an entire page..the hinge makes a great partition for brain concentration. It surfs the web amazingly fast.. I have grown to love Toshiba's bulletin board which I thought was hokey at first. Now that I am used to the finger mechanics i rarely use the usb mouse.

I took this to the car dealer today during my service and the car was done too fast lol! Much better than my ipo touch.. i just wish windows gadgets were more like apple apps. I updated my rating to 5 star!

Who am I?

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Ordered it via 2 day shipping, delivered today via UPS next day. It was defective out of the box. Called Toshiba tech support, spoke to Tier 1 (twice) and Tier 2. Toshiba USA DOESN'T support this product and at this time they don't know who will. The dual screen would not work.

Level 1 support gave me a number. It was a toll number and when I called it was "local computer store" in CA. (Did not to post the number to protect the poor store owner)

Called again and got Level 2, he too was not helpful.Said he would get Level 3 to call me. He "spoke to the higher ups in Toshiba" and has no answer or help at this time.

My case may be unique so here is my short summary (Based on 6 hours of use) .

PROS:

1. Looks Cool, great concept, dual screen

2. Small form factor

3. USB Port

4. External battery can be replaced

5. Inbuilt camera

6. Flash compatible.

CONS:

1. No tech support for now

2. Not sure if the defective machine is a software or hardware issue and if it limited to just this one computer.

3. No replacements in stock any where, if you have defective machine.

4. Expensive, for $1300 can get a lot of computer if you can live without the "Dual screen" and form factor

5. Touch screen has no stylus, if you have thick fingers you are out of luck, can't make it work, will keep hitting the wrong icon or text.

6. Noisy fan, (placed in the top screen), runs almost the minute you turn it on.

7. Speakers have a very weak output.

COMPARISON TO OTHER MACHINES

None to do so. Small form factor, dual touch screen. It would be a stretch to compare to iPad, but the iPad is cheaper, easy to use and in stock every where, but it has no dual screen, limited os, no USB, No flash

SUMMARY: I think I am going to return it to Amazon, defective product. Would suggest that buyers hold off this laptop. Save your money and buy something else.

UPDATE:

Trying to restore the device to make it work. No help from Tech Support.

UPDATE 2:

Toshiba has a utility that restores the device to the "out of box state"

Went ahead and did it as a last resort and finally after about a 15 minute process the the OS was reinstalled and that finally made the dual screen work.

Have now used it and seems to be working fine and have decided to hold on to it, and changed the rating to 2 stars.

Still no support from Toshiba. (They took down my numbers and never called me, apparently this is how Level 3 responds to you).

So for now NO SUPPORT.

In case somebody need's it like I did, here are steps: (are also in the manual). Prior to doing this please back up any info.

A)Turn off the computer.

B) Ensure that the power cord is plugged in

C) While holding down the Keyboard button (left side if the bottom screen, when using as a standard laptop configuration), turn on the computer.

D) Will turn on as a safe mode type screen.

E) Choose restore and then restore out of box and will ask that confirmation twice.

F) Need to choose "out of box restore"

The whole process will take about 15 min, is faster due to the SSD drive. It worked for me.

Best Deals for Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop

The Toshiba Libretto W100 (the W100 is the Japanese version with a WiMax radio and the W105 is the practically the same hardware sans WiMax sold in the US) is most exotic computer form factor to be released in years, Toshiba after all branded it a "concept" device. Whatever it is called or compared to (Nintendo DS, Courier, iPad) the W100 is a mix of the tried and true spiced with uniqueness while delivering a compelling product. For most people it is probably too expensive but there isn't any other device on the market this size that has this level of functionality, in essence it is a pound and a half miniature laptop with virtual input devices.

Build & Design

The most striking characteristic of the W100 is unquestionably its two 7" 1024x600 touchscreens housed in a diminutive clamshell package measuring 7.95" x 4.84" x 1.2", weighing 1.55 lbs. with the 4 cell battery and about 1.8 lbs. with the 8 cell power source. It's much smaller and lighter than the average 10" netbook and it'll easily fit in a woman's purse and even fits in some of my pants pockets. After reading other comments about the new Libretto I don't think enough emphasis is put on just how small and portable it truly is, arguably the coolest things about this device.

One design aspect to note is that the CPU and motherboard comprise the top of the unit, the reverse of practically all other clamshell computers. As a result the top does get warm, not scalding but not comfortable to hold for long periods of time especially if the unit is running hard. This issue is part of the reason why I don't think the Libretto's portrait mode is particularly useful, and the fact that the portrait orientation of 600x1024 simply doesn't work well for many things as the horizontal width is simply too narrow. I've read a lot of discussion about fan noise and while the fan is audible much of the time almost any amount of ambient sound will practically drown it out and when it's on my beside table it doesn't keep me awake at night while on. It's definitely a matter of individuality but the fan noise hasn't in any way impacted where or the way I use the W100.

Screen(s)

The W100's screens are centerpiece of the device since there's literally nothing else and they do the job well. They are based on Toshiba's TrueBright technology and have good brightness, color accuracy, viewing angles and text is laser sharp. In standard clamshell laptop mode the bottom screen can appear a little dark compared to the top screen but fortunately screen brightness can be set independently for each screen so it's possible to make the bottom screen brighter than the top and thus evening out the brightness. The screens are glossy so the W100 isn't good for outdoor use but it works as well as any laptop in shade.

Keyboard & Mouse

The virtual keyboard and mouse are most impressive and are controlled manually via the button on the left of the bottom screen; press it once to toggle the keyboard and quickly twice to toggle the mouse. Both work on either screen even simultaneously and they provide haptic feedback on both screens as well. The keyboard has six different layouts that allows it to be configured for optimum size and features based on the task at hand. I find typing on this keyboard MUCH better than any other touch screen keyboard I've tried and even with pretty big hands (I wear extra-large men's gloves) I can get 40+ WPM out of it. I typed this review on it and while it's not something I'd do normally writing large amounts of text on this device is practical if not entirely efficient but it's awesome for on the go and walking around typing.

The virtual track pad while virtual is very much like any physical track pad found in netbooks and laptops, many are just smooth surfaces these days anyway. Ironically the W100's track pad isn't multi-touch enabled and it is not quite as effective as the keyboard but it helps immensely by adding increased precision and comes in particularly handy in situations where apps are a little difficult to work with in Windows 7 given the small screens, the old argument that Windows doesn't work well on small screen devices is largely mitigated by the track pad.

Ports and Integrated Hardware

There aren't a lot expansion ports or integrated hardware in the W100 understandably but the necessities are here, one USB 2.0 port, a micro-SD slot, one 3.5mm headphone jack, two internal microphones and a decent one megapixel web cam good for video calls and conferencing. Perhaps the biggest thing not here is a video output but it should be possible to hook up an external monitor or projector via the USB port.

Performance

For a device of this size and the less than mighty 1.2 Ghz U5400 Pentium Ultra-Low Voltage processor and on-chip Intel HD graphics the W100 is rather speedy. The performance overall equals a modern entry level laptop and is much better than the typical Atom-based netbook. The 62GB SSD helps to boost disk I/O tasks significantly in many cases and as a result the Libretto boots, shuts down and goes in and comes out of sleep quickly. My informal tests show the W100 cold booting and becoming responsive in about 40 seconds and that's with a few startup apps loading. I've been running Office 2010 for the last three weeks, primarily Word, Excel and OneNote with zero performance issues.

Entertainment

The W100's strengths are geared towards productivity but it's not just all work, it serves well as a media player imbued with all the power of Windows so just about anything you could want in the world of media will be possible. I found 1080P playback to be spotty but everything 720P and below played well, including regular DVDs using an external DVD drive. And while the W100 doesn't afford the ability to play the latest high-end blockbuster PC games there are thousands of casual and Flash games that will work great including the touchscreen classic Plants vs. Zombies (PvZ). You may have to disable one of the screens however as in the case of PvZ, I'd recommend turning off the top as the bottom stays cooler and that's now easily accomplished in Windows 7 using the Win+P keys. The internal speaker is VERY weak however, even in a quiet room there's just not much volume coming from it so for most media playback headphones will be needed.

For the avid reader, Windows supports all of the major eBook sources including Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook which both have basic touch support in Windows 7 and will sync up and share content with other reading devices such as standalone Kindles and Nooks. None of the readers I've tried work well in portrait mode as they are not dual screen aware but they do work well in landscape mode using both screens. Any type of document that breaks naturally like a web page should work fine spanning both screens.

The W100 really shines as a mobile web browser especially if you have the Japanese W100 with a WiMax radio. Any browser, any plug in (Flash, Silverlight, etc.) and at PC speeds compared to mobile device speeds. A nice development in the browser world is the inclusion of Windows 7 features in Firefox 4 including multi-touch.

Productivity

The W100 runs Windows so its uses as a productivity tool are limited only by imagination and I won't go into much detail but it's all here, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc., any application that will run well on an entry level laptop with Intel integrated graphics. If you find working on a netbook (a very fast netbook) a productive experience then the W100 should work as well as long as the virtual input devices agree with you and of course there's always Bluetooth keyboard and mice.

Wireless

The W100 includes both a WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR radio but the W100 proper, the Japanese version includes a WiMax radio. If you're lucky to live in a 4G area like me and have a W100 you'll at least want to try it out, it's amazing how much faster Sprint's 4G compared to Verizon's 3G which I have had on my Tablet PCs for four years. 4G coupled with the Libretto's portability make it a fantastic device for mobile web browsing and other on the go network action. If you have a good signal you may find WiMax preferable to WiFi because it can often be faster.

Conclusion

If the Libretto W100 were in the $500 to $700 range I don't believe Toshiba would be able to make enough of them, it's unique design and its full Windows 7 OS put a lot functionality in a little package. At its current price it's hard to recommend and it certainly won't win any value product awards but its FAR more than an overpriced toy, it's a full function computer that can go anywhere and do most anything. If the battery life isn't an issue for you there's simply nothing currently that will match the W100's mobile productivity.

I love this device and I can't put it down.

Cons

Mediocre battery life

Doesn't work well in portrait mode

Fan noise will bother some

VERY weak internal speaker

Pros

Great overall performance

Good virtual keyboard and track pad

Exceptionally mobile

Integrated 4G provides fantastic network speeds for great on the go web browsing and streaming video

Honest reviews on Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop

This is an amazing item, i'm glad i didnt get anything defective. Mt libretto runs amazingly, the features are magnificent, and i love the sleek style of it!

I noticed they go for way more on here though....

I typically buy everything on amazon because i can find it cheaper, but this product turned out to be the opposite.

Toshiba's website sells this products for only 1,099.99 where as on here its going for 1,699.99.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba libretto W105-L251 7-Inch Dual Touchscreen Laptop

Look I'm not going to sit here and say the Libretto isn't flawless because it is. But what device isn't? They all have issues it is up to you to decide if you can deal with it or not. Clearly the Libretto is pricey and not everyone will be able to justify purchasing it and that's fine you have no arguments from me that is totally understandable.

The biggest complaint I have seen people talking about is the noise the fan makes. It is loud you can't dismiss that but me personally it doesn't bother me. The funny thing is my computer fan makes more noise and irritates me more compared to what the fan on the Libretto does. Unless you have super sensitive ears I don't think you will notice it much though unless you are in a super quiet room in my opinion maybe other Libretto's are different and thus it is hard to judge for sure just how loud the fan noise is.

The battery life is clearly a concern as well but I'm not sure what else they could have done to make it better. I think with technology as it is today and the punch they put in this little portable computer they did a fine job doing so. I'm sure as other models are developed they will learn and be able to do more but this is the result of a first run model.

The internal speaker is weak no doubt about that but it's made to be a portable device so just use some headphones and you should have no problems.

I also can see how people may have issues with Windows 7 and being a touchscreen yes it can be a struggle at first navigating the "start" menu and what not but I think the more you use it the better you will get it doesn't happen overnight just play around with it and learn to adjust to it.

Reviews of MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GT60 0NC-004US;9S7-16F311-004 15.6-Inch

Customer Ratings:

The beast inside just screams performance! You won't get any similar 15.6" gaming laptop with these specifications and price. You even have to pay almost double if you get another brand with the same specs!

Screen: excellent Full HD matte-type (prevents glares)

CPU: one of the first laptops to carry the 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Core i7s great value right there!

GPU: another one of the first few laptops to have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600M series (670M on this model) on this, you will be able to run most, if not, all current games on High settings, even the most demanding games to date.

RAM: 12GB with 1600MHz speed is more than enough to have, and on its current OS (Win7 HP), you can already max out its performance to 16GB (still expandable to 32GB but I don't see the point and the use for now)

HDD: 1 TB = 2 500GB in RAID 0 config is a great plus, boosting the performance and speed of your HDDs to almost double compared to a single setting config.

Sound: the sound system on this laptop is already the best out there, period. The clarity and the crispness of the sounds are very noticeable, and I am playing more music now than ever on this machine.

Keyboard: made by Steelseries, a renowned brand for high-quality keyboards the backlighting is a beaut, and fully-customizable lighting effects to boot!

Battery life: compared to a head-on competitor (one with an 8-cell only) the battery life of this machine lasts around double than the other the other averaging 1 hr 30mins vs 2 hrs 45mins on this thing... I couldn't be happier!

Overall, again with specs vs price, this laptop is currently the one with the best value out there across all 15"s. I heard they will release models of this and its bigger brother the GT70, with GTX675Ms and GTX680Ms soon, but that's a different story.

A very happy owner right here!

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So, i've had this laptop for over a month now. My desktop was 5 years old, and i needed a new work laptop. So, i was looking for a work and play computer which i have to take home every night. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights i have experienced:

Personal/Gaming PC:

I am a dj, and have been extremely happy with this computer for a few reasons. The sound card is 7.1, it is fast enough to run any audio program i have thrown at it, and the speakers and subwoofer sound very good. I also am a gaming junkie, and have enjoyed BF3 and Civ5 perfectly on this (two of the more graphic intensive games i play). I had to manually switch the discrete card on after the first time i booted up Civ5 and watched it perform only on low settings, realizing that was just the IvyBridge doing work. Regardless, i am happy i waited for the IB. I play games like Torchlight on the plane and in between, and the 4000 does great for the lower end stuff. Even DOTA2, which has poor programming considered, will run just fine on the IB. When you do use discrete, there are really only a few games it cant handle. There is a nice turbo button located just above the keyboard if you want to squeeze an extra 4% computing out of the processors, but its really unnecessary unless you are playing something extremely intensive.

Work:

When i first went to Fry's electronics, i was debating between MSi and Asus. I have 3 friends who bought the last ROG laptops and they all had great experiences. I was inbetween; MSi had significantly better guts than Asus for about $100 less; 2 raided 500 gig HD's, a better discrete card, and more memory? I didnt understand why Asus was lacking so much. So, i took a chance on the brand name after doing a little poking around. Since i am disconnecting at least 2 or 3 USB ports every day, and the power charger probably 2 times a day, i did buy an extended warranty for 3 years for $200. I did this before even taking the computer home. Even after this past month, i am not sure if it was money well spent or not. The case is very sturdy, it is very thick (which i like), and it is made of metal and hard plastic. I am uncertain on the soldering of the ports, so if anything goes out i believe it will be that as i use them multiple times per day. I upgraded to windows 7 business, and am very happy. i have had no connectivity problems with my business network, and have had an easier time getting on our domain than the company supplied laptops! they were able to fit a very nice numerical pad on this keyboard and i am thankful for that.

Keyboard:

The keyboard is really the worst part about the computer, unfortunately. Actually, not the whole keyboard, just the space bar. You have to hit it in the middle of the bar, or at least where the color lights are on it. anything to the outside of the two bars will not register the stroke even if the button presses down. it is a very attractive looking keyboard and the color changing options are easy and quick to navigate. I typically have a wave rainbow when at home, filtering across the keyboard through 5 colors, and quickly switch to red or blue while at work. I have gotten a lot of comments about how great it looks, which makes me so angry that this space bar can upset me so much!

Network card:

The wireless card is top notch. It picks up signal better than my previous external wireless adapter for my desktop, and seems to have a stronger connectivity throughout. Only good things so far. It also worked flawlessly when i went to Germany and Italy.

Weight:

IT. IS. HEAVY. This is a desktop replacement, make no mistake. This is not something you take everywhere with you; it goes from my home desk to my work desk, and not many other places. Still, its better than the old lan party says of a monitor plus a tower, so it beats that. But i would not recommend this to a student who wants to take it to every class to take notes on. Your back will not be happy with you!

Final thoughts:

One last reason i picked this MSi over the Asus was future-proofing: a maximum of 32 gigs of RAM can be installed as well as the ability to have both harddrive bays replaced and upgraded. The asus was maxed out at 12, and had one HD. A SSD will significantly improve the speed of your applications, so eventually i will take that plunge. But that it my point; i anticipate having this computer and improving it for the next 4 years. I can see the ASUS getting tired after about 2 years or so.

When i started this review, i had originally put 4 stars. After writing, it became clear to me that my only REAL complaint is about the space bar. At the conclusion, i bumped it up to a five. If you can get over the space bar issue, you will love the dollar for value of this computer. Just remember, this thing is meant for 2 places; it is not as a buddy you take everywhere! I am reservedly optimistic about the quality of hardware; it seems like it will last a long time but who really knows? Ive never had an MSi before, but i feel good about it since i got the extended warranty. Ive heard some horror stories about their customer service, so if you get a lemon i would just take it back to the retail store. If i ever do have a customer service experience, i will come back and update.

If you are a gamer on a budget, looking for a solid upgrade, you can feel confident in this guy. The screen looks pretty good, the webcam is good, and graphics are outstanding. I personally HDMI out to a 27" samsung LED when i game, and everything looks PHENOMENAL on it. For work, the screen does more than the trick. I am very happy with my purchase so far, and think others with the same mindset will feel the same.

Best Deals for MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GT60 0NC-004US;9S7-16F311-004 15.6-Inch

This thing just arrived the other day, and I gotta say I am impressed.

I was able to play Skyrim on "Ultra" with several graphics enhancement mods, at a good framerate.

Pros:

Very powerful (especially for the price!)

Nice keyboard (pretty lights and no flex anywhere, even space bar)

HD matte screen

OUTSTANDING speakers can get loud, and very decent quality for a laptop.

overall nice design, performance, and pricing.

Cons:

Don't like the way the power button "feels"

The mouse-pad and clicker are "meh"...

It is very heavy

Some bloatware (though it does ship with the Win 7 disc but I didn't want to do a clean install, just b/c I didn't want to mess with the RAID configuration).

The fan can be a bit noisy (I hesitate to put this here, because it really isn't tragic or that noticeable, it just is a very little bit louder than one might hope).

Overall so glad I got this awesome laptop!!!

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GT60 0NC-004US;9S7-16F311-004 15.6-Inch

Maybe I just got unlucky. I've never had a laptop with this many problems.

Out of the box I couldn't use any Windows Live clients because the network card blocked access. A few weeks later, a driver update fixed that. Ok. Driver problems happen.

Then trying to get many games to work properly with the Optimus graphics setup is just a giant pain the ass. And anything DX10 has serious problems no matter what I try.

So then RAID array started failing. And then the USB ports. And now the GPU has started hitting 95C.

I contacted MSI through the warranty website. They told me I had to take the laptop apart and replace the thermal compound under the heatsinks before they would consider warranty service. Of course doing that voids the warranty.

Not the quality or the customer service I expect after buying a $1600 laptop. Will never buy another MSI product.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GT60 0NC-004US;9S7-16F311-004 15.6-Inch

This computer is a great buy, but beware the chassis is somewhat flimsy. Every time I open my laptop I have to press the plastic piece down at the top (controls volume, wireless, etc) because it pops out. It is quite annoying. The plastic piece at the top is also very prone to scratching. I was cleaning it with a microfiber towel and it left minor scratches. I was able to scratch it very easily with my finger nail. Other than that the computer is very fast and equipped to run most of today's common programs. I would recommend it if the first two problems don't bother you. I also recommend backing up your data because the computer ships in RAID 0 (if you bought the model with two hard drives, not SSD). That means if you lose one of the two hard drives due to some malfunction, then your data is pretty much gone. I am able to run very graphic-intensive programs as well as virtual machines with no issues. You will need to update the BIOS (usually by flashing from DOS since MSI doesn't have a GUI installer for Windows 7 64 Bit) if you plan on virtualizing. All-in-all it is a great computer for the price.

Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14-Inch Ultrabook (Gun Metal Gray) Review

Customer Ratings:

I have owned the previous model Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830TG-6450 and upgraded to this model in the past few days -note that this review pertains to the same laptop I purchased from another retailer, although I did purchase a second one from Amazon for a friend.

I will post various technical specs that are not specified in Acer's specifications first:

Battery: Internal, same battery as in Acer Aspire M3 ultrabook, model AP12A3i (31CP7/67/90) 11.1V 4850mA, 54Wh

Hard disk drive (HDD): Western Digital Scorpio Blue, 2.5" SATA, WDC WD5000LPVT-22G33T0, 7mm height, not 9.5mm -replacement SSD must be 7mm height!!!

Optical disk drive (ODD): HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GU61N (9.5mm height), easy to swap with a UJ-232A or UJ-242A for Blu-Ray burning.

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE, Optimus-based, 384 shaders/CUDA cores, clocked at 500MHz, memory clocked at 10000MHz. v296.32 stock driver

SSD (mSATA PCI-E): Shows up as "SATA SSD" w/ firmware S5FAM014. Same as used in Acer Aspire M3 ultrabook -Acer P/N: KN.0200Q.002, also identified by SSE020GTTC0-S51 AM014

Webcam: "HD WebCam" VID_18CF PID_2C19

Touchpad: Synaptics -ACPI SYN1B60, compatible IDs: SYN1B00, SYN0002, PNP0F13

Ethernet: Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet -PCI\VEN_14E4 DEV_1692 SUBSYS_07121025

WiFi/Bluetooth: Qualcomm Atheros AR5BWB222, driver version 10.0.0.42, dated 2/23/2012, PCI\VEN_168C DEV_0034 SUBSYS_E052105B

Onboard audio: Realtek High Definition Audio ALC269 (82801G) chipset, driver date 4/10/2012, version 6.0.1.6612, VEN_10EC DEV_0269 SUBSYS_10250713

A/C adapter: LITEON PA-1650-69, output: 19V DC, 3.42A, 65W max, either blocks vents slightly or ports a bit due to right-angle connection.

Backlit keyboard can be enabled/disabled via Fn+F9 key.

Processor Tj. Max is 105 C.

The 20GB SSD has a 4GB hibernation partition (which will have to be changed if RAM is upgraded) and a 14.64 GB partition used for caching via installed ExpressCache software from Diskeeper. There is a 16GB hidden recovery partition on 500 GB HDD from which DVD recovery media and drivers DVD can be created via Acer eRecovery Management.

Acer's free 'Theft Shield' solution seems to only provide an audible alarm if laptop is carried away more than a few feet from a connected Wi-Fi hotspot -I am assuming it used WiFi signal strength as a trigger, and if it detects a noticeable change (caused from movement), it sounds an audible alarm from the system speakers.

In order to use the hardware-based Intel Anti-Theft (AT) feature, activation codes may be purchased separately (~$25 1yr, ~$40 3yr). The item descriptions/part numbers for US market are:

BXIATSC1YRENG Intel Anti-Theft Service Activation Code Card 1YR English Retail

BXIATSC3YRENG Intel Anti-Theft Service Activation Code Card 3YR English Retail

In addition, Acer included a URL link on the Windows 7 Start Menu for a trial of McAfee branded Intel AT service, which I just enrolled in. The way it works is that the downloadable software client that gets installed upon activation via your web browser synchronizes with the server to check for the existence of a lock activated via web browser or (good luck with this one!) phone support. After a few painful phone conversations with phone representatives -first at McAfee support, then at Intel Anti-Theft support, one stated that the activation period for the service was for the duration of ownership of the product. I still doubt that, given that the terms & conditions I revisited when I signed up mention that if no term is given it would be for 1 year, so I am assuming that is how long it will really last, but we'll see.

Anyway, so if the anti-theft software syncs with the server and finds an existing lock in place, it immediately powers off the computer and sets the lock flag. When powering up the computer again, you are greeted with a screen that it is locked. The web interface permits you to customize with a short message with (presumably) contact information to return the laptop to you, but you could put any text in that field. In addition, via the web interface, you can set a pre-defined lock time choosing from disabled or 3-30 days in 1 day increments -so if the PC does not sync with the servers via an internet connection for that amount of time, it will lock itself the same way as explained before. By default, the pre-defined lock time is 21 days.

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Now for the actual review -I purchased this because I needed/wanted a portable NVIDIA Kepler based workstation for developing CUDA code. Currently (as of 07/12/2012), NVIDIA has a Verde 304.79 driver that supports CUDA 5 Preview -there will eventually be a non-beta driver, but in the meantime this driver works for my purposes. Access to the DDR3 memory slot requires removing all the back screws and using a platic pry tool in order to open up the top case, in addition to removing at least 3 Zero-Insertion Force (ZIF) connectors for keyboard, keyboard backlight (KB) and touchpad (TP), which are all in the bottom part of the case, so pry and lift from the LCD side. Be very careful, as it is VERY easy to break these type of ZIF locking connectors. Disconnect the battery cable also, just to be on the safe side. Replacing the HDD with SSD is possible, but also requires taking the daughterboard (DB) that contains the SD slot/headphone/mic port out -held by two small screws, as one HDD screw is underneath it.

Replacing the ODD is easy, just one screw holds it in. However, I suggest being VERY careful while removing/replacing the ODD, the standoff holding the drive became loose on the laptop I purchased from the previous retailer -it is held down poorly to a thin piece of metal attached to the bottom of the palmrest, boo Acer! I successfully used super-glue to re-attach it, but it is not an easy task, it took a few tries. If you are replacing the drive with another one, check the thickness -if it is just a little bit more thick, remove the top cover entirely, put the drive in place with the screw bracket over the standoff, and screw everything back together. That way the standoff does not have force applied to its side, and is MUCH less prone to breaking off. In fact, I'd say loosed all the other bottom screws before attempting to take the ODD out in the first place. It's a tight fit... that's what she said! ;) For that matter all the clearances/lengths of FFCs/ZIF sockets are very close and not much give is left, it is good to keep in mind if you decide to open up the system for upgrades/repasting or some other reason.

I figured this hardware review would help any tech-inclined people that want to try to Hackintosh this or use Ubuntu/some flavor of Linux.

Unlike the previous TimelineX generation that throttled the CPU to avoid overheating, the M5-481TG seems to throttle/downclock the GPU to 270 MHz. This proved acceptable in my initial testing with Heroes of Might and Magic VI and Metro 2033, as gameplay was decently responsive, even at the highest settings. (Caveat, New Game/Load/Quit screen of Metro 2033 had black bands when using DirectX 11, changing to DirectX 10 fixed this -probably a driver issue). In my opinion throttling and not the greatest ever panel are the true downfalls of this laptop, and account for my 1 star deduction. Other than that, I think this one is a keeper for a while!

Not-so-technical review -The touchpad can be very fluid, especially with a lighter touch. I'm still getting used to physical buttons being part of the touchpad, so I cannot comment much. There does not seem to be any flex on the keyboard -it is screwed into the palmrest/top cover from the inside with plenty of small screws. There is, however, some slight flex along the top part of the palmrest, but nothing that creaks/cracks. Viewing angles for the LCD screen could be better, but for a laptop that's about 1/3 of the price of a MacBook Pro model with Kepler graphics there had to be some compromise.

The SSD hard drive caching the HDD is nice if you're not used to SSD speeds -I am, and it feels slow. ;) I mistakenly ordered a regular form factor (9.5mm height) SSD to use, only to realize that the HDD is a low-profile 7mm height. I was able to return it and purchase SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC256B/WW, given it is a 7mm height, and will fit. I have used Crucial M4s and Plextor M3s, but this Samsung sounds quite promising, and faster write speeds compared to the others, so it's a worthwhile upgrade.

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I like Acer as they usually make very solid products for the price and have much better support that Lenovo... But sadly there is just something very wrong with the 14 inch M5-481TG-6814 model.

While the notebook is still good value for the money, playing some of the more recent games at higher settings will utterly destroy it AND there seems to be no sort of built in overheat protection. Planetside 2 and The Secret World, while not too graphically intensive will bring this ultrabook to it's knees.

Using it as an actual laptop (the way it's meant to be used) results in damaging the system, however these problems go away with a very cheap add on. This is one of the few notebooks where I absolutely MUST suggest that you also get a decent laptop cooler.

The Good:

About 6-7 hours playtime when doing anything but gaming.

USB 3.0.

Third gen Intel CPU + GPU.

HDMI.

SSD for (almost) INSTANT on!

Full sized back-lit keyboard!

14", lightweight form factor.

Great price if purchased elsewhere (I got mine slightly cheaper and with a $100 gift card).

Good sound for such a small notebook.

RAM can be expended to 10GB (with an extra 8GB stick).

Fairly powerful Nvidia GPU.

The Bad:

Only ONE slot for a RAM upgrade (the other 2GB is built in).

Comes with a lot of pre-installed useless software (bloatware).

The 20GB of SSD is NOT accessible. Yeah, that's right. No idea behind the reasoning on this one.

It gets hot REAL fast if you start gaming. To the point of actually burning your lap. This is the hottest notebook I have ever owned, and I had plenty.

Flaky wireless. Lots of dropped packets. Fixed easily and cheaply by buying another adapter.

Replacing the HDD, WiFi card, or even RAM requires unscrewing over a dozen screws (around 14 to 16 actually).

Screen resolution is limited to 1366 x 768. This is a WASTE of the powerful Nvidia GPU in this unit (which is good at overclocking, but should not be because of the intense heat the laptop already experiences).

While playing graphically intensive games, this laptop's tiny three cell battery becomes nearly useless. You will get a few hours (at most) of gaming done unless the system is plugged in.

The Ugly:

My first M5-481TG-6814 worked great during my initial Planetside 2 playsession. After about three hours of gaming, it got so hot that it shut down. Turning it back on failed. It just died. Since it was still during my first week of purchase, I contacted the Egg and had them replace it.

This time I bought a single fan, low profile cooling pad to keep it on. My second M5-481TG-6814 still got a bit hot and eventually the screen started to artifact while gaming (at least it didn't shut down by itself). Restarting would fix it for a while, only to have the problems reappear in a few more minutes of gaming.

The third (and I hope final 6814) is sitting on a dual fan cooling pad, which rises quite a bit higher and keeps it relatively cool. No issues so far (for a few weeks now actually), but the trade off is that this ultrabook is now not nearly as mobile as it was designed to be.

Conclusion:

If you are in the market for a laptop that you can use just for browsing the web, watching movies, and word processing do yourself a favor and get something (much) cheaper.

If you are in the market for a gaming ultrabook, the Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 is a good purchase for the price, just do yourself a favor and buy a nice cooling pad...Or you could get a much nicer desktop at a fraction of the cost, since with a giant pad this thing becomes a monster (defeating the ultrabook purpose).

If they just solved the heat issue (by adding more/better fans and better heatsink), this would easily be the best ultrabook for the money.

UPDATE --I ended up returning this ultrabook because the massive cooler prevented it from really being mobile. For $120 more, I got a much better (and cooler) machine. It also came with a GT 640M LE, and I managed to overclock it to 850MHZ (with a simple bios flash), allowing me to play all the games I wanted at maximum settings.

Best Deals for Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14-Inch Ultrabook (Gun Metal Gray)

14" Acer Aspire TimelineU M5

3rd gen Intel i5

4gb RAM (max is 6gb)

Nvidia Geforce GT 640M LE 1gb DDR5

Honest reviews on Acer TimelineU M5-481TG-6814 14-Inch Ultrabook (Gun Metal Gray)

I'm not too ashamed to admit that I mostly chose this laptop for it's low price and ability to play Guild Wars 2. The laptop boosts very fast and plays GW2 on medium setting very smooth and nicely. I tried it on the highest setting as well, although the graphics was great, the game play slowed down a lot. The LED lit keyboard makes it great for working in the dark. However, there are a couple of things that really bugs me about this laptop.

1. Connection to Wifi. Compared to the three other laptops in my house (Toshiba, Dell, and ASUS), this computer has issues getting enough wifi signal. I have to sit very close to the router for the wifi bar go to fill up. If I'm downstairs, it's connection will be very weak and sometimes with no signal.

2. Overheating. The fan is located on the top right side of the laptop. It overheats to a point where it burns my skin. I use a cooling pad with it to reduce the overheating, but that greatly reduces the laptop's portability.

3. Only two USB connections and they are both in the back. This is not very convenient at all! My boyfriend got me a USB hub to go with it...but it's such a pain in the butt =(

However, overall, this is a great product! The smooth surface makes it great for laptop decals! :D

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Pros: The best thing about this ultratop (half ultrabook, half laptop) is the large amount of features wrapped around a sexy aluminum shell.

-CPU-

The 3rd generation Core i5 allows for great battery life but overclocks itself to gain horsepower when you need it.

-GPU-

The main deciding factor in me buying this laptop is the Nvidia 640m 1gb video card. It's a powerhouse that can handle almost anything you throw at it. I've tried out crysis on High, Max Payne 3 on high, home front on medium, portal 2 on high all with no struggle at all. This laptop comes with nvidia optimus so it only uses the nvidia card when you need the processing power. The other 95% of the time it uses the on board Intel 4000 graphics card as an energy saving measure.

-Size & Shape-

This laptop is very small under an inch but very dense. It's technically a ultra book but with a DVD drive. The aluminum skin allows the computer to stay clean.

Cons: The upgrade capability is nonexistent, there are no user replaceable parts on this laptop including the battery which i confirmed with Acer. The non removable battery is an non-issue because it is a lithium polymer battery with a lifespan of ~ 4 years.

I upgraded the ram to the 6gb limit and it required me to remove ~12 screws on the bottom and hold the keyboard panel up while i swapped out the ram stick since there are ribbons connecting the mouse pad and keyboard holding both halves together. It has 2 GB stick that is integrated on the motherboard but it has a single ram slot which can be upgraded.

The reason why I wanted to upgrade the ram is when the computer is using the Intel integrated video card it takes ram away from your computer giving a high idle ram usage ~ 75%, which makes things somewhat slow for multitasking. This is a non-issue during gaming because when using the nvidia dedicated card it has its own ram and frees up the ram used by the Intel card.

Other Thoughts: --Pros Continued--

-Sound-

The sound is amazing using the Dolby home theater sound system. It generates very loud and rich noise that will fill a good sized room.

-Keyboard-

I like the island keyboard, it makes typing a enjoyable experience. The back-lit feature is very nice and adds to the luxuriousness.

-Ports-

I only has 2 USB 3.0 which is alright considering its part ultra book, but also has a HDMI and Ethernet port. I use the HDMI port to connect to my 39" television as a monitor which gets around the whole low resolution laptop screen that most people are complaining about. The screen can only display 1366x768 but can output higher though HDMI.

-Hard Disk-

Nothing too special about the normal disk drive but the 20gb SSD is mostly hype. It only used during the boot up, hibernation and standby processes and does nothing during actual computer use.

Overall I love my new Acer and have no regrets!

Reviews of Sony VAIO S Series SVS1311BFXW 13.3-Inch Laptop (White)

Customer Ratings:

This is my second vaio. after going through all the options on amazon i chose this one for the smaller size and significantly lighter weight than my last one. I decided that since i use the laptop mostly in bed or travel the size and weight was the first priority. I love how light it is and the battery life is amazing. My last one got down to about an hour and this is such an improvment. My only real complaint and it is a big one is the track pad. It is so annoying. Instead of the traditional pc right and left click buttons they have emulated the mac style trackpad and it is a disaster. So what if you can swipe, flip pictures and pinch the screen bigger and smaller when everytime you just want to click on a hyperlink or open a new tab it left clicks when you want to right and vise/versa. There doesn't seem to be a consistant place on the pad where you can guarantee it's going to do what you want it to do. When I bought my son his second vaio i made sure it had the traditional split keys below the track pad because it would have driven crazy. I wish I had known but i'm suffering through since i like everything about it. you have been warned!

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I've only been using it a few weeks, but I'm happy with the purchase.

I needed to make a few adjustments to become happy, though. Out of the box, it was VERY slow for an i5, mostly due to the Sony bloatware. Even after I removed the majority of the Sony bloatware, it still didn't seem as quick as it should be. I decided to upgrade the HDD to a solid state drive. I put in an Intel 520 series 180 GB, which although is smaller, it's more than I need for a part time portable laptop (I did check with Sony and they indicated swapping out the HDD would void the warranty, but if I had issues I could easily put the old one back in for service). I also added in another 8 GB memory chip (12 GB total now). The SSD and more RAM difference was huge. The laptop is now MUCH quicker and boots up and shuts down in less than 15-20 seconds.

Overall, it's hard to call it an ultrabook at 3.8 pounds, but it is very light and portal for a laptop that has an optical drive. I agree with others that most of the time, you don't really use an optical drive on a laptop, but it sure is better to have a built-in one than external on the few times you usually need it.

The display is a matte finish and more than adequete. I've seen clearer displays with a gloss screen, but it's clear enough, plus you don't get and glare or reflections with the matte finish. I like the white finish more than I originally thought I would. I also like the back-lit keyboard, but if I did have a complaint about it, it would be using it during the day. The keyboard keys are gray and the light is white. If it is not substantially dark, it is hard to read the keys. There are settings so you can set to only turn on the back-lit light when it detects darkness.

The mouse pad is a little sensitive, but after using it for a little while. It's not the best I've ever used (MacBook), but it's not the worst I've ever used.

I picked up the laptop during Amazon's lightning deals during Thanksgiving, and I'm happy with the purchase for $629. For me it was between this laptop and a ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH52. The ASUS lost out due to being $300 more, having Windows 8, had so-so reviews (a lot of complaints about touchpad), and there seemed to be some concern that HDD's were harder to upgrade due to proprietary connectors.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO S Series SVS1311BFXW 13.3-Inch Laptop (White)

Get rid of the bloatware and you're good. Be warned though, these Sony power supplies will die on you. Not sure why but everyone I know who has a Vaio has had to buy another one.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO S Series SVS1311BFXW 13.3-Inch Laptop (White)

i bought this computer from Amazon warehouse in used-very good condition. i am extremely happy with the physical condition of the laptop. it looks brand new and the laptop itself is beautiful. i absolutely love the white, and it's the perfect size. now to the frustrating part... windows had been reinstalled so it isn't factory. none of the Sony drivers were included... this sucks, because there are quite a few features that won't work without them. for instance, the track pad was awful, painfully slow, and wouldn't do any of the things described (pinch to zoom etc) until i installed the proper driver from Sony support. missing battery drivers keep forcing hibernation. i couldn't even follow the steps in the start up guide because none of the top buttons will work without drivers. there are numerous other drivers that need to be downloaded as well, and some of them just won't install without the factory version of windows. I've had the laptop for 3 days now and I've spent those days chatting, emailing, and phoning Sony support trying to resolve issues without much luck. i really do love it, but i think i might have to return it if i can't get it running properly... also, if you are expecting any of the software mentioned in the description, it's not there either... I'd love to just do a clean factory reset, but you have to buy the disks from Sony, and i wasn't really expecting to have to put this much time and money into something i was planning on enjoying right out of the box.

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Nice laptop. Color is simply awesome. Everything is great except the starting sound which freak out at times. that scratching sound is annoying.