Cheap MSI G Series GT60 2OD-026US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

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List Price: $1,999.99
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I have had my GT60-2OD for about a week now. And it's been awesome. The keyboard is a pleasure to type on, the backlight and effects are very nice as well, and also as I read somewhere they did add a matte screen bezel for this generation so no distracting reflections while using your new laptop!

I have it set on a coolermaster pad made for 17" laptops, given that the screen bezel is pretty wide. Also, the laptop fits nicely inside the pad when transporting it or for storage. The cooling pad is mostly for elevation, but it does help ease the airflow around the system. Without it the temps are a little higher due to the fan intake/exhaust vents recycling some of the hot air that bounces of the wooden table which is very insulating and gets quite hot. Perhaps glass or metal tables are easier on the temps. I haven't been using the cooling pad fans, as I don't really think they would make much of a difference as the laptop is ventilated by the sides and not bottom, but I'm sure they could improve the temps by a few degrees.

I did have some modifications done to the laptop. The thermal paste replaced with IC Diamond 24 by Gentech PC and I also had 3 mSSDs installed and set to RAID 0 to get a bigger SSD C: Drive. Also, as a bonus I got my RAM upgraded to 24 gigs.

With the turbo fan on (from the touch bar controls) and ambient temps around 24 C neither the CPU nor the GPU ever go much above 80 C with heavy gaming for hours at ultra settings on the ARMA 3 Alpha which runs at around 45 FPS with default ULTRA settings. A little reduction on draw distances and reduction of MSAA to 4x instead of 8x brought it up to 50 FPS. This with no overclocking or any kind of fiddling or any other settings changed. I'm sure that both the CPU and GPU are capable of a little more, but I haven't been there yet. The only that I did was to use the new feature MSI put in place, which uses some of the battery power to complement the supply when the 180W from the AC adapter aren't enough. It's called hybrid power and to use it you just need to open the program and press OK.

But if you keep your factory thermal paste job, you might get higher temps than I did and maybe slightly slower FPS because of the system protecting itself from overheating. Some users on forums reported that some of the paste jobs were sloppy and that MSI used too much pasted and that some systems were overheating. So you may want to look into that, specially if you think your system is running too hot.

Switching between GPU's is quite easy, to force Windows to use the Intel integrated GPU isntead of the 780m all the time you have to go to Nvidia Control panel/3d Settings/ and change your global settings to the integrated GPU and then restart the PC. This way your GPU light will remain white. Then, manually choose games and other programs that you want using the Nvidia GPU from that same menu. Light code: White=Intel HD4600 Orange=NVIDIA 780m

I haven't done thorough battery tests, but as with any laptop I'm sure it greatly depends on the use. Maybe a little over an hour of gaming and perhaps 10 hours with devices turned off, minimum brightness and just light browsing and some video watching using the integrated GPU only. These numbers are invented and not any real representation. I will try to get some accurate numbers after I do some testing.

There are some annoying quirks. Whenever I plug my G700 mouse (haven't tried any other mice) the computer auto disables the touchpad. And I have to go FN+F3 to enable again. The touchpad is really nice when typing and you need to do something with the cursor quickly, not so much if it's disabled. Apparently some of the Synaptics software does this and is somewhat complicated to fix as there is no toggle setting available natively. Maybe new drivers will have that feature, but with the ones you get out of the box your touchpad will be automatically disabled when another mouse input is connected. After searching on some forums someone pointed out to me this fix

"Disable internal pointing device when external USB pointing device is attached" option in the synaptics control panel, open regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPEnh, right click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it "DisableIntPDFeature". "Modify it's value to 33 in hexadecimal, or 51 in decimal to enable it to be default on." I haven't tried it yet myself. But I might try to do it soon.

I was unlucky enough to get a noisy fan when it is idling, it sound like toy car gears or perhaps a bad bearing. But a quick e-mail to my reseller and a few arrangements with MSI got me a new one coming in the mail. Which I will change myself. Since my warranty sticker had already been broken it's not an issue. Yet, you should contact MSI and ask about implications of breaking your warranty sticker. The consensus is that as long as you don't actually damage anything there shouldn't be a problem, yet I recommend contacting MSI yourself. You need to break it to upgrade your RAM with the 2 slots that are available upon opening the laptop (the other 2 are under the keyboard)

I have been thinking about doing two things to improve the aesthetics of the notebook. And that is

1)Removing the stickers, or at least just the Specs and MSI gaming series and maybe even the Sound Blaster one. The Intel and Nvidia one are fine. Since the handrest is made of aluminum, I would think that any glue residue would be easily removed with alcohol, lighter fluid or some other light solvent. This may decrease the resale value of the laptop later on, so it's a very personal call.

2)Coming from the MSI GX60, I always hated the shiny screen bezel, yet I loved the chrome MSI logo. In the GT60 I love the matte bezel but the painted MSI logo on the bezel looks very cheap and detracts from the High-end look of the notebook. I ordered a pair or metal stickers from China that I found on eaby. They will get here in about 20 days, so we'll see about that. I know that I might have to modify things a little bit. The foremost reason I think MSI chose to do this is since the bezel is matte, the stickers wouldn't play so nice with that surface. Let's see what happens. I got a 2 pack, so I have a little slack there.

As a footnote, I have been looking for good cases to keep and carry the laptop around. I haven't yet found a neoprene skin that would fit the laptop, it is bigger than a standard 15.6 incher and also thicker, but not as big as a 17 incher. I haven't yet found one but I'll keep looking. As for the case, after a lot of research I found a nice case that I think looks amazing, has a good price and offers good protection. The Condor 3-Way laptop case available here on Amazon seems to fit this laptop nicely. It seems to have a large enough pocket for the Power supply brick and has good padding and restraint all the way around. I'll post an update once I get it to see how well it fits.

To wrap it up, I read on the owners forum for this laptop over at notebookreview that to get the warranty from MSI you have to complete the online form and then print and mail something back to them (through snail mail) to get the full warranty. I haven't done it yet and I suggest you look up some information. I will try to keep this review updated with any new developments.

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Received mine earlier today and have been install, browsing and gaming for six hours.

Initial impression:

Unboxing the laptop, the overall weight of the unit and power adapter is fairly substantial. This makes a good desktop replacement, but I could not see myself carrying this daily. Overall, the construction is fairly good, but there are some short comings. The hotkeys near the top creak and are not sturdy towards the center, the laptop screen has a decent amount of flex and the same for the bottom half. The unit just does not feel as solid as the HP Elitebooks that I've owned in the past for example.

I also am not a fan of the trackpad buttons. They take a considerable amount of force to click and really force you to use the outer edges. For some reason, the buttons are a single piece which adds to the frustration. The keyboard is decent and the variable color back lighting is a nice touch.

Turning the laptop on, it greats you with the typical Windows 8 setup. There is not a lot of pre-installed applications, though I did end up removing a handful. Fortunately, the Norton software was straight forward to remove along with the other software. From there, it was easy to get online and start installing my common applications like Chrome, Steam, Avast and so on.

Gaming:

Since this is a laptop built around the fastest single mobile graphics card (780m) that was my next stop. The first game I fired up was Skyrim along with the HD texture pack and a few other visual upgrades. Due to Optimus, the installers recommends very low settings, but I set them to Ultra to start. The majority of indoor zones and towns play without a hitch at Ultra. However, out in the open world there was a considerable amount of stuttering at various times. It will take some more tweaking to find the optimal settings as well as trying other games like Crysis 3 and so on.

Summary:

While I've only had a short time with the laptop, I'm happy with the value. This makes a good portable gaming pc gaming system, but I will keep my ultrabook for mobile computing.

Best Deals for MSI G Series GT60 2OD-026US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Sadly I bought this from a popular website starting with an N and ending in G which I will never use again. I purchased there only because Amazon themselves don't have this in stock yet. BIG MISTAKE as getting an RMA has been a nightmare.

The laptop has great hardware for gaming, great sound, a good screen, fantastic keyboard. Scored 7700 on 3Dmark 11 P out of the box.

Mine has a bad issue with the fan, it sounds like a locust is stuck inside my comp. The thing rattles at idle and whines at load, like a bad bearing or similar to coil whine. The disc drive also only works sometimes. My ssd drive changes its free space available after every restart despite setting a fixed mem allocation. It will go from anywhere between 68gb and 76gb. HEAT is bad, the CPU idles at about 65C and load up to 100C unless I turn on turbo fan. The GPU goes up to 91C at load.

If I could get a refund I would but I'm stuck as they won't give one to me without paying 15% restocking. It was like pulling teeth to get a return label and my replacement isn't even guaranteed. If you buy this get it here. I hope Someday Amazon will put these places with terrible customer arrive out of business.

Honest reviews on MSI G Series GT60 2OD-026US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Having a blast with this notebook. It loads Windows almost instantaneously, runs games with the best resolution possible while still maintaining good fps and has more disk space than I can handle. What else could I ever want in a computer?

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This laptop is amazing, ssd and a monster gpu let alone the haswell which makes it last longer with battery.

Actually i'd like to have a desktop for gaming but i travel to study in america then i travel back every vocation thats 1 month or longer

Battery life maybe is not very important for this type of laptops but here u go:

If im playing heavy games it takes 1h30m-2h but if you are doing other things 5 hours is an easy achievement. As long as it doesnt use the monsterous gpu

It is still better to use the charger while playing to get the best performance out of the gpu, i see a slight drop in frames rate without it.

you might find more about this laptop in tech websites reviews or youtube videos.

Buy Acer Aspire V5-552PG-X809 15.6-inch Touchscreen Laptop (Champagne

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List Price: $799.99
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This arrived on time and wow Acer has a home run product. The touch screen works perfectly the set up was so easy and my son who will be taking this off to College in 2 weeks loves it. Price, size and features make this a steal even at twice the cost. Thinking about buying one for my self graphics are that good Netflix runs and looks better then on my Plasma TV.

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This this is amazing. I was a little nervous about both windows 8 and the touchscreen aspect but they are both quite nice. The touchscreen has worked very well so far altho i usually have this hooked up to my TV via HDMI. It plays D3, SC2 and GW2 at near top levels, even in 1080p on the 46" tv. The only two downsides that I can see is the lack of an optical drive, which I bough with the computer, and only 3 USB ports. Only one of them is a USB 3 and it is located on the back of the laptop which is kind of annoying. I can't complain too much tho as the machine runs super smooth and fast. It also looks and feels very solid and is quite slim. All in all, I think this might be the best laptop I have owned!

Best Deals for Acer Aspire V5-552PG-X809 15.6-inch Touchscreen Laptop (Champagne

Wow. I am very impressed with this laptop. The quad core processor is super fast and the dual graphics are excellent. This computer has good gaming capabilities but don't expect to play on ultra settings. I use this laptop to game and edit videos. It does very well on each of those. I recommend this computer to anyone who will be doing demanding CPU tasks on the go. This computer can handle them very well. It is super slim and very easy to travel with. Highly recommended!

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-552PG-X809 15.6-inch Touchscreen Laptop (Champagne

This laptop is a great for its value. You get a quad-core 2.5Ghz and 3.5Ghz with turbo core. The Graphic's card is decent with 2GB of video ram. It will run Far Cry and Starcraft with fairly ease. Touchscreen is decent and display is fairly crisp. Acer has a history of trying out new designs such as the much like the acer r7, however what the this product does different is having the power button on the side and most all the ports on the back except 2 usb 2.0 on the side

-Bang for your Buck

-responsive touchscreen display

-crisp clear display

-unlisted backlit keyboard

-good speakers

cons

-hard to open with no gap (must need some nails) becomes more annoying then you think

-runs loud when with turbo core

-plastic casing

-smudge magnet

-awkward keyboard

-standard 4 hour battery life.

HP Pavilion DV9334US 17" NOTEBOOK LAPTOP PC (Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 Review

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worked great for about 3 months then got slow and its not a virus I downloaded Macfee the top of the line online sucurity. In the past 3 months I renstaled vista still runs crappy I feel that 400 dollars is too much and if it was selling for 100 you could consider it (1 GB not 2 GB RAM)

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There is design flaw in this computer which causes the solder between the motherboard and graphics card to go bad. Like the others mine went bad in a year of moderate use. Had it repaired twice, once by HP, once by and independent company and has failed again shortly after both. I will no longer be buying HP products nor will I be able to recommend them to friends and family. This coming from someone who once avidly encouraged people to buy HP.

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Had the laptop less than a year, The graphic card broke after a few months. Not too happy with Hp.

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV9334US 17" NOTEBOOK LAPTOP PC (Intel Core 2 Duo T5300

We had two of these computers. The one only lasted 1 year until the mother board burned out, and the second one only lasted 2.5 years because the graphic card broke. Not to reliable and built very cheaply.

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This model was my 2nd laptop. I never had any issues with it. I bought mine from Office Max for around

$720 with tax in 2005. The only problem I've had out of it is when I.....put a pen on the keyboard near the

screen and foolishly closed it without thinking; cracking the screen. I've taken it apart and depending on

price, I might replace it. I own a Toshiba Satelite and another HP dv6 series bought almost two years ago.

In total, I have owned three HP laptops.

To make laptops more affordable some parts are made with plastic or other materials which degrade when hot.

NO laptop fan will cool it efficiently and require laptop users to need a good laptop fan/cooler. There are ways

to circumvent the shortcomings in manufacturing when computer companies do this. I replaced the power jack/port

on the Toshiba with a sturdier model which cost $2.99 and about 2 hours labor myself.

NO DUCT TAPE INVOLVED.

It sucks that many people have had bad experiences with HP. Everyone has their own preferences and I for one

have had great ones with HP. This model is best for a desktop replacement WITH a good laptop cooler.

Buy Toshiba C655-S5507 Satellite Laptop / Intel Pentium processor B960

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You have found it!

I say single-tasking because you need to know that it is a single-core computer and set your expectations accordingly, do not expect it to work as well with multiple programs open at once.

This gets a very admirable 5.1 on the Windows Performance Index, where all of the other laptops that I looked at in the sub $400 range get 4.4 to 4.9. Desktop Graphics is the lowest of the scores at 5.1, and suprisingly it picks up a 5.9 for Gaming Graphics! Surely you won't do any hardcore gaming with a computer in this price range, but since I will be doing light vector graphics work as the primary use of this computer, I was very happy to see this.

I was fortunate and found it for $330 at a local retailer, and IMO it becomes the best option with considering cost to performance of similar laptops. Also to my suprise, the SATA controller had AHCI mode already active, so I will probably look into getting a low capacity SSD to boost the performance a bit more, although it already seems quite snappy on the 320GB 5200 RPM drive that it comes with.

For tinkerers, there are two panels on the bottom with one screw in each, one gives you access to the two RAM slots, the other gives access to the HDD. There was a lot of pre-installed "junk" that I got rid of for the most part, but I hung on to a few of the apps as they seem useful, such as a hardware setup wizard that lets you adjust BIOS settings from within Windows, and the native driver updates application.

Of all of my WiFi devices, this one seems to pick up signals that I have never seen before, so I imagine that a lot of this is due to the low density and therefore unobtrusive materials used for the chasis and body rather than a super-powered WiFi module. Regardless of the reason, it is a nice bonus.

UPDATE: Installed 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD without issue. I have also had an opportunity to work with the computer a little and after selling my first generation ASUS zenbook after several months of ownership and use the only difference I notice is aesthetic. One more positive that should be noted about this laptop that I have noticed after some use is the screen. It is not the highest resolution, but it is crisp with very good color reproduction and max brightness looks very usable and good.

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I purchased this laptop at Best Buy on July 7, 2012. 5 months later in December it stops burning dvds. I called 800-457-777 given under properties in My Computer for Toshiba support. Don't waste your breath. The little laptop did well for 5 months, but even with the one year warranty which he acknowledged covered all hardware issues you have to pay $49.95 for the phone call if you want them to "fix" this issue over the phone.

There is no yellow exclamation mark in device manager it says the device is working properly. It will read cds and dvds and will burn cds but stopped burning dvds about a week ago.

I would suggest looking around to see if there is any company left where you can understand their "tech support" and will honor their warranties. If you are just looking for an inexpensive laptop to search the internet and get email then this one may do just fine for you.

Buy Toshiba Computer Systems - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4gb Memory

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This budget laptop has some nice features for the money. It's got a good size hard drive (640GB) and 4GB of RAM, and it's reasonably fast. It also has a nice bright 15" screen. But I just can't get past the horrible sounding speakers. Now I know the speakers on most laptops are terrible. But these are by far the worst I've ever heard. The SRS Premium Sound HD option that comes with this laptop improves the sound SLIGHTLY. But even when using that option, the speakers still sound very tinny and trebly...to the point where I can't even listen to them anymore. Because they actually grate on and cause a very unpleasant sensation in my ears. After just a few days, I had to buy some Logitech multimedia speakers to use as a replacement speaker system for this laptop. Also, after just a few days, I've noticed that the mouse freezes up sometimes. I guess it's like anything else...you get what you pay for. But despite its positive attributes, I can't recommend this product.

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Buy HP 6510b Laptop, Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0Ghz, Fingerprint Reader

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I bought this computer almost a year ago and I did not have one problem with it (except its slow because of my weak internet). There are also some awesome features like the biometric finger scanner which is really easy to setup if you are computer inclined, if not than you can find a tutorial on the web somewhere but it does require that you download a program which I have tested and it is safe and works really good. The touch screen volume control gets laggy sometimes. Another thing that is good about this computer is that it is INDESTRUCTIBLE. I have dropped it, thrown it on my bed every night and spilled drinks on it multiple times. My online chief complaint is that I have an issue with charging it, the charger is kind of funky and you have to either hold it or not move the computer itself. It also doesn't hold a charge TOO well but if you are just using it for home than keep the charger near. And a little minor thing is that it doesn't come with a lot of stock programs like solitaire, etc. Which means there is no security system so you can either buy norton or avg or just use the trials which is what I do. Bottom line is that this computer is GREAT. The charger came brand new and the computer said that there was a few minor cosmetic damages but there is nothing bad that I have seen.

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Review of Lenovo S10-3t - 250GB

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This is a video review of the Lenovo S10-3t with Windows 7 Premium and 2 GB of memory.

My overall impression is quite positive given the flexibility of using my existing PC applications and using it as a tablet for reading e-books, surfing the internet, and watching videos. One pleasant surprise is that the wide screen display gives me a much better internet browsing experience than my other existing netbooks. In my opinion, it does a lot more than an iPad with a similar price as its low-end model.

The multi-touch experience is not the best but it works quite well after some training.

Hope you enjoy this video

Cheers

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Two things: this model (-85U) comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and with a 4-cell battery. Home Premium, unlike Starter, has a ton of built-in touchscreen features that all work well with this machine. If you read the reviews of the -37U version of the S10-3T, you'll see that many people complained about the size and weight of the 8-cell battery.

About speed -I uninstalled most of the Lenovo "extras" and swapped the RAM for a 2 GB module (I used the Crucial only because it was Prime-eligible). The printed manual has clear instructions for replacing the RAM. At this point, the machine is quite snappy except when it isn't. That is, when Windows decides to do an upgrade or when some process runs amok, the machine becomes nearly unusable. The rest of the time, it is fine.

I really wanted an Android tablet, but since no acceptable one yet exists, this was a good compromise solution. I like having Windows, with its unlimited supply of applications, but I don't like the larger size and weight nor the limited battery life (I think it may be less than 3 hours, but I haven't run it down yet). For the best info, search for Jesse B Anderson's stuff -he'll help you decide.

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...for what I was looking for.

I read a lot of digital comic books and had contemplated getting an iPad so that I could once again read my comic books anywhere, rather than sitting in the basement at the computer desk.

After learning how little space is on the iPad I started searching for iPad alternatives and the S10-3T came up.

I got it about a week and a half ago and it is perfect for my needs.

Not only can I read my comic books anywhere I want, I can do about 85% of the stuff I use my regular PC for. I find myself in the basement less and less. Still use the PC for photoshop work, development stuff, games, etc.

I too upgraded to 2 GB of RAM...you just have to...it'll make or break your perception of the netbook. I also use the SD card slot for ReadyBoost, saw def improvements with that as well. I removed a ton of the 'bloatware' (mainly lenovo pre-installed applications) that came with it. Also made some tweaks via ......great site for getting the most out of your S10-3T.

My 4 negatives (but by no means a deal breaker):

No bluetooth (i ordered a usb one)

No way (yet) to upgrade the CPU

Battery only lasts like 3 hours with WiFi on, though if i had the 8 cell, a negative might be the weight...right now i can hold it with one hand while reading

No SSD drive....from what I have read it really increases performance. Once they come down in price for larger ones (250GB+), i'll upgrade mine

Anyway...if you are not sure about the iPad, and don't want to wait for a legitimate Tablet PC, this will def be worth it.

Honest reviews on Lenovo S10-3t - 250GB

I was surprised by the size and weight. I thought it would be larger and heavier, but it's about the same size and weight as the HP Mini 10.2". My unit has the 4-cell battery, but it has Windows 7 Home Premium already installed which is a great trade-off. I purchased the larger battery from Lenovo and am still waiting for it. I immediately installed the 2GB memory upgrade. It was very easy to do. The hardest part of that process was unscrewing the back. The screws are embedded in the lid and do not come out, so they can't get lost. The old memory card snapped out and the new one snapped in. The system recognized it and I was ready to go. The unit comes with functional versions of MS 2010 Word and Excel. You would have to purchase the full MS Office program if you want all the components. The Natural Touch program may take some getting use to. The Lenovo uses finger touch-a learning curve. I am very happy I can watch movies through an optional portable DVD drive. As soon as I can get to a wireless connection, I will download iTunes and transfer my files. The speakers exist, but the sound through headphones is great. Music sounds good and has good bass. My unit also came with the SIM card option. I will test that at a later date because I am overseas. I put a DecalGirl decal on the outside cover, but they only make them for the S10 and it is not the same size. Still, it is enough to protect the outside cover from scratches and fingerprints until they make one specifically for the S10-3T. If it weren't for the difficulty I'm having in calibrating for finger touch, I would have given this a 5-star rating. The other drawback is it has only 2 USB ports, but I can get around that with a hub. I am going through the programs and getting rid of the ones I don't want. I deleted MacAfee and installed Norton Antivirus. I originally purchased this through Best Buy online but it was on back order indefinitely. I watched the price on Amazon until it dropped to $397 and I bought it quickly. A week later the price jumped up again and stayed high due to high demand. Every store I went to was sold out. If I had known everything about this unit I know now, I would believe it was worth $500 but not more. A netbook should not cost so much. Overall, I'm glad I got this. I travel extensively and this is a wonderful alternative to lugging around a full laptop.

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I bought this computer as a replacement for another netbook. I figured the touch screen would be helpful for taking notes, marking up papers, and the like (I'm a PhD student). At the price, it couldn't be beat -it was one of the lowest-cost touchscreen / tablet full computer (i.e., just like a regular computer, versus something like an iPad) portables on the market. I find a lot to like about the computer, but also a lot to dislike. Overall, a good value for the price, if you can deal with the minor annoyances.

Major parts:

Touchscreen: A nice feature, definitely is fun to use in Microsoft OneNote. Not as useful as I thought it would be, mostly because Adobe Acrobat has terrible support for touchscreen (completely unexpected, for a product touted to be a replacement for paper ...). Occasional problems with deadzones, but these usually go away after cleaning. Slow response, due mostly to Windows 7, plus the fact that the computer is not terribly fast.

Screen / image quality: Could be better, could be worse. It does the job. Poor viewing angles. Image starts looking washed out if you're ten degrees off the vertical, which limits the usability of tablet mode. Also, screen has a slightly warm color cast ... the whites look a little orange-green. You can even it out somewhat with Windows 7 gamma control, but not entirely. Also, aspect ratio is a little off: images are flatter/wider than they should be, in landscape mode. This means in portrait mode, everything is taller/narrower than it should be. Moral of the story: To show pictures of yourself (or your significant other) in the most flattering light, use portrait mode :-)

Keyboard: Nice that the keys are close to full-size. Layout is overall okay, EXCEPT that the lower-left corner key is a FN function key, not a CTRL key as one might expect. The CTRL key is to the right of the FN key. Maybe someone could find a way to remap the keys, then you could swap them?

Touchpad: Overall, usable. Textured surface is nice. Note that there are no real buttons. The lower corners of the pad serve as pseudo-buttons. When you click, the whole pad dips down into the respective corner. Makes it hard to do click and drag, unless you use the tapping mode (but that only really works for left-click ...)

Below are small annoyances (some smaller than others):

The fan: This fan is the single most annoying thing about this computer. Of course, when it's off, it's great. But when it's on ... it's super, super loud. And, for some reason, it runs almost all the time. If you can concentrate with a intermittent, usually on, stream of white noise emanating from in front of you, more power to you ... but I find that the fan noise breaks my concentration. It literally makes it hard for me to think. Note, it's almost unnoticeable out of the house, but at home, in my bedroom, where I do most of my work, it sounds very, very loud, at least to me. I thought the fan on my previous netbook (Acer Aspire One) was loud, but the Lenovo takes the cake. If you can not stand loud fan noises, do NOT buy this computer.

Webcam: The webcam gets the job done. But, it's off to the side, which means whoever you're camming with will get a three-quarter view of your face. This is not such a bad thing if the right side of your face is your "good side". Potentially disaster if it isn't ... :-)

-Battery life: It's a 4-cell, which means it's light, both in terms of weight and power. Realistically, with Windows 7 Home, you're looking at a little under two hours. If you upgrade to an 8-cell, it'll stick out a little, and add about half a pound, bringing the weight up to about 3 pounds even, which is about the same as the weight of the 4-cell plus the AC adapter. I would recommend the 8-cell.

The AC adapter wire is a little on the short side. So in coffeeshops, you'll need to sit maybe a foot closer to a power outlet. I'd suggest just getting an 8-cell battery and leave the adapter at home.

Tips:

Buy an 8-cell battery or be doomed to carry your AC adapter everywhere.

Get the 2 GB RAM upgrade if you don't want to spend half your life waiting for Windows 7 to respond to your mouse clicks.

Get a stylus or suffer from a constantly smudged screen. (Note: you need a touch-capacitive stylus. Any that work for the iPad will work.)

When turning the screen to enter / exit tablet mode, ALWAYS apply force to the bottom corners of the screen (near where the buttons on the screen bevel are). NEVER apply force to the top corners, otherwise you may suffer a crack in the screen which will most likely NOT be covered by warranty. Basically, when turning the screen, you want to do so in a way that causes the screen to flex the LEAST, which means applying force as close to the hinge as possible.

Overall:

A good value for the price, if you can deal with the minor annoyances.

I personally would not buy this computer again.

HP dv6-6c35dx 15.6" Pavilion Laptop (AMD Quad-Core A8-3520M CPU Review

Customer Ratings:

I can run all my major programs fast. I love the fingerprint scanner. I can sign in to different websites by just sliding my finger. I can also play games like FreeRealms and The Sims 3 with my expansions very well and with medium-high graphic settings. I bought mine for about $326.00. Very well worth it:)

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I really like this pc, is my first computer actually mine. The only complain that I have is that many times is slow. I have read that it could be thanks to the amd A8 cpu, but than is after 8 months of extremely hard work. if you want a pc with the classic windows 7 to do your basic every day stuff and even a little more, this is perfect for your. I had run several virtual machines on it and manage it ok, even some games like halo and imperial glory (not at the same time). Well that all.

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HP ProBook 4510s WH327UT Laptop 15.6" 3GB 250GB DVDRW Review

Customer Ratings:

This is an excellent product which I have been using heavily over the last two years. It has performed according to my expectations!

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What a piece of junk!

A few months after purchasing my HP Probook, it began making an incessant beeping noise, that would begin shortly after starting up and continue until it was powered down. I returned it to the service provider wehre they ran a suite of tests to check everything from overheating to hard drive/motherboard issues. Finally I was told to call HP Customer service for Latin American/Caribbean users. I wont go into too much details about what a pain that was from difficulties getting through, to being routed to the "right" division, to the language barrier with the Customer Service Reps. Finally, after several calls, it was decided that the issue was the keyboard (If you think this is unlikely, so did I,) Needless to say the keyboard was replaced, but the problem continued. I had to start the entire process all over againthis time they said it was the battery. Weeks later, I finally got the battery, but it was the wrong battery for my laptop model. Finally,on the third try, I got the right battery. By this time, its been two months since I first reported the problem The beeping issue stopped for two months, then started up again. Then the "new" battery died five months after being replaced.

Now, of course the laptop is no longer under warranty and HP informs me that they already "fixed the problem" and closed the case.

I have definitely learned my lesson, I will never buy another HP laptop again. I have had a Lenovo laptop which has given me no problems at all in over three years. So from now on Lenovo or Mac are the choices for me.

Envy 14-2160SE Beats Edition Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Got this as a gift for my niece. She was really into the "Beats by Dre" and really wanted this laptop. The laptop is all black with the keypad lighting up making the buttons light up. It looks like a really cool laptop. As soon as we turned it on, the mouse pad worked....and then it stopped working. We contacted Adorama for an exchange because it seemed defective and were told to send it in to HP. The laptop stopped working the day we opened the box and thought that they were going to assist us well with the problem, but instead provided no customer service. Paying almost a $1000 for a laptop and getting no customer service told us to never purchase another item from Adorama ever again. I'm not sure if this a common problem with this model or if we just happened to receive a defective item, but we are very disappointed.

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Purchased this notebook for $1299 as the center piece of my home entertainment system and it has been absolutely incredible. The Beats Audio processing technology added an amazing audio dynamic to my home entertainment system and the dedicated graphics card is perfect for watching/ streaming HD content. I'm truly pleased with the performance of this unit.

Review of ASUS X75A-DS51 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

This laptop is probably the best bang for your buck out there right now. I purchased this laptop because I needed a portable computer to take with me to classes for notes so I figured almost anything would do, which lead me to the lower end of the price scale. The first thing I noticed is how beautiful the screen is. The color depth is spot on and everything looks sharp. Performance wise this guy has a dual core, hyper threading Intel i5 with 8 GB of ram, I have yet to see it lag at all. Other features include Bluetooth technology and a 750 GB hard drive separated in to 2 partitions which allows the OS to be recovered without removing data on the 2nd partition.

The only drawback to this laptop for most is that it comes with Windows 8 on it which most people aren't liking quite yet. However with a start menu replacement program that allows booting straight in to the desktop I think that Windows 8 becomes acceptable at the least.

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I bought this laptop going into my junior year of college as a Computer Science major. I was looking for something that could handle a variety of tasks such as some gaming (Minecraft and League Of Legends), programming, and entertainment (streaming movies/music). I have been using the laptop and am very pleased with my purchase with 2 minor exceptions.

The first thing I am unhappy with is the location of the speakers. I don't use my speakers for more than some music and movies, but the speakers on this laptop are on the bottom of the unit so that the sound is fairly muted. This is a bigger problem when using the laptop on something like a bed than it is if the laptop is on a hard surface. Turning the volume up a few notches can help solve the problem, but it is a little frustruating at first.

The second thing I an unhappy with is the location of the USB drives. All 3 USB drives are directly next to each other on the left side of the laptop. This really isn't a huge deal, but I was using a wired mouse at the time and it was messy running a cord from the left USB around the back to use a mouse. I just bought an inexpensive wireless mouse so this should no longer be a problem.

Both of these problems are small details and can be averted by simply using the laptop on a hard surface, turning up the volume a bit, or using a wireless mouse. The i5 processor and 5400 rpm hard drive help the laptop continue to run fast even when handling heavier loads while the 17.3 inch screen allows me to have multiple programs open on the screen at the same time. I would recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a fast 17 inch laptop.

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I have owned multiple laptops and so far, this one is in my top 3 especially at this price range. I did a lot of research before purchasing and for what you get out of the box and compared to others is excellent. Nice bright display with good color depth. Performance wise it has a dual core, hyper threading Intel i5 with 8 GB of Ram. Compared to some other brands, you're going to pay a little more. The audio sounds goods, but I prefer headphones probably like most. The battery life could be a little better lasting in the 4-5 hour range with use. Now the biggest reason for the 4 rating is the 10key is a little awkward in it's placement there needs to be a little bit of a gap from the main keyboard, the touchpad takes some getting use too, there is a little more of the bloatware on it then probably some (I just uninstall it) and of course it's Windows 8 which is down right awful.

Honest reviews on ASUS X75A-DS51 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

This laptop is really great. The only things I would like improved are:

1. To have USB ports on both sides. It has 3 USB ports and they are all located on the left of the keyboard.

2. I wish the left click part of the mouse were a little longer than the right click side. I often hit the right when I intend on hitting the left click.

3. It would be nice if the numlock key and the capslock key would light up when activated.

4. The speaker is not very loud at all.

Other than these small things, it works great and I love it! It is fast and the screen is big and has great color and resolution.

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im very happy with the asus. i converted it to windows 7 with no problems. it is networked and "purring" along.

Review of Lenovo ThinkPad T61 7658 Notebook

Customer Ratings:

Great reliability, tough, fast, workhorse, but on my third set of NEW hinges (they last about 3-6 months max before they start to become wobbly bad design, every one of these I've played with has the same crappy hinge problem).

I like being able to swap out the memory, hard drive, keyboard easily by yourself. Since Lenovo took these over from IBM, the quality has been going down, but this one is still nicely made (again, except the damn hinges!)

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I reviewed the Lenovo 3000 N200 Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 Celeron M 540 / 1.86 GHz RAM 512 MB HDD 80 GB CD-RW / DVD GMA X3100 WLAN : 802.11b/g TPM fingerprint reader Vista Home Basic 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) Microsoft Office Ready when I bought it earlier this year after my HP died. I had always been a big fan of the IBM Thinkpads and hoped that the 3000 N200 would be an economical replacement. Proving that you get what you pay for, I was very disappointed. I have subsequently wiped the N200 clean of Vista, installed Windows XP and gave it to my son. It works MUCH better under XP -much faster.

I had always wanted to get the T61 because... well, I like thinkpads. I like the feel of the keyboard. Their displays are crisp and beautiful and the build is solid and durable. But at the time, my budget just wouldn't allow it. But after a few months, I was finally in a position to upgrade.

I was a little hesitant since all my experience with Thinkpads had been while they were still being made by IBM. After my disappointment with the 3000 N200, I was concerned that the poor quality was indicative of Lenovo rather than just the model. But I decided to give the T61 a shot because frankly, all of the other brands out there (...cough... HP.... cough) are known failures that I had to try.

I'm VERY happy to say that the T61 is NEARLY as good as the IBM Thinkpad counterparts. The look and feel are still nearly the same. The display is probably the most similar to the old IBM thinkpads. The speed and all the Lenovo support features are excellent making recovery in the case of catastrophic virus infestation etc a breeze.

What isn't QUITE the same (and the reason I knocked a star off my rating) are a few relatively minor quibbles compared to the old Thinkpads. The keyboard doesn't feel quite as solid as I would like. The touchpad is smaller than usual -even smaller than the 3000 N200 (the one feature of that model that I actually prefer). In addition, the edge of the touchpad is very "prominent" so it is annoying when your finger is constantly bumping up against it. The case isn't quite as pleasing from a "tactile" perspective -it feels more plasticy. And finally, the finger print reader is not as good as the 3000 N200.

However, I can tell that the build quality of this system is substantially better than the lower priced models. In addition, it doesn't have the annoying "shiney" display which the 3000 N200 has and it runs MUCH quieter and cooler than the 3000 N200.

All in all, this isn't IBM's thinkpad but it is far superior to any laptop on the market today in terms of quality and it is truly worth the money.

BTW, my T61 came preloaded with Vista. I have subsequently come to the conclusion that XP is truly a better OS in terms of speed and reliability. Unless you can afford the extra 300-500 for 3gb of memory, "downgrade" to XP. Otherwise, you might as well stick with a used T41.

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Let me tell you a story. A great many years ago, I had an IBM T30. That thing was a tank. It got dropped, battered, and abused. At one point it even flew out of a bicycle toddler trailer and into the middle of a road with very minimal damage. After the life that thing lived in my care, I sold it to a friend, who abused it for 5 more years before the motherboard gave up.

After that machine, I was sold on Thinkpads, and I saved up to custom build a T61. I ordered mine direct from Lenovo and had it customized... 4GBs of RAM, nVidia graphics, Windows XP.. Later on, I put a 500GB hard drive in it and Windows 7.

Lenovo carried on IBM's legacy with the Thinkpads. The quality on this unit is fantastic.

The casing is solid and reliable, all of the components are incredibly reliable. I've never had an issue with my T61.

This thing has been taken all over, dropped, stepped on, and battered. And it's taken all of this abuse with just one little piece of plastic breaking off. The lid hinges are solid stainless steel, the top is solid magnesium, the bottom is thick rugged plastic. This is one well built laptop.

The nVidia NVS Quadro graphics used to be able to play most games with ease. The most modern of games tax it pretty heavily though. Considering it's a business laptop and not really a gaming one, this is pretty good.

All features work well on it, including the kinda gimmicy keyboard light, which actually is quite helpful in the dark. Parts are readilly availble for it as well, so it's an easy machine to fix.

Lenovo's support is second to none. After reinstalling Windows on this machine, the only thing you need to download is the Lenovo update utility and it will take care of the rest. Never seen another manufacture do that!

The only things I've really had issue with is the power supply, which failed on me after a couple of years, and the sound card, which, like most modern systems, is this little Realtek thing that sounds terrible.

But, those are my only real complaints. This poor laptop has been through a lot, and it's been a tough little beast.

I would recommend this product.

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad T61 7658 Notebook

I did not buy this laptop through Amazon but I wanted to share my thoughts here. I'm a poor counselor, living from paycheck to paycheck in highest-in-the-nation-cost-of-living state of Hawaii, and in college working toward my MSW. I needed a robust laptop to put up with college/work/personal life so I bought this T61 from a refurbisher for $130. It came with Win7, 80GB HDD, 2GB RAM and integrated graphics. Key tops were half-worn on the Home row and the LCD is wobbly from worn hinges. When closed, there is still a bit of play with the lid not latching down tightly. 6 years of existence and the laptop does creak a little on sides. I'm not complaining as this is a used T61 and I didn't expect roses.

I upgraded the HDD and RAM and installed Windows 8. The T61 boots/runs faster with all the upgrades. The non-glare LCD is easy on the eyes, although dimmer than other non-glare LCD's I've seen (this is likely not due to age, since I read similar comments written back in 2007 when the T61 was first released). The touchpad is the smallest I've ever come across on any laptop and took me a while to get accustomed to. The T61's Trackpoint is a relic from the 1990s and I feel is outdated as a mouse control device and useless like a human appendix or a vestigal tail is. Lenovo still insisted to include it (and still does to this day) apparently to keep Trackpoint fans happy. The keyboard is louder/noiser and less firm than other keyboards I've used on other business/professional-grade laptops; however perfectly usable and comfortable to type on happily for hours without fatigue. Speakers aren't loud; a bit tinny to my ears but clear. The LCD lid's rubber coating mars easily but is easily cleaned up with a wiping of Windex. Contrary to another review written here, the lid itself is not solid magnesium: instead, it is a composite plastic (not carbon fiber) over a magnesium frame. Its construction still does the job in keeping it solid and near-flexible. The T61 is of the "thin-and-light" category when "thin-and-light" was defined at around 4-5lbs (the weight of this T61 is 5.2lbs with the stock batt). I got a new 7800mah batt off Amazon.com ($25) which bumps the weight up past 6lbs. Thin, yes. Light? No.

Incidentally, batt life is 9+ hours with this new 7800mah batt under Win8 and in Power Saver mode, wifi off, and LCD dimmed to 50%.

My T61 is good, solid-feeling (and solid-looking) laptop. Everything just works. The T61's early-1990's conservative looks, severely angular lines and all-black color make it look either 20+ years old or modern and contemporary, depending on who's eyeing it (I just think it looks "classic"). Other resellers sell T61's with better specs for up to $400 (and likely in better condition than mine) but I'm happy with the one I got and the price I paid for it. //

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The T61 is too hot to handle. Since it was new, the laptop is too hot to put on your lap and becomes very uncomfortable to even lay your palms on it while typing. It inadvertently goes into sleep mode at the most inoportune times due to overheating. I read some of the posts on the web and they suggest cleaning the air intake. However, I doubt it was clogged when I bought it new and it ran very hot then. It is so hot, you cannot consider this a laptop as you couldn't possible keep it on your lap. Makes it very difficult to use.

Reviews of Toshiba Satellite L505D-ES5025 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

Where do I start, I have been researching laptops for the last 6 months, looking at specs etc. I needed to replace my laptop that has become outdated. I bought a Dell 5 years ago that was just too slow to watch videos, download anything or keep up with all of the new software upgrades. I wanted a laptop with speed, good memory, decent video graphics, large enough hard drive so that I wouldn't be changing it soon. Plus I wanted an expandable computer in terms of memory so that I wouldn't be limited at a really good price.

It is a 15.6 inch, 2.3G processing speed and 4G memory, with 320 Hard drive it is fast, you can view most of the HD videos clearly they finally load for me on You Tube..lol I need one also for work at home, since I use it for a lot of number entries. This is one of the best if not the best keyboards w/10 key numeric pad. I have large fingers and it is comfortable and easy to use it is set up just like an adding machine for accountants, or bookkeepers. There is just enough texture and grip of the keys for fast and easy typing. Another thing I loved about it was the gray interior it shows less visible fingerprints and dust for those who don't like the glossy black of most Toshiba's out there.

It was easy to set up I was so worried about how long it would take. I had already had a wireless network so all I did was boot up created a password and sign on, the connected to my wireless network and I was on the net. Yes to some it might have too much bloatware(unnecessary programs) but for those who are not as computer savvy it includes all the files to get you up and running but you need to update them from time to time. The camera is so easy to use and Skype is already set up.

When I bought it was a much better deal it is bright and easy to use for night viewing, especially if you watch movies or download movies online. I have just had it for a month but as long as you have a good registry cleaner program to clean up Windows 7 it should continue to run fast. One downer is I wish Toshiba would come with the Operating System disks included it is irritating to have to copy them on your own.

Overall you cannot get most of the specs like a large comfortable full size keyboard, with a 15.6 inch TruBrite screen, webcam 1.3 pixel, 320G Hard drive, ATI graphics, labelfish for your CD/DVD, 2.3G AMD processor with 4G memory for this price you cannot compare. Plus it is lightweight easy to move from room to room. So far very happy with my purchase.

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If you read the 4 and 5 star reviews you'll get a sense of what works on this computer.

But they may not mention that two things are in fact annoying.

1. The sound quality on the speakers is awful. If you want to hear music or watch a movie, you'll have to have speakers.

2. The battery life is way short. Usually about an hour and thirty minutes. Keep your plug handy.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite L505D-ES5025 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop

I had been looking for a new laptop for quite some time when I came across the reviews on Amazon about this model. I had been advised by a computer-whiz son of mine to look for a Toshiba this time around, since in his opinion (he's a computer engineer) they are well-made and predominantly trouble-free. So when I found this computer, and read the reviews on its performance, I was sold. Now that I've used it for a couple of weeks, I have to agree. It's a sweet computer for the price. The keyboard is great, and since I do a lot of typing, I like how it feels. The Web-cam feature works great. And I love Windows 7 so far. The battery lasts about 2-3 hours, which is typical for a laptop. The screen resolution is great. Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5015 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver/Black)

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite L505D-ES5025 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop

First and foremost I love this laptop! It is great for the things I do every day. I use it to complete assignments and to surf the internet. I have found that though this laptop has HD sound (yes it's awesome) the system speakers do it no justice, they are low and not great quality. I plugged in my earbuds and was blown away!!! I haven't tried it with external speakers yet but I will soon. My second issue is the two USB ports. To remedy that I brought a usb hub. Overall I am loving my Toshiba Satellite L505-E5025. If you are looking for a great inexpensive system, I highly recommend this one. I have the AMD processor and it's working great for me. Consider buying antivirus software and MS office when buying this product because it only comes with trial version of Norton and MS Office 07.

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The L505 was a good choice for me. In the middle of a large dissertation, I had to dump my old beloved 2004 Gateway to keep up with Microsoft's constant system upgrade demands. The Toshiba is a bit heavy for a laptop but it has a solid feel for my mostly desktop use. Mousepad functionality is spotty but I rely mainly on a mouse. It is fast and (thus far) my McAfee installs happen quickly and quietly in the background without my even noticing. My only complaint is the squat dimensions of screen. The 15.6" "Tru-bright" screen is nice and bright, but the screen ratio makes it wide and short. If you are a document writer (vice an Excel jockey or primarily an internet surfer) you are giving up a lot of good screen space for documents. The wide dimensions make for other annoyances ... the power plug and USB port (only 2) with a thumb drive inserted on the right side require that you keep your mouse-arm splayed wide-right. Why not put these ports in the back? Otherwise, for my $540, this is a great machine. I looked at Dells in the same price range and they seem cheap and plasticky in comparison. Unfortunately, we are getting to the age of disposable laptops, in which it is easier to buy a new one than to upgrade. Perhaps cheap and plasticky, low and squaty, are the wave of future.