Best Dell XPS 13 XPS13R2-1250sLV 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Anodized Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,059.99
Sale Price: $829.00
Today's Bonus: 22% Off

I will give you guys a list of pros and cons of this laptop after using it for about 2 weeks and why I ultimately sold it. Before that though, let me tell you about myself. I am a tech enthusiast, and I have gone through a lot of laptops/ultrabooks including macbook pros and airs, asus zenbook ux31a, and lenovo yoga 13.

Having said, here is the list.

PROS:

1. Thin bezel. I was amazed at how thing the bezel was on the screen. It allowed them to fit a 13" screen onto a body designed for 11" screens.

2. Construction. This machine is beautiful to hold and touch. A mixture of aluminum and carbon fiber equals a satisfyingly premium feel. I daresay it is the best looking and feeling laptop I have ever used.

3. All the bells and whistles. USB3.0, backlit keyboard, WIFI/bluetooth. Everything you expect should be on it is on it.

4. Battery life. It can easily last 7 hours if you're doing basic web browsing, sometimes even more.

CONS:

1. The most important aspect of the laptop...the screen. Dell decided to cheap out on the screen. They used a 768p TFT glossy screen, which is the same type of screen found on the macbook air. HOWEVER, the Air's screen is made of a much higher quality TFT screen, and it shows. The Dell's screen has a very narrow viewing angle, and if you move a little, the colors on the screen will change. Also disliked the glossiness.

2. The 2nd most important aspect...Touchpad. The touchpad was absolutely horrendous. This is not because I am spoiled by the Macbook's touchpad. I loved the new Asus zenbook ux31a's touchpad, and the lenovo yoga's touchpad. They were both great. The XPS 13's however, was just terrible. Updating the drivers didn't help at all. The touchpad oftentimes would not recognize finger movements at all, even if I was pressing with a good amount of pressure. Othertimes, would do something that I didn't want to. Multitouch functions worked fine though.

Overall, I cannot recommend this ultrabook to you. The screen quality and touchpad makes it a terrible experience for the user. If you do get one, you should be ready to use a mouse if the screen quality doesn't bother you.

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But no, they were not. The trackpad is awful. I mean it was failing to register maybe 20 to 40% of my touches. I tried many different versions of the Dell-provided trackpad driver to no avail.

Also, the screen is just gross to look at.

Lastly, Dell has "tweaked" Windows 8 so that you cannot use the built-in wipe/erase functions. I spent hours looking for a way to wipe the drive before sending back to Amazon (since, of course, it came with no reinstallation media). I did not find any instructions ANYWHERE on how to use the restore partition and upon any attempt to create a restore USB drive, the Dell utility failed to even see my USB drive. I eventually gave up and just sent it back with my data still on it.

Stay away.

Best Deals for Dell XPS 13 XPS13R2-1250sLV 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Anodized

the printed logo in the bottom right corner begin to fade away. and the battery could not last for long

Honest reviews on Dell XPS 13 XPS13R2-1250sLV 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Anodized

They notify me the details right after I placed the order. In fact, due to suck USPS, my laptop was delayed for half a month. ( the tracking # shows it had been delivered, so we thought it had been stolen. But actually, USPS just simply left it unsent until half a month later )The seller did not stop following up, giving advice, trying to call, doing what they can. Great service. They will be my first choice next time I purchase a computer.

One tip: When purchasing a computer, make sure you notify the seller to add signature confirmation

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Great machine for light on the go computing -very convenient and reliable. I recommend it highly. I had no problems with the touchpad or screen resolution.

Reviews of HP Pavilion DV7-3160US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

Anyone unhappy with this unit is nuts or spoiled as hell. Can't really find a complaint. Fast. Been using for over a month now problem free. Took it out of the box, turned it on, set it up, and started working, and remember saying out loud "I can't beleive I own this". Most computer hardware wise for the money I could find. Solid. Only thing that disappointed was that the HP Media Bundle has issues but the Windows programs are reliable. I like to install my own media software anyway so I still give this machine 5 stars.

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I have used the HP Pavilion DV7 for the 17 months now. It was purchased by my company as I would never have considered purchasing such a "cheap" laptop. I only preface with this bit of nerd snobbery so you can know this review is written by someone who hasn't touched a notebook under $2K for over a decade and has rather high PC performance standards:

In short, this is an AMAZING steal for the price. The technical specs are superior to what you'll find in the more "elite" market and the performance of this PC is really impressive. In fact, I'm leaving my company and am only on Amazon writing this review as I prepare to purchase another of these models for my personal use...

PROS:

I originally thought I'd only use it for work (aka spreadsheets, etc) but started using it for video watching, gaming, movie burning, etc because it was working so smoothly. I'm a very hard PC user. I don't like to close applications and am always multi-tasking as in: several Microsoft Excel spreadsheets; a few Word documents; at least one Project file; iTunes playing in the background; Outlook running and checking mail every 15 seconds; Google Chrome open with 7 tabs; and Mozilla Firefox open with 7 more tabs. This PC has performed expertly for a year and never even paused despite my harsh use. As in, no crashes, no hesitation to respond to a click despite aforementioned heavy (ab)use and because it's worth repeating--no crashes.

CONS:

The only thing I have to report, is after 17 months of solid use, I've worn the "E" off (key/hardware works fine) and the "R" is on her way out too!

Although I had no issue with mine, I feel compelled to report that of the 4 PCS my company purchased, one did end up with a fried motherboard. To be fair, that particular employee was prone to visiting...websites of ill-repute...and could have caught himself a virus (ironic) that turned the fans off.

Best Deals for HP Pavilion DV7-3160US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Research the documented motherboard issue on the HP Pavilions before you buy!!!! I thought for many years that HP was a trusted reliable brand. I spent $1200 on this HP just to find out 13 months in that there is a motherboard issue. This unit overheats easily (often without you being aware) and you will lose your motherboard (and your investment will be lost). The dv7 has the same overheating/motherboard problem that the other pavilion dv series exhibits. If you buy the unit anyway (or have already purchased) watch carefully for signs of problems BEFORE the 1 year warranty expires. Motherboard problems can present initially as odd issues such as power problem (powering off, turning off while booting up, etc). ALWAYS use laptops on a hard surface. In this case using a cooling surface didn't prevent the problem but often this can help you avoid issues. Good luck!

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV7-3160US 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

I know that for the price your paying for this computer it isen't that bad. It only has one fluck that I have experenced and that is that the dislay drive stops responding and immediantly recovers after the screen gos black for a few seconds. It has something to do with the kernel drive 184.66 and I can't fix it because hp and nvidia haven't come up with a solution too the problem yet and yes I did a system recovery several times also uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. Other than that I really can't complain other then that little problem with the display drive. I really dont like the fact that they took out the 500GB (7200RPM) hard drive and replaced it with a 640GB (5400RPM). Overall I give this computer a 4 out of 5.

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This is a powerful laptop, it has a decent video card and a lot of memory for todays standards. Blu-ray works fine and the power of the processor is kind of equal as a Desktop Core 2 Duo @ 2.6 Ghz. Graphics runs faster, I can play some games @ 1600*900 resolution, but others that need more graphics I play them @ 1280*720, which is not an issue for me.

The only problems I have is that when you render MPEG4 video the CPU heats a lot, it goes from the 60 degrees celcius to 90 degrees celcius and that is something dangerous because the CPU can only resist 100 degrees celcius.

Other thing I want to mention is that the sound quality is bad if you let it at default, you need to install the audio drivers and try to adjust them with a lot of diferent combinations for a decent audio quality.

And the last thing about this PC is that battery doesn't help that much. If you spend your time going through the internet, etc. the battery will last about maximum 2 and half hours, and if you play games or edit video, it will only last about 1 hour.

Overall, if you want something for games and video editing this computer is fast for that but heats a lot, but if you want a computer just for navigate though the internet, this is not for you.

P.S. I recomend buying a good heat sink for this laptop.

Review of Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop (1080p & 1920 x 1080 Resolution)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $659.99
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

I absolutely love this laptop. I'm upgrading from another Satellite laptop that used a dual core i3 processor (which was rated as 2.10 GHz), and this dual core i5 (rated at 1.8 GHz) is pretty fast. I ran a Webroot scan, did a disk clean up and defrag, copied my music files to a 1.0 USB flash drive (I have a ton of music it took about 15 mins), opened a few word docs, opened my iTunes and played it, and on top of all that I opened 12 Chrome tabs and clicked play on all the videos (understand this utilizes your internet and memory more than your processor). While I did all this I opened the CPU performance manager and watched the processor kick up to 2.65 GHz. The CPU got warm but never hot. I'm very happy with the processor performance so far.

While all this was happening, only 3.5 of the 6 gigs of memory were being utilized. So I KNOW I won't need to upgrade the memory (you are able to upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM).

Windows 8 was a pain in the ass when I first started using it. I've grown to like it and I think of it as Windows 7 with a different start button with the ability to download apps.

On top of everything the computer looks sexy as heck.

Complaints: The backlit keyboard only offers you one brightness option.

Also, as with my other Satellite laptop, sometimes (on rare occations so far) this computer does not detect Wifi signals. I accidentally put the computer in "Airplane Mode" and when I turned Airplane Mode back off, the laptop was unable to find any Wifi signals. I figured out how to fix my last Satellite by turning off the laptop, removing the battery, then turning the laptop back on. Since there is no battery on this one you have to go into Device Manager..go to Network Adapters...find Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230...right click to uninstall this (IMPORTANT: do NOT check the "Remove drivers" option)...wait for it to uninstall then right click on any of the other adapters in the drop down...right click then click "Scan for hardware changes"...the Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230 should show back up and your Wifi radio switch should be turned back on and it will then detect wifi. You may never have to deal with this issue and its not enough for me to take away a full star so I'm sticking with 5 stars.

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I have not had a chance to "test run" this computer completely. If fact, sadly, I'm writing my review on my old clunky computer. The "Quick Start" instructions were skimpy, skimpy, skimpy. The problem is Windows 8 is like a foreign language. I had to buy a $35 book to explain it.The "Charms" weren't so charming until I figured out how to stabilize them. My email is not up and running due to the fact that Windows 8 does not support a POP connection. I'm still trying to figure out how to do an end run around that. (Part of that problem is the only internet service available to me in the boondocks where I live is horse and buggy). Windows 8 is very visual which I love and once I learn the "language" I think this will be fun; but its not "plug and play". As far as the hardware, love the design, the great keyboard and the large speakers. I'll have to wait to test the rest, like web cam, speed, etc.Wish me luck, thank God for U tube tutorials.

Best Deals for Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop (1080p & 1920 x 1080 Resolution)

DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP, when I checked the hard drive looking for the 750gb, low and behold it only had a total of 685gb and only 649gb was free. do not buy this...Toshiba nor best buy are willing to rectify this problem. I told them I just bought lap top a week ago, no one is able to give me a solution and they kept passing the buck to each other. Bottom line THIS IS A SCAM....

Reviews of Toshiba Satellite M115-S3094 14.1" Widescreen Laptop (Intel Core

Customer Ratings:

Once again Toshiba re-defines the marketplace with this incredibly powerful lightweight laptop. How can you beat this? It's only around five pounds and packs incredible power at an amazing price. It's a great deal by the best laptop maker out there. The positives totally outweigh the negatives, but I will mention the few problems. The system makes more fan noise than most other models. If the system were more expensive this would be a deal breaker, but again, this powerful laptop is cheap! The other problem is how the system performs out of the box. As usual the system comes with a ton of pre-installed garbage. It took me 4-8 hours to wipe the hard drive, re-image it with a clean OS, and install the Toshiba drivers. Once this was complete the system worked to my satisfaction. This would be a five star review if the system worked well out of the box. All things considered, Toshiba strikes again!

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Being a college student, I am always looking for ways to save money. After a semester of living without a laptop and constantly having to go over to the computer lab which was anything but conducive to studying and writing, I finally realized it was time to buy my own laptop. With so many options on the market, I spent much of my winter vacation trying to figure out which model I would finally decide on. The driving factor in my decision was price. I knew that I wanted to spend under one-thousand bucks for the laptop and any needed accessories. I called up my brother, the computer whiz, and asked for his opinion. He told me to look into Toshiba, and that started my two week long search that ultimately led me to this laptop.

I went to Best Buy, WalMart, Target, etc to test out many different models of many different laptops. The first thing I noticed with this Toshiba is the screen. For being only 14.1 inches, you barely notice that it is inferior in size to the bigger 17 inch models. The colors are vivid, the pictures are as clear as can be, and while testing watching DVDs on it, I felt like I was watching High Def. TV. I decided after that point to research the model farther, and eventually ended up buying it.

I ordered my M115 from CompUSA and it arrived within two short days. I opened the box and started set-up. I was amazed at how few annoyances I had with a laptop that cost me so little. Usually you are going to sacrifice SOMETHING if you're buying a cheaper product, no matter what that product may be. Of course, as I delved deeper into testing this laptop, I figured out several reasons why it is in the budget category.

Now that the laptop was home, it was time to start other tests. I had already tested the screen at the store, and like I said, it passed with flying colors. Next I tested the battery life. I put in my extended version of "The Return of the King" and let the battery run down. I kept the laptop at full brightness and did NOT use power saver mode. It took two hours and fifty-five minutes before the laptop shut off. This is EXCELLENT for a six-cell battery under the conditions I put it in.

Next, I tested the laptop battery for word processing on the lowest brightness possible with power saver mode. The battery was empty after four hours and five minutes. I was extremely pleased with these results because I use this laptop for word processing in class where I can't charge it up if it runs out of battery, and over four hours is more than enough for me. However, if you are truly concerned about battery life, you can always buy a spare and keep it charged.

After the battery had taken a good beating from all the testing, I started testing sound quality. I popped in my "Best of the Classics" CD and started messing around with the sound settings. On lower settings, the sound quality is not the best. However, the higher you put the volume, the better quality you will get from the speakers. I finally found the perfect spot on the volume adjuster for listening to CDs. However, I need to adjust when watching DVDs and Videos...generally you need to turn the volume up a bit for that. All in all, I was happy with the speakers and sound quality, but not blown away.

After taking my CD out, I started opening every application on the laptop. This way, I could see approximately how many applications I could have open before the laptop either seized up or got horrendously slow. I opened the internet, my word processor, photoshop, my digital photography suite that is connected to my printer, my website editor and finally, I started running the virus-scan. This is a lot to ask of any computer, but especially of one that only runs on 512MB. I found that it ran the applications well up until I opened the website editor. It was just too much for the little M115 to handle. This was expected from a machine that only runs on 512MB, and I decided at that point that an upgrade to 1GB would be needed. I ordered another 512MB the next day, and can now run all the applications I want. From time to time they will slow up a bit, but the fact that it can even handle that work load is awesome and a definite must, since I'm a multi-tasker.

This laptop comes with an 80GB HD, and some today say the new standard is at least 100GB. To be honest, I think that's a complete crock of sh**. I have an old Compaq (from 1999) that still works, and it has a 15GB HD, with only 11GB usable. If I can operate that machine (and I can), then 80GB is luxury. I have all the programs I need installed on this machine and I still have 55GB free. Will I use it? Probably not. Would I need 100GB? No way! Unless you are someone who is using cr**loads of programs that require installation on the computer, then there is NO need for anything bigger than 80GB while operating on a Windows XP machine. Maybe when it's time to upgrade to Vista, but for now, it is just not necessary. Besides, you will not be upgrading to Vista on this laptop. I know several Microsoft developers and they all have Vista already...and some of them can't even run it on machines with 100GB HDs and 2GB memory. So yeah, stick with XP and you will be fine with 80GB HD and 1GB memory (RAM).

One annoyance I had after setting up this laptop is finding the amount of bloatware that came with it. It can be easily removed, but the fact that so much of it was even on my little M115 was a serious gripe for me. This is probably one of the reasons why it was so cheap--lots of manufacturers being advertised from start-up. I now have altered it to my liking, but it takes some time and patience.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this laptop is not for extreme gamers. I do a lot of graphic design with digital photography and I can work from this laptop, but it isn't the best home-base for my work. This is more of a laptop that you would use for typical programs like the internet, word-processing, light gaming, light photo-editing, movie-watching, music listening and chatting. It's great for the TYPICAL user...but don't buy this laptop and then complain that you can't run your huge graphic-demanding games on it without giving up some quality...if you're in that boat, you should go with an Alienware.

Some annoyances that have been listed with this laptop, other than battery life which I have already covered, are the keyboard and some complaints of overheating or loud fan noise. The keyboard is cramped. No two ways about it. This is a small laptop, and the keyboard is spread nicely on it, but it is still cramped. I have small hands so this is not a problem, but a someone with huge piano fingers would probably have a hard time with typing. A very hard time. Test the laptop out at a store before buying it, because if you don't you could be sorely disappointed. I did not notice ANY overheating...it gets warm, but in no way does it "overheat." There is some fan noise, but very little. It turns on every 5-10 minutes for about two seconds when using the laptop under normal use.

My last note on this laptop is that I wish it had come with a faster processor. I have altered it so that it is up to what I want as far as performance goes, but come on, Intel Core 2 Duo is the standard now. Not Intel Core Duo. Hopefully Toshiba will change this on future M115 models, because I would love to get a younger sibling of this laptop at some point.

For what I paid, I could not have gotten better. This laptop gets the job done and is the best of the best in budget laptops. Buy another 512MB of RAM, and you will be good to go.

RATINGS:

Screen Quality: 10/10

Sound Quality: 7/10

Operation Speed: 8/10 (after upgrade) or 6.5/10 (before upgrade)

Battery life: 7.5/10 (excellent for a six-cell battery!!!)

Out-of-box quality: 6/10

Price: 10/10

Design: 8/10

Why not 10/10?

Screen Qualiy deductions: -0. Probably one of the best screens I've ever seen.

Sound Quality deductions: -3 for some tinniness in the sound when playing music or videos on a lower level of sound.

Operation Speed deductions: -2 for a slower processor (after upgrade) and -3.5 for a slower processor and not enough RAM out of the box (before upgrade).

Battery Life deductions: -2.5 for the hardy six-cell, because every modern laptop should come with AT LEAST a nine-cell. Again, good for what it is, but it's time to upgrade, Toshiba.

Out-of-Box Quality deductions: -4 for annoying bloatware, slower processor and not enough RAM.

Price deductions: -0...this is the BEST OF THE BEST in it's price range.

Design: -2 for a cramped keyboard.

OVERALL: 8/10

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite M115-S3094 14.1" Widescreen Laptop (Intel Core

This is second laptop that I have owned. Compared to my old E-machines N10, this is a much better laptop. Some of the significant differences that I see between these two laptops are: I have no problem with wireless network using my Toshiba M115, I like the keyboard layout and the sound system on it.

Another great future is that it allows you to watch DVD's without starting up the whole system, plus, it has S-video if you want to hook it up to your TV.

Toshiba is an established brand in the market and if you want to sell it after using it a while, you will have anough buyers and your laptop will not depreciate in price that much. This is another reason why I bought this laptop.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite M115-S3094 14.1" Widescreen Laptop (Intel Core

I bought this laptop about 3 weeks ago, and so far everything has been great. The size is nice, with the LCD wide screen making it very enjoyable to watch movies on. It's a pretty light laptop, at 5.something pounds and is very mobile for its size. I really like the keyboard, with the regular sized 'Shift' button on the right hand side. The battery life can last up to (and possibly a little over) 4 hours, depending on your chosen power settings. It's got the built-in wireless card, that you can switch on and off whenever you want to use it. The graphics for this computer are pretty good, and pretty much everything else is well over satisfactory.

The only cons about this computer is the 512mb memory, but that can easily be upgraded, and all you need is another 512mb memory upgrade and you're set. Also, the computer comes with a lot of unnecessary software and junk, but that problem can be solved by simply uninstalling whatever you don't want on there. It can take a bit of time, though, depending on how much stuff you want to uninstall, but I didn't really mind it.

Overall, I'd have to say this is a great laptop at a great price.

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Ok so my review will focus on how the laptop preformed before I broke the screen. To start out the laptop worked fine for basic activities like surfing the web, looking at pictures, or listening to your music library. But with the entry level amount of ram, and the cpu only being a single core, it lags with basic games like Sim City, and The Sims, and forget graphic intensive games like Flight Simulator's. It always got hot when doing basic stuff, thus the fan kicks into overtime to cool it down causing noticeable noise. The screen (before I cracked it)was very hazy, and the glare in the sun was terrible. Now moving on from the bad, the good things included a roomy keyboard with a very nicely located shift key (its great for fast typing). The battery was good with a two hour life span maybe two and a half if you're doing the basics. It came pre installed with a lot of useful software, that was a plus. All in all it fit my basic needs, but its limited hardware can set you back. I suggest a ram upgrade before you even set foot into the level of games, and streaming movies from Netflix, or Hulu.

Cheap Certified Pre-Owned iBook G4/1.33 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, 40 GB

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Not a monster of a machine by any means, but for light web surfing and DVD viewing, it does the trick. Also, with iLife '06 (which I purchased separately), I can record music and do a little video editing. All for a very reasonable price.

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Discount ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I have been researching getting a new laptop for quite a while now. I am quite experienced with computers in general. I'm not really a PC gamer (I prefer to game on Xbox 360 and PS3 because I like to be in the living room). That being said, I like powerful PCs, because they do everything faster, so I was seriously considering an Alienware, the MacBook Pro, and this Asus. The Alienware has a really cool design, and great performance. The Macbook Pro was very sleek with a nice, elegant design, and provided the benefit of being able to install native Windows XP via Bootcamp (I still need XP for some of my vintage PC stuff). The Asus has a very cool design, very good performance, nice graphics card, excellent specs, and a beautiful 1080p screen. To get the same specs as the Asus on the other 2 you'd have to pay almost twice as much.

So I didn't like the other two twice as much as the Asus, so I took the plunge.

I ordered it from Amazon because of the very favorable experience I'd had with them in the past. I read about them putting the laptop box inside of another box with no padding, allowing the laptop to shift around during shipping which is not good for drives, etc. Some said to order 1 day shipping to avoid this. I ordered 1-day shipping, but they still shipped it in a larger box with no padding, so this part isn't great. I was very unhappy with the shipping arrangements (they shipped it signature required, which I understand given the $$$; I tried to get UPS to hold it at the distribution center because I wasn't going to be home so I could pick it up later that day they said NO, the shipper has to call to do this I called Amazon and they contacted UPS, but they DIDN'T tell UPS that I wanted to pick it up that day, so I had to wait a day. Ordinarily this is OK with me, but I paid $50 to get it overnight so I was not happy. I emailed Amazon about this. They apologized and refunded my shipping cost, which was nice of them.)

Anyway, I eventually got it. Opening the laptop box, it's well packed. I comes with a Republic of Gamers bookbag and gaming mouse (both with ROG logos and both seem to be high quality) pretty nice extras.

The laptop just looks so cool. I'm very glad I decided to get the 15" screen as opposed to the 17". Both have 1080p, and I like a screen with higher density pixels. Really nice design on the whole. Magnetic lid closure, bright clear screen, no dead pixels. It's really quiet and stays quite cool, although I haven't given it a real test yet. I burned my Recovery DVDs without a hitch. Tested the media reader, camera, microphone, ports, etc. Everything checks out. The keyboard does have a little flex, but it's hardly noticeable. If no-one told you it had the flex, you probably wouldn't have noticed it. Sure, if you STARE at it when pressing keys, you notice it, but I think people are really blowing this fault out of proportion. The key backlighting is nice, but it looks a little messy with the light escaping from the edge of the keys. I would prefer that just the letters on the keys are lit. The trackpad works well, although smaller than many other laptops, and much smaller than the MacBook Pro. It's very zippy, and runs everything very quickly. Lots of bloatware, but I'm in the process of reinstalling a clean windows copy.

Design things I would change: 1) I would have put the power plug in the back because it looks so messy in the middle of the right side of the laptop. 2) I would like to have had the USB ports towards the back not the front, so the cables stay out of my way. 3) screen hinge is a bit stiff, so you have to hold the base down while opening it to keep it on the table, 4) screen doesn't pivot back quite far enough for me. These quibbles are pretty minor though.

One thing that is clear the moment you open this thing up. It's so masculine. It really makes the MacBook Pro seem quite girly. The stealth-fighter look is totally badass. Now I love macs, and I've got a few, but this machine just makes you feel like a man (grunt, growl). Yes, it's heavier and thicker than the MacBook Pro, but I plan on using it as a desktop replacement anyway.

So I'm very happy with my purchase. I would have liked to have a Blu-ray drive in it. Given the sale price with the $150 rebate on top of that, it can't be beat for value.

If you've been considering it, GO FOR IT! I think you'll be very happy with your choice.

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I received this laptop yesterday and I've been very satisfied so far.

Packaging: Amazon put the laptop box in a larger box with no padding. It could have easily shifted back and forth in the box. Previous users mentioned this problem so I opted for the overnight delivery to minimize UPS handling of the unit. It seems to have worked.

Screen: Looks amazing although strangely there wasn't a plastic covering when I first lifted the lid. There was no damage or scratches so it didn't bother me so much.

Sound: It's nothing fantastic but it's doable. The laptop has a sub woofer so it's definitely better than most out there.

Video: I tried playing starcraft II at 1920 x 1080 at "Ultra." It wasn't amazingly smooth and there was a bit of lag. I turned the resolution down and textures to high and the game works flawless. This is the only game I've tried so far. 3dmark01 score was 39,421.

Keyboard: I love the backlit features. I've had no problem with it so far. I read reports that the lights will sometimes go out but I've yet to experience that.

Mouse/Backpack: Quality items. The backback is pretty awesome and stylish. The mouse is a Razer Abyssus.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the purchase. There was a lot of bloatware pre-installed however. I simply removed everything that wasn't windows related and installed the drivers again (included on a CD). All of the hotkeys work great and windows boot-up is very fast. I would definately recomment this computer especially since Asus is offering a $150 mail in rebate. Mine is already in the mail.

Note on rebate/warranty: You have to send in the warranty card that comes with the notebook. I've read that if you don't mail it in you will experience troubles in the future if you need to utilize warranty repair. The mail-in rebate is very strict and has small details you have to include be sure to read the instructions carefully. The most annoying part is the UPC code there were so many I didn't know which one to include. It turns out the one I needed was taped on the very tough cardboard box. I just sent the cardboard cutout itself.

UPDATE: 7/25/11

I've been experiencing freezing issues. A couple of times per day my system just freezes. It has yet to freeze while gaming though. When I'm viewing pictures, browsing the internet, etc. When the computer freezes, about 5 seconds later the system makes a large "beep" noise. After a few seconds it unfreezes for about 5 seconds but the freezing continues it's a never ending cycle. I have tried for hours to get ahold of phone support, but while I'm waiting for an agent I get disconnected which leads me to believe phone support is non-existent. I've written an email but it says it'll take 48 hours to respond. I've dropped my review from 5 stars to 1 until this problem gets handled.

UPDATE: 09/23/11

Problem has been fixed. I forgot exactly what I did but it was related to hibernation/sleep mode (which is now disabled).

Best Deals for ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop

I realize that this laptop probably isn't very popular anymore, but I thought I would chime in on it anyway.

The Good-

In terms of hardware for the price, this laptop really can't be beaten. Starcraft II can be run on Ultra/High, and multiple processes (eg. Photoshop, Sony Vegas, Powerpoint) can all run simultaneously with ease. The 12 gigs of RAM is frankly a bit much; I don't think I've gotten over 4 gigs of usage at a time. However, it can be useful if you're looking to create a RAM disk.

The screen is extremely sharp and vibrant. The keyboard illuminates nicely, and the "flex" that other reviewers mentioned is really insignificant. The default sound, while nothing special, is pretty good for a laptop.

The Bad-

Most of the bad things about this laptop are annoyances, and not that bad at all. For example, all of the ports are on the side, which makes things very crowded. Also, sometimes the keyboard fails to register a keystroke, although this isn't common enough to be frustrating. Of course the battery life is horrid, but that comes with the territory.

The Ugly-

There is a freezing issue associated with this laptop. I have to manually reboot the computer because it completely locks up. Another annoyance is that the sound card in this computer is garbage. My subwoofer barely works with it, and (the sub) works perfectly with my friends $600 Dell and my iPod.

Overall-

The tone of this review may have seemed negative, but really the laptop is pretty awesome except for the annoyances. It's powerful, looks good, and is cheap (for what you get). 4/5 stars

10/2/11 edit: Upgraded this review to 5 stars because I fixed some of the issues with it. The freezing issue can be avoided if Hibernation or Sleep mode are not used. The sound card is fine. A pre-installed THX program was set to laptop speakers, preventing the sub from working properly. It sounds great now. 5/5

Honest reviews on ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop

I had the ASUS G53Sw-A1 for about a month now. The first thing I did was put it to a rigorous, non-stop, two maybe three day download. After which I would play a game that takes a fair chunk of the processor to run. The game ran smoothly and the cooling fan (I call it the jet-engine) stayed cool although it did get hot when the GPU was running. I was impressed that only the region around the vent heated up and not the entire back surface of the computer. Even more impressive was how cool the laptop stayed when the gpu was not in use. Casual use of this product for however many hours will barely produce any heat. The ventilation system is top notch for the price!

I own an old 32" 360p t.v. so the difference between HD and standard definition was made very clear (no pun intended). This laptop provides vivid colors (along with other visual preset settings like "theather mode") and sharp pictures. 1080 pixels is enough said. Sold with a high tier graphics card, this is deal is really a bargain. I don't know how people tests Graphics card but just as a benchmark, I'll note that I've played BFBC2 on this laptop. It ran smoothly despite the high settings (although you can really go beyond 4x filtering without compromising the frame rate).

The laptop speaker comprise a strip of space just in front of the keyboard. I don't like the sound quality but would rather listen to the audio of this laptop over another laptop's audio any day. I use headphones most of the time so I can't give an accurate review of the audio quality although the sound outputing to the headphones is great. It had a nice range of power for you party animals and casual listeners out there.

When I called ASUS tech support for help with nonresponsive Function keys, they directed me to download some drivers and the problem was fixed within 10 mintues. I wasn't happy that the laptop wasn't shipped with this particular driver installed but it was a minor detail. Tech support is mediocre but I don't expect a jolly welcome from my laptop provider.

Windows 7 runs nicely on this laptop. I like the slide-show background feature. The first thing I did with this laptop was load the computer with 146gig of files. It handled them without incident.

My only gripe was the battery life without the power adapter. You'll get about 3-5hrs of use running no applications, 2 hrs of use running nonstrenous applications, and 45mins-1hr intensive running of the gpu.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop

This computer is a monster. I was able to play all the games I wanted including WOW, Crysis 2, SC2 and Portals at high resolution.

It also included the following:

1Targus Gaming Backpack.

2Razor Gaming Mouse.

I have no complain about the laptop itself just about Amazon packing it was not that good however ASUS packing was good enough to protect it.

I have had this computer for over a month and I have not faced any problem. I did an update of the drivers and even changed the OS to a ultimate edition.

I am running GNS3 with several routers and the computer performs smoothly. The battery is not great but it is not bad too. I mean if you are playing then yes the battery will last no more than 2 hours, however if you are working on any office program it might last 3 hours.

Yes, I strongly recommend this product, I talk with Amazon about the packing issue and they were extremely polite about it and gave me several solutions.

Review of Toshiba PSK0YU-05R02G Satellite L745-s4310 Intel Ci3 2.2ghz 4gb

Customer Ratings:

This laptop came in a good condition. Enjoy using it every time. Best Price for a best configuration. The only downside is that the speaker's volume is so low that its hard to hear when watching movies and hearing something. The other downside was that the life of battery has been diminished and so holds charge only for 1.5 hrs.

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The only thing i have noticed since having it for a month, the speakers are terrible. You must have external speakers because the sound is very low and poor quality.

Best Deals for Toshiba PSK0YU-05R02G Satellite L745-s4310 Intel Ci3 2.2ghz 4gb

I bought this item with like new but found

scratch

Without Box

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Review of Acer 15.6" i3-2330M 2.20 GHz Laptop | AS5749-6863

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop for my wife's Christmas present on the day after Black Friday from Fry's online. The price was $299.00 and the laptop is built solidly. It seems plenty quick to me and when I offered to upgrade to 8GB ram from the 3GB it came with, my wife said not to bother (even though it is less than $30.00 for the ram.) We have not noticed any delay in using the mouse cursor as reported in another review here. We are extremely happy with this laptop although it is still very new and hasn't stood the test of time yet.

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Pros:

Huge LED back-light screen

Ultra smooth touch-pad

Fast boot time

Quality of manufacturing is beyond industry standards

Long battery life

Performance exceeds that of similarly priced units

Few junk programs come pre-installed.

Cons:

The touch-pad should be placed in the center of the laptop, but it seems to be placed a little to the left of center. I think this is a major pro for left handed people?

Best Deals for Acer 15.6" i3-2330M 2.20 GHz Laptop | AS5749-6863

This laptop can support 16gb ram. I got it from frys and upgrade 8gb few month ago and now upgrade to 16gb. It is not easy at first to upgrade memory because you have to open a lot of screw. Pay attention to the audio jack. When open, push the cover down a little at audio jack. when close, make sure audio jack in first and push up a little at audio jack.

Honest reviews on Acer 15.6" i3-2330M 2.20 GHz Laptop | AS5749-6863

First, it is dual core and it is very sluggish for being i3. The Touchpad is good but not the mouse clicker. It takes a while(a couple of seconds) sometimes to get response from the program. When I compare this laptop with a two year old AMD Toshiba, Toshiba wins. Don't expect a fast laptop. This laptop is worth $280 and if you need something for email or just light office work it will do.

Someone else posted that he could upgrade the memory to 8GB for $30, Only a moron would believe that. For memory installation you have to open the whole laptop and it takes at least half an hour. Best buy charges $70 for just installation. This is not including the cost of the memory chips which you can look up and see for yourself.

W510 - Intel - Core I7 - 820QM - 1.73 Ghz - DDR3 Sdram - 4 Gb Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $2,873.00
Sale Price: $2,409.48
Today's Bonus: 16% Off

I got this with 120GB SSD for business use, but very disappointed compared to previous T61P after a week use:

Pro:

1. Quiet with SSD;

2. USB3 (not useful for me), eSATA i/f.

Con:

1. resolution maximum is ONLY 1600x900, while T61p can reach 2048x1536, almost 25% downgrade;

2. the "Insert/Delete" keys are separated, "Insert" on left, while "Delete" on right with 2-key space. I always had a hard time try to find the insert key, very dumb layout design.

3. no finger scanner (optional);

4. As a high-end laptop, no HDMI

Not recommended for a software business use.

1/7/2011 Update after 2 weeks use:

1. The left "Shift" key is fall off, and got the whole keyboard replaced

2. 2 USB ports on the left side stop working, on a process to replace it.

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Cheap HEWLETT PACKARD - HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Espresso Black - Genuine

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,699.00
Sale Price: $1,299.99
Today's Bonus: 23% Off

Had it for 5 months. Was not sure to buy at first, but decided to give it a shot, especially when got a deal at $1150. Its fast. Very fast. It takes 15 seconds to start this machine. I tried to play 10 videos simultaneously in 10 windows, no problem here. The buttons on the board are nice, however sound button might be tricky.

About 10 month after the purchase battery started to heat up. I have sent it for battery replacement, which was replaced 2 month ago under HP's warranty. Works Great. Very satisfied.

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It's fast and has a large memory. It DOESN'T have a Bluetooth transceiver so you need to plug in a separate device for devices. Sometimes the video driver crashes and flickers. The physical plastic covering cracks easily and the softkeys (the lit up buttons just below the screen are stuck).

ASUS UX UX21E-XH71 11.6-Inch Laptop Review

Customer Ratings:

I've had the Asus ZenBook 11.6" with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, going on 3 months now. This computer takes a great leap backwards with its terribly designed keyboard. I needed a replacement for my old slow small laptop for a business where time is of the essence. The Zenbook keyboard is a typist's worst nightmare. Feel is horrible, accuracy is shot and worst of all, I'm delayed with most if not all my tasks. When I connect this computer to a monitor and keyboard while at home, it's awesome. I work with several applications in and out of the VPN. But when on the road and without the peripherals, I have to slow down and concentrate. Otherwise, I've moved or deleted text; moved the curser to gosh knows where; switched the screen or webpage; or sometimes I've almost turned the computer off. Who was the genius who put the power button adjacent to both the delete and backspace keys??

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The key board and touch pad on this computer are almost unusable. I have disabled the touch pad and use a mouse. Would not buy another ASUS product.

Best Deals for ASUS UX UX21E-XH71 11.6-Inch Laptop

I am generally pleased with the performance and speed, especially at start-up. It is nearly as fast as it was advertised. However, there are several downfalls to this product:

(1) Opening the lid is rather difficult due to the very small lip available for finger-lifting.

(2) The touch pad mouse is overly sensitive, requiring a lot of "chasing and erasing" time to correct pop-ups, etc created by an inadvertent touch of the finger.

(3) The battery life as received fresh from the supplier was barely 2:30 hrs not what the adverts said...

(4) The hard drive does make a whooshing sound not too annoying, but always there in the background none the less.

(5) There was some sort of incompatibility of the installed Windows 7 with the Outlook 2010 I was already using and when I transferred my Outlook 2010 to this ASUS, Internet Explorer would not work normally, to the point that I was forced to downloading Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. The Windows 7 and Outlook 2010 (with Explorer) combination worked fine without any problems for over 2 years on my former laptop.

(6) The Intel Core i7 processor is satisfactory and seems to perform as expected. My former laptop, a Sony VAIO VPCX11S1E had finally failed me because of the single Intel processor it had.

(7) Finally, despite the fact that the order originated from Europe, the product was shipped with a US type plug, requiring a bulky plug-adapter to be used, whenever the laptop is now plugged in.

Buy Dell XPS 15 (L502x) X15L-3215ELS 15.6 Notebook PC - Intel Core

Customer Ratings:

Bought this for gaming on the go, works great for everything I throw at it, plays borderlands 2 on high.

Pros

Awesome sound, with bass

Great Video Card

I5 processor

Excellent Battery life

Cons

On the heavy side, 6 pounds or so with the extended battery

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Worth every penny, though I wish I had waited a couple weeks and benefitted from the drop in price, What would make it perfect for me would be two more USB ports,

Best Deals for Dell XPS 15 (L502x) X15L-3215ELS 15.6 Notebook PC - Intel Core

XPS laptop is ok but it did not come with a full size number pad. Not happy about that. Was going to return but would have to pay to ship back and pay a restock fee, not what I expected from dealer or Amazon.

Cheap Samsung R530 15.6-Inch Laptop (Red)

Customer Ratings:

I did some research on laptops for good reviews and this laptop had really good reviews.

I was going to get a Dell Inspirion 15, but after doing some research, I settled on

this Samsung 530. So far, I have found nothing that I do not like about this laptop.

I love the dark red color for a change. The keypad is very easy and comfortable to use.

The wide screen is nice and the graphics etc. show up so clearly and bright. It is quite

a solid and well built computer as far as I can tell. It is lighter than my old Dell which

will help when traveling through airports, etc. Just an all around good laptop for me and

my uses and for the price I wanted to pay. The price on Amazon was the cheapest I could find.

I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

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I have owned many other laptops but this one is really special. The price is great, it was delivered to me in a day, and I was online and getting things done in less than half an hour. Easy to use, great keyboard, and I love the number keypad on the side (no need to purchase anything separate if you use the number keys often). The screen size is great and the quality of the graphics is exceptional. I've only owned it a few days but I absolutely love this laptop and would recommend it to anyone!

Best Deals for Samsung R530 15.6-Inch Laptop (Red)

I bought this Laptop for my wife 3 months ago. She absolutely loved it until a misterious "internal crack" appeared on the screen last week which made it unusable.

I opened a repair request with Samsung and sent the unit to the repair location specified by Samsung. I thorughly inspected the unit to see if it had any signs of damage to the case or the screen. Everything looked perfect. No damage of any kind.

After 2 days, I received a call from the repair shop telling me about the internal crack. They stated that this happens "very frequently" with Samsung Laptops and Notebooks. Even the slightest pressure on the outside cover can damage the screen. All the exercise this laptop gets is when we open and close its lid in order to use it. We don't take it on trips or even move it from its location at my wife's desk. She even kept the plastic protector that came on the outside of the laptop lid so as to avoid any scratches, etc. She could not be more gentle with this unit yet it appears that it will break with the slightest touch. This is inexcusable for a mobile computing device.

Samsung has rejected any responsibility for the poor quality of their product design so now I will have to spend over $300 to repair a $700 3-month old Laptop. This is very dissapointing and, given Samsung's indiference, it will be the last Samsung product I buy.

UPDATE A letter to the office of the president yielded no positive results. Their response: "it's not our problem". I'm going back to SONY products...

Honest reviews on Samsung R530 15.6-Inch Laptop (Red)

Okay,, the resolution for the laptop screen isn't optimal. 1,366 x 768 isn't that great considering it has a Blu Ray player on board.

Here is the thing. For me its perfect because i'm using the laptop to hookup to the 55 in LCD in 1080p. Yes the laptops HDMI and Intel Video will pump out to 1080p.

The CPU is great. I have done benchmark tests and they were all good. I ran this laptop through the ringer the first 2 hours I had it. 64bit Windows 7, 4gig of memeory, quad core processing, HDMI out, and Blu Ray player....all for 600 bux and that was with tax.

Its doing what I need it too.

Installed Boxee,, hooked up my external Raid and boom,,, off to the movies I was and even TV shows. Grabbed the Droid and used it as my remote for the PC... perfect!

Take in mind when buying such items. Make sure its going to give you what YOU need. If the 1366x768 isn't going to cut it for you because you are only going to use the Laptops screen. Look else where. That is the only fault that I can see this laptop has, but within the price range I was looking at..... this was the one that fit the bill. The gateways,, well,, I won't do Gateway,, horror story,,,,

HP's,,, well same price range but still more expensive by 200 bux to get the same specs I got in this Samsung.

Dell,,, well,, I don't do Dell either...horror story.

I'd say if you want something with power, and don't care about the on board screens resolution,, its a good price point.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung R530 15.6-Inch Laptop (Red)

It's great for the price you pay. I'd recommend it. The only downside is the weight, and it is a bit bulky, but it works great. No issues with respect to its performance so far.