The shipping/delivery packaging, both by Amazon and Vizio, was excellent, neat, tidy, safe, and simple. The laptop's stunningly unique appearance, [lightweight, slim] and durability cannot be denied. The manufacturer's future considerations and modifications must continue regarding opening the laptop with one hand, currently it can only be done with practice and patience. But this should not be a dealer breaker.
I cannot say enough about the boot ramp-up time, absolutely phenomenal with a threshold of 3-7 seconds. Additionally, Out of the box you will have approximately 200GB of free space. Let's not forget that Vizio has a MS signature allowing for no bloating software, I applaud this initiative.
Historically, from my own personal research, there has been significant negative reviews pertaining to Vizio's `track pads'. Not so with Vizio Windows 8, all functions are readily available, easily accessible, two finger scroll [up, down], zoom [in, out], double touch throughout, [right, left] click, etc. This is by far one of the best track pads I've ever used.
I compared the screen with the Samsung series 9 which is owned by a friend, the S9 is superior, especially while viewing in daylight. Saying this does not mean the screen is bad, I watched several movies and the screen did not disappoint me at all, it was adequate.
The battery charger's cable houses enough length extending its usage to outlets immediately out of reach. It also provides visual indicators such as `yellow', `green' notification during the charging process. Depending upon usage, battery life is approximately 3 hours on MS Signature Power Plan.
WIFI reception has not been an issue, it has actually been outstanding. Proximity during usage in my home, which is relatively spacious, far surpasses that of the Samsung 9.
I have yet to max-out speaker volume...Vizio has provided more than adequate sound during my recent movie viewing.
Amazingly, Vizio's heat venting and dispersemant system is incredible, I have not experienced any unnecessary grills during operation and the fan's performance is barely audible.
In conclusion, as its name implies, Vizio is visually impressive...it looks cool, feels cool, runs cool, and most importantly my fingers are happy dancing around its keyboard. On that note, Vizio, Visual that is, back-lit keys should have been implemented improving its night usage.
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Congrats to VIZIO for getting the the windows 8 ultrabook right. This is the cheapest ultrabook of all core i7 that has a 256GB SSD. Start up is truely instant.. something around 1-2 secs. The design make it so slim that you don't mind carry it everywhere. It beats my old hp. The screen is great to watch movies, do work, read email. I love the multi-touch trackpad, especially with windows 8 gestures.My only recommendation to Vizio is to offer a upgradable storage option. I would have enjoyed a 500gb one.
UPDATED 11-21
I want to add that if you update the synaptic touchpad driver to the latest (go to Synaptics website), you can enable 3 and 4 finger windows 8 gestures built specifically just for this large touchpad. It is really awesome!
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I previously owned a 15" Macbook pro i5 (about 2 years old) and moved to this vizio. I've been using the vizio for about a week and can comment on most important aspects of it in comparison to my old mac.Pros
Designfeels great. Fantastic build qualityeasily on par with my mac. very light too! The chassis feels very solid with very minimal flex. I think I remember reading vizio is using some unibody-type construction like the macbooks do.
ScreenFantastic. I got so sick of the glossy screen on my mac so the matte screen on the vizio is a very welcome change. The resolution is fantastic and viewing angles seen to be better than most laptops.
SpeedI am doing mostly document editing, lots of web browsing and some video watching. Most computers are plenty adequate for this and the vizio is definitely overkill here. The SSD is incredibly fast (both in real world use and benchmarks). One of the best thing about this computer to me though is that it is so fast and does NOT get hot. My macbook would literally burn me if I played a flash video or anything slightly intense. This vizio doesn't have ANY heat problemsI'm really impressed here.
Neither pro nor cons:
Battery lifefor web browsing and document editing you should expect to get about 4.5 hours. This is fine for me but it simply can't compare to the 6.5 hours I got with my mac.
Speakersgood for laptop speakers, but they lack a lot of lows and are definitely inferior to my previous mac's speakers.
Touchpadit is probably the best touchpad you will find on a PC! That being said, it still isn't quite as good as the apple touchpads. What I think I miss the most is how fluid the scrolling was on the macthis vizio can't quite compare although I think it is more a limitation of microsoft windows.
Windows 8Windows 8 is just plain weird. I'm slowly adjusting to it, but this is seriously weird. I've used PCs for all except the last two years (when I got my mac) and have had quite a few confusing moments with it. I think I will get adjusted fine eventually though. The good news is that Windows 8 appears to be very efficient power and speed-wise.
Cons:
Keyboardit kind of sucks. The key travel is very low and there is a small amount of flex. Put these two problems together and it is definitely not the easiest computer to type on. You will end up accidently double-typing a lot of letters. I think this may be something I will adjust to though. It just will require you to adjust the way you are used to pushing on keys though. The keyboard on the macbook is the best there is on any computer and it definitely beats the vizio. Note the samsung 15" ultrabook has similarly low key travel issues too but I found it more comfortable to type on that this computer.
ChargerTwo problems: 1. It is piano gloss blackwhat this means is after 1 day of use you will already have plenty of scratches on it and it is going to look like crap after a couple of weeks. 2. I really wish more comopanies would design their power bricks so they can be directly plugged into the wall like apple does. As someone who always commutes with my laptop it is really annoying to have to pack not only the charging brick but ALSO a huge annoying cord as well.
Overall, I'm very happy with this computer though. I did pay significantly less than retail during a blackfriday sale but you will be very hard pressed to find a 15" ultrabook with specs anywhere near this for the price. Unless you really need the extra space and speed of the CT15-A5 the CT15-A4 may be a much more affordable option and likely has even better battery life.
Honest reviews on VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook
I finally bit the bullet and bought it from microsoft store for $799.Mainly because I thought that for 1080p IPS Laptop with Core i7 and 256GB SSD is pretty good deal and I can live with any downsides. And I think I am justified.
The main feature of this laptop is 1080p IPS MATTE SCREEN. Very vibrant and well color balanced. I am absolutely thrilled how good it is. I had a think pad x201 tablet and it was difficult to work with in direct sun but this one is workable even at the half brightness. The brightness is a little bit more than SONY VAIO S series 15" notebooks.
The second most important feature is 256GB SSD. It is not a whole lot of space to store your media. But other than that it is more than adequate. I run two VMs off of it and have documents and other stuff and does the job. Pretty snappy boot time. I had a samsung SSD SATA-II based and it is easily twice as fast as that.
If these two features haven't made you fall in love with this then third one is large trackpad and bloatware/trialware free windows. It looks nice and very sleek and lightweight and has a neat look. Boots in 3 seconds.
Great. Now stop here and go buy the laptop!!!
Okay Great you bought it!!! Honeymoon is over and now work on the compromise and respect each others's feeling. Stop complaining about the keyboard! Yeah I know you don't like it. The old thinkpad had a pretty good keyboard...but live with it. After sometime you will begin to like it.
Yes my only wish was dedicated PgUp and PgDown key and full size arrow keys. The key does misses sometimes. But hey that black spot above your nose doesn't look right either.
Okay I know your next complaint, Windows 8... well it is not too bad. You will get used to it. Learn a few gestures and with good trackpad you will have the honor of educating your friends on how to use windows 8 and start convincing them to drop their iProducts and make a switch (as if they will ever!! after all they earn for apple).
Battery life is what everybody said. And I am comfortable with that. The only complain is that to replace it is a pain when time comes. Good news is that replacing battery yourself will not void the warranty. Does it matter if it wasn't covered? Hell no. Because you will most probably be replacing the battery after warranty expires in one year. If you buy additional warranty, check if they will cover battery replacement or you may end up losing your warranty. You have been warned!!!
On warranty side, A three year warranty on this thing will probably cost you about $200 with ADP. So once you pay $200 and anything happens you get back $799. But that means you effectively netted $599 to get a replacement. So save your money ($200) because after two year you will want to buy a new laptop anyway. Hey Haswell is just around the corner. Isn't it?
For those brave souls who want to install Virtual Machine. The key to get to BIOS is F2. (to save yourself time to search). If you are unable to get to BIOS after repeated shutdown and pressing F2 then you are probably just resuming windows not restarting. Use the restart option of windows 8 and then press F2 and enable Virtualization in BIOS and you will be good to go.
Will update if I notice any problem....
**UPDATE 2/1/2013 **
Spilled some coffee on the laptop. But was quick in drying it out so didn't encounter any issues. The key felt sticky for next two days but became fluid again.
The keyboard feels fine now..that I am getting used to it. So folks .. it takes some time but you will eventually forget about it.
The screen still feels very good... I work with about 30% brightness and still think it is very bright.
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I bought this laptop for my wife about a month ago to replace her slower than turtle less than one year old Dell laptop. I took a gamble on buying a laptop from Vizio as they are new to laptop manufacturing but after hours and hours of research I am happy to say if has been a great purchase. I should note that I did not buy it here but from anotheronline seller for 100 less. After reading reviews here which have been very helpful I went to Vizio's website and updated the touchpad drivers and the wi-fi drivers. Big improvement. I also made some adjustments to the two finger scrolling in the settings and works very much like my Macbook pro now.
My wife was very hesitant about it because of the windows 8 thing but after about 2 days she is really liking it. The keys on the keyboard are fantastic with great feedback and proper spacing. The touchpad is great size and works like a charm once the drivers are updated. I think I totally blew my wife away when I turned it on and it was ready to use in 2 seconds or less for real. It makes my Macbook pro look really slow. I am kind of embarrassed now. I use to brag about how fast my Macbook starts up but Wow I can't even begin to start mine up in 2 seconds or less and that is from either a total shutdown or waking from standby.
I also noticed how much faster this laptop is on the internet than any other computer I have seen. So I guess internet speed is also related to the computers performance after all. I will say that I have been anti Microsoft for many years and still am but my wife loves Microsoft windows so that is why I bought this for her. I also have to admit that this Vizio laptop is really making me rethink Microsoft windows again. It is a combination of the huge screen size, extremely thin size, blazing fast speed, battery life and on that is making me think about buying one for myself and maybe try to install mac OS on it.
Ok now onto the battery life. We have been experiencing about 4.5 hrs continuous use with preset screen brightness which is very bright by the way. Onto the screen now. The screen is very clean, clear, and bright. I am really glad they have chosen the matt finish and not the gloss. Another great thing I have noticed is that the laptop stays very cool even after hours of use for work or play. If you listen really closely in a very quite setting you can faintly here a soft whisper from the fan.
The aluminum chassis is fantastic and built just like an Apple. Very ridged and overall construction quality resembles a Macbook Air. I really hope that it holds up as well too.
If I had to have a gripe then it would be the lack of a SD card slot. Yes you can just use an USB adapter that accepts SD cards so no big deal. All I can say is that after many hours of research I choose this laptop for my wife and she loves me for it. Oh I should also mention that I considered The Acer Ultrabook, the Sony T series, and Samsung but in the end this one was a hands down for me. I would certainly recommend this to anyone serious about a performance Ultrabook.
Pros: Extremely thin and light. Might be the thinest for a 15.6 size screen?
I7 very fast processor that performs very well.
Fantastic feel and responding keyboard and multi touch keypad
long battery life 4.5 plus hrs real life use.
Laptop runs very quite and cool
Laptop startup in 2 seconds or less and ready to use
Very fast internet performance
Exceptional screen clarity and performance
Microsoft Certified with no bloatware software to waste time removing. Finally!
Might be able to turn it into a Macbook with Mac OS??
Cons: Well if I must complain it would be the lack of an SD card slot but this can be overcome with an USB adapter that accepts SD cards.
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