Review of Acer TimelineU M5-581T-6490 15.6-Inch Ultrabook (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

Pros:

good battery life

good build quality

excellent value for it's price

plays mid-range games on low with acceptable frame rates

Cons:

screen is thin feels too thin not that its totally a bad thing

other notes:

bought this laptop for my programming classes at my university, typing on it is pleasant and it's battery life is impressive compared to my last laptop. Held off on a graphics card because I wanted no temptations to game whist in class or studying, but it didn't matter because the HD 4000 is actually a decent integrated solution.

I would recommend this laptop to others because its a excellent value for it's price.

will return feedback in 2 months time.

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I bought this slick-looking M5-581T-6490 one month ago. Everything worked fine out of the box.

The first little trouble I ran into is the touch pad keeps doing strange zooming in/zooming out, and the mouse is difficult to control. Turns out the default setting turns on multi-finger functions. After some research, I turned it off. control Panel -> Mouse -> Touchpad, turn off all multi-finger function. After this, the touch pad was at mostt manageable, still not as good as my old laptop.

A few times when I turned on the laptop to use, instead of turning on as expected, it said, "Loading Update 1 of 40." Even AFTER I had selected the option that supposedly allowed me to choose whether or not to install updates. I had to wait about an hour for the updates to finally load, and nothing seemed to have changed or improved.

Then I installed Microsoft office, Acrobat, Visio etc. Suddenly, the laptop took a very long time to boot up the windows, and the mouse was constantly drawing in circles. Word, Visio, also slowed down for no reason. I tried many tips from online, like "disable all programs at startup", "uninstall McAfee", but none helped.

Finally, I spent $35 to have an IT Pro to run diagnostic. Bingo, a Hard Disc defect. Office software happens installed in that sector. The Video card RAM also has defect.

Acer said I can send the unit back, they will fix it, likely replace the hard drive but I will lose ALL installed software license.

The touch pad still bother me a little. I had enough with this unit, and decided to return.

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I'm completely satisfied with this laptop. The keyboard is especially comfotable. The only negative comment I have is that all the USB ports are on the back. They would have been better on the side.

Honest reviews on Acer TimelineU M5-581T-6490 15.6-Inch Ultrabook (Silver)

Fast computer overall and fast internet response if compared with my wife's Macbook Pro. The battery life is incredible. The integrated software management features provided by Acer should improve. For example, the sleeping mode works randomly. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. I constantly have to turn on the computer again (fast booting though). I hope Acer look into this problem and communicate with its customers. Maybe from drivers updates, I don't know. This product would be almost 5 if Acer were more careful to design integrated management features that actually work.

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Bought two Acer Timeline M5 laptops a month ago.

Computer number one died with a short circuit on the motherboard after 3 weeks use. Computer smoked briefly and terrible odor.

After an hour and 30 minutes on hold with Acer warranty, given a return number. Computer back in use within 10 days. Acer refuses to tell us a) what burned and b) what chemicals we were exposed to.

Second failure within 24 hours of receiving it back-display died, case too hot to touch (can't remove battery, it's built in!)

Back at Acer for another 10 days lost service.

Computer two has an hdmi port defect, external monitor keeps losing signal. Also, case bottom has so much bow in it rubber feet don't all touch desk and it slides around while you are typing.

We aren't buying anymore Acers. Do you really want one?

11-29 update. computer video failed within 24 hours of return and has been returned for the third time! It took over two weeks, 6 phone calls and over 3 hours on the phone to get a return label this time! This computer has worked for two weeks out of two months! The only thing worse than their product is their customer service

Cheap HP EliteBook 2530p (XT956UT) 12.1" Notebook

Customer Ratings:

I've been working on this Elitebook 2530p for over six months and it performs like a champ! I upgraded from an 10.1" netbook to the Elitebook that features a fast Intel processor, a hardened 160 GB hard drive, enough RAM that I haven't felt the need to add more, a built in DVD-RW drive and a battery that has a good 7 to 8 hours of staying power. What follows are some of the things there were not disclosed to me before I purchased this EliteBook:

* A built in fingerprint scanner (super cool!)

* A descrete pop up LED keyboard light that has been installed in the top edge of the monitor screen's frame (also really cool)

* A rollerball type mouse button that's built into the keyboard with an extra set of mouse buttons.

Above the row of function keys is the HP Quick Launch Bar which has LED indicators that allows you immediate access to many of the EliteBook's top functions with just a single tap of your finger, such as:

* The HP Info Center, which is a dashboard like application to the EliteBooks major features/programs,

* An on/off switch for WANN and Bluetooth reception,

* Pop up access to the HP Presentation Settings panel,

* An instant Silence button for the netbook's speakers, and

* A pop up volume adjuster that allows you to modify the volume level with just a simple swipe of your finger tip no mouse necessary!

To go even one better, these LED "buttons" change colors to show you what state they are in! Also on this Quick Launch Bar are lights for Cap Lock, Print Screen, Num Lock and Scroll Lock indicators that are missing from many netbook keyboards.

As I was getting to know my new EliteBook and all of these "extras" were revealing themselves to me, I felt like, and still feel like, I got ahold of a great, compact laptop with all the fancy bells and whistles that I could have asked for and I am very, very pleased!

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Excellent speed for handling Windows 7 Ultimate and other tasks. Study design and portable. Even Windows 7 didn't automatically find the SDHC slot, driver found on HP's website.

Best Deals for HP EliteBook 2530p (XT956UT) 12.1" Notebook

Replaced my OLD Dell x300 with this. It's fantastic, fast, light, easy to pack for trips! Seller got it to me in one day! Amazing.

Sony SVE14A35CXH VAIO 14" Touch-Screen Laptop/ 3rd Gen Intel® Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
Today's Bonus: 27% Off

I really like this machine. I was in the market for a new laptop for some time an decided a touchscreen would best serve my purpose. I'm an artist so working with the touch is a dream come true.

I wasn't sure about windows 8 when it came out but after playing with it for a while decided it was in fact a good OS. Just different. I can see where it isn't optimal for a business but it suites my needs.

But don't let windows 8 turn you away from a good quality computer. There is a program that will allow you to use Windows 8 like Windows 7, Vista, XP, or even 98! And it's free to boot! Just look up in any search engine Classic Shell and you'll find it. Classicshell.net.

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Let me start by saying that I am a computer technician, and was looking for a touchscreen laptop that was fast out of the box. This VAIO hit the mark. It has a fast processor, fast RAM, and a semi-fast hard drive. Out of the box, booted up in about 15 seconds (after the initial setup).

Now day 1 after getting it set up and configured the way I like, I replaced the hard drive with a solid state drive Kingston's 120GB HyperX drive extremely fast. I cloned the hard drive to the SSD, and was able to boot up in less than 7 seconds with Windows 8 just what I was hoping for.

All and all, this laptop is a must have if you are looking for fast, and touchsreen. Yes, it does pick up fingerprints, but I put a screen protector on it, and it reduced the glare, and keeps away those prints. So don't let the other reviewers steer you wrong, as this is a sure fire speed deamon, especially if you plan on installing a SSD.

Thumbs up from the PC Whiz!

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This is a nice compact size lightning fast laptop, works great with decent configurations. The laptop has excellent screen resolution, lighted keys to work at night in reduced lighting. Best buy ever.

Honest reviews on Sony SVE14A35CXH VAIO 14" Touch-Screen Laptop/ 3rd Gen Intel®

I am writing to you from my Sony Vaio which I will be returning tomorrow. After less than three months of careful usage, the hard disk is failing and causing issues. The mouse is too sensitive and frustrating to use, the screen produces a lot of glare, the finish attracts an insane amount of fingerprints. Up until the hard drive failed I was fairly satisfied but a hard drive failure on a $700.00 laptop? There are no excuses for that.

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I LIKE IT,AND IT'S MEET MY EXPECTATION .

SONY IS MY FAVORITE BRAND

I LIKE IT

I LIKE IT

I LIKE IT

Best Dell Inspiron 15 i15RM-3415SLV 15.6-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver) Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $520.99
Sale Price: $499.95
Today's Bonus: 4% Off

We got it for parents, $400 for a 15.6" Dell, i3 third gen, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, Windows 8. Brushed metal finish.

Overall fit & finish is good and matched any high end laptop, but don't compare with mac books. Its more that what you should expect for the price, looks good, thinner and much lighter than laptops in below $500 range.

The 15.6" screen is bright and clean, viewing angle looks ok, resolution is standard 1366x768. The speakers are loud and clear, much much better than my $800 Sony VAIO with worst ever speakers. The webcam, touchpad, keyboard are all nice and as you would expect.

There are lot of USB ports and a HDMI port. Be careful, there is no analog VGA 15 pin port used to connect to older monitors or projectors, but anyways I don't need it anymore. Optical drive (CD/DVD writer) and SD card readers are built in.

Windows 8 is new to us, very fast boot and shutdown, but would take some time to get used to new user interface. The way START screen works is irritating and I hate the loss of transparent windows and rounder corners, no AERO Glass any more. But under the skin (once you get used to the primitive look and feel, plus the stupid "apps") its still lot of good old windows.

I had a DELL Inspiron 700m 12.1" almost a decade ago and I loved it. And I love this new DELL Inspiron 15R Moon Silver stunning, reliable and solid performer for regular home use. It make me hate my all white Sony VAIO even more, not because its white but more so 'cause of its bad speakers, dull screen, useless blu-ray drive and all the junk for which I paid double the price. I tried out Lenovo, Toshiba and other brands for below $500 which our friends got. This DELL is a winner.

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I love it, It's the same I choose. Exactley hte Dell I choose in my mind. Beautiful display,... Silver moon very nice.....It's mine.

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 15 i15RM-3415SLV 15.6-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

I absolutely love my new Dell Inspiron with Windows 8. It was easy to set up and has so many great features.

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 15 i15RM-3415SLV 15.6-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

I thought it was a good deal, but just one week after start for two times, it cannot come to normal working state after "sleep" for a few hours, just keep blue screen with only mouse! I can only force restart by power button, which is not good! Now I cannot use sleep function because I cannot figure out what problem it is. That's unexpected for a brand new computer!!!

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Dell Inspiron 15R is the first laptop for my wife. She likes it. However using Windows 8 was not so easy compare to Windows XP.

Acer AS7552G-6436 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Review

Customer Ratings:

Acer Aspire 7552g-6436 Review, as of 24 hours...

I'm coming from a Dell inspiron 2200.

Con's :

So at first glance i noticed the keyboard has tabs on the keys instead of keys. seems a little flimsy

only time will tell.

Not really happy with the power cord either but as the zen master says "we'll see".

The placement of the usb and other ports on both sides instead of the rear is less than perfect in

my opinion.

The Middle Ground : Price vs. performance.

So far the CPU has yet to disapoint, despite some decent games and multi-tasking i have throw at it.

Even though it's only an AMD Caspian and lacks level 3 cache and suffers from low clock speed this cpu

should serve well for a few years at least, its also an upgradable option, if you know how and if you can

get your hand on an AMD x940 you can expect a little bump. For the Price this N950 is about as good as it

gets for amd and they are only on par with the fastest i5's. BUT at least it has 4 threads not 2 like the i5's.

640gb western digital blue 5400rpm hard drive, is ok and plenty big but slow, HD tuner gave it 55mb min 85mb

max transfer.I have ordered a kingston v100 64 gb for this laptop, and will let you know more about that upgrade.

I installed a kingston v100 64gb SSD, and let me tell you it is FAST. I did not like the error messages

i got when cloning the drive, but after hitting ignore a couple times everything seems to be fine, if i end up

having to jump through hoops to fix it i will let you know. I assume if i have a problem with the ssd then

i can always put the hard drive back..Hd tech wont run on windows7 even in compatiblity mode.

So i used hd tune which gave me reads at 148mb's on twice, though i did have one test show 169mb's.

Makes me wonder if this sata controller is 1.5gb or 3.0gb as i should have in theory got only 143mb/s reads

with a sata 1 or 1.5gb controller.

Pro's : The screen is amazing ! Nice and sharp ! Really Pops out at you. I know its not 1080 but 720 is

still easy on the eyes compared to 1024x768 on 14.1 inch monitor.

The laptop has many features that are upgradable, including the Hard drive ( yes you can have 2 , after you

purchase another hard drive tray from acer for $29.99 ? must be how the corporate exec's get their bonuses,

i mean really 30 bucks for a piece of bent metal ? SAD !!)

Also their is 3 memory slots as newegg reports so you can have as much as 12gb of ram.. smoking for a laptop

in this price range.

And yes the 6650m ATI radeon can also be upgraded, not that it's the weakest part of this system by any means.

I'm getting 80+ FPS in BF2, Cod4 and other games with all set to max settings.

I have heard and read about a bios mod for acer computers that unlocks all kinds of goodies, which i will

try in the near future.

Conclusion : This is a great laptop for the price of 700.00 or so, despite some limitations with AMd CPU's.

If your looking for a solid gaming laptop for a low cost, this as7552g-6436 will not let you down.

I hoped this helped someone.

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I'm very picky when it comes to buying a computer. I searched for WEEKS before buying a laptop, read reviews, hit the Net repeatedly, went to every computer store in our area. This was not the best laptop I found. That honor went to a SONY system that cost 1400 bucks. This one was almost half that price. For the price, the Acer was the best in its class. I found no other computer than the Sony that even came close.

The first thing I noticed (and yes, odd how certain things are important to different people) was the textured surface that is not only resistant to fingerprints... it laughs at them. I had previously owned a high-powered Gateway and it fingerprinted like a fiend. I was constantly cleaning the cover. So this was an important thing to me. Minor I know, but important.

I know there are gamer boys out there that will run this through all kinds of specs tests and say "oh the hard drive is slow" (what, at 5400 rpm? Are they kidding?) or that it's a "slow processor" (quad core 2.1g? Again, are they kidding? Yeah it's not 3 ghz, but it's no slouch either). To each his own. FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON-including gamers-this will prove a power-packed system for what I consider to be a very low price.

Quad core 2.1 processor, good hunka RAM, large size hard drive (for a laptop), quiet operation, good solid feel, and a gamer-level graphics card that has stood up to every nasty thing I could throw at it (and I threw a LOT at it).

The only negative thing: I'm not all that impressed with the screen. It's a good resolution, is quite visible, but it has a glare problem (as exists with many laptops) and one can definitely see (especially on dark screens) a difference in lighting pattern behind the screen. Nevertheless, it's just fine for almost all applications and the flaws really don't show up anywhere but movies or games with dark backgrounds. For 729 bucks, I can live with a less-than-perfect screen. It does bug me a bit however. I have seen anti-glare screen covers for about thirty bucks (gah, 30 for a piece of stick-on anti-glare plastic? Greed greed...) so the addition of such a device should make the screen much more visible in harsh-light situations such as bookstores or offices with overhead lights.

The keyboard is full size and responsive. Gotta love the multi-touch mousepad (although I always attach an external trackball for my own use). The laptop is not a lightweight, but not nearly as heavy as other 17" systems I've seen and is significantly thinner than laptops I've owned in the past. It has a sleek look and style to it that I find pleasing, without excessive lights and gizmos to distract from operation.

I suggest first thing making recovery disks when the system presents that option. You'll need a number of DVD and a LONG time. But it's good insurance. I also recommend going through the software offerings and remove anything that even remotely looks useless (I won't name names like McNorton or similar software). Anything that is "trial" can be booted as pretty much useless. The more you remove, the faster the system will run. Acer isn't alone in quantity of garbage software on the system. So give yourself a bit of setup time and get it where you want it to start with. Be sure to set the POWER and PROCESSOR settings to the kind of use common for you. Me: MORE POWER, BABY. :D

On a scale from 1-10 I'd give this a 9. I would have loved to see BluRay rather than a DVD drive. I like that it has USB ports on BOTH sides of the computer (I would have liked to see one on the back, but that can interfere with cover issues on some laptops, and may not be a good idea overall). All in all this is a very solid and powerful computer that is in the price range of a standard "business" no-frills laptop. I haven't seen anything else that even comes close for the price.

Best Deals for Acer AS7552G-6436 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

I was a little hesitant to purchase this laptop because I normally buy HP products. However, the price was much cheaper than the HP and so I gave it a shot based on the specifications. I was pleasantly surprised. It is constructed well; I like the textured surface that doesn't show scratches and smudges as easily as the HP. It is a little heavy, but not as much as I would have expected for a 17.3" laptop. I was happy to see that the model I received did not need a separate adapter for a second hard drive like the older Acers did. It packs plenty of horsepower, although the first thing I did was remove windows to get rid of all of the resource-sucking bloatware. For some reason, the restore disk creation software requires five DVDs and you cannot select what software to install during installation. I downloaded a clean copy of windows and started fresh, using the license key under the laptop.

It has three memory slots. I used the money I saved by buying this laptop to add another 4 gig of ram. I am currently running Fedora 14 with Windows 7 as a Virtualbox guest with minimal performance issues (other than video, discussed below).

Hardware: Screen is amazing. Laptop has the potential to run warm, but I use the Xpad Slim and haven't noticed any heat issues yet. The computer seems to be constructed solidly. I don't like the keyboard as much (the keys are flat squares, but they depress like a normal keyboard so I can't complain).

If you plan on using Linux, be aware that the video card driver from ATI does not support the new kernel--you'll have to google to get it to work--and you will have to blacklist drivers to get the wireless working but with some tweaking everything on the laptop but the multi-gesture function of the mouse pad works. There are some annoying video issues that I hope will be fixed with an ATI driver update (e.g. persistant watermark in the corner, sleep issues, VirtualBox issues) but hopefully that update will happen soon. Oh, and install the 32-bit version of W7 in VirtualBox or you will see a serious performance hit to the virtual machine.

From a hardware perspective this is a great deal. If you're running windows 7 only there should be no issues at all, aside from the unneeded additional bundled software that slows everything down.

Update:

The video and wireless problems have been resolved by Fedora updates (Fedora 17 x86_64), and something else must have been updated, because I re-installed windows 7 64bit in VirtualBox and found a significant performance INCREASE over the 32bit. If I ever have to run windows, I can pop in and out of it in seconds, and it now runs in what feels like native speed, with the exception of 2D video acceleration (for some reason 3D still works). I am still absolutely happy with this purchase.

Honest reviews on Acer AS7552G-6436 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Okay everyone just to let you know I am a gamer! I bought this to take with me to work and to school. So far I am very pleased with the laptop. The screen is epic. I have read a few complaints on the key board. Now I am very picking when it comes to my peripherals. I have always carried around a desktop key board for my gaming on the go, along with a mouse because who wants to play video games on a track pad? Well After using this key board for about 5 minutes , I no longer carry a spare key board with me. The response and the fell of the key board is enough to satisfy even the pickiest of gamers. The track pad is very fast very responsive but I still carry around a wired mouse. The feel of this laptop is very sturdy with out being over weight. Its nice solid construction makes me feel comfortable while carrying it around. The finish on the outer case is amazing. I am a finger print fanatic. With my old laptop 30% of the time I was wiping finger print smudges off of them. The finish on this thing is great no more finger prints. The interior is okay the key board rests on a nice metal finish that doesn't not attract finger prints either but the problem is the boarder around the screen and, the edge of the whole thing there is that same old shinny black plastic finger print magnet.

Now lets get down to the gaming part of my review. The performance of this laptop is incredible. I was not only shocked but I was amazed at how well this thing handles games.

Frame rates:

Call of duty modern warfare 2 80-90 fps.

battle field bad company 2 30-45 fps.

Portal 2 60 fps.

fall out new vegas 60 fps.

counter strike source 60 fps.

left 4 dead 1 and 2 60 fps.

EVE online 50-80 fps.

Aion 45-60 fps.

These bench marks come from FRAPS. The video settings are maxed out at 1600x900 vsync is on for all the steam games. everything set to highest setting.

Like I said the gaming is great. that little video card powers threw pretty much anything you can throw at it.

I am not a professional laptop reviewer by any means. And I have read some awful things about this laptop threw different websites. I fell those reviews are punching this thing around pretty hard. They are also comparing it to laptop that cost 200-300 dollars more then this one. So I cant tell you to buy it or not. But what I can say is, If I needed a new laptop again, I would buy this one all over again.

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***Update*** After having this laptop for sometime I can tell you I will never purchase from ACER again. The customer support is sub-par with no driver updates coming in the last year and a half. The CPU fan is extremely loud and replacement parts are not easy to come by and Customer support cannot even provide you with part numbers. I will be going back to HP where you can get support and parts for your purchases.

*****************************************************************************************************

This is a great laptop for the price I paid $725 and I am very pleased with my purchase. I can not speak to the way Acer sets up the operating system as I never even booted into it. I used a copy of 64-bit Windows with the Key from the bottom of the computer to do a fresh install from the get go. I highly recommend to download the drivers ahead of time, many are not in Windows 7 by default.

Pros:

1) Very fast using multi-threaded applications i.e. Handbrake.

2) Full size keyboard with number pad.

3) Few hardware LED's, the last laptop I had looked like a UFO. This Acer is very sedate I like the simplistic design.

4) Graphics are amazing for this price range.

5) Unit is very quite while routine operation. You can hear it pretty good while intensive operation such as encoding video.

6) Atheros Wi-Fi 802.11N is implemented quite well. I am able to get two rooms away and maintain 7MB/s transfers of large files.

7) Three DDR3 slots in mine it came with two 2Gig sticks of Kingston 1066 Ram. I am upgrading the third slot with a 4Gig stick.

8) Second hard drive bay for upgrades.

Cons:

1) Battery, only a six cell battery and the nine cell from Acer is $128.00 for a battery(wow)With mixed usage I am looking at 2hr 45min.

2) LCD screen viewing angle. Your face needs to be parallel to the screen and your eyes level with the top or the colors are completely washed out.

3) Single touch pad bar. I really wish the left and right buttons were separated, although I am getting used to this configuration.

4) Speakers are on the base right below the screen. I listen to a lot of podcasts and like to close the screen, if I do close the lid it muffles the sound.

5) Second hard drive bay requires a caddy that does not come with it.

6) Acer support website is useless and they will not provide and tech. manuals for their products,a service I have had multiple other vendors do without question.

Over all I say near $700.00 this is a deal for a 17inch DTR.

***Update**** I have seen some confusion on here as to the unreadability of the RAM. This laptop has 3 DDR3 slots that can hold 4Gigs a piece for a total of 12Gigs of RAM. Current configuration is using two of these slots leaving one free for immediate upgrade to 8Gigs.

Best Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey) Deals

Customer Ratings:

In the market for a mobile computing solution, I eschewed the tablet trend and went straight for the ultrabook. I needed a device that met both my productivity needs (i.e., a keyboard) but was also highly portable. For almost a day I was convinced I wanted that new Samsung chromebook, but ultimately I decided a browser-based O.S. was possibly too limiting. I really preferred a Windows 8 machine, and if it had the power to run Guild Wars 2 (my PC game of choice) without costing a lot, that would be optimal. The Lenovo brand spoke to me because of its reputation, and even though I shopped around at Dell, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, ASUS, and the rest, the Lenovo kept calling me back. Performance, portability, and price. The Ideapads checked all three boxes.

In the review that follows there will be several mentions of Lenovo's S405. This is because I purchased the S405 first from Amazon for $540. (Less than a month later, it's already down to $480!) But I determined that the S405, attractive as it was, didn't meet my performance expectations. So, I returned that model and got the U410 (version 59351632) from Newegg for $630.

APPEARANCE: At a maximum width of .83" and 4.1 lbs., the U410 is neither the thinnest nor lightest ultrabook on the market. However, laptops offering similar performance at this price point weigh an average of 6 lbs., so put aside the notion that the U410 is somehow an unwieldy beast. It's no MacBook Air, but it isn't HEAVY. (It's also not $1200+.) It does kind of look like a MacBook, though. (Not that the MacBooks have a monopoly on silver chassis with black chiclet keyboards.) The aluminum cover of my U410 is charcoal gray; interior is matte silver. I *loved* the all black interior of the S405, but this design has grown on me. The U410 looks and feels expensive, beautiful in its simplicity. Whereas the S405 was .8" at its thickest point, then became even narrower at the front, the U410 is a uniform thickness on all sides, but the sides are also slightly concave giving it a touch of style. If you purchase the U410 on Lenovo's website you'll have red and blue designs as options (the red looks particularly spiffy) but you'll also pay at least a hundred dollars more than you would at Newegg.

The U410 sheds some of its cost and weight by the exclusion of an optical drive. I used an external DVD burner to make a recovery disc, but Lenovo includes a program called "OneKey Recovery" that backs up your system to a safe partition of your hard disk. I also appreciate how cool and quiet the U410 runs during casual use. Predictably, games cause the fan inside to work harder and the device gets hot on the underside near the ventilation.

Insert: Another review on this site complained of the fan's noise level. Perhaps this person received a defective unit. My U410 runs quiet except when I push the hardware, then the noise increases. But even then, it's not so loud I'm disturbed by it.

KEYBOARD: Lenovo bought IBM's Thinkpad brand back in 2005; Thinkpads being notable for their outstanding keyboards well suited to the business-oriented user. Before I committed to purchasing a Lenovo, I read a bit about how the keyboards in the Ideapad line had finally, or nearly, caught up to the Thinkpads. The keyboard on the U410 is good, but far from great. The keys are sized nicely (except for the Backspace, right Shift, and Enter which are undersized to make room for the Home, End, and Page keys) and are supposedly contoured so your fingers don't slide off, resulting in typing errors. (Lenovo calls this "Accutype.")

What disappoints is the "flex" beneath the keyboard. If you've researched the U410 online, you may have seen the video of the guy pushing his finger into the middle of the keyboard. Now, nobody will be doing this to their brand new ultrabook, but the video demonstrates a lapse in quality. While the U410 looks and feels sturdy overall, the keyboard comes off cheap. You may not notice the flex as you type--since your eyes are glued to the screen--but glance down and you'll see your fingers bounce up and down on the springy underside.

The keyboard on the S405 is much studier with a satisfying, velvety press, but I noticed I tended to make more mistakes using that machine. I decided to take a typing test online to see on which ultrabook I typed the best. On the U410, with no mistakes, I averaged 89 wpm. On the S405, I averaged 81. (On my older Compaq Presario I scored a 92.) So even though the flex in the U410 is distracting, it's actually the swifter keyboard. At least, on this particular day with this particular typing test this proved to be the case.

There's no backlight, but that would inflate the price and it's a luxury feature I personally don't need nor want.

WIFI: The Lenovo U410 is notorious for its sketchy WIFI adapter. The company's official stance is U410s manufactured after July 2012 no longer have issues, but users maintain that problems, such as slow speeds and dropped connections, persist. I was nervous my U410 would suffer these problems, but after running a series of informal tests I have not found any cause for alarm.

My U410 was manufactured September 29, 2012 and the WIFI adapter is Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2200. I updated my driver to the latest version (15.5.0.42) immediately and set Transmit Power to 5, Roaming Aggressiveness to 3. Then, I placed my U410 alongside the S405, my HP desktop, iPhone, and an older Compaq Presario laptop about twelve feet from the router, which was on the other side of a wall. I went to speedtest.net and ran the test on each machine six times and averaged the speeds. These are the results... U410: 28.96 down/7.42 up, S405: 29.86/7.40, desktop: 28.98/7.70, iPhone: 25.27/10.13, Compaq: 29.64/7.71.

Although it appears the U410 performed the worst (excluding the iPhone) the difference is negligible, and the numbers were actually improving as the test went on. Users had said the pre-fixed WIFI was delivering speeds 75% slower than their other machines, which in my case would be around 8mbps. Clearly, at nearly 29mbps, my U410 is no worse than my other devices--a huge relief.

However, some disclaimers: I have no idea if every U410 manufactured after July is equal to mine. I also don't know how well the machine would fair in a crowded wireless environment, like a coffee shop or airport. Lastly, I have a less expensive Internet plan through Cox. It's possible if I had the fastest plan the U410's wireless adapter would throttle that connection... but I have no reason to expect it would.

Also be aware some SKUs of the U410 model (there are about a dozen) include Bluetooth. This one does NOT. If you absolutely must have integrated Bluetooth, you should purchase your U410 from Lenovo.com.

PERFORMANCE: With an i5-3317U processor, 6GB of RAM, dedicated GeForce 610M graphics card, and a Solid State hybrid drive the U410 is one of the most powerful ultrabooks on the market at this price point. I don't think you're going to find anything more powerful, and slimmer/lighter, without paying over a grand. The dedicated graphics in particular, while being at the low end of the GeForce 600 series, gives the U410 that extra boost it needs to run more demanding games. I wanted an ultrabook that could run Guild Wars 2, and the U410 succeeds at this task.

These are the results of the Windows Experience Index (For comparison's sake, the Lenovo S405's results are in parenthesis.) Processor 6.9 (6.2) Memory 7.4 (5.9) Graphics 5.5 (4.4) Gaming Graphics 6.3 (6.2) Hard Disk 6.9 (5.9) Overall 5.5 (4.4). One thing about the Windows Experience Index: the gaming graphics are based on the primary adapter, the Intel HD 4000, so this test doesn't account for the GeForce 610M. So, I think these scores are lower than they should be.

I also ran Passmark's benchmarking software and the U410 scored a 1412.8 versus the S405's 1018.4. With power settings set to High Performance, CPU-Z recorded the i5-3317U's core speed as 2396 MHz (thanks to Intel's TurboBoost) versus the S405's A8-4555M processor at 1816 MHz.

Of course, higher numbers in these benchmarking utilities don't tell the full story, so I ran tests in Guild Wars 2. I set the resolution to max (1366x768), all graphics to Low (except for "render sampling" which I set to Native) and ran FRAPS for two minutes to find an average FPS. (Note: I didn't run this test in a heavily congested area. I was just killing moa birds in Frostgorge Sound.) My FPS at this setting was 58. Very solid, especially considering the S405 was half as speedy at 26. With all settings on Medium, the FPS was 30. A custom blend of Low, Medium, and High settings (ignoring water, shadow and particle effects and focusing on environment/character textures) scored 41 FPS. At maximum graphics, the FPS was 15 and pretty much unplayable. For a non-gaming machine, an ultrabook no less, the U410 handles Guild Wars 2 really well and still looks great with the graphics turned down.

Insert: One reviewer mentions that the SSD doesn't have the O.S. installed on it. To clarify, this is because the drive is a hybrid. It stores your most frequently accessed data as you use the machine, increasing your read speed over time. You could install the entire O.S. on the SSD if you wanted to. There's nothing stopping you. But since the computer boots in about twelve seconds and is pretty fast in all respects, I don't see why you'd bother.

DISPLAY: The screen is the U410's other weak link. (The keyboard being the other.) A resolution of 1366x768 is standard for ultrabooks and laptops at this price, so I can't really fault Lenovo for not exceeding the standard. But, my Dell 6000 had a 1680x1050 display and that was six years old. Why hasn't the industry pushed for better resolutions? Why are laptops lagging behind tablets? (Google's new Nexus 10 is 2560x1600!) For whatever reason, you cannot find affordable ultrabooks with nice resolutions. Search on Newegg and you'll see that even if you went to the next highest tier, 1600x900, you're either paying a lot or getting a 17" monster. Lastly, as with most ultrabooks, the screen is glossy. (Not a concern for me, but it might be for some.)

I'm incredibly satisfied with the U410. It's a very strong performer in a light(ish) frame at a decent price. I'm relieved the WIFI problem was solved. I only wish the keyboard didn't feel so cheap. (Although it's by no means horrible.) I would recommend the U410 to anyone who wants a machine capable of playing some high end games, but still values mobility. Meanwhile, anyone looking for a work/casual device with no need of a fast processor and discrete graphics may find value in the U410's cheaper, but lovelier, cousin: the S405.

PROS: Performance-to-Price ratio virtually unmatched in the ultrabook category. Hybrid HDD-SSD. Very attractive design. USB 3.0 (x2) and HDMI ports. Loud speakers. Webcam captures 720p HD.

CONS: Keyboard flexes. Sufficient, but unremarkable display. Battery not removable. Heavier than most ultrabooks. No Bluetooth on this particular SKU. Alternative colors limited to official site.

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Lenovo usually makes great products but they really fell short on the U410. The U410's are shipped with a faulty wifi card which makes this laptop an utter disappointment. Do a Google search for U410 wifi issue and you will get pages of problems with this laptop and according to Lenovo, any U410 ,manufactured after 7/30 is fixed but the manufacture date on the bottom of mine is 9/29/12.

At first, the U410 would drop the Wifi signal making it impossible to surf. I then updated to the latest Centrino wifi drivers on Intel's website which helped keep a connection but the download speed on speedtest was less than 1mb! My Lenovo X220 next to the U410 pulled down 35mb.

A nice laptop if you have no plans to use the internet but if you are, look somewhere else

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The wireless connection on this laptop is horrible. There are pages of posts online about customers complaining about the weak wireless connection. The computer will connect, but the signal fluctuates to the point where I was not even able to watch netflix. Lenovo claims to have fixed the problem after a specified manufacture date, but they have NOT! This laptop was manufactured after their stated fix but the problem still persists (this has been reported by many consumers). I would strongly discourage people from purchasing this laptop if they plan to use it on a WiFi network.

Note: Driver updates and other software/firmware fixes do NOT work.

Honest reviews on Lenovo U410 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Grey)

I could not believe how noise is the fan of this computer. It seems like I am beside an engine. After 5 minutes I turned the computer off. The vendor that sold me the computer through Amazon is asking for a 15% return fee. As I don't want to pay that fee, I tried to use the computer, but every time I turn it on I get so disturbed with the noise that I cannot use it. The noise is definitely unbearable. I do not recommend this computer.

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i love it but it was to damage,for the same money i got me a new one.other than that lenovo makes the best of the best on computer.

Cheap Gateway NV53A52u 15.6" Laptop 4GB Memory 500G Hard Drive

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I bought this computer for my daughter when she went away to school 2 years ago, and Surprise she still has it! It goes through a typical college kids day and it goes everywhere with her. She even spilled coffee on it and it came right back like nothing happened to it. I was so impressed with it, I bought one for myself. I always bought HP products and was hesitant about buying a gateway. Well don't be...this laptop is great.

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i could play fps games no lag. i recomend upgrading to 8 gigs of ram. it is powerfull enough to use it

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Got this at Best Buy with the same specs as advertised here and was pleased with its graphics & performance. It doesn't contain much bloat-ware and can run more than 20 windows without slowing down. But its biggest con is the battery life and it's REALLY bad. Gateway claims it can hold a charge of 3 hours but I've witness the NV53A go as long as 2 hours maxed with settings set to Power Saver. Today my battery needs to be replaced and it didn't even last a year (only 6 months).

PROS: Can play MMORPGs, some PC games on MAX settings, gorgeous LED screen, HDMI-out, classy & durable exterior design, fast processor, fairly loud speakers, Windows 7 64 bit, big 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, etc.

CONS: Awful battery lifespan, built-in webcam is garbage (requires good lighting source/doesn't record HD), LED has bad limited viewing angles, 256MB of ATI Mobility Radeon (hoped for at least 512MB), etc.

In conclusion, it's NOT worth the price and should be at least $399 but it's a decent capable laptop. For nearly $700 you might as well save up another $100 and get an Alienware laptop. The NV53A isn't a bad laptop but its flaws keep me from recommending this to everyone. If you decide to purchase it just don't expect the laptop to blow you away because it will disappoint. It's great for general usage but there's certainly better laptops out there.

Honest reviews on Gateway NV53A52u 15.6" Laptop 4GB Memory 500G Hard Drive

I bought my Gateway NV53A laptop in 2010, 2 yrs ago & its the best computer I've ever had in the last 10yrs out of all the other computer laptops & desktops that I've had. It's my 3rd computer. I've not had one problem with it since I've had it. My last 2 computers were not Gateways at all, I bought this laptop from the advice from a friend who told me that he had a Gateway computer for many yrs & that it was his best computer, so he gave me the idea of getting one. To some people, they've had bad experiences with there Gateway computers. To me, its an absolute great computer to buy & very easy to use. I play movies & music on it, & no technical problems at all. I just hope that if you decide to buy one it gives you there pleasure in it that its done for me. God bless you all.

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I purchased this laptop at Wal-Mart.com, and so far have been very pleased with the product. After crashing, killing, and setting other computers on fire, this laptop has truly withstood my abuse. So far I have been able to complete all of my desired tasks, from completing work projects, to data sheets, composing sophisticated letters, as well as taking breaks and playing games online and on facebook.

Major Pros: The battery life on this computer is quite lengthy (around 6 hours really), speed and internet connection is quite strong with relation to wire-less internet options, the camera functions well in all applications (Skype, fb chat, uploads, etc). Any additional application you plug in through USB is automatically searched for and installed. A nice wide screen to open many windows and multi-task. Even with numerous applications open, the computer functions at a high level.

Cons: The automatic Microsoft Office that comes with the computer is very limited. Depending on your purchase, Word and Excel were my only Suite applications. Inside those applications, there was a constant advertisement in the bottom right hand corner which is very distracting. The camera is pixallated in some versions of applications you would like to use.

However, overall I would highly suggest this computer for anyone looking for a nice big screen, average Microsoft applications, and even gaming. It has a solid keyboard, and a balanced functionality that any user would find admirable.

Review of HP ENVY Sleekbook 4t-1000 14.0 inch Laptop

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Only bad thing about this laptop is the that touch pad its not very responsive; i ended up buying a wireless mouse -_3/5

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this product is amazingly fast and sleek,great performance everything is awesome except that i wish i went to the upgraded backlit so its easier to see at night but overall its great,beats speaker is loud and clear. grateful to have this as my new laptop. i would recommend.

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I brought this laptop last year and I have to say it has been one of my favorite laptop. The laptop is quiet and light. It is the perfect laptop for me as a college student. I love the shiny black design for the envy 4t. The beats audio also perfect for listening to music and great for gaming. Overall great product.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY Sleekbook 4t-1000 14.0 inch Laptop

Great battery life but awful performance. I bought this mainly because of the battery life. I thought this was a good alternative for macbook air. I was wrong. I enjoy opening multiple windows when I do my work. This laptop can't handle the multitask aspect. My internet browsers crushes at least 2 times a day. I spent $400 for a Toshiba before and it did a better job than this laptop. Overall, it is very slow and not worth the price. This feels more like a netbook than the ultrabook.

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I bought this direct through HP Home and Office. It's a nice little laptop. It is light, and very snappy. It did not come with a lot of crapware. However, I've only had the laptop for two or three weeks, and last night I got error messages repeatedly that the hard drive was about to fail. I hope that it will not be a huge hassle to get HP to fix this problem. I'd give it five stars if it were reliable.

Reviews of NEW Hp G7-1316dx Vision A4 Dual-core A4-3305m 2.5ghz/1.9ghz 4g

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I have this computer for one month and I am really satisfied with it.

The reasons why I chose it :

the ram : extensible to 8G

the screen : large and clear screen

the processor : working at a variable rate, between 1.9 and 2.5. Makes it easier to save battery life.

the battery : 6 cells. At this time, lasts for at least 5 hours, with Internet and music on.

What I like :

the keyboard, with very sensitives buttons which makes easy to write long essays

the shortcut keys on the keyboard to set up the light, volume, connection. You don't need to press the fn button to do that.

very nice simple design

really fast compared to the Vaio (VGN 160NRe) I had before

pretty light weight (less than 6 pounds, I think)

never overheating and fan very silent.

What I don't like :

Of course, you need to take a good care of it, but seems to be cheaply made. Not for moving it around every day, I think.

I didn't buy it on Amazon. Got it for 300 box. Regular price is the one on Amazon, which seems to me a little bit expensive, considering the material it is made with.

Conclusion : great computer if you plan not to take it around too much. Could be cheaper, though !

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Reviews of HP 6910P Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 2GB DDR2, 80GB HDD

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Got for a niece so far she has had no problems with this laptop. It arrive in a decent time frame.

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I had to take off unstable programs and once windows xp was stable I upgraded to windows 8. So far all is working well now. A very poor refurbish of this unit.

Reviews of Toshiba - L645-S4102 Satellite Laptop / Intel Pentium P6200

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I bought this laptop for my girlfriend 3 months ago so she could use it for school. For the first week this was a wonderful laptop and worked and functioned properly as I was told most toshiba's do. Then into week two the mouse pad starting doing some stupid things almost like a button was electronically stuck or something. I took it to best buy where I purchased it and they tried to repair it there. That didn't work, not their fault, they are't computer repair people really, so they told me they had to send it off to have it repaired. I said no problem, things break that's okay with me, it happens. So I sent it off for toshiba to replace the touch pad on it with best buy giving toshiba specific instructions to contact me if for some odd reason they had to repair or replace the hard drive as I had not gotten around to making an operating system disk for it and didn't have all my data backed up yet. Well, two weeks went by and my laptop was returned to best buy from toshiba with a new hard drive and toshiba never bothered to call best buy or me when they did that. So in my mind, since Im a mechanic by trade, that's like giving a customer back a car with a brand new engine with no oil in it. Stupid huh, yeah. Anyway, I told the manager of best buy what happened and he took care of me and made me an opating system disk to use on my new hard drive and I also got to keep that disk for future use. As far as my data goes it was lost to the world, but still, I got my lap top back and it was working correctly again, at least for a week. After a week it began doing the same thing it was orginially doing. So I brought it back in and they sent it off for another two weeks and this time they replaced the mouse pad. At this point she has had this laptop for a total of two months and only been able to use it for one. Okay, well they made a mistake the first time and they fixed it, I guess I can live with it. Then a month goes by and now we get to today, its broken again! So now I am going to be heading to best buy and asking them to give me a new laptop cause I no longer have faith in this perticular one and I don't want to deal with toshiba customer service anymore. All in all, it's not best buy's fault, but because the toshiba service place ain't worth crap, best buy is stuck with an angry customer!

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I bought this laptop about three years ago in a quick hurry.

It has been a workhorse. Very dependable. I love it!

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I have had this laptop for about a year now, and I love it. I wanted a laptop that I could surf the web and lounge on the couch with. This works perfect. I do not use it for much other than the web, but it serves my purpose just fine.

Honest reviews on Toshiba - L645-S4102 Satellite Laptop / Intel Pentium P6200

Yep, another Toshiba piece of junk. I didn't learn my lesson from the first Toshiba laptop I bought a few years back. I bought this one in January when I was on a trip and my previous HP laptop bit the dust. This Toshiba lasted seven months before one of the USB ports died, and then the CD/DVD drive died. No more Toshiba junk for me.

ASUS X750JB-DB71 17.3-Inch Laptop (Dark Gray) Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $999.00
Sale Price: $924.98
Today's Bonus: 7% Off

(#1 REVIEWER) Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program

I'd like to address the elephant in the room right off the bat.

Knowing that Windows 8 is designed with touchscreens in mind, why would you choose to purchase a new laptop that does not have a touchscreen if that laptop comes with Windows 8?

I am not going to rate this laptop poorly because it does not have a touchscreen but it is something that you really need to consider if you are thinking about buying this laptop. I've struggled for nearly a year with a Lenovo laptop that also came with Windows 8 and also does not have a touchscreen. You may regret getting a Windows 8 laptop that does not have a touchscreen.

The ASUS X750JB-DB71 has a really attractive "concentric circle finish design" that gives it an understated elegance and resists fingerprints. I suppose you could also make the argunent that the concentic circles also provide a more grippy surface for when you're carrying the laptop making it less prone to slip out of your hand. And slip it might because it is a heavy laptop weighing just a bit under 6 pounds.

The left side of the laptop has a headphone/microphone jack, 2-USB3 ports, an Ethernet port, HDMI output, VGA output and a Kensington lock. The front left side of the laptop has an SD card slot. On the right side is the DC input jack, 2-USB 2 ports and the DVD drive.

When you flip open the lid you see a full size chiclet style keyboard with numeric pad. On the top left is the on/off button. Below the keyboard is the large touchpad. To the left of the touchpad on the lower front edge is a row of small LED lights indicating: Power status, Charging status, Drive activity, Bluetooth/wierless indicator, Number lock indicator and Capital lock indicator.

A great feature of the laptop is the fast wake up from hibernation mode... about 2 seconds.

A bad feature of the laptop is all the bloatware that is included which is largely useless or mostly unwanted.

Notable features of this laptop:

8GB of RAM

2TB hard disk (but only 5400rpm)

Bright and sharp display

2 second wake from hibernation

I think that overall this is a decent laptop. I do wonder whether the value is there though. My Lenovo laptop, which is a 15" screen cost about half what this costs. Granted the Lenovo only has 1TB drive, 4GB RAM and an overall 4.6 Windows Experience Index compared to a 5.9 Windows Experience Index for the ASUS but for twice the cost it seems like the ASUS should at least have a touchscreen and Blu-Ray. Or how about a backlit keyboard (which it lacks)

At a cost of just under $1000, it's not like this is an inexpensive laptop. It seems overpriced for the features it does have.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Spec and look-wise, I like this laptop. I'm not a big fan of Windows 8 and especially for laptops however, because it isn't designed for easy functionality without a touchscreen in mind. I'm not a big fan of the touchscreen either; maybe stubbornness or it seeming like a gimmick or more cost I'm not sure. I did recently picked up another laptop before this one and had some time to acclimate to the program, but it is a pain for maneuvering. That seems worth noting since it is the systems OS, but since basically everything comes with it now, it really isn't the device's fault.

As far as looks go, I really like the design of this computer, with nothing fancy added to make it more aesthetically-pleasing. The keyboard type, with the spaced keys, is something I always liked. I've got long fingers and bunched keys are a pain, so this design with spacing works out well. They advertise it as being "cool to the touch," and the computer does stay that way. It also vents out toward the side as it heats up, which is important. I had a computer that vented down, and said I'd never buy one without checking again. It is also easy to grip on the outside, which is nice. Other, smoother laptops sometimes give me a scare when I'm holding them and wondering if this time will be that time it slips.

As far as doing, it runs media and games well, with no problem juggling multiple requests at the same time. For kicks, I tried running multiple types of media at the same time to see what it could handle, and was pleasantly surprised. Flash games run quickly, and more in-depth games do really well on it. I've been playing some MMORPGs as well as throwback horror survival games on it, and have been impressed. The picture on this thing is great, too. Very crisp, with beautiful details. The sound isn't bad for internal speakers, but I've never considered any laptop's sound great without external add-ons. I would've liked a BluRay player on this sucker for the price however, to add to that clarity.

8GBs of RAM, 2 TBs of storage plus, the 2 second wake time (which it really does), lots of USB slots; it really is a good laptop.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is a great laptop. The intel core i7 processor is powerful. It comes with 8Gb of memory. HDD is 2x 1TB 5400RPM

It has 4 USB ports in total (2 are USB 2.0 and 2 are USB 3.0)

The screen resolution/picture quality is excellent. Audio quality is also great. Watching movies on this laptop is awesome with it's big screen and high quality display.

I love the "Instant On" technology. This laptop starts up so quickly.

The one thing I did not like about this laptop is the keyboard. It is not backlit and it is set too far back (which makes it a bit awkward to use at times, especially for gaming).

I like that this laptop comes with 1 year accidental damage protection. (It covers accidental drops, spills, power surges and fire damage.)

The case is a nice dark gray color. It is sturdy and seems to be of very good quality.

Honest reviews on ASUS X750JB-DB71 17.3-Inch Laptop (Dark Gray)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Let me start by stating that I am a novice laptop user, thus, this review will be free of the technical jargon that can otherwise be found in more expert reviews. My initial impression upon unboxing the Asus laptop was that it was very sleek and stylish looking. The concentric circle finish really does eliminate those annoying smudges and fingerprints. I was also surprised to see the layout of the keyboard was similar to a standard PC keyboard, with enough spacing between the keys so as to not be a hindrance to those with thicker fingers. The large size of the screen was also a welcome bonus for a die hard PC user such as myself. The laptop took longer than expected to start up and there was some slowness initially when browsing the internet or using the various programs. This was going to cause my rating of the laptop to fall considerably until I read the other reviews that warned of the unnecessary pre-loaded add-ons that were responsible for the undue lag. I deleted the programs and applications that seemed extraneous, which helped with the slowness considerably. It is confusing why the manufacturer would add so many seemingly useless applications that only serve to slow down the performance of the unit. Windows 8 took a lot of getting used to given that it is not the most user-friendly operating system. But this learning curve is due to my having never used it before and has no bearing on the value of the actual Asus unit.

I was, however, extremely disappointed to find that this laptop did not come with a blu-ray player. My friend has an HP Pavilion which costs considerably less than this Asus but comes with a blu-ray drive. Given that blu-ray discs have eclipsed DVDs in practically every way, it is frustrating that such a highly priced unit still only allows for DVDs to be played. While this may not be a deal breaker for some, for those with extensive blu-ray collections, it is a serious drawback. The battery life is listed as around 3.65 hours but my experience put it at closer to the 2.5 to 3 hour mark. I am not sure if I was doing anything that might have depleted the battery life at a faster rate but this did seem to be on low end when compared to similarly priced laptops. Overall, this is a well designed laptop with plenty of RAM and hard drive capacity. The lingering complaints from this user are the sub par battery life and the lack of a blu-ray drive. Considering the current high retail price for this unit, it might be best to wait until the price drops some more before deciding to purchase.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is a solid desktop-replacement laptop with so-so battery life. After a few weeks of use, I'm still quite happy with it.

Some background: I'm not a PC gamer, so I'm not able to comment on things like frames-per-second on various games. I'm sure other reviewers will touch on the gaming goodness or badness of this laptop. Rather than gaming, my PC life is focused on business applications...I need Microsoft Office to run quickly. I need to take frequent screenshots. I need to collaborate on Google documents. I also do/teach Java programming, so I need an environment where I can quickly throw together a program, compile it, and run it.

This laptop goes way beyond meeting my needs: the 8GB RAM, and 2TB hard drive (2 separate 1TB drives) are more than ample for me (my old desktop was 6GB RAM and a 1TB drive). And I love the large screen. I find it highly readable for my 45-year-old eyes. By contrast, I had been using a Microsoft Surface Pro, and was getting frustrated with the small screen. Note that this laptop does not have a high-density screen (it's not "retina"-density, if you know what I mean). But, it's great for how I use it.

Some specific notes you may care about. First the positives:

* It performs quite well. For my purposes, I never find myself waiting for anything. Starting and software, switching among the various Windows 8 screens, and connecting to various network resources have all performed flawlessly...no lag or hesitation.

* I'm enjoying Windows 8 (and note that 8.1 is being released shortly after I'm writing this review). While I miss the touch screen of the Surface Pro, the ASUS touchpad gives me nearly all the swiping/scrolling/pinching/zooming that I need. I've only had one minor gripe about the touchpad: one day most of its functionality stopped working...a reboot fixed it (to be fair, I think it happened in the middle of a Windows update). Getting around in Windows 8 takes a little getting used to. But once you do, it's quite easy. I also like that once I link to my Microsoft account, this laptop stays synchronized with my Surface Pro. For example, if I change the background graphic on this laptop, it will also change on the Surface Pro.

* It lives up to its promise of a 2-second wake-up. Close the lid, walk away, and come back later. When you open the lid, it only takes 2 (sometimes 3) seconds for Windows to be up and running again. Note that the battery will discharge more quickly if you take advantage of this feature. Shutting off the feature will extend battery life, but increase the time you have to wait for the computer to wake from its sleep. Note that I am NOT talking about a cold reboot here. The 2-second startup is from a sleeping PC...NOT from a PC that has been shut down.

* Solid body: From the textured lid to the brushed metal interior, this is put together well. It is not flimsy in any respect.

I do have some complaints that, collectively, lowered my rating from 5 to 4 stars:

* Battery life: This is only rated for about 3 hours of use, and that's what I've been finding. That seems a bit low to me, but I guess I've become spoiled by the 10 or so hours I get from an iPad.

* The keyboard: Though the keys are nicely spaced, the layout is frustrating. I don't like having to "search" for the arrow keys on a typical keyboard. I like to be able to reach for them and know where they are. Unfortunately, these are put too close to the main keys (the Shift and Ctrl keys), meaning that I typically need to look down at the keyboard to find the key I'm after. In addition, after just a couple weeks I found that the space bar has developed a squeak each time I press it.

* Garbageware that came pre-installed: When I first booted up the computer, I found it to be a little slow. I quickly fixed this by deleting a lot of unnecessary apps that had been installed. This included the virus scanning software. After deleting it, I found that the computer boots up and runs almost flawlessly. But it is a frustration to have to "clean up" a brand new computer.

Should you buy this laptop? If you are like me...looking for a big laptop that smoothly runs business applications...I expect this will more than meet your needs for several years. On the other hand, if you are looking for a gaming laptop, you should probably read more reviews.

Cheap Thinkpad X200 Tablet - Intel - Core 2 Duo - SL9600 - 2.13 Ghz

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This PC can handle anything that you throw at it. You can type out pages on the comfortable keyboard or write down hand written notes or use at as a cheaper Cintiq wacom drawing tablet. Works great and looks professional with a sturdy business design. You can't find a better tablet PC out there.

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Gigabyte Ultrabook U2442F-CF2 14-Inch Laptop Review

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List Price: $1,199.00
Sale Price: $1,174.90
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

I got this ultrabook one month ago and I've had a pretty good experience with it so far.

For starters, it runs Windows 8 (basic, not Pro) which I've gotten used to fairly quick and is not the mess others say it is.

Combined with the SSD, the boot time is about 6-7 seconds.

The laptop itself was a bit pricey, I got it off Amazon through a friend who was visiting Stateside but they offer a 2 year

international warranty and they even have a service partner here, in Romania (who were quick to dismiss responsibility).

One thing to note it gets fairly hot (especially the base of the screen, where the vents blow hope it won't be a problem in the future)

and I recommend getting a cooling pad for it just to be on the safe side.

The fans tend to get a bit noisy even when they're not supposed to (when you're just browsing) but you can tinker with the cooling options.

Performance is top notch, it's of solid build, it's even got a backlit keyboard that you only find on high end laptops.

It's pretty amazing they were able to stuff so much powerful hardware in an ultrabook weighting just 1.6 kg.

Battery life's ok (3 hours of watching HD movies with the wifi on). It's a great combo of performance and portability.

Keyboard's great, trackpad as well. Doesn't have a numpad or a CD drive which I love.

I've had a tiny issue with it: I upgraded to Windows 8.1 Preview build which was highly unstable, but, in the process, it overwrote my Windows 8 product key.

I panicked for a bit as Windows Refresh was not working so I used Windows Reset and it never asked me for the product key (it's hardcoded in the BIOS).

Gigabyte's customer support were highly supportive during the whole process (especially their Facebook social media team), got nothing but nice words about them.

Do I recommend it hell yeah, the price is way cheaper than, say... a Alienware or a Macbook with the same configuration.

It's a great combo of performance and portability.

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It's a very good ultrabook, loads fast, it's light, runs smoothly, I played some games (ex.: Batman Arkham City) with no problems. But you have to know what you are buying. First, it has only 128GB of storage (SSD). That can be a problem. Also, be aware that it doesn't have CD/DVD/Blu-Ray or the like. And, at last, it's keyboard is not that good (this was the only "surprise" for me).

After all, I'd recommend it. It's a solid performance for a lightweight...

Best Deals for Gigabyte Ultrabook U2442F-CF2 14-Inch Laptop

After a few weeks of research, I went ahead and purchased the U2442F over the much more expensive ASUS UX51VZ. After a few weeks of using the laptop, overall I was pleased with my purchase. It's thin and very light. I'm getting about a 4 hour battery life. It's plenty powerful for multimedia, photo and video editing, and even played Dragon Age and Company of Heroes. The laptop handled itself well with minimal slow down.

I just have a few critiques. The keys feel mushy. They don't have a crisp feedback. I think it's due to the fact that it's so low profile, the actual key travel is not very long. Secondly the screen is a nice matte surface but the viewing angle is very small. Finally I wish it had more hard drive space. To compensate, I bought a 1 TB hard drive and plugged it into the USB 3.0 port. Seems to work well so far.

Honest reviews on Gigabyte Ultrabook U2442F-CF2 14-Inch Laptop

Sure it's not an excessive beaut when compared to maybe what you could buy in the same price range (e.g. air, zenbook), but in terms of features, you will not easily find another laptop that combines the impressive performance features and relatively lightness of this ultrabook (I can comfortably hold this laptop opened and powered on with one hand). I ended up deciding on this laptop because its processor, RAM, and get this: discrete graphics card were better than other laptops in the same tier.

Also, because its 128gb SSD is incorporated into the motherboard, it has an ADDITIONAL hard drive expansion slot available (how often do you find that in a laptop?). I'm planning to add another SSD into it later this month.

I've been using it everyday for the past month, and so far, Windows 8 runs buttery fast with no hiccups. Boot-up time takes less than 10 seconds, and its discrete graphics card handles casual gaming (TF2, Battlefield 3) very smoothly. Battery life on 'balanced' (medium setting) currently gets me between 4-5 hours per charge.

Before I purchased this ultrabook, I had been a bit concerned about the keyboard and touchpad, as that had been the concerns of other would-be buyers. After using it, I can say:

the keyboard does not noticeably flex in the middle for me, and I type pretty firmly too.

I would say the touchpad is definitely better than what you would get on a budget laptop (~$600-$800 range). I know that Apple is supposed to have one of the best touchpads around, but I've not noticed any difficulties using this, and this is coming from a previous desktop user. The gestures that the touchpad software supports are also pretty convenient (you can turn them off if you want)

All in all, I am very happy with my purchase and do not regret sacrificing a bit of aesthetics for what IMHO is solidly superior performance :) This is a jewel at this price.