Cheap HP Pavilion dv7-4180us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.75 Hours of

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I would have given this a 2-star review because of the very bad stock switchable video ATI drivers (which are HP's fault since they force ATI to go through them and not release drivers separately) but that has changed very recently.

First off, trying to find a 17+" screen on any laptop for less than a grand is a hard search it's mostly Vaios and gaming Acers which are not cheap. Not to mention a real graphics card, an I5, 4 gigs of ram, and Win7. It's also got a pretty decent stock battery, which is large as stated in the other review but it's large in the right way, because it pushes the back up off the surface so it can cool without you having to suspend it over something. It's also surprisingly light: with a 17" screen and a full keyboard with numpad I thought it would be a brick but it's not bad at all.

Initially I was very annoyed at the switchable graphics driver which lets you go between the onboard Intel GMA chip and the separate ATI HD4560 because it was very flaky. For example if you let it sleep while ATI was selected, the switchable driver would no longer work until you rebooted, switching took a long time, and about half the time when you came back from sleep on the Intel GMA chip it would flash red green and you would have to put it back to sleep and try again.

That just recently changed however as they finally updated the driver, now it's quick to change and all the issues seem to have disappeared.

I would probably stick to the Intel GMA as much as possible because it heats up quick with the ATI card and most people don't do anything that requires the ATI card, I can watch full HD movies on the Intel GMA chip because the i5 is optimized to work for it and onboard graphics aren't as terrible as they used to be.

I doubt it would actually overheat if you left ATI on all the time but if you're on Intel GMA it's pushing out a slightly warm breeze whereas with the ATI switched on its definitely hot to the point where it will get uncomfortable if you're anywhere near the vents. Why make it work extra hard to cool down if you don't need to? I would say it's not a failing of the laptop it's just the way things work, graphics cards get hot and it's in a tiny enclosed space, on the onboard graphics it's actually much cooler than my old laptop which had a tiny fraction of the power this does.

As far as performance capabilities go I develop on it etc the heaviest test I have given it is Fallout: New Vegas and switched on the ATI card and it works as well as a desktop, much to my surprise. So the power is there if you need it but you usually don't.

Summary: very good laptop for the money, wipe the HP stuff off (my own personal preference since HP stuff is notoriously hard to root out completely, preferably with a format/reinstall) and update the video driver and you will have a very good deal.

If you want an even better deal grab the AMD one for $100-$150 cheaper which makes changes it from a good deal to an incredibly good deal as it's almost exactly the same performance-wise.

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I bought this laptop mainly for photo (and maybe video) editing.

Pros: This is really a powerful laptop. Works well with CS5. A good replacement for my desktop.

I like the widescreen which helps me work on 2 documents at the same time.

Battery performance is excellent. I like the graphic card switching method which saves power.

The HP advisor is very helpful.

Cons:

The mouse pad buttons are not that user friendly. The left and right buttons are both hard to press. You have to find a 'sweet spot' which is the center for you to press it. Or you can just use a mouse or a tablet.

The paint finish is not that good especially at the edge. It easily chips off. The rubber finish also fades faster. (I just got this laptop for less than a month)

A little bit heavy but manageable. Lighter than the other 17" laptops.

Not that travel friendly. So if you are always on the go, try the 14 and 15s...

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I replaced an older Dv7 laptop woth this one. It is tough getting used to. My older model had all the bells and whistles while this one is basic. the touch pad is very hard to get used to. The level of the pad is the same as the laptop itself so you need to look down to make sure you're fingers are correctly placed. This pad does not respond like I wish it would. It stalls and then goes haywire.

The screen is much brighter than my older model and it's easier on the eyes. I am hoping with time any issues I am having will resolve themselves. I will give an update soon

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv7-4180us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.75 Hours of

I was shopping for the most laptop I could get with a blu-ray drive under a thousand dollars and this fit the bill very well. The i5 intel processor impresses, it has a dual video card setup one for basic use that conserves battery power, and one for "gaming." Overall, I do like this laptop but it does have a few niggles I would like to mention.

Cons:

1) The touchpad is horrible. Use a mouse. I constantly battle the stupid thing.

2) The blu-ray drive is very difficult to open/eject. Crazy as this sounds, the eject button is tiny and you have to press it in deeply with your fingernail or it just won't eject. I find it easier to right mouse on the drive in "My Computer" and select Eject from the menu. Come on HP! Give me a simple, larger button to press to open the optical drive.

3) The battery is a large 9-cell that has a large hump at the bottom. It nicely props up the laptop on a desk, but it is heavy, doesn't allow a nice flat profile to place in a bag/backpack, and doesn't even get close to the advertised battery life. I'd like to order a flat 6-cell version but if this one doesn't last that long, I'd hate to see how the "little" battery performs.

4) A lot of HP "Junk software" loaded on this thing. Takes time to uninstall it all.

5) No restore DVD included in the box.

6) HP accessories like extra batteries or AC/Auto power adapters are quite expensive.

Pros:

1) Plays blu-rays on my flatscreens with 1 HDMI cable and all the included software works great. Or hook up the VGA cable and use the headphone jack.

2) The large 17.3" screen is awesome, bright, and very crisp and clear.

3) I haven't really tested the processing power but this thing rates very well on the Microsoft Windows 7 performance scale. All my programs launch quickly and it is a pleasure to work on. This has replaced an AMD Dual core 2.8 Ghz desktop PC as my "workhorse" everyday computer.

4) I love the fingerprint reader.

All-in-all I rate this a good buy and would certainly purchase it again.

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One of the best laptop I have bought so far. I've been using Dell for the past 4 years and would like to have a change and bought this laptop.

It has wide 17inch screen for a good movie experience and with Beats audio experience. Played Avatar blu ray and graphics card did it work correctly but was not able to render the graphics in 2 scenes.

I was not much satisfied with the speakers. Even though, the sound level is high but it creates a jabbering noise which is kinda not good.

Other than that this is a very good laptop of its kind.

Best ASUS ROG G750JH-DB71 17.3-Inch Laptop Deals

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List Price: $2,499.00
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As I type this review on my new Asus G750JH-DB71 I can only smile. This is one bad boy notebook. While serious spec folks will scoff, it has a 7.9 Windows experience rating that means this laptop is at the top of the heap for desktops. I am not a professional reviewer, just a hard core PC gamer, so bear with me. First off, the build quality has "Excellence" written all over it. It has the quality feel you would expect for a notebook of this caliber. No excuses, no compromise, just high quality. The specs are uber-impressive. All the ram you need, quad core badness and the best video card ever put in a laptop.

Gaming: All settings on high, frame rates of about 100 on the FPS games I play.

Heat: Incredibly good cooling through giant vents and you can just barely hear the fans kick on when they do.

Specs: Impressive for a gaming desktop, otherworldly for a gaming laptop.

Style: While I loved the orange and black paintjob on my old Asus G50-A1, this understated looking laptop won't pop as many eyes when you cart it into the coffee shop, but it is much classier.

Sound: This is important! The sound is the best I've EVER heard from laptop speakers. I've been used to carrying external speakers with me for movies, but that is no longer necessary. You can watch a movie and have incredibly loud sound with the built in speakers. The subwoofer is nice too.

Screen: Very nice. Clear, responsive and no dead pixels or other issues. Awesome.

Downsides: Windows 8. I installed a program called "start is back" on the pc and it looks just like Windows 7 while still keeping the Windows 8 features intact (if you're into that sort of thing). Only 4 USB ports. Come on laptop manufacturers, how about 6-8 USB ports? Everyone needs them you know. Battery life, but who cares? You can run this thing for about 3 hours unplugged which is pretty good for all the hardware you have packed in.

Yeah, this laptop is a little pricey, but for a Gaming Desktop Replacement it's right on the money. LOTS of extra features on this laptop compared to the less expensive models, which your average PC Gamer is going to LOVE! From the Killer Wireless to the Blu-ray burner to the twin SSD's running in raid and way more. Boots from cold in 24 seconds and resumes in 2 seconds. I can't imagine being without this beast and I'm incredibly glad I bought it.

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I've been using this notebook for about a week and overall I'm satisfied. Here's my bullet-point review:

PROS

Insanely fast, runs everything I've thrown at it very smoothly

It stays cool all the time. Under regular loads it is also nearly silent and under heavy loads the fan noise is reasonably low.

Easy access to upgrade the hard drive. I easily tore out the 1TB 5400 mechanical drive and replaced it with a Samsung 840 Evo SSD.

I like to use a mouse with my notebooks and before buying I was concerned that the power input was on the right side of the notebook and that it might interfere with my mouse movements. It turns out this is not an issue, the cable is elevated enough so that it doesn't interfere with using a mouse.

CONS

It seems like Asus will let anyone pre-load any kind of nasty adware/spyware on their products for a price. I had to do a lot of clean up on the hard drive. There was one particularly nasty program that would open a new browser window with all kinds of ads whenever I visited sites like Amazon, eBay, etc. If I had to do it over again I'd just do a clean Windows install as soon as I got the notebook. Unfortunately, I had to get this system up and running ASAP and didn't have the time to do a clean Windows installation.

Contrary to the Q&A on the product description, the notebook I got from Amazon was the Assassin's Creed edition. I'm not a gamer, but I need the powerful 3D card on this notebook for work-related 3D modeling. I have no problem with Asus working with a game company to include a game with the notebook, but why on earth would they permanently burn in some random game name on the palmrest? I've tried removing that game logo with no success. It seems like nothing short of sand-blasting will make it go away. At this point I think my only option is to buy a black sticker to cover it up.

Asus splits the twin SSDs that are in Raid 0 into two partitions. They also split the 1TB into two partitions, so you have a total of 4 logical drives. That seems an odd choice to me. Fixing this so the twin SSDs are a single logical drive and your secondary drive is also a single logical drive might not be so easy for a novice user to accomplish.

Reviews of Acer Aspire V5-171-6471 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

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List Price: $579.99
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I really adore this mobile computer. I am a mobile person and the size is perfect for every day commuting and long-distance travel; it has a small footprint and can fit on any surface be it an airplane seat tray or a lap. The computer does not have a disc drive (which I think is a plus), freeing it to be made very thin; it is not Macbook Air thin, but still very thin. One of my favorite features is the touchpad. It recognizes Apple like gestures and is free from the casing, so that it can physically move up and down when pressed. This gives it a very responsive feel akin to the Apple touchpad. The keyboard has keys separated by the case molding. It is not a full size keyboard, but I find the Chiclet-like keys helps prevent pressing more than one key at a time when typing; it also looks very cool.

I like a fast computer and this Acer has a lot horsepower for its price range since it has an Intel Core i5, instead of a Core i3. This means it comes with Intel's Turbo Boost technology. I believe the Turbo Boost makes a big difference in a laptop where power consumption is directly related to battery life. Most of the time a lot of horsepower isn't needed, e.g. web surfing, so battery power is saved. But when you need to open or run a demanding program like MATLAB (you'll see I love MATLAB) then Turbo Boost really shines and everything will run faster.

I took this computer to another level by upgrading to a solid-state hard drive and highly recommend this. The SSD makes boot up incredibly fast. (Note about installing Windows via USB: Format a USB (>4GB) with FAT32. Then extract a Windows Installation ISO to the USB using 7-zip. Super simple :)(Note 2: or use Clonezilla to clone the Windows that ships with the drive onto the new one.). With this setup the computer is very snappy. The computer boots in about 5 seconds. MATLAB opens on my laptop faster than my desktops!

I did not want to spend more than $800 on a new laptop. This laptop perfectly fits my computing needs and wants without breaking the budget. I think it is as cool as a computer can be without being a Macbook, which this computer clearly used as an inspiration. I don't believe in spending top-of-the-line money for laptops, because the dollar goes further in a desktop and laptops don't have as much longevity due to wear and tear (I'm pretty rough on laptops. They get banged around in my backpack when I bike around or travel). However, being unwilling to spend enough can result in an impotent laptop: more than a Chromebook (which are awesome in their own way, but specialized), yet not quite powerful enough for doing more than surf the web, write docs, and make slides; having a computer powerful enough to run MATLAB (or a similarly demanding program like Photoshop) was important to me. The Aspire V5-171 has met my needs and surpassed my expectations. It represents a fantastic value: it combines computing power and great aesthetics into a very convenient and mobile form factor.

The only caveat I can think of is this is not a "gamer's" laptop. However, it has the best integrated graphics chip Intel offers and will play a lot of modern games on the lowest visual settings at decent frame rates.

Finally, there are a few miscellaneous features that further prove how this laptop is the complete package. In addition to an HDMI port, there is also a VGA port. I think it is great to have both, because there is now the flexibility of giving a presentation on an HD screen or an older projector without needing to tote around extra adapters. There is also a USB 3.0 port to help future proof this machine. Another nice unheralded feature is the power cord, which does not have a "Ghostbusters brick". Instead it has the adapter plug directly into the wall; this seems to have reduced the size of the power cord and represents to me less of a trip hazard. My only wish is that the power cord would connect to the laptop using a magnet ala Apple (the ultimate in trip prevention), but I don't mind so much because this laptop comes in at such a nice price.

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Funny that companies are trying to make these smaller laptops seem like something new. They were everywhere a few years ago; with screen sizes from 7 to 14" and simply called netbooks. For whatever reason, at the time, they bombed and just didn't sell so they were discontinued by most major manufacturers. Skip ahead just a couple years and tablets popped up on the scene and as of the time of this writing (7-14-13) are all the rage. And guess what the screen sizes are...7-10". While I think they are a great form of entertainment (I purchased one myself, an Asus 10.1 Transformer currently their top of the line for almost a year).

While tablets come in a variety of sizes and are very easy to use (their big selling point) they really are suited for entertainment primarily. The public has finally starting noticing this and even through you can add a keyboard to a tablet, it still is very limited using "real world" applications. While many people have written programs (apps) to try to expand their usefulness, a word processor or spreadsheet on a tablet is far more complicated than on a Mac or PC. Thus the resurrection of what people now refer to as "smaller computers" (a.k.a., netbooks).

I write reviews and articles for a variety of blogs and yes, even newspapers (contrary to popular belief they do still exist though the number is dwindling fast). I tried using my top-of-the-line Asus tablet with a variety of word processing applications and while I'm looking for a program with all the features I need, salespeople seem to be programed to talk about nothing but "pinch and zoom" and the gigantic 32 Gig of storage memory they contain. No matter what you ask them they always bring the subject back to that. It's like dangling shiny trinkets in front of a baby and listening to them "oooo" and "ahhh" over the pretty shiny things. Kids, time to grow up.

While tablets certainly have made a place for themselves and at the moment are continuing to grow in popularity they really are most practical for entertainment and not productivity. I'm not saying you can't send off an e-mail or edit a document but to write a 5 or 6 page article (even if you have a keyboard for your tablet as I, myself do) you really need something with a little more power and better design...at least for writing. And that means a fully functional word processor, be it MS Word, Open Office. But many times, in writing articles, when I start in the research phase I might have 20 tabs open in a browser, a word processing program, a drawing program with something as simple as clip art open as well. Guess what happens to a tablet (mine actually has 64 gig of ram). What happens is that it comes to a screeching halt.

I have a quad core, 15" laptop and a quad core desktop that uses wireless keyboard, mouse and even dictation software so when I am home I barely have to touch the keyboard. Oh, and the screen is a 50" diagonal flat panel. There isn't anything I can't do with my home system. Now the problem; I'm not always home. I don't know how many people have tried carrying a 15" laptop (with power brick) and other accessories around all day but by afternoon my shoulders feel like they are going to fall off. Thus the need for something smaller but not too small.

First stop, as always, Amazon to hunt for something more practical for my particular needs. I looked a Chromebooks (those are basically netbooks that use the Google operating system). Problem is that everything has to be done in a browser and Google's word processor isn't very powerful and as I said, I may have 20 tabs open at once. Google's browser answer for this, since it creates a lack of memory, is to close (and no it doesn't ask it it's okay) the oldest tab. And while there are supposed to be ways to bring them back it just doesn't always work. In reading reviews on Chromebooks I kept seeing the same comments over and over. Why does Asus produce netbooks with 4 gig of ram and a 320 gig hard drive since it really has no use for anything that big since it stores almost everything you do on the web. So I wrote the model numbers of a few down and searched Amazon for them. Sure enough, there was the exact same computer that had been used for Chromebooks but with Windows 8 as the operating system.

I made my lists and compared and decided on this machine. While it claims to have a 5 hour battery life, in reality it is more like 2 to 2 1/2 hours. The reason for this however is because they are showing most of the specs of Chromebooks that have very low-end processors that don't need much energy to run while this computer replaced these low-end processors with and Intel Core i5. With the entire line of Intel processors, this is the second from the top of the line. It is fast and even has a turbo mode so that if you are over-taxing the processor it literally kicks in to overdrive and gives a little extra boost as needed. I've been working on it for about a month and with a browser open with 32 tabs, a word processor and a spreadsheet (and playing music in the background) it has only kicked in once! It also has 6 gig of ram to support all those open windows. I may upgrade it to 8 gig but at this point I am not sure it's really even necessary.

The keyboard is also worth mentioning. While my 15" laptop has a full sized keyboard with a separate numeric keypad, this computer has only the full sized keyboard and no separate numeric keypad. But then that cuts about 3-4" off its size. I have been asked why I didn't just get a Macbook Air (super slim and lightweight + another $1000). So I decided to opt for the Acer V5. I even purchased an external DVD drive since this computer doesn't have one built in and contrary to the "knowledgeable" salespeople who tell me that no computers will have them in another year since everything can be downloaded, I disagree. The drive is 1/2 inch thick and runs right off the power from the usb port you plug it in to. A couple people also said that software would be delivered in thumbdrives (usb sticks). I reminded them all that people have been saying that one for about 2 years. Other than a couple programs, everything I've seen that isn't a download comes on that other thing that will be discontinued if you listen to them...a DVD! As I said, no keypad but the rest of the keys are the "chiclet" style keys with ample space between them that your fingers don't hit the wrong keys (some chiclet style keyboards are so close together that they are more of a solid, flat and connected row of keys and it is difficult to keep track of where "home row" is for typing.

This computer has a 500 gig hard drive in it. I have considered swapping it out for a SSD however the speed that this computer has at start up is actually quite fast for a standard hard drive and from the time I hit the power button, while an SSD might have it up and running in 15 seconds, it has never taken more than a minute to be up and ready to use. And for the cost of a 500 gig SSD, I can wait another 45 seconds longer.

It does come with the usual assortment of partially cripples games, trial period software for the major programs. But I always make my first project on any computer to 1st, make a back up of the operating system in case something should go wrong (forgot to tell the salespeople about that one no DVD or usb stick and if the computer dies, you can't go on line to download the operating system). The 2nd thing I always do is delete all the garbage software and finally, the 3rd thing to do before adding my own software is to defrag the hard drive after just erasing so much junk.

The screen is bright and clear. You would have a hard time counting pixels. For those who don't like non-reflective screen, you'll need to buy one of those clear, plastic non-glare screen covers because this screen, as beautiful as it looks is almost impossible to see in a brightly lit room. Not because the screen is dim but because it is so highly reflective. But you can get an anti-glare screen on line, almost anywhere. They go on like the clear plastic screen protectors do. Just slide them on and try not to get air bubbles under them.

While this doesn't have a DVD drive built in, it does have a network port, 3 usb ports, a SD card slot and an HDMI port. At the rear of the PC (where the hinge for the screen is located) the height when closed is just under an inch and at the front it's about a little more than a half inch. I put my 10 inch tablet on top of it and it was 3/4 of an inch longer and 3/4 of an inch deeper. So size-wise it's almost the size of my tablet. I actually carry both in my computer bag.

Lastly, a friend asked if it got hot sitting in my lap? Answer is: warm. It's never gotten so hot (like my larger laptop) that I thought I would burn my legs. And besides, for convenience sake I also have a small stand that folds flat (also fits the computer bag) that is designed to put the computer on if you are in bed or sitting in a chair. That allows a little air to flow beneath it. It has a fan built in but it is barely noticeable, especially if you are playing music.

Actually, this is the last thing: the speakers are mediocre at best. You have 2 choices really. You can use a set of headphones and the sound is full and clear. I'm not big on wearing headphones while I work so I spent $18 (also found here on Amazon) and purchased X-Mini II XAM4-B Portable Capsule Speaker. Strange looking. I looks like a small pod/half a ball (hard to describe) but it is a small external speaker that you just plug into your headphone jack (it has a built in battery and I've used it on a single charge for 11 hours one day) and while you aren't going to get Bose quality sound out of it, the highs and lows are nice and clear. If you want to spend about 1/2 to 3/4 more $ you can also get it in a blue tooth version so you don't have to play with an extra wire. The only reason I didn't get that one myself was because while it pairs up to your computer with no problem and sounds as good as the wired version; again, it has a built in battery but since the battery has to power bluetooth as well as the speaker, it only runs for about 5 hours before needing a recharge. My career is built around the computer so I use it much more than most people so I liked the less expensive model, not because it cose less but because I get 11 of play time out of it.

Hope this has been of help to someone looking at it, one way or another. It is a great little computer but is just big enough that you don't feel like your trying to work on a toy. And with a core i5 processor, 6 gig of ram and a 500 gig hard drive if you are looking for a physically smaller computer (something that can produce real work), it's a great machine.

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It might be helpful to describe my PREVIOUS computer. For the last two plus years I have been using an Acer one, 10.5" notebook. I had upgraded the ram to 2 GB. I never had anything that small before, but really I liked the size, and also the ACER quality (for the price).

I did a lot of research before I bought this new ACER. I'm a tightwad and I didn't want to pay for any more than I needed. After the first week I am totally pleased.

One of the problems with the previous notebook was the undersized keys and keyboard. The move up to 11.5 inches has allowed for full sized, fully spaced keys. I'm a writer and I need a real keyboard that I can use anywhere. Someone else referred to these keys as "chiclets". Yes, they protrude up individually through the casing. They're very easy to type on. It verges on fun. The only thing that concerns me is that they may accumulate dirt, which may be difficult to get out. But, that can't be any worse than most other keyboards.

I don't do any gaming; So, the 6 GB is really great. The processor and RAM are quite adequate for word processing, spreadsheets, surfing, and watching Netflix.

It is super slim, portable and very light. Note, however, that the power cable is on the right side. I would prefer the left, but it's not a big deal.

The screen quality is very good for the price. The size of the screen is perfect. It is the smallest possible screen for a real keyboard. It is big enough for all the programs to run without size problems.

In regard to software: I was very skeptical of W8. I spent 3 or 4 hours familiarizing myself with it. I finally got it set up. Basically I only see the APPS screen when I boot. I go straight from there to a (more or less) familiar window's desktop. It's working OK, but I'm thinking about defecting to Linux Ubuntu.

I also may install an SSD drive when I do that. This is not because I am dissatisfied with what came in the box. I think it's a great value for what I paid.

Now, a word to the wise about MS office. MS is really trying to rope everyone who needs office into annual fees, high prices, and so forth. I refuse to do it.

I first tried Open Office, but soon learned that they (apache? I think) are not keeping it up. I had trouble with migrating excel files and formatting. But, Libre Office is really great. They're on top of it. It's open source. It's free and it works. It doesn't have all the features of the later versions of office, but for my needs, it is just fine.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-171-6471 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

I would give this laptop a Four except that its battery life is quite poor. After adjusting the power settings for minimum power, I have trouble getting more than three hours from it. Acer should have give it a larger battery. Acer doesn't have a larger battery available for after market either.

Like the machine, hate the battery!

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I'm a software engineer and professional Linux user. I was a little nervous about buying this machine, because I have had bad luck in the past with hardware compatibility on very lightweight machines. There was no need to worry, practically everything works perfectly (see notes at the end of the review).

** Fit and Finish **

It looks nice. Actual metal would have been nicer, but it's close enough. The keyboard feels a little sloppy, and you'll notice odd clicking sounds in the keys from time to time. This is most of where the lost one star is. I wasn't expecting much from a chiclet board on a computer this thin, but I know that it could have been done better.

** Battery Life **

With low display brightness, but performing regular tasks, I was able to get about the advertised five hours of battery life. On Windows, I would expect about an hour less.

** Graphics **

The CPU and onboard graphics are very powerful, especially given the size of the computer. I was able to run Counter-Strike: Source with 60-200 FPS on the recommended settings. For a machine I don't expect to do any gaming on, that's impressive. Naturally, this allows for smooth video playback. Display resolution being 1366x768 on the 11" LCD, the pixel density is good. The viewing angle of the LCD is poorer than I was expecting, and may impact your ability to use the computer when it's not directly in front of you.

** Audio **

The speakers are absolutely awful. With how thin the computer is, this is not a surprise. You will need headphones if you want to actually listen to something.

** Overall **

It's a solid machine. Great value for the price, extremely portable and powerful. I would recommend this to anyone.

Technical Notes: Tested Crunchbang Waldorf, with a Debian Jessie (Linux 3.10) base. I needed to modprobe a couple of modules in order to get the wireless card working correctly (see instructions at the bottom of the page here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2124592). The touchpad may need a special input configuration file for xorg in order to enable right clicking/click and drag.

Reviews of Nokia 10.1-Inch Booklet 3G (Black)

Customer Ratings:

Nokia Booklet 3G looks great and fashioned, little bit similar to Apple Macbooks Pro. It's nice to touch it, you'll feel the good quality of aluminum body. Everything seems good before you will turn on this netbook...

1. I don't know who was that crazy people who decided to use WINDOWS 7 on that device as a factory default!

It's TERRIBLY SLOW! Memory (RAM) is not upgradable and you have to be happy with 1Gb RAM ONLY!

I turned off all Windows 7 animations and other features. But even after that Nokia Booklet 3G can NOT play DVD/MPEG2 files without time delays. For what reason they placed HDMI out here? I can't use MPEG2 so it'll be absolutely impossible to use .MKV or other HD formats.

2. Display quality is very bad and absolutely not contrast. After Mac's, Nokia's dispay looks like faded, it's impossible to use it outside home at open sun you will see nothing! Use it only at night time outside home or in the car.

But I don't think it is a big problem. First was much bigger!

3. GPS works great with Google Earth after manual GPS receiver activation (you may google instructions). I don't like Nokia OVI and other Nokia software. Also you will not find preloaded maps here!

4. 3G workes great but I killed all Nokia and AT&T software because it was very unstable. What for I have to use it if Windows have all that software by the default? Don't use Nokia/AT&T software to connect to the internet! Lots of bugs there...

So. My conclusion is:

Nice outside, but horrible inside! The slowest netbook in the world!

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I have bought this item couple of days ago. I can only say that with one minor exemption it's a perfect product.

Pros:

battery performance

display quality

3G modem included into main body

silence of work (no internal fan)

design and qualitybody shell and keyboard

Cons

expensive

GPS performance ( I cannot come to terms with itshame!)

basic software only

overall perfomrance not the best in class (not relevantunless you buy netbok for games)

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I own a black Nokia Netbook which i bought for my wife to basically surf the internet. I bought it for almost half the list price when one of the stores had a great discount on. After using the netbook for a couple of months, here are my comments:

Pros:

1. sleek design-Aluminum uni-body construction comparable to apple computers

2. solid build-feels good in your hands unlike the cheap acer (which i also own!)

3. Battery Lifefantastic! Atleast 8 hrs between charges is what i get out of it.

4. Great Webcamhigh resolution and very good for chatting

5. Keyboardfeels good and has the spongy, cushy feedback

6. Internet connectivitygood network speeds

7. HDMI portgood to be able to connect it to you HDTV directly and play your home videos but the processor does not support playing HD Videos

8. DisplayHigh resolution (1280x720) 10.1" LCD display that works well even in a brightly lit sunroom

9. 3G-the SIM card slot comes built-into the device, so you have a choice to either use the 3G by inserting the SIM card into the slot or just use the netbook by itself without the SIM card. I dont use a sim card for 3G connectivity but it worked great when i tested it.

Cons:

1. Priceridiculous price. dont know what the folks at Espoo were thinking! Around $250 would have had this selling like hot cakes (Are'nt most netbooks in the market priced around that price??)

2. Processorslow. that makes multi-tasking a challenge

3. Ram1GB non-upgradable-Poor BUT if you pop in an SD Card in the slot, the machine automatically recognizes the free space and prompts to use the free space on the card as additional RAM. I usually pop-in an unused 2GB card in the slot when am not transferring photos and that really gives it a shot in the arm. This feature is a standard on all windows OS but you generally have to go to the control panel to set it up and it is set by default in the Nokia netbook-so thats a good thing

4. NO HD Video support-thats a bummer for such a fine piece of equipment.The processor is just too weak to handle HD videos. All you get is choppy videos! if only Nokia had used the newer dual core atom processors, it would have definitely given the competition a run for the money with HD Video support and built-in HDMI port

5. NO Ethernet PortI did'nt realize it till i went to a place where they did not have wireless internet and i wanted to connect this using the Ethernet cable and it was missing! I am sure the ethernet port would have fit in the dimensions of the netbook but it is missing!

Conclusion: This is a good product for the $250 I paid. It is good for surfing the internet and to watch SD movies on long haul flights without having to worry about charging the device frequently. It is handy enough that my wife can hold the baby in one hand and the netbook in the other when she is showing the baby off to the grandparents on skype! I take it to parties with me to show our pics to friends/family and have a good conversation. It fits well in my wife's handbag that we don't have to lug a laptop bag nor a charger around in those parties! Overall, this is better than my acer netbook for doing the simple things in life. It is no way a gaming machine nor a home media center substitute but is just fine for everyday tasks like browsing, facebook, email, twitter, video chatting etc.

Honest reviews on Nokia 10.1-Inch Booklet 3G (Black)

I bought a used in good condition blue Nokia netbook about $250. I really like it. Aluminum body look like Apple Macbooks pro. Light weight easy to go around. Silence of work (no cooler fan) and long life bettery about 12 hours. High resolution (1280x720) 10.1" LCD. HDMI made you watch HD movie on HDTV easily. I upgraded Window 7 starter to home premium. That's good to watch MKV HD media file smoothly. lt is the best 10.1" netbook today.

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The Charger of the Nokia Computer is brittle at the cable base on the charger side on the side that goes from the charger to the Netbook plug.

Reviews of HP ENVY 17-j020us Quad Edition 17" i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz 16GB 1TB W8

Customer Ratings:

Too soon for a review but at this moment.

HP ENVY 17-j020us Quad Edition 17" i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz 16GB 1TB W8

i hate the fact that this laptop seems like an iCandy

No Backlit Keyboard*************************************************************************************

By other way talking regard the performance is outstanding, 3.0usb is great 16ram and core i7, like a rocket using Revit, big screen to play games and multitasking

The seller is great upgrading computers and shipping the product

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Reviews of Acer Aspire S7-191-6400 11.6-Inch(1920 x 1080) Touchscreen

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,199.99
Sale Price: $849.08
Today's Bonus: 29% Off

I received this on 7/20/2013. I paid $671.00 which is a good price for the specs. I use it now to surf the internet and anticipate using it in the near future for class assignments.

Well I was going to give this 4 stars until the computer shut down only a few seconds after giving me a warning that my battery life is at 10 percent. It's plugged in now so here goes...

Well, this thing looks good. It's sleek, light weight, runs fast, fits in a large purse and has great screen resolution. It stays pretty cool to the touch. But battery life is a pain, especially since its overall design would make it a wonderful little mobile computer. I adjusted the screen brightness to below 50 percent and it still only worked for about 3.5 hours instead of the 5 hours stated in the specs. (My cel phone stays on longer than that after being charged.) There is an extended battery, and although it's not bulky, I really don't like the idea of having to screw the thing on to extend the battery life. I seriously considered returning this and paying more for an ultrabook with a longer battery life that doubles as a tablet. There is a touchscreen keyboard but I don't really see the use of it unless it can be flipped back like a tablet. You can't have everything you want at a certain price point but the battery life should definitely be better than it is.

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This thing is nice. I was replacing a 4 year old Toshiba Ultrabook. And I must say, I'm really impressed with everything about it.

Its very slim and lightweight. Its just only slightly thicker than the monitor lid of the Toshiba I had.

Its powerful too. I believe the Windows Experience number is 5.9 for desktop graphics I think. I did hit a number over 8. I loaded up Skyrim to test. It automatically set all the graphic settings to low at 1080p resolution. It plays smooth at that resolution. I'm guessing I could probably bump up a few settings and it'd still be fine.

I loaded up Windows 8 on my Toshiba, and I hated it. It felt like two OS's ducted tape together. But figured it felt that way, because it was meant for touch screens. And the Metro side of the OS looked like it would be enjoyable as a tablet OS. But now after having this Acer with a touch screen, I still hate Windows 8. Its still two OSs duct taped together. The trackpad was doing things between windows that I couldn't understand. I had to look up the settings to realize that if you start your finger off the trackpad, and bring it into the side, it will scroll through previously opened screens. Was very frustrating. And after I tried to use it as is out of the box, I still did the same thing. So I shut off that option. And you know what, most of my grip with the system is about the trackpad. So I'll just stop because I could go on. Not saying it doesn't work. It does. Its just been designed to do way too much, and also mimics Apples single pad with clicking built in. I hate that.

Comes with an extra battery, which is nice. It takes a minute to figure out how its supposed to attach. But stays on secure when you screw in the two screws.

Also comes with a slip case. Its nice and snug. Will also work with the extra battery if you put the laptop in flipped around, with the battery hanging out.

Photoshop loads quick, and works really smooth.

Its a good ultrabook. Much slimmer and lighter than most of the ones you see at department stores. Very similar to the Apple Air. Also can't wait until Microsoft releases Windows 8.1, where you can boot directly to the desktop and they give you back the normal start button. Too many extra clicks to find stuff in Windows 8, compared to all the previous versions.

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

I've owned this ultrabook for several months now. I love it. I have a big, fast desktop w/ a 30" Dell (2960x1600) monitor but find myself using this little gem. It's kind of like a minicooper, i.e., fun to drive.

I love the screen rez and the quickness. I attach the extra battery and leave it plugged in when I'm home. That makes it ready to go on the road.

I use Start menu 8 (making 8 look like 7) because Win 8 has little or no advantage for me and I'm not into relearning for no gain.

I use a 64GB micro SD card (permanently resident in the machine), have a 1TB external drive (only plugged in when I heed stuff xfered from the big machine) and an external blu-ray player writer (just for fun).

If I could only buy an extra add-on battery and take it with me when I'm not near power, I'd figure this was a decent work-around for the crummy battery life.

Anyone know where to get such an extra battery?

Found one here for $150! http://store.acer.com/store/acerna/en_US/pd/productID.284286600/parentCategoryID.64391000/ yikes!

Bad stuff:

The keyboard has shallow action which requires some getting used to.

I've turned off the track pad (Fn + T keys) and use the mouse so that my hand doesn't activate the track pad when I'm typing. Plus it difficult to impossible to choose a small item with the end of your finger. So, I prefer and use a mouse.

The bluetooth mouse that comes with the ultrabook doesn't always connect quickly or well but I've learned how to compensate.

Bottom line: I like the machine and am glad I bought it. I'm hoping new battery technology and Intel's new lower-power processors will allow mfgrs to improve the time away from being plugged in.

Extra comment: I wish MS would stop making changes that produce little or no user advantages but are just different. I think we all know that they'd love to take over the world and have their system used on our phones, tablets and computers. If they had a real one-size-fits-all system, that would be fine. They missed that mark with Win 8.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire S7-191-6400 11.6-Inch(1920 x 1080) Touchscreen

This laptop is beautiful, light and has the best screen you can find on a Windows PC in this form factor. I have had no issues with the operation of the keyboard or touchscreen and am overall very happy with my purchase.

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DESIGN:

Super light, 1029 grams.

12mm thick

Very sturdy aluminum frame

Very hard to open, poor marks on this one (the trick is to put it on your lap and open it with two hands like a book)

Very finicky touch mouse, needs to be adjusted once you receive it

Need to get used to the keyboard, it's a mini laptop, what do you want? Once you get used to it, it's perfectly fine.

SPEED:

The time it takes to boot to the home screen from a cold start: 10.0 seconds

The time it takes to boot to the home screen from sleep: 2.0 seconds

The time it takes to fully shut down: 10.0 seconds

BATTERY:

Full charge, Youtube videos, highest quality, brightest and loudest settings: 2:00-2:30 hours

Full charge, MS Office work, brightest settings: 2:30-3:00 hours

Add an additional 2-3 hours to each of the above when using the external battery pack. Add an additional hour if using the lowest brightness and power saving features (you'll kill your eyes in the process though).

The included external battery (+190 grams) is tricky to get on. Find some videos on youtube for more info on how to get it on.

Battery charges quite slowly when you're using this thing intensively but very quickly when it's shut down.

HARD DISK/CPU/FAN:

You're down to 77 GB of usable space after installing all the updates. Super fast. Quiet most of the time unless doing something intensive, then you can hear the little fan buzzing a bit.

SCREEN:

Amazing HD quality. Sublime. For something this small it's utterly impressive.

DO NOT go off of other people's reviews (on other tech review sites) that claim such a resolution is way too high for such a small screen. That's completely terrible advice. As soon as you change the settings and increase the icon and font size everything is bigger than the icons on your local Ipad. Perfectly visible text and icons even at a distance with NO loss in quality. I.E. the icons and text don't become pixelated when you blow them up at the higher resolution.

TOUCH TECHNOLOGY:

Easy touch screen navigation. Screen is perfectly sensitive. Will smudge the screen with your fingers though but you won't notice it until the screen is black.

When you get this computer, and need to access the side bar, make sure to start swiping your finger from right to left just beyond the edge of the visible screen to make sure the bar appears every time, otherwise you'll get frustrated if you try to aim your finger to the very right edge of the screen every time.

It'll take some time to get used to the windows 8 touch technology, but in about 20 minutes of playing around you'll be buzzing around it like on your Ipad.

CAMERA:

Definitely not HD, but good enough for a quality Skype call.

SPEAKERS:

Loud enough for your regular movie. Nothing special but not that bad either.

KEYBOARD:

Nice backlight

OVERALL:

If the short battery life is not of a concern to you, this is hands down the best piece of machinery for a comparable screen size you can get for $750.

If you want a decent battery life with very similar other specs, you're looking at a $1,200-$1,500 machine.

Your call.

Cheap HP ENVY 17-j029nr Quad Edition Notebook PC

Customer Ratings:

Well, this arrived on time and I must say that it's the best laptop for this price (got mine for $1,074 quite cheaper than you'll get from the official HP website). Am a gamer so I immediately loaded a few games into this machine and they all played really fine on high settings. Everything was okay apart from the keyboard, not that it's bad but I think it has a manufacturing problem were the top left seems kinda loose but this doesn't ruin anything.

Everything works just fine, Windows 8 is just AWESOME (I don't know what people were complaining about, honestly), the wifi works well (I wouldn't say it's the best but it certainly is above average), the beats audio is also pretty cool and the speakers are really good. This laptop has a matte finish and the keyboard area is made of aluminium which gives it a premium feel; the rest of the body is made of some tough plastic. Aha!! the finger print sensor is AMAZING! this thing works. it saves time and I just love it, the touch pad is also good, I've had no issues with it so far.

In summary, this laptop easily satisfies all my needs. Oh and the FHD display is BIG and MUAHH!!! 'BRILIANT'. Am happy I invested in this.

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I love the computer probably because I desperately wanted a 17.3 inch which is hard to find now. I must comment on how VERY difficult it is to navigate the right and left clicks with the one touch pad. There's no separate button for them, just pushing on the bottom edge of the touch pad. This was unbelievable to me at first. Surely, a computer this fancy didn't make it more difficult to right and left click. I called support and they didn't know what I was talking about. (I guess the computer was so new, they weren't aware). I wanted to know if there was a way to use keyboard to do these clicks because when I try to drag or highlight something, my thumb (on the bottom edge to "left click) and my forefinger (on the middle) would get cramped with such awkward positioning.

Why HP changed that I have no idea. STICK WITH WHAT WORKS if you can't make it better.

Next, the speakers are awful. I have to mute my TV and shush my dogs if I want to hear something from the computer (and that's with it on maximum sound.) I had read a previous review that the sound system was awful, but I had no idea it was this bad.

I'm going to keep the computer because I like the 17.3 inch screen. Not many better choices out there. I gave Samsung's a try, but I could only find the size refurbished, which was a mistake. Sent that back when the function keys didn't work.

I usually trust HP's computers. I have a cheap one from seven years ago that still performs greatly but it is a 15" screen. I would buy a better HP if they corrected these two problems.

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I like everything on this laptop except screen. It has what is called screen door effect. This means that you can see the pixels as there a tiny visible gap between them..in simple term you can see pixels grid specially on white. Some few people might not observe it. I wonder if others can see it. It's so frustrating for me. I would appreciate other owners feedback on this

Honest reviews on HP ENVY 17-j029nr Quad Edition Notebook PC

When we first got the laptop we found that it kept dropping the wireless internet connection after a few minutes. After some research we found that we had to go to the intel site and download an update for the wireless network drivers. This was a big waste of time I would expect that a new computer would come with all the latest softwared loaded.

Review of HP Elitebook 6930P Intel Core 2 Duo 2400 MHz 160Gig Serial ATA HDD

Customer Ratings:

This worked out perfect for me as I didn't want to invest in a new laptop as this was a secondary PC to my iMac, so it worked out perfect as the price was low and so far the laptop has worked flawlessly. I'd buy from this seller again.

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Just what I wanted, accidently erased adobe reader, e-mailed seller and they were excellent in solving problem! Solid laptop for what it cost!

Buy ASUS P43E-XH51 (14.1-Inch Screen) Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I am enjoying my first month with the Asus laptop. My previous laptop was an HP Pavilion 15.5 inch glossy screen. I really like the matte screen of the Asus. As far as screen size, I debated going with the Asus 15.6 vs the 14.1 and decided the 14.1 would be better, given the lower screen resolution. I am totally fine with this decision. I am also very happy with the lightweight laptop and battery life with the standard 6 cell battery. No doubt helped by the smaller screen real estate, I am getting a legitimate 5 hours of use. This is compared to my old HP with a 12 cell battery (heavy) and getting only 2.5 hours.

Also, the wifi is excellent as far as speed maintained and range. I can easily get 25 feet away from my modem, through several walls and still get 80% of the highest speed that I would get standing next to my modem.

Another plus is this laptop runs cool to the touch. No more singed thighs. And the "ice cool" technology also keeps the palm rest comfortable.

My only two concerns with the Asus are keyboard related. The keys are less contoured than I would like, so it is slightly easier to mistype. Having a little more space between them would be helpful. Also, the Caps Lock key (as well as the other keys) lacks an LED indicator. This could have been done and I would gladly have paid more for it. These are minor complaints and would not keep me from recommending this unit. Now, as to longevity...we shall see.

5/4/12 update: I need to downgrade from 4 stars to 2 stars. ASUS product support is virtually non-existent. Sent an email in to product support and it took six days to get a reply. Website is in English, somewhat. Went on to live chat today for support. Nobody came online for almost thirty minutes. Then a message appeared which said "engineers are busy, click here for support site". So I clicked there and another message came up: "Bad request". So, I next called someone who tried to help but suggested I call back the next day to get an RMA. I asked for my case number and he said he can't give me one as they were having problems with their software!

I still like the laptop, but with non-support like this, I will not buy another product from ASUS.

5/10/12 update 2: Actually contacted by ASUS rep after seeing this post. I like that they are willing to make improvements. People just want to know that the company they buy a product from will actually care enough to support that product and improve satisfaction. Upgraded from two stars to three stars. I still like the laptop and am liking ASUS more, thanks to Tien.

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Writing this review on this laptop right now:

After some basic research on RAM, processors, etc., I decided to take a risk on this one (at the time of purchase, this had 2 stars). It had all the specs I was looking for (examples include: 2+ ghz, i5 core, reputable brand, upgradable ram, decent graphics card, icecool tech) for a very low price.

Contrary to a previous reviewer, it worked right out of the box for me.

It only took me an hour to see how much superior it was to my old laptop (an HP Pavilion dv4-1465dx). It's lighter/more comfortable, faster, has better graphics/sound, and doesn't try to burn me. Then again, the HP is at least 2-3 years old, versus ~3 months.

I agree with a previous review on the annoying lack of LED indicator, but for the price, I'm willing to live without it. Although setting up the laptop with the Number Lock on was definitely something I'd rather not repeat.

Now bear in mind, I've had this laptop for a VERY short amount of time, so I can't say much for durability other than it feels sturdy. If I run into any issues, I'll try to remember to update this review. I'll also try to update in a few months to update how well it takes my abuse as a college student.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the laptop! I'm not the most knowledgeable about computers, but I'll try to be as helpful as I can.

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Actually.. The computer was a dud! But the company was great to deal with. They shipped same day and sent the package overnight because I was leaving the country and needed it with me. That was amazing! Then, it wasn't their fault that the computer was having problems and would reboot constantly and display windows error messages and try to reboot in safe mode and I hardly had any software on it at all. I had my IT department walk through technical issues with ASUS and when the problems could not be resolved, Adorama sent me the UPS labels and issued a full credit to my card! Computer = bad.. Adorama = GREAT!

Honest reviews on ASUS P43E-XH51 (14.1-Inch Screen) Laptop

As designed for professional use this laptop works very well,it feels very solid and high quality. I am very happy with it and I can recommend it to anyone.

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Just got the Computer today to use for business and the screen won't turn on. Tried the Fn keys to see if the display was turned off. Hooked an external monitor to it and it worked fine. Tried different settings with the external monitor plugged in but the computer would not recognize its own display. Hopefully I can get a new one fast.

Lenovo ThinkPad T410s 14.1" Core i5 250GB Notebook Review

Customer Ratings:

I bought a refurbished one for 420$ and shouldn't expect more than this . even though I dropped it many times it didn't even get a scratch. Sometimes it gives fan error but gets fixed automatically

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Reviews of ASUS Zenbook UX32VD-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:

Truth be had, I've been pretty disappointed with ultrabook offerings so far low resolution screens, terrible keyboards and below average power. With the UX31A and UX32VD series, Asus promised to change all of that, and, in my opinion, succeeded remarkably well.

1. Design/Aesthetics. This is a very pretty machine. It's lightweight, looks good and doesn't seem to smudge. Not much more that I can say here it's pretty and sleek. I wish that it had a MacSafe power adapter instead of the right angled plug, but I guess we have patents to blame for that.

2. Keyboard. The keyboard on this machine is fantastic. I would put it in the same league as the MacBook Air's keyboard, which is to say that it is very very good. In comparison, I thought that the keyboard on the original Zenbook was terrible. It's not quite as nice as the keyboard on my Lenovo T430, but it is still really high quality, and probably the best ultrabook keyboard currently available (and backlit, too). Love it. Some people have mentioned keyboard flex there is a tiny bit if you push down hard near the middle of the keyboard, but it's not something that I would have noticed if I wasn't looking for it.

3. Screen. The screen is excellent beautiful colors, 1080p resolution. There was a bit of backlight bleeding, but it's only in a few places, and it's only noticeable if the screen is entirely black, so really not a big issue. When the screen is not purely black, you couldn't even find it if you were looking for it. By default, the display is running at 40Hz not sure who was responsible for that decision which made things look choppy. Setting it to 60Hz fixed that problem though.

4. Software. Includes standard PC bloatware, which is kind of annoying but it is easy enough to remove. Of particular note is the Asus Update Manager, which is supposed to pull updates from Asus' website, but in reality just crashes repeatedly (I booted my Zenbook the first time to Asus's update manager giving me a wonderful stack trace as it died). Other included software is of similar low quality I'd recommend wiping the machine when you get it if you can. Also includes software for a touchscreen/pen I'm not sure what that's about, since this machine has neither.

5. Touchpad. I hate touchpads. This one seems responsive and sleek, but I just switched to using a mouse and disabled it. YMMV. Edit: Played with the touchpad for a bit, and I have to admit, I kind of like it. It's not as usable (in my most humble opinion) as the nub on a Thinkpad, but it gets the job done. Some settings I found to make it nicer: Turn off tap to click, so that your mouse doesn't click randomly while you're typing. And turn off Inertial Scroll in the Elan -> Multi-Finger -> Scrolling setting. It's makes scrolling choppy for some reason. Unfortunately, multi-touch isn't as integrated into the operating system as it is with OS X, so I feel like we'll have to wait until Windows 8 to see the true power of this touchpad. In its current form, the touchpad works as advertised it's responsive, smooth and very configurable.

6. Graphics. This machine has a dedicated graphics card, and while it's not the most beefy, it's certainly an improvement over the standard Intel 4000. Linux users note: This uses nVidia Optimus to switch between the integrated and dedicated graphics cards, which apparently doesn't have very good Linux support yet so if you plan on running Linux on this, do some research first.

7. HDD. 500GB HDD. In 2012. Unacceptable. However...

8. Upgrades. This is why I bought this machine. You can put an extra 8GB of RAM in (in exchange for 2GB of the built in 4GB) for a total of 10GB of RAM. You can also swap out the HDD for an SSD, which is awesome get one with a 7mm height though, or it won't fit.

Overall: If you are willing to upgrade the HDD and RAM, get this machine you won't regret it. It's light, it has a beautiful screen, an excellent keyboard, it's very fast, and with the upgrades, it is the nicest laptop that I have ever owned. If you are not willing to upgrade, I would say that you should get a MacBook Air or the Zenbook UX31A (or the Sony Series Z if you are willing to spend more) instead the SSD makes a huge performance improvement. I give it 4/5, because you have to spend a bit of time to clean up the garbage on it and install a better hard drive and more RAM, but once you do that, it is unmatched. Also, Microsoft is apparently going to offer a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 Professional, which is a great deal.

EDIT:

After a week with this machine, some more thoughts:

Really liking the trackpad. Turning off tap to click is key it is downright bizarre that the default has those settings on, I think that every reviewer complaint about the erratic touchpad is due to this setting being on. After turning it off, it's smooth, accurate and actually really nice to use. I upgraded to the Windows 8 Release Preview, and for a while I was wondering what the heck was going on when things were randomly being clicked and dragged around, before I realized that I had to disable tap to click again.

As for the keyboard after working with it for a while now, I don't like it as much as the MacBook Air's. It's still a very good keyboard, but the keys are a bit flimsy feeling for my liking, and very occasionally a keypress gets missed. Not bad by any means, but it could have been better. If you are really looking for a great typing experience on an ultrabook, you may want to wait to check out the Lenovo X1 Carbon, which should be available in August. Again though, the keyboard is very usable I'd put it as better than the Samsung Series 9, but worse than the MacBook Air and both of those machines have very nice keyboards. On the upside, keyboard flex on the UX32VD is definitely a non-issue.

Also, Asus's included software is bizarrely bad. Don't even try to use it. It doesn't work, or it crashes, or it uses a ton of CPU, or it just looks plain ugly.

Finally, if you are planning on upgrading the RAM, see the comments on this review I installed an 8GB 1600MHz stick, but it is only running at 1333MHz for some reason. This apparently has to do with the CAS latency of the onboard stick vs. the new one. I don't know how to get around this, that said, I wouldn't have noticed the difference if I didn't check the settings.

Still, very happy with it. I haven't put the battery through its paces, but unscientifically, it seems to last about 4 hours under high workload (writing code).

Anyway, knowing what I know now about this machine, I would be less hesitant to buy it than I initially was. It is very much an awesome computer.

EDIT (3/5/2013):

Months later, after using this extensively, taking a star off. This laptop has since become my primary machine, and I use it for hours every day. Since I wrote the review, I've upgraded to Windows 8 which I actually find really nice. (As an aside and this is NOT reflected in my rating I found Linux (Ubuntu distro) support somewhat depressing. Some keyboard Fn shortcuts didn't work in particular, brightness display the battery life was under 2 hours, and sleep didn't work at all. YMMV, though I run a VM now for my Linuxing).

Mostly I use this machine for writing code and basic internet stuff.

The machine is still speedy, and the screen is still beautiful Asus deserves a ton of praise for that. Battery life is about what I thought it was 4 hours on average under my normal usage, which isn't anything to write home about these days, but it's certainly more than adequate. I can even play modern games usually I have to lower the graphics, but on medium settings and at 1600x900, most games run at a smooth 60fps, which is impressive.

Things that I don't like though are the little things. The keyboard isn't as great as I thought it was I find that I miss keys, even when I clearly pressed them down. Again, it's not terrible, but Lenovo and Apple both do much better, and for a $1500 laptop I expect a lot. My hypothesis is that the keys click (both physically and audibly) slightly before the button press is registered, and as a soft touch typist, it causes me to release the key milliseconds too soon.

The touchpad is pretty bad too. The hardware itself is fine it's accurate and spacious, but palm rejection is just too bad to be useable. So I use a wireless mouse instead.

And the software oh the software. The wifi driver crashes every day or two, so I have to restart my laptop frequently. And when I put it to sleep by closing the lid, sometimes it doesn't go to sleep, so when I pull it out of my backpack it's too hot to hold and the battery is almost dead.

So overall, this is not a bad machine it has some very excellent points, in particular the display but my problem with it is that it's not the premium experience that I would get if I'd bought an Apple computer for the same price. The keyboard is mediocre, it doesn't always go to sleep, the built in software crashes, and the touchpad is unusable. And while I can deal with all of these things, I feel like I shouldn't have to, considering that I paid top dollar for this (and then some to upgrade it).

The end result is this: I'm going to buy a new laptop, probably this summer when Intel releases their new line of chips (Haswell). If Lenovo brings out a laptop with a nice screen (for example, an X1 Carbon with a 1080p display, or the Yoga 11S with at least 1600x900), it'll be a Lenovo, since their keyboards are unmatched. Otherwise, I'm going to switch to the evil empire and get a Mac.

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For specific details about the product I suggest reading other reviews from Amazon or other sites especially those done by Notebookcheck (here: ) or Anand (here: ). Keep in mind that Anand's review is for a different model of the same series, but many of the things are similar and there is some good info in there.

I HIGHLY suggest you read this review before buying. I am going to go over main points that I think everyone should be aware of before buying.

Disclaimer: For me this is a 5 star machine after the upgrades. I rate it 3 stars based on how it came from Asus. If you don't want to upgrade the hardware or don't feel comfortable opening the laptop, I would suggest getting either a UX31A or something like a Samsung Series 9.

1. Only buy this computer if you are willing to upgrade the HDD to an SSD. SSD prices are falling rapidly and you can even get a 240GB SATA III drive for $210 now if you shop around (this is end of June, 2012). Make sure you get an SSD that is branded as a "notebook upgrade kit", because they have a smaller form factor than standard SSDs, with a height of 7mm. As long as you get a 7mm drive, it will fit in this notebook. Keep in mind you will need a T5 torx bit and small phillips screwdrivers to replace the drive.

2. Upgrading the RAM is also a really good idea. 2GB are integrated into the mainboard, and there is only one DIMM. The 4GB the laptop comes with is not very future-proof, so I would recommend picking up an 8GB stick of DDR3-1600 (like this Corsair piece, model number CMSX8GX3M1A1600C10). You can pick it up now for only $57. This will bring the total RAM to 10GB, which is more than pretty much every other ultrabook out there.

3. You will need to install Windows without a DVD once you install your new SSD. If you use a USB drive you may get an error in the setup which says something like "Windows was unable to load CD/DVD drivers, please insert disc media and try again". What is actually happening is that because all three of the USB ports on this laptop are USB 3.0, the Windows 7 install disc files don't have native support. You simply need to go to the Asus product page downloads section, and download the USB 3.0 drivers for the 64-bit version of Windows. Extract the driver folder to the USB stick with the Windows install files and try again. The problem should be fixed.

4. The screen has backlight bleed when showing pure blacks. When there are any images on the screen at all it is not noticable, and turning down the brightness helps a lot as well. Other than the bleed, the screen is beautiful especially in terms of its negative vertical viewing angle (from below). It doesn't have any discoloration and is very nice looking.

5. If you elect not to swap out the drive for an SSD, it comes in a weird kind of partition set up. The model I got had a 186GB boot partition, a 254GB "Data" Partition with no files on it, and 32GB of SSD cache which is not accessible from My Computer, but shows up as a different drive in disk manager. The drive is also very slow despite the SSD cache. But it won't appear to be so to someone who has never used an SSD before.

6. Bloatware. While there is not that much, you are forced to agree to install the Bing toolbar before setting up windows, and there is some creative media suite, craploads of asus tools, something that looks like asus tried to make their own app store, macaffee antivirus pre-installed (trial) and more. More reason to upgrade to an SSD and clean install windows.

7. The power button. Asus elected to make their power button an actual key, putting it where Delete normally would go, in the top right. Now when I heard this, I was a little skeptical and thought that I might try to hit delete when using word or something, and accidentally shut off my computer with one missed key-press. I was happy to find the solution that Asus came up with when I booted into windows. First of all, the power button is much stiffer and requires more pressure to press than all of the other keys on the keyboard. Second of all, just pressing the key within windows does nothing. If you want to turn off or sleep mode the computer, you hold it for about 1 second, and an on-screen display (from Asus) appears with clickable options to either shut down, sleep, do nothing, etc. You won't run into any sudden shut downs with this new placement of the power button, but you might take a bit to re-learn where the delete key is (directly to the left of the on button).

8. Keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is very nice for a laptop, and functions/feels almost identical to the Macbook Pro/Air keyboards as many have said. It is backlit with user-adjustable brightness levels (3 levels, and off) via the function key. The trackpad is nice, but nothing to brag about. It is a good size, smooth, and easy to use. It's everything you'd want with nothing extra. If you get in the habit of tapping to click instead of actually clicking the trackpad down I think you will be much happier with it.

All in all this laptop can be what you make of it. Having the dedicated GPU makes it a very nice ultrabook for light gaming and more powerful media applications. Also it provides a full-sized HDMI out, and good connectivity (3 x USB, card reader, micro-vga, headphone/mic combo jack, etc). The HDD will appear abysmal to anyone who is coming from SSDs. It will appear normal to those of you who have yet to experience the awesomeness of SSDs :D ... If you want to upgrade to an SSD, fresh windows, and larger RAM, this is the best PORTABLE PC laptop available right now bar none in my opinion. But if you want to keep the pre-installed Asus windows installation, HDD, and 4GB ram, then it is a very nice PC, but for the price point I only give it 3 stars.

If you have any questions at all please feel free to comment and I'll try to get back to you!

Best Deals for ASUS Zenbook UX32VD-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

If you haven't already, do your home work regarding the differences between the UX32VD and the UX31A. The main difference is that the UX32VD has a better video card and is upgradeable (can add RAM) but does not come with an SSD drive (which can be added too). I opted to go with the UX32VD and upgrade the memory and drive. The costs of the upgrades are roughly $200 for the SSD (256GB) and $55 for 8GB of RAM. Also, don't forget to get an external CD/DVD ROM drive (another $31).

If you plan to do the upgrade, start by watching the youtube videos on how to do the hardware swaps. Basically, you take off the back plate (requires a T5 Torx driver), swap the RAM, then loosen the battery and swap the hard drive. Be careful not to pull the battery too hard or it will pull off (or break) a wire that is attached to one end. Overall, the hardware upgrading takes about 15 minutes. Nothing too difficult if you're careful.

The software reinstallation takes a bit longer. You have two choices. You can backup (i.e., clone) your existing system using software such as Acronis True Image and then delete the bloatware, or you can just start with a fresh drive and re-install everything.

Initially, I chose the second option because I wanted a "clean" computer. I started by installing Windows. The first problem was that the computer wouldn't see the external CD/DVD ROM. I had to go into the bios (hit the F2 key during boot up) and disable the SSD from the boot sequence. That caused the computer to attempt to boot from the CD/DVD ROM. Don't forget to change it back after installing Windows. Once Windows was installed, I went to ASUS.com and downloaded the drivers. Nothing works well without them, including ethernet, wireless network, video control, etc. There are about 10 or 15 important drivers and applications that must be installed just make your way through the list one at a time. Obviously, you'll need a second computer with internet access to get the first drivers installed. One hint... the ethernet driver on the ASUS website wasn't the correct one for the UX32VD computer. Look in your control panel for the model number and search the web for the right driver. After doing all this, the computer worked fine. It did, however, lack a few drivers, and as a result I saw several yellow exclamation points in the Control Panel Device Manager. That bugged me, and I ultimately decided to go back and backup the original ASUS hard drive and simply delete the bloatware. Comparing the two methods, cloning was certainly less painful. If you have the backup software, I suggest that method.

Now that it's all done, I'm very pleased with my computer. It runs great, and the start up time is simply incredible.

Hope this helps!

Please be kind enough to indicate if reviews are helpful.

Written by Arthur Bradley, author of the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family.

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook UX32VD-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

As the other reviews have mentioned, this model has a gorgeous display. After calibrating the screen it looked even better. There's nothing like a good IPS display! It has a slight matte finish, but is still very sharp and bright.

With the original configuration, Windows was using 2.8GBs of RAM. I recommend you either uninstall some of the Asus add-ons or do as I did and take advantage of the ability to upgrade the RAM. I purchased a Patriot 8GB RAM module from Amazon that bumps the unit up to 10GB's.

The keyboard is OK. I'm not a big fan of the chiclet style keyboard.

The touchpad is large and does get in the way when you're typing. It's very easy for your palm to touch it while typing, sending you cursor off to a random location. However, you can turn it off by using the Fn key.

I'm using it with a bluetooth mouse, with the touchpad disabled. I like using bluetooth for the wireless mouse becuase there's no USB dongle sticking out.

The battery life is very average. Maybe 3 hours or so of constant usage is all I seem to get. Though, I am not using the battery saver profile. So, I'm pretty sure it's possible to stretch it out a bit more.

Coming out of sleep mode it is very fast. I have it set to sleep when I close the lid. This laptop comes out of sleep mode in the time it take to raise the lid! What's that, maybe 2 seconds? Fantastic. That's where the hybrid drive really pays off. With all my software loaded, including an anti-virus progam, it takes about 35 seconds to boot up.

The build quality is very good. The design and look is beautiful. I haven't noticed any particulary loud fan noise. If I push the laptop hard, the fans will come on with a whooshing sound. But, nothing terrible. During normal use (Word, Excel, browsing the web) it is silent.

I do wish the power button wasn't just a regular looking keyboard button in the upper right. To easy to press it, as it sits right next to the DEL button.

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I have had this laptop for a little over a week, and I must say that I am impressed. After having bought and returned the original UX31 because of its keyboard issues, it seems like Asus really listened to its customers and made all of the right improvements.

The most obvious improvements over the UX31 are the keyboard and the screen. The keyboard is now island-style and backlit. I think feedback is great; it reminds me a lot of my old MacBook Pro. The screen, at least to me, appears to be in a league of its own. With a 1080p IPS panel, it is bright and incredibly sharp. Real estate space is fantastic and viewing angles are superb. And it's even got a matte finish, so glare is minimized. Kudos to Asus for these great design changes.

Additionally, Asus upgraded the CPU in this model from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge and added a dedicated Nvidia 620M GPU. I have to admit that I'm not a gamer, so I don't expect to take advantage of the graphics chip. In fact, I probably would have preferred that Asus provided a (cheaper) version of this laptop without the GPU (but without the soldered components -see below). Also, the Sandy Bridge processor was totally capable for browsing the web, watching HD video online, and performing office tasks. Still, assuming battery life doesn't take too much of a hit (and it doesn't really seem like it has), I guess that more power is better than less.

Two things that really didn't change since the last version are the sound and the battery, and I consider this a good thing. Sound quality from the speakers is excellent -loud and clear, probably among the best I have heard on a laptop. Battery life also seems to be totally acceptable. It's not the best I've ever seen, but I still get like 6-7 hours under normal use, which is adequate for my needs. Also, the power brick appears to be the same. It's square and looks a lot like the Apple brick, except it's black. One good thing though is that it only has two prongs, so you don't need to carry around a 3-prong-to-2-prong adapter.

As I suggested above, I bought this model as opposed to the UX31A specifically because this model has some user-replaceable components, like RAM and hard disk. Apparently the trade-off was that this model doesn't have the same unibody design as the UX31A, but to be honest, I can't tell too much of a difference. It still weighs like 3.2 pounds, and build quality doesn't seem to be an issue. Also, while some people might gripe that Asus didn't include more memory and a larger SSD from the get-go, truth be told, it would probably have made the computer a lot more expensive. For less than $150, I was able to upgrade the memory to 10GB and install a fast 128GB SSD. I also appreciate the fact that, since these components are user-replaceable, it will be a relatively cheap fix if something goes wrong later on. The same can't be said for models with all soldered RAM and hard disks, like the UX31A or the MacBook Air.

Some users complained about the fan and the trackpad. I, however, haven't had any problems with either of these. As I said, I'm not a heavy gamer, but for me the unit is practically silent most of the time. Also, I don't really have any complaints about the trackpad. It is large and smooth, which I appreciate. Also, multi-finger gestures -specifically two-finger tap, two-finger scroll, and three-finger swipe -all work great! That is a nice improvement for PCs, which typically have inferior track pads.

Connectivity options seem to be okay. There are 3 USB 3.0 ports, a mini VGA port, an SD Card slot, and an HDMI port. My only complaint is that the SD Card sticks out about half way, so you can't just leave it in the computer all the time. I think this is a pretty stupid design flaw. Why not just make the card totally recessed, like in almost every other laptop out there?

That said, my quibble is minor. This is a really nice computer and I am happy to have bought it. Finally, I don't think I have any regrets about migrating from my laptop to an ultrabook.

Dell Latitude D531 AMD TURION 64X2 MOBILE TL-60 2.0GHZ (DUAL CORE) Reviews

Customer Ratings:

turion processor is horrible and also only a 60 gb hardrive that is horrible they make bigger flash drives than that two stars because the product was from dell

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Best Toshiba Satellite L775-S7307 Laptop Computer with Windows 7 Deals

Customer Ratings:

I mean, this is a simple computer that has just the necessary, no extras, the one I had before this one had digital volume control, digital wifi control, direct connect to video and video controllers, cd cover maker, etc. things I do not miss, and just realized that those things just jack up the price, for my previous computer cost twice as much.

This is a nice computer, it has a big screen but still is a light weight, fast w nice amount of memory, it does have the HDMI outlet which I use, the memory card reader, camera, and the cd/ dvd combo.

Over all preety pleased with this computer and you cant beat the price. Although I bought it at best buy for less that is advertized here on Amazon.

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its perfect for work and personal use, i absolutely love it!! except for the fact that it doesnt have bluetooth......

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite L775-S7307 Laptop Computer with Windows 7

This is a nice computer, it has a big screen but still is a light weight, fast with a nice amount of memory, the memory card reader, camera, and the cd/ dvd combo.

Over all extremely pleased with this computer and you cant beat the price. Although I bought it at best buy for less that is advertized here on Amazon.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite L775-S7307 Laptop Computer with Windows 7

I'm writing this review on my Mac as I wait for my Toshiba Satellite L775 to do basic tasks. Reasons I hate this computer:

It cannot open a browser in a timely manner.

It takes 5 minutes to start up and get online.

It cannot do anything at all in a timely manner.

The battery life out of the box is very poor. I was only able to watch half of a movie using the DVD drive on the battery.

The screen quality is poor.

The track pad is the worst I've ever used (it is just some touch surface pasted on the plastic).

Once you add up all the time you waste waiting for this computer (time is money, but it is also your life getting wasted) and dealing with its poor hardware, then you'll realize that this computer is no deal. For the same price, you can get a 5-year old Mac that is much much faster, because the software is far better and the hardware is higher quality (even if the processor is "clocked" at the same speed or slower than this Toshiba, everything will be much faster than on this Toshiba).

The only reason I don't give this 1 star but rather 2 stars is that I'm sure the Windows software shares some of the blame.

Alright, looks like my browser and email are now finally open on the Toshiba so I can complete my monthly Windows tasks and then put this thing back into storage for another month.

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Computer was just as described. Delivered quickly. I had bought another Toshiba and returned it (Walmart) and this was way better. Speakers were good which was a big problem with the first one. Plenty of memory for what we needed it for. Overall very happy with no complaints.

Cheap HP Pavilion ze4325us Laptop (1.67-GHz Athlon XP-M 2000+, 256 MB

Customer Ratings:

I purchased one of these computers only six weeks ago. On the second time out I detected black spots on the screen, where there should have been pixels. Pressing the screen brought some of them back, but as the day progressed the marks became cracks in the LCD screen itself. I reported the matter to HP the next day and they agreed to collect the unit for warranty repair. Some 10 days later they called me up demanding $650 to replace the screen, saying they were not prepared to honor the warranty for a crack.

The lid is totally too flimsy to take the stress of holding the closed unit and lifting it from a carry bag. There is a connector right where you grasp the case, and this can dig in and crack the screen. For a portable laptop the design is not fit for purpose.

NB the electronics work great but without a screen are of little value!

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A refurbished version was given to me as a gift. It works great for me. Only issues:

1) Left touchpad button has become flaky. Maybe overuse on my part.

2) 256MB was insufficient for watching DVD movies. I installed additional 256MB and playback was improved.

BTW, HP Support is excellent. They have an Active Chat support utility that is available online that allows you to 'chat' in real time with support personnel.