Reviews of Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C-A01US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Light Titan)

Customer Ratings:

This is my first Samsung computer and my first Ultrabook... I do a lot of traveling and I've been using a 10.1" Asus Netbook for the last two years. I've loved the battery life and accepted the speed and small screen as being the sacrifice that I had to make to get 8 hours on a battery charge. This Series 5 has a 13.3" screen that is very readable in most every situation with the possible exception of direct sunlight. The 1.7Ghz Core I5 processor is blazing fast for a portable computer and even rivals a lot of desktop systems. All of this comes with an actual battery life of over 8 hours!!!

I really considered not getting this computer when I read the review that talked about the screen shaking, I don't know if they got a bad unit or if they are sensitive to movement but I've used this computer on my lap, on an airplane and in a car and I can't say that my screen has ever moved enough to even get my attention much less bother me. I can't imagine another computer being any better match to what I need, a small, lightweight, long battery life computer with substantial processing power.

My only complaint so far has been Samsung Customer Service. I need to use this computer with a VGA projector and no one at Samsung could even tell me what adapter I needed to convert the monitor port to a VGA output. I ended up buying a HDMI to VGA converter to be safe. Their lack of knowledge about a basic function had me questioning my choice but the computer is so good I'm still going to give it five stars.

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It just arrived earlier today, and after working with it for the better part of the afternoon and evening, I can say that it's very, very nice: compact, with a nice screen, and extremely speedy. (And by the way, I've seen absolutely no indication of screen-wobbling, which is something another reviewer mentioned.) There are, however, a couple of minor issues that prompted me to take it down a notch, from 5 stars to 4. Actually, if I could have given it 4.5 stars, I would have, but since I have to choose between 4 and 5, I'll go with 4.

One of the issues is fan noise. I must admit to being extremely sensitive to the noise of laptop fans, and for the past several years I've been spoiled given that I've had a Dell Mini 10, which is a now-discontinued fanless netbook. Being fanless, and since I had installed an SSD in it, it was completely silent. The netbook, however, finally gave out on me, and so after some research, I ordered the Samsung NP530 as a replacement, both for on-the-road use on my job, and carrying around room-to-room in my house. From reviews I had read, it was supposed to be one of the quietest ultrabooks, and I think that's probably true. However, I can now say that, when running at load, the fan does become fairly loud. On the other hand, when it's idling, the fan is inaudible unless you put your ear right up to it. The other piece of good news is that, even when it's under load and the fan is going full tilt, it's loud but not as high-pitched as some laptop fans, which makes it less annoying. Bottom line: when it comes to noise, the NP530 is about as good as I can expect from a laptop (other than a fanless model), and it's something I can live with, especially since everything else about the unit is so nice. For those of you who are less sensitive to fan noise than I am, you probably won't even notice it.

The other issue isn't so much a problem as a quirk. I ordered it intending to replace the 500GB HDD with a 128GB SSD that I happened to have lying around. The actual install was easy. Just remove one screw on the underbelly and the drive, along with RAM, are immediately accessible. Make sure, however, that you have a good, small-size phillips-head screwdriver, because the screws that attach the drive to the bracket are on rather tight, and my small set of jeweler tools didn't deliver enough torque to unloosen them. I had to use a larger-handled screwdriver with a small head that, thankfully, I bought last year for another purpose and still had lying around. Anyway, aside from that, the install was easy, and my SSD fit perfectly in the bay. (There was no need to use one of the new super-slim SSDs that are required for some ultrabooks; my standard SSD fit perfectly.)

Now, however, we get to the quirky part. After I installed the SSD, I did a clean install of Win 7. This could be probably avoided by using cloning software to image the drive that the NP530 shipped with. However, I wanted to install a copy of Win 7 Pro (rather than Home Premium) since I happen to have an extra Pro license on hand. Also, I dislike the bloatware that most OEM's install on new systems. I can't say for sure whether Samsung installed much bloatware because I didn't experiment much with the unit before replacing the drive and doing the reinstall.

In any event, when I tried to do a clean install of Win 7 Pro, I was stymied by the fact that the NP530 simply would not boot to my USB DVD drive, so there was no way for me to install Windows other than by installing it from within the existing Win 7 installation (which often causes problems). After several hours of troubleshooting and reviewing information available online, I figured out that the culprit was a special BIOS setting, apparently unique to Samsung ultrabooks, called "Fast BIOS Mode." This mode causes the BIOS to completely skip over USB devices when booting, no matter what boot priority they're set to. This is apparently to speed up the boot process, but when I figured this out and disabled Fast BIOS mode, I saw no appreciable difference in boot speed. My USB DVD drive was, however, finally recognized when booting, after which the installation went smoothly. I will say that I have an older USB DVD drive, so maybe those of you with newer ones won't have this problem.

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I purchased this machine and have been using it for a few days. This thing is blazing fast! My desktop is a Core 2 Duo at 3.00GHZ and this machine is as fast as or faster than it! And to the poster above that complained about the "wobbly" screen, he must have had a lemon; mine works perfectly. I cannot think of a single negative about this computer. Its very thin, light, and fast. The screen looks great. It boots up very quick, it wakes up from sleep mode very fast. About the only negative is the battery is not user-replaceable. So, when it dies you'll have to send it back to get changed. But they did put a battery life extender technology in it, so it only charges the battery to 80%, not 100%. This greatly enhances battery life. this is also what major car manufacturers do as well, they only run their batteries from 20-80% capacity so that they last up to 10 years.

The only reason why I'm giving it 4 and not 5 stars is it comes with Win 7 Home Premium and not Professional, and the battery is not user-replaceable.

Honest reviews on Samsung Series 5 NP530U3C-A01US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Light Titan)

Sleek, lightweight, battery lasting 5-6 hr; easy to use, soft keys easy to type on. Beautiful matte finish doesn't show fingerprints. Would buy it again in a heartbeat.

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Well I ordered this laptop last night, with next day air, Saturday delivery; Today (Saturday) it arrived at about 10AM. Good Work UPS/Amazon.

First impressions:

Let me preface this by saying that I've owned A LOT of laptops. I've probably had 20 laptops in the last 7 years. The worst of these was probably an eMachines laptop (made by gateway I think), back in 2006; The best was by far a late 2011 Macbook Pro 15". So the scale is 1-10, 1 being the eMachines, 10 being the Macbook Pro.

Another point I'll make is that this is the first Ultrabook I've owned. I recently owned a Lenovo Thinkpad X220, which is kind of the same class of laptops, but not quite.

Having owned it for all of 6 hours, I'd probably give this laptop a 6-6.5 out of 10. The most obvious thing it has going for it is the zippy Third Generation Intel Core i5. Overall, for a laptop this small, thin, and light, its a really quick machine. For $200 more you can buy the model with a 128GB SSD, something I think is a must in all computers now (an SSD). I opted for this one because its $800, and I can buy a better 128GB SSD, and another 4GB stick of RAM for about ~$125 and ~$20 respectively. I happened to already have both of these lying around, and installation was easy enough. There's one screw that holds on a panel on the back, then it just pops off like the back cover on a Samsung android phone.

Biggest problem, and pretty much deal breaker for me: The hinge for the screen. It's wobbly. The screen shakes when you move, when it opens. Just poor build quality.

UPDATE: I'm changing it from 3 stars to 4 because I suppose its unfair to say that this one detail makes it a 3 star product. For me, I can't deal with it, and I'm going to return it. But for most people, this is such a standard problem that they wouldn't even notice it or be bothered. Even as I type this with the laptop on my lap, the screen is wobbling with every keystroke...it's driving me NUTS!

Another thing I personally don't like is the keyboard. I always use mechanical keyboards on my desktops, like the dasKeyboard, so I'd say every laptop's keyboard is complete garbage...but coming from a Lenovo Thinkpad, with that awesome old school IBM laptop keyboard, to these flat, silent, chiclet style keys...kind of drab. I also feel like backlit keys are a standard thing now. Maybe because the last few laptops I bought are >$1000.

The touchpad is great. Obviously still nowhere near as good as a Macbook touchpad, but by far the best PC touchpad I've ever used.

Aside from the screen hinge...great laptop. Great price for a new Core i5 Ivy Bridge Ultrabook. This was my first Samsung laptop, and it'll probably be my last without trying it out in the store first.

Review of ASUS B43S-XH51 (14.1-Inch Screen) Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I had been looking for a medium priced laptop that also had lots of features. Being patient, I knew eventually I would find what I wanted for the right price. I located this Asus B43S-XH51 laptop on Amazon by accident. I was looking through the ASUS website and saw this Business laptop that was made extremely well and offered everything I wanted and more. The price was a really good deal. Then I noticed their website mentioned Amazon was one of the retailers offering this laptop, so I clicked on it.

I like ASUS products because I have owned several of their products, including two Netbooks that have served me very well. This system came equipped with

a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5-2520M, 4 GB DIMM (I also purchased 8gb upgrade separately) 500 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive (I wanted a 256gb SSD, but couldn't beat this price), a 14.1-Inch Screen (which is the perfect size for traveling) and Windows 7 Professional (which I have on my Home PC and my wife's Laptop, so I am completely familiar and happy with Win 7 Pro. This system fit my need perfectly.

Once I received it, I fell in love with this laptop. Its very attractive, super well designed and constructed and operates flawlessly. The screen has several adjustments and is very clear and bright. Battery life is typical for a laptop, about 2.5 3 hours with continuous use. I thought I would look for a bigger battery, but when using this in my travels, I seldom use it where there is no outlets and when I do, I have never totally exhausted the battery. Its not the lightest laptop out there, but I prefer heavy constructed aluminum case and the very durable overall construction of this laptop over saving weight. What's an extra pound anyway, its not like you're going jogging while carrying it anyway.

I give this laptop 5-stars and with my history using ASUS products, I fully expect trouble free years of use from it also. And I want to add that the battery comes with a full 3-year warranty.

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Bought for my wife's telework this because I have had great reliability and performance with ASUS products before--router, netbook, desktop mother boards, etc. We bought the business laptop because we thought it would be more reliable and rugged. We have had to send to California ($20 each time for shipping, and minimum two weeks) for service twice within the first three months as the network adapter failed within a few day of use. I finally just bought a $20 USB network adapter. Will not buy ASUS again, which is disappointing! Otherwise, a great laptop.

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I purchased this laptop as a birthday gift for a college software major. it is outstanding! Very fast very durable and the person who received it love the laptop. I've always like ASUS products and I will continue to purchase them. Additionally with the second day shipping with my Amazon prime I received it fast.

Honest reviews on ASUS B43S-XH51 (14.1-Inch Screen) Laptop

I don't like this computer because doesnot have good internet connection when is on battery, yo can not use this laptop on battery for searching the web has to be conected to power suply, I most of the time use laptop on battery because in the place I live we don't have alway power, so to me this computer is useless. I am trying to return it but there is no answere from the seller just from Amazon hope to solve this problem soon so I can get different laptop. the another thing in baterry saving also does not have internet signal. minor dislikes: speaker sound quality is poor, and the fun is noise too, I never had computer like that loud is anoying, battry last 3.5 hours.

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It's just new model but it good one. It light weight. It have one 4GB memory so I can easy add another 4GB memory. It's very nice outside.

Best ASUS A53U-AS22 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mocha) Deals

Customer Ratings:

I ordered this laptop about 30 days ago and have been solidly satisfied ever since. I desperately needed a new laptop for home use and wanted a machine that was stylish, updated and could handle a basic level of tasks. I use this as my primary and only home computer (which doesn't say much, after work, I go home to veg. I needed a machine I could use while watching TV, use while half-sleeping on the couch and something to answer emails in bed after I wake up late for work/other commitmentsagain).

Pros:

It looks great! It has a distinctive mocha case with a nice detail on it. And, no it's not as light as the MacBook Air or something, but is easy to handle, travels well and looks sleek.

The screen is solid and is a nice size.

The laptop runs very, very, cool. I don't think that mine has even warmed up a bit.

Windows 7 looks great on this laptop.

ASUS has some interesting programs (crapwarebut not that crappy).

I can run MS Office programs, Google Chrome, IE, VPN access my work computer, edit web pages and listen to Pandora at once just fine (occasionally the Pandora skips, but that just might be the connection).

Cons:

The keyboard takes some getting used to. . . it's very wide, I tend to favor the buttons on the left and some of the command buttons are in areas I did not expectand on the way right. With that said, it's a little annoying but easily solvable (I just look down more when I am typing).

The speakers are really not that good. But not a big deal for me because I mostly use this laptop for general home use (to finish projects from work, catch up on volunteer stuff and to check email and my FB). With that said, if I ever felt the need to watch movies or TV shows on it or something, I would just plug in speakers.

This is my first computer with an AMD processor. It's alright and works for me. I can tell the difference between this an Intel processor thoughespecially when playing basic games and do worry that this laptop will become dated sooner than its Intel counterpart. But the computer has never crashedjust some of the games run a bit slow (READ: I am not a gamer, I am talking about basic silly free games). I saw a review that mentioned the screen cuts out or something like that. . . I noticed that it did reset once or twice while I was loading my files and programs onto the machine. Nothing major though, and this happens on my desktop computer at work too. . .

You have to make your own recovery disks. It took 12 DVDs for meand A LOT of time. Painful.

But all and all I am super happy with my purchase. Totally worth the price and totally stylish.

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I purchased the A53U-ES21 but stumbled on this product with a poor review. This is exactly the same laptop that I purchased, this just has a larger hard drive (500GB instead of 320GB). Yes, this laptop is not lightning fast but it is a great laptop. I have not noticed any lag or times of no response. I did, however, format the hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 7 (not included) because there is a lot of preloaded garbage on there.

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For a desktop Linux user, this laptop is perfect. It is virtually impossible to purchase a laptop in the U.S. without an operating system; however, Microsoft apparently charges OEMs so little for Windows Home installed on cheap hardware that it doesn't really impact the price.

I installed the latest version of Ubuntu alongside the factory Windows install. In two weeks of heavy use, the system is holding up well. Some sites, such as Google Maps in streetview mode, render slow because of the weak hardware. If you're a gamer, you probably should not be buying this. If you're using it mostly for ordinary business tasks, this laptop is more than sufficient, at least under Ubuntu. Of the 4GB RAM, I have yet to see more than 2GB used at any given time.

I would consider other alternatives if you are planning to become a Windows 8 user, as I'm sure that system will be heavy on resources.

Honest reviews on ASUS A53U-AS22 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mocha)

I have owned a ASUS laptop before and was happy with it. I felt pretty safe getting another. I am afraid that I am going to have to return this one though. It is very slow. Very slow. Trying to load the Huffington Post can take well over a minute.

Playing the Microsoft version of Mahjong will give error messages of an overloaded cpu. I am not anywhere near being a power user with this machine. It is used primarily for surfing the net, checking e-mail and listening to music preferably at the same time. Sadly this thing is unable to keep up with that,

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I bought an ASUS laptop in 2006 and it is still going strong, including the DVD drive. I can't say the same for other brands of laptops that I have owned (after two years, the drive on my Compaq crapped out and HP was no help at all in trying to recover the driver). Windows runs a little slow sometimes and I get a handful of program not responding, but I'm not attributing that to the computer just yet (I'm still running an old version of office). What I really like is the light weight frame; I travel with my laptop and use it in the field so that is definitely a plus. The screen has great resolution as well.

HP ENVY dv7-7323cl 17.3" Notebook PC - Refurbished Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I hadn't updated my personal system in over 10 years. I researched all major laptop brands for a month before making this purchase. And although there are many good systems out there this was the best I found for features versus price.

The idea was to have this laptop in lieu of a new desktop so I wanted a 17" + screen. After researching Intel processors the Core i5 ivy bridge (3rd generation) looked like the best performer per dollar. The 8 gigs of RAM (expandable to 16) was a nice extra as many of this type come standard with only 4 gigs. The hard drive is a bit bigger too.

It was a nice touch to get a back lit keyboard included as most others I saw had it as a paid add on.

The Intel 4000 graphics are pretty good so unless you play first person shooters it handles games pleasingly.

I am impressed with the speed and performance of this laptop and would recommend it without hesitation.

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best laptop for the price the i5 possessor never skips a beat best laptop speakers i have ever herd and the finger print scanner works better then i thought great for work or school or just surfing the web and for that price cant beat it with windows 8 highly recommend!

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the screen is a bit too reflective and viewing angles are somewhat narrow, but much like everything with this laptop, for the price, very good deal. it runs fast enough for my purposes which are browsing and watching high quality videos mostly. a little video editing.

the one i got was refurbished and i could not tell it was refurbished. so good for me on that front.

battery life was about what you would expect. around 4h of video playback is what i tested. i like a bright screen though. i imagine you can squeeze a little more using lower setting for brightness and more power saving settings.

the keyboard is very nice. i loved it was backlit. my first backlit keyboard and i do not know why i did not have this before. yes i do. the price of laptops with backlit keyboards was usually too high. which brings me back to the fact that this is a good laptop for the price.

i liked that there are 4 usb ports and 3 are usb 3.0. i use the usb 2.0 for my wireless mouse and so doesnt require the transfer speeds. the usb 3.0 is definitely faster than 2.0 on this laptop though trying some external drives which use usb 3.0, i felt it was a bit slow compared to what it was on other computers. but still, decent transfer rates.

all in all, i feel this was a good purchase.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY dv7-7323cl 17.3" Notebook PC - Refurbished

best laptop i have ever owned and that is coming from someone who has been repairing computers for 20 plus years

Buy Dell Inspiron 15R N5110 16-Inch Laptop (2.10 GHz Intel Core

Customer Ratings:

This is a great laptop for home or school use. I was initially worried that it would not be very good because it's not one of those high dollar laptops, but I was pleasantly surprised. It boots up fast and runs all my office programs easily. Windows 7 Home Premium is perfect for basic computing. The wireless connection has awesome range and the graphics is phenomenal. I even had it connected to my flat screen using the HDMI port and it plays DVDs like theater quality HD. I have had it for about 6 months now and it has been running near perfectly since I bought it. The only problem I've had was about three weeks ago it started to slow down on me to a crawl. I suspected that I had a virus, but the scan came up clean. I went online to the Dell website and started a live chat with them using my desktop. They were very helpful. Turns out, I just needed to update some drivers. I gave them my service tag and they walked me right through the whole process. Very happy with this purchase.

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Discount Acer Aspire AS5250-BZ873 15.6" Widescreen Laptop (1.0 GHz AMD

Customer Ratings:

Very dissapointed! Wireless adapter made by "Aerothos"...never heard of them....

Can't be more than 10 feet from the router...., whats the point of it being wireless?

Even went and exchanged it for another duplicate lap top because I thought the first one must have been defective...

Nope! the second one was the same....I even called tech support at Acer....tech admitted it must be a poor brand of adapter...no fooling....dont waste your time or money on this one!

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I purchased this laptop from Walmart, not Amazon, for $278.00, smoking price.

I never really buy computers because I usually build my own. Since you can't build your own laptop at $278.00

I had to give this one a shot. Needed a laptop just in case my desk top took a dump.

All the bad stuff everyone is saying about this is true, but once I reconfigured the operating system it works great,

the wifi is working fine, even for an old G router I am using.

It took about 4 minutes to boot up and had about 10 icons next to the clock loading up all kinds of garbage.

After reconfiguring the system it now takes less than a minute to boot and has only 5 icons loaded up.

Manufacturers have no clue when configuring Windows OS's, MORONS really.

Do yourself a favor when buying any computer from an Acer, HP, Dell or whoever, re-do the OS and you'll have

a completely different system, for the better.

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This is my very 1st laptop i have a 2 core quad desktop but have been wanting a laptop for a long time.

Prices on the ones i wanted were to high for me to afford so i hadnt gotten one.

I was at walmart the other day and seen this dual core processor and it was priced at $278

I purchased it brought it home and its a awesome computer for the money.I see not much differance in my core 2 quad this one.This computer gets a A ttt from me

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire AS5250-BZ873 15.6" Widescreen Laptop (1.0 GHz AMD

Out of the box I couldn't be further than 10 ft away from the router for this to connect to the wifi. I went to Acer's website and downloaded all the updates. I could then be further away from the router, but I kept losing the connection even though the signal was excellent. Three days after I bought it, I returned it.

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Bought this for my granddaughter at walmart and she had nothing but problems with internet connection. She took it back and exchanged it thinking it was faulty then she called tech support when the same problem happened and they really did nothing. This lap top is not worth the money it took to make it! If you are looking for a good laptop dish out the extra $50-$100 for a higher quality one.

Cheap Lenovo Ideapad P400 14-inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,144.00
Sale Price: $649.00
Today's Bonus: 43% Off

Very happy with my purchase and love it. I use this for my application development work, performs very well. Very quiet, no fan noise in the background nor heating problems.

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I got mine at Best Buy for $530 and consider that a great price for an i5 2.6GHz processor and 6GB of RAM, plus a touch screen. I was a bit surprised to hear that Cnet considers this a "thick" and "old looking" laptop maybe for a grand you can buy one that is thinner and "newer looking", but for $530 I didn't see anything that would match it.

Anyway, here is the good:

Screen picture quality: 1600X900 on a 14 inch screen equals pretty amazing high-def stuff.

Speed: running IE, Chrome and Office 2013 (I am not into gaming, so don't know how that would work or not)

WiDi wireless screen sharing (with compatible devices).

Build quality

Not so good:

Touch screen not responsive to gentle touches, you have to poke it pretty hard some times (don't have much to compare this to besides a smart phone).

Keyboard is a bit cramped if you are used to full size keyboards, but you get used to it.

Strange keyboard issue when USB mouse is plugged in CTRL key "sticks" (not physically but in software), so as you type it acts as if CTRL is pressed all the time (typing an "i" turns everything italic, and so on).

For $530 I thought it was a great deal, and has worked out pretty good so far :).

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After my Sony laptop was stolen, I embarked on a search for an affordable ultrabook or near-ultrabook style laptop. This was on sale at Best Buy for about $540 plus tax, and I thought I'd take a chance on it, but things didn't work out.

The Good:

Great screen for a machine in in this price range. 1600 x 900 resolution, and fairly good (not amazing) color saturation. Touch is fairly responsive, though single-taps require a fairly forceful touch.

Backlit keyboard is nice, even though the keyboard has shortcomings; more below.

Nice feature set/specs for a machine in this price range. i5 processor, 6GB Ram, 500GB Hard drive with a 24GB SSD for booting.

Boots quickly and is fairly snappy, thanks to the SSD.

Lots of ports.

Design, while cumbersome and thick (more below), feels sturdy and nearly indestructible, as long as you can live with the weight...

DVD/CD drive is a nice feature.

The Bad:

HEAVY. A laptop in this size range feels like a brick at 5.5 pounds. This was one of the deal breakers for me.

Mushy/erratic keyboard. The keyboard was missing keystrokes with fairly heavy typing, and you can visibly see it buckling even with light typing. The whole thing has a chintzy, mushy feel, and leads to a horrible typing experience.

Chintzy plastic touchpad; clicks feel hollow and wobbly. Supports two finger scroll, but not any other two-finger gestures (couldn't right-click with two finger tap, for example)

Battery Life: I eeked out about 3 hours on a good day; otherwise, battery life wasn't impressive.

Overall, the heavy weight, low battery life, and sub-par typing experience prompted a return from me. It's not a bad machine, with a nice middle-of-the-road touchscreen and great internal specs; but for a road machine, I needed better battery life and more portability.

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The Lenovo ideapad P400 14-inch is a fantastic laptop for the price. I was blown away with what you get compared to higher priced laptops less features and not as fast. Plus the quality and the name says it all. Buy it you won't regret it.

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1. A plenty of unused software was installed on it.

2. It hangs from time to time!

3. The return deadline was 14 days!

4. There is no customer service in my area. I have to go 50 miles away to benefit from the warranty!

Review of Gateway Laptop Nv55c56u

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $499.98
Sale Price: $479.99
Today's Bonus: 4% Off

For years I held off on buying a laptop. Mainly because I had bought a netbook back in 2009 and it had sufficed for my mobile computing needs.

In November 2011 this unit was at Bestbuy's BF sale and I bought one.

Construction:

The unit feels quite solid. I found no problems with its construction.

Display: The 15.6" screen size is more than adequate for most all of my computing uses:

browsing

working with office docs, spreadsheets and such.

video viewing (such as youtube or DVDs) is great. No display problems, no choppiness in playback.

External screen outputs: Either one works fine, to drive a larger, external monitor.

VGA port (aka HD15 port)

HDMI port

Built-in card reader:

I have tested some 16GB SDHC cards which had "Live versions" of linux loaded on them.

The card reader worked fine both an SD card reader and as a secondary boot device for the "Live" linux OS loaded onto the SDHC cards.

Battery life:

This laptops battery life is quite good. I have not ran the battery down completely but with my choice to

keep the screen "brighter" than normal while it's on battery, I'm still getting an estimated 4 hours+ of battery life.

this factor has moved me away from using my old netbook as often as I had in the past, since my netbook's 3-cell battery's life was short compared to this Gateway laptop.

Wireless:

reception and connection speed is good for this device. It does it's MS updates, it's AV updates and all downloads via wireless with no problems.

CPU: This CPU and this unit's overall speed is better than I had expected.

I use i5 and i7 laptops at work and have not found this gateway i3 to be much slower than the faster

i-series CPU laptops I use at work.

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I purchased this computer on Cyber Monday of this year (2012) at a rock bottom price of $309.00 If that isn't unbelievable enough, let me tell you what an awesome package this is! It works unbelievably well and has all the bells and whistles as it came with Windows 7 which I love. The laptop is lightweight, the battery lasts just long enough, and it has plenty of space; even for a homeschooling parent. I think this MUST be the best computer on the market for the most reasonable price! We watch our expenditures in my house and this product is worth much more than I paid for it. Good quality!

Review of ASUS X501A-TH31 Slim Notebook PC / Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz / 4GB

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $549.99
Sale Price: $450.30
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

First of all I don't agree with the previous review of the X501A--see my comments. Also, the X501A version with a lesser Celeron CPU and 2GB of RAM has many favorable reviews but I think this model with the i3 and 4GB is the sweet spot for this laptop (depending on the price). Windows 8 (or 7) struggles with only 2GB of RAM and the i3 is a big jump up over the Celeron.

THE GOOD:

The price. The X501A is a relative bargain considering it's priced near the bargain no-name laptops with slow AMD CPUs that you probably can't get even basic things for like a replacement battery a year later. Asus is a big name, should be around for many years, and they use high quality parts. The AC adapter, for example, is common across many of their (and Acer's) models and very inexpensive. Replacement batteries are also inexpensive. And you get more for your money than from Dell, HP or Lenovo (unless you get a refurb or closeout deal).

This laptop is significanly lighter and thinner than most 15 inch laptops in this price range. To me that really makes a difference. It's easier to carry around, slip into a backpack or messenger bag, or even have on your lap. It's sort of a poor man's Ultrabook for about half or even one third the price. And, with the i3 CPU, it blows away any netbook in terms of performance for not a lot more money and you get a much bigger screen. And, unlike a Chromebook, you can run any software you want and store hundreds of GB worth of videos, etc.

The glossy screen is fairly bright and sharp. Pictures and videos look good when viewed straight on.

The fan is impressively quiet as is the 500 GB hard drive. I often use a laptop in very quiet areas and many can be noticeably noisy. This one is dead quiet except for some very faint noises from the drive and, if you manage to get the CPU working hard for a while, the fan speed will gradually ramp up but it's still far quieter than most laptops--even the Apple models. I have Dell and Acer laptops that cycle their cooling fan on and off with more of an annoying all or nothing cooling approach. The X501A is far superior and very quiet.

The performance is impressive with the i3. Even with lots of windows open, a streaming video playing, etc. it doesn't miss a beat or break a sweat. It boots fast, wakes up from sleep very fast, and has good battery life while sleeping (many older laptops don't).

It also runs cool. Even on a bed or sofa blocking all the vents on the bottom it still doesn't get very warm. Intel's latest CPUs are fairly amazing for power efficiency and Asus clearly did a good job with the cooling design.

The touchpad is better than average once you get the right driver and settings. With the right setup, it supports all the popular multi-touch actions yet doesn't freak out if your palms hit it while typing (a common problem with similar large multi-touch gesture touchpads on other laptops). Even some big names (like Dell and Samsung) don't have touchpads that work this well.

It has a USB 3 port which is also a bit rare in the bargain laptop category. It makes a big difference if you have a USB 3 portable drive or fast thumb drive. It also has HDMI which is great for connecting to a flat screen TV, projector, or large monitor.

Compared to a Dell or Sony the Asus doesn't have much bloatware pre-installed. There was an anti-virus trial but it's otherwise relatively free of crapware.

THE OK:

The battery life is better than average for this price range and level of performance. I get around 5 hours of constant use with web browsing, streaming videos, etc. It won't run 8+ hours like some of the high-end laptops, but a lot of laptops in this price range die after about 3.5 hours of constant use.

The keyboard is decent. It feels a little bit cheap and is a bit noisier than some. The layout is a bit cramped in some areas because of including a number pad but I've used much worse. I can type fairly fast with few errors. If you don't like island keyboards, however, you probably won't like this one either.

The build quality is decent and at least as good as anything else I've seen in this price range. Especially considering the thin and light chassis it's plenty respectable. But don't compare it to a Lenovo Thinkpad, Samsung Series 9, HP Envy, or MacBook Pro--most of which are at least triple the price.

There are only 2 USB ports (one is USB 3) which is probably OK for most but could be an issue for a few folks. You can always use a small portable hub.

If you use the buttons on the touchpad (rather than tap gestures) they're a little bit noisy.

The finish is a sort of satin black with an attractive pattern that's visible but the surface is completely smooth. It shows fingerprints badly (especially finger oils). A real (vs simulated) textured finish would have been much nicer.

THE BAD:

The WiFi range is a bit disappointing. I can watch YouTube videos in 1080 HD on my other laptops over WiFi at the other end of the house from the router. In the same spot the X501A can't manage it as the connection is too slow. It does fine if you're closer to the router. I've also had it randomly wake up and not automatically reconnect to WiFi. It's just a few clicks to connect it but it's annoying. It's apparently a Windows 8 driver issue.

Windows 8 is mixed. While I get the appeal for touch devices and tablets, it can be annoying to an experienced Windows user on a regular laptop. I much prefer Windows 7 but most current model laptops intended for home (not business) use only come with Windows 8. So I can't blame Asus and hopefully Microsoft will fix many of the more common complaints with the first service pack or major update.

While the glossy screen enhances the look of photos and videos in soft lighting it also creates glare and refelctions with bright light sources around. Most laptops intended or home use have glossy screens so you can't blame Asus but it's something to be aware of.

There's no CD/DVD drive but they're kind of old-school these days. Most of us are using thumb drives, direct downloads, the cloud, streaming, etc.

There's no access panel on the bottom. This is common to nearly all Ultrabooks and many thin/light laptops. See the YouTube videos for details on how to open it up. If you just want access to the hard drive it's not that difficult. And, unlike most ultrabooks and many netbooks, at least the battery is easily replaceable without any disassembly.

OVERALL: I looked at a lot of laptops in this price range and if you can find the i3 version for under four hundred bucks the X501A-TH31 is a bargain. I'm not aware of a better 15 inch laptop at this price with a current generation i3 and USB3. Most are heaver, thicker, more expensive, and have less features. But if you want a non-glare screen, DVD drive, easy access to the internals, and/or a better keyboard, you might want to look elsewhere--especially if you don't care about the thickness and weight.

EDIT: I've since installed Win7 which went fairly smoothly once you tick the right boxes in BIOS. I used an external USB DVD drive but others have done it with a bootable thumb drive. It's also worth noting a lot of the slightly more expensive models from Asus and others have a "hybrid" drive configuration with a 32GB SSD and a conventional drive. That really complicates installing Win7 if you want to still get the performance boost of the SSD. The X501, however, doesn't have that concern.

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First the Good:

* It's light & thin, easy to carry around.

* It's got a better than average CPU Chip.

Now the Not So Good:

* No doors on the bottom to access the RAM or the Hard Drive. You have to unscrew & unclip the entire bottom of the machine to get to the HDD. You then have to pull the motherboard to get to the RAM.

* No DVD RW Drive.

* The plastic bezel surrounding the screen does not provide the support that it should. It bends precariously when opened from the edge.

* The backlit keyboard does not light.

* The Speakers are on the bottom of the machine instead of the top.

* I HATE Windows 8! Unless you have a touch screen forget it.

* It just feels cheap. Not sure if ASUS designed it or Fisher Price.

* For the same money you can get an Acer with a better chip & graphics that provides access to the RAM & the HDD.

Best Deals for ASUS X501A-TH31 Slim Notebook PC / Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz / 4GB

This is one of the cheapest feeling laptops that I have ever experienced. Don't even think about upgrading the memory or hard drive in this thing! It is completely over the top the way you have to take the entire PC apart to do anything. The memory is installed under the motherboard. I got this about July 5th, put a SSD drive in it and just decided to live with it because it was so cheap. After 45 days I could not even use it, the touchpad is so poorly designed that I could not even use it as a Internet browser, it was just too awkward. But I didn't even have to worry about it long because right out of the blue the whole thing stopped working! It would only boot to the BIOS, nothing more. Well I took the OCZ SSD drive out and found that it was blown! DEAD! For no reason. Looking at the cable that connects the drive you could see that one side of it was dark and appeared to be damaged! Well, thinking "Wow this is less than two months old!" I took it to Best Buy where they diddled away about two weeks before telling me that they could not would not repair this laptop because it was damaged by some type of internal surge! Yeah! So, knowing Best Buy and the competency level of MOST of their "Employees" I just took it back and decided to call ASUS to get the unit repaired. No such luck, they said that if the damage was caused by any type of surge that it was not covered under any warranty. Well seeing how this was the crappiest laptop ever and it was only $350 new I took it apart for the memory, hard drive and screen. But I would strongly recommend any laptop aside from this one..

Honest reviews on ASUS X501A-TH31 Slim Notebook PC / Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz / 4GB

the equipment purchased through amazon.com was:

X501A-TH311 ASUS Core i3 4GB/320GB 15.6 "Slimbook Processor: Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz / 4GB DDR3 / 320GB HDD

AND I RECEIVED:

ASUS X501U with AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon (tm) HD Graphics 1.40 GHz / 4GB DDR3 / 320GB HDD. This processor is basic and is slow and completely different that I ordered through the purchase

Best Lenovo ThinkPad T61p 6460 Notebook Deals

Customer Ratings:

If you are thinking about getting a T61p, I suggest you

find one you can see and feel first.

Mine is working properly -I got it with XP Pro.

But, I was disapointed in the quality.

1) The T series Laptops used to be solid

like a tank -now they are flimsy like a potatochip.

2) There is a flex cable from the keyboard base unit to the

monitor lid -first I have seen in a loptop --

Concerned about reliability of the flex.

3) Mine has a lump (or bulge) behind the LCD.

I feel it as I swipe my hand across it.

It is not too visible due to the mat finish,

but it is there. I did an internet search and

others are seeing the same thing.

4) besides the bulge, there is a noticable dip

on the lid near the flex cable area.

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I just got one of these second hand, but in very good condition from my dads work. It doesn't have a single scratch on it. My dad has the T61 and I have the T61P, this laptop is as solid as a tank and feels so good. Its just made right. Although I wouldn't recommend paying 2000 dollars for one of these, if you find a second hand one you should definitely go for it, if its in good condition. I have a G73 and two desktops one of them with an I7-2700k and the other one with I5-750, I use them mostly for gaming and stuff but this is for my school work its not a gaming machine but it does what its supposed to. fantastic laptop.

Best Deals for Lenovo ThinkPad T61p 6460 Notebook

I was excited when I bought this laptop. Because I know IBM thinkpad was the top of the line laptop that time. So strong construction and good keyboard. But.. after a year, the battery did not even hold power for full 30 minutes even after fully charging it. Then I noticed that even with full brightness the LCD looked dull. The maximum volume is half the volume when I compare my 5 year old Dell machine. Disappointed with T61p. It is not worth for the price! Lenovo is not upto original IBM quality.

Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad T61p 6460 Notebook

I have owned 10 IBM computers and this is the first Lenovo I have ever owned. The machine worked well and the software was pretty good; although, some of the preloaded software wasn't that helpful and just used up some of the hard drive space.

The screen isn't very good and powerful graphics chip goes to waste with a not so clear screen. The computer is fast, when it works.

It only took four months before my hard drive crashed. Lenovo service did a great job of sending out the new hard drive and recovery disks but they couldn't help me restore my machine from my external Western Digital drive. Windows Vista kept on asking for an installation disk and as Windows Vista was pre-installed I didn't have this disk. Eventually, I gave up and paid a local tech to restore my computer for $300.

The replacement hard drive lasted about 1 year and then it crashed as well. When I originally purchased the machine, I bought the expensive 5 year on-sight service as well. The extra cost didn't bother me, I have money and NO time to deal with computer crashes.

Lenovo apparently reset my warranty period when they sent me the new hard drive, to an absurdly short period of time. As such, my machine was already past its warranty period. I purchased the recovery disks for $60 and bought a Western Digital hard drive from Tiger Direct. There is no way I am paying Lenovo for another substandard hard drive.

Any benefits this machine may have, is outweighed by the fact that if the hard drive is dead you have an expensive door stop and nothing more.

This will be my first and last Lenovo laptop.

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As an owner of 3 IBM Thinkpads in the past I have been very disappointed with the Lenovo Thinkpad T61p. It worked well enough for nine months but then the screen went out. When I returned it to Lenovo for warranty repair they said the screen was not covered and demanded $700.00. I pointed out that the machine had not suffered physical damage(not dropped or dented) but they said that "sometimes this just happens" and it is not covered under the warranty. Some warranty! Lenovo is not in the same class as IBM. I suggest you look elsewhere for a reliable machine and a reputable manufacturer that honors it warranty.

Cheap Lenovo ThinkPad R400 Intel Core 2 Duo 2200 MHz 160Gig Serial ATA

Customer Ratings:

this is fast and reliable

good price for great value

somehow this is fast close to I7 processor laptop I have

never put me down

I recommend to everyone

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Cheap Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

My Dell Inspiron 15 N5040 included 3gb of RAM and i3-2.53ghz cpu. I do intend to upgrade the RAM to 8GB but will be adding that separately. Dell's pricing on memory upgrades is absurd. so I just ordered 2x4GB (8GB) of Crucial memory on Amazon for $40. Installing them just involves lifting the keyboard out.

For what most people do with their computers in the average day, this laptop is perfect. A lot of people think they need the fastest, newest, most expensive computer out there and nowadays, that doesn't have to be the case. Most of us aren't graphic designers or movie editors, so why spend hundreds more? For web browsing, email, skype calling, watching netflix, photo editing, and even movie editing (better with 8GB memory), I have had no issues at all.

It's a bit plain looking aesthetically, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Compared to the DELL XPS 15z, which I also own, it's only slightly thicker, which I found surprising since Dell has been touting how thin the XPS 15z is. It does have an off center mousepad which I found annoying since I'm used to them being centered. I found myself inadvertently hitting the right button when reaching for the left button. That is just a minor issue though. Another down side is the battery life. The standard battery doesn't last too long so keep the charger handy and stay near power outlets. I've been getting about 3 hours of battery life while web browsing.

I would recommend this to product to anyone looking for an affordable everyday laptop.

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This Is A Good Computer, And Overall A Good Bargain.

But see their are things you have to adjust to.

Here are the Pros:

Big 15.6 Inch Screen.

I don't know if it is safe to say this laptop's keys sort of resemble and feel like a mac's keyboard.

anyways...

The keys are a plus.

Nice screen colors due to the default intel hd graphics.

it is a lightweight machine sort of feels like it to me.

for $400-$470 it is a hell of a bargain,it does its job.

Cons: I haven't seen any at all.

Highly Recommend.

Enjoy. Dell For The Win.

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I've been a Dell fan for quite some time, and as expected, this little gem confirms why. Repeatable performance and Dell dependability in a sleek, easy to manage package. The price point for comparable units makes this purchase a true bargain, coupled with Amazon ease of ordering and confidence in the Amazon market place partners makes it that much more enjoyable. The seller, J-Tech Digital, was spot on perfect, caught a shipping error on my part and notified me by email soon after the order was placed. The J-Tech Digital Customer Service Team corrected my oversight, shipped it ULTRA FAST and took the time to follow up after the sale. Other retailers could learn a thing or two here. Very impressive indeed.

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 15 i15-N5040 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

This is a good basic laptop. It has a lot of potential if you upgrade the ram memory.

PROS:

+ Got it brand new for under 500 US$.

+ Intel core i3 is a really good microprocesor.

+ DDR3 memory support up to 8GB of ram.

+ Works well in high temperatures and it does not overheat like HP laptop's.

CONS:

Touchpad sucks.

Only comes with 3GB of ram out of the box.

Neutral:

~ The keyboard is very basic.

~ Screen is ok (it's advertised as a LED screen but i can't see the difference between this and a normal 2008 LCD screen).

I'm happy with this product, but i'll definitely buy a memory upgrade to enhance the performance..

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I have no complaints, although making the recovery discs didnt go well. Went thru 4 dvd's and then got a "failure" on the 4th disc. Called Dell support and the tech said this is a known problem and he said to use a 8GB flash drive. Sorry all mine are 4 or 6GB and i'm not going to go and spend money on a 8GB fd just to make up a backup Recovery.

Battery life could be better, only get about 4 hours out of it on the basic mode...

Over all this laptop is worth the money, it is fast and so far works great.

Cheap Lenovo ThinkPad T530 239461U 15.6' LED Notebook - Intel - Core i5

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $2,089.00
Sale Price: $1,799.99
Today's Bonus: 14% Off

Buyer beware! I ordered a T530 and received a T61 instead! I was so pissed, but I decided to review it and give it a chance anyway. After close examination I discovered a few things:

1. It wasn't a 2.66 dual core, but a 2.33 dual core instead.

2. It said 4GB when i bought it, but received a 2GB system instead. Was it faulty advertizing? Did they really mean expandable to 4GB?

3. It did not have an NVIDIA NVS 5400M, Intel HD 4000 Graphics Card

4. It did not have a 500GB HDD

Yet, I will keep it, because for the price, it is still a reasonable deal. However, its the principal of the matter. I do not like to be deceived.

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Review of Alienware ALW14-4682sLV 14-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,649.00
Sale Price: $1,509.99
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

Everything is ok, except that two keys are broken. Fortunately, I install them on the key board successfully. It's kind of difficult.

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I'm not interested in writing a long and drawn out review of this product. I mainly just wanted to state that those who are interested in this system with the IPS screen may want to reconsider if light bleed concerns them. You will find that after doing some research on the internet, IPS screens are notorious for light bleed. I was hoping the new Alienware systems would be an acceptation considering all the rave from many official reviews I had read mentioning not to skimp on the screen upgrade. My screen had light bleed across the entire bottom, which overlapped with the right side, and I also had some in the the top left corner that nearly projected across the entire screen back down in to the lower right hand corner. Also, opening and closing the screen exaggerated the light-bleed very badly. My upper left corner did have very slight play/give in it, which may have contributed to the significant amount of light bleed that I experienced. I also did a Google search and found many forums with people purchasing these new IPS panels with horrible light bleed. You will mainly notice this in dark rooms on dark backgrounds such as games with dark scenes or watching movies with darker scenes. It will also be pronounced if you are in a dark room and the computer screen is booting up. I will be returning this system (Alienware 14 w/1080p screen) since I ended up buying the Alienware 17 with 1600 by 900 screen. It has the old school TN panel. While the TN panel may be lower resolution, I won't have to worry about any concerns with light bleeding. Just my thoughts that may be worth sharing. I may come back and write a much more thorough review if I feel inspired to do so. I can say that anyone interested in the new Alienware lineup will find that the build quality is top notch in contrast to nearly any other gaming system. They have set out to be the Apple build quality of gaming systems to put things into perspective.

One other thing worth noting is that I did consider exchanging this system for the same one given the defects I had experienced. However, since I purchased my system through an outside party to Amazon who was prime eligible, Amazon could not do an even exchange.

If you have any general questions about this system, I will do my best to respond. Take care and enjoy!

Best Deals for Alienware ALW14-4682sLV 14-Inch Laptop (Silver)

Everything is ok, it came in excellent condition. just going to give it a try before I give my final recommendation.

Honest reviews on Alienware ALW14-4682sLV 14-Inch Laptop (Silver)

I don't know why my computer have this problem and my computer always restart, sometimes I can not start my computer.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Alienware ALW14-4682sLV 14-Inch Laptop (Silver)

If you are looking for an excellent laptop on the go. This one will be the best for you. And I love the design of the lights control.