Buy Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Black)3444CUU

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,999.99
Sale Price: $1,475.00
Today's Bonus: 26% Off

Update: Got machine on Jan 18th. It stopped working on Jan 21st. I had to lower my rating from 5 to 3 stars due to service problems. My new laptop is stuck in "depot" repair, waiting for a new touch screen to arrive. They can't offer me even an ETA on the repair. I would not ding them for having a design problem in a new machine, so long as they fix it quickly. As it is, they're selling new machines with new displays, but they're not fixing the machines that are breaking. Service really is everything, and Lenovo failed in this case.

Update: I lowered my rating from 3 to 1 stars due to the continued service nightmare. I've paid for depot service, and couldn't get a person to talk to me about my machine for two weeks. Now, my machine is in limbo... I needed that machine desperately in January, and now the slow hard drive in my old one is causing some schedule slip. You just can't develop Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 web apps with a slow laptop hard drive... it's totally miserable. Two months in limbo and counting. when will a company finally figure out that business users need good support? It's just like the freaking airlines that no longer get me to my meetings reliably.

Update: March 15th, and I can't even get Irma, Lenovo's customer loyalty person assigned to my case, to call me or e-mail me about the new machine Lenovo was supposed to build to replace the broken one.

Update: March 20th. I just got an email saying Lenovo estimates my replacement machine will ship April 10th. Unfortunately, it seems to be standard practice at Lenovo to lie about ship dates.

Update: April 9th. PC Connections rocks. They sent me a replacement machine a week ago when Lenovo wouldn't. I'm using it right now. This machine is fantastic when it works. Lenovo finally delivered the new machine yesterday. In theory, my replacement from PC Connections is from the same batch of machines which have bad displays, so I started to configure the new machine from Lenovo so I would not be left with another broken machine any time soon. The new machine is already dead! It's battery is fully charged and diagnostics say it has good health, but when power is disconnected, the machine dies instantly! Thank goodness for the machine from PC Connections! That's 2 out of 3 of these things that broke within 3 days! On top of that, Lenovo service is a disaster!

In short, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere, and avoid Lenovo. I don't know who makes good hardware or offers good support, so you're on your own. However, I do think it's a good idea to buy through PC Connections.

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

Pros:

Touch screen works well with Windows 8

Fantastic build quality

Beautiful, small, thin, and light

Outstanding keyboard

Keyboard backlight

Excellent touchpad

Very fast SSD, excellent overall performance

Rapid charging

Fingerprint scanner

Good phone support

Quiet

Spill resistant keyboard

Does not get hot

Cons:

Some Lenovo bloatware

No VGA or Ethernet port

A bit light on battery life

Power brick is a bit large

This machine will change how you use your laptop. Before, I always left my laptop on the table by my chair when I got up. With the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, I grab the laptop in one hand, my soda in the other, and walk around. Because it stays cool, I don't mind using it in my lap, unlike my previous workstation class laptops. I'm finding that I'm working all over the house. It's not quite as mobile as a tablet, but it's close. If I'm going out for coffee, taking it along is a no-brainier. Being so mobile, I find that I don't bother plugging in the laptop as often. I'm finally truly wireless.

While Windows 8 has issues, I doubt I will ever again buy a laptop without a touch screen. Being able to pinch and zoom in the browser is huge, and half the time I see something I need to poke on the screen, I just poke it, rather than finding my mouse cursor, moving it over and tapping the touchpad. As someone with poor vision, I have to give Microsoft huge kudos for their work on accessibility. Windows 8 is the most accessible operating system ever. The high contrast mode works wonderfully, and zooming in on text has never been easier. With Windows 8, most people should choose a touch screen.

Compared to my wife's 13" MacBook Air, the X1 Carbon Touch is slightly heavier, but has a slightly larger screen. My screen seems slightly brighter, but both seem excellent to me. I'm not one to worry about screen resolution, but I love the high contrast on the X1 Carbon Touch. Like many people, my wife protects her MacBook Air with a plastic shell. With that protector, her machine is thicker, feels all plasticy, is uglier, and slips on surfaces easily. Why anyone would want a phone or laptop that they worry about scratching so much that they dorkify it is beyond me. With a ThinkPad, you just throw it in your case and don't worry about it. The main difference in thickness is the X1 Carbon Touch has a much thicker lid. It's stiffer than the MacBook Air's, which is good for the touch feature. Overall, with this machine, I am finally rid of MacBook Air envy. Now it's my wife's turn to envy my laptop's touch feature.

The touchpad deserves special attention. It is nearly as large and works nearly as well as the one on the MacBook Air. Why did HP, Dell, Lenovo and others ship laptops for years with horrible multi-touch touchpads? That drove me crazy on my last too machines, so I'm excited to finally have one that works well. There are a couple of features I thought I would not use, but was wrong. I have sensitive data on my machine, so I got the 240G encrypting drive. I have an insanely long and difficult to type password (> 35 characters, with a mix of upper/lower case letters and digits). I found that my old 24 character passphrase had only 44 bits of strength, and could be cracked with a GPU in a few days. The fingerprint scanner saves me a lot of time, though I worry that it's not secure enough. The backlight on the keyboard is more useful than I'd thought it would be. Having low vision, I'm a solid touch typist, and often code in the dark, but with the new keyboard layout, the backlight actually helps. However, the extra pointing device in the middle of the keyboard seems to have zero utility now that the touchpad is solid. Because I wander around so much without my power supply, the rapid charge is quite useful. I spend a couple hours here, an hour there, and then in half an hour in my work chair, I've got back most of my charge. Still, the battery wont last all day, so you have to have access to a power source. I was worried about not having a VGA connector for presentations, or an Ethernet port for the rare cases when I have to plug in. However, I'll just put USB adapters in my laptop carrying case, and problem solved. I don't miss having a DVD drive at all. Why do people still carry these devices around when a USB thumb drive is cheaper, smaller, faster, higher capacity, and can be written to many times? As for the spill resistant keyboard, I've killed two laptops in the past with a spilled beverage, so I'm a fan. Also, I've read a number of complaints about having a USB 2.0 port, in addition to the USB 3.0 port. The reason for this is the USB 2.0 port has an always-on feature, which can be pretty useful.

I'm a full-time programmer, a power user, and I hammer my laptop about 10 hours a day. I require high built quality, high speed, a good screen, and an outstanding keyboard and touchpad. Our IT guys want us to buy ThinkPads, and I need a laptop with a touch screen to develop touch features in our software. Those requirements mean I had little choice but to buy the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch. Fortunately, I didn't have to compromise much. I would have preferred having a graphics chip, and a quad-core high voltage CPU capable of full speed full-time, rather than just in bursts. That would have required a bigger fan and much larger battery, but I would have chosen such a machine if Lenovo offered a ThinkPad W line laptop with a touch screen and large SSD. In reality, this machine is faster than anything in Lenovo's ThinkPad W workstation line of high performance laptops. My older high voltage quad-core laptop is slower, because the SSD drive in the X1 Carbon Touch is amazingly fast, and more than makes up for the loss in CPU power. Incredible boot times and wakeup times are the first thing you'll notice, but also file copy, starting bloated apps like Libre Office or my CAD tools, and doing any disk-grinding tasks are several times faster. I'm probably going to save 2-3 hours a week, because I do a lot of huge software builds and installs, and run lot's of huge applications. So far, I've installed 100G of stuff on my 240G SSD. On a regular laptop, just writing 100G would have taken all day, but with this machine, I hardly had to look at the hour glass cursor. Also, I'm enjoying the lack of fan noise compared to my older power-laptops.

For a professional programmer, reliability and durability are huge, and I feel good going with the ThinkPad line. When something does go wrong, I require quick and capable support. Losing a couple days of work can easily cost my company more than the price of a laptop. So, I tested Lenovo's phone support. If you buy an IdeaPad don't bother calling Lenovo when things go wrong you're mostly on your own. However, for ThinkPads, the support guys are located in Atlanta. I had a hard technical question, so after a few minutes, the guy I was talking to put me on hold and consulted their guru. He had the right answer when he came back. I miss the old support Dell had in the 1990's when a guru would answer the phone directly, but Lenovo's ThinkPad support is good enough. This is the main reason our IT guys are pushing employees to buy ThinkPads, rather than anything from Dell or HP. Because Lenovo offers the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch, I was able to get a machine that fulfilled my requirements with few compromises, while keeping our IT guys happy. At the same time, I'm finding new freedom in where I choose to code. All in all, at least for initial quality, it's easily the best machine I've owned.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Lenovo was kind enough to send me a review unit of the X1 Carbon Touch for a few weeks to play around with and write a review of it.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch is an impressive ultrabook that is (you guessed it) made of carbon fiber and it is extremely light (only 3.4lbs/1.55kg), slim and durable. Lenovo has done a fantastic job at making it as thin and light as possible and it really shows when holding it. It is slightly thicker and heavier than the original X1 Carbon non-touch (2.93lbs) which is hardly noticeable. The X1 Carbon Touch has the same look and feel as the regular X1 Carbon non-touch and Lenovo has added an impressive touchscreen to the X1 Carbon Touch. My review unit came with an Intel Core i5-3427U, 4GB of Ram DDR3, Intel HD 4000 graphics, and a fast Intel 180GB SSD. The X1 Carbon Touch comes with Windows 8 Pro 64bit that is (obviously) designed for multi-touch and can support up to 10 fingers and the screen is extremely responsive even to the lightest touches.

While the X1 Carbon Touch is definitely a premium ultrabook made with high quality materials, it also costs more than other ultrabooks on the market. The base for the X1 Carbon Touch starts at $1,257 and goes up to $1,785. Those prices were taken directly from Lenovo's website in case you are wondering. It's defiantly not a gaming laptop by any means but it has absolutely no problem handling all of your business work like a champ. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch has an excellent touchscreen and a great keyboard that I have always been very fond of. The battery life is also acceptable and it can charge extremely quickly and when I say quickly I mean you can easily charge it from 0% to 100% in less than 90mins.

Pros:

+Build Quality / Design:

The build quality is absolutely fantastic and it is made of the same materials as the original X1 Carbon non-touch. Previous Lenovo laptops were made of magnesium but the X1 Carbon Touch is made of carbon fiber (hence the name) and it is as strong as aluminum but only a 1/3 of the weight and almost fifty-percent lighter than magnesium. This makes it for a slim, durable and super light ultrabook. I love the nice thin bezel that it has around the edges and viewing angles are amazing in both the horizontal and vertical planes. The touchscreen is extremely responsive and supports up to 10 fingers and works really well with Windows 8. I found myself using the touchscreen more than the keyboard just because I'm so used to using smartphones.

+Keyboard:

The keyboard is easily the best thing about the X1 Carbon Touch. The reason why I purchase Lenovo laptops over some other brands is purely because of the keyboard. I mean it just doesn't get any better than this. It has an excellent backlight keyboard with scalloped keys that make it easier to type. The track-pad is glass this time around and it works really well. There's no hard buttons on the bottom of the track-pad but they are hidden beneath it and it works very well. I'm used to having hard buttons there with my personal Lenovo laptops but the soft buttons work really well in the X1 Carbon Touch. There's nothing negative to say about the keyboard on any ThinkPad laptop because Lenovo has perfected the keyboard so well that even if it had only the arrow keys, it would still be awesome.

+Ports / Sound:

On the front side you don't have anything but on the right side you have an SD card reader, mic/headphone jack, mini-display port, USB 3.0 and a Kensington lock. Moving on to the left side we have the AC adaptor, vent holes, USB 2.0 and a Wi-Fi switch. On the back side we have an option to put a full size sim card for 3G only, not 4G LTE. Both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 have the same color so make sure to use the correct one. The USB 3.0 port should have obviously been colored blue but oh well, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't have a lot of ports and lacks some ports that I would have loved to see such as HDMI but you can get an adapter for that. On the bottom of the X1 Carbon Touch, we have a small straight line cut on each side of the laptop and that's where the sound comes from. The sound is pretty decent and I normally keep it at 45% when watching YouTube videos but at 100%, it is somewhat loud and a bit distorted.

+Web Browsing:

The web browsing experience is awesome on the X1 Carbon Touch thanks to the touchscreen display. I found myself using the keyboard only when having to write something on forums but for everything else, I was using the touchscreen because it's so much easier and a lot of fun. I absolutely love the touchscreen and the on screen keyboard is pretty sweet. You can pinch to zoom which is awesome if you are reading something that has a tiny text.

+Screen/Display:

The screen is 14 inches and the resolution is 1600x900 HD+ and I'm glad that Lenovo didn't go with a 1366x768 resolution because that wouldn't have made any sense for an ultrabook this good. I know that Lenovo likes the 1366x768 resolution quite a lot and most of their laptops come with that resolution but they just need to let it go and stick with either 1600x900 or go full 1080p like other companies. What would be even better is if Lenovo put a 1080p display on the X1 Carbon Touch because most of the ultrabooks nowadays come with a 1080p display and 1600x900 is sort of small. The Dell XPS 13 offers a 1080p display that's IPS and looks fantastic. Don't get me wrong because the 1600x900 fits perfectly well with the 14 inch screen size in the X1 Carbon Touch but a 1080p display would have been better. The colors and viewing angles are fantastic and you can even tilt the screen all way back (180 degrees) and it still looks fantastic. The screen has a matte finish and it can handle glare from the window pretty good but the colors won't look as good.

+OS / Camera:

The X1 Carbon Touch comes with Windows 8 Pro 64bit that is optimized for multi-touch. You don't have the option to choose between Windows 7 or 8 when purchasing one because Windows 7 (obviously) doesn't utilize the touch screen and it wouldn't be smart to have an OS that's non-touch on a touchscreen ultrabook. For some reason, the X1 Carbon Touch comes with some bloatware that it is just not needed in my opinion and really harms the experience when using the laptop. Most of the bloatware runs in the background and I feel like it is wasting precious battery life and you could really improve the battery life if you just uninstall them. These are some of the bloatware that come pre-installed on the X1 Carbon Touch: Kindle, Lenovo Companion, Skitch Touch, rara.com, Evernote Touch, Accuweather.com, Norton Internet Secutiry, Skype, Intel AppUp, and an ad for Microsoft Office.

Another pre-installed program is Lenovo's QuickLaunch which is essentially a start button that includes the typical search functions that you would see in Windows 7's start button. I replaced Lenovo's QuickLaunch with ViStart 8 which is a third party program that replaces it with a start button that's identical to Windows 7's start button. I just had to have a start button because it was driving me crazy. But other than that, Windows 8 is awesome and works very well on the X1 Carbon Touch. The camera on the X1 Carbon Touch is 720p and takes acceptable low light pictures. It's not by any means the best camera on an ultrabook but it's more than acceptable if you ask me.

+Battery:

The battery capacity on the X1 Carbon Touch is 4-Cell 45.8 Whr which roughly translates to around 5-6hrs with the brightness turned down a bit. It is non-removable and you do not have the option of adding an external slice battery. I tested it by fully charging it to 100% and then letting it drain by just watching YouTube videos, web browsing, Facebook and other basic things like that and it lasted ~5hrs and 10minutes and that was with the brightness turned down a bit. It's not the best battery life on an ultrabook but for me it's more than acceptable. I know that there are other ultrabooks that get more hours than the X1 Carbon Touch but 5-6hrs isn't bad either considering that it's still running an Ivy-Bridge CPU and not Haswell. If you want the best battery life

on an ultrabook then you should wait for Haswell to be released and possibly wait for the ThinkPad T440s to be released as well.

+Storage:

It comes with a fast Intel 180GB SSD that has ~120GB of free space after doing all the configurations and installing all the windows updates/drivers. It boots extremely fast, less than 4 seconds if you don't have a lot of startup items and if you put it to sleep, it can resume in less than a second. Applications load extremely quickly and you never have to wait for anything to open. Transferring large files (10GB+) on the X1 Carbon Touch is blazing fast thanks to the SSD. I also installed the latest AHCI driver using Lenovo System Update software before I did any of the benchmarks listed below. I tested the speed of the SSD by transferring my large movie collection folder and it transferred in less than a few minutes considering my movie collection folder is 10GB+. I benchmarked it using CrystalDiskMark and I posted the results below.

+System Performance / Processor:

My review unit came with a Core i5-3427U (dual core/four threads) that runs at 1.8Ghz and turbo boosts itself up to 2.8Ghz. The Core i5 is a typical ultra-low voltage CPU that uses far less voltage than a regular full CPU. This is (obviously) done to prevent it from overheating and using as little battery as possible. At idle, the CPU uses around 0.801 volts and under full load (2.8GHz turbo boost) it goes up to 1.01volts but the majority of the time it hovers around 0.966 volts. The i5-3427U has a max TDP of 17 watts and has 3MB of L3 cache which is pretty nice. I find that dual cores are more than enough on an ultrabook for doing pretty much everything except gaming even though some people want quad cores on an ultrabook. There would be no way to cool a quad core CPU on an ultrabook and it would waste a ton of battery but I guess some people really want the very best performance.

The Core i5-3427U is blazing fast; it never lags and has absolutely no problem handling everything you throw at it. If you do a lot of multi-tasking then the Carbon Touch is fantastic on that area because it has a ton of ram (4GB), a fast dual core CPU and an Intel SSD 180GB that can handle everything you want running in the background.

It does run quite hot if you start running heavy applications such as Adobe After Effects or benchmarking tools such as Cinebench 11.5 or PCMark Vantage that really stress test the CPU to its limits. When I tested it by running PCMark Vantage, the laptop automatically shut down itself half-way through the test because the temperature of the CPU had gone well over 95c. I had to let it cool down for a few minutes before booting it up again. Running the CPU at 100% for a few minutes will give you a warning at the bottom of the screen which tells you to close whatever you are running. Even when the CPU was running at 100%, you could hardly hear the fan spinning. The fan is silent at all times and doesn't make any noise at all.

+Bios:

The bios has the typical features that you would see in a standard bios. Under the config tab, you have the basic options such as USB, Keyboard/Mouse, Display, Power, Beep and Alarm, Serial ATA, CPU, Intel AMT. If we go over to the Security tab, you will see that we have Password, Fingerprint, Security Chip, UEFI Bios Update Option, Memory Protection, Virtualization, I/O Port Access, Anti-Theft and Secure Boot. It also has Bluetooth 4.0 as well as Intel a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. I have posted some pictures of all the options in the bios here on Amazon along with other info so be sure to check it out.

+Benchmarks (CPU/GPU/SSD):

I'm copying the results that I got here but they are also uploaded on Amazon.

CrystalDiskMark:

---------------------Read ----------Write

Sequence: 437.5MB/sec --173.4MB/sec

512K: 370.0MB/sec -------179.3MB/sec

4K: 23.70MB/sec -----------45.76MB/sec

4K QD32: 235.2MB/sec -----80.86MB/sec

Cinebench 11.5:

CPU: 2.56 (Multi-Threaded)

CPU: 1.15 (Single-Threaded)

GPU: 14.54fps

Windows Experience:

Processor: 7.0

Memory: 5.9

Graphics: 5.4

Gaming graphics: 6.4

Primary Hard-Disk: 8.1

PCMark7: Score: 4836

Futuremark 3D Mark (2013) Fire Strike: 538

Cons:

-Expensive:

As I have already said, the price is the biggest con for this laptop and it is priced a lot higher than other ultrabooks on the market that offer better specs (i7, 256GB SSD, 1080p IPS and even a dedicated GPU) and are cheaper. It is a premium laptop and the built quality easily sets it apart from the rest but it just needs to be priced a little lower so it can grab people's attention. That's just my opinion.

Conclusion:

The X1 Carbon Touch is one the sexiest looking ultrabooks on the market and it is made of carbon fiber that is extremely light, slim and durable. I can safely say that it is by far my favorite looking ultrabook on the market but the price is what sets me off. It has a superb touchscreen that is very responsive, an excellent keyboard that is by far my favorite feature of this laptop and charges extremely fast (you can go from 0% to 100% in less than 90mins) thanks to the RapidCharge technology from Lenovo. It has a fast CPU that can handle of all your work without a hassle, more than enough ram for multi-tasking and an extremely fast SSD from Intel that can boot the laptop in less than 4 seconds. It is just all around a great looking ultrabook with great features.

The price of the X1 Carbon Touch starts at $1,257 and comes with a Core i5-3427U, 4GB of ram, Intel HD 4000 graphics and an 180GB SSD. There other ultrabooks out there that are cheaper (less than $1,000) that come with a Core i7, 256GB SSD, 1080P display and even a dedicated graphics card (Dell XPS 13 being one of them). If you have deep pockets then I highly recommend the X1 Carbon Touch to anyone who wants possibly the most attractive looking ultrabook on the market. It is made of high quality materials which make it extremely light, slim and very durable. When holding it, you can really feel that you are holding a premium ultrabook in your hands! Lenovo has another winner in their hands but the price easily ruins it.

I'd like to thank Lenovo once again for sending me a review unit of the X1 Carbon Touch and letting me write a review of it.

Best Deals for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Black)3444CUU

Having read about screen problems with Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch was wary but the new (2013) version seems fine and the machine is really attractive and fast. With Windows 8 and Office 365 I can get through my work very efficiently. Admittedly downloaded a free start button replacement (Classical Start Menu) which also has a "Shut Down" and "Restart" command and starts the X1 Carbon Touch in the Desktop, not Start screen.

Lightweight and fast somehow attractive, after a months use I am in love with this very useful companion.

Disadvantages new power socket (throw away your old extra power packs) and no Ethernet input, also built in battery so cannot carry a spare. However, now very rapid charging and it is easy to get a USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter (Cable Matters SuperSpeed).

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Black)3444CUU

The product was delievered quickly and was packaged for shipment extremely well. Everything worked out of the box and I had no troubles. I was concerned about getting a 14 inch screen because my eyesight is not that great. But the HD screen makes all the difference and I can read the small print just fine. I need the business features like encryption and connection to an LCD projector so was willing to pay more. It is surprisingly thin and light which my shoulders appreciate. The battery life seems as advertised. Windows 8 takes some getting used to but that was expected. I have not yet tried the web cam. It looks beautiful and I certainly will never feel outclassed in the laptop department. Overall I am very happy with my choice.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Black)3444CUU

After I turned the computer on for the first time, i realized the touchscreen was not working. I tried to apply the fix that was released by Lenovo and that didn't work either. Contacted the store (17th Street) requesting the item to be replaced (a few hours after i received my notebook), and received the following message from them:

"Unfortunately we cannot take back opened computers, as stated on our Amazon page at this time we are not able to issue a return authorization for your order; you do have a manufacturer's warranty."

How would I know that the touchscreen was defective, had i not opened the box and turned the computer on?

Avoid buying anything from this seller. If the item is defective, you are on your own.

15 6 AMD A4 4300M 500G 4G Win8 Review

Customer Ratings:

I bought this as a birthday and graduation gift for my sister, after I saw her old Pavilion DV4150US. I wanted her to have something that'll carry her farther than just her current Master's studies, as well as help her with her orchestra performances and student tutoring sessions. She was absolutely ecstatic when she signed for it and opened the box!

She ran into one problem: Office 2010 Professional. For some inane reason, when she got ready to use Word 2010, it asked her for the product key. The other applications in the suite did likewise. We checked all the paperwork that came with the system to no avail. Because it was loaded by HP (OEM), she'll have to wait for when she has time off to call HP's Customer Care to request help. That makes me rather unhappy 'cause I don't like giving anyone, even my own sister, a half-functioning gift.

In the meantime, she's able to use it a lot more for her classes, her students, and her performances without any hangups or issues. Will update this review once we hear from HP.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Discount Asus G1Sn-X1 Refurbished Gaming Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo

Customer Ratings:

I have had this laptop for almost a year now, bought it July '08 over at Best Buy. It's a great laptop for several reasons. A big plus is the fact that there are two different buttons for powering on, one for 64-bit, and the other for 32-bit. 64-bit is a must, because it unlocks the full potential of 4GB memory, and being a gamer, it truly helps. The HDD is partitioned into two drives, one with the OS (149GB) and a clean partition (140GB). The e-SATA hookup is there physically, but not virtually. What I mean by that is that there is an e-SATA port, but there is not yet drivers for it. I called up Asus and they told me to uninstall/reinstall JMICRON drivers, all in vain. Another con is the processing power, would have liked to see this push 2.0GHz. The screen resolution is considerably lower than most laptops, but it does have Asus Splendid Utility, so there truly is a trade-off there.

All-in-all, considering this being nearly a year old with no visible or virtual wear and tear, I give this a rating of four stars. In the near future, I plan to swap HDD's, because this model makes it possible to do so.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The ASUS G1Sn series redefines mobile gaming with advance graphics solutions, exclusive display technologies and unique design details. Enjoy revolutionary entertainment on the go Intel Core 2 Duo processor in G1Sn enables breakthrough mobile performance, high-definition capabilities and improved battery life.

ASUS G55VW-RS71 15.6-Inch ROG Laptop (Black) Review

Customer Ratings:

This laptop is really amazing. I can run COD Black Ops 2 maxed out on everything except shadows on medium and get about 70 fps. I also use it for work and create power spectra plots almost instantly using a fairly demanding app within Matlab. I can have almost 10 such plots open at the same time while having several browser windows open. I just purchased 8 more GB of RAM because I am doing some serious multitasking. The vents blow away from the user and barely get warm unless hardcore gaming. I love the slight incline the keyboard has. The speakers are loud.

I do have one con, and that is I hit the track pad with my palm, on accident, deleting parts of emails and various other things. It happens enough were I get upset but fairly minor compared to everything that is great about it. I am not sure I would pay the price Amazon is asking. I bought mine from Newegg for $999 but they are sold out and this laptop is discontinued.

It does have an illuminated keyboard but there is more leakage from underneath the keys than from the numbers and letters themselves and this was almost not worth mentioning.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Samsung Series 9 900X3C - 13.3" - Core i7 3517U (Model: Review

Customer Ratings:

I had been looking for a fast but highly portable business PC for sometime. And although I have been a PC guy all my life, I had been seriously considering switching to Macbook Air, because of it's form factor. I even bought the HP slate 500, which is a great tablet PC, but is highly underpowered and at least at this time cannot replace a laptop. Finally, I looked at the Intel Ultrabooks and liked the ASUS Zenbook a lot. So off I went to Bestbuy to buy one. But when I actually handled these machines at Bestbuy, I noted that though the ASUS Zenbooks are really pretty and sexy, the sharp edges of their metallic body is a concern can almost cut through skin! While at Bestbuy, I also saw the 15" Samsung series 9, and was really impressed. I therefore did some research online and found that Samsung series 9 also came in much lighter 13.3" (2.55 pound) models. It's quite surprising that only limited information is available on the latest versions (i7-3517U) of this model the 13.3" model is not even featured on the Intel Ultrabook website! So, when I looked at the specs it was a simple decision. I bought the best available model NP900X3C-A04US (3rd gen Intel Core i7-3517U 1.90 GHz, 256GB solid state HDD) and got it a few days later. It's beautiful, solid, extremely well designed and light. I love the speed, quick boot up time and the back lit keyboard. The sound is also surprisingly good. I have not tested it's battery life yet, but it has given me a several hours worth of light office use without any issues. I would definitely recommend this machine to others.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I am a software developer and needed a second notebook as a backup and to use at client's sites. An ultrabook seemed to be the answer. I researched all reviews for several months, finally zeroing in on an ASUS ux31a Zenbook. I was concerned about mixed reviews concerning the reliability of the product. I started looking at others and heard a recommendation for the Samsung Series 9 ultrabook. After much research I ordered the i7 with 256 SSD drive. It was best decision I could have made. First, I was impressed that the product is packaged like an Apple product. I opended it up and did what most techies do, started removing bloatware and adding my development files. I now have it for several days and have made the following observations:

1It boots very fast and the drive seems to be very quick.

2The setup was easy and the documentation is clear to use.

3The unit is not only very light, it looks and feels very sturdy for such a small form.

4The screen is amazing...the colors are clear and I have not seen any pixel problems.

5The touchpad is OK once you get used to it.

6The keyboard works for me even though it is small. I am a two finger typist and I had no problem coding with it.

7The battery life seems to be excellent. It seems to be between 6-7 hours. I have not used it for videos but I would assume it would drain the battery faster.

Overall I am extremely impressed with the Samsung Series 9 i7 Ultrabook. Amazon delievered the product in 2 days. I definitely recommend this fine product.

Best Deals for Samsung Series 9 900X3C - 13.3" - Core i7 3517U (Model:

Following up on William's comments: I too have had this model for about 6 weeks now, and really like it! It is very very fast boot-up especially. I also like to run the Windows XP mode as one of my older development environments requires it. It's nice to be able to do this on one screen while the normal Windows 7 runs on the other (extended desktop). The built-in laptop screen is bright and crystal clear.

The only slight down side is the track-pad, whose operation leaves something to be desired. In fact I found that it was unusable until I unplugged the power supply for the laptop go figure! Working with tech support and updating the driver software did not help. Anyway, I use an external mouse anyway, but I thought I would mention this problem in an otherwise excellent laptop.

Honest reviews on Samsung Series 9 900X3C - 13.3" - Core i7 3517U (Model:

Had defective touch pad from day one, neither amazon or there vendor were of any assistance. Had to go through the manufacturer. Unit is great other than touch pad fault. At the manufacturer getting fixed as I write this. I antonline is vendor no one wants to purchase from. They wouldn't even email me when contacted about the fault.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung Series 9 900X3C - 13.3" - Core i7 3517U (Model:

Great notebook, super light and fast. The only con is the trackpad, probably one or two generations behind the MacBook on that

Buy Dell D630 + Windows 7 (Notebook Laptop Computer) 2.2 GHz CPU / 2 GB

Customer Ratings:

I'm in IT and purchased this for a friend...this was a great deal, and came just as described. All the software was authentic, and the system had been thoroughly cleaned. I was a bit hesitant to buy an older and used laptop, but it's been cranking for 6 months with no problems.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

It had some problem with a video card driver(or something like that)so I had to send it back. Just a few days later I got it back and it works great. I love it. Also the people at Tampa laptops are real nice and helpful.

Best Deals for Dell D630 + Windows 7 (Notebook Laptop Computer) 2.2 GHz CPU / 2 GB

The review board must have ate my earlier review of this product. So, here is another. Looks "new", works great, fast.. whats not to love about it including the price. They are easy to do business with. Answered/responded to mail. Thanks, Tampa Laptop for a nice affordable, dependable laptop!!

Honest reviews on Dell D630 + Windows 7 (Notebook Laptop Computer) 2.2 GHz CPU / 2 GB

This computer works great with Windows 8. Loads in 30 seconds. Great workhorse computer for office or school with about 5 hours on a 9 cell battery. Not for gaming however, plays videos well and no issues with streaming video and You Tube up to 720. Will buffer too much with 1080 video. Had no issues with Camera Raw batching and using the Canon Utility for remote operation of my DSLR. If you are on a tight budget and not a gamer or video editor this computer will work just fine.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell D630 + Windows 7 (Notebook Laptop Computer) 2.2 GHz CPU / 2 GB

My mother needed a new laptop and got one with windows 8 and could not use it, so this laptop loaded with windows 7 was perfect for her. Arrived quickly, started right up. GREAT!

Cheap Sony VAIO E Series SVE15134CXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

Customer Ratings:

Exactly as described. I adore it. Best Microsoft windows laptop in my opinion. I love the look of it and windows 8 is pretty awesome as well. Its not as hard to operate as people have been saying it is. i just got my laptop today and im already used to it. lol. You still have the original desktop to so theres nothing different except the setup in the begining. And if you order this laptop on amazon. i suggest getting it through amazon and go about the free shipping they offer when you buy more then one thing over 25 dollars. my estimated shipping was for next week and i ordered it on monday. Waaaay earlier then expected which is even better! So, if your thinking about getting this laptop, go for it! Deffinetly worth it and its different in a good way from the rest. :3

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I deliberately waited a few months to write a review on this so I had time to truly discover what I did and did not like about this laptop.

The Operating System

A big difference to me was made by Windows 8. I'll be honest, I don't much like the OS. It takes me a good few minutes to find certain programs that I could find in seconds on XP or Windows 7. Also the OS seems to have a function that works through the mousepad that minimizes the function or game you are on and snaps back to the desktop it's pretty annoying when gaming so I use a separate mouse for that. It just seems like the OS missed the mark in anticipating the needs of people using it. My mother has the same laptop and she made the same comment to me just recently, and she's not a gamer! So truly, gamer or not, you may find Windows 8 a bit of a pain, at least until you get used to it. The system also comes with Kaspersky Internet security 2013 which is a great anti-virus/security system.

The Laptop

The laptop itself is a dream! The keys are lit from below so you can even use it in the dark without the need to switch a nearby lamp on. The 'Fn' key works like a shift to enable your F-keys to adjust thinks like brightness and sound, meaning they casn be used as regular F-keys in games (I had a previous laptop where you had to press 'Fn' to use those keys as F keys, so I greatly appreciate this!).

The laptop is desinged around you shutting the lid to place it into a power-saving mode, so most of the time you will never need to shut down. The manufacturer claims it can be left in this mode for up to 2 days unplugged, although I've only tested it for about a day. When you open the lid the laptop is ready in seconds, so it saves a lot of time setting up overall.

While the main reason I bought the laptop was for Skyping with family in England, (the built-in webcam and mic are what I looked for) I do spend a lot of time gaming. The laptop runs Star Wars: The Old Republic very smoothly. I also play APB Reloaded and Stat Trek Online with no problems, and at high graphics settings. In choosing this laptop I looked for system specs that would run the new Sim City game, though I haven't bought that yet! All of these games run smoothly and the laptop hardly even gets warm. The fan system works very well indeed!

Overall

The OS is a pain sometimes but you can live with it. The benefits of how this laptop runs and works and the fact that it hasn't run into anything it can't handle far outweigh the few niggling problems I've had with Windows 8. I couldn't bring myself to rate this laptop less than 5 stars and my wife will tell you I've spent every spare minute on it since it arrived! If you're prepared to spend a little more than the average cheap-end $400 laptops, this one is great value for money.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO E Series SVE15134CXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

This computer is Awesome and I would recommend this to anyone and everyone. The rapid wake technology is real nice. The Tech support is the best I ever experienced. Must have 5 Stars !!!!!!!

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO E Series SVE15134CXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

this is my second Sony Lap top ...my first one I just passed down to my son...but 5 plus years and still going..

I love the keyboard...bouncy and it lights up..and the display is very clear ...the sound amazing...

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO E Series SVE15134CXW 15.5-Inch Laptop (White)

Northing like I expected from Sony. The camera on this laptop is the worst I've ever seen, I mean the quality is so poor you can see the real pixels. This has been the most disappointing computer I've ever bought.

Discount Lenovo U310 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $699.99
Sale Price: $564.95
Today's Bonus: 19% Off

I just received my laptop. I looks just as it does in the picture. It is as beautifully petite and light weight as described. I am running windows 8 on this pc right now and though it takes a little getting used to, I love it. I just had a full charge and I'm waiting to see how long it lasts -I wonder if it will reach that 6 hour average.

A couple of things that I had to remind myself about...

1. windows 8 and google chrome are not really good together in my opinion. Windows promotes all the Microsoft products first of course. Internet explorer actually functions better with this interface.

2. this device doesn't have the optical drive therefore my old Microsoft office 7 cd cannot be installed yet, I'm looking for other solutions

3. the camera is not that great in dim lighting, I will explore how well it works outside tomorrow

4. the keyboard is great its is small enough for my small hands and allows me to type perfectly on here.

SO far soo good! I am enjoying this new product! It is a great buy for someone like me who was on a tight budget and needed an extra portable laptop to take to class daily. ( I Just sold my Toshiba satellite Ls500, it weighed 6 pounds).

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Overall, I like the size of the computer, and when it actually works I like it.

Now for the bad parts. I really dislike Windows 8. I feel as though it is made for a touch screen computer only and is very clunky and non intuitive. I also have had a few other numerous problems with this computer. One being the wireless capability. My phone, my wife's phone, and my old computer all connect to the wireless network with no problem. This computer goes in and out all the time, and when you are working "via the cloud" on things for work losing a connection every few minutes can be maddening. Also, perhaps most frustrating is that when the computer goes to sleep, or hibernates, or you close the lid, it will not restart to where I left off. I am simply left with a blank screen. I have called tech support on this issue numerous times and am given a ticket number. Every time I call, they adjust the power settings and tell me to call back if it recurs. I have called back again and again and have literally had this issue since I got the computer.

I was eventually referred to their "premium software support" team and was told that it might be a problem with their preinstalled software, and they could fix it but I would be charged. My argument was that if I was shipped a product that did not work, they should be responsible for fixing it. They did not see it that way.

I ended up contacting Amazon to complain about Lenovo's terrible customer support and my experience and they immediately offered to refund my money and take the computer as a return with no questions asked.

Best Deals for Lenovo U310 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

The battery life is not what I expected, It requieres to be charged every 3 hours. It doesn't worth what I have paid. Elena

Honest reviews on Lenovo U310 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

I was looking for an economical well featured lightweight laptop and onstensibly, this unit fills the bill.

It's quirky sometimes and locks up or reflects send/receive errors on Outlook but frankly, it's tough to know whether to ascribe those frustating deficiencies to the machine itself or the demons that befall a non-touchscreen version of the much maligned Windows 8.

I've added "Start8" to make it feel more like Windows7, but clearly, this is a WIN8 machine with a minor disguise.

Otherwise, it's fine -battery life is acceptable, weight is a bit heavy compared to other ultrabooks, but at the low end of the pricepoint, it's tolerable for travel.

I suppose reasonable minds would ascribe my challenges to the user(me)or Windows 8 . . not the machine itselfbut at this point, it's not what I would prefer . . but have to accept.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo U310 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Like the ultrabook but jury is still out on windows 8. Consider touch screen for windows 8. Overall for the price this is an excellent laptop.

Alienware M17x R4 AM17xR4-7526BK 17-Inch Laptop Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I am here to give an updated review on this product. I, as many other, received the incorrect screen resolution. The item had been described as (1920x1080) but I received a (1600x900). After numerous support chats and phone calls over the course of the week, I have successfully gotten amazon to change the description to the correct resolution. As of 2/4/13 I have confirmed all the specs are correct, and you will get exactly as listed. I was very happy with the way amazon got things figured out with my issue (eventually.) Kudos to them for having the best customer support and being able to back up a product no matter the loss to them. That is what keeps me coming back to amazon. Anyone interested in purchasing this item that was scared off by the sketchy reviews, it is now SAFE to purchase. Hope this clears things up.

Now, on to the review. I will try to give an unbiased opinion as I have done months and months of research, comparing and contrasting every modern gaming laptop. I will also try to touch on points not stated by my fellow reviewers. This review will be fairly in depth (Should be for a $1600 laptop), and I will try to be detailed, but also universal in describing details, so that you don't have to know any extreme technical jargon to understand the review as well as giving an up-to-date one. Enough said.

The Build:

First things first the build quality is excellent, and this will be the first thing you notice as you un-box and remove it from its protective casing. I researched for months on purchasing a high-end/Gaming computer, and i have learned very much about numerous modern gaming computers and components. Most of the reviews on amazon and on review websites have stated its build quality is of the highest grade and that it is one of the biggest selling points for this laptop, and for good reason. The laptop feels solid, secured, and a bit heavy (weighs in at about 9.5lbs). In my opinion not overweight considering the amount of components stuffed into this thing. The rubbery matte texture compliments it's sturdiness well, and to me was a great material choice for this laptop as it resists fingerprints rather well and will not show scratches as aluminum or plastic well. Not to mention keeping the laptop light, and relatively cool. I dare you to find a better looking laptop (my opinion) that is more sleek and with better build quality (not opinion) than this one. The reason i put up with the weight over say a Sager NP9170 is that this M17xr4 is the thinnest 17inch gaming laptop with these components i could find. I'll take thinner to lighter any day considering, i will be hauling this in a excellent backpack (Everki Beacon or swiss gear) Where the 1 to 2 pound gain over the NP9170 will not be noticeable. Your port selection is numerous and above average, even for gaming laptops. 4 USB 3.0 ports (2 on the left, 2 on your other left), 1 USB 2.0/Esata combo (right) which is also a sleep and charge port which does just that (allows you to charge your phone, iPod or usb charging device while the laptop is asleep or even completely off). VGA, HDMI and Display port video outs (all left), 2 headphone jacks, 1 mic input, as well as an SPDIF optical out (All left). One cool feature is that the Soundcard software included can be used to configure the audio ports to do anything, For example configure all 4 ports to be headphone jacks, or 2 line -in ports. An HDMI-in (right) (not existent in any other laptop I could find. Trust me, I looked. More on this in "other features" below). Last but not least a 9 in 1 card reader above the optical drive (right) and a Kensington lock (left). The cooling system is well engineered with 3 intakes on the bottom, and 2 exhausts on the back, the left one being for the processor, and the right being for the graphics card. I can't tell you how nice it is having the exhaust shoot out the back instead of the bottom into your lap. You might think you lap will block the intakes but they are almost designed with a peak and valley structure, to allow lap use without block to the intakes. Don't get me wrong this laptop can get warm on the bottom especially during gaming, but it is rare I game on my lap. And when using a laptop pad or cooling pad, you won't notice it at all . The individual laptop exhausts are nice, first they limit noise to 1 fan most of the time, secondly they are effective and accurate at temp detection (i.e. Gaming, the GPU fan ramps up, Heavy app use or multitasking the CPU fan ramps up) not to mention the entire system is silent during basic and medium use.

Components:

I will go into greater detail of the components i have added separately or replaced later in the review. For now, the components it comes with. First off the processor, The Intel i7 3610m is the baseline mobile model for i7 cores in laptops. It is snappy, and has no problem devouring numerous tasks at a time. For gaming an i7 core IS MORE than enough considering most games don't utilize 4 cores to begin with (exception: Farcry 3). In fact you would do just fine for gaming if this laptop had an i5 core and you would not notice a frame rate difference. That being said, Alienware has refreshed their m17xr4 line with the i7 3630m, which is an updated version of the 3610m. Amazon DOES NOT include this processor in this build, where as purchasing from Dell, Xotic PC, and others will most likely get you the updated 3630, the performance differences will most likely only be noticeable in benchmarks and is not really worth it.

On to the Graphics, this laptop uses a combination of AMD Radeon 7970m discrete or dedicated card, in concurrence with an Intel HD 4000 integrated chip. First the 7970m, this is a nasty card that destroys most any game, modern or old. You can comment on this review, and I can test a game you might want me to play and let you know how it preforms. To name a few recent ones it preforms extremely well with that I have played. Black ops 2 (not very difficult for any machine), Battlefield 3 run great maxed out, Arkham city runs great, Farcry 3 runs insane on this laptop due to its great scaling on all 4 processor cores (all though I have had some crashes with this game). I've even played as recent as the Crysis 3 beta which runs great since the new drivers update. I cannot stress this enough, the ability to play such high-end games with such good results, all on-the-go, is a crazy feat to me. I run this laptop to a 27 inch monitor most of the time and it's hard to believe the graphics are coming from my laptop and not a desktop. Comparing it to the GTX 680m recently released by Nvidia, the 7970m in my opinion is on par with it, and even runs certain games better according to benchmarks. That being said in power consumption and cooling is better with the 680m. The biggest difference is the price. When I looked to configure my laptop on Dell or Xotic PC, the price difference is over $350 which is simply not justifiable, even for a Nvidia fan boy. I knew and researched both the 680m, 7970m before I even wanted to purchase here, so seeing that amazon had the 7970, it only pushed me further to buy here. Intel HD 4000 is simply an integrated graphics chip which is used for anything but high-end games and uses MUCH less power. Heck, it will even run older games or less resource hogging ones great. AMD uses "Enduro" technology to switch between the 2 graphics solutions based upon your power source (battery or plugged in) and application (Video game vs. Google chrome) this all can be configured manually, but by default your computer switches to the Intel HD 4000 when on battery power EVEN if you are trying to run a high-end game. But like I said, this can be changed manually with a combination of power and graphics setting changes. All that being said, the drivers are a bit faulty, especially with windows 8. I could not decide whether to install AMD's drivers for the 7970m from their website or Dell's which seemed outdated. I spoke to a few Alienware techs on this issue. All said that it is preferable to use Dell's drivers, but AMD's should be compatible. I noticed some performance loss using Dell's driver version, so I cleared the drivers completely and installed AMD's 13.2 version which had updates for the Crysis 3 beta.

* For your hardrive and standard 7200rpm Seagate 750gb drive. Nothing special here. See my upgrade.

* For RAM you got 6gb of 1600mhz DDR3 ram in one 4gb stick and one 2 gb stick. Fine amount of Ram ,I was going to upgrade anyways so I didn't care.

* Wi-Fi card is an Intel Centrino 2230, great reception, great speeds wireless N as well as 2.4ghz/5.8ghz bands. Not much else to say

* Standard DVD/CD RW that is a slot-load drive. I happen to prefer slot-load over tray load because: one, sleeker looking, and 2 no worrying about having a clumsy tray slide out and hit something, getting stuck, breaking, etc.

* For your sound card you get a SoundBlaster Recon3Di instead of a basic sound card, paired with a pair of Klipsch speakers, it sounds great. Where it really shines is when you hook this laptop up via optical or analog (stereo out) and tweak settings in the SoundBlaster control panel. I found the Rock preset to improve the sound even more. This excellent sound card is a rare and welcome addition to a gaming laptop. The speakers definitely aren't booming loud, but they are crisp, clean and have decent bass and are plenty loud for nearly any use. I think they could have used a slight volume boost in playing music, but with laptop speakers, it's tough considering power provided and space to put them in. The speakers are definitely above average and much better sounding than Sager or MSI laptops alike.

* The screen as stated before is 1600x900, decent colors, so-so viewing angle. Before you write this laptop off for the screen resolution, consider these two things. First, at only 17 inches (yes only) you won't see a ginormous difference between 1920x1080, and 1600x900. You will probably see it. But is it worth 200 dollars extra upgrade? Your call. Secondly, I personally route to a 27 inch monitor for gaming which I display 1920x1080 on. If your majority, or even part of your use is to an external monitor: just another reason you don't need 1080p on the actual laptop screen.

Personal Experience/Other selling points/Tips

The 3 largest selling points that had me choose this laptop over the Samsung series 7 gamer, MSI GT70, and the Sager NP9170 (in my opinion its top competitors) was first the powerful graphics card which beats the 675m and lower cards (670m, 660m, etc.) by a large amount. I was aware of the driver issues with the 7970m but I decided to take the risk, trusting they will be updated (and they have and will continue to be). Secondly the slim profile of this laptop. It beats all 3 mentioned AND has more powerful components. Now this laptop is nowhere near thin at about 1.98 inches but its as thin as its going to get for these components. You want super thin? Razer blade is $2599, and you get less powerful components than this laptop, but the razer blade is super portable (6lb,.88 inches thick). Thirdly, the icing on the cake for me (it might seem strange) the HDMI-input port. Why? The simple fact that being able to hook a console, Blu-ray player, or nearly any device to use this laptop, solely for use of its screen, is genius. Now I understand that some people do not have use for this feature because they do not own consoles or any form of device to utilize this feature and those that could have use for it might say, "Why would you want to hook a console-a less-powerful system--up to the screen of a more powerful system" well I personally have many friends on console and we often have "system link parties" the idea that my laptop could serve as a screen instead of having to haul a TV or monitor to play on is awesome. Not to mention you feel as if you have full control over your laptop to do as you choose and knowing that by the time the computer gets outdated, you could still always use it as a screen! I have used it with my Xbox 360 and it is excellent, just the right size, and the Xbox's sound even routes right through the HDMI and out the laptops speakers (HDMI carries audio and video). Of course it is not the 1920x1080 screen but with a 17 inch screen it's hard to notice that it's not full HD. For comparison HD starts at 720p, this screen is 900p, and Full HD is 1080p. It was a huge selling point for me and NO OTHER laptop has one of these that I have found.

Another cool feature I like is the speaker placement. Since I do use this on an external monitor I prefer to shut the laptop screen when doing that. This might not matter to most, but for me, when I do shut it and just prefer to use the excellent speakers on the laptop it will not block the sound. Why? The speakers on are the front of the laptop (the colored grill looking things). With most laptops you have a sound bar near the media controls and if you were to shut the screen the speakers would get blocked. Being able to use the speakers with the screen closed is a cool feature for me.

Another selling point for me personally, is it came with components that are hard to upgrade in a laptop that I wanted (7970m graphics, i7 processor) and nothing I didn't want (6gb ram, basic HDD). The laptop's accessibility is great. Pop the battery out, unscrew 2 screws, and you're in to most of the system. 2 of the 4 ram bays, HDD bay --which it has 2 of by the way--, fans, even your graphics and your processor can be seen. Again Alienware is giving you nearly full control of the system. Even the Wi-Fi card, other ram bays and optical drive are accessed through a little further, but not too difficult dis-assembly.

Here are the upgrades I have chosen and installed myself easily:

-Samsung 840 250gb SSD (purchased from Newegg for $150 with Farcry 3 Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 250 GB Sata 2.5-Inch) an SSD is said to be the single best system upgrade you can make that will grant you the most noticeable performance boost to your system. And after installing one myself, I am a firm believer in just that. Honestly with processors so fast these days your limiting factor comes down to your HDD and good ol' disc drives can only spin to access data so fast. I would even go as far as to say if you don't get an SSD you're missing out on a chunk of your system's performance especially with a processor such as the i7 3610m. Not to mention SSD's silent, cooler, more reliable, and less power consuming operation than traditional HDD's as well as SSD prices dropping like crazy and 1 open bay in this laptop, what have you got to lose? Unleash your processor!

-16gb Corsair vengeance laptop RAM (purchased from amazon for $84.99 Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10)) I wanted more than 6gb of ram and if you go higher than 16gb its near impossible to stress it. This RAM had great reviews, fast speeds and seems reliable.

-Killer Wireless N 1202, Faster 2.4/5.8 ghz speeds.

-Windows 7 professional OEM (purchased on amazon for $102) I had a feeling I would not care for windows 8 (and I did not that much, not to mention the drivers for the graphics card are nearly unusable on win 8). Bought this fresh OEM copy at a steal price, popped in my new SSD did a fresh install, Used "Sean's Windows 7 installation guide for SSD's" Which you MUST checkout if you do similar configuration as I, with the hard drives. I then formatted my original 750 GB HDD to use for storage space, and boom. My system flies with cold boot times under 18 seconds, and massive amount of storage space. In the future I will definitely move to windows 8 once graphics drivers are updated and the OS becomes more stable. But for now, it's windows 7 professional for me. Your system didn't include Windows 8 recovery disks for when you want to upgrade? No problem. Call up Alienware, and they will 2-day ship you your recovery media on a handy dandy flash drive.

-One of the many accessories I suggest for this laptop is the U3 Coolmaster cooling pad Cooler Master NotePal U3 Laptop Cooling Pad with Three Configurable 80mm Fans (R9-NBC-8PCK-GP). The reason I liked this for my desk set-up is it seems of good material mostly aluminum which is naturally cool without fans! It uses USB power, fits the M17xr4 perfectly, and the fans are even movable, and Removable. I lined all 3 fans up directly with my m17x's, 3 intake vents which really keeps this thing cool. You do not need a cooling pad, just a personal choice for me! A cool system, is a happy system. The compatibility with my system made this one a winner for me, but I do use it as a stationary "dock" at desk, it's really too big to lug around. For more accessory suggestions, Comment!

-Personally I use this laptop for school, web browsing/multitasking, high-end gaming, and a screen for my Xbox . Even though it is heavy, and many will say it is only a desktop replacement. It is still portable and I have no problem using this computer around the house, on my lap, or "docked" at my desk.

For purchasing locations I would suggest either here or Xoticpc.com. I chose here mostly because of the standard price and the partial refund I receive for the screen mess-up issue.

I do highly suggest this laptop, and encourage you to research more sites for yourself to see if it will fit your uses. I only wish it took me less than 3 months to figure that out. But at such a high price I wanted to be 110% sure this was the one I wanted.

Please feel absolutely free to comment with any at all questions, regarding why I chose the upgrades I did, or anything on the system I didn't touch on well enough, Specific Game performance, purchasing options, how to configure anything, component or accessory suggestions, or other laptop comparisons. I will do my absolute best to get back to you. Also let me know anywhere to improve on the review besides grammar (after a few pages I gave up ;). I will update this review with new info, and corrections.

You have reached the end, congrats and thank you for your time if you have stuck with me, and if you did not stick with it, Hey, I don't blame your skimming.

Thanks again.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

My Alienware M17x R4 is not the same exact spec as this build, but I can tell you that this laptop is a fantastic piece of hardware. I've had both 17" and 18" laptops and the difference of one inch is so minor to me that going with an M17x was worth it: when you're arm's length away from the screen, it's still generously large.

The body of the M17x is fascinating: it has a very tactile feel that isn't metal, but also isn't slick plastic: it's a grippable rubbery feel with a flat black look to it. The lid hinge is tight and the angular lid creates an interesting look that turns heads. I recommend the Green Onions anti-glare screen protector because the screen is still highly susceptible to reflections. I had to open the M17x to add my own drives and the build inside was clean and easily accessible: two screws and you're in! That said, you wouldn't want to do more than memory or disk drives: swapping out the modular CD-ROM can be complicated and the mSATA port is on the top side of the motherboard, which means a near-total teardown to get to (I'm told it's more accessible in the M18x).

for the R4, POST times are lightning-fast: as in, 5 seconds or less before you see "Starting Windows" on your screen. I'm currently using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit--at the time of this writing Intel has not produced USB 3.0 drivers for my specific build that are compatible with Windows 8. I HATE touchpads and love this one: it has lighted edges, its default sensitivity is perfectly fine for me, and the software can be configured to disable the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in. This last is a nice extra for gaming so you don't accidentally nudge your pointer, camera, or crosshairs in the heat of action.

Battery life is also surprisingly good: the M17x can switch to onboard graphics when on battery and this works well for general computing. I can get about two hours or more with the screen at full brightness and doing random computing while overclocked. However, if you are gaming with graphics enabled, you should still get over an hour of gametime like I do. We've apparently come a long way in both laptop battery technology and software that manages hardware power.

The lightshow on the M17x is lots of fun to play with: it has three separate zones on the keyboard from left to right and I set the colors such that my number pad is a different color from the keys (first two zones green, third zone blue). You can change the colors of the lights on the front but the alien head on the lid is always white now as it is lit by the backlight of the LCD.

If you're looking for a top-of-the-line laptop, the M17x R4 is an amazing piece of hardware. It can get expensive if you go for customization, but the underlying build is of good quality. I'd heard horror stories about cheap keyboards but I've had zero problems thus far. I've also enjoyed a very overclocking-friendly BIOS that lets you use pre-built profiles for increased performance with maximum stability.

Best Deals for Alienware M17x R4 AM17xR4-7526BK 17-Inch Laptop

I've been custom building computers for years now, so I know the value of hardware. It's pretty commonly known that Alienware will make you pay a bit more for what you're getting, but now that I actually am typing on one and using it myself, I can see why. The build quality is absolutely top notch on this M17x R4.

The screen doesn't wobble.

It has a beautiful looking gloss coat on the screen that spans the entire panel, so it looks different.

The DVD drive is a slot loader instead of a generic manual tray.

The track pad is large and functional.

The keyboard is easy to type on once you get used to the spacing.

The color profile capability of the computer is really a nice touch, as I've been able to set up my back lighting to go well with my choice of desktop background.

Adding a SSD was easy; just removed the battery and two screws from the bottom and I was able to access the caddy for the second drive. Took a couple of minutes. Compared to other laptops, the process was incredibly pain free.

It's not a light laptop, but it's heavy in the ways that you want it to be. It's solid, sturdy, well made and looks like something that will survive for years to come. Couple that with Dell's support and you've got a great laptop in your hands.

PLEASE NOTE: As of 01/26/2012 the Amazon product information for this item is incorrect. I ordered this laptop and received one with all of the same specifications but a 1600x900 screen instead of the 1920x1080 one that is listed. I contacted Amazon about this issue and received 10% off the laptop as a compensation for my troubles. If I wanted to, I could easily find a 1920x1080 panel for this laptop and just add it myself with the money Amazon refunded me, so thanks to Amazon for looking out for their customers.

Alienware M17x R4 AM17xR4-7526BK 17-Inch Laptop

Honest reviews on Alienware M17x R4 AM17xR4-7526BK 17-Inch Laptop

The laptop is great. Beautiful screen, beautiful body, fast configuration. Really a top of line.

It is very difficult to see a laptop of this level here in Brazil and the first time that I saw it, I was really impressed.

As others said on their reviews, the body is not metal or plastic coated. It has a rubbery coat that has a great feel. It has a beautiful design and the Alien is very nice.

The keyboard is a really important thing on a laptop for me, and the keyboard of this M17x R4 is really good. The size of the keys and the feel when pressed is better than my last Samsung laptop. The touchpad is big and good as well. The backlights of the keyboard and on the border of the touchpad is really nice to play with. I always get myself playing with it.

Regarding performance, this laptop is really great. It is fast and everything runs like a charm. the only game that I played until now is Diablo III and it runs smoothly with everything on the top.

I did buy 16gb 1600 memory ram (total 22gb at the end) and a 256g SSD. With the SSD, I installed the windows 8pro and it was rebooting in less then 9 seconds. It is really impressive. I had to come back to the official OEM OS because of problems with the HD7970m driver. I don't know what happened but, as soon as it works, I come back here and say what I did.

The battery is really good, what is quite impressive due to the specs of this machine. It can run more than 3 hours on the internet and watching some videos.

The only con that I can tell about the laptop is that it is heavy, bulky but This was already known before purchasing.

So, if you want a beautiful and strong gaming laptop for a relative good price, this is the one.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Alienware M17x R4 AM17xR4-7526BK 17-Inch Laptop

I received this laptop the over a week ago now, Let me say I am beyond impressed. It eats all modern games for lunch, I have not found one that I can't run on ultra and pull insane frames. Under full load it runs nice and cool its not to loud (the fan noise even under a heavy load is barely noticeable to me) unlike my desktop.

As for the quality of the laptop it is top notch and very very well built, I'm glad I paid the extra vs the upgraded Asus, Republic of Gamers. And as a former Asus, Republic of gamers owner I must say this one puts the quality of those laptops to shame. Also sorry for not doing a in-depth review but with some of the current reviews on here I don't see need to be.

Again, very nice laptop and the quality is top notch. Very happy that I went with this one VS a upgraded version of my old one. The Quality and performance difference is significant.

Reviews of Gigabyte P27K-CF2 17.3-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,499.00
Sale Price: $1,489.99
Today's Bonus: 1% Off

The add says that this is a Gigabyte P27K with a 15.6-inch display. But there is no 15.6-Inch version of the Gigabyte P27K, only a 17.3-inch display.

Also in the description of the product it says that the display size is 17.3-inch.

Hope you can correct the title or name of the product as it is misleading or incorrect, and will result in confusion.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Reviews of Gateway EC1803u 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

There are things that surprised me upon receiving this notebook:

1. This can play HD videos in Youtube and Hulu without a hiccup (if you have good bandwidth of course).

2. Upgrading HDD, RAM and even network card is a breeze as the access panels are well laid out in the bottom, and all said components are within reach upon opening. No need to open the top and take the keyboard out like with some other notebooks.

3. LCD quality is surprisingly good and easy on the eyes.

4. Overall build quality is above average for the price point.

This notebook looks and feels much better than the images provided here would make you think. By now everybody should know that this is extremely similar Acer's 1410, down to the quirks such as missing bluetooth despite presence of bluetooth button, etc. which is not surprising now that Acer owns Gateway.

However, there are subtle differences and I bought this over the Acer 1410 because of the following:

1. The keyboard layout is US version, whereas that of the 1410 is European. (At least if you check the 1410's images they are)

2. The touchpad is recessed, so less fumbling into that area. Most users complain about the 1410's touchpad being flush.

3. This is subjective, but I kind of liked the faux graphite look on the palmrest compared to the 1410's.

But you really couldn't go wrong with either product. These are just what tipped me to get this one over the other.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

i was very anxious to use my new notebook... And then the most unplesant suprise... It wont power on... Well, it does but the display doesnt work.

The manufacturer's warranty will cover it, but the least they can do is to is to inspect the goods before shipping them.

Best Deals for Gateway EC1803u 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I picked up this laptop on a passing visit through the US, earlier this month. I purchased it based on some quick, but diligent research and felt satisfied with the cost vs value reviews previously posted on this site.

However, after successfully receiving this product and having some satisfactory use of it for a few days without any major problems, apart from the usual Windows Vista difficulties, I discovered that the laptop would not WAKE UP anymore from its sleep or hibernate mode. Permanent "COMA"!

Unfortuntaley, as I am no longer in the US, I am now left with the frustration and incredible inconvenience of not be able to use it or even exchange this product covered under warranty, without having to incurr extraordinary shipping expenses (that cost as much as the laptop) by returning it back to the retailer or manufacturer in the US, due to the lack of international support they provide.

Its a damn shame, as I thought that with the Gateway/Acer union, I would be guaranteed international support. A far distant truth.

A complete waste of time, energy and money!

Honest reviews on Gateway EC1803u 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

This laptop is light and excellent.

But two things I don't like :

1. Speaker is not loud enough ,a little disappointed.

2. Somehow I don't like the mouse pad it's designed. Perhaps I am not getting used to it....

Other than that .....it's a great laptop and great buy.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gateway EC1803u 11.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I received my Gateway 1803u laptop a few weeks ago. It had 32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium operating system installed. Since I already purchased a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional upgrade disc, I installed it on the Gateway after making back-up discs for the 32-bit Vista drivers. The 64-bit upgrade went smoothly. An external DVD drive is needed to install the Windows 7 Professional upgrade disc. Also, to get the hardware virtualization switched on for the Windows XP mode, a different BIOS has be used. The Acer website has a compatible BIOS for their Aspire 1410 laptop (I learned that from another customer review on this website). The Acer BIOS already has virtualization switched on. The touchpad works best with the original driver and the webcam works the original driver as well. A really good little package for the money. I'll have to get at least one 2GB memory chip, for a total of at least 3GB of RAM. That will allow more memory for the XP mode to run faster. The 64-bit Windows 7 Professional boots-up fast and runs great. The Intel Core 2 Solo processor SU3500 is reasonably fast, and screen display is sharp. The HDMI works great with big screen TV's.

Reviews of Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $659.99
Sale Price: $594.65
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

I generally gravitate towards Lenovo ThinkPad products for business, because they've always worked well for me in the past. I usually stay away from the IdeaPad line, because they're inferior, but I purchased this laptop for my dad, and was pretty pleasantly surprised. First off, the roughly equivalent ThinkPad (Carbon X1 Touch) is about three times the price, so I was heavily motivated by price as a factor. Of course the Carbon is a great laptop (I've used the previous generation for over a year, and I love it completely.) but it's tough to justify spending $1800 on a laptop that my Dad is going to use for email, Internet browsing and playing solitaire.

First off, the construction quality is fantastic. It feels very solidly built, and all the pieces fit together nicely. The touchscreen works great, and overall the screen looks pretty good. I like the fact that it has a lot of USB ports. (My ThinkPad has only two, which can be a real problem sometimes.)The hard drive, although theoretically slow, seems pretty zippy. I'm guessing this is because of the 24GB SSD that's attached. (It doesn't show up as an extra drive, so I can only assume there is some proprietary caching mechanism that it uses to keep the stuff that needs fast access on there.) The fact that it has only 4GB of RAM (non-upgradeable) was also a concern to me, but I've found in practice that setting up the virtual memory on an SSD makes 4GB seem like a lot more, since the HDD doesn't have to churn when swapping out programs between physical and virtual memory. I am a very heavy multi-tasker (I even have a second monitor so that I can multi-task) and the 4GB of RAM has never seemed to slow down the computer.

There are some negatives, which is why, although I'm very happy with the laptop, I was reluctant to give it five stars. First of all, I'm not nuts about the keyboard. Windows 8 has quite a few "special" new buttons that I've become accustomed to, such as the search button and the settings button. Many new laptops have these buttons on the function keys, but this one does not. Also, I found myself constantly trying to hit the backspace key, and instead hitting the "home" key, taking be to the beginning of the line. I don't have this problem on my Carbon X1, because the backspace key is the rightmost key on the keyboard. Finally, I hate glossy screens. If glossy is your thing, then this might not be a big deal to you, but I can't stand them. The ThinkPad has a matte screen finish, as do most business-centric laptops I've come across. I realize that the glossy looks pretty in the showroom, and might make a screen stand out among others, but they're impossible to keep clean, especially on a touch-screen device, and I avoid them whenever possible.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The WiFi never worked correctly on this device. It would drop signal constantly and give very low connection speeds. I called Lenovo tech support and they told me to return it because it is a defect in the network card. Google "lenovo u310 wifi" and you will get a 70+ page thread made over a year ago about how this problem exists. Lenovo acknowledges it but still sells the device like it is.

Best Deals for Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Three stars is stretching it a bit, but I am giving them on Lenovo's reputation alone. About a month after buying this thing, it began refusing to wake up from sleep mode. I did lots of research, and discovered that Lenovo's answer is to partition the drive and reload Windows. Um...NO. I don't have the skill or confidence for something like that, which is why I bought a new computer in the first place. I have since turned sleep mode off, which means that if I unplug my computer and toss it in my backpack without shutting it down, the battery is half dead by the time I get to the coffee shop. Meanwhile, all this trouble was supposedly caused by a Windows update, but Lenovo could wow me by dealing with it in the right way fix it FOR ME.

Hybrid SATA and SSD looks like a bad idea at this point. If I had a do-over, I would go with something with only a SSD.

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

I purchased this laptop for personal use. For the price, I am satisfied with it. It is built well, speed is fast. I very like its lightweight and the feel of touch. Recommend.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo IdeaPad U310 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

For being a brand new computer, I was and still am really surprised at how slow it is. I have a two year old laptop from work that is much faster. Internet is slow, programs are slow. I wanted to return it, but it was passed the 30 days. I will probably end up selling it. Really bummed because I really wanted to like it.

ASUS G75VW-DS72 i7-3840QM 3.8GHz GTX 670M 16GB RAM 256GB SSD Review

Customer Ratings:

Had to replace my desktop computer because of a mother board faiure. My desktop computer was loaded with I7 core and 8 Gig of RAM. I've been interested in getting a laptop for a lot of reasons but I found none that could match my desktops specs, until now.

The ASUS G75VW had improved specs all the way around. The extra RAM allows me to execute multiple virtual PCs at a time with processing power left over. Even a SSD of exceptable size! I even run dual monitors out using the built in HDMI port.

I highly recommend this computer as a perfect heavy duty desktop replacement,

Thanks ASUS

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Met all my expectations and more. Quick boot-up and shutdown. Powerful processor with graphics card that can even handle Supreme Commander (which recommends 2 SLI Graphic Cards). Word Processing and Spreadsheet calculations are a snap. Nice backpack case for easy portability. Even the battery last longer (almost 3 hours between charges) during excessive usage than I had expected.