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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Pros:

Touch screen works well with Windows 8

Fantastic build quality

Beautiful, small, thin, and light

Outstanding keyboard

Keyboard backlight

Excellent touchpad

Very fast SSD, excellent overall performance

Rapid charging

Fingerprint scanner

Good phone support

Quiet

Spill resistant keyboard

Does not get hot

Cons:

Some Lenovo bloatware

No VGA or Ethernet port

A bit light on battery life

Power brick is a bit large

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pros:

+Build Quality / Design:

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

+Keyboard:

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

+Ports / Sound:

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

+Web Browsing:

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

+Screen/Display:

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

+OS / Camera:

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

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

+Battery:

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

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

+Storage:

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

+System Performance / Processor:

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

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

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

+Bios:

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

+Benchmarks (CPU/GPU/SSD):

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

CrystalDiskMark:

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

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

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

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

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

Cinebench 11.5:

CPU: 2.56 (Multi-Threaded)

CPU: 1.15 (Single-Threaded)

GPU: 14.54fps

Windows Experience:

Processor: 7.0

Memory: 5.9

Graphics: 5.4

Gaming graphics: 6.4

Primary Hard-Disk: 8.1

PCMark7: Score: 4836

Futuremark 3D Mark (2013) Fire Strike: 538

Cons:

-Expensive:

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discount Refurbished Dell Inspiron 17R N7010 17" Laptop i5-460M 4GB 500GB HD

Customer Ratings:

I have a slightly different laptop than this one as mine is 2.40GHz i5 with 6GB of RAM but they are essentially the same. I've had my Dell N7010 for about a year now and use it to run AutoCAD LT v2010 as well as Canvas v11, several programs specific to electrical engineering, FTP, and all the usual MS Office items. I very much enjoyed how the N7010 does not come with a lot of bloatware programs littering the hard drive. There are no soft touch controls on the computer which I applaud since previous laptops I've owned seemed to have nothing but problems with those. My Windows Experience Index numbers are as follows:

Processor: 6.8

Memory: 6.8

Graphics: 4.55

Gaming Graphics: 5.2

Primary Hard Disk: 5.9

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the performance and features of this laptop. It is well built, nice keyboard, good connectivity, and has been quite reliable for me. My wish list is that it had a blueray optical disk, USB 3.0, and that the cooling fan was a little quieter.

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Shipped directly from Dell. Excellent packaging. It was simple to unpack, assemble, start up for the first time with a few of my preferences factored in the first time. The computer comes with a Getting Started type of manual that's quite thorough for that purpose. There is no expanded user manual, but there is a repair manual available online. The machine is 64-bit operating system capable, but how well that works, depends upon implementation.

I this product with Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, 6G figuring that would keep me up with technology. Wrong. It put me ahead of technology (more than it could deliver). The 64-bit version hickups badly at times, and is much slower than when its running with the 32-bit version, per tech support at Dell. I should hope Something works better than what I have now. The installed version has terrible synchronization with a multiple thread program, such that I about gave up using it.

But I can't simply install the 32-bit I have to get another disk (this is an OEM install). Dell says although they did not ship me a 32-bit version of the program, they offered several options, one of which I took. Dell also says the ultimate version of Windows is faster still, but I declined, for reasons of price.

Most controls are well placed. I'd have preferred a larger Enter key. This one is the width of 2 1/2 regular keys, but no taller than any other I would have preferred one a bit larger in all directions, so that I could tell by feel (I touch type rather than hunt/peck). Full size keys (no hand cramps), standard placement for most keys, nice touch. Nice size mouse pad there's an option to shut off sensitivity when using the keyboard usually effective. Sometimes the mouse will activate by accident. The ESC key will often release it.

Very clear display, good colors, no distortion. Quiet fan at rest and for ordinary use such as a word processor. Heavier use will rev the fan up, but the "noise" level is mild enough to allow normal conversation.

If you are a heavy, 3D animated graphics user, consider the graphical observations below.

The laptop has a port for an analog monitor. It also has an HDMI port for direct, external display. This computer has a simple method to switch displays between a TV/amplifier/receiver/projector, computer, or both. For full HDMI resolution you need to switch to projection (eg TV) only. The 17" maximum screen resolution is 1600 x 900 and restricts the size when simultaneously sending a signal to its screen and the TV.

The computer has 4-2.0 USB ports spaced far enough from each other as to not interfere with physical shapes of the USB jack. One of those ports is about 1/4" from the Ethernet cable, which in my case has been needed only twice (worked flawlessly). Dell doesn't believe the technology is "there" as of this writing to employ add-on 3.0 USB.

For my usage the computer is comfortable to use on my lap without an extra pad, leaving some room between my knees for mild heat exhaust.

Like a few other manufacturers, Dell allows the function keys to be used for multiple roles. During boot up the keys operate normally, but when the operating system is control, the default for the keys to operate pre-defined Dell Functions such as volume or screen being stronger or weaker, sound muted, menu for different display options, toggle network adapters, etc. To use the same keys as Operating System function keys, one must hold down a "Fn" button (placed between the Left-Control and Windows (flag) keys). Dell made the right choice for me -I use their functions far more often than of the OS. Weakness the function key numbering is a hue of blue that blends easily against the brown keys. In dim light it is very hard to determine what the key is except by counting, but the ESC key is the same size & shape as "F1" immediately to its left, so F5 is really the 6th key over.

The computer has a built in port for some camera memory cards works fine for my Panasonic but not for the Canon. But both cameras come with USB adapters, so not a big issue.

A reasonable power pack will run unplugged for 2 3 hours before warning you that it will need to shutdown or have power.

Good OS rarely have I had to reboot or logoff. My habit is to shut the lid using a setting that puts the computer to sleep after 15 minutes or so. It does not come with office products such as spread sheet, but I found a good free open source code office product on the internet.

The internal wireless adapter works well with my 802.11n router, but I had a little trouble with getting the initial handshake. After that, no problem. I've chucked my older 11n USB adapter in its favor.

I considered switching to 32-bit based on Dell's comment that it was a better product, but later decided my problem wasn't the instruction bit size, but total available resources. See "Comment" section for a Q&A.

Best Deals for Refurbished Dell Inspiron 17R N7010 17" Laptop i5-460M 4GB 500GB HD

This laptop is a great buy for the money. It works great and was a good buying decision. I'm glad I did.

New info: Memory wasn't wiped clean. I've fixed that now, and I'm still satisfied.

Honest reviews on Refurbished Dell Inspiron 17R N7010 17" Laptop i5-460M 4GB 500GB HD

I've had my Dell N7010 for 3 and a half years now, and it's still my daily computer. I mostly use MS Office and Gmail, and some graphical editing programs and Calibre eBook management, so it's not stressed like what the gamers would do. The screen is easy on the eyes, keyboard is simple and easy and has a comfortable feel. Various I/O have been used for USB devices (mini & micro USB) and Apple iTunes have all been trouble-free. I've traveled with it about 100 times, used it day or night for work and play and it's always been just great. There are fancier lap tops that are sleek and thin, but I'd much rather have a dependable workhorse that I can trust. I'm on this thing almost every day and would not hesitate to recommend it to ANYONE who needs a dependable laptop.

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I like the size of the laptop. It is in very good condition. I loaded up a couple of programs I use a lot with no problem. There is a significant problem with the keyboard it is either incredibly over-sensitive , or something is wrong with it. I was trying to write a report and the cursor jumped around so much it was impossible to continue. I generally use the computer for web-browsing and watching TV so I have not explored this further yet, although I know there is a way to adjust the sensitivity of the key-pad.

Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7330 17.3-Inch LED Laptop - Brushed Review

Customer Ratings:

I have owned this laptop for about 4 days now. I did a lot of research to make sure I found a laptop that I could do multiple things. From office work to light Gamming (Guild Wars) including some poker.

Anyway, I owned (still own) a Dell laptop that I have had for about 4 years, I had already maxed the memory and I didn't want to go through the expense of upgrading hard drive.

My fiancé bought a similar Toshiba laptop just like this one but it's a intel icore 3.

I checked hers out and I was hooked. Now I wanted to get something with a little more processer power but without breaking the bank. I choose the AMD Quad core A6. And I'm so glad I did.

This laptop is AWESOME Screen size speed smooth blue finish and everything Dolby sound, blue tooth the works.

I didn't get to buy it here at Amazon though which I would have if I didn't find it on sale at Brandsmart USA.

The laptop is worth it. I don't normally right reviews but I just had to give my input on this laptop. For what it's worth to you ...I would highly recommend it.

Nice job TOSHIBA!!

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Purchased this laptop based on the feature rich specs and great price. I got everything I expected. Great display, fast quad core processor, plenty of RAM. Good battery life for the size as well. Toshiba built another winner here. With all the known Intel core i7 issues people are having, it was between an AMD A6 or Intel i5 processor for me. At about 100 bucks less than the i5 this machine is every bit as good if not a better performer on all the tests I have run. I get great frame rates on my games too.

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I never write reviews but wow. I am amazed at the performance of this laptop! I just got it today. I am a gamer and was looking for something that was a good price and a good performer. This computer is way over my expectations. My first test was skyrim.. When I started it up it recommended High settings (8xAA and 8xAF)! I did not believe it but gave it a shot. It loaded the game in about 7-10 seconds and was perfectly smooth. I closed the game and had to write this review. This A6 processor is amazing AMD really did a great job. Intel cannot touch this for the price. Well as a matter of fact they can't even touch the versatility of this processor at all. If you are on a budget and do not want to spend over $1000 for a gaming laptop get this laptop. You will not be disappointed at all.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite L775D-S7330 17.3-Inch LED Laptop - Brushed

Very easy set-up. Product is as exactly as expected. Past experiences with Toshiba lap-tops lead us to this product and it is on track to keep our loyalty to the brand.

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So far everything is running fantastic...Does NOT have the "fast clock" issue.

Nice display...Quality sound...Great features...

The blue brushed aluminum is nice, but darker than the web photos show.

Compaq Presario CQ62-418NR 15.6" Notebook / AMD Athlon II Dual Core Review

Customer Ratings:

I got this computer for my daughter as a graduation gift. She loves it! It is easy to use and well worth the money.

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this is my first notebook and i'm really happy with it, I haven't had no problems with it and everything about it is great if anyone is thinking about buying a new laptop i would recommend this one

Cheap Gateway MC7801u Refurbished Notebook PC

Customer Ratings:

Backlit keyboard is the best feature and makes using this laptop far more versatile. Unfortunately, the keyboard itself is not as effective for everyday use. The center area of the keyboard is not as well supported so you have to punch the keys a lot harder to get them to register on the display. A large HDD (320GB) and 4gigs of user memory, along with Intel Centrino 2.0GHz CPU, make this 64bit Vista PC performance's better than most laptops in the under $600 price range. The WEI is only 3.7 because the integrated graphics support, although "accelerated", is not as good as most full size Desktops with dedicated plug-in video card. The 16" LCD is a true 16x9 widescreen display and looks absolutely stunning. Also built-in to this laptop is 1.3MP webcam, microphone and two speakers. HDMI output connector is a nice bonus. Only thing missing is Bluetooth support and a BluRay DVD player, but at a significantly higher cost. Internet WiFi access is very fast and makes for a seemingly much more reliable connection than my even my two year old high end desktop PC. All in all a very good value and one of the few Notebook PC available at any price with a backlit keyboard.

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...Never had a single problem with it. It was finally stolen while I was on vacation or I'm sure I would still be using it. It's a workhorse.

I'm not a gamer, so I can't speak to that, but it ran every application I threw at it.

Drawbacks: It's heavy.

I never replaced the battery in all that time and it was starting to go bad on me.

And, the power connector was a weak spot. I had to reinforce it to keep the cord from disengaging.

Still, a great laptop. I don't think it locked up once in three years.

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I bought this laptop when it was still in stores. Keyboard is the worst part, you have to hit every key in the center an firmly, the keys started popping off mine in a couple months. The touch controls work when they want and will sometimes flicker on and off.

This computer cannot play 1080p or 720p files, it struggled to use itune's visualizer. Games don't run well if ever. WoW gets about 18-22fps on the lowest settings. The battery has a life of about 1 1/2 hours and will stop working after 6 months (I've had 2) whether or not you use it.

Max is 4gb of ram

Does not have a dedicated video card like it says on the box (shared 1024mb)

Not a full sized keyboard

Don't let the gloss screen pull you in you won't be watching anything hi-res on this computer.

The backlit keyboard has never had a problem and the 4 usb ports and hdmi port and the fact that it had an expansion card slot are the only reason I'm giving it 2 stars. IMO this laptop was not worth the 800 I bought it for and is defiantly not worth more than 200-300 in-box much less used. Gateway was once a trusted brand but they've really gone down hill in recent years.

Buy Alienware ALW14-4681sLV 14-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,700.00
Sale Price: $1,486.00
Today's Bonus: 13% Off

I received this machine earlier. It got here before the estimated arrival, so that was nice.

This run games smoothly. I have played Battlefield 3 at high settings on 1920x1080.

This has a GTX 765M, which is a decent gaming gpu.

The Power-cord supports 120-240v, so this means that it would work with pretty much any country.

The AlienFX is a cool feature. To lighten up your machine and make this a fabulous laptop.

There are 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 2.0 port, I believe. There is one HDMI output. A microphone and headphone jack. There is an optical drive, which pulls the disc in, so it is pretty nice. Also an SD card, and ethernet port.

The laptop does get a little warm after an hour after gameplay, but while surfing the internet, it gets cool, and operates just fine.

I suggest a cooling pad to keep it warm, and place it on a hard surface.

As this laptop was on sale for only $1465 at the time, so I decided to buy it. It is originally $1700, which is a total ripoff.

I would recommend this laptop who kinda needs portability and a good gaming laptop, though it is very heavy for a 14" laptop, but a GTX 765M in the machine. I suggest you quickly grab it whist it is on sale. For example, the "Computer Upgrade King" is putting this laptop on sale.

Computer Upgrade King is safe, but beware in the description in some of their products, they modify laptops which sounds really unsafe, to be honest. But other than that, I would buy their products.

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Acer Aspire V5-531P-4129 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $629.99
Sale Price: $469.99
Today's Bonus: 25% Off

you won't find a better 15.6" touchscreen for ~$500. Three usb ports, HDMI port, internal DVD, 500+ GB HDD, backlit keyboard there's a long list of great stuff. it's fast, quiet, and doesn't put out much heat (no Dell thigh-burn here). i bought this for work and liked it so much after a few weeks that i bought another one for my family. expect maybe 3hrs on the battery. meh but that's the market reality.

only real peeve is the physical spacebar response on the keyboard can be erratic when typing fast it cangetannoying. also the trackpad is very sensitive. it can pick up a contact from your hands/thumbs pretty easily while typing and unintentionally move your cursor downscreen mid-sentence super annoying. basically, be mindful of your hand position while you type and be extra assertive with the spacebar.

overall though this is a great buy for work, school & general family use.

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overall, the computer was good, just as described. light in weight and sleek look. Lighted keyboard and other features that make it look a worthy computer for the price especially. only setback is with Operating system windows 8, It became really had for my parents to adopt to the new homescreen as opposed to desktop and start menu in the previous windows versions. applications provided are only microsoft based. one cannot load a yahoo application based on another browser like chrome. then there is the issue of closing the windows. the x on the top right which windows users are used to is gone. closing different tabs and open windows is a nightmare. i found myself closing running applications through the task manager.

otherwise, the hardware is recommendable.

ill be more than happy if i can be upgraded to the newly released windows 8.1 which solves most of this issues.

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Be aware this review concerns the SELLER Antonline, not the product from Acer. (I selected "Like" for product -but would rate the Seller, Antonline, "I hate it")

I ordered the Acer laptop in June as a graduation gift for my son. It actually arrived earlier than expected and was gifted a short time later. While the laptop seems fine in all other respects, it had one manufacturer flaw it simply would not charge. While plugged in, it operated well and my son loved the Windows 8 interface, but remove the plug and it would not operate. I tried to seek a repair or replacement under the factory warranty through stores local to my area. I was always redirected back to the original seller. I contacted Antonline within the 30 day guarantee window by email through Amazon. I then contacted Amazon to make them aware of the issue and they, also, sent an email explaining the issue. I received an email back explaining that my 30 days had been exceeded and, therefore, outside the return policy (Antonline was counting down from the "order" date, not the "received by" date). I contacted Amazon once again to determine when the 30 day guarantee begins and they confirmed that the guarantee begins the date of delivery to the customer, not the order date. They, also, sent another follow up email explaining to Antonline that I was within the return policy time frame and this matter should be resolved by them. I received my final email notice from Antonline explaining (again) that they do not follow the Amazon guidlines and, instead, begin the 30 days from the date of order, not the date received. (For clarity, the difference between the two dates was 3 days).

After contacting Amazon and asking what to do, I was told I would receive a total refund of the purchase (isn't this why we all LOVE Amazon in the first place?) and I could simply reorder the laptop from another seller. While that isn't the easiest way to resolve this issue, it is one way and I have chosen to do just that. It really seems as though Antonline went out of their way to not resolve a manufacture warranty issue that could have been handled simply and would have resulted in a sale retained by them, a happy customer with a good review and need not have involved Amazon at all. Personally, I would never order from Antonline again knowing their attitude towards the consumers they sell to.

If you like what this laptop has to offer as I did I suggest searching another seller on Amazon and find yourself happier in the end should you face a warranty issue as I have.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-531P-4129 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop

I purchased this machine from a different supplier but felt I needed to tell all how great the product is. I read all the complaints about windows 8 and almost didn't purchase this laptop. I felt that there were always people who complain about everything, so I took a chance. Boy am I glad I did. Before the laptop arrived I went on youtube and looked at instructions by Jay and I also have a tablet and am use to apps and a touchscreen. When the laptop arrived it took about an hour or so to apply what I had learned, what FUN, so now I am finding out new things daily. As far as the laptop its self, runs cool, great screen, love the lit keyboard, streams look outstanding.I am not geek just an average computer user who shops on the web, reads and sends emails, plays games, downloads photos, etc. I feel the complaints are not on the laptop but the OS, these are people who do office applications and are use to a different format, but for all of "us" average consumers, this is the affordable machine for us.

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This Laptop is one of a kind, the Tablet/PC combination makes it a must have for work and play. Screen touch responds very fast. Its got everything desirable and its really slim and very sleek.

ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T-SL 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop ( Silver ) Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $569.00
Sale Price: $489.99
Today's Bonus: 14% Off

For roughly 550.00 this can hardly be beat for a small laptop that has windows 8 and a touchscreen. At first I was a little aggravated with the touch pad but, I installed the drivers from Samsung's website that are supposed to be for a series 5 laptop. This laptop along with several others have the same Elan touch pad in them. Once you install this driver it is a night and day difference in the touchpad.

The link for the drivers is in the first comment. Amazon won't let you link to an external website in the main review.

So go to the comment and get to the link then follow what is below.

You then need to click on the Manuals and Downloads link, then click Driver.

After that scroll down and click on the ZIP link for the Touch Pad driver 11.7.2.1

If you have the sorry Asus Smart Gesture installed, uninstall that first and reboot, then install this software. I have had various Macbooks for the better part of the last 7 years and this is my first PC laptop in a while. I was almost ready to return this laptop until I found these drivers. I would say the touch pad is 95% of a Macbook touch pad now and whether you like Apple or not, you have to admit they know what they are doing when it comes to track pads. Aside from all of that I'm extremely happy with the operation of this laptop now.

I am coming from a laptop that had an SSD drive in it so it does seem a little slow in some areas but, others it is working just fine. I have an extra SSD drive that I plan on putting in this machine as well as removing the half height mini PCI atheros wireless/bluetooth combo. I purchased an Intel Centrino 6235anhmw Mini Pci Express Bluetooth 4.0 to replace it with and based on my research I should be able to enable Intel Wireless Display on this laptop after that install. The card only cost me 30.00 bucks and I figured it was worth the gamble to see if it would work. I'll update this review once I get the card in a couple of days to state if it worked or not.

The sound coming from this laptop is actually quite good and I would say better than a lot of the previous laptops I am use to.

The touchscreen is extremely responsive and I haven't had any missed touches or erratic behavior out of it. I have played several touch based games and it worked flawlessly.

Last but, not least this thing is solid, the build quality on it is exceptional for something this cheap.

Okay, now for the bad which again considering this is a cheap laptop with a touchscreen really isn't that bad.

The fan runs constantly and while it is not overly annoying it does seem to run even when not doing much on the system. That is really my main complaint about the machine at this point. The second complaint is that the viewing angles on this machine are pretty poor but, again don't expect any machine at this price point with a touchscreen to have great viewing angles. Although viewing angles are bad, brightness is very good. I think with the brightness turned all the way up you could possibly do permanent damage to your eyes(a joke of course).

The keyboard is a little cramped but, really not all that bad. I would say I have slightly above average hand size but, again it isn't to bad and I'm able to kick out a reasonable speed without to many more mistakes than I usually make. Expect some adjustment if you are coming from a full size keyboard with large hands.

Again, the stock hard drive is a 5400rpm drive and it does seem a little slow for me but, if you are coming from another mechanical drive then you may not really notice it as a problem. I've been using SSD drives for some time so it does bother me a bit.

These might be major problems for others but, for me they are minor annoyances that I can live with on a cheap machine like this. This is basically an 11.6" Macbook Air that is missing the SSD(entry level is 64GB SSD), backlit keyboard, viewing angles aren't as good for the ASUS and fan runs more often than Macbook Air. However the Macbook Air doesn't have these features: touch screen, 500GB HDD that can be upgraded to a small or large SSD if you like and the Air cost about 450.00 more for the entry level. Granted the Macbook Air is considerably lighter but, it also makes your wallet lighter.

Sorry for all of the Macbook comparisons but, I have come from many years of having Macbooks and decided with Windows 8 to give PCs a try again. I'm glad I did.

Update 11/8/2012:

I installed the Intel wireless card I mentioned above, then installed the latest drivers for the card from the Intel website as well as the latest video drivers from the ASUS website. Then I installed the Widi display software and was able to connect to my Belkin Screencast. It took several tries and then it finally updated the software on the Belkin. After that it has been connecting perfectly with no problems. So I paid 40 bucks on Amazon for a refurbished Belkin Screencast and 32.00 for the intel card. Now for 72.00 bucks I'm able to use my 55" HDTV at 1080p as a second screen.

Update 11/14/2012

I finally got around to installing an SSD drive and replacing the mechanical drive. The drive that came in it was a Hitachi HTS5450A7E380 which is a 7mm thick drive. Unfortunately the SSD I had was a typical 9.5mm and was too thick to work at first. Luckily I was able to remove part of the casing on the SSD drive I used and that made for a perfect fit. So if you plan on swapping out for an SSD make sure it is no thicker than 7mm or it won't fit. I had some trouble where the laptop kept booting into the BIOS. when I went in and disabled fast boot as well as turned of drive security or something like that. I can't remember exactly now but, when the option is enabled you can go further into the BIOS and see PKI keys and DDB keys and a lot of other keys. I just disabled that portion and then it started recognizing the hard drive. This may not be a problem if you clone the hard drive to the SSD before you swap but, I did a fresh install. Laptop is blazing fast now as it boots into windows in about 10 seconds.

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This review is to dispel any incorrect info in the "User Reviews".

I'll quickly explain that I am a technician and have been modifying all the non touch Win 8 machines, to look and run like 7. It's a 2 minute job that requires a small program like Classic Shell or iobit's Start 8.

As I give tech advice on some forums, I felt the need to get some experience on Win 8's touch interface, Otherwise, how could I help others, if I've never even used it.

So let's get down to business and set the record straight of what it is, and what it isn't.

WIFI

Those folks who have wifi connectivity problems, have a defect. If they reinstall the OS from the partition that is provided for that purpose, and then it still has wifi problems, then it's time to return the machine or get it fixed, or even get another wifi card. Anyone who thinks that it's inherent to this machine and has decided to put up with it, is mistaken and being inconvenienced unnecessarily.

TOUCHPAD

Those who find that the touchpad is wonky, are either palming it while typing, or have a defect. The same applies as above. Try installing the OS again and if it is still acting up and you're 100% sure that you're not palming the touchpad, then it is defective and needs to be returned or repaired. This is NOT a normal condition.

BUILD & SCREEN

This laptop is well built with premium quality materials. Anyone who feels their screen is weak, should return it. It is NOT a normal condition for this machine, and for those who complained about the bezel being too wide, it is built that way to be structurally strong enough. A touchscreen receives light impact from being touched, thus it needs to be built a bit more solidly than a normal screen.

Complaints about the screen being shiny are valid in a sense. It is truly shiny, but it's a necessary evil. Matte surfaces get dirty faster and are harder to clean.

KEYBOARD

The keyboard is neither exceptionally good or bad. Everyone has a different concept of what a keyboard should be, so there's no right or wrong. It's just an individual's preference. If the keyboard doesn't work perfectly, the machine should be returned or repaired.

BATTERY LIFE

We've heard a wide range of claims, from 2 to 7 hours. Obviously, someone is wrong. Most of the User Reviews, have it straight, when they claim approx. 4 hours. Even if you dimmed the screen and avoided multitasking, you'd still be hard pressed to get 5 hours out of it, and it's unrealistic to expect that, as the screen would be hard to see, at that low brightness. Those who have claimed 3 hours or less, may be running power consuming programs, like watching video/movies at full brightness, in which case, it is 100% true that it will only get 3 hours or less, under those conditions.(See Suggestions below for some revised info)

CAMERA

Yes, it is true, that it's horrible. If you are not in a brightly lit area, the image will be grainy. It is certainly way below the quality of the average laptop webcam.(see SUGGESTIONS below for a revised evaluation)

POWER & SPEED

Those who find that this notebook is slow, or it hesitates/stutters or freezes up, have a defect. Redo the system as mentioned above and if it persists, it is a defective machine. Even with all the bloatware running, this Vivobook has ample power, to handle all the normal use, without ever hesitating or freezing up.(See SUGGESTIONS below for additional info on power plans for better performance)

SSD

Yes it is true that it will be substantially faster and more responsive, if you swap out the hard drive for an SSD. Any and all laptops will benefit, but it is not necessary to swap the hard drive out, as it performs just fine as it is. It's a luxury to go with an SSD. I have swapped the HD out for an SSD in this machine, because I wanted to know how much of a difference it would make, and not because it ran poorly with the included 500 gig hard drive.

While on this subject, those who feel that it is difficult to remove the backplate to access the hard drive, are mistaken. Yes, it is firmly in place and it requires the right tool to pry it apart, but that is entirely normal for almost all laptops. Swapping out the hard drive on this unit, is a breeze.

FINGERPRINTS

I got lucky and received the Silver model (looks like champagne to me) as the silver lid does not show fingerprints as much as the black version. Again, this is normal. Black brushed aluminum laptops, are fingerprint magnets and they need to be cleaned everyday.

VALUE

The sum total of this Vivobook's exceptional build with premium materials, slim and light, great performance, decent battery life, all the necessary ports, good wifi reception and a very decent touchscreen, make it a real bargain at $500 or less.

COMMENTS, CONS & COMPLAINTS

The webcam is very poor.

It would be wonderful to have a backlit keyboard, even though it would shorten the laptop's battery life.

This unit is slow to charge. From bone empty, it may take as long as 4 hours to get to 100%. This may inconvenience some folks (not me), but on the positive side, the internal battery may last several more years than if it were fast charged.

A few users have suggested changing graphics setting to -20 brightness, 51 contrast and 0.9 gamma, and I agree that it looks better that way.

I ran a timer since turning the laptop on at 100% charged and it is now up to 2 hours and 7 minutes, having used 44% of its battery life, so that would come out to a potential 4 hours and 48 minutes, however the machine will shut down before reaching 0%, and it should be noted that I was only running this webpage and the timer, nothing else, so it would be unrealistic to expect that much battery life under normal circumstances.

The Win 8 touch interface is vastly superior to iOS (iPad), Android, webOS or any after market ones. It is true that the store does not have very many apps, but that will come with time. You'd be hard pressed to find any high quality free games, so don't get your hopes up, YET!

_________________________________________________

edit.

SUGGESTIONS

1) Download an app called "Show Me", which will give you detailed visual explanations of everything you can do in Win 8's touch interface. Even if you think you know it all, I bet you'll learn a few new things.

2) Clean the screen around the webcam area and you may discover (as I just did) that the camera is a lot better than it was, presumably a bit dirty from top of the screen swipes.

3) If your machine hesitates, stutters or freezes while on battery but performs well when plugged in, you may have to change your power plan to "High Performance". The Power4Gear system, halves the CPU, ram graphics and Wifi power. If you do go to High Performance while on battery, you may want to turn down the brightness a bit, so as to improve battery life.

4) If you use the Powe4Gear power plan while on battery, it is possible to reach 5 hours of usage, provided you are not running many processes in the background, and are not playing games or viewing video.

5) After updating your Vivobook with Asus' Live update program, uninstall it, to stop it running in the background (it can't be stopped otherwise). If you need it again in the future, you can download the installer from the Asus website.

6) If you run Windows Defender, there is no need for any additional Anti Virus programs, as Defender in Win 8, is a full Anti Virus program that is reputed to do as good a job as any other free AV program. If you are running another AV program, either uninstall it and use Defender, or keep it and turn Defender off in "Services". Running both at the same time will seriously slow down your computer.

Best Deals for ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T-SL 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop ( Silver )

I'm an IT professional, and have dealt with a few ASUS laptops, which I now prefer to Dell.

If you take remove the 9 phillips screws on the bottom, you have access to some of the internal components.

You will need to tug a little, as the case is still held in place by little plastic clippies all around.

You might break a nail, so be careful.

MEMORY:

The memory is soldered into the board, so 4GB is all you will ever have. Period.

DISK DRIVE:

The HDD is a Hitachi HTS5450A7E380 (7mm 2.5") and can be replaced with another "Low Profile" 7mm SSD or HDD. You simply remove 3 screws that hold the cage in (the 4th screw is already removed from removing the back panel), remove the cage, remove 4 screws holding drive in cage, replace with a SATA II/III drive. (It is a SATA 3 6.0 GB/s connection).

I recommend the Samsung 840 series, as they are 7mm 2.5" and very low on power usage. When you remove the old HDD, it has a plastic backing glued on it with two rubber foam strips.

Don't worry with removing it from the old HDD. An SSD doesn't need the shock absorption and will be mounted securely with the screws.

WIRELESS:

The Atheros AR5B225 Half Mini PCIe WiFi/Bluetooth 4.0 module is replaceable.

I am replacing mine with Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 so I can use WiDi and Dual Band Wifi.

It was as easy as removing the two antenna wires from the Atheros, popping in new card, reattaching two antenna wires to the Intel 6235.

BATTERY:

The 5136 mAh 2 cell battery is replaceable, albeit proprietary. Not sure what this means for the future.

MY GENERAL OPINION OF THE LAPTOP and Windows 8:

I have been using Windows 8 at work for a bit, and as an OS, it's hard and confusing with a dual monitor desktop power user setup (as I have no need for the Metro interface there, and I feel like I'm fighting it). I had to tweak it to get my start menu back (Open source utility called "Classic Start"). However, with a touch screen laptop, it is very easy to use. I've been thoroughly been enjoying it as a tablet replacement. I admit, I did install an SSD in it, and it is SO much more responsive now (and shaved some ounces on weight as well has dropping at least a watt of power draw). I also have access to a Windows 8 volume license key, and mine is running Windows 8 Enterprise.

Honest reviews on ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T-SL 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop ( Silver )

The form factor, specs, and cost all made the Vivobook a product that I was excited to have and to recommend to whoever I came across. Of course, the highlight was the touchscreen which is VITAL if you're using Windows 8. Adding to that was the excellent workmanship (metallic palmrest) and the perfect size and weight (liked it better than the Zenbook or MacBook Air).

But less than 2 months later, it all turned into a nightmare.

I can give the conclusion from the very beginning: Swap out the 500GB HDD for a 256GB SSD as soon as you take it out the box. I'm convinced that Asus put in a cheap part (HDD) in order to keep the cost low. But you will pay dearly for that error.

1. During normal usage, the dreaded "Click of Death" came, which is when the head/arm in the HDD touches the platter (disk). I tried to shut it down as soon as possible. But the next time it turned on, the OS wouldn't load and only the BIOS screen would appear. The machine was effectively dead.

2. Asus's warranty would replace the HDD but wouldn't recover the data, all while taking 2 weeks to return the machine to you. And just opening the machine to swap the HDD yourself would void that warranty.

3. Upon opening the HDD, I found that the head was defective (after just 2 months) and tried everything to recover the data. The pros would charge approx $2,400 (no exageration) to repair this kind of HDD problem. After 3 days, this became a lost cause and I knew I'd have to start from scratch.

4. I installed a 256GB SSD.

5. Asus wouldn't give me an ISO image of the factory Vivobook. They told me I also had to get the OS from Microsoft directly, who in turn said they couldn't get me a full version Windows 8, but only an upgrade from Windows 7. This meant I had to install Windows 7 first, then upgrade to Windows 8.

Now I'm stuck because the BIOS won't let me set the boot order to the USB drive. And, yes, I've flashed it to version 206. IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, PLEASE COMMENT.

In spite of all the headache, my only advice is to swap for a SSD immediately. 95% of my docs were backed-up but I didn't make an ISO image of the whole system, so I'm paying for it.

In the end, I still think this is a good machine which just had 1 cheap part which went bad very quickly. (BTW, the floor model at the store also had the same problem.)

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T-SL 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop ( Silver )

Firstly, some reviewers have referred to this laptop as a netbook. I have nothing against netbooks, but this is actually an ultraportable notebook. In fact, if it had even a hybrid SSD it would meet ultrabook specs. It certainly has the build quality of an ultrabook.

The good:

As I said, excellent build quality including the very responsive touchscreen. People have been guessing that I must have paid at least $800 for this machine based on its look and feel alone. It looks and feels like something between a Macbook Air and Pro.

Remarkably thin considering that it has built in VGA and ethernet ports, and yes, some people still need those!

It's fast. Obviously with a Core i3 and 4GB of RAM it's not the most powerful device on the market, but if you're not a gamer or into heavy multimedia editing it runs like a breeze. It boots up faster than ANY computer I have ever seen not equipped with an SSD. I guess Windows 8 is to thank for that.

Speaking of Windows 8, this is a review of the machine not the OS, but I'll just say that it's basically Windows 7 with a better start menu and some handy touched based functionality. On a touchscreen device like this one, I don't see any reason to complain about it.

Incredibly compact power cable. No brick. It's like a tablet charger. You can literally coil it up and carry it in your pocket.

The Bad:

Battery life is indeed about 4-5 hours... that is, with careful power management and light use. Not stellar, but I guess it does deliver the "up to 5 hours" promised.

A little heavy for its size, certainly not so much to be tiring to carry.

Some reviewers have complained about the trackpad. I haven't updated any drivers and I don't find it to be terrible by any means, but it can be a hair too sensitive at times, sometimes registering a single tap as a double.

Overall:

I'd actually give it a 4.5 if I could. I've looked into a lot of alternatives, and I don't believe there is currently a better laptop for under $600 on the market right now. Certainly not in the 11.6" form factor, where the alternatives are either netbooks of inferior build quality and specs, or an ultrabook/Macbook Air for hundreds of dollars more.

Cheap Sony VAIO VGN-FW550F/B 16.4-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home

Customer Ratings:

personally I prefer windows to mac primarily because windows is better with home video and other networked applications based on my experience. However, one problem with windows based pcs from dell amd hp is their really poor design amd general ergonomics. I still believe when it comes to design and build nothimg touches an apple mac book pro.

However, after coming very close to getting a 17 inch mac book I decided to go with a windows 7 based vaio Fw. the one I got has slightly better specs than the one here. I have the full HD screen and a blu ray writer. Here is why i believe this is an exellent notebook;

1. simply the best looking large screen windows based notebook. Kudos to Sony for excellent styling. (Aesthetics is a toss up between Mac Pro and Vaio FW for me)

2. excellent build quality. way better than my dell latitude from work or my wife's hp from work. The construction is solid. Kudos to Sony engineering for excellent construction (Apple Mac Pro is #1, Vaio is #2 in my books for this criteria)

3. screen size is a perfect 16:9 aspect ratio. Perfect for movies. (The Vaio FW is #1 in my opinion, this screen was designed for multi-media use)

4. blu ray looks fantastic and it is a breeze to connect it to my tv using the hdmi cable. One cable for audio and video. (Vaio FW is #1 for multi-media, hands down!)

5. It comes with 64 bit windows 7 and I upgraded the hardware to 8 GB Ram for blazing performance when combined with the 1 gb grapics card. (Windows 7 64 bit is the best OS in my books, All said and done)

6. came clean with no crapware!

7. sony laptops in my opinion have the best key boards. (Again, Sony created the chicklet style keyboard (not Apple) and if you like it, this is the best)

8. battery is OK. 3.5 hours on such a powerful machine is not bad.

all in all this a superb combination of performance, styling, features and software. do compare this with HP and Dell and decide which you prefer. I bet most will pick the Vaio because of the better build quality, better screen (1080p and true 16:9 size) and aesthetics. Also, compared to a Dell Lattitude that I had from work the Vaio runs much quieter and faster although both have similar hardware specs. The DVD drive on the Dell was atrocious (Dell also did not have a Blu Ray drive).

Given that Sony was one of the prime drivers and developers of the Blu Ray format, one would expect their Notebooks to have the best Blu Ray performance, or at least as good any anyone else out there.

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I preordered this laptop and Amazon was great to deliver exactly on 10/22/2009 when Windows 7 was released. Great Job Amazon!

A bit of background... I am a true Sony fan and over the years have collected several of their excellent products LCD TV, DVD Player, Home Theater, Cell Phones etc (some of them from Amazon too). I am very impressed with Sony's design, quality, and performance. Obviously you have to pay a 10-25% premium for the "Sony" brand, but you get a good quality, long lasting, good looking, high performing product, which in my opinion justifies the price premium. Having said that, I am really disappointed with this laptop's keyboard. The keyboard looks good and keys are well spaced out, but the quality doesn't seem to be high. It might be because this particular laptop is "Made in CHINA" :). The keys on this laptop's keyboard look fragile. In my laptop, the '-' key (above letter 'P') came off on 10/25/2009 just 3 days after getting the laptop!

I have been using personal/business laptops (mostly Dells and HPs) for over ten years (some laptops are upto 5 yrs old) and this is the first time a key has came out of the keyboard. I have put the key in place and pressed it and it seems to work OK for a while, but after hitting it 5-6 times, it comes out again. Rest of the keys seem to hold (but I don't know what will happen after 2-3 years of use). Even though this particular issue could be because of a manufacturing defect, I am little disappointed with Sony.

I contacted Amazon's customer service and they apologized for the inconvenience, and were ready to replace it (but were out of stock on VGN-FW550B, my laptop's model). Since I want to use it for business, I couldn't afford to wait for 1-2 months (Amazon's fulfilment time) to get a replacement model. Moreover, my confidence in Sony's laptop, at this point, has shaken a lot. So I am just returning this back to Amazon and would probably go back to Dell or HP.

I would have given it a 1 * for quality (which obviously is Made in CHINA), but had to give them 3 * for their design, price, performance (see useful comments below), which probably is "Made in Japan or US".

Other thoughts: The screen is excellent (glossier than most business laptops), Windows 7 is different, but you get used to it in a day or two and customize it according to your preferences. The Intel Processor and 4 GB memory are enough for me (I don't use it for gaming), battery lasts for a few hours when fully charged, time to charge seemed slower (but it could be just me, didn't time it), the weight is comfortable to carry around (even for the 16.4" screen, which is great. The charger's power cord is little short (but is OK). The resolution (1600x900) is perfect for work writing text files, word documents excels etc.), the price is Excellent and competitive to other models. Good Luck (I wish the one I got was good and hope the best for you)!

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VGN-FW550F/B 16.4-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home

this machine is configured to run today's graphics intensive video applications. much to my relief, windows seven ain't bad. i run multiple intensive applications without problem. the design is sleek & ergonomic. construction quality is very good. it boots fast and loads websites very quickly. even the internal speakers are excellent.

if you want to watch blu ray videos, or want to do video & image editing (not blu ray), browse the web, play games or use productivity software, this model performs quickly, smoothly & beautifully.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VGN-FW550F/B 16.4-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home

I purchased an FW laptop in November 2008 and the keyboard failed in August 2009. Service was responsive and replaced it. In January 2010., keyboard failed again and Sony will not cover since the computer is "out of warranty". I have another brand that is still working after 8 years. One year life is outrageous!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO VGN-FW550F/B 16.4-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home

I bought this laptop from sony directly back at the end of September. I have the C2D P8700 Processor, the 1080P screen (get it, it is SO worth the money!), and the 1 GB graphics card, and the bluray reader. I got a free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium through Sony. This thing is an entertainment powerhouse. It can play most games I have thrown at it (San Andreas, Oblivion, others) at medium to high settings. The 1080P screen is absolutely gorgeous, with excellent black levels (much better than most competing LED screens can offer, with the possible exception of the RBG LED of the Dell studio XPS 16. The brightness is more than adequate, in a slightly darkened room, the screen must be turned down or it hurts my eyes. Thats a great screen in my opinion.

Despite many of the negative reviews on the keyboard posted here, I feel that this computer has one of the best laptop keyboards I have ever used. It does not feel "cheap" or flimsy at all to me, and the keys have a nice click to them with no "give" if pressed quite hard. That said I do have a slightly older model than the one listed, and I hope that Sony has not changed the keyboard out for a flimsier model.

I popped in the Planet Earth Bluray and was blown away by the detail. It looks better on this computer than it ever did on my Sony HDTV.

Complaints: There are very few

1. There is a slight creak that has developed underneath where my right wrist rests on the bottom edge of the computer. This may just be a loose screw, but I haven't had time to open up the bottom of the computer to check it yet.

2. There is a slight amount of wiggle in the top bezel of the LCD. It is not enough to worry me, but it is noticeable when you grip this part of the screen to open the computer. Other than these two minor niggles, I have no complaints about build quality. The outside of this computer (at least the Chocolate Brown model that I purchased) is made of Magnesium not plastic, with a plastic bottom and keyboard.

3. The speakers flat out suck. This is the only truly disappointing aspect of this computer. This thing is so amazing at all things related to multimedia, I cannot believe that Sony would fit such terrible speakers. I have ordered a set of Logitech V20's to put in my bag for when I travel with this computer. Output via headphone is just fine, but don't plan on enjoying bluray-quality sound through the built-in speakers.

Other than these minor complaints, this thing absolutely rocks my world. I am an engineering student, and I rely heavily on this computer day-to-day at school, and it has not let my down. With the extended battery, I see nearly 4 hours of battery life with WiFi on.

Ive done the research, and I don't believe it is possible to get a better quality computer for less money than this. Sony should have called it the FTW.

Cheap Dell Inspiron 17 i17RM-2903sLV 17.3-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

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List Price: $821.99
Sale Price: $699.99
Today's Bonus: 15% Off

I've ordered this notebook on February. Very satisfied with It. One thing makes me annoying is the fan speed, but It is easly fixes by updating BIOS from DELL official web-site. Now there is no heavy fan speed! Just perfect!

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I guess it is the fan in the computer. It makes a lot of noise. other than that it is great.

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 17 i17RM-2903sLV 17.3-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

Thought this new system with windows 8 and the most recent processor would be amazing but -most of my programs like word-and my media programs for the recordings and musci are constantly "not responding" which is very frustrating -I am actually thinking of returning this laptop and just getting an apple because the Dell service is the worst as well such a run around and no answers just more of a mess gets made -love amazon but this is quite a junky piece of equipment

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 17 i17RM-2903sLV 17.3-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

Excellent Product! That's all I can say. Mine not as noisy as other reviewers have claimed theirs to be. Very quiet machine.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron 17 i17RM-2903sLV 17.3-Inch Laptop (Moon Silver)

Works great a a computer should. The "keys" are a bit too sensetive, and sometimes skip around. I have been unable to lower the brghtness level on the computer. Other than these too features, it is great...works great, and is fast.

Review of Samsung RF511-S02 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brilliant Black)

Customer Ratings:

Yeah, this computer is pretty good, fast, quiet, good battery life (around 3 hours if you are browsing internet, listening to music or no heavy stuff).

I am using it for photoshopCS5 and lightroom3, and I can say that it handles it pretty good, by the way my computer sample has the new i5 intel core...

Now, the design is 8.5 in a scale to 10, its nice...

The sound is loud and clear, nice...

The camera is kind of weak, not much resolution, not so nice...

The fast start is ok, sony, toshiba and hps are a little faster from when you open the computer to start messing with it... kinda nice...

The price is fair, not cheap, that would be a hp with same specs for 100 bucks less, but then you have to deal with all the crappy hp stuff that comes with it, wich is a pain...

What really bothers me (I am the guy who changes computer every six months) is no Firewire NOR ExpressCard slot. That means, I have a miniDV camcorder and CAN'T hook it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have to go out and buy an adapter for around 70 dollars when I could have it in my laptop... Anyhow....

Good, not Great, Its new, lets see what happens....

Thanks for reading...

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I replaced my old MacBook with this computer and it's extremely fast. I have not regretted my purchase. I upped the RAM to 8GB and I've clocked Google Earth at taking only 3 seconds to start.

The ONLY problem is the hard drive. It's terrible. I've run test upon test upon test and it comes back fine, but it is ridiculously slow. It takes about 5 minutes for me to login and actually get online. I cloned my hard drive onto a Western Digital and it flies. No, I don't have viruses. The hard drive is terrible. Samsung dropped the ball on that one.

Otherwise the computer is excellent, but you'll want to replace the hard drive eventually.

Best Deals for Samsung RF511-S02 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brilliant Black)

this computer has all the specs of a ferrari but runs like a prius. this laptops takes foreever to load. is the only laptop i have seen with something called fast boot from samsung. i wonder why did samsung felt the need to add this program. the laptop takes around 8 minutes to be ready to use. why? my wife has a toshiba and running the same programs and is super fast. i tried and tried to make it boot faster, disabling anything I could, and still the boot is super slow. what i do now is that i use sleep instead of shutdown. samsung did something to this poor soul, to make it so slow. the hardware looks and feel solid. great keyboard, blueray and great screen. but the booting time is painful.

Cheap Dell - 14" Inspiron Laptop - 2nd Gen i3- 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard

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Seems like it is going to work out for me. Not much luck with computers. Needed something simple, Love the size. Perfect for me. It probably does a lot more than I know. Can't wait to discover it.

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