Apple iBook G4, 1.33 GHz, 768MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, Internal Review

Customer Ratings:

I've had a 12" iBook G4 since 2005 and it's still my favorite notebook for browsing the internet, writing letters, and even reading pdf's. It's very lightweight and I consider the screen the perfect size. It's held up very well. One of the keys has a hairline crack and one of the rubber feet on the bottom fell off but I clean it every month or so and it still looks almost new.

My only criticism is that it gets a little warm so I keep it on top of a clipboard when holding it in my lap. No viruses, no crashes, no worries.

When netbooks started becoming popular a couple of years ago, I had to laugh because I already have a lightweight, handy netbook. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Given a choice between a new Asus or Dell netbook or a used iBook G4 for the same price, I would take the G4 without thinking about it for a second.

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I have had my ibook for almost 5 years now. I bought it Christmas of '05. I am going to tell the problems I have had with it first because that's probably what your most interested in.

The biggest problem I had was the battery. It worked great for about 3 years then died completely. (this can be expected with any rechargeable battery)

Other than that there have been NO MAJOR PROBLEMS EVER. I have not once taken it in for a tune-up, repair, inspection, ect.

The only minor hindrances are as follows:

The keyboard doesn't light up which makes typing in the dark difficult.

For some reason my hard-drive is almost full so everytime I search for something in the search bar, it runs really slow.

It doesn't use an IBM processor so I guess you can say it is a true blood mac, which makes some programs incompatible.

Now the good stuff:

I actually think that if you consider it was made 5 years ago, it is a better computer than what apple makes now. I was way ahead of its time and it still works great! The user face is really easy, it has done everything I have asked it, it just works. I cannot say enough good things about this computer. If you are just an average computer person looking for a nice little laptop, I highly recommend it. The only reason I'm getting a new one is because I like the camera, faster processor, and added memory. Only after 5 years am I just starting to see it become slightly outdated. I actually think that back in the day apple gave you more for less. This computer came with its own word processing program and a lot of added software. The new ones require you to buy every piece of software. And this one has a removable battery which allowed me to charge 2-3 batteries for road trips and just pop them in as I went through them. I think apple's biggest mistake with the new laptops is the nonremovable battery. When it dies, that's it, find an outlet. And eventually when it completely dies (and it will probably only last 3 years) they want you to pay a technician for labor+parts to put a new one in. It's ridiculous! If you can get this computer for a low price. Go for it!

2 Years Later:

It is now 2012, and my dad is STILL using this laptop every day. I must warn you, it has become outdated to a point where it's really not worth buying. Everything is today's world has become tailored towards Intel processors. But the fact that is still doing what it was built to do is amazing! This mac has served us well, and we certainly got our moneys worth. I highly recommend one of apples new macbooks.

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This thing was made 5 years ago and keeps up with my brand new netbook. The battery life is amazing and it runs smooth. The only downside to this computer is the 40gb HD. But with networked and regular external drives, flash memory and such, it not that big of a deal.

All in all, this is my first mac and I love it.

Honest reviews on Apple iBook G4, 1.33 GHz, 768MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, Internal

Just recieved my G4 Ibook recently and I can honestly say I love it! im a college student and my pc laptops kept freezing and crashing nonstop! and I really wanted a mac but I didnt have the "mac" money or so I thought. This is my first mac and its life saver! for less than $300 dollars you can have a portable mac that does everything a $1000+ new mac does ( minus the camera)... It does get warm but that isnt a real big issue with me...as far as battery life it doesnt seem to be the greatest, in my case it isnt a problem because I intend on having my charger with me. I think people should consider this computer as a start mac.

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This G4 iBook is old (6+ years I believe), it has a small hard drive by current standards, a small screen (near netbook size), and an operating system some view as out of date BUT, the machine is quick has a full GB of memory, has an internal airport extreme card, and if we are really serious about portable computing needs this machine beat the heck out of netbook, at a lower cost and better performance. Old Apples Just Don't Seem To Go Bad at least not as quickly as some more recent machines.

Cheap Lenovo G570 43345TU 15.6" Laptop (2.10 GHz Core i3-2310M Processor

Customer Ratings:

Is everything i was wanting. Especially for the price. Just as good... better, than my previous laptop that i paid twice this price for.

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i have bought this in feb'2012 for $499 and dont have any issues till now,battery is also good.sleek and good finishing.

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Will not buy any Lenovo product in the future. I will not go too much into this product explaining all the issues that the thing gave me. Just a big waste of money. No more Lenovos at my home.

Cheap Acer Aspire AS7250-3821 Fusion Dual-Core E-450 1.65GHz 4GB 500GB

Customer Ratings:

Last of the laptops I could find with a reliable name and Windows 7 at a good price. Very pleased so far.

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Fantastic bargain for a fantastic laptop. Would recommend to everyone that is looking for a laptop with speed an great functions.

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I like the product so far. I hope I do not find anything wrong with it and would have to send it back. This seller was so niceeee. I had requested if I could get the product a little early because I was going out of town and did not have more money to pay express shipment but they sent it express anyway and I got it on time.

Discount HP Elitebook 6930p INTEL Core 2 Duo 2400 MHz 120Gig Serial ATA HDD

Customer Ratings:

While this isn't the latest, greatest thing in laptops, the refurbished unit I got (at about 10 percent of the original list price) was quite a bargain. I ordered mine with Win 7. No problems getting it registered and on my network. It doesn't come with a "recovery disk" as advertised--they never do anymore. Nothing was in the box except the laptop and the power supply.

The cover is a stainless steel sheet--very very sleek but it has to live in a laptop bag because unlike an ABS plastic shell, the stainless will dent like a '74 Ford Pinto. Ask me how I know? I now have a nice little "door ding" from a pen because I threw it in my suitcase and danced off to a four day conference.

The touch pad is so good, I haven't even added a wireless mouse. The keyboard feel is also good, the screen bright and clear. There is a funky little keyboard light (for airplane night use) that pops out and lights up when you open the laptop. It's fairly useless, but was a nice thought.

The battery life on wireless seems to run about 3 hours. The power supply is a honkin' big brick.

Bottom line; for what I paid, I'm completely satisfied. It's not meant to replace my desktop (I know, I know, who uses a desktop anymore?) but I use it around the house as a mobile computer, and it travels well. It's fully functional for uploading pictures, running DVD's and accessing the internet. As it's heavier than a netbook, if all you do is go online, this is overkill if that's all you really want to do.

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I needed a starter computer for my brother and this unit does great. Being refurbished meant the cost was less and I got the most computer for the buck. Its been working great.

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buy them because they reported it was perfect but it was rebuilt in perfect condition but it turned out that the battery was bad, the place where the energy supplied was broken and was all scratched, and so many details, please put in fact as are the conditions equipment of me lose a client and all who could recommend

Honest reviews on HP Elitebook 6930p INTEL Core 2 Duo 2400 MHz 120Gig Serial ATA HDD

This didnt come with a preinstalled OS and the Windows license code they gave me wasnt valid. For the price I paid for a used laptop, Best Buy has far better/cheaper/faster options.

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computer looked good for a used model but that's the only good thing I can say about it. Most features never worked. Many start-up problems. I'm returning it .Too late for a refund

Discount ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,214.99
Sale Price: $899.99
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

I have had this laptop for about 3 days now. I had been wanting the zenbook since the original UX31E had come out, but held back after the reviews about the keyboard and the touchpad.

The new display on the ux31a was an instant sell. Having used nothing but high resolution laptops, i had hung on to my trusty HP 6820p for 4+ years.

The reviews for UX31 are mostly on the mark, but strangely somehow still fail to point the one "true" issue.

Now moving on to something more useful..

1) The display is to die for. I spent an hour with the retina mac pro, while i didn't see both the screens side by side. I'm ecstatic that ASUS is finally pushing laptops to move up from the resolution backsliding going on for the last 5 years. You will not miss the retina display on a mac with this. Half the price is just a bonus.

2) It is _light_.

3) The biggest showstopper is the touchpad out of the box. Yes, i'm referring to the touchpad on ux31, not the older ux31e. Multi touch etc. etc. works well. (have two macs at home for comparison). The thing that just about ruins this little gem is the horrendous behavior of the touchpad when your palm brushes it during typing. There is no way you can really avoid this, and it is impossible to do any typing without the cursor moving and the tap to touch causing irritating behavior. (like prematurely sending an email, closing the email, clicking a background app into focus). How this went past anyone in any QA dept. is beyond me. It's that bad, just typing a 2 line sentence is near impossible. This was entirely preventable with just a bit more diligence by ASUS. This one problem is bad enough to warrant a return if it weren't the fix that later became available.

I upgraded the drivers to the THEN latest on the ux31a page on asus support. They didn't work any better. Update: ASUS has finally put an updated version that addresses the issue much better.

Initially i was concerned that I was out of luck and that this could be a trackpad hardware limitation. Thankfully a bit of investigation digging through the registry in the HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ElanTech revealed a plethora of values that seeemed promising.

Further investigation led to a rather huge thread on this topic on the laptop support forums for the elan trackpads on Samsung laptops. A bit of spelunking revealed an updated driver (10.7.16.1). This one proved to be a winner. Not sure if it was the actual driver update, or the very significantly different configuration settings in the registry that made the difference, but at the end of the day the problem is mitigated nearly completely (and without disabling the trackpad while you are typing).

I think there is still some fine tuning to do with the relatively sensitive trackpad, but am a bit more at ease as I think it's just a matter of tweaking the settings just right. I think the elan folks will get it right with just a bit more time. I wish the control panel utility gave you more tuning options without having to figure it out on a trial and error approach with the registry variables. The newer version samsung is using has an 'advanced' tab which seems to be heading in this direction

This is my first ever review and I am only writing it because I really dig this laptop. I'd hate to have this not succeed due to the egregious trackpad palm detection issue. Asus's strength is clearly not software QA.

A few other observations that I haven't seen mentioned before.

4) The adapter when plugging into socket always seems to spark as it's plugged in. I haven't seen this from any other adapter, so am wondering about the reliability. It also seems to run a bit hot compared the mac one. This is just an observation, not an issue (i had no less than 5 adapters fail with the HP). Update: I was looking for additional adapters so I don't have to keep carrying the one around, they seem to extremely expensive online, ~$120. There are non ASUS brands available all the way down to $15, so will probably try one of those, I wonder what the difference is. I suspect it's to do with the charging logic / led indicator on the OEM one. I thought the charging controller was in the laptop and not the adapter, but not entirely sure about this now.

5) The keyboard is just fine, I saw some posts ranting about ux31 keyboard, and i don't know what they are talking about. It's pretty good, and i type reams.

6) There is bleeding of light at the bottom of the lcd, but it's a non issue and an observation i made only because I read about it on other reviews.

7) The keyboard backlighting is nice to have.. but again, don't think it's as big a deal as it's been made out to be when it was missing in ux31e.

8) The display hinge is just fine, it holds up well. If you suddenly lift it, then there might be a tad amount of sway. I think it's only because this laptop is so thin and light that people apply more g's. (I couldn't do that with my old laptop with both my hands if i wanted to because it was so heavy). It feels pretty sturdy compared to the luddite laptop i am used to.

9) I had tried win 8 for a short period on this laptop, seemed to work about the same. (Reverted to win 7 for work reasons after an hour or so).

10) The battery seems to last 6+ hours with just web browsing / email..

11) The wifi has been working well, no problems so far. The previous HP laptop I had would lose WIFI connection whenever the microwave went on for a minute. This one hasn't exhibited that problem.

12) The USB to Ethernet adapter is unfortunately 10/100, not Gigabit.. and for me it's a big deal. Copying around large VMs is the norm and this limitation is a rather big issue. The limitation seems to be from the PHY ASUS is sourcing from 'asix'? They seem to have a new USB3 to GBE part available, so I'm sure in future models this limitation will be addressed. I wonder why they didn't go with USB 2 to GBE phy as it seems to have been available for a while. It works well, counter intuitively its actually proving to be nicer to use the USB connection than the RJ45 jack.

13) The built in VGA adapter worked great when using a projector. Haven't tried out the HDMI out yet, need to go buy a micro HDMI cable.

14) Headphone out works fine, another reviewer mentioned an issue so tested it just in case.

Rating a 4, due to the trackpad runaround that's now resolved. Folks with trackpad issues should just get the latest version from ASUS or Samsung support site. I prefer the Samsung driver.

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I've owned probably 20 laptops in the past (my wife would probably say that's 17 more than I've needed). But to be honest, I've not loved any one of them. Each has come with some sort of compromise that kept it from fully meeting my expectations. Lightweight machines have been underpowered; small screens have had low resolution--leaving me yearning to plug into a full size LCD panel whenever I could; machines with fast CPUs burned my lap and had horrible battery life....and so on.

The Zenbook UX31A is the first computer I've owned that has everything I want: super light weight, solid build quality, fast performance, beautiful display, decent battery life, high performance SSD and (I am a touch typist) a keyboard with great tactile response. Using the UX31A is like driving a German car: everywhere you look, you notice the level of attention to detail in design, and you just know the designers really cared about the end-user experience and didn't simply set out to meet a specification as cheaply as possible.

Asus may have shot themselves in the foot, though: I'm so satisfied, I may not feel the urge to replace this computer for a long, long time.

What you'll love:

1. The full HD IPS display with matte finish is dreamy. Maybe you think 1920 x 1080 is too high a resolution for a 13" display? It's not! With text set to 125%, text is the "right" size, and the fonts are as smooth as a printed page--I can't see the individual pixels. The IPS makes for a screen that's readable at any angle--a godsend for me when the person in front leans their seat back in coach!

2. The keyboard is much improved from the last version, and has the exact feel of my MacBook (which to me is a good thing). The backlighting on the keyboard is a nice addition as well.

3. Instant on. After opening the lid, the computer is usable in around 1 second. Amazing.

4. The aluminum case is impossibly thin, making it super portable. Everyone who sees this machine can't believe it's a real, full Windows PC.

5. The DC power supply. I'm in love with a DC power supply? If you travel a lot like I do, then you understand. This isn't just a generic $2 item Asus sourced from eBay. It's an impossibly tiny power supply that weighs almost nothing and has an 8 foot cord that will reach from any conference room table all the way to a wall outlet. Yes, it's a small detail, but something I appreciate every time I use it.

6. Build quality. The solid metal case is completely rigid and exudes quality industrial design. A $1,000 product shouldn't feel like you got it in a box of cereal, and this one doesn't! Great job, Asus!

7. Bang & Olufsen audio. Remember when choosing a 13" laptop meant you live with a speaker originally designed for a wristwatch? Those days are over--watching video on this laptop is like watching it on your TV! Audio is loud, clear and has a full range of sound. You'll only use your headphones when you don't want to disturb others.

8. The included fabric envelope to carry the notebook is so good you'll actually use it! It's a heavy fabric envelope that I find superb for taking the notebook on short trips to the coffee shop or to a meeting where I only need to take some notes.

9. Runs Windows 8 (June Preview edition) perfectly. I scratch-loaded Windows 8, and while it takes some patience to get all the Windows 7 drivers and utilities installed on Windows 8, everything works beautifully.

What you may not love as much:

1. There's a downside to making a laptop that's thinner than legacy VGA, Ethernet and HDMI connectors--there's no room for them!! Instead, a Micro-HDMI and Mini-VGA connections are provided along with dongles that adapt to standard sized connectors. For wired Ethernet, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is provided. Some ultrabooks are specifically made thicker expressly to include legacy connectors. For me, that's a little silly...an ultrabook should be as thin as possible! But if you disagree and don't like the idea of a dongle for making VGA connections, then you may want one of the thicker Ultrabooks instead.

2. The Zenbook doesn't have the longest battery life among all Ultrabooks. Maybe the thin case has a smaller battery than others? You'll probably get 5 hours or so of battery life on continuous usage. If you need another hour or two, there are ultrabooks can last longer. For me, I find that with the instant on enabled, I can go all day between charges...I just shut the lid when I'm not using the computer and open it when using it (similar to using an iPad).

3. The UX31A, like most Ultrabooks, has 4GB RAM soldered to the motherboard, and no way to upgrade RAM. I think this is really a shame, since I'd gladly have paid more to get more RAM as an insurance policy against what I might want to use the machine for in the future. However I find 4GB is enough for what I'm doing day-to-day, and I doubt most people using an Ultrabook for business scenarios will find they need more than 4GB RAM with Windows 8. However if you're editing video, this might not be the right machine for you.

Overall, I think Asus took the best Ultrabook and made it even better. The last version (the "E" model) was, in my mind, the best small Windows notebook on the market...but fell just a little short of the elegant design of the MacBook Air. This new model, however, has moved the bar up insanely high for other Ultrabooks, and in my mind eliminated any reason why a Windows user would switch to a Mac to get superior hardware designs. I have a MacBook Pro...and this is the first time I can honestly say I like a Windows laptop more than a MacBook!

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Edit: My second laptop doesn't have any problems. I'm getting about 5 hours of battery life while doing light programming and listening to music on auto-brightness (there's a brightness sensor) which sets the display at about 60 percent brightness indoors.

I received this laptop a few hours ago and I'm going to give my first impressions on the device.

Build Quality and Design:

Apart from the different color on the keyboard and lack of hideous script font above the keyboard that was on the original zenbook, the Prime looks about the same. Since this is the 31A, it has a Aluminum Unibody design, and from messing around with various Macbook Air's this device seems to be just as well built. I like the front panel design over the Air but that's down to personal preference.

Accessories:

Being an $1000+ device I would expect a nice amount of goodies, and included is a VGA and Ethernet adapter. There is no micro-HDMI to HDMI adapter, but I find myself using VGA most of the time when giving presentations anyway, so I suppose that's not too bad of a loss. The Air (afaik) does not come with these adapters so that is a small plus. The adapters have their own little pouch to store separately. The combination synthetic leather/canvas sleeve that is included fits fairly snugly, though there is enough space to cram in an adapter if you need to. The AC adapter is about the same size as the Apple counterpart, which is good.

Screen Quality:

Being a UX31A the laptop packs a 1920x1080 Matte IPS panel. In a not-very-scientific test viewing angles (obviously) far exceed that of my desk TN panel, and brightness and contrast all seem to be much better. Granted, I'm comparing to a 23" Hanns LCD I paid $60 for. There was a comment earlier about the screen being dimmer than that of the previous gen, and I haven't tested it outside, but it seems to just fine for my purposes. The matte finish is also a plus. There is a bit of back light bleed on the bottom and right hand sides of the screen, but when watching a sample 1080p movie, it didn't bother me at all. I like the increased resolution on the device and it's a definite step up from traditional 1366x768 panels. Text is sometimes a bit small on the default size in chrome but that is easily remedied.

Performance:

Thankfully, an ADATA XM11 128GB SSD is included. This is a Sandforce drive and I'm getting benchmark scores of 470/150 MB/s RW Sequential, 18/44 MB/s RW 4K random, 113/144 MB/S RW 4k Random 64QD, and access times of .155/.277 ms RW, for a total score of 462 in AS-SSD. This is comparable to my old Vertex 2 in my desktop, so no worries about disk performance here. The system boots boots in about 20 seconds and resumes quickly. It scores a 7.9 WEI in terms of disk performance, though that's not a the best indicator in general.

I haven't done anything intensive with the CPU yet but things seem to be holding up well with little slowdown. I also tried messing around in Diablo III on the integrated HD4000 graphics. I set the game to 1024x768, and everything else to minimum, and from a short session of Act III Inferno, the graphics performed okay, with some stutter and slowdown depending on how many effects were on the screen. If you want to do more than just casual gaming, go for the UX32VD with the GT620M graphics. After playing for a bit the fan kicked on and hot air began coming out of the vent located above the keyboard. The fan was not loud enough to hear over the speakers, which put out a decent amount of volume for the size of the laptop.

Keyboard/Trackpad:

Asus touts the keyboard as being much improved over the previous generation, though I'm not sure if I notice that. I've tried out the original zenbook at stores a few times and this feels similar. I've typed this review on the keyboard without any problems, but it'll be clear to you that you are typing on a scissor-switch laptop keyboard. This also leads to me to the flaw in my item the backlight. Two of the keys in the center refuse to light at all, regardless of the brightness level I set. Hence, it's going back to Amazon for an exchange. Pity. The trackpad is made by Elantech, which may make some people cringe, but for the most part, I haven't had a problem. I like to rest one hand on the left click button and right other to scroll, and there were no glitches I noticed in the last few hours. The only multi-touch feature I really use is two finger scrolling, which works well enough in Chrome. It's not as smooth as OSX is, but I would assume that is because of Windows 7, and will be improved in Windows 8.

If you're trying to decide between this and the Air, it mainly comes down to a few factors OS, Screen Quality, Discrete Graphics, and support. If you have a rabid obsession with one OS over the other your choice should already be clear. If you value screen quality, both are solid choices while the Air has a 1440x900 TN panel, it still looks good, though the viewing angles are likely not as wide, and the resolution obviously lower. Anandtech rates both this laptop and the Air well in screen quality. If you value discrete graphics, only the UX32 line offers you that. If you value support I would go with the Air, as nothing beats being able to go into a store and coming out with a fixed laptop.

If you're set on Windows or want a 1080P IPS Panel, no other ultrabook touches the Zenbook prime right now. Sony has a similarly-specced laptop out, which has a GT640LE and 1600x900 screen, but that is much heavier and thicker. This is an expensive device, no doubt, so if you can give up some screen quality and are okay with slightly slower integrated graphics, you should consider a previous gen ultrabook.

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

I ordered this Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 ultrabook from Amazon and received it promptly and in perfect condition this week. The i5 proc (newer "ivy bridge" model) has plenty of power for my use (and for almost any average use), and for what I'm using this for, I also don't need more than 128GB of storage, so I decided to go with this model instead of the DB72, which has the i7 proc and 256 SSD. I had been waiting for this upgraded Zenbook to come out for a little while, and Amazon was the 1st place I found that had it available, and I have usually had very good experiences purchasing through Amazon, so the negligible difference in price between Amazon's price and the suggested retail price wasn't an issue. So far, this is everything I thought it would be and I absolutely love it. In my opinion, the display is extremely nice, HD 1080p, and the screen is low-glare, so it looks great and is easy on the eyesight. In addition to the newer model proc, the screen is another nice upgrade from the previous Zenbook. The keyboard is perfect and comfortable (and backlit, which the previous Zenbook was lacking). It's very light and portable, fits in my purse with the included envelope-type sleeve, which is a pretty decent cover, at least until I find a sleeve or case I like better.

After researching many different models and manufacturers, the only other "ultrabook" that I considered before purchasing the Zenbook Prime was the Macbook Air. I'm not an Apple product hater, but I honestly just prefer a Windows machine, so this ultrabook was the clear winner for me, and I couldn't be happier with it so far. I could go on and on comparing the two machines, and describing the technical specs of this Zenbook Prime, but there are so many technical reviews out there that already do that very well (and I think Apple/Mac vs. PC/Windows thing that I constantly see on forums everywhere is so boring it's ridiculous!!!!), so I'm just giving my initial personal experience and opinions about this product that I purchased in this review. It is awesome! It's lived up to all the critical acclaim and all of my expectations of it so far.

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So this laptop can apparently come with two different types of hard drives (both 256 gig ssds). If you buy this laptop, you will either get the Sandisk U100 or the ADATA MX11. An uninformed consumer probably wouldn't know or care what the difference between these two drives are, but they should!

The Sandisk U100 has the worst write speeds of current SSDs. The Zenbook prime I ordered was horribly slow at transferring files because of this. When I took the laptop back to the retailer, I requested an exchange for one with the ADATA MX11 hard drive. I was told by the retailer that there is no way to tell which hard drive you will get without opening the retail packaging. Note that opening the retail packaging renders the product used.

I feel Asus should put the hard drive brand on the outside of the box so that consumers can make a proper informed decision. The ADATA MX11 outperforms the Sandisk U100 in every way and this can be seen in performance tests when comparing the two.

I would not recommend anyone purchase this at this time. At least until Asus is more forthcoming about which SSD they are putting in this Zenbook.

Update.

Well I must say this has been a pretty horrible experience, and I'm never buying an Asus product again.

The screws on the laptop keep falling out. I am now missing 2 of them and the only way to get them replaced is to ship it to Asus. I any afford to do that as I need to have a computer for school and work.

The hard drive performance is painfully slow, and of course Asus won't replace the drive.

My best advice to anyone thinking of purchasing this device or any Asus product is to avoid at all costs.

Discount Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332 17-Inch Notebook Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $599.99
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Today's Bonus: 17% Off

I actually purchased this laptop a week ag from Staples for about $100 less than the Amazon price. I love it! I agree, Windows 8 takes some getting used to, but the more I use it the more comfortable I am with it. I simply use the Windows 7 desktop that I can easily access from the "Metro" desktop that comes up when I first log on. Also, the Metro desktop shows all the files and program shortcuts that I have on my Windows 7 desktop. They are located over on the extreme right side of the display, and so its only takes a second to get to the programs I use...without even having to go to the Windows 7 desktop.

I love the nice, crisp display. The keyboard is like silk and it's size makes it, at least for me, very easy to use. The Fn keys are useful, and having a separate number pad is terrific. This laptop also has both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 outlets, which is a real plus. The only thing that is a very slight disappointment is that the battery only last 4 hours, but considering that the battery on the 7 year old Toshiba I had been struggling with (as a second computer just for email and writing)only lasted 15 minutes, 4 hours is a breath of fresh air.

I would buy this computer over and over again. It seems to be a fantastic machine.

Additional comments two weeks later:

I still really like this machine, with just one complaint...the display has a blue cast that is impossible to get rid of, no matter how many color corrections I try. I've been able to reduce the blue cast significantly, but if I go try to reduce it further in the color cast setting or in the processor settings, the cast starts turning green or red. Since I use this computer to do some photo editing, I'll just have to make the color cast corrections (which are usually only white balance changes) with my desktop that has a 22" ViewSonic LED and is connected directly to the printer. I have tried three HP G7 laptops, two with AMD processors and one with the Intel i3 processor, and they all have the same cast, so it's the display and not the processor. If anybody has any success correcting this, let me know.

Incidentally, I LOVE Windows 8. Nearly all the low ratings for this computer are because of Windows 8 and not the computer itself. I've been through XP, Windows 7, and now Windows 8, and I think 8 is far better than the other two. Here's what I like so far:

The charms provide easy and quick access to all those files, folders, programs, and system tools that were so darn hard to find, particularly if they're in the control panel. Just type in the name of what you are looking for and the links to the item show up instantly. Very cool.

I can switch back and forth between the media window and the traditional Windows 7 desktop with a simple push of the windows button on the lower left side of the keyboard. And get this every program I install has a shortcut on the traditional desktop AND the media desktop. Since they open at least three times faster when I access them on the media desktop, I always start there. And...with some patience, I've been able to move all the programs I use to the left side of the media desktop so they are front and center on my display at startup; a piece of cake.

One aggravation is that I have not figured out how to make a shortcut to the system tools I use "create a restore point" and "computer management" to put on the desktop. If anybody knows how, please let me know because I use these tools a lot.

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I have bought several lately of various brands, 2 of this one for me and my wife. This one is the fastest. Windows 8 can take some adjustment if one is not tech oriented, so I downloaded classic shell and it opened up old school familiarity with new app functionality.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332 17-Inch Notebook Laptop

This Toshiba is a great laptop for the price and it has a decent amount of memory and disk space, although you can find it cheaper elsewhere. The display is slightly larger and movies look good on it. I personally dislike Windows 8, but that's a minor problem once you get used to it. I also purchased a Toshiba 3TB external hard drive for all my movies and both work excellently.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332 17-Inch Notebook Laptop

Like others I have found this laptop for a much lower price (in my case $299 after rebate) at local brick and mortar office supply stores (Office Depot). It is last years model so it is on clearance. It runs fine and has a very, very nice screen and keyboard. It took a while to get used to the mouse pad but with a bit of tweaking of the settings it settled down OK. Still, it works much better with an external mouse but that is just my personal preference. Windows 8 took 1/2 to get used to but Toshiba provides a single click link to the traditional desktop. My fifth version of Windows so I guess I've gotten used to making transitions. So I am very, very happy. Was ready to spend up to $200 more to get a 17.3 inch screen with 500+ GB of disk and 6+ GB of RAM but didn't need to.

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I love this laptop. The performance is great. It's fast and easy to use. I like that it's lightweight. Thanks

Cheap ASUS G51JX-X5 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop PC - Dark

Customer Ratings:

The "ultimate gaming machine :) " arrived in the original box , shipping was very fast as always , but ofcourse it better be , because I had to pay 14$ for shiping.

The laptop had no deffects , no dead pixels( something I was very woried about).

I have been using it for about a week now and I can say that I am impressed . Very fast machine , I wish it came with an XP tho , but thats fixable :D

It does get very hot on the left side , but poor thing is just trying to get the heat out! No problems so far from that except some burned leg hair :D

What's intresting is tha price changeing. I bought it for 1279$ , a few days after I recieved it the price went down to 1150$ , and now it's 1380$ or so. You better time your purchuase or you might end up paying more for something that actualy costs less.

I recomend this product to anybody who is willing to pay that much for a laptop , I couldn't find a better deal.

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I just bought this from a week ago. The $100 rebate is what motivated me to buy this particular one. The cost is $1,150 after the rebate. This is an excellent deal for the type of hardware loaded. I tried to create similarly configred laptops on Dell site and Sony site. The cost was usually over $1500 for the same type of hardware.

I am taking one star off due to three minor issues (1) weight, (2) bulk, and (3) no multi-touch touchpad. I believe Asus could have make this model (15.6" screen) smaller and lighter and put on a multip-touch touchpad. One of the main reasons that I like Asus is its multi-touch touchpad. I had no idea this model does not come with one until I received it. I was somewhat disappointed and thought about returning it a couple of times. But now, I think I can live without a multi-touch touchapd because its touchpad feels quite solid and high quality.

I am no gamer and I may never play any games with it. But, I need a fast CPU (i7 720 QM) that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg. I need generous amount of RAM (6 GB). BTW, both the BIOS and CPU-Z reported that it has the 1333 MHz RAM instead the advertized 1066 MHz RAM. I believe this may be arbitrary depending on the supply and cost of RAM at the time of manufacturing. I also need a fast hard drive (7200 RPM). I also want high resolution (1920x1080) to see more content on the screen.

I know its supposedly game-grade graphics capability will go to waste for the way I use it. But it has everything else I want. So, I think I can live with its somewhat cheesy Republic of Gamers deco/logo/lighting on the lid.

Best Deals for ASUS G51JX-X5 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop PC - Dark

Pros:

-----

Well capable machine indeed, I've played Crysis, Battlefield III, Assassin's Creed Revelation and others with no problems, I also have done some 3D rendering with quite a good performance.

Illuminated chiclet keyboard is a plus specially in poorly lit areas, some people would love having a numpad as well.

Screen is beautiful (if you're looking at the right angle!)

Cons/areas of improvement:

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

Keyboard: Well, if you're a gamer (and you ought to be if you're buying a machine like that!) speed is important, and usually if you lose your contact to the arrow buttons it's easy to get back to them on any other keyboard, since usually there's an empty space around the arrow keys in standard keyboards, unfortunately not this one! I mean why ASUS?! why have you chose a keyboard where the arrow buttons for some unknown reason is quite embedded around the rest of the keyboard keys??! now if you're navigating in game menus, or using the arrows in even some word processor you have to actually look to the keyboard to locate them with your eyes. that wasn't a smart choice of the keyboard layout -period-.

It gets HOT! I wouldn't say this is a major con, if you're a gamer you want your machine to perform and you'd expect some heat to get out of it. I'd strongly suggest buying a cooler along with it.

I don't particularly like having the power socket right beside the network socket, they get in the way of each other when you have one plugged and you want to plug the other.

Screen: the vertical viewing angle (screen tilt) is a major setback for me, if you haven't aligned your screen angle at its best you might be missing some wonderful details in the game, or have an overall 'darker' view. Vertical viewing angle should have been worked on before releasing this strong machine.

Sound: Sometimes the speakers aren't loud enough, I think the sound card is capable though as it becomes really loud if you're using headphones. I had a Toshiba Qosmio before and never had this problem. ASUS should have invested a little bit more in the speakers area as well.

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God this was a great laptop! Glad I got it while it was still available. Though my power cord had some kinda fuse thingy and now the adapter wont worked and I dont know how to get a new one! Can anyone help?

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Came from a Toshiba Satellite I had bought from BestBuy. I returned that for $693.03 as this was my replacement. That had an integrated 4200 mobility and a dual core AMD Phenom II. You can't even play games on that or watch 1080p video smoothly. The screen is 1600x900 and was amazing looking but this 1920x1080 is far better. I can even play games with 60 fps if I'm not greedy with graphics. I'm in the process of switching out this CPU from a 720QM to an 820QM. I only spent up to 10 dollars for the switch. I got an 820QM ES for the price I sold the 720QM. In the future I see I will need the 5870 Mobility. It's far better than the 360M. The watts of my laptop is only 120W max. I can't go higher than the 5870 because the watts would exceed 120W. That Toshiba only had 4GB of ram this has 6GB and is way faster and way more bandwidth. It's also 4 core and 8 thread. Clock for clock it's faster too. The difference was up to $150 for the switch to this. The fact I didn't really spend anything to make it 820QM is a huge plus and the fact I can put a 5870 which is far better than the 460M in the $1,400 laptops today for the same price to upgrade now if I choose is another plus. I'm going to wait until the 5870 price drops then I will get that and put it in. This laptop is MXM 3.0b. You can drop a 580GTX in but it's too bad the powersupply cannot power it.

When I first opened the box and saw how amazing the top cover looked I already knew it was worth it. I even see the keys have backlight and light around the keys that are white which no PC keyboard has and has LEDs on the top cover that light up the side and the logo wow. The feel of the touchpad is amazing and the buttons surrounding it as well. The stickers on the palm rest and the palm rest itself look and feel great. I feel the Toshiba, which was already good, is like a Toyota compared to this BMW. Those who been in both and know the difference between those. Screenshots don't say anything like the real thing. I was very reluctant on buying this laptop. I thought it looks bad. See it in real life and damn. I'm glad I bought it.

Discount Acer Aspire S3-391-6899 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Champagne)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $699.99
Sale Price: $499.99
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I can't believe that there are no reviews for this item and I was a little hesitant to buy it since it did not have any reviews. I was also looking at the Zenbook but the reviews were mixed and the price was high, I decided I could wait a few more years for them to work out the glitches. I have tried all major brands out there and they were just ok to absolutely horrible, and I really can do without a disk drive as I never really used them in my other lap tops and why bother paying for something you won't use.

This is lightweight, the screen is great, the touch pad is large and all the connections are on the back which is a personal preference for myself. I bought this mainly to take with me on road trips and for dedicated use for personal stuff. My favorite feature is the bluetooth, I connected a stereo headset and found the sound quality to be crisp and clear, perfect for those times when I may want to listen to something without disturbing others.

I got an awesome deal with a amazon promotion so for the 550.00 I paid for this I found it to be an exceptional value given the size, weight and features!! A great item and price for students!!!

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I've had this ultrabook for about 2 months now, and it's performed quite decently so far. I'm not a very picky consumer, and I don't gripe about small inconveniences, especially when considering that the price for this ultrabook is rather reasonable when compared to others in the same tech/spec range.

Pros: it really is ultra-light, the sleek design is similar to the 13-inch version of the MacBook Air (though the material & build are likely not as sturdy or well put-together, hence the immense price difference), and it has a sleek outer shell that doesn't retain fingerprints or stains so easily (which is something that netbook/notebook users seem to care about). Most importantly, it is immensely portable. The i3 processor is quite capable when it comes to intensive web use (which is what I mainly do with it), and it does start up quickly from its "sleep" or "hibernation" modes. Some consumers have mentioned that the speed slows down considerably when having too many windows/programs open, but I can't verify if this is the case with my own machine since I'm not the kind of user who likes to have more than 8 Word documents open while using a tab-heavy Google Chrome open as well. If you expect to execute intensive business-related activities on your notebook, I definitely would recommend stepping up to an i5 or i7 processor; I own an Acer laptop with an i5 on it, and it's able to handle larger-order tasks like that. My advice: use an i3 ultrabook for basic to intensive web use (especially cloud use), and since this machine has a 500 GB harddrive, you'll be able to save quite a lot of material on it.

Cons: the 5.5 hour battery life is something of a fabrication. You get 2.5 to 3 hours MAX if you use it for that long without break, but if you intersperse your sessions with occasional use (closing and re-opening it from time to time) the battery will drag itself out through a good part of the day. I suppose this kind of intermittent use was what Acer meant by "5.5 hour battery life". One user has accurately recognized that the screen is liable to shake too often if the notebook is moving too much; so long as you have a sturdy table or desk that doesn't budge or shake, the screen won't shake at all, even if you're clacking away at the keys with any degree of intensity. I imagine that, in general, the keys might not be responsive...at first. In the case of this notebook, the key for letter "C" was not loose enough (as if it were semi-stuck into the groove of the body), but after 2 months that particular key became loosened and now is about as responsive as the others. I had (and continue to have) a similar problem with the larger i5 Acer notebook I own: the blue "Fn" key still does not work in conjunction with the Fn controls (such as turning the volume down or up, increasing or decreasing the brightness, etc.), but since that key and its related controls are not absolutely crucial to the basic performativity of the notebook, I don't give it much mind. I still get the performance that I need from the machine. In any case, I think that Acer machines generally seem to have a slight looseness or vulnerability to their build--which is why their prices are what they are. So I can't complain.

All in all, I'm satisfied with what the notebook gives me: portability, sleekness, lightness, connectivity. I've been a consistent Acer user for a few years now (I own 3 machines by them), and I can't say they've disappointed me thus far. Even though the Cons seem to outnumber the Pros in terms of quantity, they are actually quite minor quibbles in relation to the fantastic price the notebook's offered at, and quite minor too in relation to the overall quality the notebook gives you; which is to say, it functions just as it is marketed to you (except for that fib concerning the battery life). And it really does hold up in style when placed next to the implacable army of MacBooks that you inevitably meet each time you walk into a cafe or library to work on something.

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I bought this to use for my work, which did not involve heavy graphics or such things, but just a simple process of having multiple Microsoft Word windows open together with a couple of Internet tabs open in Google Chrome, one or two Excel files, and one or two more text programs (e.g. Evernote).

And this computer is slow with that amount of load. It freezes more often than I would like -about three to four times DAILY -which is a wonder because it's not like I'm running heavy games on it. Is having about six to seven Word documents open together with two or three Internet tabs on Chrome too much for a new laptop to handle? I certainly did not think the i3 processor would be so slow as to be inadequate for my simple tasks.

UPDATE: Had this laptop for about four months now. Of the aforementioned problem, I contacted Acer service center and the man there told me to try reinstalling some drivers (he sent me links). He told me that if that didn't work, to try factory-resetting the laptop. Fortunately, reinstalling the drivers fixed the problem -for three months. After that, the same problem reoccurred -freezing, disability to click, etc., etc. I reinstalled those same drivers again, and the problem has been fixed. I suppose I'll keep doing this every time the problem reoccurs. Other than this, though, the laptop is usually moderately fast and functional.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire S3-391-6899 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Champagne)

2 Months Update

So I have had the ultrabook for about two months now. For the most part it is still pretty good, but some issues have come up. Firstly, the screen does kinda shake a bit when you move it around and a little when you type. It actually shakes more than you would want a screen to shake. Secondly, my laptop has just started randomly turning off for some reason every few days. I know it is not a virus for sure, so I will look into that. Lastly, at times the fan can get annoyingly loud. Like a little too lound, and there is only one vent on the entire laptop. So that is why this goes from 5 stars to 3 stars.

Original Purchase Review

I had been shopping for an ultrabook for about 2 months for college. I had my eyes set on an acer S3 for a while, but this laptop on Amazon sealed the deal. I got it for 550 dollars at the time of my purchase (That Promo has now expired). But even at its current price. I would highly recommend the purchase. It is a very classy looking ultrabook. The new Champagne Color is really good to look at. I have gotten tons of compliments from friends and Family alike.

As for the performance aspects. The computer runs just as it should. It has instant boot up. Although I would venture to say that the Speed of the ultrabook is nothing to scream about. However, it does assure that I will never buy another computer that is not at least have a partial SSD. The Screen is decent. You get what you pay for, and then some.

If nothing else, the computer is worth buying for its aesthetics.

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First let me begin by saying that I am not a tech geek but rather a savy consumer. I researched many various styles of laptops and ultrabooks before purchasing this item. As you may know there are many options to match every demographic of consumer but as I navigated the many reviews and professional critiques I recognized that ACER was a reputable brand. I dug deeper (after owning a Dell, Samsung, HP and Toshiba)and this ultrabook compares with all of these top brand names.

I was in the market for a light weight, verstile, functional computer to be used primarily for school and business. In my research the ultrabook series appeared to be the way to go; this ACER Aspire S3 fulfilled my needs and desires. What I like and list as the positives: (1) stylish exterior design/good eye appeal, (2) keyboard layout is highly functional and comnfortable, (3) keys are soft to the touch and allows for quick typing with no sticking, (4) screen size is perfect for portability and for working with multiple MS Office documents, (5) ultrabook doesn't get hot when on my lap, (6) screen resolution is sharp and radiant, (7) start up speed is faster than my Samsung and HP laptops,(8) memory capacity is more than sufficient for maintaining school/business projects, and (9) Windows 7 software downloaded (not a fan of the new Windows 8).

I read the other reviews posted on this item and for me personally have not experienced any of the freezing syptoms, screen jumping and slow connectivity expressed by other consumers.

I would catergorize the following as the potential negatives (based upon my own experience): (1) WIFI strength sometimes weak and its not my router because I have seen the same with public connections; it appears to be unique to this unit, (2) mouse pad sounds hollow and unlike the key strokes it doesn't feel as comfortable to the touch but it works well, (3) speakers are not the greatest and if you want premium quality sound you would certainly need to add external speakers, (4) battery life is dependent on use, I have gotten between 3.5 to 4.5 hours without a charge -more windows open and multiple activities will drain battery quicker, (5) Note hybernation and sleep modes help with battery life and battery life on this ultrabook is superior to my Samsung, (6) placement of USB ports is unique and may not be comfortable to some users, for me it works, (7) power cord connector must be perfect fit worried I might break the pin, doesn't push in easily, and (8) ACER sent it with a lot of addons and extra programs not necessary which will require clean-up.

To this end, I really like this Ultrabook. It has excellent craftmanship and for my specific needs it was a smart purchase for the price. Despite some of the negatives listed I still rate this item 4 Stars and per my own experience and research suggest it to be a competitive alternative to the more expensive high-end ultrabooks or Mac Airbooks.

I hope this review offered pratical insight and was helpful to making a determination on whether to purchase or not.

Update:

I have now had this laptop for a few months and I love it. It is meeting all my needs very well. Some of the prior reviews and comments shared about potential problems I have not experienced. The light weight, versatility and performance are better than prior laptops -HP, Samsung and Dell. I use it for school and business and have no problems. Have received many compliments about its visual appeal. After a couple months of use the only draw back is the battery life -it does not live up to the manufacturer suggested battery life. Honestly, after about 1.5 hours of continuous use the battery will die. Best used on charger.

I would still recommend this laptop as an economical purchase; especially good for school or moderate use. Certainly just as with most laptops or PCs there are drawbacks depending on usage. Example, not a gamer laptop and sound is weak so may not be the best for watching movies or programs online. Had to purchase additional software and delete pre-loaded items that came with laptop since I didn't need them. Don't list this as a negative just noting for potential buyers.

To this end, if you are reading this review and considering this laptop for purchase I would recommend. Like you I went back and forth between different models before deciding upon this one and I don't regret my decision. Hope this review has helped....

Cheap Acer Aspire V5-571-6662 15.6-Inch Laptop (Midnight Black)

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List Price: $549.99
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Great lap top. Thin, lightweight and easy to carry. I can tell you this though, windows 8 sucks. I'm going to try and swith back to windows 7 if possible.

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I like it just fine , I have had problems with the battery , They replaced it and I still can't get the battery to last more than 90 minutes.

Cheap VIZIO CT14-A4 14-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:

Note: Read on for some tips if you are interested in doing a Window 7 install.

This Ultrabook could have been perfect, but unfortunately has a major defect that makes me not recommend it. I'll start with the good, however. As for as laptops go, it is ridiculously thin and light, almost bordering on too thin. (It is ever so slightly difficult to open; you almost have to use your finger nails.) And unlike the netbooks of yesteryear, it flies. Windows 8 boots in about 5 seconds from a cold start. Its Toshiba SSD has 400+ MB/s sequential read/write speeds, and great random read/write as well. Overall, it's very enjoyable to use, and subjectively feels very fast. The 1600x900 screen is excellent resolution wise, though it is glossy, and exhibits some vertical "screen door" effect that a lot of new laptops seem to have.

From a hardware standpoint, Vizio gets major points for making an extremely accessible system. Just remove a number of torx screws on the base, and the bottom half of the case practically falls off revealing access to everything. There is no glue or harrowing plastic clips to deal with. RAM is soldered on and not upgradable (boo!) but the wireless card and SSD are. Unlike the 11.6 Asus Vivobook I looked at recently, the wireless card has two antennas instead of just one. The SSD is mSATA. The power jack is a separate board attached to the mainboard by a detachable cable, so breaking the jack does not necessarily mean junking the system. (Though, good luck finding the part anywhere...)

Now for some of the so-so. As far as general driver availability goes, Vizio is showing just how young they are to the PC market. They have no BIOS updates available for any of their systems, and they also do not have any Vizio specific utilities and drivers for download, such as the Fn key / OSD utility. (See below for their response to this.) The way they provide drivers is probably the worst I have ever seen. Each driver is an EXE, which is a Vizio wrapper of the actual manufacturer's installer. This is not too uncommon. But rather than just extracting the mfg's installer, the Visio wrapper actually installs each and every mfg installer to C:\Program Files (x86)\VIZIO\My Product Name, complete with an Add/remove programs reference for every driver before you've actually installed anything. These are somewhat minor issues, but are still a tad on the annoying side.

So what could ruin an otherwise decently favorable laptop? One word: the keyboard. Typing on this in any serious capacity is an exercise in frustration. Firstly, missed key presses abound. In fact, if you push very lightly on purpose, you can make any key depress and "click" but not actually register a press. This should be impossible on a well designed keyboard; any key that is depressed, no matter how lightly, should always register. Second, mysterious double presses occur far more frequently than random chance would allow. That seems to contradict the first issue, but somehow Vizio used their incredible engineering capabilities to create a keyboard that is both not sensitive enough and too sensitive.

Overall it is a slick system with a lot going for it, but the keyboard is bad enough that I would recommend looking elsewhere for an Ultrabook if you do any serious typing.

Windows 7 Notes: I did a successful fresh install of Windows 7 on this system, but ran into some issues along the way. First of all, they do provide Windows 7 drivers on their site, but they neglect to mention that the Win 7 model of this laptop has slightly different hardware from the Windows 8 version, even though it has the same model number. For instance, you need to get the touch pad driver straight from Synaptic, as the Win7 driver on Vizio.com is for a different manufacturer's touch pad, and the Win8 driver does not contain bundled Win7 drivers.

The Intel rapid start technology driver is also a pain to get working. I'll post a link in the comments to a Dell PDF that shows what you need to do to get it installed. In short, you need to use diskpart to create a hibernation partition, otherwise the Intel installer will say your system does not meet requirements. The Vizio provided driver also does not work, and again I had to go to the mfg's website (Intel).

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, Vizio does not provide any Vizio-specific utilities or drivers on their site as far as I can see, so that means I was not able to find a Fn key / OSD utility. Thankfully the brightness and volume keys work, but the key to disable the wifi or switch to an external monitor do not work, and there is no OSD or any of the keys. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning. I just wrote Vizio support, and will report back what they say.

UPDATE: I wrote an e-mail to Visio support on the keyboard and driver issue, and here is their response:

--------

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting VIZIO PC support, I can definitely assist you with your inquiry.

You'll need to press the keys all the way down for the keyboard to register a keystroke, you can also adjust the sensitivity of the keyboard in the keyboard's properties by clicking on Start, then in the search field type in Keyboard and open the properties window. If you have installed a version of Windows 7 that is not the VIZIO image of Windows 7 Home Premium the driver for the function keys will not work.

If you need any additional assistance feel free to contact VIZIO at 1-877-878-4946 or chat with us at

Thanks and have a great day!

Kali Lewis

--------

So unlike every other PC mfg on the planet, you have to use their image to install because they cannot be bothered to provide all the drivers that are necessary to operate their product. Is that not the point of providing drivers in the first place? The bit about pressing the keys down all the way is really a joke, as is the helpful tip to adjust sensitivity in the control panel. (There is no such ability. You can adjust the repeat rate, but that has nothing to do with key sensitivity) Needless to say, this will be my first and last Vizio PC.

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Pros:

* Thin + Light

* Bigger display (14'' as opposed to 11'' or 13'' ultra-books)

* HD display (1600 x 900)

* Fast fast fast (just ~5 seconds to shutdown or start-up). Wow, my office think-pad can't even resume from sleep that quick.

* No nonsense pre-installed crap. Nice and clean right out of the box.

* Liked the quality of webcam.

* Speakers are good, definitely powerful/better than two think-pads I own.

Cons:

* Had some minor issues with trackpad initially but after installing the new driver, its running fine.

* There is no VGA or ethernet port on this machine.

* No backlit keyboard (my biggest complaint)

* If I am not wrong, memory is limited to 4GB and can't be upgraded.

Overall, very happy with the laptop and Amazon service.

Update:

======

I have been using this laptop for last 2 months. I have to say this is an amazing laptop. After coming back home, I hate to touch my Lenovo office laptop. I may in-fact buy one more for office and return the office laptop back to my employer. This laptop is about screen + weight + performance and at 599 I couldn't ask for more.

Regarding keyboard, I agree there is some issue with it but its like 1-2 misses in 1000 keystrokes. I have linux installed on it as VM and I do write code everyday using this laptop. I love coding directly on this laptop so much that I stopped using my external 24 inch monitor/keyboard/mouse setup. I don't get why others are making so much fuss about it, may be its my typing style.

If I would have to rate this laptop again, I would upgrade it to 5 stars.

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After owning this computer for about 4 months and dealing with Vizio customer service for multiple issues, I have to warn folks not to buy this computer. I never provide feedback on products, but I'm so ticked-off with Vizio and myself for buying this clunker that I felt I had to warn others. I've had many issues from the get-go; however, the primary one that I know others have experienced is the keyboard repeating multiple keystrokes for a single depression of the key. This will drive you insane! It isn't something you notice right away as you figure you are making the error, but after owning the computer for a few months, I am now certain the keyboard is defective. I've done the research and I've seen others state the same problem. I contacted Vizio and they blame the software I've changed every setting every which way, the problem doesn't go away! So, don't buy one. From what I gather, all of Vizio's ultrabooks use this same keyboard, so don't go thinking you will escape the problem. Also, I'd like you all to be aware of my experiences with Vizio's customer service they claim they are concerned and different than others (they do speak clear English which is nice I'll give them that). However, their customer service is also terrible. If they were to do the right thing, they would just take this computer back and give me my money back. I thought I was so smart and that I would save a couple hundred (it was either this or the ASUS) what and idiot I was. Save yourself the headache, get something else. Thanks for reading.

Honest reviews on VIZIO CT14-A4 14-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook

Vizio has done a great job in delivering a 14 inch ultrabook with an exceptional simplistic design and construction all in an ultra thin and light form factor. Its hard to come by 14 inch laptops with a 1600 x 900 resolution screen and stunning design especially in an ultra thin form factor. The laptop and two USB 3.0 ports, a full size HDMI port and the cooling vents are hidden beneath the screen hinges and helps it run cool and also aesthetically improves the looks. The 3rd generation Intel i5 processor and the speedy Toshiba SSD makes this ultrabook perform real snappy. Its very light to carry around a has a full aluminium alloy construction with the base comprising of a rubberized covering for extra grip and coolness. The laptop comes with Microsoft signature which means you get a clean version of Windows with no bloatware at all. Its not an easy task to accomplish all this in such a thin and light form factor and I believe this ultrabook serves its purpose well.

The Keyboard has wider and shallower keys and takes some time getting used to and the battery life is average with 4-5 hours of moderate usage. The only real complaints I have are the lack of an SD card slot and the below average responsiveness of the mouse pad. I hope Vizio comes up with better drivers to rectify this. I have used a wide variety of laptops and overall, I am impressed with this ultrabook and credit Vizio with coming up with such a product which stands out on its own considering its the company's first step into the competitive laptop market.

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I also took the plunge on this puppy during Black Friday/Cyber Monday week, paid $599. I don't regret my decision, you get a lot for the money. Notably a nice sized SSD and high resolution screen. Windows 8 is OK, a bit of a learning curve from W7, but have gotten used to the changes. I've used the laptop now for a week, my first impressions are listed below.

The Good:

-Feels solid, heavy, but still very slim. Nicely designed.

-Very fast for my use. Boot up, web browsing, excel, email, ect.

-Screen. High resolution, very bright. Exceeded expectations.

The Bad(feedback for the prod dev people at Vizio):

-Hard to Open. Not a deal breaker, but could be a nuisance for some. That said, it does make it impossible to open for my 2yr and 4yr old. An unintentional child proof feature.

-Mouse pad software. Pre-installed software stinks. I uninstalled the Synaptics software and installed the latest version from their website. The mousepad now works fine, not bad and not great. Definitely room to improve overall.

-Batter Life. Ok, it's not bad, just not the 7hrs I was hoping for. I get 4-5 hours tops with avg use(browsing, some video streaming, chatting).

-Keyboard. Feels flimsy. Wouldn't want to type much on this.

Windows 8:

-Like I said, it has a steeper learning curve than previous OS launches. I don't care for the start screen, but once on the desktop I can essentially do everything I need. I kind of get what Microsoft is going for here(integrating all their devices/platforms), but don't think it was done well. Maybe I'm just resistant to change, and this will grow on me, but so far am not impressed. Would have preferred Win7. I won't ding the laptop's rating for this, just a consideration for future buyers.

In summary, the good outweighs the bad and think this is a good machine for a casual user. If you're planning to use this for School or Business, keep looking.

Discount Avatar Android Laptop 13.3" display White AVRA-138A1

Customer Ratings:

This notebook gets a bad rep from folks who don't understand what they're buying and/or aren't familiar with the Android OS.

I came into the purchase (from another site, not Amazon unfortunately) with full knowledge that Android was a whole new world for me to get accustomed to. I was previously a Mac user, but had plenty of Windows experience (unavoidable if you grew up in the '90s/aughties) and used a Mac PowerPC G5 at home. That Mac G5 was disconnected from internet duties from about 2007-2012, and when reconnected, needed a new OS...so I installed Linux MintPPC, and had a generally positive experience once I got over the learning curve of installing Linux on a PowerPC. So since Android is an offshoot of Linux, I figured I'd give this notebook a spin.

I'm a freelance writer outside my full-time day job, so I wanted this primarily to write on Wordpress. Once I figured out I should definitely download the Wordpress App from the Google Play Store, it worked like a charm. Trying to do Wordpress entries via the available browsers (either the generic Android "Browser" app or via Google's Chrome app...haven't tried any others yet) was tedious and frustrating.

Browsing in-general can be tedious and frustrating sometimes. If you're moving within a given webpage, you're probably going to get decent speed, but moving from one web URL to the next can be slow and generates a lot of "Chrome is not responding. Would you like to close it?" messages. I usually select "Wait," and almost as soon as I click it, the logjam breaks loose for whatever reason. Someone suggested I try Opera for Android, which I think I'll try soon.

Otherwise, this machine came loaded with Kingsoft Office, which is handy for general writing and note-taking duties and can also handle spreadsheets-but I mostly use Google Drive since Google documents don't use any space from my Drive account allotment, and I can access them on any internet-connected machine including my old Mac desktop. Cloud computing has its advantages, it turns out.

I plan to try using this laptop to stream YouTube videos and possibly Netflix (if I can get the proper app for it) to our living room TV. When viewing video on the YouTube app, even 1080 HD streams smoothly in full-screen mode. This is the kind of work Allwinner SOCs-the guts of these machines-were made for.

So overall I give it four out of five stars. I wasn't expecting a great gaming machine (it isn't...mostly because it doesn't have touchscreen or gyro capabilities) or a perfect web-browsing machine (it isn't, for reasons outlined above), but as a productivity enhancer that I can use while on the go, it fits the bill as well as any full-fledged laptop costing four or five times as much, and its small form factor-just slightly larger than an early MacBook Air-makes it supremely portable.

One last thing: The company-Avatar-is incredible to work with. My power supply crapped out on me after a couple months of ownership, and they expeditiously arranged for an RMA and sent me a new one. They also gave me instructions (and a link!) on how to wipe the Android OS and start from scratch when I inquired about possibly installing a more conventional Linux distro on the machine. All I had to do was ask. That was pretty cool of them. I'm currently looking at buying a compact desktop PC from them that comes loaded with Ubuntu 12.10 because I like the service they've given me so far, and the value in my estimation is unbeatable.

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I bought this product for my dad for Christmas. I was trying to show him how to use the internet but it closes the browser every time you try to use it. It seems like it's on a timer to close the browser and I don't know how to change it. The manual sent with the book does not discuss this, it may be an easy fix but I don't know how to change it. There are no other reviews or information online, therefore, currenlty it's unless.

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This is a fine purchase for someone that is on a budget and is looking for email and enternet however out of the box not very user friendly unless u are a smartphone user and know your way around ICS. After finding the Google app store(would have been nice to see this app on the desktop on first boot along with a welcome tutorial for the launcher they use) I was surprised to see many apps unavailable to this device in the google play store. no chrome?? I highly recommend sideloading chrome because the default browser isn't compatible with some websites. The os seems to overload and throw up insert app name is not responding,wait,report or close boxes perhaps ICS is to much or soon there will be a software update?

Discount Lenovo® G570 (4334-9GU) Laptop Computer {Intel Pentium B960

Customer Ratings:

Pros: bright screen, great keypad, good "entry level" speakers, fast enough for writing & web surfing

Cons: "clicking" sound from left hinge

I really only use my laptop for my writing assignments and to check email...This laptop is perfect for that. Some back story that would be helpful: This is the 3rd laptop I have purchased in my endeavor to find a replacement for my Toshiba Satellite which has lasted over 5 years. I bought and RETURNED another entry-level Satellite as well as a Gateway; long story short, they weren't better than this Lenovo.

As far as typing goes, it was/is bit of a transition to switch from a basic laptop keypad to one with the numeric keypad at the right something I've never had in a laptop. The good news is that my hand & finger placement on this laptop do not "feel" shifted to the left like they do on the Toshiba Satellite. And there is plenty of space for my large fingers.

2.2 GHz processor and 4 GB of ram is all I need for what I do. I don't "game" or do any heavy graphics editing on this laptop. The boot up is quick and applications start very quickly. I have noticed on the Toshiba that when I listened to music and opened other applications that the music would "stutter" or pause while the processor caught up with the application. That was NOT the case with this Lenovo and multi-tasking is effortless here.

As I stated above, I also like to listen to music when I work which can be a trial on most entry level laptops. The speakers on this Lenovo are really good way better than the Toshiba (sounded like cell phone speakers) and is as good or better than the Gateway. Remember, this is a basic laptop so you won't be able to jam out with big bass.

One thing that bugs me about this Lenovo: when you flip up the screen and push it all the way back, the left hinge makes this "clicking" sound. The sound repeats when you wiggle the screen back & forth at this point. I'm believe it's the "build" of the laptop and not a mechanical fault as I noticed it on the floor model. I can live with it, personally. I've never noticed anything like it on other laptops, but when you're buying in this price range, you have to take the bad with the good.

Overall, if this laptop will be for you, it will suit your needs if you'll be only doing the basic administrative type tasks. If you're purchasing this for a "gamer," it won't be powerful enough.

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I bought this for my 12 yr old son.

I was looking for a Lenovo machine because I've had very good experience with a number of Lenovo machines.

This one is also great!! My son runs a number of game packages, including supporting his MineCraft server.

It has delivered solid performance and great reliability at a significant discount to a new machine. I also bought a referb Lenovo desk top which has also been absolutely solid.

We've had the notebook for nearly a year and the desk top for about 9 mo; both Lenovo referbs from Amazon, both solid, reliable machines.

Best Deals for Lenovo® G570 (4334-9GU) Laptop Computer {Intel Pentium B960

The laptop arrived very quickly and in good shape. It was packaged in the original Lenovo box with a Lenovo seal. We have been using it for a while and have had no problems. It was a replacement for my wife's old hp laptop, and she has been very satisfied with its performance.

Honest reviews on Lenovo® G570 (4334-9GU) Laptop Computer {Intel Pentium B960

muy buen vendedor me llego todo a tiempo y en mu buen estado le doy el maximo puntaje al vendedor

Review of HP LJ507UT EliteBook 8460p Notebook (2.50 GHz Intel Core i5-2520M

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop to replace a very lightweight Sony that had ran Vista and was starting to have issues, both with the software and the hardware (keyboard starting to act up). This Windows 7 Laptop is heavier but seems very well built. I think I saw something about being built to military standards for durability standards (I could be wrong on this), but it seems as it very well could have been. As it is now discontinued, I got it at a tremendous bargain, $600 versus $1200. I love the Windows 7 operating system and it's speed and ease of upgrading. I upgraded memory from 4GB to 8GB for $33 from HP. Very pleased with this laptop, no regrets. I bought it to use primarily as a business tool with client presentations.

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