Review of Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Customer Ratings:

Okay, so how many laptops can you find with a 15.6" screen, 1080p resolution, and a decent graphics chipset for under $1000? Not many! This laptop met all three of these needs for me. It came with enough RAM that I don't need to upgrade it until the 8GB of SODIMM modules become ridiculously cheap. The video chipset M96XT (AKA Radeon 4670) has pretty decent performance . There are just way too many other laptops out there that have 1080p screens and an Intel GMA chipset, or low resolution 1280x800 screens with decent video chipsets. This laptop has both high resolution and a good chipset.

I recently took it to a LAN party to play Team Fortress 2 and it ran beautifully with all the settings turned up to high (60fps+). My last laptop died because the CFL backlight failed, with the LED backlight that should never be a problem. It's also super bright. I usually have it set to a quarter of the brightness and it's still pretty bright.

If you don't like the disk I/O speed (I think it's fine) you can always put a SSD in this as it's a standard SATA disk drive. There are USB ports on the left AND one eSATA/USB on the right, so you can use either one.

My laptop actually did have a gigabit network adapter (not the 10/100 listed here) but no jumbo frames support :( Typical with Broadcom.

Oh, and Windows 7, 64bit is amazing. You have the full 4GB of system memory and 1GB of video.

Cons?:

No scroll lock button, no pause/break button. Not sure how if there is some hidden Fn shortcut to get these. But who uses these really? There's no Fn num-pad, but really, I never used that. The wireless enable/disable switch is a capacitive touch button right above the keyboard. It's easy to accidentally hit it and turn the wireless off and not realize it.

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This Dell Studio XPS 1640 was a very good buy. Its battery lasts a little less than three hours when browsing the web and some light work in Word with the help of Dell Extended Battery Life. All the newer games I've tried have very acceptable framerates with most settings at High. Om most older games such as Oblivion and The Sims 2 I can leave the options at Very High and I haven't found any noticeable slowdown.

I also do all my programming and college work in this computer and I'm very happy with it.

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Very nice laptop. I shopped obsessively. I looked at many different laptops in this size/power class and ended up with this one. I'm very pleased with its looks and performance, especially for the price. The 1920 x 1080 screen is very nice. The keyboard has a nice feel. It gets warm but not excessively hot. My only complaint is with the optical drive, it is very noisy and it seems to spin up for no apparent reason sometimes. This is a desktop replacement for me and it also needed to run 3D games reasonably well. It runs Half Life 2 with everything cranked and runs my Realflight 4.5 Simulator very well also.

Honest reviews on Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Purchased this computer a few weeks ago for my son who is heading to college and we have been very happy with it. Sleek, responsive, and able to handle gaming and media applications with the well-above-average video card, memory, display and processor combination. All for under $1000.00? Impressive. A fingerprint magnet, which bothers some, but is not a big deal to me. Battery life is average compared to the other laptops I have owned, but acceptable, and I am confident, but admittedly have not looked, that an aftermarket upgrade at battery is available. I have seen complaints that it runs hot, but have not experienced that, at least not hotter than any other laptop with a dedicated video card running during intensive applications and certainly not uncomfortably so. The fan is partially blocked by the monitor, but does its job, and for long sessions of gaming I would recommend a secondary cooling device for any laptop. I have also seen at least one review indicate that the video card was not good for gaming, but other independent reviews of the specific card and pc configuration, and my own experiences, refute that, this pc was built with demanding gaming in mind, while not sacrificing portability or versatility.

I have only one beef with the purchase. Amazon no longer price guarantees its products. This machine dropped in price $35.00 shortly after I purchased it (within a week). I still had it, unopened, and contacted Amazon about a price credit, and was basically told to pound sand. The most frustrating thing about that was I could have simply returned it for a full refund under the 30 day return policy for unopened computers, and bought another one at the new price, discounting my price savings by the 15 dollars or so in return shipping costs (I do not think the return policy covers that), and when I pointed that out to Amazon, I was invited to go ahead and do that. To me, it appeared Amazon was effectively banking on the fact that I would not go through such hassle for such a "small" savings. And they were correct, but only because I did not want to be empty handed for my son's 18th birthday. So they won my business with a good price on a great machine, but lost my respect as a company for such poor customer service. I make many internet purchases, and absent a serious reason to do so, will not be shopping at Amazon in the future.

EDIT REVIEW after I wrote this it got me worked up all over again so I contacted Amazon a second time and low and behold I was given a 35 dollar credit! While they deserved the smack on the nose with a rolled up paper they got for how I was treated the first time, they likewise deserve a treat and an attaboy for eventually doing the right thing. Amazon you have won back my business.

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Although I do agree with some of the other reviews that the laptop performs well for gaming purposes (if you set it on a table and not in your lap!), and I have done some gaming on it that was beautiful, I do have a few complaints.

First and most importantly, to me, it is very hot. I have had this laptop for a few years now, and it has gradually gotten hotter and hotter, and for the last 12 months (give or take a couple) it has gotten to the point where it is uncomfortable to just have it in my lap. Now, I do not primarily use my laptop for gaming, I have only used it for that a few times. When I did, there was definitely no way I could have just put it in my lap, it would have burned me up. However, even with normal activities browsing on the internet, listening to music, looking at photos the laptop will get very hot after a while, and if I touch the edge of it, it burns!

I find it really silly to call something a "laptop" that you cannot comfortably use on your lap.

The next thing is that it's heavy. This isn't really all that big of a deal, but it is a bit cumbersome, and I'm pretty sure there are lighter more high-tech laptops available these days.

The third thing is no key pad. :( That just makes me sad. I cannot make any fancy symbols on this laptop at all. Really inconvenient for trying to type in Spanish. I have been wishing for a cooler, lighter laptop with a keypad for a long time. Not to mention those neat fingerprint things!

(It's kind of ironic that I'm typing out my complaints about the laptop while using it.)

It's not a bad laptop overall though. It does have a nice big, high res screen and plenty of memory. However, the cumbersome weight is not ideal for a college setting where you want to carry your laptop around everywhere or even put it in your bookbag, and the when it gets hot the fan works extra hard which can be a bit loud for a classroom. It needs a better cooling system.

I am not a laptop expert, and I'm sorry if I got anything wrong.

Thanks for reading.

Asus K50IJ-C1 15.6 Inch Laptop - Black Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I picked this box up for my inlaws to replace an aging desktop setup they had. I wasn't expecting much, but to be honest, I'm starting to think hard about picking one of these up for myself.

It's dead silent, even under load, and the battery lasts far, far longer than the "2hours 30minutes" that it displayed for four hours off power. Built in webcam is sharp and follows motion well and the screen is bright and sharp as well. The multi-touch touch pad takes a bit to get used to, but it's not a problem.

A few things that are a bit annoying:

* All the ports are on the sides of the laptop, meaning that you'll have lots of wires sticking out.

* Make sure to disable the "fancy startup" program, since it overrides things like selected backgrounds and menubar setups.

* the slick cover is a fingerprint magnet.

Those issues aside, it's very light and nicely responsive.

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I love, love my ASUS Laptop. I have not experienced any issues with my laptop so I do not know about ASUS customer service. I use a Dell for work and this laptop is loaded with a more responsive keyboard. The touch pad takes some getting used to but the laptop comes with an optical mouse and laptop carrying case. I loaded all of my performance software and purchased Norton 360 which has not slowed the function and speed of my laptop. I has everything that those name brand laptops have but cost $200 less. I paid less than what Amazon is selling this laptop for now. This laptop comes with a 2 year global warranty and 1 year accidental damage which is a $350 value. Best Buy does not honor the 2 year global warranty so do not buy your ASUS there. I recommend this laptop or you can just pay more for that other stuff.

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My mom bought this laptop for me as a gift when I entered college. I wish we had taken the time to look at any laptop than this K501J.

Within 3 months, the hardrive crashed for the first time, wiping out everything I had saved with confidence to my laptop's hardrive. Luckily, this was within the warranty, and they had the product fixed within 2 weeks, During that time, I was rushing around to friends houses and the library in order to have access to a computer.

The second time, it lasted another 6 months before the hardrive crashed yet again. In that time, it was prone to glitching, closing programs randomly, and freezing when I tried to open applications. Still under warranty, the hardrive was replaced.

I was getting my confidence back after another six months when the hardrive went bad FOR THE THIRD TIME. This time around, I had been backing everything up on flashdrives. Good thing I decided it would be a good investment to buy an extended warranty at the place I bought the laptop.

I will give Asus credit to having a computer that runs smoothly and easy to navigate WHEN THE HARDRIVES ARE NOT BEING EATEN BY THE COMPUTER. I don't know if there is poor workmanship on the hardrives, or on the computer itself, but I have never seen a laptop crash so much in this span of time. I would think twice before buying this laptop.

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Asus is priced well, but they seem to break after warranty. On this one, the sound has died. Is it the sound card? Since Asus does not have real support, who can know.

3 laptops and all have had problems.

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I bought my asus back in 2009. Its been the best computer ever. Dont believe those horrible reviews from people. The battery lost me all day with the settings at maxiumum power. The asus has been fantastic. I am very sad because I caught my cat laying on the monitor. I turned it on and the pic is messed up. Shes a big cat. I found that asus has cheap replacement parts too.If i could reccomend this laptop to people I would. I would defend the asus name. I have had a lot of laptops and its been the BEST

Cheap Acer Aspire V5-171-6675 11.6-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $504.99
Sale Price: $380.49
Today's Bonus: 25% Off

Acer made a good name for themselves by providing reliable desktop computer components, and that reputation carried over when several years ago, the company advanced into providing laptops. Now after owning three of them, I have never been disappointed in the operation or reliability of any of them. This one is very small and solidly built and it has a brushed aluminum finish I really like in contrast to the nice shiny metallic finishes usually associated with Acer laptops.

So now we enter into a new era of Tablet computing and Windows 8, and it is a definite change from the previous computing we learned so well. Advancing cautiously with the help of Acer's desktop, Windows eventually revealed that it is still the same old Windows inside with a new graphical sugar coating and some new enhancements that make it very appealing for use with the new Touch Screen Tablets that are steadily gaining in popularity.

Windows 8 has your back if you still find better use for a computer than a Tablet, so this Acer has the familiar touchpad mouse built into its keyboard, but I still prefer using a BlueTooth mouse whenever possible. Additionally, many Android users may find Windows 8 is very similar to using the data provisions of their cell phones, complete with an endless number of available apps.

This little 11.6 inch wonder in electronic wizardry will always remain readily available whether I am at work or travelling. Sized the same as the newer Tablets, I consider this laptop to be better provisioned, and best of all, it sells for about half the price of a top-rated Tablet. It is provisioned with the least expensive version of a set of three new CORE Intel processor configurations that increase in cost at each level of complexity, but really don't provide enough in additional abilities to warrant a higher price over what I already have in this very basic laptop computer. This i3 runs very cool and is built into the smallest laptop frame Acer provides, and I even have a little accessory carrying case for it.

This laptop is too small to accommodate a mounted optical disk drive, but that is easily fixed since there are several external CD/DVD RW drives available at a nice price, all provisioned to plug into a laptop's USB ports for immediate use. Regardless, Acer Support provides a Recovery Flash Drive for this computer that can be plugged into one of its USB ports if a recovery to factory specs ever becomes necessary.

With a little more time researching some of the other similar laptops available from Acer before purchasing this one, chances are I would have also seriously considered the Acer Aspire One laptop. That would have saved another couple hundred $$ since it is a very close duplicate to this one. The only real difference is its slightly slower Intel processor, but it also has a smaller but more practical 320 Gig hard drive, which for all my needs is still HUGE. Either one of these laptops is perfect for students who must store and do their work on a fully provisioned computer, and there are also some AMD provisioned 11.6 Acer laptops as well at an even lower price.

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Okay this is a pretty capable little notebook computer. The i3 CPU will make it considerably faster than the older generation Intel Atom chips. The quality seems decent for a $450 part.

Now here's some information that can save you some grief:

1. The BIOS is set up from the factory so that you can only reach it from the Windows 8 environment. I spent the better part of an hour trying different keys and combinations in a futile attempt to reach the BIOS aggravating. The following is courtesy of user "gr8stapeoftx".

From the Windows 8 Sidebar:

Settings

Change PC Settings

General

Advanced Startup

Restart Now

Troubleshoot

Advanced Options

UEFI Firmware Settings

Personally, I don't like this setup. I Like the Bios to be agnostic of the operating system. What happens if someone decides to downgrade to Windows? Fortunately, once you reach the BIOS screen from Windows 8, you can set the bios to work in legacy mode. After that, the F2 key will get you into the bios upon bootup.

2. Getting to the internals is incredibly easy. I think it is literally just one screw to remove the bottom chassis plate. Upon removing the plate, the RAM is a breeze to upgrade. There are two slots, and one of them is populated by a 4 GB chip. You can add another 4 GB chip for a total of 8 GB. Doesn't get easier than that.

3. Hard drive now this is much more tricky. If you are looking to replace the conventional hard drive with an SSD drive like I was, pay attention. Many of the SSD drives on the market will *not* work with this computer (Sandisk Extreme, Kingston, OCZ Vertex, Crucial M4, etc.) Why? Because they are all a tad too tall at around 9.5 mm. They must be of the 7 mm variety. The Samsung and Transcend drives seem to work because they are around 7 mm.

All in all, this is a pretty good computer for your money. I wish the battery life was more like 6 or 7 hours, but the battery is not sealed, so you should be able to buy aftermarket batteries down the road.

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This is a nice, solid, basic laptop. I've only had it for about a week, so can't speak of its longevity. Physically, it is very solid. I've noticed some laptops out there have a little bit of wiggle in the screen or keypad, but this one is solid, which is impressive for being so small and thin. They keyboard is easy to type on for me, but I have tiny hands... my larger-handed husband has some trouble, but its not his laptop. The mousepad is OK, I would prefer dedicated left and right click buttons rather than pushing the pad itself for this, but I'm getting used to it. There are a lot of USB ports for being such a small computer. I also appreciate that the screen is very clear and bright... so bright, I even had to turn it down. The screen is also wide-screen, so even though the laptop is 11 inches, it is almost just as wide as my 15 inch... I was concerned it would be difficult to read being so small, but this was not the case. The sound is weird, the speakers are on the bottom of the laptop, so if its on my lap, my lap mutes a lot of the sound... when its on a hard surface, its fine. But, I don't plan on using the speakers, I use headphones if I ever REALLY need to listen to anything anyway. Its no bother for me, so it wasn't a negative, but others might find that info useful. The computer was super easy to set up, its processor is VERY fast, websites pop up quickly. I personally don't like Windows 8, but there were plenty of websites out there (CNET mostly) that helped me download some free programs to bypass some of the annoying Windows 8 features (start screen, start menu, hot corners, etc.)... but this is to no fault of the laptop. Solid laptop and a great price. Highly recommended.

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The computer itself feels and looks fantastic. I have been using this since early December 2012 and I would give it 5 stars except for the following reasons:

1. Acer support (out of India?) is incompetent. They don't take time to read the description of the problem and just send you cut and paste solutions that have nothing to do with the issues. If you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with their support demand to have the issue escalated as that was the only way I was able to get a resolution.

2. Windows 8 without a touch screen is not a good combination in my opinion. Some people like it but I don't. Windows 7 is not an option for this computer. Acer support (see above) initially told me that I could buy the Restore DVDs to downgrade the computer to Windows 7. So I paid $35 for an external DVD and $20 for the disks from Acer and then embarked on a week long test of patience because the DVDs would not install and Acer Support just kept sending me unrelated documents on how to install the disks. After demanding that someone actually read what I had written, looked at the screen shots, etc. I was finally advised that they do not offer Windows 7 for this computer. What happened to the $20 for the restore disks? Acer kept it.

3. When seated at the desk, I use external speakers for better sound. If I am using Skype and I disconnect the external speakers the internal speakers take over as one would expect BUT the internal microphone quits working. To get it working again, I have to end the call and start over again. What does support have to say? Well, the sent me cut and paste responses that have nothing to to with the problem and in the end, the supervisor said something like "That there is nothing wrong that is the way it works."

4. The wireless connection seems to enjoy randomly dropping the connection with my 802.11 N router. I don't experience this problem with my Dell laptop or my Asus desktop connected with a wireless adapter and I have also substituted two other routers but it still drops connection even when it is in the same room as the router.

The Good:

Super light, the battery lasts a long time and recharges quickly. The display is excellent and the keyboard, while compact, is easy to use. It feels sturdy, is compatible with all of my legacy hardware and software once I added software to restore the Windows 7 type of menu.

By the way, if you want to restore the Windows 7 menu functionality then Google "Windows 8 menu add-on" and read the CNET review. I tried both Pokki for Windows 8 (free) and Start8 ($5) and either one is up to the job.

Would I buy this again? No.

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The laptop is great when plugged into a wired network, but is honestly hopeless on wifi.The wireless card drops internet connection every 5 or so minutes, and sometimes it comes back on its own, sometimes you have to open and close the wireless adapter, sometimes you have to reboot the laptop to fix it. I have two other laptops in the same room, a dell and an asus, both work great on wifi without problems. The wi fi signal is great. I have looked online and read a few reports, wifi problems appear fairly common with Acer laptops with this qualcom wireless adapter.

Because I purchased and installed office on this machine, I am now stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can return the laptop for credit and lose the $120 I paid for office because I have to buy a new copy, or I can keep the laptop without working wireless. Some choice that is! 2 stars is generous. Dont buy this laptop if you need reliable wi fi connection.

Review of MSI Computer Corp. S20 0M-048US 11.6-Inch Windows 8 Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $779.95
Today's Bonus: 22% Off

This is a recommended slider tablet/ultrabook/laptop and I'm writing this review on this same computer here. Great for portability and nearly has the strength of a traditional tower PC (yes it does have 8 GBs of RAM one of the main reasons I got it for the RAM & it's a slider tablet laptop). I wanted a portable computer that could also be a tablet, but not be weak in specs (like most tablets are unfortunately). This is a hybrid of many different styles in one. It's supposed to be a laptop, but it's also a tablet too (without the weak specs).

The only bad thing about this is the small Solid-Slate-Drive (SSD) size, but you can hook up larger HDDs to it. I use the "Seagate Expansion 3 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive STBV3000100" at home and the "WD My Passport 2TB Portable External USB 3.0 Hard Drive Storage Red (WDBY8L0020BRD-NESN)" on the go (since the WD Passport doesn't need a power source, it gets power from the USB cable). Good red color on the HDD, a softer matte red.

It's a MUST to get a cooling pad for this thing, it gets fairly hot at the vents (only one area). It doesn't run cool at all like the other reviewer said. I know because I got 2 of these and the motherboard fried on the one when I tried to plug in a USB device (that one kept running hot too then died It did work good though before its 'death'). The MSI reps said that was the case when the one wouldn't power on at all. The rep was pretty good and helpful, but that one was beyond any help since it was fried.

Make sure you keep the packing material with any MSI products, you have to have the same box with the same serial #'s on the box to match the laptop and everything for warranty claims.

The fan doesn't make any noise and I can hear like a rabbit so I know. The cooling pad I got for it also hardly makes any noise especially when the laptop is on it.

Definitely get a cooling pad, this is the one I use: the "iHome Netbook Cooling Pad with 2 Built-In Fans, Red (IH-A714CR)"(it works the best for this laptop, highly recommended cooling pad!!!). There is no USB hub with it but a storage area instead.

I got a red wireless mouse to 'match' the cooling pad (which is not a sharp straight red, it's a slight dull off-carmine red); this is the mouse I got: "Bornd Bluetooth 3.0 Optical Wireless Mouse (C170B RED)". (I also have a blue one too for another tablet I have the Lenovo K3 Lynxthese mice work with the Bluetooth in these machines.) This red mouse is a nice sharp bright pretty red, while the blue one is a bit off blue (kinda dull), both work great.

This laptop is slowly replacing my old Windows 7 8 GB RAM 2.70 GHZ tower (which is nearly 4years old, but still works good). Windows 8 has its problems and when it updates itself, it takes a long time: 10-20 minutes depending on the updates. But when there's no needed updates, this laptop turns on in about 4-10 seconds and shuts down just as fast. Get the programs Stardock Start8 and Stardock ModernMix for Windows 8 ($4.99 for ModernMix and I think $8 with Start8) and they'll help you get some Windows 7 back in the frustrating Windows 8 layout so you can function better.

With my 2nd one, I kept it plugged in a lot and that's not a good idea since you need to 'train' the battery right to drain and charge fully. Mine stopped charging at 97% (I had it less than 2 weeks) and the charging light wouldn't turn on, so I used the included "Battery Calibration" feature on this PC to fix that problem. It took about 3-4 hours leaving it alone and it needs to be plugged in for this, but it got fixed and is charging again. I am happy. Do the Battery Calibration every 3 months is what is recommends, but I had to do it sooner. The Battery Calibration can be found in the 'Charms' Windows 8 menu near the far right end.

I recommend this laptop and with my recommendations above, you should have as much fun with it as I do with mine (well, as long as you don't get a defective one like I did2nd one is going good). :) 1 star off for the many different glitchy issues and the motherboard just frying out of the blue. Not completely perfect, but good enough definitely acceptable despite the small problems here and there. Hope this review helps at least one person out. Thank you for reading my review.

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OK I wanted a tablet, but I needed a small laptop when traveling for work. I love this thing!!! It does exactly what I need. I did have to get rid of some free-wear 'gifts.' Its not pre-loaded with too many items I don't want, but there were a few. I gamed on it for hours, the thing does not get too hot nor is the fan too loud. Its light, easy to carry. I do need a better case. The one it came with, well, it leaves much to be desired. Asus gave me a cool backpack with my large republic of gamers laptop. I would have liked a better carry case from MSI.

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First of all, the specs here are closer to truth than the 2.2 lb listed elsewhere. I weighed my S20 on the kitchen scale and got 2.58 lb.

Anyway, my 11 year old son's school allowed him to take Computer Science and join the Robotics club this semester. He began by taking his mom's Apple MacBook Air MD760LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION) to the CS classes, but the robots work only with PCs, so he also had to commandeer my 17 inch monster of a notebook. Eventually I decided to get him his own little PC.

I looked among the 11.6-inch Windows 8 touch-capable ultrabooks, and picked this MSI. It has a cute white exterior, different from run-of-the-mill silver shells his classmates have. The transformer effect further impresses his friends and satisfies the vanity of a kid. The keyboard is spacious for my son and usable for me. The screen is bright and vivid. The retail vendor (not Amazon) gave us a free padded jacket that fits like a glove. The whole thing weights less than 3 lbs and takes up less space in my son's backpack than the bigger ones among his textbook. It runs all his programs and Microsoft Office without any stutter. The battery lasts long enough for the toughest school days. There are two USB slots, so he can use his Logitech V220 Cordless Optical Mouse for Notebooks (Dark Silver) and connect to the Parallax PLX-28336 Programmable Scribbler 2 Robot (with USB adapter and cable) at the same time. I also like the 8GB of RAM, which should be sufficient for the life of the machine; thus I won't have to upgrade it.

Now, the nitpicking: First, the 128GB SSD will not last forever. I have a spare 512GB for it, but a warning sticker covers the screw and threatens revocation of warrantee if the case is opened, so I decide to wait a year before the upgrade. The lack of a built-in pointing device and the intrinsically imprecise nature of touch interface mean that a mouse is needed. Finally, the last generation (Ivy Bridge) Intel i5 is certainly fast enough itself, but its built-in GPU is pathetic to the point of having occasional dropped frames on full 1080p video. This is an issue shared by all ultrabooks, however, and not MSI's fault.

Overall, we like this machine a lot and expect 4-5 years of good service from it.

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. S20 0M-048US 11.6-Inch Windows 8 Laptop

Not enough memory..sloooowww processor...freezes...screen unresponsive most of the time....cant see the keyboard keys in not so well lit room...or plane...expensive for the features it has ...

Best HP ENVY DV7 17.3" Quad Core Laptop, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 750GB Hard Deals

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List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $692.78
Today's Bonus: 13% Off

What a laptop!! I have no idea what that other guy was talking about with the slow responding issue. This laptop is extremely fast!! I am able to play all sorts of games like minecraft and call of duty on nice settings. I will recommend this to anyone who wants a multimedia laptop! I was really happy with my purchase but I wish they had a back-lit keyboard included, not that big of a deal though.

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I have the 15.6" version of this and its a great laptop for the price. The graphics card is integrated and runs on system RAM, meaning it will outperform many 1-2gb cards with dedicated RAM when the laptop demands more performance. The A10-4600m is a strong AMD CPU, able to compete with the comparablely priced Intel i3 & i5 CPUs. For gaming purposes, it will run almost all newer games at low-medium settings with antialiasing off. Older games 3+ years old all run at high-ultra settings, including games like Fallout 3/NV, Oblivion, Age of Empires 3, Bully, Company of Heroes, Lord of the Rings BFME2, and many others without issues. I would recommend this to anyone who needs a graphics intensive laptop for music and video editing, as well as gaming or just facebooking.

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I receive this laptop has a present. Its worked fine so far. No problems at all. It plays games like Minecraft, and even the original Halo combat evolved pretty well. If you are using it right, the battery could last for four hours, which is nice. Like I said in the title, it is a all around nice laptop.

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I got this for family and for hobby Android software development. It seems to work great for both purposes. It all feels pretty snappy (certainly compared to the 10-year-old Pentium M that it's replacing, but also doesn't feel any more sluggish than my work i5-based laptop). For just plain web browsing, it's very decent (Browsermark 4530 with Chrome).

Development work:

It's fast enough to run the Kindle Fire HD emulator that I couldn't run on my old laptop. In hindsight for that purpose it would have been better to get an i5-based laptop so that I could use HAXM which needs the Intel variant of the virtualization extensions. Still, for Android emulation purposes I can run Bluestacks on it, and Bluestacks runs at a very nice speed (it must be using the AMD virtualization, as expected since they have a partnership with AMD).

Startup times for things like Eclipse are good, and build times are fine.

I installed Cygwin and, just in case I need a real Linux for something (I sometimes find a need to run something on a Linux machine), VirtualBox with Lubuntu in it. I haven't played much with VirtualBox/Lubuntu except to start Firefox and install Chromium in it, and it seems to work at an OK speed (Chromium gets 3851 Browsermark, with only one CPU core dedicated to VirtualBox), so the virtualization extensions on the A10 must be doing their job.

Fun:

Haven't really tried any games other than Minecraft and Trine, which work quite smoothly. Most of the non-phone games I play are old, sometimes very old (e.g., Infocom text adventures) so I don't foresee any difficulties.

Screen:

Nice and bright. I was concerned about the glossy screen--I've always had only matte screens, but it's generally fine. The colors were a bit muted until I ran the Windows color calibration (Windows+Q and type in "calibrate") after which they are *really* nice. Slightly higher resolution would be even nicer, but this is acceptable. Unfortunately, the calibration was being reset each time I logged in, but I fixed that by starting the task manager (ctrl-alt-delete, Task Manager), going to Startup, and right clicking on Catalyst to disable Catalyst. (I didn't really need Catalyst Control Center.)

Trackpad:

I do occasionally hit it with my palm and it moves the screen. A smaller trackpad would be better, as would one that's better placed. This one is so placed that for natural typing, almost half of the right hand would be over the trackpad. One can turn it off, though, if that's a problem, with a double tap on its upper left corner. (Which also turns on a nice trackpad-is-off light.) If this continues to be a problem, I'll have to see if there is some software or hardware solution.

Sound:

The sound is very good for a laptop. Laptop sound has always been too quiet for me but this one is loud enough for comfortable movie watching.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP ENVY DV7 17.3" Quad Core Laptop, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 750GB Hard

I ordered it and received it as it is in the description, its exactly what I wanted thank you very much:D I'm super excited, its my first laptop.:D

Reviews of MSI G Series GE40 2OC-009US 14-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,299.99
Sale Price: $1,269.98
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

Finding balance between a good gaming system and portable notebook is a difficult endeavor. There are plenty of 15.6" or 17" screen systems out there that are able to pack the highest performing components inside, but leave your shoulder/back aching. On the other side of the spectrum, there are a number of sleek, ultra book class notebooks that are easy to carry, but leave you wanting more performance. I needed a high performance notebook that allows me to multi-task and game a bit while away from home. The MSI GE40 is a nice compromise between the two categories with a few caveats.

Design:

Weighing in at 4.4ish pounds, the GE40 is quite light for what it packs inside. The palm rest and lid are a brushed aluminum. The lid has eye-catching red LEDs in the form of "dragon eyes". The rest of the body is comprised of your standard glossy plastic that attracts finger prints, but isn't handled all that often in everyday use. There is more flex in the palm rest and keyboard than a full aluminum chassis, but it doesn't scream poor quality.

Screen:

My main issue with the GE40 is the quality of the screen. While it does feature a high 1600x900 resolution for a 14" screen, it is an average TN panel with OK viewing angles. This evaluation is quite subjective although I personally think the vertical viewing angles are poor. You will need to view the screen dead on or the image will be washed out. This left me a little frustrated trying to watch netflix on my bed.

Performance:

With a high wattage Intel Haswell Quad-core 4th generation processor, it chews through everything quite quickly. The lower wattage CPUs in ultrabooks are primarily designed for battery longevity and much lower thermals with decent performance. The difference between Apple's latest generation Macbook air with it's 15W Dual-Core CPU and the GE40 is very noticeable in the programs that I use (namely Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, transcode applications). The dynamic overclocking of the CPU also allows lightly threaded applications to take advantage of higher clock speeds whilst putting the unused cores to sleep.

The graphics duties are shared between the integrated intel HD4600 and a dedicated NVIDIA GTX 760M. The switching is handled with NVIDIA's optimus tech. The integrated graphics are powerful enough to handle the Windows GUI acceleration, Flash, and movie playback to conserve power and reduce heat generation. The GTX 760M kicks in when you launch a full screen 3D application, allowing you to take advantage of a large performance increase. The GTX 760M did a great job of providing acceptable frame rates at the native resolution in the games I play. For specific numbers, look up the GTX 760M on Notebookcheck.com

This version of the GE40 has a 128GB solid state drive and a 750GB hard disk drive (occupying the bay where the DVD-ROM is on the cheaper version). Out of the box this notebook is much faster, but you should ask yourself if that is enough room for your OS and programs. Personally, I think a 256GB SSD is the minimum size, but you can always put your steam folder and larger games on the mechanical drive if you're willing to deal with longer load times.

While the GE40 has 8GB of DDR3-Low Voltage memory installed, it is a single DIMM. This is both a plus and minus. With a single DIMM, you drop your effective bandwidth to 10GB/ps for the CPU and integrated GPU. You'll be hard pressed to see a noticeable drop in performance, but this is supposed to be a high end system. On the other hand, if you were planning to go to a total of 16GB of RAM, you won't have to buy x2 8GB DIMMs. Just grab 1 8GB DIMM and you'll get your dual channel memory performance.

Preinstalled Software:

Windows 8: You either love it or hate it. I personally like Microsoft's new OS due to the faster performance and support for new hardware technologies. I'm not a fan of the Start Screen, but that's easily remedied with a third party start menu replacement. The product key for Windows is integrated into the UEFI BIOS of the system so you won't need to enter a key during Windows setup. Just activate once you've reinstalled the OS.

As I mentioned before, Norton and other trialware is preinstalled. You'll be greeted with a number of desktop cluttering icons and background services taking up system resources. It isn't nearly as bad as some, but again, this is a gaming system that shouldn't have junk preinstalled to begin with.

I personally reinstalled Windows 8 after installing an extra 8GB DIMM. Be prepared to download the wireless LAN drivers beforehand as Windows 8 doesn't come with them out of the box. There are also a plethora of other drivers that need to be installed to restore full functionality (Bluetooth, WLAN switch, ETC).

Noise/Heat:

In normal operation, the notebook is a bit warm to the touch and the fan constantly runs at a slight hum. The fan is audible, but not overtly or annoyingly so. When gaming, the notebook does get hot. It's not unbearable, but it isn't super comfortable either. The fan kicks it into high gear and is very noisy. I was able to hear it every between explosions in game with my headphones on. Both the heat and noise levels are to be expected, especially with the amount of performance packed into such a small chassis.

Overall evaluation:

The MSI GE40 is a great notebook that fills my needs well. The balance of portability and performance allows me to finish my work quickly to get a little bit of play in. If you can cram your programs and games onto a 128GB SSD, you'll find more value in the upgraded version of the GE40. Otherwise both notebooks can stand to have an additional 8GB of memory and a clean install of Windows to maximize its performance and your enjoyment.

Update 7/10/2013:

I was curious if I could get the thermals down a bit, so I opened up my notebook again to see what kind of job MSI did with the thermal paste. As I suspected, they put way too much on which was hindering the heat transfer from the CPU and dedicated GPU to the heatpipe assembly.

Dis-assembly was not that difficult; 8 philips screws and the fan and heatpipe was easily removed. I cleaned up the factory paste and wiped the CPU/GPU and heatpipe with some isotropic alcohol. I then applied a thin layer of artic silver 5 and put it all back together. Subjectively, the notebook runs cooler. The fan spins slower at idle and comes back down from 100% quicker after playing a game. The palm rest and WASD keys were also a bit cooler. I didn't record before and after temperatures, but there are a couple youtube videos detailing this modification and the tangible results.

If you are comfortable performing this procedure, I wholeheartedly recommend doing it. Your left palm and wrist will thank you.

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If you want to have only 1 computer (vs. 1 gaming & 1 portable), and you like to move around with it (even just around the house), then this is definitely the one to get. It strikes the perfect balance between price/specs/portability. I used to have the Samsung 9 gamer from last year (which was surprisingly under-appreciated considering its price, specs and gorgeous screen), but it was a 9 lbs monster that almost never left my desk, partly because of the typically lousy battery life. Funnily enough, 1 year later, this MSI has almost the same performance at half the weight and triple the battery life. So now I take this one out to the library or coffee shop at least a few times a week. And even just around the house, I don't hesitate to bring it to the sofa so I can chat and surf while watching TV. I like my HTC One, but multitasking on Android still sucks. The long-lasting battery really is a big deal. I leave it plugged in overnight and while I'm at work (full charge in < 3 hrs), and then I can use it from the time I get home until I go to sleep, or all afternoon on the weekends. I shake my head when I see people lugging around their power bricks.

I've had the laptop for a few weeks now, and overall I'm very happy with it. I decided to buy it without waiting for reviews because of the good things I heard about Haswell, and I haven't been disappointed. I was a little concerned about fan noise, which can be a problem with many gaming rigs, but it's not a problem with the GE40. I haven't tried gaming on it yet, but I've heard the fan go max a few times, and the noise level is very acceptable. Most of the time, if there's any amount of background noise, the fan isn't noticeable.

The matte screen was a pleasant surprise, I can't stand glossy. The viewing angles aren't great, but this is MY toy, so I don't care, and the colour is good. There is, however, 1 bright pixel, and MSI will only replace it if there are at least 5 bad ones (I didn't buy from Amazon). That's pretty poor by industry standards, especially since MSI has a crazy chart for identifying what is, in fact, considered a bad pixel. Regardless, I only (barely) notice the bright pixel if the area around it is completely black, so it's almost a non-issue.

What IS a minor annoyance is the hinge. No problems when it's open, but there's a bit of bounce when it's closed and I'm walking around with it. I hold it by the battery against my hip with the lid facing out, as I think most people do when walking around with a laptop. Other than that, no complaints.

So, if you want a machine with specs that will last a few years and won't break the bank or your back, you can't go wrong with this one.

Best Deals for MSI G Series GE40 2OC-009US 14-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

Never had an MSI Laptop before so this purchase was mainly made on the overall specs of the machine.

With a dual hard drive setup its very fast(SSD 128GB on 6GB SAS + 750GB 7200 RPM drive 3GB SAS) you have enough space to load your os on to the ssd and gaming data ect on the 750GB drive. Running games are very smooth. With a brand new GTX 760M 2GB vid ram it can run most any new games with little to no issue. Comes with one 8GB ram stick so adding additional ram is a snap. Removable battery and slot for optical drive(have to remove ssd drive).

Trackpad and keyboard feel really responsive.(No back-lite on keyboard though..) Screen is very bright and matte display so no annoying reflections.

Running games from battery actually works Ok, I've had some gaming laptops that stutter so much because the GPU/system is not getting enough power but from the looks of this system its able to run on battery without issue(though you will notice a slight fps drop due to the system not using turbo boost as often.)

Not a big fan of the windows 8 install but I living with it until i can dual boot win 7 or Ubuntu. I did backup the win 8 recovery system to a usb disk in case of a re install.

Course this system doesn't have a optical drive so if you need it you can always hook up an external drive to one of the usb ports(2 USB3.0 and 1 USB 2.0). You can order the same laptop without an ssd drive and then it will include an optical drive but i prefer the fast-boot time and launching of apps that run off the ssd drive..

Overall I think this is a great new laptop with new generation intel i7 haswell processor.

Honest reviews on MSI G Series GE40 2OC-009US 14-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

Excellent computer I love it... the design, the portability, now I can play on every place without problem and now I can carry it without the people attention.

The computer have 8 gb ram but I want to buy 16, it is not necessary but I think is better to make my work and play properly with some applications opened.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for MSI G Series GE40 2OC-009US 14-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)

bought it for college so I didn't need my desktop...it's faster then my desktop ( a suped up dell xps)..amazingly good graphics

Review of Asus X53E-RS31 15.6" Notebook Computer (Intel Core i3-2350M

Customer Ratings:

I did not get this on Amazon, but bought this at a (now) slightly cheaper price elsewhere. Having used this for several months, it's a good machine that has solid construction and is pretty fast. The battery life is decent, and the screen is crisp and clear. We use it for low-end tasks (Skyping) to higher-end stuff like video encoding. It seems to handle everything we throw at it the i3 processor is speedy enough for most things these days even some previously taxing games for my old Core 2 Duo. The scratch-resistant material is pretty nice and keeps the machine looking new.

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I purchased my labtop on April 1, 2012. The screen on my laptop began to flicker and I called in on April 31 to speak with a tech. I asked if there was anyway that I could recieve a new labtop and the tech told me even though I had only had the laptop for about a month it would have had to be dead on arrival for them to send me a replacement. So I agreed to go ahead and do a hard reset to see if that would fix the screen. It did not fix the screen for more than a month so I had to send in the Labtop on June 8, 2012 after several hard resets. On October 22, 2012 the screen begain to defect again so I did several more hard resets without any progress and begin calling customer service again on November 1,2012 where I was hung up on several times by employees whom seemed to be fustrated when I asked to recieve a new laptop due to the fact that this $536.54 laptop was once again broken and I have not had it for a year. After being put on hold for about a total of 4hours in a six hour time span I was told that a manager would call me. When the manager did call they only let the phone ring twice and then hung up. When I called back I was put on hold again for an hour and 9 minutes and the supervisor advised me to just send in the defective device so they could repair it again because they did not beleive that management would give me another device. There customer service is horrible to say the least. My labtop model is a X53ERS31 15.6 screen. I would advise anyone to steer away from Asus due to thier Customer Service.

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It's exactly what I expected; I wanted a good quality basic machine and that's what it is. It does the job.

Honest reviews on Asus X53E-RS31 15.6" Notebook Computer (Intel Core i3-2350M

For the price, this is a great computer. It has a large screen and the processor makes the internet a breeze.

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Got this in tightly sealed box. Installed Windows 7 and some Asus apps with no problems.

I am primarily using this laptop for personal web design and development purpose. And the occassional games TorchLight2, League Of Legends, Dota2 (with lots of video settings in low mode). Recently bought a condenser mic to experiment acoustic guitar recording.

So far, I am happy with this i3 laptop for its price range which is almost 24-hours plugged in to the wall socket (I removed the battery for now) and just occassionally hibernate when I need to go out for more than 10 hours.

Review of APPLE POWERBOOK G4 17

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I bought this 550 MHz Powerbook G4 in 2001. I don't use it much for iPhoto anymore but it is quick as a bunny on the Net and just right for word processing and general computing. Amazing. Instant startup. Ever so much better than any of the newer Windows computers around the house. I wonder if it will last forever?

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Buy Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

Customer Ratings:

I bought this Laptop when it was the Amazon Deal of the Day for $599. I couldn't be happier with this purchase, especially at that ridiculously low price point. Instead of going over all the specs, I'll highlight some pros and cons of this laptop for potential buyers.

Pros:

Construction/Look: The chassis and chiclet keyboard (spill-resistant) feel real sturdy and of high-quality. The construction of this laptop doesn't have a cheap "plastic" feeling like some laptops out on the market.

Battery Life: The battery life on this 6-cell battery is unbelievable, especially for a 14' laptop. For the first few charge cycles, I've been able to consistently get over 7 hours of battery life surfing the web and playing music with headphones. The ecoUtility app really helps with prolonging battery life.

Intel WiDi capable: I really wanted a laptop with this capability so that I can wirelessly stream to my TV while working on my laptop. Note that you need to buy a WiDi adapter to connect to your TV/display (~$100).

Performance: The i5 processor coupled with 6GB of memory gives this laptop plenty of juice for 99% of computing activities.

SIZE of hard drive: 640GB of space is more than you'll probably even use.

Weight: 4.2 pounds and just about 1 inch thick makes this laptop pretty portable.

Optical Drive: This may not factor much for some people, but as more and more companies opt to remove optical drives from their laptops, it was nice to see Toshiba put in a full DVD burner/drive on this machine.

Connectivity: 1 USB 3.0 port AND capability for USB Sleep-and-Charge (charge stuff while laptop is off) AND an e-SATA/USB combo port AND an HDMI input is awesome!

Value: For the 600-800 price range for a 14 inch laptop, you'd struggle to find a laptop with this much under the hood.

Cons:

No Bluetooth: a tiny external USB dongle runs for about 10 bucks, but I wish Toshiba would have built-in a bluetooth receiver.

Screen: 1366 x 768 resolution (720p). Not bad by any means, but for a 14', It would have been nice to see a higher resolution offered.

Speakers: Sound can be a bit tinny at loud volumes. Noticably better than Portege R835 speakers though.

SPEED of hard drive: the 640GB hard drive only runs at 5400 rpm. I would have liked to see that be at 7200rpm or even a SSD drive, but all things considered, I can't complain much...just a nagging annoyance.

Bloatware/Volume of Apps: Toshiba seemed to have cut down on the total amount of bloatware they put on this machine but they have too many apps pre-installed on this machine for my liking so I ended up manually uninstalling some that I knew I would never use.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this laptop to anyone considering it at the $600-800 price point, as you'd be hard pressed to find significantly better deals. As another reviewer said, this is basically the 14 inch version of the Portege R835-P81 laptop (also sold on Amazon). That's just a smaller version (13.3' 3.2 lbs), but overall there are a LOT of similarities, even with the look. If you're in the market for a laptop with comparable specs but want something smaller, check that out. I hope this helps potential buyers out!

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First let me tell you that this laptop not only looks good but it's also powerful, Thin and light weight.

I watched a bluray file and a 1080 mkv file at the same time with no stutter and with only 18% CPU load. My Quad core Desktop would start stuttering when I do this and cpu load goes to 100% (it's a Q6600 intel quad core cpu)

Had to instal java 64bit edition and directx runtime environment. Just make sure that whatever software you're instaling is 64bit compatible. had to increase color saturation to add more color but led display looks great. Tweaked touchpad settings a little bit to make it the way I like it. Theres an eco button that doubles your battery consumption to 10 hours with light use but dims the display brightness but you'll get used to it. Also it seems that pushing the eco button disables one core of the cpu. The computer wakes up instanly when you open the lid and resumes whatever it was doing. the wifi is very strong and picks up a lot of networks. Hard drive is easily accessible, only two screws. It runs very cool. I ran two 1080p bluray files at the same time through wifi N streaming from another computer with ease and no stutter. This laptop looks thiner in person and looks good. you can carry it with one hand from the corner and it doesn't bend like some do. you have esata, usb 3.0-2.0 combo. The speakers are loud, just make sure you enable loudness in audio properties and also select equalizer and increase the treble a little bit. No inputs in the back. when you rest your hands on the laptop wihile typing feels solid. Keyboard is very nice and I'm pretty picky when it comes to keyboards. After adjusting the color settings in the onboard video properties I watched the planet earth bluray streaming from my media server the display was crisp and clear with vivid colors like I was watching my 1080p led tv. Here's the color adjustments that I'm using, Saturation 10, contrast 1, brightness 0 and see the difference.

Update 6-5-12

if you do a lot of typing and word documents, I won't recommend this laptop because the cursor jumps all over the place while typing and you're constantly trying to get back to where you are to continue typing. It's not the way I type either because my fingers are away from the touch pad while typing. This is a major flaw with this laptop.

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Pros:

Fast i5 processor

6 gigs of RAM, a spacious HDD

Long battery life (at least 4.5 hours on full blast; up to 7.5 hours if not used aggressively)

USB 3.0 (w/ sleep and charge)

HDD protection gizmo allegedly protects the hard drive from minor accidents

Cons:

Squishy keyboard beware if you're a regular touch typist!

The wireless antenna works only on the 2.4 GHz band even my 3-year old HP Pavilion can connect to the 5 GHz band! However, this laptop has far better reception, so it's not such a big deal. Just a tad disappointing.

Everything seems cheap the hinges creak, the plastic looks cheesy. When I lug it around closed, I'm afraid it will crack open.

A really silly choice of dedicated shortcut buttons (there are only two; one is for turning on the Eco mode why would I need to do this in a hurry? why? the other one switches on the WiDi; IMHO a mute + wifi antenna buttons would have made much more sense)

Despite all the negative remarks, the laptop gets the job done without breaking a sweat, and if it weren't for the horrid keyboard I'd have given it 4 stars.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite R845-S85 14.0-Inch LED Laptop - Graphite Blue

I payed a little extra for this computer thinking faster speed etc. compared to my 2 year old 15.6 inch toshiba we bought on sale from Best buy for $350. I was wrong. So far, there is absolutely no advantage compared to the lesser version from two years ago. It's not just the Core i5 processor either, as I bought my brother-in-law the HP equivalent (same processor, memory, speed etc)and that computer performs much better than this one. Something is just off with the design or this specific model as previously I have been happy with Toshiba products (why I kept this one and gave the HP as a gift). Battery life promised 10 hrs but I get 8 hours at best (when relatively inactive and only on the Eco mode where it shuts down every 30 seconds and the screen is dimmed to point where you can barely read). I get 3 hours of battery at most when online.

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With an SSD Upgrade (I'd recommend Crucial 128 GB for around $160), this baby just flies.

Windows boot-up time is around 14 seconds, programs open almost instantly, and even programs that take up a few gigabytes install in seconds. By far the best laptop I've owned, comes to around $800 with the SSD upgrade. Besides you'll have a free 640 GB external slim hard drive for all your storage (movies, music, photos) purposes. (Don't forget to order an HDD enclosure for around $5-10)

The power usage while browsing with wireless on and brightness at half averages around 7 Watts, so I'd expect to get a good 8.5-9 hours of usage with the 66 Wh battery. (SSDs consume less power than HDDs)

Compared to various higher-end ultrabooks costing around $1200, the R845-S85 has a slightly better CPU, same Graphics (Intel HD 3000), better battery, and more ports (3xUSB, HDMI, VGA, ethernet). Besides the Crucial SSD also outperforms other brands in benchmark tests. OK, it's a pound heavier, quarter of an inch thicker, and doesn't have the "looks", but it's hundreds of dollars cheaper despite the higher performance&quality components and the build quality of Toshiba. (owned an Asus before buying this, which fell apart because of the cheap plastic case, poor DC Jack and bad build quality overall)

The only downside is that the GPU (Intel HD 3000), which won't allow new games with high settings. But then again, sub 14-inch notebooks almost never have dedicated graphics cards.

If you are looking for a portable and inexpensive powerhouse, this is the one to go with. Highly recommended.

Reviews of Gateway Refurbished NV57H43u Notebook PC

Customer Ratings:

It works well. The CPU is not so powerful because even a very common program can take a lot of its RAM and CPU. It's not fast even if it's a second generation of 64 bit i5. From time to time, you can hear the sound of hard drive. I am always worried about its downplay. I recommend this laptop to those who just use laptop for web browsing and reading.

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This order includes everything besides a monitor and ethernet cable or something to connect it to the internet [wireless card] though I can not say anything abd about it considering the good price for such a good desktop. I'm am satified.

HP Smartbuy EliteBook 8540w Review

Customer Ratings:

HP laptops have been disappointing to me. I personally would not buy another HP product. But I have this laptop for work.

If you are left-handed, you operate the mouse next to the fire-breathing cooling fan exhaust and your hand will be burnt. This laptop runs hot; the exhaust temperature exceeds 55C. So why does HP place the cooling on the left side not on the back?

After a year of use, the first button on the touchpad stuck and is no longer useable.

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This is the worst computer I've ever owned. The specs are impressive, but it was incredibly poorly designed. The placement of the fan makes it so that the computer overheats and shuts itself off regularly. If you're doing any kind of work that requires heavy processor usage, save early and save often, because this hunk of junk WILL crash on you. Not only that, it's heavy. I recommend that you use this PC as a paperweight, but not a computer.

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Bought this laptop almost three years ago, and have never had a major issue with the thing. Everything still works except for the little keyboard illuminator which got jammed shut (which I never used anyway).

I am most impressed with this machine's ability to survive spills. I spilled an entire beer right on the keyboard, and after quickly flipping it over and removing the battery and keyboard, I let it dry overnight. The next morning I pried all the keys off and soaked them and scrubbed the board, then rinsed the whole keyboard with distilled water. 12 hours later the machine was working, and as clean as it was brand new.

The thing has also fallen off multiple counters, no problems yet. Battery still lasts a long time.

Overall a great buy.

Honest reviews on HP Smartbuy EliteBook 8540w

I have bought this machine after giving much consideration to competition and specs. The HP is not the latest in terms of processor since there are machines out there that have i7 second generation processors for about the same price or perhaps less. What attracted me this system is not the latest in terms of processor clock speed but overall build quality and configuration that is paired in the very nice and fast package? Most of the main points for me, since I do use this computer for 3D CAD is the graphics card and chipset. The performance QM57 chipset in the HP vs. for instance Asus`s G73SW-XA1 (HM67 chipset which is just a main street chipset)is significantly better in the performance and security departments. Also as many of us start to use the new generation wireless routers HP as of right now is the only machine that uses true 5ghz network speeds with Intel's Ultimate6300 Intel's ultimate 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi adapter for business and home. The Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6300 dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), 3x3 adapter delivers up to 450 Mbps¹ bandwidth, maximum range and reliability, and unique Intel-only features including Intel® Wireless Display, and Intel® vPro(tm) technology support. In closing great machine, yes not the latest but a solid performer with 3 year warranty with good price to boot at Amazon if you're not a gamer this machine will last you for a long time.

P.S. Do your research before you buy, read the small print cross-reference with components manufactures and you'll have a good buy and great machine that meets your needs

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I have had this computer for about 2 years, using it primarily for school use. The computer has done its job for the most part. Windows Professional isn't exactly necessary for business students, as my primary uses for this computer are Chrome, Office, iTunes, and Torrenting. I think the main reason why I went with it was because it had the side number pad (I use excel frequently for accounting and finance).

I purchased a 3-year warranty for it and I'm glad I did. The screen is very flimsy you must be careful about grabbing the cheap plastic that encases the screen along the sides. I've done this twice and I have had to get a new screen both times. With that being said, the screen is very high quality and the resolution is almost comparable to my Retina Display iPad.

This computer is incredibly heavy, and is not ideal for travel, walking to class, bringing to work. Also, the battery life is not great (4 hours?) and the computer gets very hot if it is sitting on your lap.

Maybe I did not buy this computer for the proper reasons, but it is not that amazing. Very average.

HP EliteBook 8770w C6Y85UT 17.3' LED Notebook - Intel - Core i7 Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $3,539.00
Sale Price: $2,690.25
Today's Bonus: 24% Off

This machine is built to withstand almost anything you through at it. The build quality and materials are exceptional. From a industrial design and manufacturing perspective, it is even nicer than a MacBook Pro.

I really like this machine, except for one issue, screen resolution. Apple has proven how beautiful and productive higher resolution displays can make even a laptop. Spending the extra money, weight, and bulk to get a 17.3 inch display should result in more room to work. Because the resolution on this machine is no higher than it is on 15 inch machines, you get a display that isn't as attractive and doesn't fit nearly as much content on it as it could with a higher resolution. This is especially important for content creators and for people that work in spreadsheets, but really it is an issue for all professional users. Apple gets this with their Retina displays, Google gets it with their Pixel laptop, and Dell gets it with their Ultra high resolution series of displays. Hopefully HP will make a higher resolution display available soon on their workstation class laptops.

The only excuse for the screen resolution on this machine is that most people are going to use it in a docking station with external monitors. I have mine attached to 2 Dell U2713HM Ultra High resolution displays. The screen resolution only bothers me when I am using this machine on the road, but then again, that is the whole reason I bought the 17.3 inch workstation.

When you are deciding on which machine to buy, I recommend you consider the screen resolution issue. A 15 inch or even 13 inch machine with similar specs and the same resolution display might save your back and shoulder some pain from lugging this heavy machine around.

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I've had my HP EliteBook 8770w 17.3 for almost 6 months now. I ordered it as a customized unit directly from HP they shipped it from the plant in China right to my door (which made FedEx tracker watching pretty interesting). I bought this as a backup to my home-office tower primarily because of Superstorm Sandy that knocked out power and cable internet for 10 days and I had no way of working. For that reason, I did include of couple of options that the off-the-shelf versions don't have, such as a 56K modem since I still have a copper POTS line that usually works in power failures, and in addition to the longer-life battery directly installed, I also ordered a pair of HP BB09 Notebook BatterySmart Buy (QK640UT) - these batteries are rated at up to 10 hours each when fully charged. This gives me a total of up to 25 hours of battery life... three 8-hour workdays... before a recharge is necessary.

As for the laptop itself, it's built to the same MIL-STD 810G that rugged cell phones meet, and is certified to remain functional after a 30-inch drop from a table/desk to a hard floor. The screen is matte-finish non-glare, and the keyboard (with a full numpad) is almost the size of a normal desktop keyboard, making it very comfortable to use. I don't need excessive disk space, so I went with a 120GB SSD, and 8GB of PC3-1600 RAM, along with a quad-core Intel i7-3720QM processor and AMD FirePro M4000 GDDR5 video. I ordered it with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit, same as my tower, and have the two units configured as identically as possible. I sync the key folders several times each month and keep the laptop updated, but thankfully haven't had the need to use it as a frontline unit much at all... just for a 2-week period of time earlier this year while I was waiting for a new tower that allowed me to get used to the laptop and Windows 8.

In addition to the regular AC charger, I purchased the HP 90W Smart Auto/truck Adapte so I can charge in my vehicle when needed. I also have the Kensington K62567US SP17 17-Inch Classic Sleeve Notebook Case (Black) which holds this laptop, all the batteries and chargers, a mouse, and a spare Cat5 cable with no stress.

To be fair, this is a large heavy-duty laptop that weighs a lot and is expected to see business use. It's not what you want for only occasional home use, or hardcore gaming. But it will most certainly fit the bill as a tower replacement or tower backup, and properly configured, can handle just about any business use you can dish out.

Discount HP ENVY 14-2020NR 14.5-Inch Notebook (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

After using this laptop for 2 weeks, I am totaly satisfied with it. The new hp envy sb version has all aluminum chassis and feels vry solid. Windows boots up in 18 seconds. Running program as fast as average desktop. Here is some feedback:

The screen: some one may complain this laptop never comes with radiance display anymore. Actually, the bright view screen is great, and it's even brighter and has more vibrate color than my wife's macbook pro.

The touchpad: This sandy bridge refresh version has a nearly as good as macbook touchpad. Multigesture, two finger scroll and pinch zoom all work smoothly. Just remember don't update the synaptics drive. New driver doesn't support double-tab to turn off touchpad feature.

Battery life: If you set the brightness to 60%, and just normal use, the out of box battery lasts about 5 hours. If you turn off the bluetooth and wifi, battery should last even longer.

Finally the noise: Normal using won't produce much noise. You need to put your ear at the air vents to hear it. It does has some noise when playing games, but tolerable.

Purchased from amazon, and happy to deal with them.

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The Envy 14 has a lot going for it. It's a great size, has a backlit keyboard that's a pleasure to type on, and is built very well. Further, HP has released a BIOS update to address the issue of 3D applications and games not working properly with AMD's automatic graphic switching. The solution essentially reverts back to manual switching where the user has control of which graphics processing unit (GPU) he or she wants to use. It can also be set up to run on the high-performance AMD Radeon dedicated GPU (dGPU) when the machine is plugged in and switch over to the power-saving Intel integrated GPU (iGPU) when running on battery. This is basically how graphic switching works on older Envy 14 notebooks (model number 14-1xxx).

Regrettably, I had to send this notebook back for a pair of deal-breaking issues. First and foremost, the trackpad (or clickpad as it's dubbed by HP and part supplier Synaptics), is awful. HP has tried to emulate the Apple MacBook Pro in this area, and having previously owned a MBP, the Envy fails miserably. After trying many different drivers and settings, I simply could not get the trackpad to perform and respond smoothly and predictably. The final annoyance is the orange light that activates whenever you disable the pad, either on its own or by plugging in a USB mouse.

The second major problem is the screen itself. The resolution of 1366x768 isn't a huge issue for me, but at one point, HP did offer the Envy 14 with a high-resolution (1600x900) "Radiance" display that was of excellent quality and color reproduction. The screen in the current model, though not the worst I've ever seen, is sub-standard for something that's marketed as a premium product. Even with a lot of tweaking, the colors are pretty dull. It's also more reflective than other glossy notebooks I've seen and used, which makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use outside.

In the end, a couple missteps in overall execution make it a less-than-ideal choice for my use.

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I recently purchased 4 of these laptops for our business. We work with 3D CAD drawings. This laptop has no problem running the 3d CAD programs. The display brightness is bright for the user. The bottom of the laptop stays cool. I like the lights on the keyboard helps me see the keys in low lit areas. I also like the usb port on the power adapter because i can charge my ipad with it (ipad cord isn't long enough to make to the outlet). I haven't had much time to test the sound out.

Dislike:

One of the laptop's underscore key doesn't work you have to press it 10 times to get it to type once. Screen viewing angle not the greatest.

Overall I would recommend this laptop to anyone.

EDIT:

RUN SAVE YOURSELF. THE SCREEN ON ALL FOUR LAPTOPS WE BOUGHT GOT SCRATCHED BY THE LIP AROUND THE KEYBOARD. ONE LAPTOP THE SOUND CRAPPED OUT AND NOW SOUNDS LIKE DONALD PLEASENCE in the movie GROUND ZERO. THREE OF THE LAPTOPS HAVE A KEY THAT DOESN'T WORK UNLESS POUNDED ON. HP TOLD ME I COULD SEND THEM BACK AND HAVE THE SCREENS REPLACED,BUT IT WOULD TAKE ABOUT TWO WEEKS WELL I LIVE OUTSIDE THE US BESIDE I NEED MY LAPTOP EVERYDAY FOR WORK.

CONCLUSION: ITS NOT A KEEPER

EDIT 2:

Wireless networking passed away on one of the laptops...can't wait to see whats next

Honest reviews on HP ENVY 14-2020NR 14.5-Inch Notebook (Silver)

I bought this laptop for $799 end of Oct 2011 as a general purpose computer for work and home use. So far, i have been quite satisfied with it.

Pros

1. solid metalic construction

2. backlit key pads is a big plus.

3. solid performing switchable 1G graphic card.

4. i5 processor is more than adequate for general home and work computing.

5. no bloat ware to deal with

Cons

1. Screen is not the highest resolution

2. keypads are fine, but could use a little more tactile feedback.

3. the fan motor is quiet, but there is a constant noise. compared to HP's own D6V, this is loud.

4. Not the most attractive laptop.

5. laptop is a bit heavy

6. battery life is only acceptable

7. no finger print reader

8. ram is a bit low at 4G

Overall, it's not a perfect laptop for the money, but definitely a good total package. you will not be able to play the latest action video games, but for general home/work use, it provides more than adequate power. The fan noise can be a bit irritating, but i guess that comes with a performace chip in a small package.

If you can get this laptop on sale at a good price, then it is definitively a great buy.

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If this thing only had Blu-Ray It would be the best bang for your buck ! I don't think I can say more than whats already been said by others.