Best Apple MacBook Pro MD103LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION) Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,799.00
Sale Price: $1,698.99
Today's Bonus: 6% Off

(#1 REVIEWER)

I had eagerly been awaiting the new Mid-2012 MacBook Pro upgrade primarily because of the move to the new Intel processor, "Ivy Bridge." The 2.9GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core processor just makes this MacBook Pro fly. And it runs much cooler than its predecessors. I had my laptop running while on my lap for a couple hours and the bottom case was barely warm. Fan noise was not noticeable whatsoever. To be honest, I don't even know if the fan was operating or not, it was that quiet.

The aluminum unibody case has remained pretty much unchanged for several years. In fact, my previous MacBook Pro, a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM has the identical case that this new laptop has... it is designated as Model No: A1278 if you look at the bottom of the laptop case.

What Apple threw into the mix, which made my decision of which new Apple laptop to purchase more difficult, was the addition of the Retina Display MacBook. Initially I was tormented with making the correct decision of which computer to purchase. After I weighed the differences and factored in the cost, it became clear to me that for my use, the 13" MacBook Pro was the way to go rather than an Air or Retina Display MacBook Pro. Here are my reasons...

-The Retina Display MacBook lacks an optical drive. For me, that was a critical feature as I am a Mobile DJ and still rip a lot of CD's to my computer. I did not want to have to carry around an external optical drive so having the internal optical drive on the new MacBook Pro was key.

-The Retina Display MacBook does not have an Ethernet port. Again, this won't affect all people, but for me it was an essential feature that I use all the time. I wasn't ready to give up my dedicated ethernet connectivity port.

-The Retina Display MacBook was priced out of my comfort zone. It's a phenomenal computer but I just could not justify the price.

-The Air doesn't offer the disk space that I need nor the right combination of ports.

Honestly, the display on the 13.3" MacBook Pro is gorgeous. I can see where a photographer might enjoy the Retina Display, but for me, the 1280x800 resolution of the screen on this laptop is perfect. The display is bright, very bright, sharp and has excellent viewing from side to side. I'm a little conflicted with the glossy screen, but I think I have grudgingly accepted it for the most part. In most situations I find it nicer than a glare-free screen. For some situations however, it is not the best because of the reflections on the screen of surrounding lights and such. You must remember that while reducing glare on a screen might make it easier to view in certain situations by reducing reflections of light and surroundings, by its nature the anti-glare will reduce sharpness of the screen image. By having the glossy screen you have an amazingly bright, clear and sharp image that is just beautiful to view.

I had also considered getting an early 2012 refurbished MacBook Pro. That was my second-best option. But for the small difference in price, I would not have gotten USB 3.0 ports and that was important to me, as well as getting Thunderbolt. Admittedly, there are not yet many peripherals that utilize Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 but that is certainly going to change quite rapidly. USB 3.0 is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and offers throughput of up to 5Gbps. Thunderbolt is even faster and allows daisy-chaining of monitors and other devices. This new MacBook Pro also has an upgraded facetime camera. It is now 720p HD and that's pretty awesome.

Firewire 800 is still included on this MacBook Pro. Undoubtedly, Firewire is getting towards the end of its lifespan but many videographers are still using video cameras that use Firewire and I also have external hard drives using firewire, so this is still useful for me.

The newly added Tunderbolt port is also useable as a mini-display port and you can easily obtain adapters to enable you to hook up to DVI, VAG and HDMI. I do miss not having a dedicated HDMI port, but at least it is possible to get an adapter to fill that need.

The Lion and soon to be released Mountain Lion operating system has garnered a lot of comments both positive and negative. Personally I have not experienced any issues with Lion. The integration with iCloud is fantastic and allows me to keep my contacts, address book, bookmarks all in sync across all my devices (iMac, iPhone, iPod Touch and another MacBook Pro.)

The iLife suite of applicatons included with the computer are excellent. iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand are tightly integrated and work well. There is room for improvement, to be sure, but I use iPhoto and iMovie all the time and it is an amazingly capable duo.

If you're considering a MacBook Pro for the first time and are coming from the PC world, welcome. You will have a little adjusting to do but it's really easy and you will probably be impressed with how straightforward the operating system is. It just works. I can't even think of when I had a crash or freeze.

I've not yet reached the 7-hours mark for battery life, but still, I've been getting at least 5 hours plus so no complaints.

If you are considering the new MacBook Pro and you're already a Mac user then you will welcome the addition of a much faster processor, the addition of Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

I am really liking my new MacBook Pro and with 8GB of RAM, and the new i7 Processor running at 2.9GHZ (turbo-boost to 3.6GHz) you will be very happy with the performance.

Regarding the 8GB RAM memory maximum for this MacBook Pro, it is interesting to note that Crucial sells a 16GB RAM kit for this particular model. Despite this, Apple does not acknowledge that the computer will accept 16GB of RAM. I called Apple Technical Support to ask about this and I was told that even though the computer may accept 16GB of RAM and seem to run without any problems with 16GB of RAM, the full amount of RAM may not actually be used by the MacBook Pro. It's kind of hard to say what the implications are of adding 16GB of RAM when Apple says the maximum is 8GB for this model. What will happen though is if you have any issues with the computer and Apple discovers that you've put 16GB of RAM in it, you could be denied service under the warranty. So I guess I'd be happy with 8GB of RAM until this issue gets more clarification, either by benchmark tests that show an improvement in performance or a firmware update or some acknowledgment from Apple approving the option of 16GB of RAM. I"d like to think that if Apple wanted to make as much money as possible that they would offer this computer with an 16GB option. Since they don't, there must be a technical reason why.

I've been using a protective case for my MacBook Pro and I recommend it. It's priced very fairly, comes in a variety of colors and has worked really well for me. It even lets the Apple Logo shine through the case. Here is a link to the Red color version of the case. RED iPearl mCover® Hard Shell Case for A1278 Aluminum Unibody MacBook Pro 13-inch (RED color)

UPDATE: July 1, 2012 I've been reading reports online about the fact that the new Retina Display MacBook Pro has pushed the graphics handling capabilities of the computer to the max. This has resulted in some problems that are only just beginning to manifest themselves, such as sluggish screen draw in some situations, slow frame rates in other situations and image retention issues.

In other words, by pushing the limits, as Apple frequently does (and I'm not suggesting that that's a bad thing) early adopters are paying the price. So I'm feeling even better about choosing this particular model rather than spending significantly more for the Retina Display MacBook Pro and having to deal with the first generation issues.

UPDATE: July 5, 2012 Note to PC users considering the switch to a Mac. Don't be intimidated to switch. Mac OSX is a fantastic operating system and not difficult to learn at all. But there are definitely some subtle differences between the PC and Mac user interface and experience. I would strongly suggest getting a good book such as Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition. It's an excellent overview of what you'll need to know regarding the Mac experience and the Lion operating system. I use both Windows 7 and Mac OSX and own both a PC laptop and Mac laptop and desktop machines. I consider Macs to be my primary computer because of my familiarity with them and their ease of use. However, a helpful book will ease your transition and eliminate the guesswork.

UPDATE: August 24, 2012 I've upgraded my OS to Mountain Lion, 10.8, and have been running it for about 2 weeks. I have not noticed any issues and the upgrade went very smoothly. Some of the new features are great. I particularly like the dictation feature that lets you speak while in any application that accepts text input and the MBP will automatically and accurately convert your speech to text. The new way that messages are handled is very similar to IOS and I like it. Some users are reporting less battery life but I have not noticed any degradation in battery life on my comptuer.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

This is not my first Mac computer, and certainly will not be my last. Before I begin, I will say that I am not like a good percentage of the people that will end up writing a review on this computer I am not an Apple fanboy. I have owned many PC computers as well, and like them too. I currently own a Lenovo laptop as well as my new MacBook Pro, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

To start with the strengths:

1. OSX Lion is a great performer..extremely fast and reliable. I have it installed on my iMac desktop computer as well and love it. Not to mention this comes with a free upgrade to Mountain Lion, which is very nice.

2. Screen looks great. Even though it is not the Retina display you can get on the 15.4 inch model, the screen is fantastic. Very bright and crystal clear with excellent color.

3. Quietest laptop I have ever owned. Keeps quiet even when the computer is under a heavy load.

4. First computer I have owned with USB 3.0. I bought an external hard drive when I purchased this laptop as well so I could utilize the USB 3.0. I got the hard drive yesterday and transferred all of my files from my old laptop to the new hard drive so I could put them on my MacBook. It took about 1/5th of the time it did with USB 2.0.

5. My Lenovo laptop does not have an illuminated keyboard, so the keyboard on this laptop is a big plus in my opinion. Excellent for people that like to work or surf the web while their significant other is sleeping.

6. The trackpad can't even compare it to any trackpad I have seen on any other laptop computer.

7. Excellent battery life while being a very fast performer. It definitely has the best of both worlds. I average about 6 hours on a charge. My Lenovo (with similar graphics, processor, etc. and same use) only lasts about 4 or 5 hours on a full charge.

8. Typical Apple simplistic styling. I love the look of the Apple products. Simple and clean.

9. Many, many more...but those are the most notable ones to me.

Now, for the weaknesses.

1. The only thing I dislike about this laptop are the rubber pads found on the bottom of the computer for grip. They may get softer and more sticky as time goes by, but right now they are far from that. The pads on the bottom of my Lenovo are definitely much better and don't allow the computer to slide around while I am using the computer on a glass topped desk.

2. Price it's a bit pricey for the performance you get, but the added perks of Mac OSX and the durability and support of Apple products makes up for it. For the same price, you can get a PC with more memory, larger hard drive, better graphics, and a faster processor, but then you remember you're running Windows 7, which isn't nearly as well built as Mac OSX.

In conclusion this is a great laptop. Although it is a little pricey, it is well worth the extra money. So far, the only issue I have with it (rubber pads) is a very small problem that does not change how this laptop performs in any way.

If you are thinking about getting a MacBook Pro laptop but do not want to spend a huge amount of money for one, this is definitely the way to go. It may be considered the "base model" MacBook Pro, but it still an excellent computer. The size and battery life of this computer makes it excellent for people that need a laptop that is very mobile. Between work and college classes, I needed a lightweight yet durable computer and this definitely fits that criteria.

9.5/10

Best Deals for Apple MacBook Pro MD103LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

I used to be a die hard windows fan. I was always bashing OSx for the usual things (too expensive, too dumb, et cetera, et cetera), and I never really gave it a chance. Windows 7 was my OS of choice from the day it came out, and I used it on many different computers with (or at least what I thought then) good results. It's certainly not a bad OS but...

This past holiday season, I got an Asus tablet PC. I wanted to love it, I really did. I gave it a five star review here on Amazon, and I tried my very hardest to use it to it's fullest potential. It was working fine for a while, until I tried the Windows 8 beta. It was all down-hill from there. Viruses, problems (beyond those that should be in a beta, and a general ugliness drove me absolutely insane, and I decided to move away from Windows, at least temporarily. I bought a Chromebook, and while I absolutely love it and highly recommend it, I wanted more out a computer than it offered.

So, nearly on a whim, I bought a Mac. I have never made a better tech decision. Literally everything about it is better than any computer I've ever used, from the operating system to the hardware.

People typically say that the real reason they love Macs and other Apple products is because of the build quality. While the build quality on this computer is INSANELY good (I feel bad hauling it around with me; I feel like it should be in an art museum), I really think it's the software that makes this a standout computer and computing experience. I've had absolutely zero backround in OSx up until now, and already I am easily finding my way around this computer. Granted, I've had a good backround in Linux and OSx is similar, but the fact that I'm easily navigating a brand new operating system after only one day is quite the contrast from Windows, now that I can look at it objectively. OSx Lion is wonderful. The multi-touch gestures and the multi-touch mouse itself are immensely helpful, and it's because of features like these that make it clear to me that it's almost necessary for a company to make the hardware for a product if they're making the software as well. Everything works extremely well together.

Like I said, the included apps put Windows to shame. With the exception of Outlook (which I personally hate, but my Mom has a Mac and can't stand the contacts App and uses Outlook), I can't think of a single, rational person who would pick Windows software over Apple software when it comes to things like media, photo/video editing, and email. To be perfectly honest, it's ridiculous how well all this stuff works. I downloaded the iWorks office suite (which is not free, though significantly cheaper than Microsoft Office), and they also work like a charm. I really don't create a whole lot of spreadsheets or slide shows so I can't guarantee a qualified opinion on Numbers (Excel) or Keynote (PowerPoint), but the Pages app is lightyears ahead of Microsoft Word. I also downloaded Logic Pro 9 (an music synthesizer/recording studio app) after having used it with friends a few months back, and have spent hours digging into another fantastic piece of Mac Software, and I can say for a fact that it is truly unparalleled in the Windows world.

The actual hardware internals of the computer are amazing. The new Ivy Bridge processors whip through anything I can throw at them, and the 8 gb of fast (1600 mhz) ram makes multi-tasking a breeze. The nVidia graphics card, while not a show-stopper, is completely adequate for some heavy-duty video editing in something like Final Cut or Photo Shop (though I haven't used Photo Shop in about a year now, so I'm not COMPLETELY sure about the latter of the two statements), or gaming (whether you dual-boot or pick one of the games from the increasingly impressive OSx catalogue). The speakers, while not mind-blowing, are much better than what I'm used to from integrated laptop speakers, and the screen, even though I opted for the non-HD screen, is very good; colors are bright and saturated, the pixel density is more than satisfactory, and the viewing angles are some of the best I've ever seen. Battery life is as good as advertised, and the computer starts and runs much more quickly than I'm used to, especially considering that this computer doesn't have flash storage.

I haven't run into a single thing I would change about this computer up to this point. I love the software, I love the hardware, and I love my decision. If you're in the market for an exceptional, powerful notebook, look no further. I can't recommend this computer highly enough.

Edit: While the great things that I mentioned about OSx are all still completely viable and even after several weeks (months, perhaps?) of heavy usage I haven't experienced any problems. Mountain Lion is a great update and even though I don't own an iPhone or an iPad (I'm more of an android guy), I still like almost all of the additions it brings to OSx.

However, I have since installed Windows. Bootcamp is a marvelous program, and in about 20 minutes I had Windows 7 working great on my computer. All the drivers were installed and performance was great. Once I actually started playing games though, several design flaw were suddenly extremely apparent to me, and they were apparent in a very bad way.

I'm not sure if Windows is just a more demanding operating system or if a fan driver was left out of my Bootcamp install, but the cooling of this computer when doing ANYTHING intensive under Windows is absolutely atrocious. The unibody design is gorgeous. It's revolutionary, it's stylish, it's classy, and it has major practical issues. The vents are hidden under the hinges of the screen, and anything but the most perfect of screen angles will block off much of the fans output. Even with the fans blowing full blast at nearly all times while running Windows, the computer gets extremely hot during usage. I use a laptop as a literal "lap" top computer frequently. This works fine under OSx; it's impossible under Windows. The bottom of the computer gets painfully hot during heavy usage (to the point where I literally can't touch it for more than a few seconds), and the metal area (ironically) around the "wasd" keys gets extremely hot as well. I've had the computer completely overheat three times only in the past two weeks. Since I only play online games, this isn't a real issue, but I can't imagine what would happen were someone actually doing something important on a Windows partition and have the computer overheat and shut down. Even with good ventilation (meaning smooth granite surfaces and a laptop stand specifically designed to enhance ventilation), there is no avoiding an extremely hot computer and constantly whirring fans.

Long story short, I'm very glad they improved the fan design in the Retina Display Macbooks, because it is, frankly, very, very poor here.

I'm conflicted on whether I should change my overall rating of the computer though. Even though Macs are equipped (through Bootcamp) to run Windows, they weren't designed to do so, and I certainly haven't had a single issue while running (the far superior) OSx. Considering the fact that I should be basing my opinion of the product on its own merits and not on those of a competing product, I don't think I will change my overall scoring. I do think it is prudent to add, however, that cooling while running Windows 7 is terrible. If you NEED Windows, stick with a Windows computer. They will most likely handle Windows better than this one will.

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro MD103LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

this review is about my personal honest experience, i am not a computer wizard.

like most of you, i had a hard time thinking which one to buy, an air or a pro. what i did is purchased the two and see which one will better suit my needs and send back the one that I won't like. so I went at my local best buy and did so. after using both products for 14days, here are my thoughts.

the macbook air looks very beautiful on the outside. it's so thin and light and can be used anywhere like a tablet. to sum things up, the MB air is more of a fashion statement than a work horse. is it faster than a pro? yes only by 10-15secs during start up. the audio quality sounds thin but loud. the pro has a deeper sound. air has higher resolution but the fonts are small. what I hate about it is the screen display color. macbook pro by far has more vivid colors and if you love to watch netflix and hd videos like me, the pro is a better choice. i like the design of the air but i'm sorry to say that it is more like a toy than a real life laptop. if you have a main computer, the air is a very good addition but if you only need an all in one computer like me to take with you, store data, watch videos, do picture and video editing and plan to use for a very long time, then the macbook pro is a better choice and for me is more sturdy. one reviewer says that the air has better screen display but I don't agree with that because i am an amateur photographer and im pretty sure i know which has the better display. in the long run you will be needing that dvd drive, the storage and ram that you can customize, the ethernet and ports that are already built in and most of all the screen display. the macbook pro still looks stunningly beautiful and is a more capable laptop. even the keyboard is better to type on. the air is super light weight but the pro still is light. we still need to use our muscles sometimes. battery life are identical 5-6 hrs.

I got more from my money on the pro and it is a better choice for me that's why I kept it and sent the air back for a refund. again this is just my personal honest opinion.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Apple MacBook Pro MD103LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)

I purchased the newly updated 13" MacBook Pro and the newly updated 13" MacBook Air the day they were announced at WWDC and released for sale in June 2012. (My 13" MacBook Pro is the 2.9 GHz i7 model, and my MacBook Air is factory upgraded to a 2.0 GHz i7 processor and 8GB RAM.)

After using the two machines side-by-side for a couple weeks now, I can say that the MacBook Air outperforms the MacBook Pro in almost every task and in terms of overall speed and performance. Compared with the newly refreshed and updated Air, the new MacBook Pro is frankly a significant disappointment, and I've pretty much stopped using it altogether in favor of the faster Air. Despite the Air's slower CPU clock speed, it performs faster than the Pro in actual tasks due to the performance boost afforded by it's SSD hard drive. The SSD drive on the MacBook Air makes an enormous difference in everything from casual web browsing to video editing.

If you're debating which 13" MacBook to buy, the 13" MacBook Air or the 13" MacBook Pro, here's a side-by-side comparison...

Speed and Performance: Advantage MacBook Air

Apart from the hard drives and port configurations, the technology inside the machines is virtually identical in both the newly refreshed MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Both Pros and Airs come with either i5 or i7 Intel "Ivy Bridge" processors, Intel HD Graphics 4000, USB 3.0, and lightning-fast Thunderbolt ports. While the MacBook Air models are at a disadvantage to the MacBook Pro models in terms of CPU clock speeds, any performance disadvantage from the processor speed is more than made up for by the lightning fast performance of the Air's SSD hard drive, which Apple markets as "Flash" storage. In everyday tasks from gaming to web browsing to watching Flash movies and editing video, the MacBook Air is faster significantly faster in virtually every task. The Air boots up in less than 12 seconds while the Pro takes upwards of one minute.

Screen: Advantage MacBook Air

If you've never used a MacBook Air, much less the new Retina display 15" MacBook Pro, then you won't notice just how outdated the MacBook pro's screen is. However, once you get used to the super high resolution 1440 x 900 LED display on the MacBook Air, the 1280 x 800 back-lit LED display on the MacBook Pro looks downright grainy and primitive. Simply put, once you get used to a higher resolution display, the 1280 x 800 display on the 13" MacBook Pro just isn't acceptable. Even for simple tasks like email or word processing where you wouldn't think the resolution would matter, the graphics look grainy and pixelated, which just isn't acceptable for a pro-level laptop in 2012.

Upgradability: Advantage MacBook Pro

The Pro's only major advantage over the Air comes in terms of the flexibility of its hardware, ease of repair, and upgradability. With only a screw driver and about 10 minutes of your time, you can add more memory to the Pro, replace the hard drive, and even add a second hard drive in place of the optical disc drive. The Air, on the other hand, is stuck in the configuration you purchase it in except that you can opt to replace the SSD "Flash" hard drive with a higher capacity SSD drive.

Design, Weight, Portability, Battery Life, and Form Factor: Advantage MacBook Air

The MacBook Air is the most beautiful computer ever produced by man, and the MacBook Pro looks like it's older, pudgy relative. The Air's aluminum case is impeccably designed, almost tailored to accommodate the necessary internal components, while maintaining practical ergonomics. It's an incredibly thin, svelte, sexy little notebook. The MacBook Air's aluminum case seems sturdy and durable, and its mechanics are very similar to the time-test unibody construction of the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro, on the other hand, is a bit of a dinosaur in its bulky circa 2006 unibody. The Pro is heavier than a half gallon of milk at 4.5 lbs, while the MacBook Air weighs in at less than 2.9 lbs. Battery life is roughly even on both machines at anywhere from 4 to 7 hours depending on workload and settings.

Summary Judgement: Buy the MacBook Air (or opt for the new 15" Retina display MacBook Pro)

Simply put, the guts of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro are basically the same, but the Air's SSD hard drive gives it a tremendously significant boost in performance. Sadly, the MacBook Pro's 5400-rpm hard drive leaves the machine unable to capitalize on the newest, most expensive Intel "Ivy Bridge" i5 and i7 processors that you're paying a $300 premium for in the newly updated Pros. If you are going to buy a Pro, invest the extra money and get it upgraded with a SSD hard drive and get an extra external hard drive if you need additional cheap storage space for multimedia files. When you also consider the superior display, lighter weight, increased portability, and lower price of the MacBook Air, it's hard to find a reason to justify purchasing the current 13" MacBook Pro, which to me looks like a dinosaur rapidly headed for extinction.

Specs on the models compared:

13" MacBook Air (mid 2012) factory upgraded to the 2.0 GHz dual core i7 processor and factory upgraded to 8 GB RAM (1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM) with standard 256 GB SSD ("Flash") hard drive

13" MacBook Pro (mid 2012) with 2.9 GHz dual core i7 processor, 8 GB RAM (1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM), and 750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm

Both feature Intel HD 4000 Graphics, 3.0 USB, Thunderbolt, 802.11n, etc.

Dell Inspiron i17R-6121DBK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black) Reviews

Customer Ratings:

[Note: I've edited my review on 10/17/2011. The problem is that this laptop is no longer offered directly by Amazon. The price varies and shipping isn't always free. Therefore, it's up to you to make sure you're getting a good deal.]

This listing is for the 2011 model Inspiron 17R, while most of the other listings are for last year's product. I purchased a Dell Inspiron 17R similar to this one for my sister during May 2011. It's quite impressive as compared to my Asus laptop from less than three years ago. I would definitely recommend one these to a friend.

CASE: The 17R is surprisingly thin considering that it isn't advertised as a thin laptop. The Diamond Black finish is very attractive. [Note: the listings that mention the Mars Black finish are for last year's model.] The hinge operates smoothly and appears to be durable.

LCD: The quality of a laptop's screen is particularly important to me. This one is better than most. It's somewhat glossy but, fortunately, not nearly as glossy as was common a couple of years ago. Text is a lot easier to read than it was on the ultra-glossy screens. There appears to be some anti-reflective treatment but it is not overdone. Viewing angles are quite good horizontally, and are adequate vertically. You won't need to clamp your head in a vise to use this laptop. Vertical resolution is 900 pixels, which is as good as it gets without spending twice as much. Movies and photographs look very good on this widescreen display.

SPEAKERS: Typical mediocre laptop speakers. They are perfectly intelligible, but you'll want to use headphones for movies or music.

WIRELESS: There is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Bluetooth is included, so you won't need any wireless dongles to use a wireless mouse or keyboard. Also, this current model Inspiron 17R supports the new version of Intel Wireless Display technology [WiDi], allowing you to display your desktop wirelessly to your television at full 1920x1080 resolution. Of course, you have to buy a second-generation (1080p) WiDi adapter for your television before you can use WiDi. Suitable second-generation WiDi adapters are available from Belkin and Netgear. [Note: last year's Inspiron 17R with the Mars Black finish is permanently limited to the first-generation, 720P version of WiDi. There are some credible reports that even second-generation, 1080i WiDi technology is not quite ready for prime time due to problems with playing DRM protected content. You need to investigate this for yourself.]

The bad news in the wireless category is that there is no support whatsoever for the 5GHz wireless band! Look up the Wireless-N 1030 adapter on Intel's web site. Bummer if you live in a crowded neighborhood!

PORTS: This current 17R includes a combo eSATA + USB 2.0 port, plus two USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI 1.4 port. That's a good reason not to buy the last year's 17R without at least a one-third discount. The last year's 17r is limited to HDMI 1.3 (translation: will never play a 3-D blu-ray disk in 3-D over HDMI) and doesn't have any of the new, ultra-fast USB 3.0 ports.

BATTERY LIFE: Too soon to tell, but there appears to be at least 3.5 hours available for basic web surfing and watching movies over Netflix. Battery life could be better than that, but I don't know the limits yet. In any event, battery life will be significantly better than it was on last year's 17R due to the second-generation i5 CPU. More on the CPU later in this review.

RAM: Six gigabytes of RAM are included, a nice upgrade from the usual four GB. It's unlikely that you'll need to bother to upgrade the memory during the laptop's lifetime.

VALUE: There's always a deal at Dell, but the deal changes faster than you can follow. Dell is throwing in a free Blu-ray combo disk with this particular version of the Inspiron 17R. My sister's 17R did not include Blu-ray, but it did come with a full copy of Microsoft Office for free, while this 17R only includes the crummy starter edition. Deals at Dell are a lot like the weather here in New England: if you don't like it, wait a minute.

Conversely, I would suggest you jump on this model if the Blu-ray upgrade is what works for you. It's easy to buy and install a full copy of Microsoft Office at a later date, whereas upgrading the optical drive in a laptop is too expensive and too difficult for the average consumer.

CPU: In case you haven't heard, Intel made a major overhaul of its processor architecture for this Spring. The new CPUs are code named Sandy Bridge. For the i3, i5 and i7 lines, Sandy Bridge CPUs are identified by having four digit model numbers versus three digits for discontinued CPUs.

This Inspiron 17R uses an Intel i5-2410m processor, identifying it as a new Sandy Bridge CPU. There are lots of other 17 inch Inspirons available here on Amazon that use last year's models, such as the i5-580m. Personally, I would not recommend buying a laptop with a discontinued Intel CPU unless there is a discount of at least one-third. The Sandy Bridge CPUs are significantly more powerful (for an equal GHz rating) while consuming significantly less battery power than their predecessors.

In case you were wondering why I said that last year's 17R with the Mars Black finish was limited to the original 720p version of WiDi, now you have your answer: second-generation WiDi only works on computers with Sandy Bridge processors. Remember, any i3, i5 or i7 processor with a three digit model number is NOT a Sandy Bridge CPU.

The i5-2410m is sold only to manufacturers, so a little less information is available than for Intel's retail CPUs. Retail i5 processors have four physical cores without hyperthreading, but the i5-2410m has only two physical cores with hyperthreading, making it more like an i3. Calling this CPU an i5 is a bit deceiving. However, unlike the comparable i3 CPU, turboboost technology is included, allowing the i5-2410m to throttle up to 2.9 GHz when operating on only one physical core. VT-x virtualization support is included but VT-d is not. If none of this means anything to you, the bottom line is that the i5-2410m is as good as you need it to be.

CONCLUSION: I probably should have taken one star off for the lack of support for the 5GHz wireless band. That was a very odd choice by Dell, in my opinion. Otherwise, this is a very nice laptop that I would recommend to anyone who isn't preoccupied with first person shooter ["FPS"] games. Game players should read my own comment to this review, regarding AMD's next-generation processor ["Llano"] that will be reaching the marketplace soon.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I've had the Dell Inspiron laptop for about a month now, and I'm wondering how I could possibly have lived "BDI" (Before Dell Inspiron). The 17" screen has amazing color and resolution and seems as large as a football field, I'm in the "I'LL Never Have Another Desktop" crowd. I am still discovering all of the bells and whistles, it's lightning fast(I have high speed DSL), more memory than an elephant, and has a built-in web cam. I also purchased the Microsoft Office software and it loaded flawlessly. Couldn't be happier with this purchase. I took advantage of the 6 months no interest offer, which is a great bonus. Shipping was quick and safe. Get one and be happy!

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i17R-6121DBK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

First of all, 17" is too big to carry around, but I mostly use it at home. I like the keyboard but I hate the touchpad. The touchpad is so big and so sensitive. When I type with keyboard, the touchpad often move cursor to another place. Very annoying.

Other thoughts, There is no way to open the bottom so it wont let you update memory or hard drive in the future. do not like this.

The battery, I saw some information saying the battery can last 2 hours. It can only last 1 hour. I did charge the battery for more than 12 hours before I turn on laptop.

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i17R-6121DBK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

I love this laptop! its perfect for everything, even gaming. Windows 7 is better than any of its predecessors. the 17" screen is perfect for writing essays and doing other school work, and watching HD movies. the price is right and dell is a great computer company... unlike HP or Apple. It keeps its charge and is the perfect laptop for any purpose. id recommend this laptop to anyone. and the free xbox 360 was great too! (end of summer deal)

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron i17R-6121DBK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

This is my first laptop so not a lot to compare it to, but here goes, I love the clarity of the display, it is a little slow on the start up but is very fast once it is booted up. The thing I am most disappointed in is the battery life, I may get 2 hours if I'm lucky. Overall it is a good machine and I haven't had any problems at all.

Lenovo Thinkpad T430 23426QU i5-3230M 2.6GHz 8GB 500GB 7200rpm 14" Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Awesome product. Looks great to me although many don't think so. Looks don't matter when you own this awesome machine! Absolutely no regrets!

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

As I've been shopping around for a bit, i was concerned that I didn't want to get forced into signing up for Windows 8 yet so this was a great alternative. It's Win 8 upgradable, pretty fast and has all the standard feature I expect from a Lenovo

Finally the vendor who sold it to be was excellent as well

Sign me extremely happy

HP Elitebook 8570W - B8V82UT 2.30-3.30GHz i7-3610QM 8GB 500GB Review

Customer Ratings:

I originally bought an HP 4545s that was on sale for ~$400. I received it, and while updating it, the motherboard ended up getting fried by a failed BIOS flash.

Well, they had no replacement 4545s' in stock, nor a replacement motherboard for it. Instead, I was offered a 8570W as a replacement\upgrade.

I could not be happier. I have had this laptop for a few days now, and it is spectacular. It is nearly as powerful as my desktop that I built for $2200 in 2010, but uses maybe 1/5 the power. Of course, the GPU isn't quite on par, but I am happy that it even has a standalone GPU, rather than just a CPU\GPU combo like most non-gaming laptops.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

At first, I was skeptical, but i got the computer anyway. Now, generally I'm a mac guy, but I wanted to start playing pc games in my free time and traded to this. Games Like the new Tomb Raider, and Bioshock Infinite look unreal. I didn't even know laptops could produce graphics so powerful. Of course the 256 ssd drive is nice too! XD

Best Deals for HP Elitebook 8570W - B8V82UT 2.30-3.30GHz i7-3610QM 8GB 500GB

Early versions of the laptop had issues with the motherboard and/or video card. Laptop would reboot on its own 5+ times per day when I first got it. HP sent out a tech and took a few visits but eventually they replaced most of the parts for free due to the onsite warranty and since then it has been rock solid.

Honest reviews on HP Elitebook 8570W - B8V82UT 2.30-3.30GHz i7-3610QM 8GB 500GB

PC performs as espected, no complains so far. The only negative point is that the B8V82UT model i had researched had bakclite keyboard and mine came with out.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Elitebook 8570W - B8V82UT 2.30-3.30GHz i7-3610QM 8GB 500GB

I had very bad experience with the computer and with HP support. After 4 months I began receiving warnings that the hard drive had a serious malfunction. It was never dropped or mishandled. HP product support immediately sent me a new hard drive blank. they promise to send the windows 7 OS. With my technical people at my work I tried to mirror the HD to keep my software. Nothing worked. Of course a blank HD without software is worse than useless. The software on my laptop is LATEX, MATLAB. MAPLE, PHOTSHOP, etc etc. It takes days or weeks to re install it all. HP technical support blithely informed me that hard drives were supposed to fail. I asked for the manager. He was very sorry that I was having problems and advised me to go on line and purchase mirroring software and try to mirror my HD. If you want to pay top money for this kind of performance and support, purchase from HP

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

Customer Ratings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

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

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

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

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Cheap ASUS U52F-BBG6 Refurbished Notebook PC

Customer Ratings:

The facts

1) Large, bright screen

2) Quiet fast performance

3) Solid build quality hinges, screen, chassis, keyboard

4) No evidence of refurbishing...just like new

The qualitative

1) The color is really brown, but it feels soft and looks very expensive

2) My 9 year old uses this computer and carries it around the house all the time...with no impact

3) Had to re-install the wireless & video drivers, seems the built-in WiMax & Wi-Fi create slow wi-fi logon

4) Flawless performance after complete re-install of Windows 7 pro, Intel Wi-Fi & Video drivers & removal of Asus linux software

5) Windows 7 index = 5.9 (amazing for an i3 laptop)

6) Awesome price

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I own one of these machines, and I love it! I have had mine for a year. These things are built like a tank. I've owned other ASUS components in the past for my desktops, so this is the first full-featured product I own from them, and I am not disappointed.

I use this machine almost everyday. I sometimes leave it running for more than 48 hours at a time, as my job is 24/7 on call. It runs super quiet, you can barely hear it. It also has a great heat sink. I run various distributions of linux, and windows 7 64-bit on it. All work flawlessly. I have never had a problem with it. Also great for watching movies and playing some of the less resource intensive 3D shooters out there like Half-Life2 or Quake4.

I highly recommend the machine!!

Buy ASUS X501A 15.6 in. Pentium 500GB HDD Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $429.00
Sale Price: $327.99
Today's Bonus: 24% Off

It was a great buy, don't regret it at all. It came in a very well packaged box. I guess that was my biggest concern but it came in, in perfect condition.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I've had my new laptop for 3 weeks. This is my first Asus. Light weight, user friendly, works well for me, so far so good.

Best Deals for ASUS X501A 15.6 in. Pentium 500GB HDD Laptop

I bought this laptop from one sale a day. It looks well built, screen size is enormous. Screen is bright. Charge holds for more than 3 hours while working.

But the keyboard has issues. The space bar does not space unless you hit it in the center hard. I checked to see if anything was stuck below the space bar, but nothing I can see. All other keys are ok, but for some reason you cannot type without hitting the space bar multiple times and trust me you will not believe how challenging it is for normal users to type if the space bar does not do its thing with a normal tap. I have to go back and repeat spacing since all words jumble up. I am not able to see reviews of this issue or discussions. So I will wait to see if ASUS is willing to fix this for me.

Then the touch pad is also weird. This being Windows 8 and the touch pad is so sensitive, when I start typing my mail, I notice the screen jumping to random applications that are either open or trying to be invoked. I cannot put a finger on this issue because of the tiled nature of windows 8 and the new touch pad that is sensitive. Hence documenting just so you know I noticed that problem too.

When I reached out to One Sale a day support, they conveniently told me that this is covered by manufacturer warranty and so I can reach out to ASUS. ( It has been only 2 weeks since I bought this). I will see how that works.

Another issue is that this laptop is so big that it might not fit into many backpacks. So remember that if you want to lug this around while travelling it might be a challenge. But it still is a great looking screen and responsive laptop for this price point.

Honest reviews on ASUS X501A 15.6 in. Pentium 500GB HDD Laptop

The 2.4 ghz processor seems slow, but that may be windows 8; although, I have to wait for browser searches.

The mouse pad is difficult and flimsy.

Buy Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

Customer Ratings:

I bought this Laptop when it was the Amazon Deal of the Day for $599. I couldn't be happier with this purchase, especially at that ridiculously low price point. Instead of going over all the specs, I'll highlight some pros and cons of this laptop for potential buyers.

Pros:

Construction/Look: The chassis and chiclet keyboard (spill-resistant) feel real sturdy and of high-quality. The construction of this laptop doesn't have a cheap "plastic" feeling like some laptops out on the market.

Battery Life: The battery life on this 6-cell battery is unbelievable, especially for a 14' laptop. For the first few charge cycles, I've been able to consistently get over 7 hours of battery life surfing the web and playing music with headphones. The ecoUtility app really helps with prolonging battery life.

Intel WiDi capable: I really wanted a laptop with this capability so that I can wirelessly stream to my TV while working on my laptop. Note that you need to buy a WiDi adapter to connect to your TV/display (~$100).

Performance: The i5 processor coupled with 6GB of memory gives this laptop plenty of juice for 99% of computing activities.

SIZE of hard drive: 640GB of space is more than you'll probably even use.

Weight: 4.2 pounds and just about 1 inch thick makes this laptop pretty portable.

Optical Drive: This may not factor much for some people, but as more and more companies opt to remove optical drives from their laptops, it was nice to see Toshiba put in a full DVD burner/drive on this machine.

Connectivity: 1 USB 3.0 port AND capability for USB Sleep-and-Charge (charge stuff while laptop is off) AND an e-SATA/USB combo port AND an HDMI input is awesome!

Value: For the 600-800 price range for a 14 inch laptop, you'd struggle to find a laptop with this much under the hood.

Cons:

No Bluetooth: a tiny external USB dongle runs for about 10 bucks, but I wish Toshiba would have built-in a bluetooth receiver.

Screen: 1366 x 768 resolution (720p). Not bad by any means, but for a 14', It would have been nice to see a higher resolution offered.

Speakers: Sound can be a bit tinny at loud volumes. Noticably better than Portege R835 speakers though.

SPEED of hard drive: the 640GB hard drive only runs at 5400 rpm. I would have liked to see that be at 7200rpm or even a SSD drive, but all things considered, I can't complain much...just a nagging annoyance.

Bloatware/Volume of Apps: Toshiba seemed to have cut down on the total amount of bloatware they put on this machine but they have too many apps pre-installed on this machine for my liking so I ended up manually uninstalling some that I knew I would never use.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this laptop to anyone considering it at the $600-800 price point, as you'd be hard pressed to find significantly better deals. As another reviewer said, this is basically the 14 inch version of the Portege R835-P81 laptop (also sold on Amazon). That's just a smaller version (13.3' 3.2 lbs), but overall there are a LOT of similarities, even with the look. If you're in the market for a laptop with comparable specs but want something smaller, check that out. I hope this helps potential buyers out!

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

First let me tell you that this laptop not only looks good but it's also powerful, Thin and light weight.

I watched a bluray file and a 1080 mkv file at the same time with no stutter and with only 18% CPU load. My Quad core Desktop would start stuttering when I do this and cpu load goes to 100% (it's a Q6600 intel quad core cpu)

Had to instal java 64bit edition and directx runtime environment. Just make sure that whatever software you're instaling is 64bit compatible. had to increase color saturation to add more color but led display looks great. Tweaked touchpad settings a little bit to make it the way I like it. Theres an eco button that doubles your battery consumption to 10 hours with light use but dims the display brightness but you'll get used to it. Also it seems that pushing the eco button disables one core of the cpu. The computer wakes up instanly when you open the lid and resumes whatever it was doing. the wifi is very strong and picks up a lot of networks. Hard drive is easily accessible, only two screws. It runs very cool. I ran two 1080p bluray files at the same time through wifi N streaming from another computer with ease and no stutter. This laptop looks thiner in person and looks good. you can carry it with one hand from the corner and it doesn't bend like some do. you have esata, usb 3.0-2.0 combo. The speakers are loud, just make sure you enable loudness in audio properties and also select equalizer and increase the treble a little bit. No inputs in the back. when you rest your hands on the laptop wihile typing feels solid. Keyboard is very nice and I'm pretty picky when it comes to keyboards. After adjusting the color settings in the onboard video properties I watched the planet earth bluray streaming from my media server the display was crisp and clear with vivid colors like I was watching my 1080p led tv. Here's the color adjustments that I'm using, Saturation 10, contrast 1, brightness 0 and see the difference.

Update 6-5-12

if you do a lot of typing and word documents, I won't recommend this laptop because the cursor jumps all over the place while typing and you're constantly trying to get back to where you are to continue typing. It's not the way I type either because my fingers are away from the touch pad while typing. This is a major flaw with this laptop.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

Pros:

Fast i5 processor

6 gigs of RAM, a spacious HDD

Long battery life (at least 4.5 hours on full blast; up to 7.5 hours if not used aggressively)

USB 3.0 (w/ sleep and charge)

HDD protection gizmo allegedly protects the hard drive from minor accidents

Cons:

Squishy keyboard beware if you're a regular touch typist!

The wireless antenna works only on the 2.4 GHz band even my 3-year old HP Pavilion can connect to the 5 GHz band! However, this laptop has far better reception, so it's not such a big deal. Just a tad disappointing.

Everything seems cheap the hinges creak, the plastic looks cheesy. When I lug it around closed, I'm afraid it will crack open.

A really silly choice of dedicated shortcut buttons (there are only two; one is for turning on the Eco mode why would I need to do this in a hurry? why? the other one switches on the WiDi; IMHO a mute + wifi antenna buttons would have made much more sense)

Despite all the negative remarks, the laptop gets the job done without breaking a sweat, and if it weren't for the horrid keyboard I'd have given it 4 stars.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

I payed a little extra for this computer thinking faster speed etc. compared to my 2 year old 15.6 inch toshiba we bought on sale from Best buy for $350. I was wrong. So far, there is absolutely no advantage compared to the lesser version from two years ago. It's not just the Core i5 processor either, as I bought my brother-in-law the HP equivalent (same processor, memory, speed etc)and that computer performs much better than this one. Something is just off with the design or this specific model as previously I have been happy with Toshiba products (why I kept this one and gave the HP as a gift). Battery life promised 10 hrs but I get 8 hours at best (when relatively inactive and only on the Eco mode where it shuts down every 30 seconds and the screen is dimmed to point where you can barely read). I get 3 hours of battery at most when online.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

With an SSD Upgrade (I'd recommend Crucial 128 GB for around $160), this baby just flies.

Windows boot-up time is around 14 seconds, programs open almost instantly, and even programs that take up a few gigabytes install in seconds. By far the best laptop I've owned, comes to around $800 with the SSD upgrade. Besides you'll have a free 640 GB external slim hard drive for all your storage (movies, music, photos) purposes. (Don't forget to order an HDD enclosure for around $5-10)

The power usage while browsing with wireless on and brightness at half averages around 7 Watts, so I'd expect to get a good 8.5-9 hours of usage with the 66 Wh battery. (SSDs consume less power than HDDs)

Compared to various higher-end ultrabooks costing around $1200, the R845-S85 has a slightly better CPU, same Graphics (Intel HD 3000), better battery, and more ports (3xUSB, HDMI, VGA, ethernet). Besides the Crucial SSD also outperforms other brands in benchmark tests. OK, it's a pound heavier, quarter of an inch thicker, and doesn't have the "looks", but it's hundreds of dollars cheaper despite the higher performance&quality components and the build quality of Toshiba. (owned an Asus before buying this, which fell apart because of the cheap plastic case, poor DC Jack and bad build quality overall)

The only downside is that the GPU (Intel HD 3000), which won't allow new games with high settings. But then again, sub 14-inch notebooks almost never have dedicated graphics cards.

If you are looking for a portable and inexpensive powerhouse, this is the one to go with. Highly recommended.

Reviews of Core Duo T2300, 2GB, 120GB

Customer Ratings:

I ordered this laptop on Amazon, but the actual vendor was J&R. Amazon is very good in delivering package on time. When I opened the package I felt very happy to see the shining Acer Aspire notebook.

Installed everything, and started to use it normally, then I found that the volume is very bad. Its very low compared to HP. But the screen and the colours are very good.

Also the base gets heated up very fast. After using for some 45 min, the base of the laptop is like a burner.

I dont know, I didnt like the laptop for this volume & Heat and thought of returning back. I called up J&R and they gave me a RA number, I sent my laptop to them and after 1 week I got my money back.

Both Amazon and J&R are excellent.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Plenty of cool stuff and used to be a good value for money at acquisition (march2006).

Draw backs: Speakers are terrible (miss the Harman option) and processor overheats Notebook shell and mouse pad making it unpleaseant to use.

Last, but not least, the screen started to generate an inch wide vertical line that soon after expanded into a second one and who knows where this will end (september2006).

A shame warranty does not cover it!

Tom

Cheap Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Laptop - 59369916 - Dusk Black

Customer Ratings:

I just bought this laptop having done a ton of research on it first. I'll say this much, if your not tech savvy then this laptop is not for you. Read on for more info, but I'm an IT guy so I can get kinda technical at times (sorry!).

I picked this laptop up directly from Levono's website for $849 (was $919 with tax); It came with a 24gb SSD (M.2 drive not a mSSD), 1TB HDD, Haswell 2.4ghz Quad Core processor, 8gb of ram (upgradable to 16gb) and a Geforce GT750m dedicated graphics card. Mainly wanted this beast for running Virtual Machines and it does that very, very well not without some issues though (but I can't complain for the price, looked at other laptops and all were well above the $1000 mark which was beyond my work budget). I didn't have the heating issues or issues with the speed as one of the other reviews gave, but in the end I wound up getting rid of Windows 8 which I think helped a lot (I wound up installing Windows 7 and all my apps on the m.2 SSD and left the 1TB for my data and profile.

So having said all that, in the past 5 days I've owned this the issues I've run into were; wifi dropped connections every 30 45 minutes (I'm right next to the wifi access point both at home and at work so distances nor wifi ap should have been a problem). The built in trackpad acts funky, but every ELan trackpad I've dealt with so far has (I just use an external mouse every chance I get). Running 2 3 Virtual Machines at once does get this thing a little warm but as long as I don't block the vent ports it's fine, I'd rather it be blowing hot air than the air get trapped up inside. So far I've found fixes / ways to deal with all the problems I've encountered but I am knocking off 1 star because of these issues (if I couldn't find a fix for them I would have dropped my rating lower).

For the wifi issues, you need to update the driver the card uses to the latest and greatest and possibly even install windows 7 rather than 8 (the drivers are the problem not the card or the laptop itself) I installed windows 7 after a long driver hunting party and haven't had a problem since.

For the touchpad issues, if your not used to a macbook the touchpad will definitely be a new experience for you. The touchpad on this laptop could be compared to a jacked up version of the one found on a Macbook (if you get the Elan version it's really frustrating to use). This laptop comes with two variants of touchpad, one is produced by Elan the other is a Synaptics based touchpad (hope and pray you get the Synaptics, I was unfortunate and got the ELan). There's not much you can do with the touchpad, you can disable tapping which will help a little, I have mine setup so that it's push to left click, tap or push with two fingers to right click and scroll with two fingers.

The battery life has been a little disappointing, but it's a 2.4ghz quad core gaming laptop what did I expect?? I was able to get almost 3 hours of battery out of this thing with everything but the wifi turned off (screen turned down to about 25% brightness, Nvidia card turned off, power settings turned to battery saver in windows.

Really for the price of this laptop, if you overlook the issues you can't beat it. Just upgrade to Windows 7 or install some form of linux on it (I'll be experimenting with that one next)...

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The laptop itself has a couple problems... the wifi blinks in and out occasionally and the touchpad is awful (two finger scrolling seems poorly implemented, and I hate the single-piece trackpad that includes the left and right click buttons). However, the one star review is more for the customer service.

They shipped my laptop to me with an australian AC adapter. It doesn't fit into US outlets (unless you have a funky old-school outlet for a large appliance like a washer/dryer). I called them up and they sent me a corrected one right away. Except that the new AC adapter did not fit my laptop.

My next five attempts to reach out to Lenovo were hilarious:

1) Post sales team: you need to talk to the technical support team, here's their number.

2) Technical support team: this is the wrong technical support team, let me transfer you to the right technical support team.

3) Technical support team 2: this is a post-sales team problem. You need to talk to them. They sent you here? Let me put you on hold for half an hour and then try to convince you that Lenovo doesn't sell ANY laptops that can plug directly into US walls you need to go out and buy an international adapter!

4) Web sales chat: we can't help you, but we will make a note of this and someone from the post-sales team will reach out within 48 hours (did not get a response).

5) Post sales team (immediately escalated to a team lead this time): we're not sure which AC adapter goes with this laptop, let me call you back within 48 hours (did not get a response).

Finally, I got a response out of the websales at lenovo e-mail, where they told me that I could go buy an AC adapter and get reimbursed. That's great, but they didn't tell me which AC adapter I need, or where I could buy it. Then they offered to send it to me. At this point, I'm 20 days into the 30 day return period, so I figured I wouldn't chance it.

I'm returning the laptop today, and I reaaaaally hope the return process is smoother than my interactions with Lenovo so far. I know that every large company has some bad call center agents, but what I experienced was full-on ridiculous. I tried literally every avenue of contacting Lenovo that I could, and still could not get the issue resolved in a reasonable timeframe. Lenovo needs to get it together.

Best Deals for Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Laptop - 59369916 - Dusk Black

I had real trouble working with customer support to get the wifi working right. so i was mad mad mad. BUT after that, this little fellow has been fast and flawless. the hd plus screen is very fine in this 14 inch size. it plays new games like battlefield 3, and others, perfectly. it boots up fast. I have the one with the 1 tb hard drive plus the 24 gig ssd. I haven't notced the heat generated or 'sharp edges' or the trackpad to be problem areas, like another reviewer here did. the computer chassis/body feels pretty solid, but it isn't made from a machined aluminum billet and does not reach that level of perceived solidity. good enough, though. best computer specification for the price right now. not even close. I shopped before buying.

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Laptop - 59369916 - Dusk Black

I wanted to try some mid-level gaming and that is why I chose the Y410p. Considering the specs and the features you get for the price, this machine is in a class all by itself. Similar builds at HP and Dell can easily run for $200-$300 more. I actually had to send my first model back and this is why: When i got my first model, the first thing I did was downgrade to Windows 7 because i had read bad things about Windows 8 and didn't like the new interface. Windows 7 actually ran pretty great but there were a few bugs and some problems with the drivers. I could tell that this machine was built to run with Windows 8. I contacted Lenovo Support, who were very helpful. I told them that my laptop wasn't working properly and I wanted a new one. They sent out a new one the next business day and I was able to keep using the one I had until the new one arrived. With the new model, I stuck with Windows 8 and it's been pretty good. I found a way to disable the new UI and stick with the classic Desktop mode.

This laptop actually does a great job with gaming, I play Battlefield 3 and Medal of Honor on high settings and you can max out the settings on most games. Backlit keyboard is very nice as well. The only complaints i have deal with the keyboard and touchpad. Simply put, the touchpad is terrible. It is designed like the apple macbook touchpad but is not anywhere near as responsive or effective. It's just something u have to get used to. Also, some of the keyboard keys such as Enter, Backspace and Shift are smaller than standard size and this also takes getting used to. I've had this laptop for 3 weeks and still mess up sometimes.

Overall its a really good laptop but it has some minor design flaws.

UPDATE:

OK, so it's been about 2 months now since I've had the laptop and I'm sticking with what I said. Besides the minor annoyances of the touchpad and keyboard, everything is great. Another thing i forgot to mention that the laptop is great cooling wise. I always have my laptop sitting on a fan but I don't even turn the fan on anymore, the laptop does a great job of keeping cool. Only when I'm gaming do I even notice any hot air and even then, the built in fan in the laptop pushes it all out from the left side of the laptop.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Laptop - 59369916 - Dusk Black

When I first purchased this laptop I was overwhelmed at the powerful graphics card and processor (I often play games on it). This is where the pro's end. Every, single, piece of this product is lacking in quality: plastic creaks (alot), screen is awful, battery lasts 3 hours maybe, the touchpad is the single worst I have ever had to use, and most importantly; this product contains fraudulent advertising. The so called ultrabay (expansion bay) has not one released attachment. Not the promised extra graphics card, not the extra battery (they lied about the 5 hour life, you really will need another battery), nothing. How they have not faced a law suit is beyond me, these accessories are literally printed on the box and hundreds have complained. DO NOT BUY

Discount Dell Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (2x1.6GHz), 2GB RAM, 80

Customer Ratings:

The new Dell Vostro 1500 is a new dell laptop design. Dell has done good in designing the Vostro. The looks of the Vostro is amazing. It has a stylish look, yet is very durable. The 15.4-inch LCD is wide enough for anyone's viewing pleasure and the screen's glossy feature makes it look like your viewing a glass screen. The dual-core 1.6GhZ (upgradable to 2.4Ghz dual-core) processors are powerful enough for most applications. The 2GB RAM (upgradable to 4GB) can do more then enough for a user. It comes with a DVD burner to burn all your DVDs. The video card offer is good enough to handle the new Vista features. The 80GB SATA HDD (upgradable to 250GB SATA)offers plenty of space and the speed of the SATA is extremely fast. This new Dell is worth every penny.

Overall: Recommended Buy

Review by: Reviewedia.com

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The Dell Vostro 1500 comes in a few configurations. I have the setup with 2 gig of RAM and a duo CPU T7250 @ 2.00 GHz. I'm running Windows Vista on it, which I love.

My previous laptop was a Sony Vaio which had an awesome screen display but was as heavy as a full set of weights. OK, I exaggerate slightly. It was massively heavy, and loud, and the keyboard had issues. I finally gave that to a college student to use as a small desktop machine and upgraded myself to this Dell Vostro 1500.

I have been using my Dell Vostro for just over a year now. I am VERY pleased with it. It is light, quiet, the screen display is great, and it has been incredibly reliable. I pound on my laptop for hours every day, doing a ton of typing. I run websites from my home. Any time I travel my laptop goes with me and I am on it several hours a day from my remote location. The Dell has never caused me any issues at all.

The screen display is great. I do a fair amount of graphics work, including judging photo entries for a literary magazine. The Dell's screen lets me accurately view colors and see images with sharp clarity.

I do video game testing and have tested several games out on this laptop everything works quite fine. I haven't run into any issues.

The touch mousepad area works quite fine. I use it constantly during the day and while I do get the occasional "jump" it is no different than any other laptop I've used in that regard.

Really, there is only one minor issue I've ever had with this laptop. If I am wearing shorts and have the laptop sitting on the bare skin of my legs, every once in a while I will get a sharp pain in my leg, as if it was zapped by something. I have to believe that there's some sort of metal or something that creates an electrical circuit and zaps me. It's not an every fifteen minute thing more like a once every two or three days thing. Still, it's annoying enough that I have to find a throw to put between my legs and the laptop to keep it from happening. So I would warn people not to use the laptop on bare skin unless they enjoy that type of sensation.

Still, an awesome laptop and one that has really shown its worth over the past year. Highly recommended!

Best Deals for Dell Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (2x1.6GHz), 2GB RAM, 80

I have had my Vostro 1500 for roughly 3 years now it is the duel core 1.40 ghz 2 gigs of ram. overal I would say it is and has been a 7 out of 10. as far as the Neg. umm when I first got this pc the cd-rom issue was happening where it would not read and disk. this was found to be an easy fix the cd-rom drive is set to a location of (00) you must edit this under the system tab of windows xp and use Device manager and set it to (01) United States or find the country you are in and this solves this issue. oddly Dell had a real problem with this issue because upon release of the pc over 250,000 computers had this error and and this is when del just started releasing their computers to be sold at best buy and walmart. But Ironicly no body wanted them cause they didnt work out the door. so they flopped. rofl, best tried to sell it for $ 949.99 and Like I said they flopped and they flopped bad. they sold less than 2000.

and guess where they round up? on EBAY I bought mine for $145 after shipping. I bought 4 because of the price do you get it 4 LAPTOPS FOR LESS THEN $600.00 and that included shipping. to this day my mother still uses hers and my sister still is happy with hers. my wife dropped hers 2 years after she owned it and it was gone. as for mine I am still using it to this day. I have done some minor ud grades I ripped the old 80 gig out and threw in a 500 gig because I had it laying around. as far as the guy saying you have to pull the MB to get to the HD...BULL!!! its the screw with a padlock on it.took me less than 10 minutes. also I went from the stall version of XP to Windows 7 64 bit. as far as how I feel I this it is a great PC for the price, and it is great for student just starting out.or a rough Family just trying to make it .Like I said it has been 3 years now and I need to buy a new battery and a charge cord. but for $ 38 it doesnt just kill you dipping into your pocket. so take it from me look around for this laptop check Ebay just saw one on there for $104 so they are still cheep I'd give it a thumbs up

Honest reviews on Dell Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (2x1.6GHz), 2GB RAM, 80

I have had this machine for more than a year and it's still working great-it is a little heavy

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T5470 (2x1.6GHz), 2GB RAM, 80

So far this laptop is work well, the only thing that I miss is for webcam since I will use it for skypee as well.

Cheap Alienware AM14XR2-6662BK 14-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,399.00
Sale Price: $1,288.07
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

This laptop is very nice and fast, screen is a little small, but unfortunately the other AlienWare laptops with larger screens only came with Windows 8 and I don't like this OS.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Buy HP G60-235DX Laptop Notebook

Customer Ratings:

The HP G60-235DX is the laptop computer I'm on right now! I love this computer it has 3 Gigs as opposed to the laptop I actually bought for myself which has 4 gigs. But, it starts up in a flash unlike the 4 Gig Lenovo. We have several laptops in our home because my husband has one for his work, I have one for mine, we have one we do most of our financial stuff and other important work on. Then our daughter in college has a laptop, and a couple for our other kids. We don't want our youngest running with one which he does so we also have to have a more inexpensive desktop.

One of the things I love most about this computer is the feel if you're familiar with computers, and know the feel of a Compaq as opposed to an HP, this one feels like a Compaq. I know Compaq is made by HP, but they truly do have a different feel.

The keyboard is a little wider, so sometimes my fingers go to the wrong keys, but the keys are pretty effortless not "clicky" like some keyboards. The shell is shiny black, but fingerprints aren't too bad, and the inside is a smooth fingerprint-less stainless color inside. Very sharp looking, a little bigger than our Lenovo, but a great sitting around the house computer. The feel is a little heavier than the Lenovo, but probably pretty standard for a computer this size.

One thing we didn't like was that the spare battery quit working for some unknown reason about 3 months after we got it, and it was the battery this computer calls for. We didn't know the battery wasn't working except the computer just stopped working after a couple of months. I was so upset we don't spend this kind of money only to have a computer stop working that quickly. My husband took it, and just happened to plug a Dell battery into it, and low and behold the computer worked! I was thrilled I hadn't been able to use the computer in about a week! I'm so glad it was the spare battery and not the computer!

Overall this is my favorite laptop....well...our daughter's is burgundy, and that would be so sweet, but despite the color, I do love this computer and would recommend it to anyone who was looking into purchasing a new laptop. The price was somewhere around $600 our 4 Gig Lenovo was approx $650, so I guess the price is pretty standards.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I noticed there was no reviews that were recent, which had me hesitant to buy and it took forever for me to get the guts. It's pretty hard to find a decent review of it on youtube as well. So here it is : >

So I bought this a few weeks ago, and was a little reluctant because i heard you wanna buy newer laptops and this one is not as old as most of the ones that were in my budget, but definitely not new and pristine like the ones that cost 500 and so. But it works actually really well for the age, i was afraid it'd be slow as hell but actually it's as fast as any newer one.

Gaming: now, i have yet to actually experience any lags in any of my games, but keep in mind I am not a gamer. So don't know about all that, but my friends are and they play some high up games that i sometimes download to see if it'll be good. so far, no issues. But it is probably not a good idea to buy this soley for gaming (ignoring everything else, the laptop con is it's heating issues, which occur most when your putting too much pressure on it) so yes it can play games fine, but if that's what your hoping to play 24/7 then you'll be disappointed because it WILL get too hot on you.

Speed: First things first is it runs pretty fast with everything considering. Also, I can run a lot on it without lagging even once. Currently am running 5 tabs on firefox, one being a youtube video of nostalgia critic. Also running sai program and skype. I have yet to have any lag issues, which is awesome XD So for speed it's a plus

GRAPHICS/ ART: What i was REALLY looking for while buying my laptop was a laptop i could do my art on. It works well for that as well, surprisingly i like it more then using my pc maybe because the screen is pretty bright and wide enough i can draw ok with my tablet. That being said, I still prefer using a mouse while i'm using my program, if only because i switch through the settings often, Nothing to do with the laptop, just a personal preference.

TouchPad and Keyboard: Oh my god I love this touchpad, I'm not even going to go into too much detail, it's just freakin amazing. But this being said, all I really have to compare it to is my sister's laptop (netbook), and my aunts apple laptop (which is pretty thin and smallish too). So maybe it's different for regular sized laptops? Anyway, I love it because it's really smooth, my finger just glides on the surface XD I love that, and the fact that it reacts pretty well. That and it feels like the keys are placed just perfect, i can reach them with ease as i scroll and they aren't hard to push. Not too small not too big. Without a mouse I have no problem using the touchpad as a substitute, which..when i was thinking of getting a laptop, made me worry. Now the keyboard itself is pretty awesome, I like having the numer pad there (i see a lot of laptops don't). And so far typing on it is pretty easy and nice, there is even on the side where the speakers are a light when the caps are on, which is reallly helpful because i've been having problems accidently pushing caps when i shouldn't (on my computer). It also does this with the num lock over the keyboard. My only complaint would be that they don't light up. So if your in the dark you'll have to go by the light of the screen to see, though usually that's enough. But i'm pretty handy with a keyboard so light or no light i can type fine.

Size and weight: Honestly, I don't move my laptop around very much, but i don't really have much to complain about. But being my first laptop I feel like i could break it by just picking it up. But that's just my stupid clumsy self, it has nothing to do with the laptop. For the wqeight and build it's pretty ok, nothing really loose about it which is nice : > The screen size i have is big and nice for a laptop, which is awesome too because well..i like to read my manga and watch some movies.

Web cam and microphone: Ok..so...so far the web cam is ok. The one time my sis tried to use it on skype though it was acting sorta funky. But so was the other person's on the line, so that may just be an issue in skype or something. But during that the microphone seemed to work ok, they could hear each other. That being said the computer has a built in program for the webcam that works pretty awesome, a little slow with the camera so that if you were to move left you could actually count to two before it followed your movements. My cousin has a laptop that does the same thing, so i don't know if thats a real problem or not. But since I don't use the webcam much anyway..

*revised: after testing the microphone it is defective, it's ok for a bit but then goes way ogg like i see many hp g60 series microphones are. But again since i don't use the microphone or webcam much it's not too bad a problem for me.

But besides all that there is a con, and I mentioned it somewhat with gaming. It's something that bugs me a bit. It gets hot. Sometimes really hot, that it is uncomfortable to type on because as you touch it somewhat irritates your fingers. THANKFULLY it only happens occasionally and can cool down. Hopefully it's just somewhat dusty inside and once i clean it out i won't have this problem. Heating seems to be a common problem with a lot of laptops no matter what brand, so i'm not too perturbed.

That aside, everything else is great :)i hope to save up soon to increase my ram.

Best Deals for HP G60-235DX Laptop Notebook

This computer is reliable and intuitive. I love the huge bright screen for movies and the easy of utility regarding the wireless set-up. The number pad on a laptop computer keyboard is also a favorite.

Honest reviews on HP G60-235DX Laptop Notebook

This laptop comes with a faulty built-in microphone that makes the built-in cam, well, useless. What's more, the folks at HP KNOW that it's faulty but will not repair it. In addition, the Vista os is always coming up with either a new hangup or an imcopatibility issue with peripherals. Do yourself a favor and check out the discussion boards for this item on the HP website itself.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP G60-235DX Laptop Notebook

Compré ésta notebook hace un año. A la semana de tenerla, el pin interno de la conexión de la fuente a la notebook se partió, cosa más que rara, pensé. Como estamos en Argentina y la compra fue hecha en los Estados Unidos, resultaba más que complicado hacer valer la garantía y optamos por comprar el repuesto. Ahora, menos d eun año después, resulta que se cortó el cable en su parte articulada, es decir, cerca del enchufe que se había roto al primera vez. El uso de la notebook es casero, pocas exigencias, pocos traslados... la verdad, desastroso...