Best Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook Deals

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List Price: $1,199.99
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I've been waiting for a thin, light windows subnotebook that was powerful enough to run modern software. My needs were: small footprint, light weight, >WXGA+ screen, intel core processor, backlit keyboard, USB 3.0. I've owned Vaio Ps, Vaio Us, Viliv N5, Vaio X (this machine sort of replaces that model for me), Toshiba Libretto, Fujitsu U820, Thinkpad 240x, Thinkpad X61. After looking at the various crop of 2nd-gen ultrabooks (Asus UX21a would have been a contender but cannot find it anywhere) I was excited when the 11.6" S7-191 finally showed up on Amazon. This machine is almost perfect. First things first:

LIKES

1. It's gorgeous. 12mm thick. Under 2.3 lb. 1080p touchscreen. Two USB 3.0 ports and microSD slot. First laptop that doesn't completely ape the offerings from the fruit company. I'd say aesthetically it is one of the most original and stunning designs of any PC laptop in the last few years. Fairly restrained, clean design with minimal branding. It feels solid and doesn't flex. Hinge has nice resistance. Build quality is very good. Kudos to Acer.

2. Screen is incredible. I've waited a long time for a high-res screen on an ultraportable and this screen does not disappoint. Fantastic viewing angles. Sharp and bright. Almost too bright (I keep it around 50% most of the time). Photos and videos look amazing. I'd venture to say this is the best screen on any laptop that i've owned. My only nit is I wish it were matte instead of glossy...I'll have to see if there is a screen protector that can solve this. Touch and swipe are accurate and snappy.

3. Keyboard is great for what it is. I'm typing this review on the S7 and although the key travel is a little shallow it's reasonable considering the 12mm thickness of the laptop. There is just enough travel to register the keystroke. It takes a little getting used to but the keyboard has gotten very comfortable to type on i'd say it's as comfortable to type on as my macbook pro. The electroluminescent backlighting is a really nice, soft light blue. Keystrokes register pretty accurately (thankfully, I haven't had any issues with super sensitive keystrokes as reported by some users although i'm sure it affects some keyboards) and the keys themselves are relatively quiet.

4. Performance has been surprisingly good. Cold bootup and shutdown takes seconds. I've run Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, Acrobat 11, Outlook, Sketchup, all perform without a hitch so far. Windows 8 requires a learning curve but it's not bad, coming from Win7. I've also noticed that it seems like the fan barely runs and when it does it's barely audible and the laptop stays cool...barely even gets warm (I can't hear it running as I type this review).

5. Accessories...It's barely mentioned but this configuration includes the following in the beautifully packaged box:

a vinyl/pleather carrying sleeve. It works and i'm glad it's included. Doubles as a nice mousepad.

an extra battery! I'm not sure why it's barely mentioned. It's a little cumbersome to attach and remove, but i'm glad it's an option. The battery can be recharged on it's own, and it seems that when it is attached to the laptop, the laptop will draw the power from the external battery first and then from the internal battery second. There is a battery indicator light that can be pressed on the external battery to indicate the amount of charge left

USB 3.0 to VGA cable

USB 3.0 to ethernet

screen wipe/keyboard cloth

Bluetooth mouse with batteries. I haven't used it yet but i'm glad it's included

DISLIKES

I wish there were more than 4GB of ram. It's been adequate so far but I would have paid extra for 8GB. Also the 128GB SSD seems a little small capacity nowadays. Again, I would have paid extra for at least 256GB. Like the other reviewer, I too bought a 64GB class 10 microSD SanDisk Ultra 64 GB microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1 Memory Card 30MB/s with Adapter SDSDQUA-064G-U46A and it lives permanently in the microSD slot. I also would have liked the i7 option as I know it exists (i've seen it in many videos and i'm pretty sure it's available in other regions, just not in the US). Acer's website is lacking of any information. Keyboard has some odd placements (delete key, tilde, missing function key row so F1-F12 must be accessed using the Fn+ key) but this wasn't a dealbreaker.

What WAS nearly a dealbreaker was the flaky wifi issue that showed up early on. Wifi would disconnect from sleep and would indicate it was connected but websites wouldn't load. After reboots would temporarily fix the problem it'd show up again upon wakeup from sleep or have erratic connections after a few minutes (wifi would show as connected but "limited"). After scouring the internet for solutions, I read about a setting for the Atheros wireless (always on, don't allow computer to disconnect from sleep) and a power setting for wireless (placed on maximum while on battery and while plugged) and I haven't had the flaky wireless issues since (crossing my fingers). Battery life doesn't seem to have taken that much of a hit in this new setting.

So the S7 has met all of my expectations, It's currently the best combination of portability, power and usability for my needs (all specs being equal to most ultrabooks, that 1080p IPS touchscreen plus microSD slot really is what sets it apart from most comparable 11.6" ultrabooks).

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Just a minor update to the review below from a few months back....

I've now been using this machine for a while now and my opinions havent changed all that much except with respect to the battery life. It's really pretty horrible. The secondary external battery is included and doubles the time but are you really going to carry that thing around everywhere? And its somewhat hokey plugging it in. So while I still am impressed with this machine, I really am dissappointed that they would release it with a battery life this short.

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So I've been waiting for an ultrabook like this to come to market. My requirements were size (wanted something smaller than standard 13.3), weight (under 2.5 lbs), touchscreen, and higher res than typical 1368x768

This is a tiny and super lightweight (2.2 lbs) laptop. Very impressive craftmanship and packaging. Almost apple-like. Also included is an external extended battery and a nice faux leather portfolio that perfectly fits the laptop (although not the charger).

Here's what I really like about this machine.

1. Amazing screen resolution 1080p which you would think is almost pointless on an 11.6 inch screen. It's actually pretty awesome. Video looks great. Text is CRYSTAL clear albeit super small. I opted to leave res at 1080p but increased font to 125% (under display settings). That's the perfect setting for me.

2. Touch screen is responsive and pretty accurate not as perfect as an ipad but very respectable. Unfortunately i dont yet find myself taking full advantage of the touch screen since I'm pretty picky about fingerprints. And you def see them after a session of touching the screen. The touch screen has come in handy so far for swiping to diff screens and for scrolling. It's almost like a hybrid experience at this point, like using the best of touch and the best of keyboard/mouse. I hope that moving forward I'll find myself using the touch screen more often since thats what Windows 8 was designed for. Call me an old school PC'er for now but i'm progressing.

3. Screen hinge is very cool. Easy to open to a certain point and then gets rigid after that. Useful since you dont want the screen to push backward while touching it. I will say though that initially opening the screen is a bit difficult since there's very little to get your finger under to lift it up (due to super thin top and botton and how they are flush to each other when closed).

4. The performance is impressive for such a small and lightweight machine. Super fast bootup (obviously due to i5 and SSD drive) and resumes from hibernation (not sleep) in just a few seconds. (Sleep is almost instantaneous)

5. The keyboard is small but actually very usable. Much more so than any other undersized laptop that I've ever owned or used. Its responsive, the keys are solid with great feedback, and they light up automatically when its dark. Literally a bright spot I wasnt expecting.

6. Battery life seems pretty good, but honestly I cant make any judgements about it since I havent really put it through its paces yet. From what I've seen so far, it's on par with what you would expect from today's ultrabooks. Likely somewhere in the middle of the road. The nice thing though is that if I'm in a situation where my battery is running low, I can plug in the little external battery for more juice. I have no idea how long that additional battery is supposed to last but I assume you can get those specs from Acer if you're interested.

Here's what I dont like.

1. SSD is only 128GB. I can live with that but only because I'm forced to. I picked up a 64GB micro SD and that will now permanantly stay in the machine to raise the storage up. I'll be looking forward to higher capacity micro SD's but they dont exist yet as far as I know. I'm told in the spring some time they'll be available. I would have really liked for this machine to include 256GB but it is what it is.

2. There are 2 usb 3.0 ports which is fine but there is a mini hdmi, a micro SD (instead of standard SD), and no ethernet port. They include an adapter for ethernet however. I suppose on a machine this small, thin, and light, you have to sacrifice some ports. Would be nice if I didnt have to though.

3. Edge of the palm rest is a bit sharp. Once in a while I find myself having to adjust my hands so the edge isnt digging into my palm. They prob could have slightly rounded off the edges although understandably that would take away from aesthetics. Still an oversight on Acer's part.

4. The trackpad is great (big, smooth, and responsive) although every once in a while it fails to respond for about a second or so. Hasnt really bothered me yet but that could change over time. Hopefully a driver update will address this.

In summary, there arent a lot of options (in fact I actually dont know of any other than this machine) that meet the criteria for the laptop I was looking for. I assume though that more will be popping up in the coming months (i.e. Surface Pro). This might be the first laptop of its kind but it certainly doesnt disappoint. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that it will be tough for any competitor to top it. It's an amazing technological achievement and I'm very happy with my purchase. Hope this is helpful to anyone considering to pull the trigger but couldnt yet make a decision.

Best Deals for Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

I've been waiting for a 1080p LCD in a 11-12" form factor and the Acer Aspire S7 does not disappoint. The IPS screen is bright and the colors and angles are excellent. Yes the font is very tiny but I have perfect vision and the fonts can be adjusted in any case. It's the best LCD screen I've ever owned in a laptop. As the other reviews have noted I'm disappointed in the max amount of memory (4 GB). I would've liked to have seen 8 GB but the difference in everyday use for me is negligible. The laptop is plenty fast with the SSD and Windows 8 boots up very quickly although I would have preferred Windows 7. The built-in battery lasts about 3 hours but I haven't tried the add-on battery. The keyboard is ok. Keys are a little flat but the backlight is nice.The touchpad could be better but I'm sure future drivers will take care of that. Nonetheless it is very usable as is the supplied Bluetooth mouse which included 2 x AAA batteries and connected right away. Lastly, the audio sounds awesome for a machine this small. You'll get a nice velvety sleeve to protect your computer. Overall a well worth it machine that I highly recommend.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

This is a revised review of the acer s7 191 11.3 inch model.

Have had this laptop for over a month now. Can definitely say it is the most asked about laptop I have ever had. While take it out of it's provided acer suede grey envelope sleeve, many people do a double take and many have come right up to me and ask where did I get it from. Many asked if it was a new MacBook pro or MacBook Air. After I tell them about it they are amazed at the brilliance in the screen and the thinnest and solid build and pure simplicity of the design.

The ultrabook is light, very light. The design is much more stunning then the MacBook air, im not just saying this, many of my friends that have a MacBook air admire the design and are envious of the touch capabilities, micro hdmi on the rear (missing on the MacBook air 11 inch), 2 USB 3.0 ports and a provided micro SD card slot (also missing on the MacBook air 11 inch). With the provided VGA adapter and usb Network Adapter (not included with a macbook air) it is an all in one design that just works. Amazing design. Throw in the touch screen and full HD 1080p display and I could not say no. The 128GB storage space may sound small but If you grab a 64GB Micro SD card and have it live inside the MicroSD slot, it is a huge help, also another add-in solution (although it does take up a usb slot) is a nano micro sd adapter that () can help add more storage.

These solutions above do require the purchase of extra cards but save the write loads to the HD and will save it some life over time. A 64GB micro SD card was on sale for 49$ on sale and is very reasonable for use as a download hard drive and file storage. The micro sd usb adapter only accepts 32GB cards but 32 GB cards are extremely cheap now and can be purchased for not more than 15$ on eBay. Again both solutions save the SSD from extra writes and give it more life over time.

Some things I would like to mention, the fan on this laptop will turn on, although it is in no way loud, its something to note, the fan exhausts and intakes from the back so make sure it is not blocked.

It also has a flaky Bluetooth Mouse that has a problem connecting.

There were reports that the wireless adapter drops signals, this was true until they released a newer wifi adapter driver that fixed the issue. Make sure you get it, as long as you have the latest one you should be good.

Secure Boot cannot be disabled on this system, it uses EFI system and uses two 64GB LG SSDs setup in raid 0. The reason why I mentioned that secure boot cannot be disabled is for those who are looking to install Windows 7 and dual boot. Unfortunately, until Acer releases a new bios update that allows the secure boot feature to be disabled, you will not be able to install Linux or Windows 7. This is also true about the 13 inch (391) model.

The brightness, as pointed out earlier uses intel's adaptive brightness feature which is glitchy and will reduce your true brightness, and prevent you from getting to true 100% brightness until you turn off the feature in Control Panel>Power Options>Click on any power option and select "change plan settings" then click "change advanced power settings" from here expand the "Display" category and you should see "Enable adaptive brightness" Turn both settings to "OFF". Do this for all three power profiles, High Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver.

Also something else to mention, the screen, because it is a touch screen, and a beautiful and useful one at that, is prone to attracting dust. Make sure you keep one handy as it collects lint and dust very easily. The screen is made from Gorilla Glass and does not scratch easily but I wouldn't want to test it either.

The keyboard on this ultrabook is very nice. Very simple and clean. As mentioned by others, the F keys are accessible only while pushing the Fn key and the corresponding key. You can turn off the touch pad, mute, put the computer to sleep, rotate the screen, turn off wifi, increase or decrease and also turn off the backlit keyboard as well. One nice feature. Delete key is placed between the space bar and arrow keys, beside the option key.

The sound is amazing on this laptop, the down fire-ring design really immerses you in the sound. You can really tell that it is stereo and with the provided dolby digital home theater software enable, it is not just more immersive, it is noticeably louder and music sounds much more high quality. It is literally amazing and not gimmicky like the older Sound Blaster software found on older PCs. One tip I will add is to disable "volume leveler" and "dialogue enhancer" and enable and "intelligent equalizer" and "surround virtualizer". The sound is amazing and you can adjust three different profiles for quick switching.

Other than that, the battery is not the greatest, I get about 2.5 hours on high performance and 3.5 on power saver and somewhere in between on balanced. The extra battery is kind of cumbersome to use first time, but make sure you take the time to look at how it attaches as doing it wrong could be painful and break or snap the battery if your not careful, it is not flimsy but just a bit cumbersome. It can be charged independently of the laptop which is very nice and also has a visual meter to tell you how much life is left in it. It does pretty good adding an extra 3-4 hours on modest use.

The speed of the ultrabook is also fast and snappy with the provided ssd and is much quicker then my 2009 MacBook air T9800 Dual core 2.6 Ghz Intel Processor. 1080p playback is flawless, looks amazing and clarity and color is great.

The touchpad is multi gesture capable as well and comes with the elan software to configure it.

Other than that, like others have stated, it is a great true laptop, perfect for on the go use. I can carry it one handed without fear of fatigue and is very portable. I thought the 1080p screen would be hard on my eyes but it has really worked out beautifully. Make sure you pick up a nice HD wallpaper from interfacelift.com to really show it off.

I think this laptop, if secure boot could be turned off would get 5 stars no problem, but because it does not allow me to install any other OS's, I will with hold it, but considering not too many people will care it truly is an ultimate portable laptop, the size of the iPad but with much more full capabilities.

Amazingly light, beautifully designed, wonderfully full featured and 100% worth it. Nothing on the market at the moment compares at this form factor and all of its features. Extremely happy with the purchase and have been recommending it to everyone that asks.

I am work for a large technology company at a corporate office and everyone here has been looking to get one as well upon my recommendation.

Thank you amazon and acer! Great Job.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

I've had this laptop 4 days now. First off, I knew the battery life wasn't going to be great, but it's awful! Max of 2.5 hours when web surfing and word processing. It also takes a full 2-2.5 hours to charge it. The advertised life is grossly exaggerated.

The external battery back is not very seamless and looks ugly. I'll add some photos of it. The battery pack doesn't show up as an extra battery in Windows so you can't see the life on it without pressing a little button on the side of the battery. It's also cumbersome to attach. It was definitely an afterthought.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/permalink/mo3UQFB8H829JIG/B009H2CL8Q/ref=cm_ciu_images_pl_link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/permalink/mo39OIVHVVWYO4W/B009H2CL8Q/ref=cm_ciu_images_pl_link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/permalink/moBOGEJ4KDTHBG/B009H2CL8Q/ref=cm_ciu_images_pl_link

The wireless issue that others have talked about is certainly a problem. I randomly have my wireless connection stop working about once every 2 hours of use requiring me to turn airplane mode on and off.

The keyboard has extremely low travel. My Microsoft Surface Type keyboard has more movement in the key press. I'm willing to sacrifice that for size, but some may not. I'm a fast touch typist and it hasn't really bothered me. Warning, if you buy this laptop in Canada, you will end up with the french keyboard which has split up the shift and enter keys (not recommended).

The touchscreen is amazing. It works better than I could have hoped for and using a combination of mouse and touch is very efficient on this device. Text can be a little small at times especially for those web browsers (Chrome) and applications that don't scale fonts. This is my first glossy screen laptop and I haven't found it to be annoying yet. In certain light you can see your fingerprints though.

The touchpad is one of the best ones I've used. It's roomy and I like it just as much as the one on my Macbook Air. It responds great, the gestures work, and it clicks nicely. There is no separate right click button, but clicking in the bottom right area will result in a right click.

There are plenty of accessories with this too. A bluetooth mouse, a high quality sleeve, micro(?)-hdmi to VGA and a USB ethernet adapter come with it. The bluetooth mouse it comes with works great for me. It has a notched wheel which I prefer and the wheel is also great as a middle mouse button. See the url below for a photo of the accessories. The slip case also exposes the AC input while stored and will accommodate the external battery too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/permalink/mo3HVK8EZD8KOI4/B009H2CL8Q/ref=cm_ciu_images_pl_link

The aluminum finish is awesome

The system is very quick, even with only 4gb RAM. My main workstation has an i5 @4.5ghz, 32gb RAM and a high end SSD, but this isn't much slower.

I can't think of any alternative notebooks to this if you want something of similar weight and size with a high res touch-screen display. The Zenbook prime would be a good candidate if they ever come out with the touch-screen version they promised. However, this thing will probably go back to the store for its awful battery life.

ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Review

Customer Ratings:

This is a significant product, and a long-awaited one. Previously, if you wanted to have a notebook like MacBook Air, you'd be forced to switch to Mac regardless of how much of a Windows person you were. Nothing else on the Windows side was really even remotely comparable. Now, this is the first real alternative in the Windows camp.

Is it better than the MacBook Air? It depends. If you are a Windows person, it is. Previously, you had to be seriously biased to say any Windows-based laptop in the ultracompact category is better than the MacBook Air. Now, that can be an honest assertion. But if you are a Mac person, you might still say the MacBook air is better, which could be a debatable assertion, but a respectable one.

To me, ZenBook is better than the MacBook air, even if I objectively lay aside the operating system difference, because for my personal preferences I give a higher value to some of the strong points of Zenbook, especially its thermal performance. Your preference may be different.

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THUMBS UP FOR BOTH MACBOOK AIR AND ZENBOOK

(1) COMPUTING PERFORMANCE First of all, in terms of the primary computing performance, including the CPU and memory performance, they're very similar, and both are very good. Asus' own tests say that the Zenbook is faster, but I don't feel much of it. This is, however, mainly because both are so fast. Comparing the speed of the CPU and memory of these two computers really has very little practical meaning. Only labs would be interested in doing that. Who is going to choose a computer over another because one opens up Microsoft Word in 1.5 seconds versus the other's 1.7 seconds? You see what I mean.

ZenBook does have much faster data transfer through its USB 3 port. It is easily multiple times faster than MacBook air's USB 2. But unless you routinely transfer very large files, I'm not sure if this is so important. Also, MacBook Air has a thunderbolt port which I've not tested in comparison with the ZenBook.

ZenBook also uses a much faster SSD (nearly twice as fast as that of the MacBook Air), but for some reason, I did not notice a very big difference in actual performance. Again, it's probably because both are already superfast for daily tasks. Gamers may tell a different story, but why do you buy an ultracompact laptop like these if you are a gamer?

(2) DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY Both computers are extremely well-designed and well built. To me, the ZenBook is almost a bit too pretty (a bit too showy and trendy to my taste). This is usually a problem I have with Mac products, but now, you've got a Windows product that beats that. I wish they would make a ZenBook in all black, and with a more plain business looking (but keep the feel of the high-quality and compactness). Had Lenovo made a similar machine maintaining the basic black square-edged ThinkPad style with the same compactness and thermal performance (see below), I would nearly certainly buy the ThinkPad instead. But there's nothing even in the radar screen on the ThinkPad side, so I caved in.

(3) BATTERY LIFE The smaller ZenBook (UX21) uses a 35W battery and has 5+ hrs of battery life, comparable to that of MacBook Air. I did not do a strict test. But both are very good. The key is that both laptops would run through a whole day, even a busy day. That's what matters. Once a laptop reaches an all-day battery life, further extension of the battery life really no longer matters that much, unless of course it then reaches much longer to become days or even a week. You will be doing an overnight charging anyway. It's the mid-day recharging that brings trouble.

You may ask, how can a five-hour battery support whole-day use? Well, this actually has something to do with the instant resume feature of these computers (see below), and you have to experience it in real life to fully appreciate its usefulness.

(4) TWO-SECOND INSTANT RESUME If you have got used to waiting for your Windows to boot up, you'd be pleasantly shocked by how ZenBook manages to always wake up in 2 seconds, unless you've done a cold shutdown.

Instant resume was a famous feature of MacBook Air, but now ZenBook completely matches (perhaps even surpasses) MacBook air on that. Asus designed a Super Hybrid Engine which enables the ZenBook to have a true 2-seocnd resume in the entire two weeks standby time. Asus claims it is better than MacBook Air because MacBook air's instant resume works only for a day of standby time, and after that would take 6 seconds to resume. I did not test that. But if you use your laptop on a daily basis, both these machines have reliable instant resume, and you will appreciate this feature in your daily use.

Instant resume is not just a cool feature. It is very practical and has a huge impact on user experience. For example, without such instant resume ability, a laptop would have to have a minimum of eight hours of battery life to reliably last through a whole day without causing headaches. With instant resume, a 5+ hour battery life will last a whole day for most people in most situations. You usually don't use the computer constantly every minute, and the reliable instant resume of these computers makes a seamless whole day long user experience with a single charge of a five hour battery. For example, while I'm traveling, I can set this laptop to go to sleep after every 5 min. of inactivity without feeling distracted. Only a laptop that has instant resume can work this way, or it will drive you crazy. In this situation, "instant" is the key word, and even a 5-second resume may feel bad by interrupting your natural workflow and you will most likely end up setting an auto-sleep longer than a minimum of 30 min. Instant resume is therefore a crucial factor in the matter of intelligent power management.

(5) REASONABLE PRICE for a similar configuration, the prices of ZenBook and MacBook Air are comparable. Many expected Asus to beat the Apple's price, but personally, I'm glad to see that they were even able to match it, particularly with a design that had very few compromises. One should note that a serious scaling factor is at play in the economics of making and selling these. Once occupied that enviable leveraging position facing suppliers and manufacturers on the bargaining table, Apple has an almost crushing advantage over others in the ability to make these new products requiring cutting-edge components at the lowest possible cost and sell them at a good margin. It will take time for commoditization to happen to let others to catch up. Before that, painful sacrifices (so painful that a company like HP has decided to quit) have to be made by the competitors in order to be competitive, even if assuming that they can come up with attractive competing designs at all in the first place. I just hope that ZenBook starts a momentum that leads to better and more affordable ultracompact laptops based on Windows.

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THUMBS DOWN FOR BOTH MACBOOK AIR AND ZENBOOK

(1) Neither has built-in 3G/4G cellular communication capability to take a SIM card. I'm surprised that these newest laptops still don't have built-in 3G/4G cellular communication. This would be OK three maybe even two years ago. Not now. You need cellular communication for a device that can be called "mobile". I hope they will introduce this soon. Before that, to get cellular connection you will have to either use an external adapter or through your cell phone (either tethered or using a mini hotspot).

(2) Neither uses an IPS screen, and both are (unfortunately to me) glossy screens. An IPS screen would have superior sideview performance. New screen technologies competing with IPS are emerging, but not found on these, MacBook Air or ZenBook. But for daily use, both screens are very good, and probably a good point to bring down the price because an IPS screen would definitely have cost more.

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THUMBS UP FOR MACBOOK AIR ONLY

MacBook air beats Zenbook on these areas:

(1) It has a backlit keyboard.

(2) Many insist that MacBook Air has an unbeatable Multi-Touch trackpad. That could be very well true. But I'm not a very sophisticated user of Multi-Touch and can't reach a conclusion on this. Both felt pleasantly good and smooth to me. If it were up to me, I still prefer the ThinkPad's TrackPoint.

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THUMBS UP FOR ZENBOOK ONLY

ZenBook beats MacBook air on these areas:

(1) OUTSTANDING THERMAL PERFORMANCE Although MacBook air is already a quite cool laptop, ZenBook is much cooler still, quite noticeably. I am especially pleased by the thermal/cooling performance of the ZenBook. If there is one company that can do a thermal system design to beat Apple, it is Asus, and they seem to have done exactly that. They've been designing the world's best thermal and cooling solutions for computer motherboards from the start of the company, and no one else can claim better expertise than them on this.

To me, thermal performance is the number one critical element of a laptop performance. I'd rather have a cool and slower laptop, than a hot and fast one. Asus has made one that is cool and fast.

The thermal issue is not just a preference for comfortableness. It is a serious health concern. I believe the current designs of some laptops are outright crazy and reckless. The thermal radiation is likely to cause various skin diseases in less serious cases, and infertility or even cancer in worst cases. Sooner or later, this will become a focus of attention. The whole thing is currently masked by ignorance of mass consumer.

If you dispute with me, I have my slowly burnt fingers to show you.

(2) OUTSTANDING AUDIO You will have to listen to the sound of the ZenBook to believe it. I'm not aware of any other laptop that can match this kind of performance. Certainly not the MacBook air, which is pretty good in itself. It looks like there's something going on with Asus' audio group, which seems to be obsessed by the sound quality. When they first produced Xonar, a high-end internal sound card line, they didn't just match the then top consumer soundcard by Creative Labs, they smashed it. You may not be getting true high-end audiophile sound here on the ZenBook, but you seem to be getting at least some spillover of that audiophile obsession.

I have yet to test the sound input quality through a microphone. Personally, the microphone input quality is far more important than the playback quality because I use speech recognition for text input.

(3) OUTSTANDING OUTDOOR DISPLAY Both screens are very bright, but ZenBook is noticeably brighter under direct sunlight. My experience is that to be just barely usable under direct sunlight, the screen must have a minimum of 300 nits in brightness. Many laptops still have a brightness under 250 nits. ZenBook's screen is 450 nits. I cannot find the numerical specs for brightness of MacBook air, but it definitely feels dimmer under sunlight than ZenBook.

On the other hand, the MacBook air is whole lot better than many other laptops I've seen or used. Also, if you never use the laptop outdoors, this is not important. When used indoors, both screens would have to be set at much lower brightness than its maximum in order to be comfortably viewed.

(4) BETTER CONNECTIVITY ZenBook has a micro HDMI and a Mini VGA Port and MacBook air doesn't have any of these. HDMI would come handy if you connect the ZenBook to your TV, while the VGA port is important if you frequently connect your laptop to a larger external screen. I think MacBook air has its own way to make these connections to a Mac family product, but the difference is that with the standard HDMI and VGA ports, the connectivity is much more versatile in terms of compatibility.

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OVERALL,

Asus has really made an all-out effort in designing and making these laptops. They're gunning at Apple, quite obviously. I'm even afraid that Apple will go after ZenBook's design by alleging infringement (could Apple have patent the tapered appearance of a laptop?).

It gave me a good chuckle that Asus official website for Zenbooks refers to Apple by calling them "Fruit Brand".

By the way, I should note that if this were an Apple product, you would already be hearing about it in all major headlines as if this were bringing new hope to the world, and you would also be seeing Apple fans standing in long lines praying for a chance to get one of these.

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Summary: The Zenbook is exactly what I had in mind when I needed a lightweight, low maintenance portable to carry on business trips with me. Tablets or netbooks were not an option because of their limited capabilities and inadequate performance.

The Zenbook is very pleasant to look at and different, but not difficult to usein fact, my experience has been enjoyable. I've not experienced any problems described by other reviewers. Perhaps Asus is listening and my machine is a reflection of that.

I was surprised at the negative comments on engineering design, choice of components, etc. The emphasis on the keyboard and touchpad are understandable in that they are different the manual explains how to use the keypad and what to expect. I've had electrical "pops" on many laptop chargers, and this one did so about 5% of the time. Asus provides a solid warranty on its laptops. And, I have dealt with their support organization before on warranty work and service calls, with positive results, except one, where it took time for them to find a replacement laptop the outcome was satisfactory.

Pros:

1. The Elan touchpad works very well and has a sensitivity region that shrinks in size when you are typing on the keyboard so that you don't accidentally activate the touchpad while typing.

2. While a source of complaints, the keyboard and keys definitely enhance the look. Keys provide positive feedback with a "tactile click" created by the key giving way when it is pressed down far enough. It's also reliable key presses that failed were not the computer's fault.

3. When done working, I just close the lid on the machine to suspend my work (it has "sleep" rather than "shutdown" as the default option to power off your computer).

4. To resume (hours or days later), I simply open the lid and login -much the same as any laptop only the response is much quicker about 2 seconds. My wireless reconnects fast enough that I can go directly to the Internet and start browsing, or refresh my Outlook to get the latest mail.

5. The extremely small footprint allows me to store the computer anywhere, even inside a leather notebook that normally holds a pad of paper.

6. Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0 for greater speeds and new capabilities

7. Good speakers and audio

8. Tiny camera and good microphone. The mic even works with WSR.....not great

9. My old USB DVD/CD player works fine.

10. Crisp easy to read display

Cons:

1. The keyboard keys are the "chicklet" style found on other Asus, Apple, etc. computers and if you are not used to them they can be difficult to type on simply because they are flat across the top as opposed to the tapered keys found on many keyboards (e.g. ThinkPad) and are low-profile (i.e. short). Personally, all keyboards require some time to adapt to them.

2. I/O ports are limited but adequate.

3. Must carry the port adapters if you need Ethernet or VGA I personally don't need them.

4. 4 GB RAM limit, hopefully this will change with higher density chips. However, with the SSD being so fast, virtual memory use is not noticeable to me.

5. Wireless limited to 150 Mb/s fast enough for real-time data over wireless, but 300Mb/s would be desirable. Most routers still only support G (54 Mbps) in public places, hotels, etc. So I couldn't use it anyway.

In short, the Zenbook represents a significant step forward in mobile technology. I will benefit from Asus's innovatation and the reward/cost ratio is clearly on my side.

Update 12/18/2011:

I've used the computer daily for the last month traveling around the country without any issues. I carry it in my backback or luggage along with my Lenovo work computer. I'm actually starting to depend on the handy mouse pad gestures quite nice. The graphics chip can drive a full HD TV (1920 x 1080) and its own monitor concurrently e.g., watch/listen to amazon movies while I use run programs, handle email, and/or browse the internet on the lower resolution builtin display.

Very portable, convenient and reliable. Still very pleased with the purchase.

Update 2/10/2012:

Just had my first interaction with Asus support the laptop was accidentally damaged; I sent it in under the ADW warranty and it was back in my hands 2 days later Fixed! 1 day to transport in each direction and 1 day for the repairs. As expected, Asus covered the transportation in both directions.

Update 11/21/2012:

Just completed a 1 year anniversary with my Zenbook. I like it even more than before as ASUS continues to refine the drivers and I've found tidbits of info in the user comments here that are helpful like how to configure the touchpad. I plan to migrate to windows 8 the drivers are available, or, switch to one of the new touch enabled Zenbooks instead.

Best Deals for ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver

I bought this beautiful ultrabook at Frys last week and kept it for 5 days. I actually bought it right off the back of the truck that had just arrived. I was truly excited to get this machine(BUT): The keyboard is truly bad. The trackpad started off bad until I realized I needed to run an update from Asus to get all the drivers updated. The trackpad improved greatly with the updated driver, yet is still FAR lacking compared to a MacBook trackpad I do not know why).

Back to the keyboard. No driver can fix this keyboard. The keys are flat on top. The keys sit very close to the surrounding material underneath. You can push a key at the corner and touch the underlying material and not register a key push. I cannot replicate this on any other keyboard I have in the house. This means you bottom out the key before it registers the key push. Bottom line: you miss every fifth letter unless you hit the key right in the middle. I like to keep my job and I need to spell correctly. Therefore:

I took this machine right on back to Frys. The machine is truly beautiful (prettier than the MacBook Air). The sound from the speakers is very nice and it is much quieter than the MacBook Air (which we also own) because the implementation of the internal fan is much better on this Asus machine. The screen is nice too.

The keyboard sucks though and the trackpad is merely passable. I hated to take it back, but how Asus turned this into the Anus with a keyboard that doesn't work is beyond me. What screwed up committee let this happen?

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver

I have been using the macbook air for the longest time but asus is my favorite brand after apple, when i saw this i couldn't believe the design and hardware thats included in such a small ultrabook, well after couple days of use i love it.

It is the fastest ultra book out there without a question and this comes from a guy thats a computer technician and has been using macs more than anything.

I have owned all types of pc's and laptops but for a ultrabook to be as fast as any device out there is a stunning job by asus to build such a beutfifull designed ultrabook and have all the best hardware inside.

This had a issue with the mouse and scrolling but guess what? Asus released a driver which already has fixed that issue.

Overall this is the best piece of product your money can buy. This machine is a beast.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver

I just received this laptop and absolutely LOVE all of the features and style. It performs excellently in all aspects EXCEPT for the keyboard. Just in writing this short review it has skipped 11 keys so far, mostly in the w,e,r,s,d,f region. It is so bad it renders the machine utterly useless for me and my typing style. However that being said it may work for anothers typing style. Luckily Amazon is taking it back and issuing a refund. Thanks Amazon.

Review of Toshiba 15.6" Satellite C655D-S5136 Athlon II Laptop 3GB Notebook

Customer Ratings:

The first key item of note in reviewing this laptop is that I now own it as a replacement for a slightly cheaper HP with almost identical specs but suffered a massive hardware failure just 31 days after purchase. Between a solid prior experience with Toshiba and results read in an online study on laptop malfunction rates (where Toshiba came in second only to Asus and ahead of pricer brands like Apple and Sony) I feel far more confident that this machine will last for me.

Now onto the specifics of this model....

The specs on this fall within the general standard of what I call the level-2 laptop (one price-step ahead of the single core celeron/sempron pure budget machines).

The keys are as follows:

Athlon II Dual Core 2.2 GHZ with 3 gigs of DDR3 RAM, Mobile Radeon 4250 Graphics, and a 320 Gigabyte hard drive.

These are all a good blend of price and functionality that won't be able to run the hottest games on the market (as is the case with any integrated graphics) but handles normal day-to-day along with programs like photoshop or low-res settings of newer games without any problem.

The hard drive size is a nice boost from the 250 gig you normally see at this range, though it would probably still behoove anyone with a fair amount of digital media to pick up an external hard drive.

Battery life is pretty good as a reflection of it's modest power at about 3 1/2 hours, which should be plenty for most-people's purposed.

The one place this machine does lose points however would be peripheral-type hardware.

The keyboard is fairly nice with and included 10-key that doesn't cramp the regular keyboard at all. It also has a memory-card reader built-in that is especially handy for those with phones/cameras/etc. that use sd/microsd/etc.

Beyond that however the machine is noticeably lacking in this department with no webcam, only two usb slots, and a smallish oddly textured touchpad.

Final Verdict:

As long as you are willing to pick up a USB hub this is a great multifunctional machine that is powerful enough for all regular home needs (power gaming and HD video editing aside) while still falling within that budget (i.e. sub-$500) range.

As with all of these machines however I recommended you shop around, Amazon's listed price of $488 is about $90 more than I paid, just enough to take it from a great machine for the price to a somewhat average value.

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I bought this machine at Best Buy on 2/1/11, when it was on sale for $. What a fool I was. On 3/3/11 when I tried to boot up I got screen saying it was attempting to repair itself. After 12 hours (I'm not kidding), it finally booted to the desktop, but I immediately got error messages saying my applications were having problems. Frustrated, I took it back to the Best Buy, where one of their "Geek Squad" morons told me it needed to be "restored," and to come back in 4 hours. When I returned that night, another guy told me the hard disk was defective, and I needed to pay for and procure a "restore disk" from Toshiba. Even though it's under warranty, Best Buy refused to fix it or refund my money. Toshiba refuses to provide the "restore disk" unless I pay for it. This is a fraud, and this "computer" is a piece of worthless junk.

I refuse to pay, so I took the computer back from Best Buy. They demanded I sign a form saying I was satisfied with the repairs! I refused to sign and took my computer. Now, it doesn't even boot to the desktop.

Don't ever buy from Toshiba OR Best Buy. They are partners in crime.

Lenovo G780 17.3" 8GB Intel i7 3632QM(2.20GHz) 8GB Ram GeForce GT Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Pros: Packed with hardware you wouldn't expect to find in a laptop in this price range. i7 CPU, 8 gigs ram, dedicated 635m.

The chiclet keyboard feels nice, with the added bonus of having to worry less about my cat running across it and ripping the individual keys out.

Plays World of Warcraft on high settings around 40 fps in congested areas. It handles Skyrim very well, and a bunch of older games not worth mentioning.

Windows 8 screams, it performs very well. I don't miss the start menu, and like a few of the apps.

Cons: Keyboard is set fairly high, which can be uncomfortable on the wrists as they lay across the laptop.

The touchpad is huge (some may think this is a pro), but it is common while typing that you rub your palms across it. It is simple enough to fix, press FN + F6 to disable the touchpad. For people who prefer mice to touchpads, this should not be an issue.

Microphone is just to the left where you rest your left wrist. The microphone itself works great, but I see this being an issue in the future as it is likely to get clogged.

Other Thoughts: I haven't noticed the flimsy display as others. It stays in place while typing I haven't taking it out on bumpy roads and don't plan to, so it does well.

Windows 8 is going to come with every laptop now, it is easy enough to figure out, learn a few keyboard shortcuts and you won't even miss the start menu.

At this price range, you are not going to have the best gaming experience. It will be good, but not comparable with higher end machines. With that said, I am very impressed with the performance of the laptop playing Skyrim, and World of Warcraft.

I tried to focus on the cons, with this review. Really this laptop is fantastic, for the price. Thus it gets 5 stars, I don't expect perfection in a $670 laptop.

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Review of HP Spectre XT Ultrabook 13t-2100

Customer Ratings:

I own and operate an Internet Service provider. As such I am very demanding of my portable computer.

I often have to debug equipment in field conditions, including operating at the end of a bucket truck boom in the rain, snow or sleet.

In the past our little company has used ASUS 1201-N Netbooks for our field operations. They work well enough to keep the network running, but are cheap enough that if you drop one off a bucket, run it over with a van, leave it at a POP or otherwise destroy it, it won't break the bank.

I bought one of these HP 13t-2100 Ultrabooks to replace my latest 1201-N (R.I.P.). The key difference between this book and other ultrabooks is that this one has a RJ-45 port, which is essential in my line of work.

I have been very happy with my decision. The frame is sturdy and doesn't have any wobble to it. It is substantially faster than the netbook I was using. It is running Windows 8, but don't hold that against it.

The WiFi drivers are top notch. It connects to new networks easily and recovers from sleep mode almost instantly. When it recovers it connects up at once and immediately draws an IP address.

The one I bought doesn't have external media for OS re-installation (really guys, just throw in 32GB USB keychain, I'll even pay extra for it!), instead it uses around 20% of the hard disk to store a "recovery" partition with the OS on it. Since the disk only has 128GB of storage on it, this is kind of a bummer.

Pluses:

Low Cost

Great Battery Life

Solid Feeling

Attractive

Backlit Keyboard

Screen Brightness & Resolution

Hot Keys

Fast Sleep/Wake

Minuses:

Squirrley touchpad (hard to keep mouse on queue)

Recovery partition takes 20% of hard disk

All in all I'd recommend this computer to anyone who needs a lightweight companion that works well, but isn't so expensive that you worry about breaking or losing it.

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If you are looking to purchase this laptop, beware that HP does not support downgrading to Windows 7. Found this out the hard way. I'm not impressed.

Discount HP ENVY 15.6" Core i5 500GB+32GB SSD Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:

Well i saw the review that had only one star , and believe its just a bad case, I bought 2 laptops from HP directly, they lower the price by 200 dlls, plus 2 day free shipping, I never had any problems with my laptop so far is great the style, the texture , it's amazing ! I had one problem with one of my HP laptops, two years ago , under the warranty I called , they shipped a box and I returned the laptop 5 days later I got a new laptop , I'm guessing the other person has a bad attitude or simply bad luck !

But great Laptop overall , try to buy it with windows 8 and 1 dimm with a 4 gb , later purchase more ram and add it its cheaper than upgrading directly with HP

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The worst laptop ever. Three times back to service center and they can't fix it. Now they want a technician to come to my house as though that will make a difference. Now we learn that all available technicians are off for the holidays so its now Dec 27 and we wait until Jan 2 to schedule an appointment. Have asked for a refund several times but that is just not in the cards. I will never buy from HP again (and we buy alot around here as we both work through our computers). Bad job HP, very bad job.

12/28/2012...after Peter (see his post below) emailed regarding this issue the representative that we've been dealing with all along called again. His purpose was to confirm (again) that we have an appointment to see a technician in our home to review the issue. So after several weeks of back and forth with the service center now we can wait another 10 days for a technician (they are all off for the holidays I am told). We said to Jamie again that what we want is a refund.

The best companies to deal with would have long ago taken this lemon back...companies such as Amazon and Costco would immediately end our dissatisfaction...but in this case we purchased directly from HP who only seems to care about their own internal metrics. Next step after the technician visits I will be posting the positive outcome or the videos of this Lemon Laptop will be posted on YouTube and every other social media I can find. Yes, we are upset. This was a birthday gift from my wife and she is way more upset then I am.

Reviews of Dell Gaming Laptop 17" XPS M1730

Customer Ratings:

This notebook is more like a desktop that folds, let's just lead with that. It is HEAVY, and designed more for gamers than for people who will be on the go for most of the time. That said, it was (and is) a powerful machine, with enough processing power and memory to get even fairly heavy-duty programs running well. I have installed Windows 7 on my model, and would recommend both the OS and the computer to anyone looking for a gaming laptop. In addition to the impressive hardware specs, I have to say that mine was durable as well; even though I dropped it twice, and once it got pulled off a couch because my brother tripped on the power cord, it survived without a problem and Dell replaced the cosmetically damaged components for me. To sum up, I think this is a great computer at what it does; powerful, cool-looking, and durable.

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This laptop is amazing, its a 2007 computer that is able to run 2013 games at lowish specs. I got mine for around 300 dollars. The seller that is asking for that ridicules price should be ashamed.

Best Deals for Dell Gaming Laptop 17" XPS M1730

I signed in just because someone might buy this garbage. Nothing about this pc is worth 2 grand. I would pay 150-200 tops. The specs are completely outdated. You can go to walmart and buy a 300 dollar laptop with better specs than this. Unbelievable.

Honest reviews on Dell Gaming Laptop 17" XPS M1730

Just to inform any buyers of this laptop, this is not a gaming laptop. Dell has two branches of other computers. There gaming laptops are Alien ware and their high performance is XPS. XPS will not have as good graphics cards or Ram. The Alienwares will be faster for gaming and most likely be a better all around computer, but this laptop will be perfect for advanced computing and will run most games fine. If you are looking for a computer to play games on, turn to specific gaming computers.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Gaming Laptop 17" XPS M1730

This laptop needs to be reviewed in a certain different ways before it is automatically judged, first off, this laptop was made years ago, so if your looking to play games that were made yesterday you will likely be disappointed, laptops in general are usually not able to play future games over 2 years or so, if you like to play games like CoD4 or less restrictive games like LoL or Combat Arms then this laptop will do nicely. Its also worth considering that if you upgrade the ram from 2 gb to 4gb and also upgrade the video card to a GeForce 9800 2gb G.R.A.M then you should have no problem playing modern games, think about this, if you go to the battlefield 3 website and look at the minimum system requirements you will see that this laptop meets them all, even years later it can play a game like battlefield 3, the only thing that would be necessary to change is the operating system because it doesn't support windows XP. so including the laptop price, you would likely spend about $750 on this laptop with upgrades to the ram and graphics card, you tell me if you can find a laptop for that much with these specs anywhere else, its especially good if you cant afford to pay that amount right now, because the ram and graphics card can be purchased later.

Buy Lenovo ThinkPad T61 7663 14.1" Widescreen Notebook

Customer Ratings:

The monitor color was slightly faded, but it was acceptable. The fan on my old thinkpad made noise and was going to need something done. This fan was and still is completely silent, whoever put it back together did it right. The computer runs fast and fine, there are no complaints other than the monitor fade, but that was acceptable and I doubt that will be an issue for anyone. So good buy.

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Review of APPLE Macbook Pro 17 inch notebook - 2.66GHz Intel Core i7

Customer Ratings:

I have had this laptop for at least two years and it is still going strong. Would do it all over again. Got what I expected, when I expected. What more can you ask. Would buy from them again without any hesitation.

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15.6 4GB/320/I3 INTEL Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Good price for all thats included. Fans are quiet, doesnt feel flimsy. Viewing angles are limited compared to a previous gateway I had, but not an issue. Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase.

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Discount Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/B 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Customer Ratings:

I have always had very good luck with Sony equipment so I decided on a Sony notebook this time. So far after about one week I am not disappointed. This is a fast, beautiful, well-made notebook with an awesome screen. Amazon's delivery was very fast, and the product is as described. Right now I am dealing with a steep learning curve with the Windows Vista 64 bit that came with the notebook and it's compatibility issues with software and printers, but that is another story.....

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Excellent and beautifully screen, I love the full keyboard and the software packages is fantastic. The start-up, customization and data transfer was easy, the start-up and support software are well design. The only minor thing I can say is the batteries are actually a haft one and last only an hour in normal setting and also there a problem with the sleep mode and the screen saver... not a big deal for me. Also to take a grate advantage of the multi-media they should add an HD TV tuner.

But after all it is fast, beautifull and I'm very happy with it.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/B 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

The backlight on the VGN-AW230J is poorly designed, resulting in an area approximately 0.5 cm high at the bottom of the panel that is evenly and significantly brighter than the rest of the panel. This same effect can be seen to a lesser extent along the sides of the panel. The opposite effect occurs at the bottom corners of the panel, where the backlight appears pinched and at times completely black.

Sony initially told me this was a defect and sent a technician to repair the laptop. After the technician replaced the LCD panel (and broke the bezel in the process), the problem remained. Sony then requested that I send the laptop to their repair center. The repair center has since notified me that the strip of light is "normal," and that despite multiple unnecessary repairs made at their suggestion, they will not provide me a with new, unmodified laptop.

Sony has also added a vaguely worded article to their knowledgebase describing the problem as normal. While they refer to the problem as a "glow," which can in fact be normal for some backlights, this is not how the problem presents itself. ®ion=UMRE_UNITEDSTATES_2_5&sonyregion=US&searchString=lcd%20bright&product=SG_VGNAW230J_1_5&sonytemplate=1&sonymodel=VGNAW230J

I was quite surprised with Sony's response given the marketing behind this particular laptop's display and their direct support of Adobe's color profiles. If you're looking for a laptop with a clear, even, and professional display, look elsewhere.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/B 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

This is my 3rd sony vaio laptop. I love almost everything about it.

The screen is very nice, bright and clear, blu-ray player, full keyboard, nice looking, speakers and etc....

It is like you have a portable desktop.

The down side is the weight, battery life and hard to find the bag but I got one from Amazon.com that is perfectly fit this laptop, it is Targus TLE400.

I have been using this laptop for about 2 weeks and haven't had any problem yet.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO VGN-AW230J/B 18.4-Inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

PROS:

This laptop is great! At first, I could not get used to the size of the screen, but that quickly grew on me. The full keyboard is absolutely a plus for me. The picture is very clear, the sound is great (not party loud though.) Recording videos and chatting through the webcam is great also. I love watching DVD's on here, downloading music, writing papers, browsing the internet, checking e-mails, etc. If you're a traveler, I would recommend purchasing the Neoprene laptop case for the AW series which was only $24.99!! I also bought the Linksys Ultra Rangeplus Wireless-N Broadband Router (the best price found on Amazon of course).

CONS:

The laptop is only 8 lbs. However, I was unaware of how heavy that actually is. Not really a downside, but it would be nicer if it were a bit lighter. The standard capacity battery that the laptop comes with has a very short life. That battery will last you just over one hour, which is not a lot of time if you're typing a paper, dl songs, or watching a movie. You can leave it plugged in, but I highly recommend purchasing the Large Capacity battery as well.

Hope this helps!!!! =)

Best 15.6" Intel I5 640GB 6GB Mocha (Asus X53E-RH52) Deals

Customer Ratings:

I have had some experiences with asus products, and all of these experiences have been very good. i speacially like asus motherboards for its reliability and good quality.

well, these have been good features than encourage me to try with an asus laptop, and i have to say, i am very happy with this acquisition.

The computer has excelent characterisitcs fot its price. Equipped with the potent intel proccesor core i5 2430M at 2.4 ghz and an eficcient 6GB ddr3 ram at 1333 mhz you will not have problem doing differents office tasks. It is also adecuate for entertainment proposits. I have opened until 12 youtube videos at the same time, while other minor aplications were opened, and the computer stills opereated with outstanding performance. I have not tried it in video games, so i have nothing to say about it.

Another thing i like about the computer is its good ventilation sistem. The computer keeps relatively cool the majority of the time, even under hard work. You will not notice the keyboard gets heated or something like that and it also keeps the palms of the hands rest cool.

The fans doing well its job, and are surprisingly quiet. I hardly hear them.

I personally think that the laptop looks good. it is maybe a little wider, but you have to take into account that the screen is more than 15 inches. Mine comes with a brown color surronding the keyboard and i seem that looks cool. There are other models that comes with silver instead of the brown.

On the other hand, there are some features of the laptop that i dont like very much. One of them are the location of the ac input and especially the audiphones input. If you are rigth-handed you maybe will have some issues with the cord of the audiphones annoying you when you try to use your mouse.

I would have prefered these inputs located in the rear of the laptop.

I neither dont like the touchpad very much. I mean, i am dont saying that it is a bad or low-quality touchpad, but i dont feel very comfortable when i use it. Maybe i would have liked the buttons of the touchpad be softer.

Finally, to summarize my review, In spite of some issues i have stated before, This is a very good laptop, and the possitive things strongly offset the minor negative points. For the price, this is an excelent deal, and i hope you enjoy this laptop as I doing at this moment i am writing this review.

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5 star out of box experience!

Well packaged and fun to open, an amazing, sleek look, practical design (although the keyboard takes a little getting used to, what keyboard doesn't?)!

It goes from packed to desktop in seconds. Installing all my programs nearly simultaneously made the turbo kick in, and the machine only barely got warm to the tough while pulling more than 2.9 Ghz. All the while, the machine is as silent as a whisper. And with Windows 7 on my previous laptop, it was easy to transfer all my old files wirelessly.

Not a lot of pre-loaded junk either! Just the essentials.

(this was much easier to set up than my mom's hp probook, which required a couple calls to the hp support line).

I'm hyped that ASUS offers free cloud backup, and I love their warranty program. This is my second ASUS, and I've always been pleased with their service.

I only wish it had a higher res webcam, and that the power plug wasn't in a slightly awkward place. but to me, those aren't significant concerns. For $578, I got a beast of a machine!

I'll update later after I give it some quality time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

after a few minutes~

As a note, although for me it's not a huge deal, the glossy screen has some reflection issues if you're looking at a dark picture (like a movie) and the speakers are modest in volume (I tested with a movie trailer for The Hobbit), although there's no distortion at 100%. I'm still hyped. This is an awesome machine. It's much more lightweight than I expected, the keyboard is pleasant to use, the track pad is so smooth I can't think of a material to compare it to. I'm a mouse person and I haven't bothered to plug in my mouse in the 4 hours I've had the computer on. If you want the full package (hd webcam and roaring speakers), you'll probably have to shell out a ton more just to get them, but for less than $600 I don't think there's ANYTHING to compare with this. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!!

Best Deals for 15.6" Intel I5 640GB 6GB Mocha (Asus X53E-RH52)

First of all, I apologize for the quality of the video.. This is NOT something I normally do or have done before. Was worried more about showing whats going on rather than style.. Oh and I accidentally stopped itbut I dont think it matters since you see whats going on. My laptop makes that weird sound CONSTANTLY, with a messed up audio jack. If you live in a house where you have to listen to music from headphones, HUGE problem. Now, this is one of the worst laptops I have ever owned. VERY slow, I don't know what went wrong here Asus?

Now when it comes to the seller, they actually emailed me asking for a good feedback. I don't think so. After I explained I am not satisfied, they offered to take returnwhich was coolbut when they asked me what was wrong, after all these problems I am having (the noise, the messed up jack and CONSTANT BLUE SCREEN. I hadn't seen that in years, plus the warning is always about some hard drive problem) the gentleman said "sounds like a software problem". There is nothing "software" about these problems. Hardware is simply messed up. I would've returned it ages ago, but I literally just moved from NYC to Miamiand wasn't going to have an address for return. DO NOT buy this laptopnormally I love Asus, they are my best laptops.. This? Not one bit.

Updateafter less than 6 months, AC jack (not the adapter as common) but the jack, broke. Audio jack NEVER worked (feeling like somethings stuck in it) I got the AC jack repairedbroke again. Now, my old Asus that was cheaper and that I used(and abused) for 3 years, works faster than this thing (even with a crack on it)

This is absolutely the worst purchase ever made. Also, asked many repair people, all the issues were hardware.

ALSOCHECK THE OTHER 5 STAR FEEDBACKS NONE OF THEM ARE AMAZON VERIFIED PURCHASES EXCEPT ME. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PRODUCT.

Honest reviews on 15.6" Intel I5 640GB 6GB Mocha (Asus X53E-RH52)

We recently bought this laptop and have been quite happy with its performance. It has the 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge Chip I5 2430M with the integrated graphics (HD 3000) it does not have a dedicated video card. It is very well built,stays cool,and is very quite and fast. We bought this to replace a dead Compaq Presario laptop with a Duo Core AMD chip. In my opinion the Asus build quality is far superior than the Compaq/HP's that I have experienced.

The webcam is very basic, but we did not buy it for that, so no issue there. I wanted a good mid-level(I5 2430M Chip) machine and I found it with this laptop. Even though this machine doesn't have a dedicated video card I have been able to play Half Life 2 with no issues; though I am sure it would not handle newer games like Skyrim, etc,etc with the intense graphics.

Amazon has the best price I have seen on this laptop, HH Gregg comes close, at Best Buy (website) this machine is around $700. I would highly recommend this machine and Asus in general....

Cheap HP ENVY 14-1210NR 14.5-Inch Notebook PC (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

You might be wondering what the difference between this and the HP Envy 14-1110nr 14.5-Inch Relic Laptop PC Up to 3.45 Hours of Battery Life (Carbon) While this HP Envy 14 has a larger HDD and a slightly faster processor, the HDD is a lot slower (at 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm). This difference in HDD speed is worth going with the other laptop with a slightly smaller (640GB) but faster HDD and slightly slower processor. Plus Amazon has it on sale for $924.99 right now. However if that 110GB of HDD space is really that important to you, you could go with this laptop; just trying to inform people!

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I bought this recently to replace a Dell Studio 1537 that had its share of problems. After using this laptop for a few months (I bought mine this past April) I can say that it is definitely one of the best laptops I've used.

Pros:

1. Very solid feel to it. Being an aluminum body laptop definitely makes it feel better than the cheap plasticky feel that some laptops have. Some reviewers have stated that the laptop is heavy; I haven't really noticed it.

2. The webcam's pretty good... I've had Skype chats lasting for about 2 hours without the webcam shutting off. My previous dell's webcam was notorious for shutting off at random and not coming back on without a restart. The quality seems pretty good for an integrated webcam.

3. It's pretty easy to upgrade/replace parts, which is definitely nice given that previous laptops I've had make you jump through hurdles to get to them. All you have to do is remove 5 screws to take off the entire back plate. Very easy to do a thorough clean using compressed air.

Speaking on this topic, I upgraded the RAM on this computer to 8GB. I ended up using this:

Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9

amazon.com/Corsair-DDR3-Laptop-Memory-CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B002YUF8ZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309126699&sr=8-1

Perfectly compatible with this laptop, if anyone was interested.

4. There's a little circle in the top left corner of the trackpad that you can double tap to turn it off. Definitely a nice feature when you're typing alot and accidentally move the mouse by rubbing the base of your hand on the trackpad.

5. There are two exhaust fans in the laptop, one in the back and one on the right side. This helps in keeping the laptop cool... I've ran MATLAB with multithreaded code that takes several hours to run on this laptop and it never gets too hot.

Minor Annoyances:

1. The trackpad takes some getting used to, and sometimes feels unresponsive/stuck. You'll definitely need to invest in an external mouse for dedicated use of the laptop.

2. Although HP advertised the screen as being one of the brightest screens found, I've had laptops that have had brighter screens. The screen does display colors pretty well though.

Neutral Points:

1. Only 3 USB ports. Technically, it's 2 USB ports + 1 USB/e-SATA combo. I've never needed more than those 3 at any one time, although I could see where it could be an issue.

Overall, a solid laptop. Definitely recommended.

Best Deals for HP ENVY 14-1210NR 14.5-Inch Notebook PC (Silver)

Overall I like this laptop alot. If it wasn't for my Cons, I would love this laptop and have rated it a 5 star. It was fast out of the box. It comes pre-installed with Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements which is awesome! It definitely makes me happy to have something better pre-installed than Windows Movie maker and Paint...yeesh! I definitely plan to test this laptop out with some gaming and photo/video editing to see how it performs under intense use, but I'm liking it's performance so far.

Pros:

-Great design

-Large 750gb hard-drive

-Nice LED screen

-Great graphics (switchable is a very nice feature for a laptop)

-Photoshop and Premier Elements comes pre-installed

-Fences is a cool add-on as you can hide your desktop whenever you want, not sure about the rest of the features but we'll see

Neutral:

-RAM...would have liked 6-8 GB but 4 gigs will do for now

-Envy Theme...I prefer the Windows Aero theme over the "Envy" theme. To me the Envy theme felt dated and dirty in appearance. If you install this theme you have to go into the MyColors app to reset the theme back to the standard Windows theme.

-No Blu-ray player. While obviously not a deal breaker for me, it would have been nice to have one included on this laptop.

Cons:

-Wireless Connection: I don't know what's going on, but my wireless shows Excellent connection (full bars) but lags at times loading pages and downloading. I'm going to look into it further, but it can get a little annoying. When running on a third-party browser (Chrome) internet seems to be better, so I'm thinking it's HP bloatware on the IE8 install, but will also look into driver updates for the wireless card.

-Touchpad: It's bigger and less responsive than I expected. My hand will also accidentally touch a part of it without realizing (this causes the cursor to jump away from what I was trying to do). Also, the left/right mouse buttons also move the cursor which causes the cursor to jump to a different part of the screen sometimes causing miss-clicks.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY 14-1210NR 14.5-Inch Notebook PC (Silver)

This was purchased to replace a HP DV-5. This notebook had several appeals that enticed me want to try it; the backlit keyboard and the included Photo Shop software. Upon getting and using the computer for a couple months there are something's that are amazing and a few bothersome things that could be improved.

Pros:

This notebook is genuinely built of hard quality material and you can feel that it will hold up for a long time. The beats audio is not bad and works great although sometimes the placement of the speakers at the bottom can be a bit awkward, unlike most notebooks that have the speakers at the top of the keyboard, just below the monitor. The included copies of Photoshop are greatly appreciated out of the box for quick editing. On the specs end, getting 4 GB of ram and a 750 GB hard drive up front is great and the processer speed works out great for demanding applications. Least I forget to mention the backlit keyboard that outside of the Mac realm is not standard on many notebooks PC's.

Cons:

There are several things that disappoint me about this notebook. First it has a beautiful screen but it is covered by a plastic cover leaving an "air gap" between the LED display and you. Why this is so bad is it produces more glare than you would normally get with a notebook screen and on top of that placing that plastic on top of the screen makes the picture seem less clear and kind of washed looking. My second major concern is the jumpiness and overall design of the touchpad. Overtime I believe a software update can fix this but for now it's bothersome. I use a regular mouse anyway so it's not that big of an inconvenience. I'm not so concerned with the lack of a VGA port or only having 2 USB + 1 Sata but one could always have more.

Overall I would recommend this computer and would love to give it 5 stars but for the way the display is designed and the jumpiness and inconsistent response of the touchpad I'm giving it 4 stars.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP ENVY 14-1210NR 14.5-Inch Notebook PC (Silver)

After many reviews and thorough searching for a good deal, I finally purchased my Envy over a month ago.

I am very pleased with my purchase and loved the overall performance of the components. Only flaw would be the touch pad which doesn't recognize certain actions, but getting a wireless mouse would fix that problem.

The design of the Envy is sleek, and the performance is top notch. I was very impressed with the sound card which is Beats Audio. The laptop speakers are weak but plug in some good headphones and enjoy the crisp thumping of your favorite tunes. I compared my sound card to one of my friends recent laptop purchases and even he was impressed by the sound quality! The interchangeable graphics card is also a neat feature and the display is impeccable.

Coming from a Sony Vaio, I can say that I am pleased with my HP Envy! I'd give it a 8.5/10. If it had Blu Ray capabilities then we would have a perfect 10.

Sony VAIO Fit Series SVF14215CXP 14-Inch Core i5 Touch Laptop Review

Customer Ratings:

Avoid VAIO Hardware WIFI Issue

I am sitting here looking at a the white version of this Sony VAIO, 14" (touch) i7-3537, 750 HD no SSD, 6 GB ram and it is fun as long as you don't need the WIFI to work. Sony VAIO across the spectrum are defective when it comes to WIFI. In particular they drop the WIFI signal and Sony's answer to this is "NO ETA" on the cure. Do yourself a favor a either Google this or go to the Sony User forums and you will see this is a major failing by Sony and they are not offering any kind of resolution other than "NO ETA".

My Sony VAIO is not even 2 months old and it has had multiple driver updates with no fix. In fact the last driver update appears to have disabled the computer from being able to alert you via the WIFI icon if the system has dropped connection. As of the last month it randomly disconnects and connect, making it useless unless it is physically wired via the Ethernet.

I venture Sony is trying to program around defective hardware in the form of the wireless card that appears to be in all levels of the new VAIO back into 2012.

Now if you don't care about wifi, this computer is pretty nice. 1600x900 works better than FULL HD or 1366x768 in my book. Bring magnifying glasses if you opt for full HD. USB placement isn't the best, but at least the VAIO has four where many have only two. It has an optical drive and Ethernet, so it will work wired up like a nice desktop and the HDMI out drives a nice signal on my 47" LG LCD (120hz) (using Cheetah brand HDMI cable acquired on Amazon.)

Sony Art Rage and other productivity apps are extra fun bonuses.

Real world battery life is about 4:20 for me which is as long as my longest flight.

The WIFI issue that remains unresolved is a VAIO-Killer when compounded by Sony's lackluster customer service. This is the second Sony I purchased this year. After a lot of research, this is one of the better fully capable laptops of the second generation of 2013 Win 8 touch screens IF YOU DON"T NEED WIFI.

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I got the laptop for my daughter who just started at the University of Notre Dame. I have a limited budget but I did want to get her the best I could since she got a full-ride to ND. I knew the next gen ultrabook/laptops are coming out now, but I needed it a month ago. She wanted this one because it was white and had a touchscreen.

I picked it because it had a 3rd gen i5, 1600x900 res (FHD would be better), backlight keyboard, not an ultrabook (to many issues with wifi and keyboard/trackpad in many current models), 14" screen (wanted 13"-14:), weighs 4 lbs.

I created the backup on usb and replaced the hard drive with a new Intel 240GB SSD, I then restored the system and customized the software. It boots in 14.7 seconds with the SSD and is very responsive.

She used it at home for a couple of weeks to get used to it and loves it. I had to connect remotely after leaving the university using LogMeIn to get her properly setup on their secure network (IT department seemed like they never heard of windows 8) but since then she has had no issues.

BTW, Win 8 is pretty dam good, especially if you have a touchscreen. I don't and just use desktop mode and I have had it for a year and love it, my kid does too.

I also purchased a second, Sony battery for the laptop from another vendor so she could make it through the entire day.

NOTE: The first laptop of this model I received worked fine for a few days till I tried to create the restore image and it started to crash. I could have reloaded it myself but since it was so new I returned it for another, and I must say, AMAZON HANDLED THE RETURN SO WELL, I will not hesitate to make any size purchase with Amazon. I issued the RMA on Friday evening and by Monday we had a new laptop. This time I created the recovery media right away (after updating it) and had no problems at all.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO Fit Series SVF14215CXP 14-Inch Core i5 Touch Laptop

THIS IS NOT THE VAIO FIT 14.

Perhaps due to some confusion on Amazon's end (or else deceptive practices) this product has been mislabeled as being the Vaio Fit 14-inch variant. This is actually the Vaio Fit E 14-inch variant. This E (basically for economy, or entry-level) means this is slightly fatter and made of matte plastic. This true Fit 14 laptop you'll find on Sony's website is a much more professional, thin aluminum-frame laptop. In truth, Sony should take some of the blame for naming two laptops made from totally different materials and components so similarly (Fit/Fit E) but I just wanted to warn anyone else before they purchase the incorrect laptop.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO Fit Series SVF14215CXP 14-Inch Core i5 Touch Laptop

The device is amazing. It is easy to use, very lightweight, and easy transition from Mac and PC Computers. It had easy set-up instructions and I could customize it as well. Overall, two thumbs up!!!!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO Fit Series SVF14215CXP 14-Inch Core i5 Touch Laptop

received with screen not touch! had to return not happy to have to wait for another computer!

Sony has a great name but the seller didn't sell a working product. i wanted a working computer for the money, i went with a HP and solid state drive for 200.00 less!