Cheap MSI Computer Corp. GT60 0NE-403US;9S7-16F311-403 15.6-Inch Laptop

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List Price: $1,799.99
Sale Price: $1,661.16
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

GT60-ONE

Just a little backround, I build my own computers and also do so for my friends and family, probably about 20 or so over the years. I am not a professional, nor do i claim to be any type of expert, however i do have a decent amount of insight and knowledge in modern PCs. I also do a lot of research on the components i buy.

First let me start with the Cons, so you know upfront what you are dealing with.

This laptop is quite large and heavy for a 15/16 inch laptop, which is to be expected for a gaming laptop. The laptop is about the size of most normal 17" laptops. It is about 15 3/8"W x 10 7/16"D x 1 9/16 in the front to 2 1/8"H -this includes the feet in the rear. Whether you deem this "portable" is based on personal preference and uses. For me, being basically a portable Desktop that i can take to other locations, it is definetly portable and i dont mind carrying this around. (I have a tablet and a phone to use for light web surfing/social/media applications/checking scores etc)

The power brick is also quite large but yet a little slim at 6 3/4"x 3 1/4" x 1 9/16". You should basically expect to use most 17" laptop bags/carrying cases/backpacks.

Turbo Fan setting is loud, I would liken it to tower style fan (home fan, not desktop tower) on high setting loud. However while the noise level gets up there, it isnt irratating loud and has very little whine to it IMO. Seems like a great feature to use while alone and using headphones as the cooling boost is nice. Of course this can be turned on/off very easily

Windows 8.... still havn't found a reason to like it, it feels a bit more clunky to use than Windows 7. I am debating installing windows 7 back onto this computer.

No SSD, for the price it is debatable whether this is a negative, I installed my own SSD on the side so i can have a boot 250GB ssd and use the 750GB as a disk drive. Performance does suffer compared to any SSD laptop, so for the price i would definetly recommend an SSD.

There is shiny plastic around the screen, which sometimes can be annoying if it gets hit with the right light angle.

So with all of that said, here is what you get.

For basically $1900 -$2000 w/Mail in rebate (price of SSD included) you get:

GTX680M probably the reason most of you are looking at this laptop, It is also the 4GB version. This thing performs. Dont expect 680 Desktop performance, but for something you can carry around, you play most games at Ultra, or high and get great FPS. My 3Dmark 11 (No Overclocking) scores are about 6200 or 3000 or so less compared to my Ivy I7 GTX670 4GBVRAM Desktop. Keep in mind my desktop graphics car alone is probably 1/3 the size of this entire computer!

Optimus I get between 2 1/2 Hours to 3 1/2 hours off the plug depending what am doing. Keep in mind though that performance is throttled down when off the plug, so dont expect full performance off the plug. To me this is exceptional for a gaming laptop with desktop performance.

I7 3630QM slight upgrade from standard I7 Ivy QM, probably not much difference, but nice upgrade.

12GB Ram dont need to put extra ram in which saves some $.

15.6" 1080P Matte HD screen This screen is really really nice. Comapred to my desktop screens which are samsung LED's of last year, the screen on my laptop is noticibly better. It is bright, and clear, and most importantly has no glare (switching from an Alienware this is a huge difference). It is not one of those 95% NTSC High Gamut screens, however it also does not need color calibration programs which can be tricky to operate in some games and look off without proper calibration software, and also all of these screens cost extra on top if you buy Clevo Chassis Laptops.

Steel Series Keyboard this is one of those preferences, but i like the keyboard, it has a nice feel to it, and the backlight and customization are nice. Keys aren't quite full mechanical, but also not close to mushy like a lot of other laptops, a little firmer than my alienware which i liked for gaming. The keys have to me a 3/4 satisfying click of a mechanical keyboard id say, which is pretty darn good for a laptop keyboard.

Blu-Ray Burner! Pretty awesome to have a blu-ray burner not that i would burn any movies or anything. I think all nice laptops these days should come standard with atleast a blu-ray player. It is definetly a plus to be able to watch blu-rays on this nice of screen on the road without having to carry an extra drive. Also Blu-ray Disk rewrittables anyone?

Dynaudio Speakers I can say that these are without a doubt the best speakers I have personally heard on a laptop. The sound quality is really impressive for laptop speakers. The sub isnt that powerful, but the overall sound quality is really exceptional. I'm not an audiophile, but I have a decently trained ear. A lot of people try and compare these to their 5.1 or 7.1 home speakers saying how its not that good, but there is no comparison IMO because i am not going to carry a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker system or even a 2.1 speaker system around with me ever.

Killer 1202 Fast Dual band 2xMIMO wifi card, and also has bluetooth. Very impressed with the speed of the Killer Wifi cards overall.

750GB 7200RPM HD + (should add) SSD IMO this isnt too bad a deal. just add in your own ssd and use the 750gb as a disk drive since it is atleast 7200 rpm.

Has a nice combination of ports, no DVI, but it has HDMI, displayport, and VGA, USB2/3, esata ports. Also I like that the Ethernet port is on the back, I didnt like that my Alienware had the Ethernet on the side.

Cooling works well, laptop stays cool even during gaming. I havn't run any prime test because this thing performs perfectly for what I wanted to do out of the box minus the SSD and probably windows 8.

Build Quality Brushed Aluminum Wrist area and back cover, lots of plastic everywhere else. Doesnt bother me other than fingerprints, however I have not met too many laptops that are not fingerprint magnets! Overall Build Quality is good, not macbook level, but until macbooks can fit a 680M and/or even come close to the price with that card, I think this is your best bet if you want a GTX680M Gaming Laptop.

So In Summary,

Here were my guidlines

Must have:

Intel I7 Ivy Bridge

GTX680M-4GB or AMD 7970M (680M prefered due to speed and optimus if included)

1080P Screen nice looking hopefully:)

Killer 1202

Like design (Obviously preference)

Let me start out by saying I wanted the Asus G75 or G55. I like the design, and i actually buy Asus over MSI unless price is more of a concern.

Here is too me what is wrong with each of the computers and why I did not buy them.

Asus G55/G75 Weak Video cards, great design, but 660m-675M just doesnt cut it for me, especially for the same or more $.

Alienware IMO comparable to Apple Build quality. All these people who rag on alienware, they probably are just haters or just repeating things they heard. They are actually not overpriced anymore, and have the best warrenty/service and build quality of the gaming manufactuers IMO. But their prices are still too high for certain configurations and they do overcharge for add ons. Their best deal was for a 7970M, however while the 7970M is comparible, the Enduro issues and the fact you have to add on the 1080P screen just made this laptop too expensive for the configuration (considering how well priced the GT60ONE is). Oh and they charge Tax which adds on.

IbuyPower Best hardware for price, build quality and brand is questionable still. Very intriguing, however Not looking to burn 2K on a brand i dont really knowthey used to be mostly a pc building operation.

Samsung Nice build premium price, 675MX which is about 30 percent slower than the 680M.

Clevo Brands more expensive for same build, custom build time. I was set to get a sager or mythlogic, however the better speakers, better 720P webcam, better keyboard, mic not being on the keyboard all drove me to the MSI. Basically for what i paid overall, I am spending $200-$300 less for the MSI that has better speakers, about the same build quality, a better keyboard, better warrenty, 2HDD bays instead of 1, and I can buy it from Amazon!

Overall I am very pleased, It is a Great computer. Still trying to get used to windows 8. What really set this over the top for me is the speakers. I watch a lot of movies/netflix when I am on trips along with gaming. These speakers do not disappoint. Oh an Very little bloatware!

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I've had this laptop for just over a week. I installed an SSD in the second drive bay and had a pretty annoying experience completing a clean install my Windows 8 Pro license, but that is not MSI's fault in any way. I ended up having to install Windows 7 and then "upgrade" to Windows 8 in order to get my install to work.

Now for the good:

This thing performs as expected based on other reviews and the hardware included. It handles everything I've thrown at it thus far with ease (Total War: Shogun 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Borderlands 2) on high/max settings. It gets a bit warm in the upper left hand area of the keyboard under heavy load, but not disturbingly so. The speakers are very nice for a laptop. The potential volume output is great. The multi-touch pad is acceptable but nothing special (as in don't expect Apple touch pad like response, but you can 2 finger scroll and swipe in from the sides).

The not so good:

The build quality appears to be pretty bad. My unit has a few apparent problems. The plastic panel to the left of the power button pops out and will not stay in place. The backspace key is finicky and has to be hit just right to consistently respond. The keyboard itself doesn't seem to be fitted properly. There is a noticeable bulge/warp to it around the o/p/bracket keys. I'm probably going to need to make a warranty claim on it, but I'm concerned they will deny it because I "tampered" with the laptop by installing the SSD. I'll update on that later, if there is anything to report.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the performance of this thing, but am disappointed with the build quality. When I spend this kind of money on a laptop, I want to feel completely satisfied with my purchase. In this case, that cannot truthfully be said. If MSI stands behind the product and gets these issues taken care of, I will be a very content/happy customer!

Best Deals for MSI Computer Corp. GT60 0NE-403US;9S7-16F311-403 15.6-Inch Laptop

I own the MSI GX660R so I have enjoyed that enough to purchase another MSI Gaming Laptop.

Build Quality and Stuff:

I recently purchased this computer from another reseller and so far I have had zero complaints. I own the 15.6" variant so I could fit it into most laptop bags. The build quality is very good. It feels solid throughout. The body is mostly brushed black aluminum and the keyboard feels very sturdy,(more than the GX660R, mostly plastic body). It has a Steel Series brand keyboard which is an attempt to make it like a mechanical keyboard for laptops. They did a good job too because typing on this computer is a joy for me. The GX660R would flex a bit, but not this keyboard. It also lights up just like you see in the picture. It is fully customizable in color so you can make it what you want. It can light up in different modes as well. The sound system on this computer is the best I have ever heard for a laptop. Its not some low budget sound system I hear in most other machines. My build uses the stock screen and I must say that screen is amazing. The clarity is just brilliant. I wanted to get the 95% color gamut but couldn't justify it as I would mostly be using an external monitor (ASUS VE278Q). The laptop screen blows the doors off my external monitor though. The touchpad is nice as well. Although I rarely use it, it gets the job done. Built-in webcam is clear. Hinges on this computer feel solid. I have had zero issues with my previous MSI so I only expect improvement from here on out.

Performance:

This machine is currently able to run every game I have thrown at it. That isn't saying much in my opinion. What matters is that I can run mostly every game at the highest graphical settings in the native resolution of 1920 x 1080. Now that is saying something. The frame rates on this computer are sometimes choppy though depending on the game. Maybe I can get some feedback from someone who has encountered this problem and resolved it. I am currently playing Borderlands 2 and I get mostly 50fps but there are some instances where the frames drop to close to 16. I believe this to be a driver issue and here is why(Nvidia 310.90 Driver at the time of writing). If I stand still in that spot of low frames, the frames slowly ramp back up to the 50ish range (waiting 5 seconds or so). As I move around after the frames rise, they stay high and don't drop again until I arrive somewhere else completely new. Its like the video card doesn't know I need that power now, not in 5 seconds. I also am experimenting with the Nvidia Optimizer in hopes that this issue would be resolved, but no luck yet. I also signed up for the GeForce Experience but this appears to be in closed beta and I have not gotten an invite yet. I have also been playing WoW MoP, Saints Row 3, and BF3. All of these games pretty much run flawlessly and stay around 40-60fps.

I almost didn't buy this computer because I wanted to wait for the Haswell chip sets that I heard are coming out next but I think they were backed up to 2014 or something? Either way this machine makes me happy. I use it for everything, work and play. No regrets after 3 weeks of ownership. This machine is awesome.

My system is customized. It has all stock parts except:

I only have 1 hard drive, Samsung 840 SSD 500gb (updated firmware)

16GB DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, 4 x 4GB SODIMM

IC Diamond Thermal Paste on cpu and gpu

BIOS Ver. E16F3IMS.50U

Bluray Reader in place or writer

3DMark 11 Score P6071 Video Benchmark

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. GT60 0NE-403US;9S7-16F311-403 15.6-Inch Laptop

I agree with many of the reviews you'll find here. Its hard to find a more loaded laptop at this price. I looked at alternatives and this was the best value for the money.

I'd give this laptop a 5 except for MSI's customer service. After having the laptop for 2 months, the hard drive is failing. I reconfigured my system to boot Windows 7 from a SSD and I use the 750 gig that came with the laptop for data. I couldn't save any files, got errors from Windows 7, the chkdsk program loaded on startup, and the drive failed the smart test. I called MSI and they wanted me to first rule out a software problem by reinstalling Windows 8 on the hard drive. They wouldn't just send me a new drive to swap out. They wanted me to send the laptop to them so they could do the work.

That's crazy. My laptop is confugured how I like it. It actually ended up being less trouble to buy a new hard drive for $72 then reinstall operating systems and send in my computer to them so they can realize that the problem is the hard drive and install a new one. Not very customer oriented.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for MSI Computer Corp. GT60 0NE-403US;9S7-16F311-403 15.6-Inch Laptop

Don't think you'll be able to find a computer packing this much power for the price. If you're a gamer, you'll love it. It can be a little on the heavy side and the AC adapter is a brick but I'm satisfied with the purchase. I wish that it had a volume control on the side instead of having to use the function keys. Speaking of the keyboard, it is very tactile and the color changes are awesome.

Reviews of Dell Latitude c600 750 MHZ/256 Ram/20GB HDD/WIFI/XP

Customer Ratings:

I love my reconditioned Dell Latitude and such a bargain. I highly recommend this seller. Other than some problems with shipping I have been very satisfied with my purchase. It is just like new, and it came with a new battery and a power cord so I don't have to waste the battery when I'm home. This is my first laptop and I love being able to take it with me. If you are looking for an excellent bargain, you can trust this seller for a good deal and will not be sorry for using them.

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It works just fine. Not the latest or the greatest, but gets the job done at a very fair price.

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This laptop was a Christmas gift to someone in another state, so I have not seen it or used it myself. I was told it works exceedingly well and looks like new (which is good since it was purchased as used, not refurbished). It arrived sooner than expected and packaging was good. No damage in transit. I'd recommend this seller for computer equipment purchases.

Cheap Sony VAIO VPC-Z212GX/B 13.1-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

Sony's VAIO Z-Series laptops are great in a lot of ways: compact, decent battery life, and great for travel work. The area that they fall down, however, is driver support. Sony refuses to let you install generic drivers for their hardware, and does not push out regular updates to keep pace. For example, my video card is an Nvidia, but the Nvidia drivers will not install because Sony has asked them not to allow it. I confirmed this with both Nvidia and Sony support. The video drivers are 2 years old for my card and really hinder the legs of the product.

I would definitely not recommend any Sony product with "custom" hardware that does not allow regular driver updates from the manufacturers.

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Got this as a replacement for a macbook air. Wanted something that had the same form factor as the airs but could play some games when I wanted.

Pros:

Small and Light and really fast

Better Screen then Macbook Airs

All the ports you need

PMD for gaming

Cons:

Pricey

Small HD (out of the box only 60ish GB free, use mem cards for storage to help this)

Smudge magnet

Extremely happy with this Laptop, would have given a 5/5 if not for the HD thing.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VPC-Z212GX/B 13.1-Inch Laptop (Black)

Definitely the most powerful little computer available at this time. Best of all, it runs windows 7. Initially bought mac airs... but after several tries, has been running hot and draining batteries faster. According to an apple specialists, it might be because of their new lion operating system.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VPC-Z212GX/B 13.1-Inch Laptop (Black)

The laptop is everything it's advertised to be.

Pros:

FULL 1080 HD SCREEN!

HD webcam

My configuration (default processor and 4gigs RAM) scores a 5.9 on Windows Rating. (RAM was lowest score)

Reboots in under 30 seconds. Seriously.

So light and mobile for on-the-go

So powerful when at home plugged into media drive

Cons:

Touchpad is ok, but unreliable.

Sound is decent, but shallow. Bass is non-existent. But when I need good sound, I'm at home plugged into my TV or I have my headphones in. So it's not so bad.

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I was looking for a small, lightweight, high performance laptop with a nice screen, backlit keyboard and SSD hard drive. The Sony Z2 delivered and I'm very happy with this premium ultraportable.

Pros

* Gorgeous 1600x900 screen, very bright and crisp.

* Full-voltage, Sandy Bridge i5 processor.

* Excellent battery life, ~4.5 hours with heavy use.

* Only 2.5 pounds!!!

* Dimmable backlit keyboard

* Full size Ethernet, HDMI & VGA ports.

* Boots up in under 20 seconds, programs open instantaneously.

* Speedy 64GB Samsung SSDs in RAID0. Although these drives are only Sata II (3 Gbit/s) this RAID setup is very fast. A 50MB CrystalDiskMark bench delivered 576 MB/s reads and 322 MB/s writes.

Cons

* Speakers are a joke, the laptop sounds like an old alarm clock. Sony includes a pair of noise cancelling earbuds to address this problem, but I'm surprised they put such horrible speakers in their high end laptops.

* Fingerprint magnet

* Small trackpad. Sometimes misses multi-touch gestures.

* Keyboard travel a little shallow

* Major bloatware! 116 processes and 46% of RAM running out of the box. I disabled all Sony and unnecessary programs/services from starting and I'm down to 67 processes and 29% RAM after booting into Windows.

Windows Experience Index

Processor 6.9

Memory 5.9

Graphics 5.7

Gaming graphics 6.2

Primary hard disk 7.8

I've had the laptop for three months and I'm very happy with it. I considered the Samsung Series 9, ASUS Zenbook and the Apple MacBook Air, but neither one had all the features I wanted. Not to mention they all use low-voltage processors. The performance of this laptop is on par or better than many high-end 15" laptops and it's only 2.5 pounds! If you can live with sub-par speakers I would recommend this laptop.

Review of Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7295 17.3-Inch Full HD Screen W/ New !! Haswell

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,649.99
Sale Price: $1,539.99
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Excellent laptop, like desktop power, but battery is super short only 2 hours. Good, great, perfect, delicious, nice, and "heavy"

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Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7295 17.3-Inch Full HD Screen W/ New !! Haswell 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4700MQ(Black Widow Styling in Diamond-Textured Aluminum) + Value Bundle

I upgraded the drives to 2 X 1 TB WD HDD, cloned my old box, set up software RAID 1 and have not looked back. With 16 GB RAM, Intel's 4th Generation processor and the backpack, I am very pleased with this purchase.

Asus K53E-BBR19 15.6" Laptop (Intel Core i5-2450M CPU, 4GB Memory Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Great computer that for the most part does everything I need it too.

The Good: Under $500, i5 processor, built in webcam works well, HDMI output, 3 USBs, runs FL Studio 10 with minimal problems (would recommend expanding RAM to 8GB however), sound card produces solid audio quality

The Bad: Screen resolution isn't the best, the materials feel a bit cheap (expected for the dirt cheap price though), and I've had some trouble with the internet at times. I thought it may just be my bandwidth but I saw another review about internet connection issues so now its suspect.

Overall: 100 percent without a doubt worth the buy. Its a freakin i5 processor for under $500 you literally cannot beat this computer for the price.

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Cheap ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Versatile Performance Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

The Asus K50AF-X1 is a solid performing laptop with a very reasonable price tag. The dual core AMD processor and 4 gigs of ram make windows 7 perform well, even in the Aero environment. Additionally, the ATI dedicated video card enables this laptop to perform decently on modern games such as Left 4 Dead 2, Split/Second, etc. However, it's not a miracle machine, so bear in mind you will have to run some of these games on medium/low graphics settings. However, it certainly runs rings around any laptop using intel's onboard graphics. Burnout Paradise runs flawlessly at maximum settings with high framerate. To get any better gaming performance out of a laptop, you would have to break the $1000 barrier, possibly even going into the 1200-1500 dollar range. When I bought this laptop, it was on sale here at amazon for $550, and it has proven itself an astoundingly good deal.

Win7 boots pleasingly fast, and the install is relatively clean. It does come with some proprietary asus software loaded, but very little of it is memory resident, and what little IS is actually pretty useful, such as the on-the-fly ability to change between four power useage settings. The laptop also has the option to use facial recognition software as a login alternative (via the built-in webcam), but this is mostly just a cool convenience gimmick and adds no real security features. I am at a bit of a loss as to why Asus decided to partition the 500 gig hard drive into two logical drives, but that's a minor gripe I suppose. The built in microphone performs acceptably for voice chat. The button on the optical drive is protected by a protrusion just above and below the button, which I suppose helps prevent accidental pressing of the eject button, but it also means you pretty much have to get in there between the protrusions with a fingernail to press the button in far enough for the computer to realize you want to eject the disk.

I also don't particularly care for 16x9 aspect ratio displays (I prefer 16x10), but I suppose that's what all the laptops are going to these days.

Pros:

Very competitively priced

Good graphics performance for the price range

Decent sound for a laptop

Large hard drive

Good keyboard, with good layout

4 USB ports, two on each side

No plugs in back

Wireless N and ethernet jack both

Cons:

High reflectivity on display

High gloss case gathers fingerprints/smudges like crazy

touchpad uses "multiple finger touch" to scroll instead of having a scroll zone at the sides of the touchpad, which can be a little slow to respond

No HDMI out (does have VGA out, however)

Minor gripes:

A little annoying to push the button to eject optical drive

16x9 aspect ratio (1344x768)

Overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase.

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i decided to get this laptop since the price seems pretty good after the $150 off.

Pros

Keyboard is well-made

Screen. Bright and easy to read.

Asus FastBoot Program lets you choose which programs load during startup and which load after. Speeds up the boot quite a bit.

Speaker audio quality is pretty good for a laptop

Cons

Case is a fingerprint magnet.

Web cam is low res and has difficulty in low light (haven't tried different drivers yet).

I've also been playing games on it. so far the frames i get (with fraps on) are as follows:

StarCraftII Beta 30-32 fps on med-high settings

World of Warcraft 35-60 fps on high (depending on what you're doing)

League of Legends 25 fps on high, 33 on med

CoD Modern Warfare 2 25-26 fps on med

F.E.A.R. 2 35 fps on med

Left 4 Dead 2 33 fps on med-high

Overall recommended for the price point. wasnt expecting it to be able to play games so well but i was pleasantly surprised. I'd give it a 4.5/5.

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Yes, I knew before hand of the poor battery life, which is ~2 hours, in power saving mode. This was not the issue. My biggest concern was with the wireless ability, as my download speeds would constantly fluctuate, often times pausing altogether. The laptop also rebooted twice randomly while I used it throughout the night. These two issues are unacceptable, so I promptly spoke with customer service, was given a return shipping label, and purchased this item instead:

On the plus side, the build quality seemed to be very good, and it did run cool and quite. The aforementioned problems were problems too significant for me to ignore.

Honest reviews on ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Versatile Performance Laptop (Black)

I received this computer not too long ago, and have been very happy with my purchase. There are a good amount of features on the computer, especially for the price. I particularly like the versatility and balance of specs, the Altec Lansing speakers (more on these in the edit), and that it has an actual graphics card. The one-year accidental damage warranty and the "IceCool" technology that keeps your hands/ wrists cool as they rest on the computer while you type or use the touchpad are certainly nice, too. Speaking of the touchpad, it is a pretty good one in my opinion, and I am fairly picky with these... It doesn't have the scroll pad on the side, but it has a "multitouch" function that allows you to scroll by touching the pad with two fingers. These are the features that stand out to me the most.

I don't have strong cons to the computer really... The hard drive is only 5,400 RPM, and of course I would have like to heave seen 7,200 RPM instead. I honestly don't perceive any real delay, though. If I did intense 3D graphics, there may be a noticeable one, but I believe that just partitioning the drive to have a small, quickly searchable sector will make just about and hard drive work reasonably fast. The keyboard will take a bit of getting used to and Windows 7 has some odd quirks (My screen saver would not come on when I purchased the computer; checking the box to ask for a password upon awakening apparently solved the problem). This is obviously a problem with Windows 7 and not the computer.) The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but is actually pretty good... Certainly a bit different, though.

The Turion II is another matter of discussion with this computer, because many people are discrediting it for the reported clock speeds from independent reviews. This chip has a lot of features that make it a quality processor though, like the integrated memory controller. The Turion II certainly handles the GPU in this computer better than a comparable Intel (...I would rather have this Turion II in this system than many others, including some Core 2s, though a Turion II Ultra with double the cache carainly would have been nice. I give this computer 4.5 stars overall... Bottom line: the features are great for the price. I haven't seen another computer that has this combination of features in the ~$600 range.

****EDIT Notes**** I have used this computer much longer now and got to experience the problem with the low Audio. The speakers, even if you get SRS Premium Audio Sandbox (SRS's own software) to utilize these SRS speakers, is still mediocre at best. I played with it for a little while and was satisfied, but came back with some Jazz tunes and they sounded horrible if the effects were turned up enough to hear. If the effects weren't turned up, then hearing more than a faint melody would be near-impossible. For this reason, I knock this computer down another half star to 4 overall. It is a great computer, but the speakers are not as good as advertised, even if you buy software to utilize the speakers better; Also, throwing in a Turion II Ultra or triple-core Phenom II for a higher-end AMD based system would have been really nice, in my opinion.

The computer I traded this in for: Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4036 LED TruBrite 14.0-Inch Laptop (Black)... It is similar, has a slightly worse graphics unit, but the M880 shipset with the Phenom II processor make for a decent GPU that actually ranks a bit better than the one in this ASUS. The Phenom II or the Turion II Ultra were my two choice processors for this replacement, and I decided to go with the 1.8ghz Phenom II. I am definitely happy so far!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Versatile Performance Laptop (Black)

I have had great luck with ASUS in the past, however this product failed to perform. Shockwave/Flash player errors upon arrival, a BSOD during initial setup, and no luck attempting even simple fixes for the product. 85 windows 7 updates later, it still failed to perform both functionally and at the level I would expect of a laptop with this parts list.

HP Pavilion dv5-2070us 14.5-Inch Laptop Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I own a powerful gaming desktop PC, and my previous laptop was just a mid-okay 2GB ram/AMD 2.0GHz with less that 250MB of graphic memory on it. So I only used it for school work and that was pretty much it. Now with this HP pavilion dv5, I find myself completely ignoring my gaming desktop. Because this laptop can play most of the PC games that I play (Just finished playing call of duty 4 Modern warfare). It has 500GB space on it and comes with a HMDI port, so that means I connect it to my sumsung HD 1080p screen and everything looks pandora. Also has a very good webcam with a lot of options. It is simple light weight machine with a slick design. It comes with the super quick HP start up, so no need to start up win 7 all the time, especially if you just wanna go online.

Cons: The mouse pad is annoying, just grrrrrrrrrrruugghh!

The inbuilt speakers are so poor. But works great (dolby advance audio) if you connect them to good PC speakers.

I like it ...

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Pros: Everything it's supposed to be, Light, Slick, Nice Design, Good Webcam.

Cons: Touchpad is different than what i'm used to but that's just personal preference.

All in All this laptop is good.

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Superfast delivery........ i am very impressed. i got it delivered within 2 working days.

Thanks Amazon.

Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Review

Customer Ratings:

This is my first ever review but this Samsung series 7 17.3" laptop is simply AMAZING in every way so I felt compelled to write this review. OK, I received it yesterday afternoon via UPS (wish amazon would offer FedEx as an option). My first impression was just how Beautiful and sleek it looked not to mention thin. It seems to be very sturdy and looks well built. Plus only about 1" thick and although its a 17" with the small border around the screen is almost feels like a 15 inch in my opinion. Just under 5lbs on the weight I believe.

I turned it on and the matte screen was very clear and detailed and Bright. I was a little leary about it being a matte screen as I never had one and hoped the screen wouldn't look too dark or unclear. Not an issue! Two things I Love about it is that it is full HD with a 1920x1080 screen rez/size. And secondly it has a lit keypad with an option on how bright you want it to be. Excellent! Full HD and a lit keyboard are two important options to me. The JBL sound with sub woofer is the Best sound I ever heard on a laptop.

One thing I wish it had was a simple switch on it to turn off the intergrated graphics forever as to use the GT650M all the time. I had a lenovo laptop that had that. However there is still a way to do this if desired (I believe?)using the Nividia settings.(manage 3d-> "high performance" on drop down). I read from a few that the keybooard on left side will get very warm? I will say that may be true for some. I can only say that I set it up, adjusted settings and played around with it for about 2 1/2 hours straight and the keyboard on mine remained cool and not even an issue at all. Of course I didn't do anything very demanding yet. Noise level was extremely quiet on mine. It wasn't until I turned it off almost 3 hours later that I realized ..."Hey, I didn't even notice fan noise" there but very quiet for me.

The three things that annoyed me, I do NOT like are as follows:

#1. The hard drive is Large at 1 TB. Great! but is very slow and holds it back. Samsung should have put a SSD in it. Guess they chose not to to save money. I suggest swapping out the HD and replacing it with an SSD.

#2. Pricey. The price is more then I was hoping to spend. But well worth it. You get a superior product with many features.

#3. This issue has bothered me on every amazon purchase I make. This has to deal with amazon shipping. I really wish amazon would offer an option to us buyers prior to placing an order to use FedEx instead of UPS only. I always pick 2 dsy shipping and always my purchase shows up very late (6:30pm for this laptop)or even 3 days later instead of two. But again this is not related to the laptop itself and no fault to amazon.

My conclusion: In a nutshell. I am Extremely pleased thus far with this laptop. I would buy it again and would highly recommend it if you are looking for a top of the line very nice and fast laptop. Of course all of the above is strictly my opinion and of this specific laptop I received.

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So, I just picked this bad boy up from B3st BVY. Couldn't wait for shipping as I'm on a military assignment. Going to jot down a review of the things that I like and a few things that stuck out to me. These will be in thought bubble format:

Painful to upgrade. Rather harrowing experience but there are guides online for the previous gen 17" that work well.

SSD upgrade a must. 1tb very slow.

Ivy Bridge + Keplar have lived up to their names. Very powerful, very energy efficient.

No room for RAM upgrade. Wish it had 4 slots.

Keplar GPU + intel 4000 make a really neat combo.

GPU does all modern games i've seen at med to high ( 1080p ) with some tweaking.

Very light for a 17".

Long battery life for a 17" ( 2 3 hours with med to heay use roughly )

Nice keyboard and backlight.

Very attractive case. Well put together.

Minimal flex in Display, considering it's a 17"

Very, Very sharp and crisp LED display. Looks amazing.

Very generous touchpad.

4 USB ports 2@ 3.0 and 2@ 2.0. USB 3.0 is amazing ( I use an external SSD for system backups )

Meh DVD drive. Slot loaded. makes noise.

Only 1 hard drive slot.

Built in 8gb SSD cache is interesting. Not useful, just interesting.

Nice, clear sound.

Overall I am very pleased with this laptop. It delivers the almost-mac experience without the mac-esque price. A very sleek, attractive, useful laptop that is intended to be portable power for anyone who needs it. For the price range there are very few competitors, and most of them have design flaws. That being said, if you're looking at doing mostly gaming and don't mind something about 3x thicker the ASUS G75VW is also a very good buy and delivers better gaming performance (and has 4 RAM slots and two hard drive slots).

But if you're an adult who doesn't want a computer that looks like a spaceship, and also don't want to tear open a shoulder joint carrying your laptop this is the way to go.

Best Deals for Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Purchased this machine expecting Samsung quality, fell short due to FATAL flaws. The biggest deal breaker is the absolutely atrocious wireless N performance and stability. Since this is a laptop/notebook, wireless N is crucial to the machine; I cannot be expected to carry around an external wireless adapter or a very long Ethernet cord. The Wi-Fi would have random latency spikes and packet drops (can be seen if you run continuous ping test) when any continuous streaming activity was initiated (such as video streaming, and gaming). This would happen as soon as you are one wall or more away from the router (ASUS RT-N56U). The other devices in my household on Wireless N do not have this issue and are connected to the same router on the same band. In fact, the HP Envy 17 I purchased to replace the Samsung machine has the same Wireless card (Intel 6235) as the Samsung and it does not have this problem. Wireless G on the Samsung machine seems okay, but I paid for a Wireless N laptop.

Aside from Wireless N issues, this machine has many other problems (as listed below in the Cons section). For one, Battlefield 3 at Medium-low settings is enough to push this machine to its thermal and power limits and the GPU/CPU aren't even at absolute full load yet. Some people may argue that this machine isn't "designed for games" and "excessive load applications" etc, but I expect to be able to use what I paid for, otherwise, why bother putting in high-end components (CPU, GPU powerhouse) into this machine which would be like putting a Jet engine in a compact-sized car only for showing off?

Pros:

+17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) screen

+Powerful 3rd gen i7 quad-core (Core i7 3615QM)

+Decently powered mobile graphics (NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M w/ GDDR5)

+8 GB DDR3 1600 RAM

+Heat sources are towards the center-right of the machine, away from WASD keys

+Decent speakers for a laptop

+Trackpad is reasonably responsive

+Sleek look, better than Macbook Pro

+6.3 lbs, very lightweight for a 17" notebook

Cons:

-Poor wireless N performance and stability (guessing due to the full aluminum lid and palm rest creating a partial Faraday cage)

-Only above average TN panel LCD screen

-Bevelled screen appearance near / above the Samsung logo (maybe I just got a bad one?)

-Runs at near thermal limits of the machine's components

-Hot air exhausts upwards, directly onto the lower edge screen (can't be good for longevity of the screen or the material holding the screen to the chassis)

-90W power adapter is not enough to run the machine at full speed (CPU is 45W, GPU is also 45W, rest of the system ~20W, that means 110W minimum), results in power throttling on CPU and GPU

-Very slow hard drive (5200 RPM 1 TB)

-8 GB ExpressCache has little to no effect on improving system performance

-Painful to upgrade anything other than the one stick of RAM exposed (have to open the back cover which is made entirely of flimsy plastic, held by 10+ screws, and numerous fragile plastic tabs)

-The other 4 GB of RAM is soldered directly onto the board, cannot be upgraded

Other thoughts:

Samsung might have put a 90W power brick in the machine on purpose; they probably knew the beautiful chassis and cooling system could not handle the two power-hungry components (CPU and GPU) so they intentionally did this to keep the machine's full potential from being unleashed.

I am very disappointed by this Samsung notebook because of these fatal flaws that simply cannot be overlooked especially when purchasing a high-end product; the laptop deserves 2 stars because of its sleek look, weight, and specs. Amazon's great service convinced me to give another star.

Honest reviews on Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)

I made this purchase about two weeks ago and really wanted to test drive it before writing a review. I will be brief.

First off the look and feel of this machine is truly awesome. The keyboard (backlit) is responsive and quiet, though a some rare occasions, I have noted what others have where a very occasional keystroke is not registered. The Touchpad is great though I confess I still prefer a mouse so that is what I generally use. The screen is bright and adjusts to ambient light. The speakers are awesome there is actually some real bass (a subwoofer is located underneath it). My last laptop was a Gateway P-7805u, three years old but is still kicking but these speakers are like a night and day difference, these JBL's really sound nice. Granted the Gateway has a higher Def screen than this one (1920x1200), but this is enough for my work (which is how this will be primarily used). Windows 7's Scores are very high, all except the Hard Drive (the weakest link in the Notebook) Though is packs a 1tb HD, it spins and only 5400RPM slowing some things up considerably. From what I read the next versions will have a 750gb HD but will run at 7200RPM. The good news is that it also has an 8gb SSD drive on the motherboard that makes boot times and 'everyday programs' launch very quickly. The Laptop is light for a 17 inch and of course the i7 Processor and Nvidia Video Card are truly awesome. While you can switch the Video Card to remain permanently on the Nvidia Chip (from the Nvidia Control Panel), power consumption will lag if you do. For most tasks, the onboard Intel Video is just fine.

Gripes: Yes I do not some. First off upgrading this thing is going to be difficult as the entire bottom of the Chassis has to come off no small compartments for HD or wireless replacements or upgrades. Second the Battery is not replaceable at (this time). Samsung Claims this battery will last 1500 cycles and still go strong. Me, I am rather skeptical but have employed the special Samsung Battery Life Extender Which sets the full charge at 80%. I still get a good 4+ hours of life with light to moderate usage. So until the battery croaks, I have no complaints. My hope is that they will eventually sell a replacement battery online in a couple of years as I plan on keeping this notebook until it dies on me. FYI I still have an old Dell Inspiron I bought in 2005, so Yes, I do hang on to my old computers and don't have a problem plopping down a hundred bucks every three years or so to get a new battery. BTW, I did query Samsung via email about a replacement battery on their site about this but never got an answer back.

Second gripe, I understand that there is only one HD bay (though I have not opened up the Chassis to find out). That kind of sucks because a second bay could easily make the HD speed issue moot. Just add another drive. The good news with this PC is that unlike many others, they actually put in a Real Live complete recovery DVD. I am glad because I know I will need it one day.

Third Gripe. For many this may not seem important but it is for me. Samsung does not support Linux. I have run the Live CD with Ubuntu 11.04, 12.04 and the latest version of Bridge Linux (based on Arch). The Ubuntu flavors gave me grief whereas the Arch Linux version ran smooth and was most responsive. However in none of the Linux versions did the backlight on the keyboard work. I have yet to take some time out and actually install it for real and probably won't for some time. Frankly I purchased this because I wanted to get one before Windows 8 comes and Linux versions get locked out because of UEFI secure boot. It was the primary reason I bought it now.

Overall, I am most happy with the purchase. I am not a Windows fan but will 'suffer' under it until I have a couple of days to spend setting up A good stable Linux partition to run along side Windows.

Five Weeks Later

Still in love with this machine. I have finally made the system Dual boot and am now using Linux Mint. Most things work. What does not work with Mint are

1) The Keyboard backlit does work, but appears to have settings in the bios that allow the lights to come on only if they were left on when you booted out of windows.

2) Wireless networking works until you put it to sleep, then it will not reconnect no matter how hard you try. This is a common problem with the New Intel systems and Linux. Workaround I have a small USB wireless card that works fine, unplug and then replug it in and all is well.

3) The Subwoofer: It does not work in Linux; two main speakers are fine... but no bass.

4) Some of the hot keys (alongside of the Function keys) do not work.

5) Nvidia does not support Optiums in LInux so you are stuck with Intel integrated graphics. Unless you are gaming or doing some heavy video editing, you will not notice a difference.

6) The 8GB internal SSD drive is for Windows only. Linux does not recognize it and its features are not available.

But you can still do most things. Clearly this box was made to be primarily a windows machine. The the disappointing support for Linux is starting to be a trend with many hardware makers.

If there is any other gripe I can level at this is the lack of multi-media keys. With a machine this nice it would be nice to have play/pause/back/forward keys. There is certainly plenty of room around the keyboard and palm-rest for them.

I can say that I have had no issues with it, it is fast, no lockups and no issues with the video card (as was reported with earlier ATI models) and when our power went out during the recent DC storm, I had about 8 hours of 'play time' with the battery.

Again, you cannot go wrong with this. It is a very fine system. The newer ones appear to have a smaller but faster spinning hard drive (750gb). I just don't think anyone looking for a Macbook like system can go wrong with this computer.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)

There are many 17" laptops out there, but few that pack the specs of this Samsung Series 7 without gaudy "gamer" looks. The new Chronos 17" features the latest 3rd gen Core i7 processor, the new Geforce GT 650M (2GB), 8GB ram, and a slow 1TB HDD (5400 RPM). The price is higher than an Asus or Toshiba (and those have slightly better specs), but you are getting a beautiful, well designed machine that rivals Apple's product offering.

The laptop comes minimally packed, with little more than a manual, AC plug, and restore disc, but Samsung loads their machines with easy to use software that guides you through updating drivers and configurating your machine with ease. There is minimal bloatwarea games suite and some annoying Norton popups, but for the most part you're ready to go.

Performance is great. The laptop has a quick-wake feature which boots virtually instantly from sleep mode. If you prefer to shut your machine down, the startup times are incredibleliterally 1/4 of the time compared to my old machine and my work laptop (running Windows 7/Vista). The keyboard is chiclet styled, and I find myself making some mistakes on it because I am too fast for the keys, but it is well spaced and includes a number pad. The backlight is tastefully done, and allows you to pick how bright it is. The machine is not silent, but the JBL speakers will overpower the fans, and they sound awesomea huge leap over any other laptop I've owned.

Although the laptop is powerful, I am not sure it's right for gamers. I have put about 15 hours into Diablo 3 on this machine with great results (the game runs with max settings minus shadows and hits around 40-60 FPS), but the center of the unit gets very warm and the fans don't seem to do a very good job keeping it cool. I purchased a Cooler Master notebook cooler to help out, since I am nervous about the long term with this unit overheating. There are not a lot of vents on the machine and it is very thin, maybe I'm just worrying but I don't know what long term effects heavy gaming would have on the internals.

The screen is mind blowingit's matte, so initially it will not look as vivid as a glossy screen, but the colors are beautiful and it's bright and very sharp. Samsung has different video profiles that will shift color temps according to what programs you are running. The screen opens and closes with little flex, and the rest of the laptop feels very well made and durable.

Overall it's a great machine, you're paying a little more for the style, but you're not paying $1000+ more like you would be with a Macbook. I like how they included a restore disc, but do not like that they only put in a 5400 RPM HDD and a CD/DVD burner instead of a BD ROM drive.

Review of HP Pavilion DV6-7000 15.6" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd

Customer Ratings:

Just received my new DV6-7014nr (not DV6-7000 as shown on the website) and I am amazed with this machine. For half the price of a Retina display MacBook Pro, you get a machine that meets or beats every aspect of the Apple. If you want to pay for the Apple logo, get the MacBook. If you want serious value for your money, get the HP DV6-7014nr. The July, 2012 issue of Consumer Reports rates it higher than the MacBook Pro (an $1,800 Samsung was number 1, HP DV6-7014nr #2 and MacBook Pro #3). Only one problem with this computer It will not hook up to 5G wireless, only 2.4 and lower. If this is important to you, go with some other machine or custom build the DV6-7000t at the HP website to include a wireless card that hooks up to 5G. Be prepared to pay a bit more money to purchase a custom order direct from HP, plus a couple of weeks (or more) to receive it from them.

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Note: This is not exactly the same laptop, but the closest one I could find on Amazon. The processor, video, display, and keyboard all appear to be the same.

When I got this computer, I was looking for a laptop I could use for on-site software development. It has exceeded expectations in almost every way. Here is a breakdown of the components I chose and a few notes:

* i7-3610QM Processor: This processor does nearly as well as my desktop i7-2600k.

* NVIDIA 650M w/2GB: I am able to play Skyrim on Ultra settings. So far every game I have wanted to play has worked very well.

* 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive w/ 32GB mSSD: I have this on my desktop as well and as a result boot times and app start up seem faster. This is very subjective.

* 6 cell + 9 cell Battery: The 6 cell battery sits flush with the bottom of the laptop. The 9 cell battery protrudes from the bottom forming a stand of sorts.

* 15.6" Full HD display (1920 x 1080): This is one of the best displays I have seen on a laptop. It is hard to find a full HD display on a 15" laptop these days. I love the matte finish because it doesn't reflect everything behind you. It is crisp and bright.

* HP TrueVision HD Webcam: This is a run-of-the-mill camera, but works well.

* Backlit Keyboard: This is a must for use during presentations or in dark areas. It took me awhile to find the fn-f5 combination to turn it on.

Here are the Windows Experience performance scores:

Processor: 7.6

Memory: 7.6

Graphics: 7.1

Gaming Graphics: 7.1

Primary HDD: 5.9

I have high expectations and this computer has delivered.

Best Deals for HP Pavilion DV6-7000 15.6" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd

UPDATE: Bought this laptop January 21, 2013 and on April 1st it crashed. I've spent the last five days, about 20+ hours, talking with India and the Philippines HP technical support call centers about this machine. First it was to blame Windows and to back-up and do a total system restore. Then the restore partition is to blame because of Microsoft, and then after waiting for a Fed Ex of 3 System Recovery DVDs and ran those and then got another "blue screen of death" about memory, ran another diagnostic and the memory is bad. Last THREE HOURS on three calls with HP and they will now send a box to pick this expensive boat anchor up and in 2-3 weeks I MAY have a working system back. Oh, I paid $350 for the premier HP care pack with in-house repair, but they think it's the actual machine and not the chip, so why waste another five days to get someone out to fix what will need to go back anyways.

I bought a $2K laptop in 2005 from HP and in 2 years it was replaced four (4) times... this is an eery and familiar situation I am in with HP once again...

Stuck with a $1,100 machine, $350 premier warranty and a broken turd of a notebook that I may get back in 2-3 weeks. UGH!

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV6-7000 15.6" 1080p Anti-Glare Quad HYBRID series, 3rd

I've had this laptop for only about 24 hours and I've grown to love it! The 2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA Graphics card plays every game I've thrown at it on MAX settings at 40+ FPS (using Fraps). Every category of the Windows Experience Index is 7.0 + except for the Hard Drive which is only at a 5.9 (you can upgrade to SSD if you want a maxed out Laptop). Statistically speaking, this is one of the most powerful laptops on the market right now. I highly recommend it to every Tech Geek/Gamer/Laptop Enthusiast out there.

A few pros and cons I've noted

Pros:

Backlit Keyboard is God's Greatest Gift to Laptops

intel core i7 processor... at any given moment, it only utilizes < 20% of it's capabilities (

Review of Acer Aspire V5-171-6422 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

Customer Ratings:

This is a pretty decent laptop, especially considering that it's a few hundred dollars less than many of similarly sized Ultrabook alternatives if you're shopping around for an 11.6" form factor.

While it's less svelte than the ultrabooks and the battery life isn't fantastic, it's definitely a big step up in computing horsepower (an i5 processor, 6GB of RAM) from cheaper alternatives. You can also buy the same series and save $150 going w/ an i3 and 4GB RAM instead, which is probably a better deal for most people: Acer Aspire V5-171-6675 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver). Or, if you don't need a workhorse, you could save even a hundred more w/ the Aspire One/other netbook style notebooks (lots less horsepower, but missing things like USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.0, etc). If you don't need Windows at all, that new Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch) is $250 and looks darn sexy.

There are lots of reviews online (search for Acer Aspire V5 reviews) that have video and do a good job of covering things. I'll just add a few notes from the perspective of someone's that's used a lot of hardware and software, but mostly uses Macs right now (and a Macbook Air for my primary laptop).

* Build-quality, svelteness is nowhere near the MBA of course, but overall it's well put together. The keyboard feels good and the hinge and overall chassis seems solid, doesn't squeak, etc. The hinge opens to almost 180 degrees, which is sort of nice.

* Screen is decent for the price range (as long as you don't compare w/ high-end IPS screen) glossy, but bright enough, if a bit washed out.

* Keyboard is good overall, but the arrow keys are teeny tiny.

* The trackpad is decent except for one thing that makes it nearly unusable by default the right-click is enabled for the right side, but it responds way too far left (there are no hard buttons, it's all software based) so that if you're right handed, and depending I suppose on the size of your hands and how you use the keyboard, you will end up right-clicking all the time when you mean to left-click. The only solution I could find w/ the included Elan Smart-Pad software was to make the right corner also be a regular click and assign right-click to a two-finger click. The trackpad supports gestures and two finger scrolling works fine but the "inertial scrolling" is complete crap and should be disabled.

* The AC adapter is a bit strange it's a big vertical wallwart. If you are using a powerstrip that is aligned vertically, you'll need to put it at the end.

* Setup was fine for a PC faster and less intrusive than a horrible Samsung Windows 7 Netbook I set up last year. Still, it took about 30min for the "PC Decrapifier" software to clean out the vendor junk.

* Haven't stressed it out, but haven't heard much fan noise.

* This laptop was primarily bought as a Windows testing bench at our office, but one of the reasons I bought this was also to check out Windows 8. Turns out, so far, I don't like it at all and much prefer Windows 7. As a general consumer, you may as well go w/ the latest since that'll be supported better in the future, but if you're happy w/ Windows 7, I'd try to see if you could find a laptop w/ Windows 7.

For the specs I was looking for (11.6", lightweight/compact, decent processing power) I think the V5 is a good value the best option I could find. The other laptop I was looking at was the Sony VAIO E11 Series SVE11125CXB 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black) , but the processor is much weaker (Brazos 2.0 about 2x older netbooks, but nowhere near the i5 on the Aspire V5), it's chunkier, and the battery life worse.

If you have the budget and you're planning to use this as your primary computer, I'd strongly recommend that you at the very least give some of the ultrabooks (Acer Aspire S7, Samsung S9, and of course the Apple Macbook Air) a spin, paying attention to how their screens, keyboards, and trackpads feel you may find that the extra price will be worthwhile for something that you spend hours everyday using.

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I bought this on black Friday lightning deal to replace my HP DM1Z laptop which is comparable. For reference it's an AMD Zacate E-350 dual core with switching discrete graphics and 4GB ram. Anyhow, the little E-350 was not cutting it when I had lots of browser windows open or when watching videos it would get choppy and annoying.

With this new Acer that is no longer a problem. The i5 in here chugs along super fast and has made things very pleasant. The HD4000 is adequate for anything you would likely want to on a 11.6" screened laptop. I don't find myself angry with slowdowns or issues playing youtube videos, or having 30 tabs open with remote control sessions to multiple other computers.

Things I like:

-Size: It's a great, very portable, lightweight package that has the benefit of having real ports. Keyboard is good, touchpad is fine for the most part. It's thin with good hinges.

-CPU/power: It's plenty fast for all the normal business apps, Netflix, youtube, etc. things running with a ton of stuff open. It's great not having a sacrifice in performance to get the small form factor anymore. It seems to run cool too, haven't heard the fan and it's been comfortable to have on my lap for extended periods of time.

-Real ports: I love that I have an actual Ethernet port, HDMI port and VGA. I was looking at the Samsung Series 9 and the like and you have to have dongles and adapters for everything. Having the actual port and just being able to bring the laptop and not worry about 10 different dongles to actually get connected to something is priceless. Having the USB 3.0 is great as well. Ports are well laid out and easy to get to. SD card slot is nice to have as well.

-Price: This is a given, you're looking at 1100 for most of the other ultrabooks that even hit on the specs this has (gen3 i5, 6GB ram)

Things I don't like:

-This is nitpicky but I wish the touchpad was slightly farther over to the right. This is more a getting used to it issue though and it's only been better the more I use it but there were times I'd would right click instead of left on accident when using both hands on the touchpad with left pointer moving the mouse and right hand fingers to mouse button. This is more just a getting used to it thing. The multi-touch works decently well.

As mentioned the power adapter is kinda weird with no power brick in the middle but all the bulk is there by the plug. This can make it difficult to plug in to some places. There are aftermarket power adapters on amazon for 9 bucks though that have a more standard setup to ease this issue.

-Battery: Well, it's pretty close to the 5 hours or so quoted with wifi on doing normal tasks. Which is really pretty impressive for a battery that is so small. I would love the option of adding a 6 cell battery for a bit extra capacity but as of 12/4/12 they don't seem to exist for sale. Battery is fine for what it is for the most part though.

-Hard drive: Reading the reviews on this ahead of time the 500GB 5400rpm HD was said to be a weak point. I put in a 240GB SSD to replace it as soon as I got it so I can't say too much on that. For the hour I used it with the drive it seemed fine. Do note though that if you replace the hard drive with the SSD you want one that is 7MM or thinner. I already had this SSD that I had loaded into the HP and it's a 9.5mm thickness. It works but it was quite tight putting the bottom cover back on and bulges a bit. It's been fine since though so I'm not going to worry about it. If you are getting an SSD, or for anyone getting the laptop really it's a good idea to buy a cheap 16GB SD card as well. The system recovery software from Acer will format an sd card and load all the recovery files onto it in case you ever need to wipe and reload the system. Or in this case put in a ssd and have it reload the system onto that cleanly.

-Windows 8 is frustrating in a lot of ways but I'm trying to force myself to get used to it in the stock form to better be able to support clients once they inevitably get some Windows 8 machines at some point. If I didn't have that then buying Start8 for a few bucks and putting it on here would make Windows 8 great. You can do all the multi-touch gestures on the touchpad so you can get away without a touchscreen for the most part. I don't even want a touch screen laptop as who wants all the finger smears all over the screen all the time. Windows 8 is quite fast though on the bootups and shutdowns. I do give it credit there.

So overall I'm quite happy with the purchase. (Especially getting it for $439 on black Friday). This computer is a much better deal than spending twice the price for a few MM of thickness saved. Definitely a solid choice for anyone who doesn't need a big screen. (You can run multiple external monitors with it with ease for a primary desk, there are some decent USB 3.0 docking solutions.)

***Edit 1/11/13 I have added a little more on the ssd and corrected the sizing of the 9.5mm thick one I have (you still want a 7mm ideally). I've been using the laptop daily now for well over a month and love it. Still nice and fast and it works great. Make sure if you buy this to go to acers website and download the latest driver updates, most namely the driver update for the Atheros wireless drivers. The put out a x.x.x.217-v3 version that you NEED to install. This cures some weird wireless disconnection issues a number of people were having. I'm bumping this laptop up to 5 stars now that that is good.

Best Deals for Acer Aspire V5-171-6422 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

I ordered this laptop because I am a student, so portability and price are important. i was torn between the asus vivobook and this model, since both have a 11.6 screen. i was willing to trade off the touch screen option for a stronger processor. BIG mistake, esp for window 8.

I think if you are a student, a better choice would be a Asus Vivobook at 11.6, which like I said, comes with touch screen, but with a lower ivy core i3. the i3 is fine for basic uses and media purposes. (i saw it on sale for 400-range on slickdeals.net, which is slightly better than amazon prices).

now more into this laptop.

I am actually returning this acer for several reasons:

-erratic, weird touchpad. several reviewers have mentioned this but i heed no attention. but it DOES make such a BIG difference. after a while, it gets so annoying that i have to purchase a additional portable usb mouse (i got the sabrent mini high precision mouse for around 5.29 on amazon, which is great for me since i am a girl with small hands)

the erratic touchpad leads to another big issue, which definitely is the last straw for me. so, window 8 functions so that, everytime you mouse arrow is in the left margin, it automatically switches to the window 8 home screen, which displays plenty of apps. and what's worst. sometimes when you do not intend to click on the left corner, it STILL takes you back to the win8 home screen. after a while, it definitely disrupts productivity.

I have owned a hp, acer netbook, samsung tablet, an ancient dell inspiron 1525, and so far this is got to be the worst touchpad.

-3rd and last part, even with a i5 core, the video editing capacity is adequate. for sure, it will get the job done on cyberlink powerdirector.

I am returning this to get a SONY VAIO S 13.3 inches instead, since it is comparative to a macbook pro, however, sony has a student special deal combined with a free i5 to i7 upgrade, which costs around 850.00 there vs 1300.00 on amazon.

final verdict: if you can overlook the touchpad and really need something basic, i say go with the vivo instead. it is cheaper and the touchpad problem wouldnt drive you absolutely insane. if you are planning to use to laptop for basic functions, which some video editing capacity, then either the vivo or the aspire will do. but if you are planning to use it for intensive adobe cs5, illustrator, and video-editing work, then do shell out 3-400 bucks extra and do yourself a favor and stick with something else.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-171-6422 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

I originally bought this computer because it was small and portable but also packed a little bit of a punch. I have owned it for a couple months and I love it so far. I am not a huge fan of Windows 8 but can't blame Acer for that.

Pros: Very portable, Durable, Quick start up, Keyboard isn't as small as i thought it would, Price.

Cons: Miss a back light beneath the keyboard, Mousepad isn't as responsive as other computers i have used (macbooks). The keys on the keyboard don't have a high quality feel when you hit the keys (being picky)

Overall i would highly suggest this computer if you are looking for a step right above the lower level i3 processor computers. The price is great for what you get. If you are looking for a computer above the lower level $350 computers and the $699 i7 computers this is a great pick.

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I have been looking for an affordable 12" netbook with good performance for a long while. The Macbook Air 11.6 looked to be the only powerful candidate on the market, aside from the slightly larger Lenovo x230. Fortunately, Acer has created this awesome laptop. This laptop can run keep up with a Macbook air, especially if you add a SSD. What's more is you can add/remove components if you need (sorry Mac users, you'll have to go talk to a 'genius' in the Apple store and wait for a replacement). The only thing the Macbook has on this Acer is a backlit keyboard. The Atheros wifi NIC is always a plus (as opposed to Broadcom).

My beefs would be the touchpad's sensitivity, the lack of a backlit keyboard, and the battery life. The touchpad issue is resolved by using the ELANTECH touchpad drivers instead of the Synaptics (also adds two finger scrolling). Ubuntu didn't allow me to click+drag but Linux Mint 14 did (I prefer Mint anyways). The display is LED, but rather reflective. This is to be expected from a budget netbook. As for the battery life, I'm hoping for a 6-cell replacement to come along. All in all, a good buy for the price.

Update, 7/7/2013:

The touchpad has driven me to sell the laptop. In Windows 7, the only issue is that right-click is difficult to do, at least by simply using the right touch pad button. In Ubuntu and Linux Mint, the touchpad's navigation seems to only follow an x and y axis style of movement (using synaptics driver) and does not move diagonally near as well as it does in Windows 7.

Acer Aspire S7-391-6810 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,299.99
Sale Price: $958.00
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

Just bought a unit from a local store. I agree with another review...the touch screen is a great match with Win8. However, I have noticed two issues. The keyboard seems to be quite sensitive. When I type normally like I would on my old laptop, I've noticed that some keystrokes were registered more than once, and hence, causing certain letters to repeat. As a result, I have to use backspace often to correct typing errors. Alternativelyy, I could let computer do auto correct butt auto-correct isn't always accurate. Notice the previous sentence has the extra "y" and extra "t" from repeated letters and they were not auto-corrected.

Also, the touchpad seems to be loose. Even with very light tapping with finger tip, the touch pad makes some clacky noises as if it may come off. I don't know if the touchpad is normal. But, I am going to stores to try out demo units to see if those touchpads have the same issue.

-----------Update

Checked with the store, clacky/loose touchpad isn't normal. But it was easily fixed by tighten two screws (on the bottom side) underneath the touchpad.

"Repeating letters" issue while typing is not as severe if I place the unit firmly on a table. Since it's an ultrabook, many will do typing in a less-than-optimal position. Based on my research, the sensitivity of the keyboard may be optimized for soft/touch typist due to its shallow key travel.

Battery life is about 4 hours on normal & mixed use. Although I'd wish it's longer, I can live with it since it's such a thin laptop.

----------Update

Put the unit to sleep by closing the lid when battery indicator was at 20%. 8 hours later. It was at 18%. So, 8-hour sleep drained 2% of power. Don't know if that's good or bad...but my first impression is that it's not as good as advertised. 6% power consumption within 24 hours means it can only stand by for 17 days (assuming linear power consumption).

Besides the clacky touchpad, which is easily fixed, the whole unit has superb fit & finish. Edges are very sharp, especially around the screen. It gives an impression that one may cut oneself easily. I've forced my fingertips and palms thru all edges without any cuts. I can't say the same for other body parts though...try at your own risk.

High resolution screen is GREAT. However, it's a double-edged sword. All clickable menu, buttons, links become so small that it is difficuult to click them using fingertips. This is particularly worse around the corners. e.g. I couuld eaislyy close the window instead of resizing it at upper right corner.

--------Update

I am still finding my ways around Win8. But I can confidently say that if you don't want or don't care about Win8, you should save yourself $200 and look for other excellent ultrabooks that have no touch screens. In addition, a large, responsive, and accurate multi-gesture touchpad can be just as effective for Win8 (i.e. about 80%-90%). So, a touch screen is really just a nice-to-have for Win8 but not a necessity. This unit's touchpad is quite good...so I find myself using the touch screen less and less for productivity work. However, I use the touch screen almost exclusively for leisure browsing of web sites where typing is not really needed.

After a few days of using it, I can confidently say that one should realistically expect the battery life to be no more than 4 hours. If you tweak the power saving configurations, you may squeeze another hour or two out of it.

--------Update

Noticed that wifi isn't reliable (i.e. disconnected) whenever I am at busy or low quality hotspots. I have not experienced this with my 2-year old Sony laptop. I suspect this may have to do with the power management configuration/setting.

After using the unit extensively for about one week, I'd say the sensitive/touchy keyboard is the only remaining annoyance for me. I also wish it has longer battery life but it's a conscious trade-off for such a thin ultrabook. Overall, it's a very gorgeous ultrabook with beautiful glass top that you can even serve sushi and sashimi on it.

-------------Update

The intermittent wifi disconnects (while on battery) can be fixed or minimized by changing the property in advanced power management for 'wifi adaptor'. Change it from max battery to max performance.

I am starting to warm up to the Win8 Metro/Modern UI. Certain activities are just more efficient if you simply lift your arm/finger to point & click on a touch screen ... instead of (a) lift your arm/finger onto touchpad, (b) move the mouse cursor to the desired button/link, and (c) click or tap the touchpad.

Win8 definitely requires you to "mix & match" how you use tablet/phone and how you use a traditional PC/laptop. It just takes time to warm up to it.

Of course, you need to have a touch screen to take full advantage of Win8 Metro/Modern UI. However, a touch screen isn't a must for Win8 because you can also change Win8 back to the classic Windows interface.

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Hi let me say this is the first time I'm writing a review of any type on Amazon or anywhere else. So I'm particularly proud that my review is mostly positive.

So the positives:-

(1) Light and its the most practically slim PC you can get while retaining as many of the necessary characteristics one needs to be productive; its has (2) fast USB3 ports, neatly located in the upper right side of the laptop.

(2) The design is very cool and attractive and I've been getting inquires from friend like ooowwee cool MacBook LOL; its not but looks just as good as any well designed piece of tech worthy of Apple engineering.

(3) The complementary accessories that comes with the Ultrabook such as the wireless Bluetooth mouse and neat carrying case was a nice touch as well and very unexpected; maybe I didn't read the product packaging before I bought it but I didn't expect it so it was a nice gesture.

(4) Loaded with a few good Acer approved apps for win8, such as their music and file storage options nothing I going to immediately take up but its free, so thanks.

(5) Overall system performance well in a word excellent; I can't find a single thing wrong from boot to windows shut down or sleep mode. Truth is I'm now getting to understand win8 allot has changed so its impacting my productivity a little but that nothing to do with the system and all to do with me.

But like everything else they are some caveats so the Cons :-

(1) The location of the power button is poorly conceived since its along the left side and near power cord I keep hitting the power button by accident NOT-GOOD it happens to often.

(2) The idea of a touchscreen laptop seens sexy but its not... I keep having to clean the darn thing and windows 8 isn't ready for primetime as yet but that not Acer's fault.

So my over all rating for this sweet piece of tech is 8.5

Best Deals for Acer Aspire S7-391-6810 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

Hello there,

I received this ultrabook as a gift and now I'm giving you my first impressions as a review. I'm writing this review using my Acer S7-391-6810 to be exact :)

I have to say I'm impressed with the performance of this little computer and found the following on the positive side:

Gorgeous... ohh boy it is good looking.

Very thin

Solid, you can handle the ultrabook while walking or standing using one hand on one of the lower corner of the keyboard while typing with the other hand.

The main body and the keyboard face is aluminium while the screen is an aluminium frame sandwiched between white glass (gorilla they say but i just can't tell)

The bottom of the UB is plastic though the whole package does justify the price range because it does feels premium.

Very good performance and i looove the touch screen.

Includes a very light plastic bluetooth mouse but i do like it.

Also includes the ethernet and vga dongles so the price you pay is almost all you need.

On the bad side, I respectfully disagree with reviewers saying the keyboard is rubbish. It is NOT and I'm saying this writing with mine... the keyboard while not as good as the one in my Macbook Pro, is good nevertheless, but I do agree with reviewers saying the touchpad is rubbish... well it is...it is so rubbish that before I found a feasible solution for mine, I was thinking Acer included a mouse for you to stay away from it.

The thing is though, I just can't tolerate the tapping function of none of the touch pads I've ever used in my life and this one is by no means an exception... I was about to throw away this UltraBook because of the pad but I gave it a second chance doing what I did with my Powerbook, Macbook, Macbook Pro old and new... I deactivated the tapping function with a little bit more tweak. Let's see what I did:

On the desktop mode or whatever the windows 7 like mode name is (I'm a mac user and while I do like Windows 8 I'm not familiar with the names yet :) ), look for the icons on the lower right corner. There's a touchpad icon, double click on it and a touchpad control panel appears.

Disable tapping

Cheap Toshiba Portege PT321U-0FW04Q 13.3' LED Notebook - Black

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop for my father from Amazon and brought it to Turkey, where i live. For a week or so it was working fine, then it started to act weird. The documents got lost, random restarts and blue screen of death started to appear. I re-installed windows 7 but it gave a blue screen even in the middle of the setup. Then I knew it was a hardware problem. Because I am in Turkey I couldn't brought it to Toshiba support, so I decided to run some tests on memory with MemTest86 and voila! The ram was faulty, it was a single piece of 4gb Hynix ram and after I replaced it with a decent 4gb Kingston ram the laptop started to run flawless (Toshiba it is 30$ for gods sake!). The performance of the unit is very good indeed but a hardware problem in a new laptop like this is very very disappointing. My father was so frustrated that he kept saying he would never buy another Toshiba laptop again!

Shame on you Toshiba for using cheap products and not testing them properly...

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Over the past 18 years I've had a total of 10 different notebooks including 2x Macs, 2x Sony Vaios and several Toshibas (not to mention a brief and disastrous flirtation with Dell). Macs are currently excluded from my shortlist due to lack of compatibility with Sage Line 50 accounts software, so to replace my 2-year old TECRA 110 I looked at the current crop of Toshiba notebooks.

Despite being a fast and beefy computer handling loads of software and ideal for office work, the TECRA has two drawbacks: heavy weight and poor battery life away from the mains. It's so big it often doesn't fit the rectangular plastic tray container at airport security, but has to sit lopsided half-in, half-out. So the portability issue was a major consideration when choosing a replacement. The TECRA's battery life was barely 90 minutes away from the mains, which is hardly enough to do any productive work whilst travelling before having to find a mains socket.

The availability of the recent 2nd generation Intel core processor has finally made possible notebooks with the Goldilocks combination of fast data processing (even with high-demand programs) combined with long battery life and relatively lightweight construction. I've had my Portege R830 with its 13.3-inch screen for two months now and it delivers fast and trouble-free computing together with the convenience of lightweight portability and no exaggeration, I've experienced this on two occasions now 7-hour battery life of continuous working away from the mains. Amazing.

This R830 has a smart black & chrome design, plain and discrete rather than flashy. It has a real CPU rather than a ULV chip, a 500GB hard drive, integral mike and camera, useful speakers with good volume and tone as well as connecting ports for externals, and plenty of port options:

* standard USB on both sides (more convenient than having ports on only one side)

* SDXC card slot

* SATA port

* HDMI port

* DVD drive

* a connector for the chunky 5-point x 3-row plug on the end of your printer cable, whatever the technical name for that plug design is

There's also a fingerprint reader for user-security which I can never get to work properly so don't use; it invariably refuses to recognise two or more prints of the same finger, as the same finger.

It boots in about 30 seconds, the fastest I've ever experienced with a laptop. The screen colour res is beautiful, sharp and clear and it does everything instantaneously.

The minus points form a very short list. The fan can be a bit noisy (but hardly a major problem); and the keyboard is less attractively designed than the previous TECRA with gaps between the keys, but works fine even for someone with fairly chunky fingers.

Overall this is very good value for a mid-range machine: you get a lot of processing power and memory combined with genuine lightweight, carry-in-your-hand portability and long battery life.

I have no experience of Toshiba's warranty service with this R830 as it has, thus far, no faults. I did return the previous TECRA once for a screen fault and on that occasion they sent someone to collect it and returned it, repaired, after two days: very efficient and all FOC.

Best Deals for Toshiba Portege PT321U-0FW04Q 13.3' LED Notebook - Black

This is hands down, the best computer I have ever used. It is super light, boots in seconds, opens programs instantly, handles web video perfectly, and it processes large files seamlessly. On top of all that, it is beautiful. It also has a great battery life. I haven't tested it for time, but I never worry about it. The laptop also runs very quiet and cool. Impressive. One reviewer on a similar model asked what the noise they heard inside was. Since it has a solid state hard drive, it has no moving hard drive parts. What you can occasionally hear is a variable speed fan that ramps up in speed if the processor is working hard. When the fan is running at high speed, it is still quieter than the hard drive of another computer I have on the other side of the room.

My only complaint is that the space bar is squeaky. I am going to call Toshiba about it to see what can be done. It is a minor inconvenience for the most amazing machine I have ever worked with.

Bottom line, get the i7 processor and the solid state hard drive (SSD), you will be impressed.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Portege PT321U-0FW04Q 13.3' LED Notebook - Black

I purchased two of these laptops in January 2012. One for my husband and one for me. In March (3 months later), my husband's laptop screen went black. He couldnt see a thing. So Toshiba sent us a kit to ship the laptop back to them to be repaired. He got it back "fixed". But was never told what was wrong with it. The same thing happened again a few months later, but then mysteriously corrected itself withing a couple of days. Then in August 2012 the incident happened again but did not correct itself. So we called customer service. They told us they could "look at the codes" on his laptop and they said it was a virus. They told us we had to buy a 3 year service plan before they would help us. We didn't feel like we had any choice so we said okay and purchased it even though it was only 8 months old and the plan was expensive. We were on the phone for several hours with the technician and never got the problem resolved. So we asked for a refund and they would not give it to us. They were adamant and I was very upset. So after several months of the laptop collecting dust on a shelf, my husband took the laptop to a local repair shop. It turned out the problem was a loose wire. It probably occurred during the manufacturing process and the original repair never fixed the problem. The local repairman also pointed out where the Toshiba repair tech cracked the plastic around the screen and damaged the laptop. The local repairman charged us $60 to repair the loose wire. He said that Toshiba farms out repairs to small shops. Some shops are better than others. My laptop has worked fine. But because of that experience I won't purchase another Toshiba product.

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The laptop I received was working on a 32 bit system, although the seller claimed to be 64-bit.. I called to on-line service (very good Toshiba service) and we tried a few times to reset the computer to 64-bit.. after a while the system crashed and Toshiba recommended me to return it. So I did. I'm using now a 64-Bit Toshiba Portege 835 P92.. it doesn't have SSDrive or i7 but has a i5 2450M, 2.5 ghz and a 600Gb HD.. working perfectly for 6 months now.

I can't rated higher due to my bad luck.. I still would like to buy one with SSD and a better processor, next year.