Reviews of Sony VAIO(R) SVS13A25PXB 13.3" Premium Notebook PC - Black

Customer Ratings:

Good computer. Windows 8 comes preloaded which is a pain. More trouble than it's worth with a non touch screen computer. The computer it's self is very fast. Ergonomics are good. Keyboard is still a good usable size. Don't love the mouse pad, but easy fix with a blue tooth mouse. Screen is average although the graphics when on my standard 1080 p monitor are above average. There is a light sensor that automatically sets screen brightness. I had to disable it because the screen would constantly flicker brighter and darker.

All in all a good value.

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The hardware is great, but you need get used to Windows 8.

This computer is very fast, light. Really worth its price!

Best Deals for Sony VAIO(R) SVS13A25PXB 13.3" Premium Notebook PC - Black

She is a great computer with a lot more power that the tiny ultrabooks.

What I do not like is really the sound. Not yet they have found no solution for him.

For the rest, for normal tasks a lot of RAM, Hard Disk SSD, and super video plate, although I will always use the HD4000 as it is in these hybrid equipment.

The cabinet fashion repeats with my predecessor VPC-SA4FGX/BI.

A little expensive for me, since I live in Argentina, and I have spent around 1870 dollars(final in my office), but to my 50 years, I prepare some gifts, since life is very short to save money.

I have just found a more cost-reducing offer that he is and in 17,3"incredible! "Sony Vaio SVE1712BCXB 17.3" 2.80GHz i7-3840QM 16GB 500GB SSD AMD 7650M FullHD Windows 8 BD-ROM"

Thanks Amazon! Amazing....Joe

Best IBM ThinkPad R40 (27232FU) Laptop (1.30-GHz Pentium-M (Centrino) Deals

Customer Ratings:

Can you believe it, a laptop that looks just like a phone. Easy to hide, to avoid potential theft. Amazon should be checking their photos of products.

Update, over a year later and the still haven't fixed the picture of the product.

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Cheap HP Elitebook 6930p Intel Core 2 Duo 2400 MHz 320Gig Serial ATA HDD

Customer Ratings:

THIS IS MY #4 COMPUTER. I PLAN TO USE IT AS I TRAVEL. IT WORKED 100 % RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX.I HAVE LOADED ALL MY PROGRAMS ON THE HARD DRIVE AND HAD NO PROBLEMS I AM VERY HAPPY TO OWN THE HP ELITIBOOK 6930P.IT IS A #10.

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Review of Gateway NE52204u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $399.99
Sale Price: $289.99
Today's Bonus: 28% Off

I didn't bought that laptop in Amazon, but I like it so much that I decided to write here.

It's fast. 4GB of RAM and newest processor are making everything smooth.

It's light. My friend has ultrabook that has more weight.

It has a good battery life. I'm using it with balanced battery option and with 50% of brightness. I can work from 4 to 5 hours. When I read that it has 2500mAh I thought it will not work that much. But new power saving processor does its work! And it charges for 1-2 hours.

It has 500GB of memory. It shows 464GB 14GB for Windows = 450GB of free space!

Video card is not bad. I'm not gamer, but I like to play some light games. It works just good.

It's not hot. That's a good thing for me because my last laptop was really hot.

It has big screen. Good for watching movies, especially in 1080p.

Bad things are: Fingerprint collecting back side + near-mouse sides. Backside of my laptop also has scratch, but I can't say that I'm careful user.

Speakers in not good place. They are under laptop and can be closed while on legs.

No CD/DVD drive. But it has slot for it.

Unuseful preinstalled software.

"Social" button is not configurable.

I bought this laptop for 350 dollars and it's excellent price. And it worth 400 dollars that they want. I didn't expected that much from it. I'm using it for homework, browsing and watching movies. And it does its work.

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NOTE: My Gateway NE52204u was purchased at OfficeMax.

So my dad bought himself a laptop last week and when he found a better one on clearance at Walmart, he decided to give me the one he got last week. It was a Gateway NE52204u from OfficeMax (they had a deal where if you purchased $50 worth of merchandise, you could get this laptop for $250 instead of the normal $400). After looking at the specs through Dxdiag, I was not very impressed.

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

System Information

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Time of this report: 8/9/2013, 11:55:27

Machine name: (HIDDEN)

Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (9200.win8_gdr.130410-1505)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: Gateway

System Model: NE-522

BIOS: V2.01.

Processor: AMD A4-5000 APU with Radeon(TM) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~1.5GHz

Memory: 4096MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 3526MB RAM

Page File: 2733MB used, 4119MB available

Windows Dir: C:\Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

User DPI Setting: Using System DPI

System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

DxDiag Version: 6.02.9200.16384 64bit Unicode

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

Display Devices

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Card name: AMD Radeon HD 8330

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Chip type: AMD Radeon HD 8330 (0x9832)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Type: Full Device

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9832&SUBSYS_076F1025&REV_00

Display Memory: 2006 MB

Dedicated Memory: 500 MB

Shared Memory: 1506 MB

Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor

Monitor Model: unknown

Monitor Id: CMN15BF

Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (60.007Hz)

Output Type: Internal

As you can see, it's a quad-core CPU clocked at... 1.5 GHz. That is low, really low. The video card is an integrated Radeon HD 8330 with 500 MB of dedicated memory and 2GB total memory. 4GB of DDR3 RAM. Definitely looks scarily low-spec'd.

After I fooled around with it though, I was quite surprised. The 1.5 GHz processor is still relatively fast, and could always be overclocked (provided you know what you're doing and are doing it safely). And as a gamer, the Radeon HD 8330 is better than I expected. I play Skyrim (tweaked a bit of course) on low-medium at about 25-30 FPS which is definitely playable. If you're a power gamer who has to play everything on Ultra at 60 FPS, look elsewhere. But it's surprisingly decent for such a low end GPU.

The speakers are the weakest part of this laptop. They are kinda quiet, even at 100% volume. There is always the option of using the conveniently placed headphone jack, of course.

The HD webcam is pretty good. I tested it with Skype and YouTube's recording page. Of course YouTube's recorder could make terrible video from any webcam, but the Skype video feedback seemed very responsive, almost 1:1 movement to reaction. Thumbs up on the webcam.

The battery life is quite good. It gets about 5 or more hours of normal browsing use (gaming and watching videos would cut it down a bit of course). It is a 4-cell lithium ion battery for those who are wondering.

The hard drive is 500 GB. Not terrible, especially for a low-end laptop. There's a bit of bloatware when you first get it, but it shouldn't take long to get it all off.

The LED screen is great. Glossy finish, very bright. 15.6" size, native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixelated.

As a bonus, this laptop does have Bluetooth, a great thing to see for guys like me who like tinkering with BT devices.

And finally, the Operating System is Windows 8, which in all honesty once you get used to it, isn't really all that bad. In fact, it may contribute to why this thing seems so fast at 1.5 GHz.

Overall, this laptop has surprised me in a good way. Would I like an ultimate gaming laptop? Someday yes. But this is definitely serviceable for now.

BONUS

Games I've Tested on this laptop:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 20-30 FPS at Low/Medium (with some tweaking at Medium texture quality, runs only slightly worse than console version)

Audiosurf Runs flawlessly, of course.

Half-Life 2 Runs very well at higher settings, but not quite at max.

Left 4 Dead 2 Runs well at medium settings.

MTG: Duels 2013 Runs very well at high settings.

Portal Runs very well at higher settings, but not quite at max.

Portal 2 Runs well at medium settings.

Street Fighter x Tekken Runs very well at medium-high settings.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Runs very well at medium-high settings.

Team Fortress 2 Runs very well at medium settings.

Unreal Tournament 3: Black Edition Runs very well at medium-high settings.

Best Deals for Gateway NE52204u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

The laptop itself is for the most part user friendly. However, I was very disappointed to discover that there is no cd/dvd compartment. That really sucks....Smh Had I would have noticed, I would have opt'd for another laptop. Well, you live and you learn....

Honest reviews on Gateway NE52204u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

low price and nice performance. very very good.

all the hardware, include cpu/memory/harddriver/graphic function, are enough to work for system win8.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gateway NE52204u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silky Silver)

I bought this as a replacement for my wife's machine. It seems to have a hard time staying connected to wifi even when every other device in the house has no issues. It also came with Windows 8 which is the worst version Microsoft has created so far. I am considering spending another 100$ to replace it with Windows 7 Pro. If I had to do it over I would spend an extra 100-200$ and get a better machine.

Reviews of ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX-AH71 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

As others have mentioned this laptop has a few "issues" as follows:

1. First one arrived DOA. Ordered from Tigerdirect, which has a local outlet, where I brought it for exchange. They only had the floor model left--and discounted it an additional $150 for me! At approx. $750, such a deal!

2. However, with that in mind, buying extended warranty might be advisable.

3. I've tested this laptop on the following games: Modern Warfare 3, Batman Arkham City, Skyrim, Crysis 2, Portal 1 & 2, and Minecraft. All games tested ran flawlessly, although I did have to lower the resolution from "ultra" to "high" for MW3 and Skyrim.

3. This laptop is heavier than even my 18.4" laptop, and is also larger than most 15" laptops, will not fit into a 15" laptop case. The styling of this laptop was inspired by stealth jet fighters and looks pretty sharp, so I guess its just the price you pay for beauty.

4. As another reviewer mentioned, when compared to the 3GB Nvidia GTX 360M with 3GB RAM, the video card in this laptop has only 2GB RAM, and is slightly "crippled", meaning it runs at a 128 bit bus width, and not the full 192. It's still a high-end, Class 1 video card, contains all the most desired features, and runs all the most "graphic intensive" modern games wonderfully, but why?

Oh well, I actually bought this laptop as an Xmas present for my 8 year old nephew. He didn't really ask for or expect a gaming laptop, but the netbook I orginally bought couldn't even run Minecraft, much less any of his school applications, and he's not exactly allowed to "surf the net." The specs and performance of this laptop are truely impressive, even with a slightly "crippled" video card.

Aside from supporting DirectX 11, and OpenGL 4.0, even though the monitor renders in 2D, the Nvidia video card supports 3D, meaning that you can hook the laptop up to an external 3D monitor via HDMI, for 3D video gaming, and streaming 3D internet content, including 3D movie viewing!

At least at this time, Nvidia only provides support though for certain 3D monitors that employ ACTIVE 3D technology, and also requires a 120HZ monitor (ie., refresh rate of 120 fpm "frames per second), however, I understand that drivers are now being developed to support passive 3D technology as well. I have a passive 3D TV, and connected the laptop via HDMI to see whether it would support 3D gaming. It kind of worked, but not very well.

5. Although games run smooth as silk, we've experienced some buffering issues when playing youtube videos. To resolve, I went to the Asus ROG forum, and took the advice of others, flashed the bios, installed the latest drivers and ran CCleaner, to clear out temp. files. Seems to have resolved that issue, for the most part anyway.

As I notice other reviewers have had similar issues, I wouldn't doubt that might be the very reason Asus discounted this particular model so deeply. Laptops with comparable specs cost almost twice as much, and for the savings, the issues experienced are fairly minor. So far anyway.

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Great performance, construction and pricetag! It's ASUS! I love it!

BUT...

I have 2 things to complain about:

I dont know why ASUS's choice was the 128bits gtx 560 and not the 192bits...

I saw in many forums zillions of problem about the magnet sensor that tell when the lid is closed or not, well, my asus came with this and i dont know how to permanently fix this problem, im in brazil and I cant sendo to RMA (global guarantee?? maybe not).

Best Deals for ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX-AH71 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

Bought it, had it shipped, received it in perfect working order. It's a great laptop with a super-bright screen. Everything's as it should be, except for one thing: there is no way the published dimensions are right.

I bought a Targus Revolution XL specifically because it was designed for 15-16 inch laptops, and this beautiful monster of a laptop wouldn't fit. Had to get a more boring backpack instead. The only reason this review isn't 5 stars is because there's less choices for bags and protection.

EDIT:

The USB 3.0 driver on the machine was buggy -it wouldn't play nice with my Western Digital 1TB portable drive. Windows said the driver was up to date, but I was able to update it from an external site and that fixed the problem. (The drive would be detected, but transferring anything over 1MB would cause it to be "disconnected" and would prompt Windows to reformat the drive.)

Honest reviews on ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX-AH71 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

The last year Circuit City was selling this laptop on black Friday for $910 dollars with 2 years warranty + 1 year of accidental warranty included.

When I saw that I did not think it twice, I bought it right away! the next day out of stock!

If you are looking to buy a cheap gaming laptop with awesome features and quality, only Asus meets the requirements!

My fist laptop I owned was a Dell (before buying this Asus G53SX) and Dell customer service lied to me saying that the XPS editions can handle everything, any game, + they are REALLY USELESS when you are having any issue!!! Months later when Battle-field 3 came out......... I was lucky if I was able to enjoy the game for 30 minutes without lagging!

When I was buying the laptop online the specs said 15.6 inches.... when I opened the box, the screen was pretty big for being a 15.6 inches.....

I measured it and is 17 inches... No idea why!

Asus Republic of gamers G53SX does a AWESOME job running games!

I run Battle field 3, Call of Duty MW3 in low or medium performance without any issue or lagging at all (only when the server is bad).

Battery life is AWESOME!!!!!

After 3 hours of doing research, listening music, I have to run to get my battery charger.

Asus offers a battery saving software which is kinda cool because when you unplug your laptop, this software does everything to save energy!

Sound quality is pretty good, not awesome, but let's say 8 of 10!!

Do not spend $1600 dollars to buy an Alien-ware!

The Asus G53SX does the same job than any Alien-ware laptop for less money.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS Republic of Gamers G53SX-AH71 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

Bad build quality. Let's begin my story with ASUS when I purchased this computer last year. I have always used ASUS motherboards in my computers because of their high performance, so I decided that their laptop would be suitable for my needs. I originally looked at Alienware, but decided that ASUS gaming computers had more performance in my price range. Since I have received this computer it has been nothing, but a nightmare. First, within a few weeks my soundcard decided to die and had strange feedback noises from the microphone. The power cord plug that goes into the computer also snapped as is a seemingly reoccurring theme with ASUS laptops. The pin design does not work and when I sent the computer in I requested a different power supply. When I received the computer back I was astonished to find that the repair center did not package the laptop with any wrapping and as a result the screen and case had huge cracks. I sent the computer back to the repair place.

By the time I got my computer back for the second time (about a month and a half later), ASUS had not fixed the power cord problem and the built in memory card reader no longer functioned. Now for the third time my power cord pin has broken in the laptop and will have to be sent back for repairs. ASUS support at best has been minimal as the technicians do not seem to care or listen to you when you talk to them about their bad design. I am a college student and have been without my laptop and unable to easily complete my work several times as a result of ASUS. I am extremely frustrated with the quality for the amount I spent on a laptop. The computer works good for gaming when it actually works, but I would advise you to save your money and go with Alienware because at least you get to deal with Dell's support.

Discount Lenovo ThinkPad T60 2623 15-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

The Thinkpad T series is IBM/Lenovo's standard business laptop, and as a college student, I have found it to be perfect. I have the T60 model with the specs listed above: T2500 (2GHz Core Duo), 1 GB Ram, 100 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive, Bluetooth, Wireless Internet, Fingerprint Reader, Windows XP SP2, 128 MB ATI Radeon x1400. The laptop is very well constructed and sturdy. The keyboard is excellent, and very responsive. The screen is slightly dim, but I usually use it at an even dimmer setting anyways to conserve battery life. I also have a dock and a 21" widescreen monitor. Recently, when my computer became infected, I merely used the backup sector (which takes away 20GB from your hard drive) to reload everything it was a lot easier than manually reformatting, installing Windows, installing the thinkpad drivers, etc. The drivers are also very good, with the exception of the Thinkpad Access Connections, which I uninstalled immediately. The embedded security chip works well, if you need to use that. I prefer to key in a password rather than use a fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader will not work if there is moisture of your fingertip. It also needs to be recalibrated (i.e. reprogram your fingerprint) every know and then. Since getting a dock though, I've chosen to forego the fingerprint reader completely.

I purchased this thinkpad with the accidental damage protection warranty, which means I can do nearly anything to the thinkpad I want, and it will be replaced. Why would I though it's a great computer.

Battery life is pretty good the 6 cell battery is rated at 3.5 hrs and will give you a decent 2.5. You can always upgrade to a 9 cell battery and/or take out the DVD-burner and stick in an extra battery there.

Opening up the T60 is also easy, and allowable under the warranty to some extent for example, adding RAM or replacing the keyboard (replacement keyboards are shipped overnight!)

I also like the matte-ish finish off the laptop cover as well as the screen. All in all, a wonderful laptop, and with a student discount, very affordable. The newer Thinkpads have Core 2 Duo processors (marginal performance increase over the Core Duo in this laptop), and are Vista Ready. You can always upgrade. Highly recommended laptop.

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I've used Thinkpads as far back as the 600E. I travel a lot for work and preferred Thinkpads because of their rock solid performance. Now that I've recently upgraded from a T41 to a T60, I think Thinkpads have gone down in quality. Not sure if it has anything to do with IBM selling the business unit to Lenovo (Chinese company).

Anyhow, this T60 feels a lot more "plasticky" than the T41. It just seems cheap and flimsy. I also have a lot of problems docking and undocking this machine. With the T41, I can undock the machine, run to a conference room, open the laptop and not miss a beat. The T60 has problems adjusting screen resolutions, recognizing my mouse on the dock, and crashes with the blue screen of death. I feel pretty frustrated right now...

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I was not sure about the product but as soon as I received it I was impressed. Lenovo ThinkPad works great just like advertised. It surfs the internet great and fast.

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad T60 2623 15-Inch Laptop

I was a little hesitant at first buying a "used" or "refurbished" laptop. After receiving this unit I must admit it was better than anticipated. The laptop was in very good condition. Over the next two weeks I put it through the wringer testing every feature possible including battery life. I would have posted 5 stars if backup/recovery disc(s)would have been part of the package.

Shipping was quick and laptop was adequately packed.

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I am in search of a laptop for college :) and I heard great reviews on Lenovo, so I purchased one. Turns out, its one of those old computers, that isn't for the modern student, no offence but its great for mom and dad :) but for a gamer/student, yeah not the best product ^^. The company, computerpawn, is fairly decent, although a little disappointed I had to pay for my own shipping, as I returned it.

Review of Sony VAIO Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz 2GB 200GB DVD±RW 15.4" Vista

Customer Ratings:

I have had my Vaio for going on 3 years. And it still runs beautifully, except only when hooked to an outlet. On battery power, I get less than 20 minutes of battery life. Otherwise I would suggest this computer to almost anyone! It's getting to be a little out-of-date, but still works well with most programs. I currently can play The Sims 3 well on it, but only if it is the only thing running. I use my laptop for Photoshop and school work mostly.

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The computer is great and have had no problem internaly other than the battery. The battery only holds about 30 minutes after a year of college student use. I have looked for replacements and most are over $200 giving me a reason to buy a new computer instead of a brand new battery. I love sony and the style they put into their computers but the battery power makes me secound guess buying another one.

Pros: Very fast for everything I have to do. Easy to navigate and to connect things. Tons of music and videos and bearly half way through filling up the hard drive.

Cons: Battery...

Best Deals for Sony VAIO Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz 2GB 200GB DVD±RW 15.4" Vista

I'm writing only about the seller JS Discount Electronic's, don't buy anything from this seller!

I bought this laptop as a new and got used only with charger and battery.and those two items were non original,replaced items(Chinese).also there were removed serial and part number stickers and I could not find out anything about the item.

they said,that they did not know what were in the box(!),but when I received and opened it,there was a paper and the laptop was described as new(!).

so make your own decision.

Discount HP Pavilion dv6-3052nr 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

Pros: Processor and GPU are excellent. I have ran Star Craft 2 on ultra settings without any issues. WoW on ultra except for shadows and get roughly 45 FPS in Dalaran. Minimal bloatware only took about 10 mins to remove.

Its a beautiful machine. The case has some kind of artsy pattern on it.

loading times are low thanks to the 7200 RPM drive. other laptops in this price range didn't have this. I was able to copy the 18GB WoW from my main computer to this in about 4-5 mins (via ethernet cable not wireless).

Cons: the display resolution is a little low for the size. I've seen other laptops in this size range with superior displays. In spite of this, the resolution is worth the sacrifice in exchange for everything else being so powerful.

The touch pad is a bit strange. The buttons are part of the pad. This means that while your trying to click on something you can accidentally move the mouse, however the sensitivity is very good.

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A great product. This laptop is 1 grand the same price as a macbook but with much better specs. Comparing the two you instantly realize that this laptop offers 3 times the ram 2 times the processor cores and a much better graphics card. Macs are over priced buy this notebook to get the most out of your money.

Best Deals for HP Pavilion dv6-3052nr 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Silver)

Ok, first off the specs are great for the price. A lot of bang for your buck.

Now the less obvious things that may or may not be deal breakers.

-The screen resolution is weak. I use this primarily on my desk with a big 24" monitor attached, so it doesn't bother me. But if you're on the go with this often, 1366 x 766 is not much screen real estate.

-The keyboard is PAINFUL to use. HP has added a column of 'Quick Launch' keys on the left side of the keyboard so that %50 of the time that you think you're hitting Ctrl you're actually launching the calculator app. Also by default the F1-F12 buttons are replaced by 'Action buttons' (volume, screen brightness, etc.) so that you have to hold the 'Fn' button to actually get the Function keys incredibly frustrating.

But don't worry, with some hacks, you can program the keys do whatever you want. Download KeyTweak and check out this thread:

And you can toggle the 'Action Buttons' setting in the BIOS Config (ESC on startup).

Overall, Great value, terrible keyboard. After tweaking the keys, I'm happy with the purchase.

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv6-3052nr 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Silver)

CAVEAT EMPTOR, this notebook is OK, performance is excellent, screen OK... but the keyboard is hideous. I hate it. I didn't notice how annoying it was until i opened the notebook and started using it.

The complete keyboard is displaced one key to the right. This is very annoying. If you have some experience with computers, (e.g. if you don't fish in the keyboard using two fingers) you are used to having the leftmost column of keys being the [`] key, the tab key, the caps lock, shift key and ctrl key.

This machine has some custom buttons (remember the compaqs from early 90's?) in the leftmost column of keys, one for email, one for firing the (slow) software that deals with video and music, one button for the browser, one for the printer (???) and one for the calculator (??????)

I don't understand how someone could make the decision that having a custom button to fire up the browser is so important that the lateral and awkward shifting of the keys is acceptable.

Every time i want to press the A key i end up hitting caps lock, etcetera..

I must work with other computers, so if i eventually get used to this keyboard, i'll press the wrong keys in other machines.

HP should fire the guy that designed this keyboard. (i rate the keyboards in the previous HP machines i owned as excellent)

If i could pay some money to have this keyboard replaced for a regular one, i would gladly do it.

This machine has other design problems.

One of them is the touchpad. It's a lot bigger than usual so it's difficult to touch just with one finger. You'll inadvertently end up touching it with other fingers. The keypad also lacks a hardware button to turn this huge touchpad off. This is annoying.

This machine lacks the (now usual) hardware buttons to turn the volume up, turn the wireless on, etc. They are integrated into the F keys (F1 to F12). So, if you are working in excel and want to change the contents of a cell, you press F2 and this dims the screen brightness. To press the REAL F2, you have to press the FN key and then F2. How much more annoying this keyboard could have been???

Last, it doesn't have the numeric keypad. OK, i've owned notebooks without numeric keypads in the past, but they had smaller screens. I own another DV6, with a Core 2 duo that has the exact same screen size, and it has an integrated numeric keypad.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Pavilion dv6-3052nr 15.6-Inch Entertainment Laptop (Silver)

This computer is great; you really get your money's worth for the price you pay. I have had this computer for about 4 months and it has been living up to its expectations. I am an Industrial Design student and I needed a good preforming computer to run different types of design programs effectively and efficiently. When I am using this computer I usually have iTunes, Facebook, my e-mail, and multiple design programs running at the same time and it still runs very smoothly. Aside from the performance, it is also very user friendly and easy to start using right out of the box. Some of the different features are great on this computer. I love the fingerprint scanner, which I use not only to log on to my computer, but also for any website that requires a password that I need to log in to. The hinges on the screen are very sturdy and you actually need 2 hands to open it (one to open the screen and one to hold down the computer. The web cam is good quality and the HP MediaSmart web cam program has some great features. All in all this computer is a great buy if you are looking for a high preforming, sturdy, and reliable machine that fits in somewhat of a budget.

Best Sony Open Box VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11215CXB 11.6" Capacitive Deals

Customer Ratings:

REPLACING...

15" Macbook Pro, Fujitsu T730, HP TC4200

PRIMARY USAGE GOAL:

Software development / coding

* I wanted a highly portable, stylus-enabled device that could replace my existing combination of my trusty -but bulky -15" Macbook Pro for development and HP/Fujitsu for drawing. For the type of software development I do, I wanted an i5 chip and 6GB RAM minimum (with strong preference for 8+GB). This ruled out many other contenders, like the Ativ 700T and perhaps even the yet-unreleased Surface Pro. So far, the performance of the i7 Duo has been wonderful and just what I wanted.

* I also wanted a high screen-resolution to maximize real estate for my IDE and the Duo delivers with a beautiful 1920x1080 display. It also delivers a smooth and accurate touchscreen experience.

* On the down side, the optical trackpad on the Duo just doesn't compare with the excellent Mac trackpad. Today's development environments and text editing applications are still heavily mouse-oriented (read: small widgets) so an accurate pointing mechanisms are pretty important. The stylus can help offset this, but without a pen dock in the device, it's not always there when I need it. I've taken to adding a bluetooth mouse to the kit.

* The keyboard on the Duo is really solid. It looks small at first, but it's quite comfortable to use and has a satisfying touch.

SECONDARY USAGE GOALS:

digital sketching, light gaming, and portable photo/music collection

* For sketching, I really, really wanted a Wacom pen. But unfortunately, none of the Wacom-enabled devices met the CPU/memory requirements I was looking for so I had to settle. On the flip side, I've been very pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of the Duo pen once I left Photoshop behind and started using ArtRage / Sketchbook Pro instead. Just to drive this point home for artists looking at this device -this stylus does NOT support pressure sensitivity in Painter/Photoshop, but it does so wonderfully in ArtRage/SBP. PS support in PS is technically possible, but given the long history of this issue I would not hold your breath waiting for those driver updates.

One area where I've noticed it outperforms the Wacom is edge accuracy -I don't know if this is a properly representative sample, but my Wacom-enabled Fujitsu T730 was sometimes frustrating as an art platform because while the pen was accurate in the center of the screen, as you went outwards toward the edges a noticeable gap between the pen tip and screen pointer would develop. This meant I had to stay within the central area of an already smallish screen if I wanted to noodle in details. The n-trig on the Duo seems to be more accurate from edge-to-edge so I feel I can use the whole screen with confidence. (for the record, my much-beloved TC4200 did NOT seem to have the same edge-accuracy issue the Fujitsu did)

* It's been a solid gaming device so far. I'm not an FPS guy, but I've been playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Starcraft 2 with my daughter and both games have run smoothly using the default settings. I'm the type of guy who normally would rather play on a desktop just to get the extra graphical oomph and the Duo has been a satisfactory replacement.

* I wanted the biggest available SSD, 256gb, with the idea of taking my photos and music with me when I travel. However, only around 170gb was actually available for use. WTF is using up so much space? Now, after installing apps, frameworks, games and source code, I'm down to 60gb free without even loading any photos or music. Bummer. I'm probably going to have to pick up an SD card for the photos and music. Thumbs-up for the full-size SD slot though. I hope it can take a 128GB card.

WHERE I USE IT:

on desk at work and home, on lap while sitting in bed at night watching TV, on lap on trains and airplane

* I was skeptical when I first saw photos of the Duo's slider form-factor at work, but it has really turned out to be a versatile design and works comfortably both on a desk and in cramped train seating. This is one area where the technical specs couldn't help my decision, so I set out to play with my finalists, the Surface RT (while guesstimating about the Surface Pro experience), the Ativ Pro, and the Duo in stores before finally deciding on the Duo.

95% of the time I want a keyboard available, so the tablet-only modes of the both the Surface and Ativ, while nice, were of limited appeal to me. I focused on judging the devices based on form factor with keyboard attached.

The Ativ Pro has been my great hope for a laptop replacement ever since I first started looking at the Windows 8 devices a few months ago. But after finally seeing it in person, I found that the weight distribution of the Ativ Pro, while docked, was just too top/back-heavy for my liking. It reminded me a lot of my wife's HP TM2, and that is NOT a comfortable laptop to use without a steady surface for it to rest on. This unfortunate fact led me to cancel my pre-order for it and crushed my dreams of a Wacom-enabled ultraportable.

I absolutely loved the build quality of the Surface RT, but questioned whether the kickstand design would be steady enough on my lap in the train or while sitting in bed at night watching TV with my wife. I will be re-evaluating this when the Pro comes out though, since the wife also needs an upgrade.

In contrast to the two other devices, I found the Duo's slider design to be wonderfully stable. Since the screen is closer to the center of gravity of the base, it's not back-heavy like the Ativ. The flat, stable base also requires less depth to support than the Surface design w/keyboard does. I haven't tried this yet myself, but I think this is really going to turn out to be a blessing in that most uncomfortable of workspaces... the dreaded economy-class airplane seat! I am actually looking forward to it now.

* I also really, really wanted a backlit keyboard since I use my computers so much at night. I was prepared to give this feature up, though, if there was a device that hit on all the other priorities. Thankfully, it's included on the Duo and works very well! Could it have been too much to ask to light up the trackpad buttons too though?

IN SUMMARY...

The need for a stylus-enabled device with a powerful CPU, lots of RAM and a large SSD dramatically limited the field for me. Then after judging form-factor and other intangibles, there really was only one choice: the Duo.

And so far... I love it!

OTHER NOTES/NITPICKS....

* The build quality, as others have noted, feels very high quality. Even though the Duo was more expensive, I still just couldn't justify the Ativ Pro purchase after playing with both machines in person.

* Screen does feel small given the chassis. If they made a 13" display version of this in a few months... I would absolutely consider upgrading for it.

* Machine runs very cool and quiet even while being stressed. My macbook, on the other hand, will torch you when it gets a workout.

* Battery life is a bit of a letdown. I'm getting 4+ hours including lots of cpu-heavy compilation tasks, but was hoping for more.

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Specs wise the machine is so much more than the Toshiba U925 but that doesn't tell the whole story. It just works better. Little things like the auto backlight and the Windows button that was iffy at best on the Toshiba just work here. Its also just much better built. There is no flex in this one because its made from metal. The screen has much better color and the resolution is twice the Toshiba, though on the desktop I would definitely play with the screen settings to make things look bigger. The one complaint I have that's not Windows 8 related is the battery. I'm getting about 5 hours. I would have liked to see better on a machine this pricey. There is and extended battery available though. All in all a winner though if you want this kind of functionality.

Best Deals for Sony Open Box VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11215CXB 11.6" Capacitive

I bought this item some time ago and I can surely say that it is a very good product after playing around with it. Bear in mind that I like the new windows 8 and this operational system makes perfect sense for a hybrid tablet/ pc.

The screen resolution is mind blowing and the touch screen capability is very sharp. I have been using the device as a tablet and as a PC. The sound, video and mic are great too. Overall a great piece of hardware indeed. As a tablet, I find it very convenient to read books, newspapers and check on social media. The keyboard slide feature makes it easy to convert to a tablet or full laptop mode. I think the Duo 11 very light, but as a tablet it is a bit heavy. On the other hand it would be impossible to make as light as the IPAD I realize that. In fact, I find the design simple and sharp and Sony got a nice compromise between laptop/ Tablet in my opinion.

As a laptop, I cannot complain either. The duo 11 is packed with ports and the specs are great (something other models are missing). I went for the 256 SSD hard drive with 8 gig of Ram. The performance is stunning and boots pretty fast and I have been working with it just fine writing reports,emails and running simulations.

It took me sometime, however, to get used with the keyboard. The back light feature of the keyboard make it easy to use it at night and after a while I find the keyboard comfortable.

The only downside is the trackball which is very sensitive. I use a wireless mouse instead. The other downside is the battery which does not hold for long. I may have some guilt on this because I use the hybrid as a tablet therefore using more the device.

All in all I am satisfied and the device has successfully replaced both the tablet and laptop I used to have,

Honest reviews on Sony Open Box VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11215CXB 11.6" Capacitive

This is my first review on Amazon. I own following tablets

1. ASUS BP121 Core i5, 8GB Ram, 256 GB HDD with Wacom Pen

2. Fujitsu Stylistic Q702, Core i5 Ivy Bridge, 256 GB HDD, 4GB Ram with 4th Generation N TRIG Pen

3. SONY VAIO DUO 11, Core i7, 255 HDD, 8GB RAM

4. Samsung ATIV Pro PC, 128GB HDD, 4GB RAM, Core i5 Ivy Bridge.

User Profile: Executive with Engineering and Technology Background. Time to time I like to do bit of programming or running programs with heavy process / ram utilisation. 95%+ time emails, and smaller process utilization.

I will be selling all tablets on eBay except Sony for following reasons.

1. Build Quality: Sony build quality is superior when compared to all other tablet above. The screen is Full HD and it is superior.

2. Core i7 Ivy Bridge process with 8GB Ram beats every other tablet performance in market. Even the latest Lenovo Helix is rumored only to have MAX 4GB ram.

3. Connectivity on this hybrid is superior when compare to other tablets. E.g. it has VGA support, HDMI and 2 USB 3.0 ports.

4. I like the fact it has a slider keyboard.

5. There is no heating issues and fan noise is minimal. Only if you put the tablet close to your ears you can hear the fan.

6. Pen is very responsive.

Issues with this Device.

1. 200-300 heavier. It would be better if carbon or any other light weight materials are used in future for decreasing the weight.

2. The N-TRIG pen is not attached with laptop, however they have provided a nice sleeve which has tablet pen holder.

3. Battery life can be improved. Currently 3 Hrs. battery life is not good enough. Considering when travelling you would need more battery life. However if you are using this machine more in office and home then it's not any issue. As you most of the time it will be connected with power adapter.

4. No LTE / 3G support

Closet competitor to this product would be Fujitsu Stylistic Q702. Fujitsu Q702 is a perfect device except following issues. If the 8GB ram did not exist I would have retained this tablet.

1. Heating: you can feel the heat when holding the tablet.

2. MAX RAM is 4GB, which is generally not enough. Well not enough for me

3. Build quality is not superior.

4. The screen is not HD.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony Open Box VAIO(R) Duo 11 SVD11215CXB 11.6" Capacitive

What is good

Screen is perfect !

Screen is totatly perfect !

responsive

Windows 8 is a great os for it

Touch with pen combines a perfect pair for using

Fast, fluid, grat battery life

Light portable

Great memory

Screen is aways spodes. please be sure to purhase a case for it.

What is bad..

Stylus is a n-trig, not a Wacon Photoshop does not recognizes it

Keyboard is not so responsive. somethimes a type is missed

Review of Toshiba Portege Z10t-A1111 Ultrabook/Tablet - 11.6' - Intel Core i7

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,749.00
Sale Price: $1,562.75
Today's Bonus: 11% Off

I;ve had this laptop for 2 months. Here is a quick review:

Pros:

Fast machine indeed

Compact

Ability to detach the screen is a nice option

Cons:

Laptop/Tablet does not open wide enough. Not good for tall users. Must either bend head forward or detach the screen to type comfortably.

Screen needs better sensitivity

Heavy

Lastly, Windows 8 is just a pain in the neck

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Fast and Compact

Only Problem is that it frequently disconnect itself from the keyboard

a bit heavy for its size.

Overall its still the best choice over its rivals.

Best Deals for Toshiba Portege Z10t-A1111 Ultrabook/Tablet - 11.6' - Intel Core i7

The Toshiba Portege Z10t (I'm using the Z10t-A111) is, in my opinion, currently the best business tablet out there for the traveling businessman or salesman. This device has the performance and capability to be used like a desktop and yet still has the portability of laptop or tablet.

Here are some pros of this device and how I can use it three different ways:

As a Desktop While I'm in my office I use the Toshiba Portégé Z10t series Dock (PA5105U-1PRPA), which includes 2 USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, power, and full size HDMI ports. With this setup I can simply drop the Z10t tablet into the dock and use my 25" monitor and full size keyboard and mouse, as I would with a desktop computer. This tablet and setup has the power to run all the applications that I need, including AutoCAD, and with the gigabit Ethernet connection I'm able to quickly open up drawings and files from our network shares.

As a Laptop The Portege Z10t includes a keyboard dock, which has 1 USB port, HDMI, VGA, and gigabit Ethernet ports. This keyboard dock is a nice option to have when I'm away from my office... whether it's making typing an email easier and the ability to use a mouse, like you would with a laptop... or connecting to a projector in a conference room and not having to use dongle adapters.

As a Tablet The Portege Z10t tablet itself has 3.5mm headphone jack, one USB3.0 port, microHDMI, power port, and a full size SD slot. As it tablet it works great at work for walking around doing inventory with Microsoft Excel, and with the USB port I can use a hand held scanner for quickly scanning in bar codes. Or relaxing at home playing a game or browsing the web. Also the full size SD is nice for getting pics off my camera. But the best part is, this is one device for everything that has all my documents and everything on it, which are always with me now... whereas before it'd be on my other tablet and then realize I didn't have a document that was on my laptop which was at work or home. Also, the Z10t easily fits in the saddle bags on my motorcycle, whereas my laptop did not... big plus for me!

The cons of this device are:

Battery life The battery life on this device is only around 5 hours at the max and under heavy use you're looking at 4 hours, maybe less. Would've been nice to see a slightly larger battery (around 45w) and the new Intel Haswell processor.... This combination would probably get around 7 hours or more, which I'd be happy with.

Fan noise Fan can get a little loud sometimes, but I usually only notice this when I'm in my office and its quiet.

Memory size Can only get this device with 4GBs of system memory. I would like to see a model with 8GBs of system memory.

Physical Keyboard The physical keyboard takes some getting used to because the key strokes are shallow... this isn't a big deal for me since I don't do much typing and if I do I can use the desktop dock and full size keyboard. Also, the screen only tilts back a little past 90 degrees while on the keyboard dock... I feel like I want to push it back further after I've opened it.

For me over all, this has been a great device with good quality and these cons have definitely been outweighed by the pros of this device... and I absolutely love how I've got down to one device now with this tablet. There will definitely be more devices coming out that will hopefully get ride of most of these cons and become the perfect business tablet... but for now this is the best one out there... In my opinion.

FYI, I've also tried the Samsung Smart PC Pro but I did not like that device because it did not have an external monitor port on the Smart PC series Desktop Dock. Also the docking port on the Smart PC had problems... if I bumped or moved this device it would frequently loose connection with the dock. The Portege Z10t has non of these issues.

Discount ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

First things first. This is the REVISED version of the Sandy Bridge chip-set. For all of you who are worried about the recall you don't have to worry when buying this laptop.

I purchased this laptop as a replacement for my old HP G60. I have been wanting to buy a new computer for some time now but had never looked too deeply into it. I originally wanted to build a custom pc and never thought that a laptop could keep up with a desktop. That is until I saw this computer. This computer is an amazing piece of hardware which manages to stay cool to the touch after hours of operation. Never would I have thought that I could find a laptop this powerful, let alone for under $1800.

PROS:

It has the new i7 Sandy Bridge which can tear through any task you throw at it.

The nvidia GTX 460M with 1.5 GB of DDR5. Windows tells me this card has 4GB total memory

Great speakers for a laptop. Never have I heard such sound come from a laptop.

The screen which as far as I can tell has about the same contrast as my 40 inch LED TV.

Can output 3D onto a 3DTV through HDMI

The keyboard has a great feel and the back light looks great every time I see it

The finish feels great to touch and does not show fingerprints.

This computer has BY FAR the best cooling I have seen on a laptop. It stays cooler than my old G60 which would power off if left sitting on a flat surface and would burn my hands.

CONS:

Honestly I dont have any cons that I can find. Just some problems that I am sure most people wont experience. After I installed virpe antivirus i got a BSOD and had to do a system restore to fix. However after the system restore I had to uninstall the drivers for the back lit keyboard and re-install them so they would work again. That and this computer came with Google chrome pre-installed. It would not open or uninstall. I had to install a new copy of chrome for it to work and now on my add/remove programs i have 2 copies of Google chrome.

Overall this laptop far exceeds my expectations for what a laptop can do. Most desktops will have a hard time keeping up with it. If you are in the market for a desktop replacement I honestly cant think of a much better way to spend $1800.

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I bought this computer because I am a budding photographer and casual gamer. I couldn't believe how much computer I got for the price. I purchased the computer 2/1/2011 and it arrived 2 days later. The first thing I tried to do was create the recovery discs only to find out the computer would not burn dvd's. I had called Asus before making the purchase to make sure the blu ray combo drive would burn dvds and i was assured that it would. Asus created a RMA and I send them the machine and received it back 10 days later only to find the same issue. I called and got another RMA and sent it to a different location and received a machine 10 days later that would burn dvd's.

Then I found out about the sandy bridge recall. I opted for the advanced replacement so I could keep my machine while they sent me a new one but the new machine I received would not burn dvd's. So now I have another RMA and hopefully they get the issue fixed on their first try this time.

While I had a fully functional machine I absolutely loved it. It is blazing fast and whisper quiet. My brother has the previous years version of the Asus ROG and it sounds like it is going to exploded while playing W.O.W. Everytime I have spoken with Asus customer support it has been a pleasant experience and the turn around on the repairs has been quick. Its an awesome machine but a frustrating experience.

Best Deals for ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

First off, I ordered this from Amazon on April 6 and received the redesigned version. From the recent reviews, I can see that others ordering it around the same time were still getting bad models. This one came from Arizona. Once the nervousness of getting a bad model was gone, I could go to work.

First thing I did was a clean re-install of Windows 7. I used the guide at notebookreview.com (Google search "clean windows 7 asus", it will be the first result). Since the G73SW-A1 does not come with a Recovery disc, I had to acquire a (legal) Windows 7 Home Premium install disc. (Note: when activating a retail copy of Windows 7 with the OEM product key, Windows will make you activate it by phone, which is automated and takes 5 minutes) As long as it's the same machine and Windows 7 Home Premium, you can activate it with the OEM key infinite times.

The -A1 comes with 2 500GB hard drives. The first HDD is split into 3 partitions (hidden restore, Windows drive, spare) and the second HDD is split into 2 empty partitions. When I did the clean install, I wiped all drives and erased all partitions, leaving C and D drives. With Windows 7 and Drivers/Software discs in hand, a restore partition is unnecessary. Someday I will clone the C drive and replace it with an SSD.

Overall early impressions:

Pros:

-Very fast: 100% loaded in about 30 seconds from power-on

-Nice build quality: good screen hinge, rubbery wrist-rests feel good. Fingerprints not really an issue. I still get a kick out of the stealth fighter styling.

-Very bright LED backlight and clear screen (though it's a glare-type).

-It remains quite cool at the bottom (my old Inspiron 9300 was a scorcher)

-Nice keyboard backlight

-Good quality backpack and mouse

Cons:

-Keyboard design: space bar does not work if tapped at the very bottom. It works OK if I hit it harder or centered. The arrow keys are too small and crammed between the number pad and Ctrl and Shift keys, so it's hard to find them just by touch.

-FN keys my old Inspiron 9300 had buttons for Mute, Volume Up/Down, Play/Pause, Previous, Next and Stop all on the front of the laptop. On this one, they're all integrated onto the keyboard, using the FN button. (just a minor nuisance, really) Also, the Play/Pause/Stop/Previous/Next buttons are pretty much useless as they only work with Windows Media Center. (If you disable WMC, the buttons default to Windows Media Player) Again, the Inspiron 9300 buttons worked with whatever media player was on at the time.

There's also this weird glitch with the desktop icons. I like to have a clean desktop (no icons). If you disable them in Display Properties, the icons reappear after a reboot. It turns out Power4Gear (ASUS's power management software) is the culprit. Go into its advanced settings and tell it to hide desktop icons for all power settings.

Overall, I'm very happy with this machine. No BSODs or system errors of any kind so far. The NVIDIA video card seems to be doing a very good job. All of the drivers on the machine and on the DVD are current, so I only had to update Windows 7. The keyboard will take some getting used to, that's all.

Honest reviews on ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

I owned the previous model and the good thing is this came out during exchange period. i got this from a regular store and not amazon.

Clarification on specs: the hard drive is a hybrid drive meaning it has large cache and 4 gigabyte ssd built in. This should make it faster like an ssd. I haven't tested this yet so I cant say if it makes a difference.

First impressions:

pros: the build quality is superb!!! its is so solid with no give. the screen doesn't rock back and forth like many other 17 inch computers. It is cool and runs so smooth with minimal noise. The drive is still a bit noisy when it spins.

the built in video chip( within the processor) should improve battery life) not that this is an issue with a desktop replacement)

cons

-volume cant be raised or lowered by pressing 1 key. You have to press fn+ another key. annoying but not major.

Vidoe camera not impressive at all. may 1 year old macbook pro isight is much much better.

the finish feels great in your hands and doesn't attract fingerprints however i feel like it will collect stubborn dust over time unlike a metal finish.

overall this a great laptop very fast and responsive with minor issues but hey nothing is perfect!

Important update:

someone kindly posted in the discussion this link which i find concerning. there seems to be a flaw in the design of sandybridge chipset. I have not experienced any issues yet but i am considering sending it back. again actual laptop design is flawless but this seems like a serious issue with the intel chipset.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS G73SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

I've used computers for work and pleasure since 1989. I've owned four desktops. This Asus is my second notebook/laptop. My first is a Dell XPS M1710 which I still have and have been extremely happy with it. I don't game but use these laptops for photos, video editing and daily internet time.

The Asus arrived two business days with free shipping after Amazon confirmed it was shipped. The packing box was a little flimsy but the Asus factory packaging is superbly constructed to protect the product. Included in the box also was an Asus Drivers and Utility disk, warranty card, Asus Express Gate and Inspiring Innovation Persistent Perfection manuals. Backpack, mouse and a tiny cleaning cloth were included also. I think the size of this laptop is great as it will replace my desktop. Many reviews mentioned the enormous size and weight. Didn't you read all the specifications before you committed? This machine is only slightly wider than my Dell XPS but more streamlined in design. It's about the same width or possibly less than a desktop keyboard. I wanted the HD resolution and big screen for the videos. My Dell XPS ran hot. This Asus is cool and you can have it on your lap.

Many consumers were concerned about the sandy bridge problem. On the outside of the box was attached a sticker saying "new revision, certified design" as well as a small label on the laptop in the lower right corner with the same wording. I also logged on Asus' website to check the serial number to confirm the processor is the newest version.

The G73sw is also extremely well built on the exterior around all its seams of quality materials, not cheap plastic you'll find on other brands. The surface around the touchpad where your fingers and palms may touch does not leave smudges or stains but can get a surface scratch with sharp nails.

The upper cover of the screen is tight and securely attached to the lower portion. The screen's resolution, clarity and brightness is the best I've seen anywhere on a computer. Letters are not wooly in appearance. Some screens seem yellowish or bluish in use. Not this one. It's white where white should be f.ex. on a word processing page or webpage.

The keyboard is soft touch with a slight sound, almost silent when you type. It doesn't have that awful clicking sound found on desktop keyboards or cheaply assembled budget notebooks. The keyboard has a numerical section arranged differently from desktop keyboards. The directional arrows are placed differently so you need an extra fraction or two of a second to look before you press your selection. A few days and you're ok with that. The keyboard as you know is illuminated in fluorescent white with Fn+F3/F4 to adjust brightness as well as other Fn functions. I thought I could choose a color f.ex. red or blue besides white. Maybe it's possible and I haven't found out how as yet.

The two Seagate 500GB harddrives are fast. Just not as fast as the Western Digital 500GB in my Dell XPS. The Seagate hds are almost completely silent. If you listen to music or other background sound you don't know they're spinning. Almost like a hybrid car stopped at a red light.

I ran a clean installation of Windows 7 Professional from startup wiping the bloatware as many users have recommended here and on other forums. It has been extremely helpful reading reviews and suggestions from owners earlier this year. Thanks for your feedback. Be sure to use the driver and utility disk enclosed to return your machine to proper functionality if you do a clean windows installation. You will install approximately 14-16 drivers from that disk and avoid the junkware. Notebookreview dot com has excellent instructive pages to guide you through the process.

Other reviewers have written about other technical aspects of this machine so I won't at this time. With the past 3 days usage of mine I think I as well as other consumers will be happy with their purchase. Windows Experience Index was 5.9. I highly recommend buying from Amazon. If time allows I will write an update in 3-4 weeks when all my applications have been installed and used as I require.

BTW, I must have used over one hour writing this review and I fully enjoyed using the keyboard. Furthermore, I am not associated with Amazon or Asus nor have I an economic interest in this writing should someone think that. I am an end user, no more.

UPDATE 15 August 2011

Its been about six weeks since I've owned this notebook. My experience has been very favorable as I described above. I have one disappointment and some suggestions to Asus should they read my updated comments.

POSITIVES: Many. Fast, quiet machine with superb 5 star graphics as I mentioned in my review above.

A hugh pleasure using this machine.

OBSERVATIONS: These are minor points of my personal preferences or desires. What other owners experience can be different. Hopefully some will agree.

1. The keyboard is illuminated. The touch pad area left and right buttons should be illuminated also.

2. It would have been nice to choose one or two other illuminating colors for the keyboard.

3. The Asus embossed ROG on the cover would have been nice with illumination.

4. The keys on the upper row Esc, F1-12, Delete, Home, Pgup, Pgdn and End I would have liked 1/4 larger in size. For masculine fingers the buttons are small.

5. From mid-June until now the price has fallen as well as Asus has increased the rebate $50 to $150 this month.

DISAPPOINTMENT: The notebook is supposed to have blu-ray combo drive but the blu-ray discs I own or loaned from Netflix will not play on my machine. I haven't installed a 3rd party dvd software since many reviews have claimed these applications are problematic. I would have liked an Asus driver so the blu-ray discs were readable out of the box. Maybe someone here has a solution.

Reviews of HP Pavilion DV6-1280US 16-Inch Entertainment Laptop

Customer Ratings:

My wife and I purchased this laptop for her mother and I have been very impressed with the features and build quality. It is well constructed with a metallic toned black plastic exterior. Take a good look at the shell art since it is something that may not appeal to everyone but my mother-in-law definitely appreciated having something a little more individual than the usual dull grey exterior. Despite the glossy exterior we haven't noticed much in the way of finger prints or any scratches despite the helping hands of our kids who love to "help" grandma with her computer.

The specs for this model are set well above what the average home owner needs today which (in my mind) future proofs it nicely. If you are on a tight budget you can get what you need for less (look at the HP Pavilion G60 line). If you have a little bit more to spend and you want some headroom to handle your computing needs for the next few years this is a great choice.

CPU The dual core Turion is a solid notebook processor. It can handle two threads which means you can have the virus scanner running while you surf the web with no noticeable slowdown. No it's not the most aggressive notebook CPU out there but it's a solid mid-tier processor that runs cool and has a great power envelope. Outside of gaming CPUs are not the performance bottleneck in notebooks so most users should aim for a mid-tier CPU and spend their budget on things that will get them more tangible enjoyment (like a nice display and good graphics).

RAM The 64 bit Windows can utilize more RAM than the old 32 Windows so why not through a lot of memory at it? It's cheap and a better path to improved performance for the average notebook user than more CPU horsepower. 6 GB of RAM might seem like overkill but this is one area where too much now = enough later.

HDD 500GB plenty is far more space than you need now but again, I like the future proofing. Some people may not like that it is 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM but the performance difference is nearly zero thanks to the 6GB of RAM and the reliability of 5400 RPM drives makes me prefer them in notebooks which are hard on hard disks (because they move around while in use notebook HDDs suffer far more failures than desktop drives)

Graphics The integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 is vastly superior to the usual low-end graphics that plague notebooks. You can actually do a little gaming on this notebook which is a truly rare thing.

Display HP has a reputation for high-end displays and this one delivers. Tuned slightly for indoor use the HP Brightview display is good enough for outdoor use though not as much as a more matte display. Indoors it is brilliant with surprisingly strong blacks (too many notebook displays are all brightness with no depth). I like that the 16" wide screen provides a decent amount of vertical space without overdoing it. The difference between this and a 14"-15" is surprising.

Sound Surprisingly good sound for a notebook. The speakers are well positioned and deliver a good range. I've heard better but it was on a $3K notebook.

Battery For years the retail notebook market has been plagued with cheap six cell and even four cell batteries that could barely deliver 90 minutes of real computing use. To see HP bundle a 12 cell Li-Ion battery in with this notebook is hopefully a sign the industry is recognizing the note users want good battery life. With a 12 cell battery you can realistically plan to go all day without plugging in. This does add slightly to the weight but few users will notice.

I don't have any serious "cons" for this computer. The "Touch Media Controls" for things like the volume (as opposed to buttons you push) are a little odd at first but we got used to them quickly and hey, they look cool when they light up.

To wrap it all up: you can always buy more features for more money but if you are looking for a laptop with some higher-end features and upscale build quality this is an excellent choice. HP spent money in the right places and has created a high-end laptop at a mid-tier price.

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This laptop delivers especially for the price. 64 bit Vista with upgrade to Windows 7 included, Turion X2 64 Ultra dual core mobile processor rocks, 1Gb dedicated graphics memory and up to nearly 3Gb with memory sharing on a Radeon HD 4650 stand alone video card, WiFi a,b,g,n and bluetooth built in, 6 Gb DDR2 RAM, 500Gb HD, Bright View screen is super clear, built in scrolling on the synaptics touch pad, if you use a mouse you can turn the touch pad off and more. I've been playing EQ2 online and playing music CDs both at the same time with no problems. This machine will run high end games. The only things I don't like about it is the 5400rpm HD which is not really that big of a deal and especially all of the preloaded software offers and trials that took me two days to identify and remove.

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I bought this laptop a few months back ...

I have had nothing but problems with it !!!

With in the first month the heat sink stopped working, had to send it back to Hp to get it fixed.

That took almost 8-10 days..

Then the laptop started crashing every time i would run movies or videos.

I thought it was a problem with the operating system, but technicians at Microsoft told me

that the error number suggested that it was a hardware problem(mostly with the processor or motherboard)

So I had to send it back again to Hp.

I took them 2 weeks to figure out what the problem was even after i specifically told them what was

happening, because the call center person who i spoke to entered the data wrong(even after i repeated it twice)

Now since last week i m again having problems with the laptop.

Its heating up like crazy & shutting down.

I plan to send it back & ask Hp for my money back,

I have learnt my lesson, NEVER to buy Hp again.. Bad products & worse support you will ever find.

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HP Pavilion DV6-1280US 16-Inch Entertainment Laptop

You can't beat this laptop for the price. I actually got this on sale for $949.00 and then a $50.00 rebate on top of that and the Widows 7 free upgrade. I have had many laptops prior to this one and my last one was an HP with an AMD processor, never had a problem with it, in fact it still runs, but it's over 4 years old and can't keep up with today's technology or my needs.

Personally, I would not pay the extra money for an Intell processor when I have never had a problem with AMD and AMD is a few hundred less.

Great laptop, fast machine with good graphics.

My only complaint is Vista 64 Home Premium. You cannot create a real ADMIN account and I think I might need to upgrade to the business or professional version which you do not have the ability to do when order this laptop from Amazon. However that said, you also can't beat Amazon's price on this machine.

The only other thing is that I would have also preferred a 17 inch, but could not pass this laptop up with 6 gigs of ram, 500 gig hard drive and with my rebate it only cost me $900.

You won't be sorry if you purchase this laptop.

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Plenty of power for hungry Vista. This laptop packs as much if not more punch than most desktops. Great for gaming & media apps. Intensive graphics capabilities. Great battery life.

Reviews of HP Pavilion G7-2220us 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

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List Price: $549.99
Sale Price: $449.99
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I am partial to 17 inch screen laptops and to HPs. I was both excited and a little bit hesitant to try a Windows 8 computer on a non-touch screen laptop. So far though I have found Windows 8 to be very enjoyable and the computer itself has met or exceeded my expectations. Online reviews for Windows 8 on non-touchscreen laptops make it sound almost like a disaster. This has been far from my experience. With just a little trial and error and web searching for solutions I have quickly become a fan of Windows 8 on this computer. And for the price there is a lot going on here.

I use laptops mostly at home so I enjoy having a larger screen for media consumption and work related, MS Office related tasks. But having a laptop lets us move it from room to room and take it on the go when wanted. This is also my 4th HP and my previous ones had AMD chips also. They performed well without any hiccups or failures ever. So my personal go to choice for a laptop is HP. I also like their customer service. I have always been able to get someone on the line at any time with virtually no wait.

For the computer itself its construction is very well done overall, but a few things stand out as exceptional. The screen is very high quality: videos and movies look great. There is nice depth to it, good contrast and clarity. My wife and I loved looking at videos we had shot and Netflix/Amazon movies are a treat. Next I have always liked HP laptop keyboards and this one is no exception. The 17 inch screen allows for a full keyboard with full sized keys. The keys are relatively flat but raised just enough and they have a nice cushioned feel to them. The mouse pad on Windows 8 computers is even more important than before. HP made this one have a nice textured feel that provides a nice grip and feel to it. There are a number of Windows 8 related functions you do on the mouse pad such as swipe right and left and zoom in and out and the mouse pad works well on them. Also of note is a very fast card reader: Really Fast. I personally have never had a faster one. I had 400 photos on a card I inserted many of them in the 5 to 7 meg range and it downloaded them in a minute or so.

Now to Windows 8. I am baffled by the negative responses on non-touch screen laptops. Especially as it is very easy to get to a `desktop' view that mimics a Windows 7 environment pretty closely. In any case when you start off you will have what Microsoft calls the `start' screen. This is in what I think of as 'Tablet View'. A series of `Apps' are displayed. Some of these are actually Apps you would have on your tablet or smart phone. Others take you to `traditional' windows programs such as Word or PowerPoint. You can get out of the `tablet view' by clicking on the desktop `App'. Now the start menu is gone. If you put the mouse in the top right corner it brings up search and some other `charms'. You also have the files icon pinned to the task bar so you can get to my computer easy. Strangely it is not easy to shut down or restart. But a quick search of the web showed that hitting the windows key and I gets you to the power option. Windows 8 easily let me create a control panel `App' so I click on that and go straight to control panel.

I have found Windows 8 to add another layer of enjoyment after figuring some things out. I use my tablet a lot and both enjoy and take for granted the great visuals and ease of use of Apps. Well you get that same user friendliness now on your computer for Apps that work with Windows 8 as true Apps. And then when you want it, a more traditional desktop environment for non-App programs like Word.

I downloaded and installed Office 2010 Professional Plus and it has worked picture perfect and the Apps I have downloaded so far have worked great as well. And you have easier access to pictures, videos, all the items you use a home laptop for easier than before via the `Apps'. Just give yourself a couple of hours and use the getting started with Windows 8 app or searching for information on the Internet to help you along. I couldn't find the desktop App for instance as sometimes the lettering on apps is small, but once I did knowing you have a more familiar option lets you explore the `Tablet view' more and enjoy it more.

I haven't drained the battery yet and I will update it when I do on battery life, but it has been going down pretty slowly for a 17 inch computer. The webcam is also very good, the best pre-installed one I have used. Programs start up very fast. The computer itself starts up fairly start after a full shut down and closes very fast when shut down is chosen. At times some programs have been a little slow though. But the specs here are for a value oriented computer. And from a value and enjoyment perspective the 2220 delivers. I personally feel most people will enjoy Windows 8 on a non-touchscreen laptop. And HP took that into account with the 2220 giving a very good mouse pad and keyboard which makes working with Windows 8 just that much more enjoyable. Don't forget the Windows key-I combo, the ability to switch to desktop mode, and the charms you get to by putting the cursor over to the top right. Bottom line good value for a family computer, especially one used mostly at home where a smaller/lighter size is less of a concern.

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I've been pretty happy with this laptop so far.

Physical appearance: It's a bit large and on the heavy side for a laptop, but it's a 17.3" so that's to be expected. The design is very good and I was very happy that all of the obnoxious "Look at my awesome hardware!" NASCAR-style stickers were easily removed to make a more sleek appearance (save the HP logo on the back of the screen). It's a lot thinner than I expected, but again, this is not a Macbook Air. Only about an inch and a half thick means it should be an easy fit in most cases or bags compared to other models.

Performance: The first thing you have to realize is that this is not a gaming laptop. I'm not a big PC gamer, but the video card on this specific model is very good but uses onboard memory, so it's not going to give you the same performance. It did outrank my custom-built desktop with a 2gig video card with dedicated memory in the Windows Experience score though, so it might be better than my guess. I've only used this for casual web browsing, video watching, and typical business tasks (Word, Powerpoint, etc.) and it's performed great with no lag. It even handled a visit to TVTropes (which means I had about 20 or 30 Firefox tabs open at once) without any significant performance degradation. If the 4GB of RAM isn't enough for you, though, be glad to know that the installed memory is a single chip, so you can easily buy a second stick to install. It can be a pain to find out exactly what memory to get, so I'll save you some time: DDR3-1600MHz PC3-12800. Only place I was able to find that was on page 20-something of the 107 page Maintenance and Service Guide, buried in a list of product codes for replacement parts for various bits and bobs like the CMOS battery.

Video: The screen looks great. It's got a good resolution for the size and videos look great on it. The screen's so big, though, that you might have problems getting the viewing angle right, causing the lower half of the screen to be too bright or the top half too dark. Best solution? Set the computer on the table when you're watching a movie, since you'll be far away anyway.

Battery Life: I'm going to be honest here, the battery life kind of sucks. Thankfully, the charging cable is small and light, so you don't have the massive brick you get with companies like Dell if you want to take it on a trip. I'm sure there's things I can do to extend the life, but it tends to get dangerously low on me after only 2 hours of constant use. Considering Amazon rates the battery life at 3.5 hours, this is about what I expected.

Keyboard and Touchpad: It's been a while since I've used a laptop, so this is taking some getting used to. I really like the touchpad. It's textured rather than smooth, so it's easy to figure out where it is without looking, and it gives you a textile indicator of how you're moving the cursor. It's also placed perfectly to allow you to type without accidentally sending the cursor all over the screen because your hand's on the touchpad. The keyboard itself, though, has a few annoying things. The layout's a bit odd, such as the Delete key being above the Backspace key. There's also no break between the Function keys either, so if you're a dedicated Ctrl-F4 browser like I am, it can get frustrating. The biggest annoyance, though is the rightmost shift key. It's actually half shift and half pause. What good is the pause key? It doesn't even do anything in most applications! So when you're typing, you find that half the attempts to write a capital letter doesn't work because you're on the pause key side of the key rather than the shift key side. I guess I'll get used to it eventually. Or I'll figure out a way to remap the keyboard, one.

Operating System: Okay, here's a sticking point for a lot of people I bet. I agree with you. Windows 8 sucks. The hard part? Getting Windows 7 on this thing. Even though I have a legitimate copy of Windows 7 with a legitimate product key, I couldn't get it installed because of protections built into the system against "malicious software". Thankfully, Linux users are great about sharing ways around blocking products like this. First, you have to go into the BIOS and disable "Secure Boot", then enable "Legacy Boot". This will stop the BIOS from hounding you every time you try to book from a DVD. Next, you have to completely remove ALL the partitions. Every single one. So if you don't know what you're doing, keep in mind that there is NO WAY TO RESTORE WINDOWS 8 TO YOUR COMPUTER AFTER THIS POINT unless you pay HP about $20 for a recovery disc set. Yes, it's really friggin' annoying. Anyway, after you delete all the partitions, you're ready to install your OS of choice. Now comes the final roadblock THERE ARE NO WINDOWS 7 DRIVERS FOR ALMOST ANYTHING IN THE SYSTEM. When you install Windows 7, the only hardware that's going to work properly is the touchpad, keyboard, monitor (kind of, at a horrible resolution), sound card, and the wired ethernet port. No USB, no wifi, 800x600 resolution. HP does not have any drivers for Windows 7 available on their website. So you have to install the Windows 8 drivers. Then run the installation again. Then run it a third time in some cases for the driver to actually install. And that's just for the wifi and video card. You want the chipset drivers? Good friggin' luck. It took me three hours of searching to finally find that the chipset is specifically the AMD A70M chipset, and you're going to have trouble finding drivers for it. I had to use a third party website of dubious reputation to get some (always make sure your antivirus and adblockers are up, kids!) So after about six hours of banging my head against a brick wall, I was FINALLY able to get Windows 7 installed on the system. So it IS possible, just not for casual computer users.

Overall: Once I got the OS I wanted on the thing, it's pretty good. It looks great, feels great, and (aside from a few little quibbles) runs great. You're going to be hard pressed to find a 17.3" laptop in this price range. Trust me, I looked. If you're really concerned about any of the issues and want to pass, know that you're going to pay around $200 more for similar specs or you're going to be forced down to the 15.6" screen size. It's not the best laptop on the market, but it's the best value I've seen in the month I spent comparison shopping.

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This would be an even better computer if it had shipped with Windows 7. Make sure your software and printers can handle Windows 8 before you buy. My HP OfficeJet will not even work with this new unit.

This laptop, or at least the one I received, has very good WiFi range. The LED screen comes up to your programmed brightness level right away, instead of starting off dim, like many LCD laptops. Button and control placement are good, with volume, brightness, mute, etc. available with just one key-press. This was a Christmas present for my 12 yr old. Battery life is better than stated.

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Got exactly what I needed in a laptop at a great Cyber Monday price. Still look at the weekly adds of local store and glad that I got this one at the now sale prices of smaller and less featured laptops. The 17" screen and full size keyboard were the selling points for me as I have gotten way to used to my old desktop computer with big monitor.

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Great price and the unit is great. Windows 8 has quite a learning curve and unit itself is more than needed for family member but larger keyboard and screen is just what the doctor ordered. No problems at all with the unit, setup was problem free.