Discount Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7298 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Widow Styling in

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,899.99
Sale Price: $1,789.95
Today's Bonus: 6% Off

As made apparent by the multiple other reviews, this laptop model has inherent issues with the wi-fi card. Toshiba is aware of the problem and continues to ship these laptops without fixing the card. The wi-fi connection will drop continuously. Like another reviewer stated, I also was promised a callback from elevated support. A call I never received. The fact that they are shipping these laptops with foreknowledge of the issue indicates questionable ethical practices by Toshiba. I am sending mine back; I'll find a more reliable and trusted manufacturer to buy a laptop from.

UPDATE: This is a known issue with the Intel Centrino N-2230 Wireless Adapter Toshiba uses and Windows 8. My hunch is they initially built this notebook to run on Windows 7. There are numerous brands and models all experiencing the identical issue. There appears to be a fix. I have been running flawlessly since instituting the fix. It involves rolling back the driver to a previous version. You can find instructions on Intel's forum here:

https://communities.intel.com/thread/32899?start=15&tstart=0

Look for a post posted by the guy with the username "bjbakker"

I am updating my rating to 4 stars. The computer is elegant and super fast. I would give it 5 stars, but I'm not happy with Toshiba's handling of the situation. I should not have to do all this detective work to get to the bottom of the problem, but I'm happy now.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Wifi and bluetooth working fast. I can pair all devices and wifi network with out problems. Good FULL HD LCD and harman Kardon great sound. I like so much the big touchpad.

Very happy :)

Best Deals for Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7298 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Widow Styling in

Updated 2 August

ONe of my favorite poets had a clubbed foot, George Gordon, Lord Byron; yet he was able to express his revolutionary ideas, become one of the essential cultural figures of his time, all time. As such this computer needs an alternative solution to WiFi networking. If you Google the installed Intel card, you can read in copious detail the unsolved issues with the card, especially in a complex environment of a home with WiFi phones, printers,PCs, I-Pods, game boxes, Smart TVs. My quick fix of a USB attached WiFi dongle gave me back all the fine qualities of this machine. Now, when I actually find an alternative network + Blu tooth card, I will swap out the one I have disabled. Perhaps Intel will actually respond to the complexity of multiple devices all using the same frequencies the N resides. Live in an apartment complex with a half dozen WiFi networks easily found with a modern pc and manufactures will simply need to do better. Until then, I leave the Intel card to do blu tooth (I haven't gotten my own head phones, mice, keyboards found and paired as yet).

The machine OTHERWISE meets / exceeds all my expectations. Byron and Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7298, flawed, but fabulous.

Original review and additions:

After going through 3 ASUS G750JXs at a local large electronics store all for the same defect of spontaneous shutdown (Critical errors in the Event Log) I decided to shop on-line finding more problem than it was worth to go locally for such a powerful pc.

The Toshiba X75-A7298 arrived yesterday morning and from the beginning it had its problems or as younger people say "issues." Because the WiFi connection would intermittently kick down to "no internet connection limited," I unplugged the cable modem and wifi router, reengaged and rebooted the Qosimo X75-7298 hereafter X75. As the 51 Microsoft Windows 8 updates contained a third install failures; and the Norton 360 Premier had the same partial success in live updates, I decided the easiest course would be a system restore back to the beginning. I learned well this trick from my ASUS experiences.

I also PLUGGED an Ethernet cable in before I ran the updates and software installs. Amazing! No failures or errors (I write this a short distance from my Ethernet / WiFi router. I'm certainly not taking unnecessary risks). Yet whether I would be downloading files, while watching MLB.TV or Amazon Prime I ran into the same problem.

After contacting Toshiba Saturday and not receiving the call back from the second level tech they promised me in Manila, a second call with a reference # confirmed hardware failure.

I like the responsiveness of this computer. It leaves barely a trace of finger prints unlike the ASUS 'gamer' and is lighter and has a Blu Ray disk, SSD and SATA hard drives, and great sound. I just want one that comes out of the box without, with out problems. I will update when I receive my replacement which Amazon informs me is on the way.

One final oddity (my subjectivity showing)is the A/C connector is the old RCA 4 prong male / female variety I know from my old vacuum-tube radio days. It seems very easy to fall out when using this laptop on my lap. Buyer beware!

July 31 Update:

As it turned out the second delivery after all of the Toshiba and Intel updates still has the same issues with error codes 1001 and 1014,defective Intel WiFi card /driver (And of course the Device Manager informed me the card was working and I had the best driver already installed). Would the 3rd try be any different?

No

Not only did this laptop experience the same problems as in the 2 previous (and within the first 5 minutes of video streaming), the 3rd was identical except this copy had error codes 1001 and 1014 in the Event Log not the date I received the new laptop (31 July), but 16 June 2013, a date I believe was prior to retail availability.

Also of note: the plastic coating atop the touch pad was missing. So whether this laptop had been opened by Amazon or Toshiba, it was not "new" on the one hand and had experienced the same network errors a month and a half prior to landing in my lap.

Thus from my initial order of July 19, I've been at this for a dozen days. Add the ASUS G750JX experiences of earlier and the month has been filled with 6 disappointments with Intel's 4th generation of laptop I7s. Should I wait 3 to 6 months and try Wintel again, Apple up, or find a nice large screen Android tablet?

Honest reviews on Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7298 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Widow Styling in

I quite like this computer, and able to compare it to the last years version of this, the Qosmio x875-Q7390. This computer is lighter, seems more power efficient with the Haswell processor. I continue to like the 17" Qosmio for the following big great display, blu-ray, good sound. At this size I use both laptops by setting them on the bed or on my lap. They do not leave the house that much, which would be troublesome with a laptop this size.

I like bigger because in my mind it is a better experience, rather than to be squinting into a 13" screen. I would rather hassle with carrying a bigger unit around to get the better experience when using it. I love the bright screen, the numerous ports, big speakers. Each person needs to decide portabilty versus experience. I am the type of person who would love to trade my Samsung S3 for the Galazy Note 3, so I like a bigger screen. Both laptops need to be plugged into the wall as battery life is not that great. However I must say that the A7298 has much better battery life. It really appears that the Haswell chip is better. Both computers are fast to start and also shut down quickly. The 7298 is cooler and vents the heat to the side.

Both have Windows 8, which I barely notice because I use the desktop app, which to me looks exactly like Windows 7. This may be a Toshiba app which is included. To me the specs on both are excellent for the price. I looked at other manufacturers for screen size/resolution, blu-ray, graphics card, processor, memory. I continue to be impressed by Toshiba in terms of the clarity of their website and all the features packed into the unit. It appeared very good compared to Dell, HP, ASUS, etc. When I buy a computer I intend to use it for at least 4 years, so do not mind paying a little more. I do not think both computers will be obsolete anytime soon. This computer and its predecessor are great for web surfing, music, movies. I connect both to my TV via HDMI output so I watch YouTube on my TV which is great.

The only issue is I would be careful with Toshiba quality. I have had to return a Q7290 (the predecessor to the Q7390) and my first Q7390 for being completely defective. The Q7290 would not start, and the first Q7390 had a defective graphics card diagnosed by Toshiba support. I also had another Qosmio custom machine, with similar construction specs, have to be returned about 4 months ago for a defective wifi card. The Wifi would keep losing connection with the router. Toshiba support could not fix this. It appears as if a number of others have also had the same problem. I am not a tech person so I do not know where this problem arises, but it appears that resetting the network adapter fixes this temporarily.

My current Q7390 also has this issue sporadically this is fixed by resetting the network adapter, something that takes about 10s. But it is still a hassle, and Toshiba support did not really help me. So basically half the computers I have bought from Toshiba have had some serious problems.

The good news is that at least the A7298 has not had this issue. The bottom line is that this computer has a nice 1080p screen, blu-ray, fast processor and other specs, nice sound, and is light. It is really a wonderful machine that has improved from the 2012 computer line from Toshiba. Incidentally one thing which I really enjoy about both my computers is the fact that the track pad also is a button. This allows me to web surf many times with just one hand. This little thing really makes a difference I especially notice this when I am using a laptop that does not have this. For example if you move to a hyperlink you have to then move your hand to another button; but with this Qosmio pad you can just push it down once the arrow is over the link. This was extremely important to me.

I recommend buying this machine directly from Amazon, and to use it thoroughly in the first month to make sure that there are no problems. I would pay more from AMZN to have the peace of mind that I can return the unit without a hassle if there are problems. I have had only good experience in returning costly electronic items to AMZN, the most customer-friendly retailer I have ever worked with.

Especially make sure that the Wifi works properly. Overall I am happy to own this machine and the Q7390.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Qosmio X75-A7298 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Widow Styling in

I'm replacing my Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV80, I'm giving it to my son for college. I received the computer today and came home early to set it up.We had a large thunderstorm today, so when I was having connection problems blamed it on Comcast having issues due to the storm. After some time my youngest son was watching Dr. Who on Netflix with no problem, The TV feeds off the same router. Now begins the troubleshooting, called Toshiba and we reset, re installed both router and computer. They determined it must be a defective wi-fi card. So, I'm going to return it to Amazon. I will say the computer itself is extremely fast and I may have them send one more out. Yes I read the other review about this same issue, but on the last model wi-fi worked great so I gave it a try.

Cheap Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

Our daughter needed a new laptop for college. We gave her a budget. She selected this one. It worked great for the entire first semester except for a couple of glitches caused by some third party software she installed.

We got the 2-year service plan with the computer and Lenovo was great about answering all of our daughter's questions.

They resolved the issue in one call, although it took twenty minutes to do it.

( I told her, "twenty minutes is not bad," but when you're a teenager who is missing crucial gossip, it seems an eternity!)

Our beloved daughter types faster than a raging robot, and so, is very hard on keyboards. Sure enough, at the end of the school year while she was visiting home, her keyboard developed a broken key.

"This cheap thing is ^$%%# &&$5 (*#&^$6) "

(She was in the middle of an important discussion with some of her friends about some other friends when it died. From my den downstairs I could hear her hammering away above me (in her room) with the frenetic passion of a Jack Kerouac.)

Two keys had been pressed so hard that they collapsed and wedged in place, rendering all other keys useless as they sent repeating !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! messages. That day I learned that all teenagers believe you can make your point LOUDER if you type harder.

Well, one quick call from momma, and Lenovo sent her a NEW KEYBOARD. They were very helpful both over the phone and by referring us to their excellent repair videos. Momma, (who is NOT particularly good with tools) got the old board out and the new one in in less than a half-hour!

She was so impressed with this service that she bought another Lenovo exactly like the kid's. The difference is that Mamma doesn't BANG on her keyboard when typing emotional messages. Result? We have had both of these working perfectly for over a year and a half now. For any computer that runs Microsoft, I consider that a victory.

SO, the machine is well-designed, works like it is supposed to and does not break if it is not abused. If it does break, Lenovo has resources to make fixing it faster and easier. It may not be "emotional teenage girl YELLING ON FACE BOOK proof" ...but it is darn close.

If you are an adult, (or behave like one) you will probably have no such problems. If you snap a gasket some night whilst typing furiously, Lenovo will come through for you under warranty, no shipping charges for parts.

That's better than any other PC company I've dealt with.

Hope that helps!

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The laptop came from Amazon within a couple of days and was nicely packaged. The initial setup for the Lenovo was also nice. That is where nice ended.

The laptop shipped with a malware/spyware package called Nitro. Nitro blocked the Windows 8 updates. There were some Lenovo instructions that said to update Nitro but that crashed too. If you buy this laptop, the answer is easy: UNINSTALL NITRO immediately. It is some buggy emulation software that you will never need. You will also need to disable Nitro's spyware cousin, Nalpeiron. The instructions to do this are on the Lenovo Community Forum for Windows 8. Normally this would have caused me to rate it 1 Star but unfortunately all the laptop makers are taking payola to put spyware on your computer. You will probably have similar experiences with any other Windows machine.

Also, Windows 8 is a major change. Don't buy this for the non-computer savvy person in your family. Buy a Windows 7 PC for them while you still can. And remember, Windows 8 is built into the BIOS and you cannot downgrade even with a complete disk format.

And buy from Amazon because they will stick up for you in these sorry deals. Their hardware, Kindle, just works.

Best Deals for Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop

Pros: price, keyboard, power management, screen clarity.

Cons: wifi takes a couple of minutes to start from cold boot; no issues after that.

I've been scouring the internet for a new computer after mine was stolen. I looked at the new breed of instant on, 14 inch display units. But why sacrifice screen space? Real work requires a sizable screen and a 15 inch is my minimum. I tried a 12 inch that I borrowed but that is simply too small.

I had an older g580 variant that I picked up for 500 dollars two years ago. Loud fan, not so great power management. Great keyboard. This is an evolutionary product. The fan noise is gone; at least not as I use it. Power users may find it otherwise.

The keyboard is different, but just as nice as the newer high-end lenovo laptops. Its the best keyboard currently available. So if you are planning to do serious typing, as I do, then this is a major plus. One note on the keyboard/touchpad. The touchpad is the latest variety that is multitouch and very large. It makes typing more difficult. You learn to reposition your hands and most of the time it is a non-issue. To make things easier, I went in and changed the multitouch settings, turning over the perimeter of the touchpad, where you are most likely to have an issue. Works well with that tweak. Others just use a mouse and turn it off altogether. Either way, this is the size of touchpad that's here to stay, so we just have to deal with it.

How is the screen? Those that crave a high resolution will need to cough up more cash for a different model. But let's be practical: you simply do not need it. I've watched netflix movies on here, and its as crisp as an HDTV to my untrained eye, overall excellent.

As for the battery life, that is why I elected to wait for a third generation I3 chip. The improvements are notable. I can get up to 3 hrs with routine use, better than the 90 min of my old laptop, though I haven't timed it precisely. While a far cry from some of the newer models, you pay more for those, so figure out how many hours unplugged you really need.

What about the sound? It has dolby stereo and plenty of power. Great for netflix.

So what's not to like? My only nit is that the wifi takes a while to find the router. Occasionally I have to run the troubleshooter to reset the adapter, a pretty simple task. But once the wifi is running, its fine. You can watch a film front to back without a glitch.

Overall, I think this is the best bang for the buck in a 15 inch laptop, especially if you can find it on sale.

Honest reviews on Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop

This is going to be a perfect gift for Mom and Dad (baby boomers) and their first PC windows 8 is a nice touch and will be our third Lenovo laptop very solid performers and very little in the way of hardware issues. Nice bright screens and fantastic touch on the keyboards. Nice addition with the USB 3.0 ports. All in the all for the price and with an Intel i3 3rd gen a really nice package for the price $429 on 11/22/12. We own a G780 also and highly recommend it as well.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop

Update of original review -

After owning this machine for less than 2 weeks I began to have software problems, specifically with the Windows Updater. The machine would hang while updating any software that used the Updater. I called the Lenovo Helpdesk and was told to reload the Windows partition, which I didn't want to do since I would have to reload hours of installs and updates to Norton, MSoffice, Itunes etc. I was transferred to advanced software support where the tech told me he would help but at a cost of $59.00. "WHAT!" I said, "the machine is only 10 days old". "Too bad" he said. "Goodbye" I said and returned the machine to Office Depot taking advantage of their 14 day return policy, and traded it for a Toshiba. In retrospect I would have given the machine 0 stars and I will never buy a Lenovo product again.

Original review =

This is a nice machine for the price. Lenovo makes several G580 models with different configurations. This one has the Core i3 3110M processor which is pretty fast. I was a little disappointed that this model didn't have Bluetooth but I can live without it.

So far the only redeeming feature I can find about Windows 8 is that it boots fast. Other than that the menus, screens, and features are different from other versions of Windows and take some time to get used to. They've removed the Start button from the Desktop view. The most aggravating thing I found so far is that the Windows Mail tool in Windows 8 doesn't support POP3 servers used by a lot of ISPs. You have to sign up for a Windows mail account to find this out. If you have a POP3 server for your incoming mail delete the Windows 8 Mail and download Windows Live from Microsoft's website or some other tool.

I saw complaints about the sensitivity of the touch pad but it's adjustable and can probably be set to most users preferences. The default settings are set to very sensitive touches and pressures.

I like the feel of the keyboard but I'm a 2 finger typist so YMMV.

The Nitro program mentioned as Spyware in some reviews is, according to Google, a third party PDF viewer. I installed Norton 360 and didn't get any bad reports on it but I uninstalled it since I use the standard Adobe Reader for that stuff. I also saw a complaint about the Chrome window size not being adjustable but it sizes fine on my machine. Things like using the Ctrl +/to magnify work too.

Wireless connectivity is good. The machine has a Broadcom 802.11n adapter and it connected with my Linksys router with no problems. It also recognized my Canon Mg5320 printer on the network and configured it without having to run any setup programs so I guess that's also a plus for Windows 8.

The display is bright and crisp enough for me to be happy.

All in all I think it's a good machine for the price.

Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5511 Laptop Computer / 15.6-inch HD Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Hello

I generally do not write reviews. However this particular product and the whole experience with Toshiba customer service has forced me to voice my concern.

I bought this laptop since it was cheap and loaded with many features. I had other options at the same price but i went with Toshiba because of company's reputation.

OK here is my experience;

I bought the laptop and brought it home. After 2-3 days it started giving me blue screen error(some hardware issue). Later On the laptop started to freeze without any reason. It came to a point that it started freezing every minute or so.

I could not return it because it was already past 30 days.

So first i searched google for known issues with this laptop. I was surprised to see that lot of people had the same problem. Somehow there was a faulty hardware in this particular lot that was shipped. It was sad to see that company was still selling this.

Anyway i called Toshiba Support Center to get it repaired (it has one year warranty). It seems the support center already knew the issue with the laptop. They told me right away to ship it to there repair location. I was happy that they are familiar with the issue. Ok here is the fun part; they told me to ship the laptop to there location at my own expense, i.e. pay 25$ for laptop shipment. I tried to argue but they said its there policy. They know that they have shipped a faulty hardware with there laptop and now on top of that they are asking us to pay again for shipping it to get it repaired.

Anyway atleast i was given a choice to ship it with whichever method i choose to. So i went to USPS and i paid 15$ to ship it via priority mail with a tracking number etc.

Now i was trying to track my shipment with USPS to see if it has reached the repair location. Well,the USPS tried to deliver the laptop at there Louisville, KY repair location but there was nobody to receive it there. So USPS left a slip on there mail location to either schedule a re-delivery or pick it up.

As per USPS's new policy they do not do an automatic redelivery attempt. The receiver has to call to schedule a redelivery or pick it up at the post office.

Ofcourse i do not have a phone number for Toshiba's louisville repair center so that i can call them and ask them to schedule a redelivery; i called the Toshiba customer support center to see if they can help. To my surprise, they said since the laptop has not arrived at the repair location; it is not in there system so they can not help me with this. Instead of giving me alternative they hung up on me intentionally twice.

Now my laptop is sitting in some post office in Louisville which will be delivered back to me if not picked up in 15 days (USPS will not schedule redelivery on sender's request).

So basically , myself (the Toshiba customer) is going through unnecessary trouble for buying a faulty laptop. My only fault is that i bought this laptop because of Toshiba's reputation.

Therefore please be careful when you buy Toshiba's products, particularly be aware of the support center.

I am a big fan of everything Japanese; but this incident with Toshiba was surely not soothing.

Thanks for reading this review.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

This laptop is perfect with battery life, size, weight, look, monitor quality, overall quality, AND the best part is its got a NumPad which is great if your used to desktop keyboards. Main thing I love about it is its battery life, 5 hours! Even more if you set it down to Power saving mode and run on low brightness, runs for about 6 hours if you're not heavy computing. Keyboard is SILENT and made of great quality. Monitor is the perfect size for a laptop this price. Hard drive space is PLENTY. RAM is plenty for regular usage! Only thing holding this baby back is its processor. It is a dual core AMD 1.3 GHz processor which is fairly slow. It plays HD video smoothly, plays 1080p without any problems. The problem comes up when doing heavy installations or running programs that eat up CPU resources. Other than that, it handles everything from schoolwork to browsing.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5511 Laptop Computer / 15.6-inch HD

Purchased our first Toshiba on this sale strictly looking for a new laptop with Windows 7 still available. This laptop has a beautiful display and we've had no problems whatsoever with the hardware or software during the 6 weeks since we bought it. The only reason we did not give 5 stars is a lack of some small conveniences that we are used to in our older HP laptops, such as a HDD activity light and small buttons to quickly turn off the Wi-Fi connection, and the track pad since we favor an external mouse.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5511 Laptop Computer / 15.6-inch HD

This was my first Toshiba computer purchase, so I was hesitant switching to a brand I wasn't familiar with. Wow...these guys did a great job with this laptop! Definitely a smooth ride and they now have this computer geek's attention :)

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5511 Laptop Computer / 15.6-inch HD

so

i bought this computer a day ago and i put music in and then tried to watch a movie and it said low memory really ugh i dont like it dunno what to do all i know is i wont buy this computer again

Best HP Pavilion dv7-4170us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.5 Hours of Deals

Customer Ratings:

I was almost sad to see it go as I dropped it off at UPS today for a refund. After about a week of troubleshooting with HP about why it would lock-up after two hours or so, they reported that it must have had defective hardware.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS (FINISH, HEAT, QUIETNESS)

When I first took it out of the box and powered it on, I loved it! The aluminum finish was the biggest plus for me. After an hour or so setting it up and installing (and uninstalling) software, the entire unit (save for the plastic heat outlet) was still cool to the touch. And it was incredibly quiet, too. I don't think I ever heard the fans wind up in the week that I had it. The low setting that they were on was hardly audible.

SCREEN

The screen was brilliant, though vertical viewing angles were unimpressive. Colors were great out of the box. I chose not to play with the ATI display settings. The 1600x900 resolution is a good choice for this screen size. I wouldn't go any lower, and while I would still go higher, that is only to satisfy my greed.

KEYBOARD

The keyboard had a generally positive feel to it. I didn't have time to get accustomed to the keyboard layout. I'm used to my HP dv4 which does not have a numberpad. And the fact that I used my dv4 for trouble-shooting purposes for the better part of the week didn't help. One of my favorite features, though, was the integrated action keys like you find on Macs. The function keys up top are, out of the box, primarily used for functions such as play/pause, volume up/down, brightness up/down etc. You don't need to press the fn key to access the functions. If this is undesirable, there is a toggle in the bios setup.

TOUCHPAD

The touchpad is a serious design problem for me, though I knew what I was getting into when I ordered it. I am pretty readily adaptable to keyboards and touchpads, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. Truth be told, I wouldn't have a problem if I kept it. It was just an annoyance. Let me clarify: When I'm using the touchpad, I like to keep my index finger on the mouse button while my middle finger does the tracking. Since the touchpad is an entire unit, with the buttons integrated beneath the sensitive track pad, any movement of my index finger would send the cursor in a frenzy across the screen. It wouldn't take terribly long to get used to, though. And tapping the top-left corner twice disables or enables the touchpad, so accidentally moving the cursor when typing isn't a worry.

AUDIO

Sound quality was a big factor in choosing this laptop. It had a brand-name moniker (apparently well respected, so I'm told), so I figured it must have been something special.

Let me be clear up front: If you are looking for sound quality, YOU WILL NOT FIND IT HERE. The laptop speakers themselves sound good, with the built-in subwoofer carrying some of the lower frequencies you don't typically find in a notebook. But this does not mean the unit sounds good. There is some filter applied, which I could not find for the life of me, that was heavily COMPRESSING the sound (boosting the quiet sounds while ruthlessly drawing-back the loud sounds). It made listening to music with the on-board speakers literally painful at times (play a song by Atreyu with lots of cymbals and it will sound like you're underneath a helicopter from the dramatic volume cuts with each hit of a cymbal). I searched all over, and even reinstalled Windows and updated drivers, and nothing would fix the problem. On the other hand, sound through the minijack was great. The output was strong, though it seems the low-mids were boosted a little as compared to my dv4 with IDT HD audio.

This whole Beats thing though is a complete gimick. Out of the box, the bass and treble controls in Windows are set to full boost, which sounds like crap. By toggling the "Beats" feature (fn+b), it simply turns the bass all the way up (on), or all the way down (off). Not intuitive at all! Also, the control panel is the exact same as my dv4's IDT control panel, but with the Beats logo stamped in some places. I am much more pleased with the Altec Lansing setup on my HP dv4.

PERFORMANCE

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to test the performance of the laptop. I did have pretty high expectations, though, as I'm coming from (actually, currently typing on) an older AMD laptop with integrated graphics. I used to be pretty interested in computers and could tell you how certain components would perform, but over the years I lost touch with that side of me. Now days, I don't know how the AMD phenom stacks up. My understanding (confirmed by a few searches) is that AMD has gotten increasingly closer to Intel's competing processors, but is still a little behind in most regards. I'm guessing that ATI graphics processor is in the midrange as far as GPUs go. With its stay on my desk, it never felt underpowered, though I admittedly did nothing to truly exercise it. When purchasing, I felt that this laptop had an outstanding price-spec ratio, which helped me pull the trigger.

BATTERY LIFE

Another thing I never got to try. If it can live up to its claim of 7.5 hours, then that is very impressive for a laptop of this size (in my opinion). More time than I would ever need in one sitting. Truthfully, I don't doubt that number can be seen if settings are kept low and activity is kept reasonable.

PROS

stunning aluminum finish, nice screen, runs very cool and quiet, good featureset for the price

CONS

touchpad can be finicky, pathetic Beats audio, disc drive eject button can be challenging to press

I'll miss most the sleek and stylish aluminum finish. I'll forget the somewhat quirky touchpad. I'm glad to be away from the terrible Beats audio.

...

I know I didn't delve into as much as some would like, but due to my unit being defective, I spent most of my time focusing on getting it working rather than putting it through its paces. I hope my review can be of at least some value to most.

*Note: My dv7 being defective has no effect on my rating. All manufacturers have duds, and I'm still in a positive relationship with HP.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I received my computer this morning. It looked perfect out of the box. Short and easy set up, customized Windows 7 to my liking and tried some music first to try out the sound. The sound is much more clear and much louder than my little Sony Vaio. Typing is really nice on this HP pavilion. The touch pad has a nice consistency but the click button is rather on the firm side. It would be nice if it loosens up a little with use but so far that is the only thing I can even criticize. At 8+ pounds I don't think I will lug this around like I did with my 14inch Vaio. This is definitely a desktop replacement computer and the quality is as such. I imagine once I purchase a nice case for it I will be more likely to take it out. I'm anxious to try out the battery life. So, day one, I'm super happy with this purchase. If anything goes wrong I will be sure to pop in and comment. I was VERY hesitant to do such a large purchase online but so far, am not regretting it.

Best Deals for HP Pavilion dv7-4170us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.5 Hours of

I like the computer. If is relatively fast, and it has lots of space on it. The monitor is large and clear. I love the fingerprint reader mostly for the novelty. I've had no real issues with performance of the computer itself, but the driver for the fingerprint reader was out-of-date when it arrived. I initially set the reader up, but within a couple of days it mysteriously stopped working. I had to do a little research to find out what I needed to do. I updated the driver, and now it works fine. The worst thing about this computer for me is that it is not left-hand friendly. There is a spot on the top left of the mousepad that completely turns the mouse off. Being left-handed, I am constantly hitting this area. According to tech support, there is no way to turn this feature off. The tech support person did offer to tell me how to turn the whole mouse off. (Wasn't that the problem to start with???) Had I known this, I am not sure that I would have purchased this computer. It does seem to me that there must certainly a better place to put the switch. I feel that it was poor planning and lack of consideration on the part of hp.

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv7-4170us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.5 Hours of

When I first received the computer, I had some problems with it crashing, loading CD reading cds. But after installing windows updates, most problems evaporated. I love the portability of this laptop, much lighter than last HP I have, and keyboard is easy to type on. Seems to work flawlessly most of the time and very quick. Only gripe I still have is the cd door closer, hard to open. Heard that from other reviewers also. Much too cheap hardware. Coming from HP should be better.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Pavilion dv7-4170us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 7.5 Hours of

I have tried 3 laptops before this one. This is like a Cadillac compared to the others. I love the keyboard. The mouse-pad is not a problem. The display is bright and crisp. Movies are great!! Love the fingerprint reader. The sound is much better than my old unit, so I don't really have a problem with this one. Had never made this large a purchase online. but everything went like clockwork. HP Pavilion dv7-4170us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC Up to 7.5 Hours of Battery Life (Argento) Just really happy overall with this computer. Thanks Amazon. My old laptop (also an HP Pavilion) was about 7 years old, so maybe that;s why this one is such a pleasure. But there's a lot to be said for the fact that it lasted so long. I don't think you can go wrong with the value either. A laptop with the same features at a warehouse club is almost $200.00 more. And that's after the price increased on this one.

The one gripe I have is with Microsoft not HP. It's the starter editions of Word and Excel. I already bought an upgrade for 2007, now if I want Outlook I have to buy another. Can't use my old one. Enough boohoo.

Best ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX51Vz 15.6" Ultrabook & Nexus 7 Tablet Bundle Deals

Customer Ratings:

I usually don't write good review, only bad ones.

THis laptop is everything a stylized geek deserve. The outside is flawless, very well build compared with my previews laptops a Asus G51J and Alienware. It is really quiet even with the two internal fans. Lightweight as a tablet. The monitor is the best I have seen on a laptop (OK! the retina display is amazing!), the lighted keyboard is neat as well as the touch pad with the same APPLE-MAC gestures, it works perfect with no glitches or delays. I do record videos and screen-casts and the quality of the mic recording is really good, also the web cam. The sound is ok and when you connect the included subwoofer it is something else!. The aluminium finishes are beautiful.

Internally the machine is a monster!!! I compile Objective-C and Java code like nothing, I edit videos in second with no delay. Big files on adobe Photoshop or RAW professional pictures opens instantly. I can run back processes like a http server and 20 others BIG programs with no problem. The RAM is fast, and not even say the SSD hard drives.

This is something cool. It has WiDi, I had no idea what was that and now I use it every day. The Ethernet wireless is really sophisticated and with harmony with the Intel i7 processor it broadcast wirelessly video in 1080p to my TV (almost no delay). The Bluetooth antenna performs well and I really haven't needed more than the three USB included.

I am a heavy gamer and the video card is every I need for long multiplayer high demand games. I get 250 FPS stable running COD4 on high settings.

My wife got a DELL XPS 13 Ultrabook for $2,228.96 and that is a piece of shit compared with this beauty. Just to tell you, the DELL XPS 13 Ultrabook doesn't even have HDMI, can you imagine??? for that price??? DELL SUCKS HARD!!!

In conclusion your friends, attendees and co-works are going to envy the design of your machine (this one); your enemies on your multiplayer game are gonna get numb with your performance, and you boss or clients are going to get happy with your effectiveness.

The battery runs up to 3.5 hours

THE BAD: I don't like the fact that I can't change the RAM because the slot is not the generic SO-DIMM. The hard drives gets full easily.

This laptop is the best on the market for the price.

I have used it during the last 6 months. I didn't rush for reviewing.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

The product at first seemed a little sketchy, but not to worry. Adorama Camera is on Asus' list of certified resellers. Therefore you don't have to worry about warranty issues. The product when ordered shipped within the time frame, actually early. When it arrived, there was no damage to the boxes. There was one big box that contained bubble wrap surrounding another box inside. Inside this box, was the Asus Laptop box, and the Google Nexus 7 Box. Both were in top condition. The laptop itself is the Asus UX51VZA model. In the Asus box, it contained, the laptop, power cable, mini-vga to VGA dongle, the mini-usb to USB dongle, and the external subwoofer. Everything seems to be in order! I'm open to answering questions. I highly recommend purchasing this bundle. Not only is it a good deal, the laptop itself is amazing, MACBOOK KILLER status I would say.

Best Deals for ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX51Vz 15.6" Ultrabook & Nexus 7 Tablet Bundle

See individual reviews for each of the products in this bundle for more information on each. However, each performed as expected and I am quite happy with the purchase overall. If you are considering getting this laptop, snatch up this deal right away! Excellent price and the bundle deal is quite good.

Honest reviews on ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX51Vz 15.6" Ultrabook & Nexus 7 Tablet Bundle

The Laptop: Is amazing and everything I expected. It's super fast with a 3 second boot time and runs everything very smoothly. A word of caution, I tried to downgrade the OS to Windows 7 and not all the drivers were compatible.

The Nexus 7 Tablet: I feel like this was just a throw in. The newer versions are all minimum 16GB but the one included is 8GB.

The Package: Comes with the laptop, chargers, manuals, Nexus tablet AND SUBWOOFER. I called the seller, manufacturer and Amazon and they all told me that this package did not come with it because it was not specified. When I received the package I was pleasantly surprised that it did and amazed at how little people knew of their own products.

Seller's Customer Service: Confused my request, gave me the run around, shifted blame and ultimately delivered my package late.

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

Customer Ratings:

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

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

PROS:

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

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

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

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

Can output 3D onto a 3DTV through HDMI

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

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

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

CONS:

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

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

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall early impressions:

Pros:

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

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

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

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

-Nice keyboard backlight

-Good quality backpack and mouse

Cons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First impressions:

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

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

cons

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

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

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

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

Important update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UPDATE 15 August 2011

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

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

A hugh pleasure using this machine.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Dell Alienware M11X Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Gaming Notebook PC Deals

Customer Ratings:

It's a netbook in size only. This thing is a gaming POWERHOUSE! It can play all of the latest games, the only thing it lacks is an optical drive, but i gains by a pre-install of the Steam Client and Portal for free. only thing that i don't like how the backplate isn't customizable anymore, and you can't laser etch your name into the plate when you buy off of amazon. It stock includes 4Gbs of RAM 250Gb 7200 RPM HDD and a semi-old (but extremely powerful) Intel dual core processor. I've been able to play these so far with 30+ FPS:

TF2

HL2

Black Ops

L4D

L4D2

Modern Warfare 2

Postal 2

Portal

Portal 2

Counter-Strike: Source

Homefront.

It's amazingly awesome, haven't had any problems yet! Tech support is appearently bad but i hear that you've been able to contact through Dell and not Alienware. Great resolution screen (I can play Crysis 2 with 25 FPS with native res) cheap cheap optical drives floating around as an option. Has great speakers! i have really really bad acoustics in my family room, but with the speakers up all the way i can hear it from the back of my house! So many LED's with alienware LED software and if your computer has a problem, you can use Alien Re-spawn, which comes with this computer. Has LED's on the hard drive, fan on the bottom, illuminative keyboard, and on the dual speakers in the front. It's classified as an ultra-portable and that's exactly what it is. 7+ hours on integrated graphics. Oh! and you can switch the graphics almost instantly with the press of a button from discrete to integrated. (Intel HD graphics 3000). Can overclock by going into the BIOS and just selecting "overclock enable/disable". Great computer, affordable price. Great video quality, and good Internet connectivity, great for streaming media like YouTube and Netflix. As an added bonus, if you order from Dell, you can ship it with a game and accessories like a keyboard and mouse, and also customizable LED's from the website factory installed to your personal liking. Has a great metal casing that is VERY durable. BEST computer I've ever had!

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

When first purchasing this I did not know what to think. Wanted a good laptop but did not want to pay alot of money for. Went to Dell site and for everything laptop has in it put it why over the price I purchased it for. It Intell dual Core processing speed 1.30Ghz,4GB OF Ram and can expand up to 8GB. And a 250GB Harddrive and a very good 11.1 viewing screen with a 720p HD viewing and a dedicated graphics cards 1GB which means one hella gaming machine. Other features I like lighted keyboard face recondition wireless abgn and webcam and mike. All this for one low price and would deal with this retailer again. Thanks bulldog7062

Best Deals for Dell Alienware M11X Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Gaming Notebook PC

I bought this laptop used with upgrades including a 500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk Drive, brand new internal LCD, and an external DVD-RW Drive with Lightscribe for $377 USD. It also came with the soft case, box, and everything else you'd get with it had it been purchased new. Despite being an excellent buy for the money, I was a bit concerned if it would be a good enough buy for myself, as its intended use was to be a work computer for graphic design and animation. After using the machine, I can honestly say that I am more than satisfied with its work capability, primarily in Photoshop CS6.

My main concern when buying the laptop was with the LCD; as the LCD is the first thing one looks at when buying a laptop, considering it cannot be upgraded; it can only be pushed to the side by adding a second (or third?) external monitor via side video ports. I thought that there was no way that an 11.6" screen would suffice for work, but the M11x has the same resolution as the much larger, 15.6" laptop screens at work.

My second concern was the fact that it didn't have an internal optical drive, but an internal view reveals that the space where an optical drive is normally stored is occupied by a portion of the immense battery instead. I primarily utilize USB and SD cards for data storage and transfer, but the fact that the seller also included an external optical drive removed any doubts from my mind. With the battery in mind, I must say that I am overwhelmed by the battery life of this laptop. This laptop is several years old with the original battery, yet the battery life is true to the boxed specifications despite the fact that the battery has been heavily used and has to power the CPU I have overclocked to 1.7Ghz.

The overclocking process was painless. A quick trip into the BIOS reveals an overclocking option that is a simple toggle. There is no messing with voltages. Depending on your personal preference, this may be a pro or a con. Although I was expecting a little more to play with inside the BIOS, I understand that laptops are laptops and desktop options would only drain the valued battery life. Overall I am pleased with not having to enter the BIOS from time to time in order to refine things, the main thing that I'd need to change in the bios can actually be altered from within the Windows OS on the fly.

The dual GPUs are amazing! Simply press a command on the keyboard and swap video cards without having to enter the BIOS. Battery life is excellent with the more powerful GPU alongside an overclocked CPU. As for the software side of things, Windows 8 installed flawlessly and works without issue with the Alienware software. Boot speed is drastically improved from the Windows 7 experience. The Alienware software is easy to use, and really allows your personality to shine through with the various color options you can assign to your backlit keyboard, logo, etc. In an sea of whitewashed Macintoshs and other drab laptops, this option really allows an artist to be expressive in a positive way.

As far as the wireless networking goes, the wifi seems to work well for connecting to the network and accessing the internet. So far there are no issues with that at home, the office, or on the go at cafes etc. The only negative thing I can comment on is that I have issues transferring large files from PC to Laptop or vice versa. I haven't taken the time to troubleshoot my aging network, so I cannot blame these issues on the laptop; at least not yet anyways. My network currently is in need of upgrades to be brought up to the Wireless N and Gigabit standards of today's hardware.

There are some pros and cons with the laptop, but considering the price, the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

Pros:

-customizable lighting that compliment both the form and function of the device

-extensive battery life

-dual GPUs

-ease of use

-sharp screen resolution. Screen size would be a con, but I can't objectively complain when the amount of pixels included is the same amount as a much larger 15.6" display.

Cons:

-No DirectX 11 support

-No internal optical drive (not really a con for me, but I'm grasping for straws to include some cons)

Final Thoughts:

This laptop really packs a punch despite its size and age. Considering that this laptop is being hauled to and from work in a case along with the charger and a 15" Wacom Intuos5 Touch Medium Pen Tablet (PTH650), I am now really starting to appreciate its lightweight 11.6" form factor. For under $400 It can't be beat. At around $500, buyers might have to weigh their options. At about $529 plus shipping (depending on retailer), the Acer Aspire V3-551G-8454 Gaming Notebook is a formidable challenger. It too has dual GPUs thanks to the A8 processor and 7670M dedicated video card. It has the same resolution, but it is stretched across a larger screen. Same desktop area, larger image, but a fuzzier picture. The GPUs support DirectX11, but with AMD (ATI) chips that do not support CUDA. If you need to utilize CUDA for various programs including Adobe CS6, then the Alienware is for you. The Acer has the internal optical drive, but sacrifices 25% of the battery you'd get with the Alienware. On the other hand, the Alienware laptop sacrifices the full sized keyboard you'd get with Acer in favor of the sharper image and 11.6" form factor. One final thought would be my personal preference for Dell's customer support over Acer support.

WORD OF CAUTION:

This model laptop was recalled due to an issue with the VGA components in the laptop hinge that was prone to breakage. When buying this laptop, be sure to check that the laptop was sent to Dell for supported repairs, or be sure that you will be able to do it yourself after purchase.

Honest reviews on Dell Alienware M11X Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Gaming Notebook PC

The laptop itself is great. The first couple days it will seem glitchy and thats because you need to do all of the updates for its especially windows 7 service pack 1. After that the blue screens of death stopped.Mine came with one of the rubber stands on the bottom shorter than the others so when you rest your left palm on it it jiggles. I just superglued a penny to it and the problem is gone.

You should buy this from another source because this seller didn't respond to my emails to resolve an issue. My issue was that literally the day after I bought they slashed $50.00 of the price and I didn't think it was fair and that it would be alot more efficient for them to refund me the difference rather than go to the trouble of returning it for a full refund only to buy the same computer again. I thought of doing that but I loved the laptop so much that I decided to go ahead and keep it because it was a price I was willing to pay to begin with and I still had consumer surplus.

Review of Dell Studio 17 (1749) Laptop black - Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit

Customer Ratings:

Bottom-Line: I am very happy--so far--with my choice of the Dell Studio 1749. The laptop is a performance winner, especially when mated with Windows 7 Enterprise Edition.

I tried, I really did try to keep my HP Pavilion dv9000 Series laptop alive and kicking, but to no avail. First, sometime last year, the wireless card quit; that was overcome by purchasing a Cisco Wireless-G adapter. That worked for a while until I started to run out of hard drive space. I resolved that issue by purchasing a new 500GB hard drive. Then the 17.3" display started turning green; no resolution there I'm afraid.

So I started casting about for a replacement laptop computer. HP was out; I'd had two HP's end up with malfunctioning wireless NIC's, and the last one didn't turn out too well. So I went in another direction. I have had fairly good success with Dell laptops at work, so I decided to purchase a Dell for personal use. I dismissed the Inspiron series because I wanted to go with the new Intel i5 series processor, so I choose the Dell Studio 1749 with an Intel Quad-Core i5-430M 2.27GHz processor.

The Laptop

The desktop-replacement class 17.3" widescreen 8.4lbs Dell Studio 1749 comes very close to being a full-fledged, full-feathered, multimedia desktop replacement albeit with a smaller screen and limited USB (3) ports. The sleek unit houses a 2.27GHz Intel Quad-Core i5-430M Processor (with Intel Turbo Boost Technology) with 3MB SmartCache on a 1066MHz FSB. The large footprint Dell Studio 1749 has only (3) USB 2.0 ports, rather limited especially for a laptop of this size, but the unit has plenty of multimedia ports that sort of make up for oversight including an HDMI port.

The 17.3-inch WXGA LED widescreen display with built-in webcam is the stock display with this laptop. With a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 this brilliant display offers full HD with 32-bit color and a 60Hz refresh rate. At the maximum resolution a lot can fit on the screen, enough space to fit to application screens side-by-side, which is what I demand. The icons are just the right size, as is the text. The Intel Graphic Media Accelerator HD card ships with 256MB of VRAM and highly configurable software.

My Dell Studio 1749 shipped with w 7200rpm 500GB SATA II hard drive, which is plenty of space--for now--but there is room to add another SATA 2.5" drive into the chassis underneath the unit. Additionally, my Dell Studio 1749 shipped with 4GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066MHz, plenty of memory to run Windows 7 comfortably, but the Dell Studio 1749 can take up to 8GB of RAM. A fixed slot-fed media bay can be configured with a DVD-ROM, CDRW/DVD, DVD +/-RW; I choose a standard DVD +/-RW drive. I skipped the modem--who uses those anymore--but got a 100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet network interface adaptor, wireless-N adapter, and 1394 Firewire port.

I made sure I ordered the Dell Studio 1749 with a full featured back-lit keyboard, which is complemented by a large touch pad; and corresponding sets of mouse buttons. The feel of the keyboards' keys is rather soft. I prefer the feel of the IBM keyboards of old, but typing is not uncomfortable and feels good on the fingers. The back-lit keys are just bright enough and turn off when the keyboard has not been used for a while.

The speakers on this multimedia-themed laptop are fantastic. The unit ships with a JBL SRS Premium Sound system complete with a small sub-woofer on the bottom of the unit. The sound reproduced through this sound system is unlike any I have heard on other laptops. There is actually a discernable mid-range and bass!

As is the norm with modern laptops all of the ports are along the sides of the Dell Studio 1749. There is nothing on the backside of this wide laptop but a large cooling vent. The white-led power button has been move to the right of the laptop on the screen hinge. Next to it is the A/C power port, and moving forward we have a USB port, slot-fed DVD drive, another USB port, 8-n-1 media card reader and finally a 1394a Firewire port.

Along the left side of the Dell Studio 1749 starting at the front, you will find (2) headphone jack, a microphone jack, ExpressCard slot, Antenna In port (for use with a TV Tuner card), eSATA/ USB combo connector w/USB powershare, HDMI port, DisplayPort connector, VGA port, and finally a 100/1000 NIC adapter port.

Heat & Noise

Dell designed the Dell Studio 1749 to optimize heat dissipation; after all i5 processors run seriously hot. In addition to the aforementioned large exhaust vent on the back of the unit, there are various vents cut into the bottom of the unit as well as an exhaust fan that sits in a bay at the bottom left hand side of the unit.

When the unit does heat up sufficiently the lone fan kicks in at about 2800rpm up to a peak spin cycle of about 3900rpm. Going about everyday tasks like using a word processor or surfing the Internet will not set the fan to spinning, but watching a DVD can create enough heat to trigger the fan in low speed, which is still almost inaudible. If low speed proves insufficient, the fan will start spinning at around 3900rpm. At this level of rotation, you'll notice the fan is on, but the noise level remains bearable.

Conclusion

I am very happy--so far--with my choice of the Dell Studio 1749. The laptop is a performance winner, especially when mated with Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. I like the increased processing power, increased storage, and increased memory this unit brings to the table.

And the laptop is handsome to look at; I got it in red! Though I doubt I will ever have cause to use the 4-pin Firewire port, it is nice to know it's there just in case, and (3) USB ports has certainly come in handy, though seriously there are (3) too few.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

2 negative issues

1) I can't know if I am in upper case or lower case. Really complicated when you are typing a password

2)the function keys, have to be clicked with the FN . If you use excel a lot, and F2 is common, you will hate that you need to click FN. The worst part is that if you didnt click FN, you are disconnecting internet.

I wonder how can I prevent these kind of issues on my next purchase

Best Deals for Dell Studio 17 (1749) Laptop black - Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit

My Dell Studio configuration is similar to Vincent Martin's Studio (other review). The differences are more ram (8GB) and different wireless card (Dell 5620).

PRO'S

Screen size, back light, like having a portable desktop.

CON'S

Not enough USB ports (2 plus one that is part USB/SATA)which sometimes will recognize a USB device but other times, it will not. I use USB hubs but one of the ports has failed and the other is failing. Since all of the ports are plugged to the motherboard and there are no slots to add USB ports the laptop will become severely limited when all of the ports fail.

Connecting to the internet is slow. This problem began to crop up when the laptop was about one year old and has become worst with time. Laptop was purchased 5/16/2010. Despite using a wifi extender, wireless connection never goes higher than two bars when it used to always hit five bars. It has become almost useless as a wireless computer and recently have begun using cat6 to access the internet.

Considering laptop has 8GB, Intel I5 processors, and 500GB hard drive, it's internet speed is slow. Software programs are used monthly to clean files and registry, and defrag the hard drive.

In the last six months, freezing and boot problems have become more frequent despite using Kaspersky Pure, spyware, and malware software to ensure laptop is not being invaded by rogue software.

A major complaint about the laptop is the price (Dell's price was between 800-2,000, depending on configuration)considering the obvious problems with the laptop and Dell's attitude that once it was out the door, it was the buyer's problem.

Dell has discontinued this laptop (sometime in 2011) because of some of the above mentioned problems along with problems. The most common mentioned problem on internet sites is slowness. There are a lot of complaints similar to mine, on the internet, but no apparent smoking gun. My opinion is the wireless card is the source of the problems with a secondary issue being it runs hotter than most computers.

I have worked on another Studio laptop for a friend that has 2GB of memory that has become so slow, it is impossible to view video material or scan the internet. Apparently, there is something wrong with the laptop that high speed processors and large doses of memory cannot solve. I also own a Dell Inspiron 500 with one-half the configuration power (Intel I2 processors, 2GB Memory) that is much faster than the Studio laptop.

I would not recommend this laptop to anyone, even at an EBAY price, and this is from someone that has purchased over 20 Dell computers over the past 10-12 years.

Cheap Toshiba PSAG8U-023019 Satellite A305-S6883 15.4" Notebook

Customer Ratings:

I've had this laptop for over 2 years now and I love it. I use it daily and I've never had a major problem with it. My charger broke about a year ago, which was frustrating and I bought an aftermarket one from Staples. The charger has loosened my charging port, but that is the fault of the charger... not Toshiba.

The only thing I wish was different was that my key pad light up. Black keys with no backlight make for difficult typing at night.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Best Compaq Presario CQ61-420US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Deals

Customer Ratings:

I just received this nice 15.6" notebook and I admit that I like it! The sound is great. The keypad is really handy when you need it. And the reponse of this computer is satisfying with windows 7 loaded.

However, pictures in its product page might be a deceiving. Although they are shown in the pics, this model does NOT come with a webcam and HDMI. I was surprised when I opened the box and found this truth. Hence, I further digged into the specification sheet and found that I was wrong. Beware, if you think this is really a steal with a webcam and HDMI for this low price, you may just make a mistake like what I did.

In all, I do not regret my decision of buying it at all. You can buy a netbook for $299.99. But I will pay a little bit more to go with this notebook ($379.99) with full capability, faster processing speed and a DVD burner in trade of the mobility. Now, I am going return my cute but slow netbook...

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I am not a computer geek so will skip the technical mumbo-jumbo and give the laymans review... It works good. Ive had it for a couple weeks now and I have no complaints. Everything runs fast and smooth. The moniter is big and bright and clear. For what I do (web surfing, photo editing, media streaming) it works great. Also, I gotta say that I love Windows 7. To me it is a big leap forward from my previous operating system Windows XP.

*** UPDATE*** (4/6/11)I've had this laptop for over a year now and still works as good as the day I bought it. I love it.

Best Deals for Compaq Presario CQ61-420US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Great computer with HD Screen, the new Windows 7 so user friendly, and I love the expanded keyboard with numbers set off to the side. I was looking at laptops twice the price ($600-$700) when I saw this one pop up on the best sellers list for Amazon. The only difference between the higher price notebooks and this Compaq is that it does not have a webcam or 4 GB of memory it only has 2 but is expandable to 4. You can't get a better laptop for the price $379. Very happy with my purchase!

Honest reviews on Compaq Presario CQ61-420US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Compaq Presario CQ 61420US

I received my Compaq on April 1, after ordering it on March 28. Excellent shipping from Amazon.

This model is mid range when it comes to main stream Computing, and the Price at Amazon is a super deal. You wont find it cheaper anywhere else.

This computer has met and exceed all of my expectations, I have found no problems with its hardware or the software that comes with it.

Windows 7, will take some time getting use to, I dont know how much better it is compared to XP or Vista as yet.

To every one who read reviews before purchasing, I recommend this Computer. Its above average and the price is a bargain.

This computer trulely deserves a Five Star Rating.

Follow up April 22: Received this Laptop on April 1st. its been up and running at least 18 hrs a day without any problems.

I can now say Windows 7 is a great improvement over XP and Vista in respect to ease of use, Safety and Security and my favourite of all is the new improved Desktop and Display features.

Most of the XP and Vista Hardware Drivers wont work with Windows 7! You will have to update them.

Had to update Printer, Webcam, Gamepad and Digital Camera.(All works fine now)

The ATI MR\HD 4200 Graphics Video capabilities is exceptional, I Watched a Movie useing the DVD\RW Drive and the High Definition datail was unbelievable.

I also Burned some HD MP3 at 24x, I now have High Definition Audio in my Car.

The Computer Best Features revolves around Security and Safety and HP has taken this to the next level. The Computer actually Police's itself.

Compaq Presario CQ 61420US is one of the Best Midrange Computers on the Market. You will not

regret owning one.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Compaq Presario CQ61-420US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

If you're looking for a nice laptop that can perform beyond the average expectation of a low budget laptop then this is the computer for you. Of course there are numerous other high end models to be had if the funds are readily available, but this one works well on a number of levels for, budget reasons, personal home use, as well as on a professional level. If pushed it will accommodate!

I've read a number of reviews that stated it comes with only 2 megs of ram but the unit I purchased from "Office Depot" actually came with 3 megs of ram installed with the ability to upgrade to 4 megs. As a side note: installed were one 2meg ram chip and another 1meg chip in the only two slots available, so of course the single meg ram chip was a waste once I upgraded it's slot with a new 2 meg ram chip to have a total of 4megs. But no worries though as it was well worth it for the increased application speed and was easy to do.

As a bonus this laptop also comes with an additional 128MB (Megs)or cache memory for smooth video streaming and high definition playback whereas others at this level do not offer the same.

Since the original purchase I have also upgraded to "Windows 7 Professional" from the original home version initially installed as an "OEM" (Original Equipment Manufacture). The professional version allows much more application versatility and unlocks more of the operating systems existing (and hidden power). The battery life is average but good while the display screen is brighter and crisper then most.

It can and does run many high powered memory hungry software applications very well and simultaneously if you choose. Just to name a few, Adobe Photoshop CS, AutoCAD, Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point, Roxio video/music/photo production and editing software and MORE! (All of which are not necessarily included except for a trial version of Microsoft Office and Norton Anti-Virus application suite). It also comes with a very nice DVD/CD light-scribe drive, and easy internet access with the built in Wi-Fi for quick mobile internet surfing on the go anywhere there is wireless internet access.

And NO! It does not have a video camera but for the power you get at such a low price it is easily added for a nominal cost if you shop around. This unit runs circles around my older Dell workstation originally built for the same or similar task! I've owned it now for several months with no problems while having purchased an extended 4 year warranty that allows me to upgrade to the latest unit in the event of the systems possible failure, even if that's four years from now! (This may be an "Office Depot" deal and no I do not work for Office Depot. I just shop there a lot).

All in all it's an excellent laptop for the price though once funds are available I'm sure to upgrade to an even more extreme power house from the likes of "HP" to suite my growing digital needs/speed and desires. You can't go wrong here especially if you purchase the extended warranty where offered. By the way HP and Compaq are one in the same in case you didn't know. The HP models just offer the higher end hardware for increased power and performance just not for those of us on a "Shoe String Budget"!

Dell Inspiron 14z 14-Inch Laptop Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz 6GB 32GB Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $634.99
Today's Bonus: 21% Off

1st this is 3rd generation intel not 2nd generation.

This is a good laptop and I don't understand such harsh reviews. I too was having some internet connections issues and after a couple of calls to Dell, I was helped by a tech that went to Wireless Device Driver and made the follow values under the Advanced Tab and it helped!!!

802.11b Preamble = long only

802.11n Bandwidth = 20 Hz/40Hz Auto

Network Address = 1234567890AB

recieve buffers = 256

scan valid interval = 60

Transmit buffers = 512

I don't know why they don't come set this way, but that did help!!

Also it comes with hibernate and sleep to happen to fast and then it ends up shutting down improperly, but just modify those to get rid of that problem too. Otherwise this laptop is lightweight, with a fantastic screen.

I bought this from Amazon and saved too!

Edit: It has one HDMI input.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

This if a very nice, very responsive ultrabook. Mine has never disconnected from my wifi and I have had it for almost a month. The screen has brilliant color and sharp resolution. Only weighs 4 lbs and its .8 of an inch thick and you still get an optical drive, can't beat that.

It looks slick closed and open. I get about four to five hours on the battery with moderate to heavy use.

As for people with the wifi problem if you look on Dell's support site the problem could be with the pre installed McAfee anti-virus blocking the wifi. I uninstalled McAfee as soon as i got it and installed Norton so maybe thats why I never had a problem with the wifi.

Long story short this is a very good ultrabook regardless of the bad reviews that I have read. With the I5 processor, 32gb SSD, 6GB of Ram this thing flys. Oh its also well made and sturdy.

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 14z 14-Inch Laptop Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz 6GB 32GB

Overall, I like this laptop a lot. It feels very solid, and it is reasonably lightweight. I prefer the 720p screen on a 14 inch laptop, so that is not a problem. However, there are two things I wish were better. First, the battery life is very mediocre no more than 4 hours of browsing the Internet and reading mail. Second, and much more of a problem, is that the network card is not good at all. It drops connections every few minutes, even though the signal is strong. The computer is turning off the wireless card to save energy, and failing re-enable it. There is an OS setting for this, but that hasn't solved the problem.

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 14z 14-Inch Laptop Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz 6GB 32GB

I received my Dell Inspiron 14z Ultrabook yesterday and over all I really like the product. First, it is a good value for the features it offers. Intel core i5 processor is huge for the price. Second it has a hybrid 32gb single state drive (SSR) in addition to the 500 gb hard drive, that is why it is super fast when booting up with a ton of memory. The 14z has a nice design, I don't mind how far apart the keys are and I don't mind that there are port covers on the sides of the ultrabook. It is also pretty sturdy...seems to be well made externally with a nice brushed aluminium case. A really cool feature is that Dell managed to fit in an optical drive in the slim design, this is nice since I did not have one with my two-year old Dell Inspiron 11z, though I really liked that little laptop, the screen was a bit too small with amount of word processing and spread sheets I do for school.

I have not had any issues with the touch pad so far, however, I have a problem with the Dell wireless card and loosing the connection with the internet too easily. If the signal is below three bars I get disconnected every couple of minutes, which is pretty frustrating especially since I take college courses online and do a lot of work online. I am hoping some of these issues get fixed in the next couple of days before I attend my next online class session. I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else negative will occur like some of the reviews I read on here. But other reviews I read online are mostly positive with the odd lemon here and there. In my opinion there will always be a lemon in any batch of consumer products, yet this does not excuse Dell from slipping on quality and implementing strict quality control standards. I believe Dell is still a decent product but they got to keep their game up in this competitive market. Otherwise they are going to lose repeat customers, like myself.

By the way I did purchase my Dell Inspiron 14z Ultrabook through Amazon and saved a decent amount of money (20%). Costco was selling it at the same price with an instant rebate (in store only) that reduced it to $699 but this was only for a limited time. Amazon is the best place to buy if you don't want to custom order one from the Dell website. The wait time is much reduced as well. I ordered my last Dell laptop and it took about 3 weeks to get it delivered because there was a hold up in parts. This laptop was delivered in three business days, standard shipping.

I just wanted to add an update since I received my laptop two weeks ago. I was able to fix the connectivity issues by adjusting the default settings in the network connection menu and that fixed my laptop dropping the connection every five minutes. That was from the help I got from reading one of reviews instructions on how to fix the connection problems. Thanks much for that! Also if any of you have issues with playing video games,such as video freezing and then the game crashing, like with Sims 3, for example then your laptop has the processing power to play the graphics, it is just the video card that needs to have the latest video card driver installed and I had absolutely no issues playing my game when the new drivers were installed.

To sum up how I feel about the Dell Inspiron 14z ultrabook, I would say it is great to use, and I use it A LOT, once all the bugs were ironed out. :)

A Happy Dell Customer.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron 14z 14-Inch Laptop Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz 6GB 32GB

From the very beginning started to have problems with the Internet connection. Sometimes it just disappears. It is not my wifi, because other two notebooks I have work perfectly well. Googled it and seems like a common problem on dell notebooks with Windows 7. I also find the touch-pad not very responsive: you have to hit it really hard in order to make a click. I tried to change that in the settings, but could not. Tried to contact the support service yesterday, but they were not very helpful. Very negative impressions so far. Stay away from it.

Update: the problem of internet connection was solved after contacting the support service. However, I still have problems with the touch pad. Although I managed to also solve the touch pad problem described above, it is still not very responsive and jittery. For some reason the clicklock or draglock (or I don't know what that function is called) activates by itself every time I start the machine. To deactivate it I just have to open and immediately close the mouse properties window. To avoid this problem I just use a regular mouse. I am also not very happy with the battery life. It doesn't last more than 3-4 hours with normal browsing.